TripleMania XXX Chapter 1 (Young Bucks/Vikingo/Fenix), CMLL midweek results,

AAA

AAA TV (SAT) 04/30/2022 Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
TripleMania XXX, Chapter 1
1) ? vs ??
Marvel Match
2) 1 vs 2345678 [Copa TripleMania, lumberjack strap]
3) Pentagón Jr. vs Último Dragón [quarterfinal, ruleta de la muerte]
4) Lady Maravilla & Látigo vs Octagón Jr. & Sexy Star and Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti
5) LA Park vs Villano IV [quarterfinal, ruleta de la muerte]
6) Dragón Lee & Dralistico vs Johnny Superstar & Taurus and ? & Laredo Kid
7) Blue Demon Jr. vs Rayo de Jalisco Jr. [quarterfinal, ruleta de la muerte]
8) Bandido, Pagano, Taya vs Andrade, Cibernético, Deonna Purrazzo
9) Canek vs Psycho Clown [quarterfinal, ruleta de la muerte]
10) Fénix & Hijo Del Vikingo vs Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

The main show will start at 8, with the first two matches airing on a pre-show scheduled at 7. Latin Lover is scheduled to appear and Vampiro is “99% confirmed.” Lots of options for the guy challenging Konnan to a match that probably won’t happen but will make sure he has a role on the big show for the foreigners.

There are 27 people announced for this show. One way to break it down:

  • 9 are those who will only work for AAA on TripleManias (and maybe just this TripleMania)
  • 8 are those who generally only work the big AAA shows, maybe an odd TV
  • 4 are those who appear on AAA TV regularly but do not appear to be bound to an AAA contract (Ciber, Laredo, Taurus, Pagano)
  • 6 are those who appear to be under contract; four of those are in the mixed tag, with just Psycho Clown and Vikingo in the top half of the card.

“TripleMania” is a different promotion than “AAA” and this is not new. Maybe one or two things – usually involving Psycho Clown – will carry over from AAA TV to TripleMania but it’s almost Lucha Underground in the differences. This is the insight you get from someone who forces himself to write long big show previews: there’s been almost no connective tissue between AAA’s weekly product and their big show product for quite a while. These TripleMania shows are for the casual Mexican audiences (Canek, Rayo, Andrade) and the casual US audience (the Young Bucks, Johnny Superstar, also Andrade) with the assumption that the diehard AAA fan is going to turn in any way because it says AAA and TripleMania on the marque. And even if they don’t, they’re hoping the casual fan interest will overwhelm any diehard disinterest; judging from twitter reaction last night, there’s a good chance that’ll be right. If people were buying shows with Flamita/Vikingo as the headliner in great numbers, maybe this story would be different (and maybe it says something for AAA’s own promotional efforts that they lean so heavily on names built up elsewhere when they really need to draw), but this is the situation we’re in. Some of those AAA TV feuds will sneak through on the Verano de Escandalo tier of shows, but it’s not something important to AAA for these shows. I understand why people are disappointed about that, but it’s probably time not to be surprised about it. Just go into this card announcements hoping for a few good matches to sneak through.

Fenix & Hijo del Vikingo versus the Young Bucks, if it happens, will be really really good for people looking into this thing. The three-way tag match could be very good. (Konnan thanked AEW, Impact and MLW before the card announcement and there’s no MLW person on this show yet, so perhaps one in that mystery spot.) The earlier tournament matches seem to have a better chance of turning on OK than the later ones, but that’s probably trying to cater to some old men’s egos by not asking Canek, Demon or Rayo to wrestle earlier. The eight-match is an all-time weirdo trios match which will be compelling even if it doesn’t work. The mixed tag will be good. The Copa TripleMania is supposed to be a lumberjack strap match too, so it’ll be an all time mess; I’m just happy they’re starting at 7 so this has a chance of getting done before midnight.

FITE hasn’t officially announced the show as airing but it’s a safe expectation after the recent shows.

Dorian Roldan said he believed Fenix & Hijo del Vikingo would be healthy for this show. There’s no real reason to trust AAA is telling the truth on these things after they (and Fenix himself) have been consistently dishonest about them. If you’re looking for a reason to believe Fenix will be healthy, he is walking around with a sling and a month longer might be a reasonable time for a return from that point. I’d need to see him in a match before I’d believe he’s wrestling at this point. Vikingo is the opposite, he would seem to have to stop wrestling to get much better and there’s no sign of that. It’d be nice if we got to see the scheduled match and I’m sure everyone hopes it’ll happen, we just have no idea how realistic those hopes are. Laredo Kid would figure to move up to one of those spots if someone’s missing.

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 03/21/2022 Arena Puebla [El Sol de Puebla]
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2022 (Puebla)
3) Atlantis b Stuka Jr. Atlantis VS Stuka Jr. | Arena Puebla (21 de Marzo del 2022) (posted by )
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Soberano Jr. DQ Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr.
Depredadores tried to cheat, but Soberano counted by tossing his mask to Volador to draw the DQ.
5) Místico b Gran Guerrero

CMLL did a good enough job selling this show as important that it got newspaper coverage. It sounds like it was a good one and it looks like a draw; there are people in the upper deck section above the entrance that’s used to be empty. Dory Dixon looked to be in good shape in photos.

CMLL did have a film crew in Arena Puebla, you can see them walking around after the one video that turned up. I think I spot announcers way in the back. Maybe this’ll turn somewhere.

CMLL (TUE) 03/22/2022 Arena México [CMLL, ESTOKaiser Sports]
1) Kaligua & Último Dragóncito b Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia 20220322cmll_match1Kaligua & Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
2) Robin, Suicida, Valiente Jr. b Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Raider 20220322cmll_match2Robin, Suicida, Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Raider.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido DQ Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma 20220322cmll_match3Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Depreadores took 1/3. Magia Blanca faked a foul from Stigma, setting up a rematch next week.
4) Amapola, Dalys, Dark Silueta b La Guerrera, La Jarochita, Lluvia 20220322cmll_match4La Guerrera, La Jarochita, Lluvia vs Amapola, Dalys, Dark Silueta.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Rudas took 1/3, Dalys & Dark Silueta defeating Jarochita & Lluvia to set up a tag title match next week
5) Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero 20220322cmll_match5Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero.mp4 (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive))
Rudos took 1/3, Gran Guerrero (foul on Fugaz) and Rey Bucanero (mask pull on Soberano) cheating to beat the tecnicos.

The top three matches all had angles, which is unusual for a Tuesday. Los Depreadores started at tweeners but seem to be rudo much more often. The main event reads like Bucanero was a sub for the still missing Atlantis Jr.

Dalys brought a Warrior Jr. mask to the ring for her matchIn the post match interview, Dalys talked about paying tribute to her recently deceased son-in-law and confirmed he suffered his ultimately fatal injuries in Arena Mexico. (She literally said Warrior Jr. died in Arena Mexico, but I understand that to mean the neck injury in training which later led to his death happened in the building.) Omii Casas also posted a photo of Warrior Jr. (Ramses) in a neck harness of some kind. The last seven months must’ve been extremely hard for that family dealing with all of this quiely.

It’s not going to happen this way because it happened behind closed doors and it’s not being written with the same revernce, but Warrior Jr. should be forever remembered and brought up like Sangre India and Oro Jr., who both died on shows in Arena Coliseo.

CMLL (TUE) 03/22/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara (video), Fuego en el Ring, Mas Lucha, Mural]
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2022 (Guadalajara)
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Capitán Cobra, Cosmos b Destello, Destructor, Thunder Boy
2) El Divino, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. b Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Fúnebre
3) Explosivo, Flash, Gallo, Joker DQ Cris Skin, Maléfico, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
Turned into an atomico was Flash & Malefico added. Truenos unmasked Flash & Gallo.
4) Stephanie Vaquer b La Magnifica
5) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo, Chamuel, Perico Zacarías
6) Atlantis & Blue Panther DQ Negro Casas & Satánico
Satanico unmasked Altantis for the DQ
7) Averno & Black Warrior b Místico & Titán
Black Warrior Jr. was remembered with a moment of applause before the match with his father in attendance. Averno pulled Mistico’s mask and pinned him for the win.

Mas Lucha posted the video of the Warrior Jr. and Gran Cochisse moments.

CMLL (FRI) 03/25/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito & Shockercito vs Mercurio & Pierrothito
2) Felino Jr., Pólvora, Sangre Imperial vs Nitro, Okumura, Panterita del Ring Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
3) La Vaquerita, Marcela, Skadi vs Dalys, La Metálica, Reyna Isis
4) Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible
5) Místico, Negro Casas, Titán vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Templario

Very much a minor Friday night show after last week’s card. Negro Casas is indeed a tecnco. Vaquerita and Isis match up once again. That’s about it. Maybe the segunda is headed to a Panterita/Imperial title match, though Imperial has vanished since getting to the Gran Alternativa final.

CMLL (MON) 03/28/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Meyer vs Prayer
2) Angelito & Fantasy vs Mercurio & Pequeño Polvora
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Disturbio, Felino Jr., Pólvora
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
5) Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Esfinge, Fugaz, Soberano Jr.

That main event is a rematch.

Promotions teasing imminent returns:

Nacion Lucha Libre announced they were returning to ImagenTV “soon”. They had previously said they’d be running shows by this point, but there’s been no sign outside of old matches posted to Facebook. The announcement came through Alberto el Patron’s Facebook page, so he’s still tied up with them, whenever they do run. Maybe we’ll hear more about this after Alberto’s match in KAOZ this weekend, since he’s been doing a lot of promotional work for that.

Kriminal Lucha Libre posted a countdown. They haven’t run since last August when they started a women’s tournament which never ended.

Other News

The Republic of Lucha show airs tonight on FITE at 9 pm CT (or directly after Dynamite). It’s a $10 show. They did get a full lineup on the show page. I’m mildly fearful of what a show announced by just Chavo Guerero and Fenix will sound like. The Republic of Lucha hasn’t promoted this show much on Twitter since the original announcement, but they’re more Instagram people and have done so there. I find that to be true with a lot of lucha libre people: it’s Facebook 1 (though falling), Instagram 2 and Twitter a distant third.

IWRG (THU) 03/24/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Roja & Nativo vs Kenji & Rey Eclipse
2) Genex & Pantera I Jr. vs Rey Halcón & X-Devil
3) Aster Boy, Legendario, Noisy Boy vs Ra-Zhata, Shil-Ka, Tortuga Leo
4) Fulgor, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Yorvak vs Accion Jackson, Brad Alexis, Travis Banks
5) Diva Salvaje, Estrella Divina, Jessy Ventura vs Big Boy, Big Chicoche, Big Mike

Las Shotas and Stripper Bigs back at it. Yorvak winning the Tryout seems to have paid off for his coach, Fulgor.

Nuevo Leon luchador Ulises Gutierrrez passed away on Tuesday. He wrestled as Energy Boy, Antrax Jr., and last Draxuz. His final public Facebook post from last month was an announcement that he was retiring from wrestling because his battle with cancer over the last seven months left him unable to come back to ring. I don’t have an age; he looked to be in his early 20s.

KAOZ’s Director Alonso Botello was at the TripleMania Monterrey press conference to promote his own show this weekend; MedioTiempo got confused and publicized his lineup as people coming to TripleMania at one point. Botello also is pushing the idea that this is the last show at Arena Coliseo Monterrey and they’re totally tearing it down afterward unless a miracle happens, so everyone needs to buy tickets to go the building one last time. I’m skeptical that’ll actually be the last show.

04/01 MLW Azteca Underground (afternoon)

04/01 the WRLD on Lucha

There are some matches on these shows I wouldn’t expect on a lucha libre show, but maybe that’s me.

The 04/01 Legend show in Queretaro has been postponed due to government permission issues. This follows the 03/19 show there also getting postponed. The March 6th Arena Queretaro show may have just sneaked in under the radar; the violence at the March 5th Queretaro/Atlas Liga MX game seems to make it tougher to get events approved in the city for the moment. Legend also canceled their 04/02 show so there may be additional issues.

Abismo Negro Jr. is off the 04/02 US vs the World show, with Fight Panther & Golden Dragon added in his place.

In NOAH, NOSAWA announced Texano Jr. would be coming in as a new member of Perros del Mal Japon. No date was mentioned. Texano leaving AAA to go on his own appeared a strange move last year but it seems to have worked out for him. NOAH also announced Dragon Bane vs Alpha Wolf vs Ninja Mack for their 04/29 show; those three and Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. will also be on their 04/30 show.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.

