CMLL

Today’s Arena Mexico show kicks off the CMLL Universal tournament with eight national champions. Terrible, Termplario and Angel de Oro have the best chance of winning on paper, with Fugaz, Esfinge, Panterita Jr., Virus and Cancerbero being more long shots. CMLL tournament shows are rarely good. The rest of the card includes another Atlantis Jr./Stuka trios (Stuka with Dragon Rojo and Mistico, Atlantis Jr. with Ultimo Guerrero and Volador), plus a women’s trios and the lightweight crew facing Ols Negra. Like all Friday shows, this is a TicketmasterLive PPV, will air on TV next week, and will air on YouTube in two weeks.

CMLL explained on Informa how the Universal tournament is working this year:

• the eight national champions will have a one-night tournament tonight
• the eight CMLL champions (excluding those who also hold national champions) will have their one night tournament next week
• the NWA Champions (Stuka, Volador Jr. and Mistico) will have a three-way match on April 22nd to determine that winner
• the three winners from each title category will meet to determine the winner on April 29th.

This format is more logical than I’d would’ve guessed. On the other hand, CMLL struggles at doing three ways that make any sense, so back-to-back weeks of them might not go well. Still, at least there’s no elimination tournament on one of these weeks.

CMLL (SUN) 04/10/2022 Arena México
1) Bengala & Retro vs Apocalipsis & Cholo
2) Eléctrico, Leono, Sangre Imperial vs Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr.
3) Arkalis, Robin, Stigma vs Espanto Jr., Luciferno, Nitro
4) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Felino, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
5) Dragón Rojo Jr., Gran Guerrero, Terrible vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

A rudos vs rudos main event.

CMLL (MON) 04/11/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Fénix SO & Millenium vs Black Tiger & Rey Apocalipsis
2) Disturbio, Perverso, Prayer vs Sangre Imperial, Tigre Rojo Jr., Valiente Jr.
3) La Vaquerita vs Reyna Isis
4) Dulce Gardenia, Kráneo, Stigma vs El Suicida, Guerrero Maya Jr., Volcano
5) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero vs Euforia, Hechicero, Stuka Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

The Atlantis/Stuka feud has been heavy in Puebla, at least based on the lineups. Kraneo is still a tecnico on this show; I wonder if they’re just going to do the rudo turn in multiple locations since the only people who’ve seen it are those in attendance in Arena Coliseo.

This is probably old news to some, but I just didn’t know: Arena Puebla’s Facebook page been streaming the Monday main event for months. It’s not every week (not this one), and it’s just someone shooting it with their phone, but it’s something for people looking for it. I’m working at archiving these on the Google Drive just so it doesn’t disappear.

CMLL can’t exactly announce a full card for the Arena Mexico Anniversary show at this point, since about a third of the men’s roster is in play for the Universal tournament at the moment. They did announce two matches in addition to the tournament final:

CMLL (FRI) 04/29/2022 Arena México
Arena Mexico 66th Anniversary
4) Dark Silueta, La Jarochita, Princesa Sugehit, Stephanie Vaquer vs Dalys, Lluvia, Marcela, Reyna Isis
5) Rey Bucanero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Mephisto
6) ? vs ??, ??? [CMLL Universal, final]

Satanico created Averno & Mephisto in 2001 – like, he used his supernatural devil powers to transform them into those gimmicks, you had to be there – with the idea they’d wrestle his previous proteges Bucanero & Guerrero. Only, Mephisto broke his arm in training and so it was Averno & Satanico in the tag program. These two long running top rudo CMLL pairs of the 00s had one known match as a team in 2002 in Arena Puebla (probably before Arena Puebla was taped), and this is the retro match. Averno & Mephisto teamed a couple of times in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, this will be their first Arena Mexico. The most surprising part of this is CMLL can announce this match now because somehow none of these four guys are champions.

The women’s match is the usual random pairings so CMLL can promote it as a “lucha ineditio” – a never before seen match – which is technically true but no one has a reason to care.

CMLL (TUE) 04/12/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra, Cosmos, Último Ángel vs Destello, Relámpago Azul, Thunder Boy
2) Bestia Negra, Difunto, Zandokan Jr. vs Estrella Oriental, Explosivo, Fantástico
3) Ángel Rebelde, Halcón Negro Jr., Optimus, Trono vs Crixus, Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
4) Diamond, Magia Blanca, Rugido vs Joker, Omar Brunetti, Vaquero Jr.
5) Flash & Gallo © vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno [OCCIDENTE TAG]
2nd defense
6) Esfinge, Fugaz, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel

Titan teams with the new national tag champions against the local trios champs. Flash & Gallo defended these same titles against this same team in July, maybe they’ll get to the next step after this match. Queretaro wrestlers are back in the tercera.

LuchaWorld has an obit for Raziel, including a few lesser-known characters he used.

Felino Jr. hasn’t wrestled since losing the tag team titles on 03/20; I’ve stumbled across some Puebla results and he got replaced by Espanto Jr. last Monday. That tag title match turned up on video, and it looks like the ex-Tiger might have suffered an injury near the end. There’s an unusual slow fall from the ropes and then he doesn’t move a whole lot. Felino Jr. posted an Instagram story teasing a return soon.

AAA

AAA (THU) 04/07/2022 Auditorio BlackBerry, Cuautehmoc, Distrito Federal [Record]
1) Drago, Mr. Iguana, Myzteziz Jr. b Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
2) Pagano & Psycho Clown b Abismo Negro Jr. & Parka Negra
3) Aerostar & Lady Shani b Reina Del Ring & Tigre Dorado
the two AAA wrestlers and the two created characters had appeared in a promotional animated video

This was a special sponsored (and maybe invite-only?) show to promote the AAA/Free Fire alliance, which seems to have gone well. The main event was the two AAA wrestlers and the two created (Free Fire?) characters who faced of the animated trailer posted recently; team AAA didn’t need La Parka’s help this time. You can see that video and some production info here.

Space lists this week’s AAA show as “Merida/Tijuana”, so it’s a rare show covering two different tapings. AAA has two unaired matches left from Merida (Vipers, three-way trios), so figure those will air. They taped seven matches in Tijuana, so that’s enough for a match this week and two more episodes. The show is scheduled to air at 6:30 pm – Mexico & US are back synced on DST – which is a problem for me because I’m busy once again at time. My streaming service also still isn’t working well, with the video jumping back a few seconds in irregular periods. I may just link to the other Twitch feed that’s out there and leave everyone on their own for this one.

AAA held interviews in their office to promote TripleMania Monterrey this week, which will start turning up over the next few weeks. Record posted their interview with Canek, who is as interested as the rest of us in finding out how much of Canek is left. Canek feels like Psycho Clown is not used to facing a wrestler of his (power) style, just small and skinner guys. Canek expects Psycho Clown will do more flying to counter him and hopes to pull him towards some middle crowd. Psycho Clown trying flying moves on Canek seems like a really bad idea so let’s hope not. Canek makes a point of saying he doesn’t choose the opponents he faces, he’s always had people coming at him (because he’s such an important guy.)

AAA put up a Young Bucks promo for the TripleMania Monterrey main event. They talking about how they’re definitely going to win the AAA tag team titles before the show (they definitely didn’t win the AAA tag team titles) and otherwise do a very Young Bucks promo.

There’s also a profile from Tay Conti & Sammy Guevera, confused at Arez & Chik Tormenta not being in Tijuana (and Conti is confused at Arez not being Austin Aries.) This is build towards TripleMania Monterrey, though Conti & Guevera are also not wrestling Arez & Chik Tormenta in Monterrey on the lineup AAA has out.

LA Park fired again

LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, and La Park Jr. are out of MLW following an incident on the 03/31 taping. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports the Parks were fired when a scripted attack on Alex Hammerstone and Jacob Fatu turned unscripted and left both men in need of medical assistance. You can see the incident around 18:10 in this video, assuming MLW doesn’t get it taken down. Not sure if you should use me to judge what is real and fake because I think I would’ve seen that as “wow, they’re really making it look real” and not “that actually is real”; it’s fairly violent though maybe not as out of control as you might imagine.

In the WON, Hammerstone was said to have challenged Park to a fight backstage and Park claimed he couldn’t speak English. I’ve elsewhere heard it was closer to the entire locker room who wanted to fight LA Park. Both Fatu & Hammerstone worked on the 04/01 show I attended, where LA Park and his sons were announced as all being out “injured”; word had already leaked out that something that man the Parks unwelcome by that point.

LA Park’s stints in promotions rarely end with a handshake and a hardy farewell. Park might have sensed his farewell was coming. The 04/01 main event was himself with Jacob Fatu. I’m not sure if Fatu is was going over though it’s possible Park thought that was the case, that he was losing his way out of the promotion and tried to do something that would get him attention even with an impending loss. LA Park has recently had issues with MLW, leading him to miss the tapings in Tijuana. My understanding is it was more on the financial side that time around, but I could see both sides independently realizing Dallas might be it and it boiling over with Fatu & Hammerstone being the unlucky victims.

Earlier this week, LA Park told Record he was in need of knee surgery, which matched MLW’s public explanation. LA Park surely does need work done on his knees, he’s a very large man who has done crazy things for years, but putting that out there when he did was more about explaining why he was no longer in MLW and he’s likely in no danger of missing any TripleMania match due to the existing knee injuries. LA Park is unlikely to suffer any real consequences for his familiar actions in Mexico – I got a “oh, they did it again!” reaction when explaining this to someone there this morning. LA Park’s behavior does illustrate the risk of AAA working with him for the TripleMania tournament; LA Park in the final would be a huge deal but there’s no guarantee of what he’d do in the situation. His actions in MLW makes him less likely to get picked up by an English-focused US promotion in the near future, but it’s not like there was a TV promotion outside of MLW who’d bring him in, and this might have been thinking he was done with MLW anyway. I guess there might be some interest in a Park/Hammerstone or Park/Fatu match, maybe in GCW or even back in MLW, if this story has legs. I’m not sure it’d deliver what people would want to see.

