Tag: AAA TV Recap

Recapped: 05/30/2017

Matches: 

All matches were taped at Paleqnue del Centro Expositor, Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala on 04/29/2017

Averno & Pimpinela Escarlata beat Mamba & Ricky Marvin   (4:05, Averno Devil’s Wings, below average)

Big Mami defeated La Hiedra, Goya Kong, and Lady Shani (4:27, Mami splash Goya, below average)

Australian Suicide & Bengala beat El Mesías & Pagano (9:03, Bengala senton con giro Pagano, ok)

Kevin Kross beat Psycho Clown (8:05, exploder suplex, bad)

What happened:

The main event goes a (solid!) two minute and eleven seconds before the run-ins start. Pimpinela runs out for no reason, and doesn’t make it to the ring before Mamba attacks for some really bad hair pulling. Lady Shani comes out for no reason – look, everyone comes out and brawls for no reason, I’m going to spare you reading it a half dozen times. It’s Mamba & Pimpi, Shani & Hiedra, Nino Hamburguesa & Dalton Bragg, Joe Lider, Big Mami, Monster & Murder, Goya Kong, the other referees, Bengala and Suicide (who just get beat up), Pagano & Mesias & Cuervo & Scoria (who don’t even make it out of the back before they’re fighting), Argenis & Ricky Marvin, the OGTs, La Parka (gets his music played! Both a spot immediately!), Poder del Norte, and Hijo del Fantasma. Fantasma at least ends up with Kevin Kross, who spent most of this time standing outside brawling slightly with Psycho Clown. Fantasma goes to dive, but Suicide attacks him (for no reason) and lands his finish on Fantasma. It doess’t come off as a heel turn, just another random moment in a segment of randomness. There’s no connection to Kross and Psycho coming in to finish, Suicide just steps out of the ring as Kross gives Psycho his suplex.

Everyone keeps fighting because whatever. Faby Apache appears from nowhere, 100% fine after being murdered last week, and fouls Kevin Kross. All the técnicos attack Korss, who now is too invincible to be knocked down until many of them try. Hiedra & Goya end p with the faces, which seems like a mistake. Kross tries to leave, but the rudos toss him back in to get stomped. And then they stomp Piero for comedy’s sake.

We’re told Vampiro made Suicide/Bengala vs Pagano/Mesias a no DQ match when the match starts (but everything seems to be no DQ tonight.) Tecnicos get off to a hot start, rudos turn it around, then Pagano and Mesias argue over who gets to choke Suicide for no reason. This continues on for a little while until the técnicos use it to make a comeback, mostly keeping Pagano out and working of Mesias. Pagano makes the save after Suicide lands a 450 and clears house, but Mesias won’t tag him. Cuervo & Scoria walk slowly to ringside (it’s tough to walk fast down all those steps), and Pagano gets whipped into a distracted Mesias. Pagano shoves Mesias off the apron, Bengala boosts Suicide into a – uh, double shove because they come up short on the move. A following dive onto Bengala works better. Scoria slides in a chair to Bengala, but Pagano kicks it into his face. Pagano goes for a chair assisted moonsault, which predictably fails. Pagano turns over, places the chair on his own chest, and Bengala lands a top rope senton con giro on it for the win. Jesus Zuniga reacts to Bengala’s big win by yelling “Pagano! Pagano!” Mesias walks out on Pagano.

Niño Hamburguesa came to ringside to watch the women’s match, since the winner would team with him. Arturo Rivera makes a point in not shaking hands with him. The other announcers try to ask Niño who he’d like to team with and Arturo talks right over him. Niño at least sounded impressed with Big Mami after the win.

OGT are arguing to start the show about getting beat last week and who’s fault that was, when they’re interrupted by Pimpinela. Pimpinela informs them that Vamprio made her and Averno partners this week. Chessman & Super Fly laughing at Averno at least breaks the tension. During the intro, another Averno/Pimpinela vignette is wedged it, when Averno demanding Pimpinela be serious . That doesn’t take, Pimpinela gets Averno to dance before the match even starts, but they do use it to get the jump the other team.

The graphic for this match lists it as a four way tag match with Chessman & Super Fly and Argenis & La Parka as teams. Maybe that’s to justify the run-ins which start about 2m30 in, with the rest of OGT coming into beat up Marvin without their being DQ. La Parka & Argenis are not long behind them. I think maybe they would’ve been better just deciding it was no DQ or something. Averno beats Ricky Marvin clean after everyone’s cleared out, but a few moves later – it’s not like the run-in seemed like it caused into the outcome.

