Mexico City moves to orange health code, global pride day, DTU

Over the last few months, I’ve read and heard many wrestling people in Mexico justify their shows by saying things like “WWE is still running wrestling shows, why can’t we?” WWE reportedly is now dealing with many COVID test failures; there are reports of 30, there are rumors of much higher numbers. This is the same risk everyone else is taking. I hope everyone in WWE ends OK and I hope no one in Mexico gets it, but it’s not automatically a good idea when WWE does something.

Mexico City’s moved into the orange health protocol starting today. Mexico State remains orange. “Individual outdoor athletic activities” are now allowed in the city (and other places with orange.) That sounds like you can work out as long as you’re outside, though group work still seems discouraged. It may be close enough for some promotions to feel comfortable running. Doing it outside seems much safer than inside, at least from what we know right now. AAA ran those tapings inside a TV studio last month to make sure they weren’t stopped, but it seems now like they’d be better of running them in the backyard of their office if they do more.

The conditions aren’t close to a place where fans should be attending shows, though it does give thought about the best way to do it when it goes farther. TripleMania is under two months away and it’s hard to imagine AAA will be able to have the usual close to full building for that show. My best guess has been the announced TripleMania Regia II show essentially becomes TripleMania, taking advantage of the outdoor setting and being later in the calendar. It’s really the outdoor baseball stadium that’s a key there. Maybe an August/September Mexico City TripleMania is still possible if they can move outdoor to a baseball stadium or a bullring; it’d probably allow for a higher percentage of people in attendance. I have no information on this happening, just throwing out an idea.

Pequeno Jaque Mate passed away back on June 19th; I neglected to mention it here. He was a regular from 1992-1996 in CMLL, as they restarted their minis division following many of the original minis going to AAA.

Global Pride Day was Saturday, which led to a lot of timed articles about LGBT+ connections to lucha libre.

  • An article on Demisasdo‘s career mentions he’s the promoter behind the Mi Sagrada Lucha Libre shows.
  • In Record, Mamba says they’ve never experienced discrimination in lucha libre. Mamba credits people like Pimpinela Escarlata, Casandro, and Rudy Reyna for battling those issues and making it better for those who came after.
  • Imparcial Oaxaca writes about local exotico Rubicela, who wrestled at an outdoor show.
  • El Universal also has a long story on Bello Greco, positioning him as the first exotico and based off of older articles and interviews.
  • Miguel Reducindo looks back at the history of LGBT+ characters and inclusion in a good column for the +LuchaTV site. The inclusion of exotics is great but progress has fallen short if that’s the role in lucha libre for openly LGBT+ people.

Psycho Clown’s weekly column includes a shout out to the LBGT+ community and continues to tease a surprise for AAA fans. I’d assume this is AAA planning a return show.

Mr. Condor says this is the longest he’s gone without being in a wrestling match. He’s not going to wrestle on an empty arena show to change that; he says the conditions for those are unreasonable. Condor is specifically talking about donation-based shows, believing it’s a terrible situation to work a show with promises of being paid but no safe payment.

DTU announced an alliance with Illinois-based promotion GAW. I mean, I think they’re US-based; it feels like they’ve announced more alliances than run wrestling shows. GAW is also part of the PALL alliance, which did lead to some Chicago based wrestlers coming to IWRG and winning their tag team titles. Access to US wrestlers is probably the key for DTU here; GCW seems to have gone with Vanguardia in that schism. It’s hard to believe DTU will be able to bring in people from the US any time soon, or vice versa.

The 3rd KAOZ 3rd iPPV took place yesterday. I think. I didn’t write about it and it doesn’t appear +Lucha or Lucha Central came back for a third week. There doesn’t seem to be much talk about the show on their Facebook page either. KAOZ is posting the results slowly.

+Lucha announced Lolita and Zeuxis for their Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha. They join Reina Dorada, Ayako Hamada, Diosa Quetzal, Ludark Shaitan, Baby Love, and Dulce Sexy in what looks to be an eight-woman field. That’s a pretty big name field for an indie women’s tournament. It feels like bigger stars than the men’s tournament, though that’d probably fall off if they went sixteen deep as the men did. I wonder if +Lucha changes up the schedule from a new match every day if there’s going to be much fewer matches. They’ll probably announce something tonight on their podcast, since there’s not a lot else to talk about.

DTU 07/17 “A Cielo Abierto” iPPV

Someday, someone should explain to “Figth” Panther that his name is spelled maybe not how he means to spell it. I’m currently refusing to spell it that way in the database.

+LuchaTV put up the previous DTU iPPV on Sunday. Didn’t here anything strong about the matches but the visual is cool. Ultimo Guerrero really wrestled the entire match in his mask.

Vampiro’s talk show debuts on El Rey on July 9th at 8 pm CT. If you haven’t watched El Rey lately, the remaining new original programming on the network are sit down interviews, with different latinx hosts. This is along the same lines. Lucha Underground is also repeating on the network upwards of six times a day, which may as much as to fill programming holes as to promote Vampiro’s debut. The teaser mentions lucha libre content, though I’d guess that’s more to get people interested than because it’s actually an emphasis; Vampiro’s not thinking much about wrestling when he’s not employed by a wrestling company. The show doesn’t seem like it’s something relevant or interesting to me, not that it needs to be, but I think I’ll give it one episode.

AAA put up 2017’s TripleMania on YouTube; it was there before but many of their videos more than a year old have been switched to private. (I presume they’re scrubbing music out.) I found it slightly interest that the Sexy Star/Rosemary controversy was left in, but the Mesias/Pagano match (that seemed to fall apart due to injury) was cut alongside Copa TripleMania.

CMLL likewise put up Atlantis versus Ultimo Guerrero from 2014. They’d shown Cometa/Cavernario and a trios match from that Anniversario show in previous weeks. Every other match on that Anniversario show has a person banned from airing on TV, so a Stuka/Hechicero lightning match and a couple of tag matches from the previous week are also included. CMLL either has no concept of good matches worth watching or their concept is so foreign to me that I can’t recognize it.

Gori Guerrero will be inducted into the 2020 El Paso Sports Hall of Fame, whenever such things can happen again.

Box Y Lucha looks back at Canek quitting AAA in 2003 because they had the temerity to move him out of the main event. There’s also an old article on La Parka’s car wreck in 2007, which eventually left him fighting with one good arm for the rest of his career. I forgot how destroyed his truck looked.

Arena Vidal’s promoter in Chetumal believes it’ll be many months before he’ll be able to run another show due to the number of COVID-19 cases locally.

Luchadora Kali says she’s been laid off from her other job too – pre-school teacher at a private school – but is working hard to be ready whenever wrestling comes back.

Segunda Caida looks back at some 1999 Mr. Niebla.

Damian 666 talks about selling shirts to make money during the pandemic.

something completely absurd

El Sol de Salamanca seems to be profiling different members of a small-time local wrestling group in the city weekly. The first article was about how the group is trying to stay in ring shape during the shutdown and they’ve strung it out by talking about a different luchador each week. Anything to fill the pages. It does mean some wrestlers who would’ve never gotten mentioned even passing are getting a few hundred words. Saturday, that meant it was time for El Sol de Salamanca to introduce “Racista”.

