Caristico, Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Felino, and Tiger will appear on CMLL Informa today. CMLL’s promotional image for 12/25 Copa Junior includes Atlantis Jr., Soberano, Negro Casas, Volador, and Caristico, so pencil them into the match. CMLL has tended to give few details about their shows this far out but if you think you’re probably going to buy this show, buy it early and save yourself a couple of dollars.
Back at the end of September, I wrote a lot of CMLL luchadors who had not appeared since the start of empty arena shows. Seems a good time to update it. (I haven’t gotten to the matches airing on NJPW World but will in the next few days. We don’t know anything about the CMLL show airing on Megacable, including if it is airing unique matches.) This is a smaller list. Same categories as last time:
- midcarders: Fuego, Mascara 2000
- minis: Fantasy, Pequeno Nitro, Pequeno Universo 2000, Shockercito
- micros: Zacarias el Perico
- women: Avispa Dorada
- prelims: Apocalipsis, Principe Odin Jr. (Artillero), Halcon Suriano Jr. (Stukita)
- pending debuts/returns: Astral, Gemelo Diablos, Mascara 2000 Jr.
Halcon Suriano and Mascara 2000 are likely actually independent guys on informal deals and so aren’t a high priority to get bookings right now. Artillero, under that name, is listed on an indie show. Everyone assumed he’d leave when Super Comando did, and maybe we just guessed too soon. Avispa Dorada appeared in a video CMLL’s “wear a facemask” campaign; she’s in CMLL but not in Mexico.
Fuego may have given up. CMLL doesn’t book a lot of minis matches but it does stand out that their minis champion hasn’t been around. Apocalipsis is a guy who few notice even when he’s around, so it may not be worth his time to come back. Zacarias is a head-scratcher; the current health situation is surely less safe for people of his size but it hasn’t stopped CMLL from using the rest of the micros. (They are specifically not using seconds, which is why we haven’t seen KeMonito.) CMLL probably just introduced new people just to have something to talk about on CMLL Informa with no grand urgency on using them.
CMLL sent out a Tweet supporting famous Mistico/wrestling fan (and soccer player) Raul Jimenez, who suffered a fractured skull in a game collision. It’s nice they did that. It seems nicer than the format press releases they sed to handle their own wrestlers getting COVID but opinions may differ.
Laredo Kid versus ACH in their Opera Cup airs on MLW today. The show airs on YouTube at 6pm CT as well as on TV. I’d be more surprised if Laredo Kid won in MLW today than if he beat Kenny Omega at TripleMania; he has lost all four of his previous MLW matches.
I don’t assume AEW will mention the Omega/Laredo TripleMania match tonight. Their whole show is built around a different Omega title match, they probably shouldn’t distract from that point. It’ll be a miss if it doesn’t come up by next week though not entirely unexpected.
ROH officially announced Brody King versus Rush for the ROH Championship will take place on their 12/19 Final Battle PPV. All the ROH titles will be defended on that show; ROH’s set up a program for the tag team titles but not an obvious one yet for Dragon Lee’s TV championship or Mexisquad’s Trios championship.
They might not do it until late, if at all. I’m not sure if ROH will air an episode from their next set of tapings – taping around a week or so – before Final Battle airs. That also means that even if that’s the final taping for wrestlers with expiring contracts (Mexicans or otherwise), Final Battle might not be their final match; ROH is likely taping a lot of TV for after the PPV too and those wrestlers may continue to appear deep into January 2021.
An el Sol de Leon article about Bobby Lee tells a story that should’ve been obvious to me: his green and silver outfit was in tribute to the local soccer team. Bobby Lee was such a fan that once, after he was retired, he offered to be a vendor at one of their games when he couldn’t get a ticket. He didn’t actually sell any items, he just snuck to his usual seat and watched the game.
Fly Star is coming back out of retirement (again) as the super luchador in Lucha Libre Boom’s multiman apuesta match. There’s been a lot of useless Spanish language articles about Pirata Morgan explaining match outcomes are fixed – something every single person writing the article knows to be true but desperately wants to write about how a luchador says it is false anyway – and how terrible it is for wrestling. Fly Star retiring and then unretiring for a potential payday shows lucha libre as fake more than any Pirata Morgan speech. If this was a real combat sport, no one would be trusting Fly Star to actually come back and come back in a decent state of mind. There are twelve people in the match so Fly Star’s probably not losing and he’s probably wrestling plenty of times in 2021.
