regular CMLL weekend shows, Mexico/COVID, major changes in ROH

Today is the last regular Arena Mexico show prior to the Dia del Muerto show. It’s not streaming and there’s nothing particularly notable on it; it’s only notable for how familiar it is. The last four CMLL weeks:

  • 10/08: Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero beat Místico, Titán, Volador Jr.
  • 10/15: Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero beat Místico, Titán, Volador Jr.
  • 10/22: Místico beat Último Guerrero
  • 10/29: Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero versus Místico, Titán, Volador Jr.

We know we’ll be spared from this next week, but that doesn’t make this any more interesting. CMLL has become more strict about keeping their rudo units together, which makes it easier to fall in repeat matches like this. CMLL does not care and not enough people care to watch it.

Sunday’s lineup was also revealed.

CMLL (SUN) 10/31/2021 Arena México
1) Leono & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Skadi vs La Comandante, La Metálica, Tiffany
3) Hijo del Villano III, Okumura, Pólvora vs Akuma, Espanto Jr., Misterioso Jr.
4) Kráneo, Stuka Jr., Volcano vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Raziel
5) Fugaz, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Rey Bucanero

Misterioso is fully back in Arena Mexico. The women’s match is described as a rematch from the previous week. It is the same people and the rudas won last week, but it was just Tiffany beating Vaquerita cleanly.

Dia del Muertos is about remembering those who have passed away; there’s a handful of remembrances of past and recently deceased lucahdors already. CMLL has announced they’re doing something to remember fans: they’ve invited fans to send in photos of family members who have “already gone ahead down the road” and they’ll show the photos on the screens during the shows. That’s a thoughtful move

CMLL (TUE) 11/02/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno, Thunder Boy vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Fúnebre
2) Adrenalina, Crixus, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro vs Ángel Rebelde (Querétaro), Halcón Negro Jr. (Querétaro), Optimus (Querétaro), Trono (Querétaro)
3) Flash, Mr. Samurai, Zandokan vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Hijo del Villano III & Villano IV vs Felino Jr. & Negro Casas and Blue Panther & Cachorro and Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring

This will be a Dia del Muertos themed show. Villano V hasn’t appeared there since a 2017 legends show. Many of CMLL’s biggest names are in the Rey del Inframundo cibernetico in Arena Mexico so that makes as a day to bring in people from the outside to Guadalajara.

CMLL Informa announced that the final 2 of the 12/06 Arena Coliseo Torneo de Gran Opurtindad match will receive spots in the semi-main and main event. The value of those spots have diminished when Sagrado is suddenly back in the top matches, but it’ll still be a first for those involved. It’s really a bigger deal for CMLL itself, desperately in need of a young star to be accepted as a new star and heat up. Given the people involved, this might be a chance to try Panterita del Ring Jr. or Halcon Suriano Jr. in a top spot and see if it works.

Mascara 2000, who has not appeared in CMLL in nineteen months, told the press he had left CMLL. He also claimed Capo Mayor had not paid him for the Mascara 2000 Jr. name in 8 years. I feel like he may should’ve brought it up in year three or four if it was an issue.

Ice Ribbon’s Tsukasa Fujimoto wrote an article for j-cast about her trip to Mexico. Google translates it surprisingly well. Two things I learned: Mexican fans understood her name because they saw it as “Tu Casa” and it was pronounced about the same, and she had five PCR and anitgen tests during her time in Mexico.

The second part of the Mexico Exterior Department’s videos about lucha libre has gone up on various affiliated YouTube channels; here’s it on the Mexico Guayamas YouTube channel. This one focuses on masks.

ROH

Ring of Honor is not going away, but the Ring of Honor that’s existed for the last half decade or so will come to an end in December. ROH announced they would suspend wrestling operations and make major changes following their 12/11 Final Battle PPV. Ring of Honor simultaneously informed their wrestlers that most of their contracts would be allowed to lapse in December; those who have deals into 2022 will get paid until March and may get a buyout for the rest. ROH’s press release says they’re aiming to return in April; the idea appears to be ROH will employ people on a per date basis and likely keep little overhead, just the minimum to keep a wrestling TV show on the air.

ROH will still hold that scheduled Final Battle PPV. They will hold planned tapings next week, according to PWInsider. It’s possible ROH could tape more that weekend of Final Battle, but likely the PPV will be the end of this era. All wrestlers are now allowed to start taking outside bookings for any dates beyond those of the previously scheduled ROH dates. It’s likely some of the current wrestlers will be used in the new iteration of ROH, but likely not as many and not at the pay they had before.

The Mexico-based talent is very much not likely to be among those brought back for a scaled-down ROH. This is not a version of the promotion likely to pay for international flights (maybe not even domestic ones) and the legal fees required in getting a work visa. Bandido, Demonic Flamita, Rey Horus, Dragon Lee, and Rush will lose their full time jobs in January. (La Bestia del Ring was only a per date wrestler, like many newer faces in Ring of Honor.) It’s likely some of those wrestlers were looking around at other options previously – the Munoz were public with it – but their leverage in dealmaking has just disappeared. The options for full time work for Mexican wrestlers in the US are now WWE, which has cut back dramatically on bringing in established wrestlers, and AEW. MLW and Impact are nice, but the four guys working those two groups (Arez, Aramis, Laredo Kid, Black Taurus) are not fully employed at it like the ROH wrestlers were.

My guess is Bandido will draw interest from AEW. I think – I know – fans want to see a Los Ingobernabels reunion in AEW because I get replies to that effect every time I suggest AEW might look into signing some luchadors. I’m doubtful that’ll happen, I believe Rush would be unhappy with being a small fish in a big pond and I think some of Rush’s behavior in Ring of Honor may convince AEW he’s not working behavior. Rush to AEW still is a possibility because plenty of poor actions by wrestlers has historically been overlooked if promoters believe a wrestler is a draw, just don’t put all your chips on it. Dragon Lee is tied to Rush and tied to whatever the situation will be with NJPW in 2022. Demonic Flamita and Rey Horus would be assets to US groups but I don’t feel strongly about their chances. This massive free agency for Ring of Honor wrestlers combined with previous (and likely upcoming) WWE releases means there’s a lot of useful wrestlers for a small number of spots and some deserving people are going to be left out.

I expect you’ll be seeing all of these people work in Mexico much more often in 2022, not just because of lack of opportunities, but maybe lack of visas. Everyone’s situation is different, but likely many of those who had contracts expiring at the end of this year also had their work visas lined up the same. It’s possible to get legal permission to get a visa in the US in different ways – I’m guessing Masked Republic and others doing similar work have gotten some urgent messages in the last few days – but all visa stuff seems slow and lengthy. There may be a small stretch of time where those guys who thought they were working regularly in the US in 2022 are instead locked out.

In the bigger picture, there are few spots for Mexican wrestlers in the US and now they’re fewer. I don’t believe any promotion has a set quota. I do think most US wrestling promotions believe all Mexican wrestlers offer about the same wrestling matches, they find little that differences Mexican wrestlers beyond their proficiency in that style, and so those US promotions believe that signing more Mexican wrestlers is diminishing returns. They’re likely not thinking “we can only four luchadors”, they’re just not seeing what’s unique about the potential fifth guy that would add to the product. Just because there’s a bunch of talented Mexican wrestlers now available doesn’t mean they’ll automatically get a spot somewhere else. Some of them are likely to hustle for indie dates, but those indie promotions are going to see things in a similar way – if Bandido is available, a promotion who sees only value in bringing in one luchador might not give Psycho Clown or an Ultimo Guerrero the spot. I think it’s worth fighting for a visa for a Hijo del Vikingo even if you can get a Dragon Lee easier, but I don’t trust the people who make these decisions feel the same way.  At least Hijo del Vikingo is a known quantity; if you’re a Koamnder or a Latigo, even just getting a look in the US just go longer odds. ROH spots going away affects everyone trying to get work in the US.

There’s also less chance for growth in those spots. maybe 1 to 3 more jobs may open up in AEW, but that’s about it. I don’t think there’s going to be more work for Mexicans in WWE – if anything, they’ll probably lose a spot when Gran Metalik gets let go, and there’s not a Mexican on the WWE roster than I feel 100% confident will be around a year from now. ROH’s pivot was a bad day for everyone in wrestling, but especially the ones trying to fight for a spot from Mexico.

Ring of Honor failed, in this most recent iteration, because they spent like they were a third national promotion and were not able to take in money as the national promotion. Their success in 2017 and 2018 convinced them that was their normal, and they didn’t appreciate how big a share of that growth was due to the Elite and due to NJPW. Even though their sold-out Madison Square Garden show, I think they were in on their own hype and were blinded to their own foundational weaknesses. The Elite left, NJPW focused on their own situation, WWE continued to pick away at ROH for NXT, and ROH wasn’t compelling enough to keep fans into those wrestlers to stay with them. COVID obviously hurt tremendously, and maybe this version of ROH remains in place longer without it. Ring of Honor was still struggling prior, canceling shows in 2019 (explained as “logistics”, fairly obviously as “not enough tickets were being sold”) even prior to the pandemic. People in charge made mistakes and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of content over the next couple of months going through them all, but I think it comes down to the simple bit of not enough people being interested in post-ELITE versions of Ring of Honor.

One of the reoccurring bits of discussion in Mexican wrestling over the last three decades is if there could ever be a third strong national promotion to rival CMLL and AAA. The US is now a similar setup, with both WWE and AEW strong and stable. The Mexican attempts at a third national promotion have generally been badly thought out and either quick disasters or slow failures. Ring of Honor had it’s own issues, though it was still better run and better funded than most of those Mexico attempts and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to survive in that form. I think it’s an open question if US wrestling can support a third major wrestling promotion. There can and will be great wrestling in the US outside of those two promotions, but I’m not sure if it’ll be enough. There’s definitely the wrestling talent available for it, I’m just not sure if there’s enough fan support to pay for it. It may take a completely different version of wrestling to bring in a different fan base, but I don’t think it’s any more guaranteed in the US than it is in Mexico.

Rush & Dragon Lee posted a vlog very thankful to Ring of Honor for their time there and how they took care of the wrestlers during the pandemic. They were also thankful to the fans for their support. They presented their future as having many options with every wrestling company in the US, as well as considering the possibility of just staying independent and working wherever. Rush pushed the idea of wanting to bring the whole family – including Dralistico and La Bestia del Ring – wherever they go, and wanting the whole family to be treated like stars. It’s hard to imagine them in AEW with those requirements. SEScoops quotes Court Bauer as saying he’d have interest in Rush. Rush previously worked for MLW and Bauer talked in great detail about how he lost on a bidding war for Rush when he signed for ROH. MLW seems like a better fit for what Rush and his family are looking for, though it’s possible the money being offered last time won’t be the same with less demand this time. Rush has posted a teaser image to appear in Pro Wrestling Revolution in 2022, though it was so subtle that I didn’t get it the first time I saw it.

GCW announced Bandido for shows on December 3rd (Houston), 4th (Dallas), and 17th (Los Angeles.) Bandido is booked for North Carolina’s PWX on 12/18. He’s occupied with ROH on 12/10 and 12/11 and may be spending Christmas in Mexico so that’s probably about it.

