Famed ring announcer Mucha Crema, Armando Gaitan, passed away Wednesday at the age of 71. His family announced his passing on his Facebook page. The tradition among lucha libre ring announcers, especially on the CMLL style, is to continue to talk about the wrestler from the moment he steps out in front of the fans and to wait until they get in the ring. That requires a ring announcer to fill the walk to the ring, and Mucha Crema was well known for inventive phrases and elegant word choices to personalize each luchador’s introductions. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, his booming but smooth voice sticks in your mind. Mucha Crema often announced in a white suit with a giant medallion, an over the top look to match his announcing style.
Mucha Crema is most associated with his time with CMLL, appearing there from 1996 to 2009. He may have been actually most seen essentially playing himself in the Nacho Libre movie. Mucha Crema left CMLL with the start-up of the Perros del Mal promotion. That group didn’t work out and CMLL never brought him back; he worked Arena Mexico at least once more for a political rally but never wrestling there. He instead ended up as Todo x el Todo’s ring announcer during their run and would do occasional indie shows. I’d totally forgotten this, but SuperLuchas usual strong obituary mentions AAA brought him in as the personal ring announcer of the Consejo (fake CMLL invasion) group. He had work outside of wrestling: not just boxing, but his YouTube channel shows clips of him being brought in by bands for their introductions. He was that sort of iconic ring announcer that just having him around made the show feel bigger.
CMLL announced a lot of additional details to their streaming plans. Many of these details were not particularly fan-friendly.
- The prices of the shows go up as they get closer.
- You have until this Sunday to get the Aniversario and the bundle at the current prices. They’ll go up about $1 USD & $5 USD after that.
- The prices for those individual shows will go up again on the day of the first streaming show, September 4th. The bundle is also going away on September 4th.
- The shorter version is you’re going to pay an upcharge for waiting the last minute to decide or waiting for CMLL to give out a full lineup for these shows.
- The broadcasts are live only. There is no VOD or ability to watch later.
- The broadcast is available worldwide.
- You are limited to one device per ticket
- This is about simultaneous streams. You can start watching on your phone, close it, and switch to your computer without a problem. You just can’t watch it on your device and send the link to a friend.
- These shows are credit/debit cards only at the moment, but they’ll be adding pay via Oxxo options on Monday.
- I feel dumb for not noticing this as an issue earlier. It is great they’re fixing it, not great they’re fixing it the day after prices go up.
- You can’t buy access at via Ticketmaster location or at the CMLL box office, only online.
- You’ll get a link for the broadcast about 24 hours before it starts. It’ll be the same link for all the shows.
- They’ll have a chat room for tech support during the show.
The prices already seemed on the high side, so saying they’re going to raise it more feels like it may run off people. On the other hand, AEW’s run PPVs at high prices for their market and it doesn’t seem like it’s hurt them at all. If CMLL has a fanbase of people who are willing to pay to watch their biggest show, the slight price change isn’t probably isn’t going to matter much.
VOD for at least 24 hours is the standard. Not having it is going to cause some people in different time zones or different situations to pass on paying for this. It also presumes the stream is going to work perfectly every time, which certainly has not been the case in the past. (The secret good news here is, unlike every other time someone’s tried this, they’re not trying this for the first time on the big show. If CMLL and Ticketmaster have problems with the first three shows and figure out for the Aniversario, they’re better than usual.)
The big lingering question is if it’ll be necessary to pay to see these shows legally. CMLL Friday night TV usually airs over the air for free on Televisa. It could air on a delay and not complete, but that would probably be enough for many casual fans. CMLL didn’t say (and didn’t seem to be asked) if the show will air on TV or if they’ll be on their official YouTube channel later. Their advertisements mention it the Ticketmaster airing as “exclusive.”
CMLL also announced the 7 championships which will be defended on the show
- the NWA Historic Welterweight Championship (Volador Jr.)
- the CMLL Trios Championship (Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, Euforia)
- the CMLL Tag Team Championship (Caristico & Mistico)
- the CMLL Women’s Championship (Marcela)
- the CMLL Micros Championship (Chamuel)
- the Mexican Trios Championship (Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero)
- the Mexican Women’s Championship (La Metalica)
There will be no non-title matches.
Only one 1v1 men’s main division match sticks out. It’s going to mean a lot of people are shuffled into unfamiliar partnerships since they’ll need distinct sets of challengers for each of the teams. Someone winning to challenge for multiple titles would be awkward. Any full-time CMLL wrestler who doesn’t get at least a chance to be the challenger for one of the titles is going to be miffed.
Microman being Chamuel’s challenger seems certain. They surely expect Dalys to be facing Marcela. I presume Cavernario is not defending his title because CMLL hopes for him to face Volador, but that’s the point where the fan voting may start go in unpredictable directions. CMLL says the challengers for fan vote will be announced next week on Informa. They haven’t said how the vote will be conducted.
Informa also mentioned CMLL continue to hope they’ll be able to seat 30% of capacity for Aniversario. I guess that would mean some people might be paying for this show twice; anyone who would buy a ticket is probably also getting in on the streaming shows.
This is the off week for COVID-19 health status updates. They seem increasingly irrelevant – neither the CMLL reopening or the Mexico State policies correspond to changes in the status of their state. Lucha libre is still strictly prohibited in many areas of Mexico. Color changes might change that, but also states adopting policies from Mexico State might change it as well.
