Copa Dinasita, PdN/NGD leaving AAA?, TripleMania Tijuana notes, a Forbidden Door actually Forbidden, Expolucha

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 06/10/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Record, The Gladiatores]
1) Oro Jr., Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. b Disturbio, Grako, Inquisidor 
11:26.
2) Cancerbero, Hijo del Villano III, Luciferno b El Audaz, Suicida, Volcano   
14:26.
3) Fugaz, Negro Casas, Terrible b Cavernario, Stuka Jr., Titán [Relevos Increíbles]   
15:45. Fugaz challenged Titan to a CMLL WELTER match; Titan had gotten hurt on a dive near the end.
4) Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. b Espíritu Negro & Flyer [Copa Dinastia, battle royal]
5) Flyer & Volador Jr. b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa [Copa Dinastia, semifinal]  
7:34.
6) Euforia & Soberano Jr. b Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. [Copa Dinastia, semifinal]  
8:48
7) Euforia & Soberano Jr. b Flyer & Volador Jr. [Copa Dinastia, final]   
7:13. Flyer suffered a lower leg injury on a moonsault, medical personnel tried to get him out of the match, Flyer insisted on continuing but couldn’t do much and was quickly beat. Euforia & Soberano advanced back to the final on 06/24.

Both the main event and the top trios match were affected by injuries. Titan’s return from Japan was supposed to end with Fugaz beating him to set up a title match and instead they improvised a different finish. Flyer was both clearly unable to finish the main event and clearly fearful he’d never again be allowed in a match that important if he failed to finish it out, so he tried even when he couldn’t do much. CMLL’s had a lot of match-ending injuries of late. Titan told people he was fine later. I’m not as certain about Flyer but he was able to walk on his own power to the back.

(It’s questionable to beat Titan in his first match back but that seems like the only way CMLL knows how to build up title matches.)

This wasn’t a particularly strong show. CMLL’s really pushed the family teams a lot in the last but this tournament didn’t really attract attention – the crowd seemed down and those who were there were less vocal than usual. The matches were fine but nothing stood out. They might have had a moment if Flyer came back in to win, but that wasn’t happening.

Los Guerreros are the overwhelming favorites to win this week’s block.

CMLL (SAT) 06/11/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL]
1) Bengala & Cholo b Apocalipsis & Leono [Relevos Increíbles] 
Bengala & Cholo took 2/3
2) Fantasy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía b Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Polvora 
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Dalys, La Seductora, Tiffany b La Magnifica, Marcela, Skadi 
rudos took 2/3
4) Arkalis, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stigma DQ Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
tecnicos took 2/3
5) Atlantis, Stuka Jr., Titán b Felino, Fuerza Guerrera, Gran Guerrero 
Atlantis again challenged Fuerza Guerrera to a mask match

Atlantis & Fuerza stays on simmer.

CMLL (SUN) 06/12/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr. b Leono & Retro
2) Amapola, Hera, Olympia b La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita
rudas took 2/3
3) Dulce Gardenia, Hombre Bala Jr., Panterita del Ring b Kráneo, Magnus, Okumura
tecnicos took 2/3
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black b El Coyote, Felino, Mephisto
tecnicos took 2/3
5) Hechicero, Templario, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero

Soberano & Los Guerreros made no sense as a team, but there’s no mention of dissenion causing the loss.

Today’s Puebla show is the one where Sagrado was supposed to appear but got replaced by Templario. That story already seems long ago. CMLL might be setting up a women’s tag title match on the show.

Fuego’s return to CMLL appeared to be a false alarm, a case of someone seeing a CMLL luchador with fire on his gear and confusing Fuego for Polvora, who actually wrestled on that show.

CMLL and the (Mexico City) World Trade Center held a press conference Friday to talk about the multimedia lucha libre presentation that’ll be located in the building. I can’t say I understand what they’re doing any better after the press conference but it seems generally like two tourist locations working together to direct people to each other.

AAA

Jeff Hardy was arrested early Monday morning for a DUI among other violations. He is currently in jail and expected to be there through at least Tuesday. I’m not a lawyer, I’m not even a good video game lawyer, but it may be difficult for Jeff Hardy to leave the country while these charges are outstanding. Hardy of course is supposed to leave the country to wrestle in Tijuana on Saturday. It is hard to believe he will be allowed to do that. TripleMania Tijuana is a small fry in the big picture of AAA’s life, but I have no idea what AAA is going to do for that show on Saturday.

