CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/05/2024 Arena México [AS, CMLL, Esquina Caliente, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Fuego en el Ring, Heraldo de Mexico, Kaiser Sports, Publimetro, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan, Vanguardia]
1) Rayo Metálico b Dragón de Fuego   
8:30
2) Crixus, Okumura, Vegas b Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr.   
11:35
3) Magnus b Star Black, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca, Futuro, Rugido, Disturbio, Cholo, Apocalipsis [CMLL Universal, semifinal]  
26:45. Order of elimination: Apocalipsis (via Magia Blanca), Guerrero Maya (Rugido), Futuro (Cholo), Disturbio (medical elimination; hit head on apron on dive), Futuro (Esfinge), Star Black (Magnus), Magia Blanca (Rugido), Rugido (Esfinge), Esfinge (Magnus) leaving Magnus as the winner. He advances to the final on 04/26.
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Volador Jr. b Averno, Rocky Romero, Templario 
11:36. Added on Monday.
5) Bryan Danielson b Blue Panther [submission]   
25:37. One fall, must win by submission. Panther got Danielson in the fujiwara but Danielson was under the ropes. Danielson submitted Panther after. Panther asked for a rematch in the US, Danielson agreed and called Panther his idol. He also thanked the fans of Arena Mexico.

Danielson/Panther was everything it was hoped to be and more. Panther is an old man, in a way that played into the story, but Panther was able to keep up. Danielson was Danielson, as perfect for this style of wrestling as he is for pretty much any style. He was visibly enjoying every second of this while still taking the match as serious as everyone wanted it to be. The Arena Mexico crowd admired Danielson and never cheered against him, but strongly rooted for Panther to get the incredible win. The time flew by; they didn’t need to go longer than they did but no one would’ve minded much. The ending came quick, but that was a bit of the story – it just took one lapse of attention to cost it at all. The post match show of respect felt real and emotional. There will be matches people will give higher Star Ratings too, and understandably so, but no match will best Danielson/Panther in accomplishing what it set out do. This was a perfect match.

Bryan Danielson, speaking after the match, revealed he’d flown into Mexico on Thursday. He was impressed with Hechicero after wrestling him in AEW, and decided to train with him to prepare for the Blue Panther match. Danielson would love to wrestle Hechicero in Arena Mexico and Danielson also mentioned Mascara Dorada and Mistico mask versus hair – somewhat joking-  as possible matches. (Mistico liked that idea.) He hoped he would return. Danielson also was hopeful, if not definite, that the Danielson/Panther match would happen again in AEW. He wished that all the American fans would see the match and encourage AEW to book it.

There were other matches on this show too! The semimain was an easy trios match you can probably figure out in your head. Match 2 was fine enough. Match 1 was young guys doing all the same moves everyone else does but doing them reasonably well.

The Universal tournament block had the only other drama, and a puzzle to figure out. Disturbio landed head first on the apron on a dive. Star Black, standing on that apron, seemed to think it was a fake out dive and that he was supposed to kick Disturbio on the way over to send him bumping back towards the center of the ring. Disturbio seemed to think it was a real dive, and Esfinge (the target) seemed to as well. Disturbio didn’t have much on his leap and erroneously hit the top rope with his midsection before Star Black kick even connected. It’s up to interpretation if Star Black’s movement threw Disturbio off enough to mess up the dive prior to the kick. In true lucha libre fashion, the best place to see this is Disturbio’s Instagram. He also indicated he’d be wrestling as scheduled Tuesday.

That injury threw off the middle of the match. The end of the match lined up as all three Depredadores against Esfinge for a moment, then Esfinge survived two of them and seemed sure to advance. Magnus getting the big win was a surprise. I wonder if getting that AEW win and PPV appearance convinced CMLL decisions makers to do something with Magnus; other promotions have pushed people for less.

CMLL (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Forneo & Novato
11:57
2) Legendario b Xelhua [lightning]
7:26.
3) Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis b Andrómeda, La Catalina, Skadi
12:55
4) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG]
20:00. Ola Negra fall in their first defense. Villanos are the 13th modern champions.
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón b Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
12:14
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Soberano Jr. & Templario
18:22.

The 81st Arena Coliseo Anniversary bonus stream was an enjoyable show, if not a must see. The Villanos title win was the best and most memorable match; the Coliseo crowd wanted to see the Villanos crown and got their wish.

They did well, Akuma did well, I’m OK not seeing Espanto Jr. in a big match for a while.

The main event was a fun exhibition match, like the previous night’s semi-main. Legendario/Xelhua was a strong showcase for both guys. CMLL’s slow playing all the 2024 Torneo de Escuelas guys, basically roping them off into their own matches for the time being, but those two are clearly ready to be mixed in the main group. Los Calaveras are really good at what they’re doing too. I’m less sure if they’re going to get a real shot at their weight, but those guys are getting over doing prelim matches.

This looked like a second straight sell out for this building, which is rare. May not happen again for a year.

CMLL (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Robin b Diamond [lightning]
9:58, just short of the limit
2) Hera, Metálica, Persephone b La Maligna, La Vaquerita, Magia Azul
3) El Coyote, Felino Jr., Pólvora b Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma
4) Difunto, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo b Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón
Difunto replaced Gemelo Diablo I
5) Euforia & Mephisto b Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr.
Guerreros took fall 1, got DQed in the second and Infernales took the third
6) Flip Gordon, Místico, Valiente b Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja

Gemelo Diablo I is actually not back. They were still advertising him up to show time.

CMLL luchadors participated in a Luz Por La Paz ceremony in Mexico City, part of an international day for peace through sports. There was a similar moment during the Saturday Arena Coliseo show.

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena México
1) Astro Boy Jr. & Rayo Metálico vs Emperador Jr. & Platino Kid
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Micro Dito & Periquito Sacaryas
3) Lluvia, Skadi, Tabata vs Dark Silueta, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard
4) Brillante Jr., Futuro, Max Star vs Crixus, Difunto, Vegas
5) Titán vs Stuka Jr. [lightning]
6) Esfinge, Místico, Neón vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido

Neon and the Depredadores getting a rare main event, though it may only be rare for now. Titan/Stuka is a luxury VIP match. Tessa is bac after being gone for a few days. Micros get a rare match 2 and so a three fall match,. The Torneo Escuelas division is even lower on the totem pole (and pay chart presumably) than them.

CMLL (TUE) 04/09/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Obek, Último Ángel vs Eclipse Jr., Rav, Temerario
2) Adira, Dulce Kitty, Náutica vs Estrella Maldita, Sexy Sol, Valkiria
3) Adrenalina, Explosivo, Fantástico vs El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama
4) Akuma & Dulce Gardenia vs Disturbio & Virus [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. vs Furia Roja & Guerrero de la Muerte
6) Flip Gordon, Máscara Dorada, Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Templario

Puebla’s Battalion del Terror lose the Guadalajara trios titles and then return to Guadalajara a week later. I can’t figure it out. Match four is a straight preview of the four way hair match, unusual to see in another building. Match six is the team that beat Ola Negra for the Arena Coliseo tag titles versus the team that lose to Ola Negra for those same titles.

CMLL (FRI) 04/12/2024 Arena México
1) Legendario vs Forneo [lightning]
2) Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, El Hijo De Blue Panther vs Hijo de Stuka Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr.
3) Flip Gordon vs Euforia [lightning]
4) Gran Guerrero vs Averno, Templario, Titán, Stigma, Bárbaro Cavernario, Terrible, Dragón Rojo Jr., Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
CMLL champions block.
5) Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Octagón vs Hechicero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

There’s no chance this show is going to be viewed as much too and it has the handicap of Octagon in a main event, but the rest of it looks pretty good. It’s a pretty good group of names in Universal block with no sure winner. (Maybe Titan, Cavernario and Templario as the favorites?) Flip has matched up well with Euforia. The Panthers have definitely matched up well with the Villanos. Legendario/Forneo is among the best in the Torneo Escuelas division.

If you are on the CMLL 9/25 USD plans, you did not get to see H2L live. That was only for the 35 USD plan. The cheaper two plans were to get a VOD version of the CMLL show on Sunday night. As of Monday afternoon, it hasn’t gone up.  It should not be hard to get a video file up on YouTube by Sunday night, especially when a version of that show is already on that same channel. Thanks to the CMLL Informa credit screen, we can see CMLL has at least two Community Managers employed to do it. It just isn’t important enough to get done. They’ll put it up whenever. (I would also assume no bonus matches on Thursday this week since they already aired the Arena Coliseo show live.)

