Noche de Campeones, Women’s Gran Prix teams, Soberano talks his contract, AAA in Monterrey, LB

CMLL

The official card order is how I had it on Tuesday. If I was this accurate about polling in general, I could really make something of myself, maybe change my name to Nate.

CMLL (FRI) 09/27/2024 Arena México
1) Máscara Dorada, Neón, Star Jr. © vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto [CMLL TRIOS]
1st defense. Los Infernales won the title shot over Los Guerreros Laguneros and Atlantis, Blue Panther and Octagon
2) Último Dragóncito © vs Pierrothito [CMLL MINI]
2nd defense. Pierrothito won shot over Angelito & Mercurio.
3) Magnus & Rugido vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. [MEX TAG]
6th defense. Villanos won shot over Dark Panther/Hijo de Blue Panther and Zandokan/Difunto
4) Reyna Isis © vs Sanely [MEX WOMEN]
6th defense. Sanely won the vote over Hera & Princesa Sugehit.
5) Templario © vs Volador Jr. [CMLL MIDDLE]
2nd defense. Volador Jr. won the vote ahead of Dragon Rojo & Flip Gordon.
6) Atlantis Jr. © vs Soberano Jr. [NWA LH]
2nd defense. Soberano Jr. won over Akuma & Barbaro Cavernario
7) Futuro © vs Rayo Metálico [MEX LIGHT]
2nd defense. Rayo Metalico won the shot over Calavera Jr. I and Electrico

This is year 5 of this concept. In past years:

• 2023: 1 title change (1 vacant title)
• 2022: 1 title change
• 2021: 1 title change (2 vacant titles)
• 2020: 1 title change

Where’s the title change on this one? The minis title could change forever and it doesn’t seem to matter. There will be a lot of fan support for the tag titles. My guess is Soberano is the new Light Heavyweight champion. Atlantis Jr. is the Ring of Honor TV champion so he’s covered now. Soberano Jr. is the most important rudo in the promotion, he’ll have plenty of people to defend against if he wins, and that’s a place to switch things up. Both that match and Volador/Templario should be great, and so might be the opener if it isn’t worked like an opener. Futuro/Metalico will be fascinating.

Barbaro Cavernario being included as a candidate is weird because he’s probably in the UK as this show is happening. His weekend schedule is the British J Cup on Saturday and a second RevPro show on Sunday. Cavernario faces Lio Rush in the first round, which could finish either way. (Though I’m picturing Lio going for that backwards springboard stunner but instead falling into la cavernaria instead.) He wrestles Zozaya on Sunday.

Julio Cesar Rivera mentioned a new tradition for the Women’s Universal championship on Informa: last year’s winner will face an international opponent the following October. That means La Catalina, the 2023 winner, will face an opponent to be announced at a date to be announced. Catalina said she was excited (for whatever this is.)

There’s certainly a chance that the opponent to be announced is Mercedes Moné. I don’t know it as a fact and am not reporting that, but she seems interested in wrestling in Arena Mexico. I believe CMLL would’ve likely gotten a Mone/Vaquer match sometime in October, and I’m less certain if that’ll still happen with Vaquer moving on elsewhere. Can’t be sure of any of it. I do feel a bit more certain that, whoever and whatever the announcement is, there’s a pretty good chance of coming tonight if it’s a woman with AEW. There are four Fridays in October and it’s an easy logic puzzle.

• 10/04: ???
• 10/11: any star from AEW would have to make a very long trip to Tacoma to make their PPV
• 10/18: CMLL has the Universal tournament final booked as the likely main event
• 10/25: CMLL has the Grand Prix final booked as the main event

If it is 10/04, CMLL will probably put out a video tonight to explain it.

