Month: December 2020

2020 catch up: empty arena CMLL and odds and ends

thecubsfan

this is the last of the 2020 stuff I’m squeezing in for 2020. What’s left

  • all the IWTV Lucha Memes shows (watched, posts maybe next week)
  • some Mas Lucha Premium shows (watching this weekend?)
  • any remaining AAA AutoLuchas shows (no idea how many)
  • maybe some CMLL shows, but I have no idea how I’m going to handle the cutoff
    • they’re capable of airing 2020 stuff well in to 2021 (there is no reason to any of this)
    • they’re incapable of taping before the week of 01/11
    • it usually takes CMLL about a week to get those to air, so maybe everything up to 01/17 is “2020”.

Here are so matches and some thoughts on those matches.

Baby Camaleón, Karma II, Perseo vs Enjambre, Hantar, Misterik
(11/29 Car The Crash, 15:27, good, Estrellas del Ring)

You should definitely go to 8:16 and watch that spot. Hantar’s outfit makes him look like old friend Dark Dragon (or maybe Dark Dragon was dressed like Hantar), and he does a similar base job Camaleon’s headscissors. The tecnico dominated the last half slowed down too much for me, but Perseo was very willing to throw himself into a dive. The dive train ends well, but then it just keeps going for some reason. This is more enjoyable than a good CMLL trios – the bigger moments are more fun – but also a bit more self-indulgent.

Látigo © vs Freelance [IAW CHAMP]
(11/01 @ WR, 8:39, ok, +LuchaTV)

I’ve enjoyed Latigo’s title run this year, and I’m not sure if I would’ve made time to watch it if there were a more normal amount of choices. This is a decent defense too, but it gets repurposed into a referee grabbing exhibition for a promotional feud I do not care about at all. Freelance is better in a tag situation generally, still shows enough here against Latigo to make this worthwhile. The finishing stuff just dragged it down for me.

Silver vs Kaoma Jr.
(10/16 @ Arena Universal Matamoros, 12:07, good, El Mina de Luchavídeos)

This was a solid match from people I have not seen much of before. The matwork to start was good, the finish was a well-executed idea. There was a code red spot that didn’t go well but they kept moving. This worked for this level. It was also nice to see a referee count at a normal speed before diving back into CMLL.

Mephisto vs Soberano Jr.
(“10/23”, 11:50, good, Google Drive)

I wondered if it had been so long since I watched a “normal” CMLL singles match that the style would feel fresh again. Not yet. They’ve had better efforts. Soberano slips at a crucial time and never really gets rolling. Mephisto is straddling the line between “wow, it’s impressive he can do things at 52” and “he’s really old and maybe should stop doing things.” He’s so winded by the final stretch that’s not much of a stretch. It’s probably generous to have this finish on the good side of the ledger.

Rey Cometa vs Raziel
(“11/20” CMLL, 10:58, great, Google Drive)

Raziel’s leg trap into a tapatia is incredible work, and the sort of stuff you never see him from normally. Rey Cometa brings out the best in a lot of people, but it also seems like giving a guy like Raziel even the slightest bit of something to do brings out a better performance. Maybe CMLL wouldn’t have been dreadful for months if they did this for more guys. The Spanish Fly to end the second fall looks particularly unfun, though suitably devastating. They go hard in the third fall, they don’t stick to your move my move, and I was only left wishing they went a little farther. I’m concerned I’m rating this on a curve because CMLL people trying this hard is rare, but this match would be worth watching in any situation.

Atlantis Jr. & Flyer vs Hijo del Villano III & Tiger for the Mexican National Tag Team Championship
(“11/14” CMLL, 19:03, ok, VideosOficialesCMLL)

It’s a match. There’s enough here that people who are already fans of these four will likely be satisfied. It’s not painful like the tag title final. It’s also just nothing special. Atlantis looks like a good athlete, Tiger can do things and is a good foil, the other two aren’t there. Villano shows some improvement and personality, but he’s got moves that don’t fit his size – the first fall spear needs to get out of his arsenal – and his timing isn’t there. He broke up a pin at about four, not the most useful tactic. Flyer is a CMLL wrestling robot and not even a particularly entertaining one; his lifelessness at least helps Atlantis stand out more, but it doesn’t help the match when he’s slowly going to his next spot before the rudo has had a chance to react to the last one. Flyer’s not doing anything to show he should be at this level besides wear a Volador family mask. And maybe that’s enough.

