Month: December 2020

IWRG (SUN) 12/20/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Halcón Mágico b Chef Benito  
2) Diosa Quetzal & Mexica b Death Metal & Miss Delicious  
3) Baby Xtreme & Charro Negro b Baby Star & Lunatik Extreme  
the mystery men attacked both men after the match
4) Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal DQ Big Chico Che & Big Ovett  
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo Del Espectro, Toscano b Capo del Norte, Capo Del Oeste, The Mummy  
Capo del Oeste is either a typo or a new Capo. The IWRG wrestlers attacked Lucha Time after the match.

IWRG was the only promotion of any significance to decide they were going to keep running after the health red light was declared. They did it with no fans and with a different card than announced. The people missing tended to be the bigger names (including both sides of the Puma King/Canis Lupus main event), which suggests it was more a money issue than a health one. It’s not essentially clear why they ran, except they’re IWRG so they keep running and they already bought the trophy for Toscano. IWRG will probably keep running if they can get away with it and not lose money doing it.

Every other notable promotion canceled. CMLL’s 12/25 show is off; if you bought the PPV, you should have gotten a refund this morning. No idea if those matches will happen later. The delayed Arena Lopez Mateos anniversary show is canceled and won’t be made up. The two Arena Neza shows, including the usual New Year’s Day show there, are both indefinitely postponed. Sunday’s Lucha Memes show was postponed. Mexican wrestling is all but done for the year. The restrictions on it likely won’t end soon, though promotions will start to sneak back to run shows in a few weeks regardless.

The Bandido/Volador match has now been canceled three times. It was originally scheduled for Aniversario, postponed again after Bandido felt less than 100% in his 10/09 PPV match, and now again on Christmas. It probably would’ve been scheduled in November had CMLL’s weekly PPV not turned into monthly PPVs.

The 12/27 OCESA/AAA Rock y Lucha show is still listed as happening on Ticketmaster. It’s possible that’s already been taped. There were a lot of people wondering why CMLL just didn’t tape the 12/25 show ahead of time. I have a lot of questions about CMLL taping every week instead of just taping multiple days a week.

Beyond Mexico City and Mexico State going to red health code, Baja California is also now back in Red. Veracruz, which had flipped to green for two weeks, has gone back to yellow. The upcoming danger is many people traditionally leave Mexico City and the surrounding area during the Christmas weeks to go back to the states where their family are from. Spreading COVID from the hardest-hit region of Mexico to the rest of the country is going to make the recovery even tougher.

AAA’s Facebook is now visible in Mexico only. This, combined with the termination of AAA’s YouTube channel, seems a result of the FMV/AAA lawsuit. (I was dead wrong.) FMV claims all money generated by AAA outside of Mexico is theirs, so AAA is protecting themselves and their ad revenue by restricting access outside of Mexico. AAA’s Twitter/Instagram accounts may not be affected since they’re not places where AAA makes money, but it is hard to be certain about AAA’s future at this point. The AAA PlutoTV stream of old episodes keeps going for now, though it also may be in danger of disappearing if the money issues can’t work out. If you’re Pluto TV – or Marvel or any other partner – and get dragged into this mess, it’s likely preferable just to wash your hands of AAA at that point.

For AAA watchers, this means we’ll probably not see the remaining AutoLuchas matches, at least any time soon. There’s no YouTube channel to post it right now, and no video was posted to Facebook. (Marca/Claro posted their CMLL YouTube videos so only Mexican IP addresses can see them, and that’s a possible future for AAA.) There will likely be the same restrictions for new AAA shows as well until the resolution of the AAA/FMV lawsuit, but it may be months before there are new AAA shows.

If you’re a person who posts AAA content with YouTube, I’d be careful about it for the immediate future. AAA never cared. I don’t know that FMV really cares outside of making sure AAA can’t use it, but there’s a chance of takedowns now that wasn’t there before. And if FMV holds onto the rights and sells them to someone not AAA, the plan suggested in the lawsuit, that new buyer will likely be working very hard to maintain exclusivity over that content.

(And even while I’m typing that paragraph, I’m wondering if I might as well put AAA on the Google Drive at this point.)

IWRG posted a teaser of something with AAA. AAA hasn’t said anything, so this seems more likely to be something important to IWRG (AAA wrestlers on their shows) than something important to AAA (Arena Naucalpan as an AAA training facility.) An article about the teaser in Ovaciones didn’t really say much.

12/20 ROH’s Final Battle results

• Rey Horus defeated Dalton Castle
• Dragon Lee defeated Tony Deppen to retain the ROH TV Championship
• Rush defeated Brody King to retain the ROH Championship

La Bestia del Ring interfered in the main event and appears to be starting with Ring of Honor. ROH has not announced Dragon Lee & Rush signing a new contract, but bringing in Bestia and keeping the titles on the Munoz heavily suggests they all will be sticking around.

ROH had a segment where Mexasquad (Bandido, Flamita, and Rey Horus) could have been stripped of the ROH six man championships, but the challengers refused to take them by forfeit. They remain champions. A singles win for Horus might set up a TV title match with Dragon Lee sometime during the upcoming block of TV.

WrestlingInc reports there’s an idea for a new WWE “Mexican Lucha Libre” series. The article reads like someone’s pitched the concept and perhaps is leaking it publicly to drum up interest. The article makes it clear nothing has been approved or set in motion; this is the latest iteration of “WWE has a plan for Mexico/Latin America” that’s been going on for fifteen or so years. If there’s anything we can definitely take from this, it’s the last iteration of this plan – put a WWE Performance Center in Peru or Chile or someplace in Latin America – isn’t on their roadmap right now since this is a conflicting pitch.

