Big Ovett passes away, Mexico City opens up, Lio Rush new AAA Cruiserweight Champion

Big Ovett passes away

Big Ovett (Ovett Israel Montiel, 43) passed away Friday. He’d been hospitalized this week. Mas Lucha reports Ovett’s death was due to COVID-19.

Ovett was a second-generation Mexico City/Mexico State area luchador since the late 90s, and he’d work for pretty much every indie at one time or another. He spent the 00s and 10s as part of Los Porros, a group of tough-guy brawling wrestlers including Angel o Demonio, Periko, and Leon Rojo. Despite the tough guy gimmick, Ovett was a friendly guy that everyone in the community knew and liked a lot. Ovett has three sons (Lunatik Extreme, Ovett Jr./Toto and Erwin) who have followed him into lucha libre.

Ovett spent the vast majority of his career as an indie wrestler. His brief run in AAA has become a historical footnote. Ovett wrestled as Payaso Carrona, part of a trios of Payasos lasting just a few TV tapings. The idea was to recreate a long win streak the Coco clowns had in the 90s, but the matches were disappointing and the idea was dropped in months. Ovett’s partners were believed to be his fellow Porros, who publicly denied they were the characters. (Payaso Carrona had a tattoo that matched Ovett’s, giving away the game.) Los Porros later gave the Payasos gimmicks to others, so they could feud in indie matches and prove they weren’t the same people. AAA believed the general idea was solid but they needed different wrestlers and looks, tried the concept again just a few months later, and came up with Los Psycho Circus.

Ovett spent most of his career typecast as a brawler; if US fans saw him, it’d be in something like the Zona23 shows. His remarkably played against that type in his last couple of years, while perhaps becoming as popular as he ever was. IWRG introduced Los Strippers BIg, a trio of plus-sized dancing men in suspenders. Big Ovett, Big Mike (a former ninja turtle), and Big Chico Che got over due to their enthusiasm for the characters, natural charisma, and a few bloody brawls. It peaked in a memorable appearance on AAA’s Guerra de Titanes 2019, as they celebrated with Big Mami after her hair match victory over Lady Maravilla. The AAA appearance seemed to be a one-off deal, but the Big Strippers team had strong momentum until the pandemic shut down wrestling. During that time, a clip of Ovett playing with action figures went viral.

Ovett resumed wrestling when Mexico re-opened in the fall and was a regular part of IWRG until lucha libre was shut down for a second time in December. IWRG appeared to be building towards a Big Ovett & Big Chico Che versus Pasion Kristal & Jessy Ventura double hair match for one of their annual December anniversary shows until having shows became impossible. Ovett worked anywhere for anyone, so it would be no surprise if he had been working secret shows during this most recent shut down. Messages posted by his family say Ovett had been ill for a while and they’d been keeping the situation quiet until he went on a ventilator this week. The only news about his situation since had been slightly optimistic, and the announcement of his death still comes as a shock.

Mexico City & Mexico State surprisingly announce they’ll be opening up

Both Mexico City and Mexico State will switch to Orange health status for the first time in three months starting this Monday. The rules of what is and what is not allowed under each health status have perpetually being adjusted, but CMLL and AAA were allowed to run no-fan shows in Mexico City previously under Orange. IWRG and other promotions in Mexico State were allowed to run 30% capacity shows, depending on the rules of the town.

No one was expecting the switch from Red to Orange in February; the optimistic outlook seemed to be March. CMLL, in the Informa’s chat on Wednesday, did actually mention they were given indications by the government that they might be able to run soon, but no one was announcing plans for next week. There are 1,541 people less in the Mexico City hospitals this week than last week, a decline of 21%. That was one of a few positive factors that suddenly changed the situation. This is unexpected, so I’d expect we’ll see some promotions rush into action as soon as next weekend while others taking a bit longer to get there.

The data indicates Mexico City is close enough to the orange/red line that they could fall back in one week, but I suspect the government is going to be as reluctant to move back to Red as they were in November & December. (There were reports Mexico City was working their numbers then; they may be again for all I know.) There may be another wave coming before enough people get vaccinated, but my guess is we’re back to no-fans in Mexico City and some fans in Mexico State for the next period of time.

