CMLL
Tonight’s CMLL show
CMLL (FRI) 04/07/2023 Arena México
1) Acero, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio, Minos, Pequeño Polvora
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Sanely vs La Catalina, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
3) Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Stigma vs Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
4) Panterita del Ring Jr., Templario, Titán vs Ángel de Oro, Dragón Rojo Jr., Niebla Roja [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Volador Jr. vs Gran Guerrero
6) Místico vs Atlantis Jr., Rocky Romero [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
Mistico brought up last year’s “pick a ball/get a bye” rules during Informa, suspecting that Rocky Romero would somehow get himself that by. Host Julio Cesar Rivera quickly explained that wouldn’t happen this year: the fans demanded these matches have all three wrestlers in the ring simultaneously, CMLL listens to their fans, so that’s what will happen in this match. I kinda didn’t mind the other way but this will be a lot of easier to understand. Any one of the three wrestlers in the match could logically win.
Atlantis Jr. is still set on facing Mistico in a mask match as the 90th Aniversario main event. Mistico said he was open to it. Romero repeatedly argued that he and Mistico were ‘men’ and Atlatnis Jr. was still only a child. Romero also believes he’s already won the championship and will get paid twice (one for each belt.)
Volador and Gran Guerrero will be a lot of the usual. Templario and Dragon Rojo are on opposite sides of the fourth match. Fuerza Poblana/Dulce Atrapsuenos matches are usually good, and the women’s matches in this feud have been enjoyable. The minis in the opener aren’t the hottest group of minis but that division has been pretty reliable of late. It’s available on PPV and will go up on YouTube on 04/23.
CMLL (MON) 04/10/2023 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Rayo Metálico vs Brave Star & Espíritu Maligno
2) Black Tiger & El Hijo De Centella Roja vs Dr. Karonte I & Dr. Karonte II
3) Valiente Jr. vs Enfermero Jr. [lightning]
4) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Samuray, Stigma vs Crixus, Difunto, Zandokan Jr.
5) Atlantis, Octagón, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
6) Soberano Jr. vs Templario
This would be a fun show to stream. Soberano/Templario probably won’t have Arena Mexico effort but will still be good. Valiente Jr/Enfermero Jr. is an interesting deepcut. Enfermero, through inactivity and usage, has been passed up in the ranks of promising young CMLL rudos but maybe a good opponent would get him going.
CMLL (TUE) 04/11/2023 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Demonio Rojo, Mágico, Metatrón vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Hijo del Calavera
2) Dulce Kitty, Náutica, Sexy Sol vs Atenea, Nexy, Valkiria
3) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Ráfaga vs Misterio Blanco, Misterio Negro, Misterioso Jr.
4) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs Crixus, Max Star, Vegas
5) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
6) Arlequín, Dulce Gardenia, Gallero vs Bestia Negra, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte
Barbaro Cavernario working the semimain is odd on a show with few CDMX guys, but that’s where his brothers are I guess. See the same for Misterioso. Vegas impressed in the Torneo de Escuelas and hasn’t been around since.
Esfinge & Fugaz talked about their chances of winning the CMLL Universal tournament. Their chances are low.
Atlantis talked to MiedoTiempo’s Sin Mascaras interview. He said he doesn’t want to retire because he feels like he’ll die that day, which he’s said before. Atlantis notes his 40th anniversary is coming up this year and gives his debut as July 11, 1983. That’s always the date he and others give, which makes it weird that I’ve stumbled onto Atlantis wrestling in Arena Mexico as early as April that year. He’s even in a title tournament on July 1st. I’ve never figured out what the deal is there. The important thing is CMLL likes to celebrate round anniversaries and they like to celebrate Atlantis, so figure on some big show around July 11 this year. That’s a Tuesday.
Vaquero Jr., in an interview with Mural, mentions his other job is as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital. He’s 34, which is older than I would’ve guessed. He also has an only in Mexico wrestling origin story. Vaquero Jr. was a wrestling fan (big Atlantis fan) but never considered wrestling. He was into bodybuilding, but couldn’t find a place to work out to meet his needs, and others told him he should try training at Arena Coliseo Guadalajara because they had better weights and he’d get a good workout. He did.
