For the first time in its nearly thirty-year history, CMLL’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas will be headlined by a title match.
Claudio Castagnoli’s high-profile reign as CMLL World Heavyweight Champion looks in real danger against Hechicero. Regardless of the outcome, that match is happening as the centerpiece of CMLL’s second biggest show of the year. There will be a hair match and a possible mask match on the show, as well as the retirement of a fifty-year legend, Satanico.
The matches on top of all of that are CMLL versus AEW title matches, and the predominance of those CMLL/AEW matches is one of the stories of CMLL this year. The Castagnoli/Hechicero and Death Riders/Sky Team title matches make this an easy show for an occasional CMLL watcher to jump in on, though they’re also the source of growing discontent among the more regular watchers.
CMLL’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas takes place on Friday night, starting at 10:30 pm US Eastern Time. (If you haven’t watched live in a few weeks and you’ve switched your clocks, that’s one hour later than usual.) The show will be available in Spanish on CMLL’s YouTube subscription plan, though only at the highest Fan Leyenda level. This show will never be made available for lower tiers. It’ll also be available in English on Triller for 10 USD, as is now normal for all big and medium-sized Friday nights. Selected matches for the show will air in Mexico on Televisa 9 on Saturday afternoon. (All of these are different announce teams; there will exist three different broadcasts of this same CMLL show.)
The super-positive vibes around CMLL last year have turned mixed early in 2026.
CMLL had a formula that had been working better than ever and decided to start messing with it for no obvious reason. A lot of what’s happening would’ve made sense for CMLL to try in 2018 and 2019, when business wasn’t doing great, and the promotion felt stale. It’s hard to understand why CMLL is making the moves it’s making, and it’s making little effort to explain or defend its decisions. Some of the changes are more obvious, if still unhappy: ticket prices have gone up across the board. The bare minimum get-in price for this show last year was 150 pesos. It has doubled to 300 pesos this year. Not all the prices have doubled, but the increases are across the board and have transformed CMLL shows from “a cheap fun night out” to “a fun night out.” Regulars seem to be cutting back on how often they come. People who ran profitable businesses selling ticket packages to the large tourist crowd attending the events have found that those businesses are much less profitable. (CMLL’s not killed their golden goose, but they seem to have wounded it.) In the ring, CMLL seems to be in a constant state of crossover. Friday night shows have been a non-stop run of outside wrestlers coming for the promotional/promotional match of the week. Sometimes the matches work, sometimes CMLL inexplicably hands over the keys to Maple Leaf Wrestling for a week, but it’s the volume that’s the issue. The outside names do help draw in new eyeballs, yet it’s been the rising stars and intra-promotional matches that have kept fans interested week to week in CMLL over the last few years. The occasional outside rivalry or the one guy who appears frequently can still work – it has worked with the main event here – but there is little novelty left in seeing a new USA-based wrestler come to Arena Mexico every week. AEW wrestlers are the ones who come to Mexico most often, and so that group is getting blamed for the oversaturation. It’s still CMLL who is booking all of this, and CMLL who’s overindulged in their US wrestling fandom.
These are not fatal flaws. CMLL is still producing plenty of good matches and enjoyable shows, but it’s not exactly what it’s been for the last few years. This too will be an enjoyable show, though it will miss the high-level mask match of previous years. And while the Johnny TVs of the world aren’t thrilling, at least CMLL isn’t going US crazy, centered on what the MLWs and Maple Leafs promotions have to offer. (At least this month.) There are still high-level and big star wrestlers coming in, especially in the main events of this show. It’s an added issue that the undercard matches, the CMLL vs CMLL ones, are average fare that’s not really generally capturing the diehard’s interest. This card, like too many Fridays, lacks that niche undercard treat. CMLL’s pivot towards an even more casual fan base means this card might appeal to those who have less invested in the promotion.
Dark Silueta, Lluvia, Valkiria, Zeuxis vs. La Catalina, La Jarochita, Persephone, Skadi
There’s no real point in thinking much about CMLL big-show openers. They all get seven minutes, and no reaction as people are still filling in, no matter what they do. The theme here is the team-up of Las Infernales, Satanico’s female students from his dates running the Arena Coliseo Guadalajara school. Their opponents are meant to be a team of rivals: Catalina & Persephone and Jarochita & Reyna Isis, only Isis isn’t going to make it back from an injury in time, and Skadi’s a late replacement. The setup inadvertently draws attention to the fact that there’s only been four female graduates to the CMLL main roster from Guadalajara in the last fifteen or so years – really, three and a half, because Valkiria can’t seem to earn a full-time spot. Maybe it’s better not to think too deeply about how good a job CMLL’s done at recruiting and training luchadoras. These women all try to cram in as much as possible in the little time they have, and Los Infernales will obviously win.
