Titan advances in Copa Independencia, final Aniversario lineup (and card order), Zeuxis

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 09/06/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Excelsior, Kaiser Sports, Telediaro, The Gladiatores (text), The Gladiatores (videos), thecubsfan]
1) Dark Magic, Espanto Jr., Raider b Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma, Xelhua  
8:31. Raider’s first match as an official part of Ola Negra
2) Reyna Isis, Sanely, Zeuxis b Hera, La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard [Relevos Increíbles]   
12:03.
3) Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero   
13:24.
4) Templario TLDRAW Soberano Jr. [lightning]   
10:00. It was technically a time-limit draw, but Soberano was stretched off following the last move of the match, so he would’ve been done regardless.
5) Titán b Averno, Star Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Dulce Gardenia, Zandokan, Dark Panther, Crixus [Copa Independencia, semifinal]   
Eliminations: Hijo del Villano III (via Zandokan, 8:02), Dulce Garcenia (via Dark Panther, 9:38), Crixus (via Star Jr., 13:20), Zandokan Jr. (via Titan, 15:54), Star Jr. (via Titan, 21:14), Dark Panther (via Averno, 21:14), Averno (via Titan, 32:54), leaving Titan as the winner. He faces Mascara Dorada next week. Averno was stretchered out after taking the double stomp in the back.

Very early in Titan’s career, he had a series of matches with Averno. They were outstanding matches and also really seemed to help push Titan into becoming a well-rounded wrestler. (Here’s one.) CMLL gave us a glimpse of that old rivalry more than a decade later, with those two going over eleven minutes as the final two. Last week’s cibernetico was stronger up front than this one, but Averno & Titan had Mascara Dorada & Templario beat in the drama to decide the winner. It helped a lot that, like this week, there was true uncertainty over who would advance and big stakes in getting that win; these have been uncommon CMLL tournaments in that way. Dark Panther went farther than most expected, but it really just was a product of a big gap between the three people who most saw as having a chance of having an Aniversario singles match (Averno, Titan, and Star Jr.) and five people who could’ve replaced by any other five midcarders who didn’t make the tournament cut. Someone had to finish fourth.

Soberano Jr. versus Templario was very good but one not even close to being done in ten minutes; CMLL’s booking a lot of these. Averno’s “injury” in the main event seemed like selling the finish. Soberano seemed more legitimately hurt. Soberano wrestle without issue the next day. CMLL stretchers people out all the time, and you have to lean towards it being nothing because it is most of the time.

Guerreros/Tecnicos was a very professional tercera, though it wasn’t the best possible match they could do. The women’s match was alright. (I have no memories of it a couple of days later.) Raider got the big win in his first match with Ola Negra. He’s a fitting replacement for Akuma, in that it’s clear he also should be doing something more useful than hanging out with Espanto Jr. & Dark Magic.

CMLL (SAT) 09/07/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) KeMalito & Micro Sagrado b Chamuel & Tengu 
9:38
2) Amapola, Candela, Olympia b La Vaquerita, Maligna, Tabata 
15:12
3) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star b Okumura, Sagrado, Vegas 
11:52
4) Kráneo, Mephisto, Rey Bucanero b Blue Panther Jr., Hijo de Blue Panther, Volcano 
17:23. Blue Panther Jr. replaced (?) Blue Panther on Friday.
5) Templario b Dragón Rojo Jr. [lightning] 
7:42.
6) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Neón b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr. 
18:50

I had no great expectations for this show, after seeing a lot of wrestling over the weekend. It turned out to be a worthwhile watch. Matches 2, 3, and 5 were all good, and all seemed like wrestlers had planned on putting together a specific match rather than just winging it. (Matches 4 and 6 were winging it.) Templarioa and Dragon Rojo went fast and hard, very specifically playing off last year’s mask match. The women’s match especially felt like a Friday one, clearly having been worked out move for move and maybe even practiced one or twice prior. It came together; Candela continues to show promise in her scattered appearances. Los Viajeros del Espacio better have cool outfits on Friday, it is a big part of their gimmick to do so.

It looked like a good turnout on Saturday too.

CMLL (SUN) 09/08/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Leono & Retro b Enfermero Jr. & Sangre Imperial
2) Astral, El Audaz, Valiente Jr. b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
3) Hijo de Stuka Jr. b Hijo del Pantera [lightning]
8:10.
4) Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II b Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
The Gemelos did some light cheating to help set up Akuma’s win.
5) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Vegas b Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Hijo de Blue Panther
second time Los Depredadores have defeated all four Panthers, and they didn’t even have Volador this time.
6) Atlantis, Flip Gordon, Místico b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
Atlantis & Flip replaced Mascara Dorada & Titan on Friday.

