Mexico City lucha libre commission yells about unsafe clandestine lucha libre shows; unsafe clandestine lucha libre shows expected to continue unaffected
Tuesday, Fantasma and other members of the Mexico City lucha libre commission held a meeting to denounce wrestlers and promoters running shows with fans in Mexico City. Those are currently not allowed for any capacity in Ciudad de Mexico itself. The commission showed a viral video from a show at Coliseo Morelos in Venustiano Carranza, where the outdoor stands appeared to be packed or close to it, then talked about the dangerous spread of COVID in these situations and threatened punishments for those involved. Other venues, including Gym Mictklan, were also mentioned. The conversation devolved when the press got to ask questions. It kept coming back to inquires about what the commission was actually going to do, and the commission explaining they weren’t actually going to do anything because they didn’t have the power to close buildings or stop events. It didn’t appear they were going to suspend wrestlers or promoters either, though suspending people from shows when they’re already operating outside the law would’ve been a futile gesture. Fantasma claimed Mexico City is “one or two weeks way” from shows with 30% capacity and didn’t want that to be ruined by the increased spread of COVID at these unauthorized shows.
It’s not new information shows with fans are happening in Mexico City. Coliseo Morelos has had fans since February. Gimnasio Micktlan was briefly shut down but has since had so much business that there’s been at least one issue with the building being double booked. Fantasma complained about these shows in the past and they’re very easy to find out about; the YouTube channels posted a video of this press conference right next to the clandestine shows. The new information here appears to be a clip of a grandmother getting in the Coliseo Morelos ring and messing with the wrestlers that went viral over the weekend; my guess is someone above Fantasma in the Mexico City organization chart (or maybe just whoever they’re talking to about opening at 30%) saw that clip, complained to Fantasma about it, and that led to the press conference. This will lead next to nothing because the commission just yelling at people to knock it off isn’t going to work if the wrestlers and promoters have no reason to be scared of them. (A couple of non-commission people spoke at the end, more pleading with people to stop doing these shows for their own safety. I don’t know if that approach will connect any better, but it seems worth a try.)
Dr. Landru of the Gladiatores explained the real situation on Twitter: it’s up to the mayor of the Venustiano Carranza borough or the Mexico City government to shut down Coliseo Morelos; they have the power, the commission does not, it’s of no use to get angry with the commission about it. And it seems like Venustiano Carranza isn’t just turning a blind eye (which may be happening with Gym Mictklan), but actively permitted those Coliseo Morelos shows to happen. So they’ll keep going, and hopefully, no one gets sick. The power of the local government is why last weekend’s AAA AutoLuchas shows got canceled; the neighborhood complained about the honking cars and got the Coyocan government to put those shows on ice. On the other hand, if the lucha libre commission can’t/won’t do anything to regulate wrestling – they know who are promoting these shows, they could at least make the symbolic gesture of suspending them – it’s unclear why it should exist. The takeaway from the press conference is the commission is inert as a regulatory body and maybe only has a purpose as an advocacy group.
Side note: Tinieblas Sr., the last luchador running for office, happens to be running for mayor of Venustiano Carranza. Permitting these shows seems like an issue he should have a take on. It does appear Tinieblas’ name will be on the ballot, though this article has his son listed; I thought it was the father. Either way, that seems to confirm Blue Demon Jr. and Caristico would’ve had their names out there and it’s probably the reason they were removed from the ballot.
Univision and Televisa merge
Univision and Televisa were either the first or second biggest media companies in the US and Mexico previously. As of Tuesday, they’re combining to become the biggest in both countries. The deal will close later this year, assuming regulatory bodies in both countries approve of the deal.
It’s not a short-term lucha libre story; the only lucha libre programming on either network is CMLL’s show on Televisa and nothing’s about that is expected to change. The different ways each company has treated lucha libre may play a role in the future. Univision has had the right to air many Televisa programs, did so for decades on Galavision, and has lost interest in doing for over a decade. Televisa aired WWE in Mexico, it did well early, and then gave up on it when the fade came up – they’ve essentially treated all wrestling as interchangeable since that point, and paying a little for CMLL has made more sense to them than a lot for WWE. It appears the Univision people are going to be the ones empowered by this merger. Perhaps their disinterest in lucha libre might factor in CMLL getting dropped from Televisa somewhere down the line. Or perhaps, now being a US-based company, they’ll see WWE as being a much bigger deal and worth the added cost. I didn’t see a path to an NXT Mexico show getting a viable over-the-air TV deal in Mexico when that came up last week;. There may be one with a US TV company in the picture. This merger again means very little to lucha libre at the moment but maybe something to file away for later.
