Lucha Fighter episode 3 Saturday, meaningless titles, various crimes

Lucha Fighter reaches episode 3 on Saturday. It’ll air at 8 pm CT on YouTube and Facebook. AAA published a video with results so far. It seems to apply the matches for the next round, but that may just be reading too much into names in close proximity. Saturday’s show should include matches with all the people who are have won the last two weeks, except for the minis. That means matches with

• Men: Hijo del Vikingo, Dr. Wagner, Texano Jr., Psycho Clown, Chessman, LA Park, Pagano, Pentagon Jr.
• Women: La Hiedra, Big Mami, Lady Maravilla and Lady Shani.

I’m assuming some non-tournament matches will take place on the final week, just so the show lasts the normal two-hour length. It’s just not as certain they’re doing those teased matches on the final or if they’re holding out hope for later on. AAA teased a Maravilla/Mami mixed tag match, which would mean a Hiedra/Shani final.

The men’s semifinals might be easier to figure out by splitting out those willing to lose. LA Park doesn’t lose much, so he probably didn’t come to Mexico City during a pandemic to lose in a semifinal. Vikingo, Chessman, Texano seem more likely to take a loss. Wagner & Pentagon join LA Park as people who probably wouldn’t have come in unless they were at least making the final. Pagano and Psycho Clown seem like the two battling it out for the last spot. Psycho is the favorite, but a scenario where he gets cheated out of a win here and Pagano is around in the final to take the pin there works out better. (If those are actually the matchups, then it looks like Psycho is the one who advances.) This is also a lot of thinking for a tournament which probably won’t mean all that much once they’re able to run something like normal shows again.

The next two stories are ones I’m not sure what I should with; I’ve made a point of at least not writing about them on Twitter in hopes I can do better here. They involve people acting terribly towards other people and it’s tough to turn a blind eye to it. Yet, even just mentioning what they did gives them the bad actors the attention they’re looking for and makes life tougher for the victims. I don’t know what choice is correct, or even if there is a correct choice. One involves a major newspaper, so my mention isn’t a big deal comparatively, but it still feels murky.

Wednesday’s Metro (Mexico City) paper had La Hiedra on the cover. That is about normal for that paper; it’s the kind of tabloid newspaper that routinely puts a beautiful woman and/or a corpse on the front page to get noticed as people walk by the stand. The problem here is those Hiedra images aren’t from a photoshoot or a paparazzi. The article isn’t available online (the paper itself isn’t sold online), but those who’ve seen it say those photos appear to be intimate images she’s sent to a past boyfriend, who decided to pass them to the newspaper, who then thought this was something worth publishing. There’s no apparent news value the article, they’re simply that day’s salacious attempt to sell a few copies at a time when there are few people going to newsstands. SuperLuchas has a column ripping the writer of the piece and suggesting Hiedra sue.

Another terrible situation involves an extortion attempt on an AAA luchador. A video from Octagon and Hijo del Octagon was posted on Hijo’s Facebook page Wednesday. It’s the usual bit from Octagon, claiming he’s suing someone – this time AAA & Octagon Jr. (Golden Magic) over the rights to the name – and showing papers far enough from the camera to make it impossible to see what they actually say. That sort of video wouldn’t even be worth mentioning at this point because they don’t seem to go anywhere. What’s different here is Octagon and Hijo del Octagon start joking about another video they’re in possession of, which in their view would be embarrassing to Octagon Jr/Golden Magic. There’s a clear threat implied of publishing that video if Golden Magic doesn’t stop using the Octagon character. It’s less clear if any video actually exists or if they’re really in possession of it; the Octagons have not been known for their honesty. Even as a lie, it says a lot about the moral character of Octagon and Hijo del Octagon to make that sort of threat. In the US, this video would’ve immediately turned everyone against those two. The Hiedra issue has gotten some decent negative attention, but this one seems to have gone under the radar.

CMLL Informa announced the Arena Coliseo Tag Team championships will be decided in a new tournament. Esfinge & Triton were the current champions. Triton left the promotion back in August. CMLL subsequently brought back the Mexican National Tag Team Championship, which seemed to serve the same purpose as these tag titles and made them redundant. There’s no such thing as redundant championships in CMLL, so these belts will return sometime after CMLL does. It’s possible this tournament was one of the two intended to take place in April.

There’s no business or creative reason for these Arena Coliseo Tag team titles. CMLL hardly uses, and never in an important spot. There’s no prestige to them either. Triton cared so little about them that he quit while champion. Previous champs Cuatrero & Sanson just stopped defending them and gave them up. Like most CMLL championships, they seem to be prizes to midcard wrestlers, giving them a belt to keep them happy instead of paying them or even creating interesting rivalries for them. Triton leaving while champion suggests that plan isn’t working well anymore.

Matt Taven also popped in Informa and said returning to Arena Mexico is on his list of things to do once the quarantine is over.

Herodes Jr. is interviewed about wrestling on clandestine lucha libre shows. He says he has another job and doesn’t need to keep wrestling right now to support himself – wrestling is just sort of an addiction for him. I suspect that’s the case of a lot of people doing these shows, especially the smallest ones. They just love to wrestle and are going to keep doing unless someone physically prevents them from doing so. (Herodes Jr. jokes here about hoping someone insults him on the street so he can get into a fight.) Herodes is donating a percentage of what he’s making to nursing homes.

Hijo del Vikingo, interviewed for kid’s day, says he used to be a kid who went up to all his favorite luchadors for autographs at shows, and now he’s the guy signing the autographs.

MicromanFever translates an interview with Ciclope & Miedo Extremo.

Psicosis Ripper says he has told his children to get a degree instead of going into wrestling.

Voices of Wrestling has an article about Hijo del Pantera’s Wrestle-1 Cruiserweight title run.