DTU & Kaoz iPPVs this weekend, Moreno mother passes away

Mexico’s sub-secretary of health says he expects the peak of COVID-19 to take place the first week of July and the pandemic to cease in the country in October. This is not a consistent point through Mexico’s government; the president seems to be making the case that the peak happened last week as part of pushing towards Mexico’s economy picking up again. A traffic light update on Mexico’s individual states is scheduled to be released tonight. Mexico City’s head of government expects the city will remain under a red light.

DTU has its 50 pesos PPV tonight at 8 pm CT, headlined by Ultimo Guerrero versus Camuflaje and a no-ring barbed wire match. You need the ability to send money to a Mexican bank account, Whatsapp app, and Facebook account to watch this show; you can find details here. Most people in Mexico have access to these things, I think even I have access to these things, but I also hate a couple of these things enough that I think I’m skipping this one. It sounds like the show will be available for 24 hours later. I imagine this is DTU simply airing a taped video on a private Facebook page, which seems pretty reliable on the tech side.

KAOZ’s 100 pesos (+ 15 handling charge) PPV takes place Sunday at 8 pm CT. The main event has Blue Demon Jr. vs Dr. Wagner vs Daga and a wealth of tag matches. This was taped in late May, though the streaming platform is a bit of an unknown. I’m not sure if there will be VOD, but the ticket info says you get access from one device only.

There’s only one thing time-sensitive thing I want to do this weekend – ESPN has a documentary that’s relevant to my interests – and it’s also 8 pm on Sunday. I’ve paid for this but I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be able to watch it.

The real test for these is isn’t quite the quality – though that’s nice to have – but if they’re successful enough for those promoters to try again (or for others to copycat them.) The pattern has been Mexican promotion try these ideas once, they’re not met with a lot of immediate success, and then that’s last we hear about them. DTU & Kaoz have been pushing these shows hard, with +LuchaTV helping out, and so maybe there will be more pickup than usual. The other side is paying for lucha libre video is not something Mexican wrestling fans are accustomed to doing, and changing that expectation can take a lot of time and effort. It’s likely there will be more time before even reduced capacity shows are allowed in Mexico, meaning there’s likely be to time to run more of these shows if the promotions come away from this weekend believing in them.

Esther Leon de Moreno passed away Thursday at the age of 59. She’s the mother of Oriental and luchadoras Esther, Alda, Cinthia and Rossy Moreno, and the owner of Arena Azteca Budokan in Neza. The Batalla Campal radio show Twitter account says she passed away during to surgery. Esther and her husband (Alfonso, who passed in 1999) built that small arena themselves according to the obituaries today. SuperLuchas has been doing a lot of obituaries lately and has another one for Moreno.

Mexico state luchador Rudy Garduno, hospitalized with COVID-19 earlier this week, is stabling and improving. His daughter, Reyna del Sur, posted an update (pointed out by Furia de Titanes.) and said Garduno is expected to be in the hospital for 1-2 more weeks.

ROH is planing on running empty arena shows, according to the Wrestling Observer. There’s no location or timeline set; it reads like they’re working first on what they’d need to do to safely run those shows first. Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and CMLL are the three most prominent promotions to not run shows during this pandemic (though the last two have run other in-person content.) NJPW, where the cases of COVID-19 are much lower than in currently in North America, returns with empty arena shows on Monday and limited attendance shows on July 11th. The WON reports NJPW is targeting October for being able to bring in foreigners, with the possibility it could happen earlier. There’s no sign of when a CMLL show might happen again, or even when AAA might run again. Neither seems imminent.

Tijuana’s Boxing, Lucha Libre, and MMA commission approved an empty arena boxing show for June 26th. There’s a series of health conditions required, including everyone on the show, including the non-boxing staff has to pass two COVID-19 tests before being allowed in the building. (This article says it’ll be one test one week before and one three days before the fight.) The commission mentions they know not every promotion will be able to afford that sort of expense and that requirement will eventually have to change, but it is the bar to clear right now.

Luchadors in Saltillo spoke out in frustration about not being able to return to work, are hoping they’ll be allowed to put on shows in August. Torreon lucha libre promotions are part of a coalition of entertainment groups meeting with the government Tuesday to figure out when they can resume activity.

Queretaro luchador Drabek I, who is also a police officer, was part of the security agency handing out food and water to needy people.

An interview with Mexico State’s Duck Black Jr., who is making facemasks.

Monterrey luchadora Tsunami talks about COVID-19 possibly costing her both jobs; besides wrestling, her other job has been put on hold and that company may go out of business.

CMLL will air the August 1, 2014 Jucio Final show on Televisa this Saturday, then stream it on YouTube next Friday. The Rush/Negro Casas main event will certainly not air, but the show also includes a Volador/Sombra title match and a Marcela/Princesa Sugehit versus Seductora/Princesa Blanca hair match. That match was Princesa Blanca’s final in the promotion; she showed up in ELITE once but pretty much has disappeared from wrestling. Blanca made a surprise appearance on CMLL Informa to promote the match. The Gladiatores recap of the interview mentions Blanca is working with the San Luis Potosi lucha libre commission now, where she’s from. It’s six years later so I think it’s safe to mention Princesa Blanca & Felino – publicly a couple both on CMLL TV and the El Luchador reality show at the time – ended their relationship around that time. It’s not normally relevant, but this was a case where that relationship ending lead to Blanca taking this hair match loss on as part of choosing to leave CMLL and moving back to San Luis Potosi. In this interview, Blanca mentioned she’d be open to one or two return matches in CMLL.

Ciudad Juarez luchadors, led by Pagano, repaired a “JRZ” sign in the city this morning. The sign was attacked during a protest against police brutality. The repair action was broadcast on Facebook.

RobViper looks back at June 10th in history