Mexico City remains in orange health code. Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients are on the rise. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports AAA is now open to the possibility of an empty arena TripleMania. This is framed as a last gasp effort: they may choose empty arena TripleMania over no TripleMania this year at all if they can’t get in fans. I assume that also means they’d wait until into December to make that call.
I expect AAA will wait as long as possible to get fans; it’ll be into December before AAA broaches the subject of having now fans. I do think that’s a possibility AAA has to seriously consider if it is at all financially viable. The COVID-19 situation is only getting worse. Beyond the Mexico City increase in hospitalization, Zacatecas is moving back to a red health code and Chihuahua is reaching a record high in infections. AAA can hope for the situation to get better in a month’s time to run TripleMania, but there’s no reason to believe it will be beyond hope. Everyone in Mexican wrestling needs to accept the reality that we’re still nowhere close to being able to safely put fans in buildings for wrestling shows, and may not get there until a vaccine in Mexico well into 2021. AAA shouldn’t run TripleMania if it’s going to be a money loser without fans, but pushing it back a couple of weeks or even into next month believing suddenly fans will be allowed is a waste of effort (unless AAA knows something we all don’t know.)
On his podcast, Konnan noted Canelo Alvarez may now have a boxing match on December 19th, which was a fallback date for TripleMania if they can’t run on the 5th. There’s concern that they shouldn’t run that date, though Konnan pointed out they’ve done well following big boxing matches in the past.
The WON also mentions US women’s wrestler Kylie Rae was planned to portray one of AAA/Marvel wrestlers. She’s currently on a hiatus from wrestling after not appearing on a PPV, it’s her second such sudden hiatus, and she may not be returning to wrestling. Rae’s inclusion, along with other reports, points to the Marvel characters generally being US wrestlers rather than existing AAA Mexican wrestlers. It’s still early in that.
CMLL Informa announced Diamante Azul & Sanson for the 11/27 Leyenda de Azul cibernetico. They also added a Princesa Sugehit versus Reyna Isis, a non-title match between the two champions.
The big news on the show was Euforia explaining his problems with Ultimo Guerrero. He never said Guerrero faked having COVID-19, but he’s upset about Guerrero contracting it and costing him the spot. Euforia explained CMLL wrestlers were told not to take outside dates and Euforia was specifically not allowed to wrestle on a show for that reason. (That appears to be the 09/05 ChinampaLuchas show.) Euforia says Ultimo Guerrero disregarded orders by doing autograph signings and wrestling on other shows and believes that’s how caught COVID-19. Euforia mentioned others being upset with Ultimo Guerrero and the other people in the match should feel the same way. Euforia called Ultimo Guerrero a liar and a guy who steals other people’s feuds, mentioning Guerrero taking over Euforia’s rivalry with Thunder. Despite the animosity, Euforia wants to still defend the trios titles with Ultimo & Gran Guerrero against Terrible, Hechicero, and Templario because the challengers are owed the chance. If UG won’t team with him, Euforia suggested swapping himself and Templario in the match.
(The trios title match is probably not happening because Hechicero is injured and may not return this year. Cavernario may be healthy and back by the time they’re able to do this match, so maybe he’ll end up back in his spot.)
Sanson also revealed he took a second COVID-19 test a week after he tested positive. The second test was negative and he never had any symptoms.
CMLL Televisa on Saturday will have an Atlantis Jr. & Flyer versus Tiger & Hijo del Villano III. match for the Mexican National Tag Team championship. The match will debut on YouTube next Sunday. It would be a significant surprise if Atlantis & Flyer lost. CMLL originally promoted this match as airing on the September 19th episode, including Villano III & Tiger doing a round of media for it just days before. It didn’t air and CMLL didn’t explain or acknowledge the change. We’ve barely seen Villano III since, just one match I’ve caught.
Last week’s CMLL Televisa show debuts on CMLL’s YouTube page Sunday. Matches on the show:
- Magia Blanca vs Grako
- Star Jr. & Stuka Jr. vs Okumura & Vangellys
- Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Polvora
- Luciferno & Negro Casas vs Atlantis Jr. & Audaz
(There is/was no set up to the tag title match the following week. Why book things?)
