CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/30/2026 Arena México [CMLL, Heraldodemexico, Infobae, Kaiser Sports, Record, thecubsfan]
1) El Cobarde, El Hijo de Stuka Jr., Felino Jr. b Magia Blanca, Rey Pegasus, Tornado
10;49. Felino beat Magia.
2) Persephone b Olympia, Lluvia
10:51. Persephone pinned Lluvia.
3) Mina Shirakawa b India Sioux
10:51
4) Bárbaro Cavernario & Soberano Jr. b Vegas Depredador & Volador Jr. and Difunto & Zandokan Jr.
12:56
5) Hechicero b Darby Allin
13:25
6) Xelhua b Guerrero Maya Jr. ©, Calavera Jr. I, Ráfaga Jr. [Rey del Inframundo]
8:06. Xelhua beat Rafaga Jr. in a match inexplicably without eliminations

All the Día de Muertos shows drew very well – Tuesday and Sunday Arena México were well up over normal, though they didn’t get the sellout on Sunday they wanted. Monday, Friday, and Saturday did sell out. The presentation, drawing from the Mitos en el Ring shows, was the best they’ve done. Those matches were not really at that standard. That was beside the point to the people coming for the atmosphere; I’m sure they went home happy. It was probably nearly as good for those just popping in for one of these shows. I would’ve liked to see better wrestling by show five.

The main event was an unfortunate example. All the streamed Rey del Inframundo qualifiers were elimination matches. The recent Rey del Inframundo tournament finals have been elimination matches. This one just suddenly ended after Xelhua pinned Rafaga. That still might have worked if they went 15 minutes, and instead it felt like the match was just shifting into a higher gear when it came to an end. CMLL seemed concerned about the Dia del Muertos elements causing the shows to go too long and cut back on match times, but they cut back so far that this show didn’t go two hours.

No one’s going to remember that Rey del Inframundo final much, but the Allin/Hechicero match will stick around a bit. It was a different match than the AEW one, playing more with Arena Mexico. Allin was game to play Hechicero’s way and battle for holds early on. Hechicero was willing to play Allin’s game, taking a field trip to the top of the steps so Darby could fall all the way down them the same way Kamaitachi did many years ago. Hechicero also found time to take a gnarly bump on the steps¹ and then give Darby a gnarlier one on the finish. They could’ve easily gone five more minutes but they did plenty enough that everyone wanting to see this match got to what they came for.

The opener was the second best match of the show. It didn’t seem like the best possible Herederos/Amos del Aire match, but enough to show what they could do in a first match out of the show position. The two three-way matches had good effort that tried to overcome being more random three ways. The women’s match definitely felt like it was originally planned as “Olympia & Persephone vs Lluvia & Jarochita” and then they just left it a three-way with no other Universal champion to put in there. Sioux/Shirakawa was nothing great, but it was fine, and so it was much better than how Sioux/Thunder Rosa went. Mina winning is a little strange. Perhaps she’s coming back for a title challenge later on this year.

CMLL (SAT) 10/31/2026 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Espíritu Negro, Fuego, Rey Cometa b Disturbio, Feroz, Konjuro
12:23
2) Hécate & Johnnie Robbie b Candela & Reyna Isis
11:53
3) Futuro, Max Star, Valiente Jr. b Cerebro Negro Jr., Crixus, Raider
13:00
4) Hera, Keyra, Princesa Sugehit b Garra Negra, Marcela, Skadi
14:12. Straight falls (no particular reason to it)
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
10:28. Euforia beat one of the Gemelos with a mask pull.
6) Bárbaro Cavernario b Terrible, Stuka Jr., Difunto, Guerrero Maya Jr., Xelhua
10:35. Battle of former Rey del Inframundo winners. Xelhua was added after winning on Sunday. Cavernario beat Terrible.

The last show of women’s month produced a fun Hecate/Robbie vs Candela/Isis match that probably isn’t otherwise booked. Match 3 was the one I liked the most. Los Viajeros seem motivated to try new ideas again, and had good opponents for that. The opener was the better of the two Espiritu Negro/Rey Cometa matches this weekend.

CMLL (SUN) 11/01/2026 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Pólvora & Vaquero Jr. b Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa
9:59
2) Persephone b La Magnifica, Reyna Isis, Princesa Sugehit [Copa Tzompantli]
10:23. Persephone beat La Magnifica.
3) Dragón Rojo Jr. b Star Jr. [lightning]
7:13
4) Akuma b Furia Roja [lightning]
7:05
5) Blue Panther b Valiente, Virus
6:09
6) Averno & Euforia DQ Stuka Jr. & Último Guerrero
13:19 UG fouled Euforia in the third.
7) Bárbaro Cavernario & Volador Jr. b Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja
17:24. Volador beat Angel

The main event did the epic match stuff but I don’t know that it got there. There was some stuff that didn’t look great. Stuka did look great in the semi-main, essentially working tecnico in the rudo/rudo set up. The foul didn’t seem to be anything, a DQ for the sake of a DQ. Match 5 was not that much, just a little heat on Panther so he could get the quick comeback win. Furia Roja seemed to be working the hardest of the four guys in singles matches, though it struck me as odd they just didn’t do two better tecnico/rudo matches.

The four-way match was every four-way match. Persephone snatched away the trophy from the Dia del Muertos gods presenting to her. Persephone tends to do that all the time. They did play up Persephone and the female god having issues. If you’re paying attention, Tessa Blanchard is playing the female god this year, and that seemed to be a wink to that rivalry for the people who picked it up.

Furia Roja had a skull on the forehead of his mask, a simple way to get around any possible controversy for that swastika, and a sign that someone thought it’d be better if that wasn’t part of the presentation. That didn’t appear to be a universal belief: CMLL put the swastika version of the mask on their screen, and included it in the CMLL social media post. Sometimes CMLL doesn’t get its fair share of attention for its success, and this is one time they’re lucky they don’t.

I had the lineup for the Monday show on Friday, but it slipped my attention that it’s a 5 pm show today. That’s the Dia de Muertos public holiday, though CMLL isn’t doing that bit for this show. I wonder if they just thematically prefer the Sunday remasking show to be the end.

CMLL (TUE) 11/03/2026 Arena México
1) Eléctrico vs Disturbio [lightning]
2) Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa vs Espartano & Troyano
3) Futuro, Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star, Valiente Jr. vs Dark Magic, El Gallero, Espanto Jr., Raider
4) Olympia vs Reyna Isis [lightning]
5) El Gallo Jr., Fugaz, Star Black vs Averno, Euforia, Mephisto
6) Atlantis, Esfinge, Máscara Dorada vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Villano III Jr.

Atlantis only seems to be working Arena Mexico shows when CMLL’s got an idea for him, so maybe there’s something up with him being opposite Villano III Jr. Hijo del Villano III hasn’t been around for the last month, which wasn’t quite noticeable with it being women’s month anyway. Espartano & Troyano are a preliminary team that doesn’t turn up much. Disturbio had a purple mohawk on the weekend.

No Guadalajara lineup yet. It’s only Monday afternoon.

In a reply on Twitter, myAEW said they’ll be airing “many Friday and Saturday Shows in Spanish as part of the MyAEW subscriptions.” It reads like anything that isn’t a PPV on those two days may and likely will turn up on myAEW. Let’s make a table:

This depends on whether AEW ends up putting on as many Friday night shows as it reads like they will (and even then, access to those shows may be limited for Mexico IP addresses). I also assume these are part of the $8/month regular sub, not the $15/month PPV sub.

Assuming that it’s like 40 CMLL Friday shows a year on myAEW, anyone interested in CMLL should choose either the myAEW plan or the Fan Leyenda plan. There’s no real point to the other two YouTube plans unless you strongly prefer Tuesday Arena Mexico over Saturday Arena Coliseo for some reason.² This is such a great deal for my AEW viewers that I’m reluctant to point out the obvious here.

AAA

I have no idea if AAA is on Fox Sports Deportes in the US. My DVR was set to record it on Saturday at 7. Saturday came and my DVR said nope, it’s not actually on, they changed the listing to Sunday night. Sunday came, and my DVR said “I think it’s on at noon now”. At noon, it recorded half of a soccer game. My DVR then said “you know when it might be on? Saturday at 7, I’ll get it for you next week.” All of that fits with the Fox Sports Deportes listing being actually the Mexico listing, which was my concern. AAA remains blocked on YouTube in the US nonetheless. AAA did start mentioning that they’re on Fox One US on social media.

Moving onto less confusing things, here’s a quick viewership chart for recent taped AAA episodes

average viewership by channel
       AAA    WWE    All
10/10 6,339 10,468 18,832
10/17 6,022  8,460 14,482
10/31 1,640 17,472 19,093

The WWE viewership is up, but the total number is about the same – it seems like they’ve just moved people over from one channel to the other. We really need more weeks to be certain.

We’ve had plenty of weeks to figure out the regular TV pattern, which is why those numbers are lower than last week’s. It was a taped episode. Even for Heroes Inmortales, those are just meant to keep the plates spinning. If you want simple and straightforward wrestling, AAA is for you. If you want a program where something is happening most weeks, maybe not so much. That might not have been the intention here – I still think Mini Vikingo was meant to win the title on this episode, but I have no proof; it is how it turned out.

There were three matches on the show:

• Galeno and Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Histeria & Taurus
  • Graves knew the names of each Vipers. JBL referred to them as and only as “Los Vipers” throughout the match. Maybe he knows which one is Histeria, maybe he doesn’t. There was a point beyond announcer weirdness: JBL keeps calling the Wagner brothers “the Mexican Road Warriors,” expects them to beat people he knows but doesn’t really know in two minutes or less, and then was so bothered that they did a six-minute match that he got Graves bothered about it too. This version of AAA did those two-minute matches early on, which fit US wrestling but don’t really fit Mexican wrestling expectations, and eventually made them these six-minute versions as an appeasement. They’re enhancement matches one and the same, and I think JBL would be perfectly content if it was the Wagners destroying the Vipers for six minutes, but he drew attention to the fact that this wasn’t that.
  • JBL also went through all the possible challengers in the way that b-show announcers do when they haven’t been told any direction for a championship.
  • One minor thing that stood out: they had these two teams (especially the Wagners) in their Dia de Muertos gear. AAA’s run holiday-themed shows before, but they’re always aimed at the date the show takes place. That meant there’d be Dia de Muertos tapings airing in late November one year. This was planned for the day the show would air.
• Pagano & Carnicero defeated Murder Clown & Dave the Clown
  • The Clowns got no entrance. The match didn’t go much better for them than Los Vipers. It was really more about establishing the Pagano/Carnicero team, reinforcing the idea that Carnicero is a lunatic being controlled by Pagano. That act needed a win, it’s just notable that it came over Murder and Dave instead of that match being saved for further down the road.
  • Psycho tried to make the save after. It did not work out for him. Pagano and Carnicero beat up Psycho earlier in the locker room to explain why he wasn’t out for the match. Pagano told Psycho to leave AAA forever. I don’t think Psycho Clown is going anywhere but, with his one foot out of the door teases in the past, I think AAA could actually tease that he might be in danger of leaving as a match stipulation at some point.
• Fenix kept the Cruiserweight Championship over Takuma, Jack Cartwheel, and Laredo Kid
  • This was set up Monday Night Raw style, with interruption after interruption promos (though with more fighting) I’m unsure if Takuma has ever done an in-ring promo before. Not that he was bad, not that he got to say all that much, but it was unusual to see Takuma in street clothes.
  • Takuma also got to take the loss, which probably wasn’t as fun. Laredo is champion, so they’re not in a hurry to beat him, but it more came across as if Jack Cartwheel is the backup option to beat Fenix if Mini Vikingo is going to be out a long time. They really put him over in this one.
  • This was pretty good. It was another fourway, with everyone acting like they haven’t seen things that were done in previous fourways, but these cruiserweight matches (and the similar multiman 2v2 tag matches) are easily one of the stronger AAA points of the last few months.
• The show ended with Dorian doing a phone call tease, which ties into next week’s Hall of Fame bit.

