Month: April 2021

Well. It wasn’t a complete mess. If only because we were expecting one.

Federacion Wrestling introduced themselves with about a half-hour video, as notable for the obvious audio glitches as the announcement made. Journalists were invited to a Zoom session which they believed was to ask questions, but instead sat around and watched the same video as everyone else. The video aired late despite being taped and produced in advance. The climax was the surprise reveal of Andrade, cutting his first promo for Mexican audiences – only no one could hear it at all because the sound wasn’t working.

It’s a “third brand” Mexican promotion, this is all living up to expectations. Mas Lucha, hosting the stream, re-uploaded the Andrade promo with the correct sound. The poster, which misspells Rey Fenix’s name and appears to have the women’s match incorrect, will be eventually re-issued (probably.) The PPV website, which currently directs Paypal payments to a bizarre email address *, will be improved. All of those later fixes won’t change the first impression: Federacion Wrestling is indeed another in the line of Nacion Lucha Libre, ELITE, and others who’ve hyped themselves as a new national alternative and are clearly not prepared for the role. This bit has happened so often that I’m not sure anyone watching the video was surprised – there have been so many of these to be goofball promotions, but Federacion is definitely spending a lot of money to be a goofball promotion.

The PPV will cost about $20 USD. The lineup, at least as expressed on the video

FW (SAT) 06/19/2021 unknown location, unknown state
1) Brillante Jr. & Futuro vs Barabas & Shoko
2) Rey Horus vs Flamita, vs ?
3) ?, Red Velvet, Tay Conti vs Ayako Hamada, Miranda Alize, Zeuxis
4) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 [Copa Federacion Wrestling]
5) Bandido & Dragón Lee vs Fénix & Pentagón Jr.
6) ?, Andrade, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush vs ???, ????, Matt Taven, PJ Black

No location was announced, outside of repeated references to wrestlers being back in Mexico for the first time in a long time. No live tickets appear to be sold; this appears closed door. It seems like a show that’d actually be easier to do in the US – what’s the point of flying Matt Taven to Mexico to have him wrestle in an empty sound stage – but contracts might prevent that.)

There’s a lot of mystery people. The idea is some of them will be announced as time goes by, which is a good strategy to keep in mind when there’s no TV or no other obvious way to keep up interest up in those shows. No additional CMLL names were announced; I suspect the idea is they’re intended to fill those spots but Andrade was enough to announce on day 1.

Bandido & Dragon Lee versus Fenix & Pentagon Jr. is a great match, is enough to get people wanting to check this show out. Andrade turning up in Mexico may still have interest six weeks from now. The rest of the show should be good but isn’t really PPV matches. No one’s dying to see Andrade & Rush in a mid-feud atomicos match against Matt Taven. Tay Conti has a fanbase but I’m not sure they’re going to jump to see her in a random trios when she’s on AEW often. Rey Horus vs Flamita vs whoever should be strong but it’s also treated as just a second match. The 20 person match with no names announced sounds most worrisome; it seems to exist to just get everyone’s friend’s, which is not exactly the approach someone seriously getting a serious promotion off the ground. (AEW did something similar, did book a lot of friends, but at least had some names to announce.) We have to just accept a serious thing getting off the ground, just getting paid.

I wonder if Brillante Jr. is going to be Andrade’s +1 going forward.

The video introduced a character named Damiana Vicenzoa (La Patrona) as the storyline CEO of the company. The actual owners of Federacion Wrestling were never named or introduced. Vicenzoa looks vaguely like Rush’s wife but is not her. It’s also not a real name and no one seemed to recognize her.

Perhaps the big takeaway? If CMLL would’ve waited a few days, they might have seen this and realized they didn’t have much to be upset about.

Federacion Wrestling told viewers to watch their social media for more information. While their Facebook did link to the introductory video, only the Andrade trailer made it to YouTube, and their Twitter has stopped being updated. Follow Mas Lucha instead, I guess.

(* I think the email address was a placeholder and the people behind are such a crypto enthusiasts they didn’t think to test to see if Paypal was working correctly beforehand. Though that means any tickets bought day 1 is sending money to the wrong person. It wasn’t Federacion who created the story; they seem to have asked outside people to create a webstore business on short notice – they say four days on their Facebook account – and this show is the very first thing they’re selling. It raises questions about why Federacion didn’t have it done earlier or use the hundreds of other sites that already had a functioning webstore. The story wrestlers are telling around Federacion is it’s backed by a wealthy concert promoter, but one of those would presumably already have plenty of ways to sell physical and digital tickets and not need someone new to the business to create one on short notice. Doesn’t add up.)

Federacion Wrestling 

Federacion Wrestling’s debut press conference is today at 5pm CT. They say they’re streaming it on their new YouTube channel, and I’m sure all the media who are covering it will stream it too. I’ll be writing about it on Twitter, and then try to come back with another post later.

no COVID change in Mexico City 

Mexico City remains in Orange health code with the idea that lesser restrictions of Yellow is just around the corner, same as last week. The suggestion has been Mexico City could reach Yellow as soon as next week, which would allow lucha libre shows to have fans legally in Mexico City. No one knows for sure. Angel de Oro & Terrible were doing CMLL virtual press this week and Terrible said he believed CMLL were six weeks away from getting fans. That seems a long time to me but Terrible actually lives in Mexico City and I’m just a person reading about it.

Rey de Reyes

Rey de Reyes is airing at 7 pm on Saturday on Space; they’re airing part of TripleMania prior to it, so it’ll be a long block of AAA. Nothing really new to report as far as news. The lineup remains the same, no hints about the mystery people. We still actually don’t know where it’s being held; usually by now at least Hugo will have given it away.

My big guess is the mystery woman wins the Reina de Reinas; I’ll go as far as guess it’ll be obvious they’re winning when they’re revealed. I’ll go with Taurus winning the Latin American championship not from any knowledge but because Taurus is very good so why not give him a belt. The Rey de Reyes sword should probably go to whoever is going to challenge Omega next; if that’s Vikingo, then VIkingo needs to win.

I’ll probably be passing along a stream for Rey de Reyes but please don’t ask me what the link will be until Saturday because it may change before then. I’ll be linking to it on Twitter like every other time, so you don’t even really have to ask. If you are someone in Mexico who has an Izzi log-in they’re willing to share (so I can just go the TNT Mexico/Space’s website and stream it myself off there), please let me know. I looked around at Izzi or a Mexico equivalent of YouTube TV and haven’t been able to find one, but I guess that shows I’d willing to pay to get this done. There will likely be a stream anyway but I’d exchange money for reducing the hoops.

Psycho Clown would like his main event surprise opponent to be Andrade. It’s probably not going to be Andrade. It’s good to do surprises, it would be unsound to pay what it’ll take to get Andrade to work a match and not heavily advertise it ahead of time. Psycho Clown also told the press that his eye is doing better and he will not need to wear an eye patch on Saturday. That same article mentions former heavyweight boxing champion Andy Ruiz will be fighting on a show starting at 9:30 pm, which suggests AAA probably is going to want to finish by then.

Konnan, at the tail end of his podcast, noted that Rey de Reyes can’t be seen live because of geoblocking but that it would be available in the US in two weeks. I can’t make sense of that but Konnan knows things we don’t know.

AAA previously mentioned they’d start putting up unaired matches from this year’s tapings starting this weekend on YouTube. I haven’t seen that come up with any more detail but it may be worth keeping an eye out (if you have access to AAA’s YouTube.)

CMLL Copa Dinastia 

CMLL announced the full field for Copa Dinastia, taking place on May 28th.

• Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.
• Volador Jr. & Flyer
• Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero
• Sanson & Cuatrero
• Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro
• Los Gemelo Diablos
• Felino & Felino Jr.
• Blue Panther Jr. & Black Panther

An eight-team tournament means either only 1-2 other matches on the show or very short matches to fit it in. The Ticketmaster shows generally have been going longer than the average CMLL Friday night show – last week’s was about 2 hours and 30 minutes – but there are limits to everything. CMLL believes these tournaments are a special event; they have numbers on how well these are doing so maybe they’re right, but they haven’t come off that way so far.

Atlantis wrestling up to three matches seems like a specifically poor idea; he’s been treated like normal already. It’s not particularly hard to figure out which four families are likely to advance (the first four on that list), though it could be any one of those four to win.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter cites Joe Koff saying Ring of Honor and CMLL did talk before CMLL issued their breakup notice. It definitely came as a surprise to ROH people I talked to; maybe ROH just did a good job of keeping those conversations very quiet and restricted to a few.

No TV lineups for most of CMLL’s shows as of Friday afternoon. These shows are all taped, recorded, and likely edited a while ago. Somewhere along the chain, someone’s just decided they’re not a priority to get done. It feels like the social media team (or press department) because the YouTube listing hasn’t been updated in a month even though it’s the simplest one (it’s the show that aired on Televisa a week prior), but the bigger point is CMLL seems to believe it doesn’t matter which matches they’re showing. They’re likely caused that to be correct.

