AAA on Televisa: 2017-08-05 

Mundo moonsault

Recapped: 08/08/2017

Matches: 

Dr. Wagner Jr. beat El Mesías
(7:25, Wagner Driver, ok, via 
luchalibreaaatv )

Psycho Clown versus Pagano had no finish
(9:25, Mesias & Wagner run in, ok, via
luchalibreaaatv)

Johnny Mundo © beat Texano Jr. for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship
(8:48, foul, ok, via
luchalibreaaatv)

What happened: 

I needed an extra GIF and this seemed OK

Earlier, Fantasma tried to talk Vampiro into doing the three way title match. Vampiro explains he already made Texano & Mundo for the title tonight and he can’t change it, but he can make Fantasma referee. Later, Mundo berates Vampiro only to find out Vampiro stripped Taya of the Reina de Reinas title belt. Vampiro threatens to do the same to Mundo, and Mundo threatens lawyers. Vampiro says it won’t matter because “next week”, Texano will beat him for the titles anyway. Mundo isn’t concerned because he has Kevin Kross on his side. Vampiro points out Kross is fighting #1 briefcase now and might be coming for Mundo at any time. (Hilariously, we can see the #1 briefcase sitting on a table nearby.) In the graphics, AAA’s stopped referring to the individual titles and are simply calling Mundo the “Tri Champion”. Vampiro shows up before the match to announce Hijo del Fantasma as special referee.

Texano is more técnico in this match, though he and Fantasma have problems with Fantasma accidentally gets in his way on a dive. Mundo kicks out of both of Texano’s finishing moves on fair counts. Mundo crawls out and brings in a chair, Texano kicks him and grabs it, Fantasma stops Texano from using that chair and pulls it away, and Mundo fouls and cradles Texano while Fantasma is throwing out the chair. Fantasma counts the pin, also missing a tights pull. Mundo makes Fantasma raise his arm after the fact. Texano attacks Fantasma for costing him the match, but Fantasma takes him out. Kevin Kross urns in for no obvious reason, and that’s enough to get Fantasma and Texano stop fighting. Kross still gets with a double clothesline. Mundo comes in to congratulate Kross on a job well done, but Kross gets in his face. (No one has a briefcase here.) Hernandez walks out to argue with Kross, and Mascara de Bronce follows behind to springboard into a dropkick on both Hernandez and Kross. Mundo gets his turn to slam Bronce, then Texano and Fantasma attack Mundo. Neither Kross nor Hernandez make the save, watching from the outside. Mundo’s held in the middle for a lasso shot. Hernandez, Mundo and Kross all leave together even though they were about to fight. Texano and Fantasma argue in the ring and Bronce mostly disappears.

Psycho tope

Announcers discuss the Alvarado’s terrible history in apuesta matches. This time, Mesias’ played nine minutes in, but Mesias actually came out – he came thru the crowd and attacked Pagano. From behind. Psycho just watched as Mesias hit Pagano with the barbed wire bat, then decided to make the save. Wagner runs out, and Psycho Clown stands around doing nothing until Wagner gets there and hits him with a chair. It’s dumb. Both Psycho and Pagano end up bleeding, Pagano bleeding a lot. Pagano should win by DQ for Mesias’ attack, but no decision is ever called. Medics come into take the técnicos away without doing anything to stop the rudos, and get attacked. The técnicos are repeatedly pulled off the backboards and attacked viscously for a while; this is the same bit as in Juarez, but goes on for longer and feels heavier.

Jesus Zuniga announced this match as the semifinal. Even live, it’s not the semifinal – but it was on the poster so I guess he was looking at that. Dr. Wagner is totally a técnico thru the match. Pagano’s music starts to play seven minute in. Pagano is never seen, but Mesias stops fighting to look for him, waits about twenty seconds, and then is easily beat because of the distraction.

La Llave de la Gloria and the annual AAA pilgrimage are talked about in the Noti AAA. They also talk about the Mesias/Pagano rivalry.

Thoughts: 

excessive dive GIFs are the refuge of someone with no good ideas

This wasn’t the greatest advertisement for TripleMania. None of the three singles matches came across as a big deal as expected, and all the matches had underwhelming endings if they even had endings. These matches were supposed to be TripleMania level, but they weren’t as good as Suicide/Bengala last week and it didn’t feel like a big show was coming. The post match attack after the second match was at least a little bit effective, but the title match picture has so many different agendas and none of them are really clicking.

The main event was fine, I guess, and maybe I’m underrating it, but it felt underwhelming considering the guys involved. They working slow wand less impressively than you’d expect with the similar match on Lucha Underground. This was the one of these matches where someone actually trying the moves that actually win matches, only the crowd didn’t seem to care all that much and it never felt the intensity of a big title match. All the different subplots and extraneous aren’t helping the match they’re building at Triplemania; the three way doesn’t feel like the big title match, but the minor one that’s killing time for a PPV cycle before they get to the really important matches (Kross/Mundo? Fantasma/Texano?)

Pagano & Psycho Clown tried to have a straight technical match and it was OK at best. It’s not what either man does well, and looked slow and clunky at times. The crowd wasn’t all that into it, not reacting much to the near falls they were doing. They seemed to like the characters but weren’t much interested in the outcome, or they knew there was not going to be an ending until a finisher or a foul. That turned out right, since this was just a set up to have the TripleMania rudos destroy the TripleMania técnicos, and they cared much more about. The angle was effective but the match itself wasn’t worth seeing.

The opener was a casual singles match that was just doing the safe but not so interesting stuff, and then had the always terrible music finish. Pagano never even actually appearing made Mesias look even dumber, but it’s still a dumb finish. Given that ending, they wisely didn’t seem like it was that important to do all that much in the match. Wagner showed more than Mesias, but this wasn’t a shadow of the TripleMania fight they were redoing here.