Month: November 2020

AAA’s TripleMania will take place on Saturday, December 26th. The Lucha Central Espanol podcast reported the date on their episode yesterday, starting about 29th minutes in. This will be an empty arena show with no fans. The podcast did not have specific info on how it’ll be aired – noting PPV is an option along with the usual TV outlets – but believes the date was picked with the idea families would all be together and be looking for something to do.

EDIT: An AAA source says the 12/26 date is “dead wrong”. Here’s like six hundred words I already wrote about it because what else am I going to do:

Matches now announced for TripleMania

• Chessman vs Pagano in a hair versus hair match
• Laredo Kid vs Kenny Omega for the AAA Mega Championship
• Aracno & Leyenda Americana versus Terror Purpura & Venenoide in a Marvel Match
• Taya (c) vs Lady Shani for the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship.

Lucha Central also revealed the women’s title match. Lady Shani, La Hiedra, and Faby Apache had a #1 contenders match on one of the 10/18 Autolucha shows. It hasn’t aired yet. It’s possible Shani won that to set up the match, though AAA’s been trying to set Shani/Taya a lot longer than that. AAA’s first announced that match two years ago, back when it was Shani who women’s champ. Injuries, availability and the pandemic has held it off a long time. It was likely to be the TripleMania title match back when this was an August show. The two were training partners when Taya was Mexico based and still appear to be close friends; they’re going to want to make that match great. A title change is likely. It works thematically and it also may be necessary contractually. Taya’s Impact contract reportedly ends in January, and there’s a possibility she’d have some interest in joining her husband in WWE in 2021.

On his podcast, Konnan mentioned AAA had a date for TripleMania which was to be announced in a few days. Maybe AAA will confirm this in a few days. Konnan also has the Marvel reps worked out: two will be Americans, four will be Mexicans. He said six people; just four are announced.

AAA said TripleMania will be a seven-match card. I anticipate there will be one match to get a lot of people involved and a mixed tag match to include Big Mami & Nino Hamburguesa (and to find a spot for other women). That leaves one more spot. A Lucha Brothers match normally fits in that space, though the lack of ticket revenue at least opens the door to them being left off the card this year and AAA focusing on regular roster members. AAA will probably give the whole card at once, next time we hear from them.

I’ve got some ideas for TripleMania related projects and was unsure if I’d be able to figure them out in two weeks if the show was on. It made me unsure how AAA was going to promote a TripleMania in just a couple of weeks. Giving up hope of having fans is disappointing, but it seems highly unlikely any time soon. Better to have a month to promote what the show is going to be than waiting around for what it can’t be.

AEW has not yet mentioned the Laredo Kid/Kenny Omega TripleMania match, though they may be waiting for a date. It’d be a great help for AAA if Laredo Kid made an appearance on AEW Dynamite, ideally 12/02 for the Omega/Moxley title match, but I wouldn’t count on it. If AAA is doing TripleMania live on December 26th, that would seem to clinch Omega not appearing on NJPW’s Dome shows on 01/04 and 01/05, as he wouldn’t be able to quarantine for fourteen days. (It’s never seemed like a strong possibility he’d be there, but there’s always a rumor. And there’s also the chance Japan could change their two-week quarantine policy.)

Mexico City is staying in the orange health code this week, with hospitalizations on the rise. They’re on a pace where infections would be as bad in December as they were back in May. Which would mean a harder lockdown. (The rumor/speculation is Mexico City has only stayed open as much as it to allow Buen Fin/Black Friday-type sales to help businesses and will be locking down once those are over.) CMLL has aired their live shows actually live. AAA led fans to believe all of the Lucha Fighter shows were live but all but the first episode had taped matches. A taped TripleMania might be safer to accomplish and produced smoother (though the live Autoluchas shows have been better the camera cut heavy TV episodes.)

CMLL is running their PPV on the last Friday of the month in November. (Keep scrolling for that lineup.) If CMLL does the same next week, it would take place on Christmas and a day before TripleMania. CMLL has made a recent annual tradition of running notable shows on Christmas but I’m unsure if they’d try the same for a PPV. It’s hard to know what CMLL is thinking about much of anything and we probably won’t find out until the start of December.

CMLL (FRI) 11/27/2020 Arena México
1) Reyna Isis vs Princesa Sugehit
2) Black Panther & Blue Panther vs Felino & Tiger
3) Diamante Azul vs Sansón, Blue Panther Jr., Forastero, Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente, Cuatrero, Kráneo, Blue Panther Jr., Rey Bucanero, Vangellys, Guerrero Maya Jr., Stuka Jr., Cancerbero, Ephesto [Leyenda de Azul]
4) Último Guerrero © vs Euforia [CMLL HEAVY]
8th defense

CMLL will do better with this show only because they’re asking people to buy one show a month and not four. It is not a strong card otherwise. Ultimo Guerrero and Euforia should be good, though they may have diminished excitement for waiting so long. The Leyenda de Azul is not especially meaningful in most years and there’s not anyone I’m excited to see. Panthers/Felinos and Isis/Sugehit should be fine but there’s no excitement there. There’s a lot of bigger names left off, which would be weird for any other promotion running one PPV a month except for CMLL. They’re still rotating talent when it long stopped making sense.

If you are interested in buying the show, buy it today. The price will go up 25% starting tomorrow.

Blue Panther Jr. saying he doesn’t know what it’ll mean for his career if he wins and he’s looking for a rivalry is a good summary of the importance of the Leyenda de Azul. Someone will win, CMLL will likely mention it for about two weeks, and then they’ll likely never reference it again until the next time they run one.

Niebla Roja teased helping Terrible in Leyenda de Azul. The Chavez and Terrible teamed on Televisa and they may be headed to something akin to a Los Ingobernables tweeners bit. Or it may just get dropped.

CMLL on AMX should have a Rey Cometa versus Raziel match tonight. It’s hard to be completely sure with CMLL TV, but they set up the match last week and continued talking about it on CMLL Informa today. That show streams free to the world at 7 pm CT. I’ll put it up on Google Drive this weekend. AMX started a Titan/

CMLL’s YouTube Sunday upload (last week’s Televisa show) will have

• Oro Jr. vs Hijo del Signo
• Dulce Garednia & Audaz vs Dark Magic & Okumura
• Atlantis Jr. & Flyer (c) vs Hijo del Villano III Jr. & Tiger for the Mexican National Tag Team championship
• Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Valiente

Atlantis and Atlantis Jr. appeared in a charity announcement, which is the first time we’ve seen Atlantis in months.

Show of note this weekend

• Estrellita is advertised on the Future Stars of Women’s Wrestling PPV tonight. She’s scheduled to face Katrina.
• Arena Lopez Mateos has a Freelance/Impulso title match. Mas Lucha will have the previous week’s show on their site Saturday and were very high on the Freelance/Segura/Yakuza vs Arashi/Belial/Impulso trios match.
• Two of the IWRG Lightweight Tournament matches will air on a Lucha Time special on Saturday night, also on Mas Lucha.
• The other two matches will air on Sunday from Arena Naucalpan, along with a three way tag match main event. That’ll air on Mas Lucha.
• Vanguardia has their monthly show in Pachuca; it’ll air on Mas Lucha later. The previous show begins streaming on Mas Lucha Premium’s service this weekend.
• Zona 23 returns on Sunday, should turn up on IWTV eventually.

