Day: September 13, 2017

Recapped: 09/10-11/17

All matches aired live from Arena Ciudad de México and then were replayed in various forms.

Matches: 

Ashley, Dragón Solar, Pardux, Solaris beat Bronco González Jr., Chicano, Fetiche, Hahastary in a La Llave a la Gloria match
(6:41, Dragon Solar torito into inside cradle Fetiche below average, via luchalibreaaatv)

The referee gave these guys the signal the start the match, and then they stood facing each other for another five seconds until he gave it to them again; they were so crazy nervous. It showed in the match, which was clearly laid out and practiced beforehand, because they blow spots left and right and just keep on going because they’ve got a schedule to stay on. Even though the wrestlers have run thru the match, the camera people clearly have not and start missing shots from the opening moments of this match all the way thru the night. The sound is also a mess; the only mic that seems on is the one on the mat, so the only noise is the patter of feet running and the thumps of people landing. Ashley’s legs hit the ropes 10 seconds into the match on a dive and it’s a long night for her after that. Pardux look good in his run and the rudos generally seemed to be holding it together as best they could. The técnico side was just kind of a mess, with Dragon Solar having lot of problems and Fetiche getting hurt. This didn’t seem as much a total disaster as it came off live, though it still would’ve been a bad indie match. The judging bit is exposed as a work by talent evaluator Vampiro wandering around at ringside with his back to the ring. All the judges got blank no forms to use, but Faby seemed to write about one sentence and La Parka seems to vanish.

Angelikal, Hijo Del Vikingo, The Tigger beat Ángel Mortal Jr., Tiger Boy, Villano III Jr. in a La Llave a La Gloria match
(7:28, everyone did moves one everyone else, great, via luchalibreaaatv )

Review: [great] A crazy exciting spotfest, with Hijo del Vikingo coming off as the star but everyone looking good. The rudos are sharp and look good in their brief control, but this more about them in the right place and these three técnicos hitting things much better than the guys in the last match. Vikingo’s diving headscissors to the floor would’ve been enough to make his name in most matches but he comes back in and does a bunch more craziness.

This is peak annoying AAA camerawork, as Angelikal does a crazy dive that gets a loud reaction from the crowd, it’s missed live, and it’s missed again in replays. Announcing doesn’t start working until pre-match.

Hernandez, La Hiedra, Mamba, Mini Psycho Clown beat Big Mami, Dinastía, Estrella Divina, Máscara de Bronce
(6:42, Mamba pin Big Mami, good, via  luchalibreaaatv )

The relevos match felt exciting live, and is more just a better version of the usual match. They’re going all out in a way not normal to the match, but it peaks with the dive train and then just finishes up for a few moments. This comes off as much less a Big Mami showcase on the Spanish commentary, since they were just less fascinated by her existence. Hernandez powerbombing Mascara de Bronce on the stage shouldn’t have been missed by the cameras, but it also seems poorly laid out. They really needed the action to stop in the ring for a moment to keep the focus on the spot on the outside. No matter what camera shot we got on TV, the crowd was still going to be looking at Big Mami doing a matrix spot over whatever was happening in the dark with Hernandez and Bronce at the same time.

Sexy Star © defeated Lady Shani, Ayako Hamada, Rosemary  for the AAA’s Reina de Reinas championship
(9:44, Sexy Star cross armbreaker Rosemary, bad, via luchalibreaaatv, )

No.

Monsther Clown & Murder Clown beat Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria vs Aerostar & Drago  and Andrew Everett & DJZ for the AAA World Tag Team Championship
(13:23, Murder Clown splash Cuervo & Scoria, good, via luchalibreaaatv )Arena

Insane the first time thru, and though not as exciting interesting on the rewatch when it’s more obvious how many crazy things don’t go anywhere. You can see how they packed it with action and then switched to a bunch of Clown focused run-ins when it came down to actually do finishes. It’s weird how long it turns into a La Secta versus a million Clowns match at the end. Raptor, Drago, Aerostar, DJZ and Everret all do their dives and then cease existing for about two minutes.

I’m kind of two minds on the Aerostar dive. It was incredible. It totally distracted from the rest of the match for the time (2:51) he was up there. Some of that is on the camera people not knowing the cue, but people were going to be paying attention to him no matter where the camera was shooting. It was also the big eye catching moment this match needed. It had a ton of cool spots, so many that they collapsed on each in memory, but it wasn’t building toward s a moment otherwise.

