Bandido new ROH champion, Cometa/Espiritu new tag champions, IWRG/COVID

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 07/09/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Furia de Titanes, KSports, R de Rudo, SuperLuchas, The Gladiatores]
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito b Mercurio & Pierrothito  
8:04.
2) Dalys b Marcela [lightning]  
7:21.
3) Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Niebla Roja b Felino, Felino Jr., Templario  
Team Cavernario took 2/3, Cavernario asking for a title shot again. (The obligatory Cavernario/Ingobernable tease followed the match.)
4) Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa b Atlantis Jr. & Flyer [MEX TAG]  
17:19. Atrapsuenos took falls 1/3 to win the titles. Atlantis & Flyer fall on their fourth defense, Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro are the 31st champions. It’s the first major title for Espiritu Negro, who turned 40 earlier this week.
5) Carístico, Místico, Volador Jr. b Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón  
22:08. Tecnicos took 2/3 and had vague notions of another trios title match out of this, though it wasn’t pushed hard.

This show wasn’t quite as good as the 07/02 show, though it was better than most of the shows prior to it. The main event was better than the Father’s Day match, though they missed their peak and kept going a few minutes too long. The tag title match was Great, with a thoroughly surprising ending. Negro & Cometa won completely clean, without question. It was the best match I’ve seen off the Atlantis/Flyer reign, and might have been the last time Flyer will ever be a national (or higher) champion. The tercera was fine for Felino/Cavernario build, the women’s match was exactly what you’d expect from those two at this point, and there was a good effort in the minis match. The openers appear to be better for the shorter time and the one fall structure.

Seems worth noting that the two unpushed acts that did shockingly well in the 2020 Aniversario fan poll were Los Cancerberos and Los Atrapsuenos (Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro.) Both lost their title matches on the Aniversario but started to get more attention out of the show. Both teams are now champions. CMLL appears to have gone with the fans, an uncommon thing in their recent history.

Deep nerd research point: I feel pretty certain Ringo Mendoza & Cachorro Mendoza are the first Mexican national tag team champions after going through 1982 magazine scans. It’s not complete (because neither are the scans), but they’re referred to as the first champions at the time they went the belts. There are other people listed as winning the national tag team belts, but I believe those people won the Arena Mexico Tag Team Championship or the Mexico State Tag Team championship, and the names have just become confused over the years. The Arena Mexico Tag Team championship was the default most important tag title, but it was only for that arena and would be forgotten about for years at a time. The national belts were treated with much more respect at the time. This matters at this moment because what number champions Espiritu & Cometa depend a lot on when you start counting, and I start counting with that Mendoza reign.

CMLL (SUN) 07/11/2021 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Retro & Sangre Imperial b El Coyote & Grako
2) Amapola, Reyna Isis, Skadi b La Comandante, Princesa Sugehit, Tiffany [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Kráneo, Stigma, Volcano b Rey Bucanero, Sagrado, Universo 2000 Jr.
tecnicos took 2/3
4) El Audaz, Esfinge, Star Jr. b Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
tencicos took 2/3, setting up a MEX TRIOS title match.
5) Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. b Felino & Negro Casas
Atlantis took 2/3, now 2-0 in this Atlantis series. Casas praised Atlantis after the match.

CMLL seems to have settled on top three here ending up on Friday’s AMX show. This will air on July 23rd. (The MVS show continues to get empty arena matches taped from months ago.) The trios title match seems intriguing.

No Puebla show tonight. The proposed idea they’d just be postponed a week was never followed up again and a return date remains unknown, though the idea that they’ll return soon is still being talked about in local media. The Facebook page has not been updated since the postponement.

CMLL’s streamed an empty arena match on Twitch between 8 and 8:30 p CT on the last two Mondays. They don’t announce it ahead of time (and for that exact reason it does poorly) but maybe keep an eye out.

CMLL (TUE) 07/13/2021 Arena México
1) Príncipe Odín Jr. vs Cholo
2) Oro Jr. & Robin vs Disturbio & Hijo del Signo
3) La Magnifica, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs La Metálica, La Seductora, Tiffany
4) Blue Panther, Titán, Valiente vs Negro Casas, Niebla Roja, Pólvora [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Euforia, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II

Nothing seems built on the previous week. The semi-main is a relevos incedible only because Niebla Roja is on the rudo side. He works every match as a rudo anyway, this is a thing that only matters to CMLL and no one would but the record keepers would notice if they stopped putting that text there tomorrow. Principe Odin Jr. (the long-ago Artillero) is back for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

CMLL (TUE) 07/13/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra, Estrella De Jalisco Jr. I, Estrella De Jalisco Jr. II vs Destello, Destructor, Ponzoña
2) Antuan, Bello, El Divino, Guerrero Vikingo vs Gran Kenut, Paymon, Thunder Boy
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Difunto, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
4) Leo, Omar Brunetti, Príncipe vs Bestia Negra, Demonio Maya, Zandokan Jr.
5) Crixus, Flash, Gallo vs Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
6) Carístico vs Mephisto

Caristico/Mephisto follows a foul last week. Tercera is the Queretaro crew now taking on the locals.

