It has been an exciting past few weeks for lucha libre!
It’s well-timed, because I made a new friend recently in wrestling fandom who is interested in watching more lucha, and she bought a CMLL subscription, which I’ve been benefiting from by tuning in for her streams. So I’m getting a lot of listening practice from those!
So far, here’s what we’ve watched (links go to the card for the show on Cagematch. The actual shows are on youtube, but require a subscription to watch. They have Spanish commentary):
2023.10.31 CMLL Lucha Femenil Naciones 2023
2022.10.28 CMLL International Women’s Grand Prix 2022
No Natively pages for these, unfortunately 
(and I’m not counting wrestling shows for the lotería). As you can tell, we’ve been focusing mostly on CMLL’s women’s wrestling. So far, my top favorite wrestlers in CMLL are both women, so I’m particularly interested in watching their work.
Overall, my comprehension of these shows is decent! I think I’m able to understand at least 70% of the commentary (more than I can understand with Japanese commentary, though the gap is gradually narrowing…). I’ve been helping match the wrestlers’ names to faces during the matches for my friends whose Spanish is not as good as mine, haha.
With wrestling commentary, my focus sort of comes and goes, so I’ll tune out of chunks of it (which is fine! I do the same when listening to English commentary). But it’s nice passive listening because the main thing is the match itself, so the commentary is a bonus but isn’t necessary for following the plot.
I guess a bit of context so that my posts about this make more sense to outsiders:
The three countries in the world where professional wrestling is most popular are America, Japan, and Mexico (with the U.K. as a distant fourth). Each of these countries has multiple large professional wrestling companies, which often have relationships with each other, either as bitter competitors/rivals or as partners. The company politics are constantly changing literally all the time.
In Mexico, the two biggest promotions are Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). CMLL is the oldest professional wrestling company in the world that is still in existence (they’ve been operating since 1933). AAA was founded in 1992 when some wrestlers broke away from CMLL, and there has been extreme bad blood between the two promotions ever since.
Both CMLL and AAA have had various relationships with different companies in America and in Japan. Sometimes things have gotten politically a bit complicated because you’ll end up in situations where New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) has partnerships with American companies like All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and TNA/Impact while also having a partnership with CMLL, but then AEW and TNA themselves had partnerships with AAA and not CMLL, which makes for some awkward politics when trying to plan out shows involving talent from multiple companies…
Well, last October, things changed!
I wrote about it in my wrestling journal entry for Mistico vs Rocky Romero on October 20, 2023, which happened in AEW.
Here's that entry (cut for length):
One of the dreams that the founders of AEW had at the beginning was for it to be a place where all companies could work together. They wanted to work with everyone. Listening to those early interviews, you could hear in Kenny’s voice how much he wanted this, and also how much he doubted it would ever actually happen. Wrestling partnerships are tenuous and fragile. The industry is built on competition, and historically WWE has stayed in power partially due to devouring the other companies.
But AEW strove to take an alternate path. They started out with just a few partnerships, with AAA in Mexico and OWE in China. The latter was affected pretty severely by the pandemic and the relationship didn’t really come to anything, but the AAA partnership persisted even through the lean months of 2020. Then Thunder Rosa came into the company as NWA champ when the AEW women’s division was in dire straits. And at the end of the year, Kenny Omega shocked the world by taking the AEW belt to Impact. In early 2021, the real bombshell dropped, which was that AEW had finally managed to secure a long sought after working relationship with NJPW.
(Rocky was reportedly involved in that one, too. As was Kenny.)
From there, AEW eventually ended up airing on NJPW World with Japanese commentary, and they also formalized the relationship they’d had with DDT/TJPW since the beginning, which means that some AEW matches now air on Wrestle Universe as well. NOAH got folded in as part of the CyberFight relationship. Tony Khan saved ROH from dying an undignified death and rotting in WWE’s archives, and from that point on, ROH got added to the AEW mix, for better or for worse. 2023 even saw some RevPro involvement in the U.K., which meant that AEW’s partnerships now spanned all four of the biggest pro wrestling countries.