04/30 CMLL AMX

• Diamond vs Magia Balnca
• Okumura vs Polvora
• Volador Jr., Titan, Star Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero, Templario, Negro Casas

All appear to be new matches.

Satanico announced CMLL’s Guadalajara gym will re-open on Monday, with wrestling classes for kids as young as 10.

Alberto 

Alberto el Patron did an interview with Hugo Savinovich of Lucha Libre Online yesterday, focusing on telling his side of the story of his domestic violence accusations as well as explaining plans for Nacion Lucha Libre. Alberto would like people to stop treating him like a criminal because he was never convicted on any charges. The subtext is he’d like fans to stop complaining to promoters and other wrestlers about working with him because it’s costing him money.

None of what Alberto said is likely to change anything. Indie lucha libre promoters are going to book him because he was once a draw and can be a charming person, and most American fans are going to dislike Alberto and be angry at anyone who works with him. Alberto’s hope is to make himself less radioactive through and give the people who book him some talking points.

Alberto’s key relationship points (which don’t sound greatly positive)

• Alberto said he and WWE’s Paige agreed to a one million non-disclosure agreement when they broke up, only for him to find out there was no way Paige would ever be able to pay that amount if Alberto sued – she owned no house, no car, and “only had $70,000 in the bank.” Alberto feels Paige has broken that agreement (by alleging spousal abuse) but Alberto can’t tell his side of the story because he doesn’t want to forfeit the money that he’s saving for his children.
• Alberto admitted to cheating on his most recent wife in their house – it sounds like she walked in on the act – and claims the allegations of kidnapping and sexual abuse were fabricated as revenge for that act.

Alberto stated he was cleared of all charges; he’s actually listed as going to trial Monday on the last of the charges. The accuser, his ex-wife, has indeed recanting making it unlikely anything will come off the charges. It does make for weird timing; I suspect Alberto’s reasons for doing this interview now has to do with some immediate issue getting this show to happen – or maybe Andrade getting cold feet about it.

Alberto also said the return Nacion Lucha Libre was 100% confirmed while noting he’s going to a meeting Friday to work out the final details for the show in McAllen, Texas. The previous “season” of Nacion Lucha Libre lasted from July 2019 to December 2019, more notable for the amount of people who complained, publically and privately, that the promotion had stiffed them on pay. It’s been a year, it’s been a bad year, people just want to get paid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are upset people out there looking for their owed money.

Alberto was also positive about WWE, explaining his success versus others in the promotion as due to his superior abilities and talent. It reads like a person hoping that he gets called back to be WWE’s next Latin American star.

Alberto is also advertised for a show on June 10 in Brownsville, Texas. It seems like he’s trying to get booked a lot more this summer and he’ll be yet another depressing thing about lucha libre that fans are just expected to deal with while trying to maintain their interest. It’s not great!

Other News

Today is Kid’s Day in Mexico. It also feels like the opening day for a lot of small lucha libre promoters. Not every locale is open for lucha libre shows, but those even with the door open a crack likely have someone (or someones) trying to run. It’s still not going to be the volume of years past, yet it’s probably going to be the busiest day and weekend in number of shows since the start of the pandemic. If I divided posters up into “shows everyone knows about”, “shows only diehard lucha fans knows about”, and “shows no one outside that town would remember existed if I didn’t type in the poster”, it’s that last category that’s seen exponential growth recent peaking to this weekend. I hope that’s the only thing that grows exponentially this weekend.

Dulce Garcia (ex-Sexy Star) has an MMA match late tonight on Combate Global (ex-Combates America), as noted by SuperLuchas. The show airs at 12:30 AM on Univision and TUDN in Mexico. Garcia, 2-0, faces Claudia Diaz, who is 0-2. No one Garcia has faced has ever won a match before or after facing her.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter explained Daga gave up the AAA Latin American Championship because he’s establishing residency in the US for legal purposes. He has to say in the US for six consecutive months to do so. Amazingly, this is the second time that exact thing has caused a champion to give up the AAA Latin American title; Blue Demon also gave it up in 2014 in what was said to be a similar situation at the time.  Vacated the title now still seems weird call by AAA – it’s not like they’ve been in any hurry to do something with that title belt (or Daga) for a while, they could just wait the time out as they’ve already been doing. Maybe there’s some pendulum swing to get some of the belts back in circulation after mostly having them on foreigners who can’t come to Mexico (to AAA can’t afford to bring to Mexico without tickets.) The WON story says AAA still expects Daga back later, though they are under the impression he’s signing a US deal. It’s not said in the story, but if Daga really is planning on coming back to AAA, he (& Tessa) have to be going to ROH or AEW. WWE is not going to allow Daga to return to AAA and it seems unlikely they’d return to Impact given Tessa’s bad breakup.

Speaking of weird things with AAA titles. AAW will have Laredo Kid versus Lio Rush on their 05/07 show. That’s a rematch of the MLW match for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship which AAA decided to later ignore. AAA does not acknowledge outside bookings typically so they’re not going to mention this one, but of course it would be a funny idea of their cruiserweight title was on the line here.

El Mesias announced he’d won the legal rights to use that name in Mexico. AAA had trademarked “Ricky Banderas el Mesias” previously. The online IMPI trademark database still shows AAA having those rights and Glibert Comse’s own trademark still pending, but I’m not sure of the lag between when those may be granted and the database being updated. Mesias, by any name, has not wrestled much in Mexico during the pandemic. He’s worked for MLW as Mil Muertes; the MMM show podcast reminded me recently that the deal there is Muertes/Cosme licensed that character from LU and is supposed to have the rights to use it wherever as long as he pays Lucha Libre FMV their licensing fee. (As they also pointed out, only Cosme and Lucha Libre FMV know if he’s still paying that fee or if Lucha Libre FMV is paying enough to know he’s still using it.)

Box y Lucha Reports Vaquero/Praciticante (Johnny Navarro) passed away on Tuesday. (It’s spelled Jhonny Navarro on the luchawiki, which is the more typical Mexico spelling of that first name.) He’s the uncle of Texano, Box Y Lucha reads like he mostly wrestled locally on the west coast. The note we had on the luchawiki was that he wrestled in the 60s and Texano’s name was inspired by his uncle.

Kidscreen has a piece on the number of lucha libre themed kid’s show in development:

• Ultra Violet & Blue Demon, the Disney show
• a Rey Mysterio animated project for Cartoon Network Latin America
• Super-Luchas, an animated project
• All-Star Champions, an animated take on a series of comic books
• a yet to be named show from Demente Animation and the Masked Republic

Only the first two have announced destinations so far. Those talked to about the article believe the numbers are because lucha libre is something kids think is cool and there’s a demand for shows appealing to the latino audiences,

Dragon Lee is listed as wrestling on a KAOZ show on May 22nd. He’s not been seen in the ring since missing a ROH PPV due to his lingering ear issues. ROH likely has another batch of tapings in May; not sure what date but seems a decent chance he’ll return there first.

Warrior Wrestling (Chicago) announced they’re adding a Lucha Libre championship, with Laredo Kid, Golden Dragon, Aramis, Gringo Loco, Arez, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Dragon Bane, and Black Taurus in the match to decide it on June 5th.

The Rock y Lucha streaming show originally scheduled for last December 27 will now take place on June 10th. This is an AAA-adjacent show through Ticketmaster for about $8 USD and it’ll also now be a drive-in show. The listed lineup remains the same, though I have reason to suspect at least one of those matches will change. There was some novelty to it when AAA was unable to run much at that point, but now it seems just like a random AAA paid show when AAA’s doing weekly random free shows. The show seems like it’s using AAA wrestlers but AAA themselves aren’t promoting it, so I’m not expecting them to mention it.

LuchaWorld has the lates Lucha Report.

CMLL announced Tuesday that their alliance with Ring of Honor had come to an end. CMLL said they’d focus on continuing to provide the best lucha libre in the world and thanked Ring of Honor for their work together since 2016.

Ring of Honor, as of Wednesday morning, has said nothing. A source indicates Ring of Honor found out about CMLL’s decision on social media, the same as everyone else, and were caught off guard by the announcement.

ROH and CMLL’s relationship was a friendship of convenience. NJPW worked with both promotions individually and pushed them to work together as well. Neither side seemed at all familiar with the other group at first; ROH seemed to learn more about CMLL than CMLL seemed to figure out ROH. The relationship was a new path for CMLL to bring in foreign talent, most notably Matt Taven but others as well for events like the Gran Prix. CMLL wrestlers appeared in Ring of Honor; Dragon Lee seemed to make the most appearances before he was signed, though that might have been more due to his NJPW connection. Ring of Honor ran one combined ROH/CMLL tour in September 2019, “Global Wars Especatular“; it appeared a replacement for the usual ROH/NJPW Global Wars tour and didn’t draw nearly as well those had, though it did show some commitment to the relationship.