CMLL’s only announced the Leyenda de Plata participants for next Friday’s Arena Mexico card. I’m not even sure how many matches it’ll be; they’ve only had five now but may cut down to four. It’s strange to see Guadalajara having more matches and more people booked than Arena Mexico, though the pay scale may be different.

The June 26th Arena Rey Bucanero show was scheduled to have a Stuka Jr./Ultimo Guerrero CMLL Heavyweight Championship match. The match did not happen; there was no explanation of why, though there were signs posted that it would not take place. Ultimo Guerrero & Stuka did not appear at the show at all. El Planchitas, in his first column in quite a while, gossips that the match didn’t take place because Julio Cesar Rivera went to upper management and got the match canceled. JCR’s issue is said to be Arena Rey Bucanero is too small of an arena and a title match there would diminish the championship. Planchitas is bringing this up now to point out Mistico & Caristico are defending the CMLL World Tag Team championship in Kingdom’s Matamoros on July 22nd against Los Gemelos Diablos, saying they’re JCR favorites and that’s why the match will be allowed even though it’s a similar situation.

The situation is not exactly the same, the Auditorio in Matamoros is larger. Being in Matamoros makes a big difference; it’s obvious CMLL pays some attention to shows near Mexico City and little anywhere else. It is an inconsistency to not allow a heavyweight title defense in Arena Rey Bucanero when the most recent defense of that belt was in Parque Cri Cri, an outdoor ring in a park in Cuernavaca. It’s not exactly the world’s biggest arena. It also doesn’t explain why Ultimo Guerrero and Stuka were missing entirely. Fans are usually fine with a non-title match as long as the names there.

Bandido becomes Ring of Honor champion

Bandido defeated Rush in the main event of ROH’s Best in the World Sunday night. Rush ripped Bandido’s mask, turned to argue with the referee about it, and got pulled into a bodyscissors cradle for the three count. Bandido briefly got to celebrate before he was talked by the other members of Faccion Ingobernable. (Dragon Lee looked briefly hesitant.) Bandido thanked the fans, in English, after the show went off the air.

The match was good if not great. It was laid out in a way to give Rush a lot without giving him the win – he landed his dropkick finish and had Bandido covered with one foot at the start of the match only to give up with no kickout, he kicked out of Bandido’s 21-plex, Rush got pinned but on a distraction. It was reminiscent of something that might be done with LA Park (though MLW did get a cleaner job out of him.) The post-match suggested a rematch, though it appears ROH would be better going with Bandido against others. Bandido is better off coming off as the underdog at this stage of his career, but they can achieve that with guys like Brody King and might get a more balanced match.

The crowd, around 500 fans, seemed tired by the time main event hit the ring. It was about a four-hour show and that happens. Both men did enough to get the fans back into it. Everyone seemed pretty surprised by the finish – not just that Bandido when, but how he did. The title change seemed popular and ROH needed something big at the end of the show to keep people following them forward. The overall show was well received. There are a few challenges set up beyond Rush. Bandido will defend against Flip Gordon on August 20th in Philadelphia. The winner of a Matt Taven/Vincent match on August 21st will also be due a shot. Brody King and EC3 seemed positioned for future matches on the PPV. Another match with Demonic Flamita doesn’t seem in the plans, as he lost in the first hour of the PPV to Rey Horus.

Bandido has been great when given the opportunity to be a lead single start in PWG, and he’s had exciting matches in Ring of Honor. I don’t know if he’s going to succeed as Ring of Honor champion, but I’m sure he’ll have some exciting matches. That Flip Gordon title challenge already sounds a lot better with Bandido than Rush. It’s a tough time to be the face of this promotion, though they might not give a guy like Bandido a chance if things were going well. It does set up a situation where Ring of Honor will likely not want to want Bandido to lose anywhere while champion, which might make being PWG champion difficult. On the other hand, PWG seems to mean so much to Bandido that you’d have to pry it from his cold dead hands for him to give it up.

Andrade made himself part of the Bandido title win story. Rush’s comments to Sports Illustrated earlier this week about challenging Kenny Omega for the AAA title if Andrade lost must’ve stuck in his mind. Andrade quote tweeted those comments about a half-hour after the title change, saying Rush had no chance to beat Omega because Andrade and Omega are both 10x times the wrestler who just beat Rush. Maybe it was meant intended just to be a dig to his friend, but it came off as a terrible insult to a person who just had the biggest win of his career. Andrade’s also coming off a disappointing TV debut, so he’s not exactly speaking from high ground at the moment. Andrade switched to a more congratulatory tone to Bandido Monday morning.

Back on the ROH PPV, Dragon Lee regained the ROH TV championship against Tony Deppen. That match was short but very good, which seems like an overall strategy for the TV title. Deppen says he’s not under contract, which probably made it hard to keep him champion long term. Deppen is great and should be under contract somewhere. The whole show was easily worth the $10. My understanding is those Philadelphia shows air airing live on ROH’s Honor Club, so I guess I’m back to subscribing every week.

