AAA Lucha Fighter episode 1, Wagner back in AAA (for now), Sin Cara/Cinta de Oro

AAA , FIGTHER (SAT) 04/18/2020 Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal [+LuchaTV, AAA, AAA (Highlights), ESTO, thecubsfan]
1) Dinastía b Octagoncito 
8:49. Spanish Fly
2) Laredo Boy b Drago Kid 
6:50. Springboard moonsault.
3) La Hiedra b Hades 
6:19. Sit down powerbomb. Mr. Iguana appeared after the match to try to pick up Hiedra.
4) Hijo Del Vikingo b Mamba 
7:40. Mamba was a surprise participant. Vikingo won via Cuerno de Vikingo.
5) Dr. Wagner Jr. b Mr. Iguana 
6:35. Wagner won via front slam and a five count when the referee didn’t believe it was actually the finish.
6) Texano b Dave The Clown 
6:10. Texano won via piledriver, a rare non-DQed one in AAA.
7) Psycho Clown b Drago 
8:14. Psycho Clown won via sit down powerbomb.

This was an enjoyable way to past time for an empty arena show. It felt like AAA was as serious about taking the health condition as a wrestling company could be expected; things have progressed a lot sense the Vanguardia show. The matches were all watchable; it’s challenging to have a great match in this scenario but they weren’t boring. I could’ve used more explanation of how the tournament was going to work but I’m not sure it mattered to most people; they just wanted to see (AAA) lucha libre and they got some.

Lucha Fighter also may have been an illegal show. El Fantasma says he didn’t give any permission to AAA to run the show. AAA never gave a location; while everyone assumes it was taped in Mexico City, it’s at least possible they found a warehouse in Ecatepec or elsewhere outside of Fantasma’s jurisdiction. Pasala has a “news” article that’s mostly just critical of AAA for running the show, a rare exception to most articles just ignoring the context of the show. There’s more on the general lucha libre situation around Mexico City in a bit.

Dr. Wagner’s return to AAA was treated as huge news. It was a four-month stint away, including one month where no one was running. I’m not sure if most AAA fans had grasped Wagner had actually left, though that planted “he’s talking to CMLL” story probably helped. It’s also unclear if this is a return for beyond this tournament. Wagner’s left AAA when it appeared he would not get to be a top guy – he seemed to be slotted in behind at Los Ingobernables, Blue Demon, and the Lucha Brothers, maybe others. All of those people seem to be sitting out of this tournament, so Wagner’s back to being a top guy and might even be the winner. All those people are expected back once AAA starts running again, and Wagner’s unlikely to stay unless he’s been convinced things will be different.

For his part, Wagner says he appreciated all the offers but he’s in AAA at the moment. And also Mr. Iguana reminded him of the first time he faced Mistico.

PAGANO (SUN) 04/19/2020 Arena Kalaka, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua [+LuchaTV, Pagano (YouTube), Solo Lucha]
1) Miss Fussion b Mundano, Sky Bird 
2) Miss Kath b Sakura 
3) Cinta De Oro & Pagano b Aéreo & Hijo Del Impostor 

I had the sound on while paying attention to other things, so I can’t give you a good review of the matches. This was mentioned as airing live but YouTube listed as taped content, among other tells. At the time, I thought it was reckless of Pagano and company to be going back and forth to run this show when they were already in Ciudad Juarez together promoting the show and could’ve filmed it then. The reality seems like they probably actually filmed it back then. It’s wrestling, I should know better. Things which appear to be an unnecessary risk are sometimes a bit of slight of hand.

YouTube didn’t allow Pagano’s channel to accept SuperChat donations, so they’re reliant on the bank account donations. I hope it worked out.

That main event was billed as the reveal of Ex-Sin Cara’s new name, which was the Cinta de Oro gimmick he announced months later. Both he and Pagano pushed the idea of Cinta de Oro coming into AAA again soon. Sin Cara said he left WWE because he wanted freedom, and to show fans he could do more than have 3-4 minutes matches. He did ask WWE if he could continue using the Sin Cara name and they said no. He’s using Cinta de Oro to raise awareness of the original and got family permission, dismissing the complaints about it. Steven Juarez (via Furia de Titanes) reacted to the new Cinta de Oro by posting that he was satisfied that the original Cinta de Oro believed in him and the fans knew he was the true heir to the legacy. Cinta de Oro said he’d be interested in having a match with Caristico but thinks CMLL may have an issue with it.

A sit in Mexico City’s Zocalo was planned for this morning at once point. A group led by indie luchadors Canibal Jr. & Principe de Seda announced the protest over the shut down of wrestling, which they say is their primary source of income. They’ll instead get a meeting with government officials. El Fantasma will be present for that meeting.

Chetumal’s Arena Vidal noted they’ve run shows every two weeks for 32 years, even through hurricanes, but the pandemic has caused them to cancel shows.