I think it’s possible every other promotion in the world running a taped show would’ve stopped the match between the second and third fall to allow Flyer to get a replacement mask after the rudos did too effective of a job ripping it. CMLL pauses no longer than usual, Flyer just making it back to the ring as the fall whistle blows. CMLL’s stubborn unwillingness to adapt to their circumstances is occasionally amazing and always counterproductive.

Euforia vs Stuka Jr.
(“12/17” CMLL, 12:20, good, currently only on NJPW; probably on CMLL’s YouTube on 01/10)

Stuka basically just runs through his big moves, but it transcends the checklist because of some good emotion and Euforia as an opponent. Stuka’s not pulling off the rope bounce powerbomb reversal into a headscissors with most anyone else. The early brawling sets a good tone, even if they don’t get back to it a lot. (Euforia does seem to miss the catch on Stuka’s torpedo dive to the floor, a rarity for him.) This is one that might have done even better with fans and is still watchable without.

El Rey Network finished, Septimo Dragon update,

thecubsfan 2 Comments

El Rey Network Done Friday

El Rey Network will shut down early New Year’s Day morning.  The network announced the news back on December 8th, but somehow everyone in wrestling seemed to miss it. Myself included: I only realized it because the never-ending stream of Lucha Underground repeats are set to end on Friday on my list of upcoming records and thought perhaps the show was done on the network. Turns out the network is done. I still follow their social media, and there’s been no mention of it there. The article above suggests it may live on as  streaming content, which usually means they’re hoping some existing streamer will take their content. I can’t imagine they’ll be producing new shows under that name.

The end of El Rey Network had been coming for a long time; it was just a matter of when it was going to happen. The station was being dropped from cable, satellite, and streaming platforms even while Lucha Underground was still on the air. All of those are looking at ways to cut costs from their packages, and a network whose biggest hit was Lucha Underground (which was not a hit) is an easy cut. Univision cutting ownership ties a month and a half ago took away any protection the network might have; El Rey announced they were closing down but they probably would’ve been dropped soon in most of the 13 million homes left carrying them. It was over.

The amount of feedback on this news surprised me. El Rey has been gone for most people who had it for a while, many others never got it, so I was expecting a lot of “I thought it was already gone” sarcastic replies. It was more mournful, of people who liked the entire programming and people who knew LU was done but never got a final farewell.

Lucha Underground remains on Tubi, for now. It’ll disappear from there one day. Actually, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Lucha Underground El Rey disappeared on New Year’s Day – it’ll be tough to sell that content if it’s still available free somewhere.

El Rey Network shutting down is likely tied into the Lucha Libre FMV/PAPSA lawsuit. (I’m not the first person to make this connection.) The FMV in Lucha Libre FMV, Factory Made Ventures, also owns a chunk of El Rey Network. My hunch is FMV bundled up their share of El Rey Network content, Lucha Underground related material included, to sell to a streamer company and discovered what AAA had been up to in the process of getting it appraised for sale. FMV invested a lot of money in Lucha Underground and didn’t see it all back. They also likely invested a lot of money in El Rey and also didn’t get it all back, and are looking for ways to recoup those losses. AAA trademarks are unlikely to have a lot of value for a streaming company just looking to add more to their library, but they might get FMV back an extra million or three.

WWE will come up as a possible destination for this footage. I’m not sure if that works for FMV; it’s going to be harder to get someone to buy all their shows if they piecemeal out the biggest one. (It’s still not very big.) I’m also WWE would want Lucha Underground; the era of WWE buying whatever wrestling footage they can get their hands on seems to have ended. The primary use of the archival footage for wrestler documentaries, and most everyone featured in Lucha Underground either already has plenty of WWE footage or hasn’t gone to WWE. (If Fenix & Penta had gone to WWE, then LU would’ve been useful. They have plenty of John Morrison matches of their own and so on.) A lot of LU was also intentionally designed as content WWE would never put on the air, and those WWE standards haven’t changed much. WWE would like buy it just to have it if it was a minor amount of money, but others would probably be interested if it got that cheap and we’ve seen FMV hold out on making deals forever rather than settle for a low price.

