CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/08/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Esfinge © vs Rugido [MEX LH]
7th defense
4) Flip Gordon vs Villano III Jr., Neón, Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Difunto [NWA MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]
last 2 advance to final
5) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Soberano Jr.

An important reminder: if you’re someone who switched clocks this week and only tune in on Friday shows, this is an hour earlier than you’re used to watching.

The main event looks inconsequential but should be pretty fun. The semi-main is just strange; CMLL only does six way matches for the Kid’s Day title. Who knows how this one will work. I don’t have great instinct on who’s going to come out of this, so I’m just going to guess Flip and Guerrero Maya. Esfinge/Rugido is interesting for two guys who usually are counting on the other person in the match to make it work; we’ll see what they can figure out on their own. Match 2 is one seen prior (though more often with Akuma), match 1 is a rematch from last week and probably another disputed finished.

11/09 MLW Lucha Apocalypto

• Kevin Knight, Esfinge vs Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero
• Alex Kane vs BRG in a chain match (not a bull terrier match)
• Lluvia vs Janai Kai vs Persephone for the MLW Featherweight Championship
• Bad Dude Tito vs Matthew Justice in a falls count anywhere for the Openweight Championship match
• Star Jr., Atlantis Jr., Atlantis vs Barbaro Cavernario, Magnus, Felino
• Titan vs Mistico vs Averno for the MLW Middleweight Championship

You, a smart person, can watch this for free on YouTube starting at 9 pm. Me, a dummy, will probably be watching it live and sitting through two hours of MLW tapings before this starts. It’s probably nonsense that I will sit through a two-hour ROH taping with few complaints, but the idea of sitting through a two-hour MLW taping is annoying. I have a stronger affinity for ROH and many of their wrestlers than I do for MLW and that’s a big part of it, but also ROH feels like a (lowercase) version of AEW. The MLW & CMLL continue feel like two different universes living alongside each other strictly for business purposes. (You can say a lot about ROH, but you definitely can’t say it currently exists just for business purposes.) I’ve heard NJPW fans have similar criticism of NJPW US shows, but I feel like the US-based talent are trying their best to wrestle a NJPW style or fit along to it. If there’s any attempt to fit here, it’s the CMLL wrestlers who are trying to fit along MLW.

The strongest part of this CMLL/MLW relationship is that it seems pretty reliable; there’s been no public drama since MLW worked with AAA. Again, MLW has already announced that they’ll be back in Cicero in May for the next one of these, because they continue to sell very well. I may not like this mix but it certainly is working for enough people. (And enough people don’t really follow CMLL to care about MLW’s presentation.) I can’t say I understand the business plan here – cheap tickets and YouTube revenue don’t seem to cover all these flights – but it’s not my bank account.

Fightful posted their interview with Atlantis Jr. promoting this show. It’s fine, though I cringed when Sean Ross Sapp asked Atlantis Jr. if he or his father would ever consider being a rudo. They, of course, both have been rudos – Sapp compliments Atlantis Jr. for his mask match with Stuka without realizing Atlantis Jr. was actually a rudo in that match. It was fine otherwise and Sapp is ahead of the Mexican press in realizing what show they were trying to hype here.

CMLL (MON) 11/11/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro Boy Jr. & Meyer vs Grako & Rencor
2) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
3) Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, El Elemental, Pólvora
4) Rayo Metálico, Volcano, Xelhua vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Multy, Okumura
5) Flip Gordon, Templario, Titán vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
6) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

Volador/Averno continues to be matched up, but there is no singles match yet.

Guerrero Maya Jr. has made noise about leading a new Puebla group to take out Fuerza Poblana. It’s likely just talk, but Multy is a Puebla guy CMLL has used in Mexico City at times.

CMLL (TUE) 11/12/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Eclipse Jr., Lince Del Baijo, Shezmu vs Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy
2) Adira & Nexy vs Hatana & Valkiria
3) Adrenalina, Fantástico, Yutani vs Ángel Rebelde, Cris Skin, Halcón Negro Jr.
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther vs Gallo, Ráfaga, Rafaga Jr.
5) La Catalina & Lluvia vs Sanely & Zeuxis
6) Star Black, Templario, Titán vs Furia Roja, Gallero, Último Guerrero

Yutani may be a tecnico now that he’s no longer teaming with El Elemental.

MLW announced they’ll continue the semi-annual CMLL shows in Cicero with Azteca Lucha on 05/10. Tickets will go on sale on 11/13.

CMLL said its 12/13 show will be an international event. A trailer aired at the end of Wednesday’s CMLL Informa. Based on Toni Storm’s comment about returning to CMLL sometime in 2024, this show appears to include AEW wrestlers. NJPW personnel re-tweeted the announcement, so wrestlers from that promotion presumably are also appearing. Some of NJPW wrestlers will already be on the continent for the 12/15 NJPW Strong Style Evolved show. CMLL pointed people to the ticket-purchasing site without explaining more. Ticket prices are slightly elevated for that show. I don’t know anything about this show beyond this paragraph.

I don’t believe this announcement has anything to do with ROH’s missing Final Battle show. There’d be no point in building up matches on ROH TV to plop them down in front of a CMLL crowd utterly unfamiliar with them.

This CMLL Informa was one of the more newsworthy shows, beyond the teaser:

• Capitan Suicida was on the show, and he was presented as talking about his Super Junior Tag League tour. The real goal was for Capitan Suicida to talk about his Max Moon outfit and explain he got the idea from seeing that acrobatic wrestler who portrayed him, Paul Diamond.
  • If you didn’t know this story, it was still a strange digression, enough to alert you that something had happened. If you did know the story, they want it clear that Sucidia was not doing Konnan tribute without every mentioning Konnan’s name
  • I 100% believe Capitan Suicida had no idea who Paul Diamond was and equally had no idea Konnan wore the outfit. Many luchadors just see cool clips on Instagram or Tiktok and don’t go deeper than that.
• 11/18 is the Revolucion Day holiday in Puebla, so the show will start at 5 and include the Copa Mujeres Revolucionarias tournament, as in 2023. Reyna Isis won that tournament, which was an eight-women cibernetico split between Puebla and CDMX women. This year’s tournament will be all CDMX: La Catalina, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard, Kira, Lluvia, Zeuxis, Reyna Isis,  Persephone, Hera and Sanely.
  • The CMLL Puebla luchadoras did not appear much during Women’s Month. They wrestled the opener on the 10/07 show – Astoreth & Centinela beat Enigmatica & Lady Amazona, and not all during the rest of women’s month. That match was booked prior to the disastrous Arena Coliseo indie luchadora match, and I wonder if the Puebla luchadoras also got sidelined as the indie women did.
• The bodybuilding contest was officially announced for 11/27. JCR hinted there’s new rules or groups or something with it, and that they’d explain more later.
• Fuerza Tapatia (Esfinge, Star Black, Fugaz) officially added Explosivo to the group. They pushed the idea it would be a foursome.
  • It seems more CMLL is elevated Esfinge from the group, and Star Black and Fugaz aren’t joining him right now. More or less what happened with Akuma and Ola Negra a few months ago, but they’re being nicer about it. Explosivo gets a good spot as a regular, much like Barboza seems to be paired with Zandokan. Both are recent Guadalajara to Mexico City full time moves.
• The NWA Middleweight Championship will be a two week affair with the six people wrestling tonight. The final two will wrestle for the title next Friday. Mistico will present the winner with the title belt.
• The first two Fridays of the month will have the middleweight tournament. The last two Fridays of the month will have the Leyenda de Azul, featuring the light heavyweights and heavyweights. This year’s participants are Blue Panther, Gran Guerrero, Star Black , Averno, Angel de Oro, Soberano Jr., Euforia, Hechicero, Mistico and the winner of Esfinge vs Rugido Friday. The idea is that every light heavyweight and heavyweight champion is automatically included, so the winner of the title match gets a spot.
  • CMLL announced that Mistico would be in this tournament back in September, right after the Aniversario show. At that point, JCR explained it as Mistico getting a sort of exemption into the tournament despite not being a light heavyweight so he could try to win both Leyenda de Plata and the Leyenda de Azul. CMLL, especially the CMLL of the last few years, is concerned about their internal logic making sense. I wonder if one of the motivations in Mistico giving up the middleweight championship is because he was going to be in the light heavyweight tournament (and eventually going to be light heavyweight champion.) I can’t believe that would be the only reason, but I can see it factor into their thinking.
  • Atlantis Jr. is the (NWA) Historic Light Heavyweight Champion. He’s not in the Leyenda de Azul. Again, CMLL is big in trying to make everything fit their rule set, so Julio Cesar Rivera explained Atlantis Jr. would be missing the tournament do to personal reasons. I immediately assumed “personal reasons” meant “World Tag League”, but that currently doesn’t appear to be the case. No CMLL teams were announced for NJPW’s World Tag League. There is a spot left open, Alex Zayne’s partner has not been announced, but a Mexican teaming with a man whose lifestyle is “I really love Taco Bell” seems like it would cause some sort of international incident. I’ve got no idea what Atlantis Jr. is up to.

NJPW US’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed show takes place tonight. There is no CMLL presence on the card, the first time there’s been no CMLL wrestler on a normal NJPW US show since 2022. It might be a scheduling quirk with MLW the next day. That streak is also a little bit exaggerated. Some of the CMLL presence on those cards was just “Stephanie Vaquer defends her title.” Vaquer was a unicorn; NJPW has used Mistico a bunch, but it’s more been just the 2-4 luchador who happened to be picked and are in a match off to the side of the main NJPW stories. Stephanie is the only male or female CMLL luchador who transitioned into becoming a full time NJPW US roster member until leaving for WWE. None of the other CMLL luchadors have really been put in the same role as challenging a famous US star like the Vaquer/Mone spot, but I’m sure NJPW has reasons for picking people as they do. And I’m sure CMLL wrestlers will be back on the next NJPW show in California.

The 11/21 CMLL show in Veracruz is canceled.

This week’s viral video is a female fan asking Diamond to sign her chest. Diamond wisely declined, but he did sign her forehead with lipstick instead.

In another interview with Fightful, Rocky Romero said he apologized to Mercedes Mone this past week about not helping her with the CMLL show – he actually fell asleep during the conversation.

I really enjoyed Soberano Jr.’s post-match promo from Guadalajara.

AAA

No Space show on Saturday. Guerra de Titanes is Sunday, AAA’s last live show of the year.

AAA TV (SUN) 11/10/2024 Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
***Guerra de Titanes, 2024***
1) Máscarita Sagrada, Payaso Balin, Pimpinela Escarlata, Sakura vs ?, Eddy Maceyra, Mini Abismo Negro, Zafiro
2) Kempo vs Pierroth Jr., Aéreo
3) El Fiscal & Reina Dorada vs Crazzy Steve & Havok
El Fiscal likely to be replaced due to injury.
4) ?, Mecha Wolf, Vampiro Canadiense vs Abismo Negro, Psicosis, Taurus
5) Dinámico, Drago, Laredo Kid vs Kento, Nobu San, Takuma
6) Octagón Jr. © vs El Mesías [AAA LA]
7) Pagano vs El Patrón Alberto © [AAA MEGA]
Pagano replaced Vikingo on Tuesday prior (knee injury)

Space will pick up this show around 7:30 pm CDMX Time. It show starts at 5 pm local; Juarez is Mountain Time, so that means they’ll have about 90 minutes of matches prior to the live portion. The top 3 always air, and I think match 4 is likely based on those times.

Guerra de Titanes is meant to be AAA’s last major show of the year and AAA has plots – JBL/Dorian’s takeover bid, Latin Lover’s contract ending – that seemed headed to a year-end conclusion. This year, AAA has at least two more tapings to go so it’s possible that stuff gets saved for later.

Pagano getting the title shot was a story in the hometown paper, got played up by the city itself on their page. That match will not be good by “quality of wrestling moves,” but it’ll be heated. Pagano winning would be a great story for that day, but I’m not sure it would mean much beyond that. AAA posted a video of Alberto calling someone to thank someone for injuring Vikingo and laughing about the idea he’d face a clown now. I don’t think that’s meant to be a mystery person angle, they just needed a way to get to the promo – it’s the old WWE cliched bit of talking to someone on the phone to explain the story.

Fiscal posted a photo of him in the hospital after surgery a month ago. Reina Dorada told Mas Lucha more recently that Fiscal wouldn’t be on this show, but she didn’t appear to know who she’d be teaming with instead. That weird Dorada promo on AAA TV this week teased a singles match with Havok, so maybe one idea is to move Crazzy Steve up into Pagano’s spot instead of sending an extra person. AAA seems less likely to send a replacement to show, though they could always move Pierroth or Aereo up to team with Reina Dorada.

Octagon should probably beat Mesias if AAA remembers he’s owed a title shot, but who knows. Mesias has looked better in this run, but it’s unrealistic to expect him to put in Mil Muertes/Fenix-level performances in 2024. Nobu San pointed out on Twitter that this city is where he started his AAA stint and it’ll also be where he’s finishing it up – he’s headed back to GLEAT, at least for now. That seems to suggest La Fraternidad will win. Notorious hothead Psicosis II is still teaming with the guy who cost him his mask; maybe he’s turned over a new leaf.

AAA on Unimas will have part 3 of Heroes Inmortales, which appears to be just the Copa Antonio Pena. AAA will have the Guerra de Titanes preview show on YouTube.

Psycho Clown was listed on the 11/17 GALLIMania show. He is no longer listed on the GALLIMania show.

Scorpio Jr. (1966-2024)

Scorpio Jr. (Rafael Nunez) passed away Thursday. He was 58. Record reports Scorpio Jr. passed away after an ulcer burst.

