Dalys wins CMLL Gran Prix, Ivannia Moreno, Castillo del Terror

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/28/2022 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Estrellas del RingExcelsiorKaiser SportsPubliMetroR de RudoThe GladiatoresThe Gladiatores (video), thecubsfan]
1) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, La Vaquerita b Hera, Metálica, Tiffany CMLL: La Vaquerita, La Guerrera y Magnífica derrotan a Tiffany, Metálica y Hera (posted by mluchatv) Triunfo técnico de Vaquerita, La Magnífica y La Guerrera, que derrotaron a Metálica, Tiffany y Hera (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
9:42.
2) Esfinge & Fugaz © b Magia Blanca & Rugido [MEX TAG¡Retienen Campeonato! Con un nudo egipcio, Esfinge y Fugaz vencen a Rugido y Magia Blanca (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) CMLL - CAMPEONATO NACIONAL DE PAREJAS/ESFINGE Y FUGAZ VS RUGIDO Y MAGIA BLANCA/ARENA MEXICO/28-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL: Esfinge y Fugaz retienen el Campeonato Nacional de Parejas ante Rugido y Magia Blanca (posted by mluchatv)
16:01. 3rd defense
3) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. CMLL-SOBERANO JR-VOLADOR JR-MÍSTICO VS ATLANTIS JR.-GRAN GUERRERO-ÚLTIMO GUERRERO/A. MEXICO/28-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL: ¡Último Guerrero le quita la máscara a Místico! Así gana junto a Gran Guerrero y Atlantis Jr. (posted by mluchatv) Último Guerrero, Atlantis Jr y Gran Guerrero derrotan a Místico, Volador Jr y Soberano Jr (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
16:36. Only 3 fall match of the night. The finish in theory was UG sneakily pulling off Mistico’s mask without the referee seeing it; the referee turned too late. Challenges followed.
4) Amapola, Dalys, Faby, La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Reyna Isis b Alex Gracia, Avispa Dorada, Hikari Shimizu, Ivelisse, Lady Frost, Mei Suruga, Stephanie Vaquer, Tae Honma [Gran Prix de Amazonas] ¡Gran final! Dalys gana el Grand Prix de Amazonas 2022 imponiéndose a Lady Frost (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) CMLL - GRAND PRIX FEMENIL / ARENA MEXICO / 28-10-22 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL: Dalys vence a Lady Frost y gana el Grand Prix de Amazonas 2022 (posted by mluchatv)
Eliminations: Avispa Dorada (15:00, via Lluvia), Amapola (19:11, Lady Frost), Marcela (23:53, Mei), Shimizu (Isis, 26:28), Ivelisse (28:34, Sugehit), Isis (31:10, Vaquer), Honma (34:25, Dalys), Vaquer (36:06, Faby), Gracia (36:49, Jarochita), Lluvia (37:54, Suruga), Faby (39:32, Frost), Jarochita (41:28, Frost), Sugehit (Suruga, 42:30), Suruga (Dalys, 42:51), and Frost (Dalys, 47:20), leaving Dalys as the winner

In retrospect, CMLL moved Dalys from Team World to Team Mexico this year because CMLL planned for her to win and figured it’d be a better celebration if she did it for Mexico. It still wasn’t much of a celebration. Last year, the entire Mexico team came back out to celebrate with winner Dark Silueta. This year, Marcela and Tiffany (not in the match) came out to celebrate with Dalys. The rest of Team Mexico weren’t the only ones to check out early; there were sections where it appeared fans had left the show before the main event concluded, something very unusual for CMLL.

Dalys as winner got the usual polarizing reaction, with people unhappy for the choice and believing she got these chances because she’s Negro Casas’ wife. The bigger problem was Dalys struggled in all the ways she normally struggled and everyone kept putting her in positions to struggle. She missed catching both Garcia and Frost, letting both hit the Arena Mexico floor very hard. They got up and kept going. Dalys didn’t seem to do it maliciously, she’s just doesn’t have the skills to be in the right position after all these years. The problem is with whoever’s overseeing these matches and continually allowing Dalys (and others) to try things they can not accomplish. It’s not fun to tell Lady Frost she can’t do her moonsault at the end of the match, or that some other moves other people did don’t look good, but I’m sure they’d appreciate that more than looking bad or colliding face first with the floor. It’s fine to kayfabe build these women up as great wrestlers, but if they’re not telling them where they’re not good and what they need to avoid, they’re doing these women a disservice.

Lady Frost and Mei Suruga were the standouts. Suruga has her character down and plays it well for a big audience for a match like this, in the same way Fuego gets over to new crowds. Frost came across as super athletic, at a level unseen in CMLL among their women (and only a few of the men would be able to match her top rope move.) Frost came away as the star of the night, the person CMLL fans seemed asking the most to see again. CMLL doesn’t seem to have a budget for regular foreigner visits, but she figures to get the call at least when they run the Gran Prix again next year.

