IWRG announced Alejandro (Coy) Alvarez will be a new programmer. Alvarez is better known as the person in charge of the MexaWrestling promotion. MexaWrestling and IWRG have been working together for a while. The announcement is phrased as Alvarez being part of the programming team, not the one guy doing it, though no one else is mentioned as already existing in that role.
MexaWrestling is not really known for its programming (which is close to what people in the US would consider being the booker.) They tend to have a lot of multi-person matches and often a frustrating lack of storylines or show to show continuity. IWRG tends to be built around a week to week feuds; these are two different styles. MexaWrestling does seem to identify a wider amount of young talent, so that’s something that can be added. Alvarez explained he says his job as more than just making matches, but putting finding the strengths of their wrestlers and helping get those out of them. Alvarez is 30, and having a person closer to the age of the wrestlers involved probably helps relationships. Perhaps this will means MexaWrestling shows in Arena Naucalpan, but the article repeatedly mentions them as being of Arena San Juan.
CMLL Informa has Titan, Polvora, Dragon Rojo, Okumura, Super Astro, and Fugaz on Informa. Dragon Rojo has not wrestled since January 2019 due to chronic knee injuries and unsuccessful surgery to fix them. I can’t recall him appearing on Informa since his hiatus. He last talked about his knee issues in March, where it seemed like he was still holding out hope for a return but may have reached a point where that was no longer possible. Perhaps there’s some finality to be announced, or maybe he’s just on because CMLL is going back to airing older matches and he’s involved in one of them.
El Sol de Centro has a report on a lucha libre show in Aguascalientes. A lucha libre show in a prison, with the prisoners as the luchadors. Ten wrestlers (rudos Victor, Jesus, Uriel, Christian and Alfredo, tecnicos Armando, Carlos, Ivan, Jonathan, Juan Pablo) had trained for a year to put on the show, which drew a captive audience of 85 people. They wrestled under famous masks – the article has a picture of a Rayo de Jalisco & Espanto masks and mentions a Fenix. The referee (Octavio) helped the rudos win. I didn’t find a video of the matches, just some photos.
Forbes Mexico picked Dorian Roldan as one of three Mexican sports executives who “will set the tone for 2021.” The other two are the head of Liga MX (the soccer league) and the head of LMB (the baseball league.) The Forbes name doesn’t mean much in the US – it’s just mostly a content mill – but those are still nice names to be associated with.
Many of the CMLL virtual media deals seem to turn into sessions of journalists reminiscing about something that the wrestler’s predecessor did and asking the current day luchador if they’ll do the same thing. It’s partly because CMLL sends people out to do interviews who have nothing to talk about it, and also partly because it doesn’t seem like many of the journalists are paying close attention to CMLL either. It happened a few days ago with the “Super Astro Jr. wants to reform the Cadetes del Espacio” story; Furia de Titanes fished another story out of that interview with a “Super Astro Jr. wants revenge on Hijo del Villano III for their father’s mask” story. The luchador usually is eager to go along with the question, because it’s a pleasant chat and any idea is better than none. Oro Jr. took a different route: he shot down reforming Los Metalicos because he feels second parts and nostalgia acts are never truly accepted by the fans. I think he’s right, though that flies in the face of most of what CMLL tries to do.
SuperLuchas notes Septimo Dragon has made it home. That’s great news. There’s been no talk about how long it’ll take for him to wrestle – it may be quite a while – but at least he’s not missing shows right now.
Bernado Guzman’s column mentions some upcoming shows for the Mas Lucha channel
- Lucha Madre returns for “Torneo Fuego Nuevo” mid month
- KAOZ will have another “Rey de Monterrey” (a rumble last year, when it was a premium show)
- IWRG will hopefully have their Guerreros de Acero cage match show at the end of the month (probably premium)
- MexaWrestling, Kriminal Lucha Libre and AULL are all preparing shows for when the red light is lifted.
- Matamoros’ Kingdom Wrestling refurnished their arena and hopes to actually use it soon.
The Madre shows are usually taped much in advance. The KAOZ shows are always taped in advance too. I was a little surprised there wasn’t more stuff being taped in advance; this red light stoppage seemed inevitable for weeks before it happened and live shows were going to be impossible again.
Kriminal Lucha Libre is planning a new wrestler tournament for whenever they can run again. It’ll be a 16 luchador tournament with special rules. Using a Canadian Destroyer, a headscissors, a Spanish Fly or a package piledriver will be grounds for immediate disqualification. (Those moves are considered overused in Mexican indie lucha libre.) The matches will have judges who decide who advances, not the in-ring winner. Luchadors will be judged on their creativity and originality, both in their moves and their look. The old CaraLucha promotion once tried this same judging idea, which seemed to work decently well.
Dave the Clown, Murder Clown, and Argenis are raising money for a three-year-old girl battling cancer.
Mas Lucha’s podcast talked about La Parka, one year after his death.
Box Y Lucha 3455’s cover article is about constructing the perfect luchador.