Lucha Libre Roundup: LA Park & Rush beefing again, Mecha Wolf 450 to retire, more!

Welcome to the Lucha Libre Roundup with LA Park and Rush exchanging tough words, Mecha Wolf 450 announcing plans to retire, and a breakdown of the current coronavirus situation as it relates to live lucha libre in Mexico.

We’ll start with the big question. When will live lucha libre return in Mexico?

There is no clear answer yet, but it could be soon. On the weekly update of the coronavirus stoplight gimmick to determine when states can open up, Mexico City turned from red to orange. As for the country as a whole, 18 states are orange, while the rest are red. The official tally of active cases is 25,786. Also of note, the land border closure between the USA and Mexico was extended to July 21 for nonessential travel.

The orange light means theaters can open at 25% capacity. Lucha libre arenas fit into that category. At that capacity rate, it is still unlikely AAA and CMLL would hold shows, since they would be losing money. At least, it is one step closer. A yellow light status would bump maximum capacity up to 50%.

Despite these restrictions, that hasn’t stopped indie promotions from running empty arena shows. IWRG got in hot water with the Estado de Mexico Boxing & Lucha Libre Commission. They ran a show on June 14 and the commission suspended their promoter’s license. The license was later reinstated at a hearing. IWRG promised not to run any shows until orange status.

KAOZ, probably the third biggest promotion in Mexico, has started a string of empty arena airings in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. I believe 6 to 8 weeks of shows were filmed at once. Notable results, as reported by Luchablog, are exotico Dulce Canela winning the women’s title off Sexy Star in a three-way with Diosa Quetzal and Dr. Wagner Jr. retaining heavyweight gold against Daga and Blue Demon Jr.

Trouble in Los Ingobernables?

AAA’s version of Los Ingobernables consists of Rush, Bestia del Ring, and LA Park. Konnan is sort of their manager, as he does with any faction intent on destroying AAA. Rush and LA Park made news last year by burying the hatchet of their long feud to become allies. Now, it looks like all is not well in the land of Los Ingobernables.

LA Park was not too happy that no well wishes were sent his way on Father’s Day from Rush, Bestia, and Konnan.

Konnan replied to the video by tweeting a happy Father’s Day. Rush wasn’t pleased about being called out. If Park has a problem with Rush, just say so. If Park wants to talk, Rush is here. If not, no pasa nada. Both of them have rogue temperaments.

It is tough to know if this will lead anywhere. It could be a way to stoke the fire of fan interest for Park vs Rush in mask vs hair for a mega payday in Park’s pocket. There was also a tiny bit of speculation of that match headlining Triplemania XXVIII on August 22. With no new shows at the moment, no storylines have been advanced in AAA. Whatever the case, luchadores sniping at each other over social media is always fun.

Other notes:

• Mecha Wolf (aka Mr. 450) announced that he will probably be retiring from lucha libre.

• The Masks, Mats & Mayhem podcast returned with more interviews (here and here) with Lucha Underground executive producers Skip Chaisson and Eric Van Wagenen. There wasn’t much in the form of juicy tidbits, however, there was plenty of fascinating filmmaking talk about Lucha Underground. Van Wagenen didn’t sound optimistic about a season 5, but that’s no surprise. One idea floated to compensate for a completely different roster would be to set the show in the 1970s as old-school lucha libre. Aerostar would have no problem traveling through time to that era.
• AAA started a cooking show sponsored by a lunch meat company, Nutri Deli. Lady Shani (here) made a ham and pineapple dish, and Dave the Clown (here) made potatoes stuffed with a ham filling.
• If you are yearning for some lucha libre action, CMLL posted their 81st Anniversary show (here) headlined by Atlantis vs Ultimo Guerrero in mask vs mask and AAA posted Triplemania XXV (here) headlined by Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr. in mask vs mask.