CMLL (TUE) 06/15/2021 Arena México [CMLL, Kaiser Sport, Mas Lucha, The Gladiatores]
1) Pequeño Olímpico b Acero [lightning]
7:05.
2) Nitro & Yago b Retro & Sangre Imperial
3) Disturbio & Hijo del Signo b Cachorro & Robin
Rudos took 1/3.
4) La Guerrera & Sanely b La Comandante & La Seductora
Tecnicas took 1/3
5) Dark Magic, Mephisto, Vangellys b Esfinge, Kráneo, Volcano
Rudos took 2/3
6) Dark Panther, Terrible, Valiente DQ Espíritu Negro, Hechicero, Rey Cometa [Relevos Increíbles]
Hechicero unmasked Valiente, challenges followed.
The second match wasn’t on the orginal card, which seems to be a mistake; six match shows are the standard right now. The main event is the first sign of a feud with both a beginning and end on these shows; both Valiente & Hehicero were definitive about doing the singles match next week.
CMLL (TUE) 06/15/2021 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [Fuego en El Ring]
1) Capitán Cobra, Tigre Blanco, Último Ángel b Conde, Jabalí, Persa
2) El Divino, Mr. Samurai, Reycko vs Bobby Black, Carlo Roggi, Mr. Apolo
3) Explosivo, Flash, Gallo b Infierno, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
4) Panterita del Ring & Panterita del Ring Jr. b Furia Roja & Satánico and Hijo De Stuka Jr. & Stuka Jr. and Felino & Felino Jr.
5) Principe Daniel b Difunto © [OCCIDENTE MIDDLE]
Principe Daniel winning this title seems like something planned for the original announcement of this match back in April. Daniel is Barbaro Cavernario’s brother; Cavernario strangely hasn’t wrestled in his old home arena since the restart. I’m surprised Panterita del Ring got the win in the four-way match.
CMLL posted a video of KeMonito (and Disturbio) explaining the COVID rules for Arena Mexico. It’s great! They should do more of these.
CMLL Informa has Ultimo Guerrero, Euforia, NGD, Blue Panther Jr., Atlantis Jr., and Hijo del Villano III Jr. Those mostly are names from the tournament.
Federacion Wrestling Believes Someday They Will Run A Wrestling Show
Federacion issued a new statement late Tuesday night, saying now that they will soon announce a new date and location for a show, promising it’ll be a similar caliber to the old one, so everyone should just hold on to their tickets. This sounds a lot like they wish to no longer give back money for refunds; the money may be already spent. The Federacion Wrestling show isn’t happening because the person paying the bills (not Rush) no longer wished to lose all the money, so a new show of that level won’t happen unless they find a new person willing to lose money in that spot. People do like to give Rush lots of money, can’t rule it out, but you’re probably shouldn’t hold your breath.
I presume “Federacion Wrestling” at this point is Rush, his family. and other people close to him working on it. There was a never-named money guy who isn’t the money now, and so there’s no show. I don’t know for a fact, so I’m putting the blame on “Federacion Wrestling”, but Federacion and Rush appear interchangeable now that that money guy is gone. There’s a good chance Rush will contradict this when he eventually does talk about the situation, insisting he was hired talent and otherwise refusing to take an L on the situation.
Villano III Jr. announced he was off the Federacion show some 12 hours after the show was already “postponed.” He said it was due to legal issues. “Logistics” and “legal issues” remain a cover story for “pay cuts we didn’t want to take”. At the same time, there’s always a possibility this promotion didn’t have the proper permits and permissions to run a show because at no point did it seem like they knew what they were doing. There was no visible COVID distancing in the seating map, which always seems liked trouble. Still, Rush & Andrade didn’t cancel on the show because of permits, it’s money.
Villano III Jr. wished Federacion well in the future. Everyone who is wishing Federacion Wrestling well in the figure and not being upset about a lost payday suggests those people actually did get some money and they’re being nice to make sure they’re not asked to give it back. I’m not sure that’s the case for everyone; I think the reason Federacion is pushing the idea that they’re still going to run a show is not just for the fans and those refunds, but the wrestlers who didn’t get paid and equally feel like they’re owed money. ROH also can’t be too thrilled about losing their relationship with CMLL over a show that didn’t happen, so it’s Federacion’s interest to say the show is still happening at some point and hope everyone eventually moves on.