The weirdest CMLL diehards are having the slightest bit of dance on ROH’s grave here is unsurprising; there’s no point in arguing with them because they’re few and very lost. It is worth noting that the big CMLL’s ROH tour came when Ring of Honor was looking for any kind of boost. CMLL gave ROH nothing. CMLL gave Ring of Honor wrestlers and it was up to Ring of Honor to figure out how to use them, but the “CMLL” name and the wrestlers on their own meant nothing outside of the wall of Arena Mexico. The hope was CMLL would bring some level of fanbase similar to NJPW, and that was borderline non-existent. I don’t think one good CMLL/ROH tour changes where ROH is today, but it was a warning signal about how badly CMLL markets itself, one they could’ve heeded. Their problems still haven’t been addressed and now the same small crowd CMLL wrestlers were shocked by at ROH are the normal ones they see on spot shows. CMLL fans generally might want to keep their heads down anyway; this ROH ended because the people with money decided they were tired of spending more of it for ROH to figure it out. CMLL’s not doing that much better and they’re not safe from the same fate.

AAA

10/30 AAA on Space – this week, it’s listed at 7 pm, which was the timeslot Dynamite had been in. Matches scheduled

  • AAA has posted the preview still
  • so I’ve got nothing to post here
  • probably some matches from Xalapa

The Wrestling Observer reported FTR will be on the 11/04 AAA TV tapings. Vickie Guerrero will manage them instead of Tully Blanchard. The WON says the idea of FTR as AAA tag champs and going to Mexico with Guerrero as their manager was a Tony Khan idea, which conflicts with what I’ve heard elsewhere. Guerrero’s best skill is riling up a crowd, so sending her as a manager to a no-fans show is counterintuitive. AAA still wants FTR to defend on the 12/04 TripleMania Regia show and that’s still not confirmed.

The WON says Deonna Purrazzo is a bridesmaid in a wedding the same weekend as TripleMania Regia, so that’s why she’s not on the show.

Other News

Mexico’s president held a press conference to announce that everyone over 18 has been given at least one does of a COVID vaccine. Mexico City’s mayor has done the same. That doesn’t seem exactly true – Our World in Data reports 53% of Mexican have taken one dose of a vaccine. It’s possible they’ve all been offered the chance to get one. At any rate, I read this as Mexico declaring victory and moving on to the end phase in this pandemic. Restrictions will likely be further eased barring another spike in cases. If you’re CMLL and wanting to open up Arena Mexico fully or if you’re AAA and hoping to return to regular live shows in 2022, this is as good as possible. I don’t know they we – either in the US or Mexico – are truly past the health consequences of this pandemic but I believe governments are beginning to act as if it’s largely over.

Arez faces Myron Reed in the first round of AAW’s JLMT tournament tonight in Berwyn, Illinois. It’ll also air on FITE for $13 at 7:30 pm.

Shows of note this weekend

Wrestling Observer Newsletter also mentioned that Will Ospreay was approached to work a “MLW Mexico” taping this year. I presume that’s a The Crash show; MLW has only taped in Tijuana with whomever Konnan is working with that minute. Ospreay was told by NJPW he could only work a show in Mexico if there were no AAA wrestlers booked. Not just in his match, but on the show entirely. It reads like Ospreay won’t be on that show of the way it’s written in the newsletter but not that it’s certain. The Crash hasn’t announced future plans beyond an 11/05 show.

That 11/05 The Crash show has a lot of people announced but also no matches a week out. That’s unusual behavior for The Crash, especially strange since it’s their big 10th Aniversario show.

No IWRG show Thursday night. IWRG is participating at the La Mole comic book convention this weekend, which might be a reason they didn’t run much this week. The next show is the Castillo del Terror show on Sunday, which is a Mas Lucha Premium show.

Mexican sportscaster Javier Sahagun passed away on Wednesday. Sahagun worked for Televisa and announced Raw for the network from 2008 to 2014. Televisa insists on their own announce team for wrestling, so Sahagun and partner Jorge Pietrasanta came off as interlopers to Mexican fans used to Hugo Savonvich and Carlos Cabrera. Still, to the fans who started watching WWE during its hottest period in Mexico, Sahagun was one of the authentic voices of the promotion.

CMLL Dia del Muertos shows lineups, Arena Coliseo return card, CAR The Crash final show?

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 10/26/2021 Arena México [CMLL, ESTOKaiser Sports]
1) Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia b Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy
2) Eléctrico, Oro Jr., Robin b Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Nitro
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido b Cachorro, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr.
Rugido Arena Mexico debut
4) Negro Casas b Blue Panther
Casas took 1/3
5) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Valiente b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

We probably won’t see Casas/Panther unless CMLL puts it up themselves. Three matches from the show air on Heraldo Television (maybe on a 1 or 2-week delay) and that station normally doesn’t stream online during the weekends. No one in Mexico records CMLL shows to share and probably can’t comprehend why anyone might do that. I’m not sure I can comprehend it either.

The reporters on the show seemed pretty enthused about Rugido making his CMLL debut. It’s an unlikely journey from Welcome to Mi Barrio to CMLL.

CMLL (FRI) 10/29/2021 Arena México
1) Arkalis & Sonic vs Grako & Inquisidor
2) Pegasso, Sangre Imperial, Stigma vs Dark Magic, El Coyote, Okumura
3) La Jarochita, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Ángel de Oro, Cavernario, Terrible
5) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero

Just matches for the sake of matches. It’s unlikely anything new is happening since Dia del Muertos is next week. Los Infernales seem to be working through the lesser failed rudo teams one by one. The women’s match might be one of the better CMLL trios possible.

No lineup for Sunday yet, but CMLL is advertising them as special half-priced tickets. They’re also discounting the Dia del Muertos tickets in some sections. In all cases, you can only get the discounts if you buy from the ticket office in person. Its surprising CMLL would discount what would seem to be their most attractive gimmick shows, but maybe the idea is just to get people in the habit of coming out to lucha libre shows again with restrictions being eased.

The Dia del Muertos lineups are up. Each will be their own iPPV

There’s no package deal, so it’s about $25 to watch all three shows of not so interesting matches. This sounds like a tremendously unwise idea, both to distribute it this way and to buy it. A better plan might have been to run the 10/31 show as a Dia del Muertos show and put it out free to sell the concept on the next two days.

(It is funny that the only free live CMLL stream this year was the one to go against the failed Federacion/Rush show; it’s too bad Federacion was a badly thought out enterprise because it might have pushed CMLL to do more.)

CMLL does variable pricing for these online shows because they do variable prices for tickets and think of these events the same way. It’s probably costing them money. Almost no one is buying these PPVs, which also means whoever is left buying them is going to buy them for any reasonable price. Making Sunday cheaper than the other two is not going to induce some casual buyer to impulse purchase, because there are no casual CMLL buyers left and no one who’s going to impulse buy. You’re either a obsessive who ‘needs’ to get all these shows or not, the price is almost irrelevant. the only thing they’re communicating is the Tuesday and Sunday shows aren’t as important as the Friday ones, which is honest but also costing them money.

CMLL (TUE) 11/02/2021 Arena México
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Arkalis & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Nitro
3) Avispa Dorada, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit vs Dark Silueta, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
4) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
5) Místico vs Gran GuerreroVolador Jr.TemplarioValienteGemelo Diablo IAtlantis Jr.Gemelo Diablo IIÁngel de OroFelino [Rey del Inframundo, #1 Contenders]

The cibernetico should be fine. There’s no obvious opponent for Terrible, which means it’s probably Volador.

CMLL (FRI) 11/05/2021 Arena México
1) Robin & Sonic vs Grako & Inquisidor
2) Espíritu Negro, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Akuma, El Coyote, Espanto Jr.
3) La Jarochita & Lluvia © vs Amapola & Metálica [MEX WOMEN TAG]
5th defense
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Último Guerrero
5) Terrible © vs ? [Rey del Inframundo]

Infernales versus Ultimo Guerrero should be a thing. They couldn’t book the full Guerreros tournament once they’ve decided to put Gran Guerrero and Templario in the cibernetico. Putting all those big names in that match makes this show much harder to announce in advance, they need a strong Tuesday turnout to justify it.

Amapola & Metalica aren’t a regular team, didn’t beat Jarochita & Lluvia to set it up, CMLL Just needed a random title defense.

CMLL (SAT) 11/06/2021 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala vs Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Gallito & Guapito vs Chamuel & Perico Zakarías
3) Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer
4) Eléctrico vs RobinOro Jr.PegassoStigmaHombre Bala Jr.Enfermero Jr.DisturbioCachorroHalcón Suriano Jr.Sangre ImperialPanterita del Ring Jr. [Torneo La Gran Oportunidad]
5) Felino, Místico, Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

This is the Arena Coliseo re-opening show, and what CMLL can do for a loaded up Saturday show at the moment. This one isn’t streaming and I’m not sure if it’ll be taped.

There’s no word yet on what the Torneo la Gran Oportuindad is actually for, so maybe that’ll be revealed on Informa since some of those wrestlers are listed there. There are multiple vacant championships that could be filled, though it is probably more along the lines of one of these guys getting a main event on the next show. (The poster lists Panterita del Ring, but I assume it’s the son/junior based on who else is here.)

The Micros match is another one where Microman is not to be found. Beengala versus Principe Odin Jr. is a battle of brothers, though ones who haven’t been around a lot lately.

CMLL (SUN) 11/07/2021 Arena México
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia
2) Dark Panther, El Audaz, Flyer vs Dark Magic, Okumura, Pólvora
3) La Jarochita, La Vaquerita, Lluvia vs Dalys, Dark Silueta, Tiffany
4) Blue Panther, Star Jr., Valiente vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Terrible

The final Dia del Muertos show. This is the cheapest show and the one where they didn’t bother to book an interesting match.

Hijo del Signo held a press conference to announce his new wrestling promotion (Signo Promotions) and will hold their first show at Arena Neza on 11/19. It’s a forgettable El Toreo throwback show, the hundred attempt to recycle these ideas without adding new ones, notable only because some of the guys in the main are so old that any match they wrestle in might be their last. Hijo del Signo talked about having 11 years in CMLL and now being out on his own; he doesn’t directly say he’s left CMLL but that’s that implication. He last wrestled in CMLL on September 21st.

Back in 2010 on CMLL’s old Ras de Lona show, they teased the debut of a son of one of the Misioneros de la Muerte. There was the briefest of instants where it seems like CMLL was bringing in one of the Traumas. Hijo del Signo was a disappointment then and never really got much better. He was fine as a rookie, but never showed the slightest improvement and declined at the same rate as the rest of the CMLL promotion. The only matches I’ve rated highly with him have been ciberneticos where Signo played no real part. Signo did get minor chances, but never came through in them. He was always a guy who seemed to have a spot in CMLL because of his highly respected father, never took advantage of that opportunity. Signo was a guy whose spot should’ve been given to someone else long ago. In the current climate, this is probably Signo leaving over lack of money rather than CMLL freezing him out.

Ice Ribbon announced they’re ending their P’s Party reoccurring shows on 11/17, replacing them with a new event as part of their CMLL relationship “sometime” in 2022. These are small weekly events. I would guess this would be lucha libre themed events, but not necessarily more than one or two CMLL luchadoras going over at a time.