A WWE “Lucha Libre” series would be a WWE style show with masked men, some Mexicans, and a similar presentation to every other show WWE does. The NXT UK brand nods to the history of wrestling in that region but it is a WWE style show at its heart because WWE sincerely believes they’ve figured out the only correct way to put on a wrestling show. WWE has also made it abundantly clear they dislike lucha libre, believe it’s an inferior and incorrectly style, and anyone wrestling that way needs to be reprogrammed. A WWE Lucha Libre show would be lucha libre in name only. WWF Super Astros featured a lot of lucha libre talent and felt more like Mexican wrestling (because WWE didn’t care all that much about it to change things), and it’s unlikely even something like that would exist for long in WWE today.

A new WWE lucha libre show would obviously have a big effect on lucha libre. WWE Lucha Libre contract offers are unlikely to be large amounts, but that’d still be competitive with what luchadors are offered in Mexico. Many Mexican wrestlers would jump at the chance to be in the WWE system, even if WWE Lucha Libre is a long way away from actual WWE. Gran Metalik might wrestle more than once a month and for more than two minutes, though even that is no guarantee. Again, this is a long way away from happening.

WrestleZone reported Penta and Fenix re-upped with AEW this summer, extending their contract for a year. I asked around (!) and this story is accurate. They’re now under AEW contract until the end of August 2021.

Murder Clown won the Perros del Mal Heavyweight Championship from Taurus on Saturday. The championship is from the long gone Perros del Mal promotion and has alternately been referred to a “heavyweight” and “light heavyweight.” Taurus won the belt from Pentagon back in 2017 and has occasionally worn it on TV, but it’s not been an active thing. The last few title matches have all been in the US, as was this title change.

01/22 Lucha Memes/Martinez Turf Zone Arena in Fort Worth, Texas

• Aeroboy vs Joshua Wavra

Lucha Memes announced the 12/20 cancelation as their own serious decision based on the health situation. It rings quite hollow when they’re full-on to their next show in Texas. The health situation is the same, the rules blocking shows just don’t exist there. This Memes show should be good but it’s no great idea.

Bestia 666 says his father Damian 666 is out of the hospital and back home. Bestia’s mother remains in the hospital dealing with COVID-19.

Olympic medalist Daniel Aceves, who appears in CMLL annually to honor his father as part of Copa Bobby Bonales, says he secretly wrestled under a mask from 2009 to 2012 as Siglo XXI. The article implies he did it in CMLL, but there’s no record of that. There are a few Siglo XXI matches in my records from that time period, though most seem to be of a wrestler in Nuevo Laredo.

Luchadors who passed away over the weekend

• Puebla’s Verdugo (Rodrigo Hernandez, 48) had wrestled for 31 years on indie shows. The obituary mentions he passed away “due to health problems that had bothered him for some time”
• Mexico City luchador Gran Kendor II passed away on Sunday.
• young Naucalpan luchador Galactus passed away early Monday or late Sunday. He was an early match guy on recent Lucha Libre Boom shows and wrestled a bit in Arena Naucalpan. It appears to be a sudden death; he was scheduled to work one of the canceled shows this past weekend.
• retired San Luis Potosi luchador Bruno Victoria Sr. passed away

LuchaWorld has a great obit of Dr. Alfonso Morales. He’s also the cover image of this week’s Box Y Lucha.

The promoter of Arena Tigre Padillla talks about being sidelined for nine months. He has no idea when they’ll be able to return.

Dr. Morales passes away

Dr. Alfonso Morales (Gilberto Alberto Morales Villela, 71) passed away Thursday due to kidney failure. Morales was the voice of Mexican wrestling for a generation of the fans. Mexican wrestling has only been nationally televised since the early 90s (outside of a stretch in the 50s), and Morales was the authortative announcer from that inception until the early 2010s. AAA & CMLL announcers were Televisa employees during that time, Morales worked for Televisa, both promotions wanted to use him, and so Morales was the primary voice for the biggest matches in Mexican wrestling during multiple booms. The two promotions are now on different networks and use in-house announcers whenever possible; even if lucha libre took off again, there’s no one who couold approach Morales’ level of fame. He was the standard of Mexican wrestling announcing and will be remembered as such for years to ome.

Like many Televisa announcers, Morales was at first a sports reporter who was assigned to wrestling, working hard to educate himself on the history of the sport through reading old magazines. Morales was more recognizible for his personality. He was the dignified tecnico announcer often appalled by the opinions of his rudo partners, most famously Arturo Rivera and Leobardo Magadan. The phrase “Que Barbaro, Magadan!” was all over Twitter last night, along with many other rememberances of his favorite sayings and phrases.

Morales was also a famed boxing announcer. It seemed to be his favorite of the two, and something he was still closely following even after he stepped away from lucha libre. SuperLuchas comprehensive obituary notes that boxing career too started somewhat accidentally; he did it because no one else at the station he was working at could do it. Morales also became a writer for magazines, including Box Y Lucha and SuperLuchas. Dr. Morales had a doctorate of psychitary, though he only practiced for a few years before focusing on journalism.

A running joke over the years was that Dr. Morales was also luchador Tinieblas, based on their similiar height, Morales missing a show where Tinieblas appeared and maybe Tinieblas’ gimmick of being the wise giant being similiar to Morales. No one ever took it seriously, but everyone enjoyed referncing it. Tinieblas mentioned how he enjoyed that bit in a Twitter post marking Morales’ passing.

CMLL posted a video of an emotional Leobrado Magadan, talking about his fallen friend. It’s a tough watch.

