Month: February 2021

Mexico City will remain in Orange health condition this upcoming week. Movie theatres and museums can open to 20% but must close at 7 or 8.  Gyms can also open at 20% with specific rules. I think there’s a long-shot chance places like Arena Mexico will be able to have limited attendance in the next month, though the restrictions on hours might make a traditional Friday show still impossible for a while. The first Arena Mexico show with fans seems more likely a Sunday, and maybe an early Sunday show. They’re still a while off but it is trending in a positive direction.

Nuevo Leon restrictions are being lifted slightly. Lucha Libre shows are still banned, though Kaoz and Lucha Time have continually taped.

Copa Junior VIP card announced

CMLL announced the Copa Junior VIP card on Informa. It will largely be the same card as originally announced, including the NGD/Guerreros trios title match and the frequently-delayed Volador/Bandido bout. There are just two changes Dragon Rojo Jr. has his first match in over two years by participating in the Copa Junior VIP, taking the spot of Niebla Roja. Also, Dalys & Stephanie Vaquer challenge Jarochita & Lluvia for the national tag titles instead of the originally announced micros match. The show is up for purchase on

A cibernetico might actually be the right way to work someone back; Dragon Rojo’s only going to need to wrestle for a couple of minutes with rest breaks. On the other match, if CMLL had just made world women’s tag times instead of needlessly latching on the ‘tradition’ of national tag team titles, they wouldn’t look silly every time two women born outside of Mexico challenge for them. Dalys & Vaquer teamed in the initial tag team tournament and lost by typical Dalys DQ; CMLL including her on this show suggests they think he’s a draw. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself that Dalys matches are actually a determinant for making me watch a show.

The show is up for purchase on Ticketmaster for 173 pesos; that’s a little over $8 USD, and the same price they offered this show back in December. That was the original discounted price, with the idea it’d go up as it gets closer. CMLL hasn’t said if or when the price will go up this time yet, but it will go up. The November show started at 201 and ended up at 270. Ticketmaster seems to have changed their credit card portal since December; Ticketmaster list American Express as an accepted card but the payment page they direct you to doesn’t allow that service.

Ticketmaster hasn’t changed their awful policy of making the show only viewable live. There is no VOD. This policy costs Ticketmaster & CMLL (and the wrestlers in theory) money. It doesn’t appear anyone cares. I probably should set up a paid VOD service for people who are going to ask me for the link the next day but that seems vaguely illegal. More illegal than usual for me.

Not new news, but something I didn’t grasp last week: CMLL’s next PPV and Ring of Honor’s next PPV is March 26th. Bandido is expected on both. Ring of Honor may present their show as live, but it’ll be part of their monthly bulk tapings. CMLL is expected to be live. They’ll start around the same time. I’ll watch the CMLL show live (and have the ROH show on out of the corner of my blog) because this blog but I suspect most people who are willing to pay to watch some lucha libre action will actually pick the ROH show; Mexican fans haven’t shown an interest in paying for internet content in any great numbers, and there’s nothing here beyond Volador/Bandido that’ll appeal to US casual fans. Perhaps those fans might buy the CMLL show later if it was an option, but it is not an option. This date itself costs CMLL money.

CMLL and NJPW give their relationship the dreaded vote of confidence

CMLL and NJPW also jointly announced they’re still working together. You can read this in Spanish from CMLL, in English, in Japanese from NJPW or even just watch a video. This was answering a question no one was asking; there had been no indication of a breakup. The statements refer to FantasticaMania 2021 not happening, and so this sort of statement would’ve made a lot of sense to come out in December or January before the usual FantasticaMania tour, not a month after it usually takes place. NJPW has continued to post locally dubbed CMLL shows on NJPW World throughout the pandemic; the next two episodes air March 2nd and 3rd.

The CMLL statement highlights that NJPW will only work CMLL in Mexico, which points to what this is really about. NJPW is now working with multiple companies in the US, including some who work with AAA. CMLL agreement with NJPW is one of the more valuable relationships it has, and they want it clear it’s not changing. This announcement doesn’t mention any specific plans for the future, any talent exchange, any length of a deal they’ve extended, any hard information at all. There’s not even a nod at the CMLL shows on NJPW World as a sign of the continuing relationship. Instead, it says they’re working together now and for the immediate future, same as what we knew yesterday, only now we know they were concerned enough about the perception of the relationship to put out a big release. In sports, this sort of statement is a curse – the owner only publicly needs to give the coach a vote of confidence if there’s some realistic belief the coach might be about to be fired. An actual stable relationship doesn’t need to say they’re doing well, because it’s obvious to all.

The press release is also notable says NJPW will only work with CMLL in Mexico without saying anything about who from Mexico will work for NJPW. The most recent Mexicos working for NJPW on their Strong show have been Rey Horus and Misterioso. Dragon Lee’s the most recent Mexican to work in Japan. I don’t know if CMLL’s fans in Mexico pay enough attention to NJPW to notice that, but I’m certain their wrestlers do. If anything, this seems a message to the CMLL wrestlers, telling them  It also seems like a message that would’ve been unnecessary if CMLL had been honest with them about the status of FantasticaMania 2021 all along. CMLL hid the reality of the situation, they were found out when the shows didn’t happen, wrestlers came up with their own reasons why it didn’t happen, and now they’re at a point where they have to issue a public press release to shoot down an internal rumor. This was expectations mismanagement.

