CMLL announced the reactivation of the Mexican National Women’s Tag Team Championship last night on CMLL Informa as a surprise. The championship is being brought back as a pair with the Men’s Tag Team Championship returning to CMLL and timed to take place during Women’s History Month. A tournament to decide a new champion will take place on upcoming Sunday shows, where CMLL is offering discounted tickets to women in some sections. There will be blocks on 03/15 and 03/22 and a new champion decided on 03/29. (These shows do not stream, but do air on TV on a week delay.) Jarochita & Lluvia, Tiffany & Reina Isis and Marcela & Skadi were announced for the first block. These are likely four team blocks, so one more team is to be added for the first group.
The Mexican National Women’s Tag Team Championship was contested between 1990 and 1996, as best I can tell. It’s fuzzy because they were never part of a major promotion, mostly existing outside of CMLL and LLI/UWA at the start. The tournament final will be the first time this title will appear in Arnea Mexico. The title did appear on AAA TV, but only twice. That time it appeared like the belts existed to give the impression of equality with the men’s tag team championship, but the promoters didn’t treat it with the same importance. The belts also probably came around a decade too late; LLI/UWA had an active world women’s championship in the 80s and a tag team championship may have flourished at that point. (There was no UWA Women’s Tag Team Championship until 1992, and the promotion was about to fall off a cliff.) The past champions have the right to be proud of being champions, but there’s no great history or memories associated with the Mexican Women’s Championships; they’re a dry Wikipedia page being brought back to life. If they mean anything going forward, it’ll be because the new champions and the new promoters did something to make them meaningful. It’s hard to faith in CMLL making a title mean something.
The good news here is no one is dead. CMLL’s brought back the Mexican Heavyweight Championship and Tag Team Championship after the death of a dormant champion (Hector Garza, La Parka) allowed CMLL to apparently get the title declared vacant and bring in into their promotion. Both Larrosa and Sirenita are still with us at last notice; Sirenita came as leading the Ciudad Juarez lucha libre commission two years ago.
These won’t be the first women’s tag team championship in Arena Mexico though. There were CMLL-REINA Tag Team championship matches in 2011 and 2015, but the Japanese promotion belts were never a regular part of CMLL’s promotion (and REINA barely existed to make them part of their own.) It’s possible other Japanese belts were defended in the past, though none springs to mind. There’s never been CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Championship. It probably would’ve been better to make those instead of bringing back the national titles. The national titles don’t mean anything, “world title” sounds grander, and it’d be something for the occasionally Japanese visitor – or regulars like Stephanie Vaquer and Avispa Dorada – to also be eligible for. It is CMLL so it’s possible they’ll just add a second women’s tag team championship down the road.
This brings CMLL to twenty-three championships. I had twenty-two on Twitter, forgetting about the CMLL Micros championship. It does not include the men’s and women’s Universal championships, which are belt trophies. It does not include the parajes incredible tournament, the Gran Alternativa tournament, the Reyes del Aire, the Copa Junior, the Leyenda de Azul or the Leyenda de Plata, some of which don’t happen every year. CMLL can currently have thirty-three championships, and forty-one different people can win something during the year without thinking about the usual miscellaneous tournaments. It’s way past diminishing the importance of winning championships when so many people are champions at any time. The titles are not about or for the people watching the show, ti’s about pacifying wrestlers by offering them a belt instead of money or real opportunity, and letting them tell their fans and friends they’re important because they’re champion. It shouldn’t work when being a champion means so little, but CMLL people regularly bringing even more meaningless (and often bad looking) indie title belts to their matches in Arena Mexico says it absolutely does work with some people.
Host Julio Cesar Rivera stated the fans had been demanding this. That sounds unlikely, but any CMLL stream without a women’s match has people complaining in the YouTube comments, so there are likely some fans who were hoping for it. Dr. Landru suggests there’s one more national title that could be reactivated soon, without saying which one. There are five other national championships which have existed:
- Mini: last held by Mascarita Dorada; he walked out of AAA in 2007 when they were going to have him drop it to 2007. He claimed AAA still had the physical belt. Dorada & AAA are on better terms now, but AAA doesn’t use the national titles. CMLL also doesn’t seem interested in the minis title.
- Feather: an indie title mostly doing the 1980s. UWA/LLI had a world featherweight championship so this worked with that. CMLL probably would take care of the vacant lightweight title first and even then, it seems unlikely this one would return without a major change.
- Middle: A long history in EMLL, going back to the earliest days of the promotion and held by the biggest names. Like the tag titles, it moved over to AAA in the early 90s with then-champion Octagon. Octagon won it back again in 2006 but did very little with it since. CMLL would absolutely want this title back, but may not be able to get it without Octagon passing away or agreeing to it.
- Cruiser: This pre-dates the more famous WCW Cruiserweight championship, though it was mostly an indie championship. It did go through CMLL rings, showing up in Pista Arena Revolucion during the last few years of the CMLL’s since-demolished third Mexico City building. La Parka was the last champion, so the championship is vacant. It’s unclear if CMLL would care to bring it back; it’s not a title with history in Arena Mexico and it’s not a weight division they use.
- Atomicos: The only national championship created directly for AAA, coming in to existence in 1996 and defended in that promotion only. Vacant since 2009; Chessman & Psycho Circus won the titles, but it was really an angle to get over Vampiro in his then role as AAA commissioner by stripping them for cheating. The angle was never followed up on. CMLL’s dislike of booking 4v4 matches makes it a poor fit. On the other hand, CMLL doesn’t book many 2v2 matches outside of prelims and there are now three 2v2 titles.