NJPW announced the field for their 2024 Best of Super Juniors tournament (May 11th to June 9th). Every year, I think “maybe this year they’ll again put at least two CMLL luchadors in the tournament.” They did not, as is the case most every year; 20 wrestlers and only one from Mexico. Titan is back and that’s it. It’s unlikely Titan will do as well as his runner up finish last year, but it was unlikely for him to do that well to begin with and that happened.

CMLL’s Lady Ring announced Dark Silueta and Amapola will wrestle on their 06/28 show in Tokyo. Silueta will start a tour in Japan in early May, and Amapola will head over in mid-June. I don’t understand the economics that have two women going to Lady’s Ring and one man going to NJPW.

AAA

NGD versus Psycho Clown/Negro Casas from this week’s TV should be added to the list of AAA matches actually worth watching. NGD seems like they’ll try if they believe the match is actually important. No shot at Pagano, but I think they saw it as bigger for having Negro Casas teaming with Psycho Clown; there was more creativity and they just generally worked harder. Maybe we’d feel differently about NGD’s AAA run if they were given more thing to do than “hold a title and go undefeated for a while against people who don’t matter” or maybe it’s on them to find this motivation more often. The tag format allowed Negro Casas to measure his minutes better; this is what he should be doing at this point in his career.

The other matches were inoffense and forgettable. The Vatos Locos (Hijo del Picudo, May Flowers, Nygma) version didn’t look good, and the teased feud with La Secta is not promising. Charly Manson helping these Vatos Locos and being part of the Pagano & Mecha Wolf group seemed like it was meant for all those people to be working together but I’m not confident I understand it.

Chessman says he’s aiming for Mesias and the Megachampionship. Those are good things to aim for, though it seems unlikely he’ll get either.

Dalys says her goal is for the luchadors to headline an AAA show. It seems unlikely that’ll happen in AAA any time soon. The luchadoras aren’t forgotten (that’s the minis) but they’re almost always in the first half of the card. AAA seems to view Las Toxicas as attractions but none of them as top level stars. There’s also fewer AAA TV shows, so fewer chances for anyone to main event. On the other hand, it’s a wrestling promotion, they could put the women as a main event for a TV taping if they decided they wanted to do that day. Anyway, Dalys says she’s encouraging the women to work as a team and she came to AAA to help them learn that.

Reina Dorada said she’d be willing to put her mask on the line.

Hijo del Vikingo will appear on the 04/13 AAA EMW show. I believe that’s his first post-surgery appearance. That EMW show has a lot of people announced but only one match advertised a few days out.

SI has a story about WWE’s Nick Khan, talking up what he’s done for their business.  It’s a very complimentary article There’s a paragraph in there discussing Khan opening the door to working with other promotions, bringing up the the TNA women’s champion showing up in Royal Rumble this year. I don’t have any news and I’m not meant to be hinting at things, but I think that’s worth keeping that story in mind when it comes to AAA this year. It sure seemed like there was AAA interest in working with WWE around the time of Dragon Lee’s departure, where AAA risked their AEW relationship in hopes of getting a WWE. It both ended in the worse possible outcome but that wouldn’t stop them from trying again, in the usual fashion. Things have also obviously changed with WWE since that time. Any sort of WWE connection would be a boon to AAA (extra star power for TripleManias, AAA marketing itself to young wrestlers as a place that can get them on a path to WWE) that I’d guess they’d jump at it if offered. I’m not sure that would be a great long term idea for AAA but it AAA so you can’t rule it out. Again, there’s no news here, but just something to think about.

IWRG

IWRG , LLB (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena Naucalpan [La Tijera]
1) Macho I, Macho II, Macho III b Argus, Demencia, Rocky Bulldog 
2) Príncipe Centauro b Hijo De Sparta, Gravedad Cero, New Level, The Crow, Corazón Guerrero, Sparta, Karma I, Súper Pinochito 
3) Águila Oriental, Noisy Boy, Spider Fly b Cometa, Sol, X-Devil 
4) Águila Roja, Fandango, Hellboy, Puma de Oro b Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Lunatik Xtreme, Súper Boy, Toto 
5) La Catalina & Mary Caporal b Reina Isis & Shamila 
6) Hell Boy © b Ivan Rokov [AIWF LA] 
Surprise match. Hell Boy won the title back.
7) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Soberano Jr. & Templario 

This appeared to be the usual sell out for bringing in big names to this arena. I watched the main event: Soberano and Templario unsurprisingly work really well as rudos in this environment. The top rope was looser than they’d wanted – you could spot the other guys grabbing it hard to keep it tight at key moments. Otherwise, it was like 80% of what you could see on the CMLL subscription shows without having to pay anything.

IWRG aired a vignette clarifying that the former Dr. Cerebro Jr. is now Multifacetico Jr. Fans had figured it out, but it’s rare they’ll acknowledge a gimmick change like that.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal [thecubsfan]
1) Argus & Gaius b Cósmico & Nordico 
12:19
2) Avisman & Golden b El Potro de Oro & Platino 
18:45. Potro replaced Skayde (double booked in Chicago.)
3) Big Tao Tao & Bogdan Klimov b M2R & Mr. Win and Alas de Acero & Iron Kid 
14:26. Tirano replaced M2R.
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo b Latino, Rey Espartano, Ryu 
20:48. Other members of the Lucha Memes team attached Delta Force after the match, with Flamita & Marvin eventually making the save to lead into the main event.
5) Flamita & Ricky Marvin b Aero Boy & Golden 
15:46. Flamita buried Tonalli for not appearing (double booked in Arena San Juan) and challenged Golden to take his place. Flamita reversed a Doomsday Device into a Spanish Fly on Aeroboy for the win, though both teams fought more after.

This was a Big Lucha versus Lucha Memes show, and one that worked out well. This was a group of the Lucha Memes guys who do more of Big Lucha’s style – missing the guys more likely just to punch people in the nose – and they were all working hard like it meant something to them to make an impression here. The Big Lucha guys co-operated with them, and it made for good if sometimes overindulgent matches. The newer names came off as acceptable wrestlers at this level, which may sound like faint praise but hasn’t been a guarantee for people coming into this promotion from elsewhere. There were the usual problems of every match going longer than it need to, though it’s possible this time they were fruitlessly stalling for Tonalli to make it over from his other booking. I would’ve liked to see Tonalli in this environment, but I liked what Golden brought in both matches. Iron Kid looked good too, and I wish he was around more in promotions I make an effort to watch. (Alas de Acero did not fare as well.) The end of the show sort of teased the idea of the Big Lucha guys going to Coliseo Coacalco for the reverse fixture, which would probably be a good experience.

Production on this show was weird, as if the person usually in charge wasn’t there and no one else knew what to do. (I don’t know that happened, that’s just what it felt like.) The first two matches were just from the hard cam. The floor camera operators were there, their video just wasn’t being used. It seemed like someone tried to figure it on the third match. The video switched to logo screen for a minute during the match, later they kept fading in and out – and they eventually got it, being able to switch video feeds. Completely normal. And then they went back to just the hard camera for match four and five. So weird. The sound was also messed up in the opener, so the crowd was loud and the announcers barely audible. It was the least produced show possible – and that was actually so much better than the over produced shows most groups do. I’ll take zero camera cuts over random camera cuts every two seconds, I’d definitely be fine with a single camera and crowd noise over a flickering black screen and inaudible reactions. Might not be in the majority on all of that, though.

Other News

Black Taurus re-debuted in Ring of Honor as The Beast Mortos on Friday’s Supercard of Honor pre-show. That was the person I was expecting to show up. He’s expected to use that name everywhere going forward, US and Mexico. (I’m sure it’ll take Mexican promotions a year or so to catch up, and they’ll try lots of spellings of “Mortos”.) It’s a modified mask and name,, though familiar enough that most seemed to know who it was. The ROH announcers referenced that we had seen The Beast Mortos before but seemed very careful never to say the words “Black Taurus” – they treated it like was a WWE gimmick that might get in trouble for saying. That’s another sign of the state of relationship with AAA right now.