Red Light for Mexico City & Mexico State

Mexico City and Mexico State jointly announced they’d return to a red health code starting Saturday, citing COVID-19 hospitalization rates among other reasons. These status are typically evaluated every Friday or every other Friday, but the government has already declared all non-essential businesses must stay closed through January 10th. (That timeline suggests it may be an attempt to stop the spread of the virus at holiday gatherings.)

Lucha libre in Mexico has been generally considered a non-essential business, so it appears all lucha libre shows for the next three weeks will be canceled. CMLL has a PPV scheduled for 12/25, generally did not run events during the previous period of Mexico City shutdown, but did get special permission to start running before the red code was lifted. AAA is done for the year (and may have not been able to run TripleMania if they waited one week longer.) Mexico State shows have moved around a lot this week to avoid a 5 pm curfew. Those shows now are likely not to be allowed at all, though the enforcement of these policies falls to the local municipalities and not all act the same. Some promotions attempted to run secret shows during similiar rules this spring and summer, to inconsistent success. Each wrestling group is going to have their announcement about their future plans. This red light was a forseeable outcome but none of the promotions seems immediately prepared to announce plans.

A full updated map of Mexico’s health codes is expected to be released tonight.

AAA’s YouTube channel missing, possibly terminated

AAA YouTube’s channel currently doesn’t exist. Any attempt to go the channel page gets “a page not found”. Clicking on an old video link says the channel has been terminated. This was first noticed around 5 pm. This is exactly what my channel looked earlier the year when it was permanently deleted. A key differene is I’m just some dork on the internet and AAA seemed to have a relationship with YouTube Mexico, who’d often promote their shows. AAA on YouTube was good business for both AAA and YouTube Mexico, so there’s probably something going on beyond the normal three strikes process for normal users. AAA publically is saying nothing; I did ask on this one and was unsurprised to get no response. Like always, we won’t hear from them until this is resolved – either the channel coming back or a new one being formed. It may take as long as a week to get a resolution.

The timing of this takedown aligns a bit with Lucha Libre FMV’s lawsuit. It is possible the US company filed enough takedown requests to take it down, though that seems unlikely. FMV wants the money AAA is making internationally, taking down YouTube only succeeds in reducing the amount of money FMV may ultimately recieve. Deleting a channel also makes it harder, if not impossible, to see information like “how much traffic is coming from outside of Mexico” which may be important if this case goes to court. It seems in FMV’s best interest for the channel to keep going, though people might not always act in their best interest. AAA channel on PlutoTV hasn’t been affected, neither has its Facebook page.

(Another solid, if unproven, theory is this is a music rights issue. I can’t rule it out, but I would also point out that CMLL’s channel exists and has continued to exist despite years of licensed music on the channel. YouTube will block access to a video or take all the money from a video, but they rarely give strikes for music nowadays. I think it may be more likely there’s a sancation for violence – as CMLL did get a strike for long ago – or perhaps some incidental video that got flagged.)

A permanant removal would obviously be a very troubling situation for AAA. They channel had over 1.3 million subscribers and was doing above 200K video views each day. YouTube doesn’t pay much per video view, but they were probably making a useful amount of money during a pandemic. Losing the channel the week after TripleMania hurs more than usual. This situation is also an inherient problem with business models based on using providers like YouTube; they could one day just decide to end your business and make you restart elsewhere. (An AAA owned video channel, which is highly unlikely to occur but has been wished for a long time, might not face the same restrictions.)

Other News

Ring of Honor’s Final Battle takes place tonight from an empty building somewhere in Maryland. Lucha libre related matches

• Rush defends the ROH championship against Brody King
• Dragon Lee defends the ROH TV champioship against the winner of an earlier four way (Tony Deppen, LSG, Josh Woods, Dak Drapper)

This is a $10 show via monthly ROH’s Honor Club service, or $20 standalone price on Fite if you really don’t want to agree to something that autorenews. The first hour of the show (7 pm CT) will stream for on Ring of Honor’s social media, with the last three hours on the PPV.

This show has been looming as a possible end date for Rush and Dragon Lee. Rush’s ROH contract expires (or expired) this month. Dragon Lee’s contractular status in ROH has never been clear, but the two have tended to work as a package. Dragon Lee hinted there’d be an announcement soon in a recent interview with Planeta Wrestling. Rush has hyped a new member of Facion Ingobernable for this show, though that’s been downplayed this week. I think they’re staying, but maybe my thinking is affected by believing their best possible move at the moment is staying in Ring of Honor at least one more year. Again, Ring of Honor also taped weeks of TV after this show, so there’s still an escape shoot to get the titles off the Munoz family past this night.

Rey Horus was scheduled to defend the trios titles with Bandido and Flamita, but they’re both off due to COVID-19 issues. ROH says they’ll announce their card changes during the first hour; I’d expect Horus will likely wrestle in that first hour if he’s going to be on this show at all. It’s strange to me that ROH wouldn’t announce the card changes ahead of time, so the guess is they’ve got some angle planned (for other, non-Horus matches) which they hope will encourage some last minute buys.

Konnan’s Keepin’ it 100 didn’t talk much about TripleMania; they only got to the Marvel match before they got distracted into other topics. Konnan was down on wrestling fans being down on that match, having gotten positive feedback from Marvel itself and from wrestlers (whose children enjoyed the show and the outfits.) He again said this was just the beginning of the project.

In a YouTube interview with Shocker, Pirata Morgan says he went to jail for sex trafficking when he was young. He was sentenced to jail for eight years, but his father paid a fee (fine?) to get him out early. Morgan says he regrets his behavior. This came up in near the same discussion where Pirata Morgan maintained people get paid more for losing apuesta matches than winning, so Pirata Morgan has reached the old man phase of just saying whatever he wants regardless of consquences. Or maybe the validity.