Scorpio Jr.’s started his career at the age of 18. His father was a regular in UWA and his son started there in the late 80s, continuing through the effective in off the promotion in the mid 90s. His biggest win during that time would’ve been a mask victory over Black Scorpio (a touring Too Cold Scorpio.) Scorpio Jr. had a brief stint in 1995 AAA alongside other UWA refugees but landed in CMLL for the long term. (Scorpio’s father, who was a Mexico City lucha libre commissioner by this point, may have had a role in that move.) Scorpio Jr. was an upper-level rudo for that CMLL run, running from 1995 until 2004. He was a jacked-up muscle guy in a promotion where there weren’t many of that type. His biggest role was as a character in the Negro Casas/El Hijo del Santo drama in the late 90s. The Arena Mexico crowd started cheering rudo Casas over tecnico Santo, including on the 63rd Aniversario show. El Hijo del Santo left Arena Mexico for a few months, Casas turned tecnico in the interim, and Santo shockingly decided to become a rudo for the first time in his career to continue to fight him. Santo teamed up with Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje for that run. When it was time for Hijo del Santo to turn back tecnico, Scorpio Jr. first beat Santo in the first-ever Leyenda de Plata tournament a year and a half later, a match he talked about with CMLL back in 2020. Salvaje & Scorpio also attacked Santo in a trios tournament, and fate happened to have Negro Casas as one of those saving him. That led to a tag team program between Santo/Casas and Salvaje/Scorpio and a hair/mask match at the first ever Homenaje a Dos Leyends in 1999. Santo & Casas won, of course.

(Around this time, Scorpio Jr. also had a run on WWF’s Super Astro’s programming, which used a lot of CMLL talent booked through Victor Quiñones. Scorpio wrestled as the unmasked El Bandido on five matches, most taped before he lost his mask in Mexico.)

Santo also beat Scorpio Jr. in a 1999 Leyenda de Plata rematch, closing the book on that story (and ending Scorpio’s run on top.) Scorpio Jr. had already moved onto a new angle. He and Bestia Salvaje teamed with rising star and recent rudo convert Shocker to form Los Guapos, a tongue-in-cheek idea of these not-conventionally-handsome men playing off like the world’s most beautiful men. (Scorpio’s Sr. had been billed as ‘the ugliest man in the world,’ so Scorpio Jr. was a natural.) The gimmick wasn’t successful from a box office standpoint, but it became the iconic version of those wrestlers. Shocker and Scorpio Jr. are still playing that same Guapos character to this day, and AAA currently has a group based on this two-decade-old angle. (The Guapos did better business on Tijuana shows.) In the early 2000s, Shocker was an incredibly charismatic wrestler, too big for this semi-comedy group. CMLL eventually added Emilio Charles Jr. to the unit with the idea of him pushing Shocker out. This was CMLL’s peak period of doing outside-the-ring vignettes, so there were bits about Shocker and Emilio feuding over a woman and Shocker messing with their hair dye that are well remembered. Shocker would win Emilio’s hair to end that program and Scorpio Jr.’s hair in the last days of his time in CMLL. Before that – and after Shocker had messed up the Guapo’s good looks – Scorpio Jr., Emilio Charles Jr., and Bestia Salvaje found religion and became Los Talibanes following the 9/11 attacks. It was meant as a parody and not to be taken seriously, though it may have played differently outside of Mexico. (Scorpio also briefly played a masked Sadam gimmick in Pierroth’s gang, but it didn’t go anywhere.) Scoprio Jr.’s last Arena Mexico booking came on February 13, 2004, though he hung around most of the year working smaller shows before leaving the promotion.

Scorpio Jr. got one more run in the big time, thanks to Shocker. He had jumped to AAA in 2005, who thought they were getting the star of just a couple of years prior and instead got someone dealing with significant substance abuse issues. (Shocker has since said he doesn’t remember a thing of his 14 months in AAA.) After running with Shocker as a tecnico didn’t work out, AAA pulled from the past to redo Los Guapos. Emilio Charles Jr. and Bestia Salvaje were still in CMLL, but Scorpio Jr. was available. So were ex-CMLL wrestlers (and participants in later Shocker Guapos concepts) Alan Stone and Zumbido, as well as the new addition of micro manager Guapito. Shocker bailed back to CMLL in 2006, but AAA kept the idea going without him. Scorpio Jr. got a feud and hair loss to Super Porky (a rare achievement to lose a hair match with Brazo de Plata), and Decnnis eventually also got added to the group. Scorpio Jr., a poor in-ring wrestler during this AAA run, was quietly phased out of the group. He continued to work about 30-50 matches, a lot for Tiniblas’s micro-promotion FULL. Scorpio Jr. also introduced a Mini Scorpio, a Scorpio 2G and a Scorpio 3G at different times; SuperLuchas bio says at least one of those was his real son.

Scorpio Jr. wrestled twice on AAA TV this year, wrestling the June Mexico City show and again in August on Verano de Escandalo, back again with Alan Stone and Zumbido. He looked old and far past his prime, but he also had looked far past his prime in the 2006-2008 Guapo U run they were referencing. AAA apparently thought there was more they could do with the Guapos, but again, not with Scorpio Jr. That second appearance included an injury angle to replace Scorpio Jr. with Bello Stone (Chris Stone Jr.), and Scorpio hadn’t been mentioned since. I don’t have a record of him appearing on other cards past that night. Scorpio Jr. and his wife spent his last years running a food stand in Mexico City, which he appeared to enjoy. The great El Arte de Gotch YouTube channel caught up with Scorpio Jr. back in September. The title has Scorpio talking about retiring in a year. Visually, he looks much thinner and older in the face than he had even a month prior in AAA, as if there was some illness he was battling.

AAA mentioned Scorpio Jr.’s passing. IWRG had a moment of appluse on Thursday’s show. CMLL has not said anything, as of this writing.

Other News

Ayako Hamada wrestled on a show this past Sunday, then took the microphone to say that her father, Gran Hamada, was seriously ill again. Gran Hamada was in serious condition earlier this year and recovered then, and Ayako said this latest is Gran Hamada is in a day-by-day situation.

Thursday, El Hijo del Santo’s Instagram stories mentioned the remaining 2024 shows on the Todo x el Todo are canceled. Instagram Stories are pretty unhelpful places to put this info, but it’s also on the ticket websites. The Merida show, scheduled for 12/08, has been canceled altogether. This Sunday’s show in Veracruz is now scheduled for March 2nd – but Todo x el Todo had previously said they were running in Xalapa that day. No shows are scheduled until March 2nd, and I presume we won’t hear much more about all of this until the anniversary of El Santo’s passing on February 5th.

(Credit to LA Park for breaking this story.)

The Crash has its 13th Anniversary show tonight in Tijuana. It’s a strange card: Bestia and Mecha Wolf have a long-built hair match, but then the rest of the show is out of nowhere four-way hair match with Heavy Metal, Super Crazy and Mr. Aguila and Juventud Guerrera, and then a bunch of title matches with no one announced. The Crash has a list of talent for the show, and it’s possible to work out who’s probably in the title matches, but it also doesn’t seem to matter much. Matt Riddle was supposed to be in one of them, probably challenging for the heavyweight title, but The Crash announced he’s off the show (due to “reasons outside of the control of the promotion”), and Raj Dhesi is in. Dhesi has not worked for AAA since winning the tag team titles in August. Notably, Riddle is still advertised to work the MLW taping the next day. Ticket prices are much more expensive than usual for this show; the promotion is going to be feeling great if it draws.

Jack Cartwheel was a regular in AAA in 2022 and 2023, then disappeared from the promotion in 2024. Most of the regular foreigners have disappeared from AAA this year, either due to AAA focusing on the Orignes wrestlers or AAA cutting back on expensive. Cartwheel has still worked the EMW shows in Tijuana. Friday, WWE revealed Cartwheel was part their WWE ID program – a new concept where WWE is reportedly paying indie wrestlers a monthly stipend in exchange for WWE refusal on a contract. (The details on WWE ID seems heavily speculated on and lightly reported, so I could have this wrong.) Cartwheel’s worked Ring of Honor a bunch – if AEW wanted to sign him now, WWE would have the right to offer him a deal (probably with terms already set) and

I’m certain many Mexican wrestlers would jump at the same offer, and it’s more a question of WWE having any interest in wrestlers who only wrestle in Mexico. WWE typically has not been interested in Mexican wrestlers until they wrestle in Japan or Mexico. Someone like Galeno del Mal, who works in NOAH but doesn’t seem to have a contract there or with anyone in Mexico, would seem to be a logical person for WWE to approach for this WWE ID program.

(I’m far astray off topic but – if AEW wants/needs any information on this WWE ID program, they probably should offer Cartwheel a contract to find it out. They’re already using Cartwheel enough where he might already be a roster guy if Ring of Honor was running a bigger schedule, they’re not heartbroken if WWE scoops him up, and they better know the gameplan if/when this become a bigger deal. This is totally just pushing a button to see what it does, but it’s a good test candidate to push the button. Wrestling companies generally have far more information on what other wrestling companies are doing with contracts than we do, so it also may be totally unnecessary to push that button and get that information.)

Diosa Quetzal announced Wednesday she’s pregnant in a series of photos with partner Angel Mortal Jr. (ex-Parka Negra). I don’t have a result for her since June. It says something about what AAA must be paying people on Angel Mortal’s level that he seemingly found out he was going to be a father and decided the responsible thing to do was to quit AAA. What stuck out to me, though, was Quetzal’s previous posts – “really enjoyed being at this concert!”, “just got done at the gym” that are now exposed as photos from some distant time in the past that she was pretending were recent. Social media is a scam. (Meanwhile, Bengalee’s social media accounts vaguely refer to some issue recently, but otherwise, they are just resuming posting like usual, whoever’s behind them. )

Tao Lucha libre said they were still running Arena Queretaro on 11/15. However, they also suspiciously pushed their press conference from Wednesday to next Monday – perhaps something still needs to be figured out.

The Sun has a “reporter learns how to wrestler” piece with Hijo del Santo and Santo Jr. This piece puts Santo Jr’s age as 27 and implies he’s going to keep wrestling after his father retires, but also the idea entire idea of the article is he doesn’t know anything about any of this so I wouldn’t take that too seriously.

A culture writer for El Sol del Mexico raves about Quien Mato A Shocker, saying it belongs alongside Raging Bull and The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky) version. The documentary is still making its way around film festivals.

Dragon Bane challenges Daga for the GHC Junior Heavyweight championship on 11/17.

A profile of Mexico City teen indie luchador Steven Manson.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 11/04/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, En Linea Deporitva, Mano A Mano, Porra Fresa]
1) Astro & Asturiano b Espíritu Maligno & King Jaguar 
Astro left the match early via injury.
2) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
3) Disturbio, El Elemental, Infarto b Arkalis, Millenium, Pegasso 
debut of El Elemental here; he beat Pegasso to win.
4) Flip Gordon, Rayo Metálico, Stigma DQ Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Okumura 
Guerrero Maya unmasked Rayo Metailco.
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto DQ Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. 
Averno faked a foul from Volador
6) Místico b Ángel de Oro

Elemental getting wins is surprising, but it’s not like these results really matter

CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro De Acero b Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía
9:11. Polvora won via mask pull on Angelito
2) El Coyote b Fuego [lightning]
9:04
3) Sanely & Tabata b Candela & India Sioux [Relevos Increíbles]
14:56
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
13:50. Hijo de Blue Panther replaced Blue Panther.
5) El Hijo de Octagón, Octagón, Star Jr. b Mephisto, Niebla Roja, Rey Bucanero
13:11.
6) Averno, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible b Templario, Titán, Volador Jr.
13:51.

It’s an all-around good show – matches like the Panthers/Diablos were going harder than most of the matches last week. It seemed like a bigger crowd than usual for Tuesday for no particular reason.

CMLL teased a Volador/Averno on back-to-back days, which might mean they have two singles matches next week. The minis who weren’t involved in Friday or Sunday’s angle are feuding here, which again points to a division-wide cage match coming on New Year’s Day.

CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Mas Lucha, Fuego en el Ring]
1) Astro Oriental, Avispón Negro Jr., Último Ángel b Infierno, Mortis, Ponzoña Jr.
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Prince Drago b Obek, Rav, Temerario
3) Bestia Negra, Guerrero de la Muerte, Halcón Negro Jr. b Arlequín, Leo, Omar Brunetti
straight falls. Omar Brunetti left the match early and was injured.
4) Brillante Jr., Neón, Xelhua b Draego, Makará, Persa
5) Barboza & Zandokan Jr. b Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada b Soberano Jr.

Dorada won cleanly in the main event. No word on how match 5 went. Video shows Brunetti walking away from the match, so it’s an upper body injury and/or Guadalajara doesn’t strap everyone to a stretcher.

Kaiser Sports has their version of general media interviews with Akira and Bad Dude Tito. This was better than the ESTO version because Kaiser Sports wrote down what show they were building up (the MLW one this weekend.) It was unsuccessful in getting people to a YouTube stream to watch it. Mexican wrestling media does not care about watching shows on the internet, doesn’t even process they go to the show live, and doesn’t seem to process that there are people who may watch shows they’re not at. But if the goal is to get MLW mentioned in the Mexican press, this was successful. MLW had Atlantis Jr. and Atlantis Sr. talk with Fightful, and that’ll be released for free on Thursday and they’re more likely to get the YouTube stream over.

Capitan Suicida finished his NJPW run on Monday with a dark match appearance. He’s worn different outfits throughout the tournament, and the Monday outfit was inspired by Max Moon. WWF created the character, though Paul Diamond also wrestled in that mask in 1994 NJPW – maybe that was the inspiration. The Max Moon gimmick was initially designed for Konnan, who left WWF before he made TV. A CMLL wrestler seemingly paying homage to a Konnan character isn’t a brilliant idea. I’d bet it was unintentional that Capitan Suicida had no idea that mask had anything to do with Konnan. Most CMLL people aren’t paying attention to 2024 WWE; it seems a safe bet he doesn’t know the story of an obscure character from three decades prior in another promotion. Capitan Suicida may still be in hot water, nevertheless.