Guadalajara

CMLL (TUE) 10/26/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha]
1) Conde, Persa, Ponzoña Jr. b Micro, Obelisk, Raven
2) Mr. Trueno, Persa, Rey Trueno b El Divino, Luminoso, Mr. Samurai
Persa replaced Infierno
3) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel b Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black
5) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Titán vs Rey Bucanero, Satánico, Último Guerrero
6) Místico & Volador Jr. b Averno & Mephisto

The turnout seemed up here, which is probably some about Averno coming back in and some about capacity being up. (There are still seats marked off, which seems ineffective when everyone just swarms the ring after the main event.)

Puebla

CMLL (MON) 10/25/2021 Arena Puebla [Exclusiva Puebla]
3) Magnus, Pegasso, Stigma b El Perverso, Felino Jr., Pólvora
Pegasso appeared to pick up a neck injury on a dive during the final sequence.
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
Challenges for a MEX TRIOS match next week.
5) Místico b Euforia
clean La Mistica victory

Attendance here still looks low, though it appears they’re still under the same tight capacity requirements. There was a change in Puebla government recently, which led to a new person in charge of the Box y Lucha commission. He was at this show taking photos.

CMLL (MON) 11/01/2021 Arena Puebla
1) Siky Ozama vs El Malayo
2) Shockercito vs Asturiano [lightning]
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Akuma, Espanto Jr., Misterioso Jr.
4) Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus © vs Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. [MEX TRIOS]
3rd defense
5) Atlantis Jr. & Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero

I’d be surprised if CMLL did a trios change here but I was surprised when they did a tag team change. Misterioso hasn’t been around Mexico City since June, wrestling mostly back in Torreon when he was wrestling at all.

Other News

Mexico City area (techinically in Ecatepec) venue CAR The Crash has a pretty normal show for their venue this Saturday. It’ll be a tribute to Matematico, with others also being rememebred. It will also apparently be the final show in that venue. I’ve seen mentions of it being the final show for a week or so with no real explaination of what’s going on – that Furia de Titanes article obliques says “they had to change venues.” The building formally was a wedding hall named Salon Citalli. It was turned into a wrestling primary venue under the Centro de Alto Rendimento The Crash name in 2018, presented as both an affiliate to The Crash promotion and something Pentagon Jr. was involved in. Both of those aspects quietely faded away, but the idea that it was supposed to be the Lucha Brothers home base is why the venue is covered in logos of promotions they had wrestled in. The venue got in trouble for illegally running shows earlier in the pandemic (later claimed to be a noise complaint rather than a medical one), and I wonder if they got into further issues. It has been a pretty active venue in the Mexico City area, though a lower teir one among those which would turn up on Mas Lucha. There’s gotta be a story here I’m completely out on the loop on, becuase the idea this is their last show seems very downplayed.

Arez vs Aramis for Cesar Duran’s briefcase of cash will take place on next Saturday’s (11/06) MLW show, and probably air on MLW Fusion some weeks down the line. Dario Cueto gave away a briefcase of cash in an early Lucha Underground storyline and this seems to be a nod at that. MLW posted a full version of Arez vs Aramis vs Myron Reed vs Tajiri match from their Vice show on YouTube.

Ring of Honor announced the taped Bandido/Alex Zayne ROH World Championship match will air their TV show the weekend of 11/06. ROH also announced an Honor Club exclusive show on 11/14. Those Honor Club shows normally include title defenses, though maybe not for Bandido since he’s defending on TV just a week prior. It’s possible the next title defense would be on the 12/11 Final Battle show.

(If you subscribe to ROH’s Honor Club $10/month deal on 11/14 just in time for that show, your membership will still be active when that Final Battle show airs. All shows are under that month plan right now.)

GALLI announced Arez & Aramis defending their tag team titles against Mr. Iguana & Dante Marte on their 11/07 show among other matches.

11/27 RIOT (Mark Tank)

Extreme Tiger was on an unexpectedly good run, got hurt, and then seemed to get forgotten from most of the high-profile indies for whatever reason. I’m curious how he’ll do here.

Alberto el Patron’s court case now shows a trial date to December 13th. I have no information about if it was pushed back or if it’s just another date in the case. This first trial date was December 2020, so it’s been going on for a year. It’s a safe guess we’ll hear from Alberto (and his friends) as soon as the case is resolved, so no mention of it on the Monday Trial date suggested something happened. Not sure what.

Octagon has latched to the ridiculous “my mask is worth fifteen million pesos” line as a bit. (He does acknowledge people have made fun of him for it.) Octagon says himself, Fuerza Guerrera, Rayo de Jalisco, Canek, and Mil Mascaras will never “sell” their mask while asking for some promoter to put on a Octagon/Fuerza Guerrera mask match.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.

Plata passes away, TJP in CMLL, new AAA mixed tag champs, Super Fly out of AAA?

CMLL (FRI) 10/22/2021 Arena México [CMLLEstrellas del RingFuria de TitanesKaiser Sports, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito b Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito CMLL - KALIGUA-ANGELITO-DRAGONCITO VS MERCURIO - P. OLÍMPICO - P. PIERROTH / A. MÉXICO  22/10/2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Último Dragoncito, Angelito y Kaligua vs Mercurio, Pierrothito y Pequeño Olímpico (posted by Más Lucha) Ultimo Dragoncito, Kaligua y Angelito Vs  Pequeño Pierroth, Pequeño Olimpico y Mercurio (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
2) Hijo del Villano III, Luciferno, Okumura b Dark Panther, El Audaz, Flyer CMLL - EL AUDAZ - FLYER - DARK PANTHER VS H. DEL VILLANO III- OKUMURA-LUCIFERNO/A. MÉXICO 22/10/2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Hijo del Villano III, Okumura y Luciferno vs Audaz, Flyer y Dark Panther (posted by mluchatv) Luciferno, H. del Villano Tercero y Okumura Vs.  Black Panther, Audaz y Flyer (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
3) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado CMLL - SAGRADO - GEMELOS DIABLO I Y II VS MEPHITO - EUFORIA - HECHICERO / ARENA MÉXICO  22/10/2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Los Infernales vs Los Gemelos Diablo y El Sagrado (posted by mluchatv) Euforia, Hechicero y  Mephisto, vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II (posted by thegladiatores.com) Los Infernales Vs  Los Sagrados Diablos en el viernes espectacular de Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
4) Místico b Último Guerrero ¡Místico derrota al (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) CMLL - MÍSTICO VS ÚLTIMO GUERRERO / ARENA MÉXICO  22/10/2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Místico vs Último Guerrero en la Arena México (posted by mluchatv) Mano a Mano Mìstico Vs Ùltimo Guerrero (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Místico vs Último Guerrero mano mano (posted by thegladiatores.com)
mask vs hair match challenges followed
5) Titán & Volador Jr. b Templario & TJP (Teddy James Perkins) CMLL - TITÁN - VOLADOR JR. VS TEMPLARIO - TJP / ARENA MÉXICO  22/10/2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Volador Jr y Titán vs TJP y Templario en la Arena México (posted by mluchatv) Titán y Volador Jr. vencen a TJ Perkins y Templario. ¡Chequen este impactante final! (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) TJP y Templario Vs Titán y Volador Jr (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
tecnicos took 2/3. TJP’s first match here since 2003.

(This laredaly airs on Televisa next Saturday and YouTube on 11/07)

Backstage, Mistico said he was looking for Ultimo Guerrero & Averno’s hair and Mephisto’s mask in 2022, so he’s not acting like he expects that UG match to happen any time soon. Mistico told the press he hopes to see Averno in Arena Mexico soon.

TJP talked about wanting to bring the full United Empire someday, helpfully pushing the idea that all the NJPW wrestlers want to come to Arena Mexico. I’m guessing both matches this weekend were good, but the thing CMLL really wanted out of this is someone from NJPW to show up in Arena Mexico and tell the media, the fans, and CMLL itself that NJPW really cares a lot about the relationship. Reenforcing that credibility feeds a CMLL need and TJP came through for them every time he asked. The media questions also wanted TJP to say Templario would be worthy of going to NJPW and/or joining United Empire to fuel that relationship but it got lost in translation.

Gran Metalik tweeted about wanting to face TJP in Mexico like a man who expects to be back in Mexico soon. I think we all expect Metalik to be gone from WWE sooner rather than later but it’s still a little startling for him to essentially be talking about his post-WWE plans while he’s still under WWE contract. Metalik’s social media has always seemed like a WWE blink spot – they never got him verified on Twitter and they do that for everyone – so maybe he continues to feel free to post whatever.

CMLL (SUN) 10/24/2021 Arena México [CMLL, ESTOFuria de TitanesKaiser Sports]
1) Cholo & Oro Jr. b Eléctrico & Inquisidor [Relevos Increíbles]
Oro’s father, Plata, passed away earlier in the day. Oro dedicated the match to him. Electrico suffered an injury and abandoned the match. Plata was honored with a moment of applause after the second match
2) La Comandante, La Metálica, Tiffany b Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Skadi
Rudas took 1/3
3) Akuma, Enfermero Jr., Espanto Jr. b Diamond, Magnus, Stigma
Rudos took 2/3
4) Esfinge, Kráneo, Star Jr., Volcano b Dark Magic, Gran Guerrero, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 1/3
5) Cavernario & TJP (Teddy James Perkins) b Atlantis Jr. & Fugaz
rudos took 2/3

Former CMLL luchador Plata (Esteban Hernández Silva, 60) passed away Sunday. Box y Lucha mentions Plata passed away due to a heart attack. Plata’s career largely took place in the 90s as part of a brother team with Oro, and later a trio with the unrelated Bronce as Los Metalicos. Plata’s career, the career of his entire family, was shaped by the life and sudden death of Oro. Tuesday will be 28 years to the day when Oro passed away after landing badly in a match in Arena Coliseo. Oro was the star of the team, had started to break out a singles wrestler, and seemed to have the potential to be a top star. There was a huge empty space left without Oro. Plata changed his name to Oro II as a tribute and others in his family have also taken up the Oro name, through Plata’s son Oro Jr. All have had respectable careers but none have found great success. Plata/Oro II left CMLL around 1996 though he’d be in and out for a decade more. He had a run at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in 2009, the usual one last run by a masked man looking for the ultimate mask match. He got and lost to Averno.

Plata and Oro had matching mask designs, just using silver and gold colors. CMLL brought back the design, modified it slightly, and gave it to a young Torreon luchador who would be known as La Sombra. (Arena Mexico has had previous La Sombras, but with different designs.) La Sombra was created to evoke Oro, with an origin story of him wrestling so much like Oro that he could be his shadow (“sombra”.) La Sombra wore his mask in many colors, but the black and silver design seemed to be the favorite. The silver features meant he was actually paying homage to Plata too.

If CMLL results were meant to be taken seriously, Los Depredaores losing so often would be a bad sign. They don’t matter so it’s fine.

CMLL (TUE) 10/26/2021 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Fantasy vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
2) Eléctrico, Oro Jr., Robin vs Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Nitro
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Cachorro, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr.
4) Blue Panther vs Negro Casas
5) Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Valiente vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

That’s the first singles match on a CMLL show with Panther & Negro Casas since 2014. They did wrestle a 1v1 on the recent Nike-sponsored show about six weeks ago, which may have given someone the idea to run it again. It’s probably been even longer since Sagrado was booked in a main event.