MLW also told the WON that they sold out both those tapings, which came off very strange to me – it felt less than half full on 04/01. Tickets for a pandemic canceled show were applied to this show, which explained some of it to me. Still, I was able to easily buy GA tickets the week of the show and I didn’t get the feeling it was sold out when I was there. There had to be a lot of people who bought tickets and didn’t end up using them if that’s the case.

Other News

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucah Report.

In 2018, Mexico City passed a resolution declaring lucha libre as an intangible part of Mexico City’s culture. It was akin to saying wrestling wasn’t simply athletic theatre for the poor, as it has been disregarded in past decades, but instead an important and respected part of Mexico City’s identity. Arena Mexico put up a plaque celebrating this resolution in a ceremony, and it’s a thing that looks good on a powerpoint presentation if you’re trying to convince a business to work with you. It doesn’t really mean anything, but it makes lucha libre people feel good about lucha libre. This week, there was a resolution to spread this resolution to the entire country of Mexico (and to also include boxing in this version.) It’s got a long way to go before it passes.

Hijo del Santo will appear on Televisa/Univision series “Albertano contra los mostros”; his family has a history of fighting monsters. It reads like it’s along the lines of a cameo rather than a regular role.

Lucha Memes 03/06 Arena Queretaro show is up; IWTV has put up three Memes shows in a short time, so this is a decent time to jump onto the service if you’re just binging them. I had the last 3 PWGs shows in my mailbox, so I may not be able to get to them for a while. I did hear good things about Mike/Cometa and Hechicero/Makowski, and just was generally happy to get any information on a Memes shows at all. The Ace of Base show sounds like it didn’t go as well; sometimes the big concepts don’t work out.

I definitely misunderstood what RGR was doing with Psycho Clown and Hijo del Santo. They have a show this weekend, on 04/10, but that’s a normal show not including those two. They’re instead giving out information about when/where that Psycho/Santo show will happen to those fans in attendance. I presume the information will be posted online later, but perhaps not due the politics involved.

Republic of Lucha teased their next show will be June 19th (06/19, probably not including Rey Mysterio.) That’s the day after TripleMania in Tijuana.

Juventud Guerrera says he’s got an open door to return to AEW after he recovers from a leg injury, but he’s working for Robles Promotions for the moment. I’m not sure if anyone besides Juventud Guerrera believes Juventud Guerrera will be returning to AEW.

AEW TV will soon begin appearing on NJPW World for Japanese IP addresses only. It’ll be an unusual situation where CMLL and AAA title matches will be appearing on the same paid service; I guess that hasn’t happened since Televisa/Galavision, though this is a bit different.

Hidalgo luchador Dr. Brown (72) passed away on Tuesday.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 04/05/2022 Arena México [Cronista del Ring, Estrellas del Ring, Kaiser Sports, Marca, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito b Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua  
2) Cachorro, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. b Grako, Inquisidor, Raider  
Tecnicos took 2/3
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring b El Hijo del Villano III, Okumura, Rey Bucanero  
Raziel was remembered with a moment of applause after the third match
4) Stigma © b Magia Blanca [CMLL SL]  
first defense
5) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado b Atlantis, Star Jr., Titán  
Star Jr. replaced Negro Casas on Monday. Gemelos unmasked Star and Titan after the match.

No title change; it appears Fugaz & Esfinge retained their tag titles in Puebla too. CMLL has both Atlantis and Atlantis Jr. mentioned in the main event; it’s definitely the father in the video.

The moment of applause for Raziel is up on YouTube. Cancerbero looked as affected as you’d imagine he would be. There’s a report from Raziel’s wake that mention the cause of death as a heart attack, which differs from the car accident report earlier. Randy Savage passed away when he had a heart attack that led to a car accident, and it’s possible something similar could’ve happened here if both stories are accurate.

Cancerbero and Virus will be among the many people on CMLL Informa today. CMLL earlier confirmed they’ll still be in the Universal Tournament as champions, even though their trio no longer exists as it does. It’s the only logical decision. La Magnifica is also announced for Informa. She has no pending important match so there’s probably a story there.

CMLL and the Mexico Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a pre-show in-ring press event for Wednesday’s International Sports Day, pushing the idea of diversity and no discrimination. They probably could’ve used a little better planning: the push for diversity included Titan, Sagrado, and Los Gemelo Diablos – no women, minis, or exoticos despite the idea wrestling and sports are open to all. There’s also a new video to promote the idea of lucha libre as a diverse place. I always bristle at this; CMLL is more diverse now than it has ever been at any point in its history prior, but that’s in part because its history has been quite the opposite.

CMLL (TUE) 04/05/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Mas Lucha]
1) Destructor, Gran Kenut, León Blanco b Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Johnny Dinamo
2) Flash & Gallo DRAW Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno [super libre]
3) Dalys, Dark Silueta, Valkiria b Lluvia, Náutica, Sexy Sol
4) Ángel de Oro, Explosivo, Niebla Roja DQ Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
Cavernario fouled Niebla Roja
5) Místico & Soberano Jr. b Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero

Still teasing that tag title defense in the second match. Soberano is still here, so maybe just weird timing for both he and his father to lose their titles in a weekend and no other significance. Raziel was honored on this show as well.

CMLL (FRI) 04/08/2022 Arena México
1) El Audaz, Flyer, Suicida vs Akuma, Dark Magic, Espanto Jr.
2) La Jarochita, La Magnifica, Skadi vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Dragón Rojo Jr., Místico, Stuka Jr. vs Atlantis Jr., Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Ángel de Oro vs Fugaz, Esfinge, Panterita del Ring Jr., Terrible, Templario, Virus, Cancerbero [CMLL Universal, seeding battle royal]
5) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, 8F]
6) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, 8F]
7) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, 8F]
8) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, 8F]
9) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, quarterfinal]
10) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, quarterfinal]
11) ? vs ?? [CMLL Universal, semifinal]

CMLL’s listed this as the national title block. Noticeably, it announced Fugaz & Esfinge before they retained the tag team titles in Puebla but I guess they could’ve changed it. I’ve got no real feel about who’s going to do well in this tournament: Terrible, Templario, and Angel de Oro seem like the three who have a shot on paper.

There are exactly eight more CMLL champions – Dragon Rojo, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado, Hechicero, Niebla Roja, Stigma and Titan – so that’s one group for next week. (Angel de Oro is also CMLL champion but he’s in this block.) That leaves the NWA champs (Volador, Mistico, Stuka), the Arena Coliseo Trios champs (Hombre Bala & Robin), and three empty spots for 04/22. Current Occidente Trios champions Barbaro Cavernario, Principe Daniel, and Demonio Maya would fit that void like a perfectly shaped Tetris piece, so maybe that’s the answer.

CMLL (SAT) 04/09/2022 Arena Coliseo
1) Fantasy, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal, Mercurio, Minos
2) La Guerrera, La Jarochita, Marcela vs Amapola, La Metálica, Tiffany
3) Hombre Bala Jr., Robin, Volcano vs Disturbio, Felino, Kráneo
4) Princesa Sugehit © vs Reyna Isis [CMLL WOMEN]
4th defense
5) Místico, Soberano Jr., Star Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr., El Coyote, Niebla Roja

Kraneo appears to officially be a rudo, though one who’s wrestling only once every two weeks. Sugehit/Isis is a reasonably big title match for a Saturday show. Isis seems on track to eventually be a world women’s champion, she makes as much sense to be a new champion, and it’s just a matter of when.

CMLL is putting up the Arena Coliseo Anniversary show match by match. The tag title match went up Tuesday night. Demus and Akuma also uploaded a handheld version.

AAA

Tonight’s AEW Dynamite show has the Young Bucks challenging FTR for both the ROH and AAA Tag Team championships. On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned AAA’s given AEW the go ahead to do whatever they want with the AAA tag team titles for now. That’s been read as a statement about the power dynamic in the relationship, which is surely partially true, but also I believe it doesn’t matter for AAA’s immediate plans which AEW team has the tag team titles. It’s cool if the Young Bucks win tonight and their match versus Fenix & Vikingo is for the tag team titles, but I think AAA’s plans are the same with or without those tag team titles. The next big AAA tag team title match in Mexico still seems like it’s FTR/Hermanos Lee/Lucha Brothers, and that one may not be happening any time soon. It’s not happening in Monterrey, Hermanos Lee are facing the Hardys in Tijuana (and Penta is probably in a tournament match) so it’s not happening there. It’s possible the three-way gets held all the way off until Mexico City if AAA’s in no hurry and those titles can switch a few times before then.

There’s a new video promoting the Freefire/AAA partnership, teasing AAA skins for the mobile game. The video is well done.

Flamita is meant to be the new member of Los Mercenarios. He was hanging out with them in a vignette on TV this weekend (teasing a Shani/Tirantes match) and was mentioned as such on the US show. I think the match where he’s actually introduced as a member airs this weekend. The other thing from this past weekend’s TV is it appeared Willie Mack’s injury in the cruiserweight match may have been a planned match event to put over Taurus’ spear, and perhaps not a significant injury.

