Consejo Mundial De Lucha Libre
93rd Aniversario
September 18, 2026
Arena Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
The show started on time on Fox Sports Premium, but someone forgot to hit the switch on the $45.19 CAD/month YouTube subscription. They put up an Aniversario “preview” livestream instead of starting the show on the actual paid membership livestream. They didn’t communicate this at all and eventually turned it on after the second match. AAA bullshit.
Ema Maishima, Maika, Mei Seira def. Candela, Kira, Sanely
The STARDOM wrestlers have generally been fine during this quick excursion in Mexico without ever delivering anything great, and putting them with Candela and Sanely was never going to change that. This wasn’t even passable. The highest drama of the entire match came from Kira suffering multiple wardrobe malfunctions. Poor wrestlers, poor execution, bad match. *½
Blue Panther def. Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett did his TripleMania rudo routine, which is not at all what I want from a CMLL show. Blue Panther’s high spot dive off the ramp was the only real bright moment in a match that otherwise had very little going for it. To be fair to Jarrett, this was a million times better than the absolute DUD Eddie Kingston put together in Arena Mexico, so credit where it’s due. Still not good, though, and a microcosm of everything wrong with CMLL booking this year. The over-reliance on outsiders at the expense of actual CMLL luchadors like Xelhua or Yutani is a real problem, and matches like this are the result. **
CMLL World Tag Team Championship
Los Hermanos Chavez (Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja) © def. Los Villanos (El Hijo del Villano III & Villano III Jr.), Los Hermanos Calavera (Calavera Jr. I & Calavera Jr. II), El Sky Team (Mascara Dorada & Neon)
What a shocker, the CMLL multi-man match started with fighting on the ramp! Who could’ve seen that one coming!?
This was a very good collection of spots one after another that left little room to breathe, except for the mandatory “we must all lie on the mat for the Esto es Lucha chant” spot. The Villanos were the most over guys in the match for the second year in a row and once again weren’t really booked to do much; that’s CMLL. Some of the dives were fun, but the match suffered from the usual CMLL problem of nobody being able to crack the formula on how these multi-mans are supposed to work. The talent is clearly there; it’s the execution at the booking level that keeps letting it down. Chavez brothers pinned Calavera Jr. II for the win and walked out still champions. ***½
CMLL World Welterweight Championship
Titan © def. Komander
Titan blitzed Komander during his entrance and right away you knew this wasn’t going to get the time it deserved. The match felt like a rush job, but that at least added suspense to the nearfalls, with the sense that it could end at any moment. Really good work given the circumstances, and they made the most of every minute they had. The refereeing was a problem, though, with some badly timed slow counts that hurt some of the nearfall drama. Titan won with a beautiful submission. ***¾
Soberano Jr. def. Bandido
Both guys came out with tremendous big match gear that set the tone before anything actually happened. This started off hot with genuine hate and heat behind it. And for the first time on the show, it felt like a truly big match worthy of its spot on the card. The mask ripping from both guys was great, even getting to the point where someone had to throw in a spare for Soberano. The crowd was so firmly behind Soberano that he had them stomping their feet in unison, and the camera was literally shaking from it. The energy in the building was palpable.
This did not feel like a Bandido Ring of Honor match, which means it was legitimately great. Soberano Jr. getting the win with a Soberano Driver onto the top turnbuckle followed by a Soberano Driver in the middle of the ring was absolutely the right call, and here’s hoping this is the start of something special rather than a one-off big night. One of the best CMLL matches of the year. ****¼
CMLL World Women’s Championship
Persephone © def. Tessa Blanchard, Starlight Kid, Mina Shirakawa
Tully Blanchard seconded Tessa. A pretty boring match that followed the same CMLL multi-man formula that this company keeps attempting and never quite getting right, with a crowd that was never into it and left the whole thing feeling completely flat. Then came the finish. A ref bump, Persephone faking getting hit with the belt, and Vaquerita disqualifying Tessa to hand Persephone the win. I guess there are DQs in four-ways in CMLL. An absolutely bullshit finish to a match that already went way too long and the worst possible way to end what could have been something they’ve been building all year with a Tessa win. This match would have earned maybe a star or two if they hadn’t gone out of their way to think of the single worst finish imaginable. DUD
Andrade El Idolo def. Volador Jr.
