Day: September 4, 2020

CMLL debuts on TicketMaster Live PPV tonight, Aniversario main event, possible AAA return month

thecubsfan

CMLL returns to running regular Friday night shows tonight. It’s technically not their first show back – that was the show for the ministry of culture, and these shows probably don’t get approved without it – but it feels like the first real CMLL action since March. They’ll be running Friday 8:30 pm shows, and nothing beyond Friday shows, for every week in September.

The CMLL shows won’t be the same as it was before. There will be no fans in the building. CMLL was hoping to have some fans by the Aniversario, but that appears unlikely. The card will have fewer matches and fewer luchadors. There’s only one trios match. The biggest change is the show will be a Ticketmaster Live PPV. CMLL has said these shows will not go up on YouTube, will not be airing on Televisa. (I will also not be streaming these shows.)

Tonight’s show still is available for 114 pesos (100 CMLL + 14 fee), though I suspect few people will be buying it as a standalone. Most people who are going to buy any of these PPVs have either previously bought the whole package or will only be getting the Aniversario. It’s good the single shows are available, but there’s not much that’s going to compel someone to buy this show and not the rest. CMLL is at a point where you’re either all the way into it or you’re just dipping your toe in for the big shows.

Thee are a couple of goals for CMLL tonight, and over these first three shows. The first to establish confidence in the quality of these shows, both in the ring and technically. It’s better for fans for CMLL and Ticketmaster to be starting this system three weeks before the important show to get the issues out early, but even just one bad week of streaming out of three will make people rethink the process. The other is making paid empty arena CMLL are valuable enough to buy on a regular basis. No one can be confident about the situation for lucha libre by 10/02, the first Friday after this package of shows but it seems unlikely CMLL will be able to have a regular amount of fans in the building at that point. Most who are watching tonight’s show have already paid for this month and won’t be promoted to pay again until that October date. It is exactly as an important date to build towards as the Aniversario.

Tonight’s return show is a decent regular show but probably needs to overdeliver to be a strong first PPV. Audaz & Guerrero Maya Jr. versus Espiritu Negro & Rey Cometa is the most intriguing decision to me. CMLL is giving the likely tag-team title challengers their first match together after they pushed for the idea before the break.  Audaz & Maya seem ranked slightly higher than Cometa and a lot higher than Espiritu Negro. The Cometa Brothers are in the pairs title poll, Audaz & Maya are in other title matches, so the “Dreamcatchers” would make sense to spotlight with a win. CMLL probably didn’t expect Cometa & Negro to win. Some promotions will react bitterly when a wrestler wins a fan poll they weren’t intended to win. CMLL’s historically just gone with the fans, most memorably going with Titan to win the first En Busca de un Idolo when that transparently wasn’t the design. Wrestling tends to be a paranoid and neurotic business, so many people will be reading into all the results of people in the polls for the next couple of weeks.

Barbaro Cavernario and Felino were scheduled to have their hair match on the first canceled Friday and will have a non-stop singles match tonight. These two wrestled had their previous apuesta preview match back in February and it was OK. Felino is at a point where he’ll still be able to come through in big matches and will get through the rest. It’s unclear if this is a big match. Guerreros Laguneros will take on Volador Jr., Flyer, and Bandido, where the Aniversario preview is the guys on the same time. Marcela & Princesa Sugehit take on Dalys & Reyna Isis in a woman’s tag. Sugehit & Dalys remain the closest battle for an Aniversario show spot, Dalys leading by half a point when I checked this morning. Diamond and Coyote open in up, a rare singles match for two prelim luchadors.

The show starts at 8:30 pm CT on Ticketmaster Live for purchasers. The Ticketmaster link to the show for me came in an email from contactanos@ticketmaster.com.mx. It also went straight to the spam folder, so maybe give a peek there if you ordered it. The show-time is listed as 8:00 pm, so it looks like you’ll have a half-hour to get in before the show actually starts. There is no VOD and no one’s sure how well this is going to work until it happens, so maybe bring some patience along with snacks.