While Vikingo is not wrestling, it did appear to be him as Arcano on the Merida taping. He walked out on his partner before doing much. See if you can follow along here: Vikingo Arcano was the good Arcano in the Rey de Reyes match, Komander was Evil Arcano, Evil Arcano and Terror Purpura kidnapped Good Arcano at the end of that match, so maybe Good Arcano has been brainwashed into being Also Evil Arcano or maybe we were supposed to think it was Evil Arcano in this match and Vikingo just happened to be in the gear instead of Komander? Who could possibly know or care in the slightest? Not AAA from the way they present it, probably not Marvel either – whenever they go from the much “5% of what this project is going to be” to the actual mythical “100%” (should that ever actually happen), Marvel probably just ignore everything that’s happened with it for the last year to tell the stories they want to do – these matches are all dress rehearsals taking up TV time.

It doesn’t appear the Dallas show is airing on AAA TV soon. This weekend should be a third part of Merida, the new two weeks Tijuana, and then TripleMania Monterrey. That also is one a few reasons I believe the Jeff Jarrett appearance at the end of the Dallas show should be read as “fun way to get US attention during a busy week; maybe they’ll remember to do something with it later”, not some major angle that AAA will be central to this year.

AAA and EMW got attention for donating 10,874 pesos ($543) to a Cabo San Lucas charity, using money from a recent show.

Other

IWRG (SUN) 04/10/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Águila Roja & Noisy Boy vs Cerebro Negro Jr. & Limbo
2) Hell Boy vs Caballero de Plata
3) ?, Big Boy, Big Chico Che vs Fly Warrior, Fulgor, Mike
4) Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera, Pantera Jr. vs Black Terry, Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro
5) Brad Alexis & Shaun Moore vs Dick Angelo 3G & Puma de Oro and Aster Boy & The Mummy
6) Flamita & Toxin vs Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane

No shows on Tuesday or Thursday this week. The main event could be good. Fourth match has a chance too. The Big Strippers are doing an open tryout Wednesday for their partner on Sunday.

Big Lucha (FRI) 04/22/2022 Bandido Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) El Bandido & Gravity vs Elipse & Orbita
2) Cody 1-8 & Viajero vs King & Kong
3) Heddi Karaoui, Lady Maravilla, Potro vs Skayde, Sussy Love, Tirano
4) Galeno del Mal vs Limbo, Accion Jackson
5) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo vs Aramis, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr. (AAA)
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernético, Psicosis II vs Emperador Azteca, Flamita, Yutani

That semi-main could be fantastic.

Robles held a press conference Tuesday for their 04/29 Juan de la Barrera show. Those are always much more well attended than the shows. Dark Angel spoke about her return to wrestling, saying she choose to return to join this promotion rather than return to CMLL was about moving towards the future rather than reliving the past. Robles also appears to pay much better than CMLL, though that didn’t come up. Juventud Guerrera appeared as a surprise addition to the card. No mention of what match he’ll be in; the card advertised was the same one the group had announced previously. The promotion says they’ll have two more press conferences before their show, with Rush being present for at least one of those.

Marcos Medina was introduced at that Robles press conference as the general manager of the promotion. He’s worked with (questionable) promotions over the years, including IWRG, ENESMA, EAW (two rings!) and Lucha Libre Elite.

Lucha Memes (SUN) 04/10/2022 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Gato De Ecatepec vs Mario Bross
2) Calibus & Perro de Guerra Jr. vs Avisman & Judas el Traidor
3) Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako vs Belial & Impulso
4) Dante León & Kastigador vs Miike & Vengador
5) ? vs ??
6) Ricky Marvin vs ASF
7) Tony Deppen vs Virus

The full lineup for the memes show last week, with three fly-ins. ASF is in for a hard night. Dante Leon is someone I would’ve figured to be all over Dallas last weekend, there must be a story there.

Lucha Memes’ 2021-09-16 show is now up on IWTV. Not sure why that one took so long. The show had an Ultimo Guerrero/Arez match and a drunk fan in the ring during the Karaoui/Guerra match.

Big Lucha (FRI) 04/22/2022 Bandido Gym, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) El Bandido & Gravity vs Elipse & Orbita
2) Cody 1-8 & Viajero vs King & Kong
3) Heddi Karaoui, Lady Maravilla, Potro vs Skayde, Sussy Love, Tirano
4) Galeno del Mal vs Limbo, Accion Jackson
5) Cometa Maya, Éxtasis, Radioactivo vs Aramis, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr. (AAA)
6) Abismo Negro Jr., Cibernético, Psicosis II vs Emperador Azteca, Flamita, Yutani

I haven’t gotten results from the last Big Lucha show if it sets up anything here or explains why Bandido & Gravity are working the opener, but the semi-main looks pretty good. Elemental, Bendito, and Ciclon Ramirez Jr. aren’t on this show because they’re headed to Alberta that weekend.

PWG announced a 05/01 show with

• Aramis vs Wheeler Yuta
• Blake Christian vs Black Taurus
• Bandido (c) vs Daniel Garcia for the PWG Championship

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

Box y Lucha 3504 has a lot of Arena Coliseo content.

Shocker says he’s hoping to get his jaw fixed in December.

Toluca’s LLPT group says they hope to run more shows in the second quarter of 2022 and wants people to eep taking COVID precautions so they can do so safely.

Cancun’s TWS opened a new school, with Septimo Drago as a special guest trainer

Long time CMLL rudo and current Mexican National Trios champion Raziel (49) passed away Monday. Reports from SuperLuchas and Miguel Reducindo mention Raziel’s death stemmed from a car accident.

Raziel will be best remembered as one half of a partnership with Cancerbero in CMLL. The two were an inseparable team for Raziel’s entire 18-year run. It’s hard to imagine one without the other. Raziel was the skinner, more technical wrestler of the rudo pairing, someone well regarded by his fellow luchadors for his skills. They started in CMLL as Los Romanos in late 2003, Raziel as Calígula, and Cancerbero as Messala, roman themed characters who mostly worked opening matches. That spot rarely made TV in days with a lot less televised CMLL, but the few matches and highlights showed great teamwork and good action.

CMLL reintroduced the pair as part of Los Canceberos del Infierno in 2009, alongside leader Virus, Euforia and Polvora. The latter two also were early match CMLL wrestlers being given a big shot and they eventually got it: Euforia is a many-time champion and frequent main eventer, Polvora’s held singles and tag champions, and steadily moved up the card. Raizel & Cancerbero really did not benefit much: they went from wrestling in the 1st or 2nd match to wrestling in the 2nd or 3rd match, where the big moments are being the 15th or 16th person in a tournament and getting knocked out quickly. It didn’t make a lot of sense from the outside why some benefited from the group and others didn’t, because Raziel specifically was easily a better worker than Polvora at that point and maybe as good as Euforia. Euforia has much more height, and Polvora had won CMLL bodybuilding awards, though Raziel did well in those too. Maybe CMLL still felt Raziel & Cancerbero were too small, maybe they just didn’t have the right connections, maybe there were just too many people ahead of them, but the team never took off.

Instead, Raziel & Cancerbero got typecast as good gatekeeper guys, on-the-job teachers for young wrestlers. They were skilled at basing for tecnicos and encouraging the novice rudos to do the same. Every new wrestler for a decade straight wrestled Raziel & Cancerbero at some point, probably for quite a while. They stood out when given the chance, but their roles were to make others stand out. It’s tough to give a lot of Raziel match recommendations because that just wasn’t the job, but his 2010 cibernetico win, the rudo/rudo match with los Guerreros Tuareg, and the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championship match with Fuego & Stuka Jr. are ones I’ve marked down as great.

Raizel & Cancerbero were good at the spot for a while, but had rapidly diminished in the last few pre-pandemic years. Their skills were still there, but there was some obvious frustration as well. Years of being the ones to make other wrestlers wore them down, upset they weren’t even the ones getting prepared for big opportunities despite their obvious abilities. Raziel & Cancerbero’s on-screen role was to be bullies and cheats, but it also seemed to be increasingly the reality. There were quite a few times where Raziel especially seemed to embarrass opponents or go out of his way to make it clear they were the ones who had just screwed up, not himself. They had flipped from being great in their role to being a detriment to young wrestlers. Raziel & Cancerbero were fair to be bitter about how CMLL had treated them, but it would’ve also been fair for CMLL to ask them to move on to elsewhere based on how they were acting. CMLL being what CMLL is, there didn’t seem to be any consequences to tenured luchadors for their occasional acts of sabotage and no chance they were leaving any time soon.

The pandemic changed a lot of careers negatively. For Raziel, it happened to give him the biggest break of his career. The CMLL diehards were the primary ones still following the promotion during the 2020 shut down and through the dire empty arena matches which followed. Those fans still believed Cancerbero & Raziel, along with occasional trios partner Virus, were very good and deserving of most opportunities. CMLL let the fans decide the 2020 Aniversario matches via voting and likely believed either the pushed Casas family or the Panther family would win the poll to face NGD for the national trios titles. CMLL diehard fans instead rallied towards candidates they felt the promotion had never given a fair shot, and Cancerbero and Raizel easily fit that description. They lost that title match in September 2020, but it seemed to change the promotion’s mind on the team. (A steady departure of talent also opened up spots.) Los Cancerberos won the national trios titles after NGD relinquished them in 2021, and defended them fairly regularly by CMLL standards until Raziel suffered an injury in November 2021. CMLL early match wrestlers of Raziel’s age and position usually only get significantly pushed if they’re about to lose their mask to someone on the way up, but this Raziel push seemed to be just about him being a good wrestler and being popular enough to be used in a bigger way. It was long after anyone would’ve suspected it would’ve happened for him, past his peak as a wrestler, but 2021 was clearly the best year of Raziel’s career. 2022 seemed promising as soon as he could return.

Raziel’s injury, like most CMLL injuries, was never announced or explained, but he had posted a photo in March of getting his leg worked on in preparation for a return. It didn’t seem he was close to a return: CMLL announced the Universal tournament will start with the national champions this Friday, Virus & Cancerbero were included but Raziel was not. At the same time, CMLL likely would’ve done something to crown new trios champions by now if they believed Raziel was going to be out much longer. It’s a decent bet he would’ve been back in the next month or two and resumed the great moment he was already in. It’s great Raziel got his moment in the sun before he passed away, even as sad as it is he won’t be able to continue it.