CMLL announced the complete teams for the 10/25 Grand Prix:

Team Mexico

• Lluvia
• Sanely
• Zeuxis
• Hera
• Reyna Isis
• Amapola
• Dark Silueta
• Princesa Sugehit
• Kira
• Skadi

Team World

• Tessa Blanchard
• La Catalina
• Unagi Sayaki
• Red Velvet
• Samantha Black
• Sumika Yanagawa
• Willow Nightingale
• Viva Van
• Alex Windsor
• Persephone

Many outside Team World members will be on shows before and after the 10/25 Grand Prix, but CMLL hasn’t said exactly who will be in and when.

I’m surprised Olympia isn’t on Team Mexico. She’s been the most improved women’s wrestler over the last year; I would’ve picked her over her sister Hera. (It’s a strange enough decision that I wonder if CMLL’s sending her somewhere or she has a bodybuilding commitment.) Samantha Black is the least-known woman included; she’s from the Costa Rica Embassy, but it makes some sense given how often CMLLs sent wrestlers to that promotion. Many people saw Alex Windsor’s name pop up and assumed it related to her partner, Will Ospreay, coming in. I suspect he’ll be by Arena Mexico eventually, regardless, but I believe Windsor is on the list because CMLL wanted a good wrestler with a UK (or England) flag, and she’s a good wrestler. I’ve been thinking about how Ultimo Guerrero is surely working that MLW show in Cicero because Lluvia is booked, so I’m not faulting people for thinking along those lines, but CMLL’s goal with this tournament is to get as many flags as possible represented and work with as many of their partners as they can. Viva Van being a Vietnamese rep and Red Velvet representing Colombia is the stuff that’s really important to CMLL. Velvet came across very well in her interview on Informa. CMLL also likes to have different people involved every year for the novelty of it, even if the previous people get over, but Velvet immediately clicked as someone who they’d be interested in bringing back if she does well.

Tessa Blanchard won last year’s Women’s Grand Prix over Stephanie Vaquer, the first time the match came down to two people on the same team. Claudio Castagnoli won it for Team World in the Men’s Grand Prix. I can’t see Mexico losing three straight of these or two in one calendar year. I also don’t see an obvious winner on the Mexico side. Zeuxis is probably ruled out as champion. Maybe Dark Silueta, maybe Lluvia, perhaps Kira or Skadi if they want to go crazy. I don’t feel strongly about any answer, but it has to be a Team Mexico celebrating with the trophy at the end.

CMLL also aired a new video trailer for Dia del Muertos. The dates aren’t new, but it’s been a month or so CMLL first mentioned them

• 10/28 Arena Puebla
• 10/29 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
• 10/29 Arena Mexico
• 11/01 Arena Mexico
• 11/02 Arena Coliseo
• 11/03 Arena Mexico

Is it really Dia del Muertos if it lasts a whole Semana? Anyway, the actual news here is the trailer states all these shows will air for Fan Leyendas. The 10/28 Puebla and 11/03 Arena Mexico shows are the ones that normally don’t stream. Not sure if this means Guadalajara will return to airing live; I wouldn’t bet on it.

The final CMLL Informa announcement was first on the show: La Vaquerita is retiring. She will wrestle a final match on the 11/03 Dia del Muertos show – the card featuring wrestlers who’ve lost their mask swearing them again for one night – but she’s otherwise done. (Maybe she’ll put her boots in the chest.) The timing of this announcement is because she’s making the same switch Metalico (Tigre Infante) and Olimpico have made in the last few years and becoming a referee, and she’ll start that as part of CMLL’s women’s wrestling month in October. CMLL had Princesa Sugehit and Sanely work as one-night referees on International Women’s Day earlier this year but has not had a full-time female referee in Arena Mexico since Estela Molina from 1994-1996. Molina would only referee women’s matches in a period where CMLL would typically have TV time for only three matches a week; the women’s matches would never make that cut. CMLL has had semi-retired luchadora Super Estrella referee matches in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in recent years, but also only women’s matches. MicroAngel worked as a referee too, but just for the Micro matches. I presume that’ll be the same situation with La Vaquerita; CMLL didn’t outright say it, but they may have thought it obvious.

