8/6/2025

© CMLL

CMLL

72 Aniversario Arena Puebla

21/07/2025
Templo Del Dolor, Puebla, Mexico
Attendance: 3,500
Watch On: Youtube (Free Show)
Review by David Hayter

CMLL celebrated the “72nd Anniversary” of the Templo del Dolor in Puebla by putting on a surreal main event that pitted top técnicos Místico and Esfinge against one another as they teamed with the perennial rudo tandems of Los Guerreros Laguneros and Los Infernales, respectively. Thankfully, the undercard more than compensated for a misjudged main event by providing two strong singles matches where the babyfaces (Máscara Dorada and Blue Shark) stood tall to send the anniversary crowd home happy.

Máscara Dorada Overcomes an Early Botch to Dazzle Alongside Volador Jr

CMLL is a promotion whose best action rarely comes in the form of singles matches, but on a night where the big trios matches failed to deliver on their potential, it was down to Máscara Dorada and Volador Jr to not only steal the show, but to save it. For a brief moment, it appeared they may be destined for failure when, after some slick-but-heavily-choreographed opening exchanges, Dorada went for a flying headscissors, came up short, and splatted on his back as Volador simply stood still and stared at him with disdain. This might sound unprofessional, as Volador did draw attention to the botch, but in a way it felt far more realistic than if he had taken a phantom bump or simply re-run the same sequence. Instead, Volador laid in some stomps and Dorada, without skipping a beat, started making a dazzling comeback with a tope to the outside.

From there the pair were off to the races, with Dorada creating continuous movement to work around Volador’s limitations. Dorada would score a dramatic near-fall with the 450 splash and Volador would fire back by forcing Dorada to kick out at the very last second from his Canadian Destroyer. Unfortunately, Volador would hesitate and bump badly for a combination of slick kicks, but this rough moment didn’t undermine a thrilling finishing sequence that culminated with Dorada hitting the shooting star press for a decisive victory. At 12 minutes the match felt somewhat abrupt, but it’s hard to fault action this dynamic and engaging on a card where many a match overstayed its welcome.

© CMLL

Peubla’s Hometown Hero Blue Shark Claims The Barroco Crown

Anyone who watched this year’s Torneo de Escuelas will be in absolutely no doubt as to the unfathomable depth of independent talent that exists in Mexico. It’s frankly absurd that so many highly talented workers could be allowed to enter Arena México, blow the roof off the place with their athleticism, and then be allowed to disappear back into the shadows. While Blue Shark might not be on the level of Fury Boy or Troyano in terms of raw potential, the Puebla native nevertheless took his opportunity to make himself a star in front of the sold-out anniversary show crowd.

Robin is a solid if unspectacular rudo base who allowed Blue Shark to shine by way of contrast with his great white-meat babyface fire and an excellent tope con giro which rallied the crowd. To be fair to Robin, while he is careful not to outshine his opponent, he did provide some legitimately great moments of his own, including a great catching wheelbarrow suplex and a big F-5 from the second rope for a believable near-fall. However, it’s Blue Shark who would win the vacant CMLL Barroco Championship by getting his boots up to counter Robin’s lionsault and then locking in a brutal high-arch Texas Cloverleaf. Shark’s victory continues the tradition of the Barroco Title only being held by Puebla-based luchadors.

DQ Finish Mires Underwhelming Main Event

CMLL made the somewhat strange choice to close Puebla’s biggest annual show with an angle masquerading as a trios match that dragged on for twenty long minutes. The match that pitted Místico, Último & Gran Guerrero against Esfinge, Averno & Mephisto opened with heavy heel heat, with the rudos isolating each member of the nominal técnico team in turn for triple-team offence before low-blowing and threatening to unmask Místico. They decided instead to pick up the first fall with Esfinge hitting a monkey flip on Último and Averno nailing Místico with the Angel’s Wings for the double pinfall.

The second fall was lightning-fast with Místico saving Último from a triple-team beatdown with a beautiful sequence of tijeras, springboard arm drags and ultimately a suicide dive to force Averno to the outside. This allowed the Guerreros to hit stereo spinebusters before applying simultaneous submission holds on Mephisto & Esfinge to even the score at one fall apiece.

With four rudos in a single trios match, it is perhaps unsurprising that so much in-ring time was wasted on teasing mask removals, with Gran Guerrero targeting Esfinge and Mephisto and Averno taking aim at Místico. That’s not to say there were no flashes of greatness — we got a glimpse of Místico and Averno’s timeless chemistry as Místico countered a dizzying torture rack slide slam with a slick tijeras. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of moments before Averno would kick Último low and Mephisto would rip Místico’s mask off for an instant DQ just as he had locked Averno in La Mística. Gran Guerrero would also be unmasked for his troubles. The crowd were further teased when Místico put on a fresh mask and challenged the rudos to a final and deciding fall, only for the heels to remove his mask again for a heavy-heat finale.

This would have been a strong heel angle second from the top on a regular Arena México show, but it feels like a terrible ending to the most important Puebla show of the entire year.

Hit and Miss Undercard Mired By An “Accidental” Unmasking

The rest of the card on the “72nd Anniversary” show was a strange mix of matches that either went long without delivering much in the way of compelling action (Fuerza Poblana vs Diablos) or exciting appetisers that ended before they could really build momentum (El Tapatío, Rayo Metálico, Rey Samuray vs Multy, Perverso, Prayer). To be fair to the former match, it did have a strong finish with the técnicos surviving a monkey flip 450 splash before scoring the simultaneous pinfalls, while the latter was already sloppy before it ended in a sudden and bizarre DQ when Multy was accidentally unmasked.

The lightning match between Hera and Yuki Mashiro failed to live up to its name, with Yuki spending most of her time selling a ponderous beatdown. The final few moments were enjoyable enough as Yuki unleashed a blizzard of arm drags before hitting a plancha from the ring apron to the floor to win over the Puebla faithful. The finish felt abrupt, with Hera escaping an Octopus Stretch to quickly hit an F-5 before locking in the Tequila Sunrise for the submission victory in less than six minutes.

Meyer & Millenium opened the show in crowd-pleasing fashion by forcing simultaneous submissions from El Malayo & Sombra Diabólika following two giant planchas to the outside and simultaneous top-rope ranas.

Full Results

El Malayo & Sombra Diabolika defeat Meyer & Millenium (10:03)

Lightning Match
Hera defeats Yuuki Mashiro (5:59)

El Perverso, Multy & Prayer defeat El Tapatio, Rayo Metalico & Rey Samuray by DQ [2:0] (9:07)

CMLL Barroco 2025 Title Match
Blue Shark defeats Robin (12:30)

La Fuerza Poblana (Arkalis, Stigma & Xelhua) defeat Los Bestia Del Diablo (Akuma, Gemelo Diablo I & Gemelo Diablo II) [2:1] (17:17)

Mascara Dorada defeats Volador Jr. (11:48)

Los Guerreros Laguneros (Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero) & Mistico defeat Esfinge & Los Infernales (Averno & Mephisto) by DQ [2:1] (20:25)

© CMLL

CMLL Viernes Espectacular

26/07/2025
Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
Attendance: 16,000
Watch On: YouTube (Subscription Required)
Review by David Hayter

Friday night at Arena México is such a joyous and crowd-pleasing institution that its brilliance is almost taken for granted. Fans, myself included, tend to become numb to the sheer athletic ingenuity of the roster, and Cagematch rankings for main event trios matches often fall into the seven-to-eight range simply because long-time viewers are accustomed to watching the smoothest and most immaculate high-flying action in the world. Tonight’s edition of “Viernes Espectacular” is a reminder that even the most hardened of lucha libre fans can have their minds blown by a timeless card and a classic main event. This sold-out show was a triumph before Máscara Dorada and Neón even entered the ring, but by the time their immaculate Leyenda de Plata final clash concluded, it was clear this show would go down in history as the moment the two top young técnicos in the business staked their claim to Místico’s crown — and Neón (with Dorada’s help) transcended his reputation as an inconsistent worker with a couple of dazzling spots to establish himself as a true superstar.

Neón Wins the Leyenda de Plata Finals in a Mind-Blowing Match of the Year Contender

The decision to run the Leyenda de Plata as a traditional tournament rather than a cibernético may have led to a disastrous Friday night at Arena México last week, with a series of half-baked and rushed singles matches wrestled in front of a rapidly disappearing crowd who’d already seen the true main event (Místico and Bandido) earlier in the evening, but at least it guaranteed a grand finale tonight. It’s a sign of the strength and confidence that CMLL has in its future that the final was booked to be a showdown between the heir apparent to Místico, Máscara Dorada, and the hottest young wave-maker in the promotion, Neón. Técnico vs técnico matches are always a risk, but this clash felt monumental; CMLL were letting the world know that one of these two men will be the man for decades to come.

Dorada is, of course, the more well-rounded worker — a spectacular rope-runner and an incredible flier who is truly accomplished in the ring, having previously delivered a five-star classic with Templario and an ultra-heated psychology-driven clash with Zandokan Jr. He doesn’t quite have Místico’s knack for timing his comeback to peak the crowd, and he is prone to the odd botch, but he’s closer to the finished article than anyone else in CMLL. Neón is a different kettle of fish entirely; he has routinely struggled to deliver in big singles matches, with his bouts often lacking either the smooth rhythmic flow that defines great lucha libre or solid psychology to take the crowd on a storied emotional journey. He is the most spectacular flier on CMLL’s roster in terms of pure mind-blowing flips, but this tournament final would be his chance to prove that he is the real deal rather than merely the flavour of the month.

The early exchanges and standoff spots revealed a short-lived difference in confidence and execution. When Neón rana’d his opponent to start the match, Dorada took an effortlessly smooth headstand rebound springboard flip off the ropes to land on his feet. When Dorada returned the favour, Neón hesitated and awkwardly stumbled into a cartwheel before hitting a backflip to roughly land on his knees to stare down Dorada. The end result was a cool standoff, but one wrestler looked silky smooth and natural while the other appeared stilted and contrived.

Not that any of these slight differences mattered when the staggering feats of athleticism began. Dorada would open the flying sequences by sending Neón to the outside with one of his trademark flipping tijeras, only to follow by soaring through the air with a twisting moonsault press to the outside. By this point, Neón had shaken off any nervousness as the pair engaged in a series of ungodly smooth and intricate stalemate spots, which included a simultaneous enzuigiri, but ultimately concluded with Neón hitting a springboard tijeras which sent Dorada to the floor for a tope con hilo.

© CMLL

Neón was almost casually dazzling at this point as, with the utmost ease, he crotched Dorada on the top rope only to hit a springboard 360 flip into a beautiful arm drag for the first near-fall of the match. Being the more solid and consistent worker, Dorada appeared content to take the nominal role of the base, breaking up the wild flying with slams and more conventional hard-hitting offence — although being a Dorada match, “traditional offence” amounted to a Code Red. It was clear that the goal was to make Neón look as spectacular as possible and, in one incredible sequence, Neón hit a springboard rana to the outside that sent Dorada scurrying up the ramp — Neón would then sprint up the giant stage to hit a serene front flip senton flying all the way down onto the rampway below, drawing the most raucous ovation of the night so far.

