Consejo Mundial De Lucha Libre
93rd Aniversario
Arena Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
One of the greatest business years in CMLL’s history culminates with their 93rd Aniversario show this Friday night. It’s been nearly as dispiriting a creative year, with the promotion trading in its identity to ape US promotions. The card reflects the changes: an oversized lineup focused on squeezing in as many outside names as possible. The annual big apuesta match should turn out well, but it’s an unanswerable question how much space the rest of the show will get to be great.
CMLL’s Aniversario show takes place on Friday night at an earlier-than-usual start time of 8 pm local. (That’s 10 pm ET, for a few weeks longer.) You can watch it as part of CMLL’s YouTube subscription, but only at the Fan Leyenda (35 USD) tier, which also gives you a full month of all shows on the service. The show also airs on myAEW for 25 USD, for those outside of Mexico. The myAEW stream will be in English; the CMLL YouTube stream will be in Spanish.
CMLL’s 2026 has seen it caught between wanting to be a dumbed-down version of lucha libre to appeal to tourist fans and also something akin to AEW Mexico. Neither is what I wanted from CMLL, and they don’t work well together.
The promotion got hot because a bunch of new stars joined Mistico at the top. Those new stars are relegated to multiman matches or aren’t even on the card. (Sorry, Yutani and Xelhua.)
The promotion got hot because long-developed feuds paid off in a big match.
This year’s main event recycles four old feuds, of varying quality. There is almost nothing else going on it; it’s back to the bad days of the 2010s.
CMLL got hot because it had really exciting, creative wrestling. CMLL has gone a different way this year, pushing its wrestlers to focus on moves and finishes that are easy for people who don’t know wrestling to understand. It’s hard to argue with the success when tourists are responsible for more tickets sold. It still doesn’t make it as enjoyable to watch, and CMLL’s average match quality has dipped in 2026. CMLL got hot because they’d have a few foreigners in for an extended period, so fans would get to know them and their runs could pay off in big matches. 2026 CMLL has many outsiders in all the time, an overwhelming amount with no particular direction for most of them. It’s a setup that requires CMLL fans to instantly know and care about any wrestler from AEW who happens to be there—and also any wrestler from MLW or NJPW or Maple Leaf Wrestling or whoever else happens to be in that day. Appearing to very specific international wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans at the same time is an obvious contradiction. It assumes that anyone still just wants to see normal Mexican wrestling.
I spent years trying to persuade people that just because Mexican wrestling was different didn’t mean it was any lesser than any other style of wrestling. 2026 has been a year when Mexican wrestling promotions decided that what they were doing all along was never good enough, wasn’t something they should be proud of, and that they needed to abandon as much of it as possible to become like their US counterparts. It’s been entirely disheartening, and there’s also likely no turning back. The business will remain successful as long as it stays a tourist destination. These shows will still be greatly enjoyed by AEW fans watching for their favs. The fall-off in the shows, and in the programming, is hard to miss for those who’ve been watching a little bit longer and a little more regularly.
Aniversario is sold out and has been sold out for weeks. CMLL is closing in on their millionth ticket sold to Arena Mexico. In theory, that couldn’t happen here; all the tickets were actually sold back in August, but pretend to look shocked if they make the announcement already.
CMLL is infatuated with AEW and its style, which has led it to adopt various AEW concepts with no obvious understanding of how AEW makes them work. (This is very familiar to anyone who has watched AAA borrow from WWE and elsewhere over the years.) This Aniversario card seems to be CMLL aping All In with a marathon-length card. It’s still CMLL, so it’s full of matches with no great history that don’t particularly belong on an Aniversario card.
Ema Maishima, Maika, Mei Seira vs. Candela, Kira, Sanely
The STARDOM trio of Maishima, Seira, and Maika have been touring CMLL for about three weeks. The CMLL story here is that they’ve done such good work that both CMLL and STARDOM added an Aniversario appearance to their schedule. That seems a bit creative, but they’ve truly been a positive addition. CMLL’s women’s division is relatively small and lacks depth; their presence has essentially taken the three least appealing lucahdoras out of the mix for a month. They’re having good matches and saving us from some bad ones.
CMLL runs all their guest wrestlers ragged; they’ll work every day if CMLL can find a show to book them on. That schedule might be catching up with these three a bit, as though they seem a little banged up in their last few days. Still, Kira – more consistent of late – and Candela – still a maniac – have matched up against them well during this tour. Sanely doesn’t make any sense on this card.