Sagrado, when talking about his recent career, claimed that Los Gemelos Diablos were offered to various other luchadors as a team, but he was the one who wanted them. It makes so much sense to see them with similar masks that it’s surprising they were offered to others.
AAA
The two main singles matches for TripleMania Monterrey – one week away from Sunday in a baseball stadium – remain up in the air.
Hijo del Vikingo is the more pressing mystery. AAA said they’d announce an opponent for the mega championship match after Vikingo’s defense in Ring of Honor. That was now a week ago. I guess they don’t have a name locked in – or they have a name locked in but are hoping for a bigger name. (That’s more or less what happened last year with the Jeff Hardy replacement.) There are still ways to hype a Vikingo defense until AAA figures out what they’re doing. For now AAA’s not saying anything.
The biggest match for the local audience is Chessman versus Adrian Marcelo, and I have no idea what’s happening there. Maybe that’s the wrong way to say it: a lot has happened there, and I’m unsure how this ends up.
Monterrey’s lucha libre commission ran a wrestling licensing exam on Wednesday afternoon in Arena Jose Sulaiman, specifically so Marcelo could get his license to wrestle next Sunday. Marcelo won’t be getting his license from that exam; he quit during drills and walked off in the first hour of a three hour test. Villano V and Difunto I were among those working as trainers and judges. Difunto I mentioned on Facebook that two trainees quit the exam, four more didn’t pass, and only two got licensed among the eight who participated. Villano V talked about the exam process to Mas Lucha, noting that the standards to pass are easier now than they were 10-15 years ago, which has dropped the quality of wrestling. Villano and Difunto clarified that Marcelo would need to find a better trainer and train a lot more to earn his license.
Adrian Marcelo appeared on Multimedios later that night, on a TV show that was meant to be a birthday celebration and was surely intended to promote TripleMania. Multimedios posted a segment asking if Marcelo if he will be part of TripleMania. Marcelo says he’ll be at TripleMania yet is careful to avoid saying he’ll wrestle at TripleMania. I don’t want to parse words too closely as non-Spanish speaker, but it doesn’t seem to bring up the licensing exam directly. He vaguely refers to something that happened at Arena Jose Sulaiman earlier in the day and emphasizes he’s been training wrestling for months and respects lucha libre. He also defiantly talked about how lots of people in the media and wrestling don’t want to see him on TripleMania and don’t think he’s ready for the show, then takes off his shirt to show his body is in good shape. Marcelo and the other hosts (including Roberto Figueroa) never just say “the match is on”, giving plenty of space for Marcelo to appear on the show but not wrestle. I didn’t catch it in this video, but AS reports Marcelo also asked to meet the head of the lucha libre commission to make his case he should be allowed to wrestle.
The Mexico news media that’s been covering the rest of this story was slow to pick up on the licensing failure. Other parts of this story have been heavily pushed by people like Roberto Figueroa, out to the media. Figueroa ignored the licensing failure and just posted on Facebook about Marcelo saying he’ll be at TripleMania. Many people eventually found the Mas Lucha video, though this bit still isn’t covered as much as past incidents in this story.
I can’t reliably say I know what’s going on here. Obviously, the funniest and most AAA situation is a bunch of old wrestlers weren’t in on AAA’s plan and/or were upset about AAA disgracing wrestling by having a celebrity in the ring, so they ran him off in a licensing exam and now everyone’s scrambling. That situation is also too juicy to be true. I think the most likely outcome is Marcelo will participate in TripleMania and whatever happened Wednesday set up a lot of fun speculation that might be meaningless. Maybe the test failure was legit and AAA will have to ‘convince’ the commission to let him participate anyway. Maybe the test failure is some part of this story and Marcelo will heroically get his license after all. There’s an easy out with the head of the commission giving it to him, though that would put a lot of heat on the commissioner. AAA will figure out a way for the show to go on.
Generally, this slap story has progressed normally to this point and whatever happened with this licensing exam doesn’t seem to fit smoothly in the story. It hurts AAA in Mexico if there’s a story going around that “Marcelo vs Chessman is happening” by now, just like it hurts AAA for those internet PPV buys if there’s no Vikingo match to promote.