Vaqeurita loses his hair and Los Malditos Trios champs at H2L, Warrior Jr.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/18/2022 Arena México [ASCMLLCronista del RingEstrellas del RingExcelsiorFuria del RingKaiser SportsMas LuchaPublimetroR de RudoThe Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2022
1) Eléctrico, Halcón Suoriano Jr., Robin b Cachorro, El Suicida, Panterita del Ring Jr. Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr y Robin Vs Panterita del Ring Jr, Suicida y Cachorro Lagunero en H2L (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
12:26. One fall. Cachorro replaced Oro Jr. on March 7th.
2) Negro Casas b Templario Mano a Mano Negro Casas Vs Templario en H2L Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
8:22. Three falls. Apparently blown finish where Templario was late on kicking out and referee counted him down at three. Templario physically blocked the referee from awarding the win to Casas until Casas could roll him up again for another pinfall, only the cradle was botched. Casas wrapped Templario up with a casita to end it. Casas declared he wanted to be a tecnico going forward.
3) Marcela & Metálica b La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [final, relevos suicidasMarcela y Metálica se salvan de la quema en H2L derrotando a Reyna Isis y Vaquerita (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Reyna I gana la cabellera de La Vaquerita en Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (posted by mluchatv)
6:48
4) Reyna Isis b La Vaquerita [hairCMLL - REYNA ISIS - VAQUERITA VS METÁLICA - MARCELA / ARENA MEXICO 18 DE MARZO DE 2022 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Vaquerita Vs Reyna Isis cabellera contra máscara en Homenaje a 2 Leyendas, Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
7:44. Isis won with Arkangel’s old submission finisher. Ringo Mendoza was honored after the match.
5) Gran Guerrero & Mephisto b SagradoNiebla Roja [CMLL TRIOS, battle royal]
a pinfall/submission elimination match instead of over the top but similar quality
6) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible [CMLL TRIOS, semifinal]
8:39.
7) Atlantis, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Hechicero, Mephisto, Mephisto [CMLL TRIOS, semifinal]
5:35. Atlantis replaced Atlantis Jr. for unclear reasons.
8) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Atlantis, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [CMLL TRIOS, finalCMLL - CUADRANGULAR POR EL CAMPEONATO MUNDIAL DE TERCIAS / ARENA MEXICO 18 DE MARZO DE 2022 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Los Malditos nuevos campeones mundiales de tríos del CMLL derrotan a Los Guerreros de la Atlántida (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) Místico y Averno vencen a TJP y Volador Jr en Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (posted by mluchatv)
5:18. Los Gemelos Diablos pulled a switch to roll up Ultimo Guerrero, who complained loudly about it to the referee
9) Averno & Místico b TJP (Teddy James Perkins) & Volador Jr. [Relevos IncreíblesCMLL - TJP - VOLADOR JR. VS AVERNO - MÍSTICO / ARENA MEXICO 18 DE MARZO DE 2022 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Místico y Averno vencen a TJP y Volador Jr en Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (posted by mluchatv) Místico y Averno Vs TJP y Volador Jr en lucha estrella de Homenaje a Dos Leyendas del CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
19:29. Team Mistico took 2/3, the last when Volador had Mistico beat was La Mistica but Averno snuck in a foul and Mistico got the pin. Mistico was aware of the foul and didn’t seem to have an issue with it. All four hung around post-match as if challenges were coming but no microphone appeared.

This was not one of those disappointing lineups on paper which turned out better in reality. Volador worked very hard in the main event, there were some fun highlights in the opener, but this was nothing special as a show overall. None of the trios tournament matches were particularly good, the main event ended strangely (even more for the milling around than the ‘wait, is Mistico a rudo?’ bit), and the Casas/Templario match was hurt by going three falls. Vaquerita was visibly exhausted for most of her hair match; a Spanish Fly spot near the end was ill-considered and almost went badly wrong. The moment honoring Ringo Mendoza was fantastic, but there’s nothing here you need to go out of your way to see when it turns up on YouTube in two weeks.

CMLL gave no explanation as to why Atlantis Jr. did not appear, and the Los Guerreros team did not do post-match interviews. Atlantis Jr. did interviews promoting the match on Wednesday, so this wasn’t a change long in the planning. He’s not listed on any upcoming cards, though CMLL hasn’t announced anything past Tuesday. I believed Los Guerreros were meant to win the trios titles, so Los Malditos winning instead makes some sense if Atlantis Jr. was temporary unavailable. Atlantis Sr. winning the belts instead would’ve messed up plans, and Los Malditos would stand to gain the most from even a short reign. It could be Sagrado and Los Gemelo Diablos were meant for the titles all along. The post-match teased an immediate rematch, we’ll see if it happens.

CMLL (SAT) 03/19/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha, CMLL, Estrellas del RingMas LuchaThe Gladiatores]
1) Bengala & Leono b Apocalipsis & Cholo
tecnicos took 2/3
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Skadi b Amapola, La Seductora, Tiffany
tecnicos took 1/3
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pólvora, Volcano DQ Disturbio, Hombre Bala Jr., Kráneo [Relevos IncreíblesDisturbio Cmll Arena Coliseo CDMX. 19.03.2022 (posted by Princesa Dorada) Disturbio Cmll Arena Coliseo CDMX. 19.03.2022 (posted by Princesa Dorada) Disturbio Cmll Arena Coliseo CDMX. 19.03.2022-2 (posted by Princesa Dorada)
Kraneo and Volcano started off refusing to fight but then had issues, leading to Kraneo unmasking Volcano and Volcano demanding a singles match with his usual partner
4) Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote b Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Star Jr.
Rudos took 2/3. Cavernario pulled Soberano’s mask to win, then the rudos unmasked all the tecnicos. Rematch challenges followed.
5) Hechicero b Gran Guerrero [CMLL HEAVY]
2nd defense.

Hechicero versus Gran Guerrero was said to be great. CMLL probably single cam taped it and we’ll get to see a couple of minutes from it.

CMLL (SUN) 03/20/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito b Fantasy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía
2) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Átomo, Chamuel, Mije
Team Diablo took 1/3.
3) Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus b Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus
Rudos took 1/3.
4) Esfinge & Fugaz b Felino Jr. & Pólvora © [MEX TAG]
Felino & Polvora fall on their second defense (and first title match outside of Arena Puebla). Esfinge and Fugaz are the 33rd modern champions.
5) Místico, Soberano Jr., Titán b Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Terrible
tecnicos took 2/3

I didn’t see that title change coming; three titles changes in eight months is a lot for CMLL. (Three title matches in eight months would be a lot; they had five.) The title change should air on 04/01.

CMLL said the Universal tournament and the Arena Mexico Anniversary show would take place next month. Neither event has happened in two years due to the pandemic; there’s a good chance the final of the tournament will be on that Anniversary show, probably April 29th with blocks on April 15 and 22nd. The current men’s main division champions:

  1. Angel de Oro (CMLL Tag, National Lightheavyweight)
  2. Cancerbero (National Trios)
  3. Esfinge (National Tag)
  4. Euforia (National Heavyweight)
  5. Fugaz (National Tag)
  6. Gemelo Diablo I (CMLL Trios)
  7. Gemelo Diablo II (CMLL Trios)
  8. Hechicero (CMLL Heaavyweight)
  9. Mistico (CMLL Middleweight)
  10. Niebla Roja (CMLL Light Heavyweight, CMLL Tag)
  11. Panterita del Ring Jr. (Mexican Lightweight)
  12. Raziel (National Trios) but also injuried
  13. Sagrado (CMLL Trios)
  14. Soberano Jr. (CMLL Middleweight)
  15. Stuka Jr. (NWA Light Heavyweight)
  16. Stigma (CMLL Super Lightweight)
  17. Templario (Mexican Middleweight)
  18. Titan (CMLL Weltwerweight)
  19. Volador Jr. (NWA Welterweight)
  20. Virus (National Trios)

The Mexican national middleweight & Arena Coliseo Tag Team championships are vacant, though the Coliseo title has only been used for this as an injury sub. This has always generally been a 16 person tournament but CMLL could put in as many people as they want, there are no rules. Atlantis Jr. versus Stuka (NWA LH champ) would’ve made sense if Atlantis had won the trios titles, and it’s possible that could still happen if they hurry.

The Arena Coliseo Anniversary show should be coming up on April 2nd (79 years to the day it was opened), but there’s been no mention of it yet.

Puebla tonight has Atantis Sr. vs Stuka and Mistico vs Gran Guerrero today.

CMLL (TUE) 03/22/2022 Arena México
1) Kaligua & Último Dragóncito vs Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia
2) Robin, Suicida, Valiente Jr. vs Disturbio, Enfermero Jr., Raider
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido
4) La Guerrera, La Jarochita, Lluvia vs Amapola, Dalys, Dark Silueta
5) Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Gran Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Último Guerrero

A less active Tuesday show this week.

Raider is questionable at best. He worked the AAA spot show in Saltillo on Saturday and is listed on a show there locally on Monday, so he may have gone home already.

Atlantis told Milenio he’d die if he stopped wrestling. He means it figuratively – Atlantis claims he’s going to vanish one day and delete his social media presence, and do it without announcing it ahead of time – but he doesn’t know if it’ll be six months or five years from now.

AAA

This week’s AAA TV, the last half from Merida, was a good episode. The three way tag was very and did a lot to highlight Gringo Loco & Jack Cartwheel, helpful if they’re going to be around a lot. The opening trios was good as well; Octagon Jr.’s finish got a lot of attention. The main event got good in the last few minutes, though NGD are better off in a short matches if they’re not going to go with a strong effort until the end.

Sanson beat Dave the Clown to win the Vive Latino championship, the final match of their two days of shows at the venue. This title is defended once a year at this festival, so you’ll forget it exists unless Sanson shows up on TV.

I haven’t seen full results from the AAA BRB show on Saturday in Saltillo, but the Laredo Kid/Bandido/Vikingo three way match ended up as the first ever Bandido versus Vikingo with Laredo Kid at Impact. That show was taped for Mas Lucha and will likely turn up in a few months time. Estrellas del Ring also has a Saltillo fan cam person, so it could show up on their YouTube much sooner. This Facebook page has six minutes of the match.

The Saltillo show seems to have drawn very well; it’s 6,500 seat venue and it looks close to sold out. The AAA TV tapings haven’t done especially well, but other shows have. I wonder if Mexico is in for a year where all big entertainment events, especially those away from Mexico City, due better than normal becuase there’s been so few of them over the last two years.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 03/20/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Demon Rocker & Mini Spirit b Mini Raider & Relampaguito
2) Fulgor & Yorvak b Shocko & Tito Moran and Estrella de Oro & Hell Boy ¡Tenemos lucha de triangular de parejas, de Chile y Argentina, y el gandor del TryOut! (posted by mluchatv)
Hell Boy replaced Relampago (moved up)
3) Freelance © DQ Puma de Oro [IWRG REY DEL AIRE] La Rebelión de los Jrs | ¡Puma de Oro (R) VS Freelance (C) por el Campeonato Rey del Aire! (posted by mluchatv)
1st defense
4) Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Hijo del Alebrije, Noisy Boy b Accion Jackson, Brad Alexis, Lil Blay, Travis Banks La Rebelión de los Jrs | ¡Vuelos y acciones de México VS Resto del Mundo! (posted by mluchatv) La Rebelión de los Jrs | ¡Ya comenzó México VS Resto del Mundo! (posted by mluchatv)
Dr. Cerbero, Cerebro Negro and Relampago replaced Alpha Wolf, Dragon Bane and Noisy Boy
5) Toxin © b Aster Boy [IWRG MEXICO] La Rebelión de los Jrs | ¡Así sorprendió Toxin (C) a Aster Boy (R) en la lucha de Campeonato (posted by mluchatv) La Rebelión de los Jrs | Toxin sigue como campeón y hay retos entre Yorvak y Aster Boy (posted by mluchatv)
7th defense. Yorvack challenged Aster Boy to a IWRG LIGHT title match.
6) Dick Angelo 3G b Villano V Jr.El Hijo del Medico AsesinoHijo De Dos CarasHijo del PanteraCapo MayorRey ArkanoCerebro Negro Jr.Halloween Jr.Hijo del Pirata Morgan [Rebelion de los Juniors] ¡Así comenzó la REBELIÓN DE LOS JRS, evento estelar de la Arena Naucalpan! (posted by mluchatv)
Dick Angelo 3G won, beating Hijo del Pirata with some help from Puma de Oro. Rey Arkano, the son of Bobby Lee Jr., was the surprise wrestler.