La Vaquerita had been in CMLL since 2013, as a ruda for the first few months before switching to the tecnica side. She was around working smaller promotions for a while before that, and says she’s retiring due to accumulated injuries. La Vaquerita was never pushed much and never was in a title match. Her “biggest” days were losing her mask to Zeuxis in a multi-woman cage match and losing her hair to Reyna Isis. She was passable as a depth member of the roster at one point, and that was fine enough when CMLL’s goal with the women’s division was passable matches. That goal seems to have changed (slightly), Vaquerita was booked less often this year, and getting the referee job is a blessing if she wants to stay around CMLL. I will probably not remember many of Vaquerita’s matches. I will remember her wearing pride flag colors on her gear in the last couple of years. CMLL does not acknowledge any of their wrestlers being part of the LGBT+ community or celebrate that identity in the way that do others. CMLL knew what Vaquerita was doing with those colors and didn’t tell her to stop it, which is a point in their favor. It still took a lot of bravery on her part to wear those colors.

(CMLL Informa was back to pretending the show was live…and then someone hit the wrong button and reset the show to the beginning about 10 minutes in. It’s OK if it’s just a taped show, that’s fine. But I’m biased – captions work better if it’s a premiere and that helps me a bit.)

I told myself I didn’t have time to listen to Part 2 of Soberano Jr.’s podcast on Thursday. I had other things to do, so I’d wait until Friday or over the weekend to really dig into it. I hit play at 12:03 AM Friday, so I technically didn’t lie to myself. I lied to my soul but that happens a lot. I’m very tired today, like I stayed up too late and didn’t get enough sleep. Like part 1, there’s a lot in there and we’d be here all day if I tried to write about it all. Soberano Jr. answers all questions while taking long and detailed routes to those answers. Soberano Jr. treats all matches as if they’re a shoot but is incredibly forthcoming on everything else.

