Recapped: 2019-12-08/17
Matches:
Casandro, Dave The Clown, Demus, Lady Maravilla beat Big Mami, Dinastía, Máscarita Dorada, Pimpinela Escarlata
(10:57, Lady Maravilla frog splash Demus, good, 00:00:00)
Hijo de LA Park, Hijo del Volador, LA Park Jr. beat Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana
(11:06, DQ [Hijo de LA Park unmasked], ok, 00:15:41)
Taurus & Villano III Jr. beat Aramis & Hijo Del Vikingo and Dulce Canela & Octagón Jr. and Cage & Puma King
(10:41, Taurus Rodeo Driver Vikingo, good, 00:30:30)
Niño Hamburguesa beat Mr. Iguana, Abismo Negro Jr., Michael Nakazawa, Súper Fly, Drago, Australian Suicide, Averno, Mamba, Murder Clown, La Hiedra for Copa TripleMania Regia
(18:13, below average, 00:48:35 )
-
- 00:00 Mr. Iguana & Mamba start
- 02:01 Abismo Negro Jr. in
- 03:22 Mamba out (via Mr. Iguana)
- 04:38 Michael Nakazawa in
- 06:12 Super Fly in
- 07:31 Drago in
- 08:43 Australian Suicide in
- 09:53 Michael Nakazawa out (Drago)
- 09:53 Averno in
- 10:38 Drago out (Super Fly)
- 10:54 Australian Suicide (Super Fly)
- 11:18 Nino Hamburguesa in
- 11:55 Abismo Negro out (Nino Hamburguesa)
- 12:10 Murder Clown in
- 13:32 La Hiedra in
- 14:14 Super Fly out (Murder Clown)
- 14:39 Murer Clown out (Averno)
- 15:19 Mr. Iguna out (La Hiedra)
- 17:32 Averno out (Nino Hamburguesa)
- 18:13 La Hiedra out (Nino Hamburguesa)
Taya beat Faby Apache, Ayako Hamada, Keyra, Lady Shani in a AAA’s Reina de Reinas Tournament match
(11:44, Taya double chicken wing front suplex Keyra, ok, 01:13:31)
Kenny Omega © beat Dragón Lee (Munoz) for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship
(19:25, Kenny Omega One Winged Angel, great, 01:28:42)
Rush beat Pagano and LA Park
(19:16, Rush pin Pagano, ok, 01:52:39)
Monsther Clown lost to Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr., Chessman, Blue Demon Jr., Dr. Wagner Jr., Aerostar, Psycho Clown in a cage, loser loses hair/mask
(23:47, ok, 02:21:44)
- 04:57 Dr. Wagner out
- 04:57 Blue Demon out
- 09:22 Psycho Clown out
- 10:20 Chessman out
- 13:23 Rey Escorpion out
- 13:23 Texano out
- 23:47 Aerostar out
What happened:
Demon & Wagner were out first in the main event and continued to brawl. Texano & Rey Escorpion stayed at ringside after they escaped, with Escorpion throwing a beer at Aerostar to stop him from escaping. Psycho Clown ran them off (while getting his broom smash.) Murder Clown & Psycho Clown help unmask Monster Clown after the match. Monster Clown is Rafael Ramirez of Tepeji del Rio, Hidalgo, 43 years old, 23 years a wrestler.
Two people in Pagano makeup ran in the match late to break up a Rush pin on Pagano. They were quickly beaten up and it really didn’t matter much. Bestia del Ring and Konnan came out after, set up a table, and failed at putting Pagano through it twice. LA Park protects Pagano after the match, but Rush & Konnan pitch him on joining Los Ingobernables and taking down AAA. LA Park agrees that he hates AAA and decides to join them.
Konnan, Taurus, and Villano stomped Vikingo after the match. Vampiro apparently fought them off, though we didn’t see that on YouTube due to editing for music rights.
Mamba ran in and attacked Pimpinela in the opener. Dulce Canela ran Mamba off and did a tornillo. Mamba taunted Pimpi & Canela post-match.