Lucha Memes last two shows are now up on IWTV. The lineups look good but I heard next to thing about the shows. In my thinking, this means there’s totally an opening for someone around Mexico City who is already going to these shows just to write “esta lucha fue bien, esta lucha es MUY bien, y otro todo normal”. I get some of that on Whatsapp but I’d also probably pay like $2/month on Patreon for it if there was enough of it.

The other galaxy brain idea I have is if I was Memes – or MexaWrestling or the weird Arena Neza shows that were on PPV or whomever – I might offer people who came to a show a discount on the next show’s tickets if they posted what they liked or disliked. It would have clearly be more than a Facebook comment and I’d want to make it public so it doesn’t come off as astroturfing, but there’s value in that sort of marketing if you have a good product. Any promoter would prefer that sort of buzz build naturally, but sometimes you need a little stunt to get it started.

Anyway, I may get around to finally to signing up to IWTV to watch the four Lucha Memes shows they have on there. Part of the issue is I have an old beef that service that everyone else has long forgotten and it’s hard for me to get there. The other issue is the timing; the last Memes show seems to go up about two weeks before the next one, I’m always thinking I should just wait a little bit longer for the next show, and then the cycle repeats.

Fenix & Penta did interviews to promote AEW on Space, which debuts on Sunday. They were asked which side they would be on in a theoretical AAA versus AEW show and they say they’d just pick which ever side gives them the best opponents from the other company.

Konnan made his debut on AEW Wednesday. It was a cameo in a Las Vegas skit and appeared to be a one-off appearance. Chris Jericho had previously mentioning Konnan pitching to manage Santana & Ortiz (but Jericho wanted them with him instead.)

MLW announced their Opera Cup will return over the upcoming weeks. It’s an eight-person single-elimination tournament. Laredo Kid faces ACH in the first round. I’d be surprised if Laredo Kid made it to the second round over the recent ex-WWE guy. (It’s not great for AAA trying to get people excited about a Laredo/Omega match, but that’s not MLW’s problem.) Daga is listed among the many alternates, so he seems to have landed in MLW for the time being. Hijo de LA Park is also among those alternates. This bunch of MLW episodes are already taped with the LA Parks in attendance, so they’ll be wrestling at some point. They may not tape again until 2021.

Pirata Morgan, in an interview with YouTube personality Escorpion Dorado, revealed luchadors get paid more for losing apuesta matches than winning. The payoffs were known though it is a little bit different with an old school guy like Morgan talking about, and Morgan still seems to be talking about it as if the matches are real but wrestlers throw them to get those payoffs. This is still enough to get Mexican websites and Facebook accounts into disarray. Morgan cites a match with Hector Garza in Puebla where the promoter promised 25K for the winner and 150K for the loser, then told Morgan it’d actually be 200K if he was the one who lost. Morgan says luchadors used to get paid a straight salary win or lose.

Octagon tells a story bout the day Undertaker asked him for a photo.

Tinieblas has also been named as a representative of Redes Sociales Progresistas.

Puma King has a new vlog up tomorrow.

Box Y Lucha is selling some digital editions of older magazines. It’s 2 USD or 40 Pesos, or 20/400 for 14 editions. Some have been bonuses as part of the year subscription or otherwise made available.

• New: 768, 793, 865, 868, 868-A, 869, 870, 871, 872, 873, 874, 875, 877, 937, 948
• Previously Available: 876, 878, 929, 934, 1000, 1609

It looks like you have to buy a number of magazines and then pick which ones but I’m not exactly sure. They sent me an email asking which ones I wanted after I bought 14.

ElSalvador.com has a history of lucha libre in that country. They describe the end of wrestling in the 60s coming due to issues between the wrestlers and the main promoter. The wrestlers formed a union and left to form their own promotion, and neither the wrestlers or the old promotion were successful without each other. There was an attempt to set up the country as a stop for Puerto Rican wrestling in the 70s that didn’t take.

Guatemala luchador Corsario II (Juanito Lopez) passed away.

Lineups

Legend (SAT) 11/28/2020 Arena Lopez Mateos
1) Príncipe Ranger vs Niño Águila
2) Little Ángel vs Blue Danger
3) Azgard vs Arashi vs Ángel Malavado
4) Manos De Seda Jr. & Raptor vs Epitafio & Leviatham
5) Bala De Plata Jr., Carta Brava Jr. (IWL), Tom Mix Jr. vs Oficial 911, Oficial AK47, Oficial Fierro
6) Toscano & Último Guerrero vs Joe Lider & Mr. Águila

Ultimo Guerrero wrestling on an indie show when a major plot point in CMLL is Ultimo Guerrero wrestling on indie shows against CMLL’s wishes makes this a bit of interest. Legend is actually selling this on a late 2000s dream match between Los Perros del Mal and Guerreros del Infierno. Ultimo Guerrero was also the man who unmasked Mr. Aguila before he left to be a WWE wrestler last century.

This is a show honoring luchador Tom Mix, with Tom Mix Jr. wrestling in the semi-main. I have not watched any Arashi but the booking suggests he’s the Arena Lopez Mateos guy everyone running the building is getting behind.

Lucha Memes (SUN) 11/29/2020 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Perro De Guerra Jr. vs Belial
2) Avisman vs Energía
3) Judas el Traidor vs Látigo
4) Aramis vs Black Terry
5) Arez vs Trauma II
6) Ricky Marvin vs Mr. Electro
7) Dr. Cerebro & Negro Navarro vs Aeroboy & Solar I

Full card for the Negro Navarro tribute show. I think there’s an attempt to do new match-ups on this card. It’s great on the surface but few of the matches seem exciting. Aramis versus Black Terry is interesting. Everything should be fine.

Space TV, a Mexico cable station which has carried AAA for the last three years, seems to be making some changes in its wresting programming. Their online schedule lists AEW debuting on Sunday at 10:30 AM. AAA had been airing Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at the station. The online schedule shows the next three weeks of Space, and AAA isn’t listed a single time. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics says he’s talked to AAA and AEW, and AAA says they will continue to air on Space. Mexico TV network online listings are not completely reliable, so this may be nothing. It’s strange none of the parties have said anything about it publicly; AEW should be promoting their debut this week.

I’ll save the long paragraphs of why and how losing Space would be bad for a time where we know that’s what happened. The short version is especially bad timing to lose Space when Azteca has bumped AAA to late-night. The Azteca deal ends in late December/early January if it hasn’t been quietly renewed already; we never heard about the last renewal until after it was done.

