Month: July 2020

The official story on the return of lucha libre in Mexico City (and the rest of the nation) has been closed shows will be permitted only when the government says the area is in a “Yellow” health condition. Fans were to be allowed to be when it is in “Green” condition. It is unlikely Mexico City will reach Yellow any time soon; they was a report they would move backward from Orange to Red to today, but the Mexico City government instead says they’re staying Orange but in danger of getting worse. Either way, it’s not Yellow and no Mexico state is in Yellow. The unofficial story is those rules only matter if the promotions and the authorities are willing to live by them. There are groups on a low level ignoring those rules where the authorities haven’t been interested in enforcing. Thursday, there was evidence of one of the bigger ones ignoring them as well.

A reporter for Deportivo W Radio posted video of a Guerrero Maya & Stuka Jr. vs Vangellys & Okumura tag match on Twitter. The Twitter account calls it an exhibition match, though it appears to be taped for television or YouTube presentation. The reporter did an interview with Caristico which will air this morning. Caristico is in his gear, so it’s seems a safe bet he wrestled and there were a few matches. (I tried to catch that radio interview but couldn’t get the feed to work.) The CMLL announcers are calling the match from the front row, there’s a normal camera crew and other production at ringside. The luchadors and the referees are wearing facemasks. The announcers and the photographer do not appear to be wearing them. The regular seating on two sides of the ring seems to be removed. Adrian Mendoza earlier in the week mentioned CMLL wrestlers had been summoned to Arena Mexico, so perhaps this was a plan a few days in the making. It seems doubtful CMLL wanted this video and news out, but they haven’t pressured the reporter to take it down either.

I’m not sure what’s next. Fantasma and/or local authorities could come down hard on CMLL for trying this. Or they could’ve quietly reached an agreement to permit these shows given certain safety measures (like everyone wearing facemasks.) It’d be a dramatic change for these shows to be allowed, but it’s been a year of dramatic changes. CMLL shows taped in an empty Arena Mexico are going to be painfully dry to watch, but they’ll still help fulfill TV contract requirements for new content. CMLL luchadors have traditionally been paid from ticket sales so empty arena shows would require a different concept to pay them, which might be a good thing long term. It’s just a wait to see if CMLL or Fantasma says something about it.

I can understand if people are excited to have CMLL back after such a long break. I can’t get myself there within the current context. All the context: a CMLL promotion that was struggling to be interesting where the best thing going was their crowd. They’ll now be wrestling in a very empty building, during a pandemic. (I’d be shocked if CMLL was at all public about what testing they were doing; we’re going to be stuck hoping a wrestling promotion is doing the correct things and knowing in our hearts that’s rarely true.) I’m sure I’ll watch more than I’ll enjoy because of this blog and not sure I’d otherwise watch more than one show.

El Planchitas (again, it’s Planchitas) story on this situation adds an important detail: 40 wrestlers had been tested for coronavirus and 15 wrestlers tested positive. This report just came out this morning; CMLL hasn’t said anything about it or the previous Planchitas report about Microman possibly having the virus. CMLL doesn’t often acknowledge injuries when it’s as little as a twisted ankle so it would be surprising if they did say something about coronavirus. This would be giant news if it came from any other source; with Planchitas it feels worth being aware of but not running with.

SuperLuchas wrote about Coacalco’s Arena San Franciso running full shows with no particular health safety conditions. This is only slightly different than the Arena Margarita shows in San Luis Potosi before in that they’re outdoor shows, but it seems like the same situation of a promotion just going on like normal and getting away with it because no one in charge wants to deal with it. (Like Arena Margarita, it’s unlikely anyone is making much money off these shows; it’s just something to do.) The information on this show is public because a photographer showed off photos without a care on his Facebook page. You can scroll through the rest of his page to see plenty of others to see plenty of other shows he’s attended and posted. The commissions have largely been reactive rather than proactive; this show getting attention will likely get Arena San Francisco shut down for a time, but scrolling through Facebook for obvious other red flags is unlikely to occur. (And there are other shows going on where no one’s dumb enough to brag about them online, but people in wrestling can find out easily enough and choose not to know.)