Avispa, the most athletic of the CMLL luchadoras, was eliminated first and then disappeared for the rest of the weekend. Maybe her recent issues have been injury related? Team Mexico generally ranged from fine to disappointed bad; beyond Dalys, I thought Sugehit’s exchanges looked poor. Faby looked degrees better than any one else on her side. Vaquer also wrestled well. I was surprised Sugura was featured so much more than the woman who working in the CMLL affiliated promotion in Japan – Honma and Shimizu – but maybe we’ll see more of them this week. Those two are still around, while everyone else finished on Sunday.

This women’s Gran Prix just didn’t work as well as expected. It didn’t have the same interest going and it definitely didn’t have the same crowd involvement as the men’s one in August. The intensity wasn’t there. The only time the crowd seemed to get to that higher level appeared to be because of other fans – there was loud whistling and a “MEXICO” chant, and I presume it’s because the foreign fans had been chanting for their own country. I’m not sure if this concept just works only once a year, or at least not twice in three months. It could be the Mexican fans don’t see the CMLL women as important as the men (and why would they, they’ve rarely) and it may just take time to get this concept over.

This show concludes CMLL’s October of women’s mani events and two women’s matches one every Friday. It didn’t seem like the concept particularly worked or failed. CMLL might have done a little better in the short-term with the normal focuses, but there’s a benefit in building more people up and keeping some of the familiar rivalries fresher by cutting back on them for a month. I’m not sure any of the CMLL women came out of a bigger star; Dalys and Lluvia both came across as lifetime achievement winners rather than people ascending to a new level. This concept felt like a positive branding exercise rather than any meaningful change for the women, but it’s not like someone was waiting to break out that was passed over either.

Ultimo Guerrero and Soberano did not touch in their match. They didn’t touch in their last match either. The match was constructed in a way where it didn’t stick out – Guerrero wrestled Mistico most of the match – but it’s also very weird. They’ll be back not fighting next week.

Rugido and Magia Blanca did very well in the tag match, the most I’ve liked Los Deperadores in a title match. I’m not ready to consider myself for the Rugido fan club but it’s trending in a positive direction. Fugaz had a rough match in ways not always noticed, where he struggled going up for his opponents moves multiple times. They all put in more thought than just an average midcard match and it was good when it worked.

CMLL (SAT) 10/29/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Minos & Pequeño Violencia Facebook video (posted by )
tecnicos took 2/3
2) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Optimus (Querétaro), Rugido, Trono Facebook video (posted by )
Rugido replaced Explosivo. Rudos took 1/3.
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Flyer, Star Black, Volcano Facebook video (posted by )
Cancerberos took 2/3
4) Alex Gracia, La Vaquerita, Lady Frost b Hikari Shimizu, Mei Suruga, Tae Honma Facebook video (posted by )
Vaquerita replaced Avispa Dorada. Her team took 2/3.
5) Atlantis, Star Jr., Volador Jr. b Niebla Roja, Sagrado, Terrible Facebook video (posted by )
Tecnicos took 2/3.

Maybe they’re still setting up Star Jr. and Niebla Roja? It was less clear. These shows are said to be taped for Heraldo TV, which airs an hour of CMLL on Saturdays and Sundays. Heraldo TV has a DailyMotion stream but only on selected shows, and CMLL is not one of those selected shows. If you live in Mexico City, are already watching this show, and can easily record and upload it, I’d definitely put it on my drive if you sent it to me.

CMLL (SUN) 10/30/2022 Arena México [CMLL, The Gladiatores (video)]
1) Astral, Cachorro, Sangre Imperial b Apocalipsis, Inquisidor, Raider CMLL: Raider, Inquisidor y Apocalipsis Vs Astral, Sangre Imperial y Cachorro (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I b Chamuel © [CMLL MICRO] Así fue como el Micro Gemelo Diablo I se coronó como nuevo campeón micro. (posted by ) Increíble micro duelo por el campeonato Micro Gemelo Diablo I destronó a Chamuel y explota la arena (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Chamuel falls on 3rd defense. Micro Gemelo I becomes second champion. Templario made his first appearance since his injury as Chamuel’s second.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma b Diamond, Magnus, Rugido
Fuerza Poblana took 2/3.
4) Amapola, Dalys, Stephanie Vaquer b Alex Gracia, Lady Frost, Mei Suruga Dalys, Amapola y Stephanie Vaquer Vs Lady Frost, Alex Gracia y Mei Suruga en el CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
No Avispa Dorada for the second show, so Amapola added (and Suruga flipped teams). Team Dalys took 2/3.
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Hijo de Octagón, Octagón b Ángel de Oro, Fuerza Guerrera, Niebla Roja, Satánico Atlantis, Octagon, Atlantis Jr e H. Octagon Vs Satánico, Fuerza Guerrera, Ángel de Oro y Niebla Roja (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)

The title change is a little bit of a surprise, but there’s nothing to do in the Micros division outside of the Gemelos and Chamuel trading the title occasionally. Maybe the title change was tipped off by CMLL identifying which Micro was involved this time.