Rugido makes his Arena Mexico debut in Magnus spot, as CMLL continues with the Deperadores versus tecnicos matches. Oro Jr. was announced for this match before his father passed away so that may change.

Super Astro Jr. says he left CMLL because to try and wrestle more in the US, where he feels wrestlers are valued better. He’s thankful for his time in CMLL but felt stagnant, and didn’t want to end up like injured and broke like older wrestlers (including his father.)

Leo Riano’s column in the Record states CMLL is in the process of a generational change; I guess that’s correct if you count going back a generation.

AAA

This week’s TV episode was largely good, you should watch the first couple matches either on my Twitch or when it appears on YouTube next week. Arez & Chik Tormenta won the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship on AAA TV in a match with a few mistakes, but a lot of action. They did enough extra to make it feel important as a title match compared to the normal TV fare. It would’ve been a bit more exciting had the finish not been given away ahead of time, though I think people would’ve guessed the new Vipers were probably winning in their first title match.

Arcano/Venenoide (in full here; Twitch doesn’t like uploads I’ve learned) was fun because it was Taurus & Vikingo, though the Marvel Lucha Libre stuff coming back cold after not being seen since TripleMania was odd. If Vikingo got the wins “Arcano” did, it’d probably help him a bit.

La Empresa versus Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, and Murder Clown was a mess. Not a complete mess, there were times where it seemed like these people could have a good match. It just was never meant to be a good match, it was meant to be La Empresa getting heat in usual AAA fashion. It didn’t even work on that level – the attention went towards Estrellita, and the unnamed masked La Empresa henchmen doing most of the stuff. It’d be one thing if this was meant to be a mystery and the masked guy would be revealed as Super Astro Jr. or Vangellys or whomever, It wasn’t presented as a mystery though, just some guy. I know the idea is for Empresa took appear evil for cheating, but it just makes the promotion look dumb when people are freely interfering in matches, especially one week after extra people getting in the ring was a DQ. Some of the spots went quite bad – the table bit was most memorable but there were other moments as well. This was a taped show, AAA seemingly had time to redo it entirely or edit out the biggest of the mistakes, and they choose not to do it. I watch single-cam YouTube fan videos of wrestling matches and the people uploading them edit their matches, it’s unclear why the self-proclaimed biggest promotion in Latin America can not do the same.

I’m not a fan of this Xalapa venue. It’s a fully indoor museum, which probably makes it by far the easiest place for production but there’s a tremendous echo that emphasizes the emptiness. There are a few things hanging from the ceiling, though it mostly feels like an empty greenhouse instead of the more colorful locations. AAA’s got to make due with what they can this year and I’ll be glad if they’re just back in arenas after a few more weeks of these shows.

Other News

IWRG (SUN) 10/24/2021 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Limbo & Shalom b Chef Benito & Sol EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha)
2) Lolita b SataniaDiosa Atenea EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha)
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Dick Angelo 3G, Puma de Oro, Tonalli [EdM Trios, semifinal] EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha)
Aster Boy cost Puma de Oro the match
4) Aster Boy & Toxin b Medico Brujo & Villano V Jr. EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha)
5) Hijo del Pirata Morgan & Pirata Morgan Jr. b Galeno del Mal & Hijo De Wagner EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha) Pirata Morgan Jr e Hijo del Pirata Morgan Vs Galeno del Mal e Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr en IWRG (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
6) Sick Boy b Big Chico Che [hair] Big Chico Che pierde y es rapado por Sick Boy en la Arena Naucalpan (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) EN VIVO, Cabellera vs Cabellera: Sick Boy vs Big Chico Che (posted by Más Lucha) Sick Boy Vs Big Chico Che duelo de cabelleras en Arena Naucalpan (Lucha Time Vs IWRG) (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Villano V Jr. seconded Chico Che, betrayed him and asked Sick Boy & Medico Brujo to form a trio.

Reviews on the hair match were unkind.

IWRG is skipping Tuesday (scheduled as the second high flyers show) and Thursday, with their next show on Sunday. No reason given, could be as simple as trying to take some time off before Castillo del Terror to ensure a bigger turnout on the higher-priced show.

IWRG (SUN) 10/31/2021 Arena Naucalpan
Castillo del Terror, 2021
1) Noicy Boy & Sagitarius vs Lady Lee & Limbo
2) Akbal & Mexica vs Medico Brujo & Sick Boy and Fly Warrior & Halloween Jr.
3) Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro vs Dick Angelo 3G & Tonalli
4) Puma de Oro © vs Aster Boy [IWRG IC Light]
1st defense
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. [EdM Trios, final]
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Diosa QuetzalGaleno del MalSataniaToxinHijo del Pirata MorganHijo del AlebrijeLolitaPirata MorganHijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.Diosa AteneaPirata Morgan Jr.? [cage, mask, hair]

IWRG teased a thirteen person for the cage match and hasn’t said whom, though I think they’ll probably announce it sometime this week as added a promotional bit.

Mamba stepped in for Jesus Ventura in Sunday’s Arena Lopez Mateos, so I’m not sure if she’ll be OK to go next Sunday after breaking her nose on Thursday.

Super Fly also showed up on the Arena Lopez Mateos show as part of the Freak Family, which includes a lot of ex-big two wrestlers. Super Fly is believed to have finished up with AAA at Heroes Inmortales. Neither he nor AAA has officially said he’s out of AAA and Faby Apache previously showed up with the Freak Family without leaving AAA, but Super Fly had been teasing leaving on Twitter for months. He’d been notionally teaming with Parka Negra against Aerostar & Drago, but it was one of the half dozen feuds AAA appeared to be doing with no plans to go anywhere and Super Fly had been long enough to know they weren’t moving him out of his prelim spot right now.

I was really high on Super Fly around 2017 and he’s declined slightly in the last few years, but I think he’s a guy who can still go if given the right opponent. I’d ideally like to see him hook back up with Averno again as a team. Also, he shouldn’t actually join the Freak Family because they and Negocio Traumado got suspended by the Mexico State commission for their match getting out of control (which may have just been the latest bit to get out of doing a finish.)

Other AAA wrestlers are also believed to have finished up with AAA at Heroes Inmortales, though no one has publically stated it.

The 10/30 show MexaWrestling card started with Flamita versus Travis Banks versus Toxin on the card, changed that to Flamita versus Aramis and Iron Kid versus Travis Banks versus Toxin, and now has landed on Toxin & Latigo vs Iron Kid & Bendito with Banks not booked at all. MexaWrestling seemed to say Banks removal was due to outside politics, which is curious – if anyone in Mexico cares about Travis Banks and the allegations that have made him a persona non grata elsewhere in Europe, they’ve kept it quiet. It could be a group outside of Mexico.

Travis Banks, as Kiwi Buzzsaw, did lose to Ricky Marvin in the main event of the lightly attended Cueva de Dragon show in Coliseo Coacalco on Sunday. The attendance wasn’t as bad as a photo made it seem, but it was not much better. The Coliseo Coacalco Anniversary show the week prior, featuring Abismo Negro Jr., Los Cancerberos, and Hip Hop Man, greatly outdrew the show. (And got away with CMLL and AAA wrestlers on the same show.) Travis Banks is not any sort of draw in Mexico outside a very small amount of people, it just happens that most of those people are luchadors who want to work with someone who has experience in NXT UK and similar level promotions. Most of the indie promotions seem like they’re being run more to entertain the wrestlers more than the fans anyway, so I don’t expect changes.

The new Tijuana Lucha Libre Commission held its first meeting. The commission is now being led by Julio Cesar Casillas, who you may remember as TJ Boy. El Enfermero, Fobia and Hector Ruvalcaba also now make up the commission, which was separated from the boxing/MMA one earlier this year. The article mentions they’re evaluating suspensions for unnamed wrestlers on a recent Cholo de Tijuana show.

Segunda Caida went to the IWC Legacy show this weekend.

LuchaWorld has its latest podcast.

Box y Lucha #3493 has a million things on the cover.

TJP returns to Arena Mexico tonight, Omega/Vikingo, MexaWrestling/Banks

CMLL

Tonight is TJP’s return to Arena Mexico; he appears to be around for the weekend. CMLL posted a TJP promo where he teased bringing in other members of NJPW’s United Empire on future shows. The United Empire is a relatively new group including Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, the Great O-Khan,  Aaron Henare, and tag team Aussie Open. I presumed Cobb would be staying in Japan for the World Tag League, but he just got announced for a Defy show so maybe he’ll be back long enough to come to Mexico. Cobb has previously worked in Mexico for AAA (as LU’s Matanza)  and the Crash. Ospreay is also wrestling around the US for the time being, so it’s possible he could show up in the future. Ospreay showing up in Arena Mexico would be the biggest NJPW name to be sent there since Naito showed up in 2019 on the way to the ROH/MSG show.

Tonight’s show does not air live. It’ll air on TV on 10/30 and on YouTube 11/07.

CMLL (SUN) 10/24/2021 Arena México
1) Eléctrico & Inquisidor vs Cholo & Oro Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Avispa Dorada, La Vaquerita, Skadi vs La Comandante, La Metálica, Tiffany
3) Diamond, Magnus, Stigma vs Akuma, Enfermero Jr., Espanto Jr.
4) Esfinge, Kráneo, Star Jr., Volcano vs Dark Magic, Gran Guerrero, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis Jr. & Fugaz vs Cavernario & TJP

TJP is the kind of outside veteran then Atlantis Jr. and Fugaz need to experience wrestling against so that’s good booking to see.

Worth noting for a correction for last week: TJP says he’s not anti-mask or anti-vaccine, he’s anti-mandates. I’m pro COVID-mandates.

Rey Bucanero has his first match in Arena Mexico since a private show on September 15th. He was attacked outside of Arena Mexico by a mystery man implied to be Veneno since they were feuding in Bucanero’s promotion. Bucanero is now teaming with Veneo on his next show. Maybe it’ll end up with a break-up, just like the maybe Valiente booked show at his gym this past week ended with Valiente & Volador breaking up. Probably it’s hard to replace the current CMLL booking crew because there’s no one else on the roster showing they’ve got any better or modern ideas than those already in charge.

There is no obvious reason the opener has tencicos and rudos teaming beyond that’s just what happens now. CMLL’s recently done it when they didn’t have an even tecnico/rudo balance but that’s not the concern there.

CMLL (MON) 10/25/2021 Arena Puebla
1) Fénix So vs Sombra Diabólika
2) Astro & Shockercito vs Asturiano & Pierrothito [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Magnus, Pegasso, Stigma vs El Perverso, Felino Jr., Pólvora
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
5) Místico vs Euforia

Semi-main is a rematch, and likely setting up a title match on 11/01.

CMLL (TUE) 10/26/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Micro, Obelisk, Raven vs Conde, Persa, Ponzoña Jr.
2) El Divino, Luminoso, Mr. Samurai vs Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Explsoivo, Fantástico, Star Black vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
5) Atlantis & Místico vs Averno & Satánico

Averno makes his return. I thought perhaps they’d set up an Averno/Mistico singles match for the Guadalajara Dia de Muertos show on 11/02, but Mistico is already announced for Arena Mexico that day.

