AAA Lucha Fighter (1×1): 2020-04-18

#1

Recapped: 2020-04-18

Dinastía beat Octagoncito
(8:49, Spanish Fly, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Laredo Boy beat Drago Kid
(6:50, springboard moonsault, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)

La Hiedra beat Hades
(6:19, sit down powerbomb, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Hijo Del Vikingo beat Mamba
(7:40, Cuerno de Vikingo, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Mr. Iguana
(6:35, front slam that’ll we’ll pretend was the Wagner Driver, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

Texano beat Dave The Clown
(6:10, piledriver, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)

Psycho Clown beat Drago
(8:14, sit down powerbomb, good, Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened:

Wagner one-armed powerbomb

Lucha Fighter is a limited-run series featuring men’s, women’s, and minis tournaments. The show will include 16 men, 8 women, and 4 minis. Both Wagner and Mamba were surprised. Pagano, Chessman, Nino Hamburguesa, Octagon Jr., Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr. and two more yet to be announced wrestlers are left to compete on the male side. Lady Shani, Big Mami, Faby Apache, Lady Maravilla, Keyra and Vanilla are left for the women.

These are believed to be single-elimination tournaments – the idea that the winner would advanced was mentioned after matches – but there was no explanation of the overall concept. (The minis tournament may instead be a round-robin tournament or be just about over, it’s not immediately clear.) There was a lot of emphasis on having fan votes determine the matches. A Facebook poll set the Mamba/Hiedra match and the men’s matches were determined by YouTube poll results through the night.

Dr. Wagner appeared as a surprise at the start of the show, announcing his return to AAA. (He’d been gone 108 days.) Mr. Iguana tried to pick up Hiedra after her win and met no success.

This was the first of four shows from a closed set – a TV set or a warehouse judging from the ceiling. AAA showed the set being fumigated before the show and the ring cleaned in between each match. The two announcers for the show sat at opposite sides of the entrance set. The referees and ringside personal all wore masks and gloves. There seemed to be a half dozen people standing behind the hard camera when that side very occasionally made it on air.

Thoughts:

Psycho Clown cutting a corner

This was a positive show. I’m not excited about these types of shows for both health and quality reasons, but they did as well as possible with both. It did seem as though they took the health concerns as well as possible for something that still is a professional wrestling show. The quality was helped by keeping matches under ten minutes, keeping the show under two hours, and setting up an environment where it felt like the noise was bouncing off the close walls rather than overpowered by the stillness. Nothing was exceptional – a factor as much of the odd matchups as much as the environment – but it was still an easy watch.

Drago & Psycho meshed well despite not having a great dynamic. Psycho was among a few guys who play to the crowd a lot as part of their normal matches and had to adjust. He didn’t have too many problems with that adjustment. (He also was really good at finding the camera to play to it instead; don’t let WWE find out.) I would’ve liked to see Drago in a different match but a tournament of Pyscho Clown singles matches could be pretty fun.

The dynamics between Texano & Dave the Clown didn’t really work. It didn’t work as a hard-hitting enough match to make the rudo/rudo bit work, and neither was much of a tecnico. The piledriver at the end looked bad for old Dave.

A fun thing about this tournament, like the Lucha Capital shows, is it provides a lot of non-tag matches to a promotion that’s 90% tag. There’s going to be twenty-eight singles matches by the end if AAA follows this out in a normal pattern, and it is unlikely there will be 28 singles matches on normal AAA TV the entire year. (There were 18 last year.) Even in a promotion full of singles matches, it’s unlikely AAA would get around to do a Wagner/Iguana match. This tournament gave us that Wagner/Iguana match and so it justified itself. The match was not the greatest match ever and Wagner was a tired doctor by the end, but the rest of the match was everything you’d want out of the matchup. Wagner sold for Iguana for his submissions, Wagner went along with Yeska spots, Wagner generally made Iguana feel like a bigger deal just by being in there with him while still putting him away fairly at the end. Wagner generally did a lot more in this match than he had in his last few AAA matches – I guess you can’t just sell and look at the crowd as much when there’s no crowd – and that might have contributed to the last couple of spots not going well. It was still a fun interaction from two people unlikely to interact even in AAA.

Hades tornillo just gets there

The Vikingo/Mamba clash, but it was really just nice to see Vikingo do Vikingo things again. He was on point, even landing the Cuerno de Vikingo cleaner than usual. Mamba had a lot of size over Vikingo but didn’t really use it during their control part of the match. Mamba wasn’t a negative but didn’t add a lot.