Racista looks to become ‘the best of the best’ in the ring” reads the headline. Racista started training in 2005. He got into wrestling because his son was interested in it and they decided to get into together. His son dropped out, but Racista had a previous boxing background and liked sports, so he stuck out to become a wrestler. Some luchadors choose their characters based on interests they may have away from the ring. Racista says he had a lot of interest in German culture as well as human thought and development, so he wanted to use El Nazi as this ring name. There existed a previous and famous El Nazi, so the luchador decided Racista was the only way to go. His “Lo Mejor de lo Mejor” catchphrase is a reference to those beliefs. He also wears a suastica prominently on his mask. Racista has wrestled only in the state of Guanajuato so far. Being “Racista” doesn’t pay the bills; he’s got a degree in educational psychology and is a Team Leader at a nearby Ford plant for 10 years.

Things and characters which would be considered offensive in the US would not be seen the same in Mexico, I know. Even more so in lucha libre. There’s a history of Mexican wrestling characters which would be highly objectionable elsewhere, part of a belief it’s good to see those type of characters humiliated and defeated and that the fans can separate those wrestling characters from reality. Still, the man’s gimmick is “Racist” and his interview heavily suggests it’s not just a wrestling thing for him. If the writer bothered to ask him the obvious question of “is it a bad idea to be a racist?”, it sure didn’t make it into print. And no one else at that publication in a position of power seemed to have a problem with the idea of profiling a guy who is strongly pro-racism. Racista has trainers, has associates in the wrestling business, and it sure seems like they don’t have a problem with the idea. Unless this is a very early Dia de Inocentes joke, this whole thing is garbage.

I didn’t put this story on Twitter to spare myself of the hundred quote tweets explaining to me that Racista is a bad idea. I’m aware. I also don’t want to create an Angel o Demonio-like effect, where a person makes a terrible decision, gets immense attention of it, and ends up profiting. Racista is a guy you’ve never heard of before this article and may never hear again. He’s not shown up in my database despite being around wrestling for a decade and a half, he is the smallest of the small fries. The whole process of a guy named “Racist” making it into an article trying to spotlight local athletes still seems impossible to ignore, if only for what it says about the larger culture. Not everything or everyone is like that at all, but it’s present.

Fuerza Guerrera & Atlantis talk possible mask match, recent firings and shut downs

There are no major shows this weekend. There are a few local shows and KAOZ will continue running Sunday night PPVs, but it’s generally another quiet weekend. Perhaps this is this weekend will +LuchaTV will be taping Torneo Mas Suprema, since they don’t seem to have commitments elsewhere.

Since we’re on it, here’s +Lucha’s Torneo Mas Suprema so far.

  1. Reina Dorada
  2. Diosa Quetzal
  3. Baby Love
  4. Ayako Hamada
  5. Ludark Shaitan
  6. Dulce Sexy

A women’s tournament should be very successful in garnering interest, more so in garnering donations. It does not seem like a good tournament in terms of having exciting matches or useful endings. I like some of the people in this – both Baby Love & Ayako Hamada did well on the KAOZ shows I watched. Dulce Sexy was just the tipping point of this not being something I’m going to be interested in. Still, it’s going to be profitable; I’ve got no doubt it’ll make and get more views and more money than the men’s version.

The weekly Mexico health traffic update takes place at 6 pm tonight.  As much as I struggled with some of the recent Friday night shows, I preferred that streaming option over my current one. The general trend seems for more states to be switched from red (essential work only) to orange (some things open), and it’ll probably keep going that way. I have no idea if that matches the real conditions or is a good idea. It seems unlikely Mexico City and Mexico State will be out of the red this week. Generally, it seems like most states would prefer no empty arena wrestling shows until they reach a yellow color, though we’ll likely start seeing them in orange states.

Lucha Time did run last night, with a half-hour show streamed on Facebook. I presumed it wasn’t going to be matches until they got onto TV Azteca Norte, but they had matches that may be building to big matches on that first show. I may check this is out this weekend.

Atlantis, Fuerza Guerrera, and Okumura took part in CMLL’s virtual press conferences on Wednesday. Fuerza Guerrera says his plan is to retire at the 2021 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas. That’s phrased as a chance, but it seems like the plan Fuerza had announced last year. Guerrera would like to have a final mask match with Atlantis or Hijo del Santo. For his part, Atlantis would be open to a mask match against Fuerza Guerrera or Hijo del Santo. If Atlantis & Fuerza are serious and CMLL can get a finish, then CMLL should absolutely run Guerrera/Atlantis when they can put full attendance in Arena Mexico. The match probably wouldn’t be good but it hardly matters. Everyone would make money off that match. It is fair to be skeptical of Fuerza Guerrera’s actual willingness to do a mask match given his history though. Both Fuerza Guerrera & Atlantis alluded to a mask match between them scheduled to happen around 1990, but it was canceled due to Fuerza Guerrera injury.

Long time fans who be disappointed by the lack of an Octagon/Fuerza Guerrera mask match, a few that’s also been three decades old. There doesn’t seem like any chance of that one happening without a sudden and highly unlikely reconciliation between AAA & Octagon. CMLL benefits more from having an Atlantis/Fuerza match. The chances of any independent promoter meeting the price Octagon & Fuerza would want for a mask match in the current climate seem incredibly unlikely. Fuerza Guerrera not mentioning Octagon as a possibility suggests he’s moved on.

Fuerza Guerrera mentioned a fear his name would be forgotten after he retires. Juventud Guerrera has his own career and Fuerza’s comments suggest he doesn’t think much of what his daughter (Fuerza Guerrera) or his other son (Fuerza Guerrera Jr.) have done in wrestling; he sees Fuerza Guerrera NG (Imposible) as the guy who will carry on his name. Fuerza says he’s in talks about both himself and Fuerza Guerrera NG wrestling in CMLL. Fuerza feels the only knock against Atlantis is he’s only been in CMLL and hasn’t tested himself in other promotions, but it doesn’t take away from his career. Fuerza feels Atlantis will be recovered from his injury and eventually retire in dignity.

Atlantis said he’s ready to return, feels 100% and will be as fans remembered him. He feels his son is ready for an apuesta match, since he was in one himself eighteen months after he started. Atlantis has no interest in a rematch against Ultimo Guerrero or any other hair match.

Okumura said he was told by Mexican doctors that he would need to retire, and it was only Japanese specialists who got him back in the ring. He still does not have much mobility in his neck. Okumura hopeful FantasticaMania will continue as normal next year. It is hard to believe Japan will allow entry of wrestlers from Mexico unless the COVID situation in Mexico drastically changes between now and January. They’ll probably need to make that decision months ahead of time.

Tessa Blanchard, the then-current Impact Wrestling champion, was fired late Thursday night. Impact stripped Blanchard of the title, though she still has physical possession of the belt and is not giving it back. There seems to be a mess of things going on here – Tessa may have concerns about COVID, but she was also not sending in video promos, her contract was up at the end of the month anyway – but that’s for some other site to sort through. The lucha libre relation is it leaves Daga in an odd spot, signed to the promotion which just fired his fiance. Tessa’s US options seem few. Her brief WWE experience reportedly left that promotion with negative feelings towards her; there’s a pattern there. Allegations of past racist behavior by Tessa were denied, but make her unhireable by AEW. AAA, and Mexican wrestling entirely, has never seemed to care about such things. Tessa will get work in AAA and affiliated groups if she’s interested in it. I’m sure there are Mexican promotions would be thrilled with the idea of Tessa still defending the Impact built there, if they can get away with it without a lawsuit.

Another wrestler with recent Mexico ties is done. Michael Elgin is done with Impact too. It’s unclear which of the many accusations (sexual misbehavior, a backstage fight) is the primary reason he’s gone; it may just be all of them. The statement dances around the situation: Elgin is technically not fired, Impact has decided to keep him home until his contract ends. Elgin acknowledged the situation on Twitter. I’d assume CMLL will be interested in Elgin, though I’m guessing his previous appearances were paid in part by NJPW and CMLL seems unwilling to pay market price for foreign wrestlers.