CMLL (SAT) 11/09/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro De Acero
2) Astral & Eléctrico vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
3) Futuro & Max Star vs Stigma & Xelhua
4) La Catalina & Tessa Blanchard vs Reyna Isis & Zeuxis
5) Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black vs Barboza, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada, Neón, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Euforia, Niebla Roja

Main event looks good. Match 3 might be interesting.

CMLL (SUN) 11/10/2024 Arena México
1) Leono & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Dragón de Fuego & Legendario vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
3) Capitán Suicida, Hijo del Pantera, Volcano vs El Elemental, Kráneo, Okumura
4) Reyna Isis vs Persephone [lightning]
5) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Titán vs Hijo del Villano III, Magia Blanca, Valiente
6) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Templario vs Gran Guerrero, Hechicero, Stuka Jr.

A regular Friday show. Elemental and Pantera get a Sunday spot.

AAA

Sunday’s Guerra de Titanes’s new main event will be Pagano challenging Alberto for the AAA Mega Championship. Pagano announced he was in the spot Tuesday on a Facebook video. AAA officially announced the change about an hour later. Pagano was scheduled to team with Mecha Wolf and Vampiro in a trios match; no replacement was announced.

Guerra de Titanes is in Pagano’s hometown of Ciudad Juarez, and that crowd should be very excited to see him in a big match. Vikingo going for the title he never lost is a bigger story in the melodrama of AAA, but Pagano’s challenge for the title will be a much bigger deal for the people in the building.

The Alberto/mega title story seems to be planned out in more detail and in a longer term than AAA stories in the recent past. It feels as though AAA had plotted out the Alberto/Vikingo match for Guerra de Titanes and Alberto/Octagon (off winning a title shot in the Mexico City Copa) for Rey de Reyes so they could clear out all the old business before going to their perceived money match in Latin Lover versus Alberto. Vikingo not being available for this show throws a bit of a monkey wrench in that, but AAA can do big matches outside of names shows. AAA could just reschedule it for that 12/07 show that doesn’t have a lineup if both men are available.

Pagano is the much better selection for selection for that show, even though he’s probably going to struggle to have a long singles matches; he’s spent a lot of the last two years out with injuries or looking like a man who will soon be out with injuries. Pagano hasn’t challenged for this title in 2017.  AAA’s goal shifted to get high WON star ratings with the title, and Pagano didn’t fit that mold. Alberto as champion means that goal has changed, and Pagano’s a better fit for a title reign that’s simply about building heat for Alberto. Vikingo was in the spot because AAA wanted to close the book on that chapter of the title, and Alberto cheating a smaller guy seemed like a good way to get heat but Pagano’s disappearing act from AAA also meant he wasn’t in consideration until they needed someone. He’s been as scarce on AAA TV as Psycho Clown: Pagano worked the first two tapings of the year, then two of the Triplemanias (Monterrey/Mexico City) and hasn’t appeared since. (He was listed on the canceled Torreon show.) Pagano is still working AAA spot shows, but Guerra de Titanes being in Juarez is probably the main reason Pagano took this TV taping.

Local promoters RCG Media held a press conference on Monday to promote the 11/17 show. They said the previous Saltillo show, back in March with Vampiro, sold out to around 4,500 people and hope for the same here. They’re also hoping they can bring a TripleMania or a Verano de Escandalo to Saltillo at some point—they’re eyeing the local baseball stadium for a bigger-scale event. That baseball stadium sits around 11,000, so probably not a TripleMania but another named event seems plausible.

Other News

Flamita and Kzy won the Open the Twin Gate championship in Dragon Gate.

Shocker told Record he’s going to start wrestling again in December, with six dates already booked – the first is 11/01 in Veracruz. He’s working the Christms Day Neza show among hem. He was asked if AAA’s offered him a job, seeing as Latin Lover was one of the people responsible for Shocker going to rehab – Shocker credits AAA for paying for the plane tickets to get him there. Shocker says AAA has not, but he wants to get in better shape before he even tries to go back on TV with anyone. Shocker heading back on the road to wrestle following rehab seems like a risky idea, but it’s the easiest way for him to make money quick.

The Facebook page for Arena Queretaro posted a strange note from the owners on Tuesday, seemingly saying they no longer owned or managed the building. Two promotions – TAO and “Indy Wrestling” have been running the building, and the post says they’ll need to find a new location. TAO already had a press conference scheduled later today for their show on the 15th in that building, so maybe there will be more info on what is happening then.

AVE says they’ll have a 4 person mask match in February 2025. They were the same group that did the Wotan/Trauma match this past year, and it seems like that’s where Imposible is putting up his mask.

Club Lucha has a new edition of their podcast.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/01/2024 Arena México [CMLL, El Grafico, Esquina Caliente, Estadio Deportes, Estrellas del Ring, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, The Gladiatores (Text), The Gladiatores (vide), thecubsfan]
***Dia del Muertos, 2024***
1) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito b Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito   
7:44. Pierrothito snuck in a foul on Shockercito, setting up a rematch next week.
2) Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado b Disturbio, Felino Jr., Okumura     
13:45.
3) Kira, La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard b Reyna Isis, Sanely, Zeuxis     
11:06
4) Difunto b Bárbaro Cavernario, Xelhua, Barboza [Rey del Inframundo, final]     
Xelhua submitted Barboza in 7:45, Difunto defeated Xelhua in 9:32, and Difunto defeated Cavernario in 19:34 to win the 2024 Rey del Inframundo
5) Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Esfinge, Místico, Neón     
19:44. Rugido beat Esfinge and challenged him to a MEX LH title match next week. As Mistico was being carried to hell (Dia del Muertos tradition), a fan tried to pull him to safety, but he was taken out by security.

The Rey del Inframundo was the one match to watch. Difunto put together all the high spots he’s been showing off in trios and lightning matches late for a big match and pulled off nearly all of them. The finishing springboard didn’t work, but he was level-headed enough to add on sentons until Cavernario was good and dead. Difunto is about as weirdly spectacular as CMLL is right now.

The rest was not much. Five matches meant the show went short, even with all the extra Dia del Muertos stuff (and a paddle presentation)—the main event felt like they were asked to kill a few extra minutes. The unplanned post-match bit was the most memorable part.

The minis feud could be setting up the New Year’s Day match. It could also be the title match, but it’s rare that MCLL runs programs for the minis title, especially on a Friday.

CMLL (SAT) 11/02/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico 
8:01
2) Diamond, Dulce Gardenia, Valiente Jr. b Apocalipsis, Disturbio, Espíritu Negro [Relevos Increíbles] 
11:22
3) Felino b Pantera 
7:39
4) Zeuxis b Princesa Sugehit, Dark Silueta 
Sugehit beat Silueta in 10:44, Zeuxis beat Sugehit in 16:51.
5) Atlantis Jr. b Stuka Jr. 
16:19
6) Místico & Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro & Averno 
17:24

The theme here was seeing all these big rivalries again, but they didn’t feel big. Most of them were worked like regular matches, or with less effort than usual. All the matches, being one fall, seemed to throw off the flow, too, and it felt like the main event was (again) stretched out because the rest of the show went short. Pantera/Felino may have been meant to take up some of that time. Pantera hit the ropes on a through-the-corner tope, then hit the floor hard and short of Felino. CMLL kept the cameras on the ring as the doctors checked on Pantera; he continued the match, but it didn’t go much longer.

Atlantis Jr./Stuka Jr. was the best of the bunch by far. They started hot, they kept on each other, and a loud portion of the crowd got behind Stuka (because he’s pretty good.)

CMLL (SUN) 11/03/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
***Tzompantu de Mascaras, 2024***
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas b Átomo & Tengu 
10:37.
2) Pequeño Olímpico & Último Dragóncito DQ Mercurio & Shockercito [Relevos Increíbles] 
9:16. Straight falls. Mercurio refused to let go of a Cavernaria on Ultimo Dragoncito, causing the DQ.
3) La Catalina b Reyna Isis, Princesa Sugehit, Dark Silueta, Tabata, Amapola, La Vaquerita, Persephone [Copa Tzompantli] 
Tabata (14:40, via Sugehit), Amapola (16:08, Isis), Vaquerita (18:30, Persephone), Dark Sileta (22:37, Sugehit), Princesa Sugehit (23:10, Isis), Isis (25:08, Catalina), Persephone (28:04, Catalina), leaving La Catlaina as the winner. This was La Vaquerita’s retirement match.
4) Virus b Felino [lightning] 
6:42
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Bárbaro Cavernario & Terrible [CMLL TAG] 
16:36. 17th defense (Chavez counting it as 18th)
6) Averno, Euforia, Volador Jr. b Blue Panther, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles] 
12:30

Chavez vs Terrible/Cavernario was good; I think the costuming took me out of it a little bit (though I was distracted for a portion during it.) The cibernetico held together fine. Catalina used three moves on Persephone that would be better finishers, then won with her actual splash. The main event was good.

The cibernetico was paused after Vaquerita was pinned so that everyone left in the match could applaud for La Vaquerita, and they got the crowd to applaud her as well. When she put her mask in the chest at the end of the show, she put on a referee shirt to indicate her change in role. It was a nice send off.

The gimmick of this show is that everyone is wearing their old mask again, but it’s not entirely accurate. Everyone’s wearing a Dia del Muertos version of their mask, which is different than others who’ve done this bit. The idea at the end of this show is all these mask losers put their mask back in the sacred trunk until next year. Vaquerita put hers in the trunk for the final time; she put on a referee shirt to show her role change. Ultimo Guerrero was one of the last to go, so he threw his mask into the crowd instead. Many people in the ring reacted like a student just talked back to the teacher and was about to get sent to the principal’s office. Maybe someone in CMLL had a word with everyone about how that was supposed to go, but UG didn’t take it well. Look, he may need that mask before next November if he gets booked in AEW again gotta keep it out of the box.

This is a weird coincidence, but it is still amusing to me. Most of the Arena Mexico Dia del Muertos has been done with the lights turned low (but not off), so the special Dia del Muertos glow-in-the-dark gear the wrestlers wear pops out to the live audience. Next Sunday, AAA’s scheduled to run a Lucha A Oscuras match, where they turn the lights off and the wrestlers wear glow-in-the-dark gear. I’d assume neither AAA nor CMLL knows the other group is doing essentially the same gimmick match.

It’s not much hidden that much of the “talking” to tell the Guardians to drag losers to Hell is pretaped. It’s been live in the past, but even La Catrina’s speeches were dubbed bits. It’s fine, whatever makes for a good show, except it stuck out a bit during the women’s cibernetico when they seemed to play the same generic soundbite every two minutes for an elimination.

CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2024 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro De Acero
2) Fuego vs El Coyote [lightning]
3) Candela & India Sioux vs Sanely & Tabata [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
5) El Hijo de Octagón, Octagón, Star Jr. vs Mephisto, Niebla Roja, Rey Bucanero
6) Templario, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible

It’s back to regular Arena Mexico shows. Fuego is no longer a humanoid candy, merely a humanoid flame. Normal is relative—I have no idea what’s going on in match 3. Rostro de Acero hanging around might be yet another sign they’re building to a minis cage match—CMLL needs even numbers for those, even though it doesn’t matter.

CMLL (FRI) 11/08/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider
3) Esfinge © vs Rugido [MEX LH]
7th defense
4) Flip Gordon vs Villano III Jr., Neón, Guerrero Maya Jr., Dragón Rojo Jr., Difunto [NWA MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]
last 2 advance to final on following week
5) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Soberano Jr.

That middleweight field is a strange one that explains how we got here; CMLL’s going to have Mistico lose a few times a year, but probably not to any of those six in 2024. There are levels. The sudden rise of Difunto makes him a favorite. I would like to see what Neon and Villano III Jr. might do in a title match but I fear they might not survive. The world is divided into people who saw that lineup as “oh no, Flip Gordon might win a title” (people who don’t watch CMLL) and those who saw it as “oh no, Dragon Rojo might win a title (again)” (people who do watch CMLL.)

Esfinge losing would be surprising. The rest might not go anywhere; Leyenda de Azul is probably starting soon.

WWE informed three wrestlers Friday that they would soon no longer be WWE wrestlers. One of them was Australia’s Samantha De Martin, who wrestled in WWE as Indi Hartwell. La Catalina, who overlapped with De Martin’s time in WWE, immediately brought up the idea of bringing De Martin to CMLL. (De Martin is also of Chilean and Italian heritage.) This wouldn’t mean much except CMLL also RT-ed Catalina’s post later that night. I have not watched much of WWE during Indi Hartwell’s run, but reviews I’ve heard is she’s solid at the backstage skits and not solid in the ring. That’s the reverse of the CMLL’s desired skill set. You could look on the bright side and argue Catalina was good at neither and she (and CMLL) turned it around outside of the WWE system and maybe it’d happen again. The bigger bit is, as I wrote Friday, CMLL is always looking for novel countries to include in the Grand Prix. CMLL’s had male Australians in the Grand Prix, but never in the women’s version of the event. That likely means she’ll at least be considered if she’s still interested and available 11 months from now. (There’s no news peg to it but, for similar reasons as De Martin, I would bet Spain’s Zozaya will turn up in CMLL in 2025 if he doesn’t get scooped up by someone else prior.)

The Chilean embassy in Mexico has an article about La Catalina at the Grand Prix. I didn’t realize her outfit was supposed to be inspired by the Chilean military.

ESTO has an interview with Akira, presumably to promote the MLW show this weekend but it never comes up. The interview teases Akira coming back to Mexico soon. Over on Instagram, Akira mentions he’s going to Japan (for Big Japan) in December and is planning to be there for several months whenever he’s not working MLW.