Salvador Luttertoth Lomeli (III) appears in the video as CMLL’s boss. He’s been referred to that way for quite a while now, but I think this might be the first time he’s been pictured on screen in a skit like this. NJPW refers to him as President of CMLL, while CMLL continues to use the lengthy “Director de Promociones Coliseo, Mexico and Revolucion” title that no one understands. Likely Sofia Alonso got to keep her title if not the power, and Lutteroth has a strange description that only makes sense if you know deep CMLL lore.

The press release mentions the NJPW/CMLL relationship started in November 2009. That doesn’t seem correct; Mistico won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title earlier that year and had been a regular. Others had gone to Japan prior, Rysuske Taguchi spent time in Mexico in 2005, NJPW’s entertaining series of interviews with Tanahashi most recently talking about his own 2005 trip to Mexico, Shibata was in Arena Mexico in 2003. There had been some level of working relationship between CMLL & NJPW for most of this century. There was a very official meeting between NJPW and CMLL in Mexico in 2009 – some blog entries from here, here, and here – but even then, the talks were about continuing the existing relationship following a year Mistico’s championship year. Maybe the relationship crossed into a handshake into a written deal around that time and this is the first we’re hearing about it.

TV and other streaming notes

CMLL on AMX Friday (Google Drive)

• Sanely & Vaquerita vs Tiffany & La Seductora
• Polvora vs Guerrero Maya (likely a repeat, but could be 11/07 Televisa or could be 01/16 Televisa)
• Mistico, Mephisto, Valiente vs Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja and Terrible

CMLL on MVS Saturday (Google Drive)

• Guerrero Maya Jr. vs Universo 2000 Jr. (possible repeat)
• Estrellita & La Jarochita vs Amapola & Stephanie Vaquer (possible repeat)
• Mistico, Volador, Diamante Azul vs Mephisto, Templario, Ephesto (possible repeat)

A very vital broadcast.

CMLL on Televisa (YouTube next Sunday)

• La Jarochita vs Dalys (possibly a repeat)
• Stuka Jr., Star Jr. vs Ephesto, Luciferno
• Black Panther vs Okumura
• Volador Jr., Soberano Jr., Titan vs Sanson, Cuatrero, Forastero

CMLL on YouTube (Sunday)

• Oro Jr. vs Akuma
• Super Astro Jr. & Sonic vs Grako & Nitro
• Rey Cometa vs Raziel (likely repeat but it was quite good, watch it)
• Valiente, Titan, Stuka Jr. vs Negro Casas, Forastero, Templario

AAA on Space (starting Saturday) has

• Arez & Latigo vs Dinstia & Aramis
• Taurus vs Hijo del Vikingo
• Flammer, La Hiedra, Lady Maravilla vs Big Shani, Hades, Lady Shani
• Laredo Kid & Pentagon Jr. vs Texano Jr. & Chessman

That episode is listed as going up on YouTube on March 14th. (It may be a typo, last week’s episode was also listed as March 14th.) AAA on YouTube will have the second part of TripleMania.

I think Arez/Latigo vs Dinastia/Aramis replaces the originally announced Arez/Latigo/Aramis match. If AAA’s going to air four matches a week, they only have two more weeks of TV to last them through March 12th (and would likely be taping that weekend.)

ROH TV (starting this weekend, online Monday)

• Dragon Lee & Kenny King vs Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal (c) for the ROH Tag Team Championship
• Rush (c) vs Shane Taylor for the ROH World Championship

It would be a surprise if either title changed hands.

CMLL’s Arena Coliseo Guadalajara announced they were streaming a new show on Tuesday. They promoted the show on Tuesday. No show appeared and, typically for a lucha libre promotion, no acknowledgment of an issue was made. Wednesday, a video with just the main event appeared. Satanico cheated Fugaz again, and that appears to be a singles match whenever they can run again.

Mas Lucha will have the most recent Indy Army Wrestling show on Sunday. That’s the show with Jimmy versus Latigo, which should be great. Welcome to Mi Barrio is closing out their season Friday with a Pantera Jr./Hijo del Pantera/Camuflaje vs Tiago/Skalibur/Kamik-C match, which might be pretty good. I haven’t gotten around to posting a review, but the Pantera Jr./Hijo del Pantera vs Skalibur/Kamik-C match from January was Great, a match that hit the stuff I like in wrestling matches, so I’ve got high hopes for that trios.

Laredo Kid faces Calvin Tankman on MLW TV next Wednesday. Tankman is undefeated, though mostly wrestling in short matches. I would be surprised if Laredo Kid won. I don’t have much interesting to say about the WON Reader Awards, but I did not earlier Fenix winning Mexico MVP makes no sense given his small amount of Mexico work. It’s people who didn’t watch Mexican wrestling outside of TripleMana voting for Fenix for his AEW work. On the other hand, Laredo Kid is never going to win Mexico MVP because of his US work; he can every great match possible in Mexico but being a guy who exists to loses matches on the tenth or eleventh most important US will put a ceiling on him. If we cared enough to work this, 2021 is the year to get behind Taurus because he’s going to get over in Impact too. But Fenix has probably already won 2021 Mexico MVP before a single match of his from Mexico has aired.

