Luchadors protest in CDMX (and don’t appear to be heard), AAA AutoLuchas this weekend, Caristico & Demon not running for office, RIOT w/Vikingo & Arez

COVID & Luchador protest

Mexico City will remain at the orange health code for the sixth straight week. Cases continue to slowly recede, but there’s no timeline of when they might lower enough to reach yellow.

About 50 luchadors held a protest march in Mexico City on Thursday, asking for the city government to ease restrictions on lucha libre and allow shows with up to 30% capacity similar to Estado de Mexico. El Fantasma, in his role as head of the Mexico City Lucha Libre commission, led the protest. SuperLuchas says Fantasma ultimately delivered a message to a Mexico City government sub secretary, Efrain Morales Lopez. Fantasma then announced to the press he was told lucha libre may reopen in two weeks.

The head of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, was asked about the protest in her weekly COVID update on Friday. She doesn’t seem to be too informed about the situation: she said Mexico City may start allowing Arena Mexico shows with no fans to be aired on public station channel 21. Another set of matches airing in an empty arena won’t help much and won’t help the indie wrestlers who were part of that march. Her statement came off as if she was unaware CMLL was already taping matches and believed the arena itself had shut down, as had been the case last July. Sheinbaum mentioned the possibility of holding meetings to discuss other ideas. Her comments don’t sound like they’re two weeks away from getting fans back in buildings.

Mexico City’s current health policies only allow fans at lucha libre shows when the health color goes to Yellow, but that’s been ignored in neighboring Mexico State. Various other restrictions for entertainment have been amended and downgraded as well; I’m not sure if opening up is a good idea, but there’s an argument for some sort of consistency. It doesn’t seem likely based on that press conference.

A side note was the presence of CMLL luchadors at the protest march. Valiente and Ephesto are quoted in one of the wire stories. Mije is in another, saying he’s currently selling snacks and sweets to make ends meet. Volcano and Guerrero Maya were among others visible in the photos. CMLL publically from the protest, acknowledging their wrestlers were part of it but the promotion itself did not lead it. CMLL says they continue to support the government’s actions and will wait until they’re given the OK to have fans.

AAA this weekend

The AutoLuchas complete lineups for Saturday

AAA , 1800 (SAT) 03/20/2021 Autocinema Aire Libre Coyoacán, Coyoacán, Distrito Federal
1) Big Mami & Myzteziz Jr. vs Argenis & Flammer
2) Dinastía © vs La Parkita, Drago Kid [AAA MINI]
3) Máximo & Octagón Jr. vs Abismo Negro Jr. & Texano Jr.
4) Faby Apache, Laredo Kid, Niño Hamburguesa vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana

AAA TV , 2030 (SAT) 03/20/2021 Autocinema Aire Libre Coyoacán, Coyoacán, Distrito Federal
1) Hades & Octagoncito vs Dave The Clown & Parkita Negra
2) Laredo Kid vs Arez
3) Aramis & Faby Apache vs Flammer & Látigo
4) Hijo Del Vikingo & Psycho Clown vs Chessman & La Parka Negra

I presume only the second of these shows will be streamed, as was done last time, but AAA hasn’t attempted to make it clear. I expect they’ll stream the show on Facebook but, again, it’s Friday and I don’t know. You’d need a VPN to see them if you’re not in Mexico.

AAA on Space this Saturday (Google Drive later) from Valle de Bravo

• Aramis, Pimpinela vs Mamba, Abismo Negro
• Flammer, Hiedra, Maravilla vs Big Mami, Hades, Lady Shani
• Leyenda Americana vs Terror Purpura

Leyenda Americana was Daga back at TripleMania and still appears to be. I’m not as sure Terror Purpura is still Cage, but the video only has some brief glimpses.

AAA on YouTube late Sunday from Tlaxcala

• Arez & Látigo vs Mr. Iguana & Niño Hamburguesa
• Abismo Negro Jr. & Taurus vs Murder Clown & Octagón Jr.
• Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana vs Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Pagano

Chessman showed up on the February TV tapings with hair extensions, an intentional ploy to get heat after losing his hair back at TripleMania. It was played up on social media a bit, mostly by Pagano, but it didn’t seem to be an on-screen storyline. Pagano, Hugo Savinovich, and Lady Shani worked together to cut the extensions off during last week’s TV tapings, while went up as a video Thursday.

CMLL TV

CMLL announced their next PPV will be on April 24th. That’s the first PPV they’ve run on a Saturday. It’ll celebrate the 65th Anniversary of Arena Mexico opening as well as serving as the annual Kid’s Day show. CMLL mentioned the show at the end of Informa with no details on what to expect for the show.

This is the first time CMLL’s announced the next PPV before the last one takes place. It may be a Ticketmaster-driven decision; the virtual tickets for this next show went live today for the same 170 pesos (150 to CMLL to 20 to Ticketmaster) as for the current show originally; it’ll go up as it gets closer. My read is this is a sign CMLL doesn’t expect to be running with fans in April. They wouldn’t combine two events together into one show if they thought they could have multiple live events, and they wouldn’t be running Arena Mexico on a Saturday if they thought they could have people in on Fridays. April 24th is still a while away and things could change.