AAA

The AAA Spain shows were never going to happen from the moment they were announced. They are now officially not going to happen. The 11/21 Madrid, 11/22 Bilbao, and 11/30 Barcelona shows are now listed as canceled on Ticketmaster and LiveNation; Ticketmaster put out saying the organizer (unclear if AAA or the local group) has canceled the shows. Refunds will start arriving on 11/08.

It was absurd for both AAA and the local promoters to believe they could fill big Spanish arenas with a promotion that had no real presence in Spain, but there is no big enough idea that AAA would not try on the chance it might work. (None of them seem to work but that’s beside the point.) In a heel promo on TV this week, Dorian Roldan bemoaned he doesn’t get the credit or credibility for his successes. There’s some truth to that, but you can either have credibility or you can associate yourself with ludicrous often. Can’t do both.

(AAA may attempt to blame the announcement of WWE shows coming to Spain; please remember these shows were dead on arrival months before anyone knew WWE was going to run shows in the country.)

The AAA on Space show was as weird even for a filler episode. No one will give you a deeper breakdown of this show than me. No one else is that silly.

• Vikingo/Alberto was still on whenever this episode was taped. It may have been taped weeks ago. It may have been taped last Wednesday. Do not take any promotion as proof the match is still on; Vikingo’s not supposed to be wrestling until the week after in the most optimistic outcome. AAA’s usual behavior is not to address the situation until the event starts, so they’ll continue to advertise the match until then.
• AAA aired more from the JBL/Dorian sit-down in Guadalajara; getting something with JBL on every episode seems a point of emphasis. Dorian stated that every big idea from AAA since Antonio Pena passed away has been his – the video game, the movie, Lucha Underground – but he doesn’t get the credit or credibility. Dorian considers himself to be carrying on Antonio Pena’s vision by taking AAA out of Mexico. JBL compares Dorian and Marisela to Vince McMahon Sr. and Junior, where Dorian needs to take control of his company to push it to its worldwide success.
  • is it amusing AAA is on TV talking about how close they’re to worldwide success as they’re canceling their only shows outside of Mexico
  • AAA is the only wrestling promotion in 2024 that talks about how great Vince McMahon is. They’re supposed to be heels, but it doesn’t come across as an odd way to get heel heat. They just live in a different world where the outside-the-ring stuff doesn’t matter. That is kind of a Mexican wrestling thing in general, but it still comes across as an alternate universe.
    • This is nothing about nothing, but I was listening to a science podcast this week, and the discussion about how the human body absorbs and recovers from physical trauma drifted into wrestling. Two hosts, neither professional wrestling fans, had seen the Netflix doc and unreservedly referred to Vince McMahon as a horrible monster of a human being. Not a second thought, not a complicated discussion, he just is. If you are deep in the wrestling bubble – and you are if you are reading this blog post – you will hear/read wrestling people also in the bubble try to explain McMahon as some nuanced figure, someone who was very successful or important to their childhood. And if you tried to defend that version of Vince McMahon to a normal person, especially someone who has seen that doc, they’d look at you as insane and quickly run the other way.
  • Marisela appears at the start of each episode but participates in these angles about once a year. That’s probably coming before the end of the year – the JBL/Dorian bit ended with the two deciding to meet with Marisela about JBL’s friends buying her out.
    • Latin Lover has said he has power until the end of the year, so – if we trust AAA to tell a complete story – there is some plot twist coming in the new few weeks.
    • Maybe this is doing Succession instead of the usual WWE-inspired power struggle and Dorian is going to be one of the kids who turns out to never get control of the company? I will turn around on AAA if Marisela tells Dorian he’s not a serious person.
• The other half of this storyline is Latin Lover had an offscreen meeting with Marisela, who agreed to raise the talent budge to bring in some new wrestlers, wrestlers he said AAA fans had been asking for. He did not say who.
• Reina Dorada did a promo against “Jessica Havok.” It was presumably for Guerra de Titanes, though she never actually talked about Guerra de Titanes – you would’ve come away thinking about it being a singles match. The weirder issue is this promo on a Mexican wrestling show by a Mexican was spoken in English and sub-titled in Spanish. There’s almost no one speaking English watching AAA on Space in Mexico, very few people who speak English are going to see it later as far as I can tell, and it’s not like those people are going to be able to figure out what show she’s talking about if they do see it. Good for Reina Dorada to be able to do English language promos, but that was an inexplicable decision.
  • The decision to frame it as a singles match may make more sense; Dorada’s supposed to be teaming with Fiscal, Fiscal is out with an injury, and AAA is incapable of saying someone is out with an injury. Maybe it’ll end up being a singles match, or maybe AAA just taped a promo in English for a Spanish-speaking audience when they hadn’t decided what match would actually happen.
  • Konnan had nothing to say in a promo later but he did a much better job of saying the name and date of the show.
  • Alberto did an interview in which he sarcastically apologized for saying Vikingo was a member of Los Kumbia Kids and then laughed at the idea that Vikingo would be a challenge to him.
• The upcoming events video did not list the 12/07 show in Mexico City. AAA does not run the video listing upcoming events during live shows – maybe it’s too difficult for them to advertise upcoming shows during their biggest events. If they continue that way, they will not mention the Mexico City taping on TV until about two weeks before it happens.

La Tijera Lucha Libre caught up with Psycho Clown at his gym and asked him why he hadn’t been on AAA TV in months. Psycho Clown insists he’s on good terms with AAA and will be forever thankful for what they’ve done in his career, but the AAA TV schedule just hasn’t accommodated his schedule. Psycho goes through his list of bookings, focusing on the international ones, making the case he’s just been too busy to be on AAA TV.

The message is that Psycho Clown is still with AAA, but he’s working on AAA shows (especially TV tapings) only if he can’t find a booking elsewhere. Hugo Savinovich, back when he got let go, said that Dorian Roldan told him to find work elsewhere if he could because AAA could no longer afford him. What Psycho Clown said sounds like he got the same message sometime this year. Psycho Clown is not gone from AAA – he could not still be Psycho Clown if he ever left AAA. However, he’d be working AAA TV tapings if AAA was offering him the best deal on those dates or if they had some contractual power to force Psycho Clown to appear on TV tapings. Neither seems to be true.

The results from last night taping in Monterrey

AAA TV (SUN) 11/03/2024 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [Lo Mejor de Lucha]
1) La Fashion & Sexy Andre b ? & Rey Sultan
2) El Original b Sick Boy, King Charro
3) Mr. Iguana & Niño Hamburguesa b Estrellato & Líder
4) Chik Tormenta & Flammer b Dulce Kanela & Pimpinela Escarlata
Chik Tormenta replaced La Fashion (bumped down to the opener)
5) Drago b Epydemius Jr., Antifaz del Norte
Pierrothio was moved up and this was turned into a three way.
6) Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown b Galeno del Mal, Pierroth Jr., Taurus
Pierroth replaced Fiscal (nose injury)

Pierroth Jr., who just appeared in AAA one day and was never introduced or explained, has now main evented three of the last four TV tapings. This taping will probably air in the US before it airs in Mexico.

As soon as this event ended, AAA announced a new show on 12/08 in Monterrey’s Giminasio Nuevo Leon Unido. It was presented as if it was a new TV taping, but I believe it’s simply a KAOZ show. That seems like good news if you’re interested in KAOZ – there’s a decent shot it’ll be live on MasLucha’s channel, instead of taped and airing weeks/months down the line.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 10/31/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, thecubsfan]
***Castillo del Terror, 2024***
1) Príncipe Centauro, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón b Caballero de Plata, Felino Boy, Sky Man 
2) Águila Roja © b Gravity, Águila Oriental, Cerebro Negro Jr., Iron Kid [IWRG IC Light] 
3rd defense
3) Julissa & Valentina b Big Mami & Shamila  
Big Mami replaced Keyra.
4) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. © b Pig Decapitador, Pig Destructor, Pig Pool [EdM Trios, Ladder] 
2nd defense. They only had one ladder and they had kind of destroyed it before the finish but held it in together long enough to finish the match.
5) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba b Látigo, Noisy Boy, Toxin © [IWRG IC TRIOS]  
2nd defense. Arez is part of the champions but was off in GCW. Noisy Boy was his surprise parnter.
6) Aquiles, Galeno del Mal, Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus b Abismo Negro Jr., Colmillo de Plata (AAA), Garra de Oro (AAA), Octagón Jr. (AAA)  
7) Rock Power L Pig Destroyer, Bendito, Multifacetico Jr., Abigor, Villano V Jr., Tornado, Luka, Máscara Sagrada NG, Brazo De Oro Jr., Pandemónium, Spider Fly [cage, mask]   
Spider Fly defeated rival Rock Power as the final two with help from Noisy Boy (teased betraying his partner but instead helped him out.) Rock Power is Tomas Villar Palomeque, 20 years a wrestler, from Minitalian, Veracruz.

A couple of Facebook sites – not sure who had it first – say Rock Power previously wrestled as Asesino Cervical in Minitalan. I can’t find any lineups with that name, maybe my spelling is wrong, but obviously this is someone who was working with a different name – he said he was wrestling for 20 years but Rock Power showed up just a few months ago.

Other News

El Hijo del Santo’s usual York Hall shows sounded like they were well attended and received well.  (Video here.) Those two shows drew better than the RevPro/CMLL Fantastica Mania shows in the same venue. This show was build around it being El Hijo del Santo’s farewell. Santo Jr. instead announced that, because the shows were so successful, they’d come back in March for El Hijo del Santo’s actual retirement show. That’s the same bit he did in Arena Ciudad de Mexico.

The Mexico-based portion of the tour is supposed to be in Puebla & Veracruz this week. Both those shows and the 12/08 Merida date may have been secretly canceled. Bobo Producciones had an Instagram story up the 03/16 GDL date but not for any of the shows this year. Tickets are still on sale for the Veracrus show, a local media outlet says the show is still on, but LA Park previously hinted the rest of the 2024 events were canceled. Santo hasn’t said anything. Bobo Producciones has typically released an updated lineup the week prior to the show, so maybe we’ll have a better idea in a few days. I had a belief that the El Hijo del Santo retirement tour concept would be handled a bit more dignified last carny than normal Mexican wrestling retirement; that was a dumb belief. At least people are enjoying the shows.

Box y Lucha 3628 goes with the GWAS show as the cover. The GWAS show from 2000.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 11/01/2024 Arena México
***Dia del Muertos, 2024***
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito
2) Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado vs Disturbio, Felino Jr., Okumura
3) Kira, La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard vs Reyna Isis, Sanely, Zeuxis
4) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Difunto, Xelhua, Barboza [Rey del Inframundo, final]
5) Esfinge, Místico, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr.

This would be a weak lineup without the Dia del Muertos theme. The main event features people who aren’t typical Friday main events, the tournament has people who haven’t been pushed at that level prior, and there’s not much support. CMLL didn’t put their strongest effort forward – and still it will be a big crowd because it’s Dia del Muertos. The Ticketmaster map shows ticket sales ahead of last week’s Grand Prix than this time last year. Those top two matches could be pretty good. So could be the opener.

Most CMLL Informa was of the “I’d really like to win/I’m happy that I already won that match” interview territory. There was a surprise at the end: Mistico appeared to announce he was relinquishing the Historic Middleweight Championship. He said he was worn down and felt like he had added too much muscle to be a middleweight anymore. He said he would rather new people get a chance at it rather than continue to defend it. Julio Cesar Rivera announced that a tournament would be held soon.

Mistico won this belt in 2018, though I guess that’s technically that’s not correct. “Caristico” won this championship in 2018, and it still was officially referred to as the NWA Historic Championship at that point. Mistico held the championship for an absurdly long time – 2262 days – but defended it only ten times. That’s about one defense every nine months. Caristico beat Ultimo Guerrero to win the title, Guerrero held it half as long and defended it fifteen times – an average of once every two months. Mistico wrestles plenty of singles match, CMLL just doesn’t make them title feuds for whatever reason. This year, when it has been a title feud, it’s been for the MLW Middleweight championship as often (twice) as the Historic one. Mistico once again became the most popular star in CMLL during this title reign but the title had little to do with it.

CMLL’s origins are closer to boxing than most wrestling promotions, and Mistico giving up his title was the same one a boxer might give. He was beat up making these defenses, had added more muscle, and thought it would be better to move up in weight classes rather than continue to defend the title. To wrestling fans, this comes across as Mistico just doesn’t want to lose. Mistico doesn’t lose much in singles matches, but he does lose on occasion – to Star Jr. in the Leyenda de Plata tournament, to Hechicero on the Arena Monterrey Alta Voltaje show, to Hirmou Takahashi in NJPW – and it comes across more like CMLL sees those Mistico losses as very valuable and wants to give them out as rarely as possible. The other part of this announcement is how it directly follows the Fantastica Mania lineup. The biggest shows (that we know about) in CMLL’s near future are those two shows in Korakuen Hall. Those tend to have more title matches than normal CMLL shows. CMLL occasional shuffles titles this time of year to set up those lineups. Averno is (light heavyweight) champion, so he and Mistico can still have a title match as one of the final two matches on the last show for that belt, and maybe two other people will be wrestling for this middleweight championship. We’ll know this was all about Fantastica Mania if someone else on the tour ends up the new middleweight champion.

Mistico is still the MLW Middleweight Champion, or at least he is through his next defense on the 8th. They don’t have a light heavyweight championship there, but they do have a three-way where he could lose the belt without being pinned. I don’t think this says anything about Mistico’s status with CMLL, but there will be people wondering about that if he loses that title as well.