Other News

El Sol de Salamanca reports Septimo Dragon was the victim of a hit and run accident on Sunday, and underwent surgery to fix a “destroyed liver.” He was said to be sedated and on a ventilator, with doctors waiting to see if they’ll need to do a second operation. A benefit show is being put together for January 2nd.

Both Damian 666 and his wife were hospitalized due to COVID-19 infections. Damian did make it home, his wife did not. Bestia 666 wrote on Instagram Tuesday about the passing of his mother, Guadalupe Lizárraga Ledón (54).

Tabasco luchador Furia (Enrique Hernandez Vera, 80), passed away Tuesday because of COVID-19. He was a wrestler in the 70s and had been honored last year along with Canek and other wrestlers from that state.

Cuadrilátero TV reports Pachuca luchador Charro de Jalisco II has passed away.

CMLL Informa has Terrible, Princesa Sugehit, Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro, Stuka Jr. . That’s not quite the lineup I’d expect if CMLL was going to air the rest of Aniversario this week, so maybe have other plans. It’s also not the lineup I’d expect if they were going to actually air Templario versus Bandido this week.

Cibernetico is doing twenty-minute private Zoom sessions with fans for 500 pesos, among other ideas. You have to connect him through Facebook.

La Parka made a list of famous Mexicans who passed away in 2020.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia’s latest show will air on Sunday.

Mas Lucha has a new edition of their podcast.

ESTO has a story about training continuing on in Arena San Juan, though the photos make it look like three or four people putting on a performance just for the camera. (I think there really is training there, though maybe not when the photographer could come by.)

NVI Noticias has a profile of Oaxaca luchador Aguila Imperial.

Lineups

VPR (FRI) 01/01/2021 Arena Mama Luchas, Cuautitlán Izcalli, Estado de México
1) Killer Crock vs Kronoz
2) Coyote Azteca & Hijo Del Ángel vs Dragosth & Vengador
3) Cyber, Judas, Mordock vs Big Brazo, Eddy Santos, Fly Cometa
4) Máximo, Skayde, Súper Nova vs Brazo Celestial, Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo De Oro Jr.
5) Blue Demon Jr. © vs La Máscara [NWA LH]

Why? Mas Lucha is streaming this show live as a premium show because – I don’t know why. Putting aside the deadly pandemic and the rules against running a show, this is not a particularly good show. Blue Demon is listed as defending a title he has never won; in fact, I’m pretty sure I had a conversation with Super Nova (also on this card!) a couple of months ago about how he’s the one who still holds this title. Blue Demon is defending a championship because maybe Blue Demon wants to be champion and maybe the promoters believe themselves it’ll help, but the only people who care are the ones slightly annoyed that it makes no sense.

This will draw less than a hundred live and probably have about the same amount of people watching it, though no one’ll be signing up to Mas Lucha premium to see it. I have to sign up soon just to finish out MOTYC stuff but I’m pretty sure I’ll be skipping this one. I feel like the two to four hours it’ll take to film this show would be better served to update the Mas Lucha Premium site, which appears to be not updated for at least six months. Or maybe remove the link if it’s never meant to be updated again. Instead of “more stuff”, maybe we can all try to make better stuff in 2021. Myself included.

Lucha Memes (FRI) 01/22/2021 Turf Zone Arena, Kennedale, Texas
1) Gino Medina vs Dante Caballero
2) Aeroboy vs Joshua Wavra
3) Ricky Marvin vs Tony Deppen
4) Arez vs Daniel García
5) Xtreme Tiger vs Wheeler Yuta
6) Aramis vs Jonathan Gresham
7) Blue Demon & Low Rider vs Fred Yehi & Mecha Wolf

Full card for the Mexico versus the World card. I’m not sure I would leave the fate of Mexico up to Low Rider.

The card is good and I would like to pay to see it live, but we’re dealing with lucha libre promoters who care about nothing beyond ticket sales so a live stream will be a pleasant surprise. This is like the perfect show for a WrestleMania weekend card, but it’s not WrestleMania weekend, it’s actually January in a pandemic, and the number of people who are going to travel to Texas to see this show (or any show) are very few. The amount of people who are going to happily RT the lineup is high and some of those people would pay to see the show live if they could watch it without exposing themselves to a deadly virus.

Since that doesn’t seem an option, this will draw based on how many people in the area feel like seeing Blue Demon on a Friday night and how many people in the area feel like going to a Martinez Entertainment show since those are usually pretty good shows.

