Month: August 2020

CMLL delivered on their big news today on CMLL Informa, announcing both the Aniversario concept and a partial return to regular shows.

CMLL will return to running Friday night shows starting September 4th. The shows will air on Ticketmaster Live, a new-ish streaming service set up by the ticket broker site. There’s no price announced. Ticketmaster does not yet list the shows. Events on the service run from 150 to 400 pesos. It appears Ticketmaster allows international purchases, though every show may be different.

Previous attempts on CMLL iPPVs have been a struggle. Ticketmaster is doing this full time, has an existing relationship with CMLL, and this now has to be a top priority instead of just a side project. If CMLL iPPVs had to try iPPVs again – and they pretty much have to if they’re going to run shows – this is probably the best show they have at getting it to work. (If they are successful, it does open up the possibility of CMLL sticking with Friday night iPPVs even when shows go back to normal, but that’s an issue for another day.)

These are currently empty arena shows. CMLL is hoping they’ll be able to have some fans. They announced a plan to fill the building to 30% capacity (5000 people) if permitted by the local government. Mexico’s original plan was not to allow attendance at indoor events until they reached Green health conditions. That’s no close to happening – Mexico City would have to go to Yellow on Friday for it to arrive in time for Aniversario – but Mexico City has also moved to allow movie theatres to allow 30% capacity. I’m not confident in the science of that decision, but a 30% full wrestling building seems about as safe as a 30% movie theatre. CMLL may get those fans. Nothing is for sure until we get to those shows.

CMLL will run on September 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th. The last date is the CMLL Aniversario show. There will be no mask or hair match, as expected by those paying attention to the economic situation. CMLL will instead have an all title match card, with challengers selected by the fans. CMLL fan polls have led to fan mischief in the past, though CMLL can also handle the situation by carefully choosing the challengers. CMLL will also have to decide which of their two dozen champions will defend.

CMLL’s commercial for these shows emphasizes they’ll be running some 1v1 single fall matches, which is unusual for only them. They’ll be running 2v2 and 3v3 too. We know nothing else about the matches. Or even the number of those matches. With over 100 wrestlers and only one show a week, there’s going to be a lot of competition for a few spots. It will also be a competition to get eyeballs on iPPV: will they go with a comfortable lineup like the show this past week, or will they feel a necessity to offer more significant matches to get fans to pay?

CMLL’s probably not going to change too much. I expect we won’t get a full card for a couple of weeks, though leaking out a match or two a week fits with the typical CMLL Informa style. Maybe watch those Informa lineups to see who’s wrestling first.

CMLL will have an announcement on the Aniversario show today as part of CMLL Informa, which begins at 4 pm. The news on that show tends to come either right off the start or near the very end; you might be better waiting for the Twitter poster if it’s not there right away. There’s been no hint about what the announcement may entail. CMLL struggles at setting expectations, so most fans seem to believe a main event may be announced today while it’s more likely just a date and maybe a concept. We really have no idea. We’re also waiting for any other announcement about any other CMLL show; we don’t know when the next show will be. In theory, other CMLL shows are happening between now and the Aniversario show. Nothing is a sure thing in 2020.

AAA’s peregrinacion is Friday at 1 pm, which means it’ll be going on by the next time I have a news post. There’s been no news about the Auto Lucha scheduled for them either. I don’t think AAA planned on being able to announce anything when they set the date for the virtual pilgrimage, though it’d be an ideal time to make news if they have it to make. It’d actually start to concern me – that the permission extended to CMLL to run a show will not be extended to AAA or anyone else – if that event ends with no hint of future plans. I tend to worry about things before they really should be worried about it though.

Ring of Honor announced they’ll taping new TV this month in Maryland. They haven’t run a show since their March PPV was canceled hours before it was set to occur. ROH did tape some empty arena matches that weekend as a sort of test run, but they never aired them. ROH hasn’t mentioned a talent roster for these new shows. Bandido was a guest on +LuchaTV’s podcast Monday night, a few hours before this announcement, and said he and the rest of the Mexicans contingent did not yet know when they would return to Ring of Honor. That matches what I’ve heard privately. That includes the current world champion, TV champion, and trios champions, which is an obstacle for the short term. ROH is taping a video discussing their pandemic plans today to go up in the near future, so the situation may be addressed then.