Luchadors are appearing in Mexico City Metro PSAs for coronavirus prevention. The Metro is now requiring facing covering to use the train system.

Arena Verdugo Nazi, the Guadalajara promotion who was ordered shut down by the government, appears to still be running anyway based on the new videos going up this week.

thecubsfan YouTube channel going away

As mentioned last night on Twitter, my YouTube channel is set to be suspended in a week. Copyright claims were made on twenty videos Sunday afternoon, giving my account four strikes. Three strikes means you’re out on YouTube. They have given me a week to appeal the decisions. These are all CMLL videos. The copyright notice states that someone manually reported each video – this wasn’t the result of CMLL uploading the video themselves, nor do I understand they have any immediate plan to do so. CMLL, through a third party, has said they are not responsible for the copyright claims. The copyright claims list the email contact as a person known to work for CMLL. It’s always possible someone else was using that account. It’s also possible CMLL could retract the copyright claims between now and next Sunday which would allow the channel to continue to exist. If not, the channel goes away.

Please do not complain to CMLL about this. It’s only making them more angry with me.

My next step is to do nothing. I’m going to give it the full week to see if CMLL changes their mind. It’s unlikely, but it’s a lot better option than just about anything else. People have suggested a lot of ideas – going back to Dailymotion, used a Google Drive, making a torrent, creating a new YouTube channel – and all of them seem like lesser versions of what I have now. I’m not even quite sure what I can safely put anywhere with this new policy, so it seems best to take a step back and see how this proceeds.

All the videos are backed up, both locally and in a cloud backup. (The only exception might be stuff CMLL’s already posted on their own channel.) I’m fortunate in that my local internet company has dropped their bandwidth cap for the moment and so it’d be possible to upload everything if I’d like. I’m just not sure I want to do it yet without knowing if it’ll all go back down.

The videos I’ve got on the channel are in that gray area – they’re absolutely the property of the promotions and TV networks who put those shows together, but they’re also abandoned with a week after airing, almost all never to be used again. I’ve never collected a single cent from those videos. AAA probably have – they’ve filed revenue share claims on them. I don’t believe CMLL or another promotion has ever done the same. I’ve always said I’d have no problem removing videos promotions didn’t want available, and I’d do it again for the CMLL stuff.

There’s some behind the scenes database stuff that’s going to messed up in the short-term if that channel goes away and takes my YouTube API access with it. I’m not telling you because I need you to do anything, but to warn you if certain things look odd or don’t get updated as quickly for a while.

Other News

Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and his partner Rene Dupree won the NOAH Global Tag League, the first foreign team to do so. That was a big surprise. Wagner & Dupree then won the (NOAH) GHC Tag Team Championship, which was a bigger surprise. It is a time to do an upset; you’re not risking the crowd going down where then are no crowds. It was still a big statement in doing that with these two guys. Dupree hadn’t been in NOAH for nearly a decade prior to the tournament and Wagner hadn’t been seriously pushed.

On Informa, Atlantis said he’d soon have a press conference to announce “various details” including his return date. I supposed that’s waiting until it’s safe to hold a press conference.

Both the CMLL Guadalajara show and the CMLL Teleformula shows appear to be off the air. The Guadalajara show appeared to be paid for by a local tequila sponsor, who may have decided to stop paying for it while there are no new matches. (They’d aired Mexico City repeats instead of Guadalajara ones, oddly.) The Teleforumla slot has been replaced by a COVID news program. Hopefully those shows come back when lucha libre does, though there’s no guarantee. CMLL remains on Televisa (getting old major shows) and TV Mexquiense (airing matches from January.) They may still be on Megacable and MVS Sports.

Hugo Savinovich says he’s retiring. In 2025.

ChilangaMask announced their Anniversary show, which is the only show the promotion runs each year, has been postponed from it’s scheduled date of 05/16.

Edgar Lopez, who was Mexico (American) football player signed by WWE after their Southe American tryout, was cut by WWE this past week as part of their massive cutbacks. He’s the guy who was signed the same day as Hijo del Fantasma.

SuperLuchas has a great detailed obituary for Doctor Rafael Olivera Figueroa, the lucha libre writer who passed away recently. If you want the big picture quick explanation of his place in history, he came up with the “Kahoz” gimmick for Antonio Pena and, in the process, convinced him of the value of creating new and vivid lucha libre characters, the trademark of Pena’s wrestling promotions. Dr. Olivera touched wrestling in a lot of other different ways, treating it more as a creative art than a sport or business.

+LuchaTV writes about Chucho Mar Jr., who was stretched between lucha libre and academics world and eventually left lucha.

CMLL has Ultimo Guerrero talking about his 2009 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas main event against Villano V.

The Talk ‘n’ Shop podcast is getting a lot of attention this week because two of the three hosts were fired from WWE, but you should listen to this episode for the Marco Corleone interview. It’s a quick listen.

Myzteziz Jr. says Caristico was his idol growing up.