The Depreadores played up being 2-0 against the Panthers, so that could be going somewhere. Magnus also demanded Blue Panther find a grandson or nephew or another son so they could have a 5v5 match with Volador.

CMLL (TUE) 09/10/2024 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Astral, El Audaz, Valiente Jr. vs Capitán Suicida, Diamond, Eléctrico
3) Hera, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi vs Metálica, Reyna Isis, Sanely [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Magia Blanca vs Difunto [lightning]
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Flip Gordon vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr.
6) Atlantis Jr., Neón, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

The main event is this non-title, but they’ll likely be back with a trios title match on 09/17. Soberano seems to have settled in as a trios partner for Hermanos Chavez; CMLL’s booking those three together a lot. Match five is a bunch of people bummed not to be booked on Friday. Difunto has been on a roll lately.

CMLL announced the final undercard match on Saturday afternoon; it’s about the names you’d expect:

CMLL (FRI) 09/13/2024 Arena México
***CMLL 91st Aniversario***
1) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
2) Neón, Star Jr., Templario vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.
3) Máscara Dorada vs Titán [Copa Independencia]
4) Willow Nightingale © vs Zeuxis [CMLL WOMEN]
first defense
5) Atlantis Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. vs Kojima, Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero
6) Hechicero vs Esfinge vs Valiente vs Euforia [mask]
7) Chris Jericho vs Místico

That is the final match order. Either of the last two matches would’ve worked as the main event, and CMLL is saying they believe Chris Jericho’s return is the biggest possible thing on the show. This will be a controversial decision; the diehard CMLL social media posters loudly complain about the men in the mask match being disrespected by going second to last. CMLL must feel putting Jericho and Mistico last ensures the more casual fans don’t leave early. I figured there would be push back about this decision when the card order got announced and it’s been a bit louder than I expected; it may be a story to watch the rest of the week.

I’m a bit surprised Willow and Zeuxis are following Dorada/Titan; Willow is drawing the short straw this week. Everything else is where I’d expect it. Match two is the final match added, which meant names like Barbaro Cavernario, Atlantis, Blue Panther, Stuka Jr., Gran Guerrero, Flip Gordon, Dragon Rojo Jr., Averno, Terrible, Mephisto, every CMLL mini, and every CMLL woman not named Zeuxis will not appear on the show.

Okumura wrestles Adam Priest on the Saturday’s MLW show. That show, which will have the semifinal and final of the Opera Cup with Mistico, looks to air free on YouTube again. Mistico’s schedule is already pretty packed this week and I wonder if he’ll end up going to Lexington, Kentucky this Wednesday for AEW Dynamite; running something to build up Friday in AEW seems like the preferred Jericho play.

India Sioux and Candela are off the 09/28 LLMX show in Mexico City’s Gym Micktlan. The press release brings up both of them being on CMLL’s roster. It’s not especially clear to me if this is CMLL not wanting them to work with someone on that show, or if they’re actually booked by CMLL on that day. That press release lists Bengalee as the booker for at least that show.

Zeuxis on the CMLL podcast

I haven’t been watching/listening to the CMLL podcast much since it went up, but the trailer for this past week’s Zeuxis interview grabbed me – it ended with her saying she’d reveal why she left CMLL in 2018. I still didn’t truly believe she’d give an honest reason. CMLL people tend to be tight-lipped about these things, but at least the spin would be interesting. I was hoping I could get at least one paragraph out of it. If you weren’t around in 2018, Zeuxis was coming off winning Princesa Sugehit’s mask in 2017 but also appeared visibly unhappy during her matches in the months that followed. Princesa Sugehit got pushed harder than Zeuxis following that mask match, and I guess that was part of the issue. Zeuxis left CMLL, worked one taping in AAA, it didn’t go well, and she floated around doing occasional indies (and one additional AAA date) until returning in 2023.

Zeuxis gave a genuine reason why she left. She said she was having issues with a specific luchadora, who was using her political power to ensure Zeuxis would never surpass her. The situation became so bad that Zexuis no longer enjoyed working at CMLL; it affected her work, and she felt her declining work was disrespectful to the people. She eventually went to then CMLL boss Paco Alonso, explained her issues with the other wrestler and asked to leave for a year to refine her passion. Paco Alonso agreed, but Zeuxis didn’t believe she ever really was coming back, and that’s why she broke CMLL rules (worked for AAA.) therapist. She also started seeing a therapist herself, which she believes has helped her and believes is as vital to a person as eating. Zeuxis’ story on her return feels like it’s missing a piece: she says she cried when she got told she could return but then says she called the office four or five times as soon as she heard (some) news. She explained her situation to then-boss Salvador Lutteroth, talked about the person who had caused her to leave, and mentioned that other women had felt the same about that person but feared speaking up at risk of their jobs. Lutteroth agreed to bring Zeuxis back.