IWRG (SUN) 11/15/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha, R de Rudo]
1) Komander b Legendario Dick Angelo 3G 
Komander replaced Rey Halcon in the 2nd version of the poster. Dick Angelo 3G replaced Legendario.
2) Black Dragón & Death Metal b Alas De Plata & Freelance 
Alas de Plata replaced Charro Negro in the 2nd version of the poster
3) Redimido b Baby Xtreme, Mexica, Baby Star, Puma de Oro, Mr. Puma, Sobredosis, Atomic Star [IWRG IC Light, battle royal] 
Baby Extreme was originally listed as Baby Sting
4) Hijo De Dos Caras, Hijo del Alebrije, Puma King b Emperador Azteca, Hijo Del Espectro Jr., Súper Beast 
Puma King & Hijo del Alebrije replaced Dragon Bane (injury) & Hijo de Canis Lupus. Puma fouled Espectro, fake a foul, and the referee awarded Puma the win.
5) Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal b Oficial 911 & Oficial AK47 [hair] 
Bloody match. Kristal pinned AK47 with a top rope senton, 911 fouled Kristal to set up a pin, and Ventura beat 911 after lots of interference and a Kristal chair shot.

That main event looks like a typical Naucalpan apuesta match with much drama around cheating. Dragon Bane wrestled Saturday, posted a photo of himself in a knee brace Sunday, and didn’t make it here; I guess his brother didn’t come because Bane didn’t come.

Next week’s lightweight tournament matches:

• Redimido vs. Atomic Star
• Sobredosis vs. Mexica
• Mr. Puma vs. Puma de Oro
• Baby Star vs. Baby Extreme

There’s an intentional comedy in those last two matches, making it seem just predetermined despite the effort of doing a battle royal. Don’t have seeding battle royals. They serve no purpose except antagonizing the people who are watching the match. Just run them in your brain and announce the same match-ups.

A GIF of Komander’s spectacular finish went viral. What happens in these cases is people want to follow IWRG, thinking they’ll see more Komander, but Komander was just an extra guy working an opening match because he happened to be in Mexico City for other work. No idea if he’ll be back or given anything to do.

IWRG continues to advertise its shows as way over 30% capacity. They were visibly way over that. It wasn’t a full house, but it looks closer to 75% full.  Either they’ve convinced someone the actual capacity of Arena Naucalpan is an artificially inflated large number, or no one cares to check.  This is not the first time I’ve pointed this out, and I don’t want to run into the ground, but it is an unsafe health situation. (It’s the same with GALLI; gatherings over 10 people are specifically forbidden in Illinois, and GALLI had their usual attendance.) Everyone who is stepping foot in Naucalpan is doing it with an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. There’s a real argument that IWRG has been the most successful Mexican wrestling promotion this year, but they’re doing it by taking risks AAA & CMLL either have not chosen to take or will not be allowed to take.

The highest-profile lucha libre match this weekend was on between Mr. Iguana and comedian. Lalo Elizarrarás faced Iguana on Saturday in a one-off 80 pesos PPV. Elizarrarás has a popular YouTube channel. In August, he revealed he wrestled briefly as the masked Tlaloc before moving into comedy, which seemed to set this all into motion. Iguana & Elizarrarás did videos and other social media work building up the match. My impression is the show did decently well, but I don’t have hard numbers. Iguana defended the honor of lucha libre by defeating Tlaloc in the match via armbar.

I watched GALLI’s two shows this weekend on FITE. I got the sense I may have been the only person on the planet watching them, but I probably would’ve paid to go to a GALLI show or two by now in a normal year, so this is just sending the money a different way. The Sunday show is the one to get if you’re going to check it out. Aerostar & Drago has a very professional tag match against Golden Star & Rey Fuego, and Mil Muertes got a great showcase against Aramis & Bandolero. I’d like to see those last two face each other at some point, but this was more Mil Muertes looking like a monster in a way he hasn’t since Lucha Underground. He’s still limited in movement and doesn’t look like he used to, but they played to what he could do very well. Aeroboy versus Cody Jones was alright, but they were building towards a lot of booing, and the crowd didn’t give them much. The Mexico talent worked hard.

Laredo Kid still wrestled in Arena Lopez Mateos, going to a draw with Veracruz’s Ultimo Legendario. It would’ve been understandable if he skipped it following his father’s death, but he was still wrestling as usual.

The show, put on by Veracruz promotion BELLO, drew poorly. It seemed to exist only because the promotion craved running a show after being stopped from doing so for most of the year and haven’t been able to do it in their home state. That may be changing: A lucha libre show has been announced for Auditorio Benito Juarez in Veracruz on 11/28. This one seems to be a charity show, which may be why it’s permitted.

On Saturday, Bengalee took Baby Angelita’s mask in four-way with Lilith Dark and Reyna Obscura. Baby Angelita is Citlaly Yessenia Alberto Lopez, 23 years old, 8 years a wrestler, from Mexico City.

Oriental accused Veneno of hitting Oriental’s nine-year-old child with a motorcycle helmet Sunday. The child was left bleeding and with some damage to teeth. Oriental brings up some money issues, but it’s not exactly clear what happened.

La Jarochita wrestled on an indie show Friday, which is notable given Euforia publicizing CMLL’s policy against their wrestlers working outside shows during the pandemic. She did an autograph signing too. She’s likely not on the next Ticketmaster Live show but would seem to be in the pool of wrestlers still working TV tapings.

El Pais has a story on health conditions for luchadors in the wake of Principe Aereo’s death. There’s a lot of familiar ground – CMLL’s doctor shows up to talk about how there’s no money for medical personal at these shows while insisting they take care of everything. El Fantasma comes off unusually poorly, confrontational and quick to anger when the reporter asks why the Mexico City lucha libre regulations are not made public. My theory had been the Mexico City lucha libre commission doesn’t publicize information (like the rules and approved lineups) because they’re old men who are vastly behind the times and working hard to stay that way. The writer here seems to believe the actual reason the commission rules are only viewable at the commission office is so few people know the rules, and the commission can selectively enforce them. The writer lists Fantasma by his real name.

Lucha Memes Homenaje Al Negro Navarro on 11/29 at Coliseo Coacalco

• Avisman vs Energia
• Perro de Guerra Jr. vs Belial
• Ricky Marvin vs Mr. Electro
• Aramis vs Black Terry – new

That’s a first-time match.

CMLL posted the 2004 Leyenda de Azul on YouTube. They again appear to have cut out as much of Dr. Wagner Jr. & Vampiro as possible. Black Tiger (Silver King)’s entrance is cut too, but they do show him in the ring – he might have been just walking too close to Wagner.

Caristico is getting into politics. He’s the Redes Social Progresistas liaison for the mayor’s off in Cuauhtemoc, in Mexico City. They held a press conference on Friday to announce this; it’s unclear if this a meaningful role or just publicity for a brand new group; they appear to be recruiting celebrities. RSP is was founded in 2019 and recognized as a political party last month,

Box Y Lucha reports Guatemalan luchador Corsario II (Juan Lopez Velazquez, 78) passed away on Saturday.

Zeta Tijuana talks to Damian 666 about his career.

NVINoticas has a profile of Oaxacan luchador Black Killer.

CMLL Informa today has Cuatrero, Blue Panther Jr., Rey Cometa, Cancerbero, Guerrero Maya Jr., Ephesto, and Vangellys. They’ve said they’ll announce the full Leyenda de Azul field (this week for sure), so some of those names are in that match. Last week’s CMLL on AMX show set up a Rey Cometa/Raziel match; perhaps that’s been changed to Rey Cometa/Cancerbero but the preview still says it’s Cometa/Raziel.

