Mexico will likely not get a coronavirus vaccine in 2020, according to a report by Mexico’s IPN and the University of Oxford. There are “at least 136” projects at creating a vaccine worldwide. Four of those are happening in Mexico, but they’re not thought far enough along to produce a vaccine this year. Projects in other countries are farther along, but there’s no guarantee Mexico will be able to get a supply. It’s going to be tough for major shows in Mexico to allow full attendance without a vaccine, a treatment, or a dramatic reduction in COVID-19 cases. The first and the third options seem unlikely any time soon.
A simple video of fathers and daughters who are luchadors caused one of those “fathers” to disown his “daughter.” Hijo del Anibalsaw the video included himself and Princesa Azul and wrote an all caps statement on Facebook disavowing Princesa Azul on Monday. Anibal Jr. said Princesa Azul is not really his daughter, and not related to the Anibal family. Anibal Jr. was immediately revoking permission for Princesa Azul to use the name and the Anibal-related look. Anibal Jr. said he both registered the look and filled a Mexico trademark for the name. (He has not actually filed a trademark for the name at last check.)
It wasn’t immediately clear why Anibal wanted this separation and wanted it immediately. He attempted to walk it back Tuesday, saying he had actually talked to Princesa Azul and her father beforehand and they were ok with changing the name. Anibal Jr. talked positively about Princesa Azul and negatively against the people who criticized his original post. Nothing about the original post comes off like it was planned, and it’d be a terrible plan to announce that change as he did, but the story might have been believable had Princesa Azul confirmed the story.
Princesa Azul did not confirm Anibal Jr.’s story. She instead posted a mostly vague statement, acknowledging a controversy and saying she’d address it later. The key part of the post was the hashtag #NoAlAcoso, something associated speaking out against violence (often of a sexual nature) from men against women. It’s not so far off from #SpeakingOut. Pasala asked Princesa Azul about that part of it. Azul talked about a harassment situation and hinted at it being sexual. “I felt harassed…I felt uncomfortable about doing those things…I just wanted respect for my body and myself.” The implication is Azul turned down Anibal Jr. (her fake father!)’s advances and so Anibal took away the gimmick. Anibal has since removed those original posts from public view – I presume deleted, but he may have just made them private. Anibal’s Facebook page now has male friends talking posting about what a great man he is and how they know the real him and they don’t believe any of the stories, a sure sign someone has screwed up big time.
These are all non-CMLL/AAA figures, and of obscure to most people not following lucha libre. The original Anibal was a great star in Mexico from the 60s to the late 80s who passed away due to cancer. Anibal Jr.’s had some stints in AAA and CMLL but never stuck, solidly in the group of juniors who didn’t come close to their father’s name. That fame has helped him to become a promoter around Mexico State but not of great consequence; he’s a lesser Tinieblas Junior. Princesa Azul is an indie luchadora who first started getting a lot of work (at least under that name) in 2018 and is one of the more popular unsigned women. There’s some indication that Princesa Azul was originally a trainee of Anibal Jr., and occasionally a trainer to offer the use of his name to a promising student. That name often comes at a price, with the student kicking back something of their booking fees to the trainer while using the name. Those booking fees aren’t coming as normal during a pandemic, so my original thought was a financial deal gone bad. Princesa Azul’s alleging something far worse, the sort of older male trainer preying on a female trainee that was a frequent refrain in the #SpeakingOut discussion.
The Princesa Azul has the Anibal eye features but otherwise looks like it’s own deal and Anibal has no sole ownership on the color blue. I think Princesa Azul might be able to legally get away with the name and a variation of the mask, but Anibal Jr. might still hassle her about it. He might not if he’s afraid of more of the story coming out. If Princesa Azul can not use that name and identity, that seems like a nuisance for +LuchaTV and DTU. They both probably already taped material with her in it that’s yet to stream. I assume they’ll just ignore the issue for now; DTU’s already put up a supportive post and will have Princesa Azul on their Thursday night radio show. +LuchaTV has not covered this story at all to this point. They did cover #SpeakingOut when it came to non-Mexican wrestlers and they could just be waiting for when they’d be talking to Princesa Azul for their tournament to weight in on this story as well. Edit: unclear why I keep thinking Azul is in the Mas Lucha tournament because she’s not.
Similarly, Principe de Seda (who bills himself as the grandson of Huracan Ramirez Daniel Garcia) says he will no longer allow “Princesa de Seda” to use that name or portray themselves as part of the family. No reason is given. A fake Huracan Ramirez family member is about normal; it’s unclear if Principe de Seda is actually part of Garcia family or has the right to decide Princesa de Seda’s name. Neither name is trademarked. Neither wrestles all that much or on notable shows when they do wrestle.
