Pasion Kristal
Pasion Kristal (Juan Gabriel Zentella Damian, 45) apparently passed away late Tuesday/early Wednesday in a drowning accident in Acapulco. Kristal was lost off Papagayo beach until a body a spotted on a beach Thursday, and local promotion Lucha Libre Acapulco confirmed it was Kristal.
Kristal was in Acapulco with trios partners Jessy Ventura and Diva Salvaje prior to a scheduled wrestling appearance Wednesday night. Ventura & Salvaje still actually wrestled Wednesday and appeared before the show started to talk about the incident. They explained Pasion Kristal walked from the beach to the water, and a big wave pulled Kristal in. Ventura & Salvaje went after Kristal, another big wave hit them all and they could not get Kristal. Ventura almost got pulled in again. Ventura & Salvaje wrestled that match Wednesday night and were understandably very emotional afterward. Kristal, Salvaje, and Ventura were scheduled to headline Thursday’s IWRG show.
Pasion Kristal wrestled in AAA, infrequently on TV, between 2008 and 2015. Kristal didn’t achieve great individual success but did get to be part of multiperson cage matches on the 2012 Rey de Reyes and the 2013 Guerra de Titanes. There didn’t seem to be a specific public reason why Kristal left AAA, it seemed more a being the fourth to sixth most important exotico when AAA started using fewer of those characters on TV; he worked spot shows more often. Kristal also was important in his native Villahermosa, Tabasco scene, taking over the local promotion when it appeared it would go out of business (according to this long and detailed bio republished Thursday.)
Kristal passed through IWRG many times during his career. Kristal & fellow exotico Jessy Ventura started teaming as Las Shotas there in 2019 and really picked up in 2020. Their personality and bloody big matches helped, but I believe the biggest factor in their newfound popularity might have been deciding to become vloggers during the pandemic. It gave them a new avenue to connect to the fans and get their personalities over, and they started getting over in Naucalpan just about the same time as their videos grew in popularity. Kristal & Ventura defeated los Oficials for their hair last November and seemed planned to defeat Big Chico Che and Big Ovett for their hair in December before Mexico shut down again. (Half of that match has passed away in the last six months.) Sunday’s IWRG show is the annual Jaula de la locas, a multiperson cage featuring exoticos (and cis-gendered women this year.) I’m not sure if Kristal was going to figure into the finish, but Las Shotas were the big stars of the match. Kristal, Ventura, and trios partner Diva Salvaje advanced to the finals of a tournament to decide Mexico State Trios championship and were the favorites there too; things were going great.
That 2013 bio mentions Pasion Kristal started out as masked wrestler Nemesis 2000. Pimpinela Escarlata was responsible for Kristal switching to become an exotic – or rather, Pimpinela missing a show in Tabasco meant the promoter needed someone to work as an exotico at the last moment. He started as Orquidea Seleme that night, a name he didn’t like and happily switched to Pasion Kristal. He had also been working as a special education teacher and the mask let him hide his identity. Kristal was concerned parents wouldn’t let him continue teaching if he was wrestling as an exotico, though it reads like his success as an exotico eventually forced him to step away from his teaching career. It led Kristal to save the local lucha gym when it was going to be shut down for lack of funds and running shows to try to treat others luchadors better than he had been treated. Kristal had battled homophobia before and during his wrestling career; it seemed like he was never more popular or accepted than in this current moment. It’s terrible Pasion Kristal doesn’t get to keep living it, but at least he got to reach that earned success for a time.
Franky Monet (ex-Taya) posted a couple of remembrances of Pasion Kristal. Mamba did as well.
IWRG honored Pasion Kristal on their show Thursday night. Kristal & Ventura wrestled and won the main event, changed from a three-way trios to a three-way pairs. (Full results here.) They will go on with the annual Jaula de las Locas show (Mas Lucha Premium) on Sunday. The original poster, with Pasion Kristal and the cage match, was hanging in Arena Naucalpan on Thursday night. They’re not trying to replace Pasion Kristal in the match.