The Beast Mortos defeated Blake Christian in what was a good competitive match, but not something the commanding win you’d expect for someone making a (re-)debut. The post match hinted at something with Komander; the announcers thought maybe he and Mortos would team. It’s Komander and Mortos, so I assume they’ll instead end up fighting.

I watched so much stuff this weekend that I’m having trouble putting it all together. I did want to mention going back to watch Action Wrestling’s Dean.

The Demus/Mad Dog chain match every bit did it what it accomplished to do; it was just missing the dirt and floor from Coliseo Coacalco. It was hard hitting, intense, and just violent feeling. Dr. Cerebro and Gringo Loco didn’t quite hit those heights (they were very heights), but it was also really good and I think more than most would’ve thought to expect out of Dr. Cerbero in a US match. He went for it, and I’m not sure if he would’ve gone so hard with anyone besides old rival Gringo. Both matches are wroth checking out. The DQ was amusing; Dr. Cerebro is operating on Mexican wrestling indie rules (there are no rules) and hits Gringo with a chair, the US indie referee calls a DQ like he’s no doubt been trained, and there’s a mini drama going on getting the match restarted where that Dr. Cerebro just totally ignores, going on with his match like nothing happened. The other bigger thing on both these matches is the fans really cam to see those wrestlers and really were into them. It was the same a day later on the ETU/Dragon Gate show; those fans who turned up to the H20 building were really invested in the matches they were seeing. It makes a big difference; WrestleCon didn’t seem as fortunate and instead seemed to have a much more “we’re in town already so we might as well go to this show and see if we know anyone” crowd vibe. It’s been a big week or so for crowd atmosphere on wrestling and DEAN had a strong one.

NOAH announced Ninja Mack defending the GHC Hardcore Championship against Alpha Wolf on 04/15. Ninja Mack is in the NJPW BOSJ, sometimes outside promotions take titles off wrestlers before they go into a tournament elsewhere (since they’ll probably lose a bit), but I have no sense of how important the GHC Hardcore Championship is in the big scheme of things.

Segunda Caida reviews more 89/90 lucha libre and Danielson/Panther.

El Sol del Hidalgo has a bio of Aguila Solitaria.

luchadb

I’ve automated the process to upload my event database to the Github archive. It should start running on the 9th day of each month going forward, if I’ve coded correctly. The big idea is that stuff still exists in simple form (one text file per year) and would still exist even if I disappear. That was the plan all along, but doing it manually wasn’t getting it done; I’d remember it but would want to wait until I get one more thing done or I’d forget about it entirely. Figuring out how to automate the process was this weekend’s big win; it took a lot of multitasking this weekend.

The next thing on my wish list of programming ideas is to automate my primary wrestler name identification. One of the issues I run into is deciding when to switch the primary name for someone who changed a gimmick, and so it’s also a thing that never gets done. (Which means weirdness the new Mascara Dorada is still listed under Panterita del Ring Jr. if you’re using the match finder.) It’s Mexican wrestling so there’s no clear lines for these decisions – is is more useful to list Dick Angelo 3G under that name or under Taurus (or even Taurus (2024))? He’s still doing a few indie matches under the non-gimmick name. I still think I can make it a little better if I figure out algorithm and implement it. Any suggestions for other ideas I can make a little bit better are always welcome.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/05/2024 Arena México
1) Rayo Metálico vs Dragón de Fuego
2) Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. vs Crixus, Okumura, Vegas
3) Star Black vs Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca, Futuro, Magnus, Rugido, Disturbio, Cholo, Apocalipsis [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
4) Atlantis Jr., Místico, Volador Jr. vs Averno, Rocky Romero, Templario
added on Monday
5) Blue Panther vs Bryan Danielson

Blue Panther has been a great Tuesday luchador, wrestling in trios matches where he has exciting two minute runs in the end of trios matches. He hasn’t had a lot of singles match. He had two singles matches last year, a 9:04 match with Virus and 9:52 with Panterita del Ring. There’s been a few indie singles match, and one longer singles match with Atlantis, but you almost have to go back to Panther’s match with Sam Adonis for a full main event length match. That’s going to be the big test here; both men have a great knowledge of wrestling, but Panther’s age is also a big challenge.

CMLL streamed a press conference with Blue Panther and Bryan Danielson (separate interviews) on Friday; I guess we should expect Friday press conferences when AEW wrestlers come in. Blue Panther’s line is that he’s not “preocupado”, he’s “ocupado”. He’s not worried, he’s busy. He’s been posting workout videos on Instagram for weeks, appears to be the getting in the best shape possible. Blue Panther also explained the permission he got to wear a mask was for 30 days, not one show, so he’ll be masked again tonight if CMLL wants that.

Bryan Danielson says he was transfixed by Panther’s style – he wrestled different, moved different. He also loved the energy and fire. Danielson said he would love to do a tour of CMLL’s arenas, but there are no plans to do so right now and there are schedule constraints for making that happen. Danielson said he was excited by the idea of making the match submission rules but didn’t want to do it – Panther has too big of an advantage with surprise submission. Danielson thinks the US fans would be excited to see him wrestle if it also happened there; he feels there’s more US interest in CMLL now than for in a long time. Teaming with Blue Panther would be a dream if that happened eventually. He’s not worried about being booed or cheered, he just wants a strong reaction. (He’d be cheering Blue Panther if he was in the crowd.) Danielson ended the promo by apologizing in advance for hurting Blue Panther.

The semi-main looks like a good match just to have another bunch of names on this show. Mistico and Averno may be a little tired from a long day of traveling. (Come to think of it, it’s a bit surprising Rocky Romero is here and not in Philadelphia for the entire weekend.) The opening matches are also just matches, and less exciting matches. The intrigue is in the Universal tournament, where none of the wrestlers feel important enough to make that final but someone’s got to. CMLL has plans for someone, or they would’ve just done a title change at some point. Maybe it’s Star Black, maybe it’s Esfinge. It’s going to be a big moment for whomever is in it, more so for being on the final than even winning this.

The tickets for this show have moved very well by the standards of Friday night, though not nearly as fast they did for H2L. There were about 20-30 scattered first floor seats left this morning. CMLL put the Balcon tickets on Ticketmaster in the last few days, they weren’t their originally. This show may sell out, it’s just not there yet and it’ll depend on the walk up.

Note that his is on the 25 USD middle tier of CMLL subscription. I can’t imagine many people are going to sign up now who didn’t sign up last week, but you ought to save 10 USD if that’s you. H2L will hit the first/second tiers on Sunday night. The press conference pushed that fans have to sign up on computers, not phones – it sounded like CMLL just realized the iPhone/Apple issue this past week and are trying to steer people around it.

CMLL (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Coliseo
1) Forneo & Novato vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II
2) Legendario vs Xelhua [lightning]
3) Andrómeda, La Catalina, Skadi vs Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
4) Akuma & Espanto Jr. vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG]
1st defense
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther, Octagón vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico vs Soberano Jr. & Templario

This lineup was announced about a month ago and has always looked like a good show.  The fourth match might be a title change, and the lightning match is interesting. It’ll be on the Fan Leyenda tier live. (Coliseo shows start at the same time as Tuesday Arena Mexico shows if you’re planning; it’s 7:30 pm local.)

This week’s Coliseo uploads were Dark Panther/Espanto Jr. and Los Principes against Atlantis Jr., Mistico and Star Jr.

CMLL (SUN) 04/07/2024 Arena México
1) Robin vs Diamond [lightning]
2) La Maligna, La Vaquerita, Magia Azul vs Hera, Metálica, Persephone
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs El Coyote, Felino Jr., Pólvora
4) Brillante Jr., Max Star, Neón vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Kráneo
5) Gran Guerrero & Stuka Jr. vs Euforia & Mephisto
6) Flip Gordon, Místico, Valiente vs Ángel de Oro, Hechicero, Niebla Roja

CMLL’s back to two healthy Gemelo Diablos (if they actually appear.)