Averno gets to taunt Ricky Marvin for about three seconds in before Kevin Kross turns up, has a face of with him, fakes help Ricky Marvin, and suplexes Marvin. Averno bails like he’s seen a monster. Hijo del Tirantes tries to break it up, but Kross ignores him and throws Marvin out. Kross demands Tirantes lift his arm, but Tirantes refuses. Tirantes decides it’s a good side to stay in the ring at that point. Kross overs him a handshake, and Tirantes confirms his switch to AAA tecnico by being dumb enough to take it. A back suplex knocks out Tirantes. Tirantes is stretchered out while Kross spends a lot of time standing in the ring. This seems to has nothing to do with anything that happens with Kross later on.

Noti AAA featured part 2 of the third La Lave de la Gloria tryout. He’s never identified, but you can clearly see Ricky Marvin hanging out in the background of the tryout, sometimes with Stephanie Vaquer. Muneca de Plata is among the many who are interviewed, and she mentions her father Super Porky and trying to return to AAA. They announce the winners, though they don’t really identify them.

Thoughts: 

This entire taping, the last week and this show, was just a disaster. The matches on this show were not worth watching and, as I tried to put my thoughts in to words after the main event, I realized this is a show no one should be watching in it’s current state. I can’t believe a promotion that had a match as good as the Taya/Ayako match just a couple weeks ago has descended into total unwatchable garbage, but that’s what this Tlaxcala taping has been.

The main event was like so much of the rest of AAA right now, a hot mess. What do I even say? The brawl was unfilmable – there was a moment where Ricky Marvin was heading for a dive, and they cut away because there were so may things going on at once – and didn’t make any sense and was much more dumb than it was exciting. It was exposed as a complete joke, a “haha, we don’t even care any more” moment when they sent referees out there to be part of it. It exposed the booking as being nonsense: they spent last week’s episode and part of this week’s episode and the Texano match building up Kevin Kross as this cold killer so he could just be beaten up by the entire roster in a comedy segment. They had Faby take a crazy bump just to come back an hour later. This is a promotion that isn’t taking itself seriously and it impossible to take seriously. I hope it works out for them, but I’d give up on the show at this point if there was anyone else writing a recap of it on a weekly basis so I could find out when it got good again.

The Suicide/Bengala vs Pagano/Mesais match was better than everything on this show, which isn’t saying much. They had more to work with, they got time and they got a story to play off. The work just was a little bit too iffy for me and it was a bit boring at times, but I appreciated the effort. Pagano & Mesias seemed to no sell a lot of the técnico’s offense, but they rallied back to get in key shot that matter. It just would’ve meant more if Bengala & Suicide weren’t made clear to be the third most important team in the segment even after the win – they needed a moment to be clear they wanted in line for the tag titles at least before being brushed aside. The Mesias/Pagano break up going on forever with no real reason explain why they’re together (or even the root of why they’re mad at each other, now that Dave has become a non-person) is a drag, and feels like something that should’ve been addressed in one of the many skits they have now. The comedy of the one night Pimpinela/Averno team up was more important, I guess.

The women’s match never developed into anything, felt like two different matches taking turns happening (Shani/Hiedra and Mami/Goya), but it at least felt like there was start, beginning and end. That’s not really the minimum to have a good match or even OK one, but that’s better than the opener. I couldn’t imagine ever willing watching this again, so it gets a low grade, but it really doesn’t matter.

Everyone actually in the mixed tag had good energy for the time they were wrestling, and we even got a glimpse of a rudo Pimpinela while it lasted. Maybe they had a lot of energy because they knew they were only going about two minutes before the run-ins came anyway. This was lame. Averno seems to be one of the few guys doing well in this new environment, excelling on the promos, but I get the sense he’ll be telling stories about this era to his friends for the rest of his life. The match being a setup to get Kevin Kross over is a weird choice for a guy who doesn’t have a feud; it’d be interesting if it got people more interested in the main event, but I’m not sure we (or maybe even they) will even know. Post match went 5:00, longer than the actual match.

Recapped: 05/24/2017

All matches were taped at Paleqnue del Centro Expositor, Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala on 04/29/2017.