Dick Angelo 3G getting the win over more known guys is a surprise; it’s rare IWRG goes that strong with their own in-house names.

Relampago suffered some head/neck injury in his match bad enough that they needed an ambulance.

No word as to why Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane didn’t appear. In an interview from Thursday, they said they’d be going to NOAH in late April. They also said they’d be heading to the US soon.

IWRG announced they’d signed 2022 Tryout Yorvack to a five year deal. That doesn’t actually sound great for Yorvack if it’s real but it may not be real. This bit did reveal a bit about the current IWRG management team

  • IWRG President: Marco Antonio Morneo Madrid
  • director of new projects: Ivannia Moreno Tolsá
  • director of marketing: Marco Moreno Tolsá
  • programming coordiandor: Alejandro Álvarez

Leonardo Peña Durante & Warrior Jr.

Leonardo Peña Durante, a 17 year old training to become a wrestler, passed away on March 10 due to an injury suffered during wrestling training in Apaxco, Mexico State. The situation was not wildly known until a family member posted about it on Facebook. Their version of events is Peña started training on March 1st under a luchador known as Pancho Pantera. (Many wrestlers have used that name, though none have been active recently in Mexico State lineups I have; he’s either very old or also using another name.) Peña took a powerbomb onto his head on two consecutive sessions. The first left him hurt enough to leave the ring, though he never lost consciousness. The second one left him faint, and he went into conclusions. There was no medical personal of first aid kit on hand; they just tried to wake him up with water. They did call an ambulance, but the ambulance had no doctor – they had to go pick one up, and Peña passed away before they made it to the hospital. “Pancho Pantera” did not accompany Peña in the ambulance and did not have any certification to show he was qualified to teach minors; he also didn’t talk to the family in the week after the accident, and it doesn’t seem like the government reached out beyond the person who runs the facility informing them that their son was hurt.

It is insane that this kid (and presumably everyone in training) was taking powerbombs within days of starting to train. I’ve never been in wrestling training, but I’ve seen enough that I know there should’ve been weeks if not months of learning to fall safely before trying something like that.

The Apaxco government issued a statement in response. They’re canceling all lucha libre classes at that venue, and asking for all sports classes to be canceled in the city where there is no certification for the teachers. They’re also looking to improve the medical situation at places where classes are held. I’m not sure how much of those changes will actually take place; lucha libre and lucha libre training tends to slip under the radar quickly after these incidents.

Omii Casas, in a Facebook post on Monday, writes about the last day of her husband Warrior Jr. He returned from a match in Guadalajara very late, got two hours of sleep, they had breafast, and he went to go train, excited about his dream coming true soon. Warrior Jr. suffered the injury that would kill him in that training session. Casas talks about the difficulties of the last seven months and the love she still has for her husband.

The injury likely took place on August 11th; August 10th was Warrior Jr.’s last match. Miguel Reducindo’s column also said “an injury occurred during training.” Miguel Fonseca’s report mentioned Warrior Jr. suffered a severe spinal issue, which fit with the description of the struggles of the last seven months. There’s a couple of photos of Warrior during the last few months which attempt to obscure the fact that Warrior Jr. is laying down in them; the spinal injury may left him with some level of paralysis. There are also unsourced reports from the last few days, and it’s likely that’s connected to the original injury.

CMLL wrestlers are expected to train reguarlly at Arena Mexico. Volador likely was holding additional training for Los Depredaores, who were just about a month away from debuting. Those sort of indivudal classes might be held elsewhere in Mexico City, and Warrior Jr. could’ve been training more elswhere on his own.  Casas’ post is non-specific on the training. It’s possible Warrior Jr.’s fatal injury happened in a CMLL ring, but we don’t really know.

CMLL did not hold a moment of applause for Warrior Jr. on Friday. Volador Jr. wore a black armband, which I presume was for Warrior Jr. but was never specifically acknowledged as much. Volador also did not participate in any post-match interviews. De-empazing Warrior Jr. got the media to move onto straight Homenaje a Dos Leyendas coverage without any further discussion into what happened.

I wonder what the October CMLL Informa interview segment with three doctors to put over CMLL’s medical care of their wrestlers was really about now.

Today is the 7th year anniversary of Perro Aguayo Jr. passing away due to his own neck injury. It’s hard to know what could’ve been done different in that case, but it often doesn’t feel like much has changed. Or there was always so much that needed to be improved and it’s not close to being done.

Other News

The Crash (FRI) 03/18/2022 Auditorio de Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California [The Crash, TJ Sports]
1) Terror Azteca b LanzerKamik-CMirageRyan Kidd [Copa Juvenil The Crash 2022]
2) Destiny b Séptimo DragónBlack DangerSkalibur [The Crash CRUISER]
vacant title (Dinamico)
3) Próximo b Toto [hardcore]
hair match challenges followed
4) Arandú, Star Boy, Zarco b Bugambilia, Súper Astro Jr., Zumbi
5) Dragón Lee (Indie) & Dralistico b Steve Filip & Tome Filip [The Crash TAG]
scheduled for Bestia/Mecha’s The Crash tag championship, but they didn’t appear (NWA) and titles didn’t appear on the line
6) Cinta de Oro b Penta Zero MLince Dorado [The Crash HEAVY]
vacant title (Hijo del Vikingo champ). Cinta pinned Lince and was billed as new champion, though they didn’t appear to have the actual physical belt – Cinta’s IOWC championship was presented.

This was said to be one of the weaker Crash shows in a while, and surely looks that much on paper. They didn’t draw as well as with Santo last time out. La Rebelion were in the US for the NWA on Saturday and Sunday, it’s possible they couldn’t make a Friday The Crash show. It wasn’t explained in the building if that was the case, they were just missing from the opening video.

The Crash announced they’d be back on 05/13, which is a bit longer than usual. Outside names announced

  • JONAH
  • Travis Banks
  • Marty Scurll
  • Eric Redbeard
  • Rey Horus

Scurll worked The Crash occasionally before the pandemic and before he was exiled from most English speaking wrestling promotions. That doesn’t matter to The Crash and it was inevitable he’d be back here. Banks is no surprise either.

Robles Promotions also announced they’re bringing in Marty Scurll too. All these groups are looking for international names and unconcerned with any baggage that comes with them. Scurll and especially Banks may not be considered significant stars outside of Mexico but even the slightest bit of fame carries a lot to these promoters. It doesn’t seem to matter as much to fans – Austin Aries won the X-LAW championship on their show Saturday in Arena Lopez Mateos to a disappointing turnout for a “name” promotion – but these are promoter decisions.

The Republic of Lucha promotion had it debut show on Saturday. It was advertised as one-year anniversary special, but Penta, Fenix, and others came out at the end to talk about it becoming a regular thing with a next show in three months and hopes of becoming the new PWG. Judging from how many matches end up changing along the way and their inability to ever announce a lineup, that’s going to be a hard goal to reach. They did draw a sell-out for this outdoor show. Penta, Fenix, and friends wrestling quarterly near Los Angeles in a small venue is going to have no problem drawing. Three months from now would put the next show around TripleMania Tijuana, which would be a good weekend to draw.

Fenix appeared to apologize for not wrestling. I wonder if we’ll finally get a real estimate on his return time now that all these shows he wasn’t going to make are over, or if we’ll get a new run of events where it’s unclear if he’ll make any of them or not. Konnan also appeared, talked about his part in discovering the Lucha Brothers, and once again hinted about big plans for the US market.

I don’t have full results for the show, but we did finally have a lineup:

  • Lucas Riley vs Cameron GatesDom Kubrick [Santino Brothers Champ]
    • might be a dark match
  • Danny Limelight & Slice Boogie vs Steve Filip & Tome Filip
  • Jacob Fatu vs Lince Dorado
  • Dante Martin & Darius Martin vs Arez & Rey Horus
  • Chik Tormenta vs Taya
  • Penta vs Johnny Caballero

The delayed PPV will now air at 9 pm CT, after Dynamite. I’m not sure who did the announcing, Fenix and Chavo Guerrero were both seen at the booth.

Lucha Va Voom, which seems tied in with Republic of Lucha, announced their next shows will be on May 5th and 6th as soon as this one was over. DMT Azul, Rey Horus, Taya and Magno are announced.

04/01 MLW

NJPW announced their Best of the Super Junior tournament will return to it’s usual May spot. It’s theoritically possible Mexican wrestlers may participate, but there has been no outside foreginer wrestlers booked on NJPW late and it’d be a nice surprise if any luchador shows up. Maybe Mascara Dorada has the best chance of anyone, since he’s the only one NJPW is bringing in for US shows. Robles announced a show for 05/22 which includes Dragon Lee, so he doens’t appear to have been told to keep those days clear. Dragon Lee’s twitter post on it suggests he found out when the tournament was happening as soon as anyone else.

RIOT has a video building up the Arez/Promteo title match this weekend.

Segunda Caida watches some 1995 lucha.

Warrior Jr. (1997-2022), Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, AAA weekend TV

Warrior Jr. 

CMLL luchador Warrior Jr. passed away on Thursday. Warrior Jr., also billed as Black Warrior Jr., was a fourth-generation CMLL/EMLL wrestler. He was the son of Black Warrior, the grandson of Mano Negra, and the great grandson of El Rebelde. His family included the Panthers and the Casas family; he was married to Negro Casas daughter Omii Casas, and they had two children together. While Warrior Jr. was an independent wrestler, he and Omii promoted shows under the “RO Wrestling” name, using their initials. He came off on the indies as a guy with big ideas and enthusiasm, and a youthful inability to follow through on them.

Warrior had most recently been part of CMLL’s training school and apparently a few times in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in 2021. His last known match was at that building on August 10th. Warrior Jr. was announced for the August 13th show but didn’t appear. He was listed on other later indie shows but doesn’t seem to have appeared on them. Warrior Jr. was training with Volador Jr. at that time and was expected to be one of Los Depredadores, but never ended up introduced as one of them. Volador did hint early on that there was an additional member yet to be revealed, which may have been Warrior Jr.; that extra member hadn’t been mentioned in recent months.

A luchador passing away at 24 is very strange, and the fact that no one’s explaining what happening – not even attempting a cover story to move attention away from that glaring omission – suggests it’s a sad situation, a rock that no one wants to turn over to find out the mess underneath. CMLL and Warrior’s family have not mentioned a cause of death, and the media stories on Warrior Jr.’s death are just relying on those social media posts.

Miguel Fonseca, who hosts a YouTube wrestling news/opinion channel in addition to running X-LAW, posted a short obituary video for Warrior Jr. In that video, Fonseca says Warrior Jr. suffered a “serious spinal injury” and passed away as a result. No one else has reported this as far as I’ve seen. There are some social media clues that something serious happened with Warrior Jr. last August and a serious injury fits with Warrior Jr.’s abrupt disappearance from wrestling. Fonseca’s video includes no further details about the injury. I know enough of Fonseca that I believe he’d only share a cause of death like that if he believed the story to be true.

Negro Casas, Warrior Jr.’s father-in-law, is scheduled to wrestle tonight in Arena Mexico. Black Warrior is scheduled to return to Arena Coliseo Guadalajara on Tuesday. It would be understandable if either or both of those matches changed. CMLL acknowledged Warrior Jr.’s passing on social media and they likely will have a moment of applause for him tonight in Arena Mexico.

CMLL

Homenaje a Dos Leyendas is tonight. It’s a show; I dug more into it on Voices of Wrestling and found a show that should be fine but doesn’t feel like one of the bigger shows on paper. I’m giving CMLL a lot of benefit of the doubt by assuming they got scared by that January shut down and didn’t want to build up a big show in case another shut down came up, because it feels like a lot like the pandemic “big” events of the last two years.

The lightweight opener should be good. The main event should be fun if they’re not rushed for time. Casas/Templario should be reliably good if it still happens. It’d be a fine “big show of April” card, it’s just not one of the biggest shows of the year. What little build there was for this show was for things people aren’t that invested in; the women’s apuesta match doesn’t have much interest outside of those who are always intensely into the women, Casas/Templario came out of nowhere, there’s been no build towards the trios title match. There’s no anticipation like there should be, no matter what the situation was coming into it.