Neón would stampede to the ring following this jaw-dropping spot to give Dorada a rana off the apron to the floor, and he would follow up with a top rope dive, which Dorada dodged, sending Neón crashing and burning into the guardrail. At this point, it was clear that Dorada was not cheating, but was using typical rudo evasion spots for the heat. He would follow up by countering a rana, where both men were standing on the guardrail, into a wild powerbomb that sent Neón’s head and neck into the barricade. It was quickly becoming clear that the plan was to get Neón over not only as a sensation, but as a credible main event técnico and worthy equal to Dorada.

As the match approached its dénouement, it is almost impossible to overstate just how rabid the Arena México crowd had become, as they screamed wildly when Neón kicked out at 2.9 following Dorada’s 450 splash and a flying second-rope straightjacket electric chair slam. The ending sequence was beyond insane, with Dorada taking a terrifying bump on his head for Neón’s release German suplex into the corner, only for him to immediately get his knees up on a moonsault and hit a tilt-a-whirl backstabber for a near-fall. By this point, the match had become a carnival of preposterously brilliant moves, with Dorada offering a springboard crucifix bomb, only for Neón to return fire by countering an Alabama Slam into a Canadian Destroyer for a convincing near-fall.

I appreciate that at this point I’m offering little in the way of analysis on this truly bewildering match, but at a certain point it feels necessary to simply document the incredible feats of daredevil athleticism that characterised this all-time classic tournament final. There were no half-measures: when it came time to tease a double count-out, Dorada hit a leaping powerbomb that sent Neón crashing into the apron, and Neón returned the favour by countering a rana by swinging Dorada headfirst into the barricade. Both men would dive into the ring simultaneously to break the count at nine.

Fittingly, the story had been set in those opening moments: these two great técnicos are simply too well-matched, mirroring each other strike for strike, move for move, and even big boot for big boot. Something had to give. If Máscara Dorada hit a brilliant inverted flipping super rana for a dramatic near-fall, then guess what? Neón was going to one-up him and peak the crowd perfectly by hitting a headbutt with both men balancing on the top rope that would send Dorada crashing to the floor, so Neón could blow the crowd’s mind with his legendary Luminosa springboard before rolling Dorada into the ring to hit the inverted front flip senton to snatch victory.

Suffice to say, this match was not only beyond spectacular, it was an absolutely incredible back-and-forth, “anything you can do, I can do better” battle that turned into a star-making performance for Neón. The young luchador brought his absolute A-game and, after a shaky first spot, nailed absolutely every wild move in his arsenal with an elegance that only the greatest of técnicos possess. Máscara Dorada deserves incredible praise: he didn’t play rudo exactly, but he was the base, dimming his light on occasion to make sure that Neón looked luminescent. This is a true Match of the Year contender and the best singles match you will see in Mexico all year.

© CMLL

At 42 Mistico Masters The Lightning Match Versus Hechicero

The 10-minute time-limit Lightning Match has been a peculiar innovation in CMLL. On paper, you would expect that it would mirror Stardom’s High Speed Title, with luchadors flying around desperately trying to secure a victory within a tight time limit, but instead the matches have largely been wrestled at a leisurely pace, with wrestlers wasting time working the crowd before going to a premature finish. Mercifully, Místico absolutely understood the assignment as he came flying out of the traps. After being jumped by Hechicero at the bell to outrageous levels of heat and still wearing his ring jacket, Místico ran wild with a gorgeous tope suicida, sumptuous flying headscissors, and a giant torneo that had the crowd losing their minds.

From there, Hechicero would regain his composure and work Místico over with a series of dragon screws and surfboards, stretching Místico and draining the clock. Like a perfect speed run of one of their classic matches, Místico would make his comeback with a soaring, twisting rope-walk arm drag to set up a truly phenomenal spot. Místico would lay out Hechicero with two enzuigiris and go up for the big moonsault; Hechicero would get his boots up to the face of Místico, sending him cascading backwards, only for Hechicero to spring directly into a snap powerslam for a phenomenal double down.

Naturally, the pair would milk the clock all the way down to the final 90 seconds, with Hechicero hitting his trademark taunt and running knee strike, only to then run straight into another enzuigiri from Místico. The crowd came to their feet for the one-minute call with both men down. The final minute was a masterclass in timing, as Hechicero and Místico grappled from the inverted monkey flip position and, with just 20 seconds to go and the crowd in meltdown, Hechicero went for the spinning Torture Rack Bomb, which Místico of course countered in scintillating fashion into La Mística to win with 18 seconds on the clock. Suffice to say, the crowd were molten at this point.

Titán, Templario, Máscara Dorada, Neón… lots of outstanding young luchadors have attempted the Lightning Match, but at 42, Místico has mastered it.

The Build To The Anniversary Show Begins With Triple Threat Clashes

On 23 July 2025, CMLL announced that the main event of this year’s Anniversary show would see the winners of a three-team contest between Dragón Rojo Jr & Bárbaro Cavernario, Último Guerrero & Averno, and Esfinge & Valiente battle in their chosen apuesta match. This is one of those bizarre “only in Mexico” contrivances where heated rivals have to team with one another to win a tag match to then go on to possibly lose their hair or mask when facing one another. Given that it has been extensively teased over the last 12 months, and considering most expected it would have taken place earlier in the year, Esfinge and Valiente appear the likely “winners”. Nevertheless, CMLL will endeavour to build up heat between, and tension amongst, the respective teams for the next two months, starting with tonight’s triple threat matches.

© CMLL

Último Guerrero, Bárbaro Cavernario, and Valiente started hot, with the crowd having no issues engaging with this all-rudo clash. There were some shakier moments, with Bárbaro slipping on his signature springboard dive and having to improvise a tope, but he quickly won the crowd back by running wild on his opponents with slingshot splashes. The match was kept relatively short and sweet, with each man hitting their signature spots. Último would take on the nominal babyface role, with Valiente breaking up his near-falls for the heat before Último cleaned house with a double clothesline and big dive onto both his rivals. The finish came after a short double-team heat, with Último hitting his signature baseball slide dropkick to send Valiente flying off the apron before nailing Bárbaro with the super reverse suplex for the win.

Dragón Rojo Jr, Averno, and Esfinge squared off in a match that had a clear babyface in Esfinge, with Dragón Rojo deciding to work with the rudo Averno (going so far as to threaten to remove Esfinge’s mask at one stage). The match was almost entirely a showcase for Esfinge, with an intentionally uninspired heat section setting the stage for Esfinge to run wild with topes suicidas, springboard crossbodies, and monkey flips. The match was perhaps too one-dimensional in the early going to truly stand out, but it worked a treat in the building, with the sold-out crowd rallying strongly behind Esfinge throughout.

Rojo and Averno would eventually turn on each other, allowing Esfinge to recover to score a pair of good near-falls with the spinebuster–dropkick combination and a pop-up cutter. With the match now a true three-way, the crowd would go wild for a Tower of Doom and a triple German suplex spot respectively. The finish was very cleverly worked, with Dragón Rojo getting the advantage on Averno with a flying double foot stomp. However, as Rojo climbed the top rope to hit a moonsault, Esfinge springboarded into the ring to hit the big splash on Averno while Rojo’s back was turned. This took Rojo completely by surprise, allowing Esfinge to take control with a spinning enzuigiri, followed by his signature springboard big splash and springboard frog splash to secure the victory over Rojo before Averno could recover to break up the pin.

Yuki Mashiro Rounds Off Her 11 Matches In 11 Days Excursion With A Victory

Tonight’s excellent Friday night card started with a suitably sloppy women’s trios match, characterised by awkward bumping, bad selling, and mistimed offence, as Las Chicas Indomables & Yuki Mashiro defeated Dark Silueta, Hera, and Reyna Isis. Yuki, who was finishing up her whirlwind excursion from Ice Ribbon, played the undersized babyface in peril, taking a beatdown from the three larger luchadoras. The match was relatively wretched but did have the crowd going wild as La Jarochita made her comeback on the bumbling heels with a pair of impressive dives. This left Yuki free to make her comeback on Isis with some hit-and-miss lucha, culminating in a satellite headscissors and a big plancha to the outside. Las Chicas Indomables would ultimately pick up the victory for their team with simultaneous dropkicks and a double pinfall over Silueta and Hera. The match started badly but ended with some feel-good action and ultimately succeeded in giving Yuki a warm-hearted send-off.

© CMLL

There’s been plenty of grumbling regarding CMLL’s “92nd Anniversary” show since Wednesday’s wave of match announcements. Firstly, the ticket prices are sky-high (the highest in history) and the two big apuesta matches are Rey Bucanero vs Felino and, in all likelihood, Esfinge vs Valiente — hardly inspiring encounters, even if it will be good to finally put these rivalries to bed.

Tonight, Bucanero and Felino went head-to-head, and there is no denying that their ponderous match had absolutely tremendous heat, with the crowd living and dying with even the early and completely improbable near-falls. There were some impressive moments, including a meaty corkscrew senton from Bucanero and a great Splash Mountain Bomb from Felino, but the action felt largely slow and overly co-operative. Worse still, the match was more of an angle for heat than a real match, as the conclusion came suddenly when Bucanero caught Felino’s boot and hit a kick that the referee adjudged to be a low blow for a disqualification.

Full Results

Las Chicas Indomables (La Jarochita & Lluvia) & Yuuki Mashiro defeat Dark Silueta, Hera & Reyna Isis

Felino defeats Rey Bucanero

Esfinge defeats Averno and Dragon Rojo Jr.

Ultimo Guerrero defeats Barbaro Cavernario and Valiente

Lightning Match
Mistico defeats Hechicero (9:42)

Torneo La Leyenda De Plata 2025 Final Match
Neon defeats Mascara Dorada (19:40)

© CMLL

CMLL News

The CMLL “Men’s Grand Prix” on August 29th now has announced teams for both Mexico and the World. The Mexico team consists of Místico, Mascara Dorada, Neón, Titán, Templario, Atlantis Jr., Volador Jr, Zandokan Jr., Angel de Oro and Difunto. The world team is made up of Taiji Ishimori, TJP, Rocky Romero, Michael Oku, Robbie X, Speedball Mike Bailey, Lio Rush, Action Andretti, Donovan Dijak and the Beast Mortos.

The lineup of the world team may look somewhat disappointing, considering some of the names which have regularly been in Mexico as of late, but it is complicated due to the ROH PPV “Death Before Dishonor” having to be moved to the same date, meaning the likes of Bandido and Hechicero are unavailable. Likewise, this also means that none of the above talents are available for that show in Philadelphia, either.

MJF faces rudo Averno for the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship on August 1st, in what feels like a straightforward build towards another match with Místico at the 92nd “Aniversario” show on September 19th, but is almost shrouded by how little interaction they are having elsewhere. Místico wrestled at the AEW tapings in Chicago this week but was not part of anything with MJF, and the next step in the build for this match was taken last month in MLW.

The most likely occurrence here is that this is being built in this way in order to protect the main event of AEW’s “Forbidden Door” PPV, where MJF is likely to be involved. An “Aniversario” match up would occur the night before AEW’s “All Out” PPV on September 20th and the AEW Men’s World Champion is not going to be wrestling the night before an AEW PPV/missing the AEW show, let alone losing to Místico immediately before. The MJF promo on “Informa” keeps up the idea that the eventual match between them will be mask vs title, rather than the more valuable mask vs hair.

