El Audaz (Domenico Bazán León, 73), passed away Tuesday. Audaz was active in the 60s, though his greatest fame came in the 70s. He won the UWA Lightweight Heavyweight Championship in 1976. That title win came reportedly came in Audaz’s hometown of Veracruz. It was likely just to build him up before his mask loss the next month, but must’ve felt like quite a day. He and Solitario lost the finals of a relevos suicidas against Anibal & Rayo de Jalisco, then Solitario unmasked Audaz in a mask match. That’s three Hall of Famers and also Audaz, which probably didn’t leave much suspense as to who was losing their mask that day. SuperLuchas obit describes Audaz as a man caught between two careers and eventually leaving lucha libre behind to go full time in music. He was a performer, a promoter and a producer for many years after retiring for the ring; you can see him perform here.
The CMLL Audaz is no relation to this Audaz, just part of CMLL’s practice of re-using battle names.
Acapulco 70s/80s luchador El Musulman also passed away, according to fellow local luchador Aristoteles and pointed out Furia de Titanes.
+LuchaTV had Marco Moreno on to talk about the issues around IWRG and the Mexico State commission. I didn’t notice much news there. On a different topic, Moreno brought up a recent Dorian Roldan’s mention of wanting an AAA Performance Center and said he and AAA had talked about using Arena Naucalpan for the concept. AAA and IWRG students would train together during the week at the building, while weekly IWRG shows would continue. This came off as something Moreno had pitched to AAA, not something that was close to happening or in the works.
There’s a history there. The Moreno family has been promoting wrestling in Mexico State for nearly sixty years, but the “IWRG” name started as a collaboration between the Morenos and Ultimo Dragon. He supplied Japanese trainees for a wrestling school; they lived next door and trained at the building in the same way Moreno is proposing for AAA wrestlers. Roldan’s idea was specifically about having a place for international wrestlers to train, so housing may be a necessary part of it. AAA’s come up in rumors about buying Arena Naucalpan or creating a bigger alliance in the past. There’s an in-character promo by Dorian Roldan & Konnan on +LuchaTV’s channel around five years ago with them teasing buying Arena Naucalpan, which set off rumors AAA was actually working of it. That didn’t seem to go anywhere.
There are challenges for picking Arena Naucalpan as a performance center. It’s possible to get to it via the subway plus a microbus service, but it’s still a long hike from AAA’s offices; an ideal building would probably be in Mexico City itself or closer to the AAA offices. It’s also in an insecure area; IWRG seems to have moved their start times to afternoons to make sure their fans and personal are safely out of the area before it gets too dark. The safety of the neighborhood is outside of Arena Naucalpan’s control, but it’s not an ideal situation to place international wrestlers unfamiliar with Mexico. There does seem to be a bunch of unused space behind the walls seen by fans. These are not issues to rule out but things that would have to be figured out if this were to happen.
Berenice Marquez is better known as La Reina de Chocolate; she’s AAA’s most visible edecan. There are no AAA events now. I was once told she also worked as a manager at a dance club, which also isn’t happening now. So, for the moment, Berenice Marquez is a micro-restauranteur, cooking and selling hamburgers & hot dogs. There’s video too; she’s making the food at home and getting orders via Whatsapp. Reforma also profiled indie luchador Yoruba’s own food business.
Shocker, Negro Casas, Rey Bucanero, Sanson, Cuatrero, and La Jarochita will be on CMLL Informa today.
DTU 07/17 “A Cielo Abierto” iPPV
- Brazo de Oro Jr. & Brazo Celestial vs Fight Panther & Aero Panther vs Moria & Drolux
- Diosa Quetzal, Tiburon, Kevin vs Princesa Azul, Samuray Jr., Black Fire
- Shun Skywalker vs Pesadilla vs Yoshioka vs Blaze vs Gran Cobra vs Dragon Suicida vs Brazo Cibernetico
There’s likely 2-3 more matches to be added.
MicromanFever translated an interview with Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.. The one hall of the current GHC Tag Team Champions mentioned he originally had tour dates with NOAH for June, August and September and now it’s September when he’ll be returning.
You probably remember Stu Bennett as WWE’s Wade Barrett. Here, he’s relevant as “that guy who showed up in the last 30 seconds of the last ever Lucha Underground episode as the big guy behind everything.” Postwrestling has an interview with Barrett about the more famous parts of his career and also that cameo. The general idea behind it (season 5 would’ve been a battle between seven reps of the Aztec tribes and the seven people given god-like powers by the evil side) came up before, though the details of his casting are a bit new. LU wanted Bennett for that role and it worked out that he happened to be in Los Angeles working on other things in time to film for a few hours. Bennett seems pretty definite that he was told there was no money or approval for a fifth season when he agreed to do the deal, just a hope it would come together. The LU production story has been they did have a deal for multiple seasons, but Season 4 was a bit of a production nightmare, MGM wasn’t going to produce a fifth season without more money, and El Rey was not going to change the already agreed-upon deal.
Box Y Lucha reposted a 2000 interview with El Dandy, who says he’s working some dates in Mexico with MAX PROAD while waiting for his WCW contract to be renewed. (WCW was not renewing his contract.) El Dandy says he started as a masked wrestler under that name, but Arena Coliseo Guadalajara promoter Rey Plata told him he not to wear it after two months, he was better of without one.
A report on runners returning to track around Mexico City’s Deportivo Plan Sexenal notes there’s still no opening date for the building itself, which has held many wrestling events over the years.
Saltillo’s Arena Tigre Padilla has re-opened for training, though they’re limiting it to seven students at a time.
A memorial show for El Picudo is planned for 10/04 in Arena San Juan. I hope that can happen.
ESTO has an interview with Reina Dorada, which may be a bit old; she talks about hoping to return to the ring soon and not the +LuchaTV tournament.
El Sol de Tampico profiles Los Aranas Malignas.
Lineups
Lucha Time (THU) 07/02/2020 Arena Lucha Time, Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) Saizo vs Infierno
2) Muerte Extreme & Sick Boy vs Alex Black & Punk Clown
3) Baby Xtreme vs Medico Brujo
4) Epydemius & The Mummy vs Azrael & Hijo Del Espectro Jr.
This will be streaming on their Facebook page; last week’s Facebook show was posted on YouTube a few days later.
IAW (SAT) 07/11/2020 Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Ciclón Infernal & Hera vs Kendy & La Fuerza
2) Kunay vs Heroe Romero [falls count anywhere]
3) Energía vs Jitsu
4) Lady Cat vs Star Fire, Lilith Dark, Miss Delicious
5) Tromba vs Arez vs Látigo
The date is there just to put a date there. This will air in parts on YouTube from July 14th and July 17th, where they’ve also been showing matches from a trainee/veteran competition. While the Lucha Time show has no obvious strings attached, this is another charity show – Citibanamex 4766-8413-0181-4391 – thought the idea here is that people who donate now will be able to buy discounted tickets when they can sell tickets again.
Energia/Jitsu is three falls match with three different rules for each fall.