Los Infernales were doing CMLL’s media rounds this week. Reporte Indigo‘s post says they’re meant to be called Los Infernales Consagrados; no one else is using it so maybe hold off on that one. Satanico also mentions that one of the ideas they had for the group was two established wrestlers teaming with one younger wrestler from Guadalajara. That’d continue the tradition of developing wrestlers in the group, and I guess it’s always possible they could add more people later. Satanico’s teamed with veteran Furia Roja in some Arena Coliseo Guadalajara matches, though I’d guess the actual Guadalajara pick would’ve been Difunto. He’s got a masked look that would work with Los Infernales and got a brief look on the CDMX roster just before the pandemic stoppage.

Guadalajara’s Nautica and Sexy Sol were interviewed while in town. Nautica mentioned she and fellow Arena Coliseo Guadalajara wrestler Frenetico (now Infierno) are cousins, and they both started training at 12.

In one of many things I was wrong about, CMLL Informa didn’t talk about their NFT releases at all. They just promoted them on social media, I guess assuming people would already care. SportsIcon was initially advertising just two NFT videos, and those were released today for 0.50 in Flow cryptocurrency, which is about $7 USD. That’s 140 Mexican pesos, though it’s notable there is no peso conversion on the pages. They’ve since quietly added about 10 more, at sightly more expensive prices. The rest are at a sightly higher cost and much smaller quantity, probably to encourage scarcity. These are still low enough prices that this is more about using novelty factor to get people into the NFT/Flow marketplace in hopes they’d spend more. I still don’t think many CMLL fans care about this and these NFTs will largely be bought up by existing NFT speculators. If you want a NFT of KeMonito doing a plancha, you can spend about $21 USD for it until supplies run out. You can also just right click the video and download it without the NFT numbering.

AAA

10/23 AAA on Space at 5 pm

  • Arcano versus Venenoide
  • Arez & Chik Tormenta vs Maravilla & Villano III Jr. for the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship
  • Laredo Kid, Hijo del Vikingo, Murder Clown vs La Empresa

We have not seen Marvel Lucha Libre since TripleMania. This is the first of 2 or 3 weeks taped in Xalapa.

Dorian Roldan, Jose Manuel Guillen, and Arturo Rivera were interviewed for about 90 minutes on the Voices del Deporte Mexicano Facebook page on Wednesday. Roldan mentioned the final Lucha Por la Identidad tapings – the tourist tour shows – will be in Tabasco starting on 11/04. That’s a Thursday, most tapings have been two sets over threes, so I’m presuming there are matching tapings on Saturday 11/06. Roldan didn’t mention plans for AAA taping beyond that.

I still don’t know if TripleMania Regia is airing live or being delayed. AAA told me they’re working on plans but don’t have anything to announce yet. To me, the 11/04 tape date leads to scenarios where AAA is airing a taped show the day of TripleMania Regia. It doesn’t mean that’s the way it’s going to go – they could also bank episodes for the holiday period or early 2022.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says AAA is talking to FTR about coming for those 11/04 tapings. AAA needs to do something to establish FTR to an audience unlikely to know them, but matches in an empty building may not really do it. It didn’t seem to work for Purrazzo Perhaps sending in promos (or even a match) from AEW would be the better use of time. FTR has the advantage of airing on the same station as AAA at least where AAA fans would only previously know Purrazzo if they found Impact on 52MX.

Mas Lucha posted a column critical of AAA for booking a Hijo del Vikingo versus Kenny Omega. I don’t agree with the column, but it’s a justifiable take and a good reality check. Fans on social media are excited for Hijo del Vikingo and Kenny Omega because they’ve seen what both have done individually and expect even better with them together. Mexican fans who participate in lucha libre with other ways may see Vikingo as a non-heavyweight who can’t possibly be as good as successful guys like Laredo Kid and Dragon Lee who’ve already lost to Omega. That size bias would still likely be there no matter how Vikingo has been used, but that’s a real cost to how AAA’s decided to use Vikingo. The price of putting on the best matches possible on each show has led fans to see Vikingo as a guy who couldn’t beat the guys who couldn’t beat Omega and isn’t deserving of this title match. AAA has six weeks of TV to address it, if they can and if it’s a concern to them. (Take a look at the matches scheduled and tell me if you think Vikingo is winning this week.) I’d like to see Vikingo win the mega title but I remained concerned at the reaction if he does.

Andrade is wrestling in Puebla on 12/03, so he’ll be around during TripleMania Regia. I think he’d be on the poster if he was booked (and one hold up on him winning the title back at TripleMania reportedly was he and AAA had not yet agreed on future dates.) There’s always a chance he could be Escorpion & Taurus’ partner.

AAA airs at 5 pm on Space again this week due to AEW Dynamite airing live at 7 pm. AEW will returns to Wednesdays for the rest of the year after that, so AAA will return to 6:30 pm.

MexaWrestling and Travis Banks

Mexa Wrestling (SAT) 10/30/2021 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Baby Star & Sussy Love vs Arandu & Lady Lee
2) Noicy Boy, Sol, Spider Fly vs Big Mike, Fly Warrior, Fulgor I
3) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Corsario Negro Jr., Drako, Hijo del Fishman
4) Toxin vs Iron Kid vs Travis Banks
5) Toro Negro Jr. vs Dr. Cerebro [falls count anywhere]
6) Demonic Flamita vs Aramis

I really hoped that the blowback from Travis Banks working the Big Lucha show would’ve ended things right there. That hope was a mistake. If you’ve been following on Instagram, it’s apparent Banks and his girlfriend are hanging out with (and likely living with) the wrestlers from Big Lucha and other Mexico City indie wrestlers. Bandido did not lie when he said he’d no longer book Banks on his show again, but that appears to be a very narrow promise – Bandido and the rest didn’t otherwise disassociate from Banks. Those who are making US money are less likely to work matches with Banks as to not risk it, but that’s largely just for appearance’s sake.

The die was cast here the moment Banks wrestled on the Big Lucha show and no one in Mexico cared about it enough to make an issue or even a minor story. Not a single person on MexaWrestling’s Facebook has complained about Banks being included in comments; the only time his name has come up was a person hoping to see still him after the original match was deleted. People have reached out to these wrestlers – even some people you might not expect to get involved in a situation like this – to strongly advise the wrestlers to get away from Banks. Most if not all of that is coming through social media, and it’s pretty easy to just turn that off if you don’t care for what it’s saying. No one in Mexico City is putting similar pressure.

In Mexico, I suspect Travis Banks has come off as a charming nice guy who’s happy to show these guys stuff he learned, enough so that they’re willing to believe whatever side of the story he’s been telling. MexaWrestling is going to get attention for booking him first, but I suspect he’ll be in many of the usual Mexico City indies if he sticks around. This is a non-issue to them.

Travis Banks is probably living in a gym in Mexico, working small shows for small paydays, shows that only the people outside of Mexico who follow my Twitter account even know exists. I’m sure he considers it a success that he’s found someplace to wrestle again, though it’s not the career he had or will ever have again. He still probably considers it some victory. It feels like a decent size loss for the rest of us.

In some ways, this is a story about how starved Mexico indies are for foreign talent. The anonymous Canadians featured in IWRG are less problematic as far as I know but embraced similarly. Guys with little to moderate success elsewhere are eagerly embraced as huge difference makers. I don’t sense most Mexican fans care or even know who these guys are, but the wrestlers and promoters are generally putting these shows together for their own excitement.

Flamita versus Aramis should be one of the best matches of the year. Not sure I’ll get around to watching it.

Other Notes

IWRG (THU) 10/21/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Furia de Titanes, IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Limbo & Shalom b Baby Star & Sol EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by Más Lucha)
2) Diosa Quetzal & Lolita b Diosa Atenea & Satania EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
Lolita & Diosa Quetzal were friends on Sunday but broke up after this match
3) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemoniun Jr. b Apolo Estrada Jr., Billy Jones, Chris Stone Jr. [EdM Trios, quarterfinal] EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
La Pandemia face Jaucan (Toaalli’s trio) in the semifinals
4) Aster Boy b Puma de Oro EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
sets up an IWRG LIGHT title match
5) Fulgor, Giant Orión, Lil Blay b Caballero de Plata, Hijo del Alebrije, Toxin EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
Fulgor gave Alebrije a maritnete, Alebrije was strechered out
6) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura b Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro [EdM Trios, semifinal] EN VIVO: Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
Jessy Ventura’s nose was fractured but Los Shotas still won. They advance to the final, which will be on the 10/31 show.

Ventura’s nose was fractured due to carelessness. She took a back elbow in the ring, then got hit in the face by a chair tossed from outside the ring. It was a freak accident that Ventura got hurt, though one caused by recklessly throwing a chair.

Relampago underwent surgery for his broken foot today. He thanked the fans and IWRG for their support.

Mexico State boxing and wrestling commissioners Juan Jose Herrera says the state reaching a green COVID light will allow wrestling to be restarted in the area. It’s hard to see determine what shows have actually been shut down the last few months.

If you are in Mexico, the Perro Aguayo documentary is still viewable this weekend online. It’s only available in Mexico.

Andrade wrestles PAC on tonight’s AEW Rampage. Andrade, in an interview with Multimedios, mentioned he signed a three year deal with AEW. That’s about what was expected but AEW had been evasive about the length in the past.

Arez faces Ninja Mack and Psycho Clown wrestles Effy on Saturday’s GCW show, a $15 PPV. Psycho Clown is going to be more over and wrestle better than people in the US expect; I think he’s still just seen as a gimmick character and he’s more than that.

Impact Wrestling has their Bound for Glory show on Saturday as well. I believe Laredo Kid and Black Taurus are in a 20 man Gauntlet (royal rumble) but haven’t been announced. Impact’s early promotion of the show pushed the idea of AEW, NJPW, and AAA wrestlers appearing. AEW and NJPW wrestlers will be in title matches, the AAA guys are not being featured the same way. (There’s still time, Impact could add Black Taurus versus Laredo Kid for either title belt if they so desired.) That’s really not a surprise, it’s about where we’ve been taught to expect Mexican wrestlers to be treated in the US compared to wrestlers from other countries. It’s just worth keeping in mind every time a promotion does one of these bits and everyone hopes it’s going to be Hijo del Vikingo showing up. Maybe one day it will, but probably only after many times of being let down.

(aside 1: The AEW bit this weekend where Cody Rhodes is dressing up as Fuego del Sol this weekend is being done in good spirits as a payoff for a bit on Sammy Guevera’s vlog, but it’s also the second time in about a week where AEW is having someone dress up as a luchador. The aesthetics of lucha libre might be the most popular look of wrestling in the US, but only in a dress aspect like a child playing a doctor or a ghost for Halloween. Mexican wrestlers and Mexican wrestling history is not at all popular among English-speaking audiences. I can’t imagine a scenario where AEW would be goofing around about a wrestler pretending to be from NJPW in 2021. And I feel cranky and old complaining about any of this because I’m sure Fuego nor Rhodes are doing this bit just to have a bit of fun and don’t mean anything negative about it.)