Ring of Honor announced “an investigation of claims into the claims made against its currently contracted wrestlers.” While this is presumed to be about creative lead Marty Scurll – who’s attempted two different apologies for having sex with a much younger woman who’s age at the time and willingness to participate are of dispute – no one is actually named. There is no timeline of when the investigation may conclude. ROH previously told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter they were hopeful of taping empty-arena shows in July, though a more recent report suggests that’s off due to rising COVID counts.

There have been so many accusations and stories related to them that I nearly forgot to include CHIKARA in here. The US lucha libre themed promotion is closed following allegations of sexual misconduct by owner Mike Quackenbush and other training school staff. Quackenbush issued a statement about shutting down the promotion and resigning from the (functionally no longer existent) school while saying he’d address the allegations at a future time. CHIKARA brought in many Mexican wrestlers and included Skyade among their trainers for a time. There have been rumors about issues with Quackenbush and sexual misconduct since the promotion shutdown as part of a storyline in 2013, though never with the volume and the detail until this past week. Some of the CHIKARA allegations involve trainers using their positions of power to get close to female trainees. I believe many women in Mexico could tell similar stories from their lucha libre training, especially including in the biggest promotions in Mexico, but lack the safe space to share them and don’t believe any action would take place.

Fuego del Sol & Low Rider face the Butcher & the Blade on next Tuesday’s AEW Dark. Those guys were got an in to AEW through their connection to Sammy Guevara and do not appear to be punished for his actions so far. Someone in AEW put together they Fuego & Low Rider are tag team partners and so should probably be both tecnicos or both rudos; Low Rider was spotted moved to the tecnico side on Wednesday.

Indy Army Wrestling will have a YouTube show on 07/16:

Box Y Lucha posted interviews with Oriental and Cibernetico and looks back at Super Astro losing his mask.

Dark Angel mentioned in a reply that she never retired. I feel like I was at a wrestling show where she got some crystal and some flowers but perhaps it was all a dream. She’d get plenty of work in Mexico and elsewhere if she truly wanted to wrestle again, but maybe don’t read too much into a reply.

AAA will donate items to an auction for COVID charities as part of a larger group of sports organizations. AAA hasn’t announced any items. The auction will run from July 6 to 19th.

El Universal has a story on La Lucha del Rey, a twenty-minute documentary about the hard financial reality of luchadors by following around one of them, Rey Justicia. The filmmaker seemed to not know how little (or not all) some wrestlers are paid before starting into this project and wanted to make that point to a larger audience. There’s a mention of talking to someone at Arena Mexico to find out how much people are paid there, which sounds fascinating. The documentary would be going around film festivals, only that’s not a thing right now. La Lucha del Rey will be available on Sunday (and Sunday only) as part of a virtual The American Film Festival of New York. There is no cost to register, but the tickets are said to be limited only to those in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. (I signed up anyway.)

The “Nueva Normalidad” show scheduled for Sunday has been postponed. No location was ever announced for the empty arena show. The promotion is based in Tizayuca, Hidalgo, but have decided to abide by the Mexico State rules against empty arena shows.

Lucha Libre in Saltillo is expected to be open for empty arena shows in September.

+LuchaTV’s Jose Manuel Guillen was interviewed on Television Tabasquena’s Momentos Deportivos Facebook show yesterday, talking about lucha libre during COVID.

MicromanFever translates Cibernetico talking about two run-ins with organized crime. I remembered the Juarez van story; Texano Jr. talked about it at the time.

LuchaWorld is back up, so you can go back and read the Herodes obituary now.

La Neta Noticias has a “Do You Remember Martha Villalobos?” article, though it’s more a collection of older post-wrestling stories than catching up with her now.

Chiapas Capital Lucha Libre is celebrating five years of wrestling with a photo book.

Zocalo writes about Jerry Estrada’s new Facebook interview show.

Primera Hora has a piece on Martin Kardagian and Titanes en el Ring. I’m not sure if there’s anything new here but the caption under the photo still made me laugh.

El Sol de Toluca has a long feature on local luchador of Dragon de Fuego, struggling with no work. He says wrestlers at his level get paid about 400 pesos per show. That’s $17.50 USD now, though it was more than that back when wrestling when was still going.

Reynosa luchador Asterisco Jr. would be out of action even if there wasn’t a pandemic. He suffered an injury on a dive in a February match with Myzteziz Jr., but felt he needed to finish the match. Myzteziz put him in a tapatia and Asterisco Jr. felt his knees go out. (Myzteziz uses a tapatia?) Asterisco Jr. tore ligaments in both knees. The doctor offered him surgery or rest, and Asterstico Jr. decided that rest was a better option. It turned it to be correct since there’s not much to do now. He says he’s 75% back.

A profile of Zacatecas luchador Menny Sanchez.

a luchablog archive google drive is now a thing which exists

this drive has been up for a week. I was waiting for a good time when nothing bad was going on to announce it. I’ve given up on that.

Where is it?

This link works. It’s in my Twitter bio too, for when this post vanishes off the front page.

What’s the idea?

If you wanted to see many of the biggest CMLL matches from the last decade, they’re in here. This intends to replace the stuff lost when the YouTube channel went down, though it won’t do it completely. I’ve put up all the ELITE and Todo x el Todo I have, plus the bigger IWRG matches.

Going forward, this is also a place where I can upload the CMLL Sunday shows and anything else which doesn’t make it on to official YouTube channels. This may not happen until there is actual lucha libre again.

Why these matches? Why not all the CMLL and IWRG matches?

Since May, I’ve been organizing my CMLL archive from a few different drives and determined it was close to 2 terabytes. Putting all of it up would take a lot of time, wouldn’t leave space for much else, and there’s no compelling reason to have a public archive of a lot of years old meaningless trios matches. I narrowed down it to the key matches:

  • any hair/mask match
  • any title match
  • any singles 3 falls match
  • occasional other matches of note

The CMLL collection swells a lot in the early part of 00s (when CMLL got more TV shows and people were kindly helping me record them) and then narrows later in the 00s (when the fewer TV shows that existed tended to show stuff that was already on YouTube.) The IWRG archive is mostly 13-18, when the promotion was airing at typically random times on AYM Sports.

This collection is only a first pass. I need to go through my lists of matches I liked and see which ones didn’t fit into that category. If there’s something missing you think I might have, let me know and I’ll put it on the list to add.

WHERE IS THE AAA?

It’s tricky. I’m confident CMLL isn’t going to care about this, they don’t really care about their old content. I’m less so AAA is – they’re running old content on Pluto and were doing it on Twitch. I’m not planning on putting on any paid content on here for any promotion and would prefer people to go to the official sources when possible since that’s how we get more content. (There’s some CMLL stuff that’s aired on TV and is still on YouTube that I’ve left included, but mostly because I just haven’t had a chance to weed through everything.)

The same situation with AAA exists with Lucha Underground. It is still available, at least in the US, and there’s a chance it could show up in other forms. I’m not going to put Lucha Underground up while it still exists in the world. The general principle is I don’t want to lose everything else over one promotion.

Some of this video is not good quality! Why can’t I have a better version? Can you put up a better version?

