Mexico City red light, AEW/Aramis, Lucha Memes in Texas

Mexico City announced they’ll continue under a red light health status for another week. Hospital beds are 88 percent full; Mexico City needs to reach the mid-60s before the first stage of re-opening can happen. The rate of deaths has rised; yesterday was the most deaths yet in Mexico. The government continue to string people along week to week, afraid more people will freak out if they honestly tell them it’ll be weeks (or months) before things open up again. It would take massive changes for Mexico City to be open to any extent in February.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter mentions Aramis once signed a deal with AEW that’s now expired. (It comes up in a bit discussing Australian Suicide’s recent Dark appearances.) I think I can explain the timing a little bit better than in there. AEW signed Aramis in the fall of 2019 to a deal that covered five appearances over a few months. (That seems to have been the standard deal for new names at that point; Big Swole was reportedly under a similar deal before being upped to a full-time contract.)  AEW brought him to the 11/19 Indianapolis tapings and took some gear measurements. I believe the idea at the time was to bring him under a new name and gimmick and that he’d start in January. That month came and went, as did the next two. His contract expired in March without Aramis being used once. AEW paid him for those five dates anyway. If you remember Aramis talking about a big surprise about a year ago, that was this deal.

I could not wait to tell this story for months, but I’ve learned not to write about a signing until I’m absolutely sure it’s happening; things seem like they’re happening and then don’t too often. The Aramis story was going to be a great one – he’s was getting signed at 20! AEW noticed him on the last day of BOLA 2019! Aramis was only there because Cavernario pulled out and Aramis happened to get his visa approved that week! – but it didn’t happen. My theory has been that Aramis was supposed to be part of whatever the original plans were for the Dark Order, and that angle falling apart in late December caused Aramis plans to change or different people to be in decision-making places – but that’s just taking a shot in the dark. WON believes it was too hard to get a visa for a foreign wrestler at that time. Aramis’ visa seemed good enough to get him to Indiana, but I guess it’s possible AEW just wanted their own. My impression is Aramis wasn’t given an explanation.

In early 2020, it looked as if Aramis was going to get a shot in AEW, be a regular for Chicago’s AAW and show up more in PWG. None of it happened. Aramis in his early 20s, he should get other chances. I don’t know of any other Mexican luchador who specifically had an AEW deal, but there’s plenty of others who could look back at last year as a missed opportunity.

Aramis is among those part of the Lucha Memes/Martinez Entertainment show scheduled for tonight in Kennedale (Dallas), Texas.

Lucha Memes (FRI) 01/22/2021 Turf Zone Arena, Kennedale, Texas
1) Gino Medina vs Dante Caballero
2) Aeroboy vs Joshua Wavra
3) Ricky Marvin vs Tony Deppen
4) Arez vs Daniel García
5) Xtreme Tiger vs Wheeler Yuta
6) Aramis vs Jonathan Gresham
7) Laredo Kid vs Black Taurus (Indie)
8) Blue Demon & Low Rider vs Fred Yehi & Mecha Wolf

Laredo Kid and Black Taurus was added this morning, taking advantage of Taurus already being north of the border for the Impact tapings. Those two are bigger names and might help the turnout; I’m still worried about how many tickets a show with a lot of unfamiliar people during a pandemic is going to sell. This will air on IWTV at some point in the future; we don’t know exactly around three weeks ago. Lucha Memes mentioned Low Rider will be among the announcers. Announcing is good and Low Rider has lot of energy, but the wrong kind of energy for serious technical wrestling matches. (They’d be better just taping it with no commentary and having someone dub it after the fact.) This should be a really good show if it comes off as well as it looks on paper and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

Konnan, on Keepin’ it 100, said AAA will be making an announcement about future shows next week. The previous report was AAA running in late January or early February, it’s also late January, so probably early February. He didn’t have a location; it’ll likely have to be away from Mexico City if it’s happening any time soon.

CMLL seems to have changed or added to whomever’s handling their social media and internet precense. There’s repsonse prompts they haven’t done in the past, this week’s CMLL Informa show has been repubished as split interviews for each guest, and their website has the match listings for each show for the first time in memory. (Audaz vs Tiger on TUDN – and on YouTube next week – looks like the best new match. Titan vs Forastero should turn up on YouTube this week.) All of these are positive changes.

Mystique, doing a CMLL interview, said there were 23 CMLL luchadoras. She says that’s up from 5, which might have been what they started with a decade and a half ago. Can I get to 23? (Do I have anything better to write about?)

1. Amapola
2. Avispa Dorada
3. Dalys
4. Estrellita
5. La Comandante
6. La Guerrera
7. La Infernal
8. La Jarochita
9. La Magnifica
10. La Metalica
11. La Seductora
12. La Vaquerita
13. Lluvia
14. Marcela
15. Mystique
16. Reyna Isis
17. Sanely
18. Silueta
19. Skadi
20. Stephanie Vaquer
21. Tiffany

Almost there. Guadalajara’s Valkiria showed up in a PSA a month or so back, so she may be in the main school and counted. There are others who’ve worked on Guadalajara shows who could be considered or other people in the school.

On CMLL virtual interviews, Diamante Azul was asked if he’d like to be on FantasticaMania, since he’d never been on one. He said he’d enjoy being on the tour and said he thought he hasn’t gone yet because they were looking for different types of wrestlers. Diamante Azul noted he’d gone to NJPW as part of the 2012 World Tag League and said it was a pleasant experience. Diamante Azul has never been brought back to NJPW due to his own poor behavior outside out of the ring in 2012, which has never been publicly acknowledged. Perhaps that ban will expire someday.

Speaking of things that probably aren’t going to happen, Daniel Bryan says he’d like to work a CMLL Aniversario show one day if he gets permission from WWE. I guess it could happen if CMLL and WWE ever have a partnership again, but that seems unlikely.

San Luis Potosi’s Alas de Plata passed away Thursday according to El Sabor del Ring. He was an active local wrestler; he was listed on a show this past October. He’s not the Alas de Plata who wrestled in places like IWRG and AULL.

El Hijo del Santo is angry at a Monterrey restaurant using the El Santo name.

Super Crazy talks about a recent US trip to New York, mentions his son hopes to debut in MMA soon.