The show will air on TicketMaster Live for a little over 11 USD at 8:30 pm local. Remember, this is an hour later than usual if you switched your clocks this past week. It’ll air on TV next week and go up on YouTube the week following, where many more people will see it.

I haven’t been keeping a close eye on in-person tickets, but they don’t appear to be moving well. It’ll probably pick up closer to show time.

CMLL posted a video with various legends and wrestlers paying tribute to Ringo Mendoza. I would’ve cut out Skandalo’s video for filming his vertically, but I’m a terrible person.

This weekend includes a Hechicero vs Gran Guerrero CMLL World Heavyweight championship on Saturday and Felino Jr. & Polvora defending the national tag titles against Esfinge & Fugaz on Sunday. Champions figure to retain in both.

CMLL (MON) 03/21/2022 Arena Puebla
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2022 (Puebla)
1) Asturiano, Cachorro, Robin vs Perverso, Siky Ozama, Toro Bill Jr.
2) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
3) Atlantis vs Stuka Jr.
4) Magia Blanca, Rugido, Volador Jr. vs Esfinge, Fugaz, Soberano Jr.
5) Místico vs Gran Guerrero

Puebla gets its own Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show, with two singles matches and probably a very good semi-main. The Depredadores matches are going to be emotional with Warrior Jr.’s passing; they may pay tribute to their missing member for a while.

50/60/70s legend Dory Dixon will be honored; he still lives in Puebla at last work. Like Gran Cochisse, he’s worthy of being honored in the big Arena Mexico celebration too, but there are so many names that fit there and it’s good they’re honoring Dixon while he’s still around to feel it.

CMLL announced they’d fill the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championships next Saturday in another one night tournament. They originally announced 7 teams, then corrected to list a normal eight:

  • Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro
  • Akuma & Espanto Jr.
  • Diamond & Magia Blanca
  • Pegasso & Stigma
  • Magnus & Rugido
  • Hombre Bala Jr. & Robin
  • Guerrero Maya Jr. & Esfinge
  • Dark Panther & Cachorro

It would be good for the Los Depreadores act for someone besides to win a title, so my guess is it’ll be one of those two teams.

When listing all the vacant CMLL titles, I forgot the Mexican National Welterweight title is still unfilled after Soberano gave it up a few months ago.

Discounted CMLL tickets are one of many benefits being offered as part of a Mexico program to keep at-risk kids in school. The Mi Beca para Empezar program will allow kids to attend CMLL shows for 10 pesos along with a paying adult, in specific sections.

AAA

AAA TV this week on Space (6:30 pm local, one hour later than usual due to DST), finishing off the 03/05 show from Madero

  • Mr. Iguana, Myzteiz Jr., Octagon Jr. vs Flamita, Latigo, Toxin
  • Heavy Metal & Laredo Kid vs Bandido & Jack Cartwheel vs Abismo Negro Jr. & Gringo Loco
  • NGD vs Chessman, Pagano, Psycho Clown

The three way tag match was said to be the best match from the taping live. I plan on streaming this show on Twitch.

Abismo Negro Jr., Laredo Kid, and Estrellita are off Saturday’s AAA spot show in Saltillo, due to AAA apparently forgetting they were booked in Impact or at the Vive Latino festival. Heavy Metal, La Maravilla, Sanson and Forastero have been added. This is the local promoter announcing changes; AAA still isn’t in the business of doing so. The semi-main was supposed to be Laredo vs Vikingo vs Bandido; I’m not sure if Heavy Metal goes in Laredo’s spot or if they’re doing Vikingo & Bandido vs Sanson & Forastero. That show is usually taped for Mas Lucha (and we got Vive Latino handhelds pre-pandemic.)

Impact tapes Friday and Saturday in Philadelphia. Taurus isn’t booked those days so he’s probably going with Laredo. They’ve missed the last two tapings due to AAA date conflicts.

Pagano appeared in a video protesting the building of a convention center in Ciudad Juarez on what is now parkland.

The WON notes Estrellita replaced Sam Adonis in Sunday’s match in Merida; Adonis had travel issues. There’s also a note that AAA wants to find a third for the Hamburgesa/Iguana trio; the idea those two have plans was teased on TV.

There’s also an update about Kenny Omega’s return timeline in the WON, in that there is no specific return timeline. He’s getting his sports hernia surgery at the end of March, he’s still recovering from knee surgery, and there may be other injuries. The implied context of the update is “don’t expect him for AEW’s Double or Nothing”, but it reads like there’s little chance Omega is returning of AAA’s TripleMania in Tijuana this June. Maybe the last TripleMania in CDMX, if an Omega return is still even in the cards at this point. My big reading from this is Omega was really messed up by the end of his AEW title reign and they were lucky to get him to gut it out as long as he did.

The AAA Aguascalientes promoter posted a message reading only “Verano de Escandalo“. It was unclear if AAA was going to run the Verano/Heroes Inmortales/Guerra de Titanes shows this year with the three TripleManais. A Verano de Escandalos show in Aguascalientes would make a lot of sense given how well past spot shows have drawn there.

Other Notes

IWRG , LLB (THU) 03/17/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Estrellas del Ring, IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Fantasma De La Ópera I, Fantasma De La Ópera II, Power Bull b Davo, Gravedad Cero, Ska Boy EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv) Fantasmas de la Ópera I, II y Power Bull vs Ska Boy, Davo y Gravedad Cero LUCHA LIBRE BOOM (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
2) Arturo Gaona, Dark Horus, Demencia, Hijo De Brazo De Platino b Caramelo, El Divino, Juan Diego, Pinochito Divino, Juan Diego, Pinochito y Caramelo vs Arturo Gaona, Demencia, Dark Horus e H Brazo de Platino (posted by Estrellas del Ring) EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv)
3) Artemiz & Princesa Azul b Big Mami & Mary Caporal and Diosa Quetzal & Sagitarius [LLM WOMEN TAG] EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv) Princesa Azul y Artemiz vs Diosa Quetzal y Sagitarious vs Big Mami y Mary Caporal LUCHA LIBRE BOOM (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
Lucha Libre Magazine championship
4) Noicy Boy b FreelanceTonalliChicanitoBelialCerebro Negro Jr. EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv) Freelance/Noicy Boy/Impulso/Belial/Tonalli/Chicanito/Cerebro Negro Jr LUCHA LIBRE BOOM/IWRG (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
5) Carta Brava Jr. (LLB), Cerebro Negro, Fantasma de la Ópera b Corsario Negro, Drako, Fulgor EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv) Fantasma de la Ópera, Cerebro Negro y Carta Brava vs Corsario Negro Jr, Drako y Fulgor Primero BOOM (posted by Estrellas del Ring)
match was followed by an Erika Canseco dance number
6) Cíclope & Miedo Extremo DCOR Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane Dragon Bane y Alpha Wolf vs Miedo Extremo y Cíclope LUCHA LIBRE BOOM/IWRG (posted by Estrellas del Ring) EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv)
Ciclope did a moonsault off the lower entranceway to setup the countout.
7) Canek & Octagón DQ Dr. Wagner Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera Canek y Octagon vs DR. Wagner Jr y Fuerza Guerrera LUCHA LIBRE BOOM/IWRG (posted by Estrellas del Ring) Canek y Octagon Vs Dr. Wagner Jr y Fuerza Guerrera en la Arena Naucalpan con Boom e IWRG (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) EN VIVO: ¡4 Leyendas vivientes en el mismo ring! (posted by mluchatv) Locura en Arena Naucalpan por 4 leyendas: Fuerza Guerrera, Dr. Wagner Jr, Canek y Octagon (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Dr. Wagner replaced DMT Azul after about a week, fouled Canek for the DQ. Canek challenged him to a hair versus mask match before TripleMania XXX.

The show seemed short of a sellout, but that’s great for a Thursday night show. The old wrestlers move like old wrestlers but they still mean something if used sparingly.

In the women’s match, Quetzal & Sagitarius tried to give Big Mami a middle rope superplex and it went bad. Quetzal slipped off the ropes while delivering the move, and Mami essentially took a DDT bump. She rolled out and didn’t come back in; her partner was eliminated soon after. It was a poorly designed and executed spot.

Fuerza Guerrera announced he’s restarted his pandemic-delays retirement tour, with the idea he’ll retire in December 23, 2023 in Arena Mexico. I’m skeptical of all Mexican wrestling retirement tours in execution but I’d believe Fuerza wants to do that at this moment.

Octagon said he’d be willing to put up his mask against Fuerza Guerrera if the people want it. I may be reading too much into this, but I think Octagon is trying to walk back his “I’ll only put up my mask for 15 million pesos” comments of a few months back.  Fuerza Guerrera said his mask wouldn’t be worth as much. The eternal Guerrera/Octagon feud only works if fans (and more so promoters) believe they’re still slowly heading to their mask match, Octagon naming a ridiculous price exposed that it wasn’t actually happening, and so Octagon has to sell people on the possibility again.

Dragon Bane called Los Macizos “anti-professional” in a post-match interview. Bane & Lupus have been accused of being the same by others. They may have expected to win in their home arena and Los Macizos may have not been interested in losing; it’s a curious double countout.

IWRG (SUN) 03/20/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Raider & Relampaguito vs Mini Demon Rocker & Mini Spirit
2) Fulgor & Yorvak vs Shocko & Tito Moran and Estrella de Oro & Relámpago
3) Freelance © vs Puma de Oro [IWRG REY DEL AIRE]
4) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Hijo del Alebrije, Noisy Boy vs Accion Jackson, Brad Alexis, Lil Blay, Travis Banks
5) Toxin © vs Aster Boy [IWRG MEXICO]
6) Villano V vs El Hijo del Medico AsesinoDick Angelo 3GHijo De Dos CarasHijo del PanteraCapo Mayor?Cerebro Negro Jr.Halloween Jr.Hijo del Pirata Morgan [Rebelion de los Juniors]

The annual Rebelion of Los Juniors show is a Mas Lucha Premium show. The winner of the titular match will likely face current champion Hijo del Alebrije. The two title matches were set up this past Thurday.

The Republic of Lucha, the store owned in part by Penta & Fenix, will host a wrestling show Saturday night in celebration of their one year anniversary. The show is on airing on a delay on FITE; the current schedule has it at Wednesday at 6 pm, which puts it up against Dynamite for the second half. It’s a 10 USD show; I’d definitely get it live and it’ll be more about remembering to get it later. The slight issue is we don’t know the actual matches; some have changed multiple times, some have quietly disappeared.  Republic of Lucha says they’ll release the final card on Saturday morning. This is what I could piece together Friday morning

  • Dante Martin, Darius Martin vs Aramis, Rey Horus
  • Jacob Fatu vs Lince Dorado
  • Danny Limelight, Slice Boogie vs Steve Filip, Tome Filip
  • Chik Tormenta vs Taya
  • shown on the poster: Penta, Arez, Daga, Dralistico, Johnny Caballero, Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Dragon Lee versus Penta was advertised at one point and is mentioned in some of the descriptions, but the match graphic is gone and Dragon Lee’s not on the poster. Arez was in various iterations of the Top Flight match. Fenix was advertised at wrestling early on but hasn’t been in quite a while (or they removed his mentions and I haven’t noticed.) There’s enough names here to make this a good show.

Other shows of not this weekend include The Crash’s first post-AAA show tonight. Penta vs Cinta de Oro vs Lince Dorado headlines; I’m interested in finding out how much the ex-WWE guys mean in Mexico. X-LAW has their second show of their revival, but the first in a place close enough to Mexico City to show up on fan cams. Austin Aries vs Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Mesias headlines.

KAOZ held a press conference Thursday for next week’s return show at Arena Coliseo Monterrey. The press conference teased this would be the last show ever at the building. My information is there’s a chance it would be the last show, but there have been rumors of the show being closed down for years and there’s no specific reason this would be the final show.

Alberto el Patron, who seems to be on a podcast tour to promote that show, says he was paid only 800 pesos for his first match. 800 pesos is pretty good pay for most wrestlers on the first match. It should be better than that but 800 is more than a Coke and a torta.

04/01 the WRLD on Lucha

MLW added Aramis vs Gino Medina in a lumberjack strap match to their 04/01 show.