I guess the Octagon/Satanico thing was to go against WWE? I didn’t notice a big difference in turnout.

CMLL (FRI) 11/04/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito, Kaligua, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Minos, Pequeño Violencia
2) Dalys, Marcela, Stephanie Vaquer vs Avispa Dorada, Hikari Shimizu, Tae Honma [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs El Coyote, Felino Jr., Hijo del Villano III
4) Místico, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. vs Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
5) Terrible vs ? [Rey del Infrmaundo]

I keep thinking these shows need more help, but maybe the Dia de Muertos theme will be enough. Tercera could be fun. Avispa in the segunda match is obviously a question mark. Stuka still seems most likely to face Terrible. This is a double price PPV, and the only of the Dia de Muertos shows to be offered on PPV this year.

AAA

AAA aired the dark matches from TripleMania this past week. The Copa Bardahl was like every other match of this type. I guess the difference was they started with four people in the ring (or three and Diva Salvaje inexplicably standing outside to take a dive) and they paused again to do spots with four people left. No one will ever think about the match again. I will forget Taurus won by the next time I write a preview because AAA’s made it clear these are unimportant filler matches.

The Marvel match was edited quite a bit, trying to clean up the mess the match left. They included the spot with Furioso’s injury, cut away to the crowd, cut back just long enough to show an elimination while Furioso was down in the ring, cut away again, and did more editing to speed through the matches. It was about tasteful as they could’ve handled the situation without re-taping the match. Something got messed up there beyond the introduction. The Iron Man character did a pre-match promo talking about four tecnicos and four rudos facing off to see who’d be the best and advance to his tournament final, then five tecnicos and five rudos walked out. The promo was obviously taped audio and all I can figure is there was a debate over if to include the women (since there was exactly one per team) and no effort to fix the audio once plans change. The match ended with six people left, and that might be have been a Furioso-related error, though the announcers still seemed to talk about four people advancing to the final. I don’t think anyone was so invested that it mattered where four or six people advanced.

AAA has no new tapings until 11/20 in Chihuahua. AAA has five weeks of TV (Guadalajara week 2, Puebla, Showcenter final) sitting on a hard drive somewhere, so they’re in no need to do anything. The Mexicali taping hasn’t come up in a while, and it may not be until December if it hasn’t been mentioned yet. Still no matches for Tempe, a press conference should be happening this week.

Vampiro filled in for Pagano on a show in Toluca on Friday. Vampiro seems to be wrestling a lot more in the last few months.

IWRG

Ivannia Moreno Tolsa (38) passed away on Saturday morning. She was officially the “IWRG Directora de Nuevo Proyectos”; she was the daughter of promotion owner Marcos Moreno. Ivannia was most visible in their video projects over the last two years, as one of the hosts of their weekly Revolucionario program and traveling to Los Angeles and Chicago as part of setting up working agreements with RGR and GALLI. Her father Marcos is still running IWRG, and he and others are the ones working in the programming department, but general idea seemed to be that Ivannia would be the public face of the promotion while she and other siblings would take over running it someday. No cause of death was mentioned. Ivannia was on IWRG’s YouTube channel as recently as Wednesday; some of those segments appear pre-taped, but there was no sign of any health concerns. This news just shocked everyone; my first instinct was that someone got hacked and was posting weird fake messages when I first saw the news. Shows in Arena Lopez Mateos and Guadalajara held moments of applause in Ivannia’s memory and AAA noted her passing on social media.

The Moreno family held Ivannia’s funeral on Saturday, then went ahead and on with the scheduled Sunday show. They honored her during the night and posted a tribute video. This show, just because of how the calendar fell, happened to be the death-themed Castillo del Terror show. IWRG had a haunted house set up inside off Arena Naucalpan as part of the festivities, which sounded like an Ivannia concept. The event appeared to sell out, as big IWRG cage matches tend to do. I’m sure they didn’t think long about canceling this show, if it even was a thought at all.