WWE officially announced the Royal Rumble would be taking place on 02/06 in Glendale, Arizona. They’d waited much longer than usual to announce this, for whatever reason. The press release mentions they’ll be running a double SmackDown and “AAA Road to Rey de Reyes” show on the Friday prior to the show.

You can go “oh no, they’re now taping AAA around a main roster program, that’s always a bad sign” or “oh, good, they’re making good on their bit to run more AAA shows in the US.” I’m more curious about an apparent Friday night taping, since all of the AAA tapings have been on Saturdays since WWE took over. It’s not always great for AAA to follow those WWE PPVs on Saturday nights, and so perhaps airing late night Friday on those weeks might be a better idea for 2027.

Other Notes

Tania La Guerrillera (Tania de Lourdes Díaz Álvarez, 60) passed away on Sunday. She’s officially listed as debuting on November 29, 1979, but the luchadb has lineups for her a year earlier. The timing matters because Tania was part of a generation of luchadoras who entered lucha libre after the UWA started promoting matches in Mexico State, but before Mexico City lifted the ban at the end of 1983. She was as insurgent as a “Guerrillera”, someone who spent her first years in wrestling fighting for her right to exist in wrestling. It seemed to make her tough, and it seemed to make her unlike people who didn’t have that same toughness later on. Tania made her Toreo debut in 1983, and came to EMLL and Arena Coliseo in 1987. She was a regular there for the next decade, always a ruda, usually just part of the pack. Her biggest win is pretty clearly her hair match win over Karina in 1987. There’s a story to that. Tania, La Diabolica, and Maria del Angel appear to have wrestled as Las Infernales during the late 80s/early 90s, but CMLL doesn’t seem to acknowledge that history.³ Her last big match was losing her hair to Lady Apache in November 1998. She wrestled in the indies after that, often with and against old friends (or getting the better of younger women with old friends on her side.) She wrestled as recently as 2024 and remained an active part of the Mexico City wrestling community.

Romeo Bravo Young won a silver medal at the Senior World Wrestling Championships this weekend. He competed in the 57kg class and represented Mexico, becoming the first Mexican to medal in that event. Bravo Young was born in Tucson and switched to representing Mexico in 2023; his grandparents were born there. The medal has gotten a small bit of attention in Mexico. He doesn’t strike me as someone who might end up in professional wrestling, but you never know.

El Sol de Hidalgo interviewed Zuzu Divine.

Canek was honored in Reynosa.

1. and, in the biggest upset of the night, no one from CMLL moved the steps out of position as they did with Arez and Eddie Kingston [↩]
2. And even then, just get both plans, watch all three shows, you’re still saving money over the 25 USD tier. [↩]
3. They didn’t acknolwedge her death, of course. [↩]

CMLL

CMLL (THU) 10/29/2026 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito b Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Diamond & Oro Jr. b Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
3) Emersyn Jayne & Masha Slamovich b Garra Negra & Marcela and Metálica & Reyna Isis
4) Brillante Jr. & Capitán Suicida b Barboza & Furia Roja
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge b Akuma, Valiente, Villano III Jr.

There were people in the fourth deck on a Thursday show. These are no longer simply “good for a normal off day with a slimmed down lineup” and instead “really good attendance for any show of the week.” Those shows are going to be a regular fixture if they’re making money like that.

I presume they got the tour ticket package people on board. The Gradas were open for all the Thursday shows and now are closed for all of them. Might be an error or might be a sign they’ve found people to take those tickets already.

Meanwhile, the CMLL staffed show in Arena Lopez Mateos appears to have drawn less than half of a much smaller building. That’s like a 45-minute drive away. They’re drawing from a similar geographic area but they’re really drawing different fanbases. If there were three things I were able to correct about people’s understanding of Mexican wrestling in 2026, they’d be

• CMLL’s success has little to do with AAA’s success, and vice versa. The normal pattern is that one hot wrestling promotion can raise all hot promotions in the area up. That’s not what is happening here. It may be helping international fan’s awareness, especially the international fans who have no interest in wrestling unless it is presented in English and has a familiar American logo on it, but they’re selling tickets in two very different ways to different fan bases.
• CMLL is drawing very well in their home arenas, and not nearly as consistently well out of it. That Arena Lopez Mateos turnout is poor. The Aguascalientes show last night look good, though the photos are so dark that it’s hard to tell.

CMLL (FRI) 10/30/2026 Arena México
1) Magia Blanca, Rey Pegasus, Tornado vs El Cobarde, El Hijo de Stuka Jr., Felino Jr.
2) Olympia vs Persephone vs Lluvia
3) India Sioux vs Mina Shirakawa
4) Vegas Depredador & Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Soberano Jr. and Difunto & Zandokan Jr.
5) Darby Allin vs Hechicero
6) Guerrero Maya Jr. © vs Calavera Jr. I, Xelhua, Ráfaga Jr. [Rey del Inframundo]

This show is sold out and has been for some time, all for the Dia del Muertos show. I think the Darby/Hechicero match has a chance to be great. Perhaps the main event will be pretty good, and the opener should be good if they’re givein real time. But the story of the show is going to be how well the Dia del Muertos ceremony comes off, especially for an audience who hasn’t been watching it all week already.

It really doesn’t matter who wins the Rey del Inframundo, though I still suspect it’ll be Calavera Jr. for thematic reasons. It doesn’t totally matter who wins in India Sioux versus Mina Shirakawa. I presume it’s India because Mina hardly wins in AEW. It matters a bit who wins between Hechicero and Darby Allin, and I think that’s Hechicero getting his win back.

Hechicero’s taken to wearing his CMLL Grand Prix winners medal all the time¹, and he explained in his media day interview that he got so much praise from other international wrestlers about winning the big tournament that he thought they should do more to honor the victory through the year. His point is that no one really remembers who won except when they go over history before the next one, so he’s going to change that by starting the tradition of wearing the medal all year. He thinks the Universal title should be honored the same. The women’s Universal winners have worn their belt all year; the men’s not so much.

Guerrero Maya Jr. wrote a guest column for Milenio. He talks in the column about something he mentioned on Informa: he had pitched CMLL on booking him and his mentor Black Terry as a team when he turned rudo², it didn’t happen, but he felt like Black Terry’s spirit was with him last year when he won this tournament.

Rafaga Jr. had his usual hooded mask in Guadalajara, and had a new, much smaller design on Informa a day later. I like the old Rafaga mask better, but Rafaga explained in that interview that he felt it was more of a rudo design and he’s wrestling as a tecnico. He also says the new mask is a lot easier to see out of.

India Sioux talks about various ghosts experiences she’s had at Arena Mexico.

CMLL (SAT) 10/31/2026 Arena Coliseo
1) Espíritu Negro, Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Disturbio, Feroz, Konjuro
2) Hécate & Johnnie Robbie vs Candela & Reyna Isis
3) Futuro, Max Star, Valiente Jr. vs Cerebro Negro Jr., Crixus, Raider
4) Garra Negra, Marcela, Skadi vs Hera, Keyra, Princesa Sugehit
5) Averno, Euforia, Mephisto vs Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
6) Terrible vs Stuka Jr., Bárbaro Cavernario, Difunto, Guerrero Maya Jr.

This one has also been sold out for over a week.

The gimmick of the main event is all the former Rey del Inframundo winners (except for Sanson, who won the first three.) If Guerrero Maya wins on Friday, it’ll stay a five way. If someone else wins, they’ll be added to the match.

This is the final women’s match show, and so the final show with two women’s matches for now.

CMLL (SUN) 11/01/2026 Arena México
1) Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa vs Pólvora & Vaquero Jr.
2) Star Jr. vs Dragón Rojo Jr.
3) La Magnifica vs Persephone, Reyna Isis, Princesa Sugehit [Copa Tlomptatli]
4) Akuma vs Furia Roja
5) Blue Panther vs Valiente, Virus
6) Stuka Jr. & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Euforia
7) Bárbaro Cavernario & Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja

(Note that this show is an hour earlier than usual if you’re in the US, the start of DST.)

This is the annual Tzompantli de Máscaras show, where everyone wears their old mask (or a Día de Muertos variation) for the show, then returns it to a chest afterward. It’s always a ticketseller. CMLL is about 100 seats away from selling out the assigned seats.

CMLL promoted the show with a poster that just pictured the old masks, which is a great idea. Some of the masks are a little obscure, and I would’ve advised maybe not using one of them. Furia Roja lost his mask to Esfinge back in 2016, and only the most dedicated long-time CMLL fans would be able to identify it.³ Furia Roja is a second-generation wrestler. Like many second-generation wrestlers, part of his mask past tribute to who came before him. In Furia Roja’s case, his father wrestled as “Furia Nazi”, and so his mask included a Nazi swastika right on the forehead. ((Furia Roja also specifically wrestled as Furia Nazi Jr. early in his career; he changed it in 2015. Again, almost no one knew what Furia Roja’s mask looked like, and so they could’ve easily removed it without a problem. CMLL did not. It is tougher to land international deals when you’re carelessly including a hate symbol on your promotional material, and CMLL is fortunate to stay under the radar in many ways.

CMLL (MON) 11/02/2026 Arena Puebla
1) Amnesia & Dreyko vs King Jaguar & Rencor
2) Meyer & Tigre Boy vs Hijo del Perverso & Perverso
3) Espíritu Negro, Fuego, Rey Cometa vs Espanto Jr., Prayer, Rey Apocalipsis
4) Arkalis, Rayo Metálico, Stigma vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Máquina Letal
5) Máscara Dorada vs Volador Jr. vs Capitán Suicida
6) Dulce Gardenia, Neón, Templario vs Averno, Euforia, Soberano Jr.

Día del Muertos is over, Women’s Month is over, and so this is a regular Puebla card. (With no women booked.) Last decade, CMLL booked relevos incriebles over and over again, long past anyone cared. One day, they pretty much stopped. I’m hopeful that day will come with these three-way matches. I think Rey Apocalipsis is supposed to be a teammate of both Prayer and Espanto Jr., hope they all get along.

The only notable thing about Infoma is that Julio Cesar Rivera wasn’t there. Roberto Lopez Olivera filled in, though I didn’t catch any explanation of why JCR was out. There wasn’t any news that wasn’t covered in a lineup or result.

The 11/16 Lucha Kingdom show has very slightly moved this week, with about 100 tickets moved from Monday to Thursday night. It’s still mostly unsold. I presume they’ll be hammering it the next couple of weeks to try and fix that, but it clearly isn’t getting the ticket package support. The NFL show is the opposite story: there’s just a handful of numbered tickets left. That sales fit – there’s more NFL fans expected in town than NJPW ones. The NFL show hasn’t opened all the GA yet.

Maybe I can make this easier to understand: here’s a list of the assigned seats unavailable at last check for these Arena Mexico shows. Note that unavailable could mean “sold” or it could be “CMLL hasn’t put them on sale yet”, and the counts do not include any GA (Balcon/Grada) tickets.

Date  DAY Count
11/01 SUN 5973 Tzompantli (Balcon open)
11/03 TUE 5813
11/06 FRI 6003 (Balcon open)
11/08 SUN 2608 
11/10 TUE 2393
11/13 FRI 5122
11/15 SUN 1876
11/16 MON 1579 Lucha Kingdom (Gradas open)
11/17 TUE 1427
11/18 WED 6051 NFL x CMLL (no GA open)
11/20 FRI 4294

ESTO interviews Garra Negra, who reveals she broke her ankle when training for wrestling, couldn’t attend class because of it, and just ended up dropping out of high school.

How it’s going for Fox Deportes 2, which CMLL and AEW are on (as pointed out by SuperLuchas): there’s a US arrest warrant out for the channel’s owner. It reads like he’s accused of pocketing money that should’ve gone to the network, which sounds bad and is worse when the channel owes lots of people lots of money. The network is supposed to come up with a non-Fox name by November 10th and has not announced a new name (though there’s a report they’ll be a BeinSports.) CMLL and AEW will figure something out if this goes under. I feel bad for everyone working there, who are probably uncertain how long they’ll be able to keep working there.