AAA on Space did end up airing Aramis/Latigo/Taurus. It was great, one of the better AAA matches this year, totally worth a watch. Arez, Psicosis, Abismo Negro vs Draztick Boy, Emperador Azteca and Dinamico tried to balance the Vipers split angle (Arez is out for sure this time) and tried to have an exciting match with the opening match guys. Arez gave Draztick Boy a painful-looking driver off a stage onto some tables. It was very impressive but also maybe not exactly needed given the angle. La Empresa (Estrellita, Puma King, and Sam Adonis) versus Chessman, Sexy Star, and Heavy Metal, a match that was fine, and one I will never think about again as soon as I complete this paragraph.

The other Vipers angle on the show was attacking La Empresa. Both the Vipers and La Empresa are heel factions trying to embrass AAA – Cibernetico wants to run Konnan off, La Empresa believes AAA is full of clowns but not in a good way – and the initial angle had the Vipers as rudos and Empresa as tecnicos. Logically, Arez is going to cost the Vipers the title match but logic and AAA don’t belong together. These two teams are not scheduled to face each other on any of the next four TV tapings AAA’s announced.

Friday evening, Mas Lucha’s Miguel Reducindo posted a column entitled “What’s going on with AAA?” He points out NGD, Mocho Cota and Tito Santana have been working shows outside of AAA, with NGD specifically working Robles shows that are off-limits to AAA wrestlers. Reducindo goes on to say Cota & Santana are all but officially out of AAA, as the promotion is looking around for new people to team with Carta Brava Jr. as part of a reformed Poder del Norte. NGD leaving AAA comes off more as speculation based on where they’re working where they’re not. NGD hasn’t wrestled in AAA this year, only doing a run-in on TripleMania Monterrey. All five guys are currently listed for AAA’s taping on June 24th in Madero, which means they were expected to be there at one point, not that AAA is al that concerned about them being there. None of them are in the Copa Showcenter bracket announced last week but Poder del Norte is listed as working the undercard of the next Showcenter event.

Cota & Santana are expected to end up with Robles Promotions, like so many other recent ex-AAA wrestlers. (Reducindo note Pimpinela is making more in Robles than he did in AAA, which is easy to believe – both Robles paying a lot and AAA paying less during the pandemic – but the question with Robles is how long it’ll last with no apparent viable business strategy.) Poder del Norte have been great but AAA’s overloaded with newer heel groups and haven’t had much for Poder del Norte to do in a while; it’d be the right time to move on if there was someplace viable to go to. (They’d be great in CMLL, but CMLL’s ingrained dislike of AAA wrestlers makes it a harder fit than it looks on paper, and Robles is going to offer them much more money.) NGD also might be able to make more money outside of AAA but it’d be a failure for both them and AAA if they bounced to the indies after a year.

In light of that discussion, it stuck out to me that DMT Azul wasn’t mentioned at all around La Empresa on TV this week. Azul’s been working a lot of outside dates but is also working some AAA spot shows. It’s probably nothing and it’s nothing I would’ve thought a second about if not for the previous story.

AAA held a press conference Sunday in Tijuana to hype the next week’s show. Among the announcements was the field for Copa Triplemania (according to this Twitter post). Those involved

• Rey Xolo
• Mamba
• Mr. Iguana
• Nino Hamburguesa
• Dulce Kanela
• Abismo Negro Jr.
• Heavy Metal
• Charly Manson
• Pagano
• Cibernetico
• Dr. Wagner Jr.
• Vampiro
• and a surprise wrestler

That’s bigger names than AAA had in Monterrey, though it seems a lot to fly some of these people to Tijuana just to work a battle royal. (Konnan’s due to be honored on this show, so that may be the real reason Cibernetico’s coming.) Extreme Tiger is still in NOAH, so I believe Rey Xolo is now Rey Horus; that was the original plan for the character.

Dorian Roldan had previously announced all the wrestlers from the first part of the mask tournament would appear in Tijuana. Canek, LA Park, Rayo de Jalisco, and Ultimo Dragon do not appear to be making the trip as of the currently announced card.