The fraying of that relationship seems to go back to Rush winning the ROH World Championship a few weeks after that tour, then announcing on social media that he was going to be in ROH primarily and was leaving CMLL. CMLL responded by publically firing both Rush and Dragon Lee, who had not planned to leave but had worked PWG shows after being ordered to pass on them. CMLL additionally wanted their partners NJPW and ROH to punish the Munoz brothers and not allow them to use their CMLL names. NJPW wasn’t using Rush anyway, did change Dragon Lee to Ryu Lee but that’s as far as it went. ROH wasn’t going to punish their new World champion. Ultimo Guerrero did appear on ROH shows past that point. ROH’s Flip Gordon was scheduled to appear on the 2020 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show before that show got indefinitely postponed, so they were still working together pre-pandemic

As best as anyone can tell, Matt Taven being announced for the Federacion Wrestling June PPV caused CMLL to suddenly make the call announced they were done with Ring of Honor. Between Taven, Rush, Dragon Lee, Bestia del Ring, Bandido, and now Rey Horus announced, there’s a lot of Ring of Honor wrestlers announced for that show. CMLL may have blamed ROH, even though it doesn’t seem like ROH has anything to do with the show – these are just friends of Rush working a show with him. This move also seems like an impulse decision; it follows both the Rush/Dragon Lee separation and the recent Bandido dismissal as sudden news events made with no warning to the other affected parties (or thought about how it’s going to make CMLL look to their fans.)

I don’t think this affects ROH deeply; they seemed to want to grow the CMLL relationship, but it hadn’t reached a point where it was critical to their success. (Losing the NJPW relationship would a bigger deal to them, but I don’t think losing CMLL costs them NJPW.) ROH’s had greater success in signing Mexican wrestlers directly – Rush, Dragon Lee, and Bandido have particularly been assets to the promotion. My guess is ROH might have held back from bringing in more Mexican indie wrestlers out of deference to CMLL, and there’s now an opening for other luchadors to get a look.

Rush posted a goodbye to CMLL a second time with a photo of him wearing the Ring of Honor belt. Matt Taven seems to have not said anything; he’s not even promoted the Federacion appearance, though he was talking about wanting to go back to CMLL just ten days ago.

The next Federacion Wrestling story moved to Diamante Azul, who was identified as one of the shadows on their teasers. Those bits are sometimes intentionally misleading – I will never forget the time someone used a silhouette of Sexy Star to tease the debut of Big Mami in AAA – but Diamante Azul also removed mentions of CMLL on his Instagram bio and listed himself as an independent. That got noticed on Tuesday; by Wednesday, he’d removed the independent line. (He has not added back CMLL or fixed the spelling of “NWJP” yet) Azul has also vaguely posted about things ending and beginning and hinted at things on his series of YouTube videos. Diamante Azul is a close Rush friend and so likely has a spot in Federacion Wrestling waiting for him if he should want it. At the same time, Diamante Azul also posted that he’ll be wrestling in CMLL’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on Friday. Wait and see, I guess, but the people who pay attention to Azul seem pretty sure he’s leaving CMLL.

Not that any title seems to mean anything in CMLL, but Diamante Azul is the current Mexican heavyweight champion. That was the title CMLL only (relatively) recently brought back, and it’s one that Azul could keep if he left the promotion. It’s sanctioned by the commission, not CMLL.

Random legal note that may or may mean anything in the next few days. (Not being coy, just don’t know.) The Diamante Azul gimmick is a CMLL creation – they came up with the look to evoke the image and name of Blue Demon without getting violating his trademarks. CMLL did file their own trademarks, as they’ve generally done for new characters and top wrestlers since around 2011. However, those trademarks generally were filled directly under Paco Alonso’s name, not as CMLL corporate policy or the general Lutteroth family. This always seemed really odd but didn’t seem to be accidental. When Sofia Alonso took over CMLL in 2019, she re-filled for many of those trademarks, also in her own name instead of CMLL. If you look up in IMPI online search for “Diamante Azul” trademarks, Paco Alonso and Sofia Alonso are listed as those who filed the trademarks, not by the Luttertoths’ who currently operate CMLL. (Most of them seem to be stuck in a status of filed but never approved for unclear reasons.) It reads like Diamante Azul can keep being Diamante Azul elsewhere if Sofia Alonso permits it and CMLL is powerless to stop it, though I’m far from a Mexican legal expert and I have no idea how it would hold up. Diamante Azul is not the only wrestler in this situation; the Lutteroths filed their own trademarks for “CMLL”, logos and other items, but the wrestler names generally seem to be an oversight. Diamante Azul might also better decide to be take a name he owns to be free from issues going forward

Federacion Wrestling’s press conference is Friday – except, there’s no indication of when Friday. The people behind Federacion Wrestling haven’t stepped forward, but the talk is it’s a concert promoter moving into wrestling for the first time. What they’re doing sort of makes sense for a concert promoter – why not run a festival with all the biggest names available – but I’m skeptical it’ll work for wrestling. It’s already clear it doesn’t need to work to cause other people to make moves.

AAA Rey de Reyes Lineup

This is a five-match card.

AAA TV (SAT) 05/01/2021 unknown location, unknown state
1) Dinastía vs Toxin, Aramis, Látigo, Arez
2) Octagón Jr. vs Taurus, ? [AAA LA]
vacant title
3) Faby Apache vs Lady Shani, Flammer, Chik Tormenta, Lady Maravilla, ? [Reina De Reinas]
vacant title
4) Laredo Kid vs Texano Jr., Murder Clown, Aerostar, Drago, Abismo Negro Jr., Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. [Rey de Reyes]
5) Pagano & Psycho Clown vs ? & Chessman

Matches 1/3/5 are new (and I’m guessing at the card order.) Space has four and half hours blocked off for this show, though the card is clearly not going that. This thing card is probably another product of pandemic economics and no tickets to sell.

This is the full card, though it doesn’t feel full without knowing who will be in those three mystery spots. It is possible some of those spots were hoped to be foreign wrestlers and that’s not currently possible; I would keep expectations in check as always with AAA surprises. The main event seems fine, though also the same sort of match we could’ve seen at AutoLuchas; it doesn’t feel like a big show main event. The rest of card is taking care of some of the dangling title issues; it’s not as great as feuds actually progressing, but it’s something.

La Hiedra, Big Mami, and Hades are noticeably missing from the Reina de Reinas match. I wouldn’t have guessed Mami or Hades to win, but Hiedra seems like she’d be a reasonable choice if she was included. There’s no indication her missing this match is related to the recent allegations against her and her brother. It’s always possible she wasn’t planned to win so they just gave her the weekend off, because a lot of people seem to be getting the weekend off. I have a sneaking suspicion something weird is going to happen with the mystery woman in this match.

Toxin makes his first appearance since pre-pandemic in the oepner. It doesn’t seem like those guys are progressing towards anything in AAA but I’m not sure I mine as long as they have good matches. That should be a pretty good match.

The Twitch stream that was broadcasting Space seems to be off-line permanently. There is a different Twitch stream. It’s not hard to find, but I’m leery about putting it out there before Saturday to risk it getting taken down before then. The people doing these Twitch streams aren’t doing them for AAA, they’re doing them because they embed them in pages with a billon of ugly/invasive/possible malware ads. Giving a direct link to the video messy with their business model and discourages them from continuing to do it. I’m not sure I care about their business model but I do want to avoid antagonizing them before Sunday.

Other News

Grafico interviews Silueta about her ruda turn in Guadalajara. Her match with Mystique last night ended in DQ when local luchadora Soberbia interfered.

CMLL has Terrible, Cuatrero, Princesa Sugehit, Felino Jr. and Los Cancerberos del Infierno on as guests. Cuatrero and Felino might be there to announce their involvement in Copa Dinastia.

CMLL posted a series of Salvador Lutteroth Camou (Salvador II) talking about the history of Arena Mexico. There’s talk about the opening, ghost stories, and wrestlers. This was not well-timed to roll out right after the ROH announcement.

Atlantis, in his media tour last week, said he’s accomplished more than Blue Demon & El Santo. Atlantis has not accomplished more than Blue Demon or El Santo but good on him in believing in himself.

I feel like I’m getting into something on a daily basis on Twitter lately. It’s not great! It’s often something I could’ve avoided. I know enough to know that, at the moment, the best tweets you can do are ones where you barely say anything at all, or you just repeat what someone else said or you say nothing and let the people fill in the blanks. Letting people fill in those blanks can absolutely backfire too though. I was noticing other people posting photos of wrestlers who had won multiple championships in celebration of Kenny Omega becoming a four-belt champion. Those photos did not include Mexican wrestlers, as always, so I decided to put up the photo of Mascara Dorada as a four-belt champion with a pithy comment. Mark Jindrak understood that as yet another complaint about Mascara Dorada’s usage in WWE, and fairly claimed that Dorada wasn’t making a 100 USD a match in CMLL when he had all those belts. He also wrote AAA, when he was working there, would actually use the belts as an excuse to pay people less (to the point where they couldn’t afford a 12 pack to celebrate after a win.) The AAA & CMLL wrestler pay scale isn’t great, and Jindrak was working in CMLL & AAA at a lot better time than right now.