CMLL (SAT) 11/02/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico
2) Diamond, Dulce Gardenia, Valiente Jr. vs Apocalipsis, Disturbio, Espíritu Negro [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Pantera vs Felino
4) Zeuxis vs Princesa Sugehit, Dark Silueta
5) Atlantis Jr. vs Stuka Jr.
6) Místico & Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Averno

These are all one fall matches. Many of them are rematches of past apuesta matches. Pequeno Olimpico unmasked Ultimo Dragon. Dulce Gardenia shaved Disturbio. Apocalipsis lost his mask to Valiente Jr. in a cage match. Espiritu Negro lost his to Diamond (then Principe Diamante) in 2020. That one seems an unlikely result nowadays. Pantera and Felino never unmasked each other but CMLL’s pushed this as a great early 90s rivalry in recent years. Zeuxis won by (Dark) Silueta and Princesa Sugehit’s masks. Atlantis and Stuka famously main evented an Aniverasrio. Angel de Oro took Volador’s shoulder but not his hair. La Mascara, not Mistico, unmasked Averno, but 2024 La Mascara only turns up in YouTube videos where he’s either talking about recovering from issues or seemingly back in the middle of those issues.

CMLL (SUN) 11/03/2024 Arena México
***Tzompantu de Mascaras, 2024***
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas vs Átomo & Tengu
2) Pequeño Olímpico & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Shockercito [Relevos Increíbles]
3) La Catalina vs Reyna Isis, Princesa Sugehit, Dark Silueta, Tabata, Amapola, La Vaquerita, Persephone [Copa Tzompantli]
4) Virus vs Felino [lightning]
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Terrible [CMLL TAG]
17th defense (Chavez counting it as 18th)
6) Averno, Euforia, Volador Jr. vs Blue Panther, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

CMLL’s poster indicates this will stream live on the Fan Leyendas tier. If you live in the US, this will be the first stream in winter time – it’s a 5 pm US Central Time start. (I’ll also be up on VOD like all YouTube shows.)

This is the show where everyone who lost their mask gets to put it on for one night (plus the Cuicas wrestle in the opener.) Some of these masks are very famous in the history of the wrestling. Some are Terrible and Barbaro Cavernario, who lost their masks well before becoming national stars. The Chavez will tie the Bucanero/Guerrero tag title defense record if they retain the titles there, at least by their count.

La Catalina, Tabata, and Persephone are all voluntary unmaskings. Persephone wrestled as the masked Black Widow in Texas; here’s her versus the wrestler now known as Roxanne Perez in NXT in a match from three years ago but seems much more distant. Black Widow unmasked upon her AAA TV debut/farewell in April 2023. One of CMLL’s stock images they use of Persephone – the one they used for the Grand Prix – is still in her Black Widow gear; you can see the little spider logos.

CMLL (MON) 11/04/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Asturiano vs Espíritu Maligno & King Jaguar
2) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
3) Arkalis, Millenium, Pegasso vs Disturbio, El Elemental, Infarto
4) Flip Gordon, Rayo Metálico, Stigma vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Okumura
5) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Místico vs Ángel de Oro

Mistico and Angel de Oro was set up last week. Elemental makes another appearance. Rayo Metalico is much higher than he would’ve been six weeks ago. I keep booking defenses for him that aren’t going to happen but Rayo Metalico defending against Stuka would be fun.

CMLL (TUE) 11/05/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Astro Oriental, Avispón Negro Jr., Último Ángel vs Infierno, Mortis, Ponzoña Jr.
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Prince Drago vs Obek, Rav, Temerario
3) Arlequín, Leo, Omar Brunetti vs Bestia Negra, Guerrero de la Muerte, Halcón Negro Jr.
4) Brillante Jr., Neón, Xelhua vs Draego, Makara, Persa
5) Barboza & Zandokan Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.
6) Máscara Dorada vs Soberano Jr.

This is a strong-looking Guadalajara card. Dorada/Soberano probably won’t be going 100% on a Tuesday, but they are still special enough to make that interesting. The guys in Match 5 will be going 100% because they’re insane and don’t know another way. Match 4 is an interesting test for the locals against highly regarded younger members of the CDMX crew.

This week’s Guadalajara upload went up for free briefly on Thursday, then went behind the paywall. Either way, the show was missing the end of the main event. They re-uploaded the show Friday afternoon. That broadcast also was airing promos for the Rey del Inframundo in between matches, spoiling anyone who didn’t know Barboza was winning the qualifying match on that show.

Mercedes Mone writes a weekly magazine-style newsletter for fans interested enough to sign up. In this week’s issue, she mentioned she was in Oaxaca – not Mexico City – this past Sunday, saw a poster for a CMLL show, and wanted to do a surprise appearance. The problem is her CMLL contact is Rocky Romero, and Rocky Romero is on Japan time because he’s part of the Super Junior tag league, and he didn’t see her message until it was too late to help. I think Rocky Romero may be off the hook there. Mone did the thing most foreigners figured saw a show a show with CMLL logo, and figured CMLL people must be running it. Mexico and Mexican wrestling just works very different and very less rigidly than the US. There is a CMLL logo on that poster because they got ahold of someone who has a CMLL contact, and that person went to the CMLL office to book out talent for that show. That’s the extent of CMLL’s involvement. Rocky would’ve had to work out who was coordinating with CMLL on the show to help out. (Maybe Robin, maybe on of the Karontes since they’re booked on the next show in that promotion.) But also it’s a random show in Oaxaca, Mercedes could’ve just wandered in and been welcome. These are not the very formal things.

Explosivo and Barboza were part of CMLL’s weekly media interviews on Wednesday. Both mentioned they’re now full-time in Mexico City. They’ll be among the people competing for those match spots in the 2/3/4 range. Barboza always seems to have found a place with Zandokan. Explosivo was part of the tecnico trio with Adrenalina and Fantastico. I guess his moving to Mexico City helps explain why they never won the Occidente Trios titles back from Raider, Crixus, and Difunto.

Barbaro Cavernario is the guest on the CMLL podcast this week.

Capitan Suicida and Tiger Mask avoided the goose egg, winning their first match on the last day of group place over Ryusuke Taguchi and Dragon Dia. The match sounds like it was a showcase for Suicida, and he did pretty well with the opportunity. I assumed Suicida pinned Taguchi this morning because it’s Taguchi. I looked at the results closer and saw he actually beat Dragon Dia, who is currently the Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate champion. NJPW hasn’t booked Dia strongly (they’ve instead booked him like a CMLL luchador) so it’s probably not meant to be leading anywhere.

Suicida’s tour appears to finish up with the 11/04 (Monday) Power Struggle show. That show will also likely announce the participants in the World Tag League. Soberano Jr., Atlantis Jr. and Zandokan Jr. wrestled on that tour last year after a long stretch of no CMLL participation. The tournament runs from the 11/19 to 12/08.

MLW announced their 11/08 show as a sell out. As with the previous taping in Cicero, the event will start at 7p, the CMLL focused YouTube live stream will start at 9pm. Much, though not all, of that crowd is coming for CMLL luchadors and will see only Okumura wrestle in the first two hours. In a sense, this is like an authentic CMLL spot show in Mexico – like the one Mone saw in Oaxaca – where the preliminary matches are non-CMLL (and usually local) luchadors, and the local promotion is paying CMLL to bring in their stars while mostly running the shows. I have tried MLW shows before, they’re not for me, but maybe I’ll try again. Or maybe I’ll read some books on my phone while I’m sitting in the GA bleachers for those first two hours. Notably, the MLW press release says the only way to see this show will be on YouTube, which suggests MLW implies no longer producing shows for US TV partner BeinSports. It may be just meaningless hype.

Last Wednesday, Sanofi (a pharmacy company) sponsored an event in Arena Coliseo to urge people to get their flu vaccine shots. I really need to get mine, so this is a useful reminder. The thrust of the event was to find unconventional ways to reach people like me and make sure they get it done. As part of the event, Team Vaccine (Mascara Dorada & Audaz) defeated Team Flu (Disturbio & Raider). There are some highlights on Instagram here and here. Never has a show more called for a Virus booking. I don’t know why he wasn’t there. CMLL doesn’t like to publicize these types of events for whatever reason – maybe they don’t want fans showing up uninvited – but this one in particular seems like good and easy PR to put out there.

Back in 2017, CMLL ran a Torneo Natalia Vazquez. That name was unknown to almost anyone, but CMLL explained that she was a Mexican-American who was technically the first Mexican woman to wrestle in Mexico in 1935. CMLL’s historians did note that there wasn’t much known about her beyond a publicity photo or two for the tour – not much about her career before or after. Turns out there are some great reasons no one knew more about the career of Natalia Vazquez: SuperLuchas wrote an explainer and released a podcast to reveal there wasn’t a real Natalia Vazquez, it was a gimmick name used by a non-Mexican American to try to get her over in Mexico, and it didn’t actually get her over. (The fans instead got behind a Canadian – who also wasn’t actually Canadian.) SuperLuchas makes the case that an 18-year woman named Celia Torices appears to be the first Mexican woman wrestler – she was wrestling men in 1913. There’s more in the story if you want dig in..

That press conference rollout of Torneo Natalia Vazquez included someone in the press asking why CMLL was using this name; no one knew much about Vazquez, why not honor someone with more historical significance like Irma Gonzalez? I don’t recall the exact the CMLL answer. I do remember that CMLL never ran a Natalia Vazquez tournament again. They’ve recently started running Copa Irma Gonzalez in the spring each year. I thought CMLL eventually agreed with the media member’s take and that’s why the concept was brought back under a different name. Now I wonder if after the first Vazquez tournament, perhaps another researcher quietly revealed her true identity to CMLL folks, and that’s why we haven’t heard her name mentioned much again. It would be unlike a wrestling promotion to admit to a mistake, and like one to move onto another subject quietly.

AAA

Thursday on Instagram, Hijo del Vikingo announced doctors found no damage to any ligament or muscle in his right knee. He’ll still be out 15-20 days, but that’s a relief after it seemed serious. Vikingo’s recovery timeline means he’ll definitely miss Guerra de Titanes in Juarez, and he may be back in time for the show in Saltillo the following week.

TV this weekend:

• Space: a “road to Guerra de Titanes” filler show
• Unimas: Heroes Inmortales part two (of three total parts now)
• YouTube: Monterrey part 2

The 12/07 AAA TV taping in Mexico City taping is back on schedule. This one was advertised about five TV episodes ago, then immediately disappeared from the upcoming events, and now is happening anyway. It’ll be back in Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera. AAA usually announces a lineup a week out, so it may not be long until a lineup is out. The matches themselves may not air until 2025 on Space, as they usually take a long holiday break. It might pop up sooner on Unimas.

AAA starts a stretch of three weeks of Sunday tapings with the final Showcenter event of the year. The main event, the Psycho Circus versus Fiscal, Taurus and Galeno del Mal, sort of continues the current trios title match. The rest looks to be unexciting filler. This taping will likely air out of order in Mexico.

This week’s Pollock and Thurston podcast noted they had spotted the attendance and gate for this year’s TripleMania Mexico City on Pollstar. They also sent me the data; the Pollstar arena charting site’s subscriber-only database lists 18,986 attendance and a gate of $420,561. Pollstar, for unknown reasons, has some but not all of the recent TripleManias in their database. Let’s put that number in some context:

Date	Show	Location	Reported #	Pollstar #	Capacity	Gate (USD)	Notable	Avg Ticket
8/9/2015	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	18000	14713	16,909	$153,441	Rey Mysterio vs Myzteziz (Mistico)	$10.43
8/28/2016	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	14000	14038	15,750	$125,994	Psycho Clown vs Pagano, hair vs hair	$8.98
8/25/2018	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	no report	12803	19,691	$282,328	LA Park vs Pentagon Jr. vs Psycho Clown vs Hijo del Fantasma, mask match	$22.05
8/14/2021	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	4500	5007	19,691	$149,666	Psycho Clown vs Rey Escorpion, mask/hair match (COVID attendance restrictions)	$29.89
8/17/2024	TripleMania	Arena Ciudad de Mexico	no report	18986	19,691	$420,561	Domed cage match, Alberto/Nemeth	$22.15

It is striking that this year’s TripleMania – one with a weak main event that came together later – drew 4,000 more people than the closest known show while also doubling the average ticket price. (The Dr. Wagner/Psycho Clown mask match, the show that most would figure drew the most fans to a TripleMania show, took place in the unrecorded year 2017.) Visually, TripleMania did not look like it drew this well – I feel like I could go back and spot more than 700 empty seats, though I know it doesn’t work exactly like that. AAA’s also not behaved in a way where they drew nearly 19,000 fans to a show – they’re prone to bragging when something goes well, which is undeniably excellent. That number would inspire a normal promotion to run in Mexico City a lot more often. AAA instead stayed away from Mexico City until December. If “18,986” came from other sources, I would just roll my eyes and ignore it. Pollstar is an industry-standard trade organization that could care less about (stupid) wrestling arguments about who’s a draw; they have no motive to make up a number. These numbers exist because venues want to know which acts sell tickets before booking them. That means the number probably was submitted by the venue, Arena Ciudad de Mexico. AAA’s run this venue for years, and they have a strong relationship. Still, there’s no strong reason for the venue to jeopardize their credibility by submitting false numbers on behalf of a group that’s using the venue for one show a year. It’s possible to come up with conspiracy theories about how that number came to be, but it doesn’t seem possible to prove any of those theories.

18,986 makes no sense based on what I know, but I know there’s no reason for Pollstar’s database to have a false number. It’s a poor idea to discard facts just because they don’t match what you already know; the only way to learn anything is to absorb unexpected information, and this number is really unexpected. That gate of $420K is the number for a company that should be flush with success and cash. AAA instead saw those ticket sales, saw that huge gate, and immediately told their color announcer they could no longer afford to bring him in and he should find a job elsewhere. Did Luchatitlan cut such a big hole in AAA’s budget that even this sort of number can’t fix? It doesn’t add up otherwise.