I think Hiedra/Hades have a better match in them a couple of years now if they’re still at it, but this was enjoyable for a random tournament match. Hades and Hiedra messed up the first big high spot they tried, though they got it back a bit with the two dives. Hades still needs the right situations to look good and singles matches may be pushing it. Hiedra impressively destroyed Hades in the end.

Laredo Boy and Drago Kid was rough, though it has some moments. Drago Boy seemed to come short on dives and catching them, and there were some spots that didn’t go well. Laredo Kid versus Dinastia looks like the match of this group. This seems like a decent experience for Drago Boy even if the matches don’t turn out great.

Dinastia & Octagoncito had a lot of spots. It held together well enough for being two tecnicos, but they weren’t really didn’t have any direction. Dinastia is good enough to make Octagoncito interesting, but the best comes out of him with a rudo. Four tecnicos in this tournament is a bit of a limitation in styles.

AAA TripleMania Regia: 2019-12-01

life is rough for Chessman

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:

doom (also doom for me since they uploaded the show in 24 fps and I didn’t adjust)

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:

Aramis & Vikingo have combos!

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.

avoiding GIF-ing Omega/Dragon Lee because that seems well trod by now but had to GIF the tope

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.

maybe a shining wizard?

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.

AAA on Twitch: 2019-08-03 (TripleMania)

very TripleMania

Recapped: 08/03-08/2018

All matches aired live from Arena Ciudad de México

Matches:

Aramis, Arez, Toxin vs Arkángel Divino, Astrolux, Dragón Bane
(10:53, Dragon Bane 630 senton Arez, great,
00:30:42)

Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. beat Australian Suicide & Vanilla and Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa © and Sammy Guevara & Scarlett Bordeaux for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship
(12:38, Lady Maravilla foul Nino Hamburguesa, good, 01:08:23)

Golden Magic, Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. beat Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana and Mamba, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata
(14:31, Vikingo reverse 450 splash Carta Brava, great,
01:48:47)

Pagano beat La Parka , Chessman, Súper Fly, Averno, Aerostar, Drago, Puma King, Konnan, Rey Escorpión, Vampiro, Monsther Clown, Daga, Eclipse Jr. in Copa TripleMania
(26:43, ok, 02:15:29)

  • 00:00 Eclipse IN
  • 00:00 Daga IN
  • 01:02 Drago IN
  • 02:35 Super Fly IN
  • 03:53 Murder Clown IN
  • 04:07 Eclipse OUT (Daga pin, move not shown)
  • 05:20 Aerostar IN
  • 06:53 Monster Clown IN
  • 08:10 Puma King IN
  • 09:39 Super Fly (thrown out by Drago)
  • 09:47 Konnan IN
  • 11:18 Chessman IN
  • 12:07 Drago OUT (Chessman dropkick after Konnan beer toss)
  • 12:50 Vampiro IN
  • 14:08 Konnan OUT (Vampiro toss)
  • 14:17 Vampiro OUT (leaves thru the ropes, never is eliminated)
  • 14:23 Aerostar OUT (Monster Clown toss)
  • 14:23 Pagano IN
  • 15:48 Averno IN
  • 17:32 Rey Escorpion IN
  • 18:01 Murder Clown OUT (pin after Rey Escorpion chairshot)
  • 18:56 La Parka IN
  • 21:23 Averno OUT (top rope headscissors by Puma King)
  • 21:43 Puma King OUT (Chessman throw)
  • 22:08 La Parka OUT (Chessman inside cradle via Dave The Clown distraction)
  • 23:09 Daga OUT (Pagano throw)
  • 24:40 Pagano OUT (Pagano throw)
  • 26:43 Chessman OUT (Pagano super air raid crash)

Tessa Blanchard beat Taya, Ayako Hamada, Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Chik Tormenta, La Hiedra in for a AAA’s Reina de Reinas championship in a TLC match
(10:32, ok, 02:53:13)

Cain Velasquez, Cody Rhodes, Psycho Clown beat Killer Kross, Taurus, Texano Jr.
(13:08, Cain kimura Texano, good, 03:20:43)

Fénix, Laredo Kid, Pentagón Jr. beat Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson
(18:57, Penta/Fenix spike package Piledriver Matt Jackson, good, 03:52:16)

Blue Demon Jr. beat Dr. Wagner Jr. in a mask vs hair match
(14:41, Demon brick Wagner, excellent, 04:26:16)

What happened:

Viking done

A lot. It’s TripleMania.