(For my part, I’ve reasonably given up on Gran Metalik ever being pushed in WWE or Metalik caring about it – it’s not happening, everyone understands it. It is fun to joke about on Twitter from time to time.)

Alberto el Patron, appearing on a California show, said he would be wrestling Andrade in McAllen, Texas in June or July. He did not name a promotion; my guess it’s Salinas Promotions backing it as they run McAllen with names most often, though it appears to be a Nacion Lucha branded Libre event based on Andrade screenshot. Mas Lucha says the match will actually be Alberto, Andrade and Carlito on July 31st in a triangle match, which makes sense in giving them someone who will actually take a pin. They write Blue Demon Jr., Cinta de Oro, Kalisto/Samuray del Sol, and Toscano are also booked for the show.

Alberto and Andrade appeared to be friends in their WWE days – Alberto told a story about convincing Andrade to stay in WWE at one point – but Alberto is a rightfully loathed individual for his multiple allegations of partner abuse. (Alberto continues to deny those allegations.) Alberto still occasionally gets booked on US lucha libre shows, as they’ve got enough money to pay for Alberto and those promotions tend to care nothing about out of the ring. Andrade seems like a guy planning on wrestling everywhere and anyone working with Alberto at this point is going to be treated as condoning his destructive behavior. It’s a bad reading of the room.

On the same note, Roberto Figueroa teased an Andrade & Cinta de Oro vs Alberto el Patron & Hijo de Dos Caras match for Monterrey during the summer. Figueroa also mentioned he’s going to Alberto’s place to film a video this weekend, so we’re probably getting the 8th iteration of “Alberto talks to friendly press about how he’s really a good guy who’s just been horribly mistreated by the mean press.” That bit stopped working a while ago but they’re going to keep trying it.

Rey Bucanero is running a PPV Saturday with Demonio Infernal versus Hijo del Pirata Morgan for a random championship. The PPV page, last I checked, is not set up to sell tickets for the show, so I can’t tell you how much it costs. This seems like an easier set-up than most of these efforts, but most of these efforts offering the same level of matches that can be seen for free haven’t been working and I’m not sure why people are still trying this a year plus into the pandemic. Mas Lucha had Rey Bucanero on En+Carados for a while to talk about the show, though it meant an awkward transition from talking about a show you could pay for to or you could watch Rey de Reyes on cable for free.

Houston group LokoWrestling says Psycho Clown was pulled off their May 22nd show due to an AAA date. AAA hasn’t announced anything for May 22nd, though it would fit if they’re sending people out to spot shows again. Ultimo Guerrero is the replacement.

Lucha Memes next show will be May 30th.

CMLL , Ticketmaster (SAT) 04/24/2021 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Chamuel & Gallito b Microman & Perico Zakarías [Relevos Increíbles]
15:09. (One fall)
2) Dalys & La Jarochita b Amapola & Marcela [Relevos Increíbles]
16:23. (One fall) Both teams had slight issues at the end.
3) Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus b Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr., Stuka Jr. [MEX TRIOS, final]
22:10 [7:56, 4:04, 10:10] Los Cancerberos take 1/3, are the 41st champions.
4) Carístico & Místico © b Ángel de Oro & Terrible [CMLL TAG]
30:43 [9:00, 5:07, 16:36]. Mistico & Caristico took 1/3 for their 4th defense.
5) Atlantis, Euforia, Volador Jr. b Bárbaro Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
14:50 [8:21, 2:32, 3:57]. Team Atlantis took 1/3, the last when Atlantis got Guerrero in La Atlantida.

Atlantis was never going to look like even 2015 Atlantis. He’s closing in on 60, he’s suffered a significant knee injury, Atlantis was always going to look old because he is old. He wouldn’t have been out of place at the annual legend’s show, maybe better than average on those. Atlantis also had a slight limp by the end of the match and needed to hold onto the ropes to stay up. I think whatever surgery/rehab Atlantis has done in the last year and a half has helped him physically, though not to the point where he is going to contribute to having good matches again. Mexican wrestlers keep going for a long time, because it’s the promoters who are the last to lose interest in them, and so Atlantis can probably keep wrestling as long as he wants. I just hope he doesn’t undo the work he’s done to repair himself.

The trios title match was the best match of the show, the one match I’d suggest tracking down to watch if such a thing was actually possible for a CMLL PPV. Both teams were super motivated to make something special from the occasion and did so. There was a moment midway through where Star Jr. slipped on a springboard – he landed fine on the apron, match kept going, but it was a moment where Raziel might have shown up a youngster if this was a normal Tuesday match. Instead, he took it in stride and just moved on. It does give some hope that, if more CMLL wrestlers got opportunities to do something they felt was meaningful, you’d probably get good performances out of them. There were fresh ideas and good energy on both sides, with the makeshift tecnico team clearly having put in thought about what they could do together as a trio. Los Cancerberos were one of the groups who performed over CMLL expectations in the Aniversario poll, then got the best match out of NGD anyone has it in a while, so it’s nice to see them rewarded. It’s impossible to know if/when CMLL will have someone defend a title, but this seems to set up good trios title matches in the future whenever they do happen.

The tag title match was the opposite; just slowly playing the hits over a much too long match. They had about fifteen minutes of ideas and made it go twice as long. CMLL may have believed they’d have fans back for this show and fans hating the Nuevo Ingobernables and cheering the Misticos might have covered up the weaknesses. It was just a cold match in an empty arena. Mistico either came in with hurt ribs or got hurt early on, which didn’t help the situation.

I didn’t catch any explanation for why the first two matches were one fall. Many people would like to see CMLL go all one fall matches. It didn’t seem to help the matches here; it messed with my perception of how the matches were going because I was waiting for a fall break that didn’t happen. Going that long didn’t help the micros, who had one of their weakest matches.

I’m going below average, ok, great, ok I guess, ok as my ratings. The trios title match was worth the early discounted price of $8 USD, but this show otherwise wasn’t much. It was meant to just be a glimpse of Atlantis and that’s what it was.

Terrible, Princesa Sugehit, Virus, and KeMonito received Copa Bobby Bonales awards. They all seemed pleased, They may be on Informa to talk about it this week. Salvador Lutteroth III appeared with Daniel Aceves; it’s possible to chart the changes in CMLL by which person is there over the last three Copa Bobby Bonales presentations. I believe it was Sofia Alonso last time, back in 2019, and Panico prior to that. The common thread is CMLL treats Daniel Aceves as a very important person when he appears, and likely even more so as a government sports official at a time when CMLL is much in need of support for the government.

The next CMLL Ticketmaster show is May 28th, Copa Dinastia. Los Gemelo Diablos appeared in a post-main event vignette to announce their debut on the show. The original Gemelo Diablos – the Twin Devils, actual twins – were a star tag team in the late 60s and 70s. The pattern of the CMLL programming team is to bring back ideas from when they were growing up, so a fifty-year-old team is new again. These new Gemelo Diablos were introduced back in March 2020, when CMLL presumably thought they’d be running shows again soon. Miguel Reducindo reported they were Matamoros’ Gemelo Panteras, who had been apparently infrequently in CMLL prior. There’s been no mention of them in the past year until now; they appeared to be the same people.

Copa Dinastia sounds like an eight-team one-night tournament, which is fairly dire programming on live shows. It’s not something appealing as a PPV. The most appealing part of the show may be finally seeing a CMLL show with actual fans again. Mexico City should enter Yellow health code in advance of May 28th if the COVID trends continue as they have for the last few weeks, and Yellow should allow a limited amount fans to attend shows at Arena Mexico – but both those are maybes until it happens.

I watched all of the CMLL TV I could this weekend. Not sure why! The Satanico/Blue Panther match was generally what you’d expect from them at this point, plus a Satanico middle rope splash. It’s a psychology where I got excited for them doing the double pin tease because of course you have to do a double pin tease in a maestros match.

The best ‘normal’ CMLL match I saw was Bandido, Euforia, Soberano vs Ultimo Guerrero, Volador and Templario, though it was strange how evergreen it was. This was taped before Euforia left the Guerreros – I don’t think Bandido’s been back to CMLL tapings since that PPV – so the Televisa announcers were talking about the issues between those two while they were wrestling a completely normal match. Templario pinned Bandido in the end and made a motion as if they were headed to another singles match. I have no idea if they taped another one. Volador sort of distracted the ref and Bandido before the finish but Volador also accidentally stepped in the way of a Euforia dive a moment earlier – maybe it was Volador/Bandido built but also it could’ve been a mistake. It was noticeable that CMLL didn’t promote the Televisa show as much as usual, though I can’t be certain if that’s because Bandido was in the main event or if something else was going on. I’m baffled why they’d bother to still air Bandido matches since it just confuses their fans on his status, but I liked seeing it so I’m not complaining.