Raziel trained under some of the most highly regarded lucha libre trainers: the late Brazo Ciberentico, Skayde, and Tony Salazar. Raziel’s earliest character appears to have been “Arquero I”, an identity Brazo Cibernetico also used. He got his first real attention as “Neo”, teaming with tag team partner “Geo” in 1997 Promo Azteca, then using the character in IWRG and indies following that promotion’s demise. Neo seemed to be a Skayde concept; he worked with various Toryumon Mexico stars who Skayde was also training. Skayde and Raziel still seemed to be close as Raziel moved on with his career; Skayde was urgently trying to contact people (including Raziel’s nephew, AAA’s Latigo) Monday.

CMLL will hold a moment of applause for Raziel on Tuesday in both Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo Guadalajara. His partners, Virus & Cancerbero, are scheduled to wrestle Friday in the first block of the CMLL Universal tournament. They’ve been teaming with Luciferno, whose own trio drifted apart over the last year, and talked about permanently adding him to the unit. I don’t believe they meant it as the forever Raziel replacement, though that probably now will occur. This is the second CMLL wrestler to have passed away in a month, following Warrior Jr.’s death back on March 17th.

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 04/01/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Cronista del Ring, Kaiser Sports]
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito b Minos, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) Amapola, Dalys, Stephanie Vaquer b La Magnifica, Marcela, Skadi 
rudas took 2/3. Marcela seemed hurt in the third fall.
3) Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring b Akuma, Felino, Virus 
Akuma replaced Polvora on Thursday. Tecnicos took 1/3
4) Negro Casas, Stuka Jr., Titán b Atlantis Jr., Mephisto, Templario 
tecnicos took 2/3
5) Terrible b Euforia © [MEX HEAVY] 
Euforia falls on his first defense. Terrible is the 68th champion.

Terrible seemed like the favorite to win this title when they did the recent tournament, so it’s not a huge surprise he’s got the belt now. It’s just strange for Euforia to win it and then immediately lose it in between; zero defense singles champions in CMLL are rarely, especially so over a short time change. I guess it’s possible Euforia wasn’t supposed to beat Gran Guerrero and that match stopped early due to Euforia’s powerbomb going wrong, but it didn’t feel like an early stoppage and it wouldn’t explain why Terrible ended with the belt instead of Gran Guerrero. Maybe CMLL just want to have a lot happening?

My attempt at recording this show didn’t go well, just got the last hour, haven’t seen it as of today. I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

CMLL (SAT) 04/02/2022 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, ESTO, Mas Lucha]
Arena Coliseo 79th Anniversary
1) Cachorro, Panterita del Ring Jr., Suicida b Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr., Valiente Jr.
Team Panterita took 2/3
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit b Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
tecnicas took 1/3.
3) Hombre Bala Jr. & Robin b Akuma & Espanto Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG, final]
4) Místico, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero b Cavernario, Templario, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
Team Mistico took 2 (DQ)/3
5) Dragón Rojo Jr. b Soberano Jr. © [CMLL MIDDLE]
first defense

Hombre Bala, Robin, Dragon Rojo also just feel like champions to have some surprise champions, because it didn’t feel like any of those were coming. This was a big show and so maybe they wanted to do something memorable, yet there wasn’t any special build to these matches. Dragon Rojo was just the random challenger of the moment and Hombre Bala & Robin hadn’t especially teamed before this tournament. Even in the promotion where it feels like everyone is champion, Hombre Bala and Robin seemed like guys who might never win a title due to their lack of push and Dragon Rojo seemed unlikely to be champion given his injury history. Rojo regained the title he held longer than anyone else, though that was greatly lengthened due to injury absences. He’s managed to keep a generally regular schedule after returning last year from knee injuries that appeared to be career-ending, and I just didn’t think he’d be trusted to stay in one piece this long.

Soberano and Euforia losing their titles in back-to-back days is eyebrow raising. There’s no indication anything that’s happened with them otherwise though.

This Arena Coliseo show had a huge turnout. This anniversary celebration has become the only big show Arena Coliseo gets every year, and this year seemed better attended than the recent ones of those. ESTO said 7,000 attendance; we have 5,200 capacity for this building so that seems high. 5,000 might be right based on the photos.

CMLL (SUN) 04/03/2022 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Retro b Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. b Grako, Inquisidor, Raider
team medics took 2/3
3) Disturbio, Nitro, Okumura b El Audaz, Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr.
rudos took 1/3
4) Dulce Gardenia, Star Black, Volcano b El Coyote, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero
tecnicos took 1/3
5) Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Star Jr., Titán b Atlantis, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado
team Dragon Rojo took 1/3

Not sure if the Karontes are meant to be tecnicos or rudos.

CMLL (TUE) 04/05/2022 Arena México
1) Acero, Aéreo, Kaligua vs Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia, Pierrothito
2) Cachorro, Sangre Imperial, Valiente Jr. vs Grako, Inquisidor, Raider
3) Dark Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Panterita del Ring vs El Hijo del Villano III, Okumura, Rey Bucanero
4) Stigma © vs Magia Blanca [CMLL SL]
first defense
5) Atlantis, Negro Casas Star Jr., Titán vs Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado

Negro Casas was originally announced, then replaced on Monday. If CMLL is going to do lots of title changes, there’s no reason they can’t do this one on Tuesday, or Magia Blanca/Rugido beating Esfinge/Fugaz Monady in Puebla. Probably not both, since that’d make Magia Blanca double champion and empty out one more space in the field.

the current champions, going into the first block of the Universal tournament on Friday:

1. Angel de Oro (CMLL Tag, National Lightheavyweight)
2. Cancerbero (National Trios)
3. Dragon Rojo Jr. (CMLL Middleweight)
4. Esfinge (National Tag) could be Magia Balnca
5. Fugaz (National Tag) could be Rugido
6. Gemelo Diablo I (CMLL Trios)
7. Gemelo Diablo II (CMLL Trios)
8. Hechicero (CMLL Heavyweight)
9. Hombre Bala Jr. (Arena Coliseo Tag Team)
10. Mistico (CMLL Middleweight)
11. Niebla Roja (CMLL Light Heavyweight, CMLL Tag)
12. Panterita del Ring Jr. (Mexican Lightweight)
13. Raziel (National Trios) but also injured?
14. Robin (Arena Coliseo Tag Team)
15. Sagrado (CMLL Trios)
16. Stuka Jr. (NWA Light Heavyweight)
17. Stigma (CMLL Super Lightweight) could be Magia Blanca
18. Templario (Mexican Middleweight)
19. Terrible (National Heavyweight)
20. Titan (CMLL Weltwerweight)
21. Volador Jr. (NWA Welterweight)
22. Virus (National Trios)
23. (Mercurio CMLL Minis?)
24. (Chamuel CMLL Micro?)

AAA

AAA did air two episodes from Merida on Saturday. My stream died before the last match; you can see Penta/Arez on the drive. I may upload better versions of the file after I get a chance to watch it and know what to clean up. You could also just wait until Sunday when AAA will probably put up at least the first episode. I suspect this upcoming weekend’s of AAA will be a third part from Merida, but it’s too soon to know.

Again, haven’t had time to watch AAA TV in any great detail, but it seemed liked Flamita was supposed to be a permanent part of Los Mercenarios. Konnan also may have turned face, or he’s just whatever the angle needs that day.

Myzteziz Jr. replaced Hijo del Vikingo in his matches in Jalisco this weekend. I’ve lost the link, but Vikingo did an interview in recent days mentioning Dorian Roldan told him to take it easier and not kill himself, and having him take a break from wrestling can help. His TripleMania partner Fenix was at WrestleCon this weekend and seemed to be in good shape – no sling, like at Republic of Lucha. I’d feel like it was a pretty safe bet Fenix would be ready for Monterrey if there hadn’t been weeks of false starts already.

WrestleMania Weekend

The WRLD on Lucha was a pretty good show. The Gringo Loco/Flamita/Abismo Negro Jr. vs ASF/Laredo Kid/Rey Horus match was as great as expected; ASF’s big moment from that show went viral. Wagner & Psycho worked hard in the main event (and still appear to be working hard to try to get GCW to do the mask/hair match.) The six-way scramble came across well too.

I haven’t seen Bandido/Jonathan Gresham from Ring of Honor, though reviews are generally positive. AEW added a weird angle where Chavo Guerrero offered to manage Bandido, defied Bandido by cheating, and got kicked out of the match by Bandido. It reads like the start of a feud between the two, which sounds not at all interesting and I’m still skeptical Bandido will be back in ROH any time soon. There appears to be no ROH soon; there was no mention of a next show, and it’s unclear if the previous announced TV tapings are still happening. There is more ROH at some point, and that’s better than nothing.

I went to the MLW “Azteca Underground” show on Friday. Turnout wasn’t great, but the venue was nice and there were a surprisingly large percentage of people specifically into MLW. Flamita/Bandido was the best match of the taping; it’s basically just the touring match and they’ve got it worked out. Bandido also came off like a bigger star than most regular MLW people, though they’re not really using him in storylines. Microman in trios action was the most over guy on the show. (TJP worked as the mystery man in the match, which might have been not wanting to get CMLL’s attention for working AAA guys.) Octagon Jr. is somehow Caribbean champion, so either I missed something in MLW or they just randomly gave him a belt. I fully expected him to lose to Matt Cross but instead he remained champion and amusingly took the belt with him to the GCW show later that night. Octagon is one of a few AAA guys who aren’t quite US TV ready (I’m hoping they leave in the bit where they stopped and spun a submission around 180 degrees so it would face the hard camera) but he stands out as someone to go with if he can put it together, and maybe there’s a plan here in MLW with that belt. The plan for Aramis seems like a mask/hair match with Gino Medina in the near future based on how their match ended up.