Other News

WWE’s recent signings this week included Mexican powerlifter Jessica Cantu, though she wasn’t listed on their website. SuperLuchas mentions she’s a second-generation wrestler, the daughter of the Monterrey-based Bronco, a wrestler in EMLL during the mid-90s. (His mask match is here.) She was around the Monterrey wrestling scene and trained a bit – there’s a photo of her with CMLL’s Tony Salazar in one of CMLL’s practice rings – but she had not wrestled in Mexico. Cantu is said to have had Olympic aspirations, but the Tokyo games getting postponed changed her plans.

WWE often recruited athletes who’ve been successful in other sports and hit some sort of roadblock (health or lack of support in the sport most often.) It’s not as big a percentage of their recruits as years past, but it’s still an element. It’s not a thing in Mexican wrestling at all – new wrestlers are either people who can afford the low wages of being a novice wrestler or those who are so dead set on being a luchador that they’ll pay whatever price it takes. There are no developmental deals in lucha libre and so there is talent that might be an asset that’s never going to consider participating. That’s not likely to change a year into a pandemic, but I suppose it’s something AAA would like to try if they could achieve their own goal of their own training facility.

Konnan talked about his hospitalization on Keepin’ It 100, which PostWrestling transcribed. One doctor told him he had a 60% chance of his heart-stopping, another told him his kidney failing, as some sort of medical intervention. The lesson I took from that is don’t give Konnan a medical intervention because it makes him very angry. He was still angry on the podcast, and I would not recommend being the next person who annoys him. (I’m not sure I’m smart enough to take my own advice though.)

Lucha Libre Online had an interview with Fenix; Planeta Wrestling recaps some of it (in Spanish.) Fenix seems very happy with AEW.

Excelsior has an interview with Arkalis (from CMLL media day?), who was encouraged by his father to not settle for just being a local wrestler and instead work hard to become a star if he was going to be luchador at all. Arkalis is a rare wrestler who came through the Arena Puebla to wrestle in Arena Mexico (explained as being selected by Ultimo Guerrero here), but just getting to Puebla itself was a challenge. He’s from San Martin Texmelucan and was taking six-hour round trips for matches that paid 150 pesos.

CMLL has forgot the Hechicero/Stuka feud but Stuka has not.

LuchaWorld has the latest Lucha Report.

Rush is starting a fast food service.

An interview with Torreon’s Demencia, who’s an 9 year pro at the age of 24.

WWE officially announced Taya as joining NXT among a raft of new names. (Those include Blake Christian, who worked one RIOT show and was announced for a second before the pandemic hit.) The news leaked a couple of weeks ago and was the expected outcome after she left Impact. That’s a wrap on Taya’s successful run in AAA, where she was a regular since 2012.  I expect AAA knew this was happening for a while and will wish her a fond farewell in the next few hours. (Edit: they did.)

CMLL has Sanely, Black Panther, and Guerrero Maya on Informa. That’s less than usual. Maybe more will be added. CMLL promised more details for their 03/26 Copa Junior VIP show today; it may not be a lot given it’s still a month away. None of those three announced guests were on the original lineup for Copa Junior VIP.

CMLL’s reach in Latin America has increased somewhat. CMLL’s main show is on Televisa, Televisa packages their channels digitally as Blim TV, Blim TV started being carrying DirectTV Go in the past week., which means some countries outside of Mexico would have access to CMLL. Those same shows air on YouTube on an eight-day delay.

Mexisquad (Bandido, Flamita, and Rey Horus) lost the ROH six-man championship to Shane Taylor Enterprises (Shane Taylor, Moses, Kaun) on ROH TV. Taylor pinned Flamita. Taylor’s getting a world title shot against Rush next weekend, so that was the expected outcome.  Dragon Lee & Kenny King will also challenge Jonathan Gresham & Jay Lethal on the next TV show. The poster for ROH’s next PPV (March 26th, the 19th Anniversary show) teases more Foundation/Faccion Ingobernable matches to come. Shane Taylor’s post-match promo after the six-man title change suggested they’ll likely do a rematch at this PPV if he doesn’t win the world singles title.

Friday, Arena Lopez Mateos announced they were reopening on February 28th. Monday, Arena Lopez Mateos announced that the show was canceled and they would be remaining closed for the time being. This appears to be a reaction to what happened at CAR The Crash. Lucha libre venues were opened at 30% capacity during the previous orange light, but it appears Mexico State is saying no to mass gatherings this time around and other venues are concerned about closure/fines similar to CAR The Crash.

Indie luchador Wotan revealed to Box Y Lucha he caught COVID-19 in December and suffered badly. It’s also in this week’s magazine. His mother came down with it first and he was set on making sure it didn’t pass to anyone else (even if it sounds like it might have prevented people from checking on him.) Wotan believes he may take a break from lucha libre in 2021 as he recovers.

I can’t find the post now, but Hijo del Vikingo added himself to the names of AAA luchadors advertising himself for outside work. I don’t know who’s running but he’d obviously be a big deal on any Mexican indie if he’s available. (No, I don’t think he has a US visa.)

