AAA & Mexico Tourism announce partnership for various events, Blue Demon talks politics, Lucha Memes fundraiser

AAA and the Mexican Secretary of Tourism announced a year-long partnership at a press conference Tuesday, where AAA events will be taped at various tourist destinations as promotional events. These are planned to all be no-fans shows. AAA will visit eleven states: Durango, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico State, Mexico City, Morelos, Guerrero, and Tlaxcala, which will be the first site AAA visits.

I misinterpreted a Tweet saying the first show, in Tlaxcala, would not take place for months. That was very wrong.  Hugo’s on his way to a show now, which fits with what I’ve since heard about the tapings starting very soon. Like, tomorrow soon.  I expect these generally will not be live-streamed shows; it wasn’t said, but the average pyramid isn’t going to have a great internet connection. (The first Tlaxcala show is actually at a bullring.) This will likely instead be run similar to most of the AutoLuchas dates: a bunch of matches taped over a few days, which then get shown on TV and end up on their YouTube channel. The AutoLuchas shows have generally been storyline sparse events; I’m unsure if AAA will change that strategy now that they’re doing this for a longer period.

AAA’s deal with Mexico’s tourism department is a lifeline for the promotion. There’s no current way to run an AAA scale show without the approval of Mexico’s government, and now they’ve got (at least a branch of) the government specifically endorsing these shows. AAA’s normal business relies on partnering with various local promoters who may not be in an economic position to run shows again even when they start being allowed. That shouldn’t be an issue for a governmental run tour – the money’s there and the number of dates is locked in. Running a show in an empty bullring doesn’t pay as well as a full one, but any live event money coming is an improvement over one show the last three months. It’s obviously great for the wrestlers that there are matches to wrestle as well, as long as this is being done safely.  It’s good for the fans to get new AAA at all. DTU made waves early in the pandemic with the picturesque locations they were running shows and AAA could do the same on a bigger level if these tourist locations come across well.

The only potential problem is if Mexico opens up faster than expected and AAA’s stuck fulfilling tourist dates while they could go back to normal shows, but that’d be a good problem to have compared to now. And also, while they definitely said “no fans at these shows”, it seems a solid bet there will eventually be fans at these shows if it becomes safe to do so. (A local Tlaxcala story on their show reframes it as “no fans until the health code says it’s ok.”)

The governmental idea behind these shows is to promote these as places to visit both nationally and internationally; there were some facts about twenty countries and millions of people potentially watching that seemed to come out of thin air. Maybe they were YouTube statistics but, as anyone outside of Mexico knows, you can not actually watch new AAA videos on YouTube internationally currently. Maybe we can charitably assume this is a sign of a near-term resolution to the ongoing AAA/FMV lawsuit over AAA’s international rights. (No additional documents have been filed in that case, still.) It’s lucha libre, so it’s probably just people saying a thing. It did strike me as an odd promise in the current AAA situation. It also seems too soon to start getting people excited about going to tourist destinations – maybe wait until they’re actually open again? – but I guess the tourism money needs to go somewhere.

Expansion.MX has an interview with Disney’s Mexico General Manager Miguel Vives. He publically was announced for that position back in November, which means his appearance at the AAA TripleMania press conference would’ve been one of his first in that role. It reads like he’s been put in charge to lead a big Disney push in Mexico in the upcoming year, including the opening of a series of Disney Stores in Mexico planned for May. AAA gets named checked: they’re launching a line of clothing, accessories, and toys this year for the Marvel Lucha Libre brand. There have been items out for months, though those seem more marketed to the US audience; this suggests it was just the beginning.

CMLL Informa has Ultimo Guerrero, Lluvia, Dulce Gardenia, Tiger, Misterioso, and Retro as guests. It is peculiar that Tiger is listed under that name instead of Felino Jr.; it appears he’s going back to that name while the old Tiger matches are still airing and may redo the change later on.

MLW today has the LA Parks versus TJP & Bu Ku Dao and Gino Medina versus Gringo Loco. That’s Gringo Loco’s first appearance on MLW since November 2019.

Fenix teams with Pac & Jon Moxley today against Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows on AEW Dynamite. Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado face Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza on NXT.

Blue Demon, on his mayoral media tour, mentioned he believes 2023 would be a good year to hang up the mask. No Mexican wrestler saying they’re going to retire in two years has ever successfully pulled it off. Demon does plan to continue wrestling while running for office, as much as that’s possible right now.

Dave the Clown tells Metro he’d also be interested in getting into politics if the right situation came up but believes he’d be ridiculed if he ran as “Dave the Clown” and would have to do it under this real name. He’s afraid people wouldn’t vote for a Clown for elected office. Dave is currently raising money for a three-year-old girl battling leukemia.

DTU mentions recent Lucha Madre winner Camuflaje is currently working at the Mexico City airport, helping detect COVID positives.

Rush posted a photo on Instagram asking fans if they’d like to see a champion versus champion match with Kenny Omega. That post seems to have been deleted. It is theoretically possible for AAA to host that match, though it’s unlikely either ROH or AEW would want it unless their champion was winning. (Even after either man loses, that may be politically impossible to do.)

Lucha Memes is running a donadora.org campaign for a Coliseo Coacalco benefit show. The goal is 70,000 pesos to help the building survive, pay wrestlers, and keep funs to help them get going once shows open again. There’s no mention of what or who would be on the show; the rewards mention they’d be given out in March, so I guess that’s when the show would happen. If you donate about $10 USD, you’ll get a link to the show. (It’s unclear where it’ll be streamed; I think Facebook is most likely.) They’re also selling 30 tickets to the show through donadora.

Arena Lopez Mateos tried a similar campaign earlier in the pandemic and only reached 25% of their goal. Heavy Boy’s campaign for medical needs has only reached 5% of his goal. Crowdfunding is not a format that has broken through in Mexico yet, at least for lucha libre. It’s not said, but I believe donadora campaigns generally keep the money even if they don’t reach the funding goal, so they’ll get something out of it. Lucha Memes promoted it a few times on Twitter, though it’ll probably get the most pickup whenever the last show goes up around IWTV.  If Lucha Memes wants to get people to donate for a campaign to see a show, the show they should use is Battle of Naucalpan.

LinkTV has posted the Las Luchadoras documentary from a few years back in sections on their site. The Big Mama (now Big Mami) section is here, with links to the other videos.

Box Y Lucha reports Mr. Blue/Alma India passed away on Tuesday. I don’t know anything about him, but records show someone using the Mr. Blue name in Baja California.

Mas Lucha has a brief interview with Toxin about the ongoing Prohibido tournament.

IAW has Latigo vs Jimmy on 02/14. The poster doesn’t list a location; other posts list an “Arena Iztapalapa.”

Arena Aficion will celebrate its 69th Anniversary without fans.

LuchaWorld has a list of the 10 greatest trios in Lucha Libre history.