Matches: 

Niño Hamburguesa  defeated Máscara de Bronce, Venum, Joe Lider to earn a spot in an upcoming AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship match (8:32, middle rope splash on Lider, below average)

Argenis & La Parka defeated Chessman & Súper Fly (4:36, Argenis cradle Chessman, ok)

Carta Brava, Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker © defeated Faby Apache, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown to keep the AAA World Trios Championship (4:30, group pin on Faby, below average)

What Happened:

Early in the show, Faby Apache (in an awesome Aja Kong anniversary t-shirt) explains to Psycho Clown that Vampiro gave her a trios title rematch, but with Murder & Monster as her partners. Psycho Clown thinks this is crazy and he wanted to help her win the titles back, and says he’s got Faby’s back. Prior to the main event, they aired a recap of the trios title storyline, with the entire Vampiro/Faby vignette replayed and the entire Faby/Taya thing from last week, and a few minutes of the match were shown. It’s a lot longer than this match ended up going. The main event lasts about three minutes before Monster & Murder attack their partner Faby. Psycho immediately comes out for the save, cleans house, but is laid out by Kevin Kross. Poder del Norte pin Faby. Kross goes to chokeslam Psycho, but Faby pops to life (not selling a thing) and hits Kross with a chair. Kross doesn’t sell either, and chokeslams Faby out of the ring thru a table. AAA sticks with Faby being put in a neckbrace and stretchered away for a while. (AAA end the show still not having announced the main event for Verano de Escandalo.

Averno talked about cleaning out the trash from the group before the second match, which led to Ricky Marvin coming out. Ricky points out he won in Tijuana. Averno calls Marvin trash and a dog and an ugly man with no friends. Marvin calls out his partners, Argenis and La Parka. OGT are shocked. Averno explains the trios match is not happening because Vampiro gave him the night off, and decides to announce instead. The other OGT rudos attack Argenis and La Parka (though Super Fly gets the worst of that.)

Averno joined the announcers for the match, while Marvin hangs out at ringside. OGT beat up the técnicos for about four minutes, Averno tripped Parka, Marvin grabs Chessman to stop him from a dive, and Argenis small packaged Chessman for the win.

In the opener, Mascara de Bronce has evolved into looking like Venum’s tag partner. Niño Hambruguesa is checked on after landing badly on a huracanrana. Finish involves Dalton showing up at ringside, giving Lider a springboard frontcracker when Lider was holding a chair, and Niño immediately splashing Lider for the win. Dalton seemingly beats Lider up after the match, but we’re shown replays instead. Niño Hamburguesa will be one half of one of the teams to challenge for the mixed tag titles based off winning this match

The entrance for the building they’re running looks so much like Arena Neza, but it’s a palenque so it’s a small circular area on the floor. It’s better than some they’ve run, with a bit of space around the ring to work with (they wouldn’t have been to able to do the table spot in the other ones they’ve run.)

The mystery new referee is finally introduced as Hugo “Negro” Rosas.

Session of La Llave de la Grloria was shown, focusing on the luchadoras. Mary Apache has one monologue that includes more talking from her than she’s gotten in some years.

AAA says 70% of the tickets are sold out for TripleMania.

Review:

This was not a good show if you like actual good matches – it’s probably the worse show this year for matches, but it feels like there’s a few which would be candidates for that spot. They didn’t give the matches all that much time – 17:38 bell time total, almost half in the opener – but they also didn’t put together matches which had a hope of being any good. The storytelling seemed not much better considered.

The main event was not much of a match and didn’t do anyone any favors. Poder del Norte got in a main event, but looked like a joke. Murder tossed them around easily, they only got anything on Faby, Faby was beating them before her partners turned on her and then Psycho Clown had no problem with them either. Putting Poder del Norte in main events is not alone going to make them special, they have to be effective in some way, and instead it comes more as if AAA just doesn’t have any thing better. The whole thing was a setup to make Kevin Kross look more impressive and I’m not sure why that’s important when he’s not in a big match coming up. (The priority definitely is to the weekly TV over building to Verano de Escandalo; the bit ended with most of the people in the VdE mask match working together.) They at least tried to get over the severity of a table spot but could’ve gotten to it in a more effective way.

There wasn’t really anything to the tag match, calling it OK seems like an overstatement, but I’m not sure it’s their fault they had so little time. Super Fly’s moonsault and Estrada bump looked cool, maybe that’s enough. Moderately surprised Argenis got the win instead of Parka, who made sure to argue with Averno so he’d get talked about in commentary

There were decent moments in the opener, maybe enough good that’d I’d normally say OK, but this was also a super sloppy match. They tried to do team spots with Bronce & Venum against Ludxor to start the match and near the end, and both looked liked Lider was on a totally different page. Venum/Bronce’s sequence in the middle looked super indie with it’s timing issues. (Later, they tried for a double pin, which made no sense). Niño Hamburguesa almost broke his neck taking a frankensteiner. There was a bit built around Joe Lider catching dives, and he caught on one of two Bronce did a big tornillo and the camera missed most of it and they never found a replay of it. This wasn’t good. This whole show wasn’t good.