Lucha Memes mentioned on their fundraiser page that their show has been filmed and they’re in the process of editing it. A viral clip of Astrolux pulling off a flying headscissors on Astrolux pushed their fundraiser way up, over 70%.

Arena Coliseo Tony Arellano in Torreon is expected to be the next arena to open in Torreon if the health protocols work for this weekend’s show in Arena Azteca. They’re already teasing a Volador appearance.

Furia de Titanes points out a poll for Cuauthemoc mayor. That’s the race Caristico has declared to be in. Most political parties expected to put forth a candidate haven’t put one forward, but Caristico still is far behind the leader (Dolores Padierna Luna). More discouragingly, 81% of the 400 people surveyed say they have no idea who Caristico is, while 77% know Padierna Luna. The polling group does not have information on Blue Demon or Tinieblas’ races. The party (RSP) is relatively new and unheralded – they’ve been thought unlikely to win unless the fame of the many celebrities makes a huge difference. It does not appear to have mattered so far in this race.

Laguna wrestler Tarzan Flores (Juan Flores) passed away Saturday according to Box Y Lucha. I don’t have a birthday, but he was likely in his 70s. He was a longtime star in Torreon and used the name “La Sombra” in the 60s, including in EMLL. The story around WWE’s Andrade getting the name “La Sombra” was because he seemed like a shadow image of Oro, but I wonder if maybe the long institutional history of CMLL also remembered they gave that name to a person from Torreon before.

Senor Tormenta (Rodolfo Macias, 85) passed away Monday according to Box Y Lucha. There are no more details there. The luchadb has a Senor Tormenta wrestling primarily in northern Mexico in the 70s and 80s which seems to match up.

Toluca luchador Fuego Sr. (not related to the CMLL one) remincses about the old Arena Toluca.

The head of the Tijuana Boxing, Lucha Libre, and MMA commission abruptly resigned for personal reasons. He seemed to be generally liked (or at least complained about far less) than the previous head of that department.

Rey Misterio Sr. says he no longer goes to wrestling shows because he loves wrestling too much and is too sad to no longer be able to participate.

Guaymas lucha libre commissioner Gabriel Lopez pushed back against complaints that local licensing fees were too high, saying they were fair for what the services costs. The previous administrator had not charged for wrestling licenses for the last two years. The fee is now 300 pesos ($14.50 USD); Lopez notes those are licenses for professionals so they should be easily paid that much by promoters. Those promoters are unhappy that ambulances are now required at shows, and Lopez says that’s set by the (Sonora) state government and also required by the city authorities regarding mass gatherings.

Mas Lucha has a new edition of their En+carados podcast.

CAR The Crash shut down

Ecatepec authorities shut down the show Saturday night at the Centro de Alto Rendiemento The Crash building. The government officials arrived during the semi-main event. The show continued anyway to the main event, a two-minute match interrupted by the police getting on the loudspeaker to tell everyone the show was now over. (They finished the match anyway; you can see it here.) Mas Lucha reports neighbors complained about the event, and that led to the shutdown. CAR The Crash appeared to have a full house (around 200 people), while the current law in Ecatepec only allows 20% capacity indoors. They were also selling beer without a license.

The Gladiatores has video of the aftermath, while the government posted their video of the incident. Most of the comments on the Ecatepec Facebook page in response are thrilled the government did something. CAR The Crash is closed for the time being; it was being used for public events, no fans shows taped for Mas Lucha, and for some wrestler training (though Penta’s school in the same city had already absorbed some of the training.) It’s not immediately clear how long that closure will last.

I’m not absolutely sure who’s building it is, even though it’s used constantly for wrestling shows. “Centro Alto Rendiemento The Crash” implies this is a building owned by The Crash, but the information when it opened was there was just a loose relationship with the Tijuana promotional and nothing they were doing directly. There was also an early story that Fenix and/or Penta had bought the building (previously a wedding hall which also ran wrestling shows.) Penta, recently when he opened his training school, said they did not own The Crash – they were friends with the owners but had no involvement themselves. The actual show that got shut down was an Anniversary show for a luchador named Ancla, who has said to be the manager of CAR The Crash. (My guess why the main event still happened was because it was Ancla’s tribute for Ancla and it was important to him to still get his win.) Maybe Ancla owns the building.

The Mexico State lucha libre commission may suspend Ancla or others for running this show; the Mexico State commission doesn’t do much, but they’re more likely to do something when it becomes a news story (and so they look like they’re paying attention.) It’d be a bit late. The venue had run at least 18 advertised events since the start of the pandemic, including no-fans taping. This was the biggest crowd for a show in that venue since last March.

The CAR The Show show, eventually shut down to flagrant disregard of the current COVID-19 policies, began with a tribute to recent COVID-19 victim Ovett.

