Arena Mexico shaken by earthquake, Depreadores to be revealed today, Vangellys quits CMLL

CMLL (MON) 09/06/2021 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla]
4) Stuka Jr. © b Ángel de Oro [NWA LH]
5th defense
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Místico b Atlantis Jr., Cavernario, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
Atlantis & Ultimo Guerrero had issues leading to UG betraying Atlantis.

Just partial results, but even that’s a treat . The main event reads like we should expect Atlantis Jr./Ultimo Guerrero next week. CMLL so rarely does title changes in Arena Puebla that I didn’t expect one here, but it wouldn’t have been a total shock. There may be a day (again) where someone becomes champion in Puebla and we don’t know about it for a while.

CMLL (TUE) 09/07/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito b Kaligua & Último Dragóncito
2) Eléctrico & Robin b Hijo del Signo & Inquisidor
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Cachorro, Pegasso, Stigma b Akuma, Espanto Jr., Felino Jr.
Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Hechicero, Luciferno, Mephisto b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Stuka Jr.
An earthquake struck Acapulco just as this match started, which was felt in Mexico City and caused the show to be stopped temporarily. Mephisto & Luciferno snuck in fouls on the Panthers.
5) Star Jr., Valiente, Volador Jr. b Cavernario, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
Tecnicos took 2/3. Volador was accompanied by his four mystery people again.

It was a 7.0 earthquake, strong enough to be felt 200 miles away, sounds pretty bad. The damage is apparently relatively slight, though parts of Mexico City were out of power through today. There’s a history of bad earthquakes in Mexico City proper – in 2017 and 1985 most notably – but this doesn’t seem to have done the damage those did. Mas Lucha’s footage of the earthquake in Arena Mexico went viral. The show paused for around five minutes before resuming, judging from social media posts. Volador Jr., Star Jr. & Valiente thanked the fans for sticking around after the main event.

CMLL says the Volador friends will be revealed on CMLL Informa today. Those men are officially named Los Depredadores on the Informa preview. It seems liked it’d be more dramatic if they did it on an actual show, but Informa is the bigger priority for whatever reason.

CMLL (TUE) 09/07/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (video), Mas Lucha]
4) Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black DRAW Halcón Negro Jr., Principe Daniel, Trono
double pin draw
5) Gallo & Joker b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa
money thrown in, challenges followed

Friday’s lineup

CMLL (FRI) 09/10/2021 Arena México
1) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Dark Magic, Okumura, Pólvora
2) La Guerrera, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Templario vs Dragón Rojo Jr.Enfermero Jr.El Coyote [MEX MIDDLE, #1 Contenders]
4) Ángel de Oro vs TitánFugazAtlantis Jr.Rey CometaDark PantherGran GuerreroNegro CasasEuforiaTerribleVirusGemelo Diablo II [Copa Independencia, semifinal]

Not a streaming show. It should air on TV on 09/18 and on YouTube on 09/25, after the matches they’re setting up have already taken place.

Templario and Titan appear to be cleared of whatever unsaid reasons were keeping them from appearing in these shows. Titan/Volador in a 1v1 match before they wrestle for the tag team titles would be interesting, though I think Gran Guerrero or Euforia is far more likely. CMLL did give a surprise in the Universal de Amazones tournament so maybe they’ll do it again.

CMLL announced those final four names for the middleweight title late Tuesday night, cutting off the poll that hadn’t been close in a while. Two of the four wrestlers will advance to the 09/17 show. Templario is most likely one of them, and take your pick of the other three. Enfermero Jr. has had the most fan support in the poll.

CMLL’s never been clear when the 09/24 Aniversario polls are going to end. I assumed they’d just close them all at the same time, as they’ve done in past years. That appears to be wrong: the other four polls remain open. Maybe they’re just closing the polls as they need to this time around, and so the other polls will remain open until the Tuesday before, 09/21? This is something CMLL could easily explain but struggles to do so historically.

Felino has not been seen on a CMLL show since August 16th. (He may have appeared on the August 23rd show, we have no results.) I have no information about Felino’s status but a healthy Felino almost certainly wrestles in one of the Copa Independencia blocks. Barbaro Cavernario is listed on today’s CMLL Informa show; Cavernario doesn’t have any upcoming matches so maybe they’re talking about him in the heavyweight poll, but it’s probably about their hair match. This is about time where both guys should be around to talk about a match next week and I hope that’s all they have to do talk about. CMLL’s preview maintains that the match is on.

The other Informa participants are the four people in the middleweight contenders match (Dragon Rojo, Enfermero Jr., El Coyote, Templario), heavyweight contenders Euforia & Terrible, and Volador and his new group.

Dark Silueta & Reyna Isis continue to lead Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer by just a few votes. Dalys & Vaquer did lead last night; my guess is we’d see it go back and forth through the day if there was an easier way to keep track of it. The women’s tag team championship has the most votes, which I believe CMLL previously explained would get the main event spot on the Aniversario. (I wonder if I’ve misunderstood that though, and it’ll actually be the candidate with the most votes, which would put Volador/Titan vs Gemelo Diablos match last.) CMLL cutting off the middleweight poll while allowing the others to continue will mean it’ll have the least votes and open the show, which is another reason it’s weird to keep the other polls open.

