CMLL waiting for approval to return, DTU iPPV lineup, WWE vague Latin America plans

There are new details about CMLL’s eventually return, though not much of a strict timeline. The explanation came about five minutes into this week’s CMLL Informa. Julio Cesar Rivera and La Jarochita were talking about questions from fans. The most common issue is naturally, “when are we getting shows again?” JCR said CMLL is waiting to get two approvals: from the Mexico City government and the Mexico Lucha Libre commission (Fantasma.) No shows until both sign-off. JCR did say CMLL is planning on running empty arena shows at first. JCR also quickly made mention of COVID testing for everyone, which may be a first for Mexican wrestling. CMLL is currently doing temperature checks and a health questionnaire for those visiting Arena Mexico, similar to what WWE had been doing.

El Universal followed up with El Fantasma, who says he did receive a request to run CMLL shows from Salvador Lutteroth. He, in turn, went to the medical authorities to see what they were recommending. That’s changed. Orange health conditions were the bar to reach to allow lucha libre shows. That’s now officially pushed to yellow. (Fantasma also took a moment to criticize people who’ve been running secret shows during this time.) We’re all just waiting and watching the Friday night calendar updates.

Mexico City will stay in orange health conditions next week. They’re delaying the opening of shopping malls until Wednesday in fear of getting an uptick of cases. There had been a rumor Mexico City would skip right to green, but that never made sense: one of the requirements to get green is basically “stay safely yellow for four weeks.” We can work off that; if Mexico City doesn’t get to yellow by the July 20th update, they won’t be in green by the day of TripleMania (August 22nd), and it’ll be challenging for AAA to run. I’ve already been assuming TripleMania won’t happen on August 22nd, barring a miracle or a rash decision. July 20th is a soft deadline to when they’ll need to make a decision and maybe announce something.

Mexico State is allowing small stores to re-open starting Monday. The state remains at red health color, which means no lucha libre shows will be approved.

Mexico’s baseball league (Lige Mexicana de Beisbol) canceled its 2020 season. They had previously announced a plan to return, even eventually to have fans there. That plan fell through.

Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (video) talked about their tag team. Ultimo Guerrero still wants wins over Ciber, Diamante Azul, and Gilbert el Boricua. Let’s not. Guerrero & Bucanero talked about reuniting the Nuevo Infernales with Satanico for the legends show. They were together because CMLL will be re-airing a 2003 tag title match versus Negro Casas & Perro Aguayo Jr. this weekend.

Negro Casas & Dalys (video) talked about adapting to a pandemic. It reads like finding a way to keep working out helped.

Stuka Jr. (video) said his goals include an apuesta match with Ultimo Guerrero and to form a trio to beat Los Guerreros Laguneros for those titles. Star Jr., Flyer, Diamante Azul, Soberano Jr., Atlantis Jr. are all suggested as possible partners. Stuka is open to giving Hechicero another title match, but he wants his mask. Stuka would turn rudo if he lost his mask. Stuka also mentioned he once asked Okumura to write the name of his son in Japanese so he could get a tattoo. Okumura instead wrote the word “ankle” in Japanese. Stuka hates Okumura forever for this.

Thunder passed away four years ago Tuesday. Polvora remembered him in an interview with Ovaciones, saying they were good friends. Thunder was diagnosis with cancer in early 2016, told to return home to Australia, and passed away later that year. Polvora remembers Thunder being in severe pain during a conversation, Thunder asking out to rest and then never seeing him again. CMLL scheduled Thunder and Ultimo Guerrero for a mask match in 2016, and Polvora feels Thunder would’ve won either way. Either he would’ve unmasked Guerrero, or the fans would win to get to see Thunder’s “not-ugly” face. Edit: Ultimo Guerrero was already unmasked by then, so maybe Polvora may be mistaken.

Lucha Time aired another show on Facebook Thursday:

Lucha Time (THU) 07/02/2020 Arena Lucha Time, Monterrey, Nuevo León [+LuchaTV, Lucha Time (video)]
1) Infierno b Saizo
The Invisible Man did a run in.
2) Muerte Extreme & Sick Boy b Alex Black & Punk Clown
3) Baby Xtreme b Medico Brujo
4) Azrael & Hijo Del Espectro Jr. b Epydemius & The Mummy

I had trouble believing that opening match result, but, sure enough, they did a goofy Invisible Man bit in the opener. It came off as someone saw the Vanguardia show and wanted to do the same thing for their amusement.

Lucha Time claimed in a post that they’re sanitizing the building and running COVID-19 testing. They posted a video of the sanitization, which appears to be a man with leafblower blowing air through the ring. I’m skeptical their COVID testing was any more serious.

Drago feels he was on an upward slope before the pandemic hit and hopes to continue that (and his feud with Blue Demon) once he returns. He praises AAA for how they’ve supported their luchadors.

Box y Lucha also has an interview with Big Mami. The summary mentions she’s looking to win the Reina de Reinas title next.

AAA’s is part of a sports charity auction to raise money for COVID-19 release starting Monday. Lucha libre items on sale are a Blue Demon mask, a yellow Lady Shani mask, a black Lady Shani mask, a La Parka mask and outfit, a Psycho Clown mask, and a second Psycho Clown mask. All equipment appears professional equipment, signed, and with authentication information. You can pay via Paypal, and it seems they’re doing international shipping, though you may want to check in on that given the prices.

