Recapped: 08/02/2018
Matches:
Arkángel Divino, Black Destiny, Genio del Aire beat Black Danger, Mirage, Último Maldito
(5:30, Arkangel Divino high speed Mistica on Último Maldito, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Angelikal, Astrolux, Hijo Del Vikingo
(11:12, Mocho Cota Jr. belly to belly suplex Astrolux, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Aerostar, Vanilla beat Chik Tormenta, Parka Negra
(9:48, Aerostar walk up the ropes double springboard frontcracker Parka Negra, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo de LA Park, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown beat Argenis, La Máscara, Máximo
(11:03, Murder Clown top rope splash La Mascara & Hijo de LA Park, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Fenix beat Flamita & Bandido
(14:14, Fenix valaguez powerbomb, Bandido, excellent, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch) )
Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Juventud Guerrera, Killer Kross, Taurus
(9:17, DQ, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
LA Park & Pentagón Jr. beat Pagano & Psycho Clown
(11:48, Pentagon Jr. mask pull Psycho Clown, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
What happened:
Fenix will face Jeff Jarrett at TripleMania. This stemmed from Fenix making a surprise appearance at the start of the show. He was interrupted, after a false start, by Konnan, Juventud Guerrera and Taurus. It appeared Taurus may have been the second person in a week to join MAD off-screen, but he was more specifically there to get beat up by Fenix. Fenix played at joining mad before giving Guerrera a cutter and cleaning house. Vampiro came out to join Fenix, and explained Drago was off the shoulder after fracturing his shoulder back at Verano de Escandalo. (That was June, they’re just acknowledging it now.) Vampiro changed the card around to accommodate that and Fenix being here, and proposed a Fenix vs Bandido vs Flamita three way match where the winner would get to pick their match at TripleMania. Fenix not only quickly agreed, but declared he’d challenge Jeff Jarrett for the Heavyweight Championship when he won. Bandido & Flamita’s ideas for matches were never discussed and were obviously never going to happen the way the segment took place. Fenix won the three-way match to ensure his place on TripleMania.
Pentagon Jr. pinned Psycho Clown in the main event, after the usual run of fouls and referee bumps. LA Park declared he didn’t want to team with any man in this match and proved it by attacking Pentagon late in the match. Penta and Park argued post-match. The result is supposed to make fans concerned Psycho Clown is doomed at TripleMania with everyone beating him, but the Park & Pentagon not getting along (unlike Fantasma & Park previously) gives him a little hope of the rudos fighting among themselves at TripleMania.
Kevin Kross appeared to have Averno defeated via anklelock in that match, and I’m unsure if Averno refused to give up or if Piero refused to call a submission. Either way, Kross went crazy and attacked Piero. Copetes ran in to call a DQ and was attacked again. MAD destroyed the OGTs after the match.
La Mascara & Maximo’s breakup seemed to finally happen, though it wasn’t the only break up to happen. Mascara accidentally superkicked Máximo early on, then was on purpose attacking him for a while. Mascara calmed down until Máximo kissed him again. They argued, with Murder Clown strangely trying to clam it down. Hijo de LA Park & Monster Clown argued with Murder Clown about that, and suddenly Murder Clown was getting into a fight with them. Murder Clown was clearly a técnico by the time the match ended, pinning both Mascara and partner Hijo de LA Park when the match ended. It’s unclear if any if this will stick.
Thoughts:
A much better show than Sunday. If they could’ve combined that crowd with this action, it would’ve been outstanding.
A big difference between LA Park vs Rush and LA Park vs Psycho Clown is Psycho is not as good or as willing to go with what the crowd is giving him. For whatever reason, the loudest portion of the Aguascalientes crowd was anti-Psycho every time his name was mentioned. (They were that way when AAA visited Aguascalientes back in February too if I recall right.) Instead of embracing the boos, Psycho worked so hard to get cheers that weren’t coming. It made the match come off strangely, and the same problem is going to exist at TripleMania. The action was fine if not particularly great. There was a lot of brawling, in a tough building to do it with not much room at ringside and a reluctance to go to deep into the crowd. Psycho does the spear into a corner table bit too often, and the tag team version set up here was super convoluted. Pentagon beating Psycho was the finish that needed to happen but was no guarantee to happen in AAA.