Mexico City goes to Green health status
Mexico City head of government Claudia Sheinbaum announced as part of the weekly Friday COVID update. The change in status officially begins Monday. There are still restrictions under Green – it is not the finish line – but it does mean most everything can be open.
Specifically for lucha libre, this will mean Arena Mexico can go from 500 capacity to 1,500 starting on June 24. That’s good news, some progress – 1,500 is actually probably enough for most Tuesday shows with no tourists around. (The 500 tickets have not yet sold out for the first Tuesday show.)
Only going to 1,500 is a bigger issue for AAA. They’re not running until August, but they need to put a lot more people in Arena Ciudad de Mexico. If Mexico City only raises the cap 1,000 a month, that’s not going to work out well for August. Maybe it’ll go up much higher in July, it just feels like AAA will either just barely pull it off in August or would rather have run the show later. They probably won’t make any decision until July to see how it plays out. If you’re thinking about going to TripleMania, maybe make sure you can adjust dates on travel items you buy in case it ends up getting postponed a month or so – I think TripleMania getting shifted to September or October remains a decent possibility.
Mexico State will also be going to the green health code starting Monday. I haven’t seen capacity realistically enforced in most Mexico State venues in a while, so maybe the only difference is places that haven’t hosted events might start to do so.
In perhaps related news, Mexico has a federal election on Sunday (June 6th.) The president is not up for election, the legislative body and other smaller offices will be decided. This is the election Tinieblas Sr., Lady Apache, and others are running in (and Blue Demon and Caristico were talking about running at one point.) Tinieblas is not expected to win in his mayor’s race. Lady Apache and others are too local to know for sure. There’s been a handful of political party-sponsored wrestling shows, though probably less than would’ve happened in a normal non-COVID year.
Many people are suspicious Mexico City and other locales are massaging their numbers in front of the election and a harder truth of the situation may yet be discovered in June and July. It’s definitely a political issue – if you believe in the ruling party, then they’ve done a great job to get this point. If you don’t, you might believe this is a PR bit to gain some last few votes. I’m not reading a lot of Mexican election information; the little I’ve read suggests it’s not expected to be a close one. Reporting suggested Mexico City wasn’t the whole truth last fall, keeping the city open when the correct numbers indicated they needed to shut back down weeks earlier. At least by the numbers we have, around 18% of Mexico’s population has received at least one COVID vaccination shot and it’s closer to around 25% in Mexico City itself. Vaccinations are so far only available to those 50 and over until they hit a certain percentage of those citizens who’ve received one.
Where I live, we’re on pace to go back to pre-pandemic conditions a week from today. It’s a hard thing to wrap my brain around, that we’re actually reaching a normal.
CMLL notes
CMLL has a PPV today. It is unclear why. The live show is sold out with 500 tickets. The PPV costs about $11.50 USD; I’m not sure if they’ll get 500 buys. Mistico, Caristico, and Volador face Angel de Oro, Euforia, and Terrible in a main event with no reason to exist. Los Gemelos Diablos team with Cuatrero against Blue Panther Jr., The Panther, and Valiente. CMLL might kickstart a feud on this show, but there’s no obvious one going in and there’s no likely good match. I guess the world is getting back together when CMLL is running completely pointless shows.
CMLL will restart Sunday shows on June 13th. This is the same week as the first Tuesday shows; they seemingly just announced Tuesday first because it comes in the week first.
CMLL ticket prices
Tuesday: 180-300 pesos (9 – 15 USD)
Fridays: 300-480 pesos (15 – 24 USD)
Sunday: 300-420 pesos (15 – 21 USD)
The Friday prices have tended to vary more in the past; the tournament finals might be higher. It’s strange to me that the Sunday shows are more expensive than the Tuesdays.