Vikingo and AAA

An anonymous Twitter account, active since late last year but not noticed until this month, has been repeatedly posting screengrabs of a Whatsapp conversation. The Twitter account alleges one of the participants is Hijo del Vikingo, complaining about his treatment in AAA and revealing the COVID-19 testing. It’s tough to get noticed as an anonymous Twitter account with no followers; they’ve been tweeting at AAA and Mexico City officials to get noticed, but you’d have to be an obsessive weirdo with a Tweetdeck column dedicated to “Hijo del Vikingo” or “@luchalibreaaa” mentions to pick up it. (The earliest post on the account was revealing the Marvel character identities and being completely wrong about them – and it hasn’t otherwise seemed something solid enough to write on here.) The posts did start to get noticed more in the last week. The contact info in listed on the messages are authentic, though someone truly dedicated could still fake those.

Record said Hijo del Vikingo came to them wanting to clear it the story. They also published some of the Whatsapp conversations. The conversation has “Hijo del Vikingo” upset with Dorian Roldan, Konnan, and Jorge Flores – Vikingo tells Record that’s not his real feelings, he has no problem with those three AAA officials is very grateful for what they’ve done for his career. Vikingo explains the main reason he missed the AutoLuchas show was he didn’t want to risk exposing his newborn child. He felt safer after a few months and agreed to work TripleMania and the Tlaxcala shows. Vikingo says he took COVID tests before TripleMania and before the Tlaxcala shows. Vikingo’s guess is someone is jealous of what he’s done this quickly by posting these messages. He insists he’s super happy in AAA, not the upset person in those messages.

The mystery Twitter account where the messages originally came from has vanished – it’s been deleted or deactivated. This probably won’t be the last time something like this happens; it’s easy for a vengeful person to take a screenshot and create an account. This has even happened with Vikingo before; a person claiming to be his girlfriend complained about his lack of bookings via burner Twitter account back in January 2018, though I believe that person wasn’t who they claimed to be.

Lucha Memes/Marvin

Lucha Memes quietly taped their CoacalcoForever show this Sunday, the reward being offered as part of the Donadora campaign. The promotion’s acknowledged it on Twitter. What hasn’t been mentioned, at least as of this writing, is the advertised Jimmy versus Ricky Marvin didn’t take place. Marvin wasn’t there. I’m not sure if it was a travel issue or what, but the card got changed around as a result. You can see it in the photo on the Twitter account; that’s Astrolux but he’s not facing Skayler. My guess is most people who donated did so because of Coliseo Coaclaco or because of Lucha Memes and not for a specific match (or matches), but it’s worth pointing out for those who did.

The donadora campaign has crossed 50% with a few days left; it ends at the end of the month. Memes taping before the campaign ends hopefully means the show will quickly become available for those who did donate.

Ricky Marvin was traveling because he’s been in the US for the last month, including stopping by Orlando. Marvin posted about perhaps going to NXT one day, which led to some news articles about NXT Latin America, which caused Marvin to clarify he didn’t mean he was actually going and nothing is in the works. The original Ricky Marvin post seems to have been disappeared. Marvin would figure to be on the shortlist for potential trainers if WWE did ever open a NXT Latin America branch. There’s no indication of that happening any time soon.

AAA on YouTube

AAA’s YouTube upload this week and next week will be the television version of TripleMania. The 2021 tapings will not start until March 7th (as correctly listed on the poster Tlaxcala’s tourism put out.) That means AAA’s YouTube will be just over three weeks behind the first-run episodes on Space.

This seems like an issue if AAA runs major shows live, as Dorian Roldan said was possible when the 2021 tour was announced. It’s not a big one – AAA’s not so tightly (or coherently) booked that being behind a month of TV is going to make a live show impossible to follow. Most people who have access to AAA’s YouTube can also follow in ‘real time’ via TV, since only people in Mexico have access to both. It’s a bit annoying but not to the level of the “no one outside of Mexico can see our content” issue.

I’ve figured out it’s possible for me to record AAA episodes off of Space, though I haven’t bothered because there are some quality issues. It’s a bit flying too close to the sun if I’m putting AAA matches on YouTube before AAA puts them on YouTube though.

Other Notes

ROH’s new episode with the Mexisquad trios title defense is up on their website. ROH does a group watch Monday nights but they actually upload those episodes earlier if you don’t feel like waiting.

Vanguardia also taped their February show and also had their main event change, though it was part of the angle to set up a replacement main event. Full results here, unless you want to skip it until it turns up on Mas Lucha.

Torreon will allow local building Arena Azteca to run a show on the 28th, as a test run to safely restarting lucha libre in the area. They’re scheduled to go over health protocols on Tuesday. If all goes well, other local buildings will be able to restart following those same protocols. This seems more organized than most restarts.

LA Park will face Hammerstone on MLW’s March 12th show for their National Championship, their secondary heavyweight championship. LA Park is already half of the tag team champs.

There’s a dispute over the rights to the name Hijo del Super Brazo, or whether a previously agreed upon deal selling the rights to an unrelated wrestler remains valid. I link to this only so we’re all prepared in case a luchador starts wrestling as Super BRAZ or something along those lines.

Carxyus posted a tribute video to Ovett.

WWE PC put up a tribute video for Discovery, with comments from Joaquin Wilde (DJZ), Kalisto and Mustafa Ali.

Box Y Lucha has Demonio Blanco and Wotan on the cover.

