Recapped: 08/13/2017
All matches were taped in Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon on 07/16/2017
Matches:
Sexy Star defeated Faby Apache, La Hiedra, Lady Shani, Goya Kong and Big Mami to win the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship
(5:14, Sexy Star pin La Hiedra, below average, Lucha Libre AAA)
Aerostar, Drago, Raptor defeated Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker in the AAA World Trios Championship best of 5
Aerostar, Drago, and Raptor lead 2-0
(7:46, Aerostar second rope knee springboard frontcracker Carta Brava, 7:46, good, via Lucha Libre AAA)
Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. vs Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria © for the AAA World Tag Team Championship
(8:33, Cuervo pin Fantasma, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)
What happened:
Shorter version: the last time we saw Kevin Kross, he and Mundo were teasing an imminent breakup so Kross could go after Mundo’s title. This time, Kross is eagerly doing all of doing all of Mundo’s dirty work to help out Mundo. The thing that hasn’t changed is Vampiro is still teasing a match against him, is the only guy who can hurt Kross, and that was treated as a bigger deal than any of the matches currently scheduled for TripleMania.
Sexy Star returned and won the Reina de Reinas championship in a six way match. Sexy Star didn’t receive much of a reaction from the crowd, though ringside fans seemed excited when they finally saw her. (A few people asked me if this was the real Sexy Star when she returned, and I suspect some of the fans were wondering the same thing when the music first played and she was wearing a purple hooded robe that hid her identity.) The match itself was short and designed to give all the woman an equal moment. Sexy did not use a move to get the win, instead stealing Faby Apache’s pin as she went for a moonsault (that she was way too far away to actually land; Goya stopped her anyway.) Sexy Star treated the victory like it was the most surprising and emotional moment of her life. The reaction for Sexy Star winning was shockingly small, and there were audible boos in response.
Sexy tried to cut a promo post match, but was interrupted by Kevin Kross. Kross grabbed Sexy, yelled at her about the belt, and clotheslined her (or tried to, Sexy went down too early.) The announcers explained Kross was upset about the woman taking away Taya’s belt, mentioning Taya by name in a way they wouldn’t normally do if she was really no longer working for the company. Kross took out each woman, set up a table, and attempted to give Sexy Star the same chokeslam thru a table he gave Mascara de Bronce previously. Faby Apache made the save with a chair shot, which received more of a reaction than Sexy Star had gotten winning the title. Faby celebrated too soon and ended up taking the chokeslam thru the table instead. Kross left, and Sexy Star melodramatically checked on her long time enemy, shaking her head unconscious head around.
Lady Shani was revealed to be Sexy Star’s TripleMania challenger in Noti AAA, mentioned the match she won in Aguascalientes (which won’t air for two or three weeks.) She talked about herself in a long interview, threw a couple barbs at Sexy Star, but didn’t come off strongly like a tecnico or a rudo.
The tecnicos are now up 2-0 in the trios title series. Aerostar dove off the entrance set onto everyone during the match.
Fantasma continues to want to be friends with Texano, despite Texano rejecting him a few times. They worked together in their tag title match. Fantasma had Cuervo set up for the Thrill of the Kill when Kross walked into the ring and punched Fantasma. Kross hit Texano too. Referee Copetes saw all of this and did not call for a DQ. Cuervo looked at Kross, concerned he was next, and covered Fantasma when he felt safe to get the win. (That made two of three matches on this show where the winning person just scooped up a pinfall.)
The post match was a dozen things going on. Texano attacked Fantasma for no real reason. Cuervo & Scoria joined in. Fantasma was about to turn it around when Kross hit him as well, then Kross attacked Texano again. Vampiro walked out, went head to head with Kross, did his jacket pull off bit (revealing a Pagano shirt) and tried to clothesline Kross out, only Kross didn’t get over. Vampiro threw Kross out the other side. Fantasma woke up, hit Texano a couple times, and said he’d beat him at TripleMania.
AAA is selling t-shirts – but only at TripleMania. They’ve done this in past years too.
Thoughts:
The tag title match was actually going better than the Mascara de Bronce/Hernandez version of the same match, at least until the quite lame finish. It’s also just following that same concept with these same titles. Texano & Fantasma are doing the same Loony Tunes version of a feud AAA just did with Bengala & Australian Suicide, where they break up hard every match but are back to being possibly friends the next time we see them. It didn’t help with the other guys, it probably won’t help with these guys, but AAA can’t stop doing it.
The idea for this trios series is obviously Lucha Underground, and it’s playing out a lot like the Aerostar/Drago series. Every match is good, I’m left wishing they could go a lot longer, and hopefully they will in the final. Poder del Norte seemed like a much more effective team, controlling the match and keeping the pace going. The Aerostar big dive took an uncomfortable long time to set up (AAA’s gone from bad edits to no edits and there has to be a middle ground), but they did show a lot of replays so it came off more important than usual. Aerostar’s in-ring stuff was more impressive and he came off as the big star of his team.
I did not like the idea of AAA bringing back Sexy Star and I didn’t like the idea of her winning the title back on the first night when it would’ve been easy thing to sell a TripleMania match around. I can still enjoy a good match despite the reasoning around it, but this wasn’t any close to a good match. It was a hurried mess, trying to be nice to give everyone a spot but so rushed that nothing really meant anything. There were a lot of reasons the result didn’t get over, but I think one big one is it was so quick and so inconsequential that most people probably though it was just an elimination and not the total end to the match. Sexy Star stealing a pin was a tremendously flat way to end the match. If AAA believes in Sexy Star enough to do all this stuff to accommodate her, they should’ve put her over so much stronger and made her look like a star of the group. Instead, she was outside selling within 30 seconds of her big reveal so Big Mami & Goya Kong could do spots. This came off like something that was imposed on the people in charge of figuring all this stuff out from above, and they half heartedly carried out their orders while obviously being more interested in the stuff they really care about (Kross). This – the match, the title change, even the post match angle – was a whole lot of drama for no particular benefit.