2020 catch up: some matches from CAR The Crash & Arena Lopez Mateos

thecubsfan

Cobre & Tromba vs Shun Skywalker & Yoshioka
(07/31 Lucha Madre, 19:56, good, mluchatv)

I didn’t really recognize how small Cobre is until this match. Maybe the giant referee really skews things. His small size was an asset, because it made Team Dragon Gate come off as even more evil as they trapped Cobre in the ring for an extended portion of this match. Skywalker & Yoshioka didn’t often work overtly rudo as they did here, and they were good at it. The Mexican team showed good team work and kept up at times, but both Cobre & Tromba had slips at just the wrong time. Tromba’s house of fire run after Cobra finally made the tag seemed to hit a wall after he had trouble on a springboard, and Cobre’s biggest spot in the ring on Yoshoika didn’t go well for either man. It was an exciting end, though the unusually strictly enforced tag rules seemed to confuse everyone.

Látigo vs Baby Camaleón
(10/18 CLL, 12:27, good, CHARLY 316)

2020 hasn’t been good for many, but Latigo has at least excelled at being a sort of touring champion. Give him your guy who wrestled twice a month and he’ll do his best to pull an entertaining match out of it. Baby Camaleon is not bad, but he comes off as a generic indie flyer. Latigo works in this role of making sure the challengers’ biggest moves come together while still getting a definite win in the end. I’ve liked some of the other matches better, this still was good enough for weird pandemic wrestling.

Arez vs Blue Win
(10/18 CLL, 13:10, great, CHARLY 316)

Arez working the teacher side of teacher/student matches makes me feel very old. This was young Blue Win throwing everything he had at Arez, looking impressive doing so, and also not getting all that close to winning because Arez is on a much higher level. That gap is so big that I’m not sure completely sure how good Blue Win is and how much of that was Arez; there were parts where the match definitely would’ve gone bad had it been against someone more on Blue Win’s experience level. This match occasionally felt too rehearsed, but it still maintained creativity. The Arez hook kick into another move is cool every time he does it.

León Dorado vs Charro Negro
(11/21 AULL, 15:16, good, mluchatv)

This was a little sloppy early on, with a Charro headscissors spot going very well. He looked cool the rest of the way, peaking with the double backbreaker into a cradle count bit. They stayed away from flying more I’d expect, with Dorado trying a lot of submissions that miss a little bit of intensity. Charro shows off surprising strength at times; the finish was good but Charro seemed like the more impressive guy.

Freelance vs Impulso for the AULL Lightweight Championship
(11/21 AULL, 14:33, great, mluchatv)

A title match worked like the apuesta match – which makes some sense, even an AULL championship might be more valuable than either of these frequently shaved heads. Still, Freelance’s face being covered in blood before he gets in one offensive move may be different than what you’re expecting. It works, Freelance remains a compelling underdog even if he’s not as a graceful flyer as in past years. Impulso holds it together, gets crushed a bit, and crushes Freelance well on the finish. Well worth the time.

Centella Oriental © vs Villano III Jr. for the AULL Welterweight Championship
(11/29 AULL, 14:47, good, mluchatv)

Is it possible Villano III Jr. left AAA because it was taking time away from his true passion, questionable body art? I don’t know how to evaluate body art, maybe it is great, it is definitely now plentiful. This is a Villano III who wants to press all the buttons: Centella de Oro gets hit by a box full of beer bottles and a row of seats in the first half of this match. Villano III Jr. stops the match to sweep the debris out of the ring, then of course breaks the broom on Centella de Oro; he’s like someone who grew up watching Black Terry Jr. filmed brawls and finally being free to reenact his favorite moments. Centella’s comeback is outshined by Villano III’s willingness to take big and painful-looking backdrops. The third fall develops into Villano giving tackling dummy Centella a variety of big moves and pinning him very close to the ropes before Centella makes his comeback by moving slightly and trying an ill-designed cover. The Spanish Fly spot looks nice and would’ve been a fine finish except for the apparently necessary fooling around which follows. Centella’s win made him look like a fluke, though the Arena Lopez Mateos seemed to enjoy it. I wonder how much of this Villano we’re going to see when he faces someone he sees more on his level.