The main event was scheduled to be Jacob Fatu versus LA Park, but LA Park and his sons were said to be off the show due to “injury” suffered on Thursday. I can not put big enough air quotes around the word “injury”. The Parks weren’t at the building and they may be finished up with MLW for now. Bestia was in a tough spot and took a tough looking table break near the end to try to make something memorable and he had a rooting section, but it wasn’t the match people were expecting.

MLW taped on Thursday too, so those matches are probably airing first and these maches later on in late April/May.

Also on Friday, Faby Apache showed up on Impact to challenge Deonna Purrazzo for the AAA Reina de Reinas championship but lost. Purrazzo will next defend against Taya on 04/23 Rebellion, a week before TripleMania Monterrey.

I saw US vs The World show on Saturday morning. That WrestleCon slot, going back to when it was Pancakes & Piledrivers, typically has one or two good matches and a lot of people worn down by a busy weekend (or a long night) going through the motions. It was much better this time around; not everything worked, but everyone felt like they were trying to have a good match. Aeroboy, Aramis and Arez versus Flip Gordon, Gringo Loco and Caleb Konley was pretty good and Bandido & Extreme Tiger versus the Workhoresmen was fun. The Warrior Wrestling fourway didn’t land as well as the other matches. It’s a good show to go back and watch if you’re looking for something.

Lucha Maniaks took place in Arlington Saturday night and really struggled to draw. The Martinez show in the same venue is believed to have drawn into the four digits, the Maniaks show was well under three digits. Maniaks was running against WrestleMania in a place they don’t normally run, so there are reasons, but it didn’t look good. I feared the card was going to have no shows and low effort given the turnout, so I was happy when people generally tried. The pre-intermission matches weren’t great, but ACH/Taurus was fun, the Gringo Loco trios was good, and the main event went well for how long it lasted. This show streamed for free live (and is now part of Title Match Network’s subscription) and will turn up on Mas Lucha later.

IWRG

IWRG (SUN) 04/03/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Leyenda Negra, Mini Canis Lupus, Sagitarius b Jessy Jackson, Mini Spiritu, Rey Halcón  
2) Puma de Oro & Tonalli b Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy [super libre] 
3) Aster Boy © b Yorvak [IWRG IC Light]  
3rd defense
4) Cerebro Negro, Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera b Bobby Lee, Príncipe Arkano, The Mummy 
Pantera snuck in a foul on Arkano. Cerebro Negro had issues with Pantera and Black Terry supposed thim
5) Dr. Cerebro b Travis Banks © [IWRG IC MIDDLE]  
Banks lost in his 2nd defense.
6) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Hijo De Dos Caras b Brad Alexis, Dick Angelo 3G, El Hijo del Medico Asesino  
Dragon Bane beat Dick Angelo 3G to set up an IWRG JUNIOR match. Moved to the main event.

Los Golepadors also did a promo at IWRG about going back to NOAH, which helps them say someone from IWRG is indeed going to NOAH. Attendence seems surprisingly poor for this show; not sure if that’s WrestleMania or some other reason. You can see that they recently painted the seating area, since so much of it is vacant.

IWRG announced that Canadian Shaun Moore will be coming to the promotion in April.

Other News

RGR Promotions in Los Angeles says they’ll have El Hijo del Santo and Psycho Clown both wrestle on their show Sunday. They won’t be in the same match, but it still seems unlikely; Psycho Clown would have to get special permission to work a show with Hijo del Santo, since AAA seems to tell their wrestlers to stay away from him at the moment. Martinez Entertainment had to create a fiction of two separate shows on the same night seemingly just to accommodate keeping the AAA names away from Santo. It also seemed to play a factor in the AAA/Crash break up.

From someone there live, the Martinez show advertised two different shows but it turned out to be just one show. (Maybe something got worked out with Santo/AAA, though it’s probably just the confusing logisitics of running a lucha show during WrestleMania weekend.) I heard one report of 1,000 people, and one closer to 2,000 people. Psycho Clown was there selling merchandise but ended up leaving before wrestling to make the GCW show. Santo posted his match on YouTube,

Segunda Caida reviews some 1989 lucha libre.

AAA

AAA TV (THU) 03/31/2022 Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas [Lucha Central, thecubsfan, Voices of Wrestling]
1) Steve Filip & Tome Filip b Christi Jaynes & Ryan Kidd
Bestia beat Drago.
2) Microman, Niño Hamburguesa, Taya b La Hiedra, Mini Abismo Negro Jr., Rey Escorpión [lumberjack]
Microman beat Mini Abismo Negro Jr. La Empresa came out to yell at Microman for doing anything other than being their mascot, put him a trash can, and carried him away.
3) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf b Aerostar & Drago [NWA TAG]
La Rebellion retained
4) Aramis, Mr. Iguana, Octagón Jr. b Abismo Negro Jr., Arez, Faby Apache
Iguana beat Abismo
5) Drago Kid, Jack Cartwheel, Pagano b Gringo Loco (Indie), Puma King, Sam Adonis
Pagano beat Gringo.
6) Laredo Kid © b Bandido, Flamita [AAA CRUISER]
12th defense.
7) Psycho Clown b Taurus
La Empresa attacked Psycho Clown after the match, with Jeff Jarrett & Karen Jarrett appearing to reveal Jeff was behind La Empresa and was back in AAA.

This show was fun and seemed well received. It came off as a ‘true’ AAA show, with their particular brand of silliness in the second match, crazy flying in others, and Jeff Jarrett returning like a horror movie villain to end the show. Jarrett coming back to AAA was inevitable once he (very quietly) left WWE – AAA and Jarrett just can’t quit each other – and we probably should’ve figured it was going to happen here in Dallas because Jarrett would’ve already been here for convention stuff. They teased like Jeff and Karen are going to be around a lot more but who knows.

Laredo/Bandido/Flamita seemed like the consensus pick for the best match, with Psycho/Taurus and the Iguana trios way behind. I think it’s worth picking up on FITE, or watching if/when it turns up on YouTube.

The (typical) late start and the added opener caused the last two matches to be a little shorter. The comparison here is The Crash show in New Orleans; that one was fun but had so many matches that everything felt short. This AAA show went a lot smoother overall; the early matches went a little too long if anything. I could’ve used a couple more minutes of the last two matches but there still was plenty there, and the Bandido double move on Laredo and Flamita was the craziest move I saw all day.

Attendance didn’t look strong on video. AAA really had the first two all reserved tickets; everything else was general admission, where people who paid for the convention could also just come by and take a seat. Most people were there for the convention, and some filtered back to the arena area once they got done, meeting wrestlers. The crowd that was there was receptive to the show, though more general wrestling fans with few who seemed familiar with the talent or AAA. Wrestlers would try to start normal lucha libre chants and the crowd just wasn’t picking it up. (Psycho Clown and Taurus were more successful at pounding the mat or objects to get people clapping.) I think this was a reality check for AAA about how many fans they have among English speaking fans, but also this was a day where they picked up a lot of new people.

AAA did bring a lot of merch on sale; I didn’t take a look to see how well it was moving.

I didn’t hear the FITE commentary but what I saw got positive reactions. It’ll be a new team for TripleMania Monterrey, with Lenny Lenoard joining Larry Dallas for that one, with the hope that will be the permanent team. We’ll see. Carlos Cabrera was back on the Spanish team in person.

ProWrestlingTV, a new video network run by the people behind the Create Your Narrative project, announced they’d include AAA on their network as part of their launch announcement Thursday. You can see the brief discussion around 14:30; unsurprisingly it was someone unfamiliar with AAA selling it to fans who were also unfamiliar with AAA, so useful details were slight. Their description sounded like they’re planning to air the same shows PPV that is airing on FITE,- they gave the 04/30 show as the first date. The host also mentioned that those shows would only air on Spanish. (The current English commentary is being paid for by FITE, I believe.) No price has been announced for ProWrestlingTV as far as I can tell; it’s similar to IWTV so a $10/month subscription is the expectation, and that’d save a few dollars off FITE if you only want Spanish. I’m not sure why AAA would make it more confusing to follow their content and undercut FITE, but they haven’t confirmed this is happening yet.

AAA on Space, which aired a repeat last week, lists two episodes this Saturday. Whatever it is, it starts at 6:10 pm. I think that may work better for me to stream if it actually happens, but we’ll see if it actually happens.

The WON has an AAA source confirming Pimpinela Escarlata is out of AAA; that’s a two-decade run that just quietly ended. Pimpinela has been doing the same match for about the last decade, but was still seemed popular. The Shotas got overin their debut, and maybe they’ve just got the spot.

CMLL

Today’s Friday show is just a normal show. Euforia/Terrible headlines for the national heavyweight title, where Euforia probably retains and it’s probably good. Atlantis Jr. returns from the black hole he was in, teaming with Mephisto and Templario against Negro Casas, Titan and Stuka Jr. This’ll stream on TicketmasterLive. I can not watch this show live and there is no VOD; I will attempt to (illegally?) record the show and watch it later.

Stuka posted a video on Facebook Wednesday afternoon, thanking the CMLL medical team for taking care of him, showing his bloody mask from Tuesday’s injury, and mentioning he plans on wrestling on Friday. That sounds crazy to me, but CMLL updated Friday’s card only removing Polvora to Akuma. I presume a factor in Stuka working is they’re doing something with himself with Atlantis Jr.