AAA did announce they’ll be honoring Familia de Tijuana (Nicho, Halloween, and Damian) as an addition to the Konnan sequence. I guess we can all look forward to finding out which heel group beats them up for heat. They’re also promoting a flyover, the LA Rams cheerleaders appearing, and a performance by a surprise band. Maybe this will all be exciting for the live crowd. Most of the people reading this are going to watch it on a screen if they’re going to watch it at all. If you’re on the fence about staying up for this show – 9 pm CT start, definitely running past midnight – I really think you’re really going to better off watching on slight delay Sunday or later so you can skim through stuff that may not interest you as much.

Tickets for the show will remain at 50% off “due to the great response of the fans.”

Azteca announced they’ll be airing (parts of) TripleMania Tijuana late Saturday night. This is usually taped, edited, and only a couple of matches airing around 12:30 AM. The Tijuana show may be just getting to the main event by that point, Azteca might be able to air it live if they want. (It’ll probably still just be taped stuff.)

I have been keeping an eye on Azteca just to see if Gringo Loco/Rey Horus turned up there. They are showing the Showcenter matches but it hasn’t been there yet either. I’ll update you if turns up before then. AAA’s been uploading shows onto YouTube out of order, so it’s still possible it could turn up there.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 06/12/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Baby Star b Kenji 
2) Cerebro Negro Jr. & Limbo b Águila Oriental & Spider Fly 
Aguila Oriental replaced Sol (injured on Thursday)
3) Hell Boy & Satania b Bengalee & Caballero de Plata 
4) Komander b Asterboy, Noisy Boy 
Komander beat Aster Boy and challenged him to a title match at undecided date, maybe in Big Lucha
5) Bendito, Elemental, Emperador Azteca DDQ Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. 
mask pul/foul, challenges followed
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal b Súpernova & Texano Jr. 
Wagners won to set up a NWA MEXICO TAG match

I watched more of this than usual. It’s Naucalpan so there are always going to be brawls, but I wish there were fewer of them – 3 of the top 4 matches being similar ideas with different people didn’t flow together. Komander vs Asterboy vs Noisy didn’t nail it completely but it was nice to have something different.

I presumed Komander beating Astral Boy was setting up a match for next week’s Festival of Mascaras show and was confused as they started talking about Big Lucha instead. It turns out there’s a reason for that: Komander is headed to GCW on June 18th (NYC) and 19th (Providence). Komander was among those who announced he got his (work) visa approved this past Friday and it didn’t take long for him to get booked.

IWRG (SUN) 06/19/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Sol & Spider Fly vs Garra Mortal Jr. & X-Devil
2) Black Dragón & Panterita vs Death Metal & Tortuga Leo
3) Fantasy, Mega, Ultramega vs Enterrador, Fantasma de la Ópera, Golpeador
4) Coco Rojo, Coco Verde, Cocolores vs Bombero Infernal, Cerebro Negro, Guerrero Maya Jr.
5) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Mamba vs Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
6) Blue Demon Jr. & Zumbido vs Cibernético & Konnan Big

This is the annual Festival de la Mascaras show, where everyone gets to wear their old mask for a night. Even people who you might not remember in a mask, like Zumbido & Konnan Big. The Cocos were a regular trio in the IWRG a decade or so past. I keep thinking the Black Dragon in the second match is the 2000s-ish Black Dragon who was well regarded by tape traders, but it’s probably actually the 2017-ish Black Dragon who got a push as a rookie prospect but never really caught on and has appeared sparingly this year.

It’s a Mas Lucha Premium show. It’s a quicker turnaround than usual but not really an issue; more premium shows seem to make that a better value.

AEW/Forbidden Door

95-99% of the people discussing lucha libre today on Twitter do not care about any topic I’ve written about in this post. They care about this tweet:

https://twitter.com/AndradeElIdolo/status/1536220228291645443

(backup)

Twitter has taken this as “Andrade is off Forbidden Door.” I was very skeptical of that, thinking it was a G1/NJPW Door thing and went on to say so on Twitter in a few different ways. I was wrong.

