CMLL announced the ticket prices for their September Friday night streaming events. There’s a couple of options
- The three non-Aniversario shows on September 4, 11 and 18 are 97 pesos (4.50 USD) each
- These numbers include Ticketmaster fee. It’s 85+12 on this one
- The Aniversario alone is 228.75 pesos/10.36 USD
- A package for all four events totals 380 pesos/17.26 USD
$17 for a month of shows is higher than most wrestling services. WWE is 200 pesos in Mexico. NJPW works out to about 10 dollars. Mas Lucha is charging 99 pesos for a month of shows, though they’re currently doing fewer new shows a month. DTU’s shows are 70 pesos day of the event; I don’t think CMLL would appreciate a comparison to DTU but I’m not sure the regular weekly CMLL shows are consistently more entertaining as a video product. The one place CMLL comes comparatively well is against the Arena Neza iPPV Saturday, a show which costs 110 for a few random tag matches.
The service is named “Ticketmaster Live” and the information elsewhere on the website suggests these are live-only broadcasts; expect you will not be able to watch these shows on demand unless CMLL says differently. (Almost all of the video services listed above do allow that option at least for a time.) It’s specifically one access per device, so maybe be careful to start this stream on whichever device you want to watch.
$10 for a normal Aniversariso show seems like a fair deal. $10 for this year’s Aniversario show, where even the promotion will not know what matches will take place until fans polls have completed, is a harder sell. $4 for a one off CMLL show seems like a fair deal, but being asked to pay $4 for three regular CMLL shows in an empty arena seems like a lot. It is possible CMLL makes those shows more special than usual somehow. So far they’ve only presented “we’ll have some singles matches”. It is slightly concerning CMLL believes changing the number of people in a match will fix their problems,. (It is possible, maybe even likely, CMLL does dress up these ‘normal’ shows with concepts like the delays women’s tag team tournament and similar concepts. The issue with CMLL the last year is their concept of what a ‘big show’ and the general wrestling fan base differs greatly. There’s no sign that’s changed.)
If you are a diehard CMLL fan, or a weird lucha libre blogger, the bundle makes the most sense. You save about $6. If you’re someone who drifts in and out of CMLL, maybe wait to see how that first show sets up (and maybe how it streams) before putting any money down. If you’re someone who watches the Aniversario as your one CMLL show of the year, $10 still seems unreasonable, but there’s again no hurry to buy these things in advance. CMLL will likely do fine for the Aniversario show and maybe ok for the first show with people checking it out. It doesn’t seem like a sustainable price going forward, but it’s not meant to stay this way.
This probably doesn’t need to be said but I’ll put it here anyway: these are iPPVs, so I will not be streaming them. I will also not be putting them on Google Drive for a long time, if ever. It is wrestling, so I have no doubt someone will be bootlegging it somewhere, but that person will not be me.
If you are ordering, make sure to pay close attention to the number of “tickets”. You should only need one, but it seems to default to two tickets.
CMLL has not yet specified which championships will be defended on their Aniversario show. That’s great, it gives us ample room to speculate and make lists. Which CMLL titles should be defended, ordered by likelihood of having a match I would enjoy:
championships CMLL largely ignores so we shall too
Mexico Lightweight: Electrico
Mexico Women: La Metálica
CMLL Mini: Shockercito
The vacant titles CMLL might get around to filling
Mexico Women’s Tag: vacant
CMLL Super Light: vacant
Arena Coliseo Tag: vacant
Will be fine, need the right opponent for a great match
NWA Middleweight: Carístico
NWA Light Heavyweight: Stuka Jr.
CMLL Light Heavyweight: Niebla Roja
CMLL Middle: El Cuatrero
CMLL Heavy: El Terrible
The right opponents for a great match probably don’t exist in CMLL
Mex Tag: Atlantis Jr. & Flyer
CMLL Women: Marcela
CMLL-Japan Women: Dalys
presumably capable of having a great match but also mail in a lot of them (will probably be in a title match anyway)
CMLL Heavy: Ultimo Guerrero
NWA Welter: Volador Jr.
Safest Bets For Great Matches
Mexico Welter: Soberano Jr.
Mexico Light Heavy: Bárbaro Cavernario
Mexico Trios: Nueva Generacion Dinamita (Sansón, Cuatrero & Forastero)
CMLL Welter: Titán
CMLL Tag: Mistico & Caristico
CMLL Trios: Los Guerreros Laguneros (Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero & Euforia)
It doesn’t actually work if you just run those six best matches, because there aren’t enough good opponents. Templario can’t springboard dropkick every tecnico, as much as we all might like to see it. The tag team and trios titles matches are unlikely to both happen because one set of champions is likely to be challengers for the others. Soberano and Titan’s best work was against each other. It is CMLL, so I expect “a night of champions” will include various non-title matches alongside championships ones too; six championship matches is unlikely.
Mexico City will remain in the Orange health color this week, with hospitalization continuing to increase.
AAA’s airing their virtual march, which appears to be footage of previous years with short video from the luchadors thanking fans for support. I would be surprised if AAA announced anything with Auto Luchas today. Konnan’s brief discussion of it on his podcast suggested progress had been made but it still would be some time.
Cibernetico had gall bladder surgery on Thursday. He’s reportedly doing fine. This got a lot of attention off the one Box Y Lucha photo. Cibernetico didn’t look good in the photo though few look good in a pre-surgery photo.
Zona 23’s latest show Sin Respeto debuts on IWTV on Saturday. The promotion was successful in keeping out the YouTube videographers this time. One video clip has escaped: Sadik Madien hitting a heckler with light tubes. The heckler didn’t sell, though that seems like the least of the problems.
Blues musician Lightin’ Hopkins apparently played Arena Mexico in 1980. The performance will be replayed on the radio this afternoon.
Luchador Tortuga Ninja Miguel Angel/Gran Titan III (Oscar Gonzalez Rolon) passed away Thursday. He was in the UWA Ninja Turtles from the late 80s/early 90s.
Lucha Talk returns with another podcast on the late 00s CMLL.
NOAH stripped Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Rene Dupree of the GHC Tag Team Championships. Having foreigner wrestlers win titles during a pandemic seemed weird. The announcement says Rene Dupree vacated them, which suggests Wagner may still be returning.
Children’s writer Mario Ivan Martinez has been storytelling on YouTube during the pandemic and is currently telling a new story: “Santo versus the Coronoavirus”. It’s going up in two parts: part 1 and part 2.