CMLL returns to fans (with a normal show), Federacion debut show to have fans, unfortunate viral videos

CMLL , Ticketmaster (FRI) 05/21/2021 Arena México [CMLL, De Lucha TV, Furia de Titanes, Lucha Central, Mas Lucha, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores, thecubsfan]
Attendance: 500
1) Flyer & Stuka Jr. b Hijo del Villano III & Templario  
15:23, one fall match. Templario replaced Felino Jr. and Stuka Jr. replaced Atlantis Jr. (booked elsewhere) around May 12th.
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia b Princesa Sugehit & Reina Isis [Relevos Increíbles]  
16:01, one fall match.
3) Gemelo Diablo I, Gemelo Diablo II, Hechicero b Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa, Titán  
19:59, rudos took 1/3.
4) Atlantis, Cavernario, Terrible b Forastero, Negro Casas, Sansón [Relevos Increíbles]  
18:24, Team Atlantis took 2/3. Atlantis replaced Angel de Oro & Negro Casas replaced Cuatrero.
5) Carístico, Euforia, Místico b Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]  
14:38. Team Caristico took 2/3. Guerrero fouled Euforia in the third.

CMLL opened the return to fans show by talking about the start of a new era. It felt like the continuation of the ongoing one, with the big return ending with a mask pull, no future matches being announced, and wrestlers being falsely advertised. Negro Casas & Atlantis were star power upgrades over Angel de Oro & Cuatrero, but as happy as CMLL was to have fans back, they still don’t respect those fans enough to be honest with them.

Hechicero and Gemelo Diablos versus AtrapaSuenos & Titan as the best match to the night, great creativity and energy. Hechicero looked back, both from the injury that’s had him out and also in better condition than when he first returned from the pandemic in September. Rey Cometa and Titan looked great although Cometa may need to cut down on the times he yells to do a move and immediately gets taken out. Gemelo Diablos didn’t stand out. They’re about the same as they were in Gemelo Panteras.

The main event has an issue where those tecnicos try to make have a spectacular close of the main event, but they do everything the same way and in the same order every single time. Mistico’s Operacion Dragon is an incredible dive heavily mitigated by knowing exactly when it’s coming a minute ahead of time and that it absolutely has to happen because there’s never a deviation in the sequence setting it up. It’s the inherent problem with the current CMLL style; spectacular stuff done the same way so it looks polished and amazing for the tourists and repetitive for the people who watch every week. There are no tourists. They need to change. They will not change.

CMLL has started to make the first two matches one fall, going back to the last PPV. The matches aren’t being wrestled much differently – they’re getting the same amount of time as they always do, and just working through what would’ve been the two fall breaks. (The match times are actually longer as a result; they’d be better shorter.) There’s no stated reason for the change, and it’s likely to stay just a prelim change.

Euforia challenged Ultimo Guerrero to another heavyweight title match, though they’re also feuding like two guys hoping to main event a major show. It could be an Aniversario show match in a normal year, though CMLL seems committed first to doing the Felino/Cavernario match whenever they can fill up a building. Euforia wrestled as a tecnico and is good at working against his type, though it’d be a shame for him not to be basing for tecnicos.

Flyer is so bad right now. CMLL has to see he’s drowning and they keep rolling him out there. I don’t think anyone who was unrelated to a top wrestler would keep getting the chances he’s getting. Flyer will be back next week.

I’d go below average, ok, good, ok and ok to the show. The third match was close to great with a little more by the Diablos. The main event had one good fall. This was overall more tolerable to watch with fans.

CMLL removed the “ROH” logo for the rating video board ads. You can now tell how old the TV footage is by the shows where the ROH logo is still shown. On the Mas Lucha Radio show (1h25m), Miguel Reducindo mentions CMLL is talking with other US promotions to replace the Ring of Honor relationship, though did not way once. (Please credit Mas Lucha and Miguel Reducindo on that.) That’s potentially good news for CMLL and their wrestlers, though I fear what CMLL will consider an adequate replacement given their limited knowledge of the US landscape and most major league promotions already being aligned with WWE; it’ll probably be whomever offers the most Okumura matches.

CMLL also had the Televisa-only annoucners as part of their welcome back in-ring introduction; it seem likely this show will turn up on TV eventually.

Barbaro Cavernario said he wants Negro Casas’ hair after he defeats Felino. That would be a great match and relentlessly mocked because Casas has lost too many hair matches.

Caristico opened a souvenir shop on the same block as Arena Mexico Friday. He called a pre-inauguration; apparently, they weren’t planning to open this early but it made sense with Arena Mexico running with fans. The block Arena Mexico is on includes various non-wrestling small retail stores and it’s always a bit surprising there are not more permanent lucha libre places. Caristico’s store seems like it’s on the opposite side of the block as Blue Demon’s store.