MedioTiempo points out a YouTube interview with Cibernetico from weeks ago where he and Chessman are no longer friends and is critical of Chessman for not standing up for himself and letting himself be treated poorly by AAA over the years. Charly Manson is on the same channel saying similar things, though less harsh. Cibernetico left AAA and showed up on a CMLL card about five years ago. Chessman originally was listed on the CMLL card too before disavowing the whole idea. I’d guess they haven’t been friends since that decision. I think it’s likely AAA hasn’t always treated Chessman like he deserves, but Chessman did get to main event TripleMania and Cibernetico and Charly’s careers since their last AAA departures haven’t seemed great.

CMLL media interviews: Bandido, Negro Casas, and KeMonito. CMLL’s also asking fans to send in Christmas videos for their 12/25 show using the hashtag #KemonitaNavidad.

DTU’s 12/18 show in Ciudad Madero is indefinitely postponed due to new restrictions against stemming from COVID-19 infections. Their 12/27 show in Tulancingo is still on for the moment; DTU says they’re doing this because of restrictions and safety, which rings hollow when they’re still planning on running elsewhere.

Toscano talked to Ovaciones about his 27th-anniversary show on Sunday in IWRG, which he says is the first ever show honoring him like that. He talked about his career and mentions having suicidal thoughts after going through a divorce, but turning his life alone. He got a degree in physiotherapy and will be opening a spa.

El Fantasma opened a taco truck. This seems like a poor time to open a restaurant but maybe he knows better.

Mexico State luchador Pluma Blanca passed away.

Puma King has a new vlog up.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Lineups

AULL (FRI) 12/25/2020 Arena Lopez Mateos [Mas Lucha]
1) Karma I, Rayo Boy, Soul Fly vs Alex Pain, Taurino, Vaquero Tormenta
2) Último Gladiador vs Alas de Oro, Sádico, Terry 2000, Alas De Plata, Dante, Epitafio, Yakuza
3) Galeno De Mal, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Puma King vs Herodes Jr., Hijo de L.A. Park, Hijo del Pirata Morgan
4) Villano III Jr. vs Leviatham, Centella Oriental, Villano V Jr., Mr. Potro, Chucho el Roto [cage, mask]
5) Pirata Morgan vs Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr.

The most recent decision – prior to the red light announcement – is the Arena Lopez Mateos 53rd Anniversario show will happena nd start at 2:30. The shows go around two hours when edited on Mas Lucha, so they may get it in under the 5 pm wire. It would definitely help if that cage match ended up being the main event to save some construction time. This is a match of a lot of tag matches just existing to put names on the poster, but it also doesn’t matter if this show can’t happen.

The lucha libre news likely will slow down greatly for the next month. CMLL will keep on – but few of their interviews include anything that feels like news. Their non-Ticketmaster Live matches seem intended not to be interesting. Indie wrestling refuses to close up shop no matter how bad the pandemic gets (again), but some announced shows are slowly being rethought. (It’s also harder to run outdoor venues in December and January.) It was great we got TripleMania, and it’ll probably have to keep us for a long while to come.

CMLL Informa today has Volador Jr., Bandido, Negro Casas, Gran Guerrero, and Mephisto. All are there to talk about the Christmas Day TicketMaster Live show. A reminder: the price for that show rises after this weekend. CMLL’s latest YouTube upload promotes the existence of the TicketMaster Live show, which CMLL hasn’t been doing for most of those PPVs.

TripleMania will air on Space Brazil this Saturday. Only Mexico’s Space aired TripleMania live; AAA hasn’t previously aired in Brazil as best as anyone can tell. When AEW popped up on Space and AAA disappeared, I feared AAA had lost a spot due to the northern friends. Instead, this TripleMania airing being paired with the weekly Space Brazil showing of Dynamite seems to indicate AEW has opened a door for AAA. Maybe just for one week, but better than zero weeks. (AAA getting aired in Brazil is interesting in light of the pre-existing AAA lawsuit, but this would likely be part of the existing AAA/Space deal. There isn’t any update on the lawsuit, for what it’s worth.)

I’m unclear on the status of the Arena Lopez Mateos Anniversary show, scheduled for 12/25. As mentioned, there’s currently a curfew in Mexico State ordering non-essential businesses to close at 5 pm. Most wrestling shows run later than that. Mas Lucha says the home promotion has postponed the show, while R de Rudo wrote the promotion is still hoping for an exemption to the curfew. AULL hasn’t announced any plans on Facebook as of yet. If this show was happening in the United States, there would be zero chance of a wrestling show the level of AULL getting an exemption for a curfew. It doesn’t seem completely impossible because Arena Lopez Mateos is a Tlalnepantla local institution, but it seems improbable.

Shows in Arena Tabasco (Villahermosa) are now canceled for the rest of the year due to COVID-19 restrictions. They had started up back in late October.

The Crash is scheduled to return in February, joining Lucha Time, Lucha Madre, KAOZ, and others by taping a series of shows with no fans and airing them periodically. That’s according to an interview with Tijuana boxing, wrestling, and MMA commission president Carlos Labastida, who notes lucha libre has fared far worse than the other sports under his control. Boxing increased to 40 events during the pandemic, even having a week where there were 7 shows. There were 7 MMA shows, with plans for 24 in 2021. Post pandemic, there was just the singles EMW wrestling show; the Crash plans came up as a hopeful sign for 2021. It reads like boxing and MMA had a significantly easier adjustment to running empty arena shows and monetizing them. The Crash hasn’t said much since their last show in February and lost key members of their roster, so they may look different if they do return.

