Lucha Memes empty arena show, deadbeat dad Octagon, retirement talk that’s hard to believe

Lucha Memes (SUN) 04/05/2020 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México [+LuchaTV, thecubsfan]
1) La Heroína b InfestLunatik Extreme Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
4:09.
2) Alas de Acero & Iron Kid b Cobre & Moria and Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
10:45. Iron Kid beat Cobre. Corsario Negro Jr. & Drako were added to the match (instead of facing Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito, who were not present.)
3) Garrobo & Gremlin b Diosa Quetzal & Hahastary Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
13:55. Gremlin beat Hahastary in what turned into an elimination match.
4) Aramis b Perro De Guerra Jr. Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
9:49. Aramis (replacing Black Terry) beat Perro de Guerra Jr., who was shaken up after.
5) Psicosis II b Toxin Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
12:48. Psicosis powerbombed Toxin off the ropes onto some chairs for the win.
6) Ricky Marvin b Arez Chairo Bill Vol. 5 - Lucha Memes c/ T.W.E. desde el Coliseo Coacalco | #QuédateEnCasa (posted by +LuchaTV)
10:10, ending with Marvin caught Arez in a cradle.

This was a better empty arena show than the Vanguardia one; they just did a normal show as best as they could instead of a strange concept. Some of the guys were taking fewer risks than normal, but it wasn’t universal – the three-way tag was full bore.

The show had been presented as a live event happening on Sunday. It was clearly taped sometime prior. Arez posted a photo of himself with no beard before he appeared on the show with a beard. Photos circulated of others who were part of the show watching it from home. YouTube also listed the show as a “premiere”, which is their term for a video that’s been uploaded (instead of streaming live.) There were elements that appeared to be edited in between matches but the matches themselves seemed unchanged.

The fundraiser portion seemed successful. The YouTube chat had lots of donations via SuperChat and stickers. It weirdly was not working for me but seemed to be working for plenty of others. The highest donation I saw was a $50 USD; most were lower than that. Both that function and the account to donate towards were pushed far harder than on the Vanguardia show and seemed more successful as a result.

Lucha Memes taping the show when they said it’d be live and not announcing changes when they knew in advance there would be ones is not a gigantic problem on its own. It’s not a Memes show without people being missing with no real explanation being given. The problem is the Memes, and +LuchaTV, are asking people to trust that they’re going to do the right thing with all the money they’ve been just given when they were not transparent about much smaller things. There’s not really a way for the wrestlers to see how money came – it’s whatever amount Memes & +LuchaTV tells them – and that’s why it was uncomfortable doing it this way. On the other hand, if the wrestlers are unhappy, they could’ve solicited donations themselves as well.

Psicosis mentioned they may be sanctioned for running this show. Everyone involved in this show was aware the State of Mexico issued a statement saying they didn’t want closed-door shows. It’s possible something else was said behind the scenes or that it’ll simply be forgotten once lucha libre starts up again. It’s also possible there’s a cost coming later for this.

Back in 2016, Octagon introduced both the current Hijo del Octagon & two teenage twin sons as people who’d be carrying on his name. This was during Flamita’s run as Octagon Jr., and part of Octagon trying to argue he had the rights both to his name and to any others using it. The twins were a surprise to all. Octagon was believed to have only daughters and even people with AAA were unaware of them. It subsequentially was revealed out that the twins were the children of a relationship between Octagon & luchadora Sahori outside of Octagon’s marriage. Octagon’s never spoken much about them much outside of that one day. Sahori passed away in 2018 after a battle with cancer.

A Facebook account for Juan Carlos Ramirez, who says he’s one of the two twins, has a long post about the unsupportive actions Octagon has taken towards himself and his brother. Sahori sued for child support, Octagon fought against it (though refused to take a DNA test), lost the court case, and then refused to pay the court decided monthly amount. Octagon told Sahori he would pay a smaller account, claiming he didn’t have much money himself, and rarely paid even that amount. Octagon contacted the twins out of the blue to ask them to help him with the Hijo del Octagon press conference, then disappeared from their lives again. They believed they were being brought in so one of them would be trained to be the new Octagon, and only grasped later it was someone else – someone who wasn’t actually Octagon’s son – would be taking that role. Sahori’s medical bills for her cancer treatment left the sons in great debt with, Octagon declaring poverty when asked for help. Octagon was in articles talking about restaurants he was opening at the same time. The twins later went to Octagon for help in paying simply a 500 pesos fee for a university entrance exam and Octagon would not help them. The twins later found someone who could help them get the original child support case re-opened, since Octagon has never paid his obligation, and that’s led to Octagon counter-suing the twins. Octagon’s also threatened to get the twins sent to jail or destroyed in the media, so they felt they had to speak out first. Octagon usually fires off many angry Twitter posts at things like this, but it’s early yet.

New/unseen lucha libre content is close to exhausted. AAA put up the second part of their show from Cancun. That’s the last new matches they’ve got left to upload; AAA’s been airing matches from past major shows on TV instead. CMLL has been out of new matches for a while. Televisa is getting an old Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, starting with 2013 last year and 2014 this past one. The B-shows are getting footage from January, with an occasional unaired Sunday match slipping through. AYMSports/InternetTV is airing repeats of IWRG earlier this year. +LuchaTV should have the last MexaWrestling show, maybe a DTU show, and perhaps some smaller shows left to put up. They also started putting up shows taped back when they were Tercera Caida on Friday.

Arena Rayo de Plata in San Luis Potosi has been running empty arena shows for the last few Sundays on Facebook. Arena Orizaba (Veracruz) also ran an empty arena show for donations this past Sunday.

This is a luchador claiming he’s going to retire soon, which has an extremely low percentage of being accurate. Keep that in mind when I mentioned LA Park says he’s going to retire in a year or two. He says his knee hurt a lot, he says the ligaments are “very torn”, os he’s not going to go on for much longer. LA Park says his goal in all his matches is to make sure the fans leave happy and aren’t ever bored.

Rush & La Bestia del Ring will be interviewed by Lucha Azteca (on Instagram) and by AAA themselves. These are listed as different times, so I think these could be two different interviews going on at the same night. It’s part of many different Mexican sports organizations working together to provide content while everyone’s staying at home. CMLL is not part of that collective, as usual when AAA is involved. There’s always some hope that the latest big world event is the one that’s going to get AAA and CMLL to run a combined show, but current CMLL leadership doesn’t seem amenable to even having a CMLL logo on the same graphic as AAA.

Last week, AAA announced a new roster of sponsored eSports competitors for 2020. The amount of participants seems to have about doubled (7), with official casters and “official partners”. Perhaps the official partners are the sponsorship deals Dorian Roldan had mentioned as wanting to achieve this year. AAA has also launched a TikTok account.

CMLL asked Dalys a 100 questions as part of the recurring bits.

Hijo del Soberano is making lucha libre themed COVID-19 masks.

The July 27th Hijo del Fishman/Wotan mask match is already postponed.

A bio of Chihuahua’s Misterio de Plata, who is always a lawyer.

A profile of Chiapas’ Jaguar Negro Jr.

And one with Oaxaca’s Rasputin, who was a decathlete before getting into wrestling.