El Hijo del Santo retirement plans, CMLL results, AAA title change

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 05/13/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Porra Fresa, thecubsfan]
1) Amnesia & Blue Shark b Dreyko & Sombra Dibaolika
2) Meyer, Novato, Xelhua b El Perverso, Enfermero Jr., Sangre Imperial
CMLL didn’t post results.
3) La Catalina, La Enigmática, Skadi b Lady Amazona, Mayahuel, Reina Isis 
14:22. Reina Isis replaced Zeuxis on Monday afternoon.
4) Fugaz, Guerrero Maya Jr., Star Black b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora 
14:39.
5) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Volador Jr. b Máscara Dorada, Stigma, Templario [Relevos Increíbles] 
14:29. Stigma took out Dorada with a dive by mistake, setting up the Depredadores win

The women’s match had plenty of issues, some of it with execution and some with just thought. Catalina and Isis did a third fall sequence where Catalina connected on her pedigree, to set Isis reversing a corner whip to Catalina could escape, to set up them both running the ropes the normal direction, to set up a clothesline (that didn’t connect.) The order of moves made no sense. The other two streamed matches were fine, nothing special. It did strike me that Fugaz has gotten passed up a lot, not that he’s much worse than before but he was briefly the exciting guy and there’s a lot more exciting people than him.

CMLL (TUE) 05/14/2024 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports]
1) Leono & Robin b Dragón de Fuego & Inquisidor 
2) Alom, Infarto, Persa b El Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. 
3) Futuro, Max Star, Neón b Crixus, Difunto, Vegas 
4) Flip Gordon b Esfinge [lightning] 
7:17. Flip won, though he was selling the back injury from Friday and got stretchered out again.
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible © b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther [CMLL TRIOS] 
3rd defense
6) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto DQ Atlantis Jr., Máscara Dorada, Místico
Euforia tossed his mask to Atlantis Jr. draw the DQ.

Didn’t see it. Heard match three was good and the title match wasn’t much. Atlantis Jr. versus Euforia in coming for next week.

CMLL (TUE) 05/14/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Canalla, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel b Destructor, Jabalí, Rumbero 
2) Cris Skin, Draego, Prince Drago b Fúnebre, Mortiz, Ponzoña Jr. 
3) Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga b Leo, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. 
4) Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno b Exterminador, Javier Cruz Jr., Maléfico 
5) Atlantis & Panterita del Ring DQ Rey Bucanero & Satánico 
Straight falls. Bucanero & Satanico unmasked Atlantis & Panterita del Ring in the 2nd.
6) Hechicero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero b Fugaz, Star Black, Star Jr. 

I did catch all of Sunday’s show through mysterious means. Nothing you need to see there when it turns up on the AMX stream in a couple of weeks. (Has anyone besides me watched that stream in the last year?) The main event was professional. The Villanos had a dozen ideas in their match and didn’t hit on them all; they’re at least trying.

Friday’s lineup:

CMLL (FRI) 05/17/2024 Arena México
1) Átomo, Chamuel, Kemalito vs Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II, Tengu
2) La Catalina, Lluvia, Sanely vs Persephone, Reyna Isis, Zeuxis
3) Blue Panther & Hijo de Blue Panther vs Hijo de Stuka Jr. & Stuka Jr.
4) Star Black © vs Akuma [MEX HEAVY]
2nd defense
5) Volador Jr. vs Soberano Jr., Star Jr., Averno, Hijo de Octagón, Niebla Roja, Dragón Rojo Jr., Guerrero Maya Jr., Villano III Jr., Brillante Jr. [Copa Junior VIP, semifinal]

Informa will have the second group of Copa Junior VIP participants.

There’s also a lineup for the Alto Voltaje show in Arena Monterrey.

CMLL (MON) 05/20/2024 Arena Puebla
1) KeMaltio & Tengu vs Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Rey Samuray vs Crixus, Difunto, Raider
3) Tessa Blanchard vs Zeuxis
4) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Star Black vs Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
5) Fugaz, Star Jr., Valiente vs Hijo de Stuka Jr., Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr.
6) Esfinge, Flip Gordon, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

Blanchard is back; CMLL leaving her off the stream seems unlike them. Raider hasn’t been around in a month and that’s the Occidente Trios team.

Opener is KeMalito’s Puebla debut.

CMLL , Alto Voltaje (SUN) 06/16/2024 Arena Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Ángel de Oro & Atlantis vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.
2) Magnus vs Espanto Jr.
3) Bárbaro Cavernario & Soberano Jr. vs Futuro & Neón
4) Máscara Dorada, Templario, Volador Jr. vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
5) Stephanie Vaquer vs La Catalina [Alto Voltaje WOMEN]
6) Flip Gordon vs Hechicero [Alto Voltaje CHAMP]

Tickets aren’t on sale yet, though the promoter says they’ll be from 400 to 1100. Note that the 400 price is about the same as WWE’s cheapest tickets for their stop here a month later. (WWE’s high end is much higher though.) Robles Promotion is running the same day as Alto Voltaje in Arena Jose Suliaman with Penta, Samuray del Sol, Metalik and others; their tickets are 100 to 800 pesos. There’s a good chance they’ll out draw the CMLL show.

The lineup is bizarre, like someone got a list of tecnico and rudo names from CMLL but can’t figure out who normal wrestles who. I think I would like to see Flip Gordon and Hechicero wrestle a singles match, but I would not put them in a main event singles of a 16K seat building if I wanted to do well. The announcement of an unknown promoter announcing they’ve going to make title matches is always the biggest red flag they have no idea what they’re doing. What sells tickets are good experiences and hot feuds, and only the Vaquer/Catalina match comes close to meeting one of those. Wait for the inevitable 2×1 sale to buy tickets I suppose.