Other Notes
Thursday’s IWRG show has Heddi Karaoui & Veneno versus Black Terry & Dr. Cerebro as the main event.
KAOZ has a big show at Monterrey’s baseball stadium on Sunday, though it’s a baseball stadium show more just in name. They’re not using the stadium itself, they’re setting up a ring and normal foldable chairs like any other indie show, just taking advantage of the outdoor space to set up more places. They’re going to have a lot of extra spaces, it’s not selling well. Their ticket website shows about there were about 281 tickets in the first six rows and only 60 of those are sold. They’ve done much better in the cheap seats; no capacity is listed there, but my estimate is probably just short of 400 people have bought tickets there. There are also VIP areas that are super expensive and super unsold. This is not going to be in the stratosphere of the Federacion show in terms of losses and KAOZ will probably run their show and live to promote another day it’s a usual level of failure rather than the epic Federacion has given us. It still feels like a familiar in bringing in a bunch of names, setting expensive ticket prices, and failing because they didn’t have the matches people wanted to see at those prices.
Robles Promotions announced a show for August 21st in Las Vegas, with Dr. Wagner Jr. & Hijo de Dos Caras versus Carlito & Super Beast. Theyr’e using Superbeast’s training place. Alberto and Cina de Oro are scheduled to appear though not wrestle. I presume the real situation is those guys and the promoter wanted to go party at the Manny Pacquio boxing match that night and are running a wrestling show to justify being there, while also being completely oblivious to WWE stuff and not realizing they’re running SummerSlam in a NFL stadium that night as well. Few lucha libre promoters seem even slightly aware of non-lucha libre promotions, if they’re aware of anything beyond their own shows. The Robles show is going to struggle to draw people but they wouldn’t have run Super Beast’s training center if they though it was going to be a draw. The 07/31 show at the Payne Arena is the real test, though Robles running all these events in odd locations away from their base is not a great sign for their long term prospects. Maybe Rush can get to him before the money’s all gone. (The current Ticketmaster Map for that July 31st show displays oceans of unsold blue tickets; that’s another looming fiasco)
The Kung Fu Jr. story took some weird turns on Monday night. His daughter posted a photo of Kung Fu Jr. in a hospital bed to update his condition. Facebook readers noticed it was the same photo Kung Fu Jr. had posted from the hospital in 2020, just slightly cropped. She posted again a few hours later explaining that the hospital doesn’t allow photos to be taken and so she decided to put up an old one. I was coming to the conclusion something sad or bad happened until Kung Fu Jr. returned to post his own video late Tuesday night. Kung Fu Jr. confirmed the general details surrounding his death – he had a heart issue while driving and it led to a car accident – but he was hospitalized and did not die. This whole thing doesn’t completely add up but it has led to good memes.
This week’s Mas Lucha En+Carados was fun for the part where they (and I) were reacting to the Federacion Wrestling show being canceled in real-time. Less fun was the part where the hosts claimed to have no inside knowledge of the situation despite hosting their press conferences and posting other videos on their behalf. It’s probably a good business move to be supportive of promotions even when they fail and never run again, so the next disastrous group who comes along will trust you’ll have their back as well.
R de Rudo has Zona 23 promoter Abel Guerrero, who says he got into wrestling promotion because his father hated wrestling and he wanted to run a show his father would attend. Also, he thought most extreme wrestling was boring and not extreme enough so he sought to fix that. Guerrero claims Zona 23 has won yearly awards for best extreme promotion, which caused me to an extreme lucha libre award show. Joe Lider in a torn tuxedo hosting the thing, celebrity presenter X-Fly, trophy in a shape of a barbed wire bat.
La Hiedra seems to have announced her group with Maravilla & Flammer is named Las Toxicas, though it’s AAA so this name may never make it to TV or they may never team again. They did make them a trio and then have La Hiedra win the trios titles with another two people, who knows.
Pagano had a wrestling match with a special needs kid in Leon.
Vanguardia luchador Gasparin Jr. broke his arm this his past weekend, is raffling off tequila to help pay for medical bills.
Nick Gage is off the GCW/Zona 23 show.
A report on a tribute show to Angel o Demonio mentions he was a bodybuilder before becoming a wrestler.
LuchaWorld has his week’s Poster-Mania.
The most recent Lucha Memes show went up on IWTV.
The Luchadoras documentary is headed to the AFI Film Festival.