DTU announced their next iPPV scheduled to air on August 16th will now stream on August 30th. The explanation is is Hidalgo is moving from Orange to Red health conditions. Hidalgo was already in Red conditions, is remaining in Red conditions, and was in Red conditions when DTU filmed their first IPPV. It is possible DTU is genuinely doing this for health concerns. It’s also possible it is a bad idea to run a private show a couple of weeks after another promotion got in trouble for running a private show. (This is not a hint at secret knowledge, just common sense.) DTU is teasing CMLL and Lucha Time names to be announced for that show, and those may be announced tonight.

Cassandro has been the focus of many long-form articles and a couple of documentaries over the last decade. There will now be a feature film on his life. Deadline announced Gael Garcia Bernal will star in the independent film. The article doesn’t have any details on when it’ll start filming – that’s tough to do at the moment. It does mention they’re in talks with Amazon to distribute the movie.

A new documentary on Villano III Jr. went up on the Vizion Libre YouTube channel on Wednesday. Again, someone needs to make a virtual film festival of all the luchador documentaries.

The CMLL virtual media interviews included Metalico, who says the only way he’d return to wrestle is an exhibition match on a Virus retirement show and Terrible, who talked up his team with Texano while saying he’s got no interest in leaving CMLL. Leaving might have been more towards Los Ingobernables, who can’t be mentioned even in media interviews.

Mexico State referee Toby (Juan Carlos Garcia) passed away Wednesday. Garcia was most often seen in Arena Neza, though he also worked for IWRG occasionally. He’s said to be the programmer (booker) for the Promociones Sanchez group that ran Arena Neza. No cause of death is mentioned, though some reports allude to Toby being sick for many months.

Retired Juarez luchador El Costeno (Rodolfo Diaz Rodriguez) passed away Thursday.

Nino Asesino (Mario Alberto Ortiz Hernandez, 61) passed away Thursday.

Lucha-Masks.com and Lucha Central are running a “design your own facemask” contest. Details are in the link, you have until next Wednesday to draw up a concept, with a winner announced on August 19th. The winner will get to see their mask made and also get royalties off each mask sold, which is a better deal than usual for these sorts of contests.

The Rey Mysterio eye injury saga – still unresolved! – has led to a lot of articles about wrestling injuries. Terrible talked about his own eye injury and loss in his interviews. Former CMLL referee Baby Richard says he retired from that job due to his own eye loss. He told the La Tijera YouTube channel, which was pointed out by Los Pleyers. Babe/Baby Richard was a 80s/90s midcard luchador who became the lead referee in CMLL in the 00s, up until Tirantes supplanted him in that position after arriving in the 2010 “Invasors” storyline. Richard quietly disappeared after that, and it wasn’t ever public why. Richard, in the interview, says he got elbowed in the left eye by accident in a post match bit. (It doesn’t read like a bump from an angle, more one guy accidentally shoving him into it.) They were able to originally save it via transplant, but he got an infection and the left eye had to be removed and he decided to retire. He now runs a screen printing business.

Gran Metalik gets a WWE IC title match on tonight’s episode of SmackDown. It’s a rare big singles match for Metalik in WWE, and most of the ones he’s gotten has been short. That’s a reason why it is hard to have much interest in this one: either it also may not be much or Metalik will somehow get replaced before it happens. It’d be nice if it was better than that but WWE’s successfully trained me not go out of my way to check out Metalik matches.

Jack Evans and Angelico are apparently in Jacksonville this week because Jack Evans wrestles QT Marshall on the upcoming Tuesday AEW Dark episode. It’s possible this means they’ll be on Dynamite next week. Meanwhile, Penta & Fenix haven’t appeared in AEW in a few weeks; I’d like to believe they’re staging a walkout to protest the lack of a DQ for mask removal in that promotion.

Aeroboy is in the US this weekend. He’ll wrestle Friday and Saturday in IWA-MS’s King of the Deathmatch, which is airing on FITE, then wrestle in GALLI on Sunday.

Planeta Wrestling has an interview with Violento Jack, who welcomed a new daughter into the family during the pandemic.