In an interview with La Tijera Lucha Libre, the now-former Parka Negra said he’d return to the Angel Mortal Jr. and will be wrestling in the independents. That news confirms his time in AAA is done. Off the top of my head, AAA’s seen Aramis, Black Taurus/Beast Mortos, Arez, Latigo, Toxin, Sexy Star II, and now Parka Negra all leave this year among featured television performers. They’ve certainly added new people along the way, but it’s been a fair bit of turnover.

Other Notes

Rock Power lost his mask in the Castillo del Terror. IWRG didn’t post results and I don’t have time today to put them together for them.

Penta will be appearing at 11/08 The Crash show in a non-wrestling capacity.

A new lucha libre art exhibit opens in Loen on 11/21. This one focuses on local luchadors.

Migala says all the young women wrestling today are making wrestling worse because they’re not trained enough.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/28/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, DeporPuebla, El Sol del Puebla, Grada, Mano a Mano, thecubsfan]
***Dia del Muertos, 2024***
1) Amnesia & Black Tiger b King Jaguar & Sombra Diabólika 
14:22
2) Meyer & Valiente Jr. b Enfermero Jr. & Prayer 
17:47
3) Persephone b India Sioux [lightning] 
6:48
4) Kira, Sanely, Skadi b La Catalina, Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa [Relevos Increíbles] 
12:24. Catalina replaced Unagi (rib injury).
5) Xelhua b Rey Samuray, Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma, Multy, Perverso, Guerrero Maya Jr. [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal] 
16:40. Order of elimination: Rey Samuray (via Pegasso), Pegasso (Multy), Arkalis (Stigma), Perverso (Xelhua), Multy (Guerrero Maya), Stigma (Guerrero Maya), Guerrero Maya (Xelhua) leaving Xelhua as the winner. He advances to the final on Friday.
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Star Jr. DQ Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. 
15:48. Angel de Oro fouled Mistico, and Mistico challenged him to a singles match next week.

I think we’ve wanted the choice to watch Arena Puebla weekly on the Fan Leyenda level, but maybe also the choice not to watch Puebla. This was just another OK show, not a top-effort one. Even the cibernetico was just alright, where Xelhua/Maya should’ve felt like a bigger deal than happened in practice. Taking the Dia del Muertos concept to Puebla for the first time did seem to work, it was a strong turnout, but it was not a particularly strong show.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, thecubsfan]
***Dia del Muertos, 2024***
1) Eléctrico, Robin, Valiente Jr. b Cholo, Grako, Sangre Imperial 
2) Hera & Olympia b Samantha Black & Sumiaka Yanagawa 
12:21
3) Zeuxis © b Reina Isis [CMLL WOMEN] 
13:27. Originally Unagi vs Lluvia for the CMLL JAPAN WOMEN but both were injured. First defense.
4) Difunto b Zandokan Jr., Magnus, Villano III Jr., Crixus, Espanto Jr., El Coyote, Vegas [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal] 
Order of elimination: Espanto (via Zandokan, 10:26), Crixus (Magnus, 13:23), Magnus (15:11), Vegas (Villano, 15:50), Coyote (Difunto, 17:38), Zandokan (Villano, 20:22), Villano (Difunto, 27:22) leaving Difunto as the winner – he advances to the final on Friday.
5) Atlantis Jr., Neón, Templario b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero 
13:03

The cibernetico was much better on this show; I’d rate it Great. I’m not sure why all rudos worked better than all tecnicos, but they also all worked very hard. Difunto and Villano III had the long, dramatic finishing sequence that Maya and Xelhua should’ve had given their issues. Difunto didn’t connect on the ramp running springboard dropkick at the end but made up for it well, and the whole thing is worth watching. The main event was quite good too. Didn’t think the title match was good; Zeuxis isn’t exactly killing it on this title run.

If you are a wrestler and want to work a CMLL Grand Prix, you probably need to have the right people to vouch for you. It would also really help if you were from an exotic country. Samantha Black tried, yet she still was not ready for this level. She wasn’t much better than the indie luchadoras who CMLL banished after one (bad) Arena Coliseo match. The difference was Samantha Black was Costa Rican (and that CMLL didn’t run a match with three Samantha Blacks and one Candela.) CMLL has no shortage of Mexicans or Americans so if you’re an American and want to be in the Grand Prix, go digging in your family tree and find a second country you can represent. If it’s one that hasn’t shown up in CMLL prior, all the better.

Prior to Tuesday’s show, Mack Starke announced a limited edition CMLL branded Leyenda pickleball racket. You have to sign up on Instagram to get the racket, and they don’t exactly say how much it is. The commercial is fun though. There was a press conference in Arena Mexico to sponsor.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL, Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha]
***Dia del Muertos, 2024***
1) Adira, Hatanna, Zorah b Candela, Emperatriz, Magia Azul
2) Lady Shadow & Miss Guerrera b Nexy & Valkiria
3) Futuro, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr. b Lince Del Bajio, Prince Drago, Rayo Metálico
4) Dulce Gardenia, Fantástico, Pelon Encapuchado b Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono
5) Barboza b Furia Roja, Gallero, Arlequín, Maléfico, Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Bestia Negra [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
6) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico b Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

Barboza was the highest ranking guy so it makes sense he won, though other characters would fit better as king of hell. Not a lot of details, not sure if match 3 is setting up a title match at this point.

CMLL (FRI) 11/01/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito
2) Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, Pelon Encapuchado vs Disturbio, Felino Jr., Okumura
3) Kira, La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard vs Reyna Isis, Sanely, Zeuxis
4) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Difunto, Xelhua, Barboza [Rey del Inframundo, final]
5) Esfinge, Místico, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr.

The calendar turns over to November and so the two women’s matches on a show comes to an end. That match 2 is filled with people who haven’t been around Arena Mexico much. Five matches suggests CMLL is going to give that Rey del Inframundo match a lot of time. Difunto seems like the themetacially correct winner. The main event should be good, the opener should be as well.

There’s no Informa list if you’re reading this sentence. It’s safe to guess they’ll have the Rey del Inframundo finalists, Reyna Isis to talk about the Grand Prix, and Ultimo Dragoncito to talk about winning Sunday’s cibernetico. They may reveal the lineup for Sunday’s “everyone gets to wear their masks again” show, though it’s not too hard to work out if you’ve seen the promos.

Pepe S. Caro has an interview with Mascara Dorada.

Box y Lucha 3627 has Reyna Isis on the top of the cover. Reyna Isis wrestles Lady Frost on tomorrow’s ROH show.

Lucha Libre Total announced they’ll have a show with CMLL wrestlers in Aurora, Illinois on 11/23. It’s a some similar names to the MLW show in the same general area a few weeks earlier: Mistico, Atlantis Jr., Mephisto, Averno, Barbaro Cavernario, Villano III Jr., Okumura, Virus, Cancerbero, Persephone, as well as Hijo de Octagon and Super Astro Jr. as non-CMLL wrestlers. One big difference is the ticket price. You can get into the MLW show for as cheap as $10. The cheapest adult ticket for the LLT show is $50 (and $5 more on the day of the show.) MLW is running a significantly bigger building, they theoretically have TV/streaming ways to pay for the show, but that’s a big difference. One advantage of the LLT show is no one has to sit through an entire MLW taping before seeing the CMLL guys (though I’m sure there will be some not great local matches.)

Speaking of, MLW added Ikuro Kwon versus Okumura to the 11/08 MLW taping.

AAA

TNA announced El Hijo del Vikingo’s injury was to his right knee. That’s the same knee he got surgical repaired back in February. TNA said Vikingo would be seeing his doctor in Mexico for further evaluation. There’s been no further ifnromtion.

If Vikingo/Alberto is not going to happen at Guerra de Titanes – and it seems unlike it will – I am not convinced AAA should just run Alberto/Vampiro at Guerra de Titanes. This has been among the worst years of AAA I’ve seen, they should just commit to the bit and run the worst possible title match with Vampiro. It also might be a big deal if properly promoted (like not announced five minutes into the show), with the idea that this is Vampiro’s final chance to become AAA champion. (Vampiro was this week’s Desayunando guest.)

I caught up with the 09/29 Monterrey taping. AAA is silly nonsense, so there were elements of this taping building to the 10/06 Guadalajara show, only AAA aired that show first. There were parts building to matches on the 11/10 Juarez show, though they never came out and officially announced matches. Some notes:

• One of the purposes of the El Ojo group is that they (Dorian, Konnan) want to take AAA out of Mexico and run the promotion in the US instead. The heat is they’re taking AAA away from the Mexican fans. We are told (but never see) that Marisela Pena is standing in the way of that. JBL promised Dorian he’d bring in his rich American friends to buy Marisela out.
  • “AAA runs a bunch of shows in the US” has been their stated plan for years and still is the plan the best anyone knows, but I guess it’s now a heel plan? It would be a better heel plan if AAA worked well.
  • I’m not really sure what wrestling matches this is building to – maybe something for control of the promotion, but there’s no reason for Marisela to put that on the line. Is the resolution that Marisela brings in new (nad maybe real?) investors who promise to keep in AAA in Mexico?
• The two matches I enjoyed on the show were the Vikingo return trios (not extraordinary but fun) and the Solars against the Tigre Universitarios. That one was almost a CMLL match on a AAA show. It was short, but it was clean basic technical wrestling in a satisfying way.
  • Announcers pointed out Solar appeared in 2015 Lucha World Cup but hadn’t been in AAA prior since 1995. These four were there, as well as others – Emperador Azteca, Pierroth – because this was a KAOZ-promoted show, and they’re KAOZ people.
• La Hiedra hit Julissa as hard as she could get away with in their match. Flammer was stiffing Julissa too, and they weren’t taking it easier on Valentina either. It was not exactly Catalina/Zeuxis because Markova/Dalys were involved and not very good, and the match itself was not very good. AAA edited out most of the post match where Hiedra and Julissa kept hitting each other and stopped selling, though they did add in a post match bit where Valentina and Julissa got some revenge on Las Toxicas. The two teams do a good job of projecting that they can’t stand each other, and that seems to be coming from a real place. They’re supposed to wrestle again in Saltillo. Should be fun.
• The only way to enjoy Vipers match is if you get Wheeler Yuta to put a bag over your head long enough to cause some brain damage first. Abismo Negro Jr. cost Psicosis his mask, the Vipers wrestle normally to start the match, and then Psicosis is shocked/upset Abismo and Fiscal aren’t getting along. The match ends with Psicosis teasing kicking Abismo out of the group but not actually doing it. Anyone seeing this in Mexico has already seen Abismo throw fire in Fiscal’s face and seemingly leave the group, except he’s still in the group in Juarez.

I should note that I’m watching the Space show, which is what goes up on YouTube. The Unimas show is edited to a smaller time slot I’ve been curious about exactly how different, so I did some work. Here’s the difference in one recent episode:

Monterrey Week 1	Space	Unimas
Open (including Latin backstage)	05m38s	04m00s
Pena mass/Upcoming events	02m03s	did not air
Guapos vs Exoticos	13m01s	10m10s
JBL harasses bartender	01m10s	did not air
Upcoming events	00m35s	did not air
In ring gab fest	09m07s	05m10s
Pena mass (2nd time)	01m39s	did not air
Women’s match	11m57s	09m36s
Women’s post match	00m38s	did not air
Alberto/Ciber trios	18m46s	11m16s

(When listing times, I’m talking about the entire segment, not just the bell-to-bell.)

Much of the editing comes in shortening entrances, but they are editing matches as well – that’s a big chunk of the main event. They’re also taking out segments. Notably, the two backstage vignettes with KAOZ promoter Alfonso Botello didn’t air in the US, though they still showed his part of the in-ring segment.

The first part of the Heroes Inmortales card was heavily edited:

Heroes Inmortales Part 1	Space	Unimas
Open	02m44s	04m05s
Backstage: Fiscal, Alberto, Konnan	00m59s	00m54s
Fiscal vs Matt Riddle	18m07s	07m56s
Post match/lots of talking in-ring	25m21s	10m53s
Vampiro match, 2nd Promo	26m02s	13m47s
La Parka teaser	00m33s	did not air
Alberto vs Laredo, Post Match	21m08s	did not air
Dorian/JBL promo	did not air	01m42s

They took 10 minutes of the Riddle/Fiscal match, 13 minutes from the Vampiro segment, and nearly 15 minutes from the talking. They still couldn’t fit the entire show in the hour – doing this helped me realize Unimas is probably getting Heroes Inmortales over 3 weeks, as opposed to two in Space. Heroes Inmortales was a live airing on Space, and AAA has terrible time management skills; the matches may not hit their time, but the promos seem to go long every time. The people in charge get to do those long promos and get distracted trying to rile up the live crowd. No one’s in a position to tell them to wrap it up, as those people likely would if someone else was going long. They’re also a company that, for all its TV ambitions, makes a product that’s focused on the live crowd.

At some point, AAA would probably be smoother if they just made one edit of their TV show instead of two, but I don’t see that as possible any time soon. Maybe if AAA got a second hour on Unimas, but they won’t tighten up how they run things on their own. They’re never going to cut down the Space show to fit the 40 minutes Unimas is giving them a week, and it wouldn’t make sense to do so. If you’re into AAA, you should probably be watching the Space version, which is the version that goes up on YouTube.

Psycho Clown will be part of the WXW 16 Cart Gold 2025 tournament next March. That’ll be an interesting booking. Meanwhile, Psycho Clown hasn’t been on an AAA TV episode since TripleMania Mexico City and is not listed on any remaining tapings this year.

Cibernetico confirmed he was joking about his retirement in a continuing series of goofy Facebook posts.

Other News

Volador/Super Parka had what was billed as his final match in Arena Coliseo Monclova on Friday. It’s not 100% clear, but it may have been meant to be his final match ever. He had a retirement earlier in Monterrey and those are two big cities for Volador, but it’s listed just as his final match in that arena. Volador says he’s 68 and not even a shadow of what he was in his prime, but he hopes the fans remember him as a star.