It is glaringly apparent Zeuxis is talking about Dalys, even if she purposefully avoids mentioning any identifying details. Dalys was in the midst of her long world champion reign when Zeuxis left, and Zeuxis often teamed with Dalys in her final days as her sort of junior partner. Dalys had that power because CMLL didn’t want to offer her husband Negro Casas, and it was apparent she used that power. I didn’t pick up that it was specifically Dalys who caused Zeuxis’ problems, but it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. Zeuxis figured she’d never return to CMLL because Dalys would be there forever. She was shocked as the rest of us when Dalys and Negro Casas jumped to AAA but also immediately realized CMLL’s locker room became a lot less toxic – that’s where “calling the office four or five times” came in. It’s a strange sequence of events, but CMLL deciding to stop booking Negro Casas on Fridays and Psycho Clown convincing his father-in-law to jump to AAA led to CMLL’s women’s division getting a lot better. Dalys appeared to be bad news, observed from the outside, but it’s another level to get people inside to confirm it. (Of note, none of this story seemed surprising or unbelievable to host Alexis Salazar.)

There’s a lot more in that podcast, more than I expected. Stephanie Vaquer is also never mentioned by name – she only shows up a clip of the tag title match – but she’s still talked about. Zeuxis used a common CMLL phrase – “no one is indispensable” in regards to her departure from CMLL. She brings it back up herself later, noting she’d recently used it to the media about someone who had left CMLL, and fans had taken it as an insult or a jab. She says she didn’t mean it that way; it’s just a reality of the situation and the reality of the situation when she left, too. CMLL found other people and just moved on all the same. CMLL people are indispensable as long as they’re not a problem, but CMLL has rules and a very good school from where they can always replace anyone who leaves. All the wrestlers just have to keep it in mind.

In the middle of the podcast, Alexis Salazar broke the news to Zeuxis that she was on the Aniversario show challenging Willow for the title. I’ve been quietly told that at least some of the “surprise’ announcements on CMLL Informa are pre-announced to the wrestlers to prepare their reactions better. Zeuxis seemed genuine and surprised by this match announcement. On the other hand, CMLL’s been choosing the guests for this podcast based on having a big match for them, so why did Zeuxis think she was on the podcast this week? They’re ten episodes in, and the guest is always about to be in the news that week.

Zexuis mentions she enjoyed learning about different wrestling, whether it’s her tours in Japan or wrestling Americans in their style. Host Alexis Salazar mentions that when CMLL brought in Lady Frost in 2022, Zeuxis saw her performance and complained to Alexis about CMLL not bringing in women like that when she worked for the company. Zeuxis would like to see more women from AEW in CMLL, both for the different styles and so the Mexican women can show what they can do against outsiders with a different audience. Zeuxis praises Toni Storm, Hikrau Shida, and Deonna Purrazzo in particular. The Dark Angel/Marcela championship match got Zeuxis into lucha libre, and her favorite international wrestler is Manami Toyota. She was amazed at what Toyota was still doing at her older age.

Fun fact: Lluvia and Zeuxis made their official debuts on the same show—in a women’s prison. It’s Mexican wrestling.

(One thing bugs me about this podcast. Someone goes through the effort of pulling clips from all the different matches that come up on the show. A few look like ringside video footage Alexis took while covering the show, but most seem to come from TV footage. Why not just post the matches and put together a playlist for subscribers? Most of the hard work in finding the matches in the first place, you might as well get something extra out of them.)

CMLL videos recently posted onto DailyMotion

MVS had an unaired Sunday match from 09/07

• Barbaro Cavernario vs Ikuro Kwon

Televisa Puebla aired matches from 09/02

• Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard vs Persephone & Zeuxis
• Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr.
• Hechicero vs Esfinge vs Euforia vs Valiente

AAA

The Hugo/JBL interview from TripleMania aired this week on Space. Hugo mentioned this as the last thing he had done for AAA, which makes it all the funnier that JBL started the interview by promising Hugo that he wouldn’t be fired. Two days later, Hugo was cut loose. Hugo didn’t seem to know at the time that was the end for him, but I’m sure someone had an idea when they put that line on the air.