Blue Panther vs. Jeff Jarrett
No one is a more perfect symbol of excess in Mexican wrestling than Jeff Jarrett. He appeared on nine TripleMania shows. Sometimes wrestling, sometimes just interfering. He always got heat. He was never part of a good match. Whatever angle he was in delighted AAA management, but it usually never resolved in a way that helped anyone besides Jeff Jarrett. Jeff Jarrett represented the kind of silliness and unseriousness in wrestling that CMLL never wanted to be—until this year, when that’s exactly what they’re about.
Best case: CMLL got charmed by an ultimate wrestling charmer, and all credit goes to Jarrett. (He’ll stick around, as long as there’s money to be made.) Worst case, this is a mission statement about what CMLL wants to be going forward. The AAA that would bring in Jarrett would also purposefully book counterproductively to antagonize the unhappy parts of their audience, and this feels a little bit like that too.
Blue Panther has had remarkable matches over the last few years for a man his age. He’s had those matches because of his strong ability to work the crowd and to get the most out of everything he’s done. He’s also had those matches because he’s worked with opponents who knew exactly how to match him. Careful watchers should’ve picked up that this match with Gran Guerrero was better than his one with Claudio Castagnoli, and it wasn’t because GG became some super worker. Those who’ve wrestled Blue Panther forever—and especially when he’s changed his act over the last decade—know the spots to be in for Panther to look the best, and the spots to get Panther in so he can do his best. Panther needs familiar people to deliver the matches people expect.
Jarrett equally needs people who are willing to do Jarrett things to get his best performance. Both are great at working the crowd, so there’s little chance this will completely fail. It’s still a bad mix of skill sets and something that’s just eating up time on an overstuffed show. The best hope for this match is that Jarrett shows up with some unannounced ROH heel, who might be able to do the catching and bumping for Panther that Jarrett can’t fairly be expected to do at this point.
Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja vs Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr. vs. Máscara Dorada & Neón vs Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship
The first of four title matches on the card. As with three of them, the focus is a US-style attempt to cram as many people in as possible. Hermanos Chavez, Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja have reached 30 defenses with these tag team titles, surpassing the record for the most defenses. They’ve also surpassed the need to be champs; this title reign ran its natural course many months ago and just kept going so they could hit the record. (Not that CMLL even played up the record much in the end.) A title change on an Aniversario to any of these three teams would be a fitting way to end the reign. A title change in a four-way match third on a ten-match card is an unfulfilling way to do it, and it gets little out of what should be treated as a big deal.
I didn’t have much faith in CMLL sticking the landing on this, even though I was happier with what they were doing in general. They’re not great at paying off long title reigns in that way, and so I figure on a title change here. None of the three challengers rise as favorites—the Villanos were the cult pick that’s cooled down because of previous failures, Los Calaveras are over but haven’t yet been pushed as a top act, and the Sky Team are the Sky Team. I’d guess the Calaveras, in what should be a lot of moves in a short amount of time, but I wouldn’t bet any money on it.
Titán © vs. Komander for the CMLL World Welterweight Championship
A battle between two guys who show up in foreign promotions to have good matches and get absolutely nothing to do. To be fair, Titan also gets nothing to do in CMLL. Titan’s absurdly long reign with this title is partly because of CMLL’s use of championships, but also because they haven’t really had many plans for Titan either. Last year had the Templario feud/partnership. This year has had one-off matches with AEW wrestlers—including against Komander back in January—and not a whole lot more.
Komander’s killed it every time he’s shown up in CMLL. He also loses every significant singles match. CMLL should keep on bringing him back, but Komander needs to win one of these to keep some credibility against the top guys. This is the right title to give him; I just wish it were happening on a show where it’d have a chance to stand out a bit more.
Bandido vs. Soberano Jr.
The Grand Prix was a happy accident. Bandido and Soberano were supposed to do stuff to set up a singles match for the show. Bandido (and Soberano) ripped up Soberano’s mask more than they meant to. The match fell apart for a minute as everyone tried to figure out what to do next, but that was to its advantage. It was so obvious something had gone wrong that the ensuing brawl between Bandido and Soberano felt a bit more real. Bandido hasn’t been around much since, yet the realness made shooting promos at each other over social media more effective.
Bandido said Soberano only got to where he was because his father (Euforia) got him into CMLL, and he lacked the drive to go any farther.
Soberano said he earned his way through CMLL and that made it the only place he ever wants to wrestle, while Bandido betrayed CMLL by leaving the promotion twice. (This is specifically not for the Ring of Honor, as Soberano says he has no interest in that title and no interest in US wrestling entirely.)