It’s a constant juggling act, one I don’t think AEW has always succeeded at. But at this point, they’ve worked with OWE, AAA, NWA, Impact, NJPW, DDT, TJPW, NOAH, ROH, RevPro, and GLEAT, in addition to countless indies. That’s a shockingly large percentage of the global wrestling world. It also includes several promotions which are themselves competitors, whom AEW somehow convinced to put aside their differences for this.
But there was one uncrossable bridge.
No other promotion hates another as much as the Mexican promotions AAA and CMLL hate each other. CMLL refuses to let their wrestlers even work the same shows as AAA wrestlers. They torpedoed their long relationship with the Muñoz family at the end of 2019 over something as minor as Dragon Lee working a PWG show which also included the Lucha Brothers.
Rush and Dragon Lee then both went to ROH, despite the fact that ROH was technically a partner promotion of CMLL at the time. This ultimately led to CMLL ending the ROH relationship in a huff in 2021 when ROH announced they’d be working with Federación Wrestling, a promotion Rush tried to start which didn’t even end up making it off of the ground.
NJPW stuck with ROH to the bitter end, though, despite their two partner promotions being estranged from each other. Then with ROH’s demise and subsequent rebirth as a Tony Khan property in 2022, it got folded right back into AEW’s relationship with NJPW, and here we were.
So AEW had built this great network of companies all working together to a varying degree, and everyone but WWE was willing to play along. Except for CMLL.
Then AEW pulled off a miracle.
Tony Khan dropped the bomb simply by announcing this match on twitter. I literally didn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the graphic. I thought someone had to be playing a trick on us. But no, it was in fact real. What exactly it meant was still up in the air, though. Was this just going to be a one-off match, or was it testing the waters for a deeper relationship?
It felt like the entire possibility hinged on how well this one match went. If the match went well, if the crowd reacted positively to Mistico and the CMLL presentation, if Salvador Lutteroth was satisfied with his treatment, maybe, just maybe, it could become something more.
Tony Khan decided to do this as a best two out of three falls match, wanting to give the AEW fans an authentic CMLL experience. Rocky and Mistico had been feuding in CMLL, though I confess I didn’t follow that feud closely enough to recount it here.
Mistico himself is an experience. He has an aura as a performer that is matched by few others. He is the biggest name in lucha libre right now, drawing packed crowds on the allure of his name alone. He even moved tickets to this AEW show, giving them a much-needed boost in attendance after this match was announced.
The match was great! It went about as well as could be hoped for, with both wrestlers playing their parts well. I was impressed by what I saw of Mistico here, and Rocky was as solid as ever, doing everything he could to put over Mistico.
Rocky lost the match, but he won where it counted. He was the architect of the fledgling AEW/CMLL relationship.
And sure enough, after the match, CMLL put out a press release which says, “Deseamos reiterar nuestra firme intención para que la colaboración entre el CMLL y AEW sea fructífera y beneficiosa para ambos partes, y pueda ser el inicio de una sólida alianza.” (“We wish to reiterate our firm intention for the collaboration between CMLL and AEW to be fruitful and beneficial for both parties, and for it to be the beginning of a solid alliance.”)
It remains to be seen what exactly this will entail.
Funnily enough, after CMLL fired Dragon Lee for working the same show as the Lucha Brothers, this show technically had Mistico working the same show as Penta El Zero Miedo. They got by on a technicality—Penta’s match aired live on Dynamite, and Mistico’s was recorded and aired on Rampage a few days later, technically a different show. Maybe CMLL is finally starting to thaw a bit on this issue.
Out of all of AEW’s accomplishments, to me, this match is the single most impressive one. It feels like if AEW can achieve this, they can achieve anything. You can sell out big arenas if you get lucky enough to have the right stars and momentum on your side, but navigating these complicated interpersonal relationships takes real work, and it takes a whole lot of trust.