Último Guerrero vs. Rey Bucanero vs. Toscano vs. Averno vs. Mephisto vs. Euforia for Copa Infernal
Sort of the male version of the opener. That one was behind-the-scenes training, this is wrestlers who are mostly) on-screen students. Satanico teamed up with (then promising midcarders) Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero to revive the Los Infernales concept at the turn of the century. The big CMLL plan there was to give over young babyface Tarzan Boy as a new heartthrob by having Satanico and his boys beat him up repeatedly. It turned out that the Arena Mexico fans enjoyed seeing Tarzan Boy get beaten up, and they much preferred a legend of a thousand battles over the new kid being forced on them. CMLL pivoted, with Guerrero and Bucanero betraying Satanico and joining newly turned rudo Tarzan Boy. Satanico first teamed with random rudos to get revenge, then used his hellish demonic powers – 2001 was a different time – to transform mid-card rudo Rencor Latino into Averno and create a third partner in Mephisto. This was a milestone feud, fondly remembered decades later, and all those new names mentioned ended up among the top of CMLL in the years that followed. (Except for Mascara Magica, who lost his mask in that feud and doesn’t appear to be invited to this celebration) Euforia wasn’t part of all that, but came around later in the last version of Los Infernales that Satanico-led, and has hung around the concept ever since.
Tarzan Boy, now going by his real last name, Toscano, for copyright reasons, hasn’t been in CMLL since late 2011. His departure was a surprise but logical. He wasn’t pushed as hard, and CMLL business was slumping with the Mistico boom and the man himself gone. The problem with Toscano leaving is that he jumped to AAA to form “El Consejo”, an occasionally mean-spirited parody of CMLL, to do a psuedo-interpromotional feud. Joining AAA is usually enough for CMLL to decide a wrestler is unwelcome, and that particular angle seemed to make their resolve stronger. There have been plenty of times in the last few years when reuniting Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, and Toscano one more time would’ve been a meaningful attraction, yet CMLL seemed to have no interest in it. Toscano seemed to be blocked from even working independent shows with CMLL wrestlers, even as recently as a few months ago. The most reasonable explanation for what happens here is that Satanico specifically asked for Toscano to be back for his retirement show after a 15-year ban, and CMLL actually listened. There’s no bigger sign of respect by CMLL than lifting a ban.
It makes no difference who wins, though Ultimo Guerrero would probably get the best reaction. There is no one who is exactly like Satanico, because CMLL and wrestling have changed so much in the last fifty years, but he’s the guy today who does a lot of the same little things that made Satanico great. Both Guerrero and Satanico spent most of their runs on top as rudos, but they have a bit of Ricky Steamboat babyface mentality in them when the situation calls for it. An opponent may dominate the match for a long stretch, but they never give up fighting, and they never stop pulling the crowd to their side. All these wrestlers have taken a bit from Satanico, though Guerrero the most.
Satánico vs. Blue Panther vs. Atlantis in Satanico’s final match
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas annually honors CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth and an ever-changing second figure. Satanico is this year’s honoree. He’s a rare active wrestler to be honored, though only barely: this will be Satanico’s retirement match. And, oddly, it’ll be a three-way match. CMLL’s programming department fell in love with three and four-way matches in the last year, one more symptom of their growing infatuation with US-style wrestling. The wrestlers themselves do not appear as excited for these style matches. They don’t really know how to make them work, so everyone ends up working together against one another until they turn on each other. (Also, lots of pinfall breakups in elimination matches, an illogical favorite.) It was not a happy moment when CMLL announced they were burning off Satanico’s final match in yet another three-way. Especially when one of those men is the barely mobile Atlantis.
I do get what they’re going for here. Satanico and Atlantis are both students of legendary Mexican wrestling trainer Diablo Velasco, who pushed the idea that wrestling students need to practice years and years of amateur wrestling before they even step between the ropes, to better understand what a real fight should feel like. Satanico’s a legendary rulebreaker – a lot of famous “Eddie Guerrero cheating” spots are stuff Guerrero adapted from Satanico and others for an audience who never saw Satanico – but he and Atlantis were drilled on the importance of pure technical wrestling. Satanico likes to tell a story about the last time he saw Velasco. (The CMLL podcast with Satanico has a version of this.) He and Atlantis decided to check on him when they were back in Guadalajara for a title match. They wanted their old trainer to come see it, but he no longer went to shows, didn’t like what wrestling had become, and didn’t want people to see that he now mostly needed his wheelchair to get around. Satanico and Atlantis tried to get Velasco to change his mind. He finally broke down and agreed, on one condition: their title match must be completely technical, hold-for-hold, with not a single punch thrown. Atlantis and Satanico kept their promise, delivered a pure technical match, and received a great ovation from the fans when Satanico won. Velasco was so moved by the performance that he had people help him into the ring, so he could huddle with Satanico and Atlantis and praise them for respecting lucha libre and his teachings. Velasco was both a wrestling teacher and a surrogate father to Satanico; his biological father wasn’t part of the picture. Velasco turned a very undisciplined young man – someone who’d spend all day in the movie theatre watching Santo and James Bond movies – into a professional wrestler with emphasis on professional. Satanico felt he owed everything he had to Velasco, and Velasco’s praise meant everything to him.