Dr. Wagner Jr. was seconded by his sons and many other people in Wagner outfits. Blue Demon Jr. just had his yet to be named son. That was enough, with Hijo de Blue Demon Jr. pulling out the referee after a third Wagner Driver. (He was supposed to pull him out by the second one.) Demon, who had earlier assaulted Wagner with a hammer, took advantage of the ensuing chaos to hit Wagner in the head with a rapidly disintegrating brick to set up the winning pin. Wagner got his head shaved in the ring and declared he would retire (which lasted a week.) Backstage, LA Park attacked Demon for winning the match in such a manner, only for Demon to be saved by the nearby Psycho Clown & Cain Velasquez.

The Elite lost, despite Kenny Omega stealing Fenix’s mask during the match. Omega still challenged Fenix to a title match, though everyone was very clear in not knowing when that match would happen. (They eventually settled the where would be in Mexico.)

Cain Velasquez wrestled in an El Toro mask and got the winning submission for his team.

Ayako Hamada replaced the injured Keyra, who was in a wheelchair and couldn’t wrestle. (The title was vacated.) Chik Tormenta attacked Keyra. Later, if by karma, suffered an injury when a fall out of the ring onto a ladder missed the ladder entirely. Tessa became the new champion.

this happened and no one remembered it happened because wilder stuff happened after

The Copa TripleMania included eliminations over the top rope as well as pinfalls and submissions. Konnan and Vampiro made surprise appearances in Copa TripleMania, with Vampiro throwing Konnan out and then just leaving. Aerostar entered from a raised platform above the ring. He and Mosnter Clown feuded. Pagano & Chessman did as well, with Pagano winning in the end. Seconds after the match ended, the lights went off, back on, and LA Park and his family were in the ring. They destroyed Pagano while LA Park challenged him to a match and promised to be a pain to Marisela Pena.

The trios championships were technically vacant, but it was only a paperwork change. Hijo del Vikingo & Myzteziz Jr. still came to the ring with the belts and left with them, with Golden Magic picking one up along the way.

Silver King was added to the Hall of Fame. Antonio Pena, Joaquin Roldan and Paco Alonso were honored too; Alonso may have been added to the Hall of Fame as well.

Lady Maravilla betrayed Nino Hamburguesa, fouling him to set up the title win.

Thoughts:

Fenix

Blue Demon and Dr. Wagner Jr. figured out their formula a while ago – blood – and went all the way with it for the climax. This is a match without a lot of moves but an extreme amount of drama. And that extreme amount of blood; Demon seems to blade himself once, then a couple of times later thinking the first time wasn’t enough. He ended up soaked in his own blood, a dark red covering his face as much as the mask by the end. That blood and the hammer made the match feel like a serious fight and added so much to the armbars that followed. This wasn’t the most technically sound match and it was messed up by some confusion at the end – Tirantes tells Hijo del Demon something near the ned, Hijo del Demon goes to get the brick, then doesn’t make it back in time to grab him to break up a two count- but it is an amazing spectacle. It’s absolutely one of the must-see matches of the year.

The crowd was whistling about ten minutes into the Elite vs Lucha Brothers/Laredo match. They wanted another match. They got ten more minutes of this match. It was a hard-working match of a lot of spots that also felt a bit soulless and inorganically part of this show. They could’ve worked the same match most anywhere, and it was really only when the AAA referee tropes stated when the crowd decided to care about this match. This wasn’t anyone’s best effort, it wasn’t a poor effort either, it just was a misplaced one. These six guys were doing the same kind of match that had opened the show, except the guys opening the show had crazier moves and did while people were filling in, instead of doing while people were wanting to see the main event already. No meaningful stakes and no real purpose to this match made this tough to get over; it really relied on the work being that much better than any other match, and it wasn’t that much better. It was still good, it was also nothing I had any great urgency to see a second time. Enough fans knew Kenny Omega to give him a reaction when he first came in, but not enough to make this match feel like a big deal or the teased match feel like something they had to see. It probably would’ve been aggravating to see AEW come in and win on this show but Omega should’ve beat Fenix if that was the challenge to be made after the match.

Aramis rainmaker

The Cain Velasquez match seemed to exist to give the people some big Velasquez moments and to give Velasquez a chance to have a real match. It worked for both. Slams and suplexes would’ve been fine but the headscissors and armdrag was something extra people weren’t expecting. Velasquez got the full experience. Everyone else was less so involved; they weren’t completely ignored, but they gave a little to get the point of the match over. Cain has places to improve when the novelty wears off but the novelty was plenty.