I like how Poder del Norte decided to wait until everyone was dead and couldn’t really do anything to attack. It’s good thing Dave the Clown’s interference was so ineffective or Marty would’ve never had a chance to also join the clowns.

La Parka won Torneo Triplemania
(26:17, Parka inside cradle Averno, bad, via  luchalibreaaatv)

• 00:00: Lanzelot IN
• 00:00: Heavy Metal IN
• 00:00: Ricky Marvin IN
• 00:00: Faby Apache IN
• 00:00: Australian Suicide IN
• 00:00: Pimpinela IN
• 01:05: Super Fly IN
• 01:05: Averno IN
• 01:05: Chessman IN
• 02:42: Psicosis II IN
• 02:42: Histeria II IN
• 02:42: Maniaco IN
• 04:18: Scorpio Jr. IN
• 04:18: Zumbido IN
• 04:18: Decnnis IN
• 05:38: Ricky Marvin OUT (thrown out)
• 05:41: X-Fly IN
• 05:41: Halloween IN
• 05:41: Mr. Aguila IN
• 06:10: Decnnis OUT (Faby Apache cradle)
• 06:24: Lanzelot OUT (quit when Perros come in)
• 06:24: Heavy Metal OUT (quit when Perros come in)
• 06:24: Faby Apache OUT (Averno Devil’s Wings)
• 06:24: Australian Suicide OUT (quit following Faby being pinned)
• 06:24: Pimpinela OUT (quit followed Faby being pinned)
• 06:24: Scorpio Jr. OUT (quit a while after Decnnis gets pinned)
• 06:24: Zumbido OUT (quit a while after Decnnis gets pinned)
• 07:34: Joe Lider IN
• 07:34: Niño Hamburguesa IN
• 07:34: Crazy Boy IN
• 08:54: La Parka IN
• 08:54: Argenis IN
• 08:54: Bengala IN
• 08:57: Niño Hamburguesa OUT (pinned by Perros del Mal)
• 08:57: Crazy Boy OUT (quit match)
• 09:43: X-Fly OUT (poses on apron and leave)
• 09:43: Halloween OUT (poses on apron and leave)
• 09:43: Mr. Aguila OUT (poses on apron and leave)
• 09:43: Joe Lider OUT (poses on apron and leave)
• 10:35: Histeria II OUT (Argenis face crusher)
• 10:35: Maniaco OUT (Bengala back cracker)
• 10:35: Psicosis II OUT (left when his partners were pinned)
• 10:42: Pirata Morgan IN
• 10:42: Blue Demon IN
• 10:42: El Cobrade IN
• 12:58: Bobby Lashley IN
• 15:40: Moose IN
• 17:14: Jeff Jarrett IN
• 17:57: Bobby Lashley OUT (dropkicked out by Moose)
• 17:57: Moose OUT (pulled out under the bottom rope)
• 22:50: Jeff Jarrett OUT (Parka DDT)
• 23:16: Pirata Morgan OUT (Super Fly casita)
• 23:16: Blue Demon OUT (quits)
• 23:16: El Cobrade OUT (quits)
• 23:53: Bengala OUT (Averno dropkicks out)
• 24:11: Argenis OUT (Super Fly & Chessman toss)
• 24:55: Super Fly OUT (shoved out by Chessman)
• 25:50: Chessman OUT (foul by Averno)
• 26:14: Averno OUT (La Parka cradle)

This match, especially the strange way AAA had decided to do it, requires a lot of attention to detail. AAA is brutal at attention to detail, always has been terrible at it and shows no sign of ever getting better. I think the idea of doing trios was to get people in the match quicker and keep it moving. They definitely succeeded at getting people in, but they needed to get people out too. They didn’t. Ricky Marvin is the first person out after the ring already has 12 people, there’s 17 people in the match by the time Decnnis is gone. The camera guys are missing shots left and right, but it’s also an unfilmable disaster with that many people, and impossible for the people in the match to navigate. What actually happens is Faby gets pinned too, then the Perros make it to the ring, they sweep a bunch of teams under the bottom rope, and those people just walk out and don’t come back. Whoever put this together the first part seemed to be working on the idea that the entire team is out when one person is being pinned, and about half the eliminations are people just leaving as if that’s the rule. It couldn’t have been the rule, because the final sequence is all about La Parka surviving 3 on 1, and he shouldn’t have been in the match as soon as Bengala was knocked from the ring. Jeff Jarrett should’ve never come to the ring, because Moose dropkicking Lashley out should’ve eliminated the lot of them.

