Dorada/Atlantis Jr./Mistico tonight, Dos Caras, Elite

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/19/2024 Arena México
1) Galaxy & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Legendario vs Vegas [lightning]
3) La Catalina, Lluvia, Marcela vs Persephone, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Titán vs Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr., Zandokan Jr.
5) Ángel de Oro, Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto, Templario
6) Místico vs Máscara Dorada vs Atlantis Jr. [Copa Universal, semifinal]

Mistico has the best built in story to advance to the final (rematch with Titan, family history with Magnus), Mascara Dorada doesn’t lose big matches, and the people who hate Atlantis are sure he’s going to win this match too. I don’t know which way that main event will go, and I really want to find out. I wouldn’t put money on any outcome but my guess is Mascara Dorada is pulling this one off.

Atlantis Jr., talking about those boos, says he’s fine with any reaction as long as the fans are reacting to him. The boos just make him bigger.

There’s nothing else of intrigue here, though the rest could be good. Match four looks like the best of the rest. Galaxy seems talented when he gets chances to do things, and so he might go all in that Friday opener.

Like the last four way apuesta match, there’s been remarkably little with Virus versus Dulce Gardenia vs Disturbio vs Akuma since that match was announced, and none of it on the Friday shows.

CMLL (SAT) 04/20/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Emperador & Platino Kid vs Hunter & Infarto
2) Legendario, Leono, Retro vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Astral, Diamond, Robin vs Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
5) Fugaz, Panterita del Ring, Volcano vs Kráneo, Niebla Roja, Rey Bucanero
6) Atlantis, Star Jr., Valiente vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Volador Jr.

Ola Negra/Dulce Atrapsuenos do meet here. What possibly will go wrong in match 2?

CMLL (SUN) 04/21/2024 Arena México
1) Kaligua & Pequeño Magía vs Pequeño Polvora & Pequeño Violencia
2) Capitán Suicida, Eléctrico, Valiente Jr. vs Forneo, Inquisidor, Sangre Imperial
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Sagrado
4) Kira, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard vs Dark Silueta, Lluvia, Zeuxis [Relevos Increíbles]
Kira is the new name for Andrómeda
5) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Máscara Dorada
6) Ángel de Oro, Místico, Templario vs Averno, Flip Gordon, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

Dorada/Cavernario was great back in January (and supposedly great in December, didn’t see it.)

Andromeda announced she was changing her name to Kira on this week’s Informa. The story she gave is she had two picks for names when she got into wrestling, Estrellita Lagunera and Kira, and she really wanted to use that second one, and CMLL agreed. It came off as if it was part of the story, but not the whole story. CMLL’s typically not going to change the name of someone who’s already been wrestling and a champion in their promotion. CMLL has, in recent years, attempted to trademark the names of any new stars. They filed for the Andromeda trademark back in October and haven’t gotten it, so maybe there was an issue there.

Xelhua is one of the more reactive CMLL luchadors on social media. (If you use his name in a tweet, he will see it.) He post video too and has gotten attention for a recent one – about a fan who saved him from colliding head first into a chair at a recent Arena Coliseo show.

AEW announced they hired Carlos Cabrera for their announce team. He’s worked some AAA major shows since leaving WWE, though not in the last year. Tony Khan talked about this in an answer that I felt way way too long in the middle of transcribing it. Perhaps that was my problem. Deep inside there, I found it interesting that he talked about wanting to work with CMLL more in the US, in Mexico, and “internationally.” I guess internationally could just mean Canada. Khan also earlier mentioning wanting to take AEW to international markets where they had strong TV. That means no to Mexico, but maybe to Germany or Australia or France. Internationally, to me and usually to AEW, means the All In show in Wembley Stadium. Is a CMLL wrestler going to wrestle in front of 40,000 people this year? Maybe.

05/11 MLW

• Mistico vs Barbaro Cavernario for the MLW Middleweight championship
• Ultimo Guerrero vs Atlantis Jr.
• Star Jr. & Fuego vs Averno & Magnus – new

Virus vs Star Jr. will air on MLW’s War Chamber II this Saturday.