Halcon Lucha Libre has a recap of the latest Zona 23 show, where Impluso faced Demus during a short intense rainstorm. It’s a smaller area (not the junkyard) than usual, and maybe a few more missing people than usual.

Mas Lucha’s En+Carados talked about Rey del Norte, which appears to be a 15 man royal rumble put on by KAOZ. That sounds like a good streaming platform content: weird enough to be fun but not interesting enough to be worth a purchase on its own. I didn’t make it through the entire podcast yet, but it didn’t seem like a full field was announced. Mas Lucha’s interview guests this week seem like a hint.

Generacion XXI will have an all women’s secret show on 08/23.

Lucha Libre Voom will be doing a show from home on 09/03. They’re asking for at least a $1 donation.

Sinaloa luchador Prince Boy/Comando Iraki (Antoio Valadez) passed away on Tuesday.

Puebla luchador Sirio (85) passed away recently.

SUperLuchas has an obit for el Exorcista, who passed away last month.

CMLL (THU) 07/30/2020 Arena México [CMLL, ESTO, Furia de Titanes, Lucha Central, Mas Lucha, Ovaciones, R de Rudo, Reforma, Somos el Medio, thecubsfan]
1) Black Panther ?? Dark Magic
mentioned by Somos el Medio, did not air and not mentioned in results.
2) La Jarochita & Sanely b Amapola & Reina Isis 
11:53. Tecnicas took 2/3.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr. & Stuka Jr. b Okumura & Vangellys 
14:52. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Ángel de Oro, Carístico, Star Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Templario, Terrible 
14:26. Tecnicos took 2/3.

CMLL returned to action with the most generic CMLL show possible. All tecnico wins, all in the same fashion, no extraordinary match ups or even a mask pulling DQ. This was a sponsored show and they got a show booked liked a sponsored show. It was nice to have CMLL exist again but that’s all this was.

There was no indication of where CMLL will go from here when they might run again, no next show or lineup. All we know for the moment is CMLL will have that Aniversario announcement on Wednesday. CMLL is scheduled to continue to air old shows this week – Televisa will have the 2007 (Marco Corleone vs Universo 2000) and 2008 (Hector Garza vs Perro Aguayo Jr.) Homenaje a Dos Leyendas shows this upcoming Saturday. There’s no indication when AAA might run either, but at least their AutoLucha shows present a plan on how to make them financially viable. Once they start running, they should be able to keep running as long as people are willing to buy tickets. CMLL’s keeping their plan secret, if there is one.

Ovaciones report says the CMLL wrestlers were COVID-19 tested. Ovaciones labels the show as “without press”, but clearly there were some media people invited. I wonder how those decisions were made.

Planchitas credits CMLL’s Gala Lutteroth (head of CMLL’s cultural department) in making the deal with Mexico City’s ministry of culture to have this show. Planchitas also suggests – his own idea, not even a rumor – the CMLL Aniversario taking place in Mexico City’s Zocalo. That’s a person who is having trouble wrapping their head around the current situation because that’s one of the last places a show should be held. The idea is for people not to gather in groups and a show in the Zocalo would have thousands of people milling around unless they roped off blocks around it.

The second Chinamapluchas show streamed on Saturday night. I thought my biggest difficulty with that show was going to be spelling the name correctly. That’s still tough, though the bigger problem is this was a taped iPPV where they were advertising matches all week which they knew didn’t happen. The card listed a Shun Skywalker versus Yoshioka match, which did not occur, and both the promotion and Mas Lucha knew it didn’t occur even as they continued to list it in their advertisements all week. (I should’ve known it didn’t occur; I was so confused as to why I couldn’t find Shun in the photos of the show that went up last week.) There was no acknowledgment that the change occurred. I’d assume Mas Lucha would push the blame on the promotion, but Mas Lucha is also coming off their previous exclusive show running into issues and promising to do better. They had an opportunity to do better and they kicked the ball over the goal.

I will never understand why promotions (like CMLL & AAA at times) and media companies like Mas Lucha are willing to put in the effort of recording and editing a lucha libre show – something I don’t even know how to do – but not the much smaller effort of updating a poster or appending a text correction. Mas Lucha themselves just did that with a Welcome to Mi Barrio tournament bracket. I’m guessing the difference is one promotion though to do and another didn’t, but Mas Lucha has as much stake in the process once they start charging money for the shows.

