Month: July 2020

There is no traffic light health map in Mexico’s battle with coronavirus this week. The secretary of health announced no map would be released due to “inconsistently in data” from laboratories. The impression of that press conference was the situation was getting worse, while it appears the Mexican president spent the next couple of days saying it was getting better. It’s looking like a mess.

San Luis Potosi’s Arena Margarita is not a building known much outside of that city. It, and slightly more famous cross-town rival Arena Mexico San Luis Potosi, run weekly Sunday shows in normal times. The pandemic has stopped most of those sorts of arenas from running or at least running publicly. It didn’t really seem to stop Arena Margarita; the switched to about one show every two weeks but kept running empty arena shows. They very quietly started allowing fans back in on their June 14th show, but it didn’t get much attention until photos of a July 4th show with Cibernetico turned up on the internet. Arena Margarita’s YouTube page has video of the show too; it’s shoulder to shoulder people with few masks. The show from this past weekend is even more full. Criticism in the comments seems to be met with “we’re taking all health precautions” and “mind your own business.” If governmental types in San Luis Potosi cared, they could’ve shut them down, but it does not seem to be important.

Toxin promoted a secret debut show for his Kriminal Lucha Libre promotion in Tijuana last weekend. The location was kept secret, but it was made obvious by luchadors on the show posting pictures of traveling to Tijuana. The idea is fans would have to message Toxin on Facebook to purchase the video; video of it has already spread free online. Tijuana’s boxing, wrestling, and MMA commission have found out about the show, says secret shows are not permitted and is “analyzing the repercussions”. It sounds like suspensions, though suspending people at a time where shows aren’t permitted to anyone. That’s a bit different than San Luis Potosi; reaction to these shows are going to vastly different from state to state while the virus exists.

It’s not just a Mexico issue. GALLI resumed running shows this weekend. It doesn’t seem like many people came out, though it does seem like the fans were wearing facemasks. They’re planning on returning on August 2nd with Aeroboy (in for IWA’s deathmatch tournament) and Gringo Loco. In an interview about the show, Aeroboy says GALLI’s been restricted to 50 people in attendance for their shows, which I believe does fit with the state rules.

Neza luchador/trainer Espiral Negro passed away on Friday. He and his son, luchador Golden Bull, had been hospitalized since July 4th.

It’s behind a paywall so all we’ve got is the title, but Mexico City (and maybe CMLL trainee) luchador Thunder Storm says he’s lost four family members due to coronavirus.

CMLL released a short message from Chris Jericho, sharing his memories of Paco Alonso one year after his passing. It’s not as 100% positive as one might expect in the circumstance, but the thought was there.

The problem CMLL created for itself was hyping the message on social media with teaser videos, leading to speculation of it being a return announcement or something similarly important. A nice idea was meant with disdain because CMLL struggles at setting proper expectations.

TV Mexiquense, one of CMLL’s TV channels, is adding a second digital feed. CMLL says their show will now air on the secondary channel, Fridays at 7pm, in addition to the current Sunday at noon airing. I’m not sure if it’ll still air on the main channel at the old time. This is a slight decrease in visibility for CMLL, though it’s not like it appears many people were watching the show on the current set up. It shouldn’t affect my ability to record the show; the secondary channel is streamed online just the same.

Mas Lucha accounted the bracket for Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha

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

This will air complete at 8 pm Saturday on Mas Lucha’s 99 pesos a month channel. A preview special will air at 7 pm on the YouTube channel.

It seems likes the tournament is set up for Sexy Dulce to come out of the top half. The bottom half is less clear and probably dependent on which women would be willing to work with Dulce. I’m curious about how this will go from a technical standpoint, but I don’t think I can bring myself to sign-up to watch a tournament likely featuring three Dulce Sexy matches. (I’m not looking for a handout either.) If you are interested, please let me know how the experience is for you.