Box Y Lucha posted this week’s CMLL video interviews with Dalys, Vangellys, and Titan, who’s mask appears to have been possessed by an alien. Titan did his from Arena Mexico; he’s been away from Mexico City for much of this break.
Amapola, Sanely and Mystique will appear on a panel discussing women’s wrestling Wednesday on noon.
The Gladiatores posted information about IWRG’s health policies. They’ll have less than 30% of capacity and tickets will be first-come, first-serve. They will be doing ticket sales at the arena at certain times. Fans will be required to be wearing a facemask to be allowed in the building and will have it at all times. The first three rows of seats have been removed and the rest of the floor seats have been reduced to spread people out. The bleachers also will have areas marked for distancing.
Cibernetico told R de Rudo his gall bladder was close to bursting when he was operating on. The operation was already scheduled to remove gall stones, but the issue was worse than expected. He remembers nothing of being in the hospital but was told he was close to dying. His recovery will take a couple of months and he’s not expecting to wrestle the rest of this year.
Casandro says filming on his movie is planned to start on January 10th, and expects all filming will be done in Mexico City.
Pagano taught a FC Juarez soccer player some lucha.
Former Oaxaca luchador Diamante Azul (Juan Dionisio Moguel Hernandez, 77, no relation to the CMLL one) passed away Thursday.
Lineups
AULL (SAT) 08/29/2020 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Terry 2000 vs Sepulturero, Dragón Force, Centella Oriental [semifinal]
2) Dante vs Yakuza, Sádico, Alas de Oro [semifinal]
3) Chucho el Roto vs Euro, Alas De Plata, Leviatham [semifinal]
4) Rocky Santana vs Yoruba, Filder, Último Gladiador [semifinal]
5) ? vs ??, ???, ???? [final]
Arena Lopez Mateos re-opens with a local-only card, as previously stated by the owners. All tickets for this (and other shows here) are electronic only. IWRG is doing the same. It’s not surprising to see CMLL or AAA do electronic tickets but Mexican indie promotions have largely stayed away from them until now. It’s one of many temporary adjustments that may become permanent if successful.
One thing which doesn’t seem quite likely to change is Arena Lopez Mateos attendance for AULL shows. They’re officially limiting it to 30% capacity. They probably won’t come close to that number. The pre-pandemic AULL cards have seemingly drawn more like 10% of capacity in recent times. There are some talented luchadors in this lineup, but not enough fans seem them as stars to get a strong turnout. They’ve been unable to make any news stars and have generally relied on the same core group of people for many years.
This show will stream on Mas Lucha. It’d be great to have a calender of Mas Lucha upcoming events as shows start back up again. (I guess what I’m saying is it would be great for Mas Lucha to have a calendar of upcoming streaming events so I don’t feel an unnecessary need to do it.)
Legend (SAT) 09/12/2020 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) ? vs Militar De La Muerte
2) Dayami vs Zuzu Divine
3) Epitafio & Leviatham vs Manchas & Rugido
4) Raptor (AAA) vs Aeroboy, Camuflaje
5) Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero (probably not) vs Dr. Wagner Jr. & Joe Lider
Legend had a 03/27 AAA spot show canceled, so this is a make-up date with many different people.
That main event may have already changed. I don’t see an update on Legend’s Facebook, but Dr. Landru says CMLL pulled Gran Guerrero and Ultimo Guerrero from the show. Joe Lider, Dr. Wagner, and even Raptor were working occasional AAA dates pre-pandemic but all do not appear to still be under AAA contract. Still, Wagner was appearing on AAA TV and that’s usually enough for CMLL to block their wrestlers from being on the same card. Maybe Ultimo Guerrero thought those rules didn’t apply to him.
I suspect there’s someone who has Arena Lopez Mateos 09/05 booked and we’ll be hearing about it soon.
Chinampalucha (SAT) 09/05/2020 Chinampa, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
1) Dick Angelo 3G, Farsante, Yoruba vs Estruendo, Legendario, Rey Optimus
2) Dragón Fly © vs Gran Felipe Jr., Rey Halcón Jr., Demonio del Caribe [ARGENTINO CHAMP]
3) Yoshioka vs Thunder Storm, Baby Star Jr.
4) Ciclonico, Mr. Jerry, Último Guerrero vs Euforia, Hip Hop Man, Zumbido
Ultimo Guerrero working with Euforia here. No Shun Skywalker advertised this time. The Argentino championship is Hip Hop Man’s belt, which ended up with Dragon Fly in IWRG. This show is 40 pesos directly, and will likely end up on Mas Lucha’s service. I wonder if it’ll be the last one of this run, and if this style of show will survive arenas being opened back up (presuming they stay opened up.)
Solo Buenas Luchas (TUE) 09/08/2020 Monterrey, Nuevo León
1) ? vs ??
2) Radar vs Rey Destroyer Jr.
3) Epydemius vs Fulgor I
4) Black Taurus (Indie) & Hijo Del Espectro Jr. vs Medico Brujo & Muerte Extrema
5) Laredo Kid vs The Tiger vs Baby Xtreme
Roberto Figueroa has to be up to double digits in promotional brands at this point. It’s unreal. This is a 100 pesos iPPV, where you pay directly through Facebook and presumably watch it. Is it only good matches? I’m kinda iffy on running a three way match and tag match between unusual partners as the big matches on a show of that type.