Laredo Kid is out of the 04/02 LuchaManiaks main event, with Black Taurus now facing ACH in the main event. The full card is up now.

The March 6, 2022 Zona 23 show has been added to IWTV.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Stigma new CMLL SL champion, Templario/Casas added to H2L, Vikingo injury update,

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 03/15/2022 Arena México [Box y Lucha, CMLL, Cronista del RingKaiser SportsMas Lucha, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Mercurio, Minos, Pierrothito b Acero, Acero, Angelito  (posted by luchablog vault (Google Drive)) Pequeño Pierroth, Mercurio y Minos Vs Angelito, Acero y Aéreo martes de CMLL (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
10:42. One fall.
2) Chamuel b Micro Gemelo Diablo [CMLL MICRO]  (posted by ) Chamuel Vs Micro Gemelo Diablo por el campeonato mundial de Micro estrellas Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
9:19. One fall. Chamuel retained on a powerbomb and a leg submission. Second defense
3) Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Okumura b Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.  (posted by ) Akuma, Espanto Jr y Dark Magic Vs Misterioso Jr, Hijo del Villano III y Okumura (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
17:05. Ola Negra took 1/3.
4) Asturiano & Eléctrico b SuicidaHalcón Suriano Jr.InquisidorStigmaAdrenalinaFantástico (Jalisco) [CMLL SL (posted by )
vacant title
5) Halcón Suriano Jr. b Adrenalina (Jalisco) [CMLL SL, quarterfinal (posted by )
4:28
6) Suicida b Inquisidor [CMLL SL, quarterfinal (posted by )
5:02
7) Stigma b Fantástico (Jalisco) [CMLL SL, quarterfinal (posted by )
4:48
8) Eléctrico b Asturiano [CMLL SL, quarterfinal (posted by )
2:28
9) Suicida b Halcón Suriano Jr. [CMLL SL, semifinal (posted by )
3:16
10) Stigma b Eléctrico [CMLL SL, semifinal (posted by )
2:57
11) Stigma b Suicida [CMLL SL, final (posted by ) Final Campeonato Mundial Súper Ligero del CMLL Suicida Vs Stigma; Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
7:11
12) Star Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. b Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado  (posted by ) Lucha estelar CMLL: Volador Jr, Titán y Star Jr Vs Sagrado, Gemelo Diablo I y Gemelo Diablo II (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
10:25. Tecnicos took 1/3.

The tournament matches were generally too short to mean much – it’s hard to understand why these aren’t ciberneticos – but the outsiders tried hard to make an impression in the little time given. Fantastico did well, which caused the fans to boo when Stigma won, and Stigma became the booing favorite all the way through winning the title.

Stigma may have picked that name because there will always be a stigma around his career. He’s the son of the person who runs Arena Puebla and the nephew of the person who’s been the lead of the programming department for two decades. He’s always seemed pushed harder than some of his size and ability would’ve normally be; Asturiano equally started out from Puebla, looked good in every big match he got there, and seems to have no chance of ever even making the CMLL CDMX roster. Given how Stigma is already used in CMLL, he makes as much sense as champion as anyone, but it’ll probably be a forgettable reign.

With this super lightweight title settled and the trio title resolved on Friday, it’s only the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championship left vacant. I’m not sure if that one is meant to be coming back.

Chamuel versus Micro Gemelo Diablo was good. The Micro Gemelos are more athletic than the Microman but they’re not getting the same reactions so far.

CMLL (TUE) 03/15/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Fuego en el Ring]
1) Destello, Ponzoña Jr., Temerario b Cosmos, Micro, Último Ángel
2) Bello Antuan, El Divino, Mágico b Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Thunder Boy
3) Dark Silueta, Hera, Valkiria b Miss Olympia, Náutica, Sexy Sol
4) Cris Skin, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno b Explosivo, Gallo, Joker
Flash interfered for the DQ. Mask and OCCIDENTE TAG match challenges between Gallo/Flash vs the Truenos.
5) Místico & Soberano Jr. b Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero
Soberano dropkicked the referee (Mario) to break up a pin, which should’ve been a DQ, but Gran Guerrero convinced him to let the match continue. This was a bad call, he took a Mistica about a minute later.

Flash has been out for about a month; which might have delayed a plan from a big match in that feud for next week’s show. Fuego en el Ring was back posting results, which is extra helpful when these shows all start one hour later.

The final lineup for Friday’s Arena Mexico show

CMLL (FRI) 03/18/2022 Arena México
CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2022
1) Cachorro, El Suicida, Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr., Robin
Cachorro replaced Oro Jr. on March 7th.
2) Negro Casas vs Templario
3) Marcela & Metálica vs La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [final, relevos suicidas]
4) ? vs ?? [mask, hair]
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto and Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado and Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible [CMLL TRIOS, battle royal]
6) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ?????? [CMLL TRIOS, semifinal]
7) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ?????? [CMLL TRIOS, semifinal]
8) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ?????? [CMLL TRIOS, final]
9) Averno & Místico vs TJP (Teddy James Perkins) & Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

I’d like to see Negro Casas/Templario, but this show has too many matches and looks like it’ll end up rushed. Fans have complained about the lack of a significant mask or hair match on this show and perhaps CMLL is trying to make it up on volume. Vaquerita remains the favorite to lose her hair, Los Guerreros remain the favorites to win the trios titles.

This remains a TicketmasterLive show. If you’re getting this, remember the show starts one hour later if you switched your clocks last weekend.

I’ve usually written a good chunk of a preview for a major show by this point. I don’t have anything for Homeanje a Dos Leyendas. It should be a perfectly enjoyable show but I’m not sure there’s a reason for people who aren’t already buying every CMLL show to care. These are matches that exist to fulfill the requirement of running a Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show in a cold (but slightly warming) promotion.

CMLL (SAT) 03/19/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Bengala & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Skadi vs Amapola, La Seductora, Tiffany
3) Dulce Gardenia, Pólvora, Volcano vs Disturbio, Hombre Bala Jr., Kráneo [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Fugaz, Soberano Jr., Star Jr. vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote
5) Hechicero vs Gran Guerrero [CMLL HEAVY]
2nd defense

Volcano & Kraneo are forced to fight, how sad.

CMLL (SUN) 03/20/2022 Arena México
1) Fantasy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Pierrothito
2) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Átomo, Chamuel, Mije
3) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Magnus vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
4) Felino Jr. & Pólvora © vs Esfinge & Fugaz [MEX TAG]
second defense
5) Místico, Soberano Jr., Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Felino, Terrible

A rare in-ring appearance for Mije.

CMLL (TUE) 03/22/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Capitán Cobra, Cosmos vs Destello, Destructor, Thunder Boy
2) El Divino, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr. vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Fúnebre
3) Stephanie Vaquer vs La Magnifica
4) Explosivo, Gallo, Joker vs Cris Skin, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
5) Átomo, Chamuel, Perico Zacarías vs Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II
6) Atlantis & Blue Panther vs Negro Casas & Satánico
7) Místico & Titán vs Averno & Black Warrior

This show will honor Gran Cochisse, who has been retired for in-ring about 25 years and is three years younger than Satanico. Mistico faces two of his old rivals in the main event and the Micros make a rare Guadalajara appearance.

The Arena Queretaro show for Saturday, seemingly promoted by CMLL’s Guadalajara branch, is postponed due to permitting issues. They hope to reschedule soon but are reaching out to everyone who’s bought tickets to offer them a refund. That’s rare for a Mexican wrestling show. Usually it’s on the ticket buyer to track down the promoter if they’ll even give a refund.

AAA

Hijo del Vikingo, talking to Mas Lucha after the Showcenter event, says his leg injury is actually a knee ligament issue. It had been reported as a foot injury prior. I couldn’t tell which knee it is, but one of the ligaments has an issue and it’s causing his knee not to be as stable as it should be. He says he was told he needs to rest for three weeks. He will likely not rest for three weeks; he apologized for missing shows later week.

The 03/31 AAA show in Dallas at WrestleCon is now up for pre-purchase on FITE. It’s $15, which is the cheapest price of three AAA shows this year.

La Jornada Maya’s article on the feel of the Merida taping says there were almost 2,000 fans. It sure looked like more in the photos; the full capacity for wrestling is 8,640 and it seemed much more than 25% full.

A Twitter account billed as associated with the new Mexico City Airport (Felipe Angeles) scheduled to open this month says they’ll have a lucha libre show as part of the inauguration. The Twitter account is not verified so I’m not sure if this is official, and they seem to be using the poster for the December AAA taping in Mexico City – I’m not sure if it’s an AAA show or if any of those people are appearing. They’ve put a logo on the poster to cover up the date, so it’s all very shaky. AAA hasn’t mentioned a show like this happening and I was ignoring it until news sites started picking it up. I presume it’s actually just a random show, not necessarily an AAA one.

Other News

DTU had a show in Arena Aficion on Tuesday night. Aramis, off because his newborn has had some health challenges, was back wrestling on this show. New DTU tag team champions Aero Panther & Fight Panther lost to Crazy Boy & Joe Lider in a non-title match, and Poder del Norte defeated the DTU team of Blaze, Camulfaje and Kaleth.

Mas Lucha posted a streaming schedule for the week. Full shows rest of the week:

  • Wednesday: Mi Sagrada Lucha Libre & RGR (California)
  • Thursday: IWRG
  • Friday: Welcome to Mi Barrio & AVE
  • Saturday: Kaoz, Lucha Maniaks, Vanguradia/Lucha Madre
  • Sunday: IWRG (Premium) & Cholo de Tijuana

Sunday’s show, the annual Rebelion de los Juniors tournament, will be for Mas Lucha members only.

IWRG (THU) 03/31/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Belial & Impulso vs Hijo de Payaso Purasanta & Payaso Purasanta Jr.
2) Aster Boy & Tonalli vs Estrella de Oro & Yorvack [Relevos Increíbles]
3) Lolita vs Reina Dorada
4) Dinámico © vs León Dorado [Mucha Luchas CHAMP]
5) Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro vs Cíclope & Miedo Extremo
6) Murder Clown vs Joe LiderHijo del Pirata MorganBlack Warrior [PDM HEAVY]

A Perro Aguayo (Sr/Jr.) themed show, with Halloween scheduled to appear. It’ll be a Mas Lucha Premium show, which makes sense for the theme but is a tough weekend to be adding more paid content.

The Republic of Lucha posted some notes about their one year anniversary show this Saturday. They note the card is subject to change and won’t be announced in full until the day of the show. Maybe we’ll find out then if Fenix is wrestling. They’ve said their show will air on FITE, though there’s no link to buy quite yet.

Taurus versus Lince Dorado will be part of Zicky Dice’s 04/01 show. That show will stream for free on Twitch.

Octagon Jr. versus Matt Cross and Chik Tormenta vs Holiedad added to the 04/01 MLW show.

RIOT announced Alex Zayne is off their tournament next week due to the eye injury he picked up a couple of weeks. Zayne had been hoping it would heal in time to make the show, but it didn’t work out. Jack Evans will replace him against Demonio del Aire.

The New Yorker has an obituary for Super Muneco. There are some details that could’ve used some fact checking, but it’s an interesting perspective of Muneco from someone outside of wrestling.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report and this week’s Poster-Mania.

