Recapped: 08/10/2018
Matches:
Angelikal, Dinastía, Vanilla vs Draztick Boy, La Hiedra, Villano III Jr.
(6:32, Dinastia Spanish Fly Villano IIII Jr., good,Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo Del Vikingo, Iron Kid, Niño Hamburguesa beat Black Danger, La Parka Negra, Low Rider
(8:58, Niño Hamburgesa splash Low Rider, great,Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Ciclón Ramírez, Joe Lider, Juventud Guerrera
(12:36, Carta Brava frogsplash Ciclon, ok,Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo de LA Park & Taurus beat Aerostar & Drago
(5:09, Taurus Driver on Aerostar, good,Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo del Fantasma, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. beat La Máscara, Laredo Kid, Máximo
(7:37, Fantasma Thrill of the Hunt Mamba, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Psycho Clown beat Dr. Wagner Jr., LA Park, Pagano
(18:57, Psycho Clown casita LA Park, good,Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
What happened:
Prior to the match, LA Park tells Wagner he’s only here because he (Wagner) couldn’t defend his mask, and that he’s going to avenge it from Psycho Clown. Wagner, who’s painting his eyes like NJPW Chris Jericho, says the same thing will happen to LA Park. Late in the match, Fantasma came out and hit both Park & Psycho with a chair. He superkicked Tirantes, who recovered in no time to count the pin when Psycho got Park with a casita a moment later. Fantasma didn’t seem particular in caring who lost.
In a stage bit, Hijo del Fantasma refused to acknowledge a young Hijo del Fantasma fan with a sing, because he’s now evil. La Mascara punches Máximo four seconds into the match and works with the rudo team the rest of the way. Mamba runs in after about four minutes, attacking everyone with a chair and apparently becoming a legal person in the match. Texano and Fantasma made peace after the match, which feels like it should’ve been a bigger deal.
Parka Negra and Hijo de LA Park fought after Hijo de LA Park’s match.
Ciclon Ramirez, representing Elite, made his AAA debut in the tercera. Juventud didn’t get along with his partners, and eventually attacked Ciclon to give Poder del Norte the win.
The feed dies during the entrances for the opener, and starts working a few seconds into the match. Vanilla bails back into the ring when on the top rope a plancha to the floor, grabs her leg, waits for Angelikal to do his dive, then clips her knee on the ropes on the way thru. She’s limping the rest of the match, though it’s not clear if she hurt her leg on the tope or abandoning the plancha.
Picudo was honored before the show.
Thoughts:
The Main event started insane and slowed down a little bit as it went on so long. LA Park destroyed Psycho Clown something fierce. Psycho is as willing as Rush to just get beat up by Park in these matches. Rush’s offense just looked a bit more impactful, where Psycho tries to do stuff he can’t quite pull off (like the shiranui here.) This match lost a little bit something rewatching it, but it was still a strong brawl and the cloest AAA seems to be getting to a straight up Psycho/Park match – Wagner/Pagano were non-factors. Pagano is a goofball.
There was a fun comeback sequence the crowd was really into, with cool dives and such. There was also someone not in the match getting pinned, and the crowd kind of flatly reacted to that. I couldn’t look past it either. There were ways to do this whole sequence the same – Laredo could’ve be pinned and that led to Mamba coming out, and maybe even Fatnasma lays out Mamba at the end – that this just felt like a lazy finish. It was also a weird nontraditional way to end a match that otherwise felt like it stuck with a traditional structure. If five people can’t win against two people, then I’m not even sure what the point of having the number advantage is. The dives were cool at least.
The 2v2 match was good while it lasted, though it didn’t last nearly as long as you’d hope. Not sure if other matches went long and this got cut. Taurus with these técnicos is always going to be a good idea. Aerostar’s ideas weren’t quite working, and yet he still did enough of his usual weird flying to remain interesting. Taurus seems to really love being Taurus and plays the character well in small moments. He’s good and yet I don’t think he’s yet been in a match to see the best out of him. Parka Negra fit in well. Drago may or may not be 100%; they kept him outside a lot in this match.
Tercera felt like it went long for a match where the result was made clear the moment Juventud refused to tag in. Poder del Norte had been destroying teams actually working together faster than this, and this seemed more lasting just to allow people to get their moves in. Ciclon Ramirez looked like a major league caliber luchador, while also being less impressive than a lot of the técnicos who appeared on the show prior to him. Taking the pinfall in his first match doesn’t suggest big plans for him anyway. Joe Lider was almost tripped up by Joe Lider’s shirt early on. He did better from there.
The segunda was fantastic. This was the most mixed up lineup they’ve used for one of these – some Llave a la Gloria, some ex-Crash, some indie guys who came in recently, and Hamburguesa who’s been around a long time now – and they all really meshed together well. Vikingo has fit in like a glove with the Tijuana crew. Everyone fitting in suggests someone’s doing a really good job getting these guys on the same page. This one had a good build to a spectacular finish, and also crazy moves all the way thru. I’m not clear what Low Rider is supposed to be now with his new gear, and I’m mostly happy he was able to be a person still in his match after amazingly overshooting a dive. Parka Negra might have been a slightly better rudo than Black Danger. That’s a hard accomplishment, but Negra does some amazing jobs basing for people. The finish felt like the end of a fireworks show, with the only downside being more things going on than you could watch at one time. This is an easy recommendation.
The match times on the openers seem to be cut down on the recent shows, but they’re still fitting in a good amount of action with the time they have. They did some interesting mixing up of usual pairs too. Villano III & Dinastia were really good together, especially for a pair that’s barely worked together on TV to this point. V3 Jr. seems like he’s lost his TV spot for the moment with the Elite guys all coming in; he made the most a rare appearance here. Angelikal & La Hiedra doing a sequence was surprising and Hiedra did well with they laid out. It did contribute to the match in itself feeling a little bit too much as rehearsal, which was evident when Vanilla hurt herself on her dive and had to keep on going because they needed her to set up the comeback. She was definitely intended to be a star of the match and couldn’t pull it off; they may be trying too much with her too fast and it all caught up when she bailed on the first dive. Vanilla did well to finish, but this is another rough performance.