CMLL (MON) 04/08/2024 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Astro vs Dreyko & King Jaguar
2) Asturiano & Rayo Metálico vs Espíritu Maligno & Multy
3) Arkalis, Novato, Pegasso, Rey Samuray, Xelhua vs Fuego, Raider, Robin, Valiente Jr., Vegas [Reyes del Aire Puebla]
4) Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Flip Gordon, Gran Guerrero, Stigma [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Ángel de Oro, Máscara Dorada, Místico vs Hechicero, Soberano Jr., Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]

Hechicero will have to weave his magic to get his partners to get along. Volador teams with the Depredadores. Third match could be a very good version of a smaller Reyes del Aire.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions “other AEW stars” wanted to go to Arena Mexico after seeing H2L. Chris Jericho is said to among them. There’s no mention of firm plans for this happening – WON points out Jericho wrestling CMLL people on AEW TV the same that’s been mentioned here.

Thursday, CMLL cut the ribbon on a remodeling of their gym. You’ve probably seen it in documentaries and the occasional vignette. It looks like a new coat of paint. It also looks so crunched that it’s easy to understand why their wrestlers end up spread out among other gyms in the area.

AAA

AAA’s got part two of Saltillo

• Drago (II), Epydemius, Estrellato vs Hijo del Picudo, May Flowers, Nygmaa
• Aerostar, Charly Manson, Myzteziz Jr. vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Ozz, Dark Scoria
• Negro Casas & Psycho Clown versus Sanson & Forastero for the AAA tag team titles

It’s been the second Drago for a while but now I feel like I need to specify it since they’re bringing back so many other people. None of these matches sound that exciting, unless this is a show where NGD decide to try.

AAA has a media day on Thursday to hype TripleMania Monterrey. AS has an interview with Aerostar, who once again says he wants Parka Negra’s mask. He also says he feels championships are worth less than they used to be, though that’s part of him building up value of a mask match.

AAA is part of an “Expo Lucha” in Monterrey the weekend of TripleMania. TripleMania adjacent events seem like they should exist similar to WrestleMania ones, but it hasn’t caught on previously. This one has AAA involvement, so maybe that’ll make the difference.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 04/04/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) Rey Halcón b Galvánico 
2) Puma de Oro b Spider Fly 
3) Águila Roja b Keyra 
4) Hijo de Canis Lupus b Aramis 
5) Hell Boy b Aster Boy, Tonalli 
6) Pig Destroyer b Hijo del Pirata Morgan 
Pigs want a trios title match

This is no more Mexican wrestling thing than to announce “we’re going to five surprise matches” and then running six matches. The Canis/Aramis match was said to be good, will try to check it out this weekend.

Sunday’s show is a Lucha Libre Boom show with Mascara Dorada & Mistico versus Soberano Jr. & Templario. It may stream on IWRG’s social media.

The Vampiro retirement show is now up on Mas Lucha’s channel. I don’t think I’m getting to that one.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha (SAT) 04/06/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Cósmico & Nordico vs Argus & Gaius
2) Platino & Skayde vs Avisman & Golden
3) Mr. Win & Tirano vs Big Tao Tao & Bogdan Klimov and Alas de Acero & Iron Kid
4) Cometa Maya, Morfosis, Radioactivo vs Latino, Rey Espartano, Ryu
5) Flamita & Ricky Marvin vs Aero Boy & Tonalli

This is a combo show with Lucha Memes, so there’s a bunch of people who tend to work those shows (and are good) showing up. The main event is going to be as great as they want to be, I guess slightly dependent on if Black Generation is doing a run-in.

Other News

(The next paragraph deals with suicide.)

Shocker wrestled in Oaxaca over the weekend; I saw an article about it, noticed I didn’t get a poster for it, and hoped I’d remember to track it down later. I actually still haven’t tracked the poster down, but there’s no problem remember the show: Shocker once again got arrested and video of it once again went viral. This was the most talked about wrestling story of the week, one of those stories that catch so hard that news sites were trying to find other angles on it to keep pushing out news articles about it. He was undressed, overweight, and dragged away by police on charges of destroying his hotel room. It’s also  mentioned that he threated to kill himself. Shocker’s current wife, Gisela Dominguez, explained Shocker gets paranoid when he’s on “substances”, has visual and audio delusions, and believes everyone is out to get him. Dominguez says Shocker’s expressed suicidal thoughts before, but has not acted on them in her presence. She feels Shocker needs to be in a rehab facility, while noting he’s been in many of those in the past.

I caught some of the WrestleMania weekend stuff this weekend.

• Over on WrestleCon, Michael Oku defeated Titan to keep the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship. Titan took his usual a lot of risk, hurt his knee, and Oku seized on it to win with his half crab. I thought it went pretty well. Oku now has title defenses over Hechicero and Titan and would be the logical RevPro guy to show up in Arena Mexico in exchange for the CMLL guys going the other way, if that’s going to happen.
• Team CMLL defeated Team Dragon Gate when Shun Skywalker and Kzy (late sub for Ben-K) had issues and led to their La Mistica demise. This was match was good, but I don’t think it ever hit the higher gear people were hoping from it based on the names. It also suffered from a shift in the crowd that comes to these shows, at least for this event, where they were more there for the nostalgic acts and not as into these guys.
• I made a last minute choice to sign up for IWTV to catch the Action Wrestling Dean show. Arez/Matt Makowski flew by; Cagematch has it as 7:32 but it seemed quicker. They played off having different styles and meshed very well; I’d like to see more of it. I also totally understand why it went so short given how long that show ended up going, no argument there.
  • this is a dumb thing: It will forever bug me when people (like Makowski here) do the reverse flip into a choke spot Hechicero invented and no one references Hechicero. What are you going to do.
• Dr. Cerebro/Gringo Loco on was on opposite of the CMLL/Dragon Gate match, so I could tell it was good but I couldn’t tell you much about it beyond the Cerebro tope. I was exhausted from real life stuff by then, so I was only half paying attention to Slim J & Adam Priest (which everyone seems to be raving about) and then had to give up when they ran a tag match after that. I plan to catch the Demus chain match and rewatch Gringo/Cerebro sometime in the next 2.5 days.
• I know nothing about the GCW/JCW show

Still nothing lucha libre related announced for the Ring of Honor show tonight. Like I wrote Wednesday, I was told one luchador was booked. Booked could be wrestling or just doing an appearance, I don’t know. I don’t know that anyone put two and two together but the reason why I was (seemingly the only one) watching Ring of Honor last night and mentioning new matches for that show is the slim chance they would’ve announced something that would’ve actually been relevant to this blog. No such luck. I do get the sense that there’s more stuff to be announced, but that Ring of Honor PPV tonight (6 pm CT fee pre-show, 7 pm Honor Club subscription) is on paper the weakest of any since being bought by Tony Khan – it’s kicked off a hot new round of “why is there a Ring of Honor anyway” discourse that never goes anywhere.

House of Glory is advertising Penta versus Fenix for their 05/05 show. Rey Fenix still hasn’t returned from injury, AEW wrestlers tend to return on their TV before they wrestle elsewhere, so there’s is a little bit of doubt that Fenix appearance will happen before it does. (He’s missed this same indie previously due to injury.) On the other hand, AEW isn’t likely to bring someone back at this point in their PPV cycle; they’re historically likely to hold him off returning until the post-Dynasty PPV on 04/24.

Long time San Luis Potosi building Arena Mexico Rayos de Plata is closing, according to a TV Azteca news report. There’s no indication of this on promotion’s Facebook page, though future shows seem to be listed in a different venue. The report, mostly talking about the history of the building, says it’s closing to do severe financial issues.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 04/01/2024 Arena Puebla [CMLL, El Sol de Puebla, Porra Fresa]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) El Perverso, Multy, Prayer b Asturiano, Capitán Suicida, Valiente Jr.
2) Crixus, Difunto, Raider b El Malayo, Rey Apocalipsis, Siky Ozama © [OCCIDENTE TRIOS] 
Puebla team falls in their first defense
3) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa b El Coyote, Okumura, Pólvora
4) Gran Guerrero, Hijo del Villano III, Villano III Jr. b Blue Panther Jr., Dark Panther, Titán
Tony Salazar was honored before the match.
5) Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [CMLL TAG] 
14th defense
6) Rocky Romero b Volador Jr. 
A one fall main event.

I’m a bit surprised about the trios title change; it feels like it signals the Puebla/Guadalajara stuff is over for now. Attendence was good for this, though not as strong as the week before.

