top six stories of the last two weeks

  1. Rush and Shocker will face off in a one on one hair versus hair match on 03/21 as the main event of Homenaje de Dos Leyendas. Negro Casas had been included in the feud, but had a (worked) shoulder injury the week of the contract signing and it was decided he’d just face the winner of this match somewhere down the road. In reality, Rush versus Shocker is the best drawing match they could make of all the possible combinations. CMLL also announced Dalys versus Marcela in a women’s hair match and the finals of the parajes incriedble tournament for that show, and appear to be building up a trios title match as well. It’s unclear if/when this will air; there’s a rumor Terra will broadcast the whole show but it hasn’t been officially confirmed, and the also rumored TV Azteca show has yet to appear.
  2. AAA also announced their Rey de Reyes card, which surprisingly had very little to do with the TV product they’ve run few months. Built up matches like Psycho Clown versus Texano Jr., Aerostar vs Super Fly, and Faby Apache & Drago versus Sexy Star & Pentagon Jr. (where everyone involved agreed to do the match!) aren’t happening, despite all those people being on the card. The show does have the finals of the Rey de Reyes tournament (Black Warrior vs Perro Aguayo Jr. vs Zorro vs La Parka, three aligned rudos versus one tecnico), Chessman vs Blue Demon for Demon’s title, and a domed cage with the Mexican Powers, Anarkia, and other people pulled in for no obvious reason. The rest of the card has dormant titles being defended in multiman matches with no build, AAA’s standard deal for major shows. There was talk of an iPPV, but does not seem to have come thru.
  3. Octagon, one of the original members of AAA and someone who helped put the promotion together, left the promotion on March 2nd to become an independent luchador. Octagon had written frequently on Twitter about being unhappy in AAA, wanting to be used on TV much more, but it was still a surprise he actually left given his history. Octagon announced the Roldans had given him permission to use the character as an independent and suggested he might return to AAA in time. AAA has not acknowledged the situation outside of removing Octagon’s bio from their website roster.
  4. Sin Cara was listed for many more shows, including a trios in Monterrey in May with includes AAA luchadors and Averno. Averno’s shown up in other future Sin Cara cards too. Sin Cara has said these are all false bookings he’s not agreed to, though there’s some talk they may have actually been agreed to and just weren’t supposed to be announced yet. Averno, still in CMLL, hasn’t said anything about this. AAA announced TV lineups thru mid April, and Sin Cara is not listed as wrestling on any of those shows.
  5. WWL ran a couple more shows in Mexico. It was the usual mix of big names, quiet cancellations (a show in Puebla was quietly dropped, Sabu missing from the shows wasn’t mentioned until days after them), lots of of changes to the card. Both shows drew better than their last outing Monterrey, but fans seemed disappointed with the long shows and billed matches (like Fuerza Guerrera vs Octagon) which didn’t actually happen.
  6. Hijo de Rey Misterio II is no more; the man currently using that name gave it back to Rey Misterio Sr. in a in-ring ceremony on a Tijuana show. The ex-Rey II will now be known as Rey Horuz, while Rey Misterio Sr. introduced a Hijo de Rey Misterio III (the former D’Luxe) as the new person carrying the name. This is going to be vastly confusing to everyone.
  • Sin Cara’s first paid match took place in Tijuana on 03/01. It was a singles match with Black Warrior, and both men looked bad. It didn’t draw anything special either. Both things are concerning, but Sin Cara did get a huge reaction in DF. (Black Warrior also did not impress in his AAA return.)
  • CMLL announcements included a third season of En Busca de un Idolo, where the participants will be determined from a cibernetico on 03/25.
  • A yearly fan interest poll listed Lucha Libre as the fifth most popular spot in Mexico, the same ranking as last year (thought the percentages ticked up a little bit.)
  • Maximo & Rey Escorpion, who’ve been teasing a hair match since Escorpion beat Maximo’s father in their own hair match, reached the finals of the Torneo Increible de Parejas.
  • La Sombra defeated Dragon Rojo to keep the NWA Middleweight Championship in a very good match.
  • Jinzo won a Super Crazy run NOAH tryout and will be headed to Japan, at some point.
  • Mr. Niebla missed a bunch of shows with what was said to be digestive issues, but is apparently returning next week.
  • Friend of CMLL opening match luchador Camaleon posted on Facebook that the tecnico was hit by a truck and hospitalized for a few days, though he’s since returned home.
  • IWRG announced a cage match where Skayde, who’s lost his mask, will be risking the same mask. Others who’ve recently lost their hair get a chance for another hair cut.
  • Gronda II returned to AAA TV, for some reason.