That’s the fun Adrian Marcelo story of the day. It’s not the only one. A woman listing her name as Carolina Lerma accused Marcelo of sexual assault in posts on Facebook and Instagram. (She also accused another man in a separate incident.) Lerma says the incident with Marcelo took place in February 2022 while both were in a car. She was trying to turn down his advances, and Marcelo instead exposed himself, touched himself, and attempted to force himself on Lerma. She got away from him and they did not talk after that. Lerma, who does not seem to be a celebrity or someone with many followers, posted a photo of herself with Marcelo and a Whatsapp audio message as evidence they knew each other. It does sound like Marcelo in the audio, though it’s not absolute proof he sent this audio to this specific woman (and it more about him trying to pursue a relationship, not an admission of guilt.)
Lerma’s objective seems to be to bring attention to these men’s actions and to offer support to others who’ve gone through the same situation. Lerma’s posts were circulated heavily on social media on Thursday and started to be picked up by media outlets later that night. Marcelo seemed to be referencing Lerma’s posts with a “Here we go again” GIF tweet, but otherwise said nothing. It does not appear Lerma filed charges or will be filing charges. AAA’s policy seems to be that they won’t take action unless there are charges. Marcelo works for Multimedios, Multimedios is also working with TripleMania on this show, and so the Multimedios officials are ultimately the ones likely to make the call on Marcelo working TripleMania. Again, I suspect the show will go on.
TripleMania Monterrey still isn’t listed on FITE. The streaming network themselves said all three TripleMania would be there, so this is probably a hold-up on AAA’s side. It may be they’re waiting for that Vikingo announcement to announce it.
AAA tapes TV in San Luis Potosi on Saturday
AAA TV (SAT) 04/08/2023 Auditorio Miguel Barragan, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí
1) Mini Vikingo vs Fulgor vs Baby Extreme
2) Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown vs Chik Tormenta, Látigo, Toxin
3) Mr. Iguana vs Puma King
Guest referee La Hiedra
4) Dalys, Jack Cartwheel, Negro Casas vs Argenis, Dinámico, Toscano
5) Dralistico, Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid vs Antifaz del Norte, Flamita, Gringo Loco
6) Daga, Damián 666, Pentagón Jr. vs Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernético, Taurus
This is the last TV taping before TripleMania. I think AAA is airing TripleMania live and this taping will air out of order around May 6th and 13th, but not sure.
No one expects Daga actually to be in the main event – he should still be out with a knee injury – but AAA’s kept him listed on the show all along. Likewise, Toxin is not wrestling due to injury but AAA hasn’t replaced him. Maybe it’s possible for Dralistico to get from Rhode Island to San Luis Potosi, maybe AAA and Dralistico have actually worked it out, but that will be a hard trip. The local promoter did post Dralistico promos and Dralistico is still mentioning the AAA TV on Instagram.
Antifaz wrestling in his mask on a show airing after TripleMania may end up confusing but I don’t think that bothers AAA much. AAA was good about having one designated “good match” on their shows in 2022, which hasn’t worked out on the last few tapings. That semi-main is supposed to be in here, but Antifaz hasn’t seemed like he can go on the level of the other guys so far. This card is going to change so it’s not worth thinking about it.
AAA also has a spot show in Acapulco, which they’ve been promoting on social media more than most spot shows. It’s the same building as Noche de Campeones. That show did not draw well and there’s no reason to suspect this will do much better. It’s a big feather in Alberto’s cap if it does fine. Interestingly, AAA’s updated the poster for this show, with Parka Negra, Emperador Azteca, Baby Xtreme, and Villano III Jr. all being removed. (Cuatrero may have also been booked for this show at one point.) Mascara de Bronce (under that name) has been added and there’s a mystery mini spot in the opener. Maybe some of those names are being used as replacements on the TV taping but that is the thing – AAA found it important enough to release a corrected lineup for the non-TV show in Acapulco, but has continued to promote an in correct lineup for the TV taping in San Luis Potosi on the same day. Their local Acapulco partners may require a correct lineup because it’s unlike AAA to bother doing that on their own.