CMLL taped this show, second week they’ve done it. CMLL taping shows exclusively for YouTube is a relatively new and rare format. Most of the announcing has always been done because they’re selling an hour or two to a TV network and YouTube has just been a way to make a little extra out of work they’re already doing. There’s a least a chance CMLL’s got a new TV deal that they haven’t promoted at all, and that’s where the footage is going. Those Puebla shows were being sold as TV footage prior to the pandemic, which was a reason they were being streamed at that time.

(The deals we do know about:

• Friday Arena Mexico -> Televisa/TUDN
• Saturday Arena Coliseo -> Heraldo TV
• Sunday Arena Mexico -> Mexiquenese TV/AMX
• Tuesday Arena Mexico -> MVS TV (sometimes will air Friday instead)
• Tuesday Arena Coliseo Guadalajara -> Quiero TV

There’s also a long running deal with “Megacable” but I’ve never been able to find a feed or find a single person who’s mentioned watching that show.)

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Astral & Leono b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
11:13
2) Acero & Angelito b Pequeño Olímpico & Pierrothito
10:10
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Apocalipsis, Cholo, Disturbio
12:22. Virus submitted Disturbio to win the match in straight falls. Challenges followed.
4) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa
11:54. Akuma used the ropes to pin Dulce, challenges followed.
5) Rocky Romero b Star Jr.
14:51.
6) Místico, Titán, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
12:04

The midcard trios challenges are going somewhere or I wasted my time today waiting to watch Informa to finish this post. Find out below! Romero/Star Jr. was good, not at Friday levels, and Star Jr. is still just missing something for me. While the crowd reacted well to the last two matches, it had to be a bit of a comedown for the people who signed up for Friday’s show to watch this one.

Zacarias, who’s been working on US micro wrestling shows, was back in CMLL here.

CMLL (TUE) 04/02/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) Johnny Dinamo, Minotauro, Shezmu b Black Boy, Thunder Boy, Yaky Boy
2) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Temerario b Astro Oriental, Gallo Jr., Rafaga Jr.
3) Elemental, Explosivo, Yutani b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
Explosivo replaced Dark Magic (double booked)
4) Andrómeda, La Catalina, Lluvia b Dark Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis
Vaquer & Catlina kept fighting after the match
5) Magnus b Villano III Jr. [lightning]
6) Atlantis & Blue Panther b Rey Bucanero & Satánico
7) Atlantis Jr., Esfinge, Máscara Dorada b Bárbaro Cavernario, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

My suspicions that something was up here seems well founded. CMLL took the long running Arena Coliseo Guadalajara free YouTube stream and put it behind the paywall at the Fan Leyenda (highest tier.) As with everything lucha libre, there was no forewarning or messaging, it just happened and everyone had to figure it out themselves. The first three matches aired for free on Facebook. I have no idea if this is simply Homenaje a Dos Leyendas related or a full time change, but I’d guess this is not a one time incident. CMLL sells itself as a fun experience and hiding all the live streams that’ll showcase that experience behind an expensive paywall is misreading their appeal.

(The stream itself wasn’t streaming well on Tuesday. I made it through the Villano/Magnus match and there was moves being missed because the video stopped playing for seconds at a time.)

One of the quirks of the Guadalajara stream has been the announcers responding to and mostly shouting out people in their Facebook and YouTube chats between matches, and sometimes during matches. The YouTube chat was turned off on the paid stream, though there’s not a lot of conversation when it’s on for other shows. There were other changes to fall graphics and intros to make it more in line with CMLL’s normal presentation, instead of the Guadalajara self produced style. The length of the shows have been cut down as well; they’ve gone down from around 2:30-2:40 to about 2:00 even. It all feels like there’s been some changes behind the scenes but I lack the sources to know if that’s really true.

(I guess I’m eventually uploading these Guadalajara shows to the drive? I don’t even know. That thing is going to get full quickly again.)

CMLL Informa also officially decided the match between the four feuding midcard teams. It’ll be a hair match with one member from each team: Akuma, Dulce Gardenia, Virus and Disturbio. The rules are the same as the H2L apuesta: the first two people pinned go to the back, and the next person who gets pinned loses their hair. I’m still not in love with that rule set but at least I understand it this time. The trios feud ending with a four way feels a little bit of a switch but it should still be good. Disturbio seems the most likely loser, yet the way he’s lost badly to Virus in the lead up suggests they may be setting up a different ending.

CMLL Informa also announced Saturday’s Arena Coliseo Aniversario show will air live for people on the Fan Leyendas tier. There are a few other shows going on Saturday but only one show will have Los Villanos versus Ola Negra.

Informa clarified the Danielson/Panther match is a one fall match. Friday’s show is back to normal for Fridays – both the Campeon Mundial (middle) and Leyendas (highest) tiers will have access to it. If you’re someone who didn’t buy last week’s H2L and are somehow going to sign up this week, you should really sign up for that middle tier at most.

Box y Lucha has 3567 has Homenaje a Dos Leyendas on the cover.

Stephanie Vaquer will defend the NJPW Strong on their 04/12 show in Chicago. That match seemed set up already, just waiting for this announcement. Vaquer seems likely to retain.

Wrestlers announced for the 05/11 MLW show in Chicago so far

• Mistico
• Star Jr.
• Magnus
• Barbaro Cavernario
• Felino
• Atlantis Jr.
• Guerrero Maya Jr.
• Ultimo Guerrero
• Averno

Back in April 2016, there was a shooting across the street from Arena Mexico at a bar.  Infobae has an update, from a book called “Narcos de Mexico.” The shooter turns out to be Robert Moyado Esparza, nicknamed “El Betito”, who was also involved in drug trafficking. His face turned up on social media, so he fled Mexico City and was captured in 2018 at a beauty salon.

Segunda Caida reviews the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event.

AAA

Octagon Jr. met the Spanish language voice of Dragon Ball’s Goku. Octagon Jr.’s wore a Dragon Ball themed outfit on some recent shows. This is about all the real AAA names this week.

All the other AAA stuff is not really AAA stuff but I don’t have any other place to put it.

a sequence of events

• Parker Bourdeaux shows up in AAA
• I wonder (loudly) what that means for Parker Bourdeaux and AEW
• Fightful, either because they heard me or because they had the same question, asks around about Parker Bourdeaux’s AEW status, reports Monday AEW approved the AAA trip, and he’s still under contract “for a few more months” to AEW
• Parker Bourdeaux, noticing Fightful mentioned him, takes to Twitter Tuesday afternoon to say he’s said in his AAA promo that he’s in both AAA and AEW, everything is fine.
• Tuesday evening, AEW includes Parker Bourdeaux among a bunch of cuts
• Parker Bourdeaux deletes his tweet at some point.

I think AEW figured they had no plans for Bourdeaux going forward, were going to let his contract lapse, and that’s why they were comfortable letting him go get started with AAA. And why they were comfortable letting him go, once they decided to let people go. It’s good news for AAA if he works out for them and doesn’t really affect their plans otherwise.

It’s not really AAA but included in those cuts:

• Jose the Assistant – an extra, then Andrade’s assistant, then moved over to being Rush’s assistant. He was previously a journeyman pro-wrestler who wrestled in Mexico a few times. He was active on social media, and appeared to be helping Rush with his stuff the last few months, especially in terms of figuring out what would catch the attention of AEW fans as Rush was off AEW TV. I could see Rush wanting to keep Jose around, but only AAA seems to pay for managers – maybe they’ll talk ELITE into doing it for as long as it lasts. This seems like a message about how important (or not) AEW sees the LFI act to drop part of it.
• Gravity – had an all time bad performance on Collision against House of Black and that was that; went back to wrestling on Ring of Honor but was firmly typecast as a guy who wasn’t ready. I’m not sure Gravity would’ve been hired if he wasn’t Bandido’s brother (which got him on the Dark tapings) and if he wasn’t named “Gravity” (which got him the LOL match with Pac.) There is space on AEW’s roster for a bottom rung wrestler who gets amusingly destroyed and also bottom rung wrestlers who can have have fun competitive matches despite never getting real wins. Gravity didn’t improve enough to fit in either spot. His progression is stuck at the “can be a fun third guy on a trios team”, which works OK for Mexico and not great for CMLL TV. Gravity came up through Big Lucha, which meant he was just mostly working whatever shows Big Lucha was putting on. He moved over to AEW/ROH, which meant he was just those shows and the odd US indie. Gravity’s on his own now, and that’s going to be a challenge.