People on Facebook were very upset about Yucatan luchador Steel Dragon offering a class about body expression and theatre in lucha libre. Negro Navarro brought attention to it by being angry about it. Diosa Quetzal, who is speaking as part of the class, defended it as being one element out of many that luchadors need to stand out. The Lucha Noticias post above is a good defense of the idea of the class. I would point out that this is a class from a non-famous luchador in Yucatan, not exactly a hotbed. It could be very good, but it also could’ve happened without anyone noticing if the people who hated the concept didn’t spend their time promoting it.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia “Retos Continuos” July 25?

• Draztick Boy vs Eclipse Jr. (Lanzelot) vs Cobre for the Black Mask Cruiserweight Championship

Vanguardia is listed the show as a July without a date, but are saying it’s Saturday. This is the same +LuchaTV/donation as the last two shows. There’s no change +Lucha is airing this the same time as they debut their women’s tournament, so it’s not this Saturday. There’s only one more Saturday left, the 25th. But I’m also not sure why they’d be playing it as a mystery if it’s that obvious so maybe the date still changes.

Ultimo Guerrero has opened a hamburger food truck. He previously had a hamburger restaurant which was promoted often on CMLL Informa before quietly shutting it down.

Atlantis vs Fuerza Guerrera or Atlantis vs Hijo del Santo has devolved into Atlantis vs Fuerza Guerrera vs Hijo del Santo vs Octagon. None of this is happening and now it’s getting too silly to think about.

Segunda Caida watches a 2008 Santo/Wagner vs Demon/Super Parka match.

various luchador interviews

• Hidalgo’s Murdoch, who was a masked wrestler before he showed up in Vanguardia
• Cuernavaca’s Valkhyria.
• Guanajuato’s Dark Skalibur.
• Tampico’s Lobo Xtreme.
• retired luchador El Invasor.

Mexico City’s mayor announced the city would remain in the Orange health code this week. No empty arena shows are legally allowed until they reach Yellow, and they have to reach Yellow for four weeks before fans can be allowed back in. That means Mexico City has to move to Yellow a week from today for TripleMania to have fans on 08/22. Dorian Roldan’s previously suggested they’d move the date of the show rather than run with no fans. I don’t think anyone believes TripleMania is happening as scheduled, but next week would confirm it. AAA hasn’t said anything about TripleMania in months, possibly because they’re hoping to announce a new date when they move it from the old one and have little idea of when it’ll be safe to run as the rest of us. They may have to say something on their podcast.

Wednesday night has been a busy wrestling night for about the last year. The biggest news to come out of last Wednesday might have been a quiet blog post. Mas Lucha announced they would be launching a streaming platform. This channel is a premium, monthly payment streaming platform. Mas Lucha is charging 99 pesos a month plus taxes; it comes out to around USD 5 at the moment.

The announcement says the premium streaming platform will have “complete shows,” alongside documentaries and other work. Interviews, summaries, reactions will continue to be on the YouTube channel. That breakdown suggests you’ll need to subscribe to the channel to see full matches going forward, though there’s space for that not to be true. Mas Lucha hasn’t started promoting it, so the particulars may still be subject to change. Nevertheless, if big Mexican indie matches going forward are behind a paywall, it’s a huge change.

The first show to be broadcast will be the Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha women’s tournament starting on July 18th. It’s unclear Mas Lucha will put up a match a day, as the last tournament, or if it’ll go up at once. Pretty much everything is vague at the moment. Mas Lucha hasn’t even promoted their announcement post all that much. All the rest of the details are probably coming later, but it leaves a lot of room for speculation. Mas Lucha’s post insists this channel was in the plans before the pandemic, though starting with a tournament which probably wouldn’t have existed if things had been healthy and with a barebones site suggests they’ve pushed up the timeline quite a bit.

