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.