CMLL
Today’s CMLL Informa will have announcements on the 09/16 CMLL Aniversario show. The description says “we’ll reveal all the details”, which sounds like finally an answer to the main event riddle. CMLL usually gives out the lineup just before tickets go on sale, and tickets are not not yet listed on TicketMaster. The August PPVs aren’t listed either, so there just may be an update to come. I will try for another post with whatever gets announced in a few hours.
CMLL (MON) 08/01/2022 Arena Puebla [@Tribunadeportes, Box y Lucha]
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Dark Silueta & Reyna Isis
3) Kráneo, Magnus, Rugido b El Audaz, Suicida, Volcano
4) Euforia, Fuerza Guerrera, Hechicero b Atlantis, Titán, Volador Jr. 
Fuerza (weakly) fouled Atlantis and pinned him for the win. Rematch challenges followed.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero [CMLL TAG]
4th defense
I haven’t been putting the Puebla Facebook matches on the Google Drive because they’re usually just three minutes of a match and three minutes of a post match. For whatever reason, the main event streamed mostly complete last night, just a few minutes missing from eh start.
CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Estrellas del RIng, Kaiser Sports, Marca]
1) Cholo & Príncipe Odín Jr. b Leono & Retro 
2) Full Metal, Minos, Pequeño Violencia b Kaligua, Pequeño Magía, Shockercito
Rudos took 1/3
3) Amapola, La Seductora, Olympia b La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi
Rudas took 1/3. Olympia replaced Hera on Monday
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Felino, Rey Bucanero
Atrapsuenos took 2/3.
5) Euforia, Hechicero, Templario DQ Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
Templario replaced Mephisto on Monday. Hechicero submitted Sagrado for the win, but didn’t let go quickly enough for Olimpico and was DQed. Infernales and Templario left the other team unmasked.
The main event seemed to be leaning more towards a trios title build than a singles title build.
CMLL (TUE) 08/02/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara]
1) Jabalí, Ponzoña Jr., Relámpago Azul b Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Cosmos
2) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Último Ángel b Destello, Destructor, Temerario
3) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel & Perico Zacarías
4) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono DQ Huitzil, Omar Brunetti, Sangre Azteca, Vaquero Jr.
Sangre Azteca returning to CMLL (as an outsider) for the first time in 3 years, teaming with his son Huitzil. Crixus interfered for the DQ.
5) Tonalli, Troyano, Último Guerrero b Persa, Raven, Satánico
Team UG snuck in fouls on Persa & Raven.
6) Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero b Rugido & Volador Jr.
Didn’t have a chance to actually watch much of this, but the semi-main seemed to set up a rematch. Tonalli and Sangre Azteca both talked to Mas Lucha about being excited to come to this Guadalajara show. I forgot that Huitzil is Sangre Azteca’s son, so teaming with together in a CMLL ring is a big deal for both of them.
CMLL (FRI) 08/05/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit vs Dark Silueta, Metálica, Reyna Isis
3) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Black vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible
4) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr. vs Fuerza Guerrera, Stuka Jr., Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Gran Guerrero, Robbie Eagles, Último Guerrero vs Averno, Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
It didn’t sound like Robbie Eagles was going to be in Mexico for a long time when he mentioned this trip to the Super J Cast, but I guess three or four weeks isn’t a long time if you’re used to staying in Japan for three months. Eagles/Volador seems a possible title match, one where Eagles would be favored to win if it happened before the Gran Prix.
All four feuds are on the show over the top two matches, so we should get the usual challenges. The Jarochita/Isis issue hasn’t been talked about in months but they’re in the second match as well. Ideally, this is setting up a press conference next Wednesday where CMLL finally explains the plan.
This CMLL Friday show overlaps with AAA’s Verano de Escandalo. That’s not an issue for most people – Mexican wrestling fans typically stick to one promotion – but it’s a significant problem for the person who is typing these words and has made it his job of trying to track and record them both. I’ll do my best.
