Andrade’s return to CMLL, Dorada/Romero, Vikingo/Taurus tonight

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 12/15/2023 Arena México
1) Capitán Suicida & El Audaz vs Grako & Nitro
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma
3) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela vs Dark Silueta, Hera, La Catalina
4) Flip Gordon, Titán, Valiente vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
5) Rocky Romero © vs Máscara Dorada [NWA WELTER]
6) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Star Jr. vs Andrade el Idolo, Ángel de Oro, Soberano Jr.

Mascara Dorada and Rocky Romero is not the biggest star power match on the show, and it likely won’t even be the most scene lucha libre title match taking place on Friday. Dorada/Romero still feels like the most important match happening on Friday. These last twelve months have been about building Dorada towards a big time victory. He already got one of those over Romero to win Leyenda de Plata. Now he has a chance to do it again in front of a big audience, made up of a lot of people checking back in on CMLL for the first time in a long time. Everything is lined up perfectly to get over a new star to the audience – most of all having the two right people involved in it.

Mascara Dorada’s great. Romero might be greater this year. A couple of weeks ago, Wrestling Observer Radio had the briefest discussion about their upcoming fan-voted Mexico MVP award. The only two people mentioned were Mistico and Vikingo. Mistico is a great pick for a winner, but any conversation about the most important wrestler in Mexico in 2023 which doesn’t include the name Rocky Romero is an unserious discussion. CMLL is an engine with a lot of parts moving well, but their 2023 would be fundamentally different without Romero being part of that feud with Volador, then sticking around to face Mistico and Dorada. If Dorada gets the win we all assume he’s going to get here, it’s going to mean a lot because it’s coming over the top villain in Mexico, and because it’ll be a great match with him being involved.

Rocky Romero told the press on Wednesday that this match will be Mascara Dorada’s final chance to challenge him for a long time. Mascara Dorada is hopeful the CMLL referee will pay attention to Romero’s tricks so he won’t get cheated like he did in MLW. Good luck with getting the CMLL referees to pay attention. Romero also stated Romero versus Mistico or Romero versus Andrade would be good 91st Aniversario main events.

CMLL has the Gradas section – the highest area, 90 pesos – available on Ticketmaster tonight. CMLL will sell those tickets in person for Friday shows and only online for the biggest shows. That’s what they expect from Andrade returning tonight: a big crowd, people who might normally not show up outside of the two biggest shows of the year. Andrade’s return has gotten a lot of extra press attention for this show, and I think they’ll probably crack 10,000 fans. It’ll also be a good match! Andrade’s been superb in AEW of late and got strong reviews for his recent GCW matches. He’ll no doubt be excited for this return match, and everyone else seems hyped up to be part of it.

CMLL announced late Thursday night that CJ Perry would accompany Andrade for this show. That’s probably more Andrade wanting to get over his AEW character than AEW insisting on it; AEW hasn’t mentioned this match happening. I suspect the first time AEW fans will hear it’s happened is on Saturday’s Collision.

The rest of the card is fine. It’s not the top-to-bottom super card CMLL could’ve thrown out there. Maybe they just want to keep the spotlight on the top stuff, maybe it just worked out that way. Los Barbaros make a Friday appearance to face Flip, Titan and Valiente. Marcela teams with Las Chicas Indomables against the odd ruda combination of Hera, Dark Silueta, and La Catlina. All those people often team with other people, and Hera’s not usually on the Friday night shows. Dulce Atrapsuenos face the top Fuerza Poblana combination, in a match that’s been pretty good in the past. Capitan Suicida & Audaz face Grako & Nitro, which doesn’t seem like a great fit.

This show is available for about 100 pesos (about 6 USD) through Boleta/Neerme. CMLL Friday shows go up on YouTube on a nine-day delay – I think I’ve been counting that wrong lately.