AAA

I think AAA has a US Spanish-language TV deal, AAA and TKO haven’t promoted it, and no one’s advertised it. The show is listed as 8 pm ET on Fox Sports Deportes, a cable channel you may have even if you’re not entirely aware of it. I will feel more certain after checking for myself this weekend, but AAA is listed on Fox Deportes going forward, and one of the many anonymous folks in the comments says they saw it there last week. It perfectly explains the live YouTube US block, even more than just being on Fox One.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, this could be Fox adding the programming to their US service since they already have the rights in Mexico, but it could also be short-term. It also might be a permanent thing. It’s tough to know with no one talking about it. If TKO thought this was a great deal or a long-term thing, I think they’d be talking about it. A long-term deal on Fox Deportes would not be great. The previous AAA ownership got onto Unimas, which was considered too small to be a difference maker. Fox Deportes peaks with high numbers for big sporting events, and has a very small viewership outside those event times. The show this week is listed as airing between Argentina soccer and a boxing event taped in 2020.

The 8 pm ET time is odd, because that’s before AAA airs in Mexico. These episodes might be a week behind, or they might be airing the same show a few hours earlier.

The matches on this week’s TV show, wherever you may see it. I don’t see a link on either AAA or the WWE channel.

• Rey Fenix’s open challenge for the Cruiserweight Championship.
• haven’t said yet

We know the Rey Fenix match is happening only because that’s why Rey Fenix said he’d do last week. It feels like there’s usually advertising by Thursday and there’s Friday. The weird TV situation, the odd missing YouTube links, and also no promos are all an odd combo but the most likely answer it means nothing.

Other Notes

Quintana Roo luchador Darkness (Bernardo Federico Chale Barea) passed away Wednesday. He was also a former police officer. Masked men entered the house and apparently shot him to death, while his wife and two kids hid in another room. There’s no known motive for the shooting.

1. including AEW, where they ignore it and also mentioned Allin going to CMLL but didn’t mention he was wrestling Hechicero even though the AEW storyline seems to be about all the Don Callis Family members trying to weaken Allin [↩]
2. here he says he pitched it repeatedly [↩]
3. Barbaro Cavernario is the same way, but he’s puts his mask on for this show just about every year, so it’s no longer hard to remember. [↩]

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/26/2026 Arena Puebla [CMLL, Mano a Mano, thecubsfan]
((Attendance: sellout))
1) Águila Egipcia & Rey Espartano b Astro & Asturiano and Black Ónix & Lucky
10:25
2) Princesa Sugehit & Sanely b La Magnifica & Marcela
12:40
3) Johnnie Robbie b Alice Crowley [lightning]
5:11.
4) Hera, Olympia, Reyna Isis b India Sioux, Kira, Skadi
14:31
5) Xelhua b Stigma, Rayo Metálico, Arkalis, Rey Apocalipsis, Kheops [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
Order of elimination: Rayo Metalico (5:21, via Kheops), Rey Apocalipsis (7:12, Stigma), Kehopes (10:33, Stigma), Stigma (14:13, Arkalis), Arkalis (18:34, Xelhua)
6) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Neón b Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero
16:28

This was a sell out. This was also the first Dia del Muertos show of the season. I don’t really need six of them but CMLL would be foolish to do any less; they’re clearly a draw, they’re clearly sell tickets.

Over on Bluesky, Dan Vargue pointed out the Mitos en el Ring shows probably would have an influence on the CMLL Dia del Muertos shows this year. That seems correct. CMLL already put work in these shows previously, and yet you can still see improvements to the costuming, to the set design and with the dance numbers that were a staple of Mitos en el Ring. The yearly demon presiding over the matches has fairly obviously been played by a luchador in costume in past years, with someone doing a voiceover from backstage. Whoever’s playing El Nahual this year comes off like a stage actor, and is just a much more active presence.¹ I think these shows feel special to the casual viewer. I think the people dropping in on Friday just to see Darby Allin or Mina Shirakawa are going to be super impressed.

The matches were not as impressive. The main event was good, with Neon outshining his teammates. The Rey del Inframundo match was alright. I liked parts of the opener. You don’t need to see much else. Crowley/Robbie was the shortest lightning match in quite some time; maybe that’s what got sacrificed for the longer Dia del Muertos ceremony. Match times are somewhat shorter this week, because the show isn’t growing that much.

CMLL (TUE) 10/27/2026 Arena México [CMLL, Heraldo De Mexico, RadioFormula, thecubsfan]
1) Minos I, Minos II, Pequeño Volador Jr. b Galaxy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía
9:10
2) Hécate & Tabata b Astoreth & Candela
9:46
3) Máquina Letal & Terrible b Dark Panther & Hijo de Blue Panther
12:31. Dark Panther was sent to hell, recovered in time to second Esfinge later.
4) Hera & Olympia b Princesa Sugehit & Reyna Isis
9:59
5) Esfinge b Akuma [MEX HEAVY]
10:50. 3rd defense, first in over a year. Esfinge becomes the 72nd champ.
6) Calavera Jr. I b Yutani, Barboza, Rugido, El Coyote, Villano III Jr. [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
Order of elimination: Barboza (14:39, Calavera I), Coyote (18:14, Rudigo), Rugido (20:19, Yutani), Yutani (21:37, Villano III Jr.), Villano III Jr. (29:44, Calavera Jr. I) leaving Calavera Jr. I as the winner.

Again, the crowd seemed noticeably up from a typical Tuesday. The presentation was great. The matches were not much for most of the show.

The crowd got really into Esfinge and Akuma. You could really hear the crowd get into Esfinge and Akuma, which was more notable. The match was about the high end for an Esfinge match. Julio Cesar Rivera drew attention to Esfinge losing one title at Noche de Campeones in September and winning another one a month later. Perhaps Vegas was lucky to win a poll where the title would change hands no matter who won.

The six guys in the main event really wanted to have a great match and did some exciting stuff. It didn’t build as well and felt like it was going on a bit aimlessly at points. It was also confusing that they worked a cibernetico – complete with seeding battle royal – and Puebla’s show worked the same “everyone fights as they enter” scramble that CMLL’s been doing lately. I like Tuesday’s rules much better but it’s a sign the rules are even confusing the wrestlers. Also confusing was the Coyote elimination. Both Rugido and demon el Nahual thought Coyote was gone at one point, but Coyote clearly had his foot on the ropes before three and referee Metalico correctly held up. Coyote then just laid in the ring for a few moments while the match continued and everyone (announcers included) seemed confused. Rugido was alerted to German suplex Coyote to get him out of there, but I wonder if Coyote was just not supposed to get his foot on the ropes. All those nitpicks and it was still a good match, though maybe not 30 minutes of a good match.

CMLL (MON) 11/16/2026 Arena México
1) Master Wato, Okumura, YOH vs Brillante Jr., Capitán Suicida, Rey Pegasus
2) Kira vs Syuri [IWGP WOMEN]
3) Barboza, Difunto, Furia Roja, Zandokan Jr. vs Black Tiger, Kushida, Shoma Kato, Yutani
4) Douki & SHO vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & Xelhua
5) Taiji Ishimori & Titán vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © and Francesco Akira & Templario [NJPW STRONG TAG]
6) Soberano Jr. vs Shota Umino
7) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Konosuke Takeshita
8) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero © [CMLL HEAVY]
sixth defense
9) Místico & Último Guerrero vs Hirooki Goto & Yota Tsuji [Relevos Increíbles]
Originally scheduled as Mistico/Desperado, Desperado pulled due to injury on 10/21.

Rafaga Jr. seems like a random choice, but all Guadalajara choices are random. They didn’t seem to do as much with Dia del Muertos on this show.

CMLL (THU) 10/29/2026 Arena Coliseo
1) Shockercito & Último Dragóncito vs Full Metal & Pequeño Polvora
2) Diamond & Oro Jr. vs Inquisidor & Sangre Imperial
3) Garra Negra & Marcela vs Emersyn Jayne & Masha Slamovich and Metálica & Reyna Isis
4) Brillante Jr. & Capitán Suicida vs Barboza & Furia Roja
5) Atlantis, Blue Panther Jr., Esfinge vs Akuma, Valiente, Villano III Jr.

That match 3 is the first time the foreigners have worked one of these Thursday shows. I was surprised they were sticking around that long.

CMLL (FRI) 10/30/2026 Arena México
1) Magia Blanca, Rey Pegasus, Tornado vs El Cobarde, El Hijo de Stuka Jr., Felino Jr.
2) Olympia vs Persephone vs Lluvia
3) India Sioux vs Mina Shirakawa
4) Vegas Depredador & Volador Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario & Soberano Jr. and Difunto & Zandokan Jr.
5) Darby Allin vs Hechicero
6) Guerrero Maya Jr. © vs Calavera Jr. I, Xelhua, Ráfaga Jr. [Rey del Inframundo]

It does not really matter who wins Rey del Inframundo, but I think the skeleton guy has a good chance.

Darby Allin/Hechicero is a way to get Darby Allin on Dia del Muertos show and a rematch of a very good match from the end of the 10/14 episode of Collision. Allin won that time. I don’t think they’re bringing him to Mexico to do the same result. Maybe I’m just overly optimistic after seeing the AEW women’s results this past weekend, but I think CMLL has changed its philosophy on how it books those matches.

Match 3 is Sioux’s international challenge reward match for winning last year’s Universal championships. Match 2 pits the former Universal champions against each other. (Jarochita is out with injury; Catalina and Dalys are elsewhere.) The opener could be a lot of fun.

Friday and Saturday are sold out. It’s worth keeping in mind that Darby Allin versus Hechicero will not sell any tickets for this show, because all the tickets were sold before fans had an idea that match was happening. The show sold out on the idea that it was the Friday Night Día de los Muertos show. Same thing with the Saturday show. CMLL will end up having as clear an idea ever in how much a star the level of Darby Allin coming in for a match with no CMLL build means to them by looking at their PPV sales on myAEW and their subscription changes on YouTube.

CMLL said they want to sell out Sunday’s show. They’ve only opened the Balcon area in the last day or so and don’t appear to have opened the Gradas section, so they’ve got a ways to go.

CMLL announced the final card and match order for Lucha Kingdom late Tuesday night.

CMLL (MON) 11/16/2026 Arena México
1) Master Wato, Okumura, YOH vs Brillante Jr., Capitán Suicida, Rey Pegasus
2) Kira vs Syuri [IWGP WOMEN]
3) Barboza, Difunto, Furia Roja, Zandokan Jr. vs Black Tiger, Kushida, Shoma Kato, Yutani
4) Douki & SHO vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & Xelhua
5) Taiji Ishimori & Titán vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © and Francesco Akira & Templario [NJPW STRONG TAG]
6) Soberano Jr. vs Shota Umino
7) Bárbaro Cavernario vs Konosuke Takeshita
8) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero © [CMLL HEAVY]
sixth defense
9) Místico & Último Guerrero vs Hirooki Goto & Yota Tsuji [Relevos Increíbles]
Originally scheduled as Mistico/Desperado, Desperado pulled due to injury on 10/21.

Hirooki Goto (and not Shun Skywalker) is the replacement for Desperado. Goto came on his excursion to Mexico from 2006 to 2007 and returned for a month in 2011. He lost to Ultimo Guerrero in a memorable title match, which might come up in the build to this main event and would be a great thing for CMLL to upload if they were in the business of putting up old footage. Tsuji also trained on UG when he was in Mexico, so there’s history there.

I forgot they announced Takeshita too. That’s another where I could make a case that CMLL could’ve done a better job at promoting the names they were appearing stronger, but I also should’ve just checked my list. That match with Cavernario was new and interesting. I wonder if it was supposed to be Ultimo Guerrero & Barbaro Cavernario vs Takeshita & Goto and they switched it up with Desperado out.  Cavernario really wanted to wrestle Claudio Castagnoli during this heavyweight title run, but he didn’t get that chance. He’s getting a similar sort of chance in this match. Nine matches is a lot, but they have practice at that now. They have also the early start time to run longer if they need to.