JBL – referred to by his WWE names throughout – explained he came to AAA to support Nemeth and was invited by Konnan and Dorian Roldan. The big idea is he was so impressed by the Nemeth/Alberto title match that he saw AAA as an intelligent investment and suggested hinted at buying the company soon. Despite that, JBL thought Alberto, Nic Nemeth, and Jeff Jarrett were the only good wrestlers in AAA. (He doesn’t seem like an intelligent investor if he doesn’t know two of those guys don’t work for the company.) JBL said all the other Mexicans are snowflakes, are worthless, and none of them are draws. It’s an interview where it’s clear AAA has no idea what they were doing in this story; nothing was set up, but they wanted to put something out on social media to get heat out of JBL burying the AAA roster.  You can tell Konnan helped script, because “snowflake” is a crutch phrase of his. No one caught him referring to Dorian Roldan as “Darrin”, or perhaps he thought the husband from the 1964 sitcom Bewitched runs Lucha Libre AAA.

An AAA show in Toluca this weekend was said to be a sell out. That’s one city that was really strong for AAA for years,

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 09/08/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Vanilla Vargas b Shamila, Demonio, Princesa Azul 
2) Lobito & Tornado b Alan Extreme & Príncipe Centauro 
3) Cerebro Negro Jr. b Multifacetico Jr. 
win via unseen foul
4) Águila Roja, Hysteriosis, Rock Power b Arashi, Spider Fly, Willy Banderas 
5) Aquiles, Luka, Veneno b Abigor, Rey Espectro, Rey Halcón 
6) Vangellys & Vengador b Hellboy & Hijo de Canis Lupus and Látigo & Toxin 
challenges followed

IWRG doesn’t post results now; they post videos of the matches’ finishes on Instagram and Facebook. They posted the finish of the opener, where both people blew the move and nearly got seriously hurt. Someone must’ve smarted up the social media team a few hours later, and they went back and deleted everything.

Thursday’s show has only random matches announced.

Other News

Friday’s The Crash show is hardly worth mentioning, or if I mentioned, it would just sort of bury it. They’ve given up on uploading these shows again, they put Mustafa Ali over in the main event though I suspect he’s not coming back there ever again, they did a DQ finish in a casket match, none of this matters. Attendance was pretty good, maybe short of a sell-out, but close to 90%. Besides Ali, Riddle and Elijah (Elias) were the big ex-WWE names.

There was a current WWE name on The Crash show, too. WWE’s Jayden Carter, who long ago was part of La Rebelion in the Crash as Lacey Lane, sat front row in a seat marked “special guest.” She got physically involved in that casket match between old Rebelion members Bestia 666 and Mecha Wolf. Carter slapped Mecha Wolf and threw a drink in his face. It’s rare for active WWE people to get involved in non-WWE shows. I don’t think this is a TNA partnership deal (or even the deal AAA would like to have), but I would bet Carter/Lane figured no one in WWE pays attention to Tijuana wrestling or would mind her limited cameo. Mecha Wolf is probably particularly low on WWE’s list of people they’d go out of their way to help after an incident with a suspicious knee injury on a long-ago episode of 205 Live. That incident happened in a match with Mustafa Ali, who later buried Mecha Wolf on Twitter. I suspect this The Crash show is one of the first shows they’ve worked on since then. Maybe they had a chat.

(This is not meant to be a dig on those guys, but it sticks out to me that AAA spent matches on two TripleManias trying to get over a feud between Bestia/Mecha Wolf. Neither are around AAA TV more so there’s no benefit there and, and they’re teaming up next Monday in Arena Lopez Mateos so it’s not like it got over elsewhere. The feud still seems over in Tijuana, but AAA failed to get anyone to care, or at least anyone who books them on shows. They’ll probably do a breakup angle anyway. That match also used to have Komander and now has Hijo de Canis Lupus in that spot.)

The 09/14 Big Lucha show at the Mexico City race track seems to include almost no Big Lucha wrestlers. Some may be masquerading under the SpeedFest themed gimmicks but it’s also feels like their guys are actually working elsehwere.

“I recognize that when my physical abilities are not 100%, I will decide to retire”, said 57-year-old Xalapa luchador Eslabon Perdido. He doesn’t seem himself not being 100% anytime soon, saying he could wrestle between two and four more years.

Segunda Caida watches some IWRG Retro.

La Masa and Vicente Viloni of 100% lucha are reuniting in a streaming show.

There’s a new lucha libre art exhibit in Queretaro.