CMLL already announced a match for next Friday. Andrade’s appearance on CMLL Informa ended up as a video sent in, challenging Volador to a trios match next week. Andrade wants to team up with his two relatives in CMLL (Brillante Jr. & Espanto Jr.) against Volador and two of his students. Everyone else agreed, though Voaldor said he’d take a couple of days to pick which of his four Depredores would team with him. (“Four” seems to mean the angle where Max Star was invited into the group hasn’t been forgotten, even though it’s not been mentioned since.) That trios match will headline the 12/22 show.

Both Volador and Mistico loom as singles matches. The issue is AEW wrestlers generally do not lose matches outside their company to wrestlers who do not work for them. It’s not a 100% rule – Eddie Kingston didn’t go undefeated in NJPW’s G1 – but it is the usual guideline. Andrade himself hasn’t lost much outside of AEW this year.  AAA seemed generally content with just having AEW wrestlers mostly defeat CMLL wrestlers. Maybe CMLL will be different but it’s a looming obstacle.

CMLL (SAT) 12/16/2023 Arena Coliseo
1) Aéreo & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) La Guerrera, La Vaquerita, Magia Azul vs Amapola, Olympia, Tiffany
3) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Volcano vs Crixus, Okumura, Raider
4) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus vs Felino, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
5) Euforia vs Stuka Jr. [lightning]
6) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Star Jr. vs Hechicero, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.

Match 2 is the Mexico debut of Magia Azul. She’s been on Guadalajara cards the last few months, and is originally from Hidalgo. She says she’s the only one in her family who is a luchador. CMLL/EMLL had a previous Magia Azul in the late 80s and early 90s, but that was a male prelim wrestler. La Maginifica is reportedly out long-term due to a knee injury. Sanely is the same, and Princesa Sugehit is still out. There are some matches open for a tecnica and CMLL may be giving the different prospects chances to fill in, in the same way Sexy Sol popped up on Tuesday.

Volador is wrestling Trent Seven in RevPro on Saturday. That will stream on RevPro on Demand starting at 11:30 AM Central US time.

CMLL (SUN) 12/17/2023 Arena México
1) Fantasy & Galaxy vs Minos & Pequeño Olímpico
2) Eléctrico vs Sangre Imperial [lightning]
3) Astral, Diamond, Fuego vs El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star, Panterita del Ring vs Felino Jr., Kráneo, Misterioso Jr.
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Difunto, Rey Bucanero, Sagrado
6) Atlantis Jr., Flip Gordon, Místico vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto

Last week was Dragon Rojo unmasking Star Jr., but that’s not being followed up this week. CMLL keeps teaming up Averno, Euforia and Mephisto but still aren’t officially calling them Los Infernales. Disfunto is in a higher spot than might be expected.

CMLL (MON) 12/18/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno & Siky Ozama
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Chamuel & Periquito Sacaryas
3) Skadi vs Lady Amazona [lightning]
4) Arkalis, Asturiano, Meyer, Pegasso, Rey Samuray vs Crixus, Difunto, El Coyote, Pólvora, Raider [cibernetico]
5) Guerrero Maya Jr. © vs Rugido [MEX MIDDLE]
2nd defense, rematch of tournament final
6) Averno, Místico, Stigma vs Euforia, Soberano Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]

The cibernetico looks like a way to make the scheduled number of wrestlers fit around the title match. A title change would be unexpected.

CMLL (TUE) 12/19/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Ángel Rebelde, Gran Jefe IV, Insólito vs Johnny Dinamo, Minotauro, Shezmu
2) Emperatriz & Misteriosa vs Adira & Dulce Kitty
3) Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro, Misterioso Jr. vs Gallo Jr., Ráfaga, Rafaga Jr.
4) Halcón Suriano Jr., Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Soberano vs Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico
5) Andrómeda, Lady Shadow, Miss Guerrera vs Náutica, Sexy Sol, Valkiria
6) Brillante Jr., Dulce Gardenia, La Fashion vs Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte

Last week was Guadalajara versus Puebla, this is Guadalajara versus La Laguna. Guadalajara also streamed a two match sponsored show on Thursday night.

