CMLL
Tonight’s card
CMLL (FRI) 01/13/2023 Arena México
1) Esfinge & Fugaz vs Magia Blanca & Rugido
rematch from 2022-10-28 (then for MEX TAG)
2) Dulce Gardenia vs Virus
rematch from 2022-02-12 (Arena Coliseo)
3) Espíritu Negro, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
rematch from 2022-04-19
4) Hechicero vs Euforia
rematch from 2022-08-19 (then for CMLL HEAVY)
5) Averno & Místico vs Rocky Romero & Volador Jr.
rematch from 2022-03-18 (Rocky Romero replacing TJP)
This doesn’t look as strong as last week. Hechicero/Euforia was one of the best match of 2022. Nothing else looks close. Matches 2/3 look fun but unlikely to be supe rmemorable, match 1 had obvious issues the first time. The main event is more a contest to see if either team can make it through without exploding. It’s more important show from that standpoint, it’s probably setting up for the future, but at bit of cost to this show. It’s on TicketmasterLive as always.
My guess has been that Rocky and Volador are having a isngles match soon, and quite possibly it’ll happen as part of the Fantastica Mania tour instead of in Arena Mexico. It did get me to thinking about that tour. NJPW usually has the biggest matches on Korakuen Hall shows, there’s two of them, and there’s lot of options for main events
- Volador vs Rocky Romero
- Soberano vs Templario
- Titan & BUSHI vs TJP & Akira for the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship
- Mistico vs Ultimo Guerero (or whoever is Mistico’s opponent)
Maybe they’ll be two packed cards. (Maybe the tag title match is a pipedream.)
CMLL (SUN) 01/15/2023 Arena México
1) Acero, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) El Suicida, Robin, Valiente Jr. vs Inquisidor, Magnus, Okumura
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. vs Felino, Pólvora, Yota
4) Negro Casas, Star Black, Valiente vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Atlantis Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Rocky Romero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Rocky Romero is in on Sunday and seems to be around all week. He’s facing Volador all the time, so it’s not mystery where they’re going. It is a bit of a mystery why that main event is a Relevos Increibles; probably a typo.
CMLL (MON) 01/16/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Meyer vs King Jaguar & Sombra Diabólika
2) Astral, Robin, Sangre Imperial vs Disturbio, Hijo del Perverso, Multy
3) Flyer, Fuego, Oro Jr. vs Felino Jr., Okumura, Pólvora
4) Arkalis, Dark Panther, Pegasso vs El Hijo del Villano III, Felino, Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis Jr. & Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero & Rocky Romero
I really didn’t note the return of Astro and the Puebla debut of Multy (who was once Mini Multifacetico in IWRG) last week. They’re back this week.
CMLL (TUE) 01/17/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Náutica & Princesa Tiger vs Nexy & Valkiria
2) Kráneo, León Blanco, Rey Trueno vs Exterminador, Maléfico, Volcano
3) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
4) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. vs Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
6) Rocky Romero & Templario vs Ángel de Oro & Volador Jr.
Rocky getting the full foreigner treatment (working every show possible.) Fuerza Tapatia doesn’t wrestle in Guadalajara match, and neither do the minis.
Tonight wraps up the Best of 2022 shows. Next week seems to be a Friday show without an event (a rare CMLL event in itself), and they’re back to tournament on 01/27. The Reyes del Aire returns. It’s a ten person field:
- Mistico
- Soberano Jr.
- Atlantis Jr.
- Fugaz
- Panterita del Ring Jr.
- Templario (2020 winner)
- Stuka Jr. (2022 winner)
- Barbaro Cavernario (2016 winner)
- Gran Guerrero
- Dragon Rojo Jr.
Stuka really is a rudo, since they’ve got five of them and five of the tecnicos in this match. A ten-person cibernetico is a peculiar number for a CMLL cibernetico, especially given there are a lot more tecnicos who could be added. (No Volador really sticks out.) This should still be good.