CMLL (SAT) 08/06/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala & Neón vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Maligna vs Amapola, La Seductora, Olympia
3) Arkalis, Astral, Sangre Imperial vs Disturbio, Nitro, Okumura
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Felino, Kráneo, Pólvora
5) Panterita del Ring, Robbie Eagles, Stuka Jr. vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero
Eagles is in as tecnico, which isn’t as clear on the Friday show.
Mascara Dorada faces Misterioso on the 08/21 NJPW Strong show in Hollywood. That’s interesting given all the Misterioso issues. Robbie Eagles is also on that show, so maybe he’s out of Mexico right after the Gran Prix.
AAA
Sam Adonis had a tweet up last night encouraging fans to check out his title match at Verano de Escandalo on FITE. He then quietly deleted it, likely after being told the show is not actually airing on FITE. It’s still just on Space and only the second half. It’s unlikely to change at this point. His match will likely air on Space on 08/13 and on YouTube sometime in September, which is not ideal.
Dorian Roldan will appear at the NextvSeries conference on September 28th, on a panel named “live sports distribution in the era of streaming.” Topics include “Protecting premium live sports from streaming piracy” (shhh) and “PPV vs subscription models in sports OTT”, which could answer questions about why AAA is going the route of a few events on FITE rather than some sort of larger subscription service. That panel, about streaming at a TV conference, is listed as a live in-person event only. That sometimes changes as it gets closer (and if tickets are moving for the conference.)
Pirata Morgan attempted to set Mr. Iguana’s stuffed animal Yeska on fire in a bit surely intended to go viral. It worked only to a mild degree, it was not a hot enough flame. Pirata Morgan plays at being an old school guy and surely is on some level, but he’s always more so a worker who is also working at creating attention for himself to get booked more.
Nacion Lucha Libre is back (for now)
Tuesday, Nacion Lucha Libre (Alberto el Patron and director Daniel Leal) held a press conference to announce their return show. It was great, in that it was a great example case of a dead-on-arrival Mexican lucha libre promotion. There’s been so many of them over the years, but here are some modern telltale signs a group has no idea what they’re doing:
- The promotion fails to provide the basic details about their show. A fan watching (and a media telling the fans) needs to know when the show is happening, where the show is happening, why they should attend the show, and how they can buy tickets to the show. The Nacion Lucha Libre press conference last a half hour and they either never put over the date of the show or did such a poor job of it that it wasn’t clear. Nacion put over the fact that they’re running five shows in the same location without really explaining what that means – are they having shows once a month? once every two weeks? I have no idea and I’m not sure they do either. The point of the press conference is to sell tickets and they couldn’t get that done.
- It’s immediately clear no one rehearsed the presentation and caught the obvious mistakes. Nacion Lucha Libre had a video board rotating three images. If anyone at Nacion Lucha Libre had practiced the presentation prior, they might have noticed that the artwork didn’t work – they were really graphics that belonged on social media, and much (like that ticket info) of it was hard to read because it was so low to the ground that everyone’s feet were in the way. Someone who should’ve spotted that and just added it on another slide. A slide to announce the date and the location might’ve been wortwhile. Instead, you could see Alberto and the money guy reading through the printed format notes as other speakers were talking because they were still trying to figure out if they had covered everything. (You could also watch Alberto’s children run and play on the stage, bought brought up their to convey a certain vibe and also utterly bored with the thing after 5 minutes.) There was so little quality work done that the wrong name for a wrestler was in the lineup: Rey Espectro has been using that name for two months but he’s still Hijo de Espectro Jr. to Nacion.
- The promotion makes a big deal of showing off title belts. Nacion Lucha Libre had nice ones, that’s great. I also wish Mexican fans cared about title belts. They don’t – modern Mexican wrestling has repeatedly taught fans those are meaningless – and few buy tickets just to see a title match. They buy tickets to see a big match and they know not every title match is one of those. (See: Big Lucha’s tournament, or every IWRG title match.) A DOA Mexican wrestling promotion spends a lot of time on costume pieces that don’t yet mean anything. The wrestlers and the promoters care intensely about the title belts, as do a small minority of fans, but an initial press conference appealing to them is a bad sign.
- The promotion makes a big deal of about their style of promotion (alternative! third major!). People on in Facebook comments will forever talk about care and wanting these things, but fans purchase tickets in mass to shows that they believe are a big deal. The people and matches that are booked will show if a promotion is different.