This year’s show has the most expensive prices ever for a CMLL show in Arena Mexico and is currently led by a three way tag match of Dragon Rojo Jr. & Barbaro Cavernario versus Ultimo Guerrero & Averno versus Esfinge & Valiente, with the winning team then wrestling in an ‘apuestas’ (translated: ‘bets’) match where someone will lose their mask or their hair.

Villano III Jr returned to action on July 26th at Arena Coliseo after six months out due to a knee injury. He teamed with Hijo de Villano III in a losing outing against Templario and Titán.

NJPW’s DOUKI will be part of this weekend’s CMLL shows in Mexico City and will team with Okumura and Yutani on all three nights. The appearance is said to be driven by DOUKI’s wish to wrestle for CMLL. Hopefully, the House of Torture stuff he has been newly signed up to since his return stays at home.

Blue Panther will be challenging Ultimo Guerrero on August 8th for the MLW Openweight Openweight Championship in Arena Mexico. I wouldn’t be too surprised if MLW decides to change the title over on that show.

© AAA

AAA

Alianzas

July 25th, 2025
Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera, Mexico City, Mexico.
Watch On: SPACE/MAX/Youtube

The curious case of Alberto El Patrón and AAA took another turn last weekend, as he lost a match to previous ally El Mesías that held the stipulation that he is now required to leave AAA. WWE sources told Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that they legitimately believe he is now done with AAA and that WWE have no interest in a working relationship with the former Mega Champion.

Not everyone agrees that this is the end for El Patrón in AAA. It would make sense of his babyface turn happening on an untelevised house show (if the turn hadn’t begun at “Triplemania: Regia”), as well as the trademarking of ‘Naciōn Lucha Libre’, the name of his previous vehicle on the Mexican scene. WWE have also kept him out of all promotional material, removed him of the Mega Championship and have likely ensured he is not part of “Triplemania” on August 16th. The Latin Lover-El Patrón main event plans originally set for this show have completely gone up in smoke.

The biggest problem with believing AAA is completely done with Alberto, though, is this match itself. This match was structured to get as much sympathy for Alberto as possible, with exchanges on the ramp before the opening bell bringing about interference from the Ojo faction before the match had even begun. El Patrón is forced to repeatedly fight off all of his former friends who have now turned their backs on him, including heel referee Tirantes, who joins Mesías in stomping on him just moments after the bell is rung to start the match.

Unlike a number of matches in the recent past in AAA, this match does have the heel number advantage actually generating heat, with the crowd living for even the hints of an Alberto fightback. And he survives for some time, despite being attacked with bin lids, kendo sticks, the blue mist and constant three-on-one attacks from various members of his former faction.

The end came after Dorian Roldán got into the ring (the less said about his earlier offense the better) and stopped Alberto with a low blow. Dorian swung his guitar but missed the head, suffering a low blow of his own. Alberto would smash the guitar over his head and he would need to be stretchered out. The stretchering was covered on camera just as powder was thrown into Alberto’s eyes (commentary did scream about it to make up for it). Mesías bounced off two sets of ropes to deliver a spear and Tirantes counted a quickish pin.

© AAA/SPACE

The finish felt anticlimactic, like it came five to ten minutes too early, but that was it. El Ojo celebrated on the ramp and no one came out to accost them, leaving the focus and belief very much on Alberto to be the one to come back and vanquish them. El Patrón was joined in the ring by Latin Lover, who had been his enemy just a month ago. He stood over a kneeling Alberto. He made several gestures indicating he would fight this whilst Alberto attempted to cry in what looked more like a cross between dry heaving and an evil villain laugh.

Alberto El Patrón, whether intentional or not, is now AAA’s biggest babyface. WWE may be able to replace him for big shows with a guy like Dominick Mysterio, but not so much for the other shows which run under the AAA name. Luchablog noted that both the AAA local promoter in Toluca and the promoter for Arena Lopez Mateos are making it clear to fans that Alberto will still be on their shows, and one glance at the social media quickly shows him still being advertised as the centrepiece attraction.

This brings up one of the bigger unknowns from when this deal was made: how would it affect those who use the AAA name and talent? WWE may be focused on how to create a talent pipeline which suits their needs and acquiring the brand a US TV deal of some sort, but how much will their decisions in pursuit of it affect the much wider infrastructure in Mexico in regards to live events that AAA is a part of?

It probably will not be too long until we know where El Patrón stands; the quieter he is, the more likely he is staying involved in some way.

© AAA

This show in Mexico City had been moved to the following Friday, putting it head to head with CMLL in Arena Mexico (both shows sold out) but also meaning that it occurred the night before a WWE house show, allowing for more usage of WWE talent. Ludwig Kaiser, under the mask of El Grande Americano, wrestled Octagon Jr. in the fifth match on the card, and was cheered wildly throughout. Whether this was because he was the WWE star or they see the gimmick as simply a comedy one is up for debate, but it is also noticeable that Octagon Jr. was heavily booed throughout and that this has been happening to a number of the babyfaces that were involved around the Vikingo title change/celebrations after that moment.

This match was structured so that Octagon had all the stylish offense/big moves, with Americano countering with the simplest of moves to stop his opponent’s momentum. It felt like they hoped that giving Octagon Jr. the flashy spots would get the crowd going in his direction, but it never happened. By three quarters of the way through the match, Americano was playing to the crowd in the struggle. Americano won with the loaded headbutt and Octagon Jr. rolled around on the floor like crazy after as if he had damage to his eye, but the crowd did not care. They were into Americano, and that only increased when he began singing in Spanish.

Americano will be part of a four way at “Triplemania” for the Mega Championship alongside Dragon Lee, Dominik Mysterio and El Hijo del Vikingo. WWE and AAA have given up the cost when it comes to Vikingo staying babyface and have turned him heel, with the wrestler playing into online criticisms of him by calling himself ‘the best Mega Champion ever’. Vikingo opened up a challenge for “Triplemania” and was seemingly answered by Dragon Lee before El Grande Americano came out. Before anything was set, a masked man attacked Vikingo and revealed himself to be Dominick Mysterio, in what got the biggest pop of the entire night. WWE may look at Mysterio’s popularity here but also his name and appeal in the US and feel he is a good choice to carry the Mega belt whilst they pursue a TV deal for the brand.

Faby Apache was brought back for this show by the request of Natalya so she could wrestle her in a three way tag match. It is likely to be in a singles competition of some sort between the two on August 16th.

Full Results

Lola Vice & Natalya defeat Chik Tormenta & Dalys and Faby Apache & Lady Shani

Mr. Iguana, Pagano & Psycho Clown defeat El Ojo (Forastero, Mecha Wolf & Sanson)

El Grande Americano defeats Octagon Jr. (10:50)

Los Hell Brothers (Charly Manson, Chessman & Cibernetico) & El Fiscal defeat Los Vipers (Abismo Negro Jr., Belcegor, Histeria & Taurus) (10:32)

If El Patrón Alberto Loses He Has To Leave AAA Match: El Mesías defeats El Patrón Alberto (14:14)

AAA News

Ernesto Ocampo, of Super Luchas, reported this week that the movement of Lucha Libre AAA from Promociones Antonio Peña SA to WWE and Fillip was due to be completed on August 1st.

WWE’s full operation of the company will come into the forefront on August 16th, with “Triplemania XXXIII” at the Arena DCMX in Mexico City. The show will be broadcast globally on Youtube outside of Mexico City, which will give it far greater reach than in recent years, where it has been available on Triller. It will likely be geoblocked in Mexico due to the existing SPACE/MAX deal in AAA’s home operating country. The usage of Youtube appears to be a big part of WWE’s strategy in indicating a potential TV audience for AAA/ gauge of fan interest to ship to potential networks, and it is notable that TNA is adopting a number of the same practices.

The overall presentation/video offering is expected to be of a much higher quality than in previous years, with production being upgraded to a digital format under WWE’s new Director of Latin America, Jeremy Borash. Pete Dunne has also been brought across to help produce and a number of other WWE personnel will be involved in the set up and running of this show. It is unknown, at current, if full English commentary will be provided, but I would expect it.

© WWE

Los Garzas are carrying the AAA Tag Team Championships on WWE television, with the championships being used for title matches. Non-WWE titles being defended on main roster programming feels like a very rare occurrence, but may become much more regular if the AAA Mega Championship is put on either Dominick Mysterio or El Grande Americano at “Triplemania”.

Ernesto Ocampo also reported that WWE are planning to open a Performance Center in Mexico in 2026 (in a similar vein to what they currently have in the UK) to allow for Mexican talent to be trained into the WWE style far earlier alongside lucha libre. The AAA style is much more akin to WWE than traditional lucha libre to begin with, but it is clear that they want to impact on the development of Mexican wrestlers earlier so that they are moulded to the WWE model from the start; it isn’t too dissimilar from the partnering with several training schools in the US as part of the WWE ID program in its aims and ambitions.

The WWE line is very much that they are focused on bringing in independent wrestlers rather than going after CMLL talent, and that this is based on cost. The likelihood that several CMLL wrestlers are dual contracted to AEW as well as CMLL (outside of Hechicero) will also play a part in that, even if it goes unmentioned here. That may well see off WWE for now, in that aspect, but it won’t forever.

Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

This gives a good look into the ideology for WWE, who believe that they can create a product which will fit to their format and methodology but also to be the definitive example of “lucha libre” in the minds of the audience and their partners, regardless of how close it is to traditional lucha libre or not. Essentially, if it’s their version, it will be THE version.

© Daniel Berehulak

Mexico Independents

News

El Hijo del Santo will try Puebla for an additional stop on his retirement tour for a second time, announcing a show for September 19th in the city, after plans last year fell by the wayside.

The Fuerza Guerrera retirement is scheduled for ten days later in Arena CDMX in Mexico City. The current main event for the 22,000 seat building is Fuerza Guerrera, DMT Azul, and Hijo del Solitario facing Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Blue Demon Jr., and Tinieblas Jr.

RIOT Lucha Libre will celebrate their 10th anniversary on October 11th in Monterrey. The promotion has also uploaded a match from “La Rina” that saw Arez take on Bandido earlier on this year. Bandido is now the RIOT Champion.

Freelancer Daga took part in the WWE tryouts in New Jersey this week.

WWE

TV News

Brock Lesnar returned to WWE for the first time since “Summerslam 2023” at the conclusion of this year’s second night of the same event, and he participated in an angle with John Cena. Lesnar had originally been scheduled to appear at the “Royal Rumble” in 2024 but was pulled by WWE Legal after the first filing of Janel Grant’s lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon.

Lesnar was not named in the first suit but was identified quickly in the press in terms of being the party listed. He was named in Grant’s later amended complaint and appears in the suit 44 times. He is not a defendant; however, he is alleged to have had McMahon offer Grant to him as part of contract negotiations, requested personalised sexual content from Grant, which Grant was directed to fulfill by McMahon after he first suggested the idea and had agreed to meet Grant for a sexual encounter that ultimately never happened.

The 48 year old was never suspended by WWE, instead being paid in full to sit at home for the following 18 months. Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer reported that Lesnar was added back to the WWE active roster for two months prior to his return, with the same website also noting that WWE Legal had agreed he could return a month after. This led to speculation that there had been a change in the status of the Grant case or that Lesnar had been “cleared” of any wrongdoing, but neither had occurred at the time of writing.