AAA
AAA is back on Space Saturday at 6:30 pm. Listed as airing
- Loco Castillo, Pekador, Reina Dorada vs Demus, La Hiedra, Maravilla
- Mr. Iguana & Nino Hamburguesa vs Kento & Takuma
- Arez & Myzteziz Jr. vs Argenis & Parka Negra
- Murder Clown & Dave the Clown vs Gringo Loco & Villano III Jr.
The preview lists all four matches; I would’ve have been sure that opener owuld air. This Sace show is going on against a couple of different things I’d like to watch but I’m going to stream it ‘live’ anyway. Kind of interested, kind of just want it done.
Ring of Honor announced they’re going to run Supercard of Honor in the same tradition as past years, on WrestleMania Weekend (Friday, March 31st) and in the area of WrestleMania (Los Angeles.) Again, that’s their normal practice, but it wasn’t clear they were going to keep doing that after Tony Khan bought the promotion. Now it is clear. ROH’s promotion of the show included teasing involvement from “other promotions around the world”. AEW wrestlers will be there, and it’s a safe bet NJPW and Stardom wrestlers will be invited to appear. It’s more of an open question about which, if any, Mexican wrestling promotions will officially appear. It’s ultimately not going to be a big deal who does – because wrestlers from Mexican promotions are rarely used in big ways on multi-promotions shows – but it’ll probably be read into heavily to figure out where AEW stands with AAA or even CMLL.
More importantly, and this is why this is in the AAA section, ROH announcing a WrestleMania weekend show reminded me I’ve heard nothing about the AAA plan to run this weekend. Highspots has similarly announced their show for Thursday of that week, and I’d expect lots more announcements as everyone tries to stake out their ground in an always busy weekend. AAA still has some time to make an announcement and my assumption is their still running, but I had heard a lot of the AAA Dallas show was on by this point and I haven’t heard much about this one since the story first came up.
Maybe I just need to give it a little more time. AAA’s 2022 rollout press conference, where they announced the 3 TripleMania schedule among other plans, took place a few days before the first scheduled taping last year. That taping didn’t happen because of COVID, but the plan seemed to be to make that news before they started taping again. Next Saturday is the first AAA taping this year, so perhaps we’ll hear more about 2023 next week.
Dr. Wagner Jr. took his Instagram complaints to his newspaper column, criticizing Bandido and Vikingo not having the same kind of title matches he had with guys like Mesias and Zorro, and others. He says he’s never seen them apply a llave, a suastica, a cerrajera or even a quebradora. I tend to ignore “past star man complains wrestling isn’t like when he was on top” because it only exists as poison. Bandido & Vikingo aren’t going to hear about this and start doing half crabs (though they should do it if it’s going to be funny.) It’s not that fans support wrestlers who do good quebradoras, or Guerrero Maya Jr. would be the biggest wrestler in Mexico. Fans support people who they think are cool, who win a lot, and who face challenges the fans find interesting – and what defines all those qualities change over time. These complaints are not going to get Wagner brought back for a title run, which is he what he’s obviously looking for. It’s also a reframing of history, because Dr. Wagner Jr.’s title matches weren’t the totally technical bouts he’d like people to believe he had. The only reason I bring it up is that Bandido/Vikingo match has only aired on FITE so far, and it’s very funny to imagine Dr. Wagner Jr. opening his FITE app, paying 23 USD and sitting down on a Wednesday night to catch the AAA action. He surely only saw that GIF of the one spot, which tells you how big that GIF got if Wagner saw and couldn’t stop seeing it until he started complaining about it.
Big Lucha
They’re back running at Bandido’s Gym on Saturday. The show is scheduled to start at 7 pm, which means the first couple of matches will likely overlap with AAA. This is a Mas Lucha subscriber-only show, like the last Bandido’s Gym event.
Big Lucha (SAT) 01/14/2023 Bandidos Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Metal Shadow & Votice vs Estrella Del Ring & Zenky
2) Elipse & Orbita vs Black Skayde & Hijo Del Skayde and Andy Panda Jr. & Little Star
3) Galeno del Mal, Gravity, Rey Horus vs Iku, Jack Evans, Vengador
4) Bendito & Flamita vs Cometa Maya & Radioactivo
5) Mr. Win vs Éxtasis, Elemental, Forneo, Potro, Accion Jackson [Golden Ticket]
6) Emperador Azteca vs El Bandido © [BIG LUCHA WORLD]
Emperador Azteca has always struck me as technically solid but missing some excitement. Bandido is good at getting people excited. The title match might work. The fourth match is another possible standout and there’s other promising stuff. The question with these is where Big Lucha is at drawing fans without special guest stars.