It appears Ticketmaster is emailing people who’ve bought recent CMLL tickets in the past to advertise these PPVs. That’s a huge benefit in using Ticketmaster for this company rather than someone new who wouldn’t have that database of past consumers.

On Informa, CMLL announced the match which gets the most votes in its challenger poll will be the main event of the 09/25 Aniversario show. The idea is the card order will go least votes to most votes. CMLL’s polling does not list the number of votes on the page, so only they’ll know the card order. They still haven’t said how long the polls will be open.

The main event will likely be coming from one of the two women’s title matches, the tag title match, or the national trios matches. Those are the tightest polls, which is going to cause more people to stay involved than the Bandido’s blowout victory. Those tend to have four people/teams involved, which should also drive more people to participate. Julio Cesar Rivera emphasized that a women’s or the micros match would main event if they got the most votes.

CMLL also stated the PPVs would not air on TV and will not go up on their YouTube channel for free, that you’ll only be able to see them if you order online. That’s still a bit surprising. I’d be very cautious about putting those shows up on a YouTube channel if I still had a YouTube channel.

The CMLL media interviews this week were Felino (wants to hold the hair match off until they can do it in front of 10,000 people), Diamante Azul & Stuka (would like to form a trio with Atlantis), and Raziel & Cancerbero (would love to finally make it the Anniversary).

In an interview with Quadratin, Euforia mentions he was paid 50 pesos at the most for his early matches, saw masks being sold for 500 pesos, and realized he was in the wrong field. His mother was a wedding dress-maker and helped him figure out how to sow a mask, and he’s done it ever since. Euforia says he made 200 masks in 2019, the most he’s ever made because Soberano Jr. wanted a lot to sell while he was in Japan. A normal year is around 120. This year is around 50, mostly with fans buying since wrestlers aren’t using them. September is usually a big month with luchadors wanting special outfits for the Aniversario show; it reads like he’s working on something for the trios title match.

Mystique is doing personalized videos on Hola Mi Fam, a Cameo-like site, for $9 USD.

Arena Puebla’s Benjamin Mar says his plan is to add weekly Friday shows to the regular Monday once they’re able to run. The concept is 30% capacity isn’t enough to allow everyone who wants to come to Arena Puebla to attend and a second show will help. It’d also help make up work missed during the pandemic. There’d be a mix of CMLL and independent wrestlers. That’d be a big boon to the local scene, who used to have much more participation on the Monday cards (and shows on Saturdays and Sundays in the distant past.) It is unlikely those Friday shows would stream through CMLL’s official channels, as they’d be broadcasting the Friday night shows instead. Maybe even assuming Monday free streaming is coming back is an unsafe assumption.

This weekend’s other notable shows

On his podcast, Konnan said, barring an unforeseen issue, he sees AAA running again in October. He made it clear that wasn’t official and it wasn’t set; something like an uptick in coronavirus cases would scuttle those plans.

AAA started airing Lucha Fighter episodes on TV Azteca this week. It was Facebook exclusive originally, so it’s probably to some people who are seeing it on TV. They appear to be airing matches from the first season.

A study by newsletter The Muffin (reprinted by SuperLuchas) has AAA as fifth in July 2020 video views for Mexico sports, counting Facebook and YouTube. They’re ahead of video views for Mexico’s soccer league and their biggest team, behind some media sites. This is remarkable given AAA ran zero new shows in AAA; it’s all been slicing up old content in new forms. It also sticks out that the vast majority of those views appear to come from Facebook, not YouTube. I thought earlier AAA ought to be adding English language content during this advantageous but it turns out they knew what they’re doing much better than I.

The “Nail in The Coffin” Vampiro documentary releases in a few theatres today. It’ll be available on VOD starting Tuesday. Voices of Wrestling has an interview with Vampiro and the director of the film. It’s a good interview but my favorite part is when Vampiro answers a question saying he shouldn’t be the one answering and then continues to talk for a long paragraph.