El Sol de Salamanca has a lengthy biography of Sergio Gonzalez Castro, formerly Aquaris II, and Guero Gonzalez, currently head of the Box Y Lucha Libre commission of Salamanca. He says he ran away from home at age 9 because his parents yelled at him, and didn’t return home until he was 18 and started wrestling.

The Oaxaca profile of the week is Mr. Raton, not to be confused with Super Raton.

Mexico City will remain in the orange health code for the upcoming week.

CMLL returning iPPV

CMLL will return to live iPPVs on March 26th with Copa Junior VIP, as announced Wednesday on CMLL Informa. More details will be announced on next week’s show. The show will air on Ticketmaster, though no info isn’t up yet. That info has tended to be revealed the first Monday of the month, so maybe nothing on that until 03/01.

CMLL originally planned to run Copa Junior VIP as a Christmas Day PPV, including the titular tournament, a Volador/Bandido title match, and a Guerreros/NGD title match. That was canceled due to the red health code and CMLL has not run a live wrestling show since. CMLL did not immediately say they’d run the same lineup. I’m not sure when ROH Is taping, but that seems like the only obstacle to just running it back.

March is typically the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show. CMLL hasn’t run one of those shows since 2019; last year’s show was the first major CMLL postponed, with the idea the Barbaro Cavernario versus Felino hair match would be run once Mexico returned to normal. Normalcy still seems far away, but perhaps CMLL is planning on saving this year’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas until they can have fans in the building as well.

CMLL has been boring for months; I struggled to find three matches even worth checking out this year so far. (Not three good matches, three matches that at least had the chance to be good.) CMLL appears to have weeks of matches still yet to air but were back at it taping new matches this week. Those matches may not air for months, or ever, but it seems immaterial. Everyone on the wrestling side seems to be getting paid if and only if there are matches being filmed, so they’ve resumed – good matches or bad, needed or needed, that stuff isn’t important to the people making the decisions and isn’t going to be addressed. The iPPVs have tended to be slightly better than the rest, but it’s hard to have much hope or interest in the rest of CMLL right now.

Konnan health situation

Konnan was hospitalized due to COVID-19, but is likely back home by the time you read this. Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Konnan told them his kidneys were failing after a tough week with the disease. It sounds like he’s going to be OK. Konnan was present at the Tlaxcala AAA TV tapings two weekends ago; he’d rarely been in person at AAA since the start of the pandemic.

AAA wrestlers taking outside bookings

Many AAA luchadors announced this week that they’re open for outside bookings, and to contact them directly. Super Fly, Texano, Murder Clown, and Pagano were some I saw earlier this week, and many more have added their names. All are insistent this does not mean they’re leaving AAA. It doesn’t seem to indicate any change in status in the promotion itself. AAA generally does not allow contracted wrestlers to take matches without going through the office and has discouraged luchadors from taking outside matches during the pandemic. (Texano notable got pulled from an early DTU show, with Ultimo Guerrero getting the spot instead.) This seems more likely to be an AAA policy change rather than wrestlers doing it on their own; we wouldn’t be seeing so many people go for it at once.

It’s less clear that there are a lot of bookings to be had. There are wrestling promotions taping quietly (or had taped quietly already this week), though those are mostly the groups who were ignoring health rules already. There’s hasn’t been a sudden influx of new shows with restrictions being lifted as of yet. US bookings may also be hard to come by. There may ultimately be problems when AAA starts to return to normal schedule while their wrestlers have committed to their own dates. For now, though, any additional work is probably a big help. It’s been close to a year of not much work.

While I’m talking about AAA: The WON also mentions AAA’s plan is still for Lio Rush to come to Mexico and defend the cruiserweight championship at some point. Laredo Kid having the belt isn’t some sort of angle, just usual wrestling carelessness. Lio Rush recently appeared at a NJPW virtual autograph signing with Rocky Romero, where Romero explained to Rush that CMLL & AAA are rivals, CMLL & NJPW are still close, and so Rush’s AAA title will not be appearing in NJPW.

upcoming TV/Streaming Notes

CMLL shows this weekend:

AMX Friday (Google Drive Fridays)

• Aereo vs Pequeno Olimpico
• Starman, Stigma vs Disturbio, Coyote
• Atlantis & Flyer (c) vs Raziel & Cancerbero for the CMLL Tag Team Championship

MVS Saturday (Google Drive Sundays)

• Sangre Imperial vs Hijo del Signo
• Blue Panther & Kraneo vs Shocker & Rey Bucanero
• Star Jr. vs Felino

Televisa (Saturday, YouTube next Sunday)

• Oro Jr. vs Akuma
• Super Astro, Sonic vs Grako, Nitro
• Rey Cometa vs Raziel
• Valiente, Titan, Stuka Jr. vs Negro Casas, Forastero, Templario

YouTube (Sunday)

• Robin & Retro vs Disturbio & Hijo del Signo
• La Jarochita & La Magnifica vs Amapola & Stephanie Vaquer
• Rey Cometa & Espiritu Negro vs Felino & Rey Bucanero
• Valiente vs Euforia

If you click those Twitter links, you may notice a lot of new handles for CMLL luchadors. It appears those who weren’t already on social media have recently been encouraged to create Twitter and Instagram accounts.