CMLL is pushing the Saturday Arena Coliseo 79th Anniversary show much harder than tonight, with various videos talking about the history of the building. We almost never see Arena Coliseo full footage; this is the one show a year that might turn up.

CMLL (SUN) 04/03/2022 Arena México
1) Retro vs Príncipe Odín Jr.
2) Dr. Karonte I, Dr. Karonte II, Enfermero Jr. vs Grako, Inquisidor, Raider
3) El Audaz, Flyer, Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Disturbio, Nitro, Okumura
4) Dulce Gardenia, Star Black, Volcano vs El Coyote, Hijo del Villano III, Rey Bucanero
5) Atlantis, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Sagrado vs Cavernario, Dragón Rojo Jr., Star Jr., Titán

The Dr. Karontes were introduced in CMLL’s media day and on Informa. I is Argos. II is Mistico’s nephew and NOT the former Mini Monster Clown, who is instead apparently and confusingly still wrestling as Dr. Karonte Junior. Julio Cesar Rivera said the Karontes were supposed to debut in CMLL earlier but the pandemic got in the way. It is immediately believable. Of course CMLL would want to do a medics trio with Enfermero Jr.

Principe Odin Jr. showing up for the first time this year. Retro hasn’t been around much. Raider is still here. Volcano has a new mask on the poster. There are so many rudos.

They are so focused on 50 pesos tickets for children that the title of the Sunday lineup page is now “Ninos $50 pesos”. CMLL is also bringing back their “CMLL Pekes” branding, so kids seems like a current focus.

CMLL (MON) 04/04/2022 Arena Puebla
1) Millenium & Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Black Tiger & King Jaguar
2) Micro Gemelo Diablo I & Micro Gemelo Diablo II vs Mije & Perico Zakarías
3) La Vaquerita & Princesa Sugehit vs Reyna Isis & Stephanie Vaquer
4) Esfinge & Fugaz © vs Magia Blanca & Rugido [MEX TAG]
first defense
5) Atlantis Jr., Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Euforia, Hechicero, Mephisto

It’s fun finding out what feuds are going on in Puebla on the lineup and the lineups only. Maybe a women’s title match coming too.

CMLL (TUE) 04/05/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Bello Antuan, Johnny Dinamo vs Destructor, Gran Kenut, Ponzoña
2) Flash & Gallo vs Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno [super libre]
3) Lluvia, Náutica, Sexy Sol vs Dalys, Dark Silueta, Valkiria
4) Ángel de Oro, Explosivo, Niebla Roja vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Demonio Maya, Principe Daniel
5) Místico & Soberano Jr. vs Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero

Still no tag title match in that Trueno feud. Maybe they’re trying to stretch this feud as along as possible to do the mask match in June for the building anniversary show? The Johnny Dinamo in the opener is a name that disappeared at the start of the pandemic, appears to be his first match in two years.

CMLL announced this year’s CMLL Universal tournament will be a four week tournament, with three rounds of blocks and a three way final. Let’s be clear from the start; No one wants this! No one likes tournament block shows, they’re almost always underwhelming, and adding another one without trying to fix the problem is just obliviousness. And CMLL three way matches aren’t much good either. But, here we are anyway.

CMLL didn’t say how many people will be in it. Normal match would suggest 24 people for three blocks of eight. CMLL currently has 20 champions, and will get to 22 when the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championship is decided. (Both the national heavyweight championship and national tag team championship matches will not affect the total number.) That’s still two short. There’s no sign of the vacant national middleweight title being decided before this starts. Maybe Mercurio and Chamuel get added? Maybe it’s just an odd number? It only really matters for opening round matches, the winner’s probably in this already.

Star Black says he’s headed to Mexico City full time, which was also mentioned on Informa this week. This seemed likely after his success in the recent national heavyweight tournament. There’s no date set for when Star Black is going.

Okumura announced the Ambassadors del Mal are finished. They’d been finished since Dark Magic joined Ola Negra a couple of months ago but I guess now he got to say it. Okumura’s pushing the idea that his samurai look is something totally new and fresh. Ohara, Goto and Okumura did a samurai look when they were all a team in 2006/2007. He’d like to team with Japanese wrestlers once traveling becomes more commonplace. He also hopes to have a big show with many Japanese wrestlers on his 20th anniversary of CMLL, which would be 2024 (so he’s not going anywhere any time soon.)

Kraneo says he’s not turned rudo and frames his match with Volcano as a battle to decide who leads Los Gorillas del Ring. He’d like to have more matches between them.

IWRG

IWRG (THU) 03/31/2022 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Aster Boy & Tonalli b Estrella de Oro & Yorvack [Relevos Increíbles]
2) Hijo de Payaso Purasanta & Payaso Purasanta Jr. b Belial & Impulso
3) Lolita b Reina Dorada
Lolita asked for a FULL WOMEN title match, a title Reina Dorada apparently holds
4) Dinámico © b León Dorado [Mucha Luchas CHAMP]
5) Cerebro Negro & Dr. Cerebro DQ Cíclope & Miedo Extremo
Ciclope DQ for using fire
6) Murder Clown b Joe Lider, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Black Warrior [PDM HEAVY]
Murder Clown beat Black Warrior

I know nothing about this show but they seemed to draw well. How can you get DQ on a Perros del Mal tribute show? Seems wrong. All matches should’ve ended with unseen fouls. You can see the show on Mas Lucha’s subscription.

IWRG (SUN) 04/03/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Mini Canis Lupus, Sagitarius, Sombra Negra vs Jessy Jackson, Mini Spiritu, Rey Halcón
2) Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy vs Puma de Oro & Tonalli
3) Aster Boy © vs Yorvak [IWRG IC Light]
3rd defense
4) Bobby Lee, Príncipe Arkano, The Mummy vs Cerebro Negro, Hijo del Pantera, Internacional Pantera
5) Alpha Wolf, Dragón Bane, Hijo De Dos Caras vs Brad Alexis, Dick Angelo 3G, El Hijo del Medico Asesino
6) Travis Banks © vs Dr. Cerebro [IWRG IC MIDDLE]
2nd defense

The next big IWRG show is 04/17.

Big Chico Che and Big Boy are looking for a new third Big Stripper, now with a wacky vignette.

Other Notes

I also attended the Mark Hitchcock Supershow. Mike Bailey/Bandido was great and won the match of the award prize; it was so overwhelming the voter favorite that I’m not sure they actually needed to count. That match was really good, though I liked the WXW match a little bit better, and liked the Taurus/Alexander/Austin vs Horus/Laredo/Oku match. The fans in the building seemed surprisingly unfamiliar with Oku was given he recently had the much talked about the match with Ospreay; Oku had a handful of spots that were obviously signature bits that the crowd didn’t understand were supposed to be big things, though he was super impressive and got over anyway. Taurus seemed to pick up a lot of people who hadn’t seen him before as well.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Taste of Lucha has a live review of the Republic of Lucha first show.

A Fire Jr. profile. I feel like Marca does this same one once a year.

Schedule Note

I’m getting on a plane to Dallas in a few hours. I’ll be around there until Sunday. How this may affect you:

• maybe no news update on Friday?
• probably a lot of Tweets from shows
• I’ll try to Saturday’s AAA Space on Twitch. It may not work out, maybe have another option Saturday
• perhaps a podcast but don’t count on this either, this sentence is literally going to be the first time Rob hears about the idea

Also, Mexico catches up to the US on DST on Sunday. This doesn’t affect me, but maybe you if you’re trying to find the IWRG stream on Sunday.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 03/29/2022 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sports, Mas Lucha]
1) Micro Ángel, Micro Gemelo Diablo I, Micro Gemelo Diablo II b Chamuel, Mije, Perico Zakarías 
one of the Gemelos was hurt on a dive that didn’t reach it’s intended target
2) Magia Blanca, Magnus, Rugido b Arkalis, Leono, Stigma 
Leono replaced Pegasso. Depredadores took 2/3. Magia Blanca challenged Stigma to a CMLL SL title match for next week.
3) Dalys & Dark Silueta b La Jarochita & Lluvia © [MEX WOMEN TAG]  
3) La Jarochita & Lluvia © b Dalys & Dark Silueta [MEX WOMEN TAG]
7th defense (5th in CMLL). One fall.
4) Gran Guerrero COR Stuka Jr.
Stuka hit the back of his head against the barricade in the second fall, knocking himself out. Referee counted Stuka out twice to give Gran Guerrero the win instead of just stopping the match.
5) Hechicero, Místico, Volador Jr. b Fugaz, Niebla Roja, Terrible [Relevos Increíbles] 
Terrible replaced Angel de Oro earlier Tuesday

La Tijera has a video of Stuka’s injury from the crowd. A ringside person obscures the impact. The streamed version shows it, though you may prefer not to watch it. He’s clearly knocked out on impact and doesn’t appear to fully regain consciousness at any point. CMLL hasn’t said anything. No update has trickled out during CMLL’s usual Wednesday media interviews, hopefully something gets said on Informa. I’m mildly concerned.

The Gemelo Diablo injury didn’t look as bad, more shook up by landing much harder than he was expecting than injured. He was checking his arm though so I’m not completely sure he’s fine.

The Tuesday stream was back to buffering badly. The sound got way away from the audio, making for a poor experience to watch even for free (plus a VPN.) It wasn’t worth uploading, though I did put the women’s tag match on the Drive for posterity. Matches from the show may air in about a month on MVS.

