Laredo Kid in AEW, Dragon Lee out of ROH’s PPV

Laredo Kid will make his AEW Dynamite debut tonight, teaming with the Lucha Brothers against the Young Bucks and Brandon Culter. Laredo previously teamed with Fenix & Penta against the Young Bucks at Kenny Omega at Fyter Fest 2019 back in June of 2019. He (and Myzteziz) joined the reality show Exatlon in September, just before Dynamite started. Mexico sources have repeated stated Laredo would’ve been on AEW again had he not gone on the TV show, but AEW hasn’t really brought his name up since and it’s still very surprising to see him. AEW’s story is Pac is out with an ankle injury and they needed a replacement partner, though it’s notable AEW went outside to grab someone instead of using one of the many people they have under contract. The story of Laredo Kid’s career is this won’t be anything more than one match no matter how good the match will be. The match is going to be really good though, so that’ll fun.

AEW tapes next week’s Dynamite on Thursday, normally. Laredo is unlikely to be on TNT for both weeks but he could be held over for an appearance on one of their Dark shows. I would like to see that happen if only to see Laredo Kid try to wrap his mind around being on the winning side of a TV enhancement match. I don’t think he can help but have a three and a half star match with a random dude.

Dragon Lee is off ROH’s PPV this Friday. (This is is bigger news than the Laredo/Dynamite stuff but I wanted to start happily for once.) Ring of Honor’s explanation is Dragon Lee needed surgery for a ruptured eardrum and was not allowed to travel. Dragon Lee posted a photo apparently from the surgery. Kenny King will now defend the TV title for Dragon Lee against Tracy Williams, and Bestia del Ring will now team with King against Tracy Williams and Rhett Titus for the tag titles. Both matches are obvious downgrades without Dragon Lee.

Dragon Lee’s ear problems were the reason he left Exatlon in 2018; at the time, he said it was a pre-existing issue and he didn’t believe it required surgery. Bestia mentioned Dragon Lee still having the issue last year, suggesting that Dragon Lee was going to have it taken care of. It’s unclear what happened to require surgery right now – assuming it’s the same ear – but it’s very unfortunate timing. The ROH PPV didn’t already feel particularly strong and now they’re much worse off.

CMLL Informa today will have Volador Jr., Bandido, Ultimo Guerrero, Terrible, Angel de Oro and Okumura. Most of those are people on Friday’s PPV. I suspect Okumura is on to talk about the calamitous fall he took on AMX last week. Terrible is not on the PPV, so there’s probably another match of his airing on TV this week. Anyway, I feel like I’m the only person in the world who cares about this CMLL PPV but maybe Volador & Bandido will get more people excited.

On a CMLL virtual media day, Furia de Titanes asked Euforia & Gran Guerrero if Ultimo Guerrero has the ability to turn everyone he touches to gold. They seem to have strongly disagreed; Euforia feels he would’ve still made something of himself in CMLL had he still be on his own. Gran Guerrero told a story about a trainee who wanted to be a luchador very badly but was firmly told by Ultimo Guerrero to stop because he didn’t have the physical ability to do it; UG can’t make someone great if they don’t already have it.  (This, at least to the wrestlers, seems to be a roundabout conversation about “are you pushed because you’re with Ultimo Guerrero?”) For his part, Ultimo Guerrero credits scouting for talent when he’s booked around and encouraging CMLL to bring in promising luchadors, while also saying it’s up to the wrestlers themselves to succeed.

MLW tonight has Mil Muertes versus Gringo Loco among other matches.

TV Azteca’s Alberto Ciurana passed away due to COVID-19 on Monday. SuperLuchas notes Ciurana was a key figure on the Azteca side in AAA’s TV deal; he had previously worked with the promotion back when they were on Televisa.

Expo Lucha took place over the weekend; you can go back and watch interviews with Cassandro and Vampiro on their YouTube channel. I also didn’t realize the Lucha Time matches they aired are actually new or at least haven’t turned up on Mas Lucha yet. I don’t believe Lucha Time even promoted these themselves. Some timestamps for those.

01:43:18 King Rex, Mr. Puma, Rey León vs Alex Black, Dragón King, Kratos
06:20:15 Origen vs Epydemius vs Toxin vs Fulgor
06:33:28 Baby Xtreme © vs Prometeo for the IWRG Intercontinental Lightweight Championship
06:44:54 Hijo De Dos Caras vs The Mummy

Xtreme/Prometeo sounds promising. The main event less so.

RIOT says their free show will disappear from YouTube after tonight. They’ve also posted a clip from the video version going up on Pivotshare; it looks much better.

A government video of Bandido, Ciclon Ramirez, and others encouraging people in Mexico City to wear facemasks at a market went viral, so they did the same thing on the subway yesterday. And on a train. An article about it mentioned most people were already masked, they had out masks to others, a few got made and some ran away when they saw the luchadors coming.

In an interview posted on Mas Lucha, Fenix talked about his time in AEW and said he’d be willing to put up his mask to get a shot at Kenny Omega and the AEW championship. This is probably just something thrown out that has no chance of actually happening. It’d be a good stip if they were ever going to have Fenix win the AEW title, but that doesn’t look particularly close to happening.

Daga was training in Florida last night. I was curious as to why he wasn’t used for the Leyenda Americana role or at all on the recent AAA TV tapings; it makes a little more sense if he’s currently in the US.

A Reforma article (reposted here) notes Mistico is one of the most expensive Mexican athletes on the Cameo-like site “famoso.com“. It costs 100 USD to get a video.

04/25 Lucha Memes Coliseo Coacalco (Chairo Kingdom 4)

Lucha Memes most recent show was added to IWTV on Monday. I think I’m going to wait for them to pile up again before taking a look.

Zona 23 created their own Hall of Fame to put Ovett in it.

Super Parka and LA Park are angry about a fake Super Parka (and fake Mini Super Parka_ wrestling in Chiapas next month.

Andrade is on the cover of Box Y Lucha 3465.

The promoter of Arena Obereros in Saltillo is upset about local rules banning children and older adults from attending. They’re allowed to have 100 of a normal 500 capacity, but it reads like they didn’t reach 100 because they were turning people away.

Lady Lee was officially named a comissioner of lucha libre in Tijauna.

Independent lucha libre comic La Mano del Destino will be published as a collection in May.

The LuchaWorld podcast return talking about Andrade and the RIOT show.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 03/28/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mexica vs El Manchas
2) Amazonika & Sussy Love vs Mary Caporal & Satania
3) Avisman & Gravity vs Karaoui & Tonalli
4) Aster Boy, Freelance, Puma de Oro vs Dick Angelo 3G, Fulgor I, Toxin
5) Apolo Estrada Jr., Canek, Ciclón Ramírez, Hijo del Fishman vs Chilango, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Sinaloa
6) Eterno vs Fresero Jr.

Back to a normal card after last week’s cage match. Eterno winning the IWRG Rey del Ring championship last week suggests he’s going to be around here more, or at least long enough to feud with Los Negociantes about it.

Apolo’s team are the mystery men in Red from recent shows. I have no idea what the deal is with the mystery people on the other side.