A lot of the undercard felt very fast-paced. The women’s match was the one that felt like it was being rushed as if they were cut on time but still trying to get everything in. The Chik Tormenta injury seemed like a product of that situation. She wasn’t lined up to fall on a ladder as seemingly planned but it was time to go so go she went. It was lucky it wasn’t worse in a lot of ways. It didn’t feel like there were many attempts to actually climb the ladder in real-time. It did happen, I can see it in the replay, if only because everything else doesn’t feel overwhelming. It still feels numbing and with a lot of stuff that doesn’t stick; I have no idea why the thumbtack spot happened and it doesn’t end up meaning anything. People disappear for long stretches. I’m not sure where Faby is most of the match. The finish felt anticlimactic because the director switched to Ayako going nuts on the outside rather than show the moment where Tessa knocked Taya off the ladder to win. It was just a mess.

proof Faby was on this show

I thought I had something written about the Copa TripleMania but apparently, I didn’t. That’s about right. The cameras couldn’t keep up with the match either, missing eliminations that weren’t replayed (but usually caught by the announcers.) The high points of the match – the brief Vampiro/Konnan fight, Aerostar’s dive, Pagano wining, LA Park showing up – got over. The rest in between was nothing special, but this format hasn’t really lend itself to great matches. This wasn’t good and it still probably was the best recent Copa TripleMania, which is where the match is. If they’re going to keep doing them (and they’re probably going to keep doing them), then it’ll probably be more of the same.

The Jinetes title win was a great match, full of craziness. It was also the point where there seemed to be so much of the same sort of craziness that either this one is better appreciated as a standalone match or they needed to something slightly different in this spot. I think the Exoticos were meant to contribute that something different, by adding some levity, but this was also a lot of big match Maximo working very hard to keep up with everyone else. Pimpinela and Mamba kept up where they could, though having so many people running in and out did hurt the match; there’s an obviously higher level for a Poder del Norte/Jinetes match. We’ll get to see this eventually it and this was very strong for something on the way there.

Suicide

The mixed tag made the best use of eight people all hurrying around the ring as they could. There was so much happening that a little of it didn’t stand out and some of it didn’t look good. It was overall entertaining and a satisfying pay off to the story they’d been telling. Vanilla was trying a lot we haven’t seen from her before, and I’m not sure how she didn’t break her knee on the odd landing of the missed 450 splash. Suicide was trying a lot too, though it seemed like he was either betrayed by the camera angles or didn’t cleanly land a couple of them. I’m not sure exactly when Villano III Jr. got hurt, he takes a lot of falls that look like they could be it. He is clearly out of it when he comes back in the ring the last time, with Big Mami visibly calling spots and Villano still not seeming the grasp them. I’m not sure what they were meant to be doing on their part of the finish.

The first minute of the opener, when there’s no noise except for the ring and Aramis & Dragon Bane botch a spot very obviously, seemed like this was going to go wrong. It did not go wrong. The six-way submission brought in everyone and they just kept going from there. There were a couple of moments past that which didn’t go right, but they were just going so fast that there was no time to dwell. Everyone got their moments, helped out by getting significantly more time than usual for this sort of thing. The absurdity of Aramis’ double torture rack slam finally got the crowd into it. Astrolux seemed more useful as a tiny guy who could get killed easily than what he got to show up on offense; maybe Dragon Bane was best at that. Toxin seemed also more notable for taking the big moves, though he did get a big run in the middle of the match. This totally achieved what it was set out to do.

 

so you wanna be AAA champ

AAA on Twitch: 2018-12-08 

the old double stomp stuff piledriver

Recapped: 12/09/2018

Matches:

Dinastía, La Parkita, Niño Hamburguesa beat Arcángel Divino, La Parkita Negra, Último Maldito
(9:36, Niño Hamburesa splash Parka Negra & Último Maldito, ok, 00:36:25)

Lady Maravilla & Star Fire beat Lady Shani & Mamba  
(8:54, Star Fire German suplex Lady Shani, ok, 00:56:25)

Hijo Del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Myzteziz Jr. beat Australian Suicide, Jack Evans, Taurus
(12:07, Laredo Kid Laredo Fly Jack Evans, great, 01:15:53)

Aerostar beat Monsther Clown in a bull terrier match
(11:02, touch four corners, good, 01:40:55)

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
(14:52, Carta Brava air raid crash Super Fly, great, 01:58:46)

Dr. Wagner Jr., Pagano, Psycho Clown beat Blue Demon Jr., Moose, Rey Escorpión
(20:30, Pagano top rope legdrop Moose, ok, 02:24:57)

What happened:

Aerostar at work

Star Fire challenged Lady Shani to a title match and got into a brawl with her post match, in a similar bit to what happened with Keyra & Shani in Ciudad Juarez.