(aside 2: that common phrase “el mejor de lucha libre de mundo”, the belief that Mexican wrestling is the best in the world. This is said constantly as fact by both people in lucha libre and regular Mexicans just talking about – it was presented as an obvious truth in that AAA panel discussion to lead into talk asking why it’s the best. No one in Mexican wrestling actually acts like they believe this is true. If someone from outside of Mexico comes in, they’re a much bigger star than Mexican wrestlers and start at the top. If a Mexican wrestler goes some place else, they’ve got to start at the bottom to prove they’re any good. The Bandido Gym guys are willing to work with Travis Banks because they believe his style of wrestling is significantly better than what they’ve been taught so far and they need to adapt to “Strong Style” to be better wrestlers. AAA has felt the best way to be accepted by fans is to have as many non-Mexican champions as possible. Mexican wrestling doesn’t present themselves as if they’re better than any other kind of wrestling or even on par to any other kind of wrestling, they’re treating themselves as if they’re struggling to catch up even as they insist they’re the best style. Maybe they’re correct and Mexican wrestling is a minor league, but it’s certainly going to stay that way if no one even acknowledges the obvious contradictions.)

The 10/29 Tres Caidas show in Tijuana was originally advertised as Bandido versus Ultimo Guerrero. CMLL wrestlers have been told not to wrestle Bandido, though Ultimo Guerrero seems to live by his own rules. Not this time, apparently – the final main event is Bandido versus Laredo Kid vs Destiny.

There’s an inexplicable CMLL versus AAA battle in the Chicago suburbs on November 7th. GALLI had announced a while back they were going to run a big show for their 500th event, with Psycho Clown, Arez, Aramis, Mesias, La Empresa, AEW’s Dante Martin and others announced. Rival group Lucha Libre Total also announced they’ll be running with Mistico, Ultimo Guerrero, Mephisto and Stuka on the same day at about the same time, 15 minutes away (and at the location GALLI ran a recent big show.) There’s a lot of people willing to spend money on lucha libre in the Chicago area but two shows at expensive prices on the same night is probably not going to work out for one promotion. Maybe both.

I think I’ll end up at the GALLI show if I can bother to leave the house. For the rest of you, this means those four CMLL guys aren’t on the 11/07 Dia del Muertos show.

11/21 PWG includes

(Impact is taping on 11/21, so no Black Taurus or Laredo Kid.)

11/27 RIOT (Mark Tank)

RIOT announced this will be their final show at Arena Femenil. All normal RIOT shows have been held at Lucha Libre Femenil’s home. The “building” is really a covered parking lot by day. There was less parking during the pandemic, the building has been slightly remolded to open for other businesses, and those changes make it rough for a promotion bringing in as many wrestlers as RIOT does for their shows. (LLF also hasn’t had a regular schedule due to the pandemic but tends to use fewer wrestlers per show, so this may not affect them.) Arena Femenil is in an easy-to-walk to downtown Monterrey location and the fans seemed to really like it. RIOT had outgrown the building before the pandemic but didn’t seem like they were going to leave because everyone liked the location so much and there’s no nearby obvious alternative. They’ll have to find somewhere new now.

Tickets are on sale for Lucha Memes’ 12/18 show at Arena Coliseo. The sort of on sale dates are often built around a big name. The only thing that’s been announced so far are Puebla’s Rey Apocalipsis & Toro Bill Jr. appearing.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Dalys & Sugehit win tournament, TJP on Friday’s CMLL show, AAA 30th Anniversary plans

CMLL (MON) 10/18/2021 Arena Puebla [ansuzmultimedios]
3) Arkalis & Pegasso b Disturbio & Rey Apocalipsis
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring, Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cancerbero, Raziel, Virus
5) Místico, Titán, Valiente DQ Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
Mistica on Euforia but he pulled off Mistico’s mask for the DQ. Sets up a 1v1 next week.

The semi-main was praised in the news report but really all the matches are praised as if they were superb. It’s not the most useful info.

CMLL (TUE) 10/19/2021 Arena México [CMLL, ESTOEstrellas del RingFuria de TitanesKaiser SportsMas Lucha]
1) Grako, Robin, Sonic b Leono, Nitro, Sangre Imperial [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Felino, Felino Jr., Pólvora b Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 1/3
3) Dalys & Princesa Sugehit b Skadi & Tiffany [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, quarterfinal]
4) Lluvia & Reyna Isis b Avispa Dorada & Stephanie Vaquer [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, quarterfinal]
5) Amapola & Metálica b La Metálica & La Vaquerita [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, quarterfinal]
6) Dark Silueta & La Jarochita b Náutica & Sexy Sol [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, quarterfinal]
7) Dalys & Princesa Sugehit b Lluvia & Reyna Isis [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, semifinal]
8) Dark Silueta & La Jarochita b Amapola & Marcela [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, semifinal]
9) Dalys & Princesa Sugehit b Dark Silueta & La Jarochita [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021, final]
Dalys & Sugehit win the first version of this tournamnet.
10) Ángel de Oro, Negro Casas, Terrible b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]
Negro Casas replaced Templario a few hours before the show. Casas & Panther teased a hair match after.

No real surprise Dalys & Sugehit win; the women’s division is about spreading the wins around as much as possible and they had taken a back seat in the recent competitions. (The men’s division isn’t that much different.) The tournament seems to have been done with breast cancer awareness/treatment group FUCAM (Fundacion de Cancer de Mama.) October is breast cancer awareness month and this tournament or something like it would make sense as a yearly staple going forward.

Casas and Panther making apuesta challenges follows Mistico and Ultimo Guerrero doing the same on Friday night. I guess the old men have a better chance of doing that match, though it would be a change in philosophy if CMLL did any major (non-themed) show the rest of the year. CMLL went through a bit where wrestlers appeared severely injured after simple moves about a month ago (and then they’d be fine the next day.) Perhaps this is another temporary bit: capacity is going up so CMLL has the wrestlers teasing big things are coming to get more press coverage and get more people to come back for a show. It didn’t seem like UG/Mistico caught anyone’s attention and Casas/Panther was barely commented on, CMLL might have cried wolf too many times for this to work.

Friday’s lineup:

CMLL (FRI) 10/22/2021 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Dark Panther, El Audaz, Flyer vs Hijo del Villano III, Luciferno, Okumura
3) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
4) Místico vs Último Guerrero
5) Titán & Volador Jr. vs Templario & TJP

Last week CMLL didn’t know when TJP was coming. Turned out to be quick. That should be a very good main event and an easy read on how TJP is going to fit in this time (when it eventually airs, which won’t be until 10/30.)

Mistico versus Ultimo Guerrero has happened a time or two, though the first time between these specific individuals using these specifical names in Arena Mexico since 2009. That’s sort of pushing the limits of nostalgia but pushing the limits of nostalgia is what 2021 CMLL is all bout, Tercera is an immediate battle between the two new trios concepts.

CMLL Informa has TJP, Ultimo Guerrero, Negro Casas, Dalys, and Princesa Sugehit. CMLL keeps calling him “Teddy James Perkins” in a way no one in wrestling ever has, but CMLL isn’t going to take a correction on that.

CMLL’s NFT products go up for bid on Friday, and CMLL usually introduces new concepts by having someone involved on the other side sit down with Julio Cesar Rivera to explain it. CMLL tends to be an anti-tech and cheap promotion – this is the group who kept getting interviews interrupted earlier in the pandemic because they were sticking to a free Zoom account – and NFTs are on the bleeding edge of tech. There’s no possible bigger culture clash. There’s still no price publically announced for these NFTs; I’m led to believe they’ll be in the hundreds of dollars, which also leads me to believe they’re entirely marketed at NFT collectors and people who actually watch CMLL will have no interest.

CMLL has opened a Discord. Do I need to explain what Discord is? It’s the 2021 version of IRC. (Now I need to explain what IRC is.) This is CMLL forming another official place for people to chat about their show, ask to be heard, and then get annoyed at not being heard. CMLL is an important Latino brand, so I suspect that – like with Twitch – someone pitched them on signing up for an official account on the service and there’s no particular plan on how to use it. The weekly bonus matches airing on Twitch have quietly shifted to Facebook, where exponentially more CMLL fans already exist. It’s theoretically possible CMLL could build out a Discord community that adds onto what they’re already doing, but that requires time and resources to build out. What CMLL actually has is maybe one or two people handling “internet stuff” among other jobs; it’s not realistic this is going to turn out useful because it’s never going to be any focus.

La Presna has an article that says there’s a rumor CMLL could sell Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo but offers no reporting on the story. They even go “no one’s confirmed it but CMLL hasn’t come out and denied it either” before laying out all the stuff any reader of this blog already knows: a bunch of people left CMLL this year and attendance haven’t been great (at least in part due to COVID restrictions) so it would make sense things aren’t going well. Presna points out there’s not much new sponsorship either, which is true, though likely connected to the low attendance. Rumors of CMLL selling will continue to exist until the business gets better or a sale actually happens, but this article doesn’t really present any evidence it actually happen, just that the situation is right for a sale. (It also seems outdated already, unaware CMLL announced a Arena Coliseo return date.) Maybe the real useful purpose of this paragraph is CMLL may take a swipe at an unnamed article on Informa today and now you know which one they’re talking about.

These lists of CMLL departures never seem to include Estrellita, even though she seemed to more willingly leave CMLL than Bandido. She also did it quietly so I’m still not sure people who cover CMLL and CMLL only have noticed. Estrellita meant more to CMLL than Vangellys but Vangellys did it in a big way after people started making those lists, so he’s always on them.

CMLL (TUE) 10/19/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (video), Fuego en el Ring]
1) Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Relámpago Azul b Bello Antuan, Rumbero, Último Ángel
Rudos win after Antuan accidentally kissed Rumbero
2) Avispón Negro Jr., El Divino, Luminoso b Bobby Black, Fúnebre, Infierno
3) Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. b Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel b Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
Cavernario and his brothers were all dressed in caveman gear.
5) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido b Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black
sets up a title match
5) Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black b Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido
Depredadores asked for a title shot despite losing

Guadalajara is bringing in Averno for their 10/26 show. The new Infernales are on that show, but the focus is going to be on Averno wrestling in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara for the first time since 2014. He’s constantly wrestling Mistico on indie shows, obviously still on good terms with the top wrestlers, and he fits CMLL’s interest in turning the clock back to 2006. CMLL hasn’t brought Averno back in to Arena Mexico, but it should be no surprise if he pops up on Informa at any point.

Anyway, the Guadalajara results feel like they should be a separate section; the difference between this and CMLL-related spot shows like the ones in (Gemelo promoted) Auditorio Matamoros is hard to demonstrate. We know CMLL owns Arena Coliseo Guadalajara and people of back and forth, but CMLL’s generally treated it as a distant cousin in a way they don’t for Arena Puebla. It would be news if CMLL’s social media advertised Averno coming back to Guadalajara because they haven’t promoted shows there since the restart. (This is the arena that someone should check-in to see if CMLL’s interested in holding onto it.)

AAA 

Dorian Roldan and Psycho Clown earlier today appeared on a zoom meeting with USG (drywall) to talk about continuing their partnership. The industry reporter helpfully had the wrong Twitter handle so I spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out if AAA was partnering with a grain consortium instead. I point this out not to impress you, but in hopes someone adds it to the list of “dumbest things luchablog has done” so I can look at it and weep later. This was announced back in August and they’ve used AAA wrestlers in marketing similar to the car parts sponsors in years past.