CMLL (TUE) 03/29/2022 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, Fuego en el RIng]
1) Estrella de Jalisco I, Estrella de Jalisco II, Obelisk b Persa, Raven, Temerario
2) Sexy Sol b Valkiria
Announced as a lightning match ended up 2/3 falls.
3) Crixus, Estrella Oriental, Explosivo b Bestia Negra, Difunto, Javier Cruz Jr.
Tecnicos dedicated their win to Warrior Jr.’s memory. Crixus brought a Warrior Jr. mask to the ring; the two had been feuding right before Warrior Jr.’s injury.
4) Adrenalina, Fantástico, Star Black b Furia Roja, Guerrero de la Muerte, Ráfaga
5) Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno b Flash & Gallo
sets up an OCCIDENTE TAG match
6) Atlantis, Negro Casas, Titán DQ Averno, Maléfico, Satánico
Satanico fouled Atlantis and kicked the referee down for good measure.

Atlantis looked his age in this bits I saw of the main event.

CMLL (FRI) 04/01/2022 Arena México
1) Angelito, Shockercito, Último Dragóncito vs Minos, Pequeño Olímpico, Pierrothito
2) La Magnifica, Marcela, Skadi vs Amapola, Dalys, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Blue Panther, Dark Panther, Panterita del Ring vs Felino, Pólvora, Virus
4) Negro Casas, Stuka Jr., Titán vs Atlantis Jr., Mephisto, Templario
5) Euforia © vs Terrible [MEX HEAVY]
first defense

Atlantis Jr.’s return is the most newsworthy bit; maybe he just had a minor injury? That semi-main is not listed as an incredible match, so he may have officially become a rudo. It doesn’t seem like they’re setting up a trios title rematch before the Universal match, at least not on a Friday. Stuka should obviously not wrestle on Firday.

It’d be really weird if Euforia lost the heavyweight title in his first defense but it doesn’t seem all that important at the moment. This is another show that should be fine but is really easy to miss on a busy day. It’ll air on TicketmasterLive for 99 pesos.

Reading tea leaves: the TicketMasterLive links for the 04/01, 04/08, 04/15 and 04/29 are up and all 99 pesos. The 04/22 show isn’t working yet, which meant that was the expensive show of the month. That’s probably the Universal final, with brackets on 04/08 and 04/15.

CMLL (SAT) 04/02/2022 Arena Coliseo
Arena Coliseo 79th Anniversary
1) Eléctrico, Halcón Suriano Jr., Valiente Jr. vs Cachorro, Panterita del Ring Jr., Suicida
2) La Jarochita, Lluvia, Princesa Sugehit vs Dalys, Reyna Isis, Stephanie Vaquer
3) Hombre Bala Jr. & Robin vs Akuma & Espanto Jr. [Arena Coliseo TAG, final]
4) Místico, Negro Casas, Último Guerrero vs Cavernario, Templario, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Soberano Jr. © vs Dragón Rojo Jr. [CMLL MIDDLE]
first defense

This is obviously a better show than the Friday one, but Friday is the TickemasterLive one so that’s how it goes. Soberano’s likely retaining. I still favor Akuma & Espanto but can’t rule out Bala & Robin.

No Sunday lineup yet.

CMLL Informa has people in title matches as well as KeMonito and the Dr. Karontes. The Karontes were announced as part of CMLL prior. You may remember Dr. Karonte I and II better as Argos & Mini Murder Clown. They’re Mistico’s brothers, and he’s pushed for them to be brought into CMLL in interviews. Argos being part of AAA’s El Consejo seemed to be an obstacle to him returning for a while, but maybe they’ve moved on. (He’s also not good, but that’s a lesser obstacle.)

World Famous CB talked to a podcast about how he was planned to go to CMLL in 2017, but didn’t end up there. This has come in the past. He mentioned this time that he had a visa and everything lined up, but figuring out where to house him seemed to be an issue.

IWRG

IWRG (TUE) 03/29/2022 Arena Naucalpan [IWRG, Mas Lucha]
1) Rosel & Steven Manson b Rey Fuego & Último Caballero 
2) Especie Maligna & Guerrero Olímpico b Carnicero & Súper Boy 
3) Águila Oriental, Ajolotl, Súper Cometa b Águila Roja, Jhon Tito, Leyenda Negra 
4) Fly Warrior, Fulgor, Mike b Genex, Nativo, Prince Turbo 
5) Garra Mortal, Limbo, Noicy Boy, Rey Aztaroht, Rey Halcón, Rey Minos, Spider Fly b Aster Boy, Caballero de Plata, Chris Stone Jr., Hell Boy, Kenji, Sagitarius, Tonalli [Copa Higher Power] 
NGT vs Tryout 2021. Order of elimination: Rey Minos, Kenji, Sagitarius, Garra Mortal, Rey Azaroth, Chris Stone Jr., Aster Boy, Sider Fly, Tonalli, Rey Halcon, Limbo, Caballero de Plata, Hell Boy leaving Noisy Boy as the winner. Calibus, Carnicero, Guerrero Olímpico, Billy Jones, Sol all did not appear. Rey Aztaroht, Rey Minos, and Sagitarius replaced them (and I’m not certain I put them on the correct sides.)

That main event is using the names listed in IWRG’s recap, but I’m confident it’s incorrect. I’ve got this match playing (on mute) just so I’d have something to say here, and Sol and Calibus are definitely in the match. They just did back to back dives as I type this. Maybe I’ll go back and figure it out later. The match definitely has it’s up and downs. Noisy went through both Caballero de Plata & Hell Boy to win and that section got some time; Hell Boy looked impressive.

I think it would help IWRG to announce a schedule they’re running well in advance even if they’re not announcing lineups, because then maybe people would know more than two days in advance and consider going. This was another friends and family turnout.

The new IWRG show is Thursday’s Perro del Mal tribute show, which is a Mas Lucha Premium show. Murder Clown, Joe Lider, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, and Black Warrior main event in a four-way.

No Sunday lineup yet, but there is one for a show down the line

IWRG , LLB (THU) 04/21/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Caramelo, Gravedad Cero, Pinochito vs Especie Maligna, Juan Diego, Sparta
2) El Divino vs Demencia
3) Artemiz & Princesa Azul vs Reina Obscura & Sagitarius
4) Chicanito & Tonalli vs Aster Boy & Freelance
5) 1 vs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 [royal rumble]
6) Diva Salvaje & Jessy Ventura vs Cíclope & Miedo Extremo
7) Konnan Big & Zumbido vs Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal

Lucha Libre Boom isn’t mentioned on the poster, but there are a couple of the usual tell tale names. I presume Fantasma de la Opera and the others will be in the fifth match, a ten man retro royal rumble.

Konnan Big & Zumbido versus the two Wagner kids is the touring Konnan Big match. They’re running it in Tijuana, Mexicali, and Chihuahua this weekend.

Hijo del Alebrije out of IWRG

Hijo del Alebrije lost the IWRG Juniors title on Sunday, then did a strange post-match interview where he insisted he didn’t want a rematch and wasn’t sure what was next. It turns out he probably was sure what was next; IWRG announced he was out of the promotion on Monday. (Note that the letter is actually dated Sunday.)

Los Traumas, Demonio Infernal, and Fresero Jr. all loudly quit IWRG last year, which seemed to inspire IWRG to do a bunch of public contract signings. Hijo del Alebrije was one of the first signed back in July; no length was announced, but it seems to have lasted just over 9 months. Hijo del Alebrije won the IWRG Juniors title the week after signing, then IWRG announced he and Hijo del Espectro Jr. were going to NOAH in the near future. Other Mexican wrestlers are announced for upcoming shows but those two have not been. Mas Lucha had Hijo del Alebrije on to talk about the situation on En+Carados (also recapped on LuchaWorld.). Jose Manuel Guillen asks if not going to NOAH when others did was a factor and Alebrije said it was one. He also had an opportunity in the US that conflicted with his IWRG deal that he may now be able to take.

The other person announced by IWRG as going to NOAH, Hijo del Espectro Jr., has not worked in IWRG since January 2nd, though he was out injured for a chunk of January and February. It kinda seems like IWRG announcing those tours to win the news of the day inevitably pushed people away when didn’t deliver on them, but also IWRG’s always turned over talent at a high rate and perhaps they would’ve left anyway by the point. Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane seem to have disappeared from IWRG again, so no one actually going to NOAH is regularly working IWRG shows.

a List of WrestleMania Weekend lucha libre related matches

I’m going to miss a lot, but hopefully this is somehow helpful. If you’re looking or a full updated list, check the VOW one.

Thursday (5 pm)

AAA TV (THU) 03/31/2022 Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas
1) Microman, Niño Hamburguesa, Taya vs La Hiedra, Mini Abismo Negro Jr., Rey Escorpión
2) Aramis, Mr. Iguana, Octagón Jr. vs Abismo Negro Jr., Arez, Faby Apache
3) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf vs Aerostar & Drago [NWA TAG]
4) Drago Kid, Jack Cartwheel, Pagano vs Gringo Loco (Indie), Puma King, Sam Adonis
5) Laredo Kid vs Bandido, Flamita [AAA CRUISER]
12th defense
6) Psycho Clown vs Taurus

This will air live on FITE in English and Spanish for 15 USD. The link says Espanol but, as best I can tell, the same link will give you English. This will likely turn up on AAA’s YouTube at some indeterminate time but it looks worth getting. It’s early in the weekend so guys shouldn’t be worn down by multiple matches and the top matches look great.

I believe AAA is bringing in Hijo del Tirantes as referee, if that increases or decreases the likelihood of you watching. One of the early matches may end up being a lumberjack strap match.

MLW Thursday (7 pm)

• LA Park & LA Park Jr. vs Gangrel & Pagano
• Aramis, Arez, and Hijo del LA Park are scheduled to appear

This is a taping for MLW’s YouTube show, not sure exactly when it’ll start to air.

“Dark Arts Entertainment and Full Blown Pro Wrestling Ghouls” has a show at 8 pm with lots of luchadors announced, but no matches mentioned. This looks like it might be slightly close to a performance show similar to Lucha Va Voom where wrestling is involved but not necessarily focused.