Shows of note this weekend
- GALLI is running two shows on FITE TV, Saturday and Sunday. The price for these shows is now $10 each or $15 for both, which is up from a few days ago. Saturday’s card is alright but nothing jumps out. I hoped there would be a lineup for Sunday but I haven’t seen one yet.
- Bello Promociones moved their November 14th show twice, and it’s in Arena Lopez Mateos at the moment. The Wotan Hive (proper name? needs workshopping) will see their man team with Hijo del Fishman against Demus & Romano Garcia in a likely hard-hitting match. Laredo Kid faces Ultimo Legendario in a singles match. This is a safe bet to be heavily bootlegged and may air on Mas Lucha.
- DTU is running a drive-in show in Tulancingo on Sunday, with Dr. Wagner & Galeno del Mal taking on Super Crazy & Crazy Boy based on an issue on the last DTU show. (That previous show is debuting as a stream tonight on Facebook for 50 pesos, the one this weekend will air on Mas Lucha on some future date.
- IWRG has Oficial 911 & AK47 versus Jessy Ventura & Pasion Kristal in a double hair match. The Oficials tend to lose their big matches lately and hadn’t been around IWRG much until this feud started. There’s also the start (?) of the IWRG Lightweight Championship tournament, which should be a lot of guys trying to push how far they can go. I understand last week’s Mas Lucha broadcast said this show would be a Premium only stream but they haven’t promoted it as such this past week.
Lucha Memes Homenaje Al Negro Navarro on 11/29 at Coliseo Coacalco
I can’t find a previous Marvin/Electroshock match, which seems odd – it feels like they must’ve been in AAA at the same time. The new idea for this is all matches are submission matches, though I don’t think that’s been announced outside of private Facebook accounts. This is about two weeks away, so expect the card to go from one match every few days to the entire card being dropped at once soon.
Pitbull II (Cesar Munoz), who wrestled more recently as the latest Septiembre Negro Jr., passed away on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He’s the brother of La Bestia del Ring and the uncle of Rush, Dragon Lee, and Mistico (2). Pitbull wrestled most of his career around Jalisco. He wrestled as “Pitbull” in IWRG a couple of years ago, teaming with his son “El Latino.”
The WON mentions all of the Mexican luchadors signed to Ring of Honor are expected to be on their next set of tapings. That’ll include their annual Final Battle PPV show, which will air live. I’d expect Rush, Dragon Lee, and Mexisquad all to defend their titles on the PPV and for everyone to read heavily into their future status by the outcomes of those matches.
Vice has a video story about how Mexican wrestlers have adapted during the pandemic, featuring ChinampaLuchas, Thunder Storm, and Tackle.
GALLI has two shows this weekend, available on FITE. Saturday is in their normal place in Villa Park. Sunday was scheduled to be in the unusual location of Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, but all public events have been canceled in Wisconsin. GALLI indicated they’ll still be streaming on Sunday. It’s not clear from where (not that it really matters.)
The car of AAA’s Jesus Zuniga was stolen.
Luchadors in Hidalgo held a food drive to help out the people of Tabasco, who are dealing with massive floods.
Chihuahua luchador El Pirata (Victor Ojeda, 64) passed away on Wednesday. Box Y Lucha’s obit mentions he wrestled as the masked Bismark in Los Angeles, losing his mask to Negro Casas in 1982.
1. Can they do Triplemania somewhere else outside Mexico City?
2.What about a Triplemania drive in show?
It seems like Marvel is forcing AAA hand to do Triplemania.
yeah the car thing isn’t optimal but it works a lot better for lucha where everybody’s got horns already anyways
Wonder why they don’t just run the outdoor baseball stadium in Monterey and limit capacity?
Monterrey is at red health code. They’re not going to allow outdoor events any time soon.
It’s hard to wrap one’s head around how AAA can’t run but all these other shows are taking place in the CDMX outskirts (and some within the city limits). Even the TJ groups are legit flying guys to CDMX just to do shows which is as stupid as it gets but welcome to indy lucha. There’s no limit to how much bad lucha you can watch these days… we’re just being prevented (rightfully so) from seeing the good stuff.