08/30 DTU Cantina Extrema iPPV

• Samuray Jr., Dariux, Meta Tiger vs Aero Panther, Dragion Suicida, Principe Aereo
• Blaze vs Crazy Boy
• Brazo de Oro Jr., Brazo Cibernetico Jr., Brazo Celestial vs Paranoiko, Pesadilla, Black Fire
• Sick Boy vs Hijo de Dr. Polux vs Corsario Negro Jr. vs Chaneke vs Avorto vs Gran Cobra (w/Halloween as ref) in Rina Extreme – new
• Fly Warrior, Kevin vs Baby Extreme, Kaleth vs Yoshioka, Hormiga – new
• Ultimo Guerrero & Shun Skywalker vs Audaz & Camuflaje – new

That should be the full card. That main event would be interesting if Ultimo Guerrero was going to put in a 7 of a 10 effort. I’d like to see Audaz out of his CMLL comfort zone against Skywalker but not sure if that’ll be the way the match goes.

09/12 Lucha Strong in an undisclosed venue

• Black Terry, Negro Navarro vs Mr. Condor, El Gallego
• Corsario Negro Jr., Drako, Fresero Jr., Demonio Infernal vs Dement Extreme, Super Comando, Taurus, Angel o Demonio
• Astrolux, Torito Negro vs Principe Deka, Black Metal
• Heroina vs Lilith Dark vs Sadik Maiden vs ?

An attempt to run drive-in show on 08/15 in Torreon has been pushed to 08/29 due to logistical issues.

Dr. Landru of The Gladiators reported IWRG had everyone they were to use on Rey del Ring Part 2 take a COVID-19 test two weeks ago but were still unable to get approval to run the show. Mexico State has not gone with the same rules as Mexico City to permit closed-door lucha libre shows. It’s termed a loss, but it seems to me a partial success to at least get testing for luchadors.

This Reuters story on luchadors struggling without work gives a good sense of the situation, though it doesn’t break any new ground.

An unadvertised show in Gomez Palacio on Saturday was shut down. It wasn’t clandestine or much of a secret – they set up the ring in the middle of the secret. About 200 people were watching the show when the police, tipped off by neighbors, broke it up.

Women’s promotion WWS announced they’ll have a 7th Anniversary show as a closed-door show in the near future. The promotion ran four shows last year, no shows this year before the quarantine. They did use the music/lucha libre/theatre venue Circo Volador in Mexico City, which seems like a locale that could re-open to host indie dates.

A look inside Queretaro’s Atomico mask-making workshop as he makes facemasks. This also leads into a second story about Queretaro banning empty arena shows and threatening sanctions towards those working in other states. Atomico name drops “shows that are happening in Salvatierra every two weeks”, so Generacion XXI’s secret shows aren’t as secret as they might believe.

Aerostar’s talked in the past about being the last creation of Antonio Pena. In an interview with Record, Aerostar revealed that doesn’t extend to the name “Aerostar.” Pena designed the look but was going to wait until he debuted (under that identity) in December to pick a name. Pena passed away in October and Aerostar’s name instead came from various wrestlers pitching ideas and combining them a half-hour before he was set to debut.

Hijo del Santo, Mil Mascaras, Mascara 2000, Canek, and Fantasma were honored with honorary doctorate degrees as part of the “World Summit of Knowledge”. The criteria seemed to be “40 years of wrestling.”

Box Y Lucha has a tribute to recently deceased luchador Gabriel o Gabriela from his family.

Mas Lucha has a good column suggesting that if the Mexico City lucha libre commission is going to implement rules now for what considers a safe place to run shows, the commission could do more than just put out a statement.

Mas Lucha posted a teaser trailer for El Rey del Norte. I still have no idea what it is.

El Sol de Tampico has an entertaining story of a man in Tampico who worked as Blue Demon (Senor)’s drive and gofer when he would come to town. I’d guess there would be people in this role in every town for the bigger name wrestlers, maybe some aspiring wrestler and some regular people just picking up extra work.

Chilen luchador Jose Fica (Jose Patricio Fico, 84) passed away Sunday.

Retired Fresnillo luchador Nino Asesino (Mario Alberto Ortiz Hernandez, 61) passed away due to a heart attack.

Segunda Caida reviews Lucha Underground Season 4 Episode 21. They’re almost there. It’s been so long that I have no recollection of these matches before reading them.

Pro Wrestling Network put up the November 2018 Impacto show in Guadalajara, with Brian Villa & Willy Banderas vs Jack Evans & Crazy King.