VOD service Crackle announced Heroes of Lucha Libre will debut on their platform on November 25. It is possible you have a vague recollection of Heroes of Lucha Libre, a short-lived Los Angeles based promotion. They booked large buildings with the hopes of drawing near 10,000 crowds with a lucha libre show. They did draw what would be considered a great indie crowd – SoCalUncensored had 2,500 for the first show and 3,000 for the third show – but probably not enough for their business plan. They ran three (10/01/17, 12/09/17, 06/02/18) shows, produced the show for TV, and then just posted vague messages about coming back occasionally. A fan cam of the main event out, but we’ve never seen more than clips of the final product. Crackle is free in the US, so anyone with some time over Thanksgiving can check it out.

I don’t expect this to be some hidden gem. The main event scene was built around Sam Adonis and evil Trump parody characters against Mexico, a feud blown off a couple of weeks ago. There are some undercard matches that may interesting, and the third show has a Rey Misterio singles match prior to returning to WWE. Dragon Lee & Mistico also appeared on the one show we don’t have results forward (which led to this group strangely trademarking those names.) The phrasing of the press release – “an 11 episode scripted series” might be PR speak or could mean the wrestling portion will be the backdrop for some skits.

Space (Mexico) has updated their guide and put AAA back in their normal spots on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That was weird. AAA actually leads directly into AEW on Sunday. On Mas Lucha’s podcast, Jose Manuel Guillen mentions Space is building around wrestling and boxing and other things (action movies) that fit that feel, which is where AEW came in.

AAA posted a Laredo Kid promo challenging Kenny Omega again for TripleMania.

Friday appears to be the decision day for 12/05 as the TripleMania date. That’s the next map update and AAA also likely needs two weeks to promote the show is actually happening. (I know I’m writing that just like a week after putting up a post about a major show drawing 20,000 on a few days’ notice, but COVID makes this even harder to pull off.) AAA can easily push the shows back if they want, it’s not like Arena Ciudad de Mexico has a lot else going on. Barring a remarkable turnaround, AAA’s ultimately going to decide if running TripleMania with fans or running TripleMania in 2020 is more important.

Ring of Honor announced their annual Final Battle PPV will take place on Friday 12/18. They did not say it was live; my understanding is it’ll be taped a week ahead of time. Rush, Dragon Lee, Bandido, Flamita, and Rey Horus are expected to be on the show to defend their respective titles. It’ll be the first matches since the pandemic for Rush & Dragon Lee. It also may be the final ROH date for some of those names; we don’t know any more about their contract situation than we did a month ago.

There’s a chance of that weekend being a busy one for lucha libre. The ROH show is on 12/18 for sure. It is possible CMLL runs their one Ticketmaster Live show also on that date; they are running the final Friday in November but may want to avoid Christmas Day in December. The next day, December 19th, is the likely 2nd choice date for TripleMania.

Danes I (Juan Estrada) passed away Monday. Danes I was a Tabasco based luchador. He’s known more nationally as one of Canek’s brothers.

Hijo de Octagon has COVID-19. This is the non-AAA “son” of Octagon, who announced this. (R de Rudo noticed this first.). Hijo de Octagon said he experienced mild symptoms but it still threw him for a loop. He believes he got it from his brother, who got it at work. (Hijo de Octagon, the only currently acknowledged son of Octagon, would probably not like you think to think too much about him having a brother.)

The Mr. Iguana/Tlaloc match looks really good in highlights.

Dr. Wagner Jr. says he’s one signature away from coming back to CMLL. This seems unlikely as long as CMLL is going out of their way to edit him out of old Leyenda de Azul matches.

Trauma I missed wrestling on a show in Chiapas on Sunday with a shoulder injury. He still appeared, with Villano III Jr. taking his place in the match.

AAA posted a Lucha Fighter recap of the shows earlier this year. I’m not sure if there’s a purpose to it; all those episodes are already up on YouTube. AAA possibly might need to run empty studio tapings again before things get better but there’s no other indication that’s coming. This paragraph just serves to embarrass me later if this was actually something.

Welcome To Mi Barrio says they’ll return with new episodes on 11/27.

Cinta de Oro & Magno versus the Colons and Demus vs Mascarita Dorada headline a show in El Paso on 11/28. All non-essential businesses are meant to be closed to December 1st in El Paso.

Mas Lucha has a new episode of En+Carados.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 11/22/2020 Arena Naucalpan
1) Cheff Benito vs Halcón Galáctico
2) Mexica vs Sobredosis [IWRG IC Light, quarterfinal]
3) Baby Xtreme vs Baby Star [IWRG IC Light, quarterfinal]
4) Toxin vs The Tiger
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Puma King, Veneno vs Capo del Norte, Capo Mayor, El Hijo Del Espectro Jr.
6) Estrella Divina & Tiago vs Big Chicoche & Big Ovett and Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal

The tag team main event reminds me of the still incomplete IWRG Tag Team eliminator. The final was meant to be Traumas versus Demonio Infernal & Fresero. IWRG’s poster confrims they’re running a big show on 12/06, likely when either the tournament final or the resulting tag title match was intended to happen. (Maybe the winner of this match gets inserted in the final instead?)

Still guessing Capo Mayor (ex-Mascara 2000 Jr.) versus Dr. Wagner as a main event for that 12/06 show. Toxin and The Tiger have been feuding here as well but that seems like a title match. Maybe the lightweight semfinals and finals on 12/06, or maybe later – IWRG often has multiple big shows in December.

Everyone very excited about Komander’s spot in IWRG gets no Komander next week. They do get the flying chef.

Mexico City remains in orange health code. Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients are on the rise. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports AAA is now open to the possibility of an empty arena TripleMania. This is framed as a last gasp effort: they may choose empty arena TripleMania over no TripleMania this year at all if they can’t get in fans. I assume that also means they’d wait until into December to make that call.

I expect AAA will wait as long as possible to get fans; it’ll be into December before AAA broaches the subject of having now fans. I do think that’s a possibility AAA has to seriously consider if it is at all financially viable. The COVID-19 situation is only getting worse. Beyond the Mexico City increase in hospitalization, Zacatecas is moving back to a red health code and Chihuahua is reaching a record high in infections. AAA can hope for the situation to get better in a month’s time to run TripleMania, but there’s no reason to believe it will be beyond hope. Everyone in Mexican wrestling needs to accept the reality that we’re still nowhere close to being able to safely put fans in buildings for wrestling shows, and may not get there until a vaccine in Mexico well into 2021. AAA shouldn’t run TripleMania if it’s going to be a money loser without fans, but pushing it back a couple of weeks or even into next month believing suddenly fans will be allowed is a waste of effort (unless AAA knows something we all don’t know.)

On his podcast, Konnan noted Canelo Alvarez may now have a boxing match on December 19th, which was a fallback date for TripleMania if they can’t run on the 5th. There’s concern that they shouldn’t run that date, though Konnan pointed out they’ve done well following big boxing matches in the past.