It still doesn’t seem like this show has sold many tickets, but I think it’s a card that might get a lot of international attention. NJPW is promoting it as if it’s their own show (which is the idea), so I wonder if it might turn up on their service or be broadcast in Japanese.

Tessa Blanchard will face Keyra in MLW’s show on 11/07. Mistico will also appear on the show.

New Era is making special lucha libre-themed hats and shirts for the NFL Mexico game, which will probably pop up in CMLL for that show. Another article about the NFL events in CMLL that weekend mentions the luchadors will be wrestling “NFL-themed” gear for that crossover show. Tickets for that show have sold well so far.

While checking other ticket stuff, I finally remembered to check the December ticket prices. Tickets for the 12/18 show are slightly more expensive than the other Fridays. That’s usually when CMLL runs the AEW vs CMLL show in previous years, though neither promotion has hinted it yet this year. Note that’s the night before AEW’s World’s End (in Minneapolis); that happened before, too.

AAA

The folks in the comments figured out what happened to the AAA (Spanish-language feed) – it’s now part of the Fox One streaming service in the US. AAA has said they’re on Fox One for a couple of weeks, but I never realized that meant the *US* Fox One, they’ve been on the Mexican version of that service since Day 1 of the Fox Mexico deal. There’s been no great promotion of this deal, which likely means it’s not a great deal (in length or revenue) TKO will trumpet wins when they get them, so this might be a slight add-on to the Mexico-based deal.² Fox One is thought to be one of the smaller subscription-based services, but I’m not sure there’s a reliable number; it grew over the summer with World Cup viewers, and there’s been little reporting about it since that tournament ended.

Fox One as a permanent home for AAA wouldn’t be great, but it’s unclear whether it’s permanent. There’s a way to write this whole section panicked about AAA’s future if this is the type of US deals they’re getting, but I think it’s really too early to know if this is something that’s going to last even beyond the end of the year. One thing that seems pretty certain is that the AAA stream on YouTube will not be available in the US as long as this Fox deal exists.

WWE’s schedule lists AAA live events on 12/26 in Sacramento and 12/27 in Fresno. That’s in addition to a 11/27 show in Houston and a 11/29 show in Odessa, Texas. The Houston show is what we’ve seen so far with AAA shows, generally trying to run them in association with WWE major events (Survivor Series for Houston) or where the WWE wrestlers will be the draw (Worlds Collide Chicago.) The other three shows are AAA running without that support – Odessa is way on the other side of Texas, and WWE’s schedule has them on the other side of the country during that holiday week in December. One of the selling points of TKO buying AAA is that it’d make the promotion more international, and now they’re trying to do that with live events. WWE’s past attempts to tour with 205 Live or ECW groups failed, ultimately relegating both shows to forgotten-content status. I feel confident AAA will do better than those groups, but these are points AAA can get in their favor if these shows do well.

Los Wagner Brothers lost to NXT’s Hank and Tank in the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Classic. That’s actually good if that’s setting up challenges for the Wagner Brothers. AAA’s tag division this year is a lot of people who don’t win, forever #1 contenders the Los Americanos, whichever guest WWE team is in, and now the Wagner Brothers. They’re out of challengers really quickly, and I presume that’s the point of the NXT tag team champions losing in this tournament, too. It’s not as great if the Wagner Brothers were just in the tournament to fill it out. It feels like NXT (and other brands) has been instructed to integrate AAA wrestlers as much as possible to convince WWE fans that AAA is real WWE they need to watch, and maybe the people in charge of fitting them aren’t completely enthusiastic about that added responsibility.

False Finish reported that Ricky Marvin would work as a trainer and occasional producer. Marvin wrestled for AAA primarily between 2013 and 2018, including winning the trios championships. The end of that AAA run was Marvin’s last notable role in a major promotion. He was a spotlight wrestler Lucha Memes in that indie’s early wave of popularity and has been working in training roles in Mexico for years.³ Marvin has been clear that he prefers the style he used in his many years in NOAH over traditional lucha libre, and he’s tried to instill that in his proteges. It’s hard to figure out how that’ll will mesh with the WWE style, though this version of AAA seems to have something between what AAA was doing before and what WWE is doing now.

What interests me is AAA hiring a trainer. Early in this purchase, there was talk about AAA eventually starting its own training center in Mexico. The previous ownership also considered that but never really achieved it.  I’d guess that’s on the list of things on hold, awaiting increased revenue from a US media deal to pay for it. AAA’s probably requiring their wrestlers to do some sort of training somewhere, and AAA’s used different training gyms as unofficial home bases, but there’s been little talk of official training so far.

The AAA Aguascalientes promoter is advertising Mini Vikingo for their 12/03 show. That is far from definite, but at least a sign AAA haven’t told people that Mini Vikingo is out for a long time.

A recent article going over the troubled history of commissions in Pachuca and the state of Hidalgo mentions that the 09/24 AAA spot show in Deportivo 11 de Julio collected “nearly 500,000 pesos in ticket sales.” It’s said to be among the highest ever recorded by a wrestling promoter in that area.⁴ The relevance there is that it’s AAA and Mexico State-based Promociones Rosales who took in all of that money, and a commission might tax that revenue in some way that keeps a slice of it in Hidalgo.

Other Notes

Club Lucha has a recap of the Mr. Niebla vs Mr. Niebla feud.

Tu Plan de Juego has a review of Blue Demon Jr.’s autobiography. It reads like much more about the person behind the mask than what he did in the ring.

Jose Munoz and Isabel Aguilar talk about their work promoting lucha libre in San Luis Potosi, which they’ve now retired from. They said they one promoted 200 events a year – centered in San Luis Potosi but running other cities in that area of Mexico.

A profile of Salamanca luchador Escarabajo .

1. Former edecanes Gaby Bau appears to have returned as La Catrina – or at least it’s her voice. It was a different voice when they previewed the concept on last week’s Informa. [↩]
2. AAA has also occasionally shown up on Fox Deportes TV in US listings but hasn’t aired, in the same way CMLL has in the past, where it seems like someone’s getting the various “Fox” networks confused in a database. The Fox One airings appear to be actual airings. [↩]
3. Marvin was notably Stephanie Vaquer’s first Mexican trainer; they met in Chile, were in a relationship, and moved to Marvin’s hometown of Veracruz together. They ended up going their separate ways; I think they might still be on good terms, but I don’t really know. [↩]
4. Unclear if that means Mineral de la Reforma specifically. [↩]

A DST reminder: Mexico doesn’t do Daylight Saving Time. If you switch your clocks back and hour where you live, all the Mexico streams – both CMLL & AAA – will appear to start one hour earlier until the start of Spring. Europeans switched last Sunday. US people switch this coming Sunday. 

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 10/23/2026 Arena México [CMLL, Imagen Zac, Kaiser Sports, Porta Digital, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
1) Dulce Gardenia & Volcano b Estudiante Jr. & Robin
9:12
2) Yutani b Star Jr. [lightning]
8:42
3) Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Soberano Jr. b Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Rey Pegasus
11:44
4) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero DQ Averno & Euforia [lightning]
12:12. Euforia fouled UG.
5) Garra Negra, India Sioux, Keyra, Kira, Lluvia, Olympia, Persephone, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard, Thunder Rosa, Zeuxis b Alice Crowley, AZM, Emersyn Jayne, Harley Cameron, Marina Shafir, Masha Slamovich, Megan Bayne, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki, Momo Watanabe, Queen Aminata [Gran Prix de Amazonas]
Order of elimination: Masha (24:49, via Tessa), Crowley (28:21, Rosa), Keyra (29:53, Momo), Seira (31:01, Persephone), Zeuxis (32:26, AZM), Miyu (33:56, India), India (35:52, Queen), Rosa (37:12, Amanita), Amanita (37:30, Persephone), Garra (40:47, Momo), Jayne (42:02, Kira), Momo (43:38, Lluvia), Lluvia (45:04, Marina), Tessa (45:05, Bayne), Harley (48:57, Kira), Kira (49:48, Megan), AZM (50:52, Skadi), Persephone (53:45, Marina), Marina (56:45, Olympia w/help from Persephone), Olmpia (58:33, Bayne), Bayne (1:04:19, Skadi) leaving Skadi as the 2026 winner

Ticketmaster showed slightly fewer tickets sold for this show, though the upper sections looked a little more visually full this time. If you paid close attention to the last two Wrestling Observer Radios, it appeared Dave Meltzer emailed Salvador Lutteroth on Friday about the 10/16 show and then Saturday mentioned Meltzer said about 400 short of the WWE Evolution number for largest all-women’s show attendance of all time. So we can put that down as 10,500. This was probably a little lower.

The Grand Prix was a Grand Prix. The format’s weaknesses were there, as always. Earlier sections highlighted the unfamiliar matchups, with hesitations and half steps. Some people disappeared for long stretches, then returned for short stretches of rapid-fire eliminations. The crowd noticeably thinned out before the end of the match; the currently casual, heavy audience isn’t built for an hour-long match.¹ It also had the same strengths as these: interesting matches you never thought possible, some foreign wrestlers adapting very well to Arena Mexico² and a lot of emotion around the start and end of the match. The men’s match has a higher skill level. The women’s match had it beat in feeling like they were making new stars. That’s been the theme of this women’s month, going back to even a week before it started. Kira hasn’t gotten that win yet, but she feels like she’s still on an upward trajectory toward it. Olympia got there, and got there in a big way.

And in this match, after coming close and failing in two Universal finals, after failing in the Noche de Campeones main event, she finally got that big win – and she got over the unbeatable Megan Bayne. I’m sure Skadi getting this win will be lost on those following CMLL in bits and pieces, chosen Great matches and such³. You really had to be there to see how dire Skadi was early on, and how her 2017 leg injury was both sad and not entirely unexpected for someone who seemed to be trying things she wasn’t really capable of. Skadi didn’t get this win because it was “her turn”⁴, Skadi won the 2026 Grand Prix because she’s worked so hard and got so much better. Skadi got over too, along the way. It helps that we’re at a moment when CMLL clearly wants to push new women, but Skadi earned every bit of that win.

In her post-match interview, Skadi said the win was for all the perseverance she’d had over the years. The Universal final was the toughest loss she’s ever had, and she recovered from that to win the Grand Prix. Skadi’s mother, Marcela, was in her corner last week, and she didn’t win; this week she gave the trophy to her mom in the locker room. She said Megan Bayne was the strongest wrestler she’s ever seen

One way to look at the rest of the show is that the men did their best to give the women all the attention in the main event. That’s a kinder explanation than some others in the disappointingly low-effort trios match. Not much to say about the Guerreros/Infernales. Yutani/Star Jr. was the second-best match of the night, though Star Jr. seemed to get hurt somewhere along the way. The opener was the expected inoffensive comedy.

CMLL (SAT) 10/24/2026 Arena Coliseo [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Diamond & Oro Jr. b Espartano & Troyano
10:24
2) Alice Crowley & Masha Slamovich b Hera & Reyna Isis
12:58. Masha beat Isis. Hera was a late sub for Sanely.
3) Mei Seira b Candela [lightning]
7:56
4) Lluvia & Zeuxis b Dark Silueta & Valkiria
10:09.
5) Neón b Fugaz [lightning]
8:49. Fugaz was a late sub for Star Jr.
6) Olympia b Queen Aminata [lightning]
7:11
7) Guerrero Maya Jr. & Xelhua b Barboza & Zandokan and Black Tiger & Rugido
10:19. Xelhua beat Zandokan with ref Aubrey ruling Rugido didn’t break up the pin in time

Ticketmaster said this was just short of a sellout. The visuals told a very 2026 story. The upper, general-admission levels were close to full around showtime.⁵ The floor seats were nearly completely vacant on one side for the first couple of matches. Those seats eventually filled with what appeared to be tourist fans, who were fine with seeing maybe an hour of the two-hour show.

