Mexico City moves to yellow health code
Mexico City has been in either orange and red health status since the countries instituted their COVID health status code. They will move to yellow for the first time starting this upcoming week, which will allow fans to attend sporting and entertainment places.
Arena Mexico will be allowed to have 500 fans starting May 17th. That’s not a lot, and there are other requirements including ventilation and QR code-based tracing which would need to be met. CMLL has been talking frequently about fans being allowed soon. If they can meet those requirements, the May 28th Copa Dinastia show would likely be the first show with fans since March 2019. CMLL has not made a statement on the situation.
In theory, this affects other Mexico City lucha libre venues. In reality, many of them were finding ways to run anyway – it was only CMLL & AAA who were at risk of reputational damage by not running. More shows may run, though some of that may just be shows coming out of the darkness.
Mexico State has also switched to the yellow health code, but the rules regulating attendance have obviously not been as enforced. A few more places may run and a few more capacity limits may be ignored.
Puebla has also moved to yellow. Arena Puebla has remained entirely closed since last March; previous reports had CMLL deciding no-fans shows there wouldn’t be economically feasible and local government coming up with a vague plan to run outdoor shows at malls which haven’t happened. (Clandestine shows have been taken place for the last few months.) I haven’t see anything new today exactly stating the plans for Arena Puebla.
Hijo del Alebrije posted on Facebook for the first time since his own battle with COVID-19. In a video, he says he was hospitalized with a severe case of COVID and has recently been discharged, though he’s still recovering.
MLW reintroduces “Dario Cueto”
MLW spent the entirety of their closed-door tapings teasing a mysterious El Jefe behind a new Azteca Underground group. It’s wrestling, so the long tease of Dario Cueto suggested some sort of bait and switch was coming. Instead, on last night’s final empty arena episode, the actor who portrayed Dario Cueto appeared in a vignette meant to evoke the feel of Lucha Underground. “Cueto” revealed he’d appear on MLW’s restart taping, July 10th in Philadelphia.
The appearance of “Dario Cueto” on MLW seemed to get much more attention for MLW than anything they’ve done since their fall 2019 PPV; that’s what they’re doing it after all. He is the one guy who could do the most to make “Azteca Underground” feel like a credible successor to Lucha Underground. Luis Fernandez-Gil had not appeared on a wrestling program or convention outside of LU, despite obvious interest, instead just continuing to work as an actor. In an interview with Post Wrestling, MLW’s Court Bauer said Gil will have a new name in Azteca Underground which hasn’t been revealed. That’s also an acknowledgment that MLW is still doing this without owning the actual Lucha Underground IP.
(Long time MLW manager Salina de la Renta appeared to be killed off in the skit; MLW has confirmed she’s finished up. She seems certain to show up elsewhere if she’s interested in staying in the wrestling business.)
MLW also gave their explanation for why Laredo Kid is still AAA Cruiserweight Champion on this week’s MLW Fusion. Laredo Kid had the belt for a match with himself and Gringo Loco, with the announcers explaining Laredo Kid kept the belt after arguing Lio Rush tapped out in the match. MLW showed a clip for the Laredo/Rush match where Rush tapped the mat once and the announcers were critical of Laredo Kid for making this claim. AAA made no mention of the bit; their only US acknowledgment Wednesday was Kenny Omega appearing with their title.
I presume MLW had an unused Laredo Kid/Gringo Loco match from earlier in this taping and inserted it to explain this story; the voice-overs are relatively recently done so they could easily make that change. In that Post Wrestling, Bauer acknowledged the explanation was not strong but felt the need to explain it somehow for the MLW audience. Bauer also insisted the relationship between AAA & MLW remains strong This seems to leave an opening for another Laredo Kid/Lio Rush match in MLW, though there wasn’t any big build to it on the show. I’m not entirely sure if Lio Rush is still with MLW; he lost his MLW middleweight title in the main event this week, didn’t come up as a name when Bauer was talking about MLW stars on the podcast, and wasn’t in the press release announcing Gil. Could’ve just been an oversight.
Laredo Kid & Lio Rush have a single match tonight at AAW; I have no idea to what extent they’re going to play up that bit. It feels like not enough people outside MLW & AAA fans know to make it worth doing and those two groups aren’t big enough to make it work on its own. I hope they have a great match no matter how they get there.
MLW’s attempt to keep things warm for two months begins with the MLW Open Draft next week, a branded way of saying “they’re going to announce names every week for the July 10th taping every week to keep it in the conversation.” I’d expect Azteca Underground names to be included; Aerostar’s been teased in a previous bit.