• Soberano Jr. says CMLL offered him a three-year deal last year. He says he wanted a five-year deal, CMLL said no, and he ended up signing the three year one. And then “certain issues have arisen.” Soberano Jr. admits that he’s very outgoing with his emotions – if he’s happy, people see him happy, if he’s angry, people see him angry – and that has gotten him into trouble. He still feels very happy to be in CMLL, to represent those letters. He notes that there are people who say he should go to WWE, but those guys are actors to him, and the only place to be a true luchador is CMLL.
  • I wonder if that three year contract is the answer to that “NJPW contract” Soberano says he signed, like there’s some connection there.
• Soberano Jr. hints around at that trouble a bit. There’s an admission that something happening (breaking the trophies) at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas was the end of Los Principes and also perhaps why Rocky Romero hasn’t been around as much. (Soberano seems to prefer to wrestle Templario than team with him though.) He also sideways addresses his issues with Ultimo Guerrero, calling him a rival but noting he still respects him as a wrestler and a hard hitter. That’s part of Soberano Jr. bringing up, entirely on own his own, his other big issue of the last few years: going on Twitter and ripping Ultimo Guerrero as having too much influence in the promotion.  Soberano Jr. acknowledged that got him in a lot of trouble with CMLL, and that it was an unprofessional act. All of this stuff requires listeners to know a bit what’s going on, Soberano doesn’t explain it full and they’re not topics Alexis Salazar is looking to bring up, but it’s remarkable to see addressed at all.
  • The Ultimo Guerrero/Soberano beef may go all the way back to Magia Blanca and Bandido coming in. Remember, Soberano truly respects the CMLL veterans who’ve been there forever and the youngsters he’s seen work for a spot in training classes for years. Soberano viewed Bandido & Magia Blanca as being given really good spots without having done that work, because they were training at Ultimo Guerrero’s (outside) school and they were his boys from Torreon. Soberano also felt like those guys were the golden boys and he’d be blamed if anything went wrong while working with them.
  • Those old Torreon issues never fade away. Soberano Jr. said that his first Gran Alternativa as a padrino was with Halcon Suriano Jr., the guy he got into a legit fight with they were both kids. They were professional with each other but Soberano still clearly didn’t like him much. It’s a 180 degree difference when he talks about teaming with Vaquero Jr. the following year, how much fun it was and how he really wanted to do well to help the young guy (who is actually older than him) succeed.
• Two more stories and then you’ll have to listen to it to find out how Soberano Jr. got good at merch and see if you can decipher which ex-CMLL act he took a shot at
  • Soberano Jr. broke up with his then-girlfriend on the day of Copa Dinastia 2022. (Soberano Jr. says he no longer thinks about meeting someone and falling in love, he’ll be happy if it happens, but he’s really in love with his mask and being Soberano Jr.) Soberano was living with that girlfriend; she was keeping the place, and he rolled up to Arena Mexico with every piece of clothing he owned in the back of his car. Euforia realized something was up, Soberano wouldn’t tell him (because he didn’t want to move back home), and then finally broke down and did so about five minutes before the match. Euforia gave him a pep speech, told him had to separate Soberano Jr. from the guy underneath the mask, and they went out there and won. Soberano Jr. slept that night in a hotel with nothing in his bed except the trophy he had just won.
  • Soberano Jr. dealt with sciatica nerve issues through 2023, though it went away near the end of the year. He wrestled on Christmas Day, went out to dinner with his mother and sister, went to bed, and woke up in extra pain. His left leg was dead, he felt like his back was messed up to where he was a hunchback, everything felt out of place. Soberano called the office, kept canceling bookings and kept trying to get treatment done, but nothing was working. CMLL insisted Soberano come in for the 01/12 show – they’d already postponed Soberano’s match with Templario once. Soberano gives in and does it, and everyone there can see he’s messed up. Alexis says they saw him and thought there was no way he was going to wrestle. Soberano felt terrible, was scared he wouldn’t even make it down the stairs, but started putting on his gear and his oil as the semi-main went on. Something – Alexis and Soberano think “the power of the mask,” and I think “adrenaline” – happened, and Soberano suddenly felt everything move back into place, and he felt back to normal, and everything was fine.
    • This is not a story that reflects CMLL positively. Soberano did note earlier positive changes in CMLL around the time of his 2022 knee injury, saying the “current administration” greatly improved the health care for the wrestlers. He think the “previous administration” cared too, but it’s much more professional now, talking about how he can rehab seven days a week if they want.

MLW adds Hechciero and NAME TO FILL IN ON FRIDAY (Okumura) to their 11/09 show. It remains funny that the person who writes these descriptions for their website doesn’t follow CMLL, as they put together the only introduction to Hechicero that is going to mention him beating Rey Bucanero in 2016 while not mentioning Hechicero’s highly acclaimed mask match a couple of weeks ago. Or it’s on me for not updating the luchawiki.

It’s buried late in this interview but Zeuxis still hates that La Catalina won the Universal tournament last year. She doesn’t think Catalina was worthy; she thinks CMLL should’ve picked her. La Catalina was told about the comments and called it envy and disrespect.

Titan says he felt his career was going nowhere and he was close to giving up, then he started to go to church, and he started to climb the ranks of CMLL. He remains a big fan of God.

AAA

AAA is pushing tonight’s spot show in Tijuana harder than most tapings, with social media video promos from many wrestlers. I still don’t understand what’s happened there to cause the latest split, but AAA clearly wants it to succeed where the other recent Tijuana shows have struggled to draw.

AAA also has a TV taping on Sunday.