This was the first time I’ve heard the Televisa announcers in a long time; they have the network announcer on TV, then CMLL uses their own announcers for the version they put up on YouTube. The Televisa crew – Leo Riano, Fernando Torres and Hechicero – are obviously calling the matches this week and it feels more current. They were plugging the upcoming games and even the CMLL PPV happening that night. CMLL’s announcing appears to be done as the matches are taped. They can then air on any network, in any order, at any time. They’re doing their best to make that work, but it also contributes to making the matches feel weightless.

(The one show I couldn’t see, on Heraldo Television, had Los Cancerberos losing a trios match about an hour before they won the title match because nothing matters in CMLL.)

Box Y Lucha 3469 covers the 04/24 CMLL show.

AAA

AAA announced Rey de Reyes will now be starting at 7 pm (an hour earlier.) They’ll also be announcing a match per day at 2 pm. Not sure I’m going to wait until 2 pm every day to write about it but I will today.

• Octagon Jr. vs Taurus vs ? for the AAA Latin American Championship
• Laredo Kid, Texano Jr., Murder Clown, Aerostar, Drago, Anismo Negro Jr., Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. for the Rey de Reyes
• (ads indicate a match for the vacant Reina de Reinas title, which has not been officially announced)

Daga posted a video on Saturday announcing he was relinquishing the Latin American championship due to travel issues and because there was no one to defend it again. The travel issues are a strange one because Daga was living in Tijuana earlier in the pandemic and was able to make it to TripleMania and taped KAOZ PPV, though now he appears to lately be based in the US. Daga hasn’t appeared on an AAA taping outside of TripleMania since before the pandemic – but even before that, he hadn’t appeared since November 2019. Daga does not say he’s leaving AAA in that video, but it comes off like he’s either waiting on official word for his next destination or he and AAA have just peacefully moved on from each other.

I’d guess Taurus is the favorite to win the title because Octagon already has the belt. I’m not sure who the surprise wrestler would be. It’s possible it’s someone from outside of Mexico and AAA doesn’t want to say anything until they know that person’s made it. Or maybe AAA did have it Daga in that space and it’s a mystery because they’re still figuring out who they can put in that spot.

Aerostar is the reigning Rey de Reyes champion, though I might have not remembered if they weren’t showing it in the ads. Depending on the rules, that should be a pretty good match. It’s amusing that one of the few things AAA’s done on TV this year is push the Argenis/Myzteziz feud and they’re not even in the same match. It’s seemed like a busywork bit so both guys can feel like they’re doing something important despite no plans to go anywhere, and that booking seems to confirm it for now.

This week’s AAA TV episode on Space had a couple of interesting bits. This show was taped about six weeks ago – they’re making a point of showing the tape date on the broadcasts for mystery reasons – but the announcers were prepared enough to talk about Rey de Reyes happening next week. They did seem to be hyping a trios title match that doesn’t appear to be happening. The Vikingo/Laredo vs Taurus/Abismo match was as good as you’d expect. They did a big angle with Chessman putting Lady Shani through a table in the main event and Shani being taken away while Hugo was distraught – except the table totally failed to break and it didn’t look good.

Hijo del Vikingo was in the Aracno suit, formally worn by Lio Rush. (The only one of the originally carefully selected Marvel Lucha Libre characters who made it to a second match was Venenoide/Taurus. The problems of doing these things in a pandemic, I guess.) Picadura Letal debuted as a ruda Marvel character, and maybe there’s a Venenodie/Terror Purpura/Picadura Letal vs Leyenda Americana/Aracno/Estrella Cosmica match coming. Picadura Letal is either Flammer or Hiedra based on who was around for this taping; I think Flammer but not absolutely sure.

Federacion Wrestling

Federacion Wrestling announced Matt Taven will be on their first show. It’s notable that a ROH wrestler is working a non-CMLL show,  especially one so prominently featured in CMLL. I don’t believe the ROH deal is exclusive to CMLL but this is obviously a booking to poke at Arena Mexico management.

There’s another bit that may have people talking – but it’s a El Planchitas bit, so the track record isn’t perfect and the story is so over the top I’m not sure I’d believe it even if they nailed every story. The column says Sofia Alonso has been back at Arena Mexico meeting with the wrestler’s union (Nitro & Ultimo Guerrero) and the gossip is she’s involved with Federacion Wrestling. They go on to say Dorian Roldan may be as well. Stories about Alonso getting involved with a breakaway CMLL group go back to 2019, when Rush & Dragon Lee suggested they probably would’ve stayed with the promotion had Sofia Alonso or her father Paco still been in charge and they would support her if she did her own promotion. The Munoz family were the first to be announced for this group, so maybe it’s actually happening – or more likely it’s people just connecting the dots to make up some juicy gossip.

The sure thing at this point is Federacion Wrestling has done a great job of building intrigue by revealing very little. They announced a lot of big names, which tells people they have money and aspirations. They’re not saying anything else, which leaves curious wrestling people to make up their own stories about what is happening. There’s some smoke here – teasing CMLL’s Diamante Azul on a show a CMLL wrestler would normally not be able to use suggest something is up – but also there’s likely a bit of bad guessing going on and it’s going to end up being a random rich guy who will soon be less rich. We might not have a great idea what the real deal is until that press conference on Friday, but that press conference seems important.

(That press conference will have fans – Federacion Wrestling is offering a giveaway for fans to sit in the first row, wherever it is happening. That’s a good move to ensure a favorable reaction and fewer hard questions.)

Other places

IWRG (SUN) 04/25/2021 Arena Naucalpan [R de Rudo, The Gladiatores]
1) Blue Monster Jr. & Hellboy b Cyber & Especie Maligna 
2) Gravity & Mexica b Ra-Zhata & Shil-Ka  
3) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal b Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro [EdM Trios, torneo]  
4) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo del Espectro, King Charro DQ Canek Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Máscara Sagrada Jr.  
Team Espectro kept hitting the referees by accident until they were DQ, whereupon they started hitting the referees on purpose
5) Dragón Bane b Toxin, Baby Xtreme  
6) Fresero Jr. b Eterno [hair, chain]   
Chain match where both are chained to opposite ropes, not each other, and must climb up a ladder to retrieve a key to unlock the chain before going for pinfalls. Demonio Infernal attacked partner Fresero Jr. to start the match and many times during the match, but it was all a ruse and Infernal tripped up Eterno to help set up Fresero’s win. Eterno got some hair cut in front of the fans and the rest backstage. Eterno also seemed to say this was the end of him in IWRG for the time being (likely an AAA contract issue.)

I watched the last two matches of this show live, plus saw the lame finish of the fourth match. The main event got the (mostly full, no real capacity limit) crowd very excited but the match itself wasn’t must-see. Eterno did get his head shaved. The Demonio Infernal bit only barely makes wrestling logic and really not even that; they just wanted some dramatic moments and worked backward to make sense of it. IWRG’s announcers were hyping the winner of next week’s Rey del Ring show (which may be subscriber-only) to face Eterno on 05/09, which his post-match “the commission’s making me give up my title” interview strange. The Rey del Ring title gets reset in the match most years, so it’d be no big deal if they did the same this year, just some lines crossed on what is actually happening.

Dragon Bane completely blew a dive on one side of the ring, ran back in the ring, and hit a dive to the other side of the ring, which is the full Dragon Bane experience. Dragon Bane seems like he’s going to keep getting bookings in the US because he can put together good highlights and no US indie promoter is actually sitting down to watch his matches and see the holes. I hope he gets better but it already feels like he’s as good as he’s going to get without some major career change. (It does seem like Bane and Lupus were supposed to be in the US this weekend and just weren’t, so no idea there deal there.)

Lucha Memes 04/18 show is up on IWTV. I heard differing things about how that show went live; I’m curious how it’ll come across on video. (Not curious enough to watch it soon; I’ll probably let those shows pile up again.)

MexaWrestling says 4 of the matches on the Saturday show had money thrown in. Money thrown in gets fans excited but the bar has been lowered so much that I instinctively don’t trust reviews that hype that now. Maybe that’s too cynical. Their previous show went up on Mas Lucha this weekend.

Fenix versus Chuck Taylor airs on AEW Dark Elevation show on YouTube today.

Guadalajara’s card for Tuesday

CMLL (TUE) 04/27/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra, Quka, Tigre Blanco vs Joker, Omega, Vaquero Jr. [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
2) Avispón Negro Jr., Cosmos, Guerrero Vikingo vs Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Thunder Boy [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
3) Crixus, Flash, Gallo vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Mr. Apolo [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
4) Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black vs Bestia Negra, Cris Skin, Demonio Maya [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
5) Mystique vs Silueta
6) Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. vs Felino & Felino Jr.