Jeff Jarrett should’ve also never come to the ring for the very obvious visual reasons. The match is a lesser concern, but it really suffers for him into it. He takes two and half minutes to make it to the ring, longer than some people were in. The match itself stops for longer, as Jarrett punches and fouls everyone in the match. And then Jarrett punches and fouls everyone again. It came off like he missed a cue or someone was supposed to cut him off, but who knows what was going thru his mind. They really should’ve made it the finish, and maybe it was in some iteration of the match, because the rest of the match has to cease existing for seven minutes – any time gained by speeding things up earlier is totally lost, and so is the match. You can tell the actual finish was put together by the people involved, since it’s carefully booked in way that makes sense, a courtesy they couldn’t extend to something else.

(The communication is so bad here that the lumberjacks also walk out of the match early. It’s seems a fair guess the bit with the GFW guys coming out separate was a last minute call – a favor to GFW to make a bad match worse so they could run their Lashley/Moose break up with the least bit of interference – because Polvo rounds up the lumberjacks and gets them out of there after Lashley enters, ‘knowing’ that team is supposed to be the final team.)

This was a terrible match. It’s worse than the Reina match, because at least AAA’s taken the minimum possible step (no Sexy Star, for now) to make sure that won’t repeat itself. AAA’s going to run a couple of these type of multiman matches next month and there’s no reason to believe they’ll try any harder. The sections with the people in charge will make sense, but only after enough dumb stuff that everyone’s stopped caring.

Pagano and El Mesías street fight ended in a no-contest
(16:14, ref stop?, below average, via luchalibreaaatv)

I guess the question here is if AAA had already decided to do the death match on the next show (likely) and then decided that they could get by without blood on this show. That would’ve been a poor decision (but also an unlikely one, since restraint never seems like something AAA is big on.) The days where Mesias can carry a long match without at least a bit of smoke and mirrors seem to be long gone. Pagano never had those days. Their feud had been built on a barbed wire bad and heavy amounts of blood, and they delivered one bat hot and no blood. Pagano’s popular but not sympathetic, can’t sell and isn’t really that interested in it anyway. Those big Mesias matches were built on both men surviving big moves, but there’s no sense of surviving, it’s just tings that happened until the next thing that happens, and a lot of punches to the face that don’t seem to budge either man inch. The crowd is bored by the time they get to near falls. The injury looks like a work on rewatch, mostly because AAA is never so quick to send someone down when someone is truly hurt, and the AAA doctor would’ve had to be standing right next to the entrance set to get down as quick as he did. It just doesn’t make any sense, like Rey Escorpion’s run in and the rest of the match.

Johnny Mundo © defeated  Texano Jr. and Hijo del Fantasma in a TLC Championship to keep the AAA Trichampionship
(22:04, belt grab, good, via luchalibreaaatv)

More of a coherent story wrapped around the spots than any other matches, though it’s noticeable how much the story doesn’t move at all. This was the time to pull the trigger on something. Bronce getting more involved than a simple run-in, the Fantasma/Texano dynamic changing, Kross betraying Mundo – and it would’ve been the same thing they’ve done on TV for months if not for the ladder stip. Maybe more blood there too, though the blood is so much and so early that it seems like not a big deal by the end. They do make a whole lot of use of the ladder and the tables, taking big bumps to make the stipulation meaningful, and Fantasma’s leap over the ladder for a forearm was really well done. This did a much better job of living up to the idea of the match Pagano/Mesias and it held together as good as anything on the undercard.

Psycho Clown  beat Dr. Wagner Jr. in a mask vs mask match
(28:42, code red, good, via  luchalibreaaatv

I was kind of bored rewatching this, which should not be the case if it’s a legendary must see match. I’d have it as Great live and was just not as interested in it. There’s a bigger problem here than my short attention span.

