As we reported today, because of the pandemic in Mexico, AAA will not have TripleMania XXVIII in August or on a further date.
Nevertheless, Dorian Roldan was thinking about new concepts to have events in Mexico during this crisis. Roldan proposed the same concept with an auto cine (watching movies inside a car) but for wrestling.
The concept will be known as Auto Luchas, which fans can see wrestling, Lucha Libre, through their cars without much contact.
Here’s the report by Lucha Blog:
AAA will be trying different concepts to run shows between now and whenever normal shows can once again happen. Dorian Roldan announced Auto Luchas, a drive-in wrestling concept to take place at Six Flags Mexico. Cars will park in assigned places to watch a show in a ring raised a little higher than usual so everyone can see. There will also be screens set up around the area in case of obscured views. Fans will buy tickets digitally, will be required to wear facemasks, and stay in their cars during the show. Roldan mentioned they’ll be taking all sanitary conditions. (There’s was no specific mention of COVID testing for the wrestlers; Roldan early mentioned no AAA wrestler had tested positive.) Special merchandise will be sold at the shows, including facemasks. Cars will be limited to 4 people for a regular-sized car, 7 for a SUV. AAA will broadcast commentary on radio for the fans to listen in.
There’s no date for the start of these Auto Luchas shows; they’re waiting for the green light from the government to run these. (That may take a Yellow health light, though Dorian mentioning working off health protocols set up by soccer and other sports to get approval.) The Auto Luchas shows will take place on the weekends and multiple times a day; they’re planning to run this basically like a theme park stage show. Matches will be 1v1 and 2v2, tending more towards the singles. There will be no international wrestler due to current travel issues. No prices were announced. Neither was the capacity. Dorian Roldan mentioned AAA is in talks of streaming or airing these shows and talks are positive, but nothing was solid yet. In general, Roldan mentioned empty arena sports – wrestling included – is not profitable for anyone sport in Mexico and so they’d be trying to avoid that direction. Auto Luchas is possible because AAA will make some money from tickets and some from sponsorships, but running something like TripleMania in an empty arena as WWE has done wouldn’t make sense.
Auto Luchas sounds like a reasonable attempt for AAA (and Six Flags Mexico) to make some money. I’m not sure a bunch of cars surrounding a ring is going to look good. Blaring car horns and multiple shows a day probably won’t make for the best environment to watch a lucha libre show, but that seems like a small concern at the moment. It seems almost certain we’ll be able to see these shows; AAA’s in a situation where they’re better off holding off for the best deal they can rather than just putting shows on Twitch for the sake of it, and TV is going to need whatever content they can get. The reality that there’s no start date to Auto Luchas means there’s no urgency in getting that part of the deal done.
AAA otherwise remains as paralyzed by the health issues as everyone else. TripleMania and everything will happen if and only if conditions change, and there’s not much AAA can do about that.