The Occidente Trios tournament appears to be a 16 team, 48 wrestler tournament of all local wrestlers. Who knew Arena Coliseo Guadalajara had 48 wrestlers? Imagine being wrestler 49 and just missing out.

Silueta is listed still as Silueta. The Guadalajara TV show had Hijo del Villano III, not Felino Jr., on the poster – there must’ve been some change during the week. The CMLL Villano III hasn’t been seen since the December shutdown, and not a lot prior to that.

Arez & Gringo Loco versus Dante Leon & Travis Titan airs Saturday at 7 pm on AAW’s Twitch channel; there’s half-decent chance Arez is on two Twitch channels at once on Saturday.

DTU will have a stream a show on Facebook for Kid’s Day on May 2nd.

05/08 Kriminal Wrestling  “Senso” at Gimnasio Mictklan

• Tromba vs Skayde
• Low Rider vs Sol – new
• Toxin, Latigo, Arez vs Komander, Jimmy, Ninja Mack – new

Ninja Mack is a Texas guy who’s been on the Martinez shows (including the small drive-in ones) a bit this year. He was also around WrestleMania weekend. It seems inefficient to bring in a relatively unknown guy to Mexico because he can do cool flips – there are many of them already in Mexico! – but Kriminal’s bit seems to bring in an (relatively unknown guy) on each show.

Vangaurdia has their full card.

Vanguardia (SAT) 05/15/2021 Deportivo 11 de Julio, Pachuca, Hidalgo
Vanguardia 2nd Anniversary
1) Ovett Jr. & X-Fly vs ? & Dragón Boy and El Gallo (Baja California) & Slaier
2) Drolux & Moria © vs Amnesia Jr. & Rey Furia [BMLL TAG]
3) Colmillo Blanco, Rey Dragón, Star Fire vs Dayami, Devitt Rodríguez, Edward Gutierrez
4) Látigo vs Mirage
5) Ciclón Infernal © vs Calibus [IAW CHAMP]
6) Skayde vs Símbolo Azteca
7) Aeroboy vs Jitsu [ELL CHAMP]
8) Puma King vs Gasparín Jr.
9) Crazy King & Miedo Extremo vs Trauma I & Trauma II and Billy & Jeff Killer [VANGUARDIA TAG]
10) El Mago vs Jimmy [VANGUARIDA EXTRAORDINARO, final]
11) Lobo Blanco Jr. vs Cíclope [glass]

That’s a lot of matches. Maybe too many matches, double-digit matches is always a bit concerning. The main event is death match with glass. I’ve got high hopes for Mago/Jimmy. Kinda interested in Puma/Gasparin. Dayami finally isn’t the only woman on a Vanguardia show.

06/19 ChilangaMask in Arena San Juan

• Difunto & MIni Difunto vs Wotan & Impulso
• Silueta vs La Jarochita – new

A show in Ciudad Victoria’s Coliseo La Dinastia was promoted as “the most violent match of the year.” You can see the match on Facebook; it included Angel o Demonio along with local Tamaulipas luchadors. The show made news in the “a wrestler almost died today” way; a local media outlet mentions a wrestler was knocked out for almost an hour because of a shot he took in the match. The luchador is not named in the article but Demonio del Caribe is identified in the video. He’s seated on the top rope when another wrestler (not Angel o Demonio) throws a ladder at him around 8:30; Caribe uncontrolled to the apron and to the floor. He looks unsteady just sitting on the top rope; it’s possible something happened previously but I couldn’t pick it up. Caribe gets up to catch a tope, but totally whiffs on catching and the other wrestler takes a bad header on the ground – he’s the guy I thought was hurt at first, but he gets back at it. Caribe gets up again and takes a chair shot to the head. The camera stops following him because the action isn’t moving, until seeing staff urgently removing Caribe’s boots and checking on his face. (The other wrestlers just keep on fighting, even one of the other wrestlers doing an elbow drop on Caribe long after it’s clear he’s very hurt.) Caribe is down on the ground for almost the entire rest of the video. The newspaper report says there was no ambulance, no medic, and not even a first aid kit for a match built a being an incredibly violent match. (The promotion’s Facebook portrays it as if the ambulance was there all along and Caribe was out for a few minutes.) I don’t know what you can do about people willing to hurt others and themselves in front of about fifty people, but it’s a long video of some poor decisions (and some people trying to do their best to make up for them) if you watch it.

CMLL Guadalajara’s Difunto posted a week ago that he’s doing better bit by bit. He was scheduled for a title defense on 04/13 before being hospitalized for reasons not released.

Lucha Libre Total in Illinois held a memorial show Sunday for referee el Pollo, who passed away last year due to coronavirus.

The promoter of RCH, Ricky Castro H, says he plans to restart shows in Mexico State.

Luchador/Promoter Embajador del Infierno in Hermosollio says he doesn’t expect to be able to run in the city until 100% capacity is permitted.

Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal held a press conference to announce they were joining a campaign against violence against children.

A story on a mask maker in Veracruz.

CMLL is back on Ticketmaster Saturday afternoon, at 5:30 pm Central.

CMLL , Ticketmaster (SAT) 04/24/2021 Arena México
1) Microman & Perico Zakarías vs Chamuel & Gallito [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Amapola & Marcela vs Dalys & La Jarochita [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus [MEX TRIOS, final]
4) Carístico & Místico © vs Ángel de Oro & Terrible [CMLL TAG]
4th defense
5) Atlantis, Euforia, Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

If this was a free Friday show, I think I’d be interested. There are two title matches with interesting outcomes, the main event might move along a story. As a monthly pay event, it lacks a bit: the trios tournament is the closest to the end of a story told, it’s a lot of middle chapters (or matches without reasons to exist entirely.) It’s lacking an outstanding match; the guys in the third match may be motivated to do something special but nothing else looks that level of promising. If CMLL titles had been treated meaningfully, two title matches might be important to get someone to buy for history’s sake, but they have not.

And yet, I feel fairly certain that more people will end up buying this PPV than the last one. I don’t think there’s any interest in the show outside of CMLL diehards, yet there’s enough interest in that group about Atlantis returning to get people to tune out. CMLL’s treated it as a special thing. They haven’t done a great job of promoting the show on their own TV outside of the Televisa broadcast. They have done a lot of CMLL media appearances, with Atlantis doing TV to get the word out about his return. A legend coming back after a long time away usually does very well the first time out (and then not as much in subsequent appearances.) There’s a non-joking-matter that many of the people who were fans of Atlantis in Mexico are not used to buying internet PPVs and may not understand how to do so – CMLL would be wise to spend the next day persistently walking people through it on social media – but I expect this will be the most-watched CMLL PPV since the Aniversario.

That’s in Mexico, though. I don’t expect anyone who didn’t grow up with Atlantis as their lucha libre hero to care much about this show. There was no point in writing a longer preview for Voice of Wrestling; this is a show squarely at the fans who are already following CMLL so intently they could write their own preview.

The main event will likely just be another chapter in Euforia/Ultimo Guerrero, though I’m uncertain where it fits in the big picture. It’d normally feel like something being targeted for the Aniversario show, but it’s still too early to know what that will be like and CMLL still has Felino/Cavernario to do at some point. Angel de Oro & Terrible winning the tag titles and Caristico & Mistico getting the rematch later in front of fans seems like the best business decision (and maybe making sure Mistico isn’t champion will save on complications later), though this is more a litmus test on how seriously we’re supposed to be taking Los Nuevos Ingobernables. It’d be fitting for them if they just got themselves DQed, though it’d be such an annoying outcome for a paid event. CMLL’s generally had more faith in Stuka & Guerrero Maya than anyone else in the trios title match, though I think the Cancerberos as champions might set up better matches. The mixed matches opening the shows will have effort but maybe not a success; the micros especially lose a lot in a no fans environment.

Reminder: this is a PPV, so I will not be posting it on my Google Drive anytime soon. People are paying for it, it doesn’t seem fair for others to get it for free.

CMLL Informa announced Daniel Aceves will award four people the Copa Bobby Bonales award on the PPV. This was an award started in 2009 and given out about every other year, somewhat of a lifetime achievement recognition. His son, Daniel Aceves, is a former wrestling Olympic medalist turned governmental official in their sports ministry. Copa Bobby Bonales started as a single wrestler, expanded to one male and one female wrestler in 2017, expanded again to include a trainer in 2018. It wasn’t immediately clear what the category would be for the fourth award. CMLL always plays this up as a very important deal in the week prior to the event, then stops mentioning it a couple of weeks later.

The timing is curious; CMLL believes limited fans will be allowed back within weeks and this award ceremony would work better with people around to cheer (or clap) for the winners. My guess is KeMonito is getting a Copa Bobby Bonales award and they just wanted to do that on their Kid’s Day show.

CMLL Informa also had Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis on and talking about becoming partners once again, though Atlantis said Ultimo Guerrero would have to join the tecnico side. It came off as luchadors on Informa floating their own angle like usual, though maybe something to keep in mind Saturday.