Septimo Dragon, IWRG secret show

thecubsfan 2 Comments

IWRG , 2 (SUN) 12/20/2020 Arena Naucalpan [Lucha Central, Mas Lucha]
1) Lunatik Xtreme & Mexica b Chef Benito & Halcón Mágico ¡IWRG vs Lucha Time! | Revolución Navideña | Arena Naucalpan (posted by +LuchaTV)
2) Capo del Norte & Capo Del Oeste b Big Ovett & Charro Negro ¡IWRG vs Lucha Time! | Revolución Navideña | Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
3) Big Chico Che b Pasion Kristal ¡IWRG vs Lucha Time! | Revolución Navideña | Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
hair match challenges followed
4) Baby Xtreme, Hijo del Espectro Jr., The Mummy b Hijo del Alebrije, Jessy Ventura, Toscano ¡IWRG vs Lucha Time! | Revolución Navideña | Arena Naucalpan (posted by mluchatv)
the mystery men attacked after the match

This aired on Christmas but appeared to be taped immediately after (or even before) last week’s show. It’s possible they could’ve taped more. It’s unclear why or how; IWRG isn’t likely putting on shows just for the sake of the art.  Mas Lucha also made the promoter’s anniversary show up for free; it had been subscriber-only previously.

The show at CAR The Crash on Christmas continued on as scheduled, even with fans in attendance. Blue Demon Jr. replaced Dr. Wagner in the main event against La Mascara. They’re running again on New Year’s Day. (Meanwhile, Dr. Wagner appears to have shaved his head just after winning a hair match.)

Septimo Dragon is hospitalized in Irapuato after a motorcycle accident. Details on the accident are scarce, but messages started spreading on social media Sunday evening about Septimo Dragon undergoing an operation and looking for blood donors. I haven’t been able to find public information about his injuries or health status, but asking for blood obviously sounds concerning.

Mexicali luchadora Woman Star (64) passed away Sunday, according to Box Y Lucha. Their write up says she was likely the first luchadora in that city, debuting in 1983.

Box Y Lucha mentions Rudy Vazques (71) passed away on Christmas.

DTU’s Aniversario show scheduled for Sunday in Tulancingo was canceled. The promotion noted the government had asked for no shows to happen and that they could try to secretly run anyway, but decided not to. Lucha Libre Vanguardia’s own end of year show in Pachuca was switched to a no-fans show, with it being taped to air on Mas Lucha later.

The Arez/Tromba match on the third episode of Lucha Madre is worth your time. I expect the Laredo Kid/Arez match from Martinez is pretty good as well but I haven’t got to it yet.

01/22 Lucha Memes/Martinez Turf Zone Arena in Fort Worth, Texas

Memes says two more matches and five more wrestlers will be announced today by Martinez Entertainment.

AAA resumes streaming new episodes (in Mexico only), CMLL Aniversaro show airing today (in part), Rock y Lucha postponed

thecubsfan 11 Comments

On Konnan’s Keepin’ It 100 podcast, Kevin Kleinrock asked Konnan about the disappearance of the AAA YouTube channel and the Facebook site restriction to Mexico only. Konnan notes that’s not his department and he doesn’t know; he had been told something about a music rights issue earlier, but wasn’t sure if that was the underlining cause or if it was related to the lawsuit. Konnan is curious about the situation too, though the normal AAA holiday break means everyone’s out of that office until January 6th and he’s not expecting to get find out anything until they get back. Either the lawsuit is not as big a deal as it seems or Konnan hasn’t been informed it’s important yet, because the rest of the conversations steers into subjects (English commentary, luchadors for new fans to seek out) which only make sense if fans outside of Mexico will be able to see AAA again soon.

(On the English commentary, Konnan mentions the new was emphasized to him in other discussions after TripleMania and now believes it is important not to just get people jumping into to do commentary, but commentators who follow AAA constantly and know the product.)

The big question is when AAA will able to run again. Konnan says AAA is not expecting to run until at least late January and was very clear that’s just the best guess at this point. AAA’s hoping to run outside of a TV studio and in a locale Konnan believes will be very impressive, though he’s keeping it top secret. I vote for putting a ring on top of or in front of the Teotihuacan pyramids like the video game (but I’m also not the one who’d have to haul a ring there and maybe those people would think that’s a bad idea.)