RIOT announced Stephanie Vaquer will no longer appear on its June 15th Padrisisisimo show. The story, as I’ve heard from RIOT, is they booked her and other yet-to-be announced CMLL wrestlers through CMLL itself. (The “Padrisisisimo” name was a reference to the famous CMLL/AAA show; this was going to be a CMLL/RIOT copromotion.) About a day after RIOT announced Vaquer, CMLL decided they would no longer allow her to work the show.

What I think happened is CMLL people approved the Vaquer booking, publicity went out, people higher up in the CMLL food chain noticed the publicity, those people only knew RIOT as “that place where someone died recently” and put a stop to it. That is a pattern with some of CMLL’s recent issues, including the visa issues – there’s people doing the day to day work, and there’s other people above them who either haven’t communicated well how they want work to be done, or aren’t paying attention to what’s going on until it gets brought to their attention. The easier example came on a Misterioso Jr. CMLL exit podcast; he mentions getting suspended for being overweight by Salvador Lutteroth Lomeli, but it’s not like showed up to work one day forty pounds heavier. He’d been that way for months; he got suspended because Lutteroth happened to be paying attention to the matches that day. CMLL’s well within their rights to decide RIOT isn’t a place they want to send their wrestlers to right now, but that’s something that should’ve been decided on the first contact, and not something changed after the fact.

Titan defeated NOAH’s HAYATO earlier this morning to move to 3-0 in the NJPW Best of Super Juniors. He’s not going 9 and 0; some losses are coming. Titan’s next tournament match is against Blake Christian on Friday.

El Hijo del Santo

El Hijo del Santo informed the press he’ll have a press conference next Tuesday to announce a retirement tour. Proceso has more details on the plans: nine Mexico shows produced by Bobo Producciones, cities to be announced, and tickets to go on sale on May 22nd. There’s a mention of plans to run in US and Canada but those seem less definite. There was also a York Hall UK poster floating around on social media with Santo earlier this month, though I don’t think he’d officially mentioned it yet. It’ll surely come up here.

El Hijo del Santo’s retirement is not a surprise. He’s been carefully picking and choosing dates for the last few years and had talked about finishing up soon. El Hijo del Santo is 61; he lasted near his peak for a long time, but he (and many of his peers) seem to have reached a point where it’s hard and rare for them to wrestle even close to their peak. El Hijo del Santo could easily stick around forever unconcerned about his performance, like a Canek or a Mil Mascaras, but he’s always seemed set on wanting people to remember him a certain way. It’s time.

A nine show (at least) tour is still ambitious. Bobo seems to specialize in nostalgic music acts, so maybe they’ll be a good group to capture the spirit of a farewell tour even if they don’t necessarily have the wrestling knowledge. The release to the media uses the Todo x el Todo name and I’d expect the usual group of names to work those shows. Hijo de Fishman has a busy next few months.

The two big questions that’ll be asked during the press conference will be if anyone else will carry on the Santo name, and if he’ll work with anyone broken up with. I’d love to see El Hijo del Santo back in Arena Mexico one last time or to team with Negro Casas once, but both are very unlikely. Santo’s son briefly wrestled as Santo Jr. but hasn’t been back in a few years; it’s always possible he’ll wrestle one last time with his father during this tour but it seems unlikely he’ll ever become a regular. There will always be people (CMLL’s Diamond) who will try to evoke the memories of El Santo but it’s more possible than not that the El Hijo del Santo’s retirement is the last time we see that name officially carried by a member of that family.

(I would expect AEW will have some interest in finding a way to bring in Santo before he goes – a tag team match with Bandido as partner would work given their history together – though they should be sure not to accidentally annoy CMLL in the process.)

AAA

AAA turned 32 today. The family graphic is worth browsing though to figure out who’s still there and who’s not there, because it’s the closest AAA will get to releasing an active roster. I spot Drago but not Drago Kid. Kento and Takuma made the cut even without making TV much.

Some clean up from Saturday’s TV taping

• That Vipers/Secta match turns out to be a title match. Maybe it’ll be clearer on TV, but it reads like AAA declared the titles were vacant after Toxin quit and the Abismo/Psicosis/Fiscal trios are new champion. That’s an extra reign for the first two.
• AAA changes lots of wrestlers names as they debut so they can clearly own the name. That may be part of the reason “Noisy Boy” was “Noisy”, but told Mas Lucha he wanted to drop the “Boy” himself. He’s not a kid any more and presumably didn’t want to get stuck in a Laredo Kid situation. (This may also means he’s in store for another name change if AAA uses him again.)

Other Notes

The Cirujano Jr. who lost his mask on the Mas Lucha show Sunday is the former Vamprio Metalico.

Un Mexico Perro, a 2021 documentary about Perro Aguayo that’s been shown at film festivals but hasn’t been made widely available, will be available on Record+. Record+ is their YouTube channel if I understand correctly; it’s not up yet.

There’s reporting saying “Sexy Dulce is now using the name Sexy Xtar”, but I think that’s just a goofy name she’s using for Juventud Guerrera’s Supex show on 05/17. All the “Super X” gimmicks are names with X replacing a normal letter, and those wrestlers don’t use those names outside of the (rarely run) Super X shows.

Box y Lucha 3603 has a lot of MLW stories.

Nuevo Leon turned 200 as a state on May 7th, and the government decided to honor 15 illustrious people in the state’s history. One of those fiffteen was Blue Demon. Blue demon Jr.. accepted on his behalf.

A profile of luchadora Toxic Woman.

An article on Wisin el Dog.

An interview with Brandon Storm, a luchador from Morelia.