of weekly schedules, small arenas, Santo and the UWA

El Hijo del Santo’s Record column mourns the loss of the small lucha arenas, which seems to include the giant El Toreo. It’s an El Hijo del Santo column, so it includes many long lists as if he’s a high school student trying to reach five double spaced pages. I happened to be reading thru an old edition of Lucha Libre Weekly, published right as AAA was starting up. It also had a list of arenas, sorted by day and promotion, which is useful way to illustrate those same missing arenas.

An example CMLL weekly schedule of May 1992:

Mondays
– Chiconqua

Tuesdays
– Arena Coliseo
– Arena Cuatitlan

Wednesdays
– Cortijo bullring
– Arena Naucalpan
– Arena Ectapec
– Arena Coliseo Acapulco

Thursdays
– Arena Isabel
– Arena Cuperuac
– Arena San Juan Pantitlan

Fridays
– Arena Mexico or Arena Coliseo
– Arena Puebla
– Auditorio Municipal Los Reyes La Paz
– Arena Lopez Mateos

Saturdays
– Arena Xochimilco
– Arena Aragon
– Arena Altailla
– Pista Arena Revolucion

Sundays
– Arena Mexico
– Arena Coliseo DF
– Pista Arena Revolucion
– Arena Naucalpan
– Arena San Lorenzo
– El Cortijo
– Arena Azteca

Meanwhile, UWA’s schedule

Mondays
– Arena Puebla
– Arena Isabel

Tuesdays
– Arena Queretaro
– Arena Aficion

Wednesdays
– Arena Celaya
– Arena Lopez Mateos

Thursdays
– Pista Arena Revolucion
– Arena Toluca

Fridays
– Arena Neza (TV)

Saturdays
– Arena Isabel
– Arena Aficion

Sundays
– El Toreo
– Arena Neza
– Arena Toluca

Not every arena was run every week, but this list doesn’t include all the other shows that might be run (especially on Sunday), and doesn’t include circuits in Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla and probably other areas, and indy shows around Mexico City. Many of these arenas just don’t exist any more: Arena Isabel and El Toreo were torn down in the last few years. Pista Arena Revolucion used to hold shows on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, but was demolished for a Walmart. Some of the issues are more with buildings: Arena Neza has had ownership issues and no one’s figured out how to make Arena Coliseo Acapulco work since Roberto Rangel passed away.

CMLL’s main two arenas still run about the same schedule, though there are far more shows in Arena Mexico and never any Sundays where they run both arenas. Arena Naucalpan still runs two shows a week, though the days change. Arena Puebla only runs Mondays now, with a once a year Friday show. Arena Aficion usually runs one show a week, sometimes two. Arena Lopez Mateos runs an irregular schedule. Arena Neza has runs of shows, then nothing for months. Arena Queretaro might be back in CMLL’s regular rotation, and Arena San Juan Pantitlan ran a show this week despite having it’s “last ever show!” a few month ago. That still a lot on this list that are either gone (El Cortijo) or silent (Arena Xochmilco?)

Santo blames AAA TV for the death of the small arena, saying they put too many stars on TV and the smaller buildings could no longer compete. Even if this wasn’t Santo attacking AAA just to attack AAA, it doesn’t hold up. CMLL and UWA were running TV shows of all stars before AAA existed. TV itself might be partially to blame, but they’re not alone.

Santo heaps praise on Francisco Flores and Carlitos Maynes, who ran LLI/UWA, but they’re also same people who ran their promotion into the ground. UWA was miserable in the early 90s due to the same stories being told over and over with the same guys. It was completely obvious they needed to make new stars, and it was equally obvious that the people in charge were unwilling to make those changes. AAA’s arrival killed off UWA, as much thru making the product look dated as talent raids (including a luchador named ‘el Hijo del Santo’), but UWA might well have died on it’s own without AAA’s push. UWA’s death seems to have had a domino effect: those arenas who were running two or three shows a week with name talent only could get access to one, and one show didn’t pay the overhead. AAA’s historically been more about running shows around the country than in the same arena every week, so voids were never filled and buildings disappeared.