Soberano flew a little too close to the sun when he later talked about rejecting WWE/AAA offers—CMLL hasn’t let him talk much since—but it got over the idea that these two have little respect for each other. A preview tag on Sunday was wild, with Bandido seemingly risking every ligament in his knees to get to Soberano.
Bandido and Soberano have had different philosophies on wrestling careers, and both seem happy with their choices. They also feel differently about matches. Bandido’s always going full speed, always trying to build to those big near falls. Soberano typically wrestled at a slower pace. He also plays to the crowd a lot, especially away from the Friday night shows. It works for him; Soberano’s easily the second most over luchador in the promotion, but it’s a big shift from what Bandido is doing in those Ring of Honor title matches. The preview tag showed they can find success in the middle. I think Soberano will have the edge, both in style and in outcome.
Mina Shirakawa vs. Persephone © vs. Tessa Blanchard vs. Starlight Kid for the CMLL World Women’s Championship
Blanchard winning the title is the closest thing to a guarantee on this show. The question is how CMLL goes about doing it. Persephone is the AEW TBS Champion. AEW really doesn’t like their champions losing. They’re more willing to give a bit on a big show. It’d still also be an AEW champion losing to someone they appear to have no plans to ever use in AEW. The setup suggests what many promotions might do to get around that issue: Blanchard wins the title by beating someone else (Shirakawa), so everyone can go home happy. Well, not the people who are watching the show, but that’s the last concern. CMLL has never done a title change like that, where the champion loses the title without getting pinned, and doing so will spur another conversation about how much CMLL is changing. CMLL has done a lot of things this year that they wouldn’t have considered in past years, and they haven’t worried much about that talk, though.
There are workarounds to help AEW—Persephone loses it to Shirakawa, who later loses it to Blanchard, is one idea—but a title chance on this show is a lock. Tully’s in town for the show, seeing his daughter wrestle in CMLL for the first time, and that certainly suggests the Blanchard family knows the outcome. It’s just how they get there that’s left to determine.
There’s no reason for Shirakawa or Starlight Kid to be part of this. They’ll get over, but they’re here only because of CMLL’s more-is-better strategy.
Andrade el Ídolo vs. Volador Jr.
Running Sombra/Volador again on a night when fans might get angry about the main event is either a funny nod or foreshadowing. The short-ish version is Sombra/Volador having a generational rivalry in the early 2010s and CMLL pulling a fast one by delivering that mask match instead of the expected epic Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero mask match in 2013. It worked, in that CMLL got another big house show out of running the same match the next year. It didn’t work; the goal was to make La Sombra the new Mistico-like top guy, but the mask match backfired and turned the crowd against him. The fans blamed him for Atlantis/UG not happening, and were nearly as angry about Volador losing—someone they saw as deserving and mistreated by the CMLL. Young La Sombra was very popular until that moment, until he beat the wrong person on the wrong day. He’s had many ups and downs since, but Andrade has never been as over a face as he was before this mask match, until this very moment, 13 years later.
Those fans in 2013 rejected Sombra winning because they saw Volador as unfavored by the promotion. Life has twists and turns. Volador is among the most entrenched people in CMLL, still a top star in the ring and with plenty of influence outside it. CMLL is running this match because of the old rivalry, but also because Volador has to be on Aniversario.
Volador’s work hasn’t been at that level for a couple of years and probably will never be at his old high level again, but maybe he can summon something in this best possible chance. I was asked on a Hall of Fame show on this website if Volador was a guy that voters could wait on because he might still have more great matches. I said yes; his body of work since has suggested I was too optimistic. If this isn’t a great match, then we can probably close the book on Volador having many more of those.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero © vs. Claudio Castagnoli for the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
A match between Sabre and Hechicero would be great for this show.
A match between Hechicero and Castagnoli would be great.
A match between Sabre and Castagnoli on this show would be great, if a bit strange.
This will be pretty good, maybe? It’s CMLL’s new addition to three-ways and four-ways—to the concept of “more” among all else—that’s the toughest obstacle to a good match.
The CMLL World Heavyweight Championship has been around for 35 years. This is only the third time it has been part of the CMLL Aniversario show. Those two other times were low ebbs for CMLL: still coming out of the pandemic in 2021, and 1996, when Santo/Casas (and a scheduled but missed Mil Mascaras appearance) were the real draws. Never before has the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship been treated as an important part of a CMLL show when business was good. Some of this is CMLL seemingly coming around a bit on Hechicero. CMLL failed to follow up on beating Castagnoli at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, but they’ve put his last title defense in a main event and had him win the Grand Prix; they’re trying to treat him as more important. A lot of it also seems to be the US influence. Those shows make the men’s heavyweight titles a major focus, so that must be the right approach. I spent years trying to explain to English-speaking people that CMLL titles, and this title specifically, did not matter in the same way as it does in the US. It may take years to re-explain it as it changes. (Mexican fans will catch on quicker.)
