Rey de Reyes tomorrow, Copa Dinastia field announced, Federacion press conference this evening

Federacion Wrestling 

Federacion Wrestling’s debut press conference is today at 5pm CT. They say they’re streaming it on their new YouTube channel, and I’m sure all the media who are covering it will stream it too. I’ll be writing about it on Twitter, and then try to come back with another post later.

no COVID change in Mexico City 

Mexico City remains in Orange health code with the idea that lesser restrictions of Yellow is just around the corner, same as last week. The suggestion has been Mexico City could reach Yellow as soon as next week, which would allow lucha libre shows to have fans legally in Mexico City. No one knows for sure. Angel de Oro & Terrible were doing CMLL virtual press this week and Terrible said he believed CMLL were six weeks away from getting fans. That seems a long time to me but Terrible actually lives in Mexico City and I’m just a person reading about it.

Rey de Reyes

Rey de Reyes is airing at 7 pm on Saturday on Space; they’re airing part of TripleMania prior to it, so it’ll be a long block of AAA. Nothing really new to report as far as news. The lineup remains the same, no hints about the mystery people. We still actually don’t know where it’s being held; usually by now at least Hugo will have given it away.

My big guess is the mystery woman wins the Reina de Reinas; I’ll go as far as guess it’ll be obvious they’re winning when they’re revealed. I’ll go with Taurus winning the Latin American championship not from any knowledge but because Taurus is very good so why not give him a belt. The Rey de Reyes sword should probably go to whoever is going to challenge Omega next; if that’s Vikingo, then VIkingo needs to win.

I’ll probably be passing along a stream for Rey de Reyes but please don’t ask me what the link will be until Saturday because it may change before then. I’ll be linking to it on Twitter like every other time, so you don’t even really have to ask. If you are someone in Mexico who has an Izzi log-in they’re willing to share (so I can just go the TNT Mexico/Space’s website and stream it myself off there), please let me know. I looked around at Izzi or a Mexico equivalent of YouTube TV and haven’t been able to find one, but I guess that shows I’d willing to pay to get this done. There will likely be a stream anyway but I’d exchange money for reducing the hoops.

Psycho Clown would like his main event surprise opponent to be Andrade. It’s probably not going to be Andrade. It’s good to do surprises, it would be unsound to pay what it’ll take to get Andrade to work a match and not heavily advertise it ahead of time. Psycho Clown also told the press that his eye is doing better and he will not need to wear an eye patch on Saturday. That same article mentions former heavyweight boxing champion Andy Ruiz will be fighting on a show starting at 9:30 pm, which suggests AAA probably is going to want to finish by then.

Konnan, at the tail end of his podcast, noted that Rey de Reyes can’t be seen live because of geoblocking but that it would be available in the US in two weeks. I can’t make sense of that but Konnan knows things we don’t know.

AAA previously mentioned they’d start putting up unaired matches from this year’s tapings starting this weekend on YouTube. I haven’t seen that come up with any more detail but it may be worth keeping an eye out (if you have access to AAA’s YouTube.)

CMLL Copa Dinastia 

CMLL announced the full field for Copa Dinastia, taking place on May 28th.

• Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.
• Volador Jr. & Flyer
• Ultimo Guerrero & Gran Guerrero
• Sanson & Cuatrero
• Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro
• Los Gemelo Diablos
• Felino & Felino Jr.
• Blue Panther Jr. & Black Panther

An eight-team tournament means either only 1-2 other matches on the show or very short matches to fit it in. The Ticketmaster shows generally have been going longer than the average CMLL Friday night show – last week’s was about 2 hours and 30 minutes – but there are limits to everything. CMLL believes these tournaments are a special event; they have numbers on how well these are doing so maybe they’re right, but they haven’t come off that way so far.

Atlantis wrestling up to three matches seems like a specifically poor idea; he’s been treated like normal already. It’s not particularly hard to figure out which four families are likely to advance (the first four on that list), though it could be any one of those four to win.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter cites Joe Koff saying Ring of Honor and CMLL did talk before CMLL issued their breakup notice. It definitely came as a surprise to ROH people I talked to; maybe ROH just did a good job of keeping those conversations very quiet and restricted to a few.