Today’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter had a section on AAA which certainly reads like a conversation between Dave Meltzer and the person in charge of booking AAA about why the TripleMania women’s match was bad. The story goes AAA was going to do Taya/Shani, Taya asked out because of the COVID situation in Mexico, then it was going to be a trios match with the six women announced, then there was pressure to include Mami and the exoticos. My guess has been it was pressure from the wrestlers themselves (and their allies) to get them included, though the WON frames it more as pressure from the fans demanding to see more people.

Marisela Pena’s account announced AAA AutoLuchas episode 8 will debut on Facebook at 9 pm on Sunday. AAA started uploading earlier Autoluchas episodes on Facebook; episode 8 is the first which never aired on YouTube. This is an acknowledgment AAA doesn’t expect to be uploading to YouTube any time soon. The AAA Facebook account remains restricted to Mexico only; I will endeavor to find a solution.

There’s no CMLL PPV today as scheduled. CMLL will instead put up part of the Anniversary show on YouTube at 5 pm CT. Matches appearing

  • Metalica vs Reyna Isis for the Mexican National Women’s Championship
  • Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero vs Virus, Raizel and Cancerbero for the Mexican Trios Championship
  • Titan vs Soberano for the CMLL Welterweight Championship

Titan/Soberano is absolutely worth going out of your way to watch. My guess is the rest of the matches from this show are being saved to go up later, but CMLL didn’t say that.

On CMLL Informa, Julio Cesar Rivera and Reyna Isis were having a discussion about CMLL luchadoras and noted that Avispa Dorada is the only one who’s yet to wrestle since the pandemic. JCR confirmed that Dorada was still part of CMLL, and mentioned Fuego & Halcon Suriano Jr. were still as well when reminded by a voice off-screen. Avispa Dorada has sent in video, the other two have not, and all are said to just prefer staying in their hometowns for the time being.

CMLL Informa did not include anything on Dr. Alfonso Morales. None of his former partners appeared, there was no discussion of his career, he didn’t even appear to be mentioned. Perhaps this was an oversight that’ll be rectified at a later date. History suggests not.

Dr. Alfonso Morales was the most famous Mexican lucha libre announcer. The current most famous US announcer was Jim Ross. I’ve got no doubt that WWE isn’t fond of Jim Ross at the moment – he works for the competition and on a podcast that is critical of WWE – and I’ve got equally no doubt WWE would flood their channels with memories of Jim Ross if he were to pass away tomorrow. Glorifying the history of Jim Ross would be respectful, and it’s also be glorifying the history of WWE since he was such a part of it. (WWE would also monetize it because that’s why they do.) Nothing CMLL puts on Televisa or on YouTube matters at all right now, and airing some old Morales announced matches or a discussion amongst the people who knew him would’ve been an easy way to earn goodwill and support. If CMLL can’t be persuaded from a moral ground that it’s important to greatly memorialize one of the key figures in how their fans have experienced their product, then maybe they need to look it at how it’s a terrible business to pave over their past in this way.

(The same criticisms can fairly be leveed at AAA, though their issues with social media might make handling the situation very tricky.)

Arena Queretaro says they have a 35-year tradition of shows and will continue it tonight with no fans. The show streams tonight at 5pm on Facebook. There’s also an empty arena holiday show in Merida on Saturday, where lucha libre has also generally been shut down for months. Mas Lucha is airing a third Lucha Madres show with a Arez/Tromba match that seems good; they’ve had good encounters in non-singles situations. There’s also a Lucha Time show today, but they have the time to film wacky Christmas videos but not the time to advertise what is airing on their shows, so I can’t write about it.

The OCESA/AAA Rock y Lucha was postponed. I could never figure out how the show would’ve happened, but presumed it was pre-taped when they did the Media for it. Guess not.

Mr. Niebla passed away one year ago Wednesday. SuperLuchas looked back through old interviews to remember him.

01/22 Lucha Memes/Martinez Turf Zone Arena in Fort Worth, Texas

I don’t know the logistical involved, but this card feels like it should be an IWTV or FITE show. I think it’ll play well to the internet audience; maybe a lot better than for the ticket-buying audience at this point.

Following the ChinampaLuchas bit of luchadors putting people in holds if they didn’t wear a mask, the Iraputo government sponsored a PSA where luchadors are attacking people with chairs if they don’t wear a mask. I presume the people being hit are in on it but it is Mexico can’t be sure.

