TripleMania postponed indefinitely, AAA to run drive-in shows, Mas Lucha premium tech struggles, DTU

TripleMania is indefinitely postponed according to Dorian Roldan in a video press conference today. Roldan hoped they’d still get to have the event in 2020, but they do not have a new date at this point. Nothing was specifically said about moving the show to Monterrey, as SuperLuchas has mentioned was a possibility over the weekend. Roldan did say they were looking at all options, mentioning the idea of moving the show out of Mexico City if other states were doing better by October. The separate TripleMania Regia event is currently still in plans for October 10 in Monterrey, but it’s completely up to the health situation and there’s no way to know for sure this far out.

AAA will be trying different concepts to run shows between now and whenever normal shows can once again happen. Dorian Roldan announced Auto Luchas, a drive-in wrestling concept to take place at Six Flags Mexico. Cars will park in assigned places to watch a show in a ring raised a little higher than usual so everyone can see. There will also be screens set up around the area in case of obscured views. Fans will buy tickets digitally, will be required to wear facemasks, and stay in their cars during the show. Roldan mentioned they’ll be taking all sanitary conditions. (There’s was no specific mention of COVID testing for the wrestlers; Roldan early mentioned no AAA wrestler had tested positive.) Special merchandise will be sold at the shows, including facemasks. Cars will be limited to 4 people for a regular-sized car, 7 for a SUV. AAA will broadcast commentary on radio for the fans to listen in.

There’s no date for the start of these Auto Luchas shows; they’re waiting for the green light from the government to run these. (That may take a Yellow health light, though Dorian mentioning working off health protocols set up by soccer and other sports to get approval.) The Auto Luchas shows will take place on the weekends and multiple times a day; they’re planning to run this basically like a theme park stage show. Matches will be 1v1 and 2v2, tending more towards the singles. There will be no international wrestler due to current travel issues. No prices were announced. Neither was the capacity. Dorian Roldan mentioned AAA is in talks of streaming or airing these shows and talks are positive, but nothing was solid yet. In general, Roldan mentioned empty arena sports – wrestling included – is not profitable for anyone sport in Mexico and so they’d be trying to avoid that direction. Auto Luchas is possible because AAA will make some money from tickets and some from sponsorships, but running something like TripleMania in an empty arena as WWE has done wouldn’t make sense.

Auto Luchas sounds like a reasonable attempt for AAA (and Six Flags Mexico) to make some money. I’m not sure a bunch of cars surrounding a ring is going to look good. Blaring car horns and multiple shows a day probably won’t make for the best environment to watch a lucha libre show, but that seems like a small concern at the moment. It seems almost certain we’ll be able to see these shows; AAA’s in a situation where they’re better off holding off for the best deal they can rather than just putting shows on Twitch for the sake of it, and TV is going to need whatever content they can get. The reality that there’s no start date to Auto Luchas means there’s no urgency in getting that part of the deal done.

AAA otherwise remains as paralyzed by the health issues as everyone else. TripleMania and everything will happen if and only if conditions change, and there’s not much AAA can do about that.

DTU (FRI) 07/17/2020 Tulancingo, Hidalgo [+LuchaTV, Lucha Central, Lucha Noticias]
1) Brazo Celestial & Brazo De Oro Jr. b Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr. and Drolux & Moria
Brazo de Oro Jr. pinned Aero Panther
2) Shun Skywalker b Pesadilla, Yoshioka, Blaze, Gran Cobra, Dragón Suicida, Brazo Cibernetico Jr.
Shun pinned Pesadilla after the Brazos distraction, setting up a tag title match.
3) Black Fire, Princesa Azul, Samuray Jr. b Diosa Quetzal, Kevin, Tiburón
Quetzal had the win but the referee was in the pool. Azul beat Quetzal with a consult.
4) Crazy Boy & Crazy King b Avorto & Chaneke
an extreme match around the resort. Chaneke beat Crazy Boy. Avorto threw the DTU title into the water after the match.
5) Camuflaje & Stuka Jr. b Kaleth & Negro Navarro
Camuflaje foul on Negro Navarro.

I haven’t seen this one and didn’t see much about it outside of GIFs of people taking moves into the pool. That’s was the big promise of the show and they delivered. The previous DTU taped iPPV ended up on Mas Lucha about two weeks later, though that may be different now with the premium channel. DTU announced their next taped show will be Cantina Extrema on August 16, which will include a bar fight.

The DTU title was later pulled out of the pool, while Lucha Libre Vanguardia put up a video saying presumably champion Crazy King was coming in for their next show. DTU highlighted a text message from Avorto and various others who want a shot, so they’re either deciding a new champ or having Crazy King defend it against a lot of people.

Mas Lucha (SAT) 07/18/2020 unknown location, México City, Distrito Federal [Lucha Central, MasLucha]
1) Sexy Dulce b Baby Love [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, quarterfinal] 
2) Lolita b Reina Dorada [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, quarterfinal] 
3) Zeuxis b Diosa Quetzal [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, quarterfinal] 
4) Ayako Hamada b Ludark Shaitan [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, quarterfinal] 
5) Dulce Sexy b Lolita [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, semifinal]
6) Zeuxis b Ayako Hamada [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, semifinal]
7) Dulce Sexy b Zeuxis [Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, final]

I don’t know of a review of this show besides Cult’s post on Lucha Central. It sounds like the tournament was a bit better than expected. Dulce Sexy knowing she was winning and working harder in all of her matches probably helped. Ayako/Zeuxis reads like the best match of the tournament.