You could make a case that Aubrey had the latest CMLL ref screw up, that Rugido was there in time and the pin shouldn’t have counted. You could argue that Rugido went through the motions of breaking the pin but didn’t actually disrupt it, and Aubrey made the right call. The one unifying feeling is that the match was nothing, and to care about the finish would be more effort than the match got or deserved.⁶ La Fieras del Ring have new hideous-looking AI-generated t-shirts. They’re the correct team to wear hideous AI-generated t-shirts and be totally unaware that they’re hideous..

Olympia/Aminata was good though. Olympia doesn’t hit as hard as she might, but she got in there with someone willing to show her what it could be like. Olympia got the clean pin, which was the right move for CMLL, and it didn’t feel like a guarantee. Skadi’s pin on Friday was just as clean. I don’t have to go over the parts of the CMLL/AEW stuff I don’t like another time, but I do have to point out that the AEW people seem to lose and lose meaning when called upon to do so. There’s still some protection going on, Marina and Amanita were protected in how they lost in the Grand Prix, but what people will remember is done in ways that benefit the home company.

Dark Silueta & Valkyria are now 0-3 since their trip to Stradom was announced. I thought that was a streak. That is not the real streak. Dark Silueta and Valkyria have never won a 2v2 tag match since Valkyria joined the main roster. They have lost all 10 of their matches as a team in Arena Coliseo and Arena Mexico. The only 2v2 win I can find is from 2022, when Valkyria was still wrestling only in Guadalajara, and they beat Nautica and Sexy Sol. Unless they’re booked as a team in Guadalajara tomorrow night, they will go to Japan without having won a match as a pair in four years.

Seira/Candela were shaky early on but improved as the match went. That’s one where I wish they had a few more minutes. Seira’s done increasingly well in CMLL over her 24 matches so far. Much was made of the crowd chanting “Pikachu” at Seira. It’s cool, and all; I don’t want anyone to take that the wrong way, but Mexican fans seem to have six “nickname” ideas they can use to chant anyone at any time and Pikachu is definitely one of those six.

Neon & Fugaz seemed to really enjoy wrestling each other. Fugaz has steadily improved since CMLL stopped pushing him, and he held together well in that spot. Speaking of flyers CMLL tried and gave up on, Oro Jr. worked super hard in the opener and looked better than usual.

CMLL (SUN) 10/25/2026 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía b Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro de Acero
11:18
2) Arkalis, Rayo Metálico, Stigma b Cancerbero, Shoma Kato, Virus
11:48
3) Kira & Zeuxis b Alice Crowley & Mei Seira
10:47. Kira beat Mei
4) Skadi b Masha Slamovich [lightning]
9:03. Skadi won with a powerbomb
5) Bárbaro Cavernario, Niebla Roja, Yutani b Dragón de Fuego, Dragón Legendario, Dragón Rojo Jr.
19:52. Cavernario beat Legendario after Fuego and Rojo accidentally took each other out.
6) Queen Aminata b India Sioux [lightning]
8:24
7) Esfinge b Volador Jr.
15:44

Volador deliberately worked the first 10 minutes of the main event slowly to set up Esfinge’s comeback. It was so slow it lost me before it came back. Both of Aminata’s matches were changed to lightning matches. Barbaro Cavernario and Dragon Rojo are still feuding. Skadi powerbombed Masha so hard to finish their match, especially considering the Arena Mexico ring. Kira and Seira were great together. Crowley seems to be having the most trouble getting on the same page as her opponents in this group of foreigners; maybe it’ll go better with Johnnie Robbie tonight. Mini’s match had good effort.

Two CMLL audio things to get out of my system

• The audio for matches was good for a while after Grand Slam. It’s been terrible again the last fews weeks. You can hear every creak the ring makes, but very little of the actual contact the wrestlers are making. The announcers are super loud as always, while the crowd might as well be miles away. It does create an impact – if you can actually hear a Skadi chant, you know they must be chanting it awfully loud – but it’s not good.
• CMLL’s back to using licensed music for most people. That means we get Tessa Blanchard dancing along to her Mexican music while her old music still plays along on the stream. That also means a lot of the newer people are seemingly using one of the same four generic tracks⁷, because they’re just using whatever licensed music from the start; there’s no “old” music to play on the stream instead, and no one’s bothered ot pick out stream-safe music for them. This comes across poorly and appears of no concern to CMLL.

There’s still no lineup for Tuesday’s Guadalajara show.

The Super Juniors Tag League is not going to go well for the CMLL teams. Mistico teaming with young lion Masatora Yasuda and Titan teaming with young lion Daiki Nagia means both teams with CMLL wrestlers would normally lose every match under normal NJPW booking. NJPW isn’t going to actually do that to Titan and Mistico. Mistico & Yasuda scored an upset over Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori on Monday morning to move to 1-2, but they won’t do great. Titan/Nagai are 0-3, so they’re officially eliminated, but they’ll probably pick up a win somewhere. The bigger problem for NJPW is that this tour was built around the super team of Desperado and Mistico teaming and selling ticket,s and now they don’t quite have that.

Shun Skywalker deleted his tweet “confirming” himself versus Mistico for Lucha Kingdom. I think he was trying to post the match into happening. Neither CMLL nor NJPW ever announced that match. They also haven’t teased another opponent for Mistico. It’s as possible that’ll be the match as ever.

MyAEW subscribers noticed that Saturday’s Arena Coliseo was available on the service. I’m not a subscriber, but I understand that it was the same Spanish-language feed as on YouTube. Other CMLL non-PPV shows have been listed and occasionally advertised. Neither CMLL nor AEW has advertised anything. I reached out to AEW to ask what the deal was.⁸

There’s not a lot to know yet, but the situation looks to be:

• The CMLL PPVs are staying PPVs. There are no plans to include those in the normal myAEW subscription service; they’ll remain extra-cost shows.
• CMLL and AEW want to add some of the remaining CMLL shows to the myAEW service. This month’s shows have been a test run at the idea. They’re still figuring out which shows will be available, so they haven’t made a formal announcement.
  • A shorter version: They’ve put up Saturday shows so far; there might be more of those, but no one’s making any promises yet.

A few weeks ago, when that Miguel Castro interview came out, I suggested the best way to make CMLL more visible to international fans was to make more of it available for free. CMLL isn’t big on letting the Mexico City shows air for free, so getting CMLL onto other wrestling streaming networks is a decent compromise. It’s really hard to get people who aren’t already CMLL fans to pay the YouTube fee⁹, but getting it into services they already own is a way to build awareness. myAEW is a good start, but it’d be worth looking at doing something similar with all their partners. myAEW offered the men’s Grand Prix free with anyone who bought the women’s one; that says the content’s value, even a few months ago, isn’t high and can easily be shared with other networks.

Arena Puebla wrestlers were part of the official Dia del Muertos offering unveiling in Puebla. Today’s Arena Puebla show if the first CMLL Dia del Muertos show of the week.

Last week’s viral video was Soberano making a child cry.

AAA

Three matches on the show. Somehow, even though I wrote it out here last Monday and could’ve easily looked back at the notes or the event page, I still forgot the third match on the show was the women’s title match, not the cruiserweight title match. I could make a point here about how much harder than necessary it is to keep track of these things, but really I should’ve simply gotten it right.

• The one notable non-wrestling segment was about that Cruiserweight Championship
  • Mini Vikingo said he feels fine, but is told he’ll need elbow surgery
  • Rey Fenix said Mini Vikingo still deserves a title shot, so he’ll have to keep retaining the title until Mini Vikingo gets healthy.
  • Rey Fenix said he’d have an open challenge next week as a replacement match.
• Los Perros del Mal defeated La Parka, Mr. Iguana, and Nino Hamburgesa to retain the AAA trios titles
  • I didn’t feel strongly positive about any of the matches on this show¹⁰. This match was the best of the bunch. Perros del Mal came out with a lot of energy and intensity, and the tecnicos matched it. The downside is this was a show of weak endings to set up Guerra de Titanes rematches, so Daga got the win with an unseen foul on Parka after a Karmen distraction
  • Nino Hamburguesa flirted with Karmen through the match. That paid off in the most unexpected way: Big Mami returned to AAA.
    • Nino Hamburgesa, Big Mami, Maravilla (and, as Maravilla’s friends, Keyra and Villano III Jr.) had a well-received storyline in 2019. Mami and Hamburgesa were friends and charismatic, plus-sized luchadors, and Maravilla tried to seduce Hamburgesa to turn him against her rival, Mami. It failed in the end, and Big Mami won Maravilla’s hair.¹¹ That was the end of 2019. Hamburguesa & Mami were so over that AAA had people they thought would be top acts for them in 2020 (the Stronghearts, LA Park) attack them to get heat. No one turned out to be a top act in the normal sense once COVID hit, and Hamburguesa & Mami haven’t teamed since the drive-in shows that year. It’s so much later now that this team-up feels like a nostalgia act. Mami left AAA in 2022 and has been working inside – including teaming up at least once with Hamburguesa when he was outside of AAA.
    • Big Mami is everything that doesn’t fit what we think WWE or TKO wants in wrestlers. She doesn’t have their look; she’s not super athletic; she wouldn’t obviously translate to a US audience.¹² I think AAA fans who remember her like her, but I’m doubtful even the old AAA ownership would’ve considered bringing her back; they’d also have put someone younger/newer in the spot to counter Karmen. This AAA creative team likes nods to their past, like Texano, Chessman, and Cibernetico showing up as past Rey de Reyes winners, to reinforce the idea that this is still the same AAA, with the same connection to the past. It’s still a fascinating choice even in that context, one of the most surprising decisions this new AAA ownership has made. It may not be entirely meaningful – this is a mid-card feud, Big Mami’s involvement could run it course by December – but it’s so different from what we think we know about this AAA.
• La Catalina pinned Flammer in a match with La Hiedra to retain the AAA Reina de Reinas championship
  • This went exactly how you’d expect with all the bickering and accidental hits. There’s no strong indication if Hiedra or Flammer is going to be the face coming out of this split, and the split is still weeks of TV away.
• Grande Americano beat Dominik Mysterio to retain the AAA Mega Championship
  • This was the TripleMania rematch, with the same people involved: Dorian, Omos, Rey, and a returning Pimpinela (again!). That comparison didn’t help: the crowd reaction was weaker, the match itself was definitely weaker, and the whole vibe was that this had burned out a month ago and had nothing new to reheat it. An October TV taping was never going to be the same as TripleMania, but it really wasn’t TripleMania. I thought some of what Grande and Dominik did didn’t meet their usual standards, and the title match lacked the intensity you expect.
    • Dominik got chants, but he didn’t feel like as big a deal as he once did in this building.
  • The finish, too, left them where they were after TripleMania: Rey got involved to lead to the finish, and the announcers made sure we knew Dominik and Dorian would object to it again.

They’re coming back with almost all of this one more time at Guerra de Titanes. I think they have work to do before they get there. The taping results are here if you want vague hints about what’s to come. The last match on the taping was said to be the best, as you’d expect from those who were involved.

The AAA stream – the Spanish-language stream – was geo-blocked in the US. I’ve done this story before; the 2020-ish block was Lucha Underground lawsuit-related, and blocked the stream outside of Mexico. This time, it seemed to be a US-only block and the WWE English-language stream was not blocked. AAA and WWE did not announce that the AAA stream would be unavailable in the US. I expect that both WWE and AAA streams will be blocked in the US when AAA gets a US deal. I guess they could block just the Spanish feed if they only have a Spanish-language deal, but I think the people buying the deal would understand that would be pointless. At any rate, nothing was announced about this and there’s no information on if this was a one-week thing. It was just a Thing That Happened in classic lucha libre fashion.¹³

The WWE stream peaked at 28,666 viewers and averaged 21,838. That’s twice the last live TV show on 10/03. Some of that is the live stream, and some of that is people moving over from the AAA stream.¹⁴ I also tracked live stream viewers even on a stream I couldn’t watch; I was surprised that was possible.¹⁵ The AAA stream peaked at 3,823 viewers and averaged 2,856. That’s unsurprisingly much lower than the last live stream. Over both streams, AAA averaged 21,838 compared to 17,510 last time they went live. Those matches seem to be a draw – though it wasn’t close to the World Collide number.