This is just the state of lucha libre TV. Some stuff aired on cable, on stations that didn’t always take care of their video. Other videos come from internet feeds, sometimes long forgotten and barely working feeds. Some stuff is so old that I recorded it on a VHS, then used a capture card to get into a computer, then compressed in a weird video format, then compressed it into a different format years later. That’s not a great process for video quality. Most stations which carried lucha libre were late into getting HD feeds (or still never have) and we weren’t spending money on a HD capture card for a free project anyway. I’ve put up the best versions I have, but little of this is 2020 video quality.

There are also weird things going on with the aspect ratios at times, a product of networks framing HD content on SD stations. I tried to fix those issues where I could. I made it worse in some cases, I’m sure.

(There are multiple versions of CMLL matches in some cases. The rule of thumb is the US TV version is HD but may have been edited more than the Mexico TV SD version.)

What’s the best use? Downloading or streaming?

My impression is you’d use up a little less bandwidth streaming them, but it’s not a big deal either way to me.

The drive may hit a bandwidth limit somedays, probably more often when it first goes up. Try to be a good neighbor and not grab everything right away, and just come back tomorrow if it’s not working today.

Do I have to download the videos to watch them? How do I stream?

I’m able to stream the videos by clicking on them, clicking on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner to “open in a new window”, and then clicking play in the YouTube controls you get there.

Is this going to be up forever?

Forever is a long time. It’ll probably be DMCA’d out of existence before I stop paying the bill, but I can’t predict when that’d be. (It seems like these are lasting 6-7 years so maybe 2026.) I would suggest saving anything you desperately want to keep forever on a hard drive somewhere; don’t bet on me doing it this bit a fourth time.

Why do this?

I wanted to replace the YouTube. Also, recent world events made me ponder the idea that I could be dead at any more and all of this would sit on a hard drive that no one would ever look at. That seemed like a waste.

You can use these videos however you’d like. I don’t own the promotions, I didn’t produce the shows, they’re not mine. I can’t and won’t stop you from putting them on a video site elsewhere. I’d prefer you don’t put a dumb watermark on them, and that you’d sell them for a fair price outside of Arena Mexico, but I can’t really do anything about it. You take all risk for using the videos, I can’t help you if a promotion or media partner gets upset about it.

IWRG’s gets its license back (but won’t run until orange conditions), lucha libre deaths, Guevara, Lucha Brothers

IWRG’s meeting with the Mexico State Box and Lucha Libre commission took place Tuesday. The short version of the resulting press release is IWRG agreed to run no more shows while Mexico State is in a health emergency and the commission will do nothing to them as long as they stay with that. The threatened punishments to the luchadors have been dropped, the promotion gets their license back as long as they break the rules again before the end of the year. Arena Naucalpan is also going to host semi-annual luchador licensing exams (for new and renewing wrestlers) at some point. IWRG’s press release says they will not run empty arena events until Mexico State is in orange health status and will not run shows with fans until the state reaches green. (The colors go red->orange->yellow->green and are updated on Fridays.) IWRG plans on running the second part of Rey del Ring whenever they can run empty arena shows and the Gran Hamada tribute show afterward.

It doesn’t really seem like anything happened here. IWRG ran their show, got slapped on the wrist to not do it again, and at least now they’re saying they won’t do it again. The commission maintained some control of the situation – IWRG respects their power enough not to keep running right now – but the lesson is the threat of punishment is always a lot less than what will actually happen.

Juan Jose Herrera Rodriguez of Mexico State Boxing and Lucha Libre commission spoke to El Universal about their side of the situation. While IWRG seems to be relatively fine, the doctor who worked the show is being sanctioned for working the show. The doctors are supposed to be assigned by the commission. The commission didn’t approve this show, so no doctor should’ve been there – except the IWRG promoter called up the doctor themselves and asked them to come.

The commissioner is against the idea of closed-door shows entirely, feeling it’s too easy to spread COVID-19 in that situation.  He says the commission canceled a show on 06/14 in Arena Cuautitlan Izcalli with help from that city, prevented shows in Neza and Tultitan, and talked to the Coliseo Coacalco promoter to stop an event on June 21. No event was ever publically announced for June 21 in Coliseo Coacalco. It’s possible a private show hadn’t ever been announced, but this sounds like they’re referring to the Lucha Memes show which obviously did happen. (It also make me suspicious about all of this.) Herrera Rodriguez says they limit the amount of accredited promoters in the state to 25; it sure seems like many times more than 25 people were running shows. Ambulances are required at shows and their must be a commissioner. There is a protocol for wrestling returning in the state but it hasn’t been approved yet.

Luchadors and others involved in the lucha libre business who’ve been noted as passing away since the last update:

I believe “there’s a lot of luchadors passing away” has become a story in itself, where deaths which might not have been noticed are getting more attention because of the trend. I’m not sure I would’ve known about a Soldado de Plata passing away six months ago (and today I still don’t know much about him beyond his name.) The volume of people considered professional wrestlers seems much higher per capita in Mexico than anywhere else and Mexican wrestlers seem more likely to stay part of the wrestling community long after their in-ring days are done. This is not, at least yet, a situation where coronavirus is ripping through the AAA or CMLL rosters, or though the bigger indie names. Anubis Black was active at least as of last year, Ares el Guerrero was active this year, while most of the other names were either wrestling in smaller spheres or were inactive. All those people are important and leave behind people who cared about them deeply, it’s just an attempt to put these depressing lists in some sort of context.

SuperLuchas writes about Kilowatito, Gran Titan, Estrella Blanca III, Anubis Black, Anubis, Hijo del Sol/Pepe Luis Esparza, El Lider, and Cash.

AEW announced Sammy Guevara is suspended without pay indefinitely and will undergo sensitivity training after his comments from four years ago about Sasha Banks during a YouTube interview resurfaced. Sammy Guevera posted an apology on his YouTube channel. The interviewer on the show where Guevera made the original comment admitted to finding and sharing the comment in revenge for Guevara distancing himself from the show. Apparently, that sort of conversation was normal on that channel, Guevera no longer wanted to be part of it, and the host was upset enough about that rejection to go after him.

Fenix posted his usual stopover photo in Houston for AEW tapings. Penta similarly posted a travel photo indicating he’s flying into Flordia, which would be his first appearance for AEW in three months. AEW appears to only be taping one episode today and they’ve got two episodes of a pseudo-PPV next. The Lucha Brothers don’t seem to be in the plans for anything on those shows, so set your expectations for a couple of squashes on AEW Dark. I’m conflicted between wanting to see a couple of my favorite luchadors back on TV and concerned about them traveling into a state where COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing. There’s no immediate sign if Jack Evans and Angelico, who’ve also been in Mexico for the last few months, have returned.

CMLL kicks off a new feature of wrestlers watching their first match with Caristico looking back at his debut in 2004. It’s his first Mistico match, anyway; I haven’t listened to this to know if they talk about Astro Boy. I did look through it and found something interesting: this is not the airing of the match on YouTube or any version off TV. There are no Galavision or Televisa logos. It includes the entrances and a Fray Tormenta appearance that’s not on the TV version. It suggests CMLL’s archive contains at least one match from 2004.

CMLL has also started putting up listings of which matches are airing on which TV shows this week. TUDN (and YouTube) is getting the Atlantis/Sombra mask match, TV Mexiquense will air Atlantis & Blue Panther vs Satanico & Fuerza Guerrera among other matches from the 75th Arena Coliseo show (2018), MVS has Titan vs Soberano from December and MegaCable is airing a Tuesday show from August. They’re skipping over a Bestia main event in that one. Televisa seems to be missing, though that’s usually announced on Informa. Weekly CMLL TV listings are a thing I’ve been begging for fifteen years. I’m just beside myself to actually see them.