I think this match exists because Satanico would like to honor his mentor one last time by giving him one more match he’d appreciate. You can’t really do that with a normal 3v3 match. It’d just be Atlantis and Satanico one more time in an ideal world, but everyone knows Atlantis can’t really do that in 2026. Blue Panther came up with a different mentor, but looks at wrestling in a similar fashion. The idea is that perhaps all three of them can put together something like the match they wish they could have. I don’t know that they can do it without someone younger helping lead the way, but it’s got to be older wrestlers to honor that link to Velasco. I’m not sure how the crowd will receive it; Satanico’s peak happened before many CMLL fans were born. I do believe this is a weird setup that gives Satanico a chance to go out the way he wants to.
Marcela vs .La Magnifica vs. Princesa Sugehit in a Hair match
(One woman will lose their hair.)
CMLL has had a lot of luck putting together random groups of wrestlers as teams over the last few years. Las Artemias – Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, and Magnifica – didn’t work out that way. The idea was that a women’s trio would be a novelty, but the women would need good matches for that work. Marcela and Princesa Sugehit are now years past the point where they can be expected to have even occasionally good matches. Magnifica may have never reached that level, and isn’t there now. The fan support for CMLL women’s wrestlers has long moved on to others, so there was little forgiveness for the match’s quality. They also tried to do a lot of triple team spots to sell the idea of a trio, but those spots tended to come off as heel cheating. Las Artemias was such an immediate and obvious flop of an idea that it almost seems that it existed to fail and set up this three-way feud, if not for how hard the announcers (including the one on the creative team) were trying to sell this group as a great new concept. CMLL deserves a little bit of credit for finally giving up and trying something else, and a bigger demerit for leaving this as a major show apuesta match. It’s the women’s version of Rey Bucanero versus Felino hair match for Aniversario: they’re going to try like hell to make it work, it’s still probably not going to happen, the fans are probably going to reject it, it’s not going to sell an extra ticket, and it would’ve been easier just to put a random all star match in this spot instead.
Everything points to La Magnifica losing her hair. Marcela and Princesa Sugehit are multiple-time champions. Magnifica never made it onto big shows, and rarely onto medium shows, before this current push. All her interviews leading up to this hair match acknowledge that she’s not really on the same level as the other two women. This is not a springboard to bigger things; there’s little chance CMLL is doing much with Magnifica after this feud ends. Magnifica won the big lead-up match last Friday and then won one final match between the three this past Tuesday, which is normal CMLL booking patterns for someone who’s about to take the big loss. And yet, CMLL’s made a point of not having the most obvious person lose their hair or mask in these multi-way apuesta matches in the last few years. They’re pointing the finger at Magnifica losing so hard that I’m starting to suspect there’s a double fakeout here and something else is happening. If you find yourself in a gambling establishment that allows you to wager on CMLL women’s matches, stay far away from this one.
Hombre Bala Jr. vs. Max Star vs. Calavera Jr. I vs. Calavera Jr. II vs. Virus vs Cancerbero vs. Pólvora vs. El Coyote in a mask/hair match
(Seven people have their masks on the line. Virus hasn’t lost his mullet since he was unmasked over 30 years ago, so it’s not too much of a stretch to equate it in value. Only one person will lose their mask or hair.)
Closing in 2025, CMLL ran an eight-team feud to set up a cage match on New Year’s Day. A cage match with lots of people in it to start the new year is a CMLL tradition. Typically, everyone involved immediately stops feuding once the cage match is over. This year, three of those teams (and a fourth that wasn’t involved) oddly continued the feud the last few months, setting up another multiperson apuesta match here. CMLL has built it as a tag team feud, like the January one, but the final match is still everyone for themselves. The build-up to these matches is always OK and never really that exciting. This one has been no great shakes; these guys were all over for a month setting up the match, then disappeared for weeks as soon as the match was announced. It’s also just hard to make the build to an eight-way match all that exciting.
That cage match did overdeliver, especially the final two segments. It’s possible they’ll pull that off here again. The rules are similar to the cage match, where the last two left in the match battle for the hair and mask. Unlike the women’s match, there is no obvious loser here. Cancerbero, Hombre Bala Jr., Polvora, and Coyote are all prelim wrestlers of the type that take the loss in this match. I’m thinking it’ll be Cancerbero, but there’s nothing much separating them.