The news of Mexico City/State opening up came about an hour before the news of Ovett passing away. Clandestine lucha libre in Hidalgo seems to have on pause following the death of Rey Cuervo, who everyone in the community knew. Ovett is no different; maybe the secret shows would’ve also gone dark out of sadness and fear. Mexico State giving the orange light is going to cause the promoters to feel like they have to run, but I’m not sure how the wrestlers are going to feel.

Lio Rush is the new AAA Cruiserweight Champion

Lio Rush defeated Laredo Kid to win the AAA Cruiserweight Championship on MLW’s TV show airing Wednesday, in a match also for the MLW Middleweight Championship. This MLW taping appears to have taken place October 21, 2020, though the title match may be off a day or so. No next match seemed to set up. Rush posed were both titles in the ring though strangely only had the MLW title for a post-match promo.

We don’t know how much MLW taped at this session; these episodes have been airing for months, but it’s still conceivable Laredo Kid won it back in a match yet to air. Laredo Kid has had the belt for months. He’s even advertised to defend it against Daga tomorrow in a show seemingly put together by MLW & AAA’s Konnan. Lio Rush already worked AAA show as the masked Arcano, so getting him to Mexico to defend or lose this title eventually shouldn’t be a big issue (though Rush’s work with NJPW may eventually complicate it – there may come a point where he’ll be asked by NJPW not to lose to anyone they don’t want to beat him.)

There are ways this title switch could work. Laredo Kid needs to get a big win over someone who’s already a big deal if he’s going to continue to climb the ladder. Beating Lio Rush back in Mexico will mean more than just another very good title defense. It’s also possible AAA’s decided to move Laredo Kid away from this title for bigger things, and another cruiserweight – Vikingo, Octagon, whomever – winning the title back for AAA in Mexico would be a big feather in their cap. The issue AAA struggles to deliver those big wins for their wrestlers though; there’s rarely a march to becoming a champion, someone just gets pulled out of a hat to get a title match, or someone wins a #1 contenders match that doesn’t go anywhere for months. Until shown otherwise, that’s the most likely outcome of this title reign as well.

I didn’t think the Laredo Kid/Lio Rush match was among either man’s strongest work, or even above average work. They had about four minutes of energy for a twelve-minute match. It could be because it was match three or four of the day for them, though maybe that’s more a reason they shouldn’t have done tapings that way or done this match at all. All Mexican wrestling in 2021 is marathon tapings, and the average match on an AAA version of those is generally better than Laredo/Rush. I also do not like the MLW product – it’s cheesey and not a flavor of cheese I like – so maybe someone who enjoys MLW would like this match more.

Lucha Libre This Weekend

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will stream a no-fans charity show today at 6 pm CT on Facebook, the first event in the building since last March. The show is also airing on TV. There is no published lineup. Rayo de Jalisco & Satanico are advertised as the headliners; the rest are likely local luchadors. The promotion posted photos of wrestlers getting their COVID-19 testing Thursday.

Pale Pro wrestling in Arlington, Texas has Psycho Clown vs Sam Adonis tonight in Arlington, Texas at 8 pm CT. It’s also a $15 iPPV.

Lucha Memes’ Guerra de Naciones show will debut on IWTV this Saturday at 7 pm. The poster is here, not including late ad Black Taurus vs Laredo Kid. I think it should be a good show, at the promotion’s best chance at getting some momentum on the donadora campaign.

AAA will air their first show taped in Tlaxcala on Space Saturday, which is about two weeks earlier than they had previously implied. Not sure what matches. I don’t know of a way of record the shows directly off Space, so you’ll probably have to wait a bit. YouTube was previously one week behind the Space show, but we won’t know if that’s still the situation until the first new episode turns up.