No TV lineups for most of CMLL’s shows as of Friday afternoon. These shows are all taped, recorded, and likely edited a while ago. Somewhere along the chain, someone’s just decided they’re not a priority to get done. It feels like the social media team (or press department) because the YouTube listing hasn’t been updated in a month even though it’s the simplest one (it’s the show that aired on Televisa a week prior), but the bigger point is CMLL seems to believe it doesn’t matter which matches they’re showing. They’re likely caused that to be correct.

04/30 CMLL AMX

• Diamond vs Magia Balnca
• Okumura vs Polvora
• Volador Jr., Titan, Star Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero, Templario, Negro Casas

All appear to be new matches.

Satanico announced CMLL’s Guadalajara gym will re-open on Monday, with wrestling classes for kids as young as 10.

Alberto 

Alberto el Patron did an interview with Hugo Savinovich of Lucha Libre Online yesterday, focusing on telling his side of the story of his domestic violence accusations as well as explaining plans for Nacion Lucha Libre. Alberto would like people to stop treating him like a criminal because he was never convicted on any charges. The subtext is he’d like fans to stop complaining to promoters and other wrestlers about working with him because it’s costing him money.

None of what Alberto said is likely to change anything. Indie lucha libre promoters are going to book him because he was once a draw and can be a charming person, and most American fans are going to dislike Alberto and be angry at anyone who works with him. Alberto’s hope is to make himself less radioactive through and give the people who book him some talking points.

Alberto’s key relationship points (which don’t sound greatly positive)

• Alberto said he and WWE’s Paige agreed to a one million non-disclosure agreement when they broke up, only for him to find out there was no way Paige would ever be able to pay that amount if Alberto sued – she owned no house, no car, and “only had $70,000 in the bank.” Alberto feels Paige has broken that agreement (by alleging spousal abuse) but Alberto can’t tell his side of the story because he doesn’t want to forfeit the money that he’s saving for his children.
• Alberto admitted to cheating on his most recent wife in their house – it sounds like she walked in on the act – and claims the allegations of kidnapping and sexual abuse were fabricated as revenge for that act.

Alberto stated he was cleared of all charges; he’s actually listed as going to trial Monday on the last of the charges. The accuser, his ex-wife, has indeed recanting making it unlikely anything will come off the charges. It does make for weird timing; I suspect Alberto’s reasons for doing this interview now has to do with some immediate issue getting this show to happen – or maybe Andrade getting cold feet about it.

Alberto also said the return Nacion Lucha Libre was 100% confirmed while noting he’s going to a meeting Friday to work out the final details for the show in McAllen, Texas. The previous “season” of Nacion Lucha Libre lasted from July 2019 to December 2019, more notable for the amount of people who complained, publically and privately, that the promotion had stiffed them on pay. It’s been a year, it’s been a bad year, people just want to get paid, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are upset people out there looking for their owed money.

Alberto was also positive about WWE, explaining his success versus others in the promotion as due to his superior abilities and talent. It reads like a person hoping that he gets called back to be WWE’s next Latin American star.

Alberto is also advertised for a show on June 10 in Brownsville, Texas. It seems like he’s trying to get booked a lot more this summer and he’ll be yet another depressing thing about lucha libre that fans are just expected to deal with while trying to maintain their interest. It’s not great!

Other News

Today is Kid’s Day in Mexico. It also feels like the opening day for a lot of small lucha libre promoters. Not every locale is open for lucha libre shows, but those even with the door open a crack likely have someone (or someones) trying to run. It’s still not going to be the volume of years past, yet it’s probably going to be the busiest day and weekend in number of shows since the start of the pandemic. If I divided posters up into “shows everyone knows about”, “shows only diehard lucha fans knows about”, and “shows no one outside that town would remember existed if I didn’t type in the poster”, it’s that last category that’s seen exponential growth recent peaking to this weekend. I hope that’s the only thing that grows exponentially this weekend.