CMLL will have Atlantis, Titan, Soberano Jr., Super Astro Jr., and Espanto Jr. on Informa today. It’s a rare appearance by Atlantis, who probably would’ve returned around now.

KAOZ announced they’ll be airing another iPPV starting Sunday.

8) Ayako Hamada, Lady Puma, Puma de Oro vs Baby Love, Diosa Quetzal, Origen
9) Rico Rodríguez & Vazco Jr. © vs Komander & Puma de Oro [KAOZ TAG]
10) El Divo vs Dark Scoria
11) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Charro Negro & Oro Negro
12) Diosa Quetzal & Emperador Azteca (Indie) vs Dulce Kanela & Mecha Wolf
13) Fresero Jr. vs Black Taurus (Indie)Daga

It’s the same 100 Mexican Pesos + service fees. The promotion is now being up-front about the show airing in half over two weeks,. The first three matches will air this Sunday, the last three on July 5th. There is no way to watch an episode once it’s aired. The matches for this show reportedly took place the same day (or close by) as the last iPPV. There likely enough for one more PPV after this group.

100 pesos (about $5 USD) is not much for this sort of thing. It’s also not a particularly appealing show. I would like to see the main event and everything else I could take or leave; the match quality more often disappointed than surprised last time around. The lack of a VOD option, the weirdness of splitting a PPV over two weeks and the lack of communication about how these were going to work the first time around makes this a pass; who knows what they’re doing this time around that they’re not going to explain until after it happens.

Lucha Time says they’ll have a special on their Facebook show tomorrow night. The promotion has gotten a deal with the Monterrey TV Azteca station for local TV, and this seems like special content to build to their TV debut on 07/04.

+LuchaTV announced Reina Dorada & Diosa Quetzal for their Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha. I didn’t make it to the end of the podcast this week so I’m still not sure if they’ve announced how many women will be in the tournament.

Zona 23 announced a show in the junkyard with no fans, no ring and no media. There is no date and it is-invite-only. That seems like a way to run a show without getting in trouble for breaking quarantine, but there’s likely more to it. There were strong rumors of issues with the promotion about money after their last show – as in, people on the show expecting to get paid not getting paid, donations specifically directed to one person being kept instead by the promoter – and so I wouldn’t even hazard a guess of who would even be on this show. I don’t think any fan of Zona 23 is delusional enough to believe a group running unauthorized shows in a junkyard is completely on the up and up, and maybe the shadyness is part of the allure for some, but it’s still worth pointing out the obvious.

MechaWolf posted on Twitter that he was likely going to retire at the end of the year, then posted a list of people he’d like to face. Wrestling retirement vows are tough to take seriously, especially during a pandemic.

Blue Demon Jr. is busy threatening people who make custom figures of him.

Latin Lover vaguely alluded to problems with bullying from Konnan early in his career in an interview while also noting they got along better on later. Latin Lover mentioned not forgetting about the issues but moving on, including sending a get well card to Konnan when he was in the hospital.

Luchas Noticias interviews Villano III Jr., who mentions he had been training two years with AAA (and six years overall) when the La Llave de la Gloria tournament was announced. Apache was his trainer at the time, and told them that everyone training would enter.

Speaking Out, COVID, weekend show recaps

The #SpeakingOut movement continued to reveal a seemingly unending amount of terrible actions by professional wrestlers over the weekend. I feel like I’ve read a lot of the stories, but I’m sure not all of them; the volume is sadly immense. The stories range in scope from misbehavior to graphic sexual assault. Those I noticed which deal with people who come up here occasionally (with the caveat that I’m probably missing one.)

  • Kayam, of long time California team Los Chivos, is accused of tricking a wrestling student into being alone with him and soliciting sex. The allegations suggest he has a pattern of this behavior.
  • Big Daddy Yum Yum (Byron Wilcott), who was part of last year’s CMLL Anniversary show and seems connected with Nitro and others in the CMLL office still, has been accused of underage sex and death threats.
  • Joey Ryan, who appeared on the final season of Lucha Underground, has been accused of terrible acts by so many people that I’m not sure there’s a count. SoCalUncensored’s article on the situation mentions “at least 15” stories after Joey Ryan’s initial apology, and those stories kept on coming after the article went up. Joey Ryan’s deactivated from Twitter and shut down his Bar Wrestling promotion.
  • Marty Scurll, the person currently in charge of Ring of Honor’s creative side, is accused of sexual abuse. There have been social media rumors of Scurll and underage girls for years. I think this is the first time someone’s come forward with a specific allegation; I may be incorrect about that.

The #SpeakingOut trend has not translated to Mexico as of yet; the stories from elsewhere have gotten some newspaper coverages but haven’t set off the same pattern. The most I’ve seen is a woman who worked in Mexico who hinted she (and people like her) could tell their own stories but saying no more. No one’s obligated to tell their stories. I would’ve guessed a week that Mexico probably had more horror stories of this type than elsewhere. I’m less sure now, only because it was far worse elsewhere than I could’ve guessed. People coming forward with their stories must be tough, and structural reform to fix is going to be just as tough.

Sammy Guevara said a mind-numbingly stupid and threatening comment about raping Sasha Banks on a podcast. The line is from a podcast from four years ago and meant as a joke, but he still is responsible for saying it. Guevara posted an apology on Twitter. AEW has not announced anything. Sasha Banks posted on Twitter that Guevara personally apologized to her. I’m breaking this one off from the rest of them because many of the accusations up there seem worthy of criminal investigations at the least, but what Guevera did to himself will cost him in some way.

Shows I Watched This Weekend

I’m not sure if I’m giving up on recap posts, but I’m finding the duplication between writing about results in a news update and then again in a recap too annoying at the moment. This decision means fewer GIFs in your life, I guess.

Lucha Memes (WED) 06/17/2020 Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México
1) Guerrero Maya Jr. b Dr. Cerebro (posted by +LuchaTV)
10:06.
2) Ripper b Arez (posted by +LuchaTV)
13:52. Ricky Marvin stopped Arez from getting the win and attacked Arez, annoying Psicosis. Psicosis still won anyway. Belial made the save after.
3) Belial b Ricky Marvin (posted by +LuchaTV)
18:34. Psicosis cost Marvin’s the match. Arez made the save after, teasing either a three-way Marvin/Psicosis/Arez or a tag match.
4) Aramis b Látigo (posted by +LuchaTV)
13:17. Three fall match, with a double pin in fall 1, a DCOR in fall 2, and Aramis winning in fall 3.

This show aired Wednesday (and was probably taped around the 6th), but I just didn’t get to it until Saturday.

Cerebro outclassed Maya in their match pretty clearly. The CMLL guy was always going to win, but the Maya didn’t have his usual sharpness. It’s no surprise and nothing to be held against him, just an expected outcome of running these shows during a time where training is hard or bad.

My hunch is Arez would’ve beat Hahastary, and Ricky Marvin would’ve beat Belial because the build was ultimately towards another Arez/Marvin match even though they both came out as losers. Ripper/Psicosis was an unfortunate substitution; he and Arez didn’t fit together well (and it’s unclear who would mesh well with Ripper at this point his career.) Ripper’s also probably very unlikely to take losses on these shows, having both fo the vets beat the indie guys would be a bad look, and so Belial needs to win. Except, the closest thing to a story on these shows is no one can beat Ricky Marvin, and this gives away that win in front of no crowd, does in a way that did little for Belial, and Memes is going to have to ignore it to continue the story they want to tell. Belial got the huge win, then was the fourth most important in the segment; that pattern kills the importance of wins and losses. The match itself was good, it suffered from not having a crowd to react to the comebacks and near falls that are a big part of a Ricky Marvin match, but it was still a reasonable effort. There were some brutal-looking suplexes in the later stages of that one.