AAA TV (SUN) 09/29/2024 Gimnasio Nuevo León Unido, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
1) Tiger Universitario Jr. & Tigre Universitario vs Hijo del Solar & Solar I
2) Alan Stone, Bello Stone, Zumbido vs Dulce Kanela, Jessy Queen, Pimpinela Escarlata
3) Dinámico vs Charro Negro, Redimido, Tosscano
4) Dalys & La Hiedra vs Masha Slamovich & Natalia Markova and Julissa & Valentina
5) Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown vs Abismo Negro, El Fiscal, Psicosis
6) Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Octagón Jr. vs Belcegor, Emperador Azteca, Taurus
7) Cibernético, Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz vs ?, El Mesías, Pierroth Jr.

Because AAA is a bonkers company, this probably will not air for three weeks until after the next taping. It’s a cross-promotion show with local promoter KAOZ, contributing to the strange lineup. This is the same night as a CMLL show in Arena Monterrey – one CMLL has been promoting slightly more often in recent days. CMLL and AAA could draw the same, and CMLL’s crowd would look much worse because they’re running the giant arena. I doubt CMLL will draw as much; AAA’s show matters in a way that CMLL one does not.

There’s no obvious follow-up to the big eye angle without Alberto around, but Latin Lover and Konnan are listed on the poster, so they’ll do something. The draw of the main event is to find out who Mesias has recruited as a new partner. The semi-main is about Vikingo returning and teaming up with his old partners. Abismo Negro Jr. broke up with his partners back in Mexico City but they’re still trios champions; AAA may just do the title change here as a surprise to get out of that issue. I do not expect a lot from the women’s three-way tag or most of the early matches on the card.

TNA had TV tapings scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Those are now Sunday and Monday due to severe weather. That’s an issue for Laredo Kid, since he’s previously mentioned he was supposed to work both those and this TV taping. I think we all understand that Laredo Kid will likely be used in an enhancement role on those TNA tapings, if he’s used at all. He’d be in one of the featured matches on the AAA taping; they also might run an angle to explain why he’s challenging for AAA’s top title on the next show. I’m not sure which taping he’ll be on.

I watched Jonathan Gresham versus Laredo Kid on Impact Thursday; I hit the cancel button on my TNA+ subscription, but there were still a few days left – like maybe a week or so. The match was good! It was really a showcase for Gresham’s mat skills and style of wrestling. Laredo Kid got a little shine and had the San Antonio crowd behind him, which made it fun enough. He never had a chance of winning and it was about seven minutes; that’s more or less what I was hoping to get out of Laredo Kid/KUSHIDA match from a few weeks back. I did eventually get what I wanted out of the subscription price. It will still be a very long time before I give TNA any more money but I no longer wish for their doom. Seriously, I wanted to note they did make it right for one angry blogger (though I doubt they were doing it for that angry blogger.)

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 09/26/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Celta, Indra, Samodeo b Astralis, Cosmic, Sinapsis
2) Ángel Kid, Samoa Kid, Titanium b Fobia, Pitbull, Shura King
3) Maggie Girl & Miss Fantasy b Dannesa & Shamila
Hijo del Diablo helped his partner Maggie Girl win. Shamila left injured.
4) Águila Oriental, Black Dragón Ng, Hijo De Black Dragón vs Ángel Negro, Rayo De Plata Jr., Rey Anubis
no finish listed.
5) Fauno, Histeryosis, Príncipe Centauro, Rey Aztaroth, Sky Man, Súper Boy, Tornado, Vudu Max b As Negro, Black Extreme, Bogar, Demencia Jr., Escudero Jr., Extreme Fly, Geruz, King Pegasso [Torneo Fill 116]
FILL versus San Luis Potosi. Mamba helped Team FILL win.

The IWRG results are down to mentioning one person who won in the match. They didn’t even do that with the fourth match. It’s not great. I could go through the video and do it myself, but I don’t got the time.

Spider Fly has been released from the hospital.

Sunday’s show is a Lucha Libre Boom card with the Blue Panthers and the Octagons main eventing.

Lucha Brothers

There were always two ways this could’ve gone once it became blindingly obvious the Lucha Brothers had agreed to WWE deals while under AEW contract.

