The Mexico president’s address today mentioned COVID-19 cases in Mexico City are not decreasing, and so there’s no clear time when things will be normal.
The DTU main event for their 06/12 ranch themed iPPV show was supposed to be Texano Jr. versus Camuflaje. Texano’s a cowboy, they’re doing a show on a ranch (with a barbed wire match), the whole idea makes sense. The DTU main event for their 06/12 ranch themed iPPV is now Camuflaje versus noted cowboy Ultimo Guerrero. DTU did put out a statement apologizing for the change though not explaining it; they can truly make this good if we get photos of Ultimo Guerrero in a cowboy hat.
Almost no CMLL wrestlers had worked empty arena shows to this point; Oro Jr. showed up on a low level one. CMLL had dissuaded their luchadors from wrestling in those types of shows out of health concerns. That warning was back when the shut down started when people were hoping to be only out of work for a few weeks. It’s a few months now, with a fear of it lasting much longer, and with people who lived off wrestling needing something to fill that gap. (There’s an uptick in luchadors raffling off masks and other merchandise on social media, which seems like a similar sign of times being tough.) Ultimo Guerrero seems to have a special privilege not afforded to most CMLL luchadors, but this seems like the start of other CMLL wrestlers looking for work wherever they can find it. It may also lead to CMLL trying to run their own empty arena show just to keep control of it.
Texano getting replaced also sticks out. It’s not like he’s got booked in Sinaloa at the last second or something, there’s not much to do. Maybe there is something to do and AAA’s quietly booked another set of tapings for that weekend. I’ve heard nothing about along those lines, but it’d fit. The DTU press release just says it happens “for reasons outside their control.”
Let’s stay with Ultimo Guerrero for a moment, though with something less important. One of the earliest names Ultimo Guerrero used back in Torreon was El Flanagan. I’d never really found a reason why. R de Rudo came up with a great explanation. Actor/comedian Hector Suarez passed away this past week. One of his TV characters in 90s was a Michael Jackson parody named El Flanagan. (There’s video of one of his bits in the link but be warned that the character is wearing a wildly offensive swastika on his jacket.) Suarez did that character in the early 90s, right when the luchador El Flanagan started with that name. There’s nothing with Guerrero acknowledging that’s where he got the idea from, but it seems to make sense.
Many luchadors have been reported as passing away in the last few days. The most well known was Dragon Chino II (Alejandro Gomez Barrientos), who passed away Tuesday at the age of 55. He was an 80s/90s martial arts inspired character who did some tours of Japan and suffered a head injury which ended his career. SuperLuchas has the most detailed background of his career. Dragon Chino II had apparently posted on Facebook about suffering symptoms similar to COVID-19, though he’s not officially listed as dying from that virus. Those posts appear restricted to friends only. Many of Dragon Chino’s last public posts were trying to raise money to pay for a prothesis for a fellow luchador La Bestia.
Xalapa luchador Casanova (Luis Dasa) also passed away earlier this week. He was a regular in the arena for at least a decade, including appearing on DTU shows when they’d come through town. He’d been out of wrestling since the end of 2017 as far as I can tell.
Furia de Titanes also mentions the recent passings of Mexico State wrestlers Indio Yoko and El Cinico, who are a bit older. Cinico also wrestled under the infamous name Exotico Peña, a parody of Antonio Pena. This is Mexican wrestling, so no one in Mexico can actually acknowledge the parody or why there’d be an exotico parody of Antonio Pena in the first place.
SoloWrestling has an interview with Rey Horus about starting in Ring of Honor and other recent activity in his career. There’s a scoop (or at least new to me bit) here: WWE wanted to bring Horus in for their 2016 Cruiserweight Classic, with the idea of keeping him around for 205 Live. Horus didn’t participate because he was signed under a Lucha Underground deal. Horus sounds like a guy not particularly preoccupied with contracts and such. He says he never really knew when his Lucha Underground contract ended. Horus also said he was contacted by Marty Scurll for dates and didn’t realize those were for ROH until the advertisements started coming out. Horus is happy in Ring of Honor and feels lucky to be in a place where they’re still getting paid despite the pandemic.
Indie luchadora Lady Black accused occasional AAA wrestler Estrella Divina of threatening to release intimate photos in a long Facebook post. Lady Black’s story is she got involved with fellow luchador Dragon Orus, they shared photos and videos of each other, Lady Black distanced herself and blocked Dragon Orus when he became obsessive, then got a taunting text message from Estrella Divina about having her Lady Black’s videos and texts. Estrella Divina posted a similar message on Facebook, teasing leaking them out. It turned out Dragon Orus had been in a relationship with Estrella Divina while he was also exchanging messages with Lady Black, and Dragon Orus had turned over all the material to Divina to strengthen their relationship. Lady Black brought up cyberbullying and the death of Hana Kimura in her post. Divina hasn’t actually posted the pictures and videos, though Divina threatened something happening next time Divina and Black met in person. The story exists on lucha libre Facebook, but it started to get news coverage today. There’s some social media pressure on AAA to respond in some way. Estrella Divina does appear to be booked out by the promotion to occasional spot shows, but hasn’t appeared on TV since 2018 (or since the most recent Konnan takeover.)
Hijo del Fantasma is in the finals of a tournament for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship tonight. (WWE originally advertised it as for an interim championship – their champion hadn’t been able to travel to the US – but lately has omitted the ‘interim’ tag. I dunno.) I’m guessing Fantasma wins with the help of Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde/DJZ – revealed as their own captors, impossibly – but it should be a big night for Fantasma whatever happens.
Box Y Lucha reposted 2000 & 2003 interviews with Felipe Ham Lee. I was surprised to see him mention a Habana Brothers vs Volador, Virus, Ricky Marvin match as the best match he’s ever seen; luchadors who go back to the days of El Santo & Rene Guajardo usually pick their matches from that time. (Not sure if the match he meant was this one, but it’s the only one up right now.)
SuperLuchas profile of DTU’s Blaze clarifies he’s the former Hijo del Climax. At least it clarifies to me, who is dumb and needed it written like three times to get it.
Diario Basta has an interview with Scorpio 2.0, who says he’s Scorpio Jr.’s nephew. He also poses with two title belts which seem unmentioned in the article.
Hip Hop Man apparently went viral in Argentina over an audition video for a rap battle contest. There is also a Hip Hop Man & Mosca comic book. There led to an interview with SuperLuchas, where Hip Hop Man says he expects not to wrestle much even when it’s an option again; he seems to be figuring indie promotions won’t be paying much due to reduced capacity to sell tickets. He’d like to wrestle in Japan and the US before ending his career.
The MMM Show has part of their interview with Lucha Underground Skip Chaisson this week. Which famous movie actor is compared to Paul London about 25 minutes in?
RobViper has an interview with Arez on Highspots Wrestling Network.