Vikingo/Flamita, AAA in Merida, CMLL women’s tournament

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 03/11/2022 Arena México [CMLLCronista del RingESTO, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser SportsR de RudoThe Gladiatores]
1) Enfermero Jr. & Nitro b Leono & Robin Leono y Robin Vs. Enfermero Jr. y Nitro; Relevos sencillos en viernes de Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
Rudos took 14:44.
2) Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr., Hombre Bala Jr. b Disturbio, Misterioso Jr., Okumura CMLL | Dulce Gardenia, Hombre Bala Jr y Guerrero Maya Jr vs Okumura, Misterioso Jr y Disturbio (posted by mluchatv) Dulce Gardenia, Guerrero Maya Jr. y Hombre Bala Jr. Vs. Okumura, Disturbio y Misterioso Jr. (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
13:37. Tecnicos took 2/3.
3) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido, Volador Jr. b Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote, Negro Casas, Templario CMLL - LOS DEPREDADORES VS TEMPLARIO-DRAGÓN ROJO JR.- COYOTE-NEGRO CASAS/ARENA MEXICO 11-03- 2022 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) CMLL | Dulce Gardenia, Hombre Bala Jr y Guerrero Maya Jr vs Okumura, Misterioso Jr y Disturbio (posted by mluchatv) Depredadores Vs Dragón Rojo Jr, Coyote, Templario y Negro Casas en viernes de Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
11:09. Straight falls, due to Templario betraying Negro Casas in the second fall. Challenges followed. Volador offered Templario a spot in Los Depreadores, Templario did not give an answer.
4) La Seductora & Tiffany b DalysDark SiluetaAmapolaReyna IsisLa MetálicaStephanie Vaquer [battle royal, relevos suicidasBatalla campal, Torneo Increible de Parejas con final suicida de amazonas; Viernes de Arena México (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
4:46
5) Dark Silueta & Lluvia b La Metálica & Marcela [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
4:46
6) Dalys & Skadi b La Magnifica & Stephanie Vaquer [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
3:21.
7) Amapola & La Guerrera b La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
3:41
8) La Jarochita & Tiffany b La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit [relevos suicidas, quarterfinal]
4:56.
9) La Magnifica & Stephanie Vaquer b La Metálica & Marcela [relevos suicidas, semifinalStephanie Vaquer y La Magnífica vencen a Marcela y Metálica, estarán en Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (posted by mluchatv) Stephanie Vaquer y La Magnífica vencen a Marcela y Metálica, que peligran en H2L (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
5:54
10) La Seductora & Princesa Sugehit b La Vaquerita & Reyna Isis [relevos suicidas, semifinalCMLL - LOS DEPREDADORES VS TEMPLARIO-DRAGÓN ROJO JR.- COYOTE-NEGRO CASAS/ARENA MEXICO 11-03- 2022 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL) Marcela/Metálica y Vaquerita e Isis a Homenaje a 2 Leyendas/Templario va por el Negro Casas CMLL (posted by Estrellas del Ring) Seductora y Príncesa Sugehit mandan a Vaquerita e Reina 1sis a H2L, por máscara y cabellera en juego (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)
7:11.

My expections for this tournament weren’t high and they still weren’t met. The CMLL women’s division has some decent to good luchadoras. They do not go sixteen deep. A Gran Prix can hide some of them, because they’re only needed to get in for a few minutes before being eliminated. (And a Gran Prix includes a lot of outsiders who take the spots of the shakiest.) A normal tournament also can discard the least impressive after a single match. A reverse elimination tournament forces some of the least capable luchadoras to wrestle multiple times in one night, exposing them. This was the worst of all setups. No final meant the show ended on a flat note after one of the worst “main events” CMLL’s produced without someone wrestling under the influence. Asking Seductora to wrestle three times in one night in her first action after being out half a year after nearly dying from COVID was unthinking; she was badly blown up for the final match and needed medical attention after winning. Others didn’t have the excuse for the poor performance Tiffany was particularly terrible. She has a position of power managing the women in CMLL so maybe she’s insulated from any consequences, but any other wrestling promotion would’ve moved her on from a full-time in-ring spot long ago. There are others who had bad nights. The Arena Mexico crowd was hot for the atomicos (which should’ve been last to give the show some sort of ending) and the women’s tournament just quieted the crowd. Next week’s matches should be better with few people involved and a full week to work on the two matches. This night was a bad one for the CMLL women’s division.

CMLL ran both Metalica versus Marcela and Vaquerita versus Isis as singles matches on Tuesday in the last few weeks. They ran no other women’s singles match before this tournament was announced, so CMLL had been planning this final for a while and it’s tighter booking than usual. The Metalica/Marcela vs Isis/Vaquerita final allows CMLL to say the resulting singles match will be a mask versus hair match for sure. Vaquerita seems very likely to lose. CMLL hasn’t put up the full poster but the lineup listed on the website has the women’s match as the second on the card.

The Templario/Casas issue just popped up randomly. It’s a good match for Templario at this point, though a bad idea long term. The last couple of Casas hair match losses have turned him into a modern-day Brazo, the guy no one takes seriously in a big match because they know he’s going to lose. There was no indication or challenge of mask versus hair match here but any tease of Casas losing his hair is going to be loudly rejected. Templario has a title to defend, maybe it’ll go to that end only, but just the tease of something had me worried CMLL’s headed a bad road again.

CMLL (SAT) 03/12/2022 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha]
1) Acero & Aéreo b Full Metal & Minos
2) Eléctrico, Sangre Imperial, Suicida b Cholo, Grako, Inquisidor
tecnicos took 2/3
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., Stigma
Halcon Suriano Jr. replaced Pegasso. Ola Negra took 2/3.
3) Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr. b Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., Pegasso
Halcon Suriano Jr. replaced Stigma. Ola Negra took 2/3.

4) Dragón Rojo Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr. b Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Star Jr.
rudos took 1/3.
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero b Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto
Guerreros took 2/3, Gran Guerrero defeating Hechiceor to set up a CMLL HEAVY match next week.

With Hechicero and Euforia as champions, Gran Guerrero has been elevated to default heavyweight challenger.

CMLL (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia b Angelito & Último Dragóncito
2) Cachorro, Halcón Suriano Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr. b Cholo, Inquisidor, Raider
tecnicos took 2/3
3) Diamond, Okumura, Volcano b El Audaz, Misterioso Jr., Nitro [Relevos Increíbles]
Team Okumura took 1/3.
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Jr. b Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 1/3. Esfinge & Fugaz challenged Felino Jr. & Polvora to a MEX TAG title match.
5) Místico, Stuka Jr., Titán DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Sagrado, Terrible
tecnicos took 2/3, the last when Dragon Rojo unmasked Titan

The results came off like Fugaz/Esfinge is on the 20th, and maybe Rojo/Titan after that.

Nothing too important on Monday in Arena Puebla. Guadalajara has the return of CDMX wrestlers. Tuesday Arena Mexico has both the micros and the super lightweight match. It’s possible I may stream that somewhere – not on Twitch because I’m concerned CMLL may strike any of their content there, and maybe not at all because my VPN isn’t working half the time – but maybe because things are at least happening on that one.

Coyote explained he took the name because he would hear (but rarely see) coyotes when he was growing up on a ranch in Tamaulipas. One earned the ire of his grandmother for eating her chickens, but he thought they were very tricky and strategic animals, plus tough. All the skill you need for a rudo luchador. Coyote was originally tecnico Antaris, didn’t want to be a rudo, but adapted to it.

AAA

Rey Fenix missed another weekend of advertised matches. He and Penta were scheduled to defend the House of Glory tag team championships on Friday in New York against the Briscoes. Instead, Fenix and Penta brought out Arez as a replacement, the Briscoes also put the ROH tag titles on the line, and Mark Briscoe pinned Arez to win both titles. It’s unclear if Fenix even appeared in Merida, but he definitely didn’t wrestle there. Fenix’s next known match is Saturday’s Republic of Lucha one year anniversary, which is will be streamed on FITE. Fenix has said nothing about when he’s expected to be back. The Republic of Lucha store is owned at least in part by Fenix & Penta, so you’d think he’d find wrestle on it. Can’t be sure unless he says something, and Fenix has made a choice not to say anything.

AAA did have lots of TV to talk about beyond Fenix. The Space show on Saturday night aired the first half of the Madero taping. The matches came off better than they read on paper; the five-way match survived Drago Kid’s near-death to have a lot of fun spots, the three trios match was chaos but a better sort of chaos than the Rey de Reyes multiteam matches, and the trios title match was the best La Empresa match since they’ve been in AAA. At least for this half of this show, AAA cut way down on the interference and the general run-ins, though Estrellita was still freely interfering in the Empresa match. It was an easier watch.

The Space show includes brief backstage vignettes in between matches. Piero talked about returning to his hometown “El Imperio de Las Shotas” which seemed to be recruiting Dulce Kanela in their bit. Nino Hamburguesa told Crazy Boy & Extreme Tiger it was great to team with them once again but he’d be focusing on his team with Mr. Iguana, which seemed to slightly miff the Mexican Power members. Hamburguesa was wearing a t-shirt for the group that still had Joe Lider’s name (and seemingly not his own!) as the group members, so maybe Lider’s still coming in at some point. The show ended with La Empresa beating up Mr. Iguana after he foolishly tried to yell at them.

Jessy Ventura is only using the name “Jessy” in AAA, probably to avoid legal trouble with other Jesse Ventura. AAA actually had a “Jesse” years ago, who was doing more of a boy band gimmick and is the brother of Tiffany. Maybe he’ll complain about his name being stolen instead.

AAA’s Saturday night live event was the first Showcenter event near Monterrey. The card aired on FITE. There were Multimedios production people there and the network did help promote the show, but there was no indication of when (or if) this would air on Multimedios TV.

AAA TV (SAT) 03/12/2022 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon [FITELucha Central, Mas Lucha, thecubsfan, thecubsfan]
1) Reina Dorada b Maravilla [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:18.
2) Dinámico & Emperador Azteca b Baby Extreme & Dulce Kanela
7:57. Wrestlers from RIOT stormed the ring afterwards attacking many of the wrestlers. They convinced Baby Xtreme to join them. Konnan confronted the group, said no one knew who they were, then corrected it to no one except the four guys in the front row cheering them knew who they were, but offered them a RIOT/AAA trios match for the next show.
3) Taurus b Hijo de LA Park [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:28. Taurus won cleanly, but headbutted Hijo de LA Park when he went for a handshake. The other LA Parks came out and beat Taurus up.
4) Chik Tormenta b Estrellita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
8:40. Estrellita’s first official match in AAA in 12 years. She did not win.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr.
12:54. Sanson submitted Myzteziz to keep NGD undefeated. Earlier in the show, Anitfaz del Norte interrupted a Laredo Kid promo to talk about the past – Antifaz mentoring Laredo when he was staring in AAA – and to ask to team with him once again. Antifaz also wanted a Cruiserweight Title shot. Laredo Kid agreed at least to the teaming part.
6) Mamba, Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa b Abismo Negro Jr., Látigo, Toxin
8:18. Hamburguesa splash. After the match, lots of people took turns running in until the Vipers (w/Cibernetico) ended up last in the ring. Cibernetico earlier cut a promo challenging Konnan to come to the ring to talk him, but Konnan did not appear.
7) Hijo Del Vikingo b Flamita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
12:17. Vikingo won clearly with the Cuerno del Vikingo

Flamita and Vikingo is worth going out of your way to see; the whole show was worth watching. Vikingo has a foot injury, he’s also working the foot injury into this match, but he’s also doing stuff no one else can do while having a foot injury. He’s incredible. I both want to see him wrestle every AAA TV possible and also for him to be locked in the safest possible space until someone gives him a big money deal he obviously merits. Flamita was right there with him, working very hard and integrating his rudo personality while not detracting from the match. This was easily better than Vikingo/Johnny at Rey de Reyes, though obviously with much better conditions.

Everything else on the show was enjoyable; the opener was the weakest match but that meant it was just OK. The Dinamico/Emperador Azteca vs Baby Extreme/Dulce Kanela tag was worked incredibly hard, four people on the fringes of AAA’s roster trying to earn more work. Hijo de LA Park is too much of a 2022 Create-A-Wrestler for me, a guy who does all the hot moves he sees without his own personality, but he and Taurus did put together something good. NGD worked hard in the trios match against Los Jinetes del Aire, and it looks like they’re trying to get over a figure four variant as a finish (likely replacing the inverted bear hug spot.) I really liked that most of the matches were in the 8 minute range rather than 10-15 for a normal TV match; it made the show move better and the matches seemed generally better off for getting cut down to better parts.