1. Tony Khan could’ve let Fenix and Penta go when their contracts expired, a pro-labor move but establishing that WWE can actively pursue any AEW talent at any time without consequence
2. Tony Khan could’ve held Fenix and Penta under AEW contracts as long as possible to send a message about negotiating with another company while still under contract. This is a pro-AEW move but definitely not a pro-labor one.

AEW seems to have chosen option 2. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter today reports AEW will enforce a clause in Fenix’s contract that allows them to extend a contract for the amount of time missed due to injury. That’ll tack nearly a year on Fenix’s AEW contract; he’ll probably be with them until summer 2025. AEW has seemed upset with how this all went down, so taking the harsher choice seemed more likely. It still is a harsh choice. It doesn’t seem like AEW has any plans to actually use Fenix; they’ve taken the Lucha Brothers out of all the videos they use on TV, they seemed to have pulled them out of their official program at the last second. He’s just going to sit home at year.

Which likely means Penta is going to sit at home for a year. He’s still under a AEW contract, he will be out of it soon enough, and everyone expects him to sign with WWE as soon as it’s possible. Nothing stops WWE from putting Penta on TV – except that they thought they were getting a tag team, and he’s not a tag team. They also don’t have many ideas of what to do with Mexican wrestlers outside of sticking him in one of two groups where he’ll be less over by the time Fenix is ready to show up. Penta milling around on WWE Main Event is not a great idea. Penta will get himself over if given a chance. Even if not given it but the outcome here seems much more likely to be “Both Fenix and Penta collect checks at home for months” than “WWE lets go of ingrained stylistic biases and runs with Penta as a big time solo act in the way AEW never did,” as much as we’d all like it to be that second option.

I think it’s more than fair to have hard feelings about AEW messing with the Lucha Brothers like this, but also to have not exactly warm feelings about how the Lucha Brothers have handled the situation. Tony Khan had been public with his anger over WWE messing with contracted AEW talent and made it clear he would fight back somehow. The Lucha Brothers strolled right in the middle of the fight, maybe figuring it wouldn’t affect them and figuring wrong. The Lucha Brothers are under no obligation to AEW beyond whatever is stated in their contracts and do not owe AEW anything beyond that. Still, they also should’ve been aware of the vibe enough to be straightforward with AEW about what their plans were – all the reporting so far suggests AEW management was last to find out. I’m sure we’ll hear more about that, but it seems like the way this breakup was handled is the core issue. Daniel Garcia might also be headed WWE’s way, and AEW saw him out on TV because it appears he was a bit more forthcoming in his internal decision-making. Again, maybe there will be more reporting and we’ll learn more about the details here. I would also rather see wrestlers wrestle than sit on the sidelines. I don’t have an issue with anyone being upset with AEW about this. It just has to be noted the Lucha Brothers seem to have put themselves on the sidelines.

The same thing applies on Konnan on this. Konnan going on his podcast and implying he worked behind the scenes to convince the Lucha Brothers to jump to WWE as revenge for AEW wronging him seemed like a bad idea at the time and worse now. It was probably not a wise decision from someone who always likes to be a master planner, but I’m sure it felt great to do in the moment. Still, the Lucha Brothers are adults – Konnan can nudge them however he wants and say what he wants, but they’re making the decisions to go where they want and how they want, and the responsibility is on them if it did or did not work out well.  Konnan probably shouldn’t have started doing a touchdown dance before getting across the end line because it sure looks like they all got tackled at the one. They’ll get in anyway.

This is at least the third contract that has gone lousy for these two. They had issues with AAA and with Lucha Underground. Those situations were linked, but they’ve acquired much knowledge about contract clauses. If any two people should’ve been cautious in signing any agreements with wrestling promotions, it definitely should be the tag team that has had to change their names every few years. The Lucha Brothers pattern instead has been them making the move that feels right for them and then paying a price later on. It doesn’t look like the right choice today, but it’ll probably turn out fine. They had some hard times dealing with AAA and Lucha Underground and came out of it even stronger and richer. This situation is a setback, and they’ll probably be even better off when they both can sign that WWE deal. It always seems to work out because they’re good at what they do, and few can do it like they can. Maybe this will be the one bad time, but I doubt it.

