Coyote/Star Jr., Coliseo Guadalajara reopening and other CMLL notes, Space/AAA

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 01/25/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser SportsMas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Pequeño Violencia b Kaligua
2) Cholo, Oro Jr., Robin b Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Leono [Relevos Increíbles]
team Cholo took 2/3
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi b La Comandante, Reyna Isis, Tiffany
Marcela replaced Lluvia on Monday. Tecnicas took 1/3.
4) Dark Panther, Kráneo, Volcano b Hijo del Villano III, Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
Tecnicos took 1/3.
5) El Coyote, Gran Guerrero, Templario DQ Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán
Coyote tossed his mask to Star Jr. to draw a DQ (and set up a singles match between them)

Coyote getting a singles match with Star Jr. seems a fair reward for winning the Gran Alternativa. It also seems very low-wattage; not the fault of the guys as much of the few wins they’ve gotten to build them to this point. Suppose most of everything in CMLL is right now, guess they might as well try.

No CMLL Marca stream last night. I have to use a specific obscure VPN to access YouTube in Mexico – they seem to be blocking the bigger ones – and it actually expired last night. I guess I don’t need to renew if AAA is no longer going to be region-blocked and Marca is just not going to keep airing these shows.

 

CMLL started to announce names for Reyes del Aire (Atlantis Jr., Titan) and then seemed to switch to a generic promo. I presume we’ll get the full field on Informa. No list of people appearing as of press time.

Stephanie Vaquer teased she’s in the current issue of Playboy Latin America. No, I haven’t seen it. I would assume this is probably a story about her being a luchadora from Chile.

Former CMLL Guadalajara prelim luchador El Pirana passed away according to Pasion Luchistica.  He would’ve wrestled there under that name from 2012 to 2015. I have him also wrestling as Dakota, Indio Brujo, Galaxy, and Payasito Luchin – he appeared to be active under that name as recently as the 16th

El Sol de Puebla visited the Arena Puebla restart and noted few people were there when they arrived early, though it was expected given the restart and the current situation. The building is still open to 50% capacity – the local laws haven’t changed – but they’re in no danger of hitting that number. The turnout looks like it turned out pretty decently by the time the show started from one angle, and not so full from others.

CMLL (MON) 01/31/2022 Arena Puebla
1) El Asturiano vs Sombra Diabólika
2) Cachorro & Robin vs El Malayo & Rey Apocalipsis
3) Marcela & Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys & Metálica
4) Atlantis, Dulce Gardenia, Fugaz vs Cancerbero, Negro Casas, Virus
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Cavernario, Euforia, Mephisto

It turns out the Arena Puebla Instagram has been posting these lineups on Tuesdays. And now it’ll probably go away since I noticed it. They’re additionally doing a discount where the first 100 children (with an adult ticket) get in free. Cavernario continues to be in the spot intended for Hechicero.

Mascara Dorada, Negro Casas and Mistico are advertised for the 03/06 Mucha Lucha Atlanta show. That suggests Dorada is on good terms with CMLL and may be heading back to Arena Mexico.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will reopen next Tuesday. The building will now require a negative PCR test or proof of vaccination, as mandated by the state. The poster only has three local names on it. CMLL kept the Guadalajara roster isolated from the CDMX one when they restarted last year, so it would not be too surprising if it while before we saw Mexico City names go back to Guadalajara.

The main event of the 01/29 Arena Mamas Lucha show has CMLL’s Dulce Gardenia, Stuka Jr. and Rey Bucanero along with Texano Jr. Texano is no longer in AAA so perhaps CMLL wrestlers are allowed to work with him, though he and AAA wrestlers do work together on Robles shows in the US.

AAA

Mas Lucha has a post-press conference interview with Dorian Roldan, but there’s not much new there. He mentions they didn’t announce dates for their non-TripleMania plans because those are a bit of flux. When talking about the Tony Khan appearance, Roldan admits to being a bit skeptical they could pull off their plans when he first met with AEW, then came away from the Las Vegas (Double or Nothing) and other early shows totally impressed, as well as being impressed at how much they’ve grown in a short time.

Space set out a press release announcing they’d air Rey de Reyes, all three TripleManias, and the not yet announced Verano de Escandalo live. They aired all the big AAA shows live in 2021, though they didn’t air them complete and I suspect that’ll remain the same. It’s an obvious workaround if you don’t want to pay FITE, at the exchange of probably missing the undercard on most shows.

This part is nothing new but worth restating for 2022: if a show is airing on FITE or another outlet where anyone can just go buy it, I’m not going to be streaming it. If the AAA show is not airing on PPV or any other easily reachable outlet, I’ll stream it on Twitch. That means that my Twitch schedule will be very irregular this year – I’ll be back on this Saturday but maybe not again until after Rey de Reyes. I will do my best to mention here and on Twitter when I know I’m on streaming.

Mobile game Free Fire showed off some of the cosmetic additions as part of their tie-up with AAA. Wrestlers referenced include La Parka, Psycho Clown, Mr. Iguana, and (oddly) Venom.

Other News

Laredo Kid versus Blake Christian will air on Before the Impact this Thursday. That show used to air on AXS and now it’s a YouTube show starting around 6:30 pm CT.

Fenix, arm in a sling at all, showed up on The Crash’s Facebook to say he will appear at their show this Friday for a meet and greet. That’ll be his first public appearance since suffering the arm injury. I expect he’ll be asked roughly one hundred times about when he’s coming back.

IWRG ex-ninja turtle Teelo was involved in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago. His brother, who wrestles as Mike, told Mas Lucha Teelo had 11 surgeries but the doctors were unable to save Teelo’s left foot; it was amputated.

IWTV added the 01/09 Lucha Memes show. This show had Komander versus Mike in the main event, which sounds pretty good.

Republic of Lucha is having a one-year anniversary celebration on March 19th. That includes a wrestling show, with the Lucha Brothers, Taya, John Hennigan, Black Taurus, Rey Horus, Dragon Lee, Dralisico, Arez, Thunder Rosa, Jacob Fatu, Dante Martin, and Zokre announced as wrestling.

GCW announced Dr. Wagner Jr. versus Joey Janela for their 02/05 show in Dallas and versus Homicide for Los Angeles. Those are definitely GCW matches.

On Mas Lucha’s En+Carados, Lucha Time (and sometimes IWRG)’s Hijo del Enfermero announced he’ll be using the name Enfermero del Mal. This situation was prompted by CMLL (and Jaque Mate) giving the rights to the name to the former Yago, and was something I totally forgot about until now.

IWRG is now airing on the Adrenalina Sports Network, which is apparently different than AYM Sports though it’s still the same AYM production and nothing else seems to change. IWRG continues to air on Mas Lucha YouTube channel, and I’m fairly certain more people are seeing it there than the actual AYM cable channel. Not as sure about this new channel, though it appears to just be another anonymous sports network deep in the channel listings. Hi! Sports is a similar obscure channel and Mas Lucha mentioned some of their content is airing there.

LuchaWorld has the latest Poster-Mania.

An article on Zacatecas lucha libre mentions Lucha Time is having auditions for their roster. Dark Star, Clown Extreme, Mini Saga, Norteno Jr., Trueno de Aguila, Dragon Man, Mr. Acero and Extranjerito will participate from Zacateas.

A profile of Xalapa luchador Payacumba.