Other News
AEW Dynamite will air Rey Fenix & PAC challenging the Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team championships tonight. The Young Bucks turned heel to end last week’s show, so them losing their first match would seem counter-productive. Then again, I’m not as invested in AEW booking making sense as much as I am in people I like getting big wins. The bigger concern is what seemed like simply incredible action match may now be subverted to demonstrate the differences in the newly heel Bucks.
MLW today has LA Park & Hijo de LA Park defending the MLW Tag Team Championship against the Dirty Blondes, as well as Mil Muertes challenging Hammerstong for the National Openweight Championship.
Terrible, Marcela, Amapola, Flyer, Felino Jr., Audaz, and Cancerbero appear on CMLL Informa. I’d expect the last four to all be part of teams in the trios tournament. Marcela and Amapola either have a match on TV, or they’ll be added as part of the PPV’s missing match. Terrible will be on to tag about the tag title match. I am betting Bandido doesn’t get mentioned.
Hechicero asked the fans which trio he should join. The funny outcome will be when he’s not in any of the trios in the tournament. Hechicero hasn’t wrestled since September, though he’s doing some hosting duties on the CMLL Televisa show. Bandido announced Hechicero will be a trainer at his new gym; that seems like a good pick.
In his CMLL media interviews, Atlantis said he will no longer have a mask versus mask match. Everyone says they’re no longer doing a mask versus mask until they do one, but I think this one has a better chance than average of sticking. If CMLL was motivated by making money as much as a normal wrestling company, they’d of course be trying to push Atlantis to have a mask match (no matter what the quality is) as soon as they can do a full house. That’s the surest way to make back some of the money they’ve lost in the last year. Money doesn’t seem high on CMLL’s priorities so it could be just it. The most intriguing part of the CMLL PPV next weekend is figuring out exactly how much Atlantis has left.
Arena Coliseo Guadalajara called off the scheduled Difunto vs Principe Daniel Occidente Middleweight championship match on Tuesday; Difunto is apparently hospitalized for unspecified reasons. CMLL did send up a title match for next week: Blue Panther will challenge Satanico for the Maestros Championship Satanico won back in 2019. (I believe this is the belt Solar & Negro Navarro were trading back and forth for years.) It’s a rare match where Blue Panther has the young advantage. Elsewhere on the card, Silueta apparently turned ruda on Mystique and Estrella Oriental Jr. & Zandokan Jr. made the jump for the indies to the CMLL controlled group in the undercard. All locals cards aren’t too interesting to me but it’s giving a lot of chances for people who’ve been left out previously.
There are still no shows in Arena Puebla or really any recent word on when that might change. The local specialty cemitas stands outside Arena Puebla are still open even without the foot traffic – or one stand was open until it got smashed by a truck earlier this week. The owner of the stand suffered a minor leg injury in the incident, which seems done a lot more damage to the stand. In happier sandwich-related news in Puebla, Nino Hamburguesa did a Q&A in the city recently and revealed he has a new girlfriend.
Mas Lucha was planning on streaming the Kriminal benefit show for Hijo del Alebrije last night, but there was an issue with the final video and they explained it in an update. With as much video they have to process on a daily basis, they’re doing a really good job for this not to happen more often. They’ll try to air it tonight. I believe the Vanguardia tournaments were scheduled to air tonight and perhaps have been bumped to a later day.
The Super Juvy Cup seems to be proceeding as expected; Rey Quetzal and Blue Win are the latest replacements and Juventud Guerrera has seemingly added himself to the tournament in a three-way match with Thunder Storm and the promotion-specific character Iluxionista. There will be tournament matches on their 04/18 but it seems unlikely the tournament will end in any logical matter; they’ll probably just pull an ELITE and suddenly declare a final in a show or two.
SoloWrestling has an interview with Ring of Honor’s Joe Koff, talking about the company as they reach their 500th TV episode under Sinclair’s ownership. Mexican wrestling comes up; Koff says they have a good relationship with CMLL but COVID has made it impossible to share talent. They’ve thought about having a Spanish translated language version of the ROH TV, though it doesn’t seem to have made it past the idea stage so far. Generally, they want to appeal to Hispanic fans in the style of wrestling they want, not trying to impose an Anglo-Saxon version of wrestling upon Hispanic fans. Koff expects to have no fans at shows in May and is doubtful about it as far as July but believes ROH’s December Final Battle will have fans. There is no wider difference in how different places are handling COVID than an ROH official saying they don’t believe they’ll have fans at shows in the US (where vaccination is going generally well) in July, while in Mexico City (where vaccination is not going as well) people believe they can have fans at shows in a week or two.
