Brazo de Plata, CMLL Leyenda de Plata lineup, Arena Puebla update

Brazo de Plata

Brazo de Plata’s children held a brief press conference at his wake. Psycho Clown said Super Porky had passed away from a heart attack. Brazo de Plata had heart issues during his wrestling career, it’s been unclear how many heart attacks he’s had (compared to other issues or just angles.) Psycho Clown said the fatal heart attack was Brazo de Plata’s third one. The previous two happened at Arena Coliseo, one when Psycho was 8 years old (which would mean around 1994) and at the show, the other “three or four years later” at the same building. Brazo de Plata had been feeling ill recently, checked into the hospital, and had asked to be released after feeling better. Super Porky appeared with his sons on the July 15th Arena Aficion show and twice said it’d be the last time he’d be here, including telling the fans to support his sons after he’s gone. Daughter Muneca de Plata said Brazo de Plata had been saying goodbye to many friends and told her he was going to die soon and he’d cry a lot. His children all tried to talk him out of that depressive mindset and now see it as Brazo de Plata knowing he was leaving soon.

The news of Brazo de Plata’s passing broke during Mas Lucha’s En+Carados show; the last 90 minutes of the show are dedicated to showing historical clips about him.

SuperLuchas has a detailed Brazo de Plata obituary.

Box y Lucha reposted an interview with Brazo de Plata from a couple of years back. He mentions Paco Alonso continuing to support him after he no longer wrestled for CMLL and that he was spending his retirement working on his reading and writing.

CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 07/27/2021 Arena México [CMLL, CMLL, De Luchas TV, Kaiser Sports, R de Rudo, The Gladiatores]
1) Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia b Acero & Aéreo  
2) Diamond & Sonic b Espanto Jr. & Nitro  
3) Dalys, La Comandante, Stephanie Vaquer b La Guerrera, La Magnifica, Princesa Sugehit  
Brazo de Plata was remembered with applause before the match. Dalys wore a Brazo de Plata mask and shirt to the ring.
4) El Audaz, Esfinge, Fugaz b Cancerbero, Raziel, Rey Bucanero  
5) Ángel de Oro, Mephisto, Terrible b Panterita del Ring, Star Jr., Valiente [Relevos Increíbles]  
Mephisto was dressed in a Brazo de Plata mask and shirt. Rudos took 1/3

Mephisto & ex-Ephesto continue to face off. Audaz is back from injury.

CMLL (TUE) 07/27/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Cosmos, Tigre Blanco ?? Conde, Persa, Relámpago Azul
2) Bello Antuan, El Divino, Guerrero Vikingo b Gran Kenut, Javier Cruz Jr., Paymon
3) Joker, Omega, Vaquero Jr. DDQ Halcón Suriano Jr., Misterioso Jr., Rugido
4) Estrella Blanca Jr. I & Estrella Blanca Jr. II b Misterio Blanco & Misterio Negro
5) Flash & Gallo © b Mr. Trueno & Rey Trueno [OCCIDENTE TAG]
6) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Niebla Roja, Principe Daniel, Volador Jr.

Back on Sunday, many of the Guadalajara wrestlers wrestled in Arena Queretaro, going to a draw against the locals. Flash & Gallo suggested they’d defend against two of them next. The third match was the first live (not-empty arena) CMLL match for Halcon Suriano Jr. since the pandemic; they’re adding a Laguna/Guadalajara rivalry as well.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will run a special Friday show on August 13th. They’ve run the “Mexican Madness” shows in the past. It’s surprising to see a Friday show back before the Sunday shows have resumed; there’s been no sign of those coming back. The Sunday shows seemed to draw much less than the Tuesday shows (though they also had much less star power on the lineups) and perhaps we’re a long way from seeing those come back. If they come back.

Friday’s Mexico card is up.

CMLL (FRI) 07/30/2021 Arena México
1) Guerrero Maya Jr., Pegasso, Stigma vs Dark Magic, El Coyote, Okumura
2) La Jarochita & Lluvia © vs Amapola & Dark Silueta [MEX WOMEN TAG]
third defense
3) Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Negro Casas vs Blue Panther, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero [Relevos Increíbles]
4) Vangellys & Volador Jr. vs Euforia & Forastero [Relevos Increíbles]
5) Templario vs Titán [Leyenda de Plata, final]

Vangellys & Volador as a semi-main team is so weird. It’s not hard to figure out Vangellys was meant to be in the opener with his two partners and got moved up. Someone decided it would be easier/cheaper to add Coyote to the card instead of another normal top wrestler to replace whoever was supposed to team with Volador (or otherwise been in match 3/4.) It’s not good for a show quality at all but that may not matter. Like the Bandido/Volador show, this show is going to be remembered only if the main event is excellent; hope everyone else gives them time to do so. Vangellys in that semifinal is all the more reason for it to be cut to under ten minutes to pass the time to Templario and Titan.

This is show is supposed to air on Ticketmaster but there’s no way to buy it if you haven’t already got the full month package. There’s no Ticketmaster listing because someone at Ticketmaster moved the entry for July 30th to August 27th seemingly by mistake. It’s supposed to work for people who bought the package, but that link may also now work only for August 27th. I flagged this issue to Ticketmaster and got no response. This seems like something both sides should address before they get lots of angry messages on Friday but it’s unclear if anyone cares about angry messages. The match should air on CMLL Televisa TV the following week and on YouTube August 15th, so we may be able to have a spirited/dumb debate about if CMLL streamed a better match than AAA the weekend of TripleMania.