Marvel posted (lightly translated) backstories on all the Marvel Lucha Libre characters. Bullet point version

• Leyenda America is half Mexican, grew up in the US, and was friends with…
• Aracno Sr., who trained a student to take over the name, only he turned out to be evil and Aracano refused him a name. The student instead became…
• Venonide, who now hates the whole Aracno family, including…
• Aracno (Jr.), the son of the original who also was trained by Leyenda Azteca
• Terror Purpura seems to be more a “Kingpin” generic evil businessman than a space alien

The AAA announcers were talking about this back history during TripleMania as if they were already known, so I’m guessing I missed some rollout somewhere but this press release making it easier to follow didn’t come until Monday. Maybe they anticipated a lot of interest coming out of the show.

Eterno, Aramis, and Daga filmed a promo for Sunday’s Lucha Memes tribute to Justiciero; all three started training there. It’s now weird to see Eterno with dark hair, but I suppose there’s no sense in dying it with his current look. Daga also posted a group photo from what appears to be a meeting of former Justiciero students.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Blue Demon’s death, which has led to a few (unrevealing) articles. Blue Demon Jr.’s quoted as saying his father deserves a statue.

DoradaFan has a new music video of Komander.

LA Park Jr. debuts on MLW today.

Mas Lucha has a new edition of their podcast. There’s a mention in the Pagano/Chessman discussion that Azteca will not show light tubes shots, which is probably why those were not seen in the main event. I was expecting fire too, and maybe that’s also not allowed. Also, Lady Flammer may be just “Flammer” in AAA.

MicromanFever has a recap of a Hechicero interview with KeMonito.

I don’t really have any interest in Konnan Big versus Fresero & Demonio Infernal but the video setting it up is amusing. It’s also funny that (almost) everyone who does a bit about trying to bring dignity back to lucha libre in Monterrey ends up using Konnan Big.

Lineups

IWRG (SUN) 12/20/2020 Arena Naucalpan
1) Legendario vs Halcón Mágico
2) Diosa Quetzal & Mexica vs Chef Benito & Miss Delicious
3) Baby Star & Puma de Oro vs Baby Xtreme & Charro Negro
4) Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal vs Big Chico Che & Big Ovett
5) Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo Del Espectro, Toscano vs Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Súper Nova
6) Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Puma King

This is the Toscano 27th Anniversary show. 27 doesn’t seem like a special number but neither does his match.

IWRG may have said they’re starting at 1:45 but the poster says it’s actually 2:15. That only gives them 2h45m to finish. I don’t think anything is particularly going to happen if IWRG is still finishing up the main event at 5:03, but let’s take a look at recent shows would’ve done with that limit

recent IWRG show lengths on Mas Lucha (and are they under 2h45m)
12/13: 2h18m (yes)
12/06: (premium show so who knows)
11/29: 3h19m (no and not even close)
11/22: 2h52m (no but almost)
11/15: 2h48m (no but almost)
11/08: 2h34m (yes)

The actual shows may be different; Mas Lucha isn’t hitting the “Start Stream” button at 3:45 every week. IWRG shows go long in part because every match goes a lot longer than most promotions. It also seems to go long because IWRG takes plenty of time in between matches. Either of those could be tightened up a bit to get to 2h45m, if there’s someone there concerned about it.

AAA TV (SAT) 12/12/2020 Arena Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [Debate, ESTO, Lucha Central, Marca, Mas Lucha, Post Wrestling, R de Rudo, SuperLuchas, Voices of Wrestling]
TripleMania XXVIII
1) Dinastía, Máximo, Mr. Iguana b Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana 
16:00. Cota pinned Iguana, who was shaken up after a dropkick to the head.
2) Fénix & Pentagón Jr. © b Myzteziz Jr. & Octagón Jr. and Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr. [AAA TAG] 
14:18. Rey Escorpion took out Penta’s knee with a bat. Penta left the match, but returned in time to get a win. Mercenarios, with Taurus, attacked post match. Hijo del Vikingo returned to make the save.
3) Lady Shani b Faby Apache, Lady Maravilla, Chik Tormenta, La Hiedra, Hades, Big Mami, Pimpinela Escarlata, Mamba [Copa TripleMania Femenil] 
23:10. Royal rumble rules. Shani & Maravilla started, followed by Hiedra, Mamba (surprise), Hades (now dressing as a Kitsune), Chik Tormenta (who threw out Hades quickly), Big Mami (surprise) and, Pimpinela (surprise). Eliminations: Hades, Big Mami, Chik Tormenta, Mamba, Pimpinela, Faby Apache, Hiedra and Shani submitted Maravilla after a long one on one.
4) Monsther Clown, Murder Clown, Psycho Clown b Blue Demon Jr., Hijo de LA Park, LA Park 
11:40. Demon and the Parks had issues, leading to the Clowns winning. Park, limping after a Murder Clown dive gone wrong, brawled with Blue Demon after the match.
5) Terror Purpura & Venenoide b Aracno & Leyenda Americana  
12:06. The Marvel Lucha Libre debut. Aracno was Lio Rush, Leyenda Americana was Daga, Terror Purpura was cage and Venenoide Taurus. Purpura won with a foul on Americana and a Drill Claw on Aracno. Rudos continued to attack post match until the lights went out, came back on, and La Estrella Cosmica (Lady Maravilla) appeared post match.
6) Kenny Omega b Laredo Kid [AAA HEAVY]  
23:36. Omega beat Laredo with a middle rope One Winged Angel after a small distraction by Michael Nakazawa. Vikingo seconded Laredo Kid.
7) Pagano b Chessman [hair]  
23:50. Pagano beat Chessman with an Air Raid Crash off the stage, with Los Mercenarios, Los Jinetes del Aire and Lady Shani got involved during the match.