Rey de Reyes Lineup Today? Maybe??

Konnan, on his podcast, mentioned this lineup was due out Friday. It hasn’t happened yet if you’re reading this piece of text. Konnan also said some matches from Rey de Reyes will air live on Azteca. That’d be much earlier than AAA usually airs on Azteca if that’s correct. AAA hasn’t promoted that and Space is billed Rey de Reyes as exclusively theirs.

The WON mentions AAA is following their pattern for 2021 of two tapings each weekend. The second taping will take place Monday, near wherever it is Rey de Reyes is happening. That’ll probably take care of TV until June; maybe it’ll be the last no-fans shows for now.

The Weekly Mexico City COVID Check-In

Mexico City remains at Orange, with items like new hospitalizations are their lowest since the pandemic started to be monitored. An Easter-spurred wave would’ve turned up by now and doesn’t seem to have occurred. Lucha libre came up in a list of sports and entertainment activities that have to wait a little bit longer to run.

The belief is Mexico City could switch to the less restrictive Yellow health code around May 10th (which would allow CMLL to run shows with fans at Arena Mexico), though it could be a week off either way and nothing is for certain until it happens.

TV Notes

CMLL has abandoned updating their website listings after a couple of months, as normal, so we’re stuck with waiting to see which of these shows get mentioned on social media. It seems like they’ve either given up on sending out the match graphics to the wrestlers too, or the wrestlers have lost enthusiasm on posting them. I may update these later on today if CMLL gets around to putting them up.

04/23 CMLL on AMX

• Robin vs Hijo del Signo
• Soberano Jr., Flyer vs Dark Magic, Vangellys
• Mistico, Caristico, Volador Jr. vs Angel de Oro, Terrible, Niebla Roja

04/24 CMLL on MVS

• Leono vs Nitro
• Volcano & Drone vs Ephesto & Luciferno

04/24 CMLL on Televisa

• not announced yet

04/24 CMLL on Ticketmaster

• see above.  Remember, this has a strange 5:30 pm start time and there is no VOD.

04/24 CMLL HT

• not announced yet

04/24 AAA on Space

• Poder del Norte vs Aramis, Myzteziz, Octagoncito
• Abismo Negro Jr. & Taurus vs Hijo del Vikingo & Laredo Kid
• Pagano & Lady Shani vs Chessman & La Hiedra

Space’s listings have this at 3:30 pm. AAA says it’ll air at 5:45 pm. SSpace’s press release has the usual 6:30 pm. If you ever wonder why I am the way I am, these are the reasons why.

I slowed down the trailer to watch it frame by frame and I was still not entirely sure if it was Octagoncito or Octagon Jr. in the match. The preview Space sends out to random TV sites says it’s Octagoncito. AAA’s done too good of a job of making those outfits similar and I hope they give Octagoncito a red mask one day.

ROH’s TV episode this week has Rush, Kenny King and Bestia del Ring versus Brody King, Homicide and Chris Dickinson. Next week’s episode will have Bandido versus Flamita following their recent issues.

Other News

CMLL’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara announced an Atlantis Jr. & Atlantis vs Felino Jr. & Felino match for Tuesday. It probably would’ve been a better idea to wait until after the PPV to tell the Guadalajara fans they don’t need to buy it to see Atlantis, but waiting until Sunday to promote a Tuesday show is a bit late and the different branches of CMLL seem to operate semi-autonomously. Mystique versus Silueta was also announced for that show, though the new ruda seems to prefer to be called Dark Silueta now.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirms Averno is gone but the “AAA source” believes he (and Puma King) will be back in AAA “soon”. I think I figured out what happened here. There was a story about AAA laying off their office months ago and Averno – working backstage and not really wrestling – probably counts as office and may have not been getting paid, which naturally would lead to him picking up work elsewhere. The wrestlers themselves were getting a regular stipend; it’s also possible Averno was getting one but made the same call as Villano III Jr. in deciding he could make more on his own. The WON also mentions Konnan is in need of a second kidney transplant and looking to get it done in Mexico since the waiting time in the US is quite long.

IWRG held a contract signing Thursday for the Fresero Jr./Eterno hair match taking place Sunday. The contract signing de-evolved into a brawl. That’s normal. Less normal was Eterno & Fresero getting into a fight again on the street, leading to both being taken away by police. They appeared to be freed later in the day; Fresero returned to posting memes on social media later that day. The brawl made local news, which means it was a great success. Fresero & Eterno is going to be a bloody brawl; it has a chance to be the annual IWRG match that catches the attention of people who don’t watch IWRG or much Mexican wrestling at all.

IWRG announced Rey del Ring for next Sunday. That seems like a sign for IWRG’s tickets are selling well for Sunday. (It’s hard to believe they’ll be limited to 30% or 40% or any number; they’ve stopped even pretending on the posters.) Rey del Ring is IWRG’s annual 30 man royal rumble, where the winner gets a match with the current champion – that’s Demonio Infernal at the moment. Rey del Ring ran this as two 15 person rumbles last year billed as a COVID precaution, which never made much sense and is consistent with the way they’ve handled everything since.

Federacion Wrestling, the Ingobernbales-adjacent PPV announced with no details for June, also announced Fenix,  Penta, and Bandido for that show. (There are also silhouettes that aren’t as immediately obvious as the last set; the running belief is the middle one is Diamante Azul, who is a Munoz family friend but would be fired by CMLL if he actually worked this show.) There’s nothing known publicly except a bunch of names. A bunch of names along probably won’t draw as much as people will expect, though there are obvious big matches they could make out of those people announced. If this turns into a lot of random trios, they might as well burn the money for warmth, but we really have no idea what this at this point. It’s also not clear how many people are actually paying attention to the group; they’ve got less than 300 Twitter followers and less than a 1000 Facebook followers. Federacion Wrestling announced a virtual press conference for next Friday, where some of these questions might be answered.

Cinta de Oro talked to ITR Wrestling about his release from WWE. His appearance at AAA’s 2019 Guerra de Titanes came up. Cinta de Oro reached out to the WWE beforehand to make sure it was fine to use the “Sin Cara” name. They were fine with it, until AAA used WWE footage as part of the presentation. Cinta de Oro says had no idea AAA would do that and decided he needed to change his name going forward to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. Cinta de Oro also mentions his social media information changed to “Cinta de Oro” before he asked the family if he could use it – he says WWE needed him to change to something else, but he didn’t realize it would change right away – but he says the family was very enthusiastic about the idea when he presented it to them.

The WON explained Kalisto/Samuray del Sol’s release from WWE as sort of being of his own making. Lince Dorado is credited with coming up with the Lucha House Party idea, with the idea that it would appear to Vince McMahon (because it fits his vision of Mexican wrestling) and sell some merchandise, even if it also meant they’d also never get pushed. For a guy like Lince Dorado, who was on the fringes of the roster and in danger of being cut, that’s a great deal. For a guy like Kalisto, who was at times pushed and billed as the next Rey Mysterio Jr., Lucha House Party felt like it was holding him back and he eventually and repeatedly pushed to go his own way. Kalisto’s wish was eventually granted, he was moved to SmackDown, and WWE cut him a few months later without giving him a chance. This reads like a parable about Kalisto’s pride, but perhaps it’s more about WWE’s very narrow view of Mexican wrestlers. (Santos Escobar and his guys have done great on NXT and will be destroyed if they get on the main roster as it currently is managed for the same reasons, but I think Escobar is savvy enough to realize that.) Anyway, Kalisto

New Guadalajara promotion is offering their first show (Preshow) as part of a $4/month plan. It’s a three-match empty arena VOD show with commentary.

Monterrey extreme wrestling promotion NGX is running their first show in over a year on Friday night at 8 pm with Pagano versus Joe Lider versus Psicotico as the main event; they say they’ll be streaming on YouTube. Their YouTube channel is NGX MTY. They’re also asking for donations though it’s not clear how you’d get them the money. I’ve learned not to trust Monterrey internet signals, you may want to set your expectations accordingly.

GALLI has shows tonight and Sunday with Arez, Aeroboy, and Myron Reed as the guest talent. They’re streaming them on their website. I want to the Friday show and normally would have no hesitation in doing so, it’s just still not normal times. I’m vaccinated but still a bit nervous about going to an indoor venue for a wrestling show. I think the presumption is people returning en masse to public events as they become more common this summer but I wonder how many others will be cautious.

The Bandido Gym show is said to be airing on Texano’s YouTube channel Saturday, though they’re asking for a 100 pesos donation via Whatsapp number and I’m not sure if that means you’ll only be able to see it via the donation.

AAW announced Arez & Gringo Loco versus Travis Titan & Dante for their taping on Saturday’. I don’t believe that’s airing live on Saturday; AAA is dividing those shows into three weeks of Twitch shows; it reads like this match is airing one of those future Saturdays.

