top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. Mr. Aguila lost his hair to Shocker in CMLL’s Infierno en el Ring. The 10 man cage match drew well. The match itself was disappointing, mostly due to Aguila appearing in no condition to perform. He spent most of the match hanging out in a corner, then was quickly beat.
  2. Sombra suffered what looked to be a significant ankle injury Sunday in Arena Coliseo, when Taichi didn’t get low enough on a leapfrog and knocked Sombra into a bad landing. CMLL announced Sombra would miss the next two weeks, but changed plans within hours and announced Sombra would work his scheduled match this Friday. Sombra’s been telling fans on Twitter that he’ll be fine after rehabbing the ankle this week. CMLL has been teasing a Sombra/Volador mask match for the Anniversary show, and may be finally announcing that main event next week, so Sombra is kind of needed around Friday to take part in whatever they need to set up.
  3. CMLL announced ticket prices for their 80th Anniversary show. They appear to be the highest prices ever charged for a CMLL show by a large margin. Ringside is $239 USD including Ticketmaster fees, the cheapest ticket is $24 USD. Ringside tickets for a normal Tuesday show are usually $13 USD, so these prices are shocking fans. Tickets do not go on sale until 08/12 and CMLL has not announced a match for the show yet.
  4. Faby Apache & Drago won the AAA Mixed Tag Team championship in Xalapa from Mary Apache & Halloween. Mary broke up with Halloween after the match and Halloween was let go from AAA (and Perros del Mal) soon after. The Mary Apache/Halloween relationship was a fun story the 2nd half of last year, but had mostly been ignored this year until this title change, and Halloween sounded in no condition to perform in a backstage pre-tape building it up on this past week’s TV.
  5. Espiritu Maligno lost his mask to fellow Puebla native Stigma this past Monday as part of Arena Puebla’s 60th Anniversary series of shows. It was the third straight sellout (or near-sellout) during these shows; mask matches involving local Puebla wrestlers seem to do well in their home arena, but the turnout was stronger than usual this year. Stigma is a teenage tecnico who’s good and has promise, though he’s also the son of the man who’s in charge of the arena and exactly the sort of nepotism luchadors complain about when it comes to CMLL’s programming.
  6. Sombra lost the IWGP IC Heavyweight championship back to Shinsuke Nakamura in Japan. Expected outcome and expected very good match.
  • TxT’s monthly show, with no Hijo del Santo on the card due to his injury, mostly just existed to have a monthly show and set things up for down the line. Hijo del Santo now says his mask match with LA Park & Dr. Wagner will happen on 09/21, though the other two haven’t said anything. It appears Santo will first return to action in Mexico City by defending the PWR tag team titles with Blue Demon against La Migra’s Oliver John and Brian Cage in August. The main event of this show was a Dinamitas vs Rayo/Canek match designed to set up even more Dinamitas vs Rayo/Canek matches. Crowd did not seem good.
  • CMLL stripped Pierrothito of the Mexican Lightweight title. It’s unclear what is going on. CMLL didn’t give a reason, Pierrothito doesn’t seem hurt and hasn’t made any indication he’s leaving, but hasn’t been around with the other members of Comandante Pierroth’s gang just the last week or so. A tournament to decide a new champion was quickly announced. Pierrothito would be a strong addition to AAA (who happens to be running in Mexico City this Friday) and was current NXT Trainee Mascarita Dorada’s most frequent and best opponent, though again we have no idea what’s actually going on.
  • CMLL held a cibernetico with all the hopeful new stars and the trainers from it’s En Busca de un Idolo tournament, and all the hopeful new stars were eliminated. Trainer Negro Casas beat trainer Virus in the final. The tournament is now concluded, and will now just begin airing on an obscure cable channel.
  • Villano V ran the first show of his new promotion. Building seemed less than half full, like his retirement show, but this time in a smaller building. The promotion seems to be built around Pirata Morgan’s family versus the Villanos, replacing Mil Mascaras & Rayo de Jalisco.
  • Dinamic Black is the most successful IWRG tecnico of the moment, defeating Decnnis to keep his Rey del Ring title, then surviving Oficial 911 to retain the WWS Welterweight Championship
  • Brothers Tony & Martin Escobedo (Los Hippies) took Acertijo & Jocker (Riddler & Joker)’s hair in Guadalajara, while Babraro won back the local middleweight title.
  • Olimpico is back in a mask in Guadalajara as tecnico Super Popular. Olimpico’s admitting to the dual roles and thinks that makes it fine. The Super Popular mask is essentially an updated Olimpico mask.
  • IWRG is pushing a Traumas vs Eterno/Super Nova rivalry. Those four are among ten in a cage match this upcoming Thursday.
  • Horuz, who’s been wrestling in CMLL, jumped to Santo’s TxT and will wrestle on the independents. He cited the lack of opportunity to move up in CMLL and favoritism to certain families as reasons he wanted to leave.
  • Diamante Azul defeated Ultimo Guerrero to keep the NWA Light Heavyweight Championship, and may defend the title against Vangelis soon.