TripleMania was a success. Not everything worked perfectly, but enough did. Dorian Roldan on last week’s Mas Lucha podcast emphasized how the last match strongly affects how people view the entire show. The insanity of the last match overpowered any cold feelings about watching a show in a (nearly) empty Arena Ciudad de Mexico and created a few memorable moments. Omega/Laredo lived up to high expectations and the opening two matches exceeded them. There was a soft middle and I’m not confident about the Marvel Lucha Libre concept yet. It was still a strong show.

Pagano & Chessman probably did more damage to themselves during most of their match. That’s always what the match was going to be. The big stunts either worked or looked so crazy that it didn’t matter it didn’t work. There wasn’t a lot of logic in it – doing two potentially career-ending table spots in a row and then just going back in the ring for some Moves was the peak – but you don’t put Chessman & Pagano in the main event and expect them to do algebra for twenty minutes. If anything, the parts of the match I liked the least were when they were trying to do a ‘real’ wrestling match in the early going. I’m guessing there was some pressure (to them, maybe internally) to prove they were good enough “wrestlers” to be in the main event. It was fine but they didn’t really have to prove anything to anyone and anyone who was going to be critical later wouldn’t have their mind changed by a suplex early on. You can start this match  when Pagano dives into a ladder and not miss all that much. This match is an Excellent grade; my idea for an Excellent grade is one of the lucha libre matches of the year where everyone who watches wrestling should see, and that definitely applies here.

Laredo Kid & Kenny Omega was fantastic in a completely different way. It was no surprise that Laredo could keep up athletically with Kenny Omega, and he showed more by getting drama off the leg submission work in the last few minutes. Laredo’s been a big impact move and, while I assume most of the leg work stemmed from ideas to reverse the One Winged Angel, he made his atypical submissions look dangerous. All the stuff Laredo regularly does went very well and he got destroyed a couple of times by Omega’s knees. There are still knocks on Laredo – he didn’t show a lot of personalities (though it’s tough to connect with the crowd when they’re not there.) There seem to be a few US fans upset Laredo got his arm up after the three count, though it has been a non-issue in Mexico.

Laredo Kid, or someone under his name, put up a poll Sunday asking where fans would like to see him. AEW was leading NJPW and ROH. WWE as not an option, amusingly. If nothing else comes from this for Laredo Kid, at least he looked like a world-class wrestler. (It is Laredo Kid, so I fully expect nothing to come from this.)

Kenny Omega nominated Hijo del Vikingo as his next challenger in a post-match interview. This was not an AAA interview and AAA hasn’t pushed the match itself, but everyone is understandably very excited about that possibility. As surely as the sun rises in the east, Daga has also posted a challenge for the title on Twitter. I don’t expect to see Omega back in AAA until Rey de Reyes at the earliest, and that’s presuming Rey de Reyes can even happen as normal. AAA’s got to have a show on the schedule before I can get too wound up about who’s challenging for the title next.

AAA seemed to make a point to get Vikingo a few moments on this show, even if they didn’t find him a spot on the card. I would’ve liked to see Vikingo wrestling in a match but they still made him seem special and important.

The Marvel Match didn’t seem as impressive as the hype had built it up. The match itself was less exciting than many of the prior matches and the presentation didn’t come off as a bigger or even simply different deal. There didn’t seem to be unity on if the masked men should try to hide their identity in their wrestling style; Lio Rush’s strategy of just doing what he normally does well seemed to work better than Daga’s attempt to switch it up (and be less impressive as a result.) It was strange to see the heels win in the debut, but they’ve obviously got a lot more plans for these characters. I’m not confident they’ll see them out. I think there was mild fan interest, but I didn’t see the corporate interest expected. The Marvel Latin America Twitter account had nothing about the match and I didn’t find anything on other social media accounts. This is a Big AAA Idea so I’m skeptical how long it lasts always, but this didn’t feel like the start of something with lots legs.

The Psycho Circus versus LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, and Blue Demon match felt like it fulfilled the purpose of getting these people on the show, keeping the Park/Demon issue alive, and not much else. It was a style of match that didn’t work without a live crowd, but there was also not much here for people to stay interested in. This seems like a causality of trying to fit people in the show in a hard year to get everything done. Copa TripleMania Femenil was similar; AAA took care of people by getting them involved, but at the expense of the match. Mamba, Pimpinela and Big Mami got to be on the card, by extending an already too long match. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was the one match on the show that significantly undelivered in match quality.

The tag team title match did go as expected, with probably the most action of any match tonight. It doesn’t appear AAA’s getting Full Health Lucha Brothers, but they’re getting Full Effort at least. If there’s a Los Mercenarios/Los Jinetes del Aire match on a major AAA show next year (and without some weird finish), it’ll probably be one of the best matches of the year. They’re just locked in against each other. Likewise, it feels like the Iguana/Poder del Norte stuff is leading to an important match down the line, but now is just a lot more moves than casual fans expect from AAA opener. I think no one outside of AAA thinks much about Poder del Norte, are impressed when they see them, and then just forget about them again. They’re always this good, it still surprises occasional AAA viewers went they see them.

I’d go great/great/ok/ok/ok/excellent/excellent for the match ratings. I’ve seen people go higher on the Marvel match and lower on the Psycho Circus and Copa TripleMania matches, with stronger consensus on the other four.