On CMLL Informa, Panterita del Ring announced he’ll be sticking with that identity going forward. He may still appear in taped matches as Ephesto, but he’s now a tecnico teaming with his son Panterita Junior. This is good news for the rookie, who’ll be positioned much higher teaming with his veteran father. Weirdly, Panterira del Ring Jr. was wrestling under the name Foxyn on a Rey Bucanero show and a Valiente show this past week; he seems to be sticking with Panterita Jr. in CMLL.
Maybe it was so brief I missed it, but it didn’t seem like CMLL addressed Black Panther regressing to being called “The Panther” in his interview. Seems like a thing to talk about. It’s almost always bad news when a lucha libre company doesn’t want to talk about a blindingly obvious thing that occurred. Mexico’s MARCia database lists Marvel being approved for various Black Panther trademarks. “Genaro Vazquez Nevarez” (Blue Panther Sr.) filed for a Black Panther in 2018 and it’s still listed as in process. Black Panther – or rather Garras de Vibranium – is one of the Marvel Lucha Libre characters who’s turned up in merchandise though not yet in the ring. CMLL’s Black Panther was wearing a costume resembling Marvel’s Black Panther as recently as the PPV. I don’t think Marvel lawyers are buying CMLL PPVs, just CMLL & Panther had flown close to the sun for a while and maybe decided it was safer to stop doing that. There are other colors.
CMLL also announced their last in the unending string of tournaments will be the Torneo Increíble de Parejas. Block will be on June 11 and June 18th, final on June 25th. The first block was announced
- Mistico & Gran Guerrero
- Volador & Templario
- Atlantis & Negro Casas
- Stuka Jr. & Hechicero
- Titan & Dragon Rojo
- Espiritu Negro & Cancerbero
- Valiente & Gemelo Diablo I
- The Panther & Cuatrero
There was no mention if these would also be PPVs shows. The Block shows are usually bad and easy skips. Julio Cesar Rivera did say Tuesday’s show will not be streamed – not on Ticketmaster, not elsewhere – and maybe the default assumption with CMLL needs to change “the only live show are PPVs.” Or maybe they’ll tank again and change their mind again in a week.
Thursday night in Kingdom Wrestling (Matamoros), Los Gemelos Diablos cheated to beat Caristico & Mistico, setting up a CMLL tag title match on 07/08. I don’t expect a title change, but it’s a good reminder Los Gemelos Diablos are more valuable than random newcomers because they’re getting CMLL wrestlers additional bookings.
I’ve got no notes for any of the TV shows yet. It would not be a surprise if CMLL went back to not advertising TV lineups now that they have live show lineups to hype. It is possible to do both, they didn’t do both in the past. The one thing everyone will be watching is to see if the CMLL Friday PPVs start to turn up on Televisa.
Federacion Wrestling Announces Venue
Federacion Wrestling announced their June 19th debut show will take place at Mexico City’s Lienzo Charro Constituyentes, an open-air arena with a seating capacity near 5,000. Promotion “Gigantes del Ring” has run this building in the recent past; those are usually free shows done in conjunction with radio stations and the like. This is not a free show at all. Tickets run from 250 pesos all the way up to 4000 pesos for special Zona Fan ringside tickets. That’s a bit of an overstatement because those seats are listed as coming with the chair, a shirt, and other giveaways. It’s still an expensive ticket; most seats are in the 1000 or 2000 price range, a higher “middle” price than usual for even a major lucha libre show. Those numbers do not include fees. It’s possible the prices will rise as the show gets closer. Even now, these are as expensive as the recent Aniversario shows (for a card with an eight-man tag match as the main event.) The link to actually buy the tickets doesn’t appear in the post, but you can find it here; it looks like the website wasn’t yet built to handle ticket sales.
The graphic for the tickets says “Cupo Limitado”, the usual bit of text to indicate they’re going to be spacing out people for social distancing rules. The new Green health code would permit 50% capacity, 2,500 seating capacity. My hunch is Federacion will push the capacity as far as they think they can get away with similar to IWRG because they need to do so to afford this lineup and they don’t have a CMLL-like reputation to risk damaging as a new group. It’ll be heavily dependent on how interested the local government is in enforcing the rules.
