Recapped: 08/20/2018
All matches were streamed from Centro de Espectaculos el Carma in Valle de Chalco, Estado de México. It’s an open air venue.
This was all written a couple days after this taping, and well before TripleMania. Some of what I wrote doesn’t make sense now. Some of the stuff AAA did – hey, Vampiro’s career is over again – doesn’t make sense either. It’s a complete package of outdated stuff.
Matches:
Arkángel Divino beat Angelikal, Black Danger, Último Maldito
(8:31, High Speed Mistico on Último Maldito, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo Del Vikingo & Lady Shani beat Arez & Faby Apache
(10:44, disqualification, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Argenis, Golden Magic, Puma King beat Jack Evans, Parka Negra, Tito Santana
(15:24, Puma King casita Tito Santana, good, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Mamba, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata beat Hijo de LA Park, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr.
(12:53, disqualification, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Aerostar, Drago, Pagano
(12:33, OGT slam Drago on the ladder, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
Hijo del Fantasma & Psycho Clown beat Dr. Wagner Jr. & LA Park
(15:40, disqualification?, ok, Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))
What happened:
LA Park insulted everyone before the match including Park. Psycho fires back while Fantasma mocks him. As his trademark, LA Park threw a box of beer bottles at Psycho, then sliced his head with a cracked beer bottle. Fantasma refused to tag in, and Psycho Clown attacked him too after making his comeback. Park & Wagner just sort of disappear for a while, then beat up Fantasma when Psycho throws him in. The match turns into many fouls, and Tirantes giving the match to Fantasma for unclear reasons. It’s partly unclear because AAA finds a way to miss the shot. As annual tradition, Psycho Clown ends up unmasked and in a pool of his own blood in the last moments before TripleMania.
Konnan came out for a promo (with Hijo del Tirantes, who had no reason to exist in this segment and never does anything) after the second match. Konnan guarantees the mega title will be staying with MAD at TripleMania. Fenix interrupts, and says he’s bringing the title back to AAA. Fantasma interrupts, says Fenix is the real traitor for not supporting Konnan and MAD. Fantasma names La Mascara, Rey Escorpión, and Texano Jr. as Los Mercenarios and himself as Lobo Solitario. Mercenarios are still keeping the Ingobernables fist salute. Fantasma challenges Fenix, and suckers him into getting attacked by Texano and Rey Escorpión. Vampiro runs to the ring to fight everyone, gets Texano and Rey Escorpion, but gets attacked by Konnan from behind. (They’re still teasing that match, even if it’s not on TripleMania.) Fantasma gives Vampiro a very safe Thrill of the Kill to end his career for the third time in the last eight months. Fenix is unmasked too, and hysterical about his good friend Vampiro being
A Jeff Jarrett promo aired. It included Jeff Jarrett getting muted when he (seemingly) forgot what Verano de Escandalo was called and called it something else. We just got to hear “Verano…”. The actual news is Karen Jarrett will be coming to TripleMania too. (Edit: She did not.)
Hijo del Tirantes hung out with the rudos the entire fourth match but still give the tecnicos a DQ win. Mascara ran in after and helped beat up Máximo. Parka Negra attacked Hijo de LA Park post-match, after Park had earlier done the same to him. The other rudos seemed confused about which guys they were meant to be supporting here but eventually helped Hijo de LA Park.
In the mixed tag, Copetes attempted to pull Faby Apache off Shani when Apache was (illegally?) punching Faby. Faby shoved Copetes down and continued fighting with Shani. Copetes called the DQ.
There was a video package of Teddy Hart and Taurus highlights, and I have no idea what it was about or why it aired. There was no context to it, or at latter one that sort of featured Juventud Guerrera and Konnan as La Parka and was equally incoherent about what they were trying to say beyond “these guys are bad and are in MAD.”
Thoughts:
Last week’s LA Park mauling of Psycho Clown made for a better match, though it’s hard to top ripping up a man’s forehead with a broken bottle as a violent act. Psycho is not so great interesting when he falls back onto his usual bits but is pretty good as getting utterly destroyed, so LA Park utterly destroying has made for some good fun in the build to TripleMania (and probably after TripleMania too.) The match as a match didn’t work at all, and the finish made no sense except if you start with “make sure Fantasma gets his hand raised but no one really wants to take a pinfall here” and work backwards. It’s a good scene but not a good match.
I didn’t get a lot of out of the semifinal, but it was a lot of Pagano doing stuff and those matches don’t work for it. Aerostar picks his spots and this mostly wasn’t it. Drago is definitely not 100% percent from the shoulder injury and had more messed up spots than usual. It was really weird that there was a ladder in that match for no apparent reason besides Pagano wanted to do ladder match spots this day. You’d think the ladder would build up to the ladder match Aerostar & Drago are actually having. Nah.
I’m getting lukewarm on the Texano/Escorpion team because so much of their matches that don’t matter. They outnumber the técnicos and destroy them for five minutes with chairs in no particular hurry, then they slip up and the técnicos stop selling it all to get in their own chair shots. The crowd gets loud for the comeback but it comes off as a waste of time on screen. It didn’t suddenly get a lot better when they went to more normal wrestling, with the Mamba/Park sequence a struggle. Pimpinela had the better match of the two. Los Mercenarios losing their first match as a named team due to desperation foul was weird.
The tercera didn’t come totally together but still had enough to like to be overall good. There were entertaining action even if it didn’t flow was off, and even if the cameras didn’t see the rudo takeover spot. Puma did alright but fit in better here as a rudo. Tito and Argenis seemed not to be working smoothly. Golden Magic worked thru a few spills to have a positive match. Parka Negra didn’t stand out as much here as in recent matches. Jack’s spot at the end was cool.
The mixed tag was a solid build to the apuesta match. I’m not sure if it’s going to be a big match to the crowd on the day of the show, but they’ve done a better job with it in the last couple months than prior. Shani & Faby seem like they care, seem like they could have a really good match, and seem credible as a secondary apuesta match on a major show. Arez & Vikingo had some great chemistry, and I’d like to see them have a singles match elsewhere. They went from trying to campana reversal spots (as if they lost a bet), to trying insanely convoluted moves at the end. The Spanish Fly out of midair spot they tried at the end would’ve been the spot of the year if they pulled it off. I’m also not sure if it is physically possible or a great idea for their health the way it went. A referee stopping someone from punching in a group where going chairs, tables and copious interference all seems to be fine is a little bit silly.
Último Maldito was the best guy in the opener, holding together a sloppier than usual match. Arkangel Divino was the spotlighted guy, getting the win over Maldito once again, but Divino also looked off at times during the match. (You can be off and still land a step up dive to the floor, it’s weird.) Angelikal looked like the better técnico often, with his salvaged tornillo at the end and eating Maldito’s dive while sitting on a chair. Maldito’s sell of a Canadain Destroyer was awesome, and he was the guy part of the bigger spots. If AAA has a plan for Divino, it makes sense for him to keep winning (and hope he’s feeling better by TripleMania.) AAA rarely has plans so it would be nice for Maldito to get a win at some point.