Grant’s team released the following statement:
“For far too long, abuse was allowed to thrive under WWE’s leadership. Instead of righting this wrong, WWE has done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire.”

WWE have offered no response to requests for comment in relation to this move and shut down one of the only locations where the wrestling media could question the decision by removing the post PLE press conferences the night before. Both decisions are linked.

WWE’s story over the return took place since Sunday as well, with Paul Levesque originally appearing to put the decision at the feet of WWE talent John Cena before this was corrected to a decision made by Nick Khan and himself on “Raw”.
We will have much more on this in our next issue.

© WWE

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that WWE and Travis Scott have fallen out since the musician last appeared for the company at “WrestleMania” in Las Vegas. There was no payoff involving Scott for Cody Rhodes and John Cena after he was majorly involved in both the Cena heel turn and the first WWE Championship match between the two. Scott has been removed from a future DLC release for WWE 2K25.

Drew McIntyre was momentarily stuck in the UK last week after traveling to his home country for a wedding with only his UK passport. He was turned away at the airport when he attempted to return to the US. Dual nationals are required to carry both passports for US re-entry.

WWE worked with immigration and travel authorities in order to allow the wrestler to travel and he was able to reach the US comfortably ahead of his scheduled match at “Summerslam”.

The “WWE Speed” program which was running every Wednesday on X has been quietly discontinued.

NXT North American Champion Ethan Page has changed the design on the physical belt to carry the Canadian flag.

Goldberg’s World Heavyweight Championship match with Gunther at “Saturday Night’s Main Event” in Atlanta, Georgia on July 12th is now being fully marketed as his last match, across both social media and on TV. The 58 year old will end his career in his home market, and returned to WWE television in Green Bay last week in order to promote the matchup.

Netflix project “Unreal”, which will focus on the creative process in WWE in the run up to this year’s “Wrestlemania”, will launch on the streaming service on July 29th. The series will air in 5 parts and is being produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, NFL Films and Skydance Sports alongside WWE.

Noam Dar was stripped of the Heritage Cup Championship on “NXT” after suffering an injury. There was no details on the nature of Dar’s injury that ended his current 2 month reign with the title. Stacks defeated Tony D’Angelo 2-1 on the June 24th NXT to capture the vacated belt.

WWE News

The plaintiffs in the ring boy lawsuit have filed their opposition to the ‘motion to dismiss’ that was brought by WWE, TKO, Linda McMahon and Vince McMahon. The key to a number of these filings is the jurisdiction of the state of Maryland over this case, which the defendants argue does not exist, as WWE is housed elsewhere and none of them reside in the state. In their filing, representatives of the plaintiffs argue that WWE have been a long running presence in the state, having a consistent presence there during the time period in which the alleged abuse took place.

The defendants also argued in their dismissal attempt that they did not have a duty to protect the plaintiffs as they were not formal employees of the company, and were instead working for Phillips, with the abuse occurring outside of Phillips’ role with the company. The pushback on this is that the boys were guests/participants at company run events and that the McMahons were aware of Phillips’ behaviour in the 1970s. TKO also maintains that they have no legal responsibility for the actions of a previous company, that the current WWE entity is not the same as that which was under Vince McMahon.

A reply from the defendants is due by August 27th. Judge James K. Bredar will rule on these motions and counter motions.

Vince McMahon will also appear in a Connecticut Court next month after he was involved in a car crash and was cited with reckless driving. The incident involved three cars, with CEO of BDS Capital Partners, Barbara Doran, claiming that she was struck by McMahon’s Bentley between 80-90mph along the Merritt Highway in Connecticut. The 72 year old posted an account of the accident on Facebook:

The accident took place on July 24th at 9:22am, it was the same day as Hulk Hogan’s passing. Connecticut State Police recorded it as occurring at 9:22am on Route 15 North in Connecticut. The State Police summary which was obtained by Post Wrestling said that McMahon’s car hit 30 feet of the central reservation, which was made of wood, causing sections of it, as well as parts of the car, to be thrown into the lanes on the other side of the freeway.

McMahon was present at the funeral of Terry Bollea this week, alongside Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon and Ric Flair, as well as many others from the industry. WWE have run several tributes to Bollea (Hogan) across their programming in recent weeks.

Paul Levesque appeared at the White House on Thursday to be present for the signing of an Executive Order by President Trump that reintroduces the Presidential Fitness Test. The signing was broadcast during WWE’s “Summerslam” PLE at the weekend, where it was booed by the crowd at Metlife Stadium. With the McMahon family so heavily tied to the current American administration, alongside TKO sister brand UFC, it isn’t too much of a surprise to see WWE finally abandon their guise of being apolitical.

© ESPN

WWE and ESPN announced a deal on Wednesday morning that will see main roster WWE PLEs being made part of ESPN’s upcoming direct to consumer platform that will launch on August 21st. There is no announced starting point for the deal, but there is an expectation that it will occur before next year’s “WrestleMania”. The agreement has been listed by various outlets as being worth $1.6 billion across five years, an average of $325 million per year. It will also allow ESPN to broadcast the PLEs in the US on their linear platforms if they wish, which could allow “WrestleMania” to be broadcast on ESPN cable or on free to air on ABC. The previous deal for WWE PLEs, the WWE archive and NXT PLEs was held by Peacock, with figures today setting that value at $900 million, which is a lower number for the five years than what was originally put out at the time the deal was made.

ESPN’s new platform secured a deal with the NFL earlier this week that sees the network group take control of the NFL Network and NFL Redzone, although both will still be produced by the NFL. In return, the NFL now owns 10% of ESPN. WWE will also continue to produce their PLEs, as well as pre and post shows, which ESPN also have the ability to screen. Other content on the new platform that has already been secured includes college football, US Open Tennis, WNBA, NBA, NHL and the NWS. The deal likely puts ESPN in pole position in regards to re-securing UFC content when their current agreement comes up at the end of the year.

All reports suggest that it is only the main roster PLEs that are involved in this deal, and that it does not include NXT PLEs or the archive that is currently housed by Peacock in the US. Rights to all of that content internationally remains with Netflix. It now means that US viewers will now require a Netflix subscription, cable subscription and a much more expensive ESPN subscription (depending on provider) in order to watch all WWE content. The $29.99 price point for the new ESPN product is much higher than the entrance price of $11 for Peacock, with the service also available for no extra cost as part of bundle/cable deals by several providers. The ESPN DTC will be available to ESPN cable subscribers in a similar way at the beginning.  

Brandon Thurston, of Wrestlenomics, reports that the San Diego Tourism Marketing District has set aside a budget of $5 million for the “Survivor Series” event on November 29th. This comes after New Jersey authorities paid $7 million for the two night “Summerslam” event. The body has cited that they believe that bringing the event to San Diego will lead to 18,000 hotel rooms being booked, adding $3.6 million for lodging businesses in the city alone and that another contributing factor is the consistent mention of the city on WWE programming. Shots of host cities have been much more prominent in marketing for “Summerslam”, “Clash in Paris” and “Survivor Series” than in the past, meaning the company recognises that it is part of their offering to cities they are looking to gain site fees from.

A weekend of shows for the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan, has been announced for October 17th and 18th. Advertised for the event are a number of talents who have previously worked prominently in Japan, including Finn Balor, AJ Styles and IYO SKY, as well as Jey Uso, Gunther, New Day, Rhea Ripley and Sami Zayn. It isn’t what can be described as a marquee lineup when considering WWE’s roster, but it is charging marquee prices, with the top tiers equivalent to the most expensive tickets available for Tokyo Dome shows.

WWE have signed a deal with women’s clothing company WEAR to produce a WWE collection. Some lines are already available to purchase through WWE partner Fanatics. WEAR is owned by sports broadcaster Erin Andrews.

The Eddie Murphy film “The Pickup” is released on August 6th on Amazon Prime. Roman Reigns has a part in the film. Reigns, alongside fellow wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Hirooki Goto, will begin filming shortly for the upcoming “Street Fighter” film.

© AEW

All Elite Wrestling

TV News

AEW’s upcoming “Forbidden Door” PPV on August 24th is starting to take shape, with the top four matches on the AEW side largely in place. Officially confirmed are Swerve Strickland vs Kazuchika Okada for the Unified Title and Toni Storm vs Athena for the AEW Women’s World Championship. Athena has used her contract from the Casino Gauntlet from “All In”, which is certainly preferable to the WWE style cash-ins which have been threatened over recent weeks.

Also on the card will be the Hurt Syndicate defending the AEW Tag Team Titles against the winners of an all AEW Tag Team Tournament, which the format of and recent TV heavily suggests will be FTR. Colten Gunn was originally supposed to compete in the tournament alongside brother Austin but suffered an injury on “Collision” a fortnight ago. He has been replaced in the team by the newly returned Juice Robinson.

Adam Page is also expected to defend the Men’s World Championship against MJF, who sources tell us has been planned since “All In” for the main event of this show. MJF faces Mark Briscoe on Wednesday night’s edition of “Dynamite” in what is a de facto number one contender’s match, seeing as he does not want to use the contract earned in Texas for the match.

It provides somewhat of a dilemma of sorts, as the program between Briscoe and MJF has been very much one sided so far in favour of the heel, and losing another program that has been centered around the passing of brother Jay feels like a mistake. There is the opportunity to make this a three way but it does weaken the main event of the PPV compared to a straight singles. There is also the case to give Mark a win over MJF after “Forbidden Door”, or to cost him the contract match in order for him to get something out of the feud, and this one absolutely feels like a program Briscoe must get something out of outside of increased prominence.

The match will be the main event of this week’s “Dynamite”, hoping to use the influx in viewership the show is currently seeing from 9:30pm onwards, as key competition “Big Brother” and the dualcast “The Challenge” both finish in the quarter before.

© Mercedes Mone

Also returning this week in Cleveland is Mercedes Moné, who has been absent from television since her loss to Toni Storm at “All In”. Getting back a number of their top talent, as well as the development of some strong secondary programs, will help the current programming massively, where there has been little underneath the top in recent weeks, as evidenced also by the quarter hour trends.

Moné will defend her TBS Title in a four way match on the PPV, with the other three competitors being qualifiers from AEW, Stardom and CMLL. The lack of cross-promotional matches at the top of the card and in the build for these shows is bound to be a talking point, but the placement of the show to coincide with the UK August Bank Holiday weekend means that it occurs just a week after the end of New Japan’s G1 tour and just a day after Stardom finish up with the 5 Star Grand Prix. Add to that the difficulty of top stars needing protection and a distinct lack of depth on the New Japan side – and the current card makes a lot more sense. This is also a very heavily priced show that will set the arena gate record for AEW.

One group of talent that have been available in this run have been from CMLL; however, the group also has a show on August 24th which Místico, Mascara Dorada, Neón, Templario, Hechicero and Atlantis Jr. are already announced for, and thus rules them out of competing in London.

One man hoping to make the show is Will Ospreay. Ospreay is the centre of the show’s advertising but appeared on “Dynamite” on July 23rd to announce that the C2 and C6 disks in his neck are herniated. He stated that he was still aiming to compete on the show and his closing remarks set up a program with the Death Riders and an AEW World Title match with Adam Page further down the line.