Aramis has joined Jonathan Gresham’s Foundation. I still have no idea what this is.

Friday is the next coronoavirus update day for Mexico. Mexico City typically has a press conference at noon to announce their status. There’s a country-wide press conference to announce the health status for all the states at 6 pm, though there was no update last time. A Yellow traffic light means closed-door shows can be approved. A Yellow traffic light for Mexico City would be surprising; the mayor says the number of patients in hospitals is rising, and it needs to actually fall under a certain limit to reach that Yellow status.

There’s no definite conclusion to the Vanguardia shut down show saga. Crazy Boy appeared on CuadrilateroTV Facebook video show, saying he and DTU had nothing to do with it. Crazy Boy’s position is he’s so focused on his own work that he doesn’t even know what else is going on; he was contacted by someone asking if he was running a show but didn’t even know it was happening or who was running it. (This story also helpfully fits into the DTU narrative of the Vanguardia guys still seen by normal people as DTU stars and Vanguardia not having succeeded on their own.)

The Crazy Boy interview doesn’t seem to change anyone’s mind. The fanbases of those two promotions are polarized to see each other as the enemy, even while the promotions are making the case there’s room for both of them. (There is, because no one’s really making much money on all of this; if the business was the real concern, both would be making more out of their older content or working on any other way to make money outside of running shows.) The people who are publicly staying neutral are Mas Lucha, who avoided talking about the situation until late in their podcast and suggested many other possibilities for who could’ve called the authorities on Vanguardia. DTU & Vanguardia are two of the only Mas Lucha promotions left running at the moment, so the production outlet isn’t really in a position to take sides.

I suspect Vanguardia will quietly try to run that show again sometime in the next couple of weekends; probably whatever weekend DTU isn’t running since they’ll need Mas Lucha to film it.

El Hijo del Santo told digitalmex (probably reprinted from elsewhere) why a mask match between himself and Blue Demon Jr. could never happen. Is it the money? The ego? The lack of a sturdy promotion to support it? No, it is none of these things. El Hijo del Santo explains that the mask match between them has never and will never happen because the fans would be too depressed if one of them no longer had a mask. He believes that’s why their fathers never faced off either. Strangely, this does not stop Santo from wanting to do that mask match with Atlantis, “because at least I lose it toa g great luchador if I lost.” He would absolutely not be losing.

Veracruz luchador/promoter Rayo Vengador’s death this past Saturday is now reported as COVID-19 related.

While not listed on the card under that name, one of the Generacion XXI wrestlers worked under the name (and mask) of Coronavirus on their recent secret show.

Xalapa luchador Tigre Cosmico says empty arena shows are stopped in the city. A recent wave of infections and three deaths (Pitufo, Anticristo, and Gabriel o Gabriela) convinced the wrestlers they’d be better off in quarantine. Pitufo & Anticristo had not previously been acknowledged as It’s unclear if those cases came from those shows; I think Gabriel o Gabriela’s case is suspected as occurring at another outing.

There was another round of sign-ups for loans at the Mexico City lucha libre commission’s office. There are 25,000 peso loans, to be paid back within 33 months. The sign-ups included wrestlers, referees, advertisers, mask makers, vendors. It also included wrestlers from Mexico State (IWRG) and Hidalgo. All of this is an expansion from the original Mexico City luchador only focus, though the wrestlers are still required to be licensed.

NVI Noticias has a nice bio of Oaxaca luchador Increíble (Silverio Miguel Jiménez Orozco). It’s a sign of the time that I had to keep checking to see if he had died recently. Instead, it’s a different reason a luchador might be profiled at the moment: Increible lost the lower half of his left arm in a childhood accident and still was able to become a luchador.

Terrible, Reyna Isis, Tiger, and Hijo del Villano III will appear on CMLL Informa this week. That’s less than usual, though they’ve also been adding some of the non-Julio Cesar Rivera announced as guests.

Arena Guatemala Mexico says they’ll be announcing a return date soon. Shopping malls and restaurants started to re-open in the country on Monday. Mexican name wrestlers usually cross the border south to work in that arena a few times a year. That border is currently closed but I wonder if we might see more names than usual if wrestling does open up there first.