Fredo is expecting the Middleweight title is the next one to come back. That title makes sense if CMLL get can do a deal with Octagon. CMLL hasn’t used Octagon on the last few legends matches, didn’t bring him back with they brought back forever rival Fuerza Guerrera, so the state of the relationship may not be great. Any deal between CMLL & Octagon is probably not good news for people who to avoid watching Octagon matches.
CMLL aired a special Facebook live with KeMonito to clarify his birthday is July 3rd. That’s a Friday and CMLL will honor him on that show.
Flyer & Atlantis Jr. talked about their plans for the men’s tag team tournament. They remain the prohibitive favorites in their block.
IWRG has the first Thursday Night Wrestling show tonight at 7:45 CT. The main event is Black Dragon versus Death Metal in a hair match. Every adult who gets there between 6:30 and 7:30 gets a free beer, so the crowd should be interesting. It is unclear if the show will stream.
Kenny Omega has a broken pinky finger which will not require surgery but may need a cast. Those injuries typically heal in about three weeks. That puts Omega on track to be fine for Rey de Reyes, though it’s possible it may take longer to heal if he’s wrestling through it.
On AEW last night, PAC, Fenix, and Pentagon announced they’re teaming together as Death Triangle. “Triangulo de la Muerte” has a history in Mexico, a LLI/UWA group of Kahoz, Loco Zandokan and Cuchillo, who was later replaced by Rambo. You may know Kahoz as Mephisto’s father (who seconds him in some title matches) and Rambo as the Arena Mexico lucha libre commissioner. Cuchillo was Fenix & Pentagon’s original trainer, so the Death Triangle name may be a nod to that history.
Vampiro is starting filming on a new TV show today. My impression is it is not a wrestling show, but will be on a familiar network.
+LuchaTV posted the results of their fan-voted 2019 awards. They mentioned them on the podcast but there was one they mentioned I wasn’t sure I was understanding correctly. I understood it correct. Here are the winners:
- Luchador: Bandido
- Luchadora: Dalys
- Pair: Lucha Brothers
- Trio: NGD
- Faction: NGD
- Match: Laredo Kid vs Hijo del Vikingo
- Event: TripleMania
- Tecnico: Bandido
- Rudo: LA Park
- Foreigner: Kenny Omega
- Mexican in Foreign Lands: Bandido
- Rivalry: Vengador vs Kastigador (from Queretaro)
- Surprise: Rush leaving CMLL
The Dulce Paola injury angle is giving people something to write about. El Sol de Laguna has three different articles about it today. It appears Dulce Paola and friends went to the lucha libre commission Wednesday and got into an argument with the head of the group, Arturo Zarate. Their discussion is described as heated. Paola says the commission hasn’t forced the promoter to pay and has told other promoters not to use him. The commissioner isn’t happy with Paola or the Arena Coliseo Laguna promotion, saying he’s requested documentation of what either side has paid so far in medical expenses and neither side has complied. Unhappy with the result, Paola then went to the Torreon director of sport (essentially the lucha commissioner’s boss) to ask that Zarate be removed for not taking care of his issue. Paola says the discussion with Moises Arce Daher went well, though he’d earlier said he’d go to the Mayor next and then sue everyone.
03/28 The Crash in Tijuana
- Rayman & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Pirata Morgan & Hijo del Pirata Morgan
- Zarco, Arandu, Tony Casanova vs Super Nova, Hijo del Impostor Jr., El Dragon
- Bandido, Dragon Lee, PCO vs Bestia 666, Damian 666, Mecha Wolf
- Black Danger, D-Luxe, Gelus vs Oraculo, ?, ??? – new
There were supposed to be new Puerto Rico wrestlers on the last show. The Crash’s preview doesn’t specifically say those are Oraculo’s partners, but it fits.
Lucha Talk has its latest episode.
Lineups
AAA TV (SAT) 03/28/2020 Auditorio Municipal, Torreón, Coahuila
1) Big Mami, Drago Kid, Laredo Boy vs Keyra, Látigo, Parkita Negra
2) Dulce Canela, Máscarita Sagrada, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Demus, La Hiedra, Lady Maravilla
3) Hijo de LA Park, Hijo Del Vikingo, LA Park Jr. vs Australian Suicide, Dave The Clown, Parka Negra
4) Daga © vs Rey Horus, Laredo Kid, Dinastía [AAA LA]
2nd defense
5) Fénix, Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown vs Averno, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr.
6) La Bestia Del Ring, LA Park, Rush Toro Blanco vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
Los Ingobernables versus AAA continues with Poder del Norte getting a shot. The outcome is unlikely to be better than it was for them against Psycho Circus but the match might be great. The brawls Poder del Norte had with OGT were definitely great, and there’s a chance of wildness to come.
Semi-main continues the Averno/Penta issue. Daga shows up for a title match, where Dinastia gets a shot. Laredo Kid could in-theory be unifying all the AAA men’s championships in that match. He’s currently Cruiserweight champ, so he’d just need to beat Kenny Omega at Rey de Reyes. (He’s probably not beating Kenny Omega at Rey de Reyes.) Vikingo gets some odd partners and odder opponents. Dulce Canela appears for the first time this year. Notable that Latigo is listed here and on the RIOT show the same night.
It’s strongly believed there is a 04/04 show, but AAA has not confirmed it.