Aramis & Latigo wasn’t as overshadowed by the booking as much, though three fall concept where two falls go to draws didn’t help. It’s too cute in most circumstances. It came off as just too much of the same after the previous two outcomes. Aramis & Latigo brought their typical good chemistry and plenty of ideas, but those breaks hurt the momentum of the match more than it made it memorable. I think they’ll do better in the future, but it was probably the best you’re going to get out of them in this circumstance.

I’d go good/ok/good/good on my ratings for these four. The YouTube file also includes Raymond Rowe/Rush and an atomicos from January 2017. I didn’t go back and watch them, so my recollection is Rowe/Rush was nothing memorable, and the atomicos was a crazy match.

There was a definite build to a follow-up show here, but no date was announced. Lucha Memes still has their July 5th show at Arena Lopez Mateos on the calendar. My hunch is Lucha Memes, along with many other promoters, who are just in wait and see mode. IWRG’s meeting with the commission on Tuesday may change the rules. The COVID traffic lights may change the rules, or at least make the promotions feel more comfortable doing what they want. We’ve seen empty arena shows under Red conditions. Those aren’t supposed to be allowed until Orange. Mexico City and Mexico State are still in Red for this week. If they get to Orange, I’m assuming we’ll see indie promoters again skip a color and start to do limited attendance shows as allowed under Yellow. I’m not endorsing this idea but just looking at the lay of the land. Bigger promotions might not be able to get away with it.

Vanguardia (SAT) 06/20/2020 Pachuca, Hidalgo [thecubsfan]
1) Jitsu & Kunay b Sagitario Jr. & Suspenso Vanguardia | Tierra de Oportunidades (posted by mluchatv)
10:13. Odiaba Squad got the win.
2) Draztick Boy © b Lobo Blanco Jr.Falcón FireMáscara de Bronce [BMLL CRUISER] Vanguardia | Tierra de Oportunidades (posted by mluchatv)
8:56. Mascara de Bronce added himself to the match. Draztick Boy got the pin to keep his title. Mascara de Bronce challenged him after.
3) Cíclope b Hombre Invisible [AKE CHAMP] Vanguardia | Tierra de Oportunidades (posted by +LuchaTV)
Santy Hernandez was the referee. Both he and Ciclope wore visors to see the Invisible Man during portions of the match Odiaba squad ran in to attack Ciclope, with Miedo Extremo making the save. The two exploded the Invisible Man for the win. He appeared to be alive when doing a post-match interview.
4) Crazy King b Aron SykesDragón BoySanty HernándezMurdockCaballero de AtenaRey DragónBilly GamerJordan The Ring AnnouncerSacmaGasaprin Jr.Símbolo AztecaDark MakerFreddy (Micro)JitsuDraztick Boy [royal rumble] Vanguardia | Tierra de Oportunidades (posted by mluchatv)
30:24. Crazy King, the current DTU champion, was the last surprise entrant. (Everyone was a surprise.) Crazy King brought the DTU belt. He’s entitled to a title match of his choice but declined to make his pick so far.
5) Gasparín Jr. & Símbolo Azteca b Cíclope & Miedo Extremo © [BMLL TAG] Vanguardia | Tierra de Oportunidades (posted by mluchatv)
12:10 Inference and a referee getting taken out led to Santy Hernandez running in and fast counting the title change for Gasparin & Simbolo Azteca. Ciclope had to win both of his matches to stay in Vanguardia. Santy Hernandez fired him at the end of the show.

Vanguardia aired on Saturday night from an undisclosed backyard. It started a half-hour late and appeared to be live. It was better than I was expected, though my expectations were low. Only the four-way is worth tracking down unless you’re already a fan specifically of the promotion.

Mascara de Bronce has still been around AAA the last few years, even after that disastrous briefcase angle with Killer Kross and Hernandez was dropped. He seemed to leave just long enough to get an indie name (Multi-Bronce) that was quickly dropped, but he was still working spot shows through January. AAA contracted luchadors have been told not to work indie bookings so far, so this means Bronce is at least out of contract and perhaps done with AAA entirely. There’s an untold story about what happened with Mascara de Bronce, how he went from a guy AAA was teasing as their next high flying star to someone they wouldn’t put on TV, not even getting another chance when Konnan came back in charge. What we saw doesn’t add up, there’s a missing piece. I don’t know the story myself, but whatever happened at least hasn’t broken him as a wrestler. Bronce spectacularly re-introduced himself and was just as good as Draztick Boy in the best match of the night. Bronce is still only 21, plenty of time to figure it out, and he’s going to be a valuable indie wrestler if he does as well as he did in this match.

Crazy King showing up is the other big news. He is the DTU champion and brought the DTU title, while there’s an unspoken issue between DTU & Lucha Libre Vanguardia. Both sides are not talking about it, but those in one promotion can’t work the other, and the few words spoken about each other aren’t positive. Crazy King had been working Black Mask Lucha Libre and other groups working with Vanguardia, so it’s not a total surprise he’d be here. Crazy King also held the DTU belt with pride during his interview; this wasn’t a NWA/Shane Douglas moment. It’s indie wrestling, so it’s always possible this will lead to both promotions working together at some point. DTU hasn’t said anything about the situation.

The rumble was long, not very interesting. Even the +LuchaTV announcers didn’t seem to know many of the people in it; I’m 100% confident I have names wrong. The tag opener was fine, with the Matamoros guys looking better than most of the random provincial guys making appearances on the show. Jitsu might have gotten shaken up late in the match because the finish looked badly mistimed and like they were missing a piece. Ciclope handled the Invisible Man bit better than they did the Bloodsport bit last time around, though this promotion does just do a lot of stuff they’ve seen elsewhere. The fans in the YouTube chat seemed to really enjoy, and I suspect the people who will get angry about it (when the clips make Facebook in the next couple of days) are those who probably were never going to watch Vanguardia the next few days. It’ll be red meat for people who write the same “this is making a mockery of lucha libre and killing it” columns twice a month, while things like poor business practices or old men trainers using their schools to find young women to hook up with will be politely ignored.

The main event tag match was just a lot of moves, and nothing really matters until the interference. Like Belial/Memes booking, the tag title win did nothing for Gasparin Jr. & Simbolo Azteca on this show. They got the win in a way that didn’t mean anything, and they were rushed off-screen as quickly as possible because Ciclope, Miedo Extremo, Crazy King, and Santy Hernandez were still the main stars no matter the outcome. I’m sure Ciclope will be on the next show in some way. I’d go ok/good+/ok/ok/ok for grades.

KAOZ (WED) 05/27/2020 Monterrey, Nuevo León [+LuchaTV, thecubsfan]
1) Baby Love & Komander b Lady Puma & Origen
5:58.
2) Dulce Kanela b Sexy Dulce ©Diosa Quetzal [KAOZ WOMEN]
7:53. Dulce Kanela pinned Sexy Dulce after Dulce was rammed head first into a chair.
3) Charro Negro b Oro NegroOrigenPuma de OroKomander [KAOZ JCRUISER]
9:56. Charro Negro pinned Komander after a second rope German suplex.
4) Rico Rodríguez & Vazco Jr. b Charro Negro & Oro Negro and Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria [KAOZ TAG]
5:09. Vasco pinned Cuervo after interference from Divo. End of Part 1.
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. b Fresero Jr. & Mr. 450
5:56. Emperador Azteca attacked Mr. 450 to set up the win.
6) Ayako Hamada & El Divo b Baby Love & Dark Cuervo [KAOZ MIXED TAG]
4:46. Title vacant; past champs Christi Jaynes/Gilbert el Boricua to get a shot at a later time.
7) Dr. Wagner Jr. b Blue Demon Jr.Daga
7:21. Wagner pinned Daga after a suplex.