There was some non-drywall news from the press conference. AAA pitched TripleMania Regia as the start of their 30th Anniversary year celebrations and they’ve already got more to announce. Dorian Roldan says the promotion is planning a major event on 05/15/2022, 30 years to the first AAA show ever. May 15th helpfully falls on a Sunday in 2022. AAA could end up running three different TripleMania-level shows in a calendar year depending on how big that show is (and how successful TripleMania Regia remains.) It’s going to be tough to make three super attractive shows without either suddenly making a lot of new top stars or bringing in special outside talent, and we’ve seen which way AAA will go in those choices.

Dorian Roldan, Arturo Rivera, and Jose Manuel Guillen will appear on a panel discussion today at 6 pm. It’ll stream live on Facebook and Twitter, up on YouTube later. Maybe there will be more about the 30th-anniversary plans there.

Other News

IWRG (THU) 10/21/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Baby Star & Sol vs Limbo & Shalom
2) Diosa Quetzal & Lolita vs Diosa Atenea & Satania
3) Apolo Estrada Jr., Billy Jones, Chris Stone Jr. vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemoniun Jr. [EdM Trios, quarterfinal]
4) Caballero de Plata, Hijo del Alebrije, Toxin vs Fulgor, Medico Brujo, Sweet Daddy Soul
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro [EdM Trios, semifinal]

The Pandemonium guys might be a dark horse team to win that tournament, as much as anyone’s thinking about that trios tournament.

The 10/30 Castillo del Terror cage match will include Dr. Wagner Jr., Diosa Quetzal, Galeno del Mal, Satania, Toxin, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Alebrije, Lolita, Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Dr. Wagner, Diosa Atenea, and Pirata Morgan Junior. This match is traditionally just masked people, but they’re including people who will lose their hair. It’s a bigger name match but I’m not sure anyone’s too excited over the possibility of a Pirata losing their hair once again.

The Mas Lucha Suprema tournament at Arena Naucalpan will now be on Sunday 11/21; it had been on Thursday previously. I’d think giving up a Sunday is harder than a Thursday so Mas Lucha and IWRG must have big expectations for it. The men’s version of the tournament drew well. the women’s tournament will also have an eight-person field. No names announced, but tickets go on sale Friday.

Tickets for Lucha Memes’ show on 12/18 in Arena Coliseo go on sale Friday. No prices are announced, no wrestlers yet either.

Space Latin America announced they’re re-upping their deal with AEW. There no details about length and nothing new as far as content. It’s been apparent how excited Space has been about AEW’s recent product based on their social media engagement and AEW has pretty much only aired on Turner affiliated stations (like Space) so this not a big surprise.

Relampago appeared on Mas Lucha’s show to talk about suffering an injury in Saltillo over the weekend. He’s hoping to raise money to pay for surgery.

MexaWrestling announced a Travis Banks vs Toxin vs Demonic Flamita match on Monday. People noticed Travis Banks was booked, MexaWrestling quietly removed the match, and now Demonic Flamita will face Aramis instead. Travis Banks is not off the card, I think you just won’t see him in any matches including people who have US deals or believe they’re close to them.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

Vikingo/Omega at TripleMania Regia, FTR tag champs, CMLL weekend results

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/15/2021 Arena México [CMLL, DeLuchasTV, Kaiser SportsMas LuchaR de RudoThe Gladiadores]
1) Oro Jr. & Sonic b Grako & Inquisidor CMLL - SONIC - ORO JR. VS GRAKO - INQUISIDOR / ARENA MÉXICO 15 DE OCTUBRE 2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Oro Jr y Sonic vencen a Inquisidor y Grako (posted by Más Lucha) Lucha inicial Arena México Oro Jr. y Sonic vs Inquisidor y Drako (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
2) Esfinge, Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr. b Dark Magic, Disturbio, Luciferno CMLL - FLYER - ESFINGE - GRO. MAYA JR. VS DISTURBIO - DARK MAGIC - LUCIFERNO/ARENA MÉXICO 15-10-2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Guerrero Maya Jr, Flyer y Esfinge derrotaron a Luciferno, Dark Magic y Disturbio (posted by mluchatv) Trepidante Lucha Arena México Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr. y Esfinge vs Disturbio, Luciferno y DarkMagic (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Luciferno replaced Okumura. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Avispa Dorada, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit b Amapola, Dark Silueta, Reyna Isis CMLL - AVISPA DORADA-MARCELA-P. SUGEHIT VS AMAPOLA - DARK SILUETA - R. ISIS /ARENA MÉXICO 15-10-2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Princesa Sugehit, Avispa Dorada y Marcela se imponen a Amapola, Dark Silueta y Reyna I. (posted by mluchatv) Lucha de Amazonas: Marcela, Princesa Sugehit y Avispa Dorada Vs Amapola, Dark Silueta y Reina Isis (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Princesa Sugehit, Marcela y Avispa Dorada vs Dark Silueta, Reyna Isis y Amapola. (posted by thegladiatores.com)
Tecnicos took 1/3.
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto, Satánico b Atlantis, Blue Panther, Negro Casas, Valiente [Relevos Increíbles¡ANTE USTEDES, LOS INFERNALES! (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) ¡La victoria de esta batalla se va directo al infierno! (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) CMLL - VALIENTE - BLUE PANTHER - NEGRO CASAS - ATLANTIS VS LOS INFERNALES/ARENA MÉXICO 15 - 10-2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Último Guerrero, Templario y Gran Guerrero derrotan a Místico, Titán y Volador Jr (posted by mluchatv) El regreso de los Infernales. (posted by thegladiatores.com) Relevos Atómicos: Los Infernales Vs. Atlantis, Negro Casas, Valiente y Blue Panther (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
the new Infernales cheated to win in the first Arena Mexico. Infernales took 1/3.
5) Gran Guerrero, Templario, Último Guerrero DQ Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. ¡Último Guerrero volvió a sacar el colmillo ante Místico para llevarse la victoria! (posted by Revista BOX Y LUCHA) CMLL - TITÁN - VOLADOR JR. - MÍSTICO VS LOS GUERREROS LAGUNEROS / ARENA MÉXICO 15 DE OCTUBRE 2021 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Los Infernales vencen a Atlantis, Negro Casas, Blue Panther y El Valiente (posted by mluchatv) Revancha, Místico Volador y Titán Vs Los Guerreros Laguneros (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Guerreros took 1/3. UG tricked Mistico into fouling referee Noriega, Mistico got UG in La Mistica, the referee called the DQ. Mistico challenged UG to a mask versus hair match. UG said he’d think about it.

As expected, the Infernales were treated as the big story but the feud CMLL wanted to get over was UG/Mistico. CMLL pushed the idea of a hair/mask match happening next week, which is obviously not happening. A singles match might take place.

CMLL (SUN) 10/17/2021 Arena México [CMLLESTOKaiser Sports]
1) Apocalipsis & Cholo b Bengala & Leono
2) Cachorro, Robin, Sangre Imperial b Diamond, Magnus, Panterita del Ring Jr.
Team Robin took 1/3. Panterita was hurt in fall 1.
3) El Audaz, Kráneo, Volcano b El Felino Jr., Luciferno, Pólvora
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Espíritu Negro, Panterita del Ring, Rey Cometa
Rudos took 1/3.
5) Fugaz, Star Jr., Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., Negro Casas, Terrible
tecnicos took 2/3

I would like to think Sagrado got put with Los Gemelos because he’s a veteran who was teamed with inexperienced guys before but it may just because their masks look kinda the same.

Nothing much notable tonight in Puebla. Tomorrow in Arena Mexico:

CMLL (TUE) 10/19/2021 Arena México
1) Grako, Robin, Sonic vs Leono, Nitro, Sangre Imperial [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr. vs Felino, Felino Jr., Pólvora
3) Dalys & Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola & Marcela and Dark Silueta & La Jarochita and Lluvia & Reyna Isis and La Vaquerita & Metálica and Avispa Dorada & Stephanie Vaquer and Skadi & Tiffany and Náutica & Sexy Sol [Torneo Increible de Amazonas 2021]
11) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Valiente vs Ángel de Oro, Templario, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles]

Templario & Volador Jr. won the men’s version of this tournament back in June. There’s nothing here I’m excited to see (and we probably won’t unless CMLL’s TV changes suddenly in the next week) but they might as well. The umpteenth tournament isn’t interesting, but neither is the Tuesday shows where they do nothing at all.

The Second match has the current and most recent tag champs, which might be a thing.

We keep getting a trickle of information on the CMLL NFTs. I promise it’ll be done soon: they’ll be out October 22nd, it’ll be a thing that day, and then we’ll probably never think about it again. The two NFTs to be released are short video of Mistico and Titan spots. Only 3125 numbered copies of the same exact video will be available. They’re not for sale yet, but magically more than a third of the videos are already claimed. (If you just want the video, you can also right click and download it – you’re not really buying a video, but the artificial scarcity associated with it.) The cost has not been announced, except for revealing you’ll need to use the LEAF cryptocurrency. The concept here is probably not to be successful to make money off these videos themselves but to get people on board with NFTs (and give their banking info) so they might spend more money in the market over time; my guess is these will be cheap just to get people to get a shot. It’s still very hard to imagine CMLL’s fanbase caring about this at all.

Trying to be positive: one way these NFTs could be a positive development is if a portion of the money went directly to the wrestlers. Masked Republic is doing that with their own NFTs and it solves a problem no one else seems much interested in solving in terms of getting money to wrestlers. If I want to buy something to support Titan right now, I pretty much have to see him at a show. It’s hard to buy or support a wrestler from a distance in Mexico, and it’s extremely hard if you’re outside of Mexico. The NFT stuff would be worth supporting if the money was actually going to wrestlers. I imagine this is more a CMLL licensing deal where the promotion already got paid in advance a flat fee and no one’s getting more or less money no matter how well these do. Someone’s in Mexico is eventually going to have their Pro Wrestling Tees moment, being the universal standard connecting luchadors and fans, and make a lot of money doing the transactions. Maybe it’ll be Masked Republic getting there or maybe it’ll be something else, but it’s the most obvious untapped source of revenue in Mexican wrestling.

Tuesday’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara line is not impressive

CMLL (TUE) 10/19/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., El Divino, Luminoso vs Bobby Black, Fúnebre, Infierno
2) Bello Antuan, Rumbero, Último Ángel vs Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Relámpago Azul
3) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
4) Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel vs Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
5) Explosivo, Fantástico, Star Black vs Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido

The Depreadores as local trios title challengers works, but it’s a weak main event compared to recent matches here.

The Friday Guadalajara shows return on 10/30:

CMLL (SAT) 10/30/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Bello Antuan, Gran Kenut, Temerario vs Destello, Destructor, Thunder Boy
2) Avispón Negro Jr., Dalia Negra, Flash I, Flash II vs Fúnebre, Great Eku, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Adrenalina, Estrella Oriental, Minotauro vs Cris Skin, Joker, Vaquero Jr.
4) Sexy Sol & Valkiria vs Dark Silueta & Náutica
5) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. vs Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
6) Explosivo, Fantástico, Místico, Star Black vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Crixus, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel

Maybe Mistico coming will be a big deal.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will be running their own Dia de Muertos show on 11/02.