Sexy Dulce (the first Sexy Star) has been wrestling for Juventud Guerrera’s Super X off and on this year. They gave her their women’s championship, because why not, it’s Super X, everything is as weird as you’d expected in a Juventud Guerrera run promotion, and none of this actually matters. (Technically, she’s wrestling as Sexy Xtar in Super X because all of their gimmicks are X themed.) Last Saturday, Super X had a lightly attended show in Arena Neza, where Sexy Dulce was supposed to put the belt up in a four-way title match. Sexy Dulce still really doesn’t like to lose wrestling matches but that was fine, Super X was apparently going to accommodate by running four way match and have Vanilla Vargas beat someone else to win the belt. Sexy Dulce no-showed the event, kept the the belt, and now Super X is asking their fans to tell Sexy Dulce to return to belt to Vanilla Vargas. Dulce was in Mexico City the next day, wrestling on an outdoor show, so she probably could’ve gotten the belt to Guerrera if she wanted. Dulce just refusing to give a belt back is funny. That someone walked off with a belt from a Juventud Guerrera promotion is hilarious – that’s a move he pulled a couple of times in the 00s.

IWRG has their big annual Castillo of Terror show on Thursday.

After Monday’s post, I was told Bengalee’s social media has been run by someone besides Bengalee for some time. This whole retirement/unmasked photo is indeed someone angry with Benaglee and using her social media against her.

Penta is doing an autograph signing on 11/18 at the Talivsion t-shirt store.

Criterio Hidalgo has an interview with Night Bitch.

A couple of reminders

Mexico doesn’t use DST anymore, but you may still use it. Various European countries turned their clocks back this past weekend, and the US and various North American countries will switch this coming weekend. Whenever your clock switches, the start time for streams coming from Mexico will be one hour earlier.

CMLL has indicated they’ll stream all the Dia del Muertos shows for Fan Leyendas this week. Since it’s Mexican wrestling, we don’t know for sure if they’ll do it live, but keep an eye on CMLL’s YouTube for Puebla tonight if you’re intereste.

CMLL

This was a tough weekend for CMLL injuries.

• Willow Nightingale suffered a concussion on Friday
• Both Lluvia (left eye) and Pequeno Magia (unspecified) left matches on Sunday with injuries
• Sayaki Unagi finished her match, but later revealed she also suffered a broken rib on Sunday

Willow missed the rest of the weekend’s shows. Unagi and Lluvia were scheduled for a title match on Tuesday and are both out. The biggest one is the AAA injury, which I’ll get to later.

CMLL (FRI) 10/25/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Estudio Deportes, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, Reforma, Telediario, The Gladiadores, thecubsfan]
1) Dulce Gardenia b Difunto [lightning] 
8:43
2) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja DQ Magnus & Rugido 
12:22. non-title match between two champion tag teams. Straight falls; Magnus was eliminated but came back in to save Rugido in the second.
3) Averno © b Zandokan Jr. [CMLL LH] 
2nd defense. Zandokan toped into the barricade when Averno dodged. Doctor and ref tried to stop the match, Averno brought in Zandokan anyway, Averno covered, Zandokan kicked out. Averno covered a second time and got the pin, though the cameras missed it showing a replay. Averno attacked Zandokan as he was loaded onto the stretcher. F1 driver Kimi Antonelli posed with Averno and Mephsito before the match.
4) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario b Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr. 
14:27
5) Amapola, Dark Silueta, Hera, Kira, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis, Sanely, Skadi, Zeuxis b Alex Windsor, La Catalina, Persephone, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Tessa Blanchard, Viva Van, Willow Nightingale [Grand Prix de Amazonas] 
Order of elimination: Kira (via Sumika, 20:50), Hera (Catalina, 24:31), Black (Amapola, 29:15), Sumika (Silueta, 32:50), Sanely (Windsor, 35:33), Amapola (Unagi, 38:13), Silueta (Tessa, 40:29), Van (Zeuxis, 41:53), Windsor (Lluvia, 42:49), Isis (Unagi, 44:42), Persephone (Zeuxis , 45:50), Sugeith (Catalina, 47:32), Catalina (Lluvia, 48:34), Tessa (Zeuxis, 50:15), Zeuxis (Nightingale, 51:36), Nightingale (Lluiva, 52:30), Lluvia (Red Velvet, 53:29), Red Velvet (Reyna Isis, 58:25), leaving Reyna Isis as the winner. AEW’s Aubrey Edwards debuted as referee for the match.

This Grand Prix is a hard match to rate.  The crowd was into it, especially to start and and when it got down to the final two. It was also a match with some inescapable flaws, like the mistimed guillotine spot in the final two. Reyna Isis can rise to the occasion in big matches, but I don’t think she really did it here. There was still plenty to like in an hour match, but that length was an issue. Those who did stick around were into it, but it was visibly apparent some decided an hour match was not for them and left early. I think there has to be a real consideration of cutting the fields back to 8 a side or cutting down the pre-elimination portions of the match after this year’s effort to get close to a 40-minute match. This Grand Prix will be interesting to fans of these women but I think they had potential for a better match and didn’t execute to the best of their abilities.

The Zandokan concussion spot appears to have been a bit. Avenro’s done this same bit before, most memorably with Titan early in his career. That time build to a moment where Titan survived another missed dive and came back to beat Averno later for the title, and that may be the long term plan with Zandokan.

Match 4 was the best match of the show, in exactly the ways you’d think it’d be great. Match 2 had good work, but a weird layout. Difunto did very well in the opener, but I’m still not sure he’s a rudo.

CMLL’s hype about the crowd on Friday seemed overinflated.  They teased they were close to a sell-out to move some tickets, but it didn’t seem truly close to a sell-out. There were visible upper level sections completely empty, never having been opened. It still seemed like a pretty good turnout, just not what they were pretending it’d be.

It was a busy weekend for F1/CMLL crossovers. CMLL had an F1 driver in the ring, Mistico met with the Mexican F1 driver, and the race day broadcast kicked off with a scene from Arena Coliseo. AAA was running matches at the venue – the same venue that hosted the AutoLucha shows a few years ago – but didn’t get the same attention. Other CMLL wrestlers (and Salvador Lutteroth) attended a 5/10 KM race at the military camp that AAA’s run tapings from lately.

CMLL (SAT) 10/26/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Leono & Retro b Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Crixus, El Coyote, Pólvora b El Audaz, Principe Daniel, Valiente Jr.
3) India Sioux, Samantha Black, Tabata b Hera, La Maligna, Olympia
4) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Explosivo, Fugaz, Star Black
5) Zeuxis b Skadi [lightning]
6) Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Hechicero, Terrible

Sounded like it continued the run of not very good Saturday shows.

CMLL (SUN) 10/27/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas b Mije & Tengu
2) Sayaka Unagi b Dark Silueta [lightning]
3) Shockercito b Último Dragóncito, Pierrothito, Pequeño Olímpico, Fantasy, Mercurio, Angelito, Pequeño Violencia, Kaligua, Full Metal, Pequeño Magía, Pequeño Polvora, Acero, Aéreo, Galaxy, Rostro De Acero [cibernetico]
elimination order: Aereo (via Galaxy), Acero (Full Metal) Fantasy (Pequeno Olimpico), Pequeno Violencia (Kaligua), Rostro de Acero (Mercurio), Full Metal (Pierrothito), Ultimo Dragoncito (Galaxy), Pequeno Magia (injury), Pierrothito, Angelito (Ultimo Dragonicto), Ultimo Dragoncito (Mercurio), Mercurio (Shockercito), leaving Shockercito as the winner.
4) Lluvia, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis b Persephone, Samantha Black, Sumika Yanagawa
Persephone replaced Willow Nightingale (concussion), Lluvia suffered a left eye injury and left early, but her team still won.
5) Místico, Neón, Volador Jr. b Hechicero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.

Neon is back to normal after his dive mishap.

Sanely’s been added to the Arena Puebla show to replace Unagi, though it’s Catalina who takes her place on the team so CMLL can do a Mexico/World trios match.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena México
1) Eléctrico, Robin, Valiente Jr. vs Cholo, Grako, Sangre Imperial
2) Hera & Olympia vs Samantha Black & Sumiaka Yanagawa
3) Sayaki Unagi © vs Lluvia [CMLL JAPAN WOMEN]
3) Zeuxis © vs Reina Isis [CMLL WOMEN]
4) Zandokan Jr. vs Magnus, Villano III Jr., Difunto, Crixus, Espanto Jr., El Coyote, Vegas [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
5) Atlantis Jr., Neón, Templario vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

CMLL officially announced Lluvia and Unagi off the shows on Monday morning, about 18 hours after it happened. It doesn’t take long to get a medical update out to the public, if that’s what you’re interested in doing. CMLL also could’ve replaced that match with any sort of women’s match, and decided to run the current world champion against the person who just won the Grand Prix; definitely a match of equal value or greater.

CMLL (TUE) 10/29/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Adira, Hatanna, Zorah vs Candela, Emperatriz, Magia Azul
2) Nexy & Valkiria vs Lady Shadow & Miss Guerrera
3) Dulce Gardenia, Fantástico, Pelon Encapuchado vs Cris Skin, Optimus, Trono
4) Futuro, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr. vs Lince Del Bajio, Prince Drago, Rayo Metálico
5) Furia Roja vs Gallero, Arlequín, Barboza, Maléfico, Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Bestia Negra [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
6) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

I guess Barboza is winning that cibernetico but I really don’t know. Futuro and Rayo Metalico being on opposite sides of match 4 may be setting up something.

I haven’t watched much CMLL this weekend (only the three hour show), but you can watch more CMLL

AMX 10/13 CMLL

• Arkalis & Stigma vs Disturbio & Pólvora
• India Sioux, Náutica, Skadi vs Amapola, La Maligna, Olympia
• Flip Gordon, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Puebla 10/21 CMLL

• India Sioux vs Samantha Black
• Maligna, Metálica, Olympia, Tabata, Zeuxis vs Alex Windsor, Red Velvet, Sayaka Unagi, Sumika Yanagawa, Viva Van
• Místico, Stigma, Xelhua vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Capitan Suicida and Tiger Mask are 0-3 so far in the Supr Junior Tag League so far. They’ve got two more chances to pick up a win.

Fantastica Mania

NJPW announced the roster and schedule for Fantastica Mania 2025

Wrestlers appearing:

• Mistico
• Volador Jr.
• Atlantis Jr.
• Titan
• Mascara Dorada
• Templario
• Stigma
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Hechicero
• Soberano Jr.
• Averno
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Okumura
• Magnus
• Zandokan Jr.
• Neon
• Max Star
• Xelhua
• Rugido
• Raider

Shows

• 02/19 Osaka
• 02/20 Kagawa
• 02/21 Osaka
• 02/22 Nagoya
• 02/23 off
• 02/24 Kyoto
• 02/25 off
• 02/26 Chiba
• 02/27 Korakuen Hall
• 02/28 Korakuen Hall

Eight shows in ten days are going to keep these guys busy. Twenty people are booked, so they’ve got to run a lot to make it work.

The five debuts are all on the younger side of the roster; no Pegasso or Felino Jr. is getting a gold watch tour this time. Xelhua’s started getting some attention out of the CMLL bubble, but Raider’s inclusion strikes me as someone watching the full CMLL shows closely to figure it’s good. Fantastica Mania historically hasn’t done much with the debuting wrestlers; they’re often there just to fill out tag matches. I would caution you not to expect Xelhua to be wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. on these shows. Still, there’s no obvious family tournament this year so maybe they’ll run something else that includes them. (I could guess at a trios tournament: Dorada/Neon/Max, Depradores, Titan/Zandokan/Yota, and then pick three rudos.)

The top half of the card is a lot of familiar faces, which means probably a lot of familiar matches. These shows were originally exciting for CMLL fans because they provided a lot of matches that CMLL itself wasn’t booking. CMLL’s gotten better about that, which means more repeats here. It also doesn’t matter as much to the live fans, who won’t care if NJPW runs Mistico/Averno again in Koruraken after it happened in Mexico already – it’s their chance to see it live.

No luchadoras were announced for this tour, as normal. La Jarochita and Lluvia did end up working a match last year because the separate schedule they were working (for whomever books the CMLL women in Japan) happened to overlap FantasticaMania. If any CMLL women end up going to Japan again during FantasticaMania, they’ll probably be added to a show later on.

Averno versus Mistico is a lock for the final day. That was the final CMLL match on the first version of this tour and the final match Mistico had before surprising CMLL by leaving for WWE. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself. Averno/Mistico doesn’t feel like the tour ending match in 2024. Maybe it’s Volador/Dorada?

CMLL will likely run another Torneo de Escuelas back in Mexico during this tour to fill some of the empty space.

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo left Sunday’s TNA match with an apparent leg injury. The severity has not been reported at the moment. Laredo Kid posted an Instagram reel of the injury and Vikingo being taken to the hospital; his comments suggest Vikingo will be out for a bit. Vikingo did a twisting moonsault to the floor; one of his legs got caught underneath him at a bad angle, and he could not go on. Vikingo himself seemed to be at peace in his Instagram stories.

Hijo del Vikingo is scheduled to headline AAA’s Guerra de Titanes in a title challenge against Alberto. AAA fills that Juarez building every year, usually with weaker main events, so it would be little harm for them to announce Vikingo off this show (if he can’t go.) AAA’s practice is they’ll say zero words about this situation until the show starts and then reveal the main event won’t happen. Maybe they’ll even do it in a way to get heat on the evil ownership. AAA is using Octagon Jr. as the Vikingo understudy so he’d be the logical replacement, but he’s already facing Mesias on the show. Maybe AAA would move up Pagano instead. AAA’s also teased Vampiro challenging for the title a couple of times this year and could just do it, even though the match would likely be awful.