I’ve fallen in and out of love with AEW more times than I can count, but I think at the end of the day, this is what keeps me coming back. They do this part better than any other company. They truly have become a global platform for pro wrestling, allowing the wrestlers and their diverse wrestling styles to speak for themselves without trying to homogenize them, without trying to own them.
It’s such an incredible breath of fresh air if you compare them not only to WWE, but to every other entertainment industry, where just about every industry is dominated by an oligopoly of a few companies that greedily seek to acquire as many properties as possible, constantly consolidating into bigger and bigger companies.
AEW not aiming to acquire the other companies and instead extending a hand to collaborate with them is something genuinely cool and special. It allows for the possibility of dream matches that never would have been possible otherwise. It’s pro wrestling done for the love of creation, not for personal greed.
I don’t know how long this era of pro wrestling will last. But I will cherish it for as long as we have it. This right here, this is the real magic.
There have been a few updates since then!
A couple weeks ago, a group of CMLL wrestlers came to AEW, and ended up kicking off a feud with one of the top factions in AEW, the Blackpool Combat Club.
The immediate lead-up was to a technical wrestling dream match between AEW’s Bryan Danielson and CMLL’s Hechicero on February 3. I wrote about that in my 2024 wrestling journal, which is still too much of a mess to share, haha.
But I can post this entry:
“Indie standout (great technical wrestler) who ends up going to the big promotion because what else is he going to do. Modifies his presentation to fit in with the style. Promotion thinks he’s good but maybe not a top guy. Die hard fans know he’s actually the best.” Is luchablog describing Bryan Danielson, or is he describing Hechicero?
It’s a trick question, obviously. These men are two sides of the same coin. They have more in common than they have differences, despite their careers taking place in different parts of the world entirely. Bryan Danielson wanted this match, and it’s obvious all throughout how much respect he has for Hechicero and his craft. Bryan gives him so much, letting Hechicero outmatch him and show the crowd his magic.
Quite literally, on some occasions—Hechicero is armed with spells, which he demonstrates by wielding fire during his entrance. He manages to get the whole arena cheering for him by the end, the crowd entranced by this technical wizard from Monterrey. He pulls out some variations on submissions that I’d never seen before, the beauty and real-world magic of having a diverse world of different wrestling styles.
As luchablog puts it, “The Danielson/Hechicero match will be great. The match will also give Hechicero a moment to play his music with someone who can play along, that he can be that top guy if given that chance. Wrestlers don’t always get what they deserve, but Hechicero is getting that tonight.”
Since that match, the feud between some of CMLL’s top guys and AEW’s Blackpool Combat Club has continued. It’s been a lot of fun! Many of CMLL’s Mexican fans are really excited to see some of their guys get to perform on American TV in front of thousands and get treated like big stars.
It has presented a few more opportunities for me to get some listening practice in, too, because the CMLL wrestlers usually cut promos in (often unsubtitled) Spanish.
Here’s a promo where the CMLL wrestlers invite the Blackpool Combat Club to come face them at the Arena Mexico (CMLL’s home arena, and one of the most famous wrestling venues in the world).
Something kind of funny about the timing of all of this is that right now as we speak, most of CMLL’s roster is actually in Japan on tour for NJPW’s annual Fantastica Mania tour. I have fallen off of watching NJPW enough that I haven’t felt motivated to really watch this tour, but I did feel a bit tempted…
NJPW just had Bryan Danielson over for a match with Zack Sabre Jr. (see the October 1 Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr. match in my wrestling journal for some background on both of those guys). Naturally, Hechicero watched their latest match and wants one with Zack Sabre Jr., too, haha. I don’t know if that match will end up happening or not, but the cards are in place for it.
In addition to all of that, I’ve been following Pro Wrestling NOAH (another Japanese promotion) off and on, and they just had a show which heavily featured Mexican luchadores, including El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. facing Kenoh for the GHC Heavyweight Championship, which is the top title in NOAH, and one of the most prestigious wrestling championships in Japan.