Daga demanded a shot for the AAA Mega Championship on Twitter, which is like the third or fourth time he’s done during the pandemic. Daga’s Twitter challenges seem more like things he’d like to happen rather than something he and AAA have a plan to do. We’re all very bored.

This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter states the Pentagon Jr. to Penta el Zero M name change in AEW was prompted by the promotion. They want to merchandise the Lucha Brothers more and Penta el Zero M is the name he owns.

Cartoon Network Latin America announced an animation project staring Rey Mysterio. No air date was mentioned. WWE was not involved, so Mysterio got the right to work on his own projects during one of his contracts. Cartoon Network Latin America aired a series of El Hijo del Santo shorts back in 2004.

Fantasma says he and the fellow Mexico City commissioners will be in charge of confirming medical protocols are followed. That seems like their actual responsibility. This article does give a list of commissioners: Fantasma, Rambo, Jose Antonio Becerril, Dr. Gustavo Zavalates Medina, and new addition Jose Contreras Massa. That last one is the current promoter of Promociones Contreras, who has promoted lucha libre among other events. Not sure if he’s still promoting lucha libre because the current state of the world. I don’t immediately recognize the Antonio Becerril name. Someone’s going to tell me on Twitter fifteen minutes after this goes up and I will feel dumb.

09/19 MexaWrestling @ Arena San Juan

The full card will be announced today. MexaWrestling says they’ve sold 200 of the 300 tickets on sale. That also suggests the capacity for Arena San Juan is closer to 1,000, not the 2,000 that was reported previously.

The 09/19 MexaWrestling show will be part of Mas Lucha’s subscription channel. The poster seemed to suggest a standalone iPPV earlier, though it was always a little confusing. Mas Lucha’s post calls it a broadcast exclusive, but the next Mexico City indie promotion to stop people from bootlegging will be the first. It doesn’t appear to be airing live.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia announced their next show will be on September 19th, with Oriental appearing.

Casey Michael of Squared Circle Sirens passed away on Wednesday at the age of 26. Casey Michael advocated for women’s wrestling with a depth of knowledge unsurpassed by anyone covering a niche of wrestling, or a niche of pretty much anything. He also was the most knowledgeable person about the comings and going with WWE’s NXT; his ability to put together full lists of NXT tryouts was impressive. He’d been public about his health issues for years. 26 years old is way too young but at least he didn’t have to struggle with the pain any longer. There’s a fundraiser for funeral expenses.

An article about fashion designer Giselle Aboudib mentions a 2013 award-winning jacket design was inspired by a visit to Arena Puebla in her home town. I think she saw a Fuego match judging by the design.

There is no return date for lucha libre in Tijuana. The local commission continues to require COVID testing and the promoters say they can’t afford it.

Meanwhile, Chiapas will restart boxing and lucha libre on 09/18, with COVID testing.

Tabasco luchador El Arana (José Osorio, 54) passed away on Wednesday. He wrestled in the 90s.

San Luis Potosi luchador Caballero de Oro (Carlos Torres Esparza) also passed away on Wednesday due to a heart attack.

Sinaloa luchador Kempo Dragon is having his first MMA match tonight. He’s facing a greco-roman wrestler who was expected to be in the 2020 Olympics and took up MMA when that got delayed. That doesn’t sound good for Kempo Dragon.

An interview with Tampico’s Principe Orquidea.

Lineups 

Invasion Indy (WED) 09/16/2020 Arena Neza
1) Brazo De Oro Jr., Rey Caballero, Rey Neza vs Demencia, Laberinto, Motocross
2) La Heroína & Yoruba vs La Fashion & Universis
3) As Charro Ng, Herodes Jr., Hijo del Pirata Morgan vs Akantus, Dragón (Chihuahua), Hijo Del Impostor
4) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr.
5) Cuervo & Dark Scoria vs La Máscara & Máximo
6) LA Park vs Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Black Taurus

This is another iPPV for 100 pesos + fees, but they’re also putting people in the building. The main event looks good, not a lot else here I’m excited about seeing.