CMLL did a one-day tribute to Paco Alonso, marking the one year anniversary of his death. Some of the 10 items listed as part of his legacy are a bit of a stretch, but the most glaring part of the tribute was the omission. Paco Alonso’s literal legacy, Sofia Alonso, isn’t mentioned at all. CMLL’s wiped luchadors like Rush and Konnan from their history for leaving the promotion, and CMLL’s essentially done the same thing with the person who was running the place this time last year. Sofia herself doesn’t appear to have publicly marked the date either; her rarely updated Instagram has no recent photos, nothing to indicate the date. The Instagram account lists her as CMLL commercial director, but she’s very quietly doing that job if she’s still involved with CMLL at all. The videos of CMLL wrestlers talking about how much they love Paco Alonso as a boss fit oddly alongside the reality of how they allowed his daughter to be pushed aside after a few months. Sofia’s lack of involvement is not truly surprising, a testament to how much she’s been completely pushed out of the picture.
Chavo Lutteroth Jr. and Sr. are apparently the ones in charge of CMLL at the moment, but they’re not visible. Julio Cesar Rivera has essentially become the corporate face of CMLL with no one else pushed into that position; he was the one who (somewhat off handily) announced CMLL’s requirements to return last week. This week, he has Universo 2000 Jr., Raziel, Cancerbero, Disturbio, Hijo del Signo, Ultimo Dragoncito, and Pequeno Pierrothito on CMLL Informa.
Australian Suicide and Vanilla announced Vanilla is pregnant with the couple’s first child. Gotta keep busy during the quarantine. Congratulations to both.
Vampiro’s talk show debuts on El Rey Network tomorrow at 8 pm CT. It’ll probably be good if you are into Vampiro and maybe not so much otherwise.
Furia de Titanes announced a tournament to be streamed on Facebook and YouTube starting July 19th. They’ve promoted shows before but it’s odd for them to promote one now. The news side of that site has been against running lucha libre shows and unauthorized ones, so maybe these are not actually lucha libre matches and something other competition.
You may vaguely remember a women’s wrestling competition by the name of Heronias, which was scheduled to launch this spring with weekly shows before the pandemic hit. There were around 48 women, there were coaches, I wrote up a whole big list, it was a thing. It hasn’t actually been a thing because of the pandemic, but the lack of an actual lucha libre promotion doesn’t mean there can’t be drama around a lucha libre promotion. Quimera, who was one of the women originally in the field and is no longer, told R de Rudo that the women had to pay 1500 pesos to enter the competition, with the idea that the winner would take home 100,000 pesos. She’s skeptical there was ever really 100,000 pesos and thinks maybe some people didn’t have to pay. (The promoter raked in 72,000 pesos if everyone did.) I don’t remember that coming out in the promotion of the event, and it seems like something you’d promote. Quimera says the women were told they would be paid by match as well, but obviously there are now no matches. There was also never a written contract. When the person in charge of the Heronias competition, Cesar Marca, started declaring where else the women could appear and where they were allowed to sell merchandise, Quimera had enough of that and left the competition.
Diario Basta talks about Mr. Iguana about his journey to signing an AAA contract.
Lucha Noticias had an Instagram interview with Stephanie Vaquer, focusing more on her time in that 2018 WWE Latin America tryout. That tryout took place in Chile and Vaquer says she believes a WWE Latin America Performance Center was planned for that country (and not Mexico.) She’s not sure if it’s still happening due to pandemic.
GALLI and Vanguardia announced an alliance, same as the GAW and Vanguardia mentioned a week ago. GALLI’s indicated they plan on running again sometime this month; I don’t know of much wrestling happening in the Chicago area happening yet.
Aeroboy is announced for the July 31th/August 1st in IWA-MS King of the Deathmatches tournament, which must mean he feels he’ll be able to get in the US by the end of the month. Only essential travel is permitted between Mexico and the US through July 21st, a date that’s been pushed back twice. People have found way through despite that ban. EDIT: The travel ban is only being enforced on ground travel so Aeroboy (and others) can get there if they can get flights.
Laredo Kid & Black Taurus are among those advertised on a Texas-based indie wrestling expo on August 28-29th, so they also believe they’ll be able to travel by then. This was an expo originally pushed back from June.
+LuchaTV’s podcast focused on Perro Aguayo’s career.
The W Hotel in Mexico City has re-modeled with a lucha libre theme to play into mask wearing during the pandemic.
AAA’s website was back working Tuesday morning.
El Horizonte has a profile of Monterrey’s Hell Raider.
El Debate writes about Sinaloa’s El Sinaloense.