WrestleMania Week matches

A list of lucha libre related shows you might be able to see from home, taken from this list. It’s not much compared to past years, and mostly of it is happening on Thursday.

(all times Eastern).

Thursday

• Defy (11 am): Schaff vs. Luke Jacobs vs. Galeno del Mal vs. Gene Munny; this airs on TrillerTV
• Stardom (3 pm): Stephanie Vaquer is in a trios match; this airs as a standalone PPV.
• WrestleCon (7 pm): Team CMLL (Mistico, Averno, Barbaro Cavernario, Villano III Jr., Star Jr.) vs. Team Dragon Gate (Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker, Kota Minoura, Ben-K, YAMATO) + Titan vs Michael Oku. This airs on Highspots TV
• DVDVR/Segunda Caida/Action (8 pm): Matt Makowski vs Arez, Gringo Loco vs Dr. Cerebro. This airs on IWTV.
• JCW/GCW (11:59): Los Desperados (Gringo Loco, Arez, Latigo) vs. Team Dragon Gate (YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker) + Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) vs. Amboss (Robert Dreissker & Laurance Roman) vs. Boisterous Behaviour (Man Like Dereiss & Leon Slater) vs. MAO & Yoshihiko. This airs on TrillerTV

Friday

• Battleground (7:30 pm): Tajiri vs. Super Crazy + 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Juventud Guerrera – this is on Titlematch Network.
• ROH (8:00 pm): there’s no lucha libre match currently announced for the Ring of Honor show but I’m led to believe at least one luchador is booked for this show. This is on HonorClub,

Saturday

• GCW (11:59 pm): Punjabi Prison, GCW Tag Team Championship: Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini) vs. Jacob Fatu & Zilla Fatu vs. Bollywood Boyz (Harv Sihra & Gurv Sihra) vs. Los Macizos (Ciclope & Miedo Extremo) – part of the TrillerTV subscription.

I’m skipping this WrestleMania weekend. There were only one or two shows I was interested in, and I can catch them as easy from home. It’s fun to hang out with people, but I haven’t had a lot of chances to do actually do that last couple of years. I’m also already planning to go to plenty of stuff locally (or not quite locally) over the next month, so I’ll be good on live shows. It is a weird feeling not going after going to a bunch over the last few years; I’m not sure when the next time I’ll get on a plane to see a wrestling show, which was a thing I was fortunately able to do for a while there.

IWRG

Here’s the lineup for Thursday:

IWRG (THU) 04/04/2024 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) ? vs ??
4) ? vs ??
5) ? vs ??

It’s all random matches from the IWRG roster. The poster has Latigo among the possibilities, which seems hard for him to do given he’ll be in Philadelphia at the same time.

The Crash

The Crash (SAT) 04/20/2024 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California
1) Gallo Xtreme & Psicodelica vs Azteca Fly & Rey Furia
2) Anubis vs Mirage [bull terrier]
3) Trauma I & Trauma II vs Canis Lupus Ng & Tonalli and Bamboo & El Rey
4) Destiny, Noisy Boy, Toto vs Carta Brava Jr. (AAA), Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
5) Dralistico vs Metalik vs Nick Wayne
6) Mecha Wolf, Pagano, Rey Horus vs Bestia 666, D-Luke, Rey Escorpión (Indie)

Carta Brava Jr. is making one of his first indie appearances on a The Crash show with special AAA appearances. I can’t figure it out. I also can’t figure out what to call this Carta Brava. It usually to be there was a Carta Brava Jr. (AAA) and a Carta Brava Jr. (Indie) who works almost nothing but Lucha Libre Boom, but now thy’re both indie. These are the things that concern me.

No idea who wins the semimain. Maybe no one.

The Crash did post footage of the AAA angle on their last show, two weeks later.

Other News

Tepic luchado/promoter Rayo Mortal (Ernesto Ruis Medina, 54) passed away recently. This is the second lucha libre figure from that area who’s passed away in the last week (through un related reasons.)

Robles posted a press release saying Gronda removed himself from their 04/14 show after taking his guarantee and will not give it back. There’s also a series of text messages sent by Gronda and his legal representative. Not sure why Robles is only now concerned about paying for wrestlers who didn’t do much for them. Elegido replaces Gronda.

RGR announced a bunch of Mexican luchadors have new work visa through them: Pimpinela Escarlata, Pirata Morgan, Diamante Azul, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Laredo Kid, Faby Apache, Reyna Dorada, La Hiedra, Lady Flammer, Abismo Negro Jr., Nino Hamburguesa, Mamba, Jessy Ventura, Diva Salvaje, Hell Boy, Tonalli, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Gran Pandemonium, Hijo de Pandemonium and Pandemonium Jr. That list including Laredo Kid should pop out – it’s not Impact who’s handling his US work visa situation. (It also notable to me that Pimpinela’s being announced as just getting a visa when he’s been announced for a WrestleMania weekend show for a while; sometimes these are down to the write.)

Back in march, RGR announced they’d have Volador Jr. for their shows this weekend. Volador is not believed to have a US work visa at this point; it’s a lucha promotion, so it’s possible RGR is just not updating their advertising. Wouldn’t be the first time for that, or for a wrestler to slip into US without a valid work visa.

El Siglo del Torreon has a short bio of Gran Markus.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/29/2024 Arena México [AS, Cagematch, CMLL, El Universal, ESPN Deportes, ESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Excelsior, FDDE, Fuego en el Ring, Kaiser Sports, La Prensa, Publimetro, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
***CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2024***
1) Magnus & Rugido © b Brillante Jr. & Neón [MEX TAG]   
9:45. 4th defense.
2) Esfinge © b Zandokan Jr. [MEX LH]   
9:57. 4th defense
3) Averno b Bárbaro Cavernario © [CMLL LH]    
10:01. 4th defense (1st in six months)
4) Pequeño Olímpico L Angelito, Pierrothito, Acero [mask]    
13:11. Four way. Rules were the first two pinned were eliminated from the match, and then the loser of the next pinfall would win the mask. Pierrothito pinned Acero, Olimpico pinned Pierrothito, and Angelito beat Pequeno Olimpico. Pequeno Olimpico is Andres Munoz Andrade, 58, from Mexico City. Acero wore Mazinger Z gear.
5) La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale b Lluvia, Stephanie Vaquer, Zeuxis    
11:15
6) Máscara Dorada & Rocky Romero b Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. [natl pi, final]   
tournament final, teams undecided
7) Blue Panther, Místico, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. b Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Matt Sydal  
16:35. Matt Sydal replaced Wheeler Yuta on 03/25. Moxley beat Ultimo Guerrero, Mistico beat Sydal (captain) with La Mistica for the win. Danielson said he wasn’t satisfied with the match and demanded a 1v1 with Blue Panther next week. Panther accepted but said he felt Danielson was holding back and wanted to see 100% from him in that match.

Friday’s main event was the kind of match you follow professional wrestling for years – decades – to watch. It’s the type of match you’d put in front of a non-wrestling fan to understand what’s so exciting about it, except you’d set their expectations too high for every other match. It was dream, on top of a very great wrestling show.

This was a different feeling show than usual for Arena Mexico. There were almost no tourists, no foreigners. The building filled up early; the Gradas fill up already because those are general admission, but even the reserved seats were more full than usual for a CMLL show. Those fans seemed much more knowledgeable and willing to go their own way on wrestlers than the usual audience. “Esto es Lucha” is a chant heard at lots of Mexican wrestling shows, but rarely in CMLL. Atlantis Jr. was booed anytime he did anything. The “Yes” chant was loud, and plenty of fans knew the AEW guys well (though perhaps more from their WWE runs more than the AEW time.) It’s an Mexican wrestling audience that exists but doesn’t come to many CMLL shows – that audience doesn’t even show up to Homenaje a Dos Leyendas every year. Some of them were there strictly for the AEW (ex-WWE) people, but it’s a win for CMLL if they can get some of them to stick around. CMLL will get by find with the more tourist heavily mix, but it was an indication that there’s a pool of wrestling fans that CMLL hasn’t been tapping into regularly who still can be talked into coming with the right matches.