I watched the second part (5/67) last night, then went back and rewatched my recording of the first part. Neither is available now. I suspect they’ll eventually show up on YouTube at some point. The last match ended fifteen minutes before the top of the hour, and the wrap up mentioned the idea of coming back to the same site to watch a show next week. Reports from the tapings suggested they taped enough matches for 2-3 more shows, but the promotion hasn’t announced anything yet.

I’d probably give it a watch if it was free or part of the same iPPV I already purchased. Not sure I’d pay for another two weeks of this, even if it was better explained this time around. This came off as a TV show that didn’t get picked up, so they aired it iPPV instead. There were many angles (both in-ring and in backstage stuff not mentioned up there) setting up matches for other shows. None of them seemed particularly appealing. Most of the matches here were short TV-style matches, not what you’d expect for a big anniversary event. Interest in this seemed much down the second week too, so I’m not sure how much more appetite anyone has for it as a iPPV.

The five-way match was the best of the night, better than the Vanguardia four-way match for me. Charro Negro is a standout already and should be at least a traveling indie star whenever people can be traveling again. Komander and Origen, who I’m suspecting I know under another name, did well in both their matches.

The five-way was so good that it made me suspect they were editing these matches for quality reasons. (I’m not against that, it just changes how you can estimate in how well these wrestlers would do elsewhere.) The women’s title match was a strong case in that no editing was done. My feed went out for a couple of minutes of it, so I’m passing on a rating, but Diosa Quetzal and Sexy Dulce were a terrible combination. Sexy wasn’t much better Kanela and made a point of getting up to her feet after getting pinned to not sell the finish. She’ll never change, it’s mostly impressive KAOZ got Dulce to lose at all. Sexy Dulce did a bit post-match (and in an interview with +Lucha), where she complained Dulce Kanela shouldn’t be allowed to the women’s champion as a male exotico. I think it’s supposed a controversial bit to get a reaction, but the reaction that bit would get in the US – especially during Pride Month – would’ve ended in an official apology on Twitter and maybe a parting of ways with Sexy Dulce. Except they probably would’ve had to part ways with her already.

Everything else: the mixed tag match would’ve been good if it got more time. I worry Baby Love is too small to hold up to the punishment of frequent wrestling, but she’s got something. The other tag match would not have been good if it got more time; the Wagners weren’t doing a thing. Daga took the worst of his match, as you’d expect. Wagner beat Daga with a regular suplex; Wagner doesn’t seem to be doing the Wagner Driver any more, which doesn’t seem like a good sign. Wagner is carrying a lot of mass, and it concerns me after the way his brother passed away, but I’m not a doctor.

Matches vaguely set up for the next show.

  • Daga defending the AAA Latin American Championship against Blue Demon
  • Charro Negro & Oro Negro vs. Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal
  • Emperador Azteca vs Mechawolf/Mr. 450
  • Dulce Kanela defending the KAOZ Women’s Championship against Sexy Dulce.

There are a lot more angles to these shows than I’d expect for no fans events of promotions, which run about once a month. US wrestling has conditioned me to believe the thing to do when running a show during hard moments are vanilla shows, just matches, and finishes. They avoid complications because people don’t want to think much about things. Fewer people are paying attention in general. Mexican indie promotions seem to be going the other way, baking they have a captive audience for a jumping-on point.

Other News

Additional empty arena shows took place in Torreon (sponsored by the local sports authority) and in Xalapa. Dr. Wagner versus Black Taurus headlined the Torreon show.

Reynosa luchador Gran Titan (Juan Manuel Miranda Galvan) passed away on Saturday.

Mexico City luchador Cojo Rojo II was a skeptic of the existence of COVID-19, then was hospitalized by COVID-19. He’s out of the hospital and doing better now, though he believes his lungs are damaged and isn’t sure he would’ve lived had he been a smoker. Coco Rojo believes he picked up the virus in his job as a graphic designer, though he did work the empty arena Sin Piedad show on May 16th. (That was the with Oro Jr. in the headliner.) Coco Rojo believes he didn’t pick it up there, but would not work another empty arena show.

COVID-19 testing in Mexico only is happening for people showing significant symptoms. Even if Coco Rojo did not receive or transmit COVID-19 at the empty arena show, someone working one of those shows probably had the virus at this point. The rate of infection remains high, and the number of people who have it without knowing it is also high; it feels like simple math.

DTU’s next iPPV is 07/17, “A Cielo Abierto.” Full card yet to be announced. The show is 50 pesos if you buy in advance (so maybe the early 70 pesos price is if you buy the day of the show.) It’s the same Whatsapp/Account/Facebook setup as before, with info at that link.

Esther Moreno is featured in a three-part documentary (one two three, each around five minutes) on the unlikely relationship between Neza and Japan based on lucha libre. This documentary went up last month; I didn’t hear of it until this press release article.

Michoacan luchador Mutilador LP asked for luchadors to wait longer before returning to the ring, fearing the spread of COVID-19 both in the ring and the locker room.

La Estrella de Panama has a history of lucha libre in that country. Wrestling was first introduced to Panama in 1932. The 60s and 70s the heights of wrestling (with lots of people coming in from Mexico.)

NVI Noticias has a similar history piece about lucha libre in Oaxaca.

El Manana has a brief interview with Komander about wrestling on the KAOZ show.

El Siglo de Torreon has an interview with CMLL’s Misterioso Jr. for father’s day. Many of his children are wrestling or training to wrestle.

California’s Misterioso is among those announced for a series of taped NJPW US shows. The shows have been taped already and will be airing on NJPW World on Saturday nights starting July 3rd.

RobViper writes about June 21st in lucha libre.

A Last Thing

I was planning on launching a luchablog vault google drive last week. I did start it, but I haven’t mentioned it. It hasn’t seemed the right time. I’ll have a post explaining it at some point.

COVID shutdowns, upcoming tournaments, Vanguardia

Sunday will be the 100th day since CMLL shut down due to COVID-19. The normally scheduled 5pm Sunday Arena Mexico show will be the 100th show canceled or postponed, about half of them Arena Mexico shows. AAA’s missed somewhere around seven tapings and an unknown amount of spot shows; this has gone on long enough that shows which would’ve happened probably didn’t even reach the planning stage. There is no known return date for either promotion.

MicromanFever has a recap of Dorian Roldan’s interview on the Out of The Box podcast. I listened to part of it as well; please do not put music underneath your podcast conversation. Roldan mentions there was a plan to run shows in San Luis Potosi and Puebla, figuring those places would open up first, but does not feel it would be economically sound to run shows at reduced capacity. It reads as though AAA is not planning on running until they can run full shows, which may mean a long wait. A new traffic light update in Mexico is expected tonight.

The last two days have seen many men in the wrestling world being outed for sexual misbehavior and abuse under the hastag #SpeakingOut. The accusations range from simple statements (“everyone knows [X] is a pest”) to personal statements of abuse to photos of bruise marks. David Starr was the first person named, with many more mentioned on Thursday. Reddit has a long list of stories so far. Most of the names are from the European wrestling scene.