Dulce Garcia (ex-Sexy Star) has an MMA match late tonight on Combate Global (ex-Combates America), as noted by SuperLuchas. The show airs at 12:30 AM on Univision and TUDN in Mexico. Garcia, 2-0, faces Claudia Diaz, who is 0-2. No one Garcia has faced has ever won a match before or after facing her.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter explained Daga gave up the AAA Latin American Championship because he’s establishing residency in the US for legal purposes. He has to say in the US for six consecutive months to do so. Amazingly, this is the second time that exact thing has caused a champion to give up the AAA Latin American title; Blue Demon also gave it up in 2014 in what was said to be a similar situation at the time.  Vacated the title now still seems weird call by AAA – it’s not like they’ve been in any hurry to do something with that title belt (or Daga) for a while, they could just wait the time out as they’ve already been doing. Maybe there’s some pendulum swing to get some of the belts back in circulation after mostly having them on foreigners who can’t come to Mexico (to AAA can’t afford to bring to Mexico without tickets.) The WON story says AAA still expects Daga back later, though they are under the impression he’s signing a US deal. It’s not said in the story, but if Daga really is planning on coming back to AAA, he (& Tessa) have to be going to ROH or AEW. WWE is not going to allow Daga to return to AAA and it seems unlikely they’d return to Impact given Tessa’s bad breakup.

Speaking of weird things with AAA titles. AAW will have Laredo Kid versus Lio Rush on their 05/07 show. That’s a rematch of the MLW match for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship which AAA decided to later ignore. AAA does not acknowledge outside bookings typically so they’re not going to mention this one, but of course it would be a funny idea of their cruiserweight title was on the line here.

El Mesias announced he’d won the legal rights to use that name in Mexico. AAA had trademarked “Ricky Banderas el Mesias” previously. The online IMPI trademark database still shows AAA having those rights and Glibert Comse’s own trademark still pending, but I’m not sure of the lag between when those may be granted and the database being updated. Mesias, by any name, has not wrestled much in Mexico during the pandemic. He’s worked for MLW as Mil Muertes; the MMM show podcast reminded me recently that the deal there is Muertes/Cosme licensed that character from LU and is supposed to have the rights to use it wherever as long as he pays Lucha Libre FMV their licensing fee. (As they also pointed out, only Cosme and Lucha Libre FMV know if he’s still paying that fee or if Lucha Libre FMV is paying enough to know he’s still using it.)

Box y Lucha Reports Vaquero/Praciticante (Johnny Navarro) passed away on Tuesday. (It’s spelled Jhonny Navarro on the luchawiki, which is the more typical Mexico spelling of that first name.) He’s the uncle of Texano, Box Y Lucha reads like he mostly wrestled locally on the west coast. The note we had on the luchawiki was that he wrestled in the 60s and Texano’s name was inspired by his uncle.

Kidscreen has a piece on the number of lucha libre themed kid’s show in development:

• Ultra Violet & Blue Demon, the Disney show
• a Rey Mysterio animated project for Cartoon Network Latin America
• Super-Luchas, an animated project
• All-Star Champions, an animated take on a series of comic books
• a yet to be named show from Demente Animation and the Masked Republic

Only the first two have announced destinations so far. Those talked to about the article believe the numbers are because lucha libre is something kids think is cool and there’s a demand for shows appealing to the latino audiences,

Dragon Lee is listed as wrestling on a KAOZ show on May 22nd. He’s not been seen in the ring since missing a ROH PPV due to his lingering ear issues. ROH likely has another batch of tapings in May; not sure what date but seems a decent chance he’ll return there first.

Warrior Wrestling (Chicago) announced they’re adding a Lucha Libre championship, with Laredo Kid, Golden Dragon, Aramis, Gringo Loco, Arez, Hijo de Canis Lupus, Dragon Bane, and Black Taurus in the match to decide it on June 5th.

The Rock y Lucha streaming show originally scheduled for last December 27 will now take place on June 10th. This is an AAA-adjacent show through Ticketmaster for about $8 USD and it’ll also now be a drive-in show. The listed lineup remains the same, though I have reason to suspect at least one of those matches will change. There was some novelty to it when AAA was unable to run much at that point, but now it seems just like a random AAA paid show when AAA’s doing weekly random free shows. The show seems like it’s using AAA wrestlers but AAA themselves aren’t promoting it, so I’m not expecting them to mention it.

LuchaWorld has the lates Lucha Report.