The WON also mentions US women’s wrestler Kylie Rae was planned to portray one of AAA/Marvel wrestlers. She’s currently on a hiatus from wrestling after not appearing on a PPV, it’s her second such sudden hiatus, and she may not be returning to wrestling. Rae’s inclusion, along with other reports, points to the Marvel characters generally being US wrestlers rather than existing AAA Mexican wrestlers. It’s still early in that.

CMLL Informa announced Diamante Azul & Sanson for the 11/27 Leyenda de Azul cibernetico. They also added a Princesa Sugehit versus Reyna Isis, a non-title match between the two champions.

The big news on the show was Euforia explaining his problems with Ultimo Guerrero. He never said Guerrero faked having COVID-19, but he’s upset about Guerrero contracting it and costing him the spot. Euforia explained CMLL wrestlers were told not to take outside dates and Euforia was specifically not allowed to wrestle on a show for that reason. (That appears to be the 09/05 ChinampaLuchas show.) Euforia says Ultimo Guerrero disregarded orders by doing autograph signings and wrestling on other shows and believes that’s how caught COVID-19. Euforia mentioned others being upset with Ultimo Guerrero and the other people in the match should feel the same way. Euforia called Ultimo Guerrero a liar and a guy who steals other people’s feuds, mentioning Guerrero taking over Euforia’s rivalry with Thunder. Despite the animosity, Euforia wants to still defend the trios titles with Ultimo & Gran Guerrero against Terrible, Hechicero, and Templario because the challengers are owed the chance. If UG won’t team with him, Euforia suggested swapping himself and Templario in the match.

(The trios title match is probably not happening because Hechicero is injured and may not return this year. Cavernario may be healthy and back by the time they’re able to do this match, so maybe he’ll end up back in his spot.)

Sanson also revealed he took a second COVID-19 test a week after he tested positive. The second test was negative and he never had any symptoms.

CMLL Televisa on Saturday will have an Atlantis Jr. & Flyer versus Tiger & Hijo del Villano III. match for the Mexican National Tag Team championship. The match will debut on YouTube next Sunday. It would be a significant surprise if Atlantis & Flyer lost. CMLL originally promoted this match as airing on the September 19th episode, including Villano III & Tiger doing a round of media for it just days before. It didn’t air and CMLL didn’t explain or acknowledge the change. We’ve barely seen Villano III since, just one match I’ve caught.

Last week’s CMLL Televisa show debuts on CMLL’s YouTube page Sunday. Matches on the show:

• Magia Blanca vs Grako
• Star Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs Okumura & Vangellys
• Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Polvora
• Luciferno & Negro Casas vs Atlantis Jr. & Audaz

(There is/was no set up to the tag title match the following week. Why book things?)

Shows of note this weekend

• GALLI is running two shows on FITE TV, Saturday and Sunday. The price for these shows is now $10 each or $15 for both, which is up from a few days ago. Saturday’s card is alright but nothing jumps out. I hoped there would be a lineup for Sunday but I haven’t seen one yet.
• Bello Promociones moved their November 14th show twice, and it’s in Arena Lopez Mateos at the moment. The Wotan Hive (proper name? needs workshopping) will see their man team with Hijo del Fishman against Demus & Romano Garcia in a likely hard-hitting match. Laredo Kid faces Ultimo Legendario in a singles match. This is a safe bet to be heavily bootlegged and may air on Mas Lucha.
• DTU is running a drive-in show in Tulancingo on Sunday, with Dr. Wagner & Galeno del Mal taking on Super Crazy & Crazy Boy based on an issue on the last DTU show. (That previous show is debuting as a stream tonight on Facebook for 50 pesos, the one this weekend will air on Mas Lucha on some future date.
• IWRG has Oficial 911 & AK47 versus Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal in a double hair match. The Oficials tend to lose their big matches lately and hadn’t been around IWRG much until this feud started. There’s also the start (?) of the IWRG Lightweight Championship tournament, which should be a lot of guys trying to push how far they can go. I understand last week’s Mas Lucha broadcast said this show would be a Premium only stream but they haven’t promoted it as such this past week.

Lucha Memes Homenaje Al Negro Navarro on 11/29 at Coliseo Coacalco

• Avisman vs Energia
• Perro de Guerra Jr. vs Belial
• Ricky Marvin vs Mr. Electro – new

I can’t find a previous Marvin/Electroshock match, which seems odd – it feels like they must’ve been in AAA at the same time. The new idea for this is all matches are submission matches, though I don’t think that’s been announced outside of private Facebook accounts. This is about two weeks away, so expect the card to go from one match every few days to the entire card being dropped at once soon.

Pitbull II (Cesar Munoz), who wrestled more recently as the latest Septiembre Negro Jr., passed away on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He’s the brother of La Bestia del Ring and the uncle of Rush, Dragon Lee, and Mistico (2). Pitbull wrestled most of his career around Jalisco. He wrestled as “Pitbull” in IWRG a couple of years ago, teaming with his son “El Latino.”

The WON mentions all of the Mexican luchadors signed to Ring of Honor are expected to be on their next set of tapings. That’ll include their annual Final Battle PPV show, which will air live. I’d expect Rush, Dragon Lee, and Mexisquad all to defend their titles on the PPV and for everyone to read heavily into their future status by the outcomes of those matches.

Vice has a video story about how Mexican wrestlers have adapted during the pandemic, featuring ChinampaLuchas, Thunder Storm, and Tackle.

GALLI has two shows this weekend, available on FITE. Saturday is in their normal place in Villa Park. Sunday was scheduled to be in the unusual location of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, but all public events have been canceled in Wisconsin. GALLI indicated they’ll still be streaming on Sunday. It’s not clear from where (not that it really matters.)

The car of AAA’s Jesus Zuniga was stolen.

Luchadors in Hidalgo held a food drive to help out the people of Tabasco, who are dealing with massive floods.

Chihuahua luchador El Pirata (Victor Ojeda, 64) passed away on Wednesday. Box Y Lucha’s obit mentions he wrestled as the masked Bismark in Los Angeles, losing his mask to Negro Casas in 1982.

A pivotal match in Mexican wrestling took place on January 29th, 1975, and it has been lost to time. It wasn’t a mask match, it wasn’t a hair match, and, depending on who you ask, it wasn’t even a real title match. I didn’t know anything about this match until I did some old magazine reading this year, so maybe you don’t need it either. It’s a story worth repeating, even if it’ll take me a while to set-up how the match happened.

(I’m in the midst of going through 1970s magazines. I might have more context after I read more, or others might tell this story fuller. This is the best I’ve got right now. It may be better later but now seemed like a good time to tell the story.)

The origins of the match started nearly a year earlier, in the spring of 1974. It had been apparent, based on talent movement and mentions, that EMLL stars felt like their best options at making money was actually outside of Arena Mexico. Many luchadors did tours and trips to the United States; Mil Mascaras sticks in EMLL full time for only about three years before making his move to California. Others wrestle many independent dates and stay away; El Santo does not wrestle in Arena Mexico from 1971 to 1974, going as far as leaving the luchador’s union while still being active elsewhere in the country. It works for him because he’s already El Santo, the star of the ring and the screen, and it works for the people who come along to work as his teammates and opponents.