No stories have come out from Mexico. Please do not take that as some proof there are no similar situations in Mexico. There’s instead a lot less belief that victims speaking out will be listened to or be supported. I’m not entirely confident people in charge anywhere will make changes when needed, but there’s at least more public pressure for them to at least acknowledge the problem in the US or Europe. In Mexico, there have been situations as high profile as (then ex-AAA booker) Konnan outing AAA referee Copetes as a stalker of women, and Konnan’s since returned to AAA where Copetes’ position seems unchanged. Sofia Alonso removing Magnum from his position in running Arena Coliseo Guadalajara after Silueta revealed a pattern of sexual harassment is a rarity. There’s a lot of other Magnum’s out there preying on young women in lucha libre and there’s very few Sofia Alonso’s taking action about it. The Angel o Demonio situation also showed that there’s almost nothing that would get someone liked by others exiled from the Mexican wrestling community. The only hope is seeing these stories come to light elsewhere will help strengthen those in Mexico to take actions of their own, though I don’t expect to see a similar flood of reveals.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia has its “Tierra de Oportunidades” show Saturday at 8 pm airing on +LuchaTV. It’s said to be live, and I tend to hope that’s misleading since the shows which are taped have gone a lot better. It’s a show with a lot of shenanigans: Ciclope faces the Invisible Man (billed as from GCW, though appears to originally be a Titanes en el Ring concept.) Ciclope also defends the Black Mask Lucha Libre tag team championships with Miedo Extremo against a team not announced. Ciclope & Miedo are feuding with Vanguardia so that figures to either be a short match or one with a bad finish. There’s a royal rumble main event, a tag match with two locals versus two luchadors from Matamoros and a Draztick Boy vs Lobo Blanco vs Falcon Fire match for another title. Vanguardia have been announcing people for the show all week, though it’s unclear if they’re meant to be in the rumble or possible tag team title opponents. All are local names. The poster has the donation info; you can also donate via Draztick Boy’s Paypal.

Kaoz will have the second half of their PPV Sunday night at 8 pm. The same link as last week should work. They really should just start the show at 7 pm and repeat the first part prior, but I have no idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing. There was no real attempt to explain or justify why they split up their PPV in half, the people who brought are expected just to be content with what they’ve done.

+Lucha TV has changed all their social media avatars to indicate a second Torneo Suprema Mas Lucha, though they haven’t officially announced it as far as I’ve seen. (I still haven’t seen the Memes show, somehow.) The purple color and the “Suprema” name seems to indicate it’ll be a women’s tournament this time around.

Something generically called “Lucha Libre Asocaion” is running “Nuvea Normalidad” on Sunday June 28th. They’re going with a virtual ticket price ($50 pesos in advance, $70 day of the show) in exchange for a YouTube link. The link has three different bank accounts for information. It also requires you to take a photo of your donation to send to the promoter. There is no link to the promoter nor information about how one would be able to do that. Lucha libre wasn’t ready for this moment. The main event has a five of Oriental, Shun Skywalker, Drastik Boy, Oriental, and a surprise wrestler, which might be pretty good. In this case, “the new normal” does not appear to be running safe shows, but instead running the same shows they would’ve run before but not telling anyone where. Lucha libre shows running as illegal bars in the US during prohibition, basically.

The show that +LuchaTV streamed on Thursday was the first show for a promotion who didn’t even have a Facebook page until the afternoon of the show airing. What a weird time to start a new promotion. There doesn’t appear to be a donation component. It’s all very strange. That show was taped in advance.

Monterrey’s Carnicero Aguilar (Julio Aguilar Yanez, 73 or 74) passed away due to a heart attack. He spent most of his career in northern Mexico – he shows up a lot in those Torrreon results I saw – but does turn up in the 1980 EMLL results we have. The article mentions Aguilar lost his sight many years ago, but was at Gym Mr. Lince just this past Saturday talking with fellow retired wrestlers. SuperLuchas has a much more detailed obit.

Box Y Lucha reports Kilowatito (Angel Luis Aduna Salas, 79) passed away Tuesday. The Kilowatito I have records on wrestled in smaller Mexico City arena in the 80s and ended up a mini for a time in CMLL, though I’m not sure if that’s the correct one.

The leader of the Rudos Neza fan club has also passed away. This is one of a number of porras/ultras wrestling fan clubs – I believe that’s how Zona 23 started out, if I’m remembering right. Rudos Neza promoted a couple of shows over the years.

Furia de Titanes says the recently deceased Estrella Blanca III is actually a relative of Estrella Blanca, a correction from earlier. There’s also the case of someone claiming to look for donations for the recently deceased Lady Maldad, despite Lady Maldad not being dead. It would be possible, with the wide duplication of lucha libre names, that this is some other Lady Maldad.

LuchaWorld has an obit for Herodes.

El Fantasma said the Mexico City commission knows of thirty lucha libre deaths between May and June. That would include active and retired wrestlers, though it’s less clear if it includes those outside of Mexico City. Fantasma believes 90% of them are COVID-19 related, though most causes of deaths have not been publicly released.

A series of interviews with those receiving handouts from the Mexico City lucha libre commission includes a mention of Skayde, who believes he’ll be back teaching classes soon. There are also people who talk about making a living off wrestling who do not show in my database as having a match in the last three years.

Astral is back in CMLL after about a year away. He announced his return on CMLL Informa. Astral had wrestled sparingly for ELITE during that break and mentioned he was also struggling with the loss of his wife during that period of time. He credited Valiente with helping him return to CMLL. I presume he’s back in the main division, and not as a mini, though that wasn’t stated.

CMLL held a press conference call with Caristico, Soberano Jr. and Pierrothito, which is more notable for CMLL holding those things virtually rather than in person. The usual Wednesday press availability was still happening in person last month. This is a change, though Soberano (and maybe Pierrothito) aren’t in Mexico City to do those now.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara says they’re re-opening their gym soon. I’m under the impression the Arena Mexico gym has been open during the duration, which isn’t exactly fitting the governmental policy.

Daga wrote on Twitter that he’d like to defend his title in KAOZ if AAA won’t have him defend it. Daga is AAA Latin American champion. KAOZ works with AAA, so there’s a decent chance this has already been set for the next KAOZ show and will be announced Sunday night. The second half of KAOZ’s weird iPPV will air then.

Ring of Honor appears to be planning on running empty arena shows in July. The location is not announced and the statement given to the WON mentions they’re subject to change depending on the COVID-19 situation. It’s unclear if the Mexican ROH wrestlers will be able to be involved. Another WON news item mentions NJPW taped a match for ROH at a recent empty arena show in Los Angeles, a NJPW show that’s recently started hinting about. NJPW has gotten credit for how they’ve handled the pandemic in Japan, but running a show in the US right now should take away some of that credit.

It appears AAA’s has a new TV deal in Colombia. Their Colombia Facebook page, which has been dormant since November’s failed tour there, is promoting matches airing on CityTV Sunday nights. They appear to be late 2018 Space TV shows. (Space itself is carried in many South American countries.) This a different network than aired the AAA special that year. This might just be the local promotion getting a TV slot to build interest in a tour later this year, though touring anywhere seems unlikely at the moment.

Zocalo looks back at the Pierroth versus La Parka (LA Park) mask match. It’s hard to believe now, but I guess the thought at the time was LA Park would be losing his mask because of the legal fight with AAA. There’s a clip of that match online, but it’s one of the famous “a friend of a friend of a friend told me one of the guys had a tape, but no one’s ever seen it” type matches.