Murder Clown wants a shot at the AAA Megachampionship. I wish wrestling could still be a thing so there Kenny Omega versus Murder Clown would be a thing to dream about. (Note that Murder Clown refers to the champion as “whoever has it”, so maybe he’s not dreaming about it.)

LuchaTalk returns with the first part of a discussion about the Mistico boom.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia drive-in show canceled

Hidalgo based Vanguardia was to have the first drive-in show in Mexico on Saturday night. The show was originally supposed to air live on Mas Lucha, but switched late to airing on delay. Saturday night came and went without anything being said about the show. Ciclope, on his personal Facebook account, revealed the show had been shut down by the authorities moments before it was set to start. He apologized to the fans. Ciclope blamed an unnamed lucha libre person for alerting the authorities.

Comments by Vanguardia and others close to the promotion indicate they believe Crazy Boy & DTU are responsible for shutting down the show. Vanguardia is run by former DTU who left to form their own group. There have been occasional negative comments between the two promotions. It appears the younger wrestlers for both groups were told to pick one or the other. There’s not previously been sabotage. Vanguardia hasn’t publicized any proof Crazy Boy is responsible. Crazy Boy has said nothing. He is scheduled to appear for an interview on CuadrilateroTV tonight at 7 pm.

The other side of this is the Vanguardia show got shut down because it didn’t have the approval to exist. Vanguardia’s show was happening in a secret location, on a date announced very late, and not promoted much in the last day, seemingly in hopes of not getting found. Whoever called the authorities could only do it because Vanguardia was running a show they weren’t allowed to run. It’s was a bad idea for someone to call the authorities on them – DTU’s shows don’t appear to be any more legal, if it was them – but it also might be a bad idea to have wrestling shows during a pandemic. There is only unhappiness in what happened with this show but it was always a possible outcome.

Vanguardia held a Facebook press conference Sunday, mentioning they’ll have news on a next show on Monday.

Salvador Lutteroth on Comic-Con At Home

The San Diego Comic Con panel on lucha libre went live on YouTube on Saturday. It was pre-taped, in Spanish with English captions. It didn’t have time to go deep: everyone on the panel got one moment to talk about their own history with lucha libre and a second to talk about the legacy and future of lucha libre. Both Rey Misterio Sr. and the Lucha Libe Musuem’s Mauricio Limon were particularly concerned about the future of lucha libre for the same reasons I’ve heard for two decades; people not getting enough training or quality training before becoming wrestlers, commissions not being strict enough, too much flying, etc. CMLL’s Salvador Lutteroth – the younger of the father/son team understood to be running CMLL for about a year – was more positive about the future. There was no big discovery from any of his comments, though there was a consistent pattern: the success of lucha libre, and CMLL primarily, is due to developing the talents and abilities of Mexican wrestlers. Lutteroth spoke about this in reference to his grandfather (Salvador Lutteroth Gonzalez) starting the promotion, to maintaining the support of the fans for 87 years, and to the future of wrestling. It seems rare for a wrestling promoter to say “our future is dependent on our luchadors having really good matches our fans appreciate“, but there’s a lot of preserving the tradition/seriousness that makes Mexican people proud in there as well.

That view of CMLL and lucha libre, depend on development and good matches, suggests the people in charge of training are the most important people to the promotion. It also says the promotion and lucha libre will struggle when those talents aren’t being developed. The closest thing to palace intrigue is Salvador Lutteroth referring to himself as the third of four generations involved in promoting CMLL, which either means Sofia Alonso still counts or maybe there’s there another Lutteroth involved. This Lutteroth seemed to be interested and proud of lucha libre and its place in Mexico’s culture, but also notably did not mention a single luchador by name. Not a past one, not a current one.

(I took some screenshots for history’s sake.)