ESTO talks to Silueta, who explains her crazy schedule when she was training, working and going to school. She ended up putting school aside for now.

AAA

AAA held a press conference to officially announce TripleMania Regia. Two matches were officially announced.

AAA TV (SAT) 12/04/2021 Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
6) Kenny Omega vs Hijo Del Vikingo [AAA HEAVY]
7th defense
7) Cain Velasquez, Pagano, Psycho Clown vs ?, Rey Escorpión, Taurus

(It’s a 6 pm CT start.)

The main event is a similar to Cain’s previous TripleMania appearance, with Pagano replacing Cody Rhodes and Rey Escorpion and a mystery person replacing Kross & Texano on the other side. Dorian Roldan invited fans on social media to write in who they’d like to see and they’d do their best to get that person in. That’s a hard promise to live up to; there’s not going to be a majority pick without heavy coaching from the promotion, so most people are not going to get the person they were asking for.

The Psycho Clown match was announced first. Vikingo was brought on second and it seemed obvious it had to be for him to face Kenny Omega. Vikingo still seemed like he didn’t believe it was actually going to happen until Dorian Roldan said those words; he was visibly emotional and a lot for words about the opportunity. The build to Vikingo getting this show has been indisupitably poor. Vikingo is a special wrestler where people are going to want to see him face Omega for the first time no matter how bad of a job AAA does to get there. It was impossible to screw this match up, as AAA seemed to go out of their way to prove. I think Omega will have no problem losing to Vikingo if that’s the decision AAA makes. I don’t know if that’ll be the AAA’s call.

Dorian Roldan also suggested the Lucha Brothers and Hermanos Lee (Dralistico & Dragon Lee) will be in a tag match, though that wasn’t officially listed on the poster. Roldan explained that was going to be the tag title match, but now FTR have won the AAA tag team titles and Roldan is talking to AEW about bringing them in for the show. Bringing in FTR for a three-way match with Dralistico & Dragon Lee is ignoring what either team does well, but it’s about star power and not fit. I’m also not sure if FTR will mean a lot as the third outsider act on the show.

Roldan mentioned Psycho Circus and NGD will also appear. Some people watching the press conference took that as they’ll be in a match with each other (probably with Dave replacing Psycho) but I didn’t get that sense. We’ll find out as the lineup comes up. No mention of La Empresa or Deonna Purrazzo. The focus was really on those top two matches they expect to sell the tickets, nothing else really matters.

AAA and the owner of the baseball stadium said they drew 17,000 for the 2019 TripleMania Regia and hoped for 20,000 this time. Around 12,000 tickets were actually put on sale. Tickets run from 200 to 1200. That’s a bit higher than the 1000 max last time, but those ringside tickets starting moving the moment the matches were announced and they’re 40% gone already.

I don’t know how this will air. The previous TripleMania Regia, back in 2019, aired on the Multimedios cable channel on a one-week delay. We can be sure this will at least air on Multimedios, since they’re tied up to the promotion of this show. We just don’t know when and it’s possible this’ll air on a one week delay again. The reason people want to see Omega versus Vikingo is because fans have seen highlights of Vikingo for years, but AAA (and almost all lucha libre companies) care only about selling tickets for the show and remain light years behind the times in any other measure of business. TripleMania Regia would be an easy show to sell on PPV internationally, only AAA still has an outstanding lawsuit about it’s international rights. There are still people from Veracruz to Guadalajara to Merida to Puebla who would like to see Vikingo versus Kenny Omega and don’t have the spare change to travel to Monterrey and buy a ticket but maybe would pay for it some other way. They, and the rest of us, will have to wait until AAA gets around to talking about how they’re distributing the show.

Adictos al Ring appears to have removed their post about the AAA 12/04 show happening in Orizaba, and the group promoting the Heroes Inmortales locally have changed their Facebook. I have no idea what that was all about, maybe just a miscommunication.

Some notes from TV: The AAA trios match from Heroes Inmortales was the second best match from that show. It’s all action in the style of the tag title match and it came together better than the Jinetes versus Poder del Norte one on TV a couple of weeks back. The post match had a slight tease of Villano III Jr. joining up with Los Mercenarions, which would probably produce even better trios title defenses if he ends up defending the trios titles instead of Hiedra.

The one result I didn’t have correct from that show is the Pagano/Chessman/Shani trio actually won by DQ over the new Vipers when Psicosis (Ripper) ran in. DQs are exceedingly rare in AAA, the few that have happened this year were mask pulls or fouls right in front of the referee (and even those aren’t always called DQs.) Interference regularly happens in AAA matches and there was no obvious reason why this should be treated differently.

It came off like a compromise result, that AAA didn’t want the Vipers to lose in their debut under that name but the other team wasn’t interested in losing either. I’ve mixed feelings on the entire Vipers idea, but my feelings are less important than its chance of success. The biggest obstacle is convincing the fans that these are now important guys and that’s going to be though if the current top wrestlers see them as small guys they don’t see the value in putting over. AAA’s solution may be to give Psicosis and Cibernetico – who was all but mentioned by name as showing up soon – a prominent role since the top AAA guys may see them as real stars though that won’t get any of the existing guys over.

A DQ being called in a situation where it hasn’t been called for months was not really a point of discussion. No one’s surprised when AAA does nonsense, they’re a nonsense promotion.

Tirantes did an angle with his son, so maybe the endpoint of this version of the Apache/Tirantes feud is something with the referee’s hair on the line as seconds. The bigger story is Tirantes teasing an issue with Konnan. Abismo Negro Jr. also wore a half Konnan mask; he wore a half Vipers mask earlier to foreshadow that group’s return. Cibernetico, Psicosis and Tirantes all are guys who left AAA in the early 2010s after Konnan got more power with the promotion and some haven’t been on the best of terms with him since, so it’s a bit interesting they’re all coming back. (Cibernetico quit once, came back, and then left later than the there two.) I’m not sure the fans know that history though. Konnan hasn’t really been involved onscreen in AAA this year except for inserting himself into the Andrade/Omega match. There’s no reason to be referencing him except if he’s going to be coming back on screen soon. It’s hard to imagine why AAA needs to spend time on Konnan angles when they’ve got a lot of other people to balance, but Konnan likes to feature himself on the one or two AAA shows people outside of Mexico watch to make sure he’s still perceived as a big star to that crowd. This’ll probably go somewhere for one of the December shows.

(Konnan and Psicosis did bury the hatchet after the viral Psicosis slapping Konnan moment from early 2020; Psicosis wouldn’t be back here if they hadn’t.)

FTR won the AAA tag team titles on Saturday’s edition of AEW Dynamite. This was spoiled by the photo of Tony Khan’s leaked Full Gear lineup; while some things on that photo will change, the bulk of the matches seem to be still on. The Lucha Brothers/FTR was on that sheet and this match on Dynamite was to set that up in the same way as AEW’s done for other titles. I had a pretty good idea it was going to be FTR only because of that spoiled line but didn’t know for sure until they showed up as the Super Ranas.

I thought the FTR masked gimmicks in the title change match was lame – a homage to a territorial idea without the context of those angles – but lots of people nowadays enjoy nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake and I think I’m in the minority not liking. The bit is also something that gets heat on the promotion, for teasing an actual Mexican wrestling team and delivering guys mocking lucha libre, and I’m sure that wasn’t the attention. You could see in real-time AEW realize they had a fanbase thinking they were going to get Dragon Lee & Dralistico or some other lucha libre team and trying to reel back in those expectations by having Andrade declare it wasn’t going to be Los Ingobenables and Taz hint that it was going to be people under a mask and not luchadors on Friday’s show. I’m not sure it worked and doing an 80s territory angle for a lucha libre title doesn’t really make any sense, but again most of the people watching are 80s wrestling fans and not lucha libre.

I expect FTR will lean heavily into either lucha libre parody or anti-lucha libre bits for the next few weeks because it’s what they’re comfortable with doing and is the sort of stuff Konnan and AAA likes. FTR did well in a similar fashion with their feud with the Young Bucks and did great work with the end of that feud. I just don’t know that AAA has any idea what that feud is going to be – AAA clearly has no plans for what to do with Deonna Purrazzao after winning the Reina de Reinas title. The Vikingo/Omega match is happening not because of any AAA master plan, but because Vikingo is so exceptionally talented AEW had no choice but to book it. (Maybe literally no choice to get another Omega match.)

Maybe FTR will lose the titles right back at TripleManai Regia, but most likely they’ll just keep holding on to them in hopes AEW will do something to promote them. AAA clearly wants to be a bigger deal in the US and they’re not willing to do the work themselves to do so themselves – that lawsuit exists, their entire marketing strategy is hoping someone like me does the work for them in English – and so the plan seems to get titles on to people on US TV in hopes to build a brand that way. Maybe it’ll work, it just makes watching AAA an unfulfilling proposition outside of the 5-6 big shows a year.

Nerd stuff

the tag team titles FTR hold are not the same ones Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero held. Those were the AAA/IWC Tag Team championships, which were never seen again after Barr passed away in 1994. They likely would’ve been dropped anyway in 1996 when AAA and IWC had a falling out. AAA used the Mexican National Tag Team Championship as their primary 2v2 belt for years, then supplanted it with the current AAA World Tag Team Championship in 2007 in a tournament. Those are the belts FTR hold, long removed from Los Gringos Locos. I’ve heard this wrong multiple times in the past week. It’s lucha libre history so I’m not sure it matters. I’m not exactly going to correct a widow about it.

It would be sporting of AAA incorporate the AAA/IWC tag title belt in their current history, but they haven’t in the past. I can’t tell you what they recognize now; the tag team title history page on AAA’s website has been broken for years, like many of the links on the mostly forgotten page. We list them as separate titles on the luchawiki but I’m not the keeper of Mexican wrestling history.

Other Notes

IWRG (SUN) 10/17/2021 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Furia de Titanes, IWRG, R de Rudo]
1) Death Metal & Satania b Sagittarius & Sol EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
2) Heddi Karaoui b Fulgor EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
3) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Rasputín b Big Boy, Big Chico Che, Big Mike EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
4) Toxin b FreelancePuma de OroAster Boy EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
ten minute time limit. If no one ones, everyone loses.
5) Sick Boy b Medico BrujoHijo del Fishman EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
6) Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Giant OriónMáximoLolitaDiosa QuetzalHijo del AlebrijeHalloween Jr.Villano V Jr.Caballero de PlataSúper NovaCerebro Negro EN VIVO: $50 Mil en juego (posted by Más Lucha)
Wrestlers win 5000 pesos for each wrestler eliminated. Match goes on until wrestlers agree to stop or one wrestler remains. All wrestlers a surprise. Pirata was the last person standing to get all the money.

IWRG threw themselves into the Squid Game concepts with homage outfits in the main event, but I’m not sure if it meant enough to get more people to show up.

The 10/03 Lucha Memes show, with Negro Navarro vs Jonathan Gresham, is up on IWTV. Lucha Memes getting a show up in two weeks is really fast for a non-Mas Lucha production.