Recapped: 05/26/2019
Matches:
La Parkita, Eclipse Jr. beat Mini Histeria, Mini Monster Clown
(9:14, La Parkita top rope headscissors Mini Monster Clown, good, 00:26:06)
Tiger Boy, Lady Maravilla, Villano III Jr. beat Big Mami, Draztick Boy, Niño Hamburguesa
(12:49, Lady Maravilla frog splash Big Mami, good, 00:52:15)
Dinastia beat Flamita and La Parka Negra
(7:58, good, 01:18:12)
Chik Tormenta, Keyra, Tessa Blanchard beat Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Taya
(10:48, Tessa Buzzsaw DDT Taya, good, 01:32:43)
Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr. beat Australian Suicide, Eterno, Súper Fly
(13:33, Vikingo reverse 450 splash Eterno, great, 01:54:48)
Chessman, Daga, Taurus beat Drago, Pagano, Murder Clown
(13:54, Chessman mist/foul Pagano, good, 02:20:12)
Dr. Wagner Jr., Psycho Clown, La Parka, Puma King beat Blue Demon Jr., Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr., La Hiedra
(14:36, Dr. Wagner pin Blue Demon following Galeno del Mal frogsplash, ok, 02:49:17)
What happened:
Dr. Wagner wore a Silver king tribute outfit in his first AAA TV appearance since the death of his brother. Galeno del Mal seconded Wagner. Demon beat up Galeno, setting up Galeno getting involved for the finish.
Daga challenged Drago to a title match, and Drago accepted. Pagano also wanted an extreme match with Chessman.
Eterno replaced Jack Evans, doing the same Demonio Infernal trio character as in IWRG. It’s his first AAA appearance since 2014.
Early in the show, Daga comes out to again say he’s here to win championships and mocks the fans for never having traveled to Europe and not knowing lucha libre. Daga talks about Tessa about being the best women’s wrestler in the world, which gets him interrupted by Taya. Taya comes out to generally get in Daga’s face about his attitude towards everyone and Mexico. Daga does not react well and gets slapped and forearmed to start a fight. Tessa makes the save for Daga. Johnny Mundo is not here to make the save, so Laredo Kid does instead, with Daga & Tessa running out. Konnan points out this is a match happening at Verano de Escandalo. Later, Daga helped Tessa win with a clothesline right in front of the referee
Konnan adds himself to the announce crew for the show, with Hugo Savinovich at AEW instead. La Parkita and Tiger Boy were dropped from the opener. Eclipse Jr. is still Lanezlot. I’ve just noticed the referees are wearing generic shirts instead of sponsored ones, but that might have been going on for a few tapings.
Thoughts:
The usual AAA main event format finished off, with the rudos dominating, the técnicos running thru all their offense, and then madness on the finish. Non match participant Galeno del Mal getting the winning the move was not madness I would’ve predicated but AAA is hard to predict that way. La Hiedra was out of place being the one to catch Puma King’s dive and Texano taking table bumps for La Parka was odd, but they got thru it ok.
Pagano & Chessman featured heavily in the semi-main, which was not great for what I wanted to see. Also wasn’t great how the cameras mostly missed the mist spot; it was a rough day for camera switching again. Announcers heavily pushed a Daga/Drago match and they did a big series late in the match of reversals, but it didn’t come off smoothly. This match did have a lot of big spots that worked well, with Murder Clown continuing to be a highlight worker. Borderline match for me, could see going higher.
The Jinetes del Aire match was their best as a trios away from Poder del Norte. Eterno looked great, helping Myzteziz look so much better than he had in recent appearances. Eterno and Vikingo was a great combination too, and another moment where the crowd totally rallied behind Vikingo. Laredo Kid was a super worker in this one. I’m not sure where he was going with Suicide on the springboard spot but everything else came off tight. Super Fly did well, Suicide didn’t do as much rudo work but his offense kept the match moving when the rudos were in control. This was a fun watch.
The women’s match was really good, something where the trios match just flowed really well to the finish. The rudas worked well together on the control segment. Tessa continued to blend well into the AAA matches. Keyra pulling out a rope flip moonsault was cool. The tecnica comeback got a strong reaction and they hit all their big moves good. The finish of Daga interfering and Tirantes allowing it because he’s evil (not that anyone calls a DQ here) made sense and was a less a direct Tirantes involvement than usual, but it was still weird to people not used to working in AAA. AAA building to the undercard mixed tag is also very weird.
Flamita & Dinastia opened with a beautiful exchange to start their match. It wasn’t really as consistent as that the rest of the way. Flamita shined as being more complete and more polished than his opponents here. Dinastia particularly was up and down all match. The botched flip he did before the stand off Flamita would’ve gotten him killed in front of a harder crowd. This one more was just indifferent. There was good action between Parka Negra & Dinastia leading to the finish and it makes sense for the técnico who is sticking around to get the win, but AAA’s going to miss Flamita when he’s gone.
The mixed match seemed as though it was headed to a handicap match with Hamburguesa being disinterested in participation, but it rounded into a much better match as it went along. Lady Maravilla’s evil plans are finally consistently working for her; it feels like it’s looking to a mixed tag title match and maybe AAA will reshuffle cards to make it happen. Tiger Boy was active in his return to a stream. He took a big bump off a Hamburguesa shot and Villano III Jr. immediately took a bigger one. Villano’s not going to lose his death spot, not when it finally has him winning matches. Draztick Boy had really nothing to do except like a one minute stretch late in the match mostly with Maravilla. He still looked great and got in a Spanish Fly to the floor on Tiger Boy just for fun. Draztick being in the matches Flamita has been the last few months while Flamita returns to Dragon Gate would be good more.
Saying the AAA minis opener was better than all the CMLL minis match this year doesn’t mean really mean much. This match explained the problems. I’m not sure the CMLL minis are any less talented than La Parkita but La Parkita gets to do a lot more than they do and the action moves along a lot better in these matches than the CMLL versions of them. Eclipse looks cooler than Lanzelot and he was on point this one. The rudos kept up well and that match finished pretty excitingly.