Carta Brava got the win after being the one who lost the hair match trios match back at Verano de Escandalo. Once again, the OGTs offered handshakes of mutual respect, then attacked Poder del Norte after.

Tirantes slow counted for Lady Shani and fast counted for Star Fire at the end of the match, which helped Star Fire win. Tirantes also messed with Aerostar and ignored an Averno tap out, neither of which played any role in the outcome.

This card had plenty of changes. Mini Gronda, Mini Monsther Clown, and Mini Murder Clown did not appear and were not mentioned. Mini Psycho Clown and Black Danger weren’t there as well, and the two opening matches were totally changed. Kevin Kross also wasn’t in the main event and was replaced by Moose with no explanation.

The show started with the new trios champions and Lady Shani talking about their title wins in front of the live crowd while thanking them for their support. There was no angle coming out of it, it seemed to be there just to make sure everyone in the live crowd knew of the Guerra de Titanes title changes.

Arturo Rivera was the only member of the regular Televisa announce crew there. Fernando Torres filled in, with Konnan and Vampiro also each spending half the show announcing the show in a similar fashion to Lucha Capital.

Thoughts: 

not sure about this

The show featured the standard AAA main event: brawling that wasn’t much good to start with and everyone going to their corner for the técnicos to do their usual offense in the second half. The Demon/Wagner stuff isn’t amounting to much but they did show more emotion this week. It probably doesn’t serve them well to be on these shows every week. Moose looked lost parts of the match and they didn’t do anything to make him look special before he got beat. Perhaps they really wanted a big foreign name to balance out Kross being MIA, but this match itself would’ve been better served with another Mercenario in his spot. Psycho Clown again did a crazy dive. I hope he gets shuffled down the card so we can see what he might do in a real match and not as a bit player to Demon & Wagner.

The OGT/Poder del Norte kept up their streaks of brutal looking matches all year. If you like hard chair shots, this one had them by the dozens. There was an impressive stretch of Carta Brava and it came off like his redemption for being the guy who lost this feud six months ago. This one didn’t have as many spectacular moves as the match prior (few matches do) but they instead had long stretches of near falls after near falls. It almost got to being too much with nothing in between the near falls, like CMLL can be, but it never really crossed that line. The apuesta match was better, but this was still pretty good.

Taurus strong

There aren’t many positive AAA chain matches. Most of them are really bad. This was fine, maybe a little bit better than fine. Aerostar & Monsther Clown were put into a different spot than usual and adjusted well enough, with Aerostar still getting in some flying in between selling dramatically. Monsther Clown did okay as a threatening heel. Tirantes getting involved didn’t help the match at all but that seems also to be a rule for chain matches. I don’t think the upside for these is all that high, but they did as well as they were going to do with it. The post-match attack suggests they’re going to do a little more.

The third match was great for never before seen craziness. The corner moonsault bit was crazy (and makes me wonder what else they’ll try from that setup), and was joined by plenty of other series of moves. Vikingo, Laredo, and Myzteziz desperately need a team name because they already feel like a team with some trademark offense and not just three individuals. The rudos stepped up too, taking a normal Jack Evans spot and augmenting to it well. They also did what seems to be the impossible in CMLL, setting a stage dive spot that looked natural and not just the result of people standing around mindlessly in position for 10 seconds. Taurus had a great moment in the middle among a lot of good spots for everyone else. Hopefully, there’s a rematch of this coming.

Lady Maravilla

The women’s match didn’t click. The moves didn’t look as sharp as normal and there was no great story. Shani & Star Fire showed stronger emotion after the match than during it. The rudas briefly had control early in the match but were essentially shrugged off by the técnicos. The técnicos weren’t so interesting when they were in control, and the finish came off as a referee bit overpowering a match.