CMLL will open ticket sales on January and February tickets on Saturday. I don’t end up on the CMLL Ticketmaster page nearly as often now that the iPPVs have moved elsewhere. It’s still worthwhile to browse through to see if some Friday night has much higher ticket prices than others as a clue when a big show might be happening.

AAA

AAA will air the final two matches of Ultraclash on Saturday. In addition, they’ll air “a never before seen match from Lucha x El Barrio.” That’s the AAA talent that’s been going on. I wasn’t expecting it to air on TV outside of clips but it’s cool if we get to see a talent search match (and less interesting if it’s just the AAA coaches filling in some time.) AAA still hasn’t announced the finalists of that competition, and maybe it’ll be part of this airing.

The soon-to-be TNA promotion announced they’ll be bringing Hijo del Vikingo for their 01/13 and 01/14 shows in Las Vegas. It works out well that he was the one AAA guy Impact hyped on the Ultraclash show. No opponent has been announced. That 01/014 TNA show will also include matches with NJPW wrestlers Kazuchika Okada and (at least for a couple of more weeks) Will Ospreay. AAA wrestlers have not worked on shows with NJPW talent when they’re NJPW promoted (like Forbidden Door), but there continues to be this loophole when it’s a third party booking both promotions.

Jessy Ventura announced on Facebook that they have officially signed a contract with AAA. Ventura has been on AAA TV since March 2022 but hasn’t been under a contract until now.

AAA were using a lot of people without contracts (or at least their own contracts) coming out of COVID, and wrestlers at various levels on the shows were working on basically handshake deals. That gave wrestlers lots of freedom to take their own dates and work outside of Mexico, but it also meant they were hustling for their own bookings and there might not be any help there if they got hurt. It made sense for AAA not to have those commitments when times were tight, but they’d understandably prefer to know they can count on having around. The Villano III Jr.’s disappearing off to CMLL because nothing was holding is something AAA surely like to not happening as much in the future. (There are other factors as well why these contracts are happening now and not earlier.)

Current AAA wrestlers are making decisions about their future with AAA. Some people will look at the new terms of the deal and decide to try to go on their own, and others will decide they’re better off sticking around. (I don’t have a list of names, and it would be useless to guess who’s doing what. It’s wrestling, so there will be people who privately insist they’re taking one choice and then end up going the other way.) I’m not sure everyone will be as public about their decision as Jessy Ventura, but it also shouldn’t be a sign of bigger issue within AAA if some people leave. It’ll not be great for AAA to lose people, but many contract decisions coming due in the same vague amount of time (instead of spread out over a year) will make AAA look more chaotic than it might be.

If you do what a “AAA is chaos and not in a good way” story instead, this paragraph may be better for you. AAA posts video clips on their Facebook on a regular basis. It’s just a random clip from any match in the last few years, no reason or content to it, nothing they’re building up. A clip they happened to put up Thursday was the Leyenda Azul Blue Demon championship match, won by Arez last December. This helpfully (?) served as a reminder that AAA promoted this as a championship that would be defended once a year every year. No one asked for another title or something that had to be defended every year, AAA just promised to do it themselves – and then, as typical, completely failed to live up to it.

ROH Final Battle

Hijo del Vikingo defending the AAA Megachampionship against Black Taurus will take place tonight as part of ROH’s Final Battle. It is available through Ring of Honor’s Watch ROH website as part of their monthly $10 USD subscription. It is not available on PPV or through other websites. The show is listed as starting at 6 pm CT, though that usually means an hour before the show, and the regular show starts an hour later. This is a different set up than usual (and ROH hasn’t communicated their plans as of yet.) AAA title matches have tended to open Ring of Honor shows. Komander is also scheduled on that show in a Survival of Fittest six-way match, where the winner will become the new TV champion.

Vikingo and Komander will also appear the same night on AEW Rampage, teaming with Penta against Top Flight and Action Andretti. That match was taped Wednesday night and is said to be outstanding. The ROH PPV and Rampage will overlap; I suspect the luchadors will be done with their matches on the Ring of Honor before the Rampage matches start.