A quick reminder: the price is probably going up for the 03/26 CMLL PPV in the next few days, so don’t wait until the last moment if you’ve decided you’re getting it anyway. It appears Bandido escaped the ROH bubble in one piece, so there’s one less roadblock to Volador/Bandido finally happening.

TV Schedule

03/19 CMLL on AMX (Google Drive later)

• Magia Blanco vs Espanto Jr.
• Soberano Jr. & Flyer vs Okumura & Dark Magic
• Diamante Azul, Titan, Star Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Gran Guerrero

03/20 CMLL on AMX (Google Drive later)

• Robin vs Oro Jr.
• Stigma & Starman vs el Coyote & Disturbio
• Valiente vs Euforia

03/20 CMLL on Televisa (YouTube next week)

• Diamond vs Disturbio
• Caristico, Volador Jr., Atlantis Jr. vs Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, Negro Casas
• Espiritu Negro & Audaz vs Raziel & Cancerbero
• Felino Jr. vs Mistico Jr.

03/21 CMLL on YouTube

• Súper Astro Jr. vs Inquisidor
• Mystique & Princesa Sugehit vs Amapola & Dalys
• Audaz & Místico vs Negro Casas & Tiger
• Diamante Azul, Star Jr., Volador Jr. vs Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Terrible

These are all new matches. CMLL seems to be onto 2021 tapings, which means the Titan/Templario match will likely never be seen. It may mean CMLL will stop repeats matches from one TV show to another if they do the slightest bit of planning, but that’s unlikely.

Satanico appeared on CMLL Informa to talk about the reopening of Arena Coliseo Guadalajara; he’s in charge of the school there. The Guadalajara Tuesday shows had aired on TV before the pandemic and will now air on local station QuieroTV Saturday nights at 9 pm local. It’s a two-hour show, about the same length as the internet streams the building had been doing as empty arena shows (and an hour longer than the old TV show.) QuieroTV has a freely available internet stream; I’ll try to record the show if possible on Saturday, though I may be juggling three streams at once and that can’t possibly go well.

That Tuesday Guadalajara show saw Cuatrero & Sanson cheated Mistico & Fugaz to get the win; they’ll rematch this coming Tuesday. That’s the normal way CMLL builds programs but it seems awkward to just give the same three guys extra bookings while others are out marching in the street about not getting enough work.

Atlantis Jr. is wrestling near Chicago this weekend for Lucha Libre Total. Capacity capped at 50 people for that one. I don’t think anyone knows that’s happening outside of the people who follow that promotion.

Other News

03/21 RIOT “COVIDIOTAS” (streaming live for free at 6 pm CDT in the US, 7 pm CST)

• Latigo vs Erik Ortiz (winner gets a title shot)
• Hijo del Vikingo vs Arez
• Aramis vs. Jimmy Iron Kid
• Willy Banderas & Brian Villa vs Kamikaze & Prometo
• El Benny Rumble (a royal rumble with other Riot regulars, most surprises)

The show will stream on YouTube. This is the first time RIOT is streaming and from a different venue than they usually run, so it’s a bit “cross your fingers and hope it works.” The stream will remain up for a couple of days (not a definite amount) before going on pivotshare.  RIOT has added an option to their Donadora page where $25USD will enter a raffle to win one of two signed Humberto Carillo action figures. Only two people have donated to that their so the odds of winning seem pretty good.

Colorado’s IWC is running an iPPV on Sunday night, with Hijo del Santo versus Rocky Romero in the main event. The show costs $15 and starts at 5 pm. I’m guessing it’s live only.

Caristico, Blue Demon, and Tinieblas were announced as Redes Sociales Progresistas’s mayoral candidates for sections of Mexico City with large publicity. Caristico and Blue Demon were quietly removed from the final list of RSP candidates, submitted earlier this week. Tinieblas remains and will be on the ballot for the mayor position Venustiano Carranza. The party explained the changes – which also included one other candidate of the 16 selected – followed an internal selection procedure and Demon & Caristico are still part of the party. That seems suspicious; the luchadors were introduced as if they were specifically the candidates running for those offices, not that there were one of many possible selections. It’s possible the uncertainty around real names needing to be on the ballot may have caused Caristico & Blue Demon to change their minds, or maybe the recent accusations towards Blue Demon made him no longer viable. Neither had acknowledged they’re no longer running for office. (None of these candidates are likely to win.)

Andrade confirmed he asked for his WWE release. Those who have been denied in the past have ended up serving out almost all of their contract, though they’ve served it out away from the ring. We still don’t know how long that is for Andrade.

04/09 GCW Spring Break has Gringo Loco, Black Taurus, Arez vs Laredo Kid, Dragon Bane, Aramis. About half of those wrestlers were in a very memorable trios match about a year and a half ago, and this seems an intentional call back. The show is a $20 iPPV, and that might be enough to get me to buy.

Shuffle Online has an interview with the directors of the Luchadoras documentary.