Discovery passes away, empty arena plans, CMLL Universal tournament

There are a few smaller empty arena show this weekend, but none of the big promotions appear to be wondering. AAA celebrates it’s 28th anniversary today in a holding pattern waiting for their next show. On Keepin’ It 100, Konnan mentioned he was not authorized to say when AAA was running again. That seems like my fault. Anyway, he went on to say AAA’s looking at all options, including running more empty arena shows or in front of 25% capacity shows if necessary. They also may run singles and tag matches but not trios.

The vibe I got from the message is AAA will be running again soon, maybe June, and it’s just a matter of deciding where and under what circumstances. I suspect CMLL will also be running in June, even if in an empty arena, but I’m not as sure about that.

Former AAA luchador and Chicago lucha libre institution Discovery passed away. He’s been hospitalized in a battle with cancer since early this year and there were dire updates about his condition Thursday. Chicago luchador Rico Suave posted his own remembrance of Discovery as a person who was more than just a lucha libre teacher. Matt Knicks and GPA also posted remembrances.

Apolo Valdes, who’d been with MedioTiempo for 14 years and covering lucha libre there for the last many, was let go by the sports publication this past week. He says he hopes to keep working in the media. Valdes was very important in growing the wrestling section of that website. The article he wrote that I was most envious of was his story of traveling with Guerrero Maya Jr., Felino and Puma King to the first Powerbomb.TV (now IndependentWrestling.TV) show; the tedious work of wrestling that happens before they get to the ring is undercover and Apolo did a strong job of capturing it.

El Cuadrilatero, the original Super Astro restaurant, is in danger of going out of business. That store is run by María Guadalupe Cortés, Super Astro’s ex-wife. (They divorced many years back; Super Astro’s current restaurant is a few minutes walk away.) Cuadrilatero’s sales have fallen in half, three of the five employees have been let go, and she’s still not sure she’s if she’ll be able to pay rent and taxes. There’s a brief mention that her son has gone to work elsewhere to raise money to save the restaurant; that’d be CMLL luchador Super Astro Jr.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter writes that the Rey Mysterio injury angle on WWE RAW could be used as an explanation for Mysterio leaving the promotion, though it is unlikely that happens. It reads as though Mysterio’s got an opt-out coming up, though he’s not expected to use it given the current economic climate. It would take AEW at least matching the WWE offer, which is thought not to be likely.

In an interview with Record, Rey Mysterio that he doesn’t believe Konnan gets enough credit for helping Mysterio’s career.

My current strategy on watching CMLL Informa is to skip to the parts in between the interviews, thinking the news will be in those parts. It’s not a successful strategy. +LuchaTV picks up on something I missed: Julio Cesar Rivera revealed the CMLL Universal tournament was originally scheduled for May. It would’ve been interesting to see which titles are no longer granted eligibility into the tournament, as CMLL has exceeded the 16 tournaments lots by a bunch. JCR stated CMLL will resume with the women’s tag team tournament when they do resume. Homenaje a Dos Leyendas will also still happen; it won’t be the first show they have but will take place soon after.

Back on Keepin’ it 100, Konnan was asked where Pentagon Jr. now ranked for fans in Mexico. Konnan put Psycho Clown at the top of AAA, then LA Park a tier down, then Pentagon, Fenix and Rush all at the same level.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia is running a podcast on their Facebook. (Unrelated hot take: It’s not really a podcast unless I can download with an RSS feed.) Santy Hernandez, who is the on-screen GM for the Hidalgo promotion, announced Vanguardia will be running another empty arena show “Aglomeracion en el Ring”. This announcement led to a disagreement on the podcast between Hernandez & Ciclope, who said he was not going to wrestle due to health concerns. The disagreement carried over to Twitter. I presume this is all a storyline, though it’s notable because Mexican indie promotions generally haven’t set up in-ring stories this way. I didn’t catch a date for the Vanguardia show.

Lucha Libre Voz, nominally an Arizona promotion, announced a show for 07/19 in El Paso that’ll be streamed on their YouTube channel. The show includes Black Taurus versus Mil Muertes for the title, with other people coming in from Mexico and Vampiro coming in from Canada as the announcer. Those names all seem to depend on borders being opened again. The poster indicates they’re at least considering selling tickets; they’re the first lucha libre show I’ve seen say that recently, though there will probably be others between now and then.

Casandro el Exotico debuts on the MOBI streaming service on May 18th, which has led to some new reviews. The Irish Times praises it as heartfelt. The Times review is a little more mixed (and mostly behind a paywall.)

Lado has a review of the Los Exoticos documentary. I didn’t realize that film was available online.

ReporteIndigo interviewed Satanico for today’s Dia de Maestros. Satanico notes his original trainer almost kicked him out of wrestling training because Stanico was bad influence on the other kids. It got him to be more disciplined.

Yesterday was the fifty-thirty anniversary of the opening of Arena Lopes Mateos. Their fundraiser has five days left, collecting about $1000 USD of the $4500 USD they had as a goal. The new plan is to run a closed doors PPV show to also help raise money. They’re working on getting approval from the local commission and luchadors have offered to work for reduced fees (because they’re missing work entirely.) Hector Guzman is still unsure if they’ll be able to continue as a wrestling venue and feels it’ll take at least a year to recover.

Diamante surprisingly defeated Dragon Kid in the first round of Dragon Gate’s King of Gate tournament, which is airing as taped shows behind closed doors. Diamante will face Yosuke♡Santa Maria in the next round. Dragon Gate has not announced dates for their second-round matches yet.

KAOZ appears to be planning on running their Anniversary show on 05/20, though no location mentioned.

The Gladiatores has an interview with Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. about his experiences in Japan. He’s a little too serious to go in-depth about the weird GHC title match.

Japanese promotion FREEDOMS will start appearing on IndependentWrestling.TV on June 1st. This is where Violento Jack has been a regular for the last couple of years, with Ciclope & Miedo Extremo also appearing. The shows had previously been available only unofficially outside of Japan.

The status of the CMLL Lady’s Ring shows scheduled for July 2nd (Tokyo) and July 4th (Osaka) will be decided after the state of emergency gets lifted in Japan. Microman was going to make his Japan debut on those shows.