No tickets were sold for this show, but there were apparently a small amount of fans in off-camera – maybe no more than two dozen. I’m uncertain if they were sponsors or other VIPs. They were audible a few times during the night but never shown. AAA smartly decided to keep their cameras pointed towards the entrance set and big screens, making the room feel a lot smaller than it was in reality.

There were some technical problems early on in the show – the YouTube feed didn’t start until just before the start of the match. Perhaps that was a music rights issue, though it didn’t seem to work. AAA has turned the full TripleMania show private on their social media channels, though any minimal amount of searching can lead you to the entire show on unofficial channels. AAA did put up a version of the show with no entrances or in between segments. I originally believed this was the full in-ring action but that’s incorrect. Each match gets cut down to about ten minutes.

The full version of TripleMania was marked for revenue share because of at least three songs. Though further editing suggests there were additional motivations, but I think that’s a factor in the decision to remove the show. I did not keep a list of the music, but it stood out that the Lucha Brothers theme was one of them. I’d guess the matches will be back up when they’re broken up as AAA TV episodes, though sometimes those matches still don’t air in full. Again, if you want to see this show, it is not particularly hard to find it.

LA Park says suffered a knee injury from Murder Clown’s dive gone wrong. He does not believe it is serious, but it kept him from dancing with his daughter at her 15th birthday party today. Murder Clown sent an apology to LA Park’s daughter. I didn’t hear about any other injuries. Iguana was shaken but was telling people he was fine later in the night. Hugo sold the Chessman guitar shot big but was OK.

Hijo del Vikingo looked good for a guy who hasn’t had a match for half a year. Rey Escorpion has been gone even longer and you wouldn’t know it. These guys have been in training but I think we take it for granted how hard it is to jump back in after the unnaturally long absences lots of wrestlers are going through this year.

The Cineapolis movie theatre airing of TripleMania will actually take place on Christmas Day at noon at two theatres. Unspecified luchadors will be in attendance. This seems like a fun idea most years and there’s absolutely no way I would go to it this year.

We don’t know when the next official AAA show will be. AAA earlier talked about taking the AutoLuchas concept to other locations and that may be more viable in the short term than in an arena taping. We’re still months before AAA gets back to anything approaching a normal schedule; this may just be the halfway point.

There is an AAA adjacent show announced, however. Concert promoters OCESA, who’ve dabbled in lucha libre in the past, are putting on a Rock & Lucha show the Sunday after Christmas on Ticketmaster Live. AAA hasn’t mentioned the show so far and probably has little with putting it on, but they are sending four matches:

AAA , OCESA (SUN) 12/27/2020 Distrito Federal [Prensa Ocesa]
1) La Parkita & Octagoncito vs La Parkita Negra & Mini Psycho Clown
2) Lady Shani vs Hades
3) Argenis vs Tito Santana, Mocho Cota Jr.
4) Octagón Jr. vs Texano Jr.

Lost Acapulco, Nana Pancha, Chingadazo de Kung Fu and De Nalgas will perform. (I am ignorant about their music.) This a totally unessential card, even by 2020 standards. The matches are promising if this a show where the luchadors are expected to try; there’s no knowing. The show costs 162.25 MXP ($8 USD) on Ticketmaster Live, starts at 7 pm, and there is no VOD as with all Ticketmaster Live shows. It seems worth a look if you’re searching for something to do but again not too important.

CMLL Christmas Day Lineup/Bandido status

CMLL (FRI) 12/25/2020 Arena México
1) El Gallito & Microman vs Chamuel & Perico Zakarías
2) Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero © vs Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón [CMLL TRIOS]
fourth defense (previous fourth defense scheduled for Homenaje a Dos Leyendas)
3) Volador Jr. © vs El Bandido [NWA WELTER]
seventh defense. originally scheduled for 09-25, postponed due to Bandido COVID-19 infection
4) Carístico vs Místico, Ángel de Oro, Atlantis Jr., Felino, Soberano Jr., Negro Casas, Mephisto, Niebla Roja, El Felino Jr., Stuka Jr., Star Jr. [Copa Jr.]

The CMLL Facebook special on Friday night announced the added title match. Julio Cesar Rivera and Alexis Salazar noted these types of announcements have tended to be bad news lately before explaining this one would be good news. Bandido versus Volador was originally scheduled for Aniversario, but was pulled due to Bandido’s COVID-19 infection.

Bandido was announced as being off the Ring of Honor PPV (and surrounding TV tapings) earlier in the day due to a COVID-19 positive test, so the stream focused on assuring fans Bandido was not ill. The situation apparently is that Bandido tested positive not specifically for the virus, but for the antibodies that indicate his body is or was fighting an infection. Those antibodies apparently can stay in a victim’s system for up to six months after they contract COVID-19. The Maryland commission will allow people to wrestle as long as those antibodies are under a certain level, but Bandido’s test exceeded the threshold. ROH, being aware Bandido was months past getting infected, indicated they would’ve let Bandido wrestle if it had been up to them. The State of Maryland is probably not following the CMLL Aniversario lineup as closely and weren’t going to let Bandido wrestler without a quarantining there for a week. That wasn’t possible with ROH’s schedule. This will probably be smoothed out by the next set of tapings.

Bandido, for his own peace of mind, took a blood test back in Mexico. It came back negative. Bandido worked the CMLL TV tapings this week, took his required test there, and that also came back negative. Bandido says he feels fine and expects to have no issue facing Volador on Christmas. CMLL’s pushing Volador versus Bandido as “the most anticipated match of 2020”; it may be no coincidence they announced this a day before TripleMania.