This is not the most attractive venue to run a show; this is a Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera show if I’ve ever seen one. Running an event during a pandemic doesn’t give Federacion Wrestling that indoor option or many others.
AAA tapings this past week
Segunda Caida wrote Wednesday about some memorable Oscar Sevilla/Gran Apache matches, including one in a rainstorm. As it turns out, AAA was taping Wednesday night in Zempola, Hidalgo during another rainstorm. This was a no fans show being taped in the evening, but apparently, it rained for quite a bit. AAA eventually had to just tape matches in less than ideal conditions before losing the location. It sounds like it was a tough night unless you were literally in your element like Chik Tormenta. This taping should air on June 19 and June 26.
That leaves the next open date as July 3rd, which also figures like it should be Verano de Escandalo to space it out from TripleMania. Sure enough, Konnan confirmed July 3rd would be Verano de Escandalo on his podcast Thursday. No hint of what might happen there; Konnan was focused on the big matches for TripleMania, so expect Verano to have the same. I’m guessing AAA will probably tape again on July 5th, then twice more later that month to take them through TripleMania. It’s only ten weeks away if everything holds up well.
The episode airing tomorrow (6:30 pm usual time) was taped Monday. No preview yet; maybe they haven’t finished putting it together.
Other Notes
Penta Zero M is on AEW Dynamite tonight, teaming with Pac against the Young Bucks.
MLW announced Aramis as coming in for their upcoming shows (as part of the Open Draft) starting with the July 10th show in Philadelphia. Aramis is talented enough to be a fresh star for MLW and could be a Fenix-like star for their Azteca Underground project. It also seems unreasonable to expect much after the MLW Laredo Kid experience. MLW announced both King (Mil) Muertes and Aramis have signed multi-year deals; I will note here that sometimes MLW announces things for storyline purposes.
Aramis, Arez, Gringo Loco, Laredo Kid, Golden Dragon, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Dragon Bane, and Black Taurus will be at Warrior Wrestling in Chicago Heights (suburban Chicago) this Saturday night to determine their first-ever Lucha Libre champion. The show airs on FITE for $20 USD; tickets are also still available. The title will be decided in a War of Attrition match; it starts as a 4v4 tag, with the winning team splitting up and facing each other in a 2v2, then a 1v1 to determine the champion. The winner gets the title and a first defense against Daga on 07/17. I’m planning to be at this show.
Sunday in Villa Park (also suburban Chicago), GALLI has Black Taurus versus Laredo Kid and Arez & Aramis vs Gringo Loco & Golden Dragon. It feels like cheating to get those good of a lucha libre match in a local venue but I’m not complaining.
Lucha Memes and CWE Costa Rica will run a show in Nicaragua on July 31st. It’s billed as the first ever lucha libre show in Nicaragua. That may not be accurate. AAA wrestlers appeared on a show said to be from Nicaragua in 2005. If I recall right, AAA aired a clip of it during Noti AAA and mentioned it as part of a short Central American tour, but almost nothing more was known about it.
Diario.MX has paparazzi photos of the upcoming Cassandro bio pic, including lead Gael García Bernal as Cassandro. They’re filming the movie in Mexico City. Noted Canadian Destroyer enthusiast Bad Bunny appears to have a role. The actual Cassandro hasn’t issued any further statement about his recovery from brain surgery, but photos on Facebook suggest he’s doing OK.
Atlantis, Ultimo Guerrero, Fuerza Guerrera, and Villano IV headlined in Arena Afiicon on Sunday, a delayed 69th-anniversary celebration for the building. (The building was opened in January 1952.) Atlantis won the four-way and a trophy. The show seems to have drawn poorly; even granted social distancing, it doesn’t appear they came close to a capacity limit in the photos.
El Grafico has an interview with Morelia’s Astro Boy Jr.