AAA TV (WED) 03/18/2015 Auditorio Benito Juárez, Zapopan, Jalisco [AAA, internetv, MT (main), MT (RdR), MT (rest), R de Rudo, SuperLuchas]
Rey de Reyes, 2015
Show began with a tribute to Irma Osorno, and the show was dedicated in her honor.
1) Ludxor & Venum b Carta Brava & El Apache
Bonus match 1. Ludxor pinned Apache after a top rope armdrag and a splash in about 10 minutes. Good match.
2) Faby Apache, Mascarita Sagrada, Pimpinela Escarlata b Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Taya Valkyrie
Bonus match 2. Pimpinela cradled Mini Abismo after the usual Hijo del Tirantes attack. Fantasma, Pentagon and Joe Lider immediately beat up the tecnicos after the match. Pentagon threatened Rey, while Fantasma said he’d beat Fenix.
3) Bengala, Drago, Súper Nova b Daga, Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Súper Fly
Drago defeated Hijo de Pirata with mist in the eyes and his usual cradle (Dragon’s Tail on Lucha Underground).
4) Hijo del Fantasma © b Fénix [AAA CRUISER]
Great match, with Fantasma surviving Fenix’s Fire Driver and using it himself for the win. Fantamsa’s third defense. Fantasma insisted on handshake after the match, but Fenix wasn’t down with it. Fenix accepeted – only for Fantasma to attack him a few seconds later. Dorian, Konnan, Taya and Perro came to the ring to brag and congratulate Fantasma. The rudos eventually started to attack the tecnicos again, and Rey Jr. appeared to make the save. Announcers were sure Rey was joining the Fenix/Myzteziz team.
5) Blue Demon Jr. b Villano IV
Replaced a canceled Alberto del Patron vs Brian Cage match. An echo of their match from last year, though they seemed to get more time and had a slow start as a result. Their punching woke the crowd back up. Both men bled and brawled. Demon submitted V4 for the win. They challenged each other to another match – a mask one – someday. Money thrown in.
6) Angélico, Jack Evans, La Parka Jr. b Averno, Chessman, Cibernético
La Parka replaced Blue Demon Jr., but Demon lent a hand (or a chair shot) to beat Cibernetico. Mesias immediately ran out to attack the tecnicos, leaving them destroyed and taking Parka’s mask.
7) Texano b Aerostar and Psycho Clown and El Mesías [Rey de Reyes]
Aerostar got in the dive from the light tower again, but was eliminated first by a Mesias spear. Parka attacked Mesias, leaving him for a Psycho powerbomb to eliminate him. Psycho & Texano had a long fight, playing off their TripleMania match. In the end, Maya stopped counting Texano down on a Canadian Destroyer, then fast counted to give Texano a win.
8) Myzteziz & Rey Mysterio Jr. b el Hijo del Perro Aguayo & Pentagón Jr.
Good match, with Rey looking good in his return. Mysterio and Myzteziz did a couple of double dive spots. Rey beat Pentagon clean with a Canadian Destroyer. No Myzteziz/Perro angle.
Air Date: the iPPV VOD is up now. It looks like it’ll air 03/28 and 04/04, but some matches may be cut.
Enrique and Oscar have an audio review as well.
Show is worth watching, however/whenever you do. I think I’d go good, ok, good, great, great, ok, great, good but I reserve my mind to change my mind later. Rey Mysterio looked healthy and worked great with Pentagon Jr., who going to be a main eventer here for the foreseeable future because he’s so good with both these tecnicos. (Either that, or his performances in Lucha Underground, has also earned Pentagon a lot of mic time he was not getting prior.) The performances were exactly as expected. Even the Villano IV/Blue Demon Jr. match, as slow as they were moving at times, was likely better than Cage/Alberto if Alberto is as limited as believed.
The story of the show is still going to be the delays, the bus accident, and the small crowd. The arena felt between 20-33% full on video and sounded cavernously empty at times. (The post match of the sixth match, where chair shots to table echoed around the arena, felt like a low point.) The fans that were there got into the big matches, making the most noise for Rey Mysterio at the end of a long four hour show, but it was not what it was hoped to be. People were just not willing or able to attend an AAA show for the third time in a week, or one on a Wednesday night. The show was hurt without the energy of a full, or even half full arena. Maybe if this ever happens again, the decision should be to move to a smaller building. May this never happen again.
The problems with this show create a dilemma for TripleMania. AAA announced no TripleMania date, location or match, and didn’t even hint at any of those things – they wanted the focus on Rey Mysterio getting the win in his first match back. Still, the last match they were teasing was Myzteziz & Perro Aguayo Jr. They would easily sell out Arena Ciudad de Mexico, a 20K seat arena, under a normal pricing scale. There are much bigger arenas available in Mexico City, but they are all outdoor venues. Can they now try running a 30-50K seat bullring, risking another rain out? Do they now raise prices to TripleMania as high as CMLL raised their Anniversary show prices? There’s no good answer. (FWIW: If you scroll halfway down this page, it looks like March is actually the driest month in Guadalajara, with a 95% chance of no rain. Mexico City is much stormier during the late summer.)
Wherever TripleMania is held, it’s safe to buy on iPPV. The feed got a little bit iffy during the first half of the Rey de Reyes match, but was completely fine the rest of the night. Even the 3D worked fine, though maybe the mat wrestling section of Villano IV versus Blue Demon Jr. wasn’t the most exciting time to try it. Much like the free show they did, it was simply a live feed of their TV taping stream with no added presentation, but that was good enough.
The show was troubled by the usual quirks of AAA’s booking. There were three heel beatdowns after tecnico wins in the first six matches. Looking back, the first one after the third match appears completely unnecessary. It was just there so the rudos could do promos, the same they could’ve done in backstage at some other point. The Rafael el Maya cheating didn’t fit with the rest of the match, clearly only happening because they wanted a way to protect both guys and weren’t as concerned with it making any sense. (It’s also odd they felt they needed to protect Psycho Clown in that way when Fenix had his finisher kicked out of and then used again him for the loss. Those were two different extremes in definite results on the same show – maybe different people deciding the finish.) There’s nothing new about any of this, it’s the part of the package at this point.
It feels a bit cruel to be critical for this show. This was supposed to be a celebration, it ended up a tragedy. The memorial prior to the show was so sad that it was hard to watch. The show went on, because it had to go on and maybe it was a good distraction. It’s two weeks until the next taping; hopefully the break does everyone some good.