Verano de Escandalo was to take place on May 23rd at Morelia’s Palacio del Arte. The ticket website has now changed the date to September 12 in the same building. It’s still listed as Verano de Escandalo, though what it was supposed to be, matches to set up TripleMania, doesn’t work with the new date. It would also mean AAA would have five major shows – TripleMania, Verano de Escandalo, TripleMania Regia, Heroes Inmortales, and Guerra de Titanes – in the final five months of the year. AAA hasn’t acknowledge any date change yet. That seems prudent: it might be worth saying Verano de Escandalo won’t happen in May, but it’s tough to announce new dates when no one’s sure when shows with fans can begin again.
Luchadors, at least those with valid Mexico City wrestling licenses, are now eligible a loan from the government during this pandemic. These are 10,000 ($400 USD) loans being currently given to microbusiness, which will need to be repaid in two years. El Fantasma explained to SuperLuchas that this came out of the meeting with the government including himself and Canibal Jr. & Principe de Seda, who were going to hold a sit in to protest their inability to get independent lucha libre work. Fantasma is helping handle the paperwork at the Mexico City lucha libre commission and is insistent he and the commission will receive nothing. Their only role in the process is to affirm those applying are actually licensed luchadors, they’re going to allow people who’ve let their license expire to participate, and there are even plans to help redirect people who have licenses from other states. This interview seems to have been done Monday, and a hundred people had signed up already.
Fantasma reads frustrated with allegations of using his commissioner position for power or money, though the context is not obvious. In another article about the SuperLuchas, Principe de Seda is said to work within the government and allegedly wants to take over the wrestling commission, causing this protest to appear as more a campaign stunt. Whatever the situation, they all posed together for a photo announcing this deal.
On +LuchaTV’s podcast, Canibal Jr. claimed he lost four bookings a week each week wrestling has been shut down. I have him in nine known matches over the first twelve weeks of the year. Canibal Jr. absolutely has wrestled more than, in smaller shows which aren’t advertised or where I’ve just never come across the lineup. It’s still hard to get to four shows a week from that, and those unadvertised shows tend to also be low paying shows. (In US wrestling, the wrestler joke is getting paid “a hot dog and a handshake” for the bottom of the barrel shows. In Mexico, the joke is those shows are “funciones moleras”; that’s chicken bathed in mole as the payoff. Canibal has leaned into the joke; his organizing Whatsapp group is called Luchadors Moleras.)
Many luchadors in CMLL & AAA, more than most fans realize, work an outside job because even those major promotions don’t pay enough to fully support their luchadors. It’s hard to imagine those at a much lower rung on the ladder being able to support themselves fully via wrestling. Wrestling can be an important secondary income or one of many gigs. Any extra income is welcome and needed right now, when those other gigs may also be impacted. But there also seems to be some creative license about how much impact this is having and a strong desire to return to normal as soon as possible.
There are a few different interviews about the Arena Lopez Mateos situation. The costs in fixing up the building and cleaning it up even after social distancing is over are a big part of the issue. Hector Guzman says the family is considering renting the arena, remodeling it for a different business, or selling the land should they not be able to raise enough money to run an Aniversario show. Asi Sucede also has an interview with Guzman, who mentions Arena Lopez Mateos lost money in 2019 and the outlook has been bleaker in 2020. The donations page is open now. They’ve got 110,000 pesos as the goal but feel like 50,000 pesos would be enough to run a show. There are only a few donations early on. Lucha Libre Store says they’ll donate the revenue from 10 mask and shirt sales to the fundraiser, so maybe check out that site in case there’s anything you want.
+LuchaTV’s podcast has interviews with Guzman and Canibal, as well as talk about the situation in Mexico. They hardly get to talk about their own tournament or Lucha Fighter before time is up (it’s like the last six minutes.)
Mas Lucha officially announced their Torneo Supremo Mas Lucha 2020 tournament in a press release. The tournament will begin to go up on their YouTube channel on April 25th (Saturday). They’ll air a match a day in the 16 man tournament until the final on Sunday May 10th at 9 pm. The press release confirms the tournament was already taped.
Mas Lucha taking donations in a variety of fashion, where all the money will go to the luchadors and the referees. The press release has a variety of methods; people who read this site will likely prefer the Paypal option: https://www.paypal.me/maslucha. There’s also a bunch of sponsors mentioned, so it’s possible the wrestlers and referees will be supported beyond just the donations.
The tournament field is Aramis, Arez, Camuflaje, Cíclope, Corsario Negro Jr., Demonio Infernal, Fresero Jr., Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Hip Hop Man, Jitsu, Metaleón, Miedo Extremo, Payaso Purasanta Jr., Ricky Marvin and Súper Nova. Mas Lucha has teased a tournament bracket but hasn’t announced the match ups yet.
On his podcast, Dave Meltzer reported the AAA Lucha Fighter shows have all been taped. A wrestler hinted at this as well. AAA continues to promote the show as airing live. My impression is Saturday’s opening show aired live, but they taped other shows before and after it that weekend. Taping in bulk is the far safer option for everyone involved. It’s not great AAA is advertising taped shows as live but it’s a fine tradeoff for minimizing exposure.
The YouTube polls AAA ran were legit but also done in a way where the outcome didn’t matter; the four people Hijo del Vikingo could’ve faced were all luchadors who all ended up losing a first-round match. There is no bracket, so AAA could fairly offer the fans the option of picking who faced Vikingo (and the other winners) without having to adjust their plans. That’s going to be tougher on future shows; perhaps they’ll change the polls to asking fans who they believe will win rather than picking matches.
El Sol del Puebla checks in with Arena Puebla administrator Benjamin Mar, who is in the same waiting pattern to come back as everyone else. The arena is open a couple of days a week for cleaning and not much more. Mar says ticket revenue is typically between 130,000 and 160,000 Mexican Pesos ($5300 to $6500 USD) per night, and so he figures they’ve lost out on a million pesos by now. The Arena Puebla anniversary show is scheduled for on 07/18, and he hopes to be back to 100% by then (and before then.)
A promotion in Zacatecas is looking for governmental approval to run empty arena shows using local and nearby talent every two to three weeks. Facebook page Tampico Lucha Page is going to air a backyard match on Friday night. There’s an empty arena show scheduled for Guadalajara on May 3rd.
Function Estelar has an interview with DTU luchador Blaze.