The opener was strange. They were trying to focus on the new characters, but it was a bit thrown off by most of the new characters being advertised not actually being there. La Parkita & Parkita Negra didn’t feel like great new stars, but they did fine. Parkita Negra is obviously an indie guy being regimmicked, since he did every flashy indie move he could think of. La Parkita seems like he could do moves, but was focusing on Parka comedy spots to get the character over. Dinastia looked like the best guy in the match and had some good rudos to work with. Divino wasn’t lost on the rudo side, but didn’t have the same impact as usual. Hamburguesa was barely a factor but got the win in the end.

LA Park unmasks Hijo del Fantasma in the main event of TripleMania, Lady Shani takes Faby Apache’s hair

Hijo del Fantasma unmasked (photo by AAA)

Hijo del Fantasma lost his mask in the main event of this year’s TripleMania, as expected. The big surprise was it LA Park who got the win. The two finished the fourway mask match with heavy involvement from Hijo del Tirantes (who had very involved in the show already.) LA Park speared Hijo del Fantasma for the match deciding pinfall. Fantasma unmasked as Jorge Luis Alcantar Bolly, 34 years old, 18 years a wrestler.

There was a reason behind Park winning: Dr. Wagner Jr. walked out to challenge him for a hair versus mask match after. Park was very negative about the idea, feeling his mask was worth much more than Wagner’s hair, and Wagner lost his chance by losing his mask in the same ring a year ago. Park seemed to eventually agree by the end of the back and forth, though not strongly. All three announce crews immediately pressed that it was a match definitely happening for next year’s Triplemania, obviously being alerted that it was happening beforehand, but LA Park didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. It was tough to read the fans, many of whom were exiting the building after a 5.5 hour show. This was a spot intended to replicate Wagner and Psycho Clown agreeing to a mask match ahead of time, but it didn’t have a strong feeling.

That Wagner/Park match is scheduled to take place at TripleMania XXVII, announced as taking place August 3rd in Arena Ciudad de Mexico.

Other results from the show

  • Vampiro and Konnan signed a contract for a loser leaves AAA (or Mexico) match. No date was announced, and it may end up being a team versus team match. This was highlighted by Vampiro losing it on while doing English commentary because the cue for his music was missed.
  • Lady Shani took Faby Apache’s hair, in a match which saw La Parka counter the interference of Taurus and referees fighting. Faby Apache got a real haircut time. She wasn’t bald when she left the ring, but her hair was cut enough that she would be better off bald. AAA did post a photo of her bald in the back later on.
  • Fenix is the new AAA Mega Champion, having defeated Jeff Jarrett. Dr. Wagner Jr. got a bit of revenge on Jarrett by pretending to be Konnan pretending to be Parka. It worked better than it sounds. Fenix beat Jarrett with a cutter. Cage may have suffered a leg injury during the match but did finish it.
    • A section of the match was designed for Marisela Pena to humiliate Jarrett by throwing a drink in her face, and Fenix to add in a dive to Jarrett. That first part went fine, but Fenix came in very hot and Jarrett didn’t catch the dive as much as he passed it by to Marisela and the people she was sitting with. You’ve never seen security people and medical people run to ringside as fast as they did then – it was as if a president got shot. Marisela herself seemed fine but it was less clear about the other people in the area, and the commotion distracted the fans attention from the match until the fake La Parka came out.
  • La Mascara, Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion defeated Pagano, Joe Lider and Murder Clown in an over the top hardcore match that saw Texano set his lasso on fire to hit Joe Lider (or an area near Joe Lider) for the win. Pagano was rushed to an ambulance after the match in a regular situation.
  • OGT beat Elite in the worst match of the night. A confusing sequence saw Poder del Norte attack OGT before and after the finish to no effect, and Chessman and Jack Evans getting into a very real brawl while the finish was happening. The MAD concept was given a big run with video packages and an in-ring promo segment here, but no one seemed to  care about this feud (and it appears to be over now with MAD losing and OGT moving back to Poder del Norte again.)
  • Poder del Norte earlier continued their winning streak by winning the three way team match, pinning Hijo de LA Park. So one win and one loss for the Parks tonight.
  • Bandido & Flamita were surprise winners in the ladder match and are owed a tag title shot now. AAA hung an attache case very high up, so the wrestlers had use for the ladders and used them a lot. Drago may have reinjured his shoulder on a spot in a match full of spots. Bandido & Flamita aren’t booked on the next three TV tapings, so it may be a while before they get that shot.
  • Nino Hamburguesa & Big Mami continued their successful mixed tag team reign with a win in the opener. They were easily the most popular team and got in many good moments.
  • Sammy Guevara picked up the Cruiserweight title, pining Suicide after a 630 senton in a match also including ACH & Shane Strickland. It was a bit of a disappointment of a match, though not one that stuck out by the end of the show. Killer Kross attacked everyone but Suicide after the match and gave Suicide a MAD shirt. Suicide later appeared with MAD, but had no great role.
  • Dragon Bane, Aramis and Freelance beat Draztick Boy, Latigo and Aramis in an exciting if at times sloppy opener.