The show at the O2 Arena is confirmed to begin its main card at 6pm BST, giving it a four and a half hour window before the O2’s standard Sunday curfew of 10:30pm that is part of a long term agreement with transport for London.

© AEW

The final two additions to this year’s PPV calendar have been made this week as well, with “Full Gear” returning to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on November 22nd. The same arena held last year’s show and also the same PPV in 2022. This will be the first major show within reach of New York City this year. Arthur Ashe Stadium, which has hosted “Grand Slam” shows since 2021, is currently under redevelopment outside of US Open dates, and so may not be suitable to hold further shows at the current time.

The year’s final PPV will be “World’s End” on December 27th in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has traditionally held “All Out” in the city in late summer, but instead has a December date this year after that show was moved to Toronto. It is likely to have WWE in the market during the same week for their Holiday Tour, but they should get tickets on sale earlier this year, with an announced presale date of September 2nd.

The announcement came during a Tony Khan interview with Case Lowe for Q101 to promote the final residency dates in the city last week. This residency was the first to include flagship program “Dynamite” and consisted of six shows over the three week period, with all bar one “Collision” selling out the venue and VetTix showing no comps for any of the “Dynamite” shows. The jury is out on the long term effects of these residencies and whether it will create a permanent change in AEW scheduling that places more emphasis on the increased PPV schedule, or if running the smaller venues for multiple dates will increase demand thereafter.

The final “Dynamite” taping on July 30th was the only show to sell out in advance of show day, with the lack of availability causing the cheapest resale price on the morning of the show to sit at $234, it is the highest get in price in the week of an AEW event in their history, driven by the Men’s World Title match between Adam Page and Jon Moxley.

© AEW

The final date of the residency did see a title change, as Kyle Fletcher took the TNT Title from Dustin Rhodes in an excellent match. Rhodes was attacked with a screwdriver as part of an injury angle as he requires knee surgery. He is expected to miss the rest of the year. There has been no announcement yet in regards to the status of the RoH Tag and 6-Man Titles which he currently holds.

Thunder Rosa has also announced she is taking time off via her vlog. It is also believed to be injury related.

AEW’s “All In” aired on free TV in the UK last week, scoring an audience of 111,000 on average from 9pm to 3am. The show was not aired on the network in 2024, but did in 2023, where average viewership was 63,000. That is a 76% increase.

News

The judge in the lawsuit against AEW and Jon Moxley filed by Chris Dispensa is currently denying AEW’s request to keep details redacted of company ownership. AEW is attempting to move the case from state court in Michigan to Federal Court, citing a lack of jurisdiction of the state over the company that is based in Florida and registered in Delaware.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has clarified the merchandise number for the “All In” Texas weekend due to complaints about the lack of available items by the day of the show. The company sold merchandise at $30 a head, up over a third from the $18 per head from the shows at Wembley Stadium, leading to demand far outweighing supply, suggesting a higher level of engagement by this crowd in the show and the wrestlers on it than in previous years.

Hikaru Shida is back in the US after an extended stay in Japan, due to the renewal of her visa taking far longer than in previous years. Visa issues are likely to become even more prominent in general for the United States over the next 3 years.

The MAX streaming service in the US has added all AEW PPVs up until the end of 2024.

Season 2 of “Twisted Metal”, starring Samoa Joe, is now available in the US on Peacock. Joe is currently absent from AEW TV whilst out promoting the series.

© TNA Wrestling 

TNA

Slammiversary

July 20th, 2025
UBS Arena, Long Island, USA
Watch On: Triller TV PPV/ TNA+

TNA proclaimed their UBS Arena show on July 20th to be their biggest ever North American crowd, as they filled much of the lower tier of their Long Island home for the night. It was a claim they promoted throughout the broadcast, and the long shots of the arena did make the crowd look substantial.

After a quick intro video it was straight into the action as Order 4 leader Mustafa Ali took on former friend Cedric Alexander in the opener. Alexander had been recruited by Tasha Steelz in order to talk some sense into Ali after he had begun punishing his own group, but she turned on him prior to this bout and played a decisive role in the match thereafter. Ali was the first one out into the arena, meaning the heel got the benefit of the first pop, whilst Alexander got more of a polite reaction from the crowd.

Commentary made note of the history between the two as part of WWE’s former brand “205 Live!” and how Alexander held a 6-0 record against Ali coming into this show. The match started out with neither man getting an advantage for any sort of lengthy period, as it made its way to the floor. Ali went diving through the ropes at Alexander on the outside, alongside members of his own faction, but nobody caught him and his head bounced off of the floor. Having been the man on offense, he completely no sold the impact, but it was a scary moment just minutes into the match. Wisely, there was no replay of that one.

The match from there wasn’t too different from what you would have seen in previous years in WWE, with a mixture of highflying and impactful offense at a decent speed. The crowd were enjoying the action but were not interested in giving Ali the heat he was working to earn, until his faction became involved in the match once more. Jason Hotch DDT’d Alexander on the outside after Tasha Steelz had distracted the referee. Alexander was thrown back into the ring, where Mustafa Ali hit a 450, but Alexander kicked out. This caused Steelz to climb into the ring in front of the referee, who then ejected her from the ringside area. The other members of Order 4 would then climb up on the apron, with Alexander removing Jason Hotch to the floor and Ali accidentally kicking John Skyler to knock him down.

Alexander would get a close near fall before Steelz returned from being ejected with a chair in hand. He would catch her before she could inflict any damage and deliver a Lumber Shack backbreaker, but that meant he had taken his eye off Ali, who descended from the corner post above him with a 450 to get his first singles win over Alexander in his career. This was a decent opener until the expected interference took over, with the crowd going along with the action but not really invested in the outcome.

© TNA Wrestling 

Second up was a tag that saw the System team with Matt Cardona against NXT’s DarkState as the “invasion” storyline continued up and down the card. Hometown man Cardona got a big response from the crowd in a match where there wasn’t really that much to write home about. The System did their Hogan tribute spots whilst in their red and yellow gear before Eddie Edwards hit a Boston knee party for the win. The DarkState control periods were not good for the crowd.

This period of the card was one of its weakest, as this match was followed up by a clunky encounter between Indi Hartwell and Tessa Blanchard, where the crowd were more interested in discussing whether Blachard was a racist or not than they were in the contents of this match. The action itself felt like what you often see on NXT – where you can tell all the spots which have been planned out before. The planning didn’t help them much here, though, as the work was simply poor overall.

Blanchard got some actual heat after hitting a cutter on Hartwell from the top, before a Magnum from the rope elicited more boos. Hartwell kicked out of the finisher, the first time anyone has since Blanchard returned in December last year, and she got the win quickly afterwards. Commentary called it her biggest win in the promotion to date.

Hartwell was interviewed by Gia Miller on the outside in the aftermath, only for both to be attacked by an irate Blanchard. The heel showed no remorse for attacking an announcer when confronted backstage by TNA on-screen authority figure Santino Marella, who had her carried out of the building by security; Marella would later announce that she had been suspended indefinitely from the promotion. I wonder if that means a trip back to AAA?

A messed up Elegance Brand promo where production included them setting up for the recording was followed by a title vs title matchup for the TNA Knockouts Championship and the NXT Women’s Championship between Masha Slamovich and Jacy Jayne, respectively. Slamovich was announced as residing in New York City, and still got a good response even before that. She had dispatched Killer Kelly on TV in the weeks prior to this match, a personal matchup that could have carried to this show, so the writing felt pretty much on the wall here.

Jayne was in control of the contest early on until an air raid crash from Masha Slamovich looked to change the momentum. Just as she was gaining a hold in the match, the members of Jayne’s Fatal Influence group on the outside tried to get the title belts involved. The referee took the NXT Women’s Title from Jayne before she could hit Slamovich with it, but Jasmyn Nyx used the distraction to give Jayne the other belt that did strike the TNA Knockouts Champion. Slamovich kicked out to a strong reaction from the crowd, as Jayne did her best shocked face that must be taught at the Performance Center at this point.

© TNA Wrestling 

Fatal Influence were chased out by TNA talents Xia Brookside and Lei Ying Lee (including a very funny moment where they looked to depart through the crowd but could not open up the barriers on the outside in order to do so). Back in the ring, Jayne aimed a kick at Slamovich which accidentally hit the referee, putting her out. Slamovich hit a Snow Plow on Jayne and went for a pin, but there was no referee. Another referee eventually slid in and counted to two. The pair then traded roll ups, with the kick out on one of them by Jayne sending Slamovich into the middle turnbuckle. This momentarily stunned Masha, who turned around into Jayne’s rolling encore finisher and defeat.

They made sure to give Slamovich the visual pin in this closing sequence, but it still didn’t feel as though the win was completely unearned by Jacy Jayne. The two belts were awarded to the NXT wrestler by TNA President Carlos Silva, who seems very much intent on making himself a screen presence for the company as well as a media presence. The commentator shouted “Oh my god!” at another one of their belts falling into NXT hands, but I am not sure the crowd felt anywhere close to the same level of emotion about it.

After a pretty drab stretch of matches, the next bout certainly picked things up. It is hard for me to think of Leon Slater being only 20 years old at this point, it feels like he came through ages ago in West Yorkshire, but Slater really is just 20 years and 9 months old. The Bradford man was looking to eclipse the record set by the Amazing Red of the youngest X Division Champion against Moose, who would become the longest holder of the title in its history with a win here.

Both had decent looking entrances, Slater emerging in an alien fashion whilst also wearing Jeff Hardy style body paint, whilst Moose was well lit in his throne, and the crowd enjoyed joining in with the “Moose!” chant timed out by his music.

What followed was easily the best match of the show, that played on the themes of youth versus experience and power versus speed. Moose went after Slater straight away but came undone twice on the outside by the pace of Slater: firstly with Slater avoiding the rampaging champion who then careened into the stairs shoulder first, and secondly in getting caught by a headscissors to the outside that left the champion vulnerable to a flipping leg drop over the top turnbuckle.

Slater’s impressive offense and timing of his comebacks meant he captured the crowd before the finish sequences and kept them behind him during Moose’s periods of control. The closing part of the match saw Slater hit Moose with Utopia (jack blue thunder bomb) before climbing the turnbuckle for his swanton 450. He hit it and the crowd rose, only for Moose to kick out at 2.9, which the crowd heavily booed. They had them at this point, and the first kick out of Slater’s finisher in TNA was not wasted as they brought it back cleverly at the end. Slater thought he had Moose set for a second attempt, only to see the champion roll to the centre of the ring. He adapted quickly, though, hitting a great looking swanton bomb (whilst, again, in his Jeff Hardy paint) that left Moose in position for another 450 attempt. The commentator screamed, “Come on kid!”, in a very Michael Cole-like fashion as Slater went for his finisher for a second time. This one hit and got him the three.

© TNA Wrestling 

Slater launched himself into the arms of his family at ringside who had travelled over from the UK for the moment, as the camera panned to a long shot of the crowd celebrating. Carlos Silva came into the ring to steal some more screen, but Moose took the belt from him and wrapped it around Slater himself as the crowd applauded. Slater was left alone in the ring for just a moment before a theme not heard in just under a decade touched the speakers.