Arena Puebla got the all-clear to re-open after passing a health inspection, local Puebla government Ana Lucía Hill Mayoral. announced on Monday. The Puebla government official said the building had opted to delay opening immediately, which appeared to be related to the 30% capacity limit at first. That doesn’t seem to be the actual hold up now. Ticketmaster now lists an Arena Puebla show on August 9th, which appears to be the plan at one point. El Sol de Puebla caught up with Arena Puebla logistic manager Emir Ortiz. (Normally, these interviews are with building administrator/ex-luchador Benjamin Mar.) Ortiz says they had hoped to re-open in the first two weeks of August, and now believe it will be mid-August instead. That sounds like August 15th. The delay is blamed on “logistics.”

Arena Puebla will be able to sell tickets to 672 fans, just under 30% of the maximum 2400 capacity. That ticket number leaves room for 42 wrestlers & staff to get to 30%; 24 wrestlers were booked on the canceled show. Arena Puebla seems like it drew around 1,000 fans, though that’s a guess, CMLL doesn’t release attendance totals. There are definitely been shows where it’s seemed like less than 500 fans. Ortiz mentions CMLL had to work out if they could run profitable shows before getting the OK to rerun. The July 5th announced/canceled card had mostly wrestlers coming in from Mexico City which suggests it’s decently profitable. The easiest way to save money would’ve been to go heavier on the local Puebla luchadors.

CMLL Informa has Titan, Templario (Leyenda de Plata), Shocker & Pequeno Violencia (hair), and CMLL women (probably Dark Silueta & Amapola to talk the mixed tag match.) CMLL Informa blew of Dr. Alfonso Morales’ passing and the Brazos have a poor relationship with people in power in CMLL, so I’m not sure if there will be any Brazo de Plata talk on this show.

Other Notes

Sam Adonis is heading to Mexico; he hasn’t been at an AAA since Rey de Reyes. Hugo Savonvich is in Mexico. AAA’s either running another press conference or taping something else to promote TripleMania in the next few days. (I could be a TV taping, but I’m under the impression the next normal AAA TV taping isn’t until after TripleMania.) Maybe we’ll hear something tomorrow.

IWRG’s Thursday lineup, streaming on Mas Lucha.

IWRG (THU) 07/29/2021 Arena Naucalpan
1) Spider Fly vs Black Shadow II
2) Bengalee & Sussy Love vs Amazonika & Satania
3) Aster Boy, Legendario, Noicy Boy vs Hijo Del Pandemónium, Pandemónium, Pandemónium Jr.
4) Chef Beneito, Dick Angelo 3G, Lunatik Xtreme, Puma de Oro, Rey Halcón vs Caballero de Plata, Hellboy, Kenji, Lunatik Fly, Sol [Copa Higher Power]
FILL (Black Terry) vs Try Out (Karaoui)
5) Estrella Divina, Hijo del Fishman, Tyson Maddux vs Diva Salvaje, Hijo del Espectro, Jessy Ventura

Tyson Maddux is a Georgia wrestler of little notoriety and no obvious connection to Mexico, but somehow is working a weekend of shows between IWRG and Lucha Time.

Warrior Wrestling announced Jay White versus Sam Adonis for their 08/21 show. NJPW wrestlers facing AAA wrestlers is a bright red line that NJPW has been unwilling to cross in the past due to their relationship with CMLL. I don’t know if Sam Adonis is actually under AAA contract but that technicality wouldn’t be important to CMLL. They know AAA from what they see (or someone tells them what they saw on TV, no one in CMLL is watching their own show much less AAA) and Sam Adonis looks like a guy working for AAA on AAA TV. I hope this works out for Warrior Wrestling and Sam Adonis and it’ll be news if it happens.

NJPW’s Young Lions Yuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji are having farewell matches on August 1st. Tsuji has consistently and frequently expressed a wish for his learning excursion to take place in Mexico. NJPW hasn’t confirmed that’s going to happen yet and probably won’t until at least after that match. It’s not a great time to come to Mexico, but it’s better than it was a few months ago and it appears Mexico City lucha libre will be allowed to continue no matter the COVID cases. (He should definitely get his shots before coming to Mexico; I believe all the NJPW staff got one already, but obviously, that’s the most important part of any timing.)

Tsuji is a bigger-sized wrestler than the NJPW guys who usually come to CMLL, but CMLL plainly could just use another body at this point. They seem to have less than usual midcard and up people, so a new face could make an impact (and just be welcome for being a new face.) CMLL hasn’t had a NJPW trainee since the January 2020, when Kawato’s ill-fated trip ended. Raijin & Fujin were the previous NJPW long-term guests, except they seemingly got moved to ROH faster than anyone expected. Both CMLL & NJPW could really use Tsuji working out better. And, if Tsuji talks about going to Mexico for years and doesn’t end up coming to CMLL, it would say a lot more about the state of the CMLL/NJPW relationship than any press release. He really has to wrestle in Arena Mexico at this point.

Hector Pliegro, who portrayed El Santo in photocomics in the 1970s, passed away on Tuesday. He never wrestled as El Santo, just took photos, and the obituary suggests the comic didn’t have Santo’s approval, but they were marketed under the El Santo name.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

Box Y Lucha 3482 has Cavernario Galindo on the cover.