Fans of Mexico wrestling over the last decade expect lucha libre to be free on the internet. Maybe it’s supported, they’re just not used to handing over money to see it. Every major CMLL or AAA event over the last two years has been freely available. Mas Lucha themselves have made “free” the default expectation price for lucha libre, posting thousands of hours of full matches on YouTube since leaving TVC Deportes. Individual promotions have tried to add a pay model, but Mas Lucha making that move would be a titanic shift and attempt to swim uphill against a current they created. In a way, if anyone can pull off this shift, it’s Mas Lucha: they have access to a variety of essential content people might want to pay for, and they need to make it work. AAA & CMLL have compelling content, but internet revenue is going to be a small part of their income even with a lot of work, so they’re not inclined to stick with it. MasLucha is just internet revenue, ad revenue that’s likely been slipping through no fault of their own. YouTube ad rates have declined over the last few years and considerably during the pandemic. There’s no doubt Mas Lucha was planning on doing going to a paid model at some point, but it’s still shocking the day it happens. Maybe the timing is just a necessity, maybe that DTU PPV doing surprisingly well convinced Mas Lucha there’s more readiness for this concept than previously believed.

That Mas Lucha post is like someone who gave me the first fifty pages of a mystery and ripped out the rest. I have so many questions, some they know, and some only time are only going to answer.

• Which content will be placed on the premium channel? The statement stays highlights on YouTube, full shows on premium, where does that leave individual matches? Will premium stuff be posted on the free side after a time, as seen with the DTU PPV?
• Are fans really in Mexico willing to pay for 99 pesos for lucha libre video in high numbers regularly? Is 99 the right price? It’s a little cheaper than Netflix in Mexico, and the same as WWE Network. Everyone’s got a guess, but no one knows if the market is there until someone dives in.
• The Mas Lucha statement says one of their goals is getting more prominent exposure and more display for Mexican promotions. It’s a beautiful concept, but anything put behind a paywall is going to have less exposure and less display. What are the promotions going to get out of this? The common belief is Mas Lucha has been shouldering all the costs for video production in exchange for all the video revenue. (However, I don’t think anyone’s ever publicly confirmed that.) Promotions love being on Mas Lucha, love getting that exposure it brings, and it’s hard to figure out how much each development is responsible for the ad revenue anyway. Will they still be ok with that tradeoff if their full shows are getting less exposure behind a paywall? Will the money start to be a more significant issue when the promotions can see MasLucha getting a specific amount per month?
  • And if the promoters get a cut, do wrestlers also get a cut? I’m for more money getting down to the people taking the bumps. Noted philosopher Christopher Wallace once pointed out that more money often brought more problems, and that’s the biggest challenge in this whole idea.
  • Will we see Mas Lucha increasingly act as their content provider to make sure they have control of it in Netflix like fashion? Torneo Supremo originally just appeared to be something to do during the pandemic while luchadors were available, but those projects might become staples. (How does that affect their relationship with other promotions should it happen?) Will it end being a tier/alliance of trusted MasLucha partners and not everyone?
• Just backing up a step, how much content is going to be on the channel? The one tournament isn’t going to do it for a monthly fee unless you’re just a giant fan of the women involved. The pandemic is an issue but, even when/if things get back going to normal, there probably needs to be a rolling month calendar of exciting shows. That’d require some more organization and earlier announcements from indie promotions than we’re used to seeing.
  • Do older shows get pulled off Mas Lucha current YouTube and go behind the paywall? Mas Lucha has continued to add old content to YouTube during this period, which wouldn’t fit if they were going to pull it all off soon. My best guess is new stuff will be on premium live, and old shows won’t be touched, but it’s unresolved.
• Does Mas Lucha have the tech ability to run streams successfully on a premium service without YouTube? It’s gone great on that service, but a paid service requires something more locked down and without the Google reliability. We’ve seen seemingly every single way that can go wrong when AAA and CMLL have tried to go that route. The options to do that gets better but are by no means is foolproof; will people stick around when the typical problems happen as they get this rolling?
• Does Mas Lucha’s decision to go premium affect fan and privately run YouTube channels? It’s going to be tougher to charge to see IWRG – to pick a group – if there are five YouTube channels where it’s free. Do they lean on promoters on stopping bootlegging? Can they stop it? (They couldn’t stop other people out for a charity no fans show where there was no commission, so.) Is the difference in production quality enough to get people to pay anyway?
• Alternatively, do promoters and other video channels attempt to do their take on a premium channel? Competition in this space is one thing I keep wondering if it’ll happen. It never actually has, so it seems unlikely this time too – but Mexico City wrestling seems to copy each other a lot, especially if money starts to get involved.
• Maybe the thing I should’ve started with: is any of this still a going concern three months from now? Big ideas tend to get thrown out in Mexican wrestling and quietly fade away when there’s no immediate success. This plan is going to be a complicated and occasionally drama-filled process, even if things go well. It’ll be easier to turn back, even if turning back isn’t a sound financial strategy. The common thought is to ask people where they expect to be five years from now; I don’t know what to expect out of this one year from now.