The story coming out of the show was not about the matches. The technical issues become the story. The 8 pm scheduled show started at 10:30 due to technical issues, then the first part of the show has audio issues. It culminated with the feed going out during a match, though they simply picked up the video exactly where it went stopped (an advantage of a taped show) and resumed from there with fewer issues. There was a lot of negative complaints on Facebook and Twitter about the situation. Mas Lucha seemed to be addressing them individually; there was no general explanation of the delay until it was resolved. There was also no next show advertised, while there were many subscribers who claimed they would be canceling or asking for a refund. This post has a good summary of the issues one person had, who said they canceled the service immediately after the show ended and went far beyond simply the stream not working.

It’s not a surprise to anyone Mas Lucha didn’t work the first time. AAA & CMLL tried iPPV content to spectacular failures, the Mas Lucha premium channel felt rushed (the front page still looks unfinished), there was no public test of whatever content system they were trying, it was all a recipe for a predictable disaster. Everyone who paid and had to sit around for three hours waiting for the show is right to be upset, but I’m not sure they should’ve been surprised. This is unfortunately what we’ve come to expect. (We probably should be more amazed DTU’s had no issues for two shows in a row.) Mas Lucha should get better with more tries, but this is never a smooth process and part of the cost to sign up is paying for those types of struggles.

Mas Lucha will keep on going in this direction. Their premium channel website currently makes it impossible to discover what other videos they have available unless you’re a subscriber – a pretty big problem for a site selling video content! – but the most recent video this morning was a February Martinez show that had been posted for free back on YouTube in April. That video seems to have been moved over after Torneo Suprema took place. They’re going to continue to move in a premium direction, and hope that some of the people who said they’d cancel the service don’t actually do it. It’d be better for their business if they tried to make up for the stream not working to keep them, but Mas Lucha isn’t going to drop this after one bad show.

(I don’t think Mas Lucha drifting back to subsiding over YouTube ads is a certainty either if the premium channel fails. It may be this or nothing or maybe some lesser version of Mas Lucha. I don’t think there’s a way this ends where Mas Lucha is the same as it was prior to the pandemic when shows go back to normal.)

Today normally would be Arena Puebla’s 67th Anniversary show. The building was opened on July 18th, 1953, with a show celebrating that date every year until 2020. El Sol del Puebla has interviews with retired luchador Kalifa and building administrator Benjamin Mar about their memories of the arena. Mar is ex-luchador el Jabato, who remembers being there for his father losing his hair to Fuerza Guerrera at the 30th Anniversary show, then making his own debut as a fill-in on the 33rd one. He also points out the 50th Anniversary featured a Mascara 2000/Shocker hair mask match and the building was the last place the original Misionerios de la Muerte (Texano, Signo and Negro Navarro) teamed before breaking up. Arena Puebla originally ran shows on Saturdays, Sunday, and Mondays; Monday was the UWA/LLI day and the big CMLL shows would be on Sundays. The collapse of the UWA led the building to just running on Saturdays, before deciding to move that show to Mondays in 1994.

This blog cares about many things but none more so than “what is the actual capacity for Arena Puebla?” Mar says Arena Puebla originally seated 2400. It’s now 2000 with the stage and other remodeling. Like the similarly sized Korakuen Hall, much higher attendance than realistic maximum has been announced over the years.

SoloWrestling posted a summary of their recent interview with Ciclope. He explains leaving DTU as feeling he had done everything he could do there. He, Draztick Boy and Miedo Extremo wanted to do something on their own, and wanted to do it the best way possible. They don’t want Vanguardia to be a place that just has matches for the sake of having matches like most Mexican indie promotions, but to build stories and teams to build up new talent. Ciclope & Miedo Extremo are the current GCW Tag Team champions but haven’t been in the US company since 2018. Ciclope confirms the issue is their visas expired and they haven’t been able to get it renewed. They’re hoping it can finally be sorted out in 2021.

Xalapa luchador Gabriel o Gabriela (Víctor Gabriel Peralta, ), who wrestled on AAA TV a handful of times in the early 2000s, passed away on Friday due to COVID-19 complications. Anticristo also passed away on Sunday, joining El Pitufo & El Exorcista as four luchadors from that scene who passed away in about a week’s time.

Other recently deceased luchadors

• Nayarit luchador Marakame II passed away on July 16th.
• El Cadete (Guillermo Tapia) passed away on or around July 17. That recollection mentions him as a Texas luchador in 79/80.
• Retired Guatemala luchador Marquense passed away on July 18.

With nothing open, Pagano decided to meet his fans and sell merchandise in the parking lot of a mall. The title might be a bit dramatic, the photos show them on the sidewalk in front of a store.

Dave the Clown says he’s thought about feuding with Karis la Momia Jr. but wants to focus on internationalizing his name.

Box Y Lucha posted interviews with Cinta de Oro (who does not sound like he’s eager to work with Caristico soon) and Makabre.

Mas Lucha has a profile on Draego.

Perodico La Voz has an interview with Monclova’s luchador Orfeo Negro.

Mil Mascaras has launched an online store.

Segunda Caida reviews some 90s CMLL.