top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. CMLL announced Infierno en el Ring, a 10 man cage match, for this upcoming Friday. Shocker, Rush, Máximo, Blue Panther, Super Porky, Negro Casas, Averno, Mr. Águila, Rey Escorpión, and Rey Bucanero will be in the cage. Averno versus Blue Panther and (especially) Rush versus Negro Casas have come off as the strongest feuds, so neither is likely to actually end in the cage match. CMLL major shows have tended to have two important matches this year, but the cage match is the sole built up match on this show.
  2. Local Puebla luchador Espiritu Maligno surprisingly took Leon’s hair in Arena Puebla’s (second) 60th Anniversary show. The cage match main event sold out the arena this past Monday.
  3. Vangelis won the second edition of En Busca de Un Idolo, defeating Valiente in the final of the two month long tournament. It’s by far the biggest win of Vangelis’ CMLL career. The winner got a title shot last year, but no particular prize was announced this year. CMLL has followed up on Vangelis win by leaving him off the shows the next week.
  4. Jushin Liger & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Terrible & Tama Tonga to win the CMLL tag team titles on a NJPW shows. The belts had pretty much been on ice this year, and the title switch is mostly just an excuse to bring Liger & Tanahashi back to Mexico for the Universal tournament in September.
  5. AAA held two tapings, which were low on news but good on midcard match quality. Canek made a surprise appearance on the tecnico side, after Psycho Clown made a challenge for Texano’s AAA Mega championship, which was turned down. Cibernetico, who had been wearing a mask since TripleMania, unmasked himself to reveal a good amount of hair had grown back before a tag match against Perro Aguayo. Crazy Boy & Joe Lider invited a trio of early match luchadors (Atomic Boy, new Alebrije and new Cuije) into their Mexican Powers group. Billy el Malo, still out hurt, teased a feud between Fenix and a Billy’s new mystery protege.
  6. Hijo del Santo announced he’d be out until the middle of the August due to LA Park’s martinete. Santo (or his wife running his social media accounts) has kept himself busy by loudly complaining about AAA running an upcoming TV taping at Gimansio Juan de la Barrera, the same building TxT uses to run their shows.
  • CMLL also announced a Blue Panther anniversary show for August 16th and Marco Corleone’s return for sometime that month.
  • WWL held it’s second show in Arena Coliseo Monterrey, filling most of the building. Bobby Lashley vs Monster Pain was the main event, but it’s likely a rare appearance here by Mil Mascaras and AAA luchadors.The best matches were said to be the opening three matches with local luchadors.
  • DTU ran a four day stretch of shows with the American Wolves as guests. The shows were taped for TVC Deportes, though there’s no known air date.
  • Black Metal won the Occidente (Guadalajara) Middleweight championships from Barbaro Cavernario. This could be a setup for Barbaro to move to Mexico City, after strong reviews in a recent tryout.
  • Averno kept the Mexican Welterweight championship over Titan, after Titan crashed and burned on a dive. Ola Amarilla defeated Delta & Guerrero Maya to retain the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship (which confirms Namajague is sticking around for a while longer.) Super Nova kept the old version of the NWA Light Heavyweight Championship in IWRG over Dinamic Black with a fair bit of help.
  • Konnan Big lost his hair to TV host Ernesto Chavana