GALLI has Aeroboy vs Arez vs Gringo Loco vs Gino Medina on Sunday. I think that’s streaming online for free. Arez is apparently in the US for the next stretch, which would be exciting news if not for the national health emergency that has pretty much ended indie wrestling.
Speaking of, Lucha Memes says they’re running the US on January 22. This is probably part of the previously announced tie-up with Martinez Entertainment. An international promotion running in the US in the middle of a national medical emergency is just checking off a box to say they did it. It isn’t really accomplishing much for US promotions and will do less for a foreign one.
Aerostar & Drago are among the working a show in Texas (near Dallas) on 12/12, so they’re definitely out for TripleMania. There was a fair chance they were meant to have a mask match at TripleMania at one point.
The most recent Vanguardia show, which was originally announced as Mas Lucha Premium show, is now a donation-based show streaming Sunday night.
Arena Guatemala Mexico says they’re re-opening for a limited audience show on Christmas. That’s a weekly venue that hasn’t run since March. COVID cases in Guatemala seem relatively stable.
Mas Lucha has a new episode of the their En+carados videocast.
A new Vampiro interview has been added to the Highspots Wrestling Network. I heard it’s entertaining.
Lineups
Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 12/05/2020 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Guerrero Olímpico & Karma I vs Chris Stone Jr. & Furor
2) Puma de Oro vs Torito Negro
3) Apolo Estrada Jr. vs Black Terry
4) Atomic Star, Fulgor I, Ovett vs Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal, Rock Power
5) Toxin vs Baby Extreme
6) Centvrión & Fuerza Guerrera NG vs Hijo Del Espectro Jr. & The Mummy and Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr.
Another one of those MexaWrestling shows where some of the matches look like maybe they could be good but nothing is for certain and there’s no obvious direction. The one notable change is MexaWrestling says they’re limiting tickets to 200 people. They’ve seemed to have much more than that in recent shows in this building.
IWRG (SUN) 12/06/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Ovaciones]
1) Baby Star & Mexica vs Dick Angelo 3G & Sobredosis
2) Baby Xtreme vs Puma de Oro [IWRG IC Light]
3) Toxin © vs The Tiger [IWRG MEXICO]
4) Jessy Ventura & Pasion Cristal vs Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. [IWRG IC TAG, final]
5) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo Del Espectro Jr. vs Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Puma King
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Capo Mayor [hair]
This is the annual 58th anniversary of Moreno promotions. Adolfo Moreno ran wrestling shows in Mexico State for many years before Arena Naucalpan or IWRG was even a name. They’ll also be honoring Gran Hamada on the show. This is a Mas Lucha Premium show. They’ve been consistent on keeping the more well-known bloggers from putting up their version of subscribers-only shows (more effective than I would’ve guess), but there are always alternatives.
The main event is a rematch of the mask match from TripleMania XX, where the former Mascara 2000 Jr. served as a big guy with a mask who’d lose it. (He appeared on no other TripleMania.) Wagner was the heavy favorite back in 2012 and may be an even bigger favorite in 2020. They needed a lot of smoke and mirrors to make that match good eight years ago and will likely do the same again.
Ventura & Cristal seem like the favorite to get the tag team title shot based on the run of victories. Toxin and the Tiger are repeating the same program Toxin with Puma de Oro. Toxin won that time. Baby Xtreme seems the slight favorite in the tournament final.
Where’s Ivan??? How about all the old men refs? The Roshfrans edecanes? The barber? Fugaz? Will Star Black ever get a chance? So many questions.
Zacarias wrestled on 16/10 (Friday show)
Thanks. Did a search for “Zacarias” and not “Zakarias”, foiled by my own system.
If either Parka Negra or Dave the Clown gets rebranded as one of the Marvel luchadors, I think we’ll know who was supposed to be losing that mask match coming out of the tag tournament that didn’t happen.