Planchitas Report: Microman is among four CMLL luchadors rumored to have coronavirus maybe

The story, reported Saturday, goes like this: Julio Cesar Rivera passed along gossip to various luchadors that there are currently four luchadors in the promotion who have the illness. Planchitas only mentions Microman by name. People close to Microman confirmed he is ill, but he will not confirm or deny that he has coronavirus. Planchitas track record is not great and they’re passing along second-hand gossip in this case. Microman is not very active on social media and hasn’t said anything about the situation. CMLL has not either. The story has gotten little traction.

For my purposes, I’ve decided I’m not going to report coronavirus rumors unless people are missing shows during it, or a reliable source mentions it. There are no shows so that first part isn’t a concern. It’s unclear if Planchitas is more reliable than a random social media page at this point.

That same Planchitas column notes Salvador Lutteroth was spotted at a public meeting with the mayor of Cuauthemoc, the area where Arena Mexico is located, apparently looking at the possibility of running “audiovisual shows” (movies?) in the building if they can’t do wrestling. There’s also a mention of Lutteroth talking about different Mexico City venues to run. The one mentioned is an indoor venue, which seems like it’d be as unsafe to run as the ones CMLL owns.

Other News

R de Rudo did a lot of strong work to figure out how San Luis Potosi’s Arena Margarita was able to run shows with full attendance. This was the arena that caught attention for a full building of about 220 fans (plus wrestlers), at a time where indoor events are supposed to be limited to ten people. Arena Margarita is located in Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, where there is no lucha libre commission. It’s next door to the capital San Luis Potosi, which does have a commission but has no power outside of the city’s borders. The MARKA promotion at Arena Margarita says they got government permission. R de Rudo went to the different authorities and found some said no show was sanctioned and others said a show was allowed only at 25% capacity, but they sent no one to see if that policy was enforced. The building had switched to that 25% standard the past weeks, but this week the show was canceled by the government.

Vanguardia and Arena Margarita are far from the other places running lucha libre shows without authorization. Most are being a lot more clandestine about it. They’re like bars during prohibition; eventually, someone’s a bit too public about it and it gets shut down. Video of a show in Gomez Palacio posted on briefly Facebook. The shows at whatever hidden place had apparently been happening regularly, but the video was quickly disappeared so they wouldn’t be found out. None of this seems sustainable or a good idea.

This week’s Box Y Lucha #3432 has an article critical for Fantasma for not permitting shows while also agreeing to an autograph signing on August 1st; they’re not clear how one can be legal and not the other. There’s also an article about the CMLL Pequeno Estrellas division which mentions some previous characters for the longest-running minis. Ultimo Dragoncito’s been acknowledged as wrestling Misterosito before the larger version left for AAA. This adds that Pierrothito wrestled as “Iceberg” before coming to CMLL and Pequeno Olimpico/Cicloncito Ramirez wrestled as “Pequeno Gangster.” Sadly, there are no photos of Pequeno Gangster. This latest Box Y Lucha attempt at digital issues has gone off without a problem for me, much better than before. I think I’ve reached the end of my four issue subscription and I’ll probably re-up again.

Veracruz luchador and promoter Rayo Justiciero (Joel Eusebio Yépez Román) passed away Saturday. He ran the Coliseo Fraternidad arena in the city and was a member of the local commission at one point. This obit mentions the Rayo Justiciero name comes from his fandom of Rayo de Jalisco. Rayo Justicero wrestled in the 60s/70s, and an old photo shows the mask was similiar.

Queretaro luchador Fantasma Negro (José Luis Ballesteros Farfán) passed away Wednesday.

Pachuca luchador Chistorete (Angel Potanza Islas) passed away Friday.

María del Refugio Segura González, the wife of Humberto Garza, passed away on Saturday.

Bolivian luchador Ali Farak (Mario Averanga Cornejo, 79) passed away.

Inspired by the Rey Mysterio Jr. madness, Miguel Reducindo writes about luchadors with one or no arms.

El Sol de Tampico has a long interview with former CMLL luchadora Luna Magica, who debuted at the age for 14 and was advised to leave home at the age of 16 to have a bigger career. She came to Mexico City because of an AAA open casting call (held by referee Piero) for new women. They had a minimum height of 160 cm to participate. Luna Magica was 150 cm but they let her tryout anyone, and she was one of few to pass. She was also still a minor, so AAA couldn’t actually hire her, and ended up going home to Ciudad Madero until coming back to be part of CMLL. She was teaching classes back around Mexico City, wants to return to Arena Mexico someday, and is making tamales during the pandemic.