Mark Hitchcock Memorial (9 pm)

• Bandido vs Mike Bailey
• Ace Austin, Black Taurus, Josh Alexander vs Michael Oku, Rey Horus, Laredo Kid

This airs on FITE for $15. It’s usually a pretty good show.

Zicky Dice’s Trouble in Paradise 2 (1 pm)

• Lince Dorado vs Black Taurus

Twitch is sponsoring this show, airing it for free on Zicky Dice’s channel.

MLW Friday (2 pm)

• LA Park vs Jacob Fatu
• Hammerstone, Von Erichs vs Mads Krugger, Richard Holliday, King Muertes
• Flamita vs Bandido
• Mini Abismo, Arez, ? vs El Dragon, Microman, Aerostar
• Aramis vs Gino Medina
• Octagon Jr. vs Matt Cross
• Holidead vs Chik Tormenta
• Aramis, Puma King, Hijo de LA Park to appear

MLW’s info is a bit all over the place so I may be missing some advertised matches. This will also air on YouTube at some point.

NJPW Lonestar Shoutout (5 pm)

• Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Kevin Knight & Daniel Garcia vs Máscara Dorada, Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks & Yuya Uemura

Mascara Dorada is just a regular NJPW USA guy now. This will air live on FITE for $15, and at some later point on NJPW World.

Texas Style Wrestling (7 pm)

• La Rebelion vs Los Msfts for the NWA World Tag Team Championship
• Alex Arsenal vs Damian 666

Not sure where this is airing; they have a subscription product, so maybe on that?

ROH (7 pm)

• Bandido vs Jonathan Gresham for the ROH Championship

You should not bet on fixed wrestling matches but if you do it anyway, please do not be money on Bandido. Gresham was rumored to get picked up by AEW even before the ROH sale became public and may have signed by now. There’s no hint Bandido is getting signed and I don’t expect it to happen any time soon. I still want to see this match, but I think I’ll be watching it on my phone while elsewhere.

I’m sure this will be a good show but it’s also one of the weirdest show of all time: Bandido/Gresham is left over from the 2021 version of ROH, new matches were added by the 2022 vision of ROH, and now it’s being finished off by the new owner of ROH. You don’t often get three different booking footprints on one card where only one promotion is involved.

If you’re going to get this, go buy it via ROH’s Honor Club as part of their $10/month subscription, instead of $30 on FITE. I suspect it’s only available on Honor Club because it was one of those things announced before Tony Khan bought the promotion and it’ll likely be the last thing ever on Honor Club in this current form. There’s even a decent chance they’ll just shut the whole Honor Club thing down before long and you’ll get out of forgetting to unsubscribe.

GCW: Gringo Loco’s The WRLD on Lucha (7:30)

• Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr. – main event
• Pagano vs Sadika in an extreme match
• Jack Carthweel vs Johnny Caballero
• Tony Deppen vs Psicosis
• Gringo Loco, Abismo Negro Jr., Demonic Flamita vs Laredo Kid, Rey Horus, ASF
• AR Fox vs Ninja Mack
• Golden Dragon vs Octagon Jr. vs Drago Kid vs Aero Boy vs Chris Carter vs Shane Mercer – new

This streams on FITE for $14. The trios match should be great and other matches will be good, but I did take a peak to see if I could leave this one early to make it to ROH for their main event. (They’re about an hour way, so it’s unlikely.)

Martinez Entertainment (7:30 and also 9:45?)

Martinez (FRI) 04/01/2022 Upper 90 Soccer Center, Arlington, Texas
1) Mecha Wolf vs Silver Tiger [MARTINEZ HEAVY]
2) Diego De La Cruz & Jonathan Vega vs Aéreo de Juarez & Black Danger [MARTINEZ TAG]
3) Crazy Boy & Xtreme Tiger vs Aerostar & Drago (AAA)
4) El Hijo Del Santo & Último Dragón vs Fishman Jr. & Shocker
5) Michael Elign & Psycho Clown vs Black Taurus & Laredo Kid

These are technically two shows (AAA at the earlier time, Leyendas later), there are a lot more matches to be announced and probably a bunch of guys hurrying over from other shows. I’m not sure if we’ll get a full poster before this show (check promotion and promoter’s Facebook) but that seems more indication tickets are selling so well that they don’t need to announce more.

This will eventually turn up on Mas Lucha, though it may be a few months.

Impact 9 pm:

• Deonna Purrazzo vs TBD for the AAA Reina de Reinas or ROH Women’s Championship

This will air on FITE. I think a title change is possible for either title any time it’s defended.

Saturday

WrestleCon: USA vs the World (11 AM)

• Sam Adonis vs La Hiedra vs Mr. Iguana vs Golden Dragon vs Fight Panther Jr. for the Warrior Wrestling Lucha Championship
• Gringo Loco, Flip Gordon, Caleb Konley vs Arez, Aramis, Aeroboy

USA vs the World seems like it can vary a lot in quality, depending on what condition these guys are left from the night before, but it’s usually decent fun. It’s on Fite for $15.

Effy’s Big Gay Brunch (11 AM)

• Effy vs Pimpinela Escarlata

This looks like Pimpinela’s only booking of the weekend but he may end up on Martinez show. This is another FITE show for $14.

TexasMania III: Gulf Coast Wrestling Alliance (3 pm)

• Bandido vs ASF
• La Rebellion vs Moonshine Mantell & Ryan Davidson for the NWA Tag Team championship

I don’t think this one is streaming?

Lucha Maniaks (8 pm)

1) Arez, Black Danger (Baja California), Chik Tormenta, Mini Abismo Negro Jr. vs Aragon, Brillante Rb, Dyl Dempsey, Jonathan Lopez
2) Rey León vs Mr. Leo [IWC LEGACY]
3) Tony Deppen vs Cuervo
3) Bestia 666 & Mecha Wolf 450 © vs Epyidemius & Epyidemius Jr. [NWA TAG]
4) Aeroboy vs Myron Reed, Tristen Thai, Black Destiny
5) Decimus, Gringo Loco (Indie), Juventud Aérea vs Aramis, Asf, Lince Dorado
6) Black Taurus (Indie) vs ACH

A fun looking show, and a pretty cheap ticket ($10 standing room, $15 GA). Title Match Network is streaming this live as part of their $10/month subscription. Mas Lucha will have this sometime down the road.

TexasMania Inspire Pro (9 pm)

• Aeroboy vs Prince Adam

Aeroboy is in the running for most matches this weekend.

Black Label Pro (11:59 pm)

• Blake Christian vs Black Taurus

On Fite. That match sounds great but I may have hit my limit by then.

TripleMania Tijuana

AAA held a press conference Tuesday in Tijuana to kick off 06/18 TripleMania ticket sales. Those tickets are on sale at Xtixs, running from 300 to 2000. That’s about the same as Monterrey (and cheaper than Mexico City.) There’s also a discount for those are part of the Xolo (soccer) season ticket plan. They’ll also hold a pre-show party outside the stadium as they do for the soccer team. The stadium seats 23,000 and they’re hoping to fill it.

TripleMania Tijuana will begin 7 pm local for a pre-show, and a 8 pm local for the main show. (Tijuana is in the pacific time zone, so that’ll be 9/10 in Central. Maybe schedule yourself a nap that afternoon.) The show will air live on FITE. It’ll be a ten match show, with five matches announced Tuesday.

1. one semifinal in the ruleta de la muerte mask match tournament
2. and the second semifinal
3. an eight women’s cage match (Lady Shani, La Hiedra, Sexy Star, Flammer, Chik Tormenta)
4. a mask match between the last two in the cage match
5. Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy vs Dragon Lee & Dralistico

That tag match will be wild. Not sure if it’ll work, but it’ll be something to see.

Maravilla seems an obvious inclusion for the cage match, so it’s a little suspicious she wasn’t included. It gets hard to figure from there. Maybe Hades will be back by then? Tijuana’s Lady Lee worked the local taping, perhaps she’ll be included? That’s the best guess for the eight, though I’m not sure why AAA would hold back those three without a notable name to come. There’s not really a foreign masked star like there was for Ultimo Dragon in the men’s tournament. (Don’t think Starlight Kid fits, thanks for bringing her up.) There’s not a masked luchadora legend who I’d throw in; they’d probably fit better in CMLL. It’s specifically masked women at this point, so Taya, Deonna, Faby, and Mami will not be included.

The four wrestlers who win their way out of the mask tournament in Monterrey are expected to be on this show. Rey Xolo (Extreme Tiger in a different mask) will also be participating. Roldan specified that the rest of the card will be announced on May 1st, following the results of TripleMania Monterrey. Again, this is a separate promotion that goes TripleMania to TripleMania, so that fits the logic.

guesses at the other five matches

1. A Marvel Lucha Libre match
2. A Copa TripleMania
3. a tag match with the eliminated legends (and maybe someone like NGD)
4. a mega championship defense
5. maybe another all-star trios? Or a mixed tag?

Like with Monterrey, there’s not much else to fit in here.

Other News

Not sure what to do with this one. Funeraria Rudiño frequently hosts wakes for luchadors, including Warrior Jr. and Super Muneco recently. Monday, they made the news under suspicion of selling drugs and bones. Bones! When news channels needed to find some file footage of this funereal home, they of course used the shots they had of luchadors attending services when lucha libre had little to do with the story.

Mas Lucha’s En+Carados on Monday focused on their Perros del Mal reunion/tribute show on Thursday night, a subscriber-only show. They also mentioned that it may be the last episode of En+Carados; no reason was given and it wasn’t definite.

Box y Lucha 3503D has Negro Casas and the big Arena Mexico crowd on the cover.

LuchaWorld has the latest edition of the podcast and this week’s Poster-Mania.