ROH is taping two days of empty arena material; I’m not sure if they were taped prior to the PPV or after, but there are additional tapings.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 07/11/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Black Shadow II b Baby Star Jr. 
Baby Star replaced Shalom (COVID)
2) Alas de Oro & Alas De Plata b Iron Kid & Noicy Boy and Lunatik Xtreme & Sobredosis 
3) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako b Dr. Cerebro & Freelance 
Freelance replaced Cerebro Negro
4) Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera, Pantera Jr. b Black Terry, Death Metal, Zumbi 
Death Metal replaced Tonalli
5) Hijo del Alebrije & Puma de Oro DCOR Toxin & Villano III Jr. 
Both teams brawled outside and atypically got counted out. Team AAA unmasked Puma de Oro after
6) Hijo De Dos Caras, Mamba, Octagón Jr. b Canek Jr., King Charro, Tonalli 
Las Shotas originally announced but replaced due to COVID. Tonalli replaced Dinamic Black. Hijo de Dos Caras and Canek agreed to a singles match next week.

Speaking of the pandemic, this show had five people pulled due to medical issues. Shalom announced his COVID diagnosis publically on Facebook. Cerbero Negro is his father, so I’m not sure if he was off because he has it too or just for precautionary reasons. Neither had wrestled much in IWRG since last October until recently. Dinamic Black hasn’t publically announced his situation, but IWRG did say he was off the show due to medical reasons. I didn’t watch this show, but I did catch a bit of the pre-show where the announcers and IWRG representative talked about how everyone is carefully wearing facemasks. No one in the segment was wearing facemasks, I presume because it would’ve uncomfortable to do so while talking.

IWRG announced Hijo del Alebrije and Toxin to contracts. Toxin was said to be signed through IWRG’s alliance with AAA, which implies AAA’s signed Toxin as well. Toxin, in a Facebook post I can’t find but see referenced elsewhere, said the deal was done a while ago and just made public now, and indie promoters can continue to book him as before.

Milenio has a profile of IWRG and Marcos Moreno; it feels like one written for an anniversary, though they’re about six months off of that.

Other Notes

Probably nothing but worth noting file: AAA didn’t air on Azteca this week. It’s usually late night boxing (10 or 11 pm-ish) and then later night AAA (midnight-ish). This past Saturday, Azteca7 had a Mexico men’s team game that went late, then aired boxing, then went to some other programming. Something similar happened last week – a late Mexico men’s team game, straight into AAA, and then some other programming, so maybe both AAA and boxing each took a week off due to the soccer. AAA wasn’t promoting the show so they got a heads up.

An AAA show in Aguascalientes drew a big turnout; probably too big for 2021. There was a discussion on Twitter where someone claimed Aguascalientes is like New Zealand and there’s no COVID there. Aguascalientes is not an island in the Pacific at last check, but they were averaging around 10 new cases a day when I searched on Sunday. (New Zealand is averaging about 3.)

The Laredo Kid/Andrade match made it to YouTube. I’m busy today, so everyone’s going to see this before I get a chance, it’s fine. I would send some money to the guy who posted it if they had some contact info.

The KDNA/Arena Jose Suliaman show in Monterrey on Sunday looks to have done very well; it was said to be sold out, but they may have been limited to some extent. The show was headlined by Santo & LA Park versus Dr. Wagner Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera. Vampiro was scheduled to appear, but took to social media saying he wouldn’t be there because he hadn’t got his flight and suspected the show may be a fraud. Everyone else seemed to make it.

WrestleTix did an analysis of the tickets sold for the 07/31 Robles/Patron show (Andrade versus Alberto versus Carlito) and estimates about 500 tickets have been sold. There are over 4,000 tickets left unsold. Most tickets for shows are sold in the first few days and the last few days. The promotion could hope things turn around in the last few days or they get attention for it somehow – there’s a Nacion Lucha Libre press conference for those purposes tomorrow – but most likely this will get canceled/”postponed” like the Federacion show in a few weeks. My guess is tickets will move better in Monterrey the next day – obviously, tickets just moved pretty well for the KDNA show with big names – but I wonder how much of the flight costs are factored into having two shows and if Monterrey will be viable to run on it’s own. The good thing is it’s not my problem.

Random impossible to answer the question: why do KAOZ’s shows look so old? Filming outdoors, as they did on their most recent show, is obviously going to be harder. They’re also a promotion with a dedicated training center and video that looks out of 2005 as if the video was recorded in SD and upscaled to HD. It’s got to be something to do with the cameras they use for matches because the Mas Lucha interviews segment looks what you’d expect a 2021 video to look like. Many of the CAR KAOZ gym shows look this way too.

Lucha Madre’s next show will be on August 8th, in Arena Azteca Budokan. This promotion has only existed in no-fans times and with heavy green screen usage, so it’s a bit of a mystery in what they’ll look like in a more conventional presentation. I’ve seen their most recent IWTV show and it was organized more like a normal show, though with a lot of in-between taped bits. (It also seemed hurt by the lack of atmosphere, so fans are worth having back.)

Segunda Caida reviews a 1996 Felino/Mascara Magica match.

El Grafico has a story on Arez & Latigo getting tattoos.

The Cassandro bio pic has apparently finished filming in El Paso.

A play based on lucha libre is opening in Dallas.