Both MAD and OGT came across much stronger in the semi-main here than in their separate matches in Ecatepec. It’s no great surprise that Averno is going to make Killer Kross seem a lot more impressive. It was as much the work between Super Fly & Juventud Guerrera and the battle of the monsters, Chessman and Taurus, which stuck out to make this match interesting. Some of MAD’s stuff came off as a bit clunky, which worked in the matches favor. OGT should be the better trio machine, they’ve been doing it much longer. The finish didn’t make much sense, but it was more an excuse to have Kross layout a lot of people after. Dropping Vampiro & Konnan on each team is going to change these matches a lot, but at least there’s something interesting at the core.
Flamita versus Fenix versus Bandido would be talked about as a match of the year candidate if it happened in front of a few hundred people in a US indie arena instead of a few thousand people in Aguascalientes. This was the same crowd that was solidly behind La Parka in his title match with Dr. Wagner earlier this year; they are loyal to longtime brand names and not interested in people they don’t see as stars on the same level. These three guys worked incredibly hard and Máximo got a bigger reaction than them in the previous match. It does not diminish the work these guys did – they didn’t wrestle it like it was an empty gym, Fenix was killing himself trying to get the crowd into it – but it did affect the experience of what it was like to watch this match. The match itself was amazing, an athletic display of tough spots with great execution. It was a lot of big moves leading to pinfall breakups, but it never felt like two people fighting and one guy sitting out to the side. It was more two guys fighting and one guy laying dead from something huge that happened before. Fenix was the standout of the three, showing incredible balance on his springboard, but Flamita and Bandido weren’t far behind and made a much stronger impression than their last match. As noted with the main event, the tight area didn’t give them a lot of room to maneuver out of the ring, and they ended up keeping it more inside it for the big spots, which also kept the pace going an amazing speed. Fenix is obviously onto bigger things (and was obviously onto them as soon as they only had him out for the segment to set this up), but I do hope they keep finding bigger things for Bandido & Flamita to do in AAA if they’re sticking around. This match was one of the best AAA matches of the year, but I’m struggling at what to do with it because it didn’t connect with the crowd so much.
The Maximo/Mascara match was just another one of their usual not too interesting AAA matches for a while. It made sense Argenis was involved, that’s the right place for him. Then the bizarre Murder Clown happened. It definitely got over, fans wanted to cheer for Murder Clown beating up everyone, and I fear they’re actually heading to the sure to be rough Murder Clown/Kevin Kross match. It also was hilarious that Murder Clown’s turn got much bigger billing than Maximo/Mascara drama that’s been strung along for weeks. I don’t exactly know what you do with Murder Clown as a solo or Monster Clown at all, which makes me strongly suspect this is going nowhere in the long term. At least this match will have value for a curiosity factor.
Chik Tormenta & Parka Negra were really good opponents for Parka Negra & Vanilla in the tercera. I think Vanilla might be just OK at best, but Tormenta could do enough to keep her offense in tact Parka Negra was right there for Aerostar’s nuttiness. Tormenta & Negra were surprisingly effective as a team in control of the match too. Vanilla has obvious to improve on her dives and her headscissors, but there’s something there to work with. Aerostar had three big spots and nailed them all.
The segunda completely comes down to where you go on missed spots versus spectacular spots. Poder del Norte was off, especially early on. Tito Santana almost ended Hijo del Vikingo with a powerbomb, the powerslam bit with Angelikal went very wrong, and there were other moments didn’t look good. Angelikal might have been hurt on that spot, because he looked off the rest of the way, especially his shooting star press. There’s still a great highlight package, with Vikingo and others doing crazy flying, and thinks like Astrolux’s crazy bump off a dropkick to the floor. This was a bit more even than Sunday’s match, though Poder del Norte still won strong in the end.
The opener was another insane outing from the TJ group, feeling different enough from the last match as not to give the some hope of depth. It also felt about half as long, though that still means they’re packing in twice as many moves as a normal match. Arkangel Divino was more center as the focus this time, with his big moves coming at the highspots spots of the week. The headscissors to the floor might have been the most impressive of all the spots. Genio del Aire flying into the crowd is one way to start a show. This is not at the level of the other match, but it was still pretty worthwhile.