AAA will run Arena GNP in Acapulco on 01/02.¹⁶ That’s a 12,000-seat tennis facility if they run it at full capacity. AAA ran that building at the end of 2022 as the start of an annual tradition, but the show drew badly, and they never went back for TV.¹⁷ The AAA holiday break looks to be a thing of the past. That graphic suggests the 2027 poster design. The AAA TV show announced this, and aggregators treated it as a completely new announcement when it was posted on Twitter a day later.

The upcoming taping schedule looks like

• 11/14: Mexico City (taping for 11/14, 11/21, 11/28)
• 12/05: Puebla (taping for 12/05, 12/12 and likely 12/26)
• 12/19: Guadalajara – Guerra de Titanes appears as if it will air in complete live
• 01/02: Acapulco (likely taping for 01/02, 01/09, 01/16)

01/23 is the next date to be announced if AAA is remaining on the “one taping every three weeks” schedule.

This past Thursday’s AAA show in Aguascalientes was said to be a sellout (and looks that way in the photo.)

Pagano was looking to track down a Pagano impersonator in Saltillo to help after the fake Pagano was involved in an accident.

Other Notes

Acapulco luchador El Moro (Brandon Jared Salvador Ávila) passed away Saturday. He was a taxi driver who apparently was shot to death while on the job. Moro was a regular for Lucha Libre Acapulco, meaning he wrestled in locals-only matches for both AAA and CMLL spot shows. He was scheduled to wrestle in match 2 of this Thursday’s AAA Border show.

An interview with Mexico City indie wrestler Skyler, who hints that he and Visionario are debuting with The Crash in December.

A profile of lucha libre metal pins.

A visit to a Dia del Muertos Lucha Libre Volcánica show in Seattle.

Site(s) Notes

After months of problems, I think the luchawiki is generally back to loading at a normal speed. On Wednesday, I made some changes to ban some scrapers and protect some pages, and it feels like it’s improved – there may be a late-night issue. I’ve got to see if it stays this week for a couple of weeks before I can declare victory. If you use it (or if you’ve given up because it felt down), let me know if you can tell any difference, positive or negative.

Over on the luchadb main page, I’ve added a link for “Magazine Issues.” It lists every magazine mentioned on an event page in the database. Some pages will have a cover image. Some pages will have additional notes from the magazine. For some dates, I’ve bothered to put an issue date, so you can sort it that way too. I think all the magazine recaps in there are from Rob. I may go back and add the ones I posted on the website in the past.

I’m thinking of changing the default background color to something other than white – like a light gray or something. Change is hard, though.

1. They’re not going to do it, but they need to cut these down to no more than 8v8 and no more than 40 minutes next year. [↩]
2. if they’re doing the CMLL/AEW card in December again, I’m sure CMLL will want Queen Amanita back for it [↩]
3. and that’s a reasonable way to go through it [↩]
4. seemingly the primary factor in decisions for most of the time I’ve watched Mexican women’s wrestling [↩]
5. The red seats on the second floor, right across from the hard cam, seem like they must be the worst seats because they’re always the last to fill up. [↩]
6. Everyone but Rugido reacted as if the match was supposed to end at that point, so Aubrey was probably right. [↩]
7. like that “vader” song [↩]
8. I put on my hat that says “press” on it before asking. [↩]
9. and CMLL doesn’t advertise the options there [↩]
10. I liked Fugaz/Neon and Olympia/Aminita more than anything I saw on this show, which may say more about me [↩]
11. And then three large & fat strippers danced to celeberate. You had to be there. [↩]
12. It’s quite a weekend to have Skadi and Big Mami in the news, as two larger-than-usual Mexican luchadoras, though they’re coming at the roles in different ways. Skadi has become a much better technical wrestler, but she had to work on her character and build her confidence. Big Mami is all confidence and character; she could just enough to get by, but she’s really more of a character that can be useful if handled delicately and treated like a star. [↩]
13. I would really like to ask someone in AAA what happened here, in the exact same fashion I asked AEW about the myAEW situation. I’ve had people I could ask before; I’m not sure I can still ask any of them. I know there are AAA people who are reading this; if anyone would like to appoint themselves as the luchablog question-answer person, please let me know in Twitter DMs or smoke signals or something. [↩]
14. While the stream was only blocked in the US, I’d always see a lot of people claiming in the chat that they were Mexican fans who were using a VPN to get around having to pay for Fox Mexico. I have no idea how many people truly were doing that. Those people could’ve just tried a different country, or they could’ve gone to the WWE stream [↩]
15. Finding the stream link was the real issue. [↩]
16. Not to be confused with Auditorio GNP Seguros in Puebla, where AAA is running in December. [↩]
17. That’s the “Dragon Lee beats FTR and announces he’s headed to WWE” show, in a show with a lot more “only in AAA” stuff going on. [↩]

CMLL

CMLL (THU) 10/22/2026 Arena Coliseo [CMLL]
1) Hécate & Nexy b Astoreth & Lady Metal
2) Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa b Kamelot & Robin
3) Futuro & Max Star b Felino Jr. & Hijo de Stuka Jr.
4) Kira & Skadi b Keyra & Zeuxis
5) Villano III Jr., Volador Jr., Yutani b Neón, Star Jr., Xelhua

The CMLL social media camera seemed to make a point of panning around the arena after the main event. Thursday’s show’s turnout is a really healthy house for an off-day, even if it’s not a Saturday show. I grabbed a random 2017 show to compare, and attendance’s about the same then as it is for this random nothing-happening show.

CMLL (FRI) 10/23/2026 Arena México
1) Dulce Gardenia & Volcano vs Estudiante Jr. & Robin
2) Star Jr. vs Yutani [lightning]
3) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Rey Pegasus vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Soberano Jr.
4) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Euforia [lightning]
5) Garra Negra, India Sioux, Keyra, Kira, Lluvia, Olympia, Persephone, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard, Thunder Rosa, Zeuxis vs Alice Crowley, AZM, Emersyn Jayne, Harley Cameron, Marina Shafir, Masha Slamovich, Megan Bayne, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki, Momo Watanabe, Queen Aminata [Gran Prix de Amazonas]

These Grand Prixs must be tough to put together. They’re fitting together 22 people, many of whom haven’t wrestled before, and all of whom want to get in their cool stuff in a big match. CMLL also has to keep wrestlers and promotions happy with who gets eliminated and by whom. They’re also reliably good enough, and better if they have the right people in the final mix and don’t stretch it out too long. I’m not confident this will definitely be great, but it’ll surely be good enough.

I continue to believe this is a Team World win. Part of that is it’s easier to figure out the AEW eliminations if one of ’em just wins. The four AEW wrestlers are three pending title challengers and monster heel Megan Bayne. And I’m not even sure it’s going to be an AEW one, since the Stardom crew feels due a win as well. On the CMLL side, Persephone could win but she’s already won one of these, so has Tessa. Olympia has gotten her wins for the month. I guess maybe Skadi could get hers, but I don’t think that gets the attention they’re looking for here.

The undercard should get over well. Guerreros and Infernales have fought roughly a million times. Match 3 will have high-flying and will be over with the same sort of women they’re looking to draw. Yutani has plenty of moves Star Jr. can use to fall on his head. And the opener is comedy.

Club Lucha recaps Olympia winning the CMLL Universal tournament and previews this match.

CMLL (SAT) 10/24/2026 Arena Coliseo
1) Diamond & Oro Jr. vs Espartano & Troyano
2) Reyna Isis & Sanely vs Alice Crowley & Masha Slamovich
3) Candela vs Mei Seira [lightning]
4) Lluvia & Zeuxis vs Dark Silueta & Valkiria
5) Neón vs Star Jr. [lightning]
6) Olympia vs Queen Aminata

That main event is an interesting match and a tough result. I think AEW would strongly prefer Aminata not lose before her title match this Wednesday, but also it would be very silly for Olympia to win the Universal tournament and lose her next match out. Candela/Mei Seira is a great match between two great weirdos. Match 4 is Infernales versus Infernales.

CMLL (SUN) 10/25/2026 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora, Rostro de Acero
2) Arkalis, Rayo Metálico, Stigma vs Cancerbero, Shoma Kato, Virus
3) Kira & Zeuxis vs Alice Crowley & Mei Seira
4) Skadi vs Masha Slamovich [lightning]
5) Dragón de Fuego, Dragón Legendario, Dragón Rojo Jr. vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Niebla Roja, Yutani
6) India Sioux vs Queen Aminata
7) Esfinge vs Volador Jr.

Not as much of a problem with Queen Aminata winning on this one. On the face of it, I presume Masha is beating Skadi because Masha is MLW champion – but who exactly is Masha defending her title against at this point? Maybe they bring in Skadi for the lucha show, there are worse ideas. Esfinge/Volador Jr. is not my favorite match.

CMLL (MON) 10/26/2026 Arena Puebla
1) Astro & Asturiano vs Águila Egipcia & Rey Espartano and Black Ónix & Lucky
2) La Magnifica & Marcela vs Princesa Sugehit & Sanely
3) Johnnie Robbie vs Alice Crowley
4) India Sioux, Kira, Skadi vs Hera, Olympia, Reyna Isis
5) Stigma vs Rayo Metálico, Xelhua, Arkalis, Rey Apocalipsis, Kheops [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]
6) Esfinge, Máscara Dorada, Neón vs Gran Guerrero, Stuka Jr., Último Guerrero

A Johnnie Robbie singles match. Guerreros vs. mostly Sky Team is a Puebla staple by now.

CMLL (TUE) 10/27/2026 Arena México
1) Galaxy, Kaligua, Pequeño Magía vs Minos I, Minos II, Pequeño Volador Jr.
2) Hécate & Tabata vs Astoreth & Candela
3) Dark Panther & Hijo de Blue Panther vs Máquina Letal & Terrible
4) Hera & Olympia vs Princesa Sugehit & Reyna Isis
5) Akuma vs Esfinge [MEX HEAVY]
3rd defense, first in over a year
6) Yutani vs Barboza, Rugido, El Coyote, Calavera Jr. I, Villano III Jr. [Rey del Inframundo, semifinal]

It’s an odd week when the Arena Mexico lineup is before the Guadalajara one. Esfinge feels like the favorite over Akuma. A rare appearance for Terrible and the Panthers.

The Guadalajara qualifier is Black Boy vs Bestia Negra vs Arlequin vs Rafaga Jr. vs Fantastico vs Adrenalina. You may recall Adrenalina was the GDL finalist last year and landed on his head in the final. He was out about 2.5 months.

Last year’s winner Guerrero Maya Jr. and the winners of the matches in Puebla, Mexico, and Guadalajara will meet in a four-way for the Rey del Inframundo title on Friday’s show. That also may mean the Friday night lineup won’t come up until late Tuesday/early Wednesday.

CMLL usually announces full cards for the 11/01 Tzompantli show in advance – everyone wears their masks again. So far, it’s only a Valiente vs Blue Panther vs Virus match. Maybe it’ll be saved for Informa.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara is also promoting a show in Aguascalientes this Thursday. They’ve been advertising it for weeks, and the final lineup varies a bit from the photos they’ve been teasing. Notably, Gravity is listed as wrestling on the show; he hasn’t appeared in a CMLL arena. That show has an atomicos match with the micros who’ve made sporadic appearances in Guadalajara and not yet elsewhere.

There are some updates to the Lucha Kingdom card (and a renewed attempt by me to put it in some sort of order.)

CMLL (MON) 11/16/2026 Arena México
1) Barboza, Difunto, Furia Roja, Zandokan Jr. vs Black Tiger, Kushida, Shoma Kato, Yutani
2) Master Wato, Okumura, YOH vs Brillante Jr., Capitán Suicida, Rey Pegasus
3) Kira vs Syuri [IWGP WOMEN]
4) Douki & SHO vs Guerrero Maya Jr. & Xelhua
5) Taiji Ishimori & Titán vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja © and Francesco Akira & Templario [NJPW STRONG TAG]
6) Soberano Jr. vs Shota Umino
7) Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hechicero © [CMLL HEAVY]
sixth defense
8) Místico vs ?