Andrade came out in a sick La Sombra, Volador Jr., and Felino fusion mask. The diving rana into the barricade near the start set the tone for what this would be. It’s nice seeing Volador and Sombra running it back in a spot like this, but time waits for no one, and Volador was visibly struggling to keep pace at points throughout. He mustered enough to hit the big spots, including a dive off the stage, but the stretches in between felt sluggish as both guys set up for the next big spot. Volador gave it everything he had and in the end that’s exactly what this was: a high-quality 2026 Volador match. High floor, low ceiling. ***½
CMLL World Heavyweight Championship
Hechicero © def. Claudio Castagnoli, Zack Sabre Jr.
The whistling started early, which was not a good sign. A tremendously boring, grappling-heavy match that was hurt considerably by CMLL’s continued insistence on putting on multi-man matches that never work and end up making everyone look pretty bad in the process. Dave Meltzer put it best: ready to confess to crimes if they’d end this Chinese water torture match eight minutes ago. Hechicero wins by submitting Claudio after a very long fourteen minutes, and it felt every bit of it. **
Cuadrangular de Parejas Increíbles
Averno & Mistico def. Dragon Rojo Jr. & Barbaro Cavernario, Star Jr. & Zandokan Jr., Templario & Ultimo Guerrero
For those unfamiliar, this mini tournament four-way match consists of teams of rivals whose goal is to be the last team standing so they can advance to the lucha de apuestas final. The winning team gets to wrestle each other in a hair/mask match to close out the biggest show of the year. It is a matter of pride in lucha libre and is one of the most unique tournament ideas in wrestling today.
What a shocker, the CMLL multi-man match started with fighting on the ramp!
It makes sense for a match like this given the premise, but it has absolutely lost its luster at this point when it happens every single time without fail. The Mistico stage dive was sick, though. Dragon Rojo Jr. was the first guy eliminated, which was genuinely surprising as he and Cavernario felt like a reasonable pick to advance. Star Jr. went next, and there is something funny about the two scrubs of the match being dispatched so effortlessly and made to look like absolute losers on the way out. Templario followed, leaving the real main event everyone wanted to see.
Mask vs. Hair
Mistico def. Averno
As much as the elimination gimmick works for most of these Aniversario apuestas matches, it works best when the outcome is something like Esfinge versus Valiente. When it’s something as huge as Mistico versus Averno, it feels like a giant miss to not have all the pomp and circumstance of the special event entrances that a mask versus hair match of this magnitude deserves.
That said, Mistico and Averno delivered exactly what everyone expected if this was the chosen apuestas match. They used some fun tricks along the way, including a teased injury stoppage and a near submission win, but Mistico rallied through every time. Averno is one of the best wrestlers in the world right now, and I will do my damnedest to get him on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame ballot; he’s definitely more ballot-worthy than some on there. The perfect foil for Mistico his entire career, he made him look absolutely amazing here while also pulling the crowd firmly to his side at points, adding a layer of drama where Mistico had to overcome the audience as well as his opponent. The tornillo callback spot to the beginning of the rekindling of this feud was a nice touch. Just great lucha libre as it should be.
Now for the complaints. The drone camera was fucking awful and consistently took away from the match, going into overdrive for the very special main event when it needed to be there the least. Edgar took a stupid bump on the finish to try to make it all about himself, which is the CMLL referee experience in a nutshell and apparently something that comes with the territory for everyone who steps into that role in this company.
Averno, forever one of the great rudos, had his head shaved and then stole all three of El Sky Team’s masks on the way out. He’s so beast. ****½
Final Thoughts
CMLL is so good when they present their traditional lucha libre. This show was the clearest evidence of that split personality in 2026. Mistico versus Averno and Bandido versus Soberano Jr. were everything you want from big CMLL main events, as traditional as it gets in this company and proof that the formula still works when they commit to it. The American multi-man matches, the cheap heat, and all the stolen tropes that surrounded those two matches were a different story entirely and really dragged down my overall enjoyment of the show.
This year’s Aniversario was a tale of two CMLLs: one that does what it does best and one that seems determined to be something completely different. The frustrating part is that the version that works is right there, but they choose to push away from it.