Vangellys quit CMLL on Tuesday, as first reported by Mas Lucha. It might have not been noticed had Vangellys not told Mas Lucha. He picked up an injury back on August 17th and indicated he’s still a couple of weeks from returning. Vangellys hadn’t been booked in a meaningful spot for years; he could’ve just quietly vanished like Estrellita; I’m for sure not spending these many words on Vangellys in any other circumstance. Vangellys is close with the Munoz family and leaving after Mistico Dralistico left is probably not a coincidence, but it seems like there was an additional push – Vangellys was still tagging CMLL on Instagram posts on Monday like he expected to still be around. He’ll likely be working shows with the Munoz family in the near future.

Vangellys came into CMLL full time in 2007, seemingly part of a deal to lose the Mexican National Light Heavyweight championship to Mistico Caristico. He was never a star, but got grouped in with the heavyweights and so worked decently high on the card. Vangellys was fine enough in stretches in CMLL, and injuries (and the general malaise of CMLL) caught up to him in recent years. His CMLL peak was winning the 2013 En Busca de un Idolo, a competition of guys stuck in the upper midcard who largely stayed stuck in the upper midcard. He also got to lose his hair to Pierroth (La Bestia del Ring) in a July 14th match, a match which no one but the Munoz family was all that excited to see. Vangellys was most recently was grouped in with Okumura & Dark Magic as part of the Ambasadors del Mal, a trio of foreign heels given a big presentation as if they were going to be a big deal. They have not been a big deal, just a midcard act that hasn’t been around much. Vangellys also recently appeared in a match promoting the Contra mobile game, seemingly because he looked most like one of the characters; that’s his final match of real note in CMLL. Vangellys is Mexican but portrayed himself as German and used Nazi imagery as part of his gimmick. Vangellys stated he himself wasn’t a Nazi, but also showed off a collection of World War II memorabilia in one of CMLL’s outside the ring profiles, including items that appeared to be from the Nazis. I will not miss seeing him in CMLL and there’s little chance he’ll ever return.

The Munoz family telling promoters “to get Rush/Dragon Lee, you’ve got to book Dralistico, Bestia del Ring and Vangellys” doesn’t seem sustainable, but the Parks and Wagners did similar things for a while. The idea there was to get the kids booked as big enough stars so they’d still be stars when the fathers weren’t around, and that seems to have worked for them. The idea for the Munoz family is to make sure Dralistico is treated similarly to Rush & Dragon Lee soon enough; he’s going to be in top matches and he’s probably not losing them.

Guerrero Negro Jr., who was a participant in the 2012 En Busca de un Idolo, told ATiempoTV that he’s returning to CMLL in October or November. He’s said things like this before and they haven’t happened so take it with a grain of salt. Guerrero Negro Jr. said this at a show in Saltillo; he says he’s not working much in that home area because he’s living and working in the US now and can only return to Mexico when he gets a pass from work. I’m not sure how he’s returning to CMLL if he can only occasionally come to Mexico. Guerrero Negro Jr. also says he’s married to a sister of Volador Jr., which I don’t recall hearing before and would explain why he might be coming back to CMLL.

Rocky Romero teased coming to CMLL on Twitter. Romero seems like the guy who’s only going to tease that if there’s some plans in the work, so maybe there will be NJPW participation in CMLL this year after all. Romero has seemingly worked for every other group in North America that has a relationship with NJPW this year.

KeMonito & Soberano appeared briefly on the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Mexico awards Tuesday night. Which at least says Soberano Jr. is still around CMLL. Soberano appeared in a skit in the middle, KeMonito doesn’t show up until the end (and his bit was obviously taped at some different time.)

CMLL hasn’t said much about Arena Coliseo lately, but it seems like the building was used for a movie or TV production this past week. (That’s not the best photo, but there are other ones around.) The building has been used for movie production in the past. It suggests it’s more CMLL’s choice to not run the building rather than a health reason they can’t, though that’s not definite.

Other Notes

IWRG’s lineup for Thusday

IWRG (THU) 09/09/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sol vs Rey Halcón
2) Caballero de Plata & Legendario vs Fly Warrior & Hijo Del Estudiante
3) Avisman vs KaraouiMafioso
4) Hijo del Alebrije © vs Hijo del Pirata Morgan [IWRG JUNIORS]
2nd defense
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Gianna Valletta, Medico Brujo, Sick Boy

IWRG is defending frequently the titles they do have around, more so than any other Mexican promotion. It’d be fine if they just had a Mexico title, a Juniors title, a Heavyweight title, and either a tag or trios title, they don’t really need more than that. Mas Lucha indicated they’ll announce their next Mas Lucha Supremo tournament participant on this show.

That main event of next Thursday’s Lucha Memes show was supposed to include Davey Richards. No match involving him had ever been announced and promoter Daniel Ledesma announced in a (non-public) post that Richards is off the show. It’s a Mexico versus the World show but it’s not their strongest without Richards. This is where people having faith in the promoter to deliver something big as the replacement surprise main event will make or break the card. Veneno is listed as facing Mike; Veneno probably should be taking more time off

Laredo Kid’s Impact latest run starts on Behind the Impact Thursday at 6:30 pm CT. That show also goes up for free on Impact’s website.

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