DTU announced they’ll be resume shows in May. They’ve been off all year due to COVID and the deaths of people close to the promotion. DTU also announced Ace Austin will defend the DTU Alto Impacto championship against Aereo de Juarez in a IWC show in Denver on May 16th. That’s a lot of words; the shorter version is Austin hasn’t been in DTU since 2018 and seems likely to lose the title to someone who can travel in Mexico.
Veracruz luchadora Charito Silva (Rosario Silva) passed away on Saturday according to Box y Lucha. She started in the 60s, having the unfortunate timing of being a Mexican female wrestler when Mexico City and other places weren’t allowing women to wrestle and so most of their matches were in far-flung reaches of the country. EMLL was still booking the women out, just not using themselves, so she’d still work Arena Coliseo Guadalajara a couple of times a year amidst the small towns. She seems to have stuck with EMLL even as Promociones Mora/UWA started promoting women’s wrestling much more heavily in the late 70s. Silva shows up on Torero/Neza lineups in 1984, so she may have jumped around that time. She’s among the first wave of women who work in Arena Mexico once the women’s wrestling ban was lifted. I have records of her challenging Irma Gonzalez for the national women’s title in Torreon in 1975 and losing her hair to Estela Molina in Puebla in 1978, those may have been her biggest individual matches.
SuperLuchas has an obituary for El Engendro.
Panama’s GWE TV will start airing on PlutoTV.
LuchaWorld has the latest news update.
+LuchaTV has a new edition of their podcast.
Lineups
indy (SUN) 04/18/2021 Arena Azteca Budokan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) Status & Yety vs Angelito Azteca & Sombra De Toro
2) King Jaguar & Mini Oriental vs Cyborg & Rey Eclipse
3) Ángel O, Mercurio, Rey Celeste vs Rey Calvavera, Sombra Guerrera, Torak
4) Hija Del Vikingo, Vikingo, Virtual vs Lady Sensación, Octagoncito, Oriental Jr.
5) Black Sky, Dement Extreme, Lunator vs Chac-Mol, El Puma, La Mole
6) Charly Manson, Halloween, X-Fly vs Galeno del Mal, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Oriental
This is billed as a farewell to Halloween, which usually means we’ll see him again in a few months. If he’s telling the truth about his current health status, it probably is one of his last matches.
IWRG (SUN) 04/18/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Chicanito & Lunatik Fly vs Guerrero Olímpico & Rey Halcón
2) Hellboy & Legendario vs Especie Maligna & Tonalli
3) Relámpago, Súper Nova, Veneno vs Chilango, Guadalajara, Monterrey
4) Canek Jr., Hijo del Fishman, Máscara Sagrada Jr. vs Baby Extreme, Delta, King Charro
5) Aster Boy, Dragón Bane, Hijo de Canis Lupus vs Demonio Infernal, Emperador Azteca, Toxin
6) Blue Demon Jr. vs Fresero Jr. vs Hijo del Espectro
I was stunned to see Blue Demon working on a non-Premium show (which this appears to be), but I guess the idea is to do something to build up the following week’s premium show. IWRG/Mas Lucha actually have to book towards big shows, an old common practice not seen much nowadays.
LLB (SAT) 05/01/2021 Gimnasio Benito Juárez, Cuautitlán, Estado de México
1) Águila Oriental & Chicanito vs Fantasma De La Ópera I & Fantasma De La Ópera II and Power Bull & Sumed Black
2) El Divino, Guerrero Mixtico, Tony Cirio Jr. vs Black Shadow II, Chico Che, Juan Diego
3) Astro Boy, Sonic, Zareek vs Argos, Dragón de Fuego, Meteoros
4) Diosa Quetzal, Máscarita Sagrada, Mr. Potro vs ?, Ángel o Demonio, Coquito Amarillo
5) Demonio Infernal & Fresero Jr. vs Fantasma de la Ópera & Zumbi and Jessy Ventura & Pasion Cristal
6) Canek & Carístico vs Averno & Cibernético
I try to reject nostalgia in all forms and yet I really want to see this lead to Averno back in CMLL, I’m too weak.