So. The elephant in the room is I asked for Black Taurus versus Hijo del Vikingo to be booked and then it was booked. What I know is that people inside of AEW have pitched the idea of bringing in Taurus since the start of that promotion. He was pitched recently, but nothing had ever come together to make it happen. My Twitter post was in reaction to his performance in the great trios match in West Coast Pro Wrestling. I believe working for AEW saw the same performance, had a similar reaction, and maybe saw an idea that could work for everyone. The past lucha libre matches on ROH PPVs have delivered well, and one here might standout enough to draw in AEW/ROH fans who would consider skipping this show. I don’t really think I had much to do with it happening; Taurus did it, the people inside AEW did it.

As best as I understand, Black Taurus has been working in Impact/TNA without a contract. Same with AAA. He isn’t signed long-term with Ring of Honor or AEW either at this point, though I believe that’s the goal. Taurus has his best opponent to work with, he’s Vikingo’s best opponent as well, and this is 100% a “let’s try to get someone a contract” match. Watch out.

If I actually was one of the people booking this, I’d do the title change. There’s no reason for Vikingo to continue to be the champ except to break a longevity record that doesn’t even matter to AAA fans. This is also the third major AAA mega championship match running where I’ve talked about a possible title change, so maybe I’m wrong or maybe this idea needs some freshening up. It should be a great match, and a title change on an AEW show and a rematch in AAA ring is a perfect way to get people who’ve tuned out on AAA to tune back in. (It’s essentially what happened with the FTR tag title run.) A title change also seems unlikely. AAA had little to do with this title match coming together, and they typically don’t want any part of something if it wasn’t their idea.

Other News

La Cobra (Gabriel Hernandez) reportedly passed away Thursday. This is not the NJPW George Takana Cobra, but one who wrestled Villano III in a mask match in 1974. He wrestled in Arena KO, the predecessor to Arena Naucalpan. Cobra was just honored On the luchawiki, we don’t have a birth date and we do have a debut date of 1947. That would suggest he was well into his 90s, and I’m skeptical that’s accurate based on recent photos. Cobra was just honored on a Coliseo Morelos show this past weekend.

Cartoon Brew, in an interview with the creators, says the Rey Mysterio cartoon series, “Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness”, will be released in the US “sometime in 2024”.

IWRG put up a new edition of IWRG Retro that’s so old and I don’t even know when it’s from. The main event is Fantasy, Neblina, Guerrero del Esapcio vs. Bombero Infernal, Azor, and Viento Negro. The ring announcement mentions this is Neblina’s debut under that name after previously being Rey Gallo. The earliest Neblina known match is February 25, 1996. The previous run of Retro shows would include the date, but IWRG has a new person putting them together now – they only mention this show happened in 1996. We don’t know many January/February shows, so it’s in there but I don’t know when. I probably should just ask someone.

Alberto el Patron headlined some very bad drawing shows last weekend. Not the first, not the last, but a clip of him walking out into an empty building went viral as “look how far he’s sunk.” Lucha Libre Online, as Alberto’s public relations department, did a damage control interview so Alberto can assure everyone it was just a fluke thing where the promotion had bad luck that had nothing to do with the wrestlers. Alberto said he can’t see the future, but he’s pretty sure he’s going to be on a reality show and fill 50-60 buildings next year. I’d be surprised if he actually wrestled 50-6o times in 2024. I felt maybe this was too harsh a paragraph, and then I saw Lucha Libre Online’s defense of him in a Facebook post, where they complain about all the stuff he does that he gets no credit for and gets blamed for a crowd where he was a last second fill in because everyone’s out to get him. For what it’s worth, he was advertised on that show for weeks, and they even tried doing a $15 iPPV for it. It’s hard for me to see someone’s side in arguement when they’re blatantly making up stuff.

Tinieblas (and a co-author) has published an autobiography, though it appears you have to message him on social media to be able to purchase it or find it through select Mexican bookstores. This site, which is selling the IWRG book (at a markup), will probably do the same with the Tinieblas book eventually.

Zuzu Divine was awarded the Hidalgo Premio al Merito Deportivo, the first luchadora to win that sports award.