A 60 year old man died Thursday morning outside of Arena Puebla, the victim of a hit and run. The driver tried to escape but was detained. This is unrelated to wrestling beyond the location.

AAA

AAA should have part two of the Mexico City taping. I’m guessing it’ll three of these four

• Adelicious, Belcegor, Taurus vs Colmillo de Plata, Garra de Oro, Reina Dorada
• Faby Apache, La Parkita, Mr. Iguana, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Bengala, Dals, Jessy Queen, Parkita Negra
• Charly Manson & Nygma vs Oscar Sevilla & Super Calo
• Laredo Kid vs Octagon Jr. vs Aerostar

I’m guessing just three so they can bring back the other match in the upcoming weeks to fill out a TripleMania Monterrey show.

WON’s recap of the Latin Lover comments doesn’t have any more clarity on Konnan’s situation but does mentions AAA wants Latin Lover in a public role to play into the current nostalgia angle. That makes me think Latin Lover’s “creative director” position could just be an on screen matchmaker/authority figure. That is also Konnan’s current role, but surely one he’d be more happy to give up than the actual booking. It’s also easy to get from “on screen match maker” to “one last match at Mexico City”, which presumably is the end goal for both AAA and Latin Lover. It also takes some heat off AAA and Konnan, because seeing Latin Lover making decisions will convince enough people that he’s the one running the show; doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Something like that makes the most sense to me out of all of this; I can’t imagine Latin Lover taking over AAA creative outside of giving some high level ideas.

Cibernetico (and Cuervo and Dave the Clown) attacked Vampiro on TV Azteca’s Venga la Alegria talk show, to build interest in TripleMania.

Laredo Kid wrestles Crazy Steve for the TNA Digital Media championship on the Countdown To Rebellion show; I think Laredo has a shot – the pre-shows are where he’s more dangerous.

Dos Caras responded to violence accusations in a statement posted on social media. He said the woman had been threatening and harrasing his family for three months and he had filed criminal complaints about her in March. Dos Caras says he met with the police about her charges on April 15th, before the story ran, and said her case had no truth – the attacks were made up, and the claims were defamation. He offered to show the media any proof they needed of his innocence, as long as it didn’t interrupt the investigation.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 04/18/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Príncipe Centauro & Rey Espartano b Ajolotl & Golden Power
2) Diosa Quetzal & Puma de Oro b Shamila & Tornado
3) Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Lolita
random match that just happened to pit husband versus wife
4) Arez, Látigo, Toxin b Águila Roja, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly
Arez threw liquid in Noisy’s eyes to pin him. Arez challenged Noisy Boy to a match – but Arez wanted a three falls stip (one fall classic, one fall Noisy style, one fall extreme.) Noisy accepted.
5) Hell Boy b Vangellys [super libre]
Hell Boy defeated Vangellys despite Ivan Rokov trying to interfere. Challenges followed.

Mala Fama versus Mexa Boys was a slow building match focusing on tecnico/rudo more than big moves. It held together better than most IWRG matches but wasn’t too exciting – it’s tough to be exciting on a Thursday night in Arena Naucalpan.

IWRG (SUN) 04/21/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Príncipe Centuro vs Sacro, Dracula Ng, Golden Power, Arceus [IWRG IC Light, #1 Contenders]
2) Bengalee, Keyra, Shamila vs Danessa, Lolita, Sagitarius
3) Hell Boy vs Puma de Oro, Tornado, Cerebro Negro Jr., Multifacetico Jr., Noisy Boy, Rey Halcón, Águila Roja [cage, loser advances]
4) Veneno vs Cerebro Negro, Black Terry, X-Fly, Tony Rivera, Apolo Estrada Jr., Axel, Bombero Infernal [cage, loser advances]
5) ? vs ?? [cage, hair, mask]
6) Hijo de Canis Lupus © vs DMT Azul [RGR HEAVY]

Guera de Golfo has one cage match of young wrestlers, one cage match of old wrestlers, and a finial that’s probably one of the old wrestlers losing their hair.