Skayde is off the Lucha Memes show this Sunday. It’s disappointing to not get a Skayde match but the Baby Extreme/Skayde match was at best going to be a learning experience and not a good match; the show might be better off if the promotion books Baby Extreme with someone a better fit for him.

MLW announced a “season final” on May 5th and a return to running live shows on July 10th in Philadelphia. This explains a bit what’s going on with their VICE deal: they’re starting off with repeats because they don’t have any new TV to show for months. (On Konnan’s podcast, Court Bauer did mention they’re starting on Vice for May 1st. He also explained they didn’t want to start with empty arena matches, so they must be showing older stuff. You won’t be surprised they didn’t mention the Cruiserweight championship deal.) MLW told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, in talking about featured talent changing, that they won’t be able to use as much of the Mexican wrestlers due to difficulties in getting visas renewed. That’s curious in that the only featured Mexican talent MLW had been using was Los Parks. They had been using Laredo Kid too but I wouldn’t count him as featured, and he was probably on his own visa. LA Park has been piling up an unusual amount of MLW Ls lately, so maybe he’s finishing up, or maybe this is the explanation of why more AAA people won’t be coming in. It sits weirdly alongside the “let’s run Azteca Underground” concept. (It also doesn’t say great things about us – about the US – if MLW is really able to get in Japanese Dragon Gate wrestlers but not Mexican AAA wrestlers.)

Arena Lopez Mateos’ 54th Anniversary show on 15 will have Blue Demon Jr. vs Penta vs Dr. Wagner Jr. as the main event.

Laredo Kid will debut for Warrior Wrestling on their 06/05 show.

ChilangaMask says they’ll have a show on 06/19 in Arena San Juan. The promotion has lately run one show a year at Coliseo Coacalco and never anywhere else around Mexico State.

• Difunto & MIni Difunto vs Wotan & Impulso – billed as a revenge match (because they had matches in 2018, which is only two shows ago)

Christi Jaynes teased appearing on The Crash soon. The Crash hasn’t run since prior to the pandemic. No one’s run Auditorio de Tijuana for a lucha libre show since, but there are local promotions running smaller buildings so The Crash returning soon in some form seems plausible.

Just after I hit post, WWE announced the signing of Jennifer Michell Cantu Iglesias – she’s the Monterrey powerlifter that was around lucha libre but not in wrestling who was mentioned as trying out a few months ago and actually signed back in February.

AFP had a report on luchadors struggling and passing away during the pandemic, somehow ended up at the last Zona 23 show.

On Tik Tok, Kung Fu Jr. claimed Antonio Pena possessed a secret black book of witch spells through a pact with the devil which allowed him to instantly fill an arena with fans. Milenio, a real news site reported on this seriously and said “AAA has not commented on the statements.” Kung Fu Jr. worked in AAA in the late 90s, when Pena really could’ve used spells to instantly fill some arenas. He did come up with Gronda, though the object from which Gronda derived his powers wasn’t a black book.

Vanguardia announced Los Traumas for the 05/15 anniversary show.

CMLL (TUE) 04/20/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en el Ring]
1) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental Jr., Minotauro b Destello, Destructor, Relámpago Azul [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
2) El Divino, Mágico, Reycko b Fúnebre, Paymon, Persa [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
Persa replaced Ultimo Angel
3) Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga b Javier Cruz Jr., Leo, Omar Brunetti [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
4) Fugaz, Mr. Samurai, Principe Daniel b Gran Kenut, Infierno, Jabalí [OCCIDENTE TRIOS, torneo]
5) La Comandante & Valkiria b Mystique & Silueta
Silueta betrayed Mystique again, setting up a singles match next week. Valkiria replaced Soberbia.
6) Satánico © b Blue Panther [FLLM MASTER]
Satanico won via nudo.

This show will air Saturday night and then goes up on Arena Coliseo Guadalajara’s Facebook on Sunday nights. Whoever’s in charge of booking Guadalajara is booking feuds better week to week than Mexico City does, even when they were running regularly. It may just be that two shows a week have been combined to one, but it feels like more than usual is happening.

AAA announced Rey de Reyes officially for May 1st at 8:30 pm. The show will air live on Space (not Azteca.) That’s about when the usual AAA TV episode ends; not sure if that’s getting replaced for the night or if it’ll be one long block for the night. There’s a lot we’re not sure of: there’s no location announced, there are no matches announced.

A pirate TV website has been streaming Space on Twitch for the last couple of weekends, which has made it exceedingly easy to watch in 360p. The same site had been using other sites to stream in the past and it changes every few weeks for obvious piracy reasons. (There are also a few people streaming other countries’ versions of Space, which can make it confusing to track down.) Piracy isn’t as reliable as AAA just streaming the show themselves. There’s no indication AAA will be doing that, at least as of yet. I presume no location announced means this will be another no fan show.

AAA started towards a few feuds earlier in the year but got away from them since; there’s no telling what card they’ll throw out. The video trailer does push the idea of a Rey de Reyes tournament and AAA announcers have indicated the Reina de Reinas championship (last held by Taya) will be decided on this show. My impression is there’s an idea of resolving the Cruiserweight Title situation with Lio Rush and Laredo Kid, but that’s also no guarantee until it happens.

This week’s AAA TV show on Space looks like it’s airing at 3;30 pm CT Saturday, about three hours earlier than usual. Space is covering a boxing event later that night and moving around programs as a result. I think that means I’ll (and everyone else) will be able to watch AAA before the CMLL PPV, though I’m uncertain if I’ll be able to get it uploaded right away.

CMLL Informa is fully building Saturday’s PPV with their guests: Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero (in the main event, Los Cancerberos (trios titles), Dalys and La Jarochita (partners in the women’s match), and KeMonito (Kid’s Day.) CMLL announced this PPV on the last Informa before the previous show; I think that was more about Atlantis turning up than a new policy, but perhaps we’ll get a May announcement on this show. The Informa interviews probably won’t mean much; Atlantis is doing a lot of mainstream media appearances to promote the show and those will probably have a much bigger effect on how this show does. If there are enough people who are nostalgic for Atlantis after a long time away, it’ll do well. And I think it’ll do well.

A group calling themselves Federacion Wrestling announced a “June 2021” PPV with Dragon Lee, Rush, and Bestia del Ring. There are three silhouettes on the poster, who appear to be La Mascara, Andrade, and Kenny King. This is presumably the Ingobernable surprise Rush had been teasing. No location or any other information is mentioned. There’d be obvious interest in this show as a one-off PPV but there’s nothing here to suggest a sustainable new promotion is being launched. All these guys will have other things taking their focus, except perhaps La Mascara.

MLW announced they’ll be airing on Vice TV starting “Spring 2021.” It snowed where I live yesterday, but the calendar tells me it’s already Spring 2021 and it’s a bit typically wrestling strange there’s no more specific date. There’s no idea of when or where it’ll air, though the obvious best place is before or after the Dark Side of the Ring documentary series. (Voices of Wrestling’s Flagship Podcast says they heard the current plan is for it to be a lead-in.) MLW may announce more details on their weekly show later tonight. MLW is already on beIN Sports and DASN, though I suspect the highest viewership they get currently is on YouTube. Vice is bigger than those two stations; MLW may now reach around the same amount of viewers as Impact. It’s unclear if/what MLW is getting paid. It may give more exposure to AAA wrestlers if that relationship with MLW continues and if AAA’s legally allowed to participate in the US.

Psycho Clown says he suffered an eye injury on Sunday in Arena Neza, though he’s expecting to make all his scheduled dates. He also hosted a talk show with his father.

05/08 Krimnal Lucha Libre (likely at Gimnasio Micktlan) “Senso”

• Tromba vs Skayde

Pagano says he’s teaching lucha libre classes for young adults in Ciudad Juarez to divert them from drugs. I’m skeptical that Pagano’s own experiences in lucha libre are separate from drugs, but maybe he can help others.

SuperLuchas has an interview with Veracruz wrestler Exorcista II.

Mas Lucha’s podcast mentioned (early on that) Lio Rush will face Arez on the next Martinez Entertainment show. No date announced for that show yet.

LuchaWorld has the Lucha Report

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 04/25/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Blue Monster Jr. & Hellboy vs Cyber & Especie Maligna
2) Gravity & Mexica vs Ra-Zhata & Shil-Ka
3) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro [EdM Trios]
4) Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo del Espectro, King Charro vs Canek Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Máscara Sagrada Jr.
5) Dragón Bane vs Toxin vs Baby Xtreme
6) Fresero Jr. vs Eterno [hair]

This appears to be a free show on Mas Lucha, surprisingly so for a show with a built up hair match. The unconfirmed rumor is AAA wrestlers will be back to working AAA full time (and no longer be able to pick up on indie dates) starting with Rey de Reyes, which suggests Eterno is finishing up here no matter the outcome. Not that the outcome has been a big mystery.

Semi-main looks like something that’ll have a lot of great GIFs for Twitter but no idea how it’ll hang together as a match.