Those independent stars were still seen as special cases. Most people who took outside still kept an association with EMLL, trading off booking fees owned to the Lutteroths in exchange for the stability and fame they provided. It’s hard to build up a name nationally without the assistance of a big promotion. There is no other national lucha libre promotion. There were promoters strong in their cities, but no competition on the Lutteroth scale. Non-EMLL promotions ran some venues in Mexico City and the surrounding state, but EMLL defeated their last true rival in the 50s. There had been no competition since the 50s.

El Solitario dropped a bombshell in El Halcon issue 96 (May 12, 1974): the most popular regular tecnico in EMLL was leaving. Solitario portrayed his own departure as on good terms, calling EMLL the University of Lucha Libre for giving him the tools to succeed.  He cited Mil Mascaras, Tinieblas, and Huracan Ramirez as people who do well touring Mexico without EMLL’s help. Solitario planned on doing the same, touring on his own some big cities and many small towns, a harder schedule than EMLL’s but one where a star match can fill out a card mostly of locals and be paid strongly. Solitario was asked why no promoter stands up to EMLL/Lutteroth and put it down to a luchador issue. There’s plenty of underutilized talent who talk about going out on their own, but few are willing to take the risk of leaving EMLL. Solitario’s star power meant he was safer than most people thinking about taking that leap, but it was rare for even star luchadors to abandon their Arena Mexico home.

Solitario leaving in May meant he was out of the plans of the next Arena Mexico season. EMLL opened its main arena on Friday nights only for selected 8-12 week seasons at that point in their promotions history. They ran their bigger shows during those stretches, while all the other shows were held at the smaller Arena Coliseo or the recently opened Pista Arena Revolucion. Some of the biggest names would commonly go elsewhere in Mexico when Arena Mexico closed. It wasn’t an unusual deal when Rene Guajardo disappeared from Arena Mexico after a hair match loss to Anibal & Steve Wright in April. Arena Mexico wouldn’t open again until June; Guajardo taking a break back home to Monterrey was normal. A report on Guajardo, 41, said considering retirement, but it seemed unlikely. Guajardo was NWA World Middleweight Champion in his sixth reign and been the lead rudo for the promotion for at least a decade, and would continue to be around that top position as long as he wanted it.

Rene Guajardo wanted something more. Guajardo did not return for the June tour. He didn’t return to Arena Mexico for years. He instead decided to open “Divison del Norte,” a band of luchadors based in the northern part of Mexico. Guajardo is at first evasive about what he’s forming, refusing to suggest a new union or trade association while also urging luchadors to band together. He also denies reports he’s going into promoting himself. Guajardo’s first major non-EMLL match was announced in Monterrey’s Plaza de Monumental Bullring on July 5th, against old rival El Solitario. And the extra surprise is it would be for Guajardo’s NWA World Middleweight Championship. EMLL likely intended Guajardo to drop the belt to Anibal – maybe in June – but he instead walked out of the promotion still as champ.

The championship threw the Mexican wrestling into a bit of chaos. The “NWA” titles were sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance, regarded as the world’s most important championships. The Welterweight, Middleweight, and Light Heavyweight championships were effectively EMLL’s in-house main titles for decades. There was an occasional title change outside of Mexico, but always with the intent of remaining in control of the Lutteroth family. The NWA was content with this arrangement. EMLL used it to proclaim their top wrestlers the best of anywhere in the world. Rene Guajardo continuing his own world best claim while no longer being EMLL was a great credibility boost to Guajardo and an embarrassment to EMLL. Guajardo’s act had some precedent – Gori Guerrero walked out of EMLL in 1962 as NWA World Light Heavyweight Champion and continued to defend it for years before EMLL finally got the NWA to step in and strip him of the title in 1967. (Guerrero resurfaced in Mexico lucha magazines during the Guajardo controversy to claim he remained light heavyweight champion in the NWA’s official record book, seven years after he was said to be stripped.) Guajardo seemed to bet the NWA would stay out of the situation for long enough to get rolling.

Not everything went as planned, but it did play out in Rene Guajardo’s favor. Guajardo successfully defended the NWA World Middleweight Championship against Solitario in Monterrey on the 5th – magazines report it as a big turnout – and then again in Nuevo Laredo a few days later. The NWA acts much quicker than with Guerrero, stripping Guajardo of the Middleweight championship on the 17th for defending it without approval. The actual sanction turns out not to matter. Wrestling fans and writers had seen Guajardo as the best middleweight wrestler in Mexico for the last decade. No one defeated Guajardo in the ring for the championship. He still had the physical belt. EMLL and NWA could call someone else the world’s best middleweight, but people naturally believed Guajardo as the ‘real’ champ.

EMLL belatedly determined a new ‘official’ champion – perhaps they were waiting for the newly updated belt. Anibal had the best claim on being champion, and so was a logical winner on September 20th. Anibal’s star was already on the rise, he had good support as a tecnico star, but he still had Guajardo hanging over him. It is hard to explain this in a 2020 context, but being the champion in those days meant everyone believing that person was the best person, not just the person fortunate/cheating enough to win the latest game of hot potato. Ray Mendoza was a well-regarded star, but he never beat Gori Guerrero to win that Light Heavyweight belt, and it damaged his claim at being the best in the world for a long time. Anibal’s claim may have suffered more because Guajardo continued to defend his belt around Mexico even after the NWA discredited it. Mexico lucha libre commission officials treated those belts the same as the authorized NWA belts, lending credibility to proceedings.

More so than just the belt, Guajardo’s departure looked like a very successful move and the start of a movement. Guajardo found success touring with his group; Solitario tells a magazine he’s earned more money in one year outside of EMLL than he did in the last three years he worked there. El Santo’s formalized his touring group into a booking office known as “El Fraternidad del Santo,” and they’re working hand in hand with Guajardo, Solitario, and their group. (They’re conjoined to the point where it’s hard to tell who’s meant to be part of which group.) There’s talk of a big show coming to Mexico City featuring these guys – Benjamin Mora & Francisco Flores appear to have tried this in years past and now have more talent to work with between both groups.

Others see this success and follow out the door. If you clicked that link about the NWA Guajardo stripping the middleweight championship, you’d notice a mention of the light heavyweight champion also being stripped because he’s in the hospital. Ray Mendoza was that light heavyweight champion, and he was indeed injured; he wouldn’t return for months. He was also likely to upset about how his not-quite-acknowledged sons (Villano I & Villano II) were being treated as opening match acts in EMLL and may have been already planning to bolt. Mendoza follows Guajardo’s example: he holds onto his belt and starts defending it as the real light heavyweight champion on non-EMLL shows as soon as he’s able to return in late 1975. That leaves the NWA World Welterweight Championship as the only stable championship – until young Mano Negra similarly walks out of the promotion over the winter break, also taking his title with him. All three NWA championships were officially vacant with six months because the champions quit CMLL. It’s an embarrassment on top of embarrassment for EMLL (at this point being run by Chavo Lutteroth Jr., the man who was re-introduced as being in charge of CMLL in 2019). EMLL still has a belief in its young stars, its ability to train new wrestlers, and all the talk about a Mexico City rival still hasn’t actually produced anything. EMLL had some egg on its face but must’ve still felt unchallenged – everyone left, but they remained unchallenged in their home market.