I’m mildly surprised that Mas Lucha got permission to film even highlights of a CMLL show. They’re associated with AAA and hosted the Federacion Wrestling debut press conference, I’d think CMLL would just reflexively ban the from the building if they knew they were there. (They shouldn’t, it does CMLL no harm, but that’s how CMLL tneds to act.)

Luchador attacks small child

At a politician-sponsored outdoor show in Mexico City, luchador Einar el Vikingo violently threw a child to the ground outside the ring after a match. The child was taken to the hospital to check for injuries as part of the investigation; it reads like he was released without anything major being found A short clip was captured on video and went viral; it cuts off as various adults are about to him. In perhaps the least thought out response possible, Einar’s partner Baby Angelita explained the child was saying mean things to Einar as justification. Einar was questioned by the police but has not yet charged with a crime.

(I don’t know that there’s a great solution, but every news site being thirsty for a couple of views off a video of child abuse was a not great day. The original video is here, though I’m not who it first. Furia de Titanes noted a second video of the incident where you can see the child’s apparent parents encourage to go to the luchador, though you can’t make it out what’s happened unless you’ve seen the first video.)

Einar wrestles in Mexico City and neighboring Mexico State towns. I’ve got records of him wrestling as far back as 2017, though he’s probably for longer than that – it’s that I only started looking for deep indie lineups, and that’s the shows he generally works. His highest profile booking would’ve been a trainee show in Arena Naucalpan in 2019 as a Hip Hop Man trainee in a Copa Higher Power. Einar is one of hundreds of people in and around Mexico City who are working tiny shows, likely for no pay and with no license, simply for the glory of getting to call themselves a luchador. Einar is not related to HIjo del Vikingo or most any viking luchador you likely know, though he often wrestles with a Raknar el Vikingo who may be related. The show seems put together by luchador Ojo de Tigre for the local government candidate, one of many lucha libre shows happening the next few weeks before the June 6th election.

CMLL is getting some blowback because Einar’s Facebook bio lists him as working for CMLL. It’s possible he trained at Arena Mexico at some point; thousands of wrestlers have, it’s a class the trainees are paying to take, few of those wrestler graduate to the higher level classes and fewer to actual CMLL shows. (It’s not a select group who train at CMLL’s school, it’s closer to anyone who’s willing to give them money without being a medical risk.) It’s also possible he just added it to his bio for laughs, same as anyone else on Facebook.

The Mexico City commission announced Einar was indefinitely suspended. The announcement was made on one of the commissioner’s personal Facebook accounts  (picked up by Mas Lucha) because the commission is run all by old men who can’t figure out how to open an official Facebook account. The statement encourages other commissions to follow the behavior. This means nothing. The commission has been powerless to stop wrestlers and promoters from running shows for months. The show where the incident happened appeared to be unsanctioned show. Einar wrestled mostly in Mexico State, which has it’s own commission and does not automatically enforce the Mexico City suspensions (when it enforces anything at all.) The Mexico City Commission’s current role seems to be to take angry calls for other parts of the government when a wrestling clip goes viral, put out a statement assuring everyone they’re taking care of it, and then to wait for it to blow over. It’s not an envionable position but it’s also one that’s hard to take seriously.

Revelacion Lucha LIbre Iztapalapa, a small Mexico City group who’s appeared on Mas Lucha’s channel during the period where no one else was running, apparently put out a statement saying they would no longer use Einar and his family on their shows. You can see it on Mas Lucha’s page; it’s either deleted or Friendly only on their Facebook. Recently criminal acts in the guise of a wrestling match have led to both Angel o Demonio and Juarez’s Black Skeller benefiting from their crimes with additional bookings. It’d be great if others followed RLLI and shunned Einar, even just for a time. I fully expect the opposite will happen, others using the fact that “Einar el Vikingo” was mentioned in a thousand articles to start using him. I understand most people are upset and angry but the way these situations are handled have tended to backfire for lucha libre.

Cibernetico and Sharlie Rockstar are among wrestlers trying to reach out to the child and his family to assure him not all wrestlers are like that.

Tinieblas

Tinieblas was included in a Venustiano Carranza mayoral debate. He had the viral moment of the night; Tinibelas was asked what policies he’d pass for the inclusion of the LBGT+ community and completely froze, seemingly not knowing what those letters meant. He eventually talked about helping women, which is nice if not what the question was asking.