(Flamita hasn’t talked about his situation publically. The popular specular is it is a similar story; he had COVID-19 – maybe without even knowing – and the test found the effects of a past infection, not a current one.)

The card itself is CMLL throwing everything they can at a show short of an apuesta match in hopes they can get fans to buy one of these things. It’s the popular minis, a tournament (with Felino Jr.’s debut under that name), a long awaited dream trios match, and a dream singles match. (CMLL’s website lists the Copa as the main event, the poster seems to indicate the singles match) As long as CMLL and Ticketmaster haven’t already killed their PPV market, this should do their best numbers since Aniversario. And it must need to do well for CMLL to be compelled to put forth this level of lineup; this is a major show lineup, so they’re looking for major show revenue.

(As usual, this is all moot if Mexico City shuts back down and forced CMLL to do the same. CMLL would probably hold over the lineup until they can resume)`

IWRG Results & Mexico State Curfew Leading To Changes

IWRG (SUN) 12/13/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Baby Star Jr. b Halcón Mágico 
2) Charro Negro & Puma de Oro b Atomic Star & Fulgor I 
3) Avisman & Hijo del Alebrije b Karaoui & Súper Nova 
4) Capo del Norte & Capo Mayor b Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. and El Hijo del Medico Asesino & Galeno del Mal 
The mystery wrestlers from last week showed up after the match, suplexing one of the Capos through light tubes. They then attacked Fresero & Demonio backstage
5) Hijo Del Espectro COR Puma King, Hijo de Canis Lupus 
Espectro won by the rarely seen IWRG countout, getting in the ring as the other two brawled.

This was a normal show prior to two bigger shows. That’s the idea, and it’sunclear if they’ll get there.

Starting today, all non-essential businesses in Mexico State must close at 5 pm. This is an attempt to combat the rising spread of COVID-19 infections in the state. Mexico State has permitted lucha libre events, with fans at 30% capacity and COVID-19 testing for wrestlers, though enforcement has varied depending on municipalities. This curfew is scheduled to last two weeks, through Christmas. It is possible it’ll be extended longer.

The first immediate impact is the 12/19 LEGEND show at Arena Lopez Mateos (“Perros del Mal versus Guerreros del Atlantida”) has been canceled. IWRG is moving their shows up two hours to a 1:45 pm start time in hopes of finishing before 5. Invasion Indy is running Arena Neza on 12/27, though now starting at 3 pm instead of the usual 6 pm for Sundays. (3 pm still seems too late.)

This curfew covers Christmas Day, where there are always a few shows. Fewer have been announced this year for obvious reasons, but Arena Lopez Mateos was planning their makeup anniversary show that day. Arena Mamas Luchas has a big show with CMLL talent on 12/19 that’s also scheduled to start at 3pm, which also feels like it’s due for a change this week. (I can’t really imagine how hard Christmas is going to be in Mexico; people are going to be caught between unhappy and unsound decisions.)

There are non-Mexico State changes as well. Kriminal Lucha Libre, which was intending to run a show in front of fans in Mexico City where such things are currently not permitted, has now said their next show is indefinitely postponed. Their explanation is they’ve decided the COVID situation has become too bad. It has become worse, but it was already very bad when they were talking about running last week; it’s a safer bet their venue backed out and they haven’t been able to find a replacement. DTU’s Aniversario show in Tulancingo has been moved to 12/27, which I believe is a week later than originally scheduled. The announcement mentions health issues; I’m not sure if there’s a temporary curfew in Hidalgo too.

Meanwhile, IWRG’s Marcos Moreno was recognized for his family promoting in Mexico State for 58 years. The award was from “Awards Gente Importante”, which translates to the Important People Awards. What a name. The Facebook page for these awards came into existence less than a week ago, so this may be a bit.

Other Notes

Monterrey 80s/90s star Blue Fish (62) passed away on Saturday. SuperLuchas reports he’d been in bad health for a while due to complications from diabetes, including both of his legs being amputated, damage to his cerebral arteries, and partial loss of sight. Cancha’s story said Blue Fish was in the hospital for ten days before returning home, which reads like they let him pass away at home rather than expected he was going to recover.

Guatemalan luchador Condor Azul passed away on Friday.

Rey Horus lost in the first round of the Super J Cup, as dictated by the law saying all Mexicans must be eliminated in the first round of US tournaments.

Dragon Lee announced he and his wife will soon be parents soon.

Box Y Lucha 3452 has Volador, Bandido and Pagano on the cover.

A bio of Oaxacan luchador Fito Cisneros. I think this paper is set on doing nothing more than 80s luchador bios each week but it’d be nice if they could track down Fuego.

Segunda Caida reviews the 11/10 Lucha Time Ricky Marvein/Epydemius match.

LuchaTalk returns to talk about TripleMania.

Lineups

Vanguardia (SUN) 12/27/2020 Explanada Franky, Pachuca, Hidalgo
1) Falcón Fire vs Devitt Rodríguez
2) Cíclope & Dayami vs Billy & Murdock
3) Drolux & Moria © vs Látigo & Símbolo Azteca [BMLL TAG]
4) Arez vs Dragón Boy, Aron Sykes, Lobo Blanco
5) Crazy King & Miedo Extremo © vs Calibus & El Mago and Jitsu & Rey Dragón [VANGUARDIA TAG]
6) Gasparín vs Aramis

Vanguardia seems to be making a point of mixing the lesser-known wrestlers with the indie stars. It makes for a lesser exciting card in the short term but hopefully will develop some new names over time. Gasparin gets a big chance to be one against Aramis in particular.