I’m sure I’ll subscribe to this service and keep it going as long as I’m doing whatever it is I’m doing here if it what it seems to be; it seems necessary for this. If I were approaching this as a person with a healthy amount of interest in this subject, I’d probably wait and see.

The Mas Lucha Torneo Suprema will launch its premium service. There’s some spoiler-ish news on part of it – I’m not convinced it’s correct or even more than a guess, but you should skip a paragraph to avoid finding out in advance. Revealing the outcomes of matches rarely has news value, but a Facebook page called Quitate el Candado frames it as part of a long negative post on Dulce Garcia. You’re familiar with many of the negative Sexy Star stories; this also adds her having problems at the recent KAOZ iPPV tapings. She’s said to be such a problem to the promotion that they were trying to get out of a deal with her (based on the number of dates) by offering her to other promotions. Mas Lucha took them up on her for their tournament. Garcia then came to the tournament and may have forced Mas Lucha to change the planned final of the tournament. (That final is listed in the post, but even the poster is unsure what the end up being.) You’d have to believe Mas Lucha was caught off guard by Dulce Garcia demanding victories, which seems impossible – everyone that deep into lucha libre knows the story on her by now. Once she’s booked, everyone understands she’s only there to win and will lose only with some sort of excuse then complain about it after. I’d safely guess she’s not the only person in that tournament who would be very unhappy to take any losses to anyone, and the booking of that tournament was always going to be incredibly tricky.

Lucha Noticias has an interview with Anibal Jr., who explains he saw Princesa Azul as a “daughter of his soul.” He says she’s the same age as a daughter of his who passed away, so it felt right to give her the mask and the name. He’s upset with Princesa Azul changing the gear to something more daring and “giving people in the locker room too much to talk about.” Anibal Jr. pushes back against the hinted sexual harassment, saying he was always respectful towards her and even insisted on a promoter booking them in separate rooms when they were given just one on a trip to Guatemala.

Anibal Jr. is looking for Princesa Azul to drop the “Hija de Anibal” monicker and change the mask. It doesn’t seem like he’s going for the “Princesa Azul” name. Which could mean this will probably end with a slight modification to her gear and not much other resolution.

Anibal Jr. subsequently posted a video statement on Facebook, apologizing to the fans for misleading them with Anibal’s memory (by giving it to a non-family member.)

two points to keep in mind

• much of this drama could’ve avoided if Anibal Jr. handled the split like a professional. Even if he’s entirely in the right in every other way, announcing you’ve fired someone as your daughter as a response to an anodyne video is not it. It also makes it harder to believe everything he’s said since – he’s lied about Azul being his daughter, and he’s changed his story about the circumstances of their break up. He hasn’t credibly conducted himself.
• Anibal Jr. is correct in Princesa Azul changing her design. That design also downplays the Anibal-related imagery in the process, which makes it she might have known this split was coming.

KeMonito’s participated in CMLL’s virtual media day Wednesday.  The big news coming out of it was KeMonito says he’s going to retire in a year or two, except he has also said the same thing an interview earlier this year, and he’s not definite about sticking to that timeline.

Flyer says coronavirus stopped his ascension to the top of the CMLL cards, proving even coronavirus has its good points. Flyer, who was memorably not right in the last CMLL show before shut down, feels he would’ve been a regular semifinal/main event guy had things continued. That final match was Flyer & Atlantis Jr. winning the restored Mexican National Tag Team Championship, once held by Misterioso and Flyer’s grandfather Volador. Flyer revealed he’s not talked to his grandfather in the four months since he won the titles to talk about it; they’re a distant family.