- The card is a mix of random tag matches without something people have been clamoring to see. You can keep scrolling past this to see the card, but you don’t really need to. Two trios matches, two straight tags, and a couple of singles matches that seemed more about the number of people to book than any plans. A DOA mexican wrestling promotion takes fan interest for granted, dimly assumes that fans are going to just stick around for the big matches later on. In reality, a wrestling promotion can only count on having one chance to hook fans into sticking around and needs to deliver on a big match that fans have been demanding to see. I’m not sure Alberto vs Wagner or Alberto vs Cinta de Oro is that sort of big match; maybe Alberto vs Samuray del Sol would come close. Any of those are more tempting than those three guys against three guys who are there just to bump for them. It may be uncomfortable to book outcomes for those big matches, but a first show should never be able booking comfortable matches.
- Their social media is barren. Nacion Lucha Libre is ahead of most of these groups by having a TV deal with Imagen TV. (Though, they had the same one last time and it didn’t help, and they didn’t say exactly when Saturday the show was airing.) That’s helpful, but there’s an increasingly large world of potential ticket buyers who aren’t watching TV and need to be reached in other ways. Nacion Lucha Libre didn’t seem to have a YouTube plan, and relied on media outlets to put out the information for them. That debut lineup, with all the date, location and a link to buy tickets today while it’s in mind, should’ve been out on any every social media platform the moment the press conference started. The most they’ve been able to do is change their Twitter header to a graphic with the date. I’m actually not convinced the digital stuff is vitally necessary, but it’s a solid brown M&M test; if they’ve studied what works elsewhere and are prepared to make a new thing work, they’ll easily have an image ready to drop on Twitter. They’re definitely just winging it if it’s just a quick photo of the press conference and a few RTs of media reports.
- The lineup is a mix of friends and the same names that are on every other Mexico City area card. I enjoy Texano and Super Nova. They should take all the work they can get. They appear to do that; if you told me that they were facing the Wagner brothers in Cholo de Tijuana or in Robles or in whatever promotion is running Arena Lopez Mateos that week or whatever other promotion this weekend, I’d believe it. That match just happens to be in Nacion Lucha Libre this time. The card is the usual names and Alberto’s ex-WWE friends. There’s no one person on the show anyone is surprised to see.
- Family members are booked in prominent positions. The only promotion booking Hijo de Dos Caras in a big singles match is a big one, just like the only ones booking Vangellys & Bestia del Ring in high positions are the ones where Rush has a lot of control.
- Alberto El Patron is involved. Even without any other baggage, Alberto has been part of so many failed launches that he’s sort of a reverse stamp of quality at this point – the track record is what it is. Alberto is and probably always will be famous as a Mexican WWE World Champion during the peak of WWE in Mexico, and no one’s been able to have the success in WWE and then leave to push him out of that role. Doors will always be open for him that aren’t open for others, though maybe not doors he should be opening. Wealthy people money and little idea about wrestling will often see him as the star in the moment. In reality, he’s now a guy from the past who doesn’t sell tickets, who’s done a dozen of these press conferences with nothing ever lasting. You can give him every excuse he wants for failing, but failure is what he’s been associated with for the last decade in Mexican wrestling.
NLL (SAT) 09/24/2022 Unidad Cuauhtémoc, Naucalpan, Estado de México
1) Mr. Leo vs Rey Espectro
2) Diosa Quetzal & Princesa Azul vs Satania & Sucii Love
3) Toscano, VIP, Zumbi vs Cobarde Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Hijo del Pirata Morgan
4) Samuray del Sol vs Hijo De Dos Caras
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Súper Nova & Texano Jr.