Thoughts:
TripleMania was a watchable show but on the weaker end of AAA major shows. There’s something here for you if you’re a visiting fan of Kenny Omega & Dragon Lee, or if you’re invested in finally seeing the conclusion to the Monster Clown/Aerostar feud. There’s not a lot strong here; Guerra de Titanes was easily the better show of the two December AAA events.
There’s no way to recommend a lucha libre cage match and this wasn’t so different from the other ones to change that. It was a good lucha cage match on that smaller scale, with plenty of time given to Monster & Aerostar fighting at the end. The first couple of minutes of action were good until it meandered in the middle with having to kill time before each escape spot. Texano & Rey Escorpion staying friends instead of needlessly betraying each other was nice to see. A straight Monster Clown/Aerostar match would’ve been more interesting because this format really limited the dramatic ending moments until one or two (and one of those Monster Clown was not even involved in.)
Rush & LA Park not fighting much and working together to beat up Pagano made sense for where their story was going. It is hard to justify them trying to kill each other and then agreeing to be partners right after the finish. That still meant this wasn’t a Rush vs LA Park like the past, but a lot of Rush vs Pagano and LA Park vs Pagano with some crossover, which isn’t exactly what the match promised on paper. This wasn’t their best work either; LA Park felt off and had a bad moment with a corner flip spot in the back. The table spot failing twice for the finish was hilarious, so much so it didn’t really take away from the match. The rest of the match just felt like a long set up to the angle they were running after.
Omega continues to put in full effort performances as a guest champion, which shouldn’t be taken for granted. The title match with Dragon Lee didn’t connect with me as much as the Fenix one. The effort was there, it was just harder to believe Dragon Lee had a chance. Omega dominating so much of the early portion of the match made it seem like just a matter of time until it ended. Even when Dragon Lee hit both of his finishing moves, it never felt all that close and that took an edge out. There were still amazingly smoothly executed sequences and it was worth watching, it was just missing a bit of emotion.
The women’s match was the unsatisfying type of multiperson match seen a lot a couple of times on this show. There wasn’t really any story going on, it was just a lot of moves, and the moves themselves were not impressive enough alone to carry it to something interesting. (Some of the moves were not good; it’s amazing Taya’s GTS aired as it did on an edited show.) None of the women really stood out, and everyone’s had better matches. This was fine but there are better things to watch.
The TripleMania Regia battle royal was outright terrible in stretches, especially early on. It reached a level of competency later on but it was never close to being good. There’s no purpose to these matches except to find spots for people who aren’t booked otherwise, but it didn’t feel like they even made the most of the people they had; it felt like the leftover idea with guys who knew they were leftover and might as well not try much. There were also people like Abismo Negro Jr., who might have been trying but still looked bad. He blew multiple spots badly and this is a trend. AAA has plenty of talented people going better they could be putting in that spot – either replacing him in matches or in the suit – and they’d be well within their rights to do it at this point.
The four-way tag resembled the usual four-way junior heavyweight tag matches on NJPW dome shows: there’s was almost a numbing amount of high end stuff done and a quiet reaction to all of it. They just went fast through everything, most of it looked good and little felt like it had time to an impression before something else came thru. It was also non-stop one team breaking up another team’s pin, which made it feel strange when Taurus was able to beat up two people by himself and the other five people had vanished. Watching a match like that and hearing like one person clap after the finish makes it a hard atmosphere to enjoy.
Poder del Norte versus the Parks is an easy skip. It feels like an unfocused indie match most of the way, with neither the AAA rudos nor the Parks showing their best. Hijo del Volador (as Hijo de Remo Banda) doesn’t look good. There are some timing issues late, and the ending stretch is more about making sure all parties are protected than a good match.
I can’t hate any match with fun Dorada & Demus spots, though this relevos AAA was not as exciting as the recent openers. Casandro looked good – the dive was great – but barely was featured. Mami was exposed a bit but still way overdoing her big dive before getting pinned. The Mamba/Pimpi feud seems to be the same thing they were doing before, nothing is done to freshen it up.