TV Notes
- Angelito & Kaligula vs Mercurio & Pequeno Olimpico
- Black Panther vs Nitro
- Guerrero Maya Jr. & Felino vs Kraneo & Rey Bucanero
- Robin vs Inquisidor (possible repeat)
- Magia Blanca & Diamond vs Espanto Jr., El Coyote
- Angel de Oro, Terrible, Mephisto vs Cavernario, Soberano Jr., Titan
05/08 CMLL Televisa
- Sonic & Robin vs Grako & Espanto Jr.
- Blue Panther, Black Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Okumura, Dark Magic, Vangellys
- Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., Stuka Jr. vs Virus, Raziel, Cancerbero
- one more match
Individual wrestlers have promoted the first three matches. CMLL hasn’t mentioned the entire show lineup yet. It sure seemed like they were setting up Bandido/Templario for this show last week. CMLL announced they were parting ways with Bandido 28 days ago.
05/08 CMLL HT
- haven’t announced it in full yet.
- I got really excited seeing Fuego listed, until reading the whole lineup and seeing it was an old match.
05/08 AAA on Space
- Hijo del Vikingo, Octagon Jr., Myzteziz Jr. vs Rey Escorpion, Texano Jr., La Hiedra for the AAA World Trios Championships
- a Marvel Lucha Libre match
- probably one more match. (I think Poder del Norte was there.)
Those matches were taped in San Pedro Cholula, around the live taping.
Other News
IWRG (THU) 05/06/2021 Arena Naucalpan [Mas Lucha]
1) Cheff Benito b Kenji 
2) Lilith Dark & Mary Caporal b Sussy Love & Therius 
3) Aster Boy, Baby Xtreme, Puma de Oro b Dick Angelo 3G, Hijo Del Enfermero, Shocko
4) Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, Pasion Kristal DQ Chilango, Guadalajara, Monterrey
5) Hijo del Espectro Jr. b Fresero Jr. [IWRG JUNIORS]
Espectro Jr. won via foul.
I didn’t get a chance to watch any of this, the title change seems worth noting.
Diamante Azul put up a YouTube video talking about leaving CMLL. He’s complimentary to the people he worked with but felt like he lost his passion for wrestling and wanted to make a change. Azul thought he was doing everything CMLL asking of him – both in the ring and also out of it by being active on social media promotion the company – and it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Diamante Azul specifically citing never getting chances to go to ROH or NJPW, or to face the biggest names. Those issues intensified at the start of the pandemic when he felt the promotion didn’t take care of the wrestlers. He felt it was worth taking it into his own hands by leaving CMLL, noting the many names who have done well on their own. Azul said he’d soon debut his own name and his own identity, so maybe the look he has right now is temporary.
Diamante Azul has been relatively highly featured in CMLL, though he’s correct in the promotion never getting him much to do or significant rivalries. I also wonder if he expressed these feelings during the pandemic and CMLL gave him the national heavyweight championship in an unpromoted match as an attempt to keep him happy. It doesn’t seem to have worked if that was the idea.
CMLL Informa reached seven years ago. It’s nice to have any idea stick around that long, and Julio Cesar Rivera’s satisfaction in doing so explains some of the stubbornness about continuing to run the show as normal during the worst of the shut down when it was otherwise a bad idea. It makes CMLL looks substantially out of touch when the effective leader of the group is showing up to hand out a plaque to celebrate seven years and hasn’t been on-screen talking about any of the many recent issues, Still, the show is for CMLL diehard fans who don’t want to hear anything negative about the product, an increasingly shrinking group that’s been super-served.
Prices go up for the 05/28 CMLL PPV on Tuesday.
ROH announced the entire La Faccion Ingobernable is suspended through May, for doing what they usually do. I’m guessing that means we won’t see them on ROH TV until the next set of tapings.
2-1 MMA fighter Dulce Garcia will be on the next Martinez show. I figured she would turn up on lucha libre again soon, I didn’t think it’d be literally weeks later.
Alberto el Patron’s trial for aggravated kidnapping has been postponed a second time from this past Monday to August 2nd. I presumed it was going to be resolved this time the way Alberto was talking about. I can’t find a reason for the postponement in the court records if there is one, though I believe the last postponement was due to COVID-19-related delays. This means Alberto is currently scheduled to wrestle Andrade on a Saturday and go to court on the following Monday.
Argentina wrestler Miguel Coronio (65) passed away due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to Box y Lucha. He wrestled as Taras Bulba on Titanes en el Ring among other ideas.
Another Argentina luchador, Joe Alamo, also passed away due to COVID-19 on Wednesday according to Box y Lucha.
Hidalgo’s Arena Aficion will re-open Sunday after 14 months closed. It’s local wrestlers only, with 30% capacity. The local-only shows in Arena Aficion generally draw just friends and family, though maybe it’ll be more for the first show back.
LuchaTalk returns to talk about Rey de Reyes and Federacion Wrestling.