ELITE

This is Sunday

Elite (SUN) 04/21/2024 Frontón México, Cuauhtémoc, Distrito Federal
1) Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo De Oro Jr. vs Difunto, Rokambole, Villano V Jr.
2) Arez, Látigo, Toxin vs Bestia 666, Dr. Karonte Jr., Verdugo
3) Dios del Inframundo, Rey Horuz, Xtreme Tiger vs Mocho Cota, Súper Fly, Tito Santana
4) Black Beast & DMT Azul vs Forastero (NGD) & Sansón
5) Komander vs Dralistico vs Metalik
6) Rush vs LA Park

Elite’s pushed out a lot of media to remind people this show is happening. It hasn’t really worked. Tickets haven’t moved much since the day they went on sale, even with a 2×1 sale for the last week. They seem under 50% capacity, and that’s with a couple big chunks never put on sale (possibly saved for a party bus deal they’ve during.) It’s sold enough that it won’t look terrible on video and they can always find ways of getting more people in at low price. It still appears to be a big loser – but that’s been the case for most of Lucha Libre Elite’s existence. The promotion is built around people having good will for prior versions of this show, and the public seems not to have that fondness. These ticket sales would come close to filling out an Arena Lopez Mateos or Arena Neza show (half the size of this building) and that’s about the limit to this interest. Elite had previously stat

This turnout does say something about the diminished magic of Rush versus LA Park. That success has often been more critical than economic – like I went over a few months ago, a lot of the past fabeled Rush/LA Park matches took places in promotions that didn’t survive much longer. These guys can still draw at times, LA Park still does well on some ‘provincial’ shows (and never misses a chance to let people know on social media.) Still, this feud is as cold as it’s been each for a while. All the stuff around last year’s TripleMania event, and that match being a complete disappointment, seems like it’s hurt this feud. Maybe it’ll motivate Park & Rush to pour gas back on it with a hot match on this show, who knows. Rush also seems to be on the outside looking in on AEW at the moment, and has been consisently looking for attention.

Elite’s been advertising a lot of people who aren’t listed on this card, so expect many more matches. There’s been no talk about video distribution of this show, which likely means all your favorite YouTubers will have it. Mexican wrestling companies have frequently either not streamed shows or kept it quiet what they’re doing to avoid hurting ticket sales. Ticket sales were bad enough here that I don’t think it would’ve hurt, and streaming sometimes makes these shows feel more important to go to.

Site Note

I’m going on a road trip this weekend – to AEW Collision in Peoria on Saturday and then AEW Dynasty in St. Louis on Sunday. My theory is Bryan Danielson is a pretty good professional wrestler who I like and, on the odd chance he really is retiring soon, it’s worth making the trip for one of his matches if it’s driving distance. Even if that distance is about five hours.

I’m trying to give myself permission not to do a news update on Monday; I find it tough to write while driving. You may not see any new content here until Wednesday. If you do spot someone sitting in a park in the greater St. Louis area forcing himself to write a TripleMania preview, take some pity on me.

I’ve been thinking about taking Twitter off my devices for the weekend, maybe posting on Instagram and/or bluesky for a few days if I do anything at all. Not sure if I’ll hold myself to it.

Other Notes

The Crash was messing around with streaming on YouTube Thursday night, so their show on Saturday seems likely to air live. Pagano, Mecha Wolf and Rey Horus face Bestia, D-Luxe, and Rey Escorpion in the main event.

Diosa Nix, India Mazahua and Mary Caporal are officially Las del Rancho. The history here is Capo del Norte and Capo del Sur existed under those names, someone with Los Dinamitas must’ve objected, and so they’ve been wrestling as variations of El del Norte and El del Sur. Their Los del Rancho team include other cowboy criminal themed gimmick like Pistolero Negro. Mary Caporal is a cowgirl character but India Mazahua and Diosa Nix are definitely not – it’s good comedy (to me) to see them wearing the cowboy hats.

RIOT announced they’ll return on June 15th. This will be their first show since Rey Destroller’s passing.

Julio Cesar Chavez filmed a video with Shocker.