If there were two disappointments with the main event, it was that the least important person who got beat on the AEW side and that they really didn’t deliver on the big Panther/Danielson match they promised. The second part was addressed right away after; they teased it because they’re actually doing it next week. That also may address the Sydal issue – if Danielson gets beat next week, they’re again just making people wait a few more days for it. This is one of the tradeoffs dealing with AEW; their booking strategy is creating a class of wrestlers who almost never get beat, so it’s a big money match when people in that class wrestle each other (and so it’s a big deal when someone not in that class beats them.) AEW’s respectful the other way – they haven’t beat Mistico and they’re not going to beat Mistico unless it’s a big match. It’s just not the way CMLL fans are used to seeing wrestling, where everyone can get beat but it only really matters when something is on the line. It’s a paradox I can’t really explain: it would’ve not hurt the BCC guys at all to take a pin there, but also it would’ve been huge for the fans to see one of them get pinned. Perhaps they’re just making everyone wait one more week for it.

The AEW crew played it off like the match was a draw that should continue – Moxley beat Ultimo Guerrero, Sydal lost to Mistico – and they, confused foreigners, didn’t understand these CMLL rules. They all talked about coming back; you can tell this was even more than what they expected. Moxley outright says he did this match just to help Danieslon to live out his dream and now he can’t want to come back.

The rest of the show would’ve still been a great show on it’s own, though it might not have the same atmosphere. That atmosphere contributed to the tag tournament final, where decades long diehard dislike of the Atlantis family led to him getting booed on every move (and Dorada getting cheered every time hit him.) I don’t think there’s anything to do about that until/unless this crowd sticks around, because Atlantis Jr. is just going to be back cheered as soon as it’s over. The idea of the match was to have a really good match and to get over the Los Principes idea, and they hit on both.

The rest of the show was good, but was more visibly truncated by the time limitations. Most matches went ten minutes when they would’ve gotten fifteen on a normal big show. Moving the minis match to another show would’ve worked out better, maybe given that match more of a chance on it’s own while giving everything else more time, but it would’ve robbed Pequeno Olimpico of a big payday. As it was, taking those guys off Friday shows in the lead up to this mask match really hurt – no one knew who was feuding with who or why they were supposed to care. (And even if they did, the idea was Angelito & Pequeno Olimpico as partners against the other two.) The rules were baffling as well. They worked with CMLL’s internal logic – it’s a honor, not a punishment, to wager your mask in the cathedral of lucha libre, so wrestlers always win their way into a mask match – but they so failed to get that message over that the announcers seemed confused. It was too bad a long career like Pequeno Olimpico didn’t get a better mask match.

Pequeno Olimpico says he won’t look for revenge on Angelito – there’s no way he can get back what he lost. He would’ve liked to retire masked and figured he would have lost it against Pierrothito if anyone. It sounds like plans on continue wrestling – “if you fall, you must get up and start again.”

The women’s match came together well. I didn’t have it on my list for “possible best match of the night” and it got in that conversation. Everyone got big moves, and they really did a lot to showcase Willow – CMLL’s been good at featuring the outsiders to make them feel like a big deal. Willow beating Vaquer could lead to something – that Windy City Riot match still isn’t announced – but she’s also busy with AEW TBS championship match coming up.

Averno/Cavernario was the best of the three title matches, with Cavernario throwing everything he had at Averno but the old rudo being just a little too crafty for him. A Cavernario/Averno hair match is such an obvious direction coming out of that match. Zandokan and Esfinge was too young guys taking big risks, and it worked to get the crowd into near falls soon. The inverted rana-type piledriver near the end didn’t really work as well. Neon & Brillante versus Magnus & Esfinge is like the fourth or fifth version of that match; still good but something they could’ve done a little bit better.

The “seeing CMLL different than before” production comment turned out to be a drone camera. CMLL used it a lot in the opener, and then sparingly the rest of the show. The video quality of a drone camera is not going to be the same as normal – the colors were a bit off – but it did give CMLL more angles than they had before. CMLL missed a couple of dives early trying to take advantage of all the angles had to choose from, then settled down. The music completely derailed during the women’s matches entrances, leading almost everyone to walk out to Willow’s song. It was more hilarious than harmful.

It does seem like CMLL pulled in a lot of new YouTube members for this show. There were plenty of people who found the show through other means, of course, but it all added up to a lot of people talking about the promotion this weekend. Those who did subscribe are getting an extra singles match out of it, so it’s not a bad deal. (We’ll see how they feel about it if their subscription turns renews around April 29th.)

Apolo Valdes, who took a Blue Panther mask and video message to Bryan Danielson in 2016 that helped pushed this match along, ran into Panther before Friday’s show. Panther told Valdes he’d been asking other reporters about meeting him, because Panther wanted to thanks Valdes for making this match happen.

La Tijera talked to Blue Panther before Sunday’s show, and quote him as saying he would like his singles match with Bryan Danielson to be win by submission only.

CMLL (SAT) 03/30/2024 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Micro Ditto & Mije
2) Rayo Metálico & Xelhua b Alom & Dragón de Fuego
3) Dark Panther b Espanto Jr. [lightning]
4) La Catalina, Lluvia, Marcela b Dark Silueta, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale
5) Star Black, Valiente, Volcano DQ Gemelo Diablo II, Gran Guerrero, Kráneo
Kraneo fouled Volcano and wasn’t caught, Volcano did the same and was cuaght
6) Rocky Romero, Soberano Jr., Templario b Atlantis Jr., Místico, Star Jr.

This too appears to be a sell out. It’s rare to see two levels of Arena Coliseo filled, much less all four. I don’t think that top level is even open to the public most weeks.

Match 4 and 5 (since it has the foul) are the most likely to go up on YouTube, but I’d like to see 2/6.

CMLL (SUN) 03/31/2024 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Astro Boy Jr. & Novato
2) El Audaz, Hombre Bala Jr., Magia Blanca b Felino, Felino Jr., Rey Bucanero
3) Persephone, Tessa Blanchard, Willow Nightingale b Andrómeda, Marcela, Skadi
4) Euforia TLDRAW Hechicero [lightning]
Euforia gave Hechicero a super powerbomb but could not cover him before time ran out.
5) Atlantis, Titán, Valiente b Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Terrible
6) Máscara Dorada & Místico b Ángel de Oro & Templario

The Sunday Arena Mexico show doesn’t look to have drawn quite as well as others – the gradas weren’t opened up – but still a good turn out for that day of the week. CMLL seemed proud of it.

CMLL (FRI) 04/05/2024 Arena México
1) Rayo Metálico vs Dragón de Fuego
2) Audaz, Fuego, Hombre Bala Jr. vs Crixus, Okumura, Vegas
3) Star Black vs Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr., Magia Blanca, Futuro, Magnus, Rugido, Disturbio, Cholo, Apocalipsis [CMLL Universal, semifinal]
4) Blue Panther vs Bryan Danielson

A brief advantage of having a lucha libre database is you can say “what was the highest price for a ticket for every Friday show this year” at 12:16 AM and then actually look it up:

Date	concept	Pesos
04/05	Panther/Danielson	600
03/29	H2L	1464
03/22	TIDP Week 2	600
03/15	TIDP Week 1	700
03/08	Women Show	600
03/01	Tiger Mask/UG	600
02/23	Escuelas Final	600
02/16	GDL vs Puebla	600
02/09	CDMX vs Laguna	600
02/02	GA Final	700
01/26	GA Round 2	700
01/19	GA Round 1	600
01/12	Best of 2	600
01/05	Best of 1	600

Panther & Danielson is priced cheaper than two block weeks of tournaments and Neon & Mascara Dorada vs Mistico & Brillante. It is so cheap, and also so random what CMLL picks to be 700. It also sticks out that every Friday show so far has had some sort of obvious concept. It’s not always the main event, but there hasn’t been a Friday show where it’s just “here are all random matches” as CMLL normally books.

The rest of this Friday’s show is really not much though; it’s be an exceptionally weak card if not for that main event. There are no big stars with the national titles this year, making it really hard to pick a winner. The opener are Torneo Escuelas guys, the second are some good wrestlers who don’t normally get Fridays. (And also, Okumura conspicuously in Raider’s spot.) I know the ROH show is this Friday and I know a bunch of CMLL talent is in Philadelphia that week but I don’t think that’s the issue. At last word, all the CMLL wrestlers were scheduled for a flight back to Mexico on Friday morning.