Box Y Lucha has an interview with La Yaqui, the first woman to lose her mask in Mexico City after the ban on women’s wrestling was rescinded.

An article about the 50s-70s lucha libre boom in Venezuela has a retired wrestler claiming their TV show would do a “96 ratings points” at the peak. The show was eventually banned by the president because children would get hurt by imitating what they saw.

 

An interview with Morelos’ Falkho.

El Grafico has an interview with Sexy Violeta.

Mexico City will remain in orange health conditions next week, which means lucha libre shows will continue to not be permitted. The specifics are slightly worse than last week. Mexico City’s mayor pushed more citizens to wear face masks to reduce the rate of infection.

El Fantasma held a press conference Wednesday around another distribution of pantry items to luchadors out of work during the coronavirus crisis. Medicine was also given out to those in need. Doing these very public events puts Fantasma in the middle of the spotlight, but they also draw public attention to the issues and may help get more donations for the next month. Mas Lucha talked to Fantasma about possible restarts for AAA & CMLL. Fantasma showed off a CMLL request to run reduced capacity shows (video title says 50% but I thought he meant 50 people) while saying it’s out of his hands – the Mexico City government will not give approval until they reach a yellow health light. AAA appears to be in the same situation; Fantasma mentions they presented him the idea three weeks ago in the longer version of the interview but they can’t run either until government approval. Fantasma encourages luchadors to look for other work options besides lucha libre during this period.

Salvador Lutteroth, the person who is running CMLL at the moment, appears on a Comic-Con panel this Saturday at 7 pm CT. It’ll air in YouTube and should be available there afterward. I think it’s been taped in advance and will likely be in Spanish. There’s no expectation of news coming from this, but we don’t even have the broadest hints of what the person in charge of CMLL thinks about lucha libre at the moment so the littlest references might have give some insight. The Lutteroth family is based in Tijuana, which might be how this came about.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia is running this weekend, a show airing at 8 pm on Mas Lucha’s YouTube channel (so presumably free.) They’re the first drive-in lucha libre show in Mexico. They’re not the first one that announced, and this is an idea borrowed from the US. It serves as a preview for AAA’s attempt at the same, which will probably get more attention.

Vanguardia (SAT) 07/25/2020 Tulancingo, Hidalgo
1) Draztick Boy © vs Eclipse Jr., Cobre [BMLL CRUISER]
2) Billy & Murdock vs Falcón Fire & Misionero
3) Alfa vs Máscara De Ángel
4) Gasparín & Símbolo Azteca vs Amnesia & Aster Boy vs Príncipe Aéreo & Resplandor [BMLL TAG]
5) Caballero de Atena, Dragón Boy, Jitsu, Rey Dragón vs Crazy King, Fly Star, Miedo Extremo [infierno death match]

The Draztick Boy matches are always good and the main event sounds like it’s going to be an unusual stipulation. (Cars and fire might not be the greatest combo though.) The names in the other three matches really blend together, and hopefully will be able to distinguish themselves more.

Vanguardia also announced Latigo would appear on the show, so matches may be added. Also, it appears Rey Dragon is getting at least a new look. There are too many Dragons in lucha libre so I hope it’s a new name too. DTU has a Dragon Suicida, Vanguardia has a Dragon Boy and a Rey Dragon and I could not tell any of them apart unless they wear that name on their gear.

Speaking of names: Billy is the ex-Billy Gamer, no longer under that name because Billy Gamer was a DTU gimmick.

CMLL’s Wednesday virtual media tour included Blue Panther and Hijo del Signo, who both have mask matches airing this week. Panther versus Villano V airs on Televisa (and YouTube the following week), while the Signo/Yago vs Akuma/Camorra mask match airs on TV Mexquiense tonight. Panther mentioned he’s never actually watched the 2007 match where he lost his mask. There’s an old tall tale about that match: Villano V left the ringside area briefly with his brother and the story was the Villano who came back out to face Blue Panther was actually Villano IV subbing in. Caristico, among others, pushed that as a possibility after the match. Panther, for the record, says he believes it was the same Villano V throughout the match. Mystique was also interviewed; she’s got an eclectic list of favorite luchadors. Starman also talked; he’s been in CMLL for twenty five years and think he just needs one chance and he’ll go to the top.

