AAA in Merida postponed, CMLL remains on pause, Mascara Dorada in GCW

AAA’s TV taping in Merida on January 30th is now postponed. Originally, sports were given an out on a local ban of public events through February 15. The local sports authority told PorEsto! they were changing their position on Tuesday, canceling all sports events. An outdoor 5/10 km race was allowed to go on, but a nationally televised boxing show, a bullfighting event, and AAA’s event would no longer be permitted to take place due to an “exponential” rise in COVID cases. The local promoter said they’re hoping to reschedule the show for March but don’t have a date locked in. This is the show with FTR versus Lucha Brothers scheduled; AAA never had to announce a replacement match because it didn’t come close to happening. Fan reaction the postponement seems disappointed but understanding.

The next scheduled AAA TV taping is Rey de Reyes on 02/19 in Veracruz for Rey de Reyes. Yucatan is in yellow health code, Veracruz is in green, though the rules under those codes seem to vary from state to state. The next Mexico COVID traffic light map update is this Friday and there will be a second update before the show takes place. Those probably will have less green, but it’s hard to know if it’ll mean anything.

(Speaking of cursed events, the AAA Guadalajara spot show has been re-advertised for February 13th.)

AAA will start to air the December Mexico City taping this Saturday. It’ll be back on Space at 6:30 pm. I do plan on resuming streams on Twitch until AAA goes live themselves or tells me to knock it off. If you don’t want to deal with me, and who does, these shows should continue to go up eight days later on AAA’s YouTube channel. The channel itself remains behind a geoblock wall for the moment, but all the new links to video work fine. The Mexico City show should air this week and next and I have no idea what they’ll do with this taping postponed. Maybe back to Best Ofs, maybe moving this Merida somewhere else just to get it in.

Mexico City-based Stamina Sports Licensing announced a deal with Lucha Libre AAA for “consumer products, licensing and retail” on LinkedIn Monday night. As the name so clearly states that I’m silly for including the part after this comma, Stamina Sports Licensing mostly focuses on licensing sports properties. Their website show shows some famous brands. This appears to be part of AAA trying to improve their merchandising area, with SSL in the area of making connections to get the merchandise into stores – an article on their partnership with FC Bayern Munich talks about making increasing the team’s merchandise in stores.

ESPN has a feature on the Charly/Lucha Libre AAA Liga MX jerseys. So does Urban Pitch, which means part of the AAA involvement in the process was to let them know if their team specific masks designs were too close to existing wrestlers.

CMLL posted no update on their status, which means they’re probably back not this week. CMLL has missed eight shows so far. The promotion typically posts the CMLL Informa lineup mid-day. None has been posted today. Informa didn’t miss a week during the pandemic so far, but it’s possible COVID got it as well.

Mascara Dorada will wrestle in GCW on 02/04 in Houston, 02/19 in Atlantic City, and 02/25 in Los Angeles. Those are his first announced post-WWE bookings. No one currently has the trademark on Mascara Dorada in the US so he’s free to wrestle using that name there. Dorada’s 90 day no-compete clause appears to expire on 02/02, so the Houston show will likely be the first show he’ll work. It’s a good sign to see him working as soon as possible, though the big test will be to see how much he can shake off his WWE stint and return closer to what he was before he left.

Dorada is one of the first few names to be announced for those shows and we don’t know who he’ll be working with. Gringo Loco seems likely. It sticks out to be that Dorada is working the 02/04 show in Houston but not the next day in Dallas for GCW; maybe he’s got something else to be announced for that day.

Psycho Clown has been added to the GCW show this Saturday, which you can watch on FITE. That’ll be other thing to watch: Dorada’s not booked for that show and can’t wrestle on any shows with AAA people or Bandido if he plans to go back to CMLL. Neither CMLL nor Dorada have said anything about a CMLL return, but they did send him off in a big way.

IWRG (SUN) 01/23/2022 Arena Naucalpan
1) Spider Fly & Villarreal vs Kenji & Limbo
2) Jessy Jackson & Sagitarius vs Baronessa & Satania
3) Big Boy, Big Chico Che, Big Mike vs Ra-Zhata, Shil-Ka, Tortuga Leo
4) Asterboy, Freelance, Noisy Boy vs Dick Angelo 3G, Puma de Oro, Tonalli
5) Accion Jackson & Travis Banks vs Alpha Wolf & Dragón Bane
6) Hijo del Alebrije vs Hijo del Fishman, Hijo del Pirata Morgan

Travis Banks is back and with a friend. I think Los Golepadors think Banks is their ticket to international success; maybe Banks thinks the same. I don’t think it’s going to work out for them.

Deep in this Box y Lucha interview of RLLI (Revelacion Lucha Libre Izatapalpa) promoter Diego Armando de Anda, there’s a mention of an agreement to work with WLS (World League Society) and their new trainer, Travis Banks. His issues elsewhere stemmed out of abusing his role as a trainer, but there are enough people in Mexico who see him as a good wrestler who has the international experience they want, and they’re willing to forgive the rest.

The third part of Mexico’s embassy feature on lucha libre is up now on a variety of channels, focusing on rudos versus tecnicos.

Monster Clown will be appearing at a show in Mexicali this weekend. Doesn’t seem like he’s back wrestling yet.

LuchaWorld has this week’s Poster-Mania.

Box y Lucha 3498D has lots of obits and interview recaps.