On January 24th, 1975, new NWA World Middleweight Champion Anibal teams with El Rostro in a forgettable tag team tournament in Arena Coliseo. He wins a match, loses the second, and is done for the night. And done with EMLL for some time. Anibal tells the press he’s quitting Arena Mexico. He’s signed a 50K pesos a year deal directly with Promociones Mora (the Flores/Mora combo), he’s starting with them five days from now in a special show in Mexico City’s Palacio de Los Deportes, and – oh yeah – Anibal’s taking the NWA middleweight title with him for a title unification bout with Rene Guajardo. Anibal is bringing the new title belt, Guajardo is bringing the old title belt, and the dream match just six months in the making is happening. On January 29th, the show with important names but no other big matches beyond Anibal/Guajardo draws a reported 21,000 fans and a 345K pesos gate. That may be the biggest gate ever in Mexico to that point, and it’s greater than could fit in the 18,000 seat Arena Mexico. It is an enormous success and an important proof of concept: a national rival to EMLL was now possible.

The rest of 1975 is a flurry of trying to work out the best way to make this work, to keep the momentum going for a second entity independent of EMLL. The initial Anibal/Guajardo match seems more important than great: Anibal wins when Rene Guajardo angrily throws a forbidden closed fist for the disqualification. It’s enough to keep the issue going, with both men getting their hand raised as the real middleweight champion during the rest of the year. Mora tries the “seasonal” approach of shows at both Palacio de Los Deportes, running a couple of weeks every few months and throwing out such extreme concepts (for 1975) as “every match will be an apuesta match” or “a tag team tournament where the losing team is unmasked.” El Santo tries to work with everyone, eventually working matches in Arena Mexico for the first time in years and getting EMLL wrestlers for a Fraternidad del Santo branded show in Plaza Mexico sanctioned NWA title match. New Japan Pro Wrestling partners with the Mora group, sending a young small wrestler named “Hamada.” The Mexico group quickly gives him a shock victory over Guajardo in a hair match in an attempt to immediately create a new star, and Hamada turns out to be impressive enough to make it work. Not everything works out for everyone – Mano Negra struggles and retreats to EMLL – but the new group seems to be outdrawing EMLL in Monterrey for their biggest shows while doing great in Mexico City.

The one missing piece is what to do with those title belts that started all of this. The NWA isn’t going to sanction them, but there’s a need to make them international championships to keep their credibility. The independent group flirts with different ideas on how to label them. The magazines are fed a story of meeting in Panama to create “Alianza Universal de Promoters,” but it doesn’t really take. Mil Mascaras partners with Mora to defend his IWA Heavyweight Championship on one of his shows, so the magazines go with the idea that the IWA is now endorsing all the ex-NWA titles. That sticks about two weeks until a letter from the US explains IWA hasn’t really existed in years, and Mascaras isn’t defending a sanctioned title either. (Mascaras denies this.) This still serves as the basis for the new group, which gets modified over a few months. A group of ex-IWA promoters got together the day the IWA folded to create a new alliance, something bigger than even a national wrestling alliance. They formed the Universal Wrestling Association (“Association Universal de Lucha Libre”), naming Lou Thesz as president and authorizing Promociones Mora to hold tournaments to determine new champions. The unsanctioned NWA championships were quietly retired, but those belt holders made it to the finals of tournaments for the new belts, with finals for a special November 26, 1975 show in Mexico City’s Palacio de Los Deportes. That was the official start of UWA sanctioned shows, which would continue to rival and often surpass EMLL for the next decade and a half.

Wrestlers of that period talk about that stretch of time – from the start of the Mora/UWA shows until the collapse in the early 90s – as a fantastic time to be a wrestler. They were treated well by promoters, had plenty of work, and were paid fairly. Older wrestlers (and older fans) tend to look back at their youth as a particularly golden age of wrestling, no matter what years those were, but those 70/80s shows are unarguable packed with hall of fame wrestlers in front of large audiences. Mora alone is believed to have drawn over a million fans in some years. It doesn’t happen without both Rene Guajardo, and Anibal had the courage to walk out of the stability of EMLL and take their belts with them.

Post-script 1: Anibal versus Rene Guajardo was covered on radio and TV. Lucha libre in Mexico City wasn’t allowed to be broadcast on TV, so a giant match from 1975 being televised (even if just a clip) would’ve been a huge deal. There’s a long-shot chance it’s sitting in some vault somewhere, though more likely it’s long destroyed by now.

Post-script 2: EMLL seems like it must be in bad shape in 1975 after losing so many names in a short time, right? Not exactly. They did have a deep bench of young wrestlers who could step up to fill some of the gaps. Ringo Mendoza was already getting more of a focus in 1974 (and was a factor in the unrelated Ray Mendoza leaving). Others, like Fishman, Tony Salazar, and Cien Caras get larger roles. Luchadors who are about to be big deals are coming out of the woodwork; a magazine reader can be flipping through pages and stumble upon an introduction of new Acapulco star (and future Hall of Famer) Lizmark. This was a great time to need new faces.

The biggest prospect turned star came from Guadalajara. He’d been wrestling in Arena Coliseo Guadalajara since at least 1970, got his first chance in Mexico City in 1974, showed some great potential as a rudo, but had trouble breaking through to a regularly featured role. He got as high as “solid challenger for a national title defense” until the departures picked up. He did well when given those chances, so EMLL put him in a high profile feud with Ringo Mendoza. And this is how the legend of Perro Aguayo was born:

• April 25 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo defeats Ringo Mendoza in a hair match
• June 13 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo defeats Marty Jones in a hair match
• July 4 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo defeats Ringo Mendoza for the NWA Middleweight Championship (Anibal vacancy)
• July 18 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo defeats Ricky Starr to retain the NWA Middleweight Championship
• September 26 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo defeats EL SANTO to retain the NWA Middleweight Championship
• October 3 [Arena Mexico]: El Santo defeats Perro Aguayo in a mask versus hair match
• October 12 [Guadalajara]: Perro Aguayo defeats Blue Demon to retain the NWA Middleweight Championship
• December 5 [Arena Mexico]: Perro Aguayo (likely) defeats El Santo to retain the NWA Middleweight Championship
  • (we have the match announcement but not a recap of the show)

All those wins are meaningful. The loss might have meant more; the show’s magazine recaps are effusive in their praise of Aguayo. Santo won and rightfully so, but Aguayo made it clear he’s an outstanding luchador, and there’s a strong respect for his abilities. Santo had not defended his mask in Arena Mexico in 12 years, came back specifically for this feud, and would never defend it Arena Mexico again. Our records of 1970s lucha are far from complete (though getting better), but Perro Aguayo was likely the final person to beat El Santo in a singles match in Arena Mexico. Those title matches do not happen without the former champions leaving (putting Aguayo in front of the line for the title) and an opposition promotion forcing EMLL to retaliate by working with Santo again. Aguayo was great and would’ve been a star eventually anyway, but September 26th and October 3rd made him one right away.