AJ Styles emerged on the stage to the crowd singing along to the “You, you are, I am, I am” in something that felt like a real throwback. Styles was easily the most over man on the entire show, and used his time in front of the crowd to talk about his role in the history of the promotion but also to talk up where the company is now. He fully avoided any demands for “One More Match!”, focusing on endorsing Slater as the future of TNA. It felt like they got everything right with this one, and in Slater they have someone to build around who is not in danger of leaving at the end of the year.

The ladder match for the TNA Tag Championships had received the loudest responses from the crowd every time the card was run down earlier on in the show. Whilst everyone loves a gimmick match these days, it was likely also a result of how hard the Hardys had worked locally in order to promote the show. This match, unsurprisingly, was built around them as well, as they set out to take out the other three teams and regain the TNA Tag Titles.

There was a late substitution in this match as MLW’s Myron Reed stepped in for Trey Miguel as part of the Rascalz team, and they had the early big moment, riding a ladder down onto AJ Francis of First Class. Francis was up literally seconds after, though, and had his own big spot when he hit a moonsault off of a ladder onto everyone else in the match. Jeff Hardy was not going to be the man to miss out on the fun, hitting swanton bombs from separate corner posts onto the Rascalz, who were laid out on ladders lodged between the ring apron and the crowd barriers.

Hardy managed to get hold of the ladder that allows production staff to climb to the rig above the ring. This was not a rope affair, and was tricky to navigate as both Jeff and Ryan Nemeth attempted to climb it at different points. Nemeth was knocked off by a chair to the back from Matt Hardy before the veteran team finally got their revenge on the Nemeths, giving them a dueling Twist of Fate whilst having chairs wrapped around their necks.

© TNA Wrestling 

The Hardys had successfully seen all other parties in the match taken out, giving Jeff the chance to gingerly climb the wire ladder. There was no gracious collecting of the belts on that thing, with him winning the match by simply knocking the first one he detached to the ring floor before somehow managing to keep a grasp on the second one.

Celebrations came with the hitting of Team 3D’s music and an appearance by Bully Ray, who challenged them to a final match between the veteran teams at “Bound For Glory” in October, eventually.

With that out of the way, it was time for the main event three way for the TNA World Championship. Hendry entered first, keeping himself a little less jolly than usual for the story whilst the crowd enjoyed their singalong, before local boy Mike Santana entered through the crowd with a rather enthusiastic hype man. Champion Trick Williams was accompanied by the Harlem Gospel Assemble as TNA looked to make this match as big as possible.

The match was a step down from the intro, though, with nothing really of note happening and the crowd becoming more disinterested as it progressed. Even Hendry’s signature turn was not met with the response he anticipated it would be.

Joe Hendry hit a Standing Ovation, only for Frankie Kazarian to stop the pin, before Santana hit a Spin the Block on Hendry that also looked to have the match won, only for Trick Williams to throw him out of the ring and steal the pin. The big moment at the top of TNA’s self proclaimed biggest North American show was lost, and the energy the crowd had for most of the night dissipated further.

Perhaps TNA will have Mike Santana win the belt from Williams (if WWE agrees to it) at “Bound For Glory” and it will do strong business and a great reaction. Perhaps they thought holding off on Joe Hendry to a second Nic Nemeth match worked perfectly last year, but at this moment, it felt like an opportunity lost rather than an opportunity gained.

Full Results

Mustafa Ali defeats Cedric Alexander (14:32)

Matt Cardona & The System (Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards & JDC) defeat DarkState (Cutler James, Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin & Saquon Shugars) (6:43)

Indi Hartwell defeats Tessa Blanchard (15:22)

TNA Knockouts World Title / WWE NXT Women’s Title Winner Takes:
Jacy Jayne (c) [NXT] defeats Masha Slamovich (c) [TNA] (12:40)

TNA X-Division Title:
Leon Slater defeats Moose (c) (15:43)

TNA World Tag Team Title Four Way Ladder Match:
The Hardys (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy) defeat The Nemeths (Nic Nemeth & Ryan Nemeth) (c) and First Class (AJ Francis & KC Navarro) and The Rascalz (Myron Reed & Zachary Wentz) (16:45)

TNA World Title:
Trick Williams (c) defeats Joe Hendry and Mike Santana (13:15)

© TNA Wrestling 

TNA News

TNA Wrestling President Carlos Silva has once again spoken about the possibility of the brand landing an improved TV deal that will allow them to run at a profit, be in more homes and offer them to run more live TV shows. Talking to Denise Salcedo, Silva stated that they are still in talks in regards to a deal and that they hope to have something to announce by the autumn.

Current WWE partners CW, A&E and Peacock have all been rumoured as interested parties and would all be a step up from their current airings on AXS TV. Whilst the WWE relationship is likely helping to open these doors, it also sees them competing with new WWE property AAA in the marketplace.

Moose suffered what TNA’s “Injury Report” has described as a ‘hip contusion’ early on during his X Division Title match with Leon Slater at “Slammiversary”. He was able to work through the match after they cut several planned spots. The former X Division Champion took a short break after the PPV but is expected to work through it in the medium term.

Mara Sadè, formerly known as Jakarta Jackson in NXT, has signed a deal with TNA. Sadè was released by WWE in May but was seen as one of the most attractive names available from that set of releases.

Also officially signing on with TNA is
ZONE:IFY, who will act as a sponsor and streaming partner for the brand. The streamer produced the “Border Brawl” show back in June that featured a number of TNA talent.

Elijah (Jeff Sciullo, 37), underwent surgery to repair a torn triceps. That’s usually about eight months out.

© MLW

MLW

News

The pre-taped “Blood and Thunder” show will air on beIN Sports and MLW’s Youtube channel on August 9th. The headline match will be Matt Riddle’s defense of the MLW World Heavyweight Championship against Donovan Dijak. They will also screen Shotzi Blackheart’s in ring debut for the promotion against Ava Everett and three Opera Cup first round matchups – featuring Satoshi Kojima, Mistico and Bishop Dyer.

CMLL’s “Informa” made the announcement that Blue Panther will be part of MLW’s “Fightland” show in the Dallas metroplex area on September 13th. Okumura and CMLL’s Difunto have also been announced for the show.

© dpw

US Independents

DPW
Tag Festival

13th July 2025
Durham Convention Center, North Carolina, USA
Watch On: DPW On Demand

On 13th July, DPW hosted a one day tag team tournament called “Tag Festival”. It was the 3rd iteration of the tournament, with the winners Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) receiving the DPW Tag Team Festival Trophy as well as the DPW World Tag Team Championships that were held by Grizzled Young Vets (James Drake & Zack Gibson).

The defending champions kicked off the tournament against Davey Bang & August Matthews. The underdogs came out of the gate quickly with a series of acrobatic moves, including a standing and springboard moonsault combination. The champions quickly regained control of proceedings, taunting Matthews by telling him that he didn’t matter, that GYV were the ones on the posters and advertisement for the tournament. The result of this match was never in doubt, but Bang and Matthews did their best to put on a show in a solid opener.

Miracle Generation took on Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) which was preceded by a Linkin Park ‘In The End’ promo package, which can never miss. Violence is Forever last wrestled in DPW in April as part of their “Spirit Rising” shows. A turnbuckle brainbuster from Ku to Waller and a musclebuster from Garrini to King signalled the end for Miracle Generation, until King rolled up Ku for the upset win. Some people in the crowd were in shock. I personally wanted to see Violence is Forever take on The WorkHorsemen once again, in a rematch of one of my favourite DPW matches ever. They showed a backstage segment with Violence is Forever putting over Miracle Generation, which felt like it was signalling that a heel turn was coming…or they’re just great, humble guys!

The makeshift team of Jake Something and The Beast Mortos took on Adam Priest and Trevor Lee, in a preview of the DPW World Championship match on 10th August between Jake and Priest. Lee taunted Mortos with a red towel which made him angry. That would not be a smart plan for Lee, who ended up getting pinned cleanly by Jake.

© dpw

In one of the most anticipated first round matchups, The Cowboy Way (1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire) clashed with The WorkHorsemen, making their first DPW appearances since February 2024. It was also their first time tagging together in over a year, and what a return for them it was. This was a no-frills hard hitting contest, as WorkHorsemen put away The Cowboy Way in just over 10 minutes. If they work DPW regularly they are adding some very welcome firepower to future shows.

The main event was a four-way elimination tag team match between GYV, Miracle Generation, WorkHorseMen and Jake & Mortos. Jake & Mortos were predictably eliminated when Priest & Lee came out to distract Jake. After an entertaining chop battle, King managed to land a German suplex on big man JD Drake. The fight spilled to outside the ring where JD Drake rebounded King off of the bottom ropes for a deadly lariat. WorkHorsemen isolated Waller, setting them up for the win, but there was a blind tag earlier so GYV were the legal team and rolled up WorkHorsemen. This seemed to deflate the crowd, although they quickly accepted the new reality and got behind Miracle Generation. GYV were genuinely hated heels so the dynamic with the underdog babyfaces worked, especially after WorkHorsemen did a number on them. After kicking out of Total Elimination, King pinned James Drake to win the tournament, trophy and titles.

© dpw

New TNA signee Jada Stone took on AEW’s Queen Aminata in a “Battle of the Best” tournament, with the winner guaranteed a shot at the DPW Women’s World Championship, currently held by Nicole Matthews. This show was the day after “All In” where Aminata was in the Women’s Casino Gauntlet, and if you watched Aminata’s vlog, you’d know that she was doing this match on barely any sleep, for the love of the game. DPW was made for Aminata, where she can wrestle as hard as she wants to. Both looked great, but Aminata looked like a star. She’s still improving too, as she has made her thigh slaps a lot less noticeable, making you really believe she’s pelting her opponent. Aminata pinned Jada to advance to the next round.

LaBron Kozone successfully defended his DPW National Title against Cedric Alexander. There was a great near fall towards the end when Cedric hit a Lumbar Check on Kozone, but Kozone battled back to win after landing two Ball Game lariats. At some points early in the match it was clear there were some miscommunications, but overall, it was a good match.

Full Results

DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round:
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) (c) defeat Bang And Matthews (August Matthews & Davey Bang) (11:20)

DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round:
Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) defeat Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku) (13:12)

DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round:
Jake Something & The Beast Mortos defeat Adam Priest & Trevor Lee (10:55)

DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round:
The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) defeat Cowboy Way (1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire) (10:43)

Battle Of The Best 2025 First Round:
Queen Aminata defeats Jada Stone (7:57)

DPW National Title:
LaBron Kozone (c) defeats Cedric Alexander (18:27)

DPW World Tag Team Title DPW Tag Festival 2025 Final:
Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) defeat Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) (c) and Jake Something & The Beast Mortos and The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) (20:51)

© dpw

DPW News & Upcoming Shows

DPW Women’s World Champion Nicole Matthews has been making headlines after her outspoken tweet about WWE, following their decision to bring back Brock Lesnar after being named in a sex trafficking lawsuit that is currently ongoing. Matthews said:

On 3rd August, Colby Corino announced that he had to have emergency surgery on his neck and back. He currently has a Gofundme. We wish him the best in his recovery.