AAA’s picked up a new TV deal with a familiar name. Claro Sports says they’ll start airing AAA tonight, and every Friday night going forward at 10 pm local. It’ll air both on ClaroSports cable channel and their (usually geo-blocked) internet stream. AAA will continue to air on Space, Azteca, Multimedios and Space; this is just another option. Claro has been promoting this on their own broadcasts for a few days; I just heard about it on Thursday.
Claro is not airing live AAA TV tapings at this time. The article left it a little bit confusing, but this is just the same TV show that airs on Space (and Azteca and Multimedios.)
AAA on Space starts airing the Lucha Libre World Cup this week. Not sure which matches air first. I’ll keep an eye on it in case they add any new content in addition to what aired on FITE, but I’m not expecting much.
I actually made a list of stuff I need to catch up on and remembered I never watched part one of Rey de Reyes. I only saw bits and pieces of it that week. Komander vs Abismo Negro Jr. vs Bandido vs Psycho Clown was really good; lots of action, everyone worked off each other well, I wanted to see more Abismo Negro Jr. in those types of matches. The effort was there in all of those matches, that just was the one that was best at overcoming the library-like atmosphere for me.
IWRG
IWRG posted a new Retro episode last night:
- 2007-10-11: Freelance and Tortuguillos Ninja I y II vs Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro and Oficial 911
- 2005-04-07: La Corporación (Black Tiger, Pentagon Black, Dr. Cerebro, Cerebro Negro, Veneno, Scorpio Jr. and Pantera) vs Negro Casas, Felino, Heavy Metal, Matrix, Black Dragon, Mike Segura and Fantasma Jr.
Neither match was previously on YouTube.
There is a non-IWRG Arena Naucalpan show tonight.
AAA , ROSALES (FRI) 04/07/2023 Arena Naucalpan
1) Galio, Golden Jacket, Kingoo vs Hellboy, Noisy Boy, Rey Halcón
2) Astuto, Hijo De Dos Caras, Niño Hamburguesa vs Kuukai, Nishikawa, Tiago
3) Lady Shani & Octagón Jr. vs Joe Lider & La Hiedra and Dark Scoria & Sexy Star
4) Daimo vs Hijo Del Vikingo, Taurus, Astor
5) Alberto el Patrón, Dizzy, Murder Clown vs Abismo Negro Jr., Charly Manson, Parka Negra
Not sure if Mas Lucha is streaming this, but it’ll likely turn up on fancams this weekend.
Other News
LuchaWorld has the latest Poster-Mania.
Mas Lucha starts their Torneo Suicida Sunday night. This show will stream on their YouTube channel for free and includes just the tournament’s first round. (The later rounds will air on future shows.) I assume Mas Lucha will be airing both this and IWRG at the same time.
La Noticia has an interview with Metalik (Mascara Dorada), who says he got into Arena Mexico originally from a 20-25 wrestler tryout. He feels Lucha House Party was always more popular than they were pushed and complains their fans could never find merchandise to buy. He’s still thankful to WWE, because he wouldn’t be living in the US without them. His focus is on continuing to wrestle in the US. It reads like he’s working for AEW/ROH on a per-night deal.
Box y Lucha has a bio of Dulce Tormenta, which would’ve been more useful a week ago.
Box y Lucha also put up a new group of 1971 digital issues. They just put up the last one a week and half ago, after none for months. I haven’t even gotten through that one yet. (I haven’t gotten through in part because the first issue has EMLL lineups and results that directly conflict with lineups and results we already have and I haven’t figure out how to handle it yet.) I will of course be buying this immediately anyway.
I will now tell you an unsurprising story: I was hanging around the Ukrainian Cultural Center after the Wrld on Lucha, waiting for people to be ready to go. It wasn’t people who were on the show. There were also some luchadors still there and other people from GCW. I could’ve mingled to make connections, I could’ve asked some questions to get some scoops for later, or just generally gotten some insight from people who are smarter about many things than me. I instead stood quietly near various walls, looking down at my phone through that previous batch of 1970s Box y Luchas for cool stuff, some of which I posted on Twitter dot com. I’m terrible at this parts of this gig that people actually care about.
GCW is bringing Hijo del Vikingo back for their 05/26 show in Las Vegas. That’s AEW Double or Nothing weekend.
The latest Lucha Memes and Zona 23 shows have gone up on IWTV.