Post-script 3: another name shows up in late 1974 and early 1975, perhaps thanks to a few spots opening up. It’s a new person under an old name, and he really never gets out of the Arena Coliseo prelims, but “Espectro Jr.” does get a profile. The magazine notes he’s not the son of original Espectro Antonio Hernandez, but one of his top trainees. Espectro Jr. is better known today as Antonio Pena; a man who got into EMLL due to a rival promotion would one day lead a rival promotion against EMLL himself. The origins of AAA – a press conference, a TV agreement, an actual name – were all a lot smoother than the UWA, so perhaps these times helped him prepare later.

CMLL will announce the Leyenda de Azul cibernetico field tonight on CMLL Informa. That should be fine but doesn’t seem worth delaying this post. CMLL lists Blue Panther Jr., Atlantis Jr., and Flyer among the guests for Informa, so you can pencil them in for spots. Sanson will make his first appearance since his COVID-19 diagnosis and Euforia will likely talk about his pending match with Ultimo Guererro. Five guests is a small number for Informa, so probably other announcements are coming.

CMLL is also doing date-tiered pricing for the 11/27 TicketMaster Live show; the price has already gone up without them explaining it.

• original price, now gone for good: 201 pesos
• Buen Fin 25% discount price (11/09 to 11/20): 216 pesos
• week of show price: 270 pesos?

CMLL never explained the first price increase, but CMLL doesn’t explain much. You should probably buy the show in the next week if you want to see it.

Sagrado told ESTO he’s got offers from other companies but is completely loyal to CMLL, wants to be there nowhere else, wants his children to wrestle for CMLL if they wrestle. Except, he’s also sad the promotion isn’t as loyal to the wrestlers who stick with them, calling out how Caristico left and said not nice things about CMLL and now he’s back and being pushed to the top. He’s also critical of Los Ingobernables for not being loyal (while suggest they didn’t allow him to be part of that group.) This is a deep look into CMLL Brain.

Post Wrestling has an interview with Matt Taven, where he talks very positively about his time in CMLL.

Hijo del Vikingo’s “year-long break to care for his new child” seems to have ended about a month. He posted a clip of a cool flip from AAA’s training location, and is expected to be back on AAA shows whenever there are new AAA shows.

AAA’s released a teaser video for Marvel lucha libre character Leyenda America. I assume we’ll get a one for all four debuting characters, and they’ll all be unclear who’s under the mask. (It’s likely whoever was under the masks for these scenes are unrelated to who will actually wrestle anyway.) The believed date for TripleMania is 24 days away.

AEW has another Pentagon versus Fenix match tonight on Dynamite. It will be good as always. Typical US booking would have Penta get his win back. Fenix should win if he’s really being set up for the missing match with Kenny Omega sometime soon, as has been hinted. Some sort of progress regardless of the result is the important thing; Penta winning in a way where it’s clearer Fenix is going to be leaving that group soon would still be a success.

The Bello Promociones show with Wotan & Hijo de Fishman versus Demus & Romano Garcia this Saturday at Arena San Juan is now at Arena Lopez Mateos. This is the second show to be moved from Arena San Juan in eight days, which still has not run a show since Principe Aereo passed away. The arena is not clear on what’s going on, but they now have no announced future shows.

The next Vanguardia show will be on Mas Lucha Premium. The Halloween Lucha Libre Boom/GAW show with LA Park & Hijo de LA Park vs Pagano & Joe Lider from 10/31 will air on Mas Lucha Premium this Sunday

Oficial 911 says he’s working as a bodyguard when not wrestling. He’s required to workout at the gym for one job, so that pairs well with the wrestling.

This is days old, but 411 Wrestling did a good job of pointing it out: Univision sold their stake in El Rey Network. Robert Rodriguez and Factory Made Ventures completely own the channel. Univision itself is headed to a sale at the end of the year, so this is about getting rid of a property the new owners didn’t want. El Rey still airs repeats of Lucha Underground as well as Vampiro’s talk show. Rodriguez & FactoryMade now have full control of the network, but presumably less funding to work with. They’ll also no longer have the leverage of Univision when it comes to being included in cable/digital systems (where Univision could demand providers pick up all their owned channels if they wanted to the big one.) El Rey has already been dropped by providers in recent years. I’ve been skeptical about how long the digital channel El Rey will last previously and this change only confirms my beliefs.

Lucha libre writer & historian El Testigo (Humberto Alcaraz) passed away.

Torren luchador Joe Maquina (Jose Marquina Marquez, 84) passed away Monday due to a combination of COVID-19 and a pre-existing respiratory condition. Beyond being a wrestler, he was an active member of the local luchador union, fighting for better treatment and salaries in the 80s and 90s. His last regular matcha appears to be in 1991, with him coming back for a old timer’s match in 1998.

Ludwig Star (Carlos Alberto Ludwig Camacho, 48), a long time Acapulco luchador, passed away Wednesday. He wrestled during the last couple of decades of Arena Coliseo Acapulco being a weekly CMLL stop. A few wrestlers eventually got the chance to wrestle in Mexico City over the years, similar to Arena Puebla today. Ludwig Star got his chance in 1993 and 1994, showing up in Arena Coliseo & Pista Arena Revolucion, though he did not end up staying in Mexico City. He was active as recently as a year ago.

There are plans for a wrestling museum in Mexicali.

An article about mask shop in San Luis Potosi.

Lineups

GALLI (SAT) 11/14/2020 Arena GALLI, Villa Park, Illinois
1) Cortez & Psyco J vs August Mathews & Davey Bang
2) Espíritu Maya vs Dean Jacobs
3) Atómico & Furia Nocturna vs Cody Jones & Paloma
4) Aramis & El Bandolero vs Golden Star & Rey Fuego
5) Aerostar & Drago (AAA) vs Atómico Jr. & Golden Dragón
6) Mil Muertes vs Ricky Cruz

The first of two shows airing on FITE, available for 6 USD alone or 10 USD with the show for Sunday (no card yet announced but similiar outside crew.) Gringo Loco was originally scheduled for these shows but is now off.

IWRG (SUN) 11/15/2020 Arena Naucalpan
1) Legendario vs Komander
Komander replaced Rey Halcon in the 2nd version of the poster
2) Alas De Plata & Freelance vs Black Dragón & Death Metal
Alas de Plata replaced Charro Negro in the 2nd version of the poster
3) Redimido vs Baby Xtreme, Mexica, Baby Star, Puma de Oro, Mr. Puma, Sobredosis, Atomic Star [IWRG IC Light, torneo]
Baby Extreme was originally listed as Baby Sting
4) Emperador Azteca, Hijo Del Espectro, Súper Beast vs Dragón Bane, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Hijo De Dos Caras
5) Oficial 911 & Oficial AK47 vs Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal [hair]

Oficials have gotten the best of the Shotas recently.

I believe this week is the first block of a two block lightweight tournament but the poster isn’t clear. The field announced last month also included Chicanito, Dick Angelo 3G, and Legendario and did not include Baby Star, so maybe there’s a full eight coming in the next match.

Lucha Time announced Charro Negro will be in IWRG for the next three months, he was announced for this show, and then he was unannounced for this show. This is normal weirdness for Mexican indie lucha libre. Charro Negro is one of the best prospects in Mexico and should be part of that lightweight tournament unless they have bigger plans.