We open with the camera pointed down on the ring, as if it were an eagle surveying the grasslands below. Bodies shift. Tensions crackle. Chaos is promised before we even begin.

It’s October 8, 2021, and CMLL has invited a host of outsiders to compete against its top luchadoras in a Torneo Cibernetico match, an elimination-style tag bout. The Mexican women will clash with a squad with representation from South America, the United States, and Japan. It’s CMLL versus the world. The first edition of match that would become a tradition for the company.

This contest comes from a stretch in late 2021 where Ice Ribbon wrestlers Momo Kohgo, Tsukasa Fujimoto, and Tsukushi had a short run with the historic Mexican promotion. It was a continuation of the long-standing tradition of joshi and lucha libre overlapping. And the famed Arena Mexico played host to it all.

The Japanese wrestlers mostly competed in 2-out-of-3 Falls trios matches during their stay in CMLL, but on this night, the squads were bigger, giving this more of a full-on territorial war feel. 

On the CMLL side, Dark Silueta, La Amapola, La Jarochita, Lluvia, Marcela, Princesa Sugehit, and Reina Isis banded together. Meanwhile, Avispa Dorada, Stephanie Vaquer, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Tsukushi, Dalys la Caribena, Momo Kohgo and Sonya formed the opposing team, a collection of talent from around the globe. 

The veteran Princesa Sugehit had held the CMLL Women’s Championship for a year at this point. 

She was joined by Lluvia and La Jarochita who tagged together as Las Chicas Indomables. The Mexico City-native Marcela, who began her career back in 1985, was one of the top wrestlers in the country. 

Reina Isis, the reigning Mexican national champ at the time of this match, was plenty familiar with facing Japanese foes. She competed in the joshi promotion REINA, clashing with the likes of Kana and Syuri.

The CMLL squad also featured the powerful Dark Silueta, who worked without a mask after losing a Luchas de Apeustas to Zeuxis. Rounding out the team was La Amapola, a  well-rounded talent who took down foes with a mix of power moves and dives. She held onto the CMLL Women’s Championship from 2007-2011. Would she be as dominant here against these unfamiliar faces?

Their opponents were a hodgepodge group. 

Avispa Dorada, an American from Washington state who started wrestling in Mexico in 2018, was on that team. As was Dalys la Caribena from Panama who appeared in a few matches for TJPW, Ice Ribbon, Actwres girl’Z, and REINA. The squad also featured Stephanie Vaquer from Chile who has since gone on to wrestle for WWE and Sonya, a Costa Rican who mostly worked for CMLL.

The non-CMLL team’s joshi representation included Momo Kohgo who had not yet signed with STARDOM. She had worked for Ice Ribbon and Actwres girl’Z to this point, and looked to make a mark with some bigger names at her side. Tsukasa Fujimoto and Tsukushi from Ice Ribbon boasted all kinds of accolades. Fujimoto was the Ace of Ice Ribbon, a  seven-time ICExInfinity champion. Tsukushi, a 10-time Ice Ribbon tag champ, often teamed with Fujimoto as The Dropkickers.

All these warriors glared at each other, pacing, waiting, two packs of wolves baring their teeth at each other.  

Despite all that bubbling anger, this didn’t begin with chaos. Things settled down after the opening bell and the two teams felt each other out. Different pairs from each group hit armbars and hip tosses. 

When Tsukushi and Dark Silueta went at it, things sped things up. We saw a pop of intensity, a glimpse of what was to come. 

La Jarochita later dove out of the ring and shortly after landing on her opponent, saw the “world” team converge on her. We got a taste of typical lumberjack match again with the foreigners firing strikes onto La Jarochita before the match settled down again.

Fujimoto and Princessa Sugehit had strong chemistry, two of the most experienced veteran stars shining during their showdown. Amapola and Fujimoto, however was the best mini-match of the bunch, the collision that most begged for expansion on a less-crowded stage.

Interference from both teams increased as time went on. As Marcela and Vaquer clashed, their partners forced their way into the action. Throughout, it felt like we were watching a flame wave in front of a tinderbox. At any moment, the whole thing would catch and explode.

Soon, the highlights came faster and the eliminations began. Panamanian powerhouse Dalys La Caribena ousted Amapola. Tsukushi kicked the hell out of Marcela’s mouth. Fujimoto leaped off Kohgo and Tsukushi’s backs to dropkick an opponent. Fujimoto and Tsukushi teamed up to dole out diving stomps and dropkicks to everyone within range, wrecking shop.

The world team had a 4-3 advantage but not for long as Kohgo got pinned. Eliminations came now at a faster pace, the two teams shrinking. 

Sugehit ousted Vaquer and (later) Dalys. Not before Dalys beat both Isis and Marcela. When Tsukushi eliminated Jarochita, the match was now a 2-1 handicap bout with the CMLL team outnumbered.  

Dark Silueta took out Tsukushi to even things out at 1-1, she and the queen of Ice Ribbon left alone to decide the winner. 

Tsukasa fought like a pissed-off wolverine, but Dark Silueta held on. The luchadora leaped up to stop Fujimoto from leaping off the top rope, hitting the joshi star with a superplex for the decisive three-count. 

With that, CMLL won, defending its territory, giving the crowd quite the show along the way. 

Some of the wrestling was clunky. The lack of familiarity and maybe the language barrier left the foes unsure of each other at times. Kogho was timid. Wrestlers like Sonya made little impression amid the swirling action.

While this was no classic, it had plenty of palpating energy. It was dramatic and novel. We’d seen the joshi and lucha worlds smash into each other but not at this scale. 

It remains in an interesting match to look back on for fans of both lucha libre and joshi wrestling. It’s fun to see Fujimoto do her thing outside of her homebase, to see some of CMLL’s best take on fresh opponents, to discover the lesser-known talent that rounded out the teams.

CMLL has since revisited this Mexico versus the world bout annually with joshi wrestlers like Mei Suruga, Makoto, and Unagi Sayaka flying in to face the luchadora team. It’s a tradition that gives fans a chance to watch two of the world’s biggest wrestling hotbeds merge, to let the crowds witness worlds collide. 

See the full Cibernertico Grand Prix match here.