DPW will be running a show in Cary, North Carolina on 8th August called “Showdown in Cary”, continuing the women’s tournament, Battle of the Best. Also, former ROH wrestler Erick Stevens returns to the independent scene after a 3 year absence. The card as of writing is:

DPW are in Jersey on 10th August for “Beast Coast” for one of their biggest shows of the year, bringing in talent from Japan to round off the first stage of Battle of the Best. A street fight between Colby Corino and Mad Dog Connelly has been cancelled following Corino’s announced absence. If Miracle Generation lose to MxM Collection, then the tag team match will be a #1 Contenders match. The card as of writing is:

© Verb Abrams

DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling/West Coast Pro Wrestling/Prestige Wrestling
Cruel Summer

26th July 2025
United Irish Cultural Center, San Francisco, USA
Watch On: Prestige Wrestling’s YouTube (free!) / DPW On Demand

DPW, West Coast Pro and Prestige teamed up again on 26th July, following their “UNIT3D” show on 1st June. In a night of several title matches and wrestlers returning from tour in Japan, the action was up and down, with some great highlights, in particular the West Coast Pro Tag Team Title match, the Prestige Title match (before the interference) and, my match of the night, the women’s tag match. Overall, it was a solid show that showcased the talents it needed to.

The Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander) reunited to take on The Cowboy Way for the West Coast Pro Tag Team Titles. I cannot say enough good things about Titus in Japan; he was phenomenal. He has wrestled there several times before so it wasn’t a surprise, but he was extremely over with the Japanese fans, especially at the Shinjuku FACE venue when he was wrestling in NOAH. He also had multiple great matches in Marvelous, such as with Dragongate’s Yosuke Santa Maria. If Titus isn’t wrestling on national TV within 5 years, then something apocalyptic has happened. In this match, Titus was sporting the red and white colours of Marvelous and its owner Chigusa Nagayo, one of the Crush Gals that helped boom Japanese women’s wrestling in the 80s.

© Verb Abrams

Titus’ reception was no different in San Fran, as the Crush Boys were the most over act on the show. The Cowboys knew the assignment and worked over the Crush Boys gleefully to build up heat. After eating a stiff chop from Manders, Charlie pulled down his straps to a raucous crowd reaction. Shire stacked up the Crush Boys for a crazy double UFO. Charlie dodged Manders’ lariat and scoop slammed Shire out of the ring to a huge reaction. Titus launched himself onto Shire on the outside with a blistering tope con giro, leaving Charlie in the ring to finish off Manders with the Shooting Star Press to become the new West Coast Pro Tag Team Champions. Great match.

Johnnie Robbie returned from an excellent tour in Japan, where she was a standout along with Titus Alexander. Robbie fit like a glove in Marvelous including an excellent West Coast Pro Women’s World Title defence against super rookie Senka Akatsuki. She teamed up with former DPW Women’s World Champion Dani Luna to take on former TNA Knockouts World Champion and former West Coast Pro Women’s World Champion Masha Slamovich and current DPW Women’s World Champion Nicole Matthews. Matthews recently beat Luna for the title at DPW’s “Victory Lap” show on 15th June. Honestly this match was just excellent. All four are great, they didn’t let up and hit each other hard. It’s exactly the type of action I’m looking for in an all-star women’s party match. I’ve seen Luna hit the over the top rope German suplex on Matthews three times in the last three of their matches, and it still makes me recoil with how Matthews bumps right on the top of her neck. And it’s awesome. And so was this match, which was my match of the night.

© Verb Abrams

Judas Icarus and Leon Slater had a great match for the Prestige Title. Near the start of the match, Icarus took an insane bump from a slingshot into a cutter from Leon. That was probably the coolest spot on the show aside from Luna’s German suplex on Matthews. The match was heating up into an excellent one before Jordan Cruz caused a “No Contest”.

The opener was a gauntlet match to determine the next contender for Bret the Threat’s West Coast Pro Golden Gate Title. Ryan Clancy returned to West Coast Pro following his tour with Marvelous in Japan. Clancy managed to get over well with the Japanese crowd and had a couple of great performances both in NOAH and Marvelous. Clancy eliminated Orion with the World’s Fanciest Dropkick, before being eliminated by the eventual winner, Alpha Zo. Zo was beaten up by Jordan Cruz after he pinned him, but Zo put on a determined underdog performance before finally eliminating Adrian Quest with a half-nelson driver to win the gauntlet.

In other matches I don’t have many notes on, LaBron Kozone successfully defended his DPW National Title against Travis Williams. Kozone continues to be one of the best wrestlers on the independent scene. I love his striking, but the match was just there. Mad Dog Connelly beat Vinnie Massaro in a No DQ match, strangling him with a dog collar. Kevin Blackwood defeated Cedric Alexander to retain his West Coast Pro Heavyweight Title in a Best Two out of Three Falls match. Yes, this match is in my “other matches” section. It happened. Cedric has good but forgettable matches, this was one of those.

West Coast Pro’s next show, named “God Called In Sick Today” will take place on 5th September. The card as of writing will be Kevin Blackwood defending his world title against former WWE wrestler Karl Fredericks, DPW World Champion Adam Priest facing Danny Orion and Johnnie Robbie defending her world title against Miko Alana.

Full Results

Gauntlet:
Alpha Zo defeats Adrian Quest and Danny Orion and Jordan Cruz and Manny Lo and Ryan Clancy

DPW National Title Match:
LaBron Kozone (c) defeats Travis Williams

Dani Luna & Johnnie Robbie defeat Masha Slamovich & Nicole Matthews

No Disqualification:
Mad Dog Connelly defeats Vinnie Massaro

Prestige Title:
Leon Slater defeats Judas Icarus (c) by DQ

West Coast Pro Tag Team Title:
The Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander) defeat Cowboy Way (1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire) (c)

West Coast Pro Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls:
Kevin Blackwood (c) defeats Cedric Alexander [2:1]

© Shore Shots

US Independent News

Pro Wrestling Revolution (PWR) have announced further talent for their San Jose show on 11th October. They have announced CMLL’s Templario, Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero and Blue Panther. PWR have also announced a new official sponsor, Sonestra Select. PWR will be performing during J Resort’s “Tacos & Tequila” event on 16th August in Reno, Nevada.

Prestige Wrestling’s next show will be “Shark Ethic” on 24th August. The show will be headlined by Titus Alexander going after the Prestige Championship, held by Judas Icarus. Titus Alexander returned to the independent scene on 26th July following an extended tour with Marvelous in Japan. Also on the show will be Midnight Heat versus Miracle Generation, Carter BlaQ versus Travis Williams, Kevin Blackwood versus Cody Chhun, Jordan Cruz versus Matt Brannigan, Haley Dylan versus Liiza Hall, DREXEL versus Cole Rivera, and an appearance from DPW Women’s World Champion Nicole Matthews.

GCW wrapped up their tour in Japan with a series of shows in famous venues such as Shinjuku FACE, TOKYOSQUARE and Korakuen Hall. One of the standout matches was 1 Called Manders versus DDT’s KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi in a hard hitting battle on 28th July. Higuchi was a last minute replacement after Masha Slamovich & Microman had travel issues. Another standout match was Chris Brookes versus Drew Parker in Korakuen Hall. Following the tour in Japan, GCW held four shows over 2 days in Rutherford, New Jersey, where The Hardy Boys made an appearance at “Hit ‘Em Up” on 1st August promoting their match with the Dudley Boyz at TNA “Bound for Glory”. WWE continued their close association with GCW as they held an “ID Showcase” on 1st August, where Kylie Rae and Cappuccino Jones became the new ID champions. GCW also had multiple WWE wrestlers on “Bloodsport XIV” on 2nd August, with Nattie Neidhart beating Masha Slamovich in the main event. Other highlights on “Bloodsport” include Charlie Dempsey versus Dominic Garrini and Pete Dunne versus Jonathan Gresham. GCW’s next set of shows are “Homecoming Weekend” on 23rd August and 24th August in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

JCW’s “High Noon” show on 3rd August featured 10 matches as Charles Mason become the new JCW Title #1 Contender, Masha Slamovich and Matt Tremont defended their JCW Title and GCW Ultraviolent Titles respectively, and 1 Called Manders defeated his Cowboy Way partner, Thomas Shire, in a great match for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Title. 

© House of Glory

House of Glory (HoG) hosted the “High Intensity” show on 1st August. WWE’s Carlito was in action against Charles Mason in a HOG Heavyweight Title match in a losing effort. AEW’s Ricochet defeated Amazing Red, Indi Hartwell defended her HOG Women’s Title against Priscilla Kelly and in the main event, Bully Ray beat Zilla Fatu to win the HOG Crown Jewel Title in a controversial decision, with assistance from Ricochet. Bully Ray has said he is providing the title with the “most exposure [it] has ever seen.”

Limitless Wrestling, based out of Maine, has an upcoming show on 9th August. The “Vacationland Cup 2025” kicks off with Alex Price versus Aaron Rourke, B3CCA versus Gabby Forza and Anthony Greene versus Conan Lycan in the first round. Also on the show, Channing Thomas will defend his world title against Dezmond Cole and the Hardys take on WWE Evolve’s Swipe Right (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes).

The Wrestling Revolver (WR) hosts the “Jerry Lynn Invitational” in Dayton Ohio on 9th August which will include names such as Alan Angels, Jimmy Jacobs, Rich Swann, Gringo Loco, Ninja Mack and Ace Austin. It will be streamed live on TrillerTV+. WR has also announced some talent for its “Clean Slate” show on 6th September, including Mr. Anderson, Leon Slater and Man Like DeReiss.

New Texas Pro Wrestling’s “Indie Showcase 5” was held on 27th July and is available for streaming on independentwrestling.tv. Vert Vixen defended her women’s title against Lena Kross, before heading to New Jersey to try out for WWE on Summerslam weekend. Carter Blanq successfully defended his New Texas Pro Title against Danny Orion. Their next show is on 31st August in July with announced talent, as of writing, such as 1 Called Manders, Judas Icarus, Adam Priest, Brick Savage, Izzy James, Maya World, Danny Orion and Dimitri Alexandrov.

© Action! Wrestling

Absolute Intense Wrestling’s (AIW) “Absolution XVIII” show on 18th July saw Isaiah Broner become the new AIW Intense Champion and Chuck Stone crowned the new AIW Absolute Champion, beating Eric Taylor. Their next show will be on 16th August in North Canton, Ohio, involving hometown hero Dominic Garrini. “WrestleRager 9” will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, on 23rd August.

BriiCombination Wrestling (BCW) held their annual Queen of the North tournament on 31st July at Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, with Hannah Taylor, Sammi Chaos, Harleen Lopez advancing to the final three-way in which Harleen Lopez was crowned as the new Queen of the North. Also on the show were several title defences, in which all champions successfully retained. It is available to watch on Title Match Network. BCW’s next show is “Grand Rumble” on 21st September.

ACTION Wrestling have announced the first installment of their “DEAN” series, collaborating with ROH, which will take place on 6th September at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. They have already announced Demus versus Mad Dog Connelly in a Hair vs. Hair match which should be a standout match on the independent scene. The Gypsy Joe invitational will also take place.