I’d like to see Extasis, Elemental or Forneo get the win if it means they get the next title shot. Mr. Win getting a title shot is a fun Big Lucha World thing but not something for a normal show. Elemental is the Black Generation we seem to get the least of, so he seems more interesting than Jackson (though maybe they need to do someone else to break up the Black Generation challenges.) Big Lucha ran an angle where Flamita & Emperador Azteca cut Potro’s manager Maximillino’s hair, so there’s probably something going on with them next.
Bandido faces former Toryumon Mexico lucahdor Bryan Danielson on Wednesday.
Other News
Publimetro says Black Warrior passed due to bacteria in his bloodstream, forming after a poorly treated injury. He’d been hospitalized for a few days.
I figured I’d get something wrong with the Black Warrior gimmick timeline and I sure did. He was La Mascara from 1988 to into 1992, not 1991 as I had. He still became Bronce that year.
Black Taurus challenges Trey Miguel for the X-Division Championship on Frida’ys Impact Hard to Kill show. This is a full priced $40 PPV. Taurus is unlikely to win but there’s a least a possibility of it.
Hijo del Santo has his first known wrestling match since July on Saturday in Arena Lopez Mateos in a trios with other ‘second generation’ wrestlers. It’s for “Innova”, which ran three show at the end of 2022; they used Dr. Wagner Jr. on one of their shows, but there’s not a lot that distinguishes them over the many other AVE/TC promotions that run that arena. Santo doesn’t work much because Santo wants a good amount to wrestle, and this is probably more about the joy of getting to book Hijo del Santo than any business plan. There’s a good chance this will air on AYM Sports and stream on their InternetvDeportes YouTube channel. Every notable Arena Lopez Mateos show gets a bunch of YouTube handhelds as well.
MLW previously seemed to write off Cesar Duran (Dario Cueto) as a matchmaker, but he’s apparently sticking around as a manager and teasing bringing people to Mexico. Hugo Savinovich also appeared on the show, which seems new. (MLW’s recap struggles to spell ‘Savinovich’ and ‘Boyle Heights’; I still have to Google the name to make sure I don’t screw it up regularly.)
ImagenTV is said to be advertising boxing in the timeslot previously occupied by Nacion Lucha Libre. I haven’t been able to find the ad myself and Imagen’s website still lists Nacion in the spot, but Mexican TV network listings are often inaccurate so I can believe it. A YouTube video report reported that as a cancelation of Nacion Lucha Libre and I’m not sure that’s accurate. Nacion’s stated plan was to tape three times, last in December, and then go away for a while again. They ended up only running two public tapings and repeated the last four weeks of TV, but this is about when we’d expect them to go away. ImagenTV keeping them on this long was more the story: either they’re really into lucha libre or really into Alberto specifically or Nacion bought the timeslots (and kept paying even when they ran out of new TV.) Everyone involved with Nacion Lucha Libre has gone quiet publicly about it, but ImagenTV airing those repeats made me think they’d be up for another ‘season’ if the people funding Nacion Lucha Libre want to lose more money on it.
La Mascara said Maximo’s “retirement announcement” has caused him to think about the same idea. I don’t believe any luchador that age is actually retiring, but La Mascara has wrestled infrequently the last few years and looked so disinterested that I’d be more willing to believe it with him. That’s also why it seems more likely he (and Maximo) will keep wrestling; it seems easy to just pick up a match or two a month and cruise through without doing much if that’s all you want.
A fan spotted Superboletos listing a WWE Extreme Rules show on February 17th in Arena Naucalpan. Clearly not happening but I’m curious what wires got crossed to put that show up.
What actually is happening that weekend in Naucalpan is a Lucha Libre Boom show with Volador & Mistico announced.
