CMLL held a (randomly Egyptian themed) press conference today. There were a lot of announcements, but the biggest were the confirmation of the main matches for this year’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on March 20th
- Volador Jr. & Maximo versus Rey Bucanero & Terrible, double hair vs double hair
- Dragon Lee vs Kamaitachi, mask vs mask.
Those matches had been indicated at least as far back as the 01/31 show. Kamaitachi, like all NJPW trainees, was always going to have a mask match around this time of year and it was just a matter of figuring out who would oppose him. The craziness of the first Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi match locked that in. Rey Bucanero was marked for a big hair loss the moment he got his big hair win over Felino in December. Somewhere along the way, CMLL decided Bucanero/Volador was not a strong enough match to headline this sort of show and added Maximo & Terrible in.
Both matches have fairly obvious outcomes. Dragon Lee & Kamaitachi could be one of the best CMLL matches of the year. The double hair match will attempt to be a great match, but it’d have to be Rey Bucanero’s first great match in a long time. (Shocker did manage to pull off that trick last year.) I’m skeptical H2L will out draw the All Elite show from this past weekend. Rush versus Shocker appeared to be a hotter feud and drew the same number as All Elite.
CMLL’s other announcements included a couple of returns. Rush will return from his leg injury on 02/20, which is quicker than the had been rumored. Rush spoke with Sombra & Mascara at his side; the Ingobernable group had been saying they’ll expand to a four man unit when Rush is healthy to still include Marco, and now we’ll get to see if that happens. CMLL’s current women’s champion, REINA’s Syuri, will return on 03/28. Japanese women who’ve won the CMLL title in Japan tend to lose it as soon as they return to Mexico, so it’ll be interesting to see who gets set up as challenger. Probably Marcela.
CMLL also announced the return of the Parejas Increibles tournament, to start on 02/20. Assuming a regular schedule, the final will take place on 03/06. Only three teams were announced: Mistico & Ripper, La Mascara & Mephisto, and Negro Casas & La Sombra. None of them are likely to win – the Ingobernables don’t play nice with others and Ripper is Ripper – but it’s notable Mephisto & Mistico were not teamed up. This has often been a tool to set up the Anniversary main match and that seemed to be a (very early) possibility. Perhaps not. This appearance marked Ripper’s first appearance since August; he and Mistico were a team last year too. That’s also a reasonable mask match, though they couldn’t even pretend it to be an Anniversary main event. CMLL Informa added teams of Niebla Roja & Dragon Rojo (fresh off their feud) and Angel de Oro & Hechicero as two more teams. Rush was also announced as being in the tournament, but no partner was announced.
Volador Jr., Mistico and Valiente were introduced officially as the Sky Team. They’re following the Volador Jr., Mistico I/Myzteziz, and La Sombra trio that was known as the Super Sky Team; I guess the new guys are not as super. Mephisto, Ephesto, and Luiciferno were introduced as Hijo del Infierno. Hopefully someone gives Ephesto a new shirt. It took 10 months for CMLL to get around to replacing Averno.
Some of this will air on tonight’s CMLL Informa. It’s a bit insane CMLL didn’t announce the double hair match in front of the All Elite crowd, but it’s consistently insane.