I’ve since been told Andrade was booked on Forbidden Door and is no longer booked on Forbidden Door. Fenix & Penta will also not be appearing on Forbidden Door, as confirmed to me by multiple sources. Andrade’s tweet should be taken at face value. This is bad for everyone.

Konnan responded to Andrade to absolve AAA of responsibility; that is fair, this is one time where it seems like AAA’s only getting heat because AAA exists. Andrade responded with two tweets that were later deleted, one a longer version of the same message in the first, complaining that you [Konnan] ask him for dates and then didn’t cancel dates and your boss [Dorian Roldan] needs to pay him.

I’m afraid to decode anything else today and get it wrong, but that sounds like Konnan asked Andrade to work a day (maybe TripleMania Tijuana, maybe some other show), and did not inform Andrade he was no longer needed. Andrade could’ve taken another booking and so feels AAA owes him some amount of money for the date. The larger picture is Andrade is not very happy with AAA already and now a show he isn’t working and hasn’t been paid for is costing him a show he did want to work, just a no-good miserable day.

It’s all AAA so it’s very possible all that quietly blows over and everyone’s friends again by TripleMania Mexico City if not sooner. The NJPW/CMLL/AEW thing is a harder knot to untie. I do not understand CMLL’s motivations in the case and so it’s impossible to figure out how to remedy the issue.

Expo Lucha

Expo Lucha (SAT) 06/11/2022 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [FITE, Lucha Central, thecubsfan]
1) Mach 10, Razerwyng, Último Ant b Azriael, Decimus, Smiley
2) ASF b Súper Astro Jr. ©, Aeroboy [PWR JH]
3) Black Taurus (Indie) & Sam Adonis b Fightmare & Lince Dorado
4) Mr. Iguana & Reina Dorada b Miranza Alize & Papadon
5) Drago Kid (AAA) & Psicosis I b Damián 666 & Demus
6) Dragón Lee (Indie) & Último Dragón b Juventud Guerrera & Súper Crazy

I got this show for 5 USD and it was totally worth it; I enjoyed it more than the CMLL show the night prior. Matches 2 and 3 were the best of the show, with Drago Kid & Demus looking good in their match. Dragon Lee was great in the main event, even with it being more nostalgia based.

The card was totally reworked due to “travel and visa issues.” I might be missing someone, but it looks like Arez, Laredo Kid, Gringo Loco, Maravilla and Keyra all missed the show. The men all turned up in time for Sunday and it doesn’t appear the women did. Juventud Guerrera, not scheduled to wrestle on Saturday, ended up added to the card. Dralistico was in the building on Saturday but wasn’t scheduled and didn’t get added.

Masked Republic/Expo Lucha taped 3-4 other shows over the weekend, including Laredo Kid retaining the AAA Cruiserweight Championship. These were definitely taped and will be made available in some way, though the group hasn’t said how. Previous ExpoLucha and Masked Republic shows were offered as conventional PPVs and that may be one way those turn up.

Other News

Lucha Libre CM ran one of their periodic shows in Arena San Juan. It did not draw well. CM doesn’t got much going for it as a promotion and it hasn’t been delivering great shows, which seemed like it would mean something eventually. Still, this Lucha Libre CM show was headlined by Rush (teaming with Bestia del Ring & Vangellys against Texano, Super Nova and Caballero Negro – the C in CM) in his first appearance in the building in three years, and he didn’t seem to mean anything. It’s a piece of evidence in never ending “is [X] actually a big star” discussions. If you don’t care about that part, Texano and Rush did rip up the scenery in their main event brawl.

Republic of Lucha announced their 06/19 show will air as a FITE broadcast on 06/22 after Dynamite, same as they did with the debut show. The lineup is a little light for a 13 USD show, but Bandido/Dante Martin could be something.

Progress Wrestling will start uploading their Strong Style Spirit 16 tournament – including Aramis, Johnny Lastname and Jack Evans – on Saturday.

Warrior Wrestling put out their Aramis, Gringo Loco, Dragon Bane, Black Taurus, Golden Dragon, Arez, Alpha Wolf elimination from last year, which was well worth a watch. Warrior has Gringo Loco, ASF, and Dragon Bane against Ninja Mack, Golden Dragon, and Alpha Wolf on 06/18, next door to the Forbidden Door show and before it starts.

Box y Lucha 3508D had lots of CMLL stories.