AAA on Space has Tlaxcala episode 2

• Mr. Iguana & Nino Hamburgesa vs Latigo & Arez
• Abismo Negro Jr. & Taurus vs Octagon Jr. & Murder Clown
• Poder del Norte vs Pagano, Vikingo, Laredo Kid

I’m not sure what AAA will have on YouTube; we’ll get a better sense of how far behind it is on Space this week. The first Tlaxcala episode debuts on Azteca late Saturday night.

AAA should have three complete episodes from Tlaxcala, two complete episodes from Tlaxco, and a sixth episode combining leftovers from both locations. (That’s when the advertised but skipped Aramis/Latigo/Arez match could air.) That means AAA can go as far as March 19th airing new material at the current pace. They’ll either need to be taping that weekend or going back to older material.

Kenny King & Dragon Lee vs the Briscoes (where the winner will get a tag title shot the following week) and Mexisquad defending the ROH Trios Championship against Shane Taylor Enterprises will air this weekend on Ring of Honor TV. The episode goes up on their website Monday.

Rey Horus reappears on NJPW Strong tonight, teaming with Barrett Brown & the DKC vs Rocky Romero, Misterioso, and Adrian Quest. Misterioso and Horus are distant gimmick cousins (though Rey Misterio Sr.) so it’s a bit interesting to see them on opposite sides of a match. The luchadb has records of them teaming a handful of teams between 2013 to 2016, but never facing each other.

GALLI has Dragon Bane & Hijo de Canis Lupus versus Gringo Loco & Taurus on Sunday, streaming on their website. The full show is listed as starting at 6:15 pm.

Arena Coliseo Guadalajara will be back running another empty arena show on 02/23. These are all local talent (and Satanico.) Their first show was explicitly a charity show; this just seems like something running on Facebook for their own purposes. The previous show ended with Satanico winning via foul on Fugaz, they’re back together here, so they probably were planning all along on doing a run of shows and maybe have a direction.

Indy Army Wrestling says their most recent show goes up on Mas Luchas on 02/28. Their lineup seems to have changed a bunch (original lineup), though credit them for announcing the changes. Latigo versus Jimmy remains the main event. The women’s match with Baby Love was pulled from the show. She hasn’t talked publically yet, but appears to be on a break from wrestling.

03/07 Lucha Memes at Coliseo Coacalco (“Coacalco Forever”)

• Avisman vs Perro de Guerra Jr., no rope breaks match
• Astrolux vs Skayler, win by using a Canadian Destroyer
• Alas de Acero & Iron Kid vs Aero Panther & Fight Panther
• Jimmy vs Ricky Marvin – new

The donadora campaign has nine days left and is around 50% of their goal. My understand is they’ll get the money even if they don’t get to 100%. Coliseo Coacalco is also pushing a surprise that you have to call about; seems more likely to be a secret show than a pony.

Lucha Libre Vanguardia next show still has no date. They’re still pushing “contact on us for Whatsapp for ticket info”, so it hasn’t been taped yet though maybe it’s happening this weekend and won’t stream for a few more weeks.

Other News

Jalisco luchador Demonio Blanco (Manuel Lopez Coronado, 76) passed away Thursday due to COVID. He was a Diablo Velasco trainee who started as Angel Blanco prior to the famous one, then changed it to Demonio because the other one was much more famous. He won the Occidente Tag Championship with Pantera Azul in 1974, likely defeated Manuel Robles for his hair in Arena Coliseo in 1976, and then lost his mask to Mano Negra as the main event of a sold-out December 1976 Arena Mexico show. The name disappears from results after 1978; Box Y Lucha says he was one of the Robot C3 and Fantomas.

Ciudad Juarez luchador Bestia Nazi (Juan Gonzalez) passed away.

Dr. Wagner Jr. says he’s planning on a 35th Anniversary tour, starting on April 7th if the pandemic allows it. He wants to face all of his old opponents, which sounds like he’s expecting to be an independent wrestler (though Atlantis’ name comes up as well.) Old luchadors love to talk about retirement tours. They’re dependent on promoters putting on these shows, which hasn’t worked for those old luchadors. This is more an announcement of being open for business.

BolaVIP interviews ex-CMLL referee Rafael el Maya about his YouTube channel; the shorter version is he’s not a tech guy and doesn’t understand it, but is pleased that everyone seems to like it. It’s not a shoot discussion; BolaVIP recaps a discussion about Universo’s mask loss where Maya is insistent the planned finish was not a plan.

Dalys says she was always a natural ruda and always wanted to be a luchador, but her father wouldn’t let her. She says becoming a mother at the age of 15 made her tough enough to handle lucha libre.

Atlantis Jr. says he trained for ten years before becoming a luchador. It seems much more recent than that when he first mentioned as having interest, but perhaps he first took a class ten years ago and it wasn’t consecutive.

The head of Mexico State boxing and lucha libre commission said there are more than 500 shows in Mexico State per year on a panel discussion. 500 shows a year would mean about 10 a week; there were more than 10 a day most Sundays. The luchadb has 370 shows in 2020, and 824 shows in 2018, the busiest in the nation.

The Michoacan women’s champion, Nexy, says women’s wrestling is not strong in her state. She only know of two other luchadoras. Other women trained with her but were run out of wrestling either because they got hurt and decided not to continue, or because male luchadors told them they had no place in the ring, discouraged them from continuing.