Attendance looked good but far from a sell out; the cameras angles used kept showing sections of totally unsold seats, and these weren’t ones cut off for the entrance. The crowd generally seemed to be into the show, especially the main events. There was a lot of referee stuff with Tirantes but it didn’t seem to hurt the crowd.

I had terrible streaming problems for the second half of the show; I missed the finish of Shani/Apache and the main event when the stream just stopped on me, so there’s no real way I can do a recap tonight. It may be a few days. It must’ve been on my end; there was a path early where the feed was struggling badly for 20 minutes but no one reported problems otherwise. If you’re waiting for a recommendation, I’d say most of the show was watchable but it felt long and you’re going to have to put up with a lot of AAA tropes (referees that make no sense, heavy interference in singles matches). It was very much a TripleMania.

full AAA TripleMania XXVI (August 25th) lineup

AAA held a press conference to announce the TripleMania card. I’m still not 100% sure what the lineup is after, because this is AAA. Here’s what I’ve got:

AAA TV (SAT) 08/25/2018 Arena Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
TripleMania XXVI
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
a Llave a la Gloria match
2) Australian Suicide © vs 2345678910 [AAA CRUISER]
3) Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa © vs Hijo Del Vikingo & Vanilla and Dinastía & Lady Maravilla and Angelikal & La Hiedra [AAA MIXED TAG]
3rd defense (2nd televised)
4) Aerostar & Drago vs Golden Magic & Laredo Kid and Bandido & Flamita and Andrew Everett & DJZ [Ladder, AAA TAG]
5) Mamba, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana and Hijo de LA Park, Puma King, Taurus
6) Jack Evans, Juventud Guerrera, Teddy Hart vs Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly [lumberjack]
7) La Máscara, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr. vs Joe Lider, Murder Clown, Pagano [street]
8) Jeff Jarrett © vs FénixBrian CageRich Swann [AAA HEAVY]
9) Lady Shani vs Faby Apache [mask, hair]
Shani’s mask vs Faby Apache’s hair
10) Psycho Clown vs Hijo del FantasmaLA ParkPentagón Jr. [mask, cage]
Tour way mask match in a cage. Two people will escape, and the last two will have a one fall match.

There may be more details later. The Villano III death started leaking out just as this press conference was wrapping up, so any articles being written about TripleMania can wait.

The big confusion is about the ladder match. It’s on the poster as if it’s the second match on the main card. AAA didn’t mention it or allude to it during their press conference. It’s possible there just wasn’t anyone in the match at the press conference. Most matches only had a few people representing it. The way the matches were introduced, they just went from the mixed tag to the three-way trios match as if there’s nothing in between them. Asking AAA if the match is happening got no response, but everyone may be too swamped to sort it out. AAA has a tendency just to stop mentioning things that are canceled or they don’t want to talk about (keep scrolling for Alberto news.) People at the press conference were under the impression the ladder match is happening.

The cage match part of the main event was not particularly emphasized in the press conference. It’s strange because AAA had Psycho Clown talk about not wanting the match to be a cage, and others agreeing with him. Being able to brawl around the ring has helped a lot with the Psycho Clown/LA Park stuff, Pentagon Jr. can do that too, and one of Hijo del Fantasma’s big spots is a dive. One dive off the top of the cage doesn’t really make up for it, but I suspect the people in the match will just ignore the rules and find a way to brawl outside the cage.

AAA wrestlers questioning a match set-up that was being announced as pretty standard here. Murder Clown did not better understand why he was teaming with Pagano & Joe Lider than the rest of us, saying he didn’t trust them. The OGTs wanted to know why Poder del Norte wasn’t in their match and putting the trios titles on the line. Vamprio came up with an explanation about needing the most experienced and best team to face the Elite team. Poder del Norte is also facing an Elite team. Either Maximo or Mamba seemed to get confused and believe the OGT team was in their match. Dorian explained Swann & Cage being added to the title match as wanting to include reps from Impact & Lucha Underground in their big title match. Fenix works for both of those promotions just as much as those two wrestlers.