Shotzi Blackheart continues her run on the independent scene as she will face Jordan Oliver at the eponymous “Hot Shotz” show in Crown Point, Indiana, on 9th August in Black Label Pro. Hot Commodity (Hayden Backlund & Trevor Outlaw) will defend their BLP Tag Team Titles against Post Game (Mike Walker & Vinny Talotta). Leyla Hirsch will face WWE ID Women’s Champion Kylie Rae.

AAW Wrestling’s next show is on 9th August named “Take No Prisoners” in Berwyn, Illinois. As of writing, Maggie Lee will defend her AAW Women’s Championship against Heather Reckless, Colt Cabana will take on Joe Alonzo, Stallion Rogers & Jake Something versus Russ Jones & Schaff, and Zeeko will take on Solomon Tupu. Also on the show, Hartenblow will take on Bruss Hamilton, and if Hartenblower wins, he will be allowed to get his hands on John E Bravo for 5 minutes in a storyline spanning 4 years.

© C4 Wrestling

Canada

Mystery Wrestling 17 “Evil Uno’s Birthday Bash”

20/07/2025
Centre Aydelu, Gatineau, QC, Canada
Watch On: Mystery Wrestling’s Patreon/Twitch/YouTube
Review by Alice V. Bell

Pro wrestling is full of disgusting, violent, and viscerally upsetting things, and yet as we learned in Mystery Wrestling 17, it all pales in comparison to the true horror of working retail. But first, a birthday celebration was crashed! “Definitely Alive” Jason Exile stunned in a four way dance! And GYV didn’t show hole on Twitch! Welcome to Mystery Wrestling.

On July 20th, Mystery Wrestling held their 17th show, “Evil Uno’s Birthday Bash”, at Centre Aydelu in Gatineau, QC. It opened with an in-ring celebration for Evil Uno’s birthday, with balloons, a piñata, party hats that crowd members would keep on for the rest of the show, and a saxophone. As the ring announcer led the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday”, James Stone and Stu Grayson walked in to raucous boos and kazoo noises (there were also birthday kazoos).

The story here is that after winning the Mystery Wrestling Championship at their last show, Stu Grayson and James Stone turned on Evil Uno and Mystery Wrestling, declaring that comedy wrestling was making a mockery of the sport, and that from now on they would work to ensure there would be “No Nonsense” going forward. (Editor’s Note: Death Riders, eat your hearts out.)

After methodically stomping on every balloon in the ring, James Stone grabbed a mic:

Grayson then challenged Evil Uno, his best friend and tag team partner of 20 years, to a match. Clearly Uno had lost sight of what they set out to do. Mystery Wrestling was meant to highlight the best of Canadian wrestling to the world so, “why are you using Mystery Wrestling to put on the dumbest most, worthless wrestling there is? Comedy wrestling? Comedy wrestling is not wrestling. Pro wrestling is wrestling. That’s it.” If a match against Stu Grayson couldn’t convince Evil Uno of that, nothing would.

Now, this was Evil Uno’s birthday bash and that was a lot of heavy stuff for a birthday, but he still took the time to lay out his view of comedy wrestling:

And also he was the booker so giving himself the main event on his birthday would be pretty selfish. But he knew some guys who did wanna wrestle. Cue a plaid-wearing guitarist bursting through the curtains, followed by Le Tabarnak De Trio, who brawled with No Nonsense in a brief preview of the main event.

The opening match was the traditional four way druids match, where every wrestler is hidden in a black cloak before being revealed in the ring. They generally also stand in the center of the ring for this, except for “Definitely Alive” Jason Exile. If you recall from the last show, he won a $5,000 Pick Your Poison match by drinking poison, collapsing, and being carried away by his friends. Now he’s back and was laying down leaning against the bottom rope so his shoulders weren’t touching the mat. A genius strategy from a man who is 100% alive and not dead. The other participants were Marcus Mathers, Ryan O’Neill, and Zak Patterson. Mathers got the win after pinning Patterson down for O’Neill’s swanton, only to turn on O’Neill with a cross-legged brainbuster. Exile was sadly too slow to break up the pin on account of not moving at all. Mathers celebrated his win as two refs carried Exile to the back.

Next was Kristara vs Kacey Diamond. The ring announcer let us know that it was that time of the month for Diamond and Kristara was lactose intolerant but drank some milk before the match. God gives his worst tummy aches to his strongest soldiers. Diamond tried to cheat with some hairspray but the ref stopped her, then deliberately turned away so Kristara could use it instead before pinning Diamond.

Speaking of refs, the next match was a Blindfolded Referee Iron Man Match with HADDY vs Cecil Nyx. Specifically, a 60-minute one fall to a finish Iron Man match where the referee has to be blindfolded. Guest commentator Chris Danger didn’t understand how this would work and Evil Uno didn’t either but they were both about to find out! The ring crew placed a large analog clock on a chair facing the hard cam with the incorrect time on it. Cecil corrected it. This will become relevant later.

As the match went on, the two men realized the ref couldn’t see them cheating. At one point HADDY brought out a chair and Evil Uno feared for his brand new Mystery Wrestling branded ring canvas. Eventually HADDY got so fed up at the ref not doing anything that he knocked him out. They brought out a new ref who walked very confidently and briskly to the ring only to promptly knock himself out against a ring post because he was also blindfolded.

Realizing no one could win when there wasn’t a ref and they still had over 50 minutes on the large analog clock, Cecil grabbed the clock and changed the time to one minute left, HADDY stole the ref’s watch, and they both carried the other ref to the back before laying down on the mat. The timer went off, and the ref removed his blindfold to declare a time limit draw. Teamwork is a beautiful thing.

Next up, Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Fresh Air after some action which included GYV’s James Drake getting his cheeks clapped while defending his tag team partner from the same fate, Junior Benito yanked crotch first into a ring post, and Macrae Martin being strangled by a scarf while the ref was distracted.

Then we went to intermission, where we were treated to a video telling us all about what London Lightning’s been up to since he lost a Loser Leaves Town match at the last Mystery Wrestling show. He’s now working at Rona (a Canadian hardware store) and he’s fork lift certified! The ladies love it! He’s doing great! Wrestling was nice and all but he’s fine without it. His eyes aren’t red rimmed from crying as he frantically tells the camera that everything really good for him right now. The ghosts of those from Mystery Wrestling are appearing to him at work, and his brother Storm Ryder is telling us that things are bad right now but this is where he’s meant to be!

After montages of London dutifully helping out customers, trying to shoot himself with the checkout scanner, and being found sobbing in piles of housing insulation – he gets fired, loses his jacket and vest, and wanders shirtless into an empty nighttime mall parking lot screaming to the skies why? Why is this happening to him? All in all, another typical day working retail! Good luck London Lightning.

(Editor’s Note: For legal reasons this editor cannot speak on the London Lightning interview lest she be arrested by Canadian Mounties at the behest of Cecil Nyx.)

We returned from intermission to Man Like DeReiss defeating Jordan Oliver, before moving on to a series of Power Creampie Slap Matches. What a series of words. And you got to read them. I’m so sorry. Anyway, one wrestler hits another with a cream pie, and wins if they knock their opponent out, if they don’t, their opponent gets to retaliate.

The first matchup was Joe Jobber vs Xander Orion. You really just need to watch a video of this because it did not go as planned in the funniest possible way. Joe took a swing with the pie, it flew out of his hand, straight into the crowd, and he froze in disbelieving horror as a fan held up their cream covered shirt while Evil Uno begged them not to sue. The second try was successful, and then Joe Jobber managed to win against Alvin Turner, before Dank The Clown creampied him to oblivion. What another series of words you got to read. You’re…welcome?

The main event for “Evil Uno’s Birthday Bash” was decided at the start of the show: James Stone, Krule & Mystery Wrestling Champion Stu Grayson against Le Tabarnak De Trio (Benjamin Tull, Mathieu St-Jacques & Thomas Dubois) in an indoor street fight. TDT brought their guitarist with them, and he dutifully shredded for the entirety of the match, as doors were broken and the audience scattered when wrestlers were thrown into chairs. Getting a bit too overconfident cost him as he climbed into the ring to shred some more, only for No Nonsense to confiscate his guitar and suplex him through a door. TDT tried to rally but it wasn’t enough, and for the second time a Mystery Wrestling show ended with the reigning champion’s heel stable standing tall in front of a dejected crowd.

The next Mystery Wrestling event will be a 24 hour charity livestreamed (unofficial) attempt at “THE WORLD’S LONGEST MATCH” on Monday August 11th at 11AM ET in collaboration with C4 Wrestling’s “Fighting Back”. It will be streamed on Evil Uno’s twitch and youtube channels.

After that, Mystery Wrestling is going on tour for the first time. “Mystery Wrestling 18” sold out in less than a day, and will be held at The Rec Room in Toronto on September 21st at 12PM EST.

Full Results

Marcus Mathers defeats Jason Exile and Ryan O’Neill and Zak Patterson

Kristara defeats Kacey Diamond

Blindfolded Referee Iron Man Match
Cecil Nyx vs. HADDY – Time Limit Draw

Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) defeat Fresh Air (Junior Benito & Macrae Martin)

Man Like DeReiss defeats Jordan Oliver

Power Creampie Slap Match:
Joe Jobber defeats Xander Orion

Power Creampie Slap Match:
Joe Jobber defeats Alvin Turner

Power Creampie Slap Match:
Dank The Clown defeats Joe Jobber

Six Man Tag Team Street Fight:James Stone, Krule & Stu Grayson defeat Le Tabarnak De Trio (Benjamin Tull, Mathieu St-Jacques & Thomas Dubois)

Canada News

SMASH Wrestling will also be running “All Out” weekend, with “Ante Up!” on September 20th in Toronto. The promotion will also run in London, Ontario, on September 27th.

Prior to that, SMASH will also run in Toronto on August 17th, with a debut for former WWE wrestler Carlito against Carter Mason. Psycho Mike will defend the SMASH World Title against Mark Wheeler. The SMASH Women’s World Title will also be up for grabs, with Leah Sparks challenging Jody Threat.

Alpha-1’s next show in Hamilton, Ontario, on September 14th will host the King of Hearts Tournament, with Trey Miguel and Alec Price already announced as entrants. BMD will defend the Alpha Male Championship in a dog collar match against Warhorse, who attacked the champion on the previous show. Alpha Tag Team Champions PME will also defend their titles in a three way match against Swipe Right and Rich Swann and Jake Christ.

Damian Abraham, who hosted the Vice TV show “The Wrestlers”, will act as the master of ceremonies for “Cannonbrawl: A night for Jeff Cannonball” on October 18th in Quebec. Cannonball was diagnosed with ALS a few months back and the show, promoted primarily by Interspecies Wrestling, will be used to raise money for him and his family.

Conor Claxton, Kennedi Hardcastle, Tyler Murphy and Marcus Mathers are the announced talents so far for the show.

Maple Leaf Pro have made their last major show, “Resurrection”, available in full (for free) on Youtube.

Check out these other articles from this week!

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G1 Diary- Nights 1-6

Night 1 of the G1 CLIMAX took place in Sapporo. Hokkaido has been the traditional opening spot for the tour for much of the past decade but was unavailable last year due to building renovations. With those completed, it was back to their standard start.

Hogan
1953-2025

Read Peter Edge’s phenomenal eulogy on Hulk Hogan.