CMLL still adores Castagnoli, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he won the title back here. There’s just no more story for Castagnoli here. CMLL’s only plan was a challenger of the month, and they ran out of anyone they felt confident in for that spot. (Sorry Crixus.) ZSJ isn’t here often enough to be a great choice, so Hechicero really has to win.
Templario & Último Guerrero vs. Bárbaro Cavernario & Dragón Rojo Jr. and Star Jr. & Zandokan Jr. and Averno & Místico, winning team immediately wrestles in a mask/hair or hair/hair match
CMLL runs tag team tournaments where the winning team gets their match. This year’s version condenses it to one four-way match. Each team is a rival. The teams are eliminated from the match with a loss. The surviving team gets to have their hair/mask match to close out the show. The other three teams have to wait for another day, and that day may never come for some of them.
Mistico wrestled Averno in his very first match under that new character, and they’ve been linked ever since. It was an arranged marriage: CMLL believed strongly in Averno as a rudo, and trusted him to make Mistico look great. Averno did his role so well that they’re forever linked. They wrestled each other across the globe, and even into the other world of AAA. Mistico had more famous opponents, but he’s wrestled no one more than Averno, and he’s been linked to no one longer. The Mistico/Averno mask match was one of those CMLL pocketed for a rainy day. Sin Cara’s WWE deal spoiled it twice: the match couldn’t happen in CMLL; Averno believed he was going to WWE to make it happen there, so he lost his CMLL mask; then WWE changed their mind after Sin Cara got a wellness violation. This 2026 feud can’t be that mask/mask feud, though Averno’s never lost his hair. It’s more about closure, about doing the match that both men and the fans wanted, while there’s still some gas left in the tank.
The other feuds have a little less to them. Star Jr. and Zandokan Jr. weren’t exactly feuding when they met in the final of the 2025 four-way apuesta match. (Their actual rivals, Esfinge and Valiente, were eliminated earlier.) Star Jr. has been seeking revenge since Zandokan unmasked it, and has generally failed every time. Templario is one of many of Ultimo Guerrero’s partners and proteges who eventually split with him, but that was a few years ago. The idea is that Templario is the student looking to finally surpass his mentor, though it felt like CMLL told the same story in 2022 and 2024. Barbaro Cavernario, Terrible, and Dragon Rojo were put together as Los Barbaros last fall. It was clear from watching—and has since become the official story—that Dragon Rojo immediately lost interest in dressing up like a caveman and didn’t have much interest in being a secondary member of a team. Cavernario is so much better than Dragon Rojo that it’s also become part of the story; Cavernario shows little respect for his old partner in their face-to-face segments.
The Arena Mexico crowd will reject any ending besides Mistico defeating Averno. (And since it is a big show, and those attract fans who like wrestling but not as much Mistico, that’s not even a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.) Dragon Rojo versus Cavernario has to end with Cavernario winning, but then Aniversario ends with Dragon Rojo losing twice in four years. Templario and Ultimo Guerrero would equally have to end with Templario winning, but it’s the least heated of the four feuds. Zandokan Jr. and Star Jr. have had great chemistry, but the ending there would be the rising Zandokan bizarrely losing his mask, or Star Jr. losing yet another big match.
All of the matches would feel like bait-and-switches from the Mistico/Averno final.
This is the show with Volador/Andrade, a reminder that CMLL’s willing to risk a negative reaction to save a big match for another day. They have acted differently in recent years, though. There’s been a pattern of trying to overdeliver with the booking: Hechicero getting the big win in 2024. Mistico and MJF were bloody messes last year. Even the original Star Jr./Zandokan Jr. match was about surprising people with more, when they expected Valiente to lose. I think CMLL will do the right thing; I think this ends with Mistico barely surviving. I think they’ve planted enough seeds to be a little nervous.
It’s hard ever to say you should skip the Aniversario show. This is one you might be better off waiting for the vibes the day after. There’s a scenario where they give the show plenty of time, the matches with a chance to be good are very good, the Mistico win feels like another big moment, and it’s a feel-good show. A lot of questionable booking and poor time management could hurt the show’s quality. All the matches, and all the strangeness of 2026 CMLL, mean I can’t really tell which way it’ll go.
If you need this preview to decide whether to watch, then it’s telling you to wait until Saturday and wait to see how it goes.