CMLL TV this weekend:

AMX (Friday)

• Marcela & Skadi vs Tiffany & La Comandante (likely repeat)
• Volcano vs Sagrado
• Titan, Atlantis Jr., Flyer vs Rey Bucanero, Raziel, Cancerbero

MVS (Saturday)

• Electrico vs Nitro
• Sangre Imperial, Starman vs Hijo del Signo, Disturbio (likely repeat)
• Volador Jr., Titan, Star Jr. vs Euforia, Felino, Luciferno (rematch from last week?)

Televisa (Saturday, on YouTube next Sunday)

• Robin, Retro vs Disturbio, Hijo del Signo
• La Jarochita, La Magnifica vs Ampola, Stephanie Vaquer
• Rey Cometa, Espiritu Negro vs Felino, Rey Bucanero
• Valiente vs Euforia

CMLL YouTube (Sunday)

• Dulce Gardenia vs Misterioso Jr.
• El Audaz, Drone vs Okumura, Vangellys
• Soberano Jr. vs Virus
• Volador Jr., Ultimo Guerrero, Diamante Azul vs Angel de Oro, Terrible, Niebla Roja

Other News

ROH announced Mexisquad (Flamita, Rey Horus, and Bandido) will defend the ROH Trios Championships against Shane Taylor, Moses, and Kaun of Shane Taylor Enterprises on the TV episode airing the weekend of 02/20. (Those episodes go up on their website for free the Monday after, among other outlets.) This match was scheduled for Final Battle in December, then postponed when Flamita & Bandido didn’t pass pre-flight COVID testing. ROH previously was already Taylor challenging Rush for the Ring of Honor World Championship on the TV show the following week (02/27). It’s unlikely he’ll be losing two title matches in a row; winning the trios championship to build him up for the Rush challenge seems the most likely outcome.

WrestleZone says Dragon Lee & Rush timed their ROH contracts so they’ll last the same time. Their previous contracts had expired about a month apart, with Dragon Lee signing a short extension first to match up the timing. The length of the new contract is not known. The contracts continue to allow Dragon Lee & Rush to have outside merchandising deals. Bestia del Ring is under a pre-night deal.

Masked Republic announced their Lucha Libre Expo will return virtually on March 30th. The Masks, Mats and Mayhem interview with Konnan seemed to be the most popular feature in the Expo last fall, and they’ve got more of those this time around. The MMM show has Vampiro as a guest, Denise Salcedo will interview Cassandro, and Psicosis, Damian and Bestia will do a virtual autograph signing. All will stream on YouTube and Twitch.

Monterrey’s KAOZ wrestling has periodically announced signing wrestling over the last few months. It comes off as a small promotion trying to both imitate bigger promotions and maybe creating news to keep eyes on them. I’ve been skeptical KAOZ contracts even being real, but I’ve been told there are real agreements between luchadors and a promotion that was running a handful of shows a year before the pandemic. KAOZ announced Baby Love as their first signing back in November, though she’d actually been under some sort of agreement with them prior. Thursday, KAOZ announced Baby Love was no longer under contract due to no fault of KAOZ and wished Baby Love well in the rest of her career. I don’t know of any promotion who would just let a wrestler go without a reason. Maybe Baby Love got a deal with a more important group, or maybe there’s some other story to it, but no idea what. Baby Love hasn’t posted on Facebook or Instagram since the announcement but also doesn’t seem to post much.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia lists Jimmy & Mago vs Ciclon Infernal & Aeroboy as the main event of their February streaming show, but do not have a date advertised as of yet.

Luchadoras, a film about Ciudad Juarez female wrestlers and their lives, will debut at South by Southwest Online in March.

Violento Jack & Mammoth Sasaki lost the King of FREEDOMS Tag Team Championships on Tuesday after over two years as champions. They defended the title eleven times; this was no CMLL reign.

Vary Morales, a Juarez luchador based in Georgia who’s been appearing on AEW Dark lately says he tested positive for COVID-19. SuperLuchas cites his social media; I couldn’t find the original post.

Tijuana has raised the number of people allowed at boxing, lucha libre, and MMA events from 50 to 100. Everyone still has to get COVID tested, but it may allow some tickets to be sold. Boxing is the only one of three that’s been active, with the commission noting it’s just out of the love of the sport right without making money.