Bandido & Flamita test COVID positive and off of ROH Final Battle, Penta/TripleMania, CMLL announcement

Bandido & Flamita are among those off of Ring of Honor’s Final Battle due to positive COVID tests. ROH indicated these were pre-travel tests (so done in Mexico) for both wrestlers. Bandido previously tested for COVID-19 before CMLL’s Aniversario show. Bandido was spotted yesterday still in Mexico while other wrestlers were in Baltimore for the show, which tipped something was wrong. My understanding is Bandido tested positive but is not believed to currently have COVID-19. I haven’t heard an update on Flamita.

There’s an important distinction here: Ring of Honor is actually doing testing and being strict about not spreading COVID-19. I think CMLL and AAA have made efforts at that, though it’s hard to know how serious they have been. (It is unfathomable no one ever tests positive and gets pulled off an IWRG show, for instance.)

Final Battle is being taped this week and airs on 12/18. Bandido & Flamita were scheduled to defend their trios championship with Rey Horus on the show itself. ROH says they’ll announce changes on the (free) pre-show before the PPV. This also means they’ll be off ROH TV for the next four to six weeks.

CMLL says there will be an announcement tonight at 9 pm on Facebook about their next scheduled TicketMaster Live show for 12/25. It’s the language CMLL uses when wrestlers have been pulled for shows due to COVID tests or other bad news. Christmas is far enough out that it seems like anyone positive could still quarantine and make it back just in time, but perhaps they’re taking a little extra caution. It is possible they’re announcing the show has been canceled or postponed due to the worsening health situations. CMLL was still running tapings as of this week, but the situation in Mexico City is getting worse; it reads like they’re projecting to run out of hospital beds for COVID patients in a week’s time, which could trigger a red health code shut down. It does seem early for a cancelation, though.

Mexico State is also close to switching back to red health code due to the amount of COVID hospitalizations. Mexico State’s government says all businesses must close at 5 pm for the next two weeks starting Monday, which seems to imperil IWRG and anyone else who’s announced a show for the next two weeks. On the other hand, IWRG has seemed to flout 30% capacity rules and never seems to have a positive COVID test, so maybe they’ll get a pass on this as well. This week’s IWRG lineup was posted late, is probably still on, is a normal week in between some bigger shows.

Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net reported Pentagon Jr. suffered a leg injury in training a few weeks ago and was kept out of AEW action. He was quickly taken out of this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite match and hasn’t wrestled a full match since November 11th. LuchaBrothersMX pointed out Penta posted a photo of a training session yesterday, so assume he’s good for TripleMania. AAA tends not to announce lineup changes so we’ve just got to hope for the best anyway.

Murder Clown declared the Psycho Circus match will be the best at TripleMania. It’s a bold claim. Psycho Circus did a lot of press yesterday for the TripleMania. There’s also a lot of advertisements for Pagano & Chessman around Mexico City.

AAA is using various celebrities for TripleMania. A TikTok person, here’s a DJ and so on. I don’t expect to know who these people are, but they could still mean something to the Mexico TV audience.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions Konnan will be in Mexico City for TripleMania. He hasn’t been at AAA show since the shut down; I’m not sure if he’s been at a wrestling show at all outside the cameo on AEW.

MLW appears to be bringing in Mil Muertes. Not just the person also known as Ricky Banderas, but the literal Mil Muertes gimmick. They aired a vignette where manager Salina de la Renta re-enacted the Mil Muertes backstory vignette, putting herself in Catrina’s role. The ‘real’ name for Muertes (Pascual Mendoza) was mentioned, “Mil Muertes” was not said, so it’s still possible they may be changing the name a bit. Gilbert Cosme was using the Mil Muertes character on indies even when Lucha Underground was on the air, saying he had specific permission from the show to use the name everywhere. That didn’t seem to be the case for anyone else on the show, but there also weren’t public legal threats to stop Muertes. Maybe there won’t be again if they just use something close to it.

Guanajuato promotion Generacion XXI announced they were returning for a year-end show on 12/19. Among the matches announced was a women’s match with (unsurprisingly unretired) Heroina, Lilith Dark, and Reina Obscura. That match had a stipulation where the loser would have to strip to their underwear in the ring. Maybe people have differing opinions on if that’s a good idea for a lucha libre show, but all can agree the promotion should clear that stipulation with the people in the match before announcing it. As Metro noticed, Reina Obscura wasn’t told about the stipulation – she says no one asked if she wanted to be booked at all – and publically pulled herself from the show while criticizing the concept. The match is a four women match with Starfire and Miss Delicious added and Reina Obscura and the stipulation removed. Given those who were involved, it seems most likely Heronia was the person who had agreed to strip.

Bestia 666 posted an audio message from Damian 666, who’s condition battling COVID-19 is improving. Bestia mentions his mother is doing a little better as well; she’s been in the hospital longer.

El Hijo del Santo told a story about Kato Kung Lee’s first time at Arena Mexico. He was waiting in line to talk to Salvador Lutteroth, saw a guy walking around, and very directly asked him why there was no coffee for people waiting. The guy got some coffee for Kato, who then asked him his name. “I’m Salvador Lutteroth Jr., I own all of this.” Kato apologized.

Felino Jr. mentioned he’d shaved his beard so he could look more like Felino in the mask. Felino Jr. feels he wasn’t given the character, he earned it with his work.

Mistico, Rey Cometa, Stuka, Hechicero, and Rey Bucanero are listed as headlining a 12/19 show in Mexico State’s Arena Mama Lucha. Ultimo Guerrero and other CMLL wrestlers have started to reappear on indie cards and this lineup suggests CMLL has lifted their COVID restrictions against their luchador taking outside work. Hechicero hasn’t been seen in the ring since September and was thought to be out the year due to injury.

Box Y Lucha put up a free sample issue so people can get an idea of what it is like to subscribe. It’s mostly content from earlier this year and is longer than usual.

Lucha Central wraps up their TripleMania look back.

LuchaWorld has the weekly Lucha Report and ranks top ten luchadoras of all time.

Lucha libre has resumed in Bolivia, including the Cholitas.