In CMLL press day interviews, Sanson said he’s working on starting a podcast. I wonder which luchador is going to be the first Mexican wrestler to get a Twitch channel going.

El Cuervo de Puerto Rico will appear on this upcoming week’s AEW Dark show. IWRG hyped his return to Mexico in late October, while Zona 23 teased “a match too controversial to reveal” (which seemed likely to be Cuervo versus his assailant Angel o Demonio.) Cuervo didn’t come to Mexico after all. He’s wrestled very rarely since the 2018 head injury.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Mascara/Wagner on Christmas (maybe), Rock y Lucha show still on, DTU Anniversary show

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CMLL Informa will continue on during the promotional stoppage, just as it did during the last one. Soberano Jr., Reyna Isis, Virus, Raziel, and Cancerbero will appear. CMLL may have some information about their future plans, but those are depending on situations outside of their control and it may be a wait. A New York Times story revealed what many had suspected: the Mexico City government had been lowering their hospitalization numbers to stay out of the red health code for at least two weeks.

CMLL Aniversario airs on SamuraiTV next Saturday. The Micro title match looks to be skipped. CMLL’s said the PPVs will never be shown anywhere else, but most people don’t see them to believe them and are still waiting for that show to get posted.

Dr. Wagner Jr. vs La Mascara are scheduled to headline a show at CAR The Crash on Christmas. That venue was one of the last to shut down (or at least stop advertising shows) at the onset of the pandemic, so it is not a surprise they’re trying to keep running. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if this gets shut down in the next day or so. Producciones VPR had run shows at Arena Neza earlier this year. Dr. Wagner Jr. has worked a lot during the pandemic for a guy who seems to have done well.

The Rock y Lucha PPV scheduled for Sunday is still on. The show is scheduled for two hours, each music group is playing separate 20-minute performances, and they’re hoping people who like lucha libre will find bands they enjoy and vice versa.

AAA posted part 1 of AutoLuchas on Facebook. That’s many weeks ago on Facebook; you’re not missing anything new yet if you’ve kept up.

Cadena Deportiva interviewed Damian 666 about his COVID-19 experience. Zona Ruda has a brief recap, with Damian saying he was near death. His wife is still in the hospital, and he hopes she’ll be able to make it back home by Christmas.

It’s tough to keep up with LA Park’s many Twitter posts. In one on Monday, LA Park said he was planning on having a knee operation this year, but COVID used up his savings instead. He hopes things can get back to normal in 2021 and he can get it done.

SoloWrestling has a good interview with Violento Jack about his career.

01/22 Lucha Memes/Martinez Turf Zone Arena in Fort Worth, Texas

MicromanFever recaps a Hechicero interview with Kraneo and Mije. Kraneo buries Chessman, like Cibernetico and Charly Manson did earlier this week.

Pimpinela Escarlata opened a fried chicken restaurant in Torreon.

LuchaWorld has a new podcast talking about TripleMania and Dr. Morales.

A holiday tradition of a Christmas Day show in Gomez Palacio will go on, even though lucha libre has largely been banned in the region since March. The promoter had support from the local government at the press conference to announce the date.

A new boxing/lucha libre gym opened in Uruapan, Michocan. The most famous luchador from Uruapan remains ex-AAA wrestler Ozz, he usually comes up whenever there’s a lucha libre story from that town, but it’s (a) Huracan Ramirez who’s mentioned as being the big star on a show to open the gym.

Mas Lucha has a new edition of the En+carados show.

Lineups

DTU (SUN) 12/27/2020 Tulancingo, Hidalgo
DTU 13th Anniversary
1) Mr. Solo vs Black Pistol, Platinum, Forajido
2) Sindrome, Struendo, Zuzu Divine vs Hormiga, Kevin, Princesa Azul
3) León Dorado Jr. vs Rey León, Fight Panther Jr.
4) Avorto & Disturbio vs Hijo De Pólux Jr. & Paranoiko and Fulgor & Toxin
5) Aeropanther, Dariux, Joe Lider vs Crazy Boy, Gran Cobra, Samuray Jr.
6) Último Guerrero vs Camuflaje, Kaleth, Blaze

DTU’s Anniversary tour is now one show. There’s no location, so it’s a private show with no location (but tickets still on sale.) This card has a lot of extra people on it for a show where probably many of them are getting paid little or not at all. This is the same day as the Vanguardia show, as it turns out.