R de Rudo wrote that Tinieblas claims his mask and other sound problems prevented him from hearing the question. Tinieblas later explained his plan is to create a special prosecutor focused on crimes affecting the LBGT+ community among other related projects for the community, consistent with his party’s platform.

The impression I’ve had was that Tinieblas and the other celebrity RSP candidates were non-serious candidates just there to build brand awareness for the new party; they’re just trying to get their name out there for serious runs later. Tinieblas gaff in the debate probably doesn’t hurt his candidacy only because he wasn’t a serious candidate anyway. Tinieblas has been exposed – both in his name/face and his lack of seriousness – in such fashion that it was incredibly wise for Caristico & Blue Demon to disappear from their mayoral races before officially becoming candidates.

Federacion Wrestling

Rush, in an appearance at his restaurant, announced the June 19th show would have fans in attendance. Nothing was said about a location specifically beyond Mexico City. It also may mean just outside of Mexico City; Mexico City is unlikely to allow a full capacity show in a month from now, while many Mexico State appears to be fully unregulated.

Rush also announced Kenny King as the fifth participant for Copa Federacion. He teased one more member of Los Ingobernables, with the idea it won’t be announced until the day of the show. That’s expected to be La Mascara, though it hasn’t been officially announced as such and would be anticlimatic.

Prices for the PPV of the show go up starting June 1st. It may good, it may a disaster, maybe don’t wait until the last minute to pay extra if you’re going to get it anyway. They don’t know if the show will be available on VOD. Some day, Mexican wrestling promotions will grow up and use the PPV and payment standards as the rest of the world, but June 19th is not that day.

Other Notes

Congrats to The Gladiatores for reaching 15 years of continuous publication.

Puebla and Mexico City went from Orange to Yellow health code at the same time. The difference is every state seems to have some power to decide the details of what those health cards mean. In Puebla, an article from April explains Puebla has allowed outdoor sports but not indoor ones. Those rules last through May 31st, so there’s likely an update coming this week.

At a show in Matamoros (Kingdom Promotions), Hijo del Santo and Hijo del Fishman wrestled in a main event trios and teased a mask match. Santo later said he believed he was in his last few matches and would be retiring soon. There’s probably one last mask match in him; it’s seemed like that spot was reserved for Hijo del Solitario, but he hasn’t been around much of late. Hijo del Fishman also seemed to be helping promote the show, so that could’ve been all the reason he was working with Santo and it won’t mean much beyond this show. The Kingdom wrestlers are appearing on a 05/29 MexaWrestling show, so they’ll probably be in IWRG that week.

Chamaco Maravilla (Margarito Torres Silva, 59 or 60) passed away Friday according to Box y Lucha. They have him as an 80s/90s Monterrey luchador, which is woefully underrecorded. (I would pay to have access to the UNAM digital library so I could look through those newspaper archives, but that’s another subject.) Maravilla’s brothers wrestled as Raul Silva and Robocop, and his son wrestled as Genocida. Monterrey’s Arena el Jaguar has a note up, which is where I got the age.

Maria del Carmen Medina Salamanca, the wife of CMLL’s Manuel Robles (Jan Manuel Mar Hernandez), passed away Saturday. Manuel Robles was in charge of Arena Puebla; their son Benjamin Mar has that position now while other son Jan Manuel Mar is CMLL booker Panico.

Keyra appeared on Mas Lucha’s radio show Saturday. Keyra hasn’t wrestled since last April. AAA’s hinted on TV she’s left due to pregnancy and it’s an open secret. In this interview, Keyra said she’s been out due to injury but AAA has been supporting her and she’s looking for a date to return. It’s not the only ongoing current situation; I’m not sure if it’d be even worth mentioning if it wasn’t mentioned on the TV show.

Peru’s Rayo sent out a press release announcing he’d had a WWE tryout. Take note: this is absolutely the last thing you should if you want to actually get signed by WWE. They don’t want anyone to know about who auditions for them; keeping it quiet is a test to see if you’ll stay quiet while working with them. Maybe Rayo knows he’s not getting signed and is just using the publicity to boost the “IOWC Championship” he’s trying to get over as a touring title but it seems a bad idea

Dr. Wagner’s weekly column in Milenio is mostly about how he’s happy to see Andrade get a shot at Kenny Omega on TripleMania. He briefly talks about the other matches and surprisingly says he doesn’t have an opinion on the women’s match because he doesn’t believe women should fight. Wagner states he’s not being sexist, just that his father taught him women should be delicate. He does acknowledge times have changed and hopes the best woman wins. I presumed this was a ghost written article but obviously not, no one’s putting those words in someone’s mouth without their approval.  Wagner was married to Rossy Moreno, who is from a family of (female) lucahdors), so you’d think he’d have different views.