Match 1 is new, Galleon Fantasma versus a Japanese all-star team. Black Tiger is Japanese for that purpose. Match 6 is also new, pitting a wrestler the promotion seems to be the top star in the promotion who’s dealt with accusations that he’s only got into the promotion because of his father facing Shota Umino.¹ Sabre/Hechicero is now a title match; the idea is ZSJ saw that Hechicero was giving out title shots to everyone and decided he’d like one too.

Match 8 is the big news. Desperado explained in a NJPW video that he’s battled various injuries for most of this year and just can’t go any longer. It’s unclear when he’ll return, only that it won’t be in time for this show. NJPW hasn’t stripped him and Mistico of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Championships yet, so they still hope Desperado will be back by 01/04. Mistico will now team with NJPW young lion Masatora Yasuda. He’s one of Zumbido’s two sons currently wrestling in Japan. As for CMLL, they said Mistico would face another NJPW wrestler in the main event and encouraged people to check social media for updates.

On Friday, Shun Skywalker said he would be facing Mistico instead. NJPW hasn’t promoted this yet, CMLL hasn’t promoted it either, and Shun Skywalker is prone to saying things just to say them. NJPW will probably address this on their shows this weekend. Shun Skywalker has history in Mexico, did wrestle Mistico as part of a 5v5 match on a Highspots WrestleMania weekend show and definitely would like to wrestle Mistico in the main event of a big Arena Mexico show.² Indie fans in Mexico would know about Skywalker’s exploits, but I’m not sure that match would mean much to the average CMLL fan. CMLL’s really selling this show over a NJPW vs CMLL theme rather than any single match.

Yota Tsuji is the last NJPW wrestler without a match on Lucha Kingdom. There was surely no plan for Tsuji vs. Mistico on this show, and it would be tough to come up with a finish that would make everyone happy. I presume CMLL will announce Tsuji’s actual opponent next week; by the show’s theme, it has to be a CMLL opponent. Zandokan being in the opener removes the possibility of the old friends fighting. Yota versus Terrible or Ultimo Guerrero would probably be cool for Yota, but not sure if that’s what CMLL wants. Yota versus Máscara Dorada or Neon would get them on this big show, but not sure that’s what NJPW wants.

Mistico is in Japan now for that Super Juniors Tag League. He won’t wrestle in Mexico again until the 11/06 show at the earliest.

His match hasn’t been announced yet, but a NJPW video promoting the Unbound Co.-produced “Bound for Unbound” show on 11/20 mentioned Titan would be wrestling. Titan’s tour might be very brief; NJPW segues right into the World Tag League after that. Those World Tag League teams might also be announced at the next few Korakuen Hall shows.

STARDOM officially announced Dark Silueta and Valkyria for the Goddess of Stardom tag team tournament. They’re in the Blue block. The tournament runs from November 7 to November 29th.

I don’t think I ever mentioned here that ROH Final Battle is Friday, 12/04. Mistico and Mascara Dorada are still tag team champs. They haven’t worked in Ring of Honor since the last PPV.

Final Battle will be another Friday that Mistico misses. He’s not been around much the last month or so, and he’s off on another tour of Japan right now. He’s worked only one Arena Mexico match (the Friday 10/02) since Aniversario.

This week’s CMLL Informa show was live. They usually do it for the Dia del Muertos preview, since they bring in press for it that as well. I haven’t figured out how to record viewers from taped/”Premiere” airings that Informa usually do, but I can for taped shows. By my measurements, Informa episode #649 averaged 408 viewers, peaking at 569 at the end. I don’t know if that’s more or less than usual. I do know that, safely, more people learn about Informa announcements when CMLL posts clips on social media than when they air live on the show. More people may find out about them when I post them on social media or write about them here than when the live viewers do.

There’s a lot of ticket stuff from a few different shows, and I’m going to put it all here instead of hitting you with multiple places:

• Tickets for tonight’s show are lagging behind last week’s show so far.
• The 10/30 Friday Arena Mexico Dia del Muertos show is sold out.
• The 10/31 Saturday Arena Mexico Dia del Muertos show is sold out
• The 11/01 Sunday Arena Mexico Día de Muertos show has already sold more tickets than this past week’s show (and this coming week’s show). CMLL says they hope to sell it out.
• The 10/29 Thursday Arena Coliseo show – not a Día de Muertos show – has already sold about as many numbered seats as the show last night.
• The Puebla/Guadalajara Día de Muertos shows appear to be ahead of schedule, though not as far ahead as the Mexico City ones.
• Lucha Kingdom continues to move tickets very slowly. As does the NFL show.

CMLL put tickets on sale for Thursday Arena Coliseo shows through 12/17. They won’t run Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, as typical, no matter what days those holidays fall on. That means the Christmas Day and New Year’s Day shows will be on Fridays, with an earlier start time of 5 pm.

AEW posted a new show announcement with Persephone for New Year’s 2027 shows in Atlanta. Persephone³ was believed to be under a contract through the end of the year. This could read as proof the contract runs at least two days into 2027, but nothing’s faker than the people AEW puts on posters. Historically, there’s zero guarantee the people pictured will actually appear. It’s always “people who have a connection to that city” and “some of our bigger stars.” AEW putting four Mexican wrestlers on the Laredo graphic is typical. Atlanta, too, has people interested in Mexican wrestlers; the people who run Mucha Lucha Atlanta know about this, so maybe that’s why Persephone is on there. It seems more than that. Persephone has been in this AEW promotional artwork a lot lately, no matter where they run; Persephone’s surprisingly graduated to the “some of our bigger stars” reasoning. Maybe it won’t last past the TBS Championship run; maybe it will, but it feels like an even stronger sign of what AEW thinks for her future beyond those January shows. I don’t know if Persephone is keeping the TBS Championship past Dynamite but I feel like she’s definitely in their plans beyond it.

AAA

Heroes Inmortales is this Saturday. Matches scheduled are

• Daga, Angel & Berto (c) vs Nino Hamburguesa, La Parka, Mr. Iguana for the AAA World Trios Championship
• Mini Vikingo vs Rey Fenix (c) for the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship
• Dominik Mysterio vs Grande Americano (c) for the AAA Mega Championship

The previous version of AAA would never announce a match was canceled; instead, it would quietly stop promoting a match on social if it believed it wouldn’t happen. Mini Vikingo didn’t wrestle on NXT Tuesday because of an injury. This AAA hasn’t promoted the Mini Vikingo/Rey Fenix match this week, at least not yet. The most charitable reading is that the injury is relatively minor, so they’ll wait and evaluate Mini Vikingo on Saturday before making a final decision. AAA also likes to wait until Friday evening and Saturday to promote their matches under this ownership, so it’s realistic that graphic will turn up on social media in a few hours.

The Perros will retain the trios title; the question is whether they’re setting up a rematch or doing more with Iguana vs. Parka. It’ll be a tough night for the tecnicos because Los Perros walking out to that music will again get a big reaction. Dominik/Grande is about whether they’re setting up a third match with a stipulation for Guerra de Titanes, or if they’re moving on to Omos or someone else as a challenger

The Hall of Fame induction is scheduled for week 3.

Heroes Inmortales is the next point; expect a AAA US TV deal announcement if a show is going to start airing in quarter 1 of 2027. I haven’t heard anything about a deal being announced this weekend; it’s more a matter of timing. TKO would logically want to make big AAA news in the US on a big live AAA show, and I – so this show on Saturday or Guerra de Titanes – or a big WWE one. If I had to guess, I think those WWE shows are more likely; those are the fans they also want to watch AAA. There’s nothing negative if there’s no deal announced. The AAA on Fox Mexico deal wasn’t announced until 11/25, a month from now, so it could still happen much later and take place on time. There’s also a logical window: if AAA is getting on TV in the US in Q1 2027, it’s reasonable to expect an announcement between the start of this show and the end of Guerra de Titanes on 12/18 in order to properly promote a start date.⁴ Saturday is the start of that window.

I think it’s a little more likely on the WWE shows, because those are the fans they’re targeting for an AAA English-language show. This is just another show where it’s worth keeping the idea in the back of your mind if/when they tease a big announcement. The AAA on Fox deal announcement came on 11/25 last year. Every network and streaming service works on its own schedule, but they’d want to promote the show well in advance if they think it’s going to be a big deal. TKO would want a partner it believes will treat AAA like a big deal.

Thursday, PW Insider reported, “there have been early pitches to resurrect the Sin Cara character.” Let’s define a phrase here. “Early pitch” means someone suggested an idea, likely in a writers’ meeting. I haven’t been in a WWE writers’ meeting, but it’s a safe assumption that dozens of ideas get pitched. A writer’s job is to pitch a lot of stuff, knowing that few of it will get past that pitch stage. Few pitches happen, and fewer happen exactly as first proposed. Few also make it out of that meeting to reporters, so someone has to be motivated to pitch early outside that room. Figuring out that motivation is almost impossible. Maybe it’s a pet idea from a particular person, and they hope putting it out publicly will build support, or that someone else in the company will see it and get behind it. Maybe someone else in the meeting is passing it on in hopes of getting the idea trashed publicly, because they don’t like the idea or the person who suggested it. Maybe it’s someone who isn’t decided about the idea and is bouncing it off the journalist to get their take and to work through it.

There are many reasons a story on a pitch might get out, but none of them say how likely the pitch is to become an on-screen idea. That story doesn’t tell us whether the rest of the room liked the idea or if it died immediately. What I do know, unfortunately, is that people who read wrestling news omit certain phrases. “An early pitch” means the writer is specifically noting it’s not close to happening; fans will talk about it as if it’s imminently happening for the next six months. It’s the same as always assuming that the people in “people within the company” are the ones who matter most, when the writer is avoiding that specific assurance. Those carefully chosen definitions get omitted when the stories are retold over time and by aggregators. The solution, “dumb down the coverage so people don’t misinterpret the story,” isn’t right; I know this, but I still find myself longing for it. I also don’t think any website would ever stop running articles with that kind of sourcing, because it’s so useful for prompting engagement. They’re never going to stop posting this stuff because people are dumb and refuse to read what’s actually written, and so there was a whole afternoon of discussion of who might be the new Sin Cara when no one was reporting that was happening. You’ll never go broke peddling low-information scoops to desperate/bored wrestling fans, and that’s why wrestling is covered how it is.

How do I feel about a new Sin Cara? I promise I’ll tell you if it gets far past the early pitch stage. Not really worth typing a couple of paragraphs now.

Other Notes

Vampiro appeared on the Sale de Sol TV show a few weeks ago to promote his speaking tour. In light of Vampiro shooting down a story that Vampiro was dead⁵, Heraldo de Mexico recapped that appearance. Vampiro explained that he had been misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in 2015 and does not currently have them. That’s not the new news. The new news is that Vampiro said his doctors didn’t know much about those diseases in 2015 because no one did until more recently. Vampiro also said he suffered 26 level 4 concussions, “a category not universally accepted in medical practice”, Heraldo de Mexico notes.

The latest Wrestling Observer Radio report says Dralistico now claims the jail photo was about his visa issues, not any issues with AEW. That would also require believing Dralistico didn’t realize what that picture would convey and is, in fact, a complete goof.

The Reynosa boxing and lucha libre commission held a meeting about updating their rules.