On Keepin’ it 100, Konnan mentions the Auto Luchas ring will have a roof over it, so they’ll be able to run even if it rains. He also mentioned the matches would be more stand-alone and not be tied in with TV storylines. It was pushed as a way to do different match-ups, which was a highlight of the Lucha Fighter season.

Lucha Time some months ago hyped a match where the ring broke. It aired this week. I assume that also means the end of their five weeks of shows, since the ring breaking is probably the last match to air. They may be taping again, they keep it pretty quiet. Which is sort of the bigger issue. Lucha Time is strange in that they taped lots of TV, but then the only mention of it is poster that comes out late Wednesday and a Facebook stream on Thursday. They put in a lot of work getting shows done in a pandemic but not much in promoting it. If Mas Lucha didn’t post some results, I’d forget it existed. It seems targets just at Monterrey fans so that’s probably OK.

Mascara Año 2000 (Jesus Reyes) posted an interview with Mas Lucha to reveal a new ‘son.’ Bless Mas Lucha for also writing an article about it, because I’d never be able to follow this situation otherwise.

• the current Mascara Año 2000 Jr. (“Angel Reyes”?), the one who lost a mask match to Dr. Wagner Jr. on the 2012 TripleMania, is not actually Jesus Reyes’ son and is no longer allowed to use the name. It’s unclear what name he will use.
  • Jesus says Angel was renting the name but stopped paying after he lost his mask, arguing he was only paying for that. We’re led to believe Jesus was unhappy but allowed this usage to continue until now.
• the new Mascara Año 2000 Jr. is also not Jesus Reyes’s son. He’s a 29-year luchador who has been wrestling under another name and is one of Jesus Reyes top students. Jesus required him to get a university degree; he’s got one and is working on becoming a lawyer.
• Hijo de Mascara Año 2000, who’s apparently in CMLL’s school but hasn’t been seen outside of glimpses with the rest of the Dinamitas, is also not Jesus Reyes son. This one at least is related – he’s Forastero’s brother, Jesus’ nephew.

There is some social media push back on this, for the idea a Mascara 2000 Jr. is unmasked and another one can be trotted out with the same mask. To me, it’s more why bother? Jesus Reyes bothers with it because it’s free income, but the name hasn’t helped the CMLL guy get booked. It probably was the reason “Angel Reyes” got into AAA, though he may have gotten the TripleMania booking just because he was a bigger masked man who could lose in a stable without an alternative. It hasn’t helped him much after that. Taking on a junior of a famous wrestler gets a luchador mid-level indie bookings and guarantees no more. Even if they do get over, that name can be pulled away from the “son” at any time. Luchadors take these names because it’s presented as a huge honor – “my mentor wants me to carry on his legacy (for only a small monthly fee)” – but it comes off more as younger wrestlers getting played.

Psycho Clown, Konnan, Chessman, Dave the Clown, Lady Shani, Maximo, and Texano will be in a LigaMX prediction pool sponsored by newspaper Record, where the person with the worst record will endure some punishment.

WWE announced a new Latin America General Manager, Klaudia Bermudez-Key. Her background is in television, which suggests they’re focusing on their TV deals in the region.

Virus has joined Arez & Jonathan Gresham in the Foundation. I still do not understand what this is.

Queretaro’s Fantasma Negro passed away recently. A Tabasco Funebre I is also recently mentioned as passing away, but the photo being used is the same for a Funebre II last year so I’m not sure of it.

NVI Noticias has a obituary for Oaxaca’s Relampago Gomez.

El Manana has an obituary for Imagen de Oro (Edgar Exiqui Duran Espino, 36). There’s a mention that he died four days after getting ill, though no mention as to the disease.

Segunda Caida watches some 1999 Mr. Niebla.