Psycho is pretty much exactly as good as good as he’s been since he was still regularly part of the trio. He hasn’t grown much over the last three years. This match had the same long rudo section followed by a comeback as the Texano match had, as the Pagano match had. Psycho Clown is probably better than La Parka was at his peak, but he’s already figured out his formula. It’s hard to believe his TripleMania (or general big) matches will ever be better than this, and the ceiling is not really that high. He’s not the only one not showing growth – neither Fantasma nor Texano have shown a lot of growth over the last few years – but Psycho’s the one who the company has hitched the next decade around and it shapes up to ten years of limited matches.

There was never any choice between, say, Fenix and Psycho, but part of me wonders if maybe there’d be a higher ceiling, a much more interesting promotion if AAA had made different choices about who to hitch their wagon to. The rest of me realizes 2017 Fenix wouldn’t be 2017 Fenix if he had spent the last year wrestling in AAA than the rest of the world, and maybe the problem isn’t as much with Psycho Clown as AAA.

Recapped: 08/29/2017

All matches were taped at Palenque de la Fiera Nacional De San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes on 07/27/2017

Matches: 

Bengala won a battle royal over Australian Suicide, Venum, Máscara de Bronce, Niño Hamburguesa, Murder Clown, Monsther Clown
(6:53, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA )

2:12 Mascara de Bronce thrown out
3:52 Venum thrown out
4:45 Australian Suicide thrown out
5:46 Niño Hamburguesa thrown out
6:04 Murder Clown thrown out
6:53 Monster Clown thrown out

Argenis, La Parka, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin beat Averno, Chessman, Pirata Morgan, Súper Fly
(5:50, Lanzeloth pin Super Fly, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA )

Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. beat Johnny Mundo & Kevin Kross
(8:15, Fantasma cradle Mundo, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened: 

Noti AAA actually has names and photos of all the people in La Llave a la Gloria, which would’ve been something helpful to see before the event. Heavy Metal and Los Perros del Mal are interviewed about being in the Torneo TripleMania and there’s scenes from the pilgrimage.

Once again, Texano & Fantasma had no problems with each other to start the match. They lasted the whole way thru this time, with Mundo being distracted after putting Texano thru a chair and Fantasma cradling Mundo for the win. Texano flipped a switch and went back to hating Fantasma as soon as the match was over, but didn’t attack him this week.

No one seems bothered by Pirata betraying the OGT the last time we saw him, but Averno does accidentally foul Pirata while trying to take out Lanzeloth. (Pirata weirdly kicks at the same time, and they cut in a way where it’s tough to know what happened except for Pirata’s selling.) The OGT attack Pirata for losing but Parka scares them off. The técnicos angry at Ricky Marvin in his last appearance disappeared here.

Mascara de Bronce is actually wearing bronce this week. The idea was the last person left would be last in Torneo TripleMania. That didn’t happen. In real time, we already knew Niño Hamburugesa and the Clowns were in other matches, and not Torneo TripleMania.

Thoughts:

Just a total irrelevant show, feeling even more so watching it after TripleMania. The only things that really mattered where the plugs for the mask match airing later, and I was surprised they didn’t more of them.

The main event was not really an interesting match, but one where they were over just being out there so it’s hard to blame them for not doing a lot. The small ringside area and small barriers to the front row seemed to convince them to cut the dives for the night too. They worked US tag style, which Tirantes took as having to make sure Texano didn’t get in – only, he missed counting pinfalls because he was keeping Texano out. That didn’t seem to be the plan. It also made it silly late when they match completely broke down fir the entire second half.

The semimain was nothing much of a match, with not a lot of time and most of that spent with La Parka comedy. I barely noticed Ricky and Argenis in the match, they got so little of it. The one spot Lanzeloth did with Averno was good. No one seems to paying attention to this OGT/Parka/Pirata angle, especially not the people involved in it.

The battle royal here was better laid out than CMLL one and the crowd cared more about this one than they ever have for a CMLL one, but it was still not much good. Some really slow looking eliminations and bad looking eliminations, not much action good in between. The idea here was the técnicos couldn’t do anything against the big guys without teaming up, which meant a lot of cool stuff was stopped halfway thru and the Clowns mostly dominated things.