To my surprise, El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. actually won that match! He was already one of the rare few Mexican wrestlers to actually achieve high level championship success in Japan, but this victory is on another level. It’s extraordinarily cool, and I’m happy the company trusted him with that win. It’s also extra fun for me because I can understand his promos better than I can understand the Japanese wrestlers’ promos generally, haha.
Dragon Gate, a Japanese promotion which I don’t follow, also currently has a Mexican wrestler as their top champion, whose name is Diamante.
So those are some of the fun and exciting positive things that have been happening in the global pro wrestling world lately!
I’m still mad at CMLL for a few things that I won’t go into detail here (mostly they’ve booked some wrestlers whom I don’t like as people), and their subscription service is prohibitively expensive, so I probably won’t be following them super closely, but I’m having fun watching casually!
AAA, on the other hand… I had a few periods when I was watching them casually, but they’ve booked wrestlers I hate even more than the ones that CMLL has been working with, and I’ve sort of reached a point where I’m fed up with their culture of enabling abusers, so I’m not planning on going back to watching them unless some things seriously change doesn’t sound like I’ve been missing terribly much lately, anyway.
I guess to end on a more positive note (for the most part…), my favorite CMLL wrestler right now is Stephanie Vaquer! I got introduced to her work when she visited Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling in 2022 (and I translated one of her promos into English for my translation blog, haha), and her gear game is always on point:
Here’s from her instagram:
She’s unfortunately dealing with some extremely negative stuff right now which makes me worry that she might not be able to keep working in Mexico…
(tw: mentions of domestic violence and xenophobia)
Stephanie was in a relationship with former CMLL (now AAA) wrestler El Cuatrero, but he got arrested for attempted feminicide. Unfortunately Cuatrero has a lot of supporters who are very unhappy that this case has put Cuatrero in jail, so there’s a whole conspiracy theory getting spread about the situation, and Stephanie is facing increasing hate from fans who are blaming her for it…
It doesn’t help that she’s Chilean, which has gotten her some hate from Mexican fans simply because she’s a foreigner. Her wrestling character is currently a ruda (the lucha libre equivalent of a heel, the bad guy in the match whom fans are supposed to boo), so the reaction she gets onscreen from fans comes across as the expected one for rudos, but some of the boos are not for her character work, but are aimed at the actual person for daring to accuse a popular luchador of domestic violence.
It makes me want to voice support for her even more loudly. So go watch her matches if you get the chance!
My other favorite CMLL wrestler right now is a luchadora named Quimera!
Here’s from her instagram:
I’ve still barely seen any of her matches, but I got interested in watching her work the moment I found out about her, because she’s one of the extremely, extremely few out LGBTQ luchadoras in the industry.
In fact, she’s the only one that I know about.
I know of a few male LGBTQ luchadores (there’s actually a specific role for them in lucha libre, the exótico, though not all exóticos are gay, and in fact the one in CMLL right now, Dulce Gardenia, is straight), though I don’t know any who aren’t exóticos.
There’s some more info about exóticos on the wikipedia page I linked, though most of it is sourced back to Heather Levi’s book, The World of Lucha Libre. It’s a good book, granted! But I wish there was more info out there beyond what that book has.
I actually just got the idea to check the Spanish version of the wikipedia article, and sadly it doesn’t have a whole lot more, but I did find another source. Here’s an article titled “Exóticos: luchadores diversos en construcción”. Maybe I’ll try reading that at some point?
Long post about a lot of stuff that most people probably don’t care about, sorry!
”
. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling is in the middle of one of their busiest periods of the year, and this past weekend was WrestleMania week, which is not a show I care about in at all the slightest (I’ve never watched WWE and never plan on it), but it’s a bit of an annual tradition for a whole bunch of companies to put on indie shows in the same city as WrestleMania, sort of riding the wave of enthusiasm for pro wrestling and taking advantage of the crowds.
.
Thank you!