The one upside here? The Lucha Brothers are in WWE until 2025 anyway, but at least the correct Lucha Brother is free. Fenix has lived in the US long enough now that it’s at least possible he got around to getting citizenship or something, allowing him not to need a foreign work visa. (Nothing is for sure with Fenix, though.) The act would have to wait until at least Penta got off his AEW work visa and onto a WWE one, and that will end up some of the time anyway. I’m unsure if Stephanie Vaquer has gotten hers yet. WWE showed her on NXT this past week to get some buzz, and they’ve done a great job of keeping her name alive while she’s been unable to wrestle in the US. Her caption listed her in Chile. I’m not following NXT gossip closely enough to know if she was truly in Chile or backstage at the WWE PC. It seemed like everyone assumed the later, though I wonder if NXT just wanted a big moment to end their run on USA. That work visa wait is unfairly long and a more significant issue than contract clauses.

Other News

Mas Lucha posted an interview with Aramis from a show in Denver back in August. The big thrust is that Aramis said he was pausing his Mexican appearances because he’s not sure he can fulfill those commitments with other things going on, and he wants to make shows he’s been booked for. This turned out to be correct as an issue; his next scheduled match in Mexico was for Coliseo Coacalco, and he missed that because Hologram was wrestling before a Jaguars game. Both Aramis and interviewer Jose Manuel Guillen talk around the fact that Aramis is Hologram but Aramis is very excited about how his career is going. He reveals that when he went to AAA’s office to give his notice early this year, someone there told him, “Don’t get your hopes up.” Aramis laughs about that and turns it into an inspirational message – people should get their hopes up and dream big, but they must also understand they need to work hard and sacrifice a lot to reach those dreams. He feels he’s sacrificed a lot. I see this as another thing AAA management was wrong about. (Before you go there, Konnan’s usually a remote worker and not AAA’s office – it was likely the other guy.)

El Jornada has an article about the tough conditions of luchadors, but it’s also rife with factual errors. The “Rey Destroller fell wrong and died” is an issue for me – I’ve seen the video, he did not fall on his head – but there’s other stuff that non-blog-people should’ve caught. Fresero Jr. is listed as a former CMLL wrestler, LA Park is claimed to be Queretaro, Dick Angelo 3G is listed as “Black Angelo 3G”, and “Stephanie Baker” is a former Chilean wrestler now with WWE. They quote Tony Salazar as saying a top wrestler can make 70 to 80,000 pesos per match, but I don’t know if that’s right with everything else being off.

The headline of a press release, “The Iconic Mexican Luchador Enters the World of iGaming through SCCG NextGen Initiative“, contains many words that I don’t understand. Still, I’ve discovered that the Santo mask will be plastered on online casinos and sports betting in exchange for a few dollars. I get the explanation of why Hijo del Santo doesn’t want to lower himself to appearing in CMLL (or AAA) again after the way they felt he treated him, but if you’re willing to sell the Santo image in this not-especially great way for a few extra bucks, I wish he would do a thing that would make his fans happy. It’s just not going to happen.

The WON also reports the Todo x el Todo show as “less than 5,000 paid”, with people getting in free after the show started. 4,000 people is a strong number for a non-CMLL/AAA show in the Mexico City area, but not one that warrants running Arena Ciudad de Mexico or coming back in April.

Septimo Dragon won a tournament.

A profile of Mexico State luchador Tom Mix Jr.

ABC 7 Chicago has a profile of Chicago luchadora Paloma Vargas. Paloma is very very loud.

There was a party for luchadors in Fresnilo, Zacatecas to celebrate Dia de Lucha Libre.