6) Alberto el Patrón, Cinta de Oro, Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Carlito, Mecha Wolf, Primo Colon
That’s the lineup Nacion Lucha Libre announced but it doesn’t appear to be the full. This was announced as a five TV episode taping, so either running about triple the amount of the matches or they’re airing some very short episodes. The “second season”, which will air on Imagen TV sometime in October on Saturdays, will run for fourteen episodes. That means two more live events if they’re taping at the same rate; Alberto says all second episode episodes will be taped in Mexico State for production cost reasons. Tickets for this first show will run between 200 and 500 pesos, with an additional VIP area for 50 fans. If this is an indoor show and that venue’s theatre, there’s space for about 1000 fans. There’s an adjacent outdoor soccer field that can seat 2,000. The venue is not a usual lucha libre location; Nacion Lucha Libre has a deal with government agency IMSS and it’s their building. Nacion Lucha Libre will have an Absoluto title, as well as women’s, men’s tag, and cruiserweight titles. Chavo Guerrero Jr. was mentioned as coming in on a later event in addition to the names listed. ImagenTV has a live stream on DailyMotion, but I’m not sure how often it runs or if it’ll include Nacion Lucha Libre.
In a longer sitdown interview with Mas Lucha, Alberto claims Nacion Lucha Libre has been on pause due to “COVID and other issues.” Nacion Lucha Libre’s last show was in November 2019, which is noted by the interview. That was before COVID was known to exist in Mexico. Alberto has in-between run shows with Robles Promotions; the claim here is that partnership was only meant to be a one show deal to help his friend Robles grow the promotion, and any suggestion that there’s drama between them is lies.
Alberto’s general viewpoint is the second season will be similar to the first because the first was a “resounding success”, and they’re presenting something completely different than CMLL or AAA. He claimed the Nacion Lucha Libre show on Imagen TV beat CMLL every week it was on last time and beat AAA in their first week (but not the subsequent ones.) It’s hard to believe that’s true – ImagenTV is a smaller station than Azteca or Televisa – but it’s also barely relevant. Wrestling promotions caring about weekly TV ratings is mostly a US obsession; the most important Mexico metric is ticket sales and Nacion struggled there. The previous ImagenTV was so unknown that there are major news sites talking about it being the ‘new’ home of Nacion Lucha Libre.
(I liked that Mas Lucha interview. I think it was Jorge Livan asking the questions. He asked all the reasonable questions to ask in a polite fashion. He didn’t challenge Alberto, but just letting Alberto say Alberto things was enough for him to go in some unuseful directions for promoting a wrestling show. Alberto seemingly did a sitdown for every YouTube channel but I didn’t have the energy to watch them all.)
Zumbi was one of the wrestlers who complained about not being paid the last time Nacion Lucha Libre folded shop. He was happily back on board again, even appearing at the press conference.
Nacion Lucha Libre planning on running three shows very low bar, but I’m not convinced they’re going to pull it off. They don’t look like they have the ability to do so, and I’m not bringing in some great insight to point it out. Everyone really wants there to be more alternative options in Mexican wrestling; most people inside the ropes of Mexican wrestling want this (and every project like this) to work out so well that they’re going to gloss over the obvious flaws. Doubtlessly no one beyond the money guy believes this is actually going to work, it’s just the latest thing for the wrestlers and others behind the scenes to find a few dates this fall, and then move onto the next guy.
IWRG
IWRG (THU) 08/04/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Rey Minos & Spider Fly vs Rey Aztaroth & Súper Boy
2) Destiny & Noisy Boy vs Garra Mortal & Vértigo
3) Fantasy, Mega, Tony Rivera vs Avisman, Bombero Infernal, Dr. Karonte
4) Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro vs Cerebro Negro, Cerebro Negro Jr., Dr. Cerebro
5) Laredo Kid vs Aster Boy vs Aramis
The main event could be great and the rest of the show looks problem free. Bombero Infenral in the retro tercera sticks out; he hasn’t worked a normal IWRG show since 2019.
Other Notes
LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.
- King vs Radioactivo
- Limbo vs Black Skayde
- Elemental & Bendito vs Komander & Gravity for the CanAm Tag Championship
GCW announced a “GCW vs Vanguardia” show for 10/14 in Pachuca. It’ll air on FITE TV and pairs with the Zona 23 show two days later. (TripleMania is in between.) Ciclope and Miedo Extremo winning the GCW tag team titles before GCW comes to their home promotion is fortunate timing. My interest in Vanguardia has fallen off this year, but there’s guys like El Mago and Fresa Club that I hope get more eyeballs on them.