Daniel García, Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta vs. Máscara Dorada, Místico, Neón © for the CMLL World Trios championship
This one’s coming in cold. The Death Riders sent in a challenge a couple of weeks ago, and the Sky Team accepted. That’s about it. Daniel Garcia was hanging around CMLL for a couple of weeks in February, but there wasn’t anything really built in that direction. If there’s any purpose here, it’s to be an echo of the H2L main event of two years ago, where the Death Riders made their first appearance in Arena Mexico as part of the then-new CMLL/AEW alliance.
Mistico’s AEW contract is one of the twists in that relationship. It’s vindication for Mistico, who’s frequently talked about wanting another chance to prove he could make it in the US, to prove his disastrous WWE run wasn’t the only possible outcome. He’s still more a special attraction than a regular on AEW, and I don’t expect that to change greatly under this deal, but he worked his way back to a contract and all the way to a championship. AEW’s figured out how to use Mistico well: carefully, and almost always on the winning side. I don’t think CMLL will handle it any differently on this show, with the Sky Team soaring to another title defense.
Claudio Castagnoli © vs. Hechicero for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
There’s an easy story here. Castagnoli beat Hechicero back in December 2024, a disappointing end to a disappointing AEW/CMLL show. Castagnoli won the heavyweight championship and has defeated every heavyweight CMLL has thrown at him. Hechicero appears to be the last guy in line, aiming to win the title back for his home promotion and to redeem his loss fifteen months ago. It’s a good redemption arc, and it should be a great match to boot. The AEW/CMLL nailed the landing on the Mercedes Mone title arc, they gave an unexpectedly strong result to Johnny Consejo’s Mexico City adventure, and the Castagnoli championship era seems designed to end just as well.
This match is great if you’re just diving in. If you’re watching week to week, it doesn’t quite hold up as well. The biggest blow was the decision to have Rodrick Strong beat Hechicero in Arena Mexico in a #1 contender’s match. That was a bit of a faith-breaking match, sending a signal that Hechicero’s role was now to lose in the big matches, and that he was being taken off the table for someone else to be this title’s rescue. Instead, Hechicero ended up being the challenger with nothing more than a promo to set it up in CMLL. AEW seems like they figured out this was coming in the last few weeks and started setting up tag matches in that direction. CMLL fans aren’t locked in on AEW. Those who mostly see Hechicero as a guy who has good matches and loses fairly often, not a guy to be revved up about getting a heavyweight title match. One of CMLL’s tropes is to heat up title matches out of nowhere, but this is a four-month story that could’ve used much better direction in recent weeks.
The other issue is that the story of Claudio Castagnoli as CMLL Heavyweight Champion has been too good, and a big chunk of the fanbase would like to keep it going much longer. This will be Castagnoli’s fifth defense in a CMLL ring in four months. This will be Claudio’s seventh defense in total, which would match the number of defenses the previous champion, Gran Guerrero, had in his three-year title reign. No one’s defended a CMLL title like this on Friday nights as a regular event until now. CMLL’s never booked championships that way. Every other promotion in the world does book championships that way. Younger CMLL fans are thrilled to see the heavyweight title booked the “right” way, as they’ve seen elsewhere. CMLL could keep booking defenses as frequently and high profile with Hechicero as champion – everyone would be ok with that! – but those fans believe the title will return to one defense every six months on a b-show the moment Claudio loses it. This run is great, and there’s great angst about what will happen when it’s over. CMLL’s announcement that they’ve signed Claudio Castagnoli to a contract gives those fans some hope that this title run will last a little longer. I personally believe that the Castagnoli contract is exactly as real and meaningful as Konosuke Takeshita’s NJPW one: it exists on paper, he’s going to be brought back from time to time, but the real purpose is optics, to assure fans that talent is just headed in one direction. I think Hechicero’s win on Friday will thrill fans in the arena, but Mexican wrestling fans online might not be quite as pleased.
This all reads probably too downcast than it’s meant to be. The top matches will surely deliver, and the mask (or one hair) match will probably be pretty good. Homenaje a Dos Leyendas should be well worth watching, especially if you’re not doing so with the baggage of a regular CMLL viewer. Everyone’s promotion has its ups and downs, the vibes never stay perfect, and CMLL’s not so far off from where it was six months ago. It’s a turnaround: a group famous for not doing much and for being isolationist has gone so far in the other direction, but it means they’re capable of reversing course if they realize they’ve gone too far in the wrong direction. We won’t learn here if CMLL’s ready to dial back a little bit on the outsiders; they’ve got to finish off a few things, but perhaps the fanbase’s noise might convince them to take a few steps back after this one.