Lucha libre in Guayama hasn’t restarted, with the luchadors and promoters complaining the commission is asking for too high prices on promotion licenses.

Facebook page Solo Lucha, which knows Juarez wrestling as well as anyone, says there are plans to reopen Ciudad Juarez soon.

LuchaWorld has posted a new Lucha Report.

CMLL has Negro Casas, Luciferno, Disturbio, Sangre Imperial, and Halcon Suriano Jr. scheduled as guests today. Halcon Suriano Jr. was supposed to be on last week but did not appear due to technical issues. This will be the first CMLL stream since Mexico City began to open up; they’ve not announced plans. If CMLL decides to run something like they did before – one live PPV a month – my estimate is their next event will likely be Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (or similar stand-in) on March 19th. It may be too early to commit to a date, but that fits their patterns.

Sopitas has an interview with Lluvia, La Comandante, and Sanely, pushing the idea that women’s wrestling in Mexico has progressed in the last couple of decades but there are still issues of sexism. They’re all working other jobs during the pandemic. Sanely’s talked about being a child psychologist in previous interviews, but says that’s been impossible to do virtually and she’s shifted to consulting with business about how to deal with their employee’s mental welfare during this pandemic. La Comandante originally planned to open a physical rehab place in Mexico City, but the pandemic forced her to relocate to a cheaper rent in Mexico State. Lluvia is selling stuffed animals and food; there’s no direct mention of the Ultimo Guerrero food truck here.

Reporte Indigo writes that the Mexican National Electoral Institute will require real names to be listed on the ballot for federal and local elections. Nicknames can appear, but only alongside the candidate’s actual name. The RSP party, along with candidates Blue Demon Jr., Caristico, and Tinieblas, have been maintaining only their nickname has to appear, and all the reporting to this point had agreed. It’s possible this may yet go back and forth yet more; there are still about six weeks before candidates have to officially register. If “real name required” is the final decision, my guess is Blue Demon will likely end up not running for office and perhaps the other two as well.

Kriminal says they’ll be holding the semifinals and finals of their Prohibido tournament at a date to be announced. The idea is they wanted to have them in front of fans once the health code allowed. (If you watch the shows, it’s obvious there are fans hiding off-camera; they’re not keeping quiet.) The tournament will be better off not having rookies wrestle four matches in one day, though they could’ve made that clearer.

MLW today has Mil Muertes versus Savio Vega in an Aztec Jungle Fight and Gringo Loco versus Rocky Romero.

IWRG aired the first part of their tryouts, which was a lot of introducing trainees and assigning them to teams lead by different trainers for an hour. Mas Lucha has very helpfully written out the teams:

• Diosa Quetzal: Fussion, Caballero de Plata, Angel Extreme, Death Dragon, Garra Mortal
• Fresero Jr.: Alom, Guerrero Olimpico, X-Devil, Lunatik Fly, Prismatic, Ying Dragon
• Hijo del Alebrije: Ciborg HK, Corazon Guerrero, Sol, Kevin, Especie Maligna, Carronero, Aztequita
• Toxin: Kenjin, Chavin, Kali, Emperador Brillante, Mary Cporal, Satania
• Veneno: Rey del Fuego, Pantera Platedo, Harley Williams, Gravedad Cero, Blue Monster Jr., Blue Win
• Relampago: Amperaje, Tiger Man, Silver Boy Jr., Peewee, Zado, Dash, Sussy Love
• Pasion Kristal: Aster Boy, Tonali, Hell Boy, Amazonica, Karma I, Gravity, Venganza Suicida
• Pantera: Magica, Guerrero Pantera, John tito, Milagro, Alquima, Chris Stone Jr., Dante Valaguez, Luger

There’s a lot of crossover with the Prohibdo tournament.

03/07 Lucha Memes at Coliseo Coalco (“Coacalco Forever”)

• Avisman vs Perro de Guerra Jr., no rope breaks match
• Astrolux vs Skayler, win by using a Canadian Destroyer
• Alas de Acero & Iron Kid vs Aero Panther & Fight Panther – new

Sam Adonis and Psycho Clown did promos pushing the possibility of Adonis coming to AAA after their match this past weekend in Texas. It’s not impossible but AAA bringing in outsiders right now seems unlikely. While in the area, Psycho Clown visited children at a shelter in Ciudad Juarez.

“Cibernetico used drugs” is a real news story. I’ll save you a click and tell you he admits to both performance-enhancing and recreational drug usage. We’re all very shocked.

There’s continued progress towards a Tijuana lucha libre commission separate from the boxing and MMA ones. They’re dancing around the reason being ‘lucha libre isn’t really the same thing’.

Luchadors from Chetumal traveled to Belize to put on a show, since that country has opened up.

Monterrey luchador Sergio Romo (85) passed away on Monday. He was a long time wrestler and training from the 60s to the 90s, with his son wrestling later as Sergio Romo Jr.

Box Y Lucha 3460 has features on Karloff Lagarde & Rey Bucanero.

MasLucha has a new episode of En+carados 210. They remember Ovett and talk a lot about that IWRG tryout.