Recapped: 10/26/2019
Matches:
Dinastía © defeated Laredo Boy, Mini Psycho Clown, Demus, Drago Kid to keep the AAA World Minis Championship
(9:00, Dinastia rana Psycho Clown, great, 00:22:59)
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Nino Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, Octagón Jr.
(8:41, Cota frog splash Mr. Igauna, 8:41, good, 00:43:56)
Bengala, Big Mami, Dinastia beat Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Último Maldito
(11:11, Bengala high speed Mistica, ok, 01:05:47)
Drago, Murder Clown, Puma King beat Abismo Negro Jr., Súper Fly, Texano Jr.
(9:30, Puma King Code Red Abismo Negro Jr., ok, 01:30:38)
Taurus beat Hijo Del Vikingo, Arez, Aramis
(13:50, Taurus Rodeo Driver Aramis, great, 01:51:33)
Pagano, Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown beat Averno, Chessman, Rey Escorpión
(19:06, Psycho Clown Torito, good, 02:18:12)
What happened:
Pentagon Jr. issued an open challenge for the tag team titles. Los Mercenarios beat him (and the other tecnicos) up after the main event, with Texano & Escorpion seemingly wanting that rematch.
Lady Maravilla attacked Big Mami after the match. Nino Hamburguesa made the save. He even attacked Lady Maravilla, though he was conflicted about it. Mami challenged Maravilla to a hair versus hair match. (Mami would later explain she didn’t want to force the public to see Maravilla’s ugly face by challenging for a mask.) Maravilla rejected the idea. Mami also wanted a rematch for the tag team titles, but told Hamburguesa he wouldn’t be her partner.
Laredo Boy (Freelance) and Drago Kid (Astrolux) were surprise wrestlers in the opener. Dinastia worked twice, replacing Maximo the second time.
Piero was wearing a personalized InvadingNY shirt, a show he didn’t end up getting to work.
Thoughts:
The main event didn’t vary from the usual form. They’ve just got better people doing it nowadays. Well, not all better people, Pagano did some Pagano stuff, but the rudos are really good and the other tecnicos are watchable. Near 20 minutes is a bit too long for this but it was entertaining while it happened.
The four-way was super. They went for everything here, a bit to their determent. They had trouble keeping up with their own setups. It stuck out early on, where it was clear what they were going for but also clear they didn’t have the timing to pull it off. There’s no reason to discourage the idea of innovation, but a little less of it might have made this match go a little better. Vikingo looked healthier than on Copa TripleMania, even if he ended up still needing medical attention at the end. He wasn’t coming up short as often, and he was fluid with what he was doing. Aramis & Arez being small dudes helped Taurus look like even more of a monster. Arez did well, though some of his spots may have worked better in a singles match where they had time to sink in rather than this fast-paced multi-man match. Aramis’ tope looked great and his big moves are slowly getting over to the AAA crowd. If AAA had a highlight package of spots to show at every show, the Vikingo moonsault off the guardrail should be on all of them. (But only as long as he doesn’t do another one for six months, and it doesn’t turn into the CMLL ramp dives.)
The fourth match didn’t stand out among wild matches. There was action and it was easy to watch, but it was a lot of these guys running their usual bits along with a couple of off moments. (There was a Puma/Abismo spot that didn’t go well. This and the trios preceding it were fun live and maybe nothing you need to see later.
The Mami led trios was enjoyable if not novel; the storyline progression was more interesting than the match. It held together well. The Bengala/Maldito bits were the same ones as always, were the more memorable part of it was Bengala taking out a fan in the process of his dive. Keyra/Dinastia were fine but there’s better stuff of them recently. This was a borderline match, though one helped a lot by the crowd.
The Poder del Norte match was fun in the usual fashion for them. The tecnicos got in a good run of offense before being mowed down by the rudos. Octagon Jr. looked better here than against designated opponent Abismo Negro Jr., which is strange. Mr. Iguana’s character fit better in AAA in this match than his debut. Poder del Norte seem to be an extended holding pattern; wish AAA had the foresight to give them the trios titles at TripleMania so both they and the belts would have something to do.
The minis match was all action, just lots of moves in a short period of time. Adding Laredo Boy & Drago Kid is amusing in isolation, but they and Demus give Dinastia so many good opponents to work with than he had before. The two Mini Parkas, Octagoncito and maybe Mascarita Dorada are out there too. This division seemed pretty much done a year ago and now there’s enough depth to have good matches on every show. Neither Drago nor Laredo did a whole bunch to hide their identities, the same as we’ve seen with all the new gimmicked people. That worked fine here, seeing a masked Freelance and a re-gimmicked Astrolux do the usual is fresh given how rarely they’ve been around. Demus seems significantly more motivated to than he was at the end of his CMLL run, and also seemed to catch all the dives.