Prior to the injury, Mike Bailey defeated Hijo del Vikingo to keep the X-Division title. My theory for picking Vikingo to win is Bailey is impending free agent who seems likely to go elsewhere and that Vikingo ought to be winning in TNA if AAA’s going to make a big deal out of him going there instead of AEW. What happened is it is TNA and that’s where luchadors go to lose, though Vikingo had a chance to have a better match than Laredo usually does.

(random fact that I don’t think people realize: since Unimas is in so many more homes than AXS TV, AAA probably has more viewers than TNA in the US every week. No one talks about AAA, though.)

I’ll catch up on AAA TV later this week, but there are two common themes to AAA. One is that they’re doing a bunch of skits where the El Ojo group is trying to recruit various people to join their team. They keep asking the good guys, it turns out the good guys don’t want to join the evil faciton, and the evil faction is surprised by this turn of events every time. Riveting stuff. The other bit is AAA trying to put out vignettes on social media to create a buss – like a clip of Konnan and Alberto trashing Latin Lover for continually asking podcast guests to join his team and mocking Fresero Jr. for being a nothing in their eyes. If you want to get social media attention, Fresero Jr. will get his fans to give it to you, but I don’t know if there’s a plan beyond that. There is about a weekly JBL clips saying racist things, seemingly to get people angry enough to respond them. The reaction I see more often is WWE fans of JBL just being happy he’s around without really knowing or caring much about what’s going on. The goal in all of this is attention, not matches, but it’s not really clear to what end attention is going to go – AAA seems to be at least five months away from the next thing they can sell to people who get mad at them on internet.

The funny bit is aggregators have jumped up on the latest promo where JBL talked taking AAA global as part of his heel promo. Back here in the real world, AAA stopped promoting the Spain tour the day after the story came out that the shows would likely be canceled. AAA hasn’t said the shows are canceled, they’re just doing their usual bit of avoiding bad news by pretending it never happened. Ticketmaster Spain still has the tickets on sale at this point.

UK’s Progress Wrestling announced Hijo del Vikingo versus Cara Noir for 11/24. That obviously depends on his health status, and AAA may not want them to say anything until they get around to it. I haven’t seen Cara Noir since pre-pandemic, but it strikes me as a strange match.

Parka Negra announced he would no longer be using that gimmick. His statement is intentionally unclear on any other aspects of that decision; there’s no indication of the reasons why he’s leaving the gimmick or if this means he’s leaving AAA. Parka Negra originally wrestled as Angel Mortal Jr. and came into AAA in the same talent search that brought them Hijo del Vikingo – Vikingo’s called him the best base he’s worked with. Parka Negra seems talented as a rudo and a comedy figure – he’s someone AAA could’ve moved up to Taurus’ old spot, rather than just dropping a Taurus mask on a less experienced wrestler and hoping it would’ve worked out. Instead, AAA’s gone the other way, and Parka Negra has appeared on AAA TV just once in the last year despite a depleted roster. The default here is chalking up the Parka Negra disappearance act to AAA not evaluating their talent optimally, but this Parka Negra situation has been so weird that I’m willing to allow for the chance there’s more to his story that just hasn’t gotten out.

My first guess upon hearing this story was AAA was revamping all the Parka stuff at once. They’re going to introduce a new La Parka, perhaps they want a new (fifth!) La Parka Negra to go with him, and the old guy is getting the boot. Thinking about it more, the best person on the AAA roster to be the new La Parka is actually probably the old evil La Parka. He knows the gimmick, he does some of the bits, he’s a good wrestler. It’s just hard to know what AAA’s thinking here – where they keeping him off TV because they had some problem with him, or where they keeping him off TV so people would forget about the character when they brought him back under a new gimmick? I guess we’ll know if Angel Mortal Jr. shows up in IWRG again soon.

Cibernetico announced on Facebook that he’s retiring from lucha libre immediately. Cibernetico posts a lot of stuff on social media to amuse himself, and there’s been an increase in luchadors posting things on their social media to trick (?) news sites into posting false stories. This may be a joke about Bengalee’s “retirement,” but I don’t think that post should be taken seriously.

During the Monterrey taping, Dorian Roldan sarcastically referred to KAOZ promoter Alonso Botello as “Mr. McMahon de Monterrey.” Because Mexico and AAA is behind the times, this was supposed to be a joke about how Botello’s this big shot successfully wrestling promoter in Monterrey when he actually promotes two or three shows a year (and must not be that successful if he’s doing it that rarely.) In the reality of the United States in 2024, Roldan referring to Botello as a Mr. McMahon de Monterrey implies he’s a promoter who uses his position of power to take advantage of his underlings, especially women. And that’s where we’ll leave this paragraph.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 10/27/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Águila Oriental b Fauno
Aguila Roja seemed to form a team with Aguila Oriental post match.
2) Demonia, Príncipe Centauro, Rey Halcón b Multifacetico Jr., Shamila, Tornado
3) Luka vs Abigor
4) Diva Salvaje, Mamba, Spider Fly b Arez, Látigo, Toxin
5) Hell Boy, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Máscara Sagrada b Águila Roja, Hijo del Fishman, Vengador
6) Vangellys © b Jessy Ventura [IWRG Rey del Ring]
Vengador helped Vangellys

IWRG is running a telenovela-ish story with Tornado and Multifacetico trying to win Shamila’s heart. This week’s chapter featured poisoned ice cream.

AEW 

I drove three plus hours to Cedar Rapids on Saturday to watch AEW Collision. Seemed like the thing to do. There’s stuff I’d normally have in this post that I won’t get to until later this week because I spent a lot of time driving through the farmlands of Iowa, so I might as well make up for it by posting some thoughts on that show. It’s a better idea than putting it on Twitter.

• a common refrain of the pontificating class is “AEW needs to run smaller buildings (until they get hotter)”, so that their crowd don’t feel swallowed up by the big buildings. This Cedar Rapids building was in fact a smaller building, and those takes were partially proven right. This was one of the least attended AEW shows (outside of COVID times) but it didn’t feel as empty or depressing as the better-attended show in Dynamite in Champaign I also went to.  The sound bounced around better in the smaller building, and this was a group of fans who were excited to be at the show. The fans were into Johnny TV ROH squash matches before the show even started, that’s what we’re dealing with. Many people left before the ROH tapings concluded, but those who were left had enough enthusiasm to chant for Komander and chant for Abadon/Athena to fight forever. (They did not fight forever, thankfully.)
  • A regular bit at these AEW shows is Tony Khan polling the crowd about how many are returning fans and how many are new fans. The new fans have been a smaller and smaller percentage on the shows I’ve gone to in Illinois and Wisconsin, but it was close to 50/50 in this show. AEW has run Iowa before, but it did seem like there were a lot of people who hadn’t gotten out to one previously.
• The turnout still wasn’t good. The promotion is cold, this wasn’t a strong lineup, and it was happening around the same time as the biggest sporting team in the state, the University of Iowa, was playing a home football game about 30 minutes away. Perhaps AEW should consult college football schedules when planning their fall tour. (If only to help booking hotels.)
  • They should also plan the event posters better. The Cedar Rapids show had 9 people pictured: Willow, Darby, Jericho, Mark Briscoe, Hologram, Orange Cassidy, Daniel Garcia, Thunder Rosa and Kris Statlander. None of those people appeared before the crowd. Thunder Rosa appeared in a pre-tape, which may have been taped that day or may have been taped two weeks ago for all I could tell. I think most people have long figured out the images on those posters are just random people thrown on by a social media person (plus anyone who has ties to the area) and don’t reflect at all who’s going to be on the show, but 0 of 9 in the ring is pretty terrible and shouldn’t be considered acceptable. Either take the photos off the posters or make sure those people are on those shows.
• AEW’s recently found religion about promoting matches for upcoming shows and running video packages to build those matches. Those are good things. This Collision seemed to be a leftover from the before times, with no much built beyond the main event. We spent a fair bit of this episode watching videos for matches that were happening some other time. There were a lot of little things that made it clear we were attending the secondary show. This was a show that really could’ve used a special off camera appearance by top level AEW stars after the live show ended. As much as I enjoyed Athena/Abadon and Komander/Ari Davari, that wasn’t really it.
• Dralistico can do a cool crucifix bomb. I can also show you about four dozen other Mexican wrestlers who can do that spot. He is not great at the other parts of US TV wrestling (like remembering which side of the corner to stand in so your back isn’t facing the hard cam), but he’s Rush’s brother so he’ll be around for a while longer.
• I didn’t like the idea of The Beast Mortos joining LFI because it inherently makes him the second or third most important guy in a group and I think he’s got more potential than that. Sure enough, he was just used as a heater on this show. The other, less safe for Twitter, reason I didn’t like the idea of The Beast Mortos is AEW is unlikely to push LFI besides the middle “beats up on the scrubs, loses to the people who are actually on PPV” level. I am generally leery of groups on US wrestling TV that are all latino or latino-centric, because the history of major US wrestling promotions has to keep them in that exact middle spot no matter the potential. You can see in WWE, where the LWO and Legado factions had a moment and now are stuck being in the middle or lower middle. Those who’ve had the most success in WWE are Dominic Mysterio and Damian Priest, who still have their Latino heritage in the work they do but got in a group where that’s not the sole identity. (And also are tall and/or get a big reaction.) We can come up with our theories as to why this happens, but it’s inescapable that it does happen. The program with FTR & the Outrunners against LFI looks to be ongoing, but it’s hard to believe the LFI is coming out the winners; they’ll be where they are. It may be a waste of Rush, but Rush seems to believe he’ll make it work, and it’s hard to convince Rush of anything else. It’s definitely a waste of Mortos to be on a team that may not make many PPVs.
  • But also, it may be a non-issue since AEW is hammering that Mortos may is not fully committed to LFI – it’s taking them a while to get to wherever they’re going, but they seem to have a destination in mind.
  • What is the high water mark for Mortos in AEW? I feel like he can get close to the Lucha Brothers level – off-month singles title challenger, occasional tag/trios champion, and designated “good match opponent” two weeks before a PPV maybe.
  • The whole Rush beats up Preston Vance to show he’s left LFI makes no sense now, it’s a fairly obvious clue plans were changed along the way. But, more importantly, seeing Preston Vance work ROH matches made me wanted desperately to see him confront Rush during Collision to ask “what the hell, dude?” If they’re running an LFI vs Outrunners/FTR 4v4 match they seemed to be building, LFI needs a fourth guy, and so maybe he’ll be patched back in eventually.
• The Grand Prix win over Red Velvet and the ROH appearances suggest Reyna Isis might be getting a TV title shot soon. I’m not entirely sure that’s the case. Diamante, after a squash win on Saturday, made belt motions and I don’t see her facing Athena.
• There were two other ROH matches building title programs. I thought at least one of them made sense for Final Battle and then I realized – it’s late October and nothing has been said about Final Battle. It’s been a mid December show of late, to space it out from the AEW PPVs, so that’s six weeks away. There’d normally be an announcement of a date and a location by now. It’s kind of strange that there’s nothing, but the interest in the day-to-day of Ring of Honor in 2024 is sadly so small that this doesn’t appear to be a story. Most people who watch Final Battle aren’t going to think about it existing until the week prior to the show anyway, because it’s so off the radar even to AEW fans. I think there is a Final Battle, and I think I could work out about half the matches on the card based on what I saw in Cedar Rapids – it had the feel of one of those tapings where it clicked that a PPV was coming soon and they had to start building to it – but I also think interest is so low that it wouldn’t hurt almost anyone’s feelings if I just spoiled the results on Twitter.
  • I have an affinity towards Ring of Honor and the people who work on it, but the status quo isn’t great. This year’s Final Battle ought to be the end of this iteration of Ring of Honor; either there’s a TV deal and a show formatted with more purpose, or the idea goes on the shelf until they’re in position to do this better than post-Collision matches with half the crowd gone. But, I could’ve said the same thing last time Jericho was ROH champion, nothing much changed then. People seem to expect some news is happening because Jericho is champion again, but it could just be Jericho needed something to do and they’ll have the ROH year end with him losing the title again, nothing more than that.
  • I mean, I’ll still sure buy Final Battle and the show will be good but it feels like Ring of Honor is something that should meaningful exist more than three PPVs a year and it simply does not mean much between them.
• If you do watch ROH, you’ll probably like Abadon/Athena this weekend. Also, if you do watch, you should put a list of like five good ROH matches to watch since the last PPV whenever one happens, because that’s time some people are going to pay up to watch. Others will be grateful. Abadon/Athena might make that list.
• I’m glad I went. I wish I left a little earlier so I could’ve seen more of Cedar Rapids. I spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday driving through the corn fields and backroads of Iowa. I was struck by the thought that presidential candidates travel around these same backroads every four years to build support among a lot of small communities because that’s how our political system works and how utterly bizarre that is in practice.

In other (sorta) AEW news, the first show Arena del Valle – Penta’s news building – took place Sunday. LA Park won the trios main event, then challenged Penta to a super libre match. Penta’s worked a little bit in the last few months, though it seemed like finishing agreed-on bookings rather than taking on new work. Penta used to work a lot, but any match he has now feels like news. Anyway, Penta was there at the start of the show but didn’t come out to face LA Park at the end, and it was probably LA Park shooting an angle to try to get another booking, not something that was planned.

Arena del Valle said this show sold out. Whoever’s actually in charge of the shows (I suspect it’s not actually Penta) is ahead of most Mexican wrestling promoters; they had the next lineup out as soon as this show ended. Not sure I would call Komander versus Blue Wind an All Star match though.

Other News

Bengalee posted (and then either deleted or hid) a post with her unmasked face and real name. The post claims she’s retiring because she was intimate with Willy Banderas despite being married to someone else. It’s meant to be sort of an apology, but it certainly can be read as though someone else has control of her social media and is using it to defame her. It’s very messy either way. You can find the picture; given that context, I’m not going to link to it.

Segunda Caida watches some Gigante Silva in CMLL.