I usually skip relationship unless it feeds into something more directly relevant. There were a couple of those this weekend. Esfinge and Tessa Blanchard revealed they’re a couple, which might explain why Blanchard is around for the long haul. La Catalina and El Elemental revealed that they weren’t just keeping it a secret that they were a couple, they’ve actually gotten married. That may have influence Elemental’s decision to try to move to CMLL, where he’s hanging around on the Guadalajara card this Tuesday.

The Guadalajara YouTube page has a 20 minute documentary on local Furia Roja.

AAA

Silver Cat (Antonio Hernandez Herrada, 53) passed away on Friday. He used multiple names in AAA and was pushed hardest as Hijo del Espectro – he was supposed to lose his mask to La Parka AAA at Rey de Reyes 2000 – but his later unmasked character ended up sticking around a lot longer. He was a founding wrestler as Reptil and, not so coincidentally, a cousin of Antonio Pena. The family relationship is probably the only thing that kept Silver Cat his job, and allowed him to transition into his unmasked role as Los Vatos Locos, a Kiss-themed rudo group. He was a regular in AAA, stopped appearing on TV before Antonio Pena passed away in 2006, and then just faded out working spot shows before leaving the promotion in 2008. Pagano, Charly Manson, and Mecha Wolf officially brought back the Los Vatos Locos name for their group at the most recent AAA TV taping. Original Vatos Locos member Nygma has also popped up on the Origenes tour, as has son of original member Hijo del Picudo. It’s likely Silver Cat was about to be mentioned a lot more on AAA TV, but now the circumstances have changed.

AAA TV was Vampiro heavy. The Vampiro stuff is the difference between producing a live event and a TV show. Vampiro getting a win and tearfully thanking the fans with the whole roster out there to salute him would be a fine farewell. It is instead only a farewell to Saltillo, and AAA’s doing this same bit in every city they’re running. It’s great for the live crowd to have that moment and it’s probably great as a draw. It’s not as great when this is the fourth goodbye speech Vampiro’s done in the last eight or so weeks of TV. They’re going to keep coming until August as long as it keeps drawing.

Everything’s a balance and doing the same Vampiro bits over and over would be more tolerable if there was other good stuff on the show. There wasn’t this week. The women/exoticos match wasn’t interesting. The goal of the main event seemed to be to have Iguana and Octagon to do a lot to distract from what Vampiro was doing; it wasn’t enough but you could see the idea. There was no distraction from Hator & Antifaz versus Toscano & Zorro, it was just not good. The success of the early Origenes shows has AAA looking to pull back any one from the 00s they can find. Hator barely wrestles nowadays and looked like it. Nygma gets his chance next week. They teased a big angle to come with Zorro (who has the ability to see the future, but only in vague and unspecific ways) telling Konnan that someone was going to betray him soon. That may be the first bit of the Eye storyline.

(Less obvious in non-good TV: AAA’s upcoming events continues to not advertise the dates for the upcoming Mexico City and Showcenter tapings, where tickets are on sale. It’s tough to square the long term goal of AAA getting a big US media deal with the lack of effort shown on their weekly TV.)

When Parker Boudreaux showed up, I (perhaps loudly) mentioned somehow should double check to see if he’s still employed by AEW. There’s not a lot of AEW/AAA cross over of late. Fightful’s Select Patreon did do the work, confirming Boudreaux is still under contract with AEW. The report goes onto mention AEW gave him permission, and Boudreaux’s still under contract for a “a few months.” Boudreaux (or his people) must’ve heard about that reported, because he made a rare for him twitter post to say he was both AAA and AEW. Boudreaux coming in briefly came up on Konnan’s podcast this week; Konnan met Boudreaux and was impressed, so he’s giving him a shot in a match where he feels like the other five guys can cover for his weaknesses. AAA didn’t run video packages to introduce for him because they wanted him to be a surprise. One of the other hosts asked if Boudreaux would be a heavy for QT or Sam and Konnan rejected that idea. The other voice suggested AEW’s Nick Comoroto was suggested for that spot, and Konnan retorted “why would I use someone even they [AEW] aren’t using?”

IWRG

AAA , ROSALES (FRI) 03/29/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Cobre, Dragón Suicida, Golden Jacket b Belzebu, Calibre Star, Kingoo
2) Daimo, Galio, Máscara de Bronce b Belcegor, Rey Halcón, Rey León
3) El Fiscal & Joe Lider b Dizzy & Karis La Momia Jr.
3) Faby Apache, La Parkita, Lunatik Fly, Niño Hamburguesa b El Elegido, Estrellita, Mini Charly Manson, Pimpinela Escarlata
5) Cibernético, Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria b Myzteziz, Octagón Jr., Vampiro
Cibernetico snuck in a foul on Vampiro

This did not stream on IWRG’s YouTube and wasn’t covered much, but it did appear sell out. Again, while the repeated Vampiro retirement is not great TV, it seems to be working very well as a live event draw.

IWRG (SUN) 03/31/2024 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG]
1) Fobia & Shura King b Indra & Silver Hawk 
2) Atómico, Hijo de Rey Pantera, Mariachi b Drakula, Pequeño Drago, Viral 
Radioactivo defeating ULLO
3) Alan Star, Baalzephon, Impacto b Argus, Dezzendiente, Sparta 
Gym Mexico defeating Lucha Libre Boom
4) Adam Del Castillo, Dardo, Rey Azteca b Anara Haki, Giako, Gigante Karoshi 
Gym Infiero defeating Gym 23 de Junio
5) Oficial AK47 & Oficial Fierro b Multifacetico Jr. & Tornado 
Fierro 30th anniversayr match. Win via foul. Oficials said they were coming back to IWRG for more.
6) Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Ajolotl, Auzter, Fussion, Rey Astaroth, Rey Halcón, Tornado b Bumbu, Charly Boy, Dragón Suicida, Emperador Slayer, Energía, Hauzer, Jitsu, Zoom Driver [Copa Higher Power] 
FILL vs Gym Lucha MX. Aguila Roja got the win.

The Radioactivo guys are said to have done well.

Other Notes

Nayarit luchador/referee Rey David Hernandez passed away on March 29th after a battle with diabetes.

AEW is off Vix in Latin America, and those markets will once again have access to AEW through FITE/Triller’s special plan. To recap the status quo: Vix is the Televisa owned streaming service, they were streaming some AEW shows live, others on delay and not at all with Battle of the Belts. Solowrestling received a email saying Vix was off LATAM – except for Mexico. I posted that story on Twitter Sunday afternoon. Later that day, AEW reached out me to confirm the AEW/VIX story and said they believed AEW was also leaving VIX in Mexico immediately. (They were working to confirm that at press time.) The AEW/VIX deal had some good interest in both sides at first, then VIX really didn’t seem to deliver the way AEW fans had hoped – shows were on delay, a back catalog of AEW PPVs never materialized. It’s possible the next LATAM deal could be wrapped up in the eventual next US deal but know one knows at this point. There is a point out here about how LATAM media companies don’t treat any sort of professional wrestling well and how that hurts CMLL and AAA but this paragraph is already too long.

Maximo lost his hair to Super Nova in Arena Neza. That looks like a full (2000ish) crowd, though Maximo’s lost his hair in front of much bigger crowd in the past.

El Siglo de Torreon has an article talking about the rise in numbers of luchadoras in the region. The article takes some detours getting to that point, and mentions an important fact I hadn’t seen before: the June 25, 1954 edition of El Nacional reported “a businessman” was blocked from running an all women’s show in Arena Coliseo by the Box y Lucha commission and the Mexico City government. I’ve always read “women’s wrestling was banned/vetoed in the 1950s, around the same as the TV ban” but I don’t recall ever seeing a specific date. Getting back to Torreon, it’s estimated there were about five luchadoras pre-pandemic, and now 22 who have licenses. The article talks to some of the luchadoras – Lady Shadow, who wrestled a few matches for CMLL last year, is said to “barely reach the age of 16” to get a license – but doesn’t explain why the jump in numbers.

Big Lucha is back this Saturday with a good lineup; I’ll go over it Friday.

LA Park and family say they’re building an arena in Monclova.

Segunda Caida has a review of some 1989 CMLL.