IWRG (SUN) 10/30/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del Ring, IWRG, R de Rudo, Zona Ruda]
***Castillo del Terror, 2022***
1) Hip Hop Man & Lucio b Águila Roja & Jhon Tito Kickoff | El Castillo del Terror 2022: 12 máscaras en una lucha en jaula + luchas de campeonato (posted by IWRG tv)
2) Keyra & Spider Fly b Limbo & Lolita Kickoff | El Castillo del Terror 2022: 12 máscaras en una lucha en jaula + luchas de campeonato (posted by IWRG tv)
3) Cerebro Negro b Hell Boy [super libre] Kickoff | El Castillo del Terror 2022: 12 máscaras en una lucha en jaula + luchas de campeonato (posted by IWRG tv)
Still heading to a hair match.
4) Puma de Oro © b Tonalli © [IWRG MEXICO, IWRG IC MIDDLE] Kickoff | El Castillo del Terror 2022: 12 máscaras en una lucha en jaula + luchas de campeonato (posted by IWRG tv)
Tonalli 3rd defense of the Middleweight title, Puma de Oro 3rd defense of the IWRG Mexico championship (all against Tonalli). Puma de Oro won once again, taking both titles.
5) Gran Pandemónium, Hijo de Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr. b Bugambilia, Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura
Jessy and Bugambilia had issues.
6) Hijo del Pirata Morgan © b Galeno del Mal [IWRG Rey del Ring]
3rd defense
7) Garra Mortal Jr. L Hijo De Canis LupusHijo del FishmanRey LeónDick Angelo 3GAsterboyNoisy BoyRey HalcónBengaleeSataniaHijo del AlebrijeLuka [cage, mask]
Rey Leon won Garra Mortal’s mask. Garra Mortal Jr. is Jorge Jesus Rios.

Garra Mortal Jr. has been around for less than two years, so it’s not a big mask loss. The bigger issue is Garra Mortal Jr. appears to be Maniacop 360, so this is him losing one mask as he switched character. This is normal IWRG behavior. Maybe it would have worked if one of the announcers didn’t slip up and called Maniacop “Garra” in one of his recent matches. I don’t think this hurts IWRG at all, because fans keep coming out for these cage matches even with similarly silly finishes before. Enough people know that IWRG might do something to cast doubt on the double identity.

The show goes on. One of the recent topics on the IWRG Revolucionarios show has been a rare IWRG event outside of Arena Naucalpan; that’s still scheduled for Saturday.

Nacion Lucha Libre

I’m a dummy. I wrote that I thought Nacion Lucha Libre was running Alberto/Wagner on 11/06, not thinking about how that would mean one of those two guys would have to lose to each other. That’s just not realistic. This week’s Nacion Lucha Libre TV instead ran an angle where the foreigners beat up Alberto before he could end his tournament match. Texano Jr. won instead, so he’ll face Dr. Wagner on Sunday for the new Nacion Lucha Libre, a fine title match that probably won’t send anyone rushing to buy tickets. Alberto will likely face Carlito and the rest of that crew.

Samuray del Sol announced he’s off the 11/06 show for health reasons.

WWE

WWE’s shows in Monterrey and Mexico City seemed to do fine, not great, but not terrible turnouts either. Mexico City’s show seemed to draw fewer fans than TripleMania – it’s likely the 5th or 6th biggest show in Mexico City this year, though they had higher ticket prices. The shows didn’t feel important but still got important levels of media attention; I think ESTO has six different articles on the Mexico City this morning.

Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo defeated Legado del Fantasma on both shows. The WWE rule is the good guys win the house show matches whenever possible but I didn’t realize Los Lotharios went meant to be the good guys. WWE held a 10 bell salute for Humberto Garza on both shows, and Fantasma appeared with Legado del Fantasma on the Mexico City show. Those are smart touches for a company planning on running more in Mexico someday.

Other News

Shocker held a press conference Friday to tell his side of his incident in Tuxtla Gutierrez. Shocker’s lawyer suggested they’d sue to local police department for their contact. There’s not much new from what he told previously, it was more for a larger audience. He did say he was hoping to get his jaw fixed in January 2023, would be out of action for some months, and was going to run a “Shockerton” of merchandise sales in December to raise money to help him out while he wasn’t wrestling.

Saltillo luchador Chavo Lomeli (52) passed away Sunday. He was part of a large family of local luchadors, including his daughter CMLL’s La Maligna. He was wrestling as recently as last year and was active on Facebook last week. No cause of death is mentioned. A moment of remembrance was held for him in Saltillo.

Titan & BUSHI challenge TJP & Francesco Akira for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team championship on 11/05 in Osaka. TJP and Titan also have a singles match on 11/03. November 1st seems like a decent time to jump into a NJPW World subscription.

Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. challenges Masakatsu Funaki for the GHC Nacional Championship on 11/10 in Korakuen Hall.

Bandido beat Senza Voltio to win Belgium’s BodyZoi Wrestlng championship.

12/17 RIOT “Christmas Extravaganza On Ice (Sin Hielo)”