Recapped: 05/14/2017

Matches:

All matches were taped in Auditorio de Tijuana on 04/21/2017.

Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria defeated Australian Suicide & Bengala  for the AAA World Tag Team Championship (6:17, double submission, via Lucha Libre AAA, good)

Taya defeated Ayako Hamada to win the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship in a street fight (17:00, ref stop, via Lucha Libre AAA, great)

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker defeat Dr. Wagner Jr., Faby Apache, Psycho Clown to win the AAA World Trios Championship
(8:37, pinfall, via Lucha Libre AAA, ok)

What happened: 

This is long.

Prior to the main event, a still bloody Taya (w/Kross) sarcastically wished Faby luck and made a comment about Mary. Faby slapped Taya immediately, and Kross just as quickly started choking Faby. Psycho Clown and Dr. Wagner show up, and Taya gets Kross to back off so they can leave.

Mocho Cota demanded the trios title match no matter what Vampiro had to say about it or who Faby had to team with. He was shocked that Faby, looking sad, actually turned up. They teases she was just going to hand the belts over to Poder del Norte, and then she revealed she had actually tag partners. Cota wanted to know who these tag partners were, and Wagner’s music played. (And Psycho’s video played oops.) The rudos freaked out over these partners.

Monster & Murder run in for no particular reason – I guess Wagner had a pinfall chance off a DDT, but he wasn’t going to win on it and there’s no real reason for Murder & Monster to be involved here. No one bothers to distract Piero this time, and the interference that would’ve been a DQ on another show is all OK this week. Monster & Murder take out Poder del Norte and act like they want to be friends with Psycho, but Wagner & Psycho send them out. They try to do stereo spots where the Traidor clowns catch Carta & Soul Rocker diving, and then Psycho & Wagner knock them over with their own dive. It does much worse for Murder & Carta first, but Wagner’s dive on them looks cool. Mocho and Faby are left, Faby gets a near fall on a picture perfect German suplex, then dropkicks Piero by mistake. She gets a visual three on a huracanrana, but Taya sneaks back in, and hits her with a chair. Cota covers, and Hijo del Tirantes comes in for three count. I think he might be a heel again. Psycho consoles Faby as the champs leave. Wagner loos like he’s about to say something but never gets around to it before they cut away.

Taya wears a Vancouver Canuck jersey to the women’s title match. Ayako has a Perros del Mal shirt and has the scratch logo as facepaint. Both wrestle in jeans for the street fight. Taya bleeds off a chair shot to the head (with her hands up); for once, AAA keeps the cameras away while someone’s cutting themselves to not expose it.

There’s a weird spot double ko spot where Piero counts two, holds up at three because for them to get up, but neither woman seems to move. Fans notice. Late in the match, Ayako misses a moonsault to the floor – it’s her second miss, but this one’s thru a table. Taya brings her in, Ayako kicks out as a surprise, but Taya puts her in a chinlock surfboard and Ayako passes out in the hold. Piero stops the match and the title changes hands.

Vampiro interrupts the post match so he can put over the match as the best thing ever. It does work in getting them a round of applause Meanwhile, Ayako’s put on a backboard.

Scoria & Cuervo did an interview quickly mentioning Bengala & “Aerostar” as their opponents. Poor Suicide didn’t even get mentioned, and they really focused on Pagano & Mesias anyway.

The champs beat up Suicide & Bengala after the match for no real obvious reason. Pagano & Mesias walked in for the save, but also brawled with Suicide & Bengala. Aerostar & Drago also ran in and attacked, and security came in behind them. Cuervo & Scoria snuck away while the other teams kept fighting.

Suicide melted down backstage after the loss, freaking out about people getting involved in his matches all the time (which didn’t actually happen this time) and talking about being pushed over the edge. Seemed like a character change is coming.

The upcoming events schedule lists a 06/30 Puebla taping, which wasn’t previously on the schedule. Not sure which it replaces yet.

Noti AAA had a obituary video package for El Apache and scenes from a mass for Joaquin Roldan & Apache with Marisela talking about them both. There was also hype for the Pachuca taping.

Thoughts: 

The main event was a mixed bag. Crowd was totally into it when everyone was involved, and not as much when it was Wagner in there alone – AAA is doing about as good as can with Poder del Norte in the moment, but the lack of a build up to this spot they just don’t buy these guys as threats to top guys on their own. The works was (mostly) