Tonight’s CMLL PPV card:
CMLL (FRI) 10/02/2020 Arena México
1) Último Dragóncito vs Mercurio
2) Diamond vs Espanto Jr.
3) Diamante Azul & Místico vs Templario & Terrible
4) Marcela & Skadi vs Amapola & Metálica and La Magnifica & Silueta and Reyna Isis & Tiffany and La Comandante & La Seductora [MEX WOMEN TAG, semifinal]
5) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [MEX WOMEN TAG, 8F]
6) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [MEX WOMEN TAG, 8F]
7) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [MEX WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal]
8) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [MEX WOMEN TAG, quarterfinal]
9) ? & ?? vs ??? & ???? [MEX WOMEN TAG, semifinal]
10) Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas
There’s no strong match here. The main event doesn’t play well and members of both team have been unimpressive since their return. The women’s tournament is lacking a well-rounded team – maybe Silueta & Magnifica? Diamante Azul has never seemed like a cardio guy and got really tired in his title win over Terrible, so not a lot of hope for the tag match. Ultimo Dragoncito/Mercurio should be fine, Diamond/Espanto Jr. might be a disaster. I think anyone not excited fo the women’s tag team tournament would pass on this show if it was still free on YouTube.
This lineup wasn’t announced until CMLL Informa. I suspect that’s the norm for now. Wednesday evening announcements for Friday cards seems like a terrible move for consumers (or getting consumers to buy shows), but so it goes. CMLL believes this women’s tag team tournament (and maybe tournaments in general) are a big draw to the CMLL PPV buying audience, so those people were buying as soon as it was announced. I don’t see any evidence for that and suspect they’re going to find out the floor for PPV purchasers with the Anniversary past, and the novelty has worn off.
A totally unscientific poll on Twitter suggest about 3/4ths of voters aren’t going to buy these shows, and only 1 in 20 people are buying the full package. The lineups are the biggest issue.
This first block is almost exactly as announced back in March. Lluvia & La Jarochita get moved to the second week (and hopefully are safe to participate), with Metalica & Amapola replacing them. There didn’t seem to be any certain favorite when this was announced way back when and not much has really changed.
The tournament is not a simple single-elimination tournament, and so seems like some crazy concept to people used to CMLL. The important difference here is the battle royal actually means something. The winner of the battle royal skips all the way to the final tournament match of the night, while the teams tossed out have to battle among themselves to join them. (This also means the battle royal has to have a winner; it keeps going when there are two people left.)
This women’s tag tournament was originally supposed to be in March as part of Women’s History Month. It’s now in October, which happens to be breast cancer awareness month. CMLL’s released a promo noting the month, which I presume will start airing on TV this weekend.
Silueta & La Magnifica told Guadalajara outlet Al Calor Deportivo they’ve been working out individually but haven’t wrestled much since the pandemic, and haven’t teamed either. They’re hoping it works out.
The October CMLL full package still seems expensive to me (USD 31). It’s less expensive than a single carload of people for the AAA show.
Diamante Azul did the CMLL press tour, said he’d like to give Terrible as many titles shots as Terrible gave him to prove he’s the best. Maybe not for this particular matchup, but I wonder if a best of 5 or 7 series would get over in Mexico? It’s not really a Mexico sports thing, so I’m not sure. Like Mistico and Caristico, Diamante Azul would also very much like to defend his title in ROH or NJPW. Meanwhile, Terrible says he’s upset he was left off the Anniversary show when his match got canceled.
I’m not doing the Lucha Times post (tough to preview shows when all the tapings are secret), but I can still remind you that there’s a free streaming CMLL show at 7 pm CT every Friday on AMX Noticias. There are three or four matches. We don’t know which ones, and they may not be good, but it is free. I’ve been putting these on the Google Drive Saturdays. There’s also a streaming CMLL show on MVS TV on Saturdays at 5 pm CT, but that stream requires a Mexico IP address.
DTU is also streaming tonight, with Dr. Wagner & Galeno del Mal facing Crazy Boy & Joe Lider and Black Fire & Camuflaje. This is a charity show – donations go to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic. It will air free on Mas Lucha’s channel. Black Fire hypes up the show, talks about not fearing Dr. Wagner in the main event.
AAA’s AutoLucha shows start Saturday. Konnan was asked about them on his Keepin’ It 100 podcast. It sounded like he will not be there, but maybe at EMW’s own Autoluchas shows in Tijuana this weekend. (He described those as “we,” so he’s involved somehow.) That’s normal for right now; Konnan was running the Lucha Fighter shows remotely too. AutoLuchas will have no trios matches; most 1v1 and some 2v2. He’s concerned about ring rust, so the idea is the matches will be on the short side. Everyone in Mexico and under contract will be used. There’s still no clear idea when normal AAA shows will be run; it’s up to the government and not AAA.
AAA held a press event to show the set up of AutoLuchas and emphasize that the shows will be safe.
One person who apparently will not be on the Autoluchas show is Hijo del Vikingo. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports Vikingo is not on these shows. Vikingo and his partner are expecting their first child sometime this month. It’d be perfectly reasonable if he were taking paternity leave right now normally, and even more so right now with the current health situation. There’s an undercurrent to the report that the incoming baby isn’t the only issue, though. Vikingo is said to be not talking to AAA, and the note ends with AAA wishing Vikingo well while noting his contract runs to 2023. That’s a weird thing to add unless you believe there’s more to the story.
An issue between Vikingo and AAA appears inevitable, so everyone’s going to see something here of it even if it actually is nothing at all. Hijo del Vikingo could be an international star, and his AAA deal seems to be preventing that from happening. Maybe Vikingo wouldn’t have much of an idea if this situation took place a half-decade ago, but social media means he’s likely getting DMs and comments every day asking him when he’s going to be working in [X] promotion. He’s surely like to work with many of them. He can’t right now; it’s tough for a Mexican to obtain even a travel visa to the US without their place of employment vouching for them. AAA may not want that for the fear they’ll eventually lose control of him as they did with Fenix & Penta. AAA could change their mind on that, or they could compensate at a much higher rate to make up for missed opportunities (but that’d probably also require Vikingo agreeing to stay around even longer than 2023.)
The Mexican courts seem to generally come down on luchadors’ side against promoters in suits, but it can be a long (years) process. An expensive one as well. On the other hand, we’re living in a unique situation – no AAA work for months – and maybe there’s a breach there only a lawyer would find. Mr. Iguana on Lucha Central’s podcast mentioned that AAA has been paying wrestlers an amount through this downtime.
The REX show at CAR The Crash this Sunday is now a Mas Lucha membership only show.
Maximo and India Sioux are opening a pizzeria, with the pizzas named after different wrestlers. If there’s anything positive about this coronavirus, maybe it’ll be luchadors starting businesses outside of wrestling so they might have something when that ends for them.
Texano will be added to the Mexicali sports Hall of Fame.
The city of Socorro, Texas, went to the big gun to get people to fill out their census form: Cassandro appears in one two three promotional videos.
Monclova luchador Ultimo Cholo (Florencio Zamora Rivera, 47) passed away Thursday after a battle with COVID-19. He’d been isolating at home since the diagnosis and connected to an oxygen tank. I have records of Ultimo Cholo wrestling in Monclova lucha libre arenas (Coliseo Monclova, Tigre Padilla) since 2016. He’s probably been wrestling under other names for far longer.
Chetumal luchador Raul Vidal Jr. says he’s lost some work with DTU due to the pandemic.
The Boxing and Lucha Libre commission in Reynosa will be restarted as soon as they reach “phase 3 of recovery”, which I believe means once they reach yellow health status. This was said to be much more about boxing when it came up before.
LuchaWorld has a new Lucha Report.
Lineups
Lucha Libre Real (SUN) 10/18/2020 Distrito Federal
1) Kariel & Miss Delicious vs Diosa Kali & Hera
2) Capo del Norte, Capo del Sur, Sicario vs Tackle, Tanque Infernal, Terremoto
3) Baronessa & Yoruba vs Demasiado & Reyna Obscura
4) Demus vs Oriental [LLR OMEGA]
5) Galeno del Mal & Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Mr. Electro & Sharlie Rockstar
6) Drako vs Dark Scoria [hair]
Corsario Negro Jr. and Cuervo are seconds
Almost nothing was reported on the last Lucha Libre Real show outside of Drako & Dark Scoria being the last two in the cage main event, leading to the hair match. Both that last show and this show will air on Mas Lucha’s premium service. This one will also have space for 200 people, though the poster doesn’t obviously list a ticket price or location, but does give you a Whatsapp number to contact.