NJPW translated a recent interview with BUSHI about joining Los Ingobernables de Japon and the early days of that faction. There was a debate if they should be Los Ingobernables de Japon or Los Ingobernables en Japon. There’s also a bit where BUSHI suggests he and Mascara Dorada were to be a regular pair in 2015. BUSHI suffered an injury late in 2014 and then re-injured himself during training, not returning to the ring until the formation of LIJ. He and Dorada did go onto feud at the end of that year and the start of the next. Maybe the reason Dorada didn’t get much to do in NJPW before it because he was supposed to be teaming with BUSHI at that point, and NJPW just decided to keep Dorada in a holding pattern until then. I have a strange feeling this is old news, and I’ve already forgotten it; maybe it’ll sink in this time.

Post Wrestling wrote about an interview with John Brody, a WWE Executive Vice President, and the company’s plan for Latin America. It’s worth clicking through to get the exact quote. The big takeaway is he seems high on the idea of running a “special live event in the short-to-medium term.” That’d generally sound like something aimed for this year, but COVID may change those plans. It reads like maybe a special for the WWE network more than a regular TV show. WWE has not taped a TV show in Mexico since 2011 and has only run one event in the last two years. I may be jumping the gun by thinking about Mexico; the interview sticks with “Latin America,” which could mean anywhere.

More information came out about Anubis Black’s death. On the positive side, we know he was also a fake Barba Roja. On the negative side, we know this because he was a suspect in another double homicide, then shot and murdered. The media outlet wrote about Barba Roja as his primary identity instead of Anubis Black. C4 Noticias MX has the story. Francisco Javier Lizárraga Meza, 31, was a suspect in the shooting death of a man and a woman eating at a Wings Burger in the Alvaro Obregon area of Mexico City on March 25th. A person matching his description walked up to the couple and fired his gun. There was no talking or proceeding incident; it appeared to pre-mediated. Lizárraga shot at them again while they lay on the floor. People on the scene identified Lizárraga, but the police couldn’t find him. On June 20th, in the same Alvaro Obregon area of Mexico City, Lizárraga was with his girlfriend when a man approached and shot him at least eight times. The police realized Lizárraga’s tattoo matched the man they had been looking for on the March 25th murder, and witnesses confirmed it was the same person. A second attacker was part of the March shooting and still hasn’t been found or identified.

DTU 07/17 “A Cielo Abierto” iPPV

Such a weird main event; Negro Navarro on your “fun at the beach” show is an odd fit. Crazy King in the semi-main is more notable. His surprise appearance on sorta-rival Vanguardia promotion hasn’t ended his time in DTU. There doesn’t seem to be concern about him going either since there’s no DTU title defense scheduled on this show. Not the DTU’s title seems like great importance to the promotion.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia and Independent Wrestling TV announced the Hidalgo based promotion will now start appearing on the streaming service. Their first show will go up this upcoming Thursday; it’s the October 3rd, 2019 show. Zona 23, Monterrey’s RIOT Lucha Libre, and Guadalajara’s Guanatos Hardcore Crew groups are all on there. Those two promotions are exclusively behind subscription services, filmed by themselves. Vanguardia has been a +LuchaTV produced promotion, which means all of the shows going to IWTV are already up on YouTube. Vanguardia’s press release seems to indicate that’ll be continuing. IWTV pays promotions based on how much time subscribers spend watching their content. Fewer people are going to go out of there way to watching Vanguardia with it already available free, but anyone who might already be using the IWTV service and flips over to watch some of them is free found money. There’s also a reality that, you can tell some people an international show is available for free a million times but, the only way they’re going to get around to sample is if it is surrounded by more familiar English language shows. IWTV has those and so it has an audience who might not see Vanguardia any other way.

Vanguardia seems to be on IWTV through their connections with brother promotion GCW.  If there’s any money in this, I do wonder if opens the door to other +LuchaTV produced lucha libre promotions looking for the same; there’s a lot of following the leader in vaguely Mexico City area lucha libre promotions. I also wonder if +LuchaTV gets a cut of the IWTV money – or if Vanguardia gets a percentage of the +LuchaTV YouTube ad money. All of those are mysteries only known by the people involved.

No one asks me these things and probably for a good reason, but I’d suggest Vanguardia put up the June 2nd show with the Ciclope/Miedo Extremo explosive match next time they can get on the IWTV stream. That’ll get some attention.

A Psicosis Ripper led the show in Mexico State is going to try a drive-in wrestling show on August 1st. I know people have tried the same thing in the US, but I have no idea if it’s worked or not. Tickets will be 350/400, with a limit of four people per car. You can get in for 200 if you’re on a motorcycle.

Argentinan luchador Atila (Ruben Osvaldo Velázquez, 70) passed away Thursday He wrestled for the Titanes en el Ring show.

Segunda Caida reviews a Wotan/Diabolicos trios match from last year.

Audaz passes away, possibilities of a IWRG/AAA training center

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

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 FireLilith DarkMiss 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.