1. this is a good joke stop throwing tomatos at me [↩]
2. You can also find him sneakily hitting like on the occasional CMLL video, including Yutani ones. [↩]
3. and Mascara Dorada, who hasn’t been used on AEW TV in months [↩]
4. I’m imagining an AAA start in January, which isn’t really proven. I can see the window stretching to the Royal Rumble, with AAA starting in early February. It’s hard to imagine them starting later than that when they could wait a bit longer and use the usual uptick of interest around WrestleMania. And by WrestleMania, I presume TKO will get an AAA a TV deal just so they haven’t gone two years without one. [↩]
5. a story I didn’t see anywhere outside of the debunking [↩]

CMLL

CMLL (MON) 10/19/2026 Arena Puebla [Mano a Mano]
1) The Tiger b Astro
Added match to buy some time. Local referee Mil Amores made his debut here as a fill-in; he may have worked the first two matches.
2) Meyer & Tiger Boy b Konjuro & Multy
Did not air on stream; production setup was ongoing.
3) Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II b Okumura & Shoma Kato
13:50.
4) AZM, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki b Kira, Sanely, Zeuxis
11:53
5) Masha Slamovich & Momo Watanabe b Lluvia & Tessa Blanchard
11:29. Momo won via mask pull on Lluvia
6) Garra Negra TLDRAW Emersyn Jayne [lightning]
10:00. Moved up to semi-main. An equal battle as time expired.
7) Ángel de Oro & Xelhua b Soberano Jr. & Templario [Relevos Increíbles]
11:46. Xelhua surprised Sobreano with a pin.

This show started 40 minutes late. Two people passed away when a semitruck carrying “tons of cement bags” crashed on the Mexico City/Puebla highway. The truck was heading towards Mexico City but knocked the median out of place. Police shut down the highway for hours trying to examine the crime scene and to clean up the cement. Soberano posted a IG story photo with a caption about being stuck in traffic for four hours, while still not making it to the arena. That’s usually about a 1.5-hour drive. Soberano was scheduled to do a meet and greet before the show, which I presume was postponed.

The building seemed a little short of a sellout, though not much affected by the later start.¹ The crowd was still into the show, and the wrestlers worked well given the circumstances. Garra Negra/Emersyn Jayne was the match that stood out most to me; Jayne continues to have cool offense and was game for the stuff Garra Negra wanted to do. I think the Stardom women have usually been the best for these Grand Prixs as a group, though some individual AEW women have been better. The RevPro women haven’t been far behind. I’m carefully saying these positive things so I don’t get hit by a brick when I lightly suggest that maybe there are perhaps better gear options available to Jayne in this world. I don’t get what’s going on with the pants, but she has so many color variations of them that I think they’re not going anywhere.

CMLL (TUE) 10/20/2026 Arena México [CMLL, thecubsfan]
1) Makará & Poseidón b Blue Shark & Fury Boy
11:24
2) Alexius, Astral, Péndulo b Carnifice, Feroz, Troglodita
14:53. Straight falls.
3) India Sioux b Sanely
12:05. Clean win.
4) Keyra b Garra Negra
9:50. Clean win.
5) Esfinge, Fugaz, Gallo Jr. b Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II
17:10. Esfinge challenged Akuma to a MEX HEAVY match next week.
6) Neón, Star Jr., Titán b Black Tiger, Rugido, Yutani
20:09

Match 4 was the better of the two feuding singles matches, to no great surprise. The main event got the best reactions of the night, match 2 was the more entertaining match of the night. Alexius is always fun, and what he’s doing tends to make more sense when he’s working with Feroz. The rudo had one spot with Carnifice that didn’t go well, but otherwise that match held together.

CMLL (TUE) 10/20/2026 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Arena Coliseo Guadalajara, CMLL, Mas Lucha]
1) Brillit & Nayeli b Chucki Boom & Princesa Yadys
2) Dominia & Tezca b Ivanna & Magia Azul
3) Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, Valkiria b Estrella Maldita, La Magnifica, Metálica [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Princesa Águila, Princesa Sioux, Ratziel b Astoreth, Diablita Roja, Lady Metal
5) Hécate, Nexy, Tabata b Lady Danger, Miss Guerrera, Náutica
6) Hera & Olympia b Emersyn Jayne & Johnnie Robbie and Kira & Skadi and Dulce Kitty & Reyna Isis
7) Dark Silueta & Zeuxis b Masha Slamovich & Momo Watanabe
Zeuxis & Dark Silueta cheated to beat Momo.
8) Lluvia, Persephone, Tessa Blanchard b AZM, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki

Attendance was definitely down here from usual weeks.

The opener was billed as an exhibition match between four women from La Barca, Jalisco; they’re from a small promotion there. They all appear to be teenagers.

CMLL (THU) 10/22/2026 Arena Coliseo
1) Hécate & Nexy vs Astoreth & Lady Metal
2) Espíritu Negro & Rey Cometa vs Kamelot & Robin
3) Futuro & Max Star vs Felino Jr. & Hijo de Stuka Jr.
4) Kira & Skadi vs Keyra & Zeuxis
5) Neón, Star Jr., Xelhua vs Villano III Jr., Volador Jr., Yutani

I would like to see match 4 but I suspect we’ll probably see match 4 some other time.

CMLL (FRI) 10/23/2026 Arena México
1) Dulce Gardenia & Volcano vs Estudiante Jr. & Robin
2) Star Jr. vs Yutani [lightning]
3) Brillante Jr., Máscara Dorada, Rey Pegasus vs Calavera Jr. I, Calavera Jr. II, Soberano Jr.
4) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero vs Averno & Euforia [lightning]
5) Garra Negra, India Sioux, Keyra, Kira, Lluvia, Olympia, Persephone, Skadi, Tessa Blanchard, Thunder Rosa, Zeuxis vs Alice Crowley, AZM, Emersyn Jayne, Harley Cameron, Marina Shafir, Masha Slamovich, Megan Bayne, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki, Momo Watanabe, Queen Aminata [Gran Prix de Amazonas]

A five-match show even with the 11v11 main event. They did do the same for the men’s Grand Prix, including having two lightning matches. The undercard could be interesting, but mostly it’ll be there to get some matches done in 10 minutes or less. The main event will be very long.

Informa today will primarily be about the Dia del Muertos shows taking place next week. They might have interviews with some of the Alliance team. CMLL usually does a Friday mid-morning press conference with everyone who’s made it in to promote the event for the media; that might not be announced in advance but always streams.

Heraldo Deportes has a long interview with Thunder Rosa. She also has a new column in Record.

AAA

Perros del Mal retained the AAA trios title over Mr. Iguana, La Parka and Psycho Clown before Raw on Monday night. Daga beat Psycho Clown. AAA didn’t seem to mention the match afterward.

Mini Vikingo did not wrestle as scheduled on NXT; GM Robert Stone said he wasn’t medically cleared. That’s a bigger issue for AAA, with Mini Vikingo scheduled to wrestle Rey Fenix at Heroes Inmortales on Saturday. I think AAA would probably postpone the Fenix/Vikingo match, and whatever their plans are for it, to Guerra de Titanes if Mini Vikingo is out for a while. I have no idea what they would do if he was out for a “Hijo del Vikingo” length of time; let’s hope we don’t find out.

On that same show, the Wagner Brothers defeated Charlie Dempsey and Lexis King to advance in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team tournament. They’ll wrestle Hank & Tank next week.

La Familia Munoz

PWInsider Elite reports that Dragon Lee has re-signed with WWE. They report it’s a five-year deal, replacing one due to expire this month. WWE never took Dragon Lee off TV, so they were reasonably sure he’d re-sign.

Meanwhile:

• Dragon Lee and Dralistico trademarked their team name
• Dralistico posted an image of himself in a jail cell
• Rush said we’d see him in 2027, in a vague way that he knew would cause speculation that he was leaving AEW
• Rush said he was definitely not leaving AEW, it was a visa issue, how dare people speculate

Dr. Britt Baker DMD and Dralistico have appeared in the same number of matches in Mexico this year: 1. That is 1 more than Rush has appeared in Mexico this year. These two men are Mexican wrestlers, but they’re not currently wrestling in Mexico and so I don’t even know why I’m writing these next few paragraphs. One thing that burnt out wrestling media people² say is that they wouldn’t watch [wrestling show X] if they weren’t getting paid for it. I would stop thinking about anything any person in the Munoz family says or does outside of a wrestling program if I were not doing this blog. Especially the social media stuff, I would unsubscribe it all from my mind. I would enjoy them when they’re on screen, then convince myself that Dralstico and Rush must be happily working the Portland territory or in the Maritimes every time they disappear from AEW TV for months on end, if I bother to think about them at all. I say this because I’m already bordering on taking this tact, and maybe you shouldn’t rely on me for detailed coverage of whatever twists and turns are coming in this Dralistico saga. I’ll care when he has a much, there’s likely to be a lot of other stuff that doesn’t really matter between now and then.

Anyway, Rush’s story is that there’s nothing at all going on with him that we should be talking about or considering. I’m willing to stick to that story until we see him on screen again.

I have no information on whether Dralistico is going to WWE. I think he would get a big reaction if he returned to AAA, as past stars tend to. I’m also sure Dralistico/AAA would work out disappointingly in the long term, as he’s been unable to adapt both to how wrestling has changed since he was a top star and to how his body has changed with the injuries he’s picked up.³ Dralistico was still around in AAA for 2023, after Dragon Lee first signed with WWE, and it wasn’t wonderful. Hijo del Vikingo pulled a great match out of him in Juarez but he felt behind the times then. Dralistico looked out of place for most of his AEW run; I can understand his frustration about not getting more, but I also can understand AEW thinking he’s not close to a priority with all the options they have – he’s hasn’t come across as a star, and he’s doing the same things that so many other people are doing now.⁴. For Dralistico, going to AAA would be a great fresh start, because he’s gone as far as he’s ever gone in AEW, and because it’s so much better than the alternative of DMT Azul circuit of faded names.⁵

I don’t think we’ll ever get an answer to this, but I wonder if Dralistico showing up in Arena Mexico to do the Mistico/Mistico feud would still mean a lot there. Some fans were there when Dralistico was Mistico; it would mean something, but the story of the last few years is CMLL bringing in new fans, and they don’t know that story.⁶

Other News

I did see “You Can See Everything.” It was really quite something that I’m still thinking about the movie. I would recommend watching it in theatres if possible; the first half especially tries to take advantage of the big screen, but it’s a movie that needs your phone away and your full attention. I don’t know if it’ll hit as well on a TV screen. I spent the first half hour thinking it was good, but I was confused about how they were going to get three hours out of it. I think they could’ve edited it down a bit if they wanted, but they definitely earned the time.⁷ The forced wrestling tie-in here is that I went in half thinking about how, in previous versions of wrestling discourse, someone would force a conversation about how wrestling people should learn from the (alleged) liar in the center of the movie and their commitment to the bit.⁸ I came out of the movie thinking. oh no, wrestling people actually should see that movie. In fact, they will see that movie and someone will 100% pitch using elements from that movie for a wrestling TV show the next twelve months and will probably run headfirst into the limits of what stories can be told on wrestling TV.

I’m on The Ballot podcast talking about Salvador Lutteroth III’s case for the WON Hall of Fame.

Both Arez and Angel Garza heavily criticized Hijo de Fishman for using the spot where El Buho died to get heat for his matches, saying it disrespected El Buho’s family.

A report of a 5K/10K Nuevo Laredo lucha libre race.

A profile of Hidalgo’s Mono de Alambre.

A profile of Octolan’s Prince Tenoch.

Vampiro: not dead.

1. It’s only been a few years of this start time, anyway – they moved up from 9 to 8 in late 2022. [↩]
2. not exempting myself here [↩]
3. Dralistico has the image of someone built for those fourways AAA likes to run, but the speed and action of those matches are going to be a struggle. [↩]
4. I’m sure the CMLL relationship has hurt Dralistico and Rush in AEW, but there’d be no compelling reason to get Dralistico on TV if CMLL ceased to exist tomorrow. [↩]
5. And it’s much better to be in AEW’s “jail” than to be there. [↩]
6. And of course, if CMLL is already selling out all the time, bringing in Dralistico can’t help them sell out more. [↩]
7. I don’t want to spoil the movie but I felt like there were editing choices in the last 20% of the movie which communicated what the movie believed to be true about the truth, it was stuff I might not have picked up if I wasn’t focused, and it was stuff I didn’t see/hear others mention even if they got to the same conclusion, so maybe I’m wrong, or I didn’t read the right recaps. This is also why going to these movies alone is a bad idea because the proper way to view them involves going to a diner – or, one supposes, a fireplace – and discussing them with someone else for an hour afterward. [↩]
8. See: MMA being wrestling done correctly as a previous lesson to be learned. [↩]