There are some matches on this card I think will be good, and the two apuesta matches should have a lot of emotion. I think everyone inside of AAA knows this TripleMania is not a really coherent lineup. It’s instead a compromise to try to get a lot of people on the show, to keep everyone happy. There’s 47 luchadors on the main card, plus who knows how many who might be placed in the pre-show matches or just appear as lumberjacks. This is just going to be how TripleMania is going to be until they change their strategy. It still doesn’t explain why so few of the undercard matches have anything to with what’s gone on TV the last few months: the main event has been built up, but the big angles involving MAD have all lead up to a midcard trios match so far. Maybe there’s some explanation of why AAA had Killer Kross destroying people on TV and then didn’t find a spot for him on TripleMania – for the second year running! – and maybe the TV angle will build to something in October. Or maybe never.

Dave the Clown is not a cruiserweight and not a young guy, so he won’t be on the card. Dave posted a Twitter complaining about a year wasted right after the press conference. People noticed, so Dave deleted the tweet. Even with nearly 50 people booked, there’s still going to be people left unhappy. Spots on TripleMania being treated as a right is why this lineup is what it is.

One person who won’t be on this show is Alberto el Patron. As the AAA press conference was getting close to an end, Alberto’s public relations people issued a statement putting the blame on AAA for Alberto not appearing on TripleMania. Alberto was announced for a match against “one of his favorite opponents” earlier this year. Nothing had been said more about it months, and there were hints for a while that match had been canceled. Alberto’s statement named Dorian Roldan by name and said AAA never made the promised deposit and did not meet his terms for participating on the show. Something similar happened last year, where Alberto teased appearing on TripleMania if AAA paid his fee, AAA never paid his fee, and Alberto never appeared. On an overcrowded card, Alberto versus a Jack Swagger (famous LU superstar Jake Strong!) or something similar probably would just take up time that could be better used, and it seemed unlikely to be worth AAA’s money to include Alberto this year. I’m sure we’ll go thru this all again next year.

The TripleMania schedule looks like this:

7:30-8:30pm CDT: a pre-show, with those first two matches (a Cruiserweight title match + Llave a la Gloria match, no participants mentioned for either), plus a Hall of Fame induction. It’s possible they’ll also honor Villano III during this part.
8:30-11:00pm: matches 3-9 (from the mixed tag to Faby/Shani)
11:00pm-finish: the four-way mask match

That last match is planned to air live on Canal5 (over the air), which means AAA normally has to wrap everything else by then and the women’s apuesta match is most likely to be cut on time. However, Canal5 aired the mask match on a slight delay last year due to other programming going long, so it may not be hard and fast about starting at 11. I’m a little bit surprised the women’s match is going on so late because it’s been pushed as a second/third match in the lead-up. It’s a gigantic opportunity for both women and has a chance of becoming one of the most famous luchadora matches in the history of Mexico.

The entire show will air on SpaceTV in Mexico, using Hugo Savinovich & Jose Manuel Guillen’s broadcast. They’ll also air that version of the show on Twitch as usual. In addition, AAA will be airing the show on it’s English language Twitch feed. Matt Striker and Vampiro return as announcers. Striker & Vampiro gave a thoroughly unprofessional broadcast to TripleMania two years ago, and there’s no reason to expect them to act any differently this time. Like many a small-time indie promotion, AAA’s made a decision to give the announcing job to friends of the owners rather than trying to find someone who might do a good job, and AAA’s going to get exactly the same effort out of it as they’re putting into it. I’d question why they’re even bothering, but the reason they’re bothering is very obviously so Vampiro can get his good friend Striker a payday. It’s a grand friendship move by Vampiro, but I’d like if AAA actually put their money where their mouth is about expanding to the US. They’re not serious about it and this is all the proof you need.

Pentagon Jr. has made two appearances in AAA: the press conference to announce his TripleMania participation and the taping in Aguascalientes. He did not appear here. It was kind of glaring neither he nor LA Park was there for this conference. I’m sure Penta will be a TripleMania but I wonder how much he’ll be participating past that, or if they just needed a fourth person for this day. There are people who genuinely believe Penta is losing his mask and going to WWE, and those people are very silly.

There are three title matches on this show. I would bet on all three titles changing hands, even the Cruiserweight title where we don’t even know who’s in it. I do not expect surprises in the apuesta matches.