AAA has to issue a press release to discredit a lousy piece of information on TV. ImagenTV talked to Fantasma about the rash of luchador deaths. The TV station put up a message saying, “50 AAA wrestlers had died,” when Fantasma likely didn’t mention a promotion. It was a mistake, but people started asking AAA about it on social media Thursday, so AAA issued a statement saying they had no cases of coronavirus at the moment. No AAA luchador has passed away during this period.

Dark Angel appeared on Taylor Wilde’s podcast, talking about her career and their team. There’s no Scoops, but it’s a pleasant conversation with some talk about her time in Mexico. Dark Angel very slightly teased a return to the ring on Twitter recently. She goes with “never say never” here – it doesn’t seem like she’s planning on having another match, just refusing to rule out the possibility forever. Dark Angel is on furlough from WWE, and the impression I got from listening is she’s not expecting to return soon (she’s recently got an RV to do some traveling) while also assuming that relationship isn’t over.

Daga’s status with Impact Wrestling is murky. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports Daga has been willing to try to get to Impact from Mexico, and Impact says they still want to use him, but Impact hasn’t brought Daga back in, and there’s no indication when that might happen. Daga & Tessa were a package deal in Impact, and wrestling promoters often have trouble dealing with one half of a couple when the other one walks out.

An advantage of taping ahead of time is the ability to do preview trailers; there’s a trailer for the “Arena Olivares” show airing on +LuchaTV Saturday night.

KAOZ posted a photo of an empty lot, saying they’re going to build their performance center. No timeline is mentioned. KAOZ ran shows about once a month in 2019. A training building could help wrestlers in the region considerably, but it’s an unusual use of resources given the current scale of promotion. Maybe they’re planning on that scale changing?

SoloWrestling has an interview with Ciclope about Lucha Libre Vanguardia.

Tuxtleca luchador Furia Guerrera passed away on July 6th.

Xalapa luchador Gabriel o Gabriela has been in a ICU since Monday due to COVID-19.

Lucharte is looking to crowdfund a documentary about lucha libre during COVID.

Torreon’s Arena Colon says they’ve followed local health recommendations to set up for reduced capacity, but still can’t get approval to run. They’re not getting turned down; they’re just not getting any response.

There’s a fundraiser for fundraiser Tabasco luchador Canalla and other older luchadors in the area.

Vanguardia teased Pagano as appearing on their next show to go up on IWTV, so my guess is the next show to go up there is the one with Ciclope & Miedo Extremo vs. Aeroboy & Pagano from October 2019. RIOT’s most recent shows have also been added to IWTV.

An interview with Tampico’s Super Lobo.

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.

While there are still neighborhood groups running shows, the amount of higher-profile lucha libre shows seems to have diminished. I think it’s more a fluke of the calendar than groups who’ve been running deciding to stop. It doesn’t leave much to talk about here, but that’s ok.

+LuchaTV has started rolling out hype videos for their Mas Lucha Suprema, so that’s likely been taped and will start rolling out soon. Maybe there will be an announcement as soon as tonight as a start date.

Toxin planned to run his first Kriminal Lucha Libre show before the pandemic scrambled everything. He’s been advertising a secret show – video available only by messaging on Facebook and presumably a price – and social media suggests it was taped over the weekend.

CMLL hyped a Kemonito Party on July 3rd for his birthday. It turned out to be an interview with Julio Cesar Rivera. CMLL did seem to have plans for doing something big for Monito’s birthday this year, after that bit where everyone though his birthday was earlier in the year.

CMLL also posted a video tribute to Paco Alonso, one year after his passing. There’s an accompanying long text piece on Facebook talking about his achievements. 30% of the fans are said to be tourists, which is the first time I’ve seen them put a number on it.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia is running a drive-in show sometime this month. It’s 200 per car with 25 cars allowed. No date is announced; they’re obviously keeping quiet to avoid the authorities.