The Antifaz del Norte’s last few years in AAA overlap with Laredo Kid’s first few years, so the story Antifaz told about getting Laredo in the gym and mentoring him seems real. Antifaz was part of the Vipers at one point and I think people kind of see where that’s going, but it’s a good use of local name for these shows. This show generally seemed like a Monterrey offshoot promotion of AAA; it helps if you know what’s going on in AAA to understand the feuds, but people who watch AAA on Space wouldn’t know these shows are going on and don’t really need to so far. Maybe NXT UK is the good comparison, which segues into:

The RIOT Invasion bit was surreal. The destination is going to be really good – three of RIOT (Baby Extreme, Kratoz and Prometeo?) versus three of AAA is will work. The concept is still weird. This is like if PWG invaded one of the AEW shows in California; it’d feel strange out of PWG to do an invasion angle and it’d be weird they’d have a problem with AEW since half the people there also worked PWG at some point. RIOT’s used a bunch of people from AAA and some RIOT regulars are now AAA regulars. The storyline is RIOT felt disrespected by AAA for unclear and that disrespect definitely continued – Konnan buried them as people he’d never heard of and that no one (except for four fans in the front row) ever heard of – but I’m not sure the angle helped make people more excited for the eventual match. The angle seemed to happen because it’s the only way AAA knows how to integrate outside groups – there was a meme going around about how much AAA loves to do outside invasion angles even before this one happened. It also continued the ever contradictory way Konnan is portrayed on AAA TV: sometimes he’s the evil guy backing La Empresa to take down AAA and this time he was AAA management dismissing the outsiders. The angle would’ve worked better with whomever from AAA is going to face the RIOT guys in that spot. I’m guessing the angle was sold as RIOT guys getting the rub from being in the same space as Konnan specifically and one of the plusses for Konnan was getting to call the promotion that was getting some acclaim for booking AAA guys in better matches than AAA was doing a bunch of nobodies. This is far too many words about something that’ll be like the second or third match on a show two months from now.

No one knows how this Showcenter tournament works. The English announcers made a point of saying it wasn’t a single-elimination tournament but had no other details, which smells a lot like the people running the tournament also don’t know how it’s going to work.

There was no date given for the next Showcenter event. AAA had already said they’d skip April with TripleMania Monterrey happening, so maybe think late May.

AAA TV (SUN) 03/13/2022 Poliforum Zamna, Mérida, Yucatán [Podio NoticiasYucatan]
2) DMT Azul, Puma King, Sam Adonis b Mr. Iguana, Myzteziz Jr., Niño Hamburguesa AAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
Microman was in the tecnico corner. Hiedra helped Mr. Iguana, the two teased a kiss, and Empresa attacked them both to set up the victory.
3) Flammer, La Hiedra, Maravilla b Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Sexy Star AAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
4) Laredo Kid © b Willie MackTaurus [AAA CRUISERAAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
11th defense, first since May. Announced with Dragon Lee and a mystery man (which wasn’t supposed to be Taurus since he was missing this show originally). Mack left the match with an unclear injury.
5) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Flamita, Rey Escorpión, Villano III Jr. and Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana AAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
Flamita was the surprise partner of Los Mercenarios.
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Látigo, Psicosis b Hijo Del Vikingo, Octagón Jr., Pagano AAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
Psicosis replaced Cibernetico. Abismo Negro beat Octagon
7) Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood © b Dragón Lee & Dralistico [AAA TAGAAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
Harwood pinned Dragon Lee after Penta tried to interfere and instead got rammed into Dragon Lee.
8) Pentagón Jr. b Arez AAA GIRA DE ANIVERSARIO 30 EN MERIDA EVENTO COMPLETO ¡FLAMITA nuevo MERCENARIO! (posted by )
Arez/Penta was set up by an in-ring promo earlier. FTR attacked Penta after the match. Dragon Lee & Dralistico ran them off but also attacked Penta, unmasking him. Vikingo, Octagon and Pagano made the save to end the show.

That’s not a complete match list. There’s a local match with no result mentioned. The Yucatan report on the show also mentions a Marvel match taped. It’s eight AAA matches entirely, which is a lot for two weeks of TV. Maybe it’ll be three? It should start airing on March 26th.

The YouTube links there are the same as the Facebook stream a Twitter user helpfully pointed me towrads last night. I was not paying close attention to all of the matches. FTR versus Hermanos Lee seemed like Dralistico & Dragon Lee working an FTR style match in Mexico, though I could see FTR pointing out the moves they took and feeling differently about it. It could’ve been a style mismatch disaster and it was not, so that’s a success. I was surprised FTR held onto the belts, and the destination now looks like a three way tag title match at some point (maybe TripleMania Regia.)

I’m unclear if Flamita is meant to be a permanent Los Mercenarios member; he was likely to be the mystery guy in the Cruiserweight match all considered.

AAA’s case here is they gave Merida a fair replacement match for Lucha Brothers/FTR, added a bonus singles match and made a fair substitution on other changes. They still advertised Fenix for this show long after they knew he wouldn’t be wrestling on it. There were in-ring promos to set up Hermanos Lee/FTR and Arez/Penta, and I’d presume their excuse is they wanted to wait to run the angles to set up the matches before announcing changes. They still could’ve said Fenix was off the show and more would be announced on the card. AAA made the choice not to say anything.

AAA’s false advertising practices cost them buys on the Saturday FITE show; once word was out Vikingo was questionable, some people weren’t going to pay $19 to find out if AAA to not get the scheduled main event for the second straight show. (Some of those came back around when Vikingo did appear.) The fans in Merida seemed very into the tag title match, but I’m sure there were some people who were hoping to see Fenix and not seeing him will affect their ticket decisions next time AAA’s in town. It’ll be a long while before AAA’s back in Merida for a taping so maybe that’ll be fine, but they’re selling to the same internet audience every month so they might want to be more careful.

Arez ended up being on Fenix substitution duty all weekend, which meant a lot of traveling

  • Aguascalientes on Thursday for AAA
  • New York on Friday for House of Glory
  • Indianapolis on Saturday for Warrior Wrestling
  • Merida on Sunday for AAA

That’s at least 6,000 miles of traveling with four matches in between. The Aguascalientes match went well, the Merida match went well from what I saw, and both of the US matches got good reviews. He’s back at it Thursday in Gomez Palacio.

Dragon Lee posted video of getting an elbow stitched up after his on Sunday match. Might have been on his tope.

This Merida date closes up all known AAA unfinished shows from prior to the pandemic. There likely were other dates booked that were never announced, but this was the last show that still had tickets from 2020 waiting to be used.

Attendance for the three AAA show seemed pretty strong. The Aguscalientes show seemed pretty full; the building capacity there is over 7,000 and they may have come close. Monterrey appeared to have many seats traped off. AAA shot from behind those seats for their sell out photo), but if they’re calling it a sell-out then they must’ve been happy with the draw. Merida looked well attended too, though they may have still had reduced capacity there judging how people are seated.

Mas Lucha caught up to DMT Azul to ask him what he thought about the national heavyweight championship ending up with Euforia. This interview appears to be done after last week’s taping in Madero, DMT Azul had just won the AAA trios championship, and so that may be why he’s unbothered by the situation. Azul congratulates Euforia but still believes the commission’s actions in stripping him didn’t correspond to any real rules, that the “national” titles are worthless if they’re kept in one promotion with the same few people challenging for them, and that he’s still the rightful heavyweight champion.

Psycho Clown dedicated his Record column this week to supporting Cain Velasquez and hoping he’s freed soon. Psycho Clown and LA Park have been very publicly pro-Velasquez on social media.

Other News

IWRG (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Cronista del RingCronista del Ring (videos), Estrellas del Ring, IWRG]
1) Spider Fly & Villarreal b Kenji & Rey Aztaroth EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv)
2) Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy b Backter & Vudu Max EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv)
3) Cerebro Negro Jr., Fulgor, Yorvak b Estrella de Oro, Genex, Legendario EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv)
4) Caballero de Plata & Freelance DQ Puma de Oro & Toxin EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv)
Caballero de Plata replaced Asterboy (injury). Puma fouled Freelance.
5) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Séptimo Dragón b Accion Jackson, Dick Angelo 3G, Tonalli Alpha Wolf, Dragon Bane y Séptimo Dragon Vs Dick Angelo 3G, Tonalli y Accion Jackson En IWRG (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre) EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv)
6) Travis Banks © b Cerebro Negro [IWRG IC MIDDLE] EN VIVO: IWRG | Campeonato Intercontinental de Peso Medio (posted by mluchatv) Travis Banks Vs Cerebro Negro; por el Campeonato Intercontinental Medio de IWRG (posted by La Tijera Lucha Libre)

Mas Lucha used a graphic promoting the fourth match in their live coverage for this show, not mentioning the main event.

A new Cuchillo introduced themselves Friday at a press conference. He doesn’t appear to be related to the original but claims he was a student of the original and trained for 15 years. He immediately challenged Hijo del Santo to a mask match; Santo won Cuchillo’s mask 42 years ago. A Santo/new Cuchillo match is incredibly unlikely. Revivial gimmicks like this are usually connected with a promotion, though no one was mentioned at the press conference.

Cuatro Poder has an article about women’s wrestling in Chiapas that’s a little more substantial than most of the women’s day pieces. They believe the first Chiapas luchador was Gata Angora in 1987 or 88, though it’s possible someone started in the area and quickly moved to Mexico City prior. There are six active luchadoras in the city of Chiapas itself right now, plus two more who tried to pass the licensing exam and did not pass but are still training to try again. They’ve added a woman to the lucha libre commission as part of a process of improving gender equity.

Box y Lucha 3502D+ has a million things on the cover.

Segunda Caida watches a 1985 Santo & Black Man vs Blue Panther & Negro Casas match, and a 90s LA lucah match.

AAA Showcenter 1 PPV tomorrow, another CMLL tournament tonight, Dark Angel to return

DST reminder

If you’re in the US or some locations in the world, Daylight Savings Time starts late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. Clocks move ahead one hour; every show starts one hour later. Mexico, outside of border towns, does not switch its clocks for four more weeks. It’s not as big a deal with fewer people watching Mexican wrestling live, but things like my Twitch stream of AAA will be affected.

This starts Saturday night, so tomorrow’s AAA show on FITE and today’s CMLL show on Ticketmaster are not affected.

CMLL

CMLL has their weakest Friday night show in the last stretch tonight. The bulk of the show is the loser’s advance tag team featuring the luchadoras, where the final will take place on next week’s show. The top men’s match is an atomicos match with a Los Depreadores (Volador, Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido) against a random combination of rudos (Negro Casas, Templario, Dragon Rojo Jr., and Coyote.) Volador and his guys were rudos feuding with Mistico last week and now might be tecnicos next week. The opening two matches are nothing special. It’ll air on TicketmasterLive for the usual 99 pesos. It’s a show to skip if you only get these shows occasionally, though I’m not sure there’s anyone left who does that.

This is anecdotal, take it with a grain of salt, but it seems like CMLL is giving away more tickets to show than they’ve done in a long, maybe even more than the pandemic. It’s not a huge papering of free tickets, but what used to be just major media partners (radio, TV) getting a few tickets to give out seems to have been extended to many of the digital media which cover the shows as well. I’ve seen it pop up more on social media. I see it as a marketing message – “it’s safe and fun to come back to Arena Mexico now.” It seems like a message getting received. I’m not sure tonight’s show will draw well, but the last two Friday nights have been good turnouts and next week’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas might be one as well.

Weekend lineups

CMLL (SAT) 03/12/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Acero & Aéreo vs Full Metal & Minos
2) Eléctrico, Sangre Imperial, Suicida vs Cholo, Grako, Inquisidor
3) Arkalis, Pegasso, Stigma vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Star Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr.
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

The main event is a rematch, probably setting up a singles match for next week.

CMLL (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito & Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia
2) Cachorro, Halcón Suriano Jr., Panterita del Ring Jr. vs Cholo, Inquisidor, Raider
3) Diamond, Okumura, Volcano vs El Audaz, Misterioso Jr., Nitro [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Esfinge, Fugaz, Star Jr. vs Felino Jr., Pólvora, Rey Bucanero
5) Místico, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Sagrado, Terrible

Nothing special going on here. Diamond really lost out being in that tercera instead of with the rest of the Depredadores on the Friday night show.

CMLL (MON) 03/14/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Fénix SO vs Guerrero Espacial
2) Millenium & Valiente Jr. vs El Perverso & Nitro
3) Halcón Suriano Jr., Kráneo, Volcano vs Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Okumura
4) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Místico & Templario vs Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero

Atlantis Jr. wrestled on a lot of Mondays. The main event is a rematch, they may be doing a Stuka/Atlantis Sr. feud in the semimain.

CMLL (TUE) 03/15/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Cosmos, Micro, Último Ángel vs Destello, Ponzoña, Temerario
2) Bello Antuan, El Divino, Mágico vs Gran Kenut, Jabalí, Thunder Boy
3) Miss Olympia, Náutica, Sexy Sol vs Dark Silueta, Hera, Valkiria
4) Explosivo, Gallo, Joker vs Cris Skin, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
5) Místico & Soberano Jr. vs Atlantis Jr. & Gran Guerrero

CMLL CDMX wrestlers are back in Guadalajara. Valiente’s daughters are on the opposite side of the match night.