Box Y Lucha is resuming publication, though only in digital form. They ceased publication back at the start of the pandemic and are restarting today. The digital issues are 60 pesos for 4 issues or 500 pesos for 50 issues. I’ve tried subscribing digital years before when they were sending out a link to a new issue every week and it wasn’t a great experience; that was when they’d send out a link each issue, only they started forgetting to send the link after a while and I grew tired of asking for it. It sounds like it’s a different system this time so I probably will try the shorter period.

IWRG is soliciting donations for Rey del Ring Part 2, a show with no date or participants announced.

El Hijo del Santo says he heard Atlantis would do a mask match with him and he’s up for it. Santo did this while posting a photo of Atlantis submitting to his hold. Santo/Atlantis has about no chance of happening with the current CMLL freeze out of Santo, though they’ve at least allowed his name to be mentioned of late. Assuming that pretzel can be untied, it’s not a terrible idea.

Ideally, Atlantis would lose his mask to someone who CMLL can build around for years to come. The problem for CMLL is there isn’t a young masked guy who is over enough to be put in that spot without a significant amount of the fanbase immediately turning on him for being “gifted” the win. Soberano Jr., to pick a random mask man, would be a much bigger star if he took Atlantis’ mask but also half the crowd would hate him for years. It’d work better with a rudo but I think there’s a decent possibility the crowd would reject Sanson or Cutarero in that spot. Santo defeating Atlantis – there’s no other outcome possible – would have zero benefit for CMLL long term. Santo and CMLL would likely be back to hating each other within six months. That match would still give CMLL the biggest gate possible ever in Arena Mexico (or even just run Estadio Azteca.) It’s a cynical thought to go for the one-night cash-in over the long term benefit, but I’m not sure there’s going to be a lot of long term benefit for beating Atlantis. This is also not going to happen but there’s not a lot happening.

AAA’s website has been down since July 4th. Someone missed the email to renew the domain. That’s happened in the past. They may have fixed it by the time you read this; it usually just takes a day or two for everything to get reset. This seemed like a big deal the other times it’s happened but now I’m not even sure how many people actually are going to AAA’s website. AAA’s social media, even during this period where there’s no content, continues to be pretty active. Their website, either due to resources or interest, is rarely active. (The only reason the website is down is the script I wrote to check for new shows being added to their Events page; I can’t think of any other reason I would’ve had to check their page.) I think websites for wrestling promotions still have a use – they’re good to push people towards tickets, merchandise, or their TV – but lucha libre promotions rarely use them those ways.

Myzteziz Jr. praises his teamwork with his partners.

Cinta de Oro participated in a music project during his current downtime.

The annual Expo Lucha Libre Chetumal (Quintana Roo) has been canceled. That wasn’t scheduled to take place until December, so they’ve likely decided to cancel it before even getting starting planning it.

There was a local promoter press conference to announce the twice-postponed AAA spot show in Ciudad Victoria is still not canceled, though they have no idea when it’ll happen at the moment.

Guatemalan luchadors El Arriero de San Juan and La Furia have passed away.

A quick profile of Chiapas luchador Tribal. And one on Salamanca referee Luis Enrique Segura. And on some Tampico luchadors.

A look back at Chetumal luchador King Blazer, who passed away a year ago.

Arena Tigre Padilla in Monclova has reopened for training.

Segunda Caida watches the Brazos 25th Anniversary show from 2001.

Lineups

DTU (FRI) 07/17/2020 Tulancingo, Hidalgo
1) Brazo Celestial & Brazo De Oro Jr. vs Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr. and Drolux & Moria
2) Shun Skywalker vs Pesadilla, Yoshioka, Blaze, Gran Cobra, Dragón Suicida, Brazo Cibernetico Jr.
3) Diosa Quetzal, Kevin, Tiburón vs Black Fire, Princesa Azul, Samuray Jr.
4) Avorto & Chaneke vs Crazy Boy & Crazy King
5) Camuflaje & Stuka Jr. vs Kaleth & Negro Navarro

No change from the matches that were announced. This is again 50 pesos in advance, 70 pesos day of the show; you can join a Whatsapp group to get info here. I suspect this show was taped this past weekend and that the Crazy Boy match will again be a “cinematic” match.