CMLL (TUE) 03/15/2022 Arena México
1) Acero, Acero, Angelito vs Mercurio, Minos, Pierrothito
2) Chamuel vs Micro Gemelo Diablo [CMLL MICRO]
second defense
3) Hijo del Villano III, Misterioso Jr., Okumura vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
4) Suicida vs EléctricoHalcón Suriano Jr., Inquisidor, StigmaAsturianoAdrenalina, Fantástico [CMLL SL]
vacant title
5) Star Jr., Titán, Volador Jr. vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

CMLL is finishing up its To Do list on Tuesday. The Super Lightweight Championship has been vacant since Kawato returned from injury in 2019 to announce he was giving up the belt due to injury. It didn’t make much sense at the time either, though I’m sure CMLL thought they were going to decide a new champion much quicker then two and half years. This feels like an incomplete field – CMLL’s been essentially running lightweight preview matches as Friday openers, and Panterita del Ring Jr. has been a big part of them – but the wording on the poster suggests it’s a one-night thing. Occasional Puebla title challenger Asturiano is in for it, as are Adrenalina and Fantastico from Guadalajara. It might be a pretty good match; I’d rather pay for this Tuesday show than the Friday one.

It’s hard to think of anything less serious from the “serious and stable” company to have a Micro Gemelo Diablo challenging for a title and CMLL doesn’t know which one it is. If he wins, can either man defend it?

ESTO has an interview with Dulce Gardenia, promoting him as the sole representative of the LGBT+ community while also pointing out the one LGBT+ representative is a heterosexual male. It’s meant to be read more positively than it comes across to me.

AAA

Arez vs Penta from Aguascalientes is up on Facebook. That show, in a 7,000 seat venue, seems to have drawn very well.

AAA has a two-taping weekend. They’re in Monterrey on Saturday for the kickoff of the Showcenter events and then in Merida on Sunday. Only the Saturday show, a 5 pm CT start time, airs live. It’ll be on FITE for 19 USDLarry Dallas may be calling the show alone; Joe Dombrowski is calling Warrior Wrestling (where Psycho Clown will be on Saturday too.) The Merida show will air on TV starting in late March.

The Monterrey lineup:

AAA TV (SAT) 03/12/2022 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon
1) Reina Dorada vs Maravilla [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
2) Baby Extreme, Dulce Kanela, Komander vs Dinámico, Emperador Azteca, Mamba
3) Taurus vs Hijo de LA Park [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
4) Mr. Iguana, Niño Hamburguesa, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Abismo Negro Jr., Látigo, Toxin
5) Chik Tormenta vs Estrellita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]
6) Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr. vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
7) Hijo Del Vikingo vs Flamita [Showcenter Tournament, torneo]

I’m totally confused on the status of the main event. What we know if Vikingo has some sort of foot injury, missed his match in Ciudad Madero, and his status is unclear. The WON reported Vikingo would be out six weeks due to the injury. Vikingo wrestled last night in Aguascalientes, likely after that WON report was written. Vikingo is a young guy who seems to wants to wrestle all the time and AAA isn’t a company likely to stop him, so he’ll probably keep going and we’ll all have to hope it works out for him.

This is an interesting card for a definite b-show. Unfortunately, it’s priced at $19 and FITE can’t promise to deliver the main event or even two announcers. If Vikingo can go, his match with Flamita will be interesting. We hardly see Hijo de LA Park away from his father and brother, so him in a singles match with Taurus has some intrigue. Laredo and the company will probably get the best out of NGD. I don’t feel certain about this lineup at all but there’s some upside here if it comes off.

Monterrey’s RIOT promotion posted a response to a “grande” promotion and ended with Saturday’s date. Probably not a coincidence.

The AAA lineup for Merida is still the original one from January. We can be pretty sure it won’t happen as scheduled. AAA’s essentially a women’s match – Sexy Star, Lady Shani, and Las Toxicas are all billed as being added to the card – without talking about what’s being removed from the show. I think Dragon Lee/Laredo Kid/Willie Mack/TBA will end up as the main event of the show and who knows what else gets changed or added. This show will air on TV on 03/26 and 04/02 (though not sure if I’m streaming from Dallas.)

I’m still skeptical Lucha Brothers versus FTR will happen, but we’ll probably find out tonight. Fenix and Penta are still being advertised to face The Briscoe Brothers tonight for House of Glory. I could see them being there to sign autographs but I’d be surprised if Fenix was wrestling – no one involved is promoting that match as still happening. I’m very tired of trying to pick up social media clues if people are wrestling or not wrestling. Maybe it’ll get better past this dated Merida lineup, but there’s no great excuse for these changes to (not) be handled as they have been for the last two shows. Maybe it’s just an internet/me thing and the AAA fans in Merida will be fine if FTR/Lucha Brothers doesn’t happen; nothing is going to change unless they care. Meanwhile, AAA will keep talking about being a worldwide promotion while pulling small-time indie garbage.

AAA on Space starts at 6:45 this week, which means it’s up against the last hour of AAA on FITE. They’ll start the Ciudad Madero taping:

  • Argenis vs Dinamico vs Drago Kid vs Maravilla vs Parka Negra
  • Las Shotas (Mamba, Diva Salvaje, Jessy Venutra) vs Mexican Powers (Crazy Boy, Nino Hamburguesa, Xtreme Tiger) vs Baby Extreme, Sexy Star, Pimpienla Escalrata
  • Los Mercenarios (Rey Escorpion, Taurus, Villano III Jr.) vs La Empresa (DMT Azul, Puma King, Sam Adonis)

I plan on recording this show and putting it up on the Google Drive on Saturday night and streaming it on Sunday.

AAA, who talks about being very excited about coming back to the US, has yet to mention or RT the lineup for their show in Dallas on WrestleMania weekend. They’ve listed it on a calendar of events and no more. FITE lists the show as part of a package WrestleCon shows, so it’s airing there. I presume it’ll be made individually available at some point. The lineup for the 04/02 USA vs the World show (also part of that package) hasn’t been announced yet, but it included a few Mexican wrestlers in past years and I think it will again.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 03/10/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucah]
1) Prince Turbo & Rey Eclipse vs Baby Star & Súper Cometa EN VIVO: IWRG | Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
2) Bengalee & Sagitarius DQ Mary Caporal & Satania EN VIVO: IWRG | Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
3) Cerebro Negro Jr., Limbo, Yorvack b Águila Oriental, Águila Roja, Spider Fly EN VIVO: IWRG | Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
4) Big Boy, Big Mike, Limbo b Apolo Estrada Jr., Billy Jones, Chris Stone Jr. EN VIVO: IWRG | Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
Limbo (working twice) replaced Chico Che (moved up) and surprised Apolo Estrada with a pin. Estrada’s partners weren’t happy.
5) El Hijo del Medico Asesino, Hijo del Fishman, Hijo del Pirata Morgan b Big Chico Che, Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura EN VIVO: IWRG | Thursday Night Wrestling (posted by mluchatv)
Big Chico Che replaced Maximo but broke up with his partners.

IWRG keeps the lights down lown on Thursday to give it a different feel. They were down so low that ring seemed half in shadow in the video I saw. It also hid that drew better than usual, though three shows in a week Naucalapn still seems like a tough sell. Las Shotas and Los Strippers were feuding before and seemed back at it again, but it might have just been a one week thing. There was a long pause before the fourth match as if they only then confirmed Maximo wasn’t going to make it to this show and needed time to readjust the final two matches. Maximo was promoting the show as recently as the day prior.

Sunday’s IWRG show:

IWRG (SUN) 03/13/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Spider Fly & Villarreal vs Kenji & Rey Aztaroth
2) Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy vs Backter & Vudu Max
3) Estrella de Oro, Genex, Legendario vs Cerebro Negro Jr., Fulgor, Yorvak
4) Asterboy & Freelance vs Puma de Oro & Toxin
5) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Séptimo Dragón vs Accion Jackson, Dick Angelo 3G, Tonalli
6) Travis Banks © vs Cerebro Negro [IWRG IC MIDDLE]

Banks/Cerebro was set up two weeks ago. Toxin isn’t getting pulled into Merida as a replacement apparently.

Other News

Lucha Memes (MON) 03/21/2022 Centro Civico Tulpetlac, Ecatepec, Estado de México
1) El Bendito vs Miike
2) Gringo Loco (Indie) vs Keyra
3) Corsario Negro & Drako vs Dante & Thunder Storm and Freelance & Lunatik Fly and Astrolux & Black Metal
4) Gringo Loco (Indie) & Miike vs Noisy Boy & Spider Fly
5) Calibus & Perro de Guerra Jr. vs Avisman & Judas el Traidor and Drolux & Moria and Epitafio & Leviatham
6) Alas de Acero, Gringo Loco (Indie), Iron Kid vs Corsario Negro Jr., Drako, Miike

This show, “Ace of Base” is a two-ring show. The galaxy brain idea is to see if (Big) Mike or Gringo Loco is the better base by having them wrestle three matches in one night. I’m not sure if this idea has connected with anyone beyond the promoter, but the matches could be good if the show doesn’t kill Gringo Loco and Mike.

MLW announced Arez, Mini Abismo Negro Jr. and ? versus Microman, El Dragon, and Aerostar for their 04/01 show.

Robles announced a 04/29-05/01 weekend tour in Mexico City, Merida and Cancun. Robles has not taped their shows themselves, so we’ll probably see a dozen fan cams of the Mexico City show and maybe nothing from the other two. The Mexico lineup and the Cancun one are vaguely the same

ROBLES (FRI) 04/29/2022 Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) ? vs ???????????????????
2) Microman vs Guapito
3) Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo de Oro vs Bugambilia, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata
4) Big Mama, Dark Angel, Diosa Quetzal vs Baronessa, Estrellita, Keyra
5) Mecha Wolf & Rey Horus vs Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. and Doberman & Ricky Marvin
6) Dragón Lee, Dralistico, El Bandido vs Carlito, Flamita, Taurus (Indie)
7) ?, La Bestia Del Ring, Rush vs Chris Masters, LA Park, Marco Corleone

The mystery main eventer is “Nuevo Ingobernable”, which is probably Dementor (Vangellys). La Mascara has been the wrestler leader of this group since Alberto quietly disappeared, so it’s very strange not to see him on these cards at all. I guess he could be the new Ingobernable just after being kicked out of the group, though that seems unlikely for even indie lucha. He’s advertised as wrestling in Guadalajara this weekend, so it’s not an injury. Maybe he’s moved to behind the scenes for these shows. Semi-main could be great with someone else besides Carlito; he and Chris Masters always seem to be a package deal.

The big talking point from these cards was the return of Dark Angel. She hasn’t wrestled in Mexico since finishing up on the 82nd (2015) Aniversario show; she took a WWE backstage job, was working there until one of their round of cuts, and has posted social media content traveling around in van since then. She and Marco Corleone seemed good friends when they were both in Mexico, so my guess is that connection got her back in the ring for the first time in a long time. Robles paying well surely helps and there are no match quality expectations to meet on these shows. These shows are simply about as many names as they can get to show up and Dark Angel is still a name in Mexico.

The Merida and Cancun lineups aren’t interesting on their own, though the Merida lineup being the same day as TripleMania Monterrey tells a bit who’s booked for that AAA show. The LA Parks, Dragon Lee, Dralistico, and Estrellita all are missing from that Robles lineup, so they’re probably booked in Monterrey. Rush, Dr. Wagner, Keyra, Pimpinela, Big Mami, Microman, and the Rebelión Amarilla crew are booked in Merida, so they won’t be on Rey de Reyes. Some of those people probably weren’t ever expected to be there or there in any important role, but Microman is surprising given his role.

AAA seemed to asking their contracted wrestlers not to work on Robles shows for completion reasons, so we can also presume Microman, Keyra, and Pimpinela join Big Mami as people who are just working on a per date basis with AAA. Pimpinela is someone who seemed like they’d be with AAA forever, but COVID affected budget probably meant some tough cuts.

Robles putting advertising out for their big show in Merida just before AAA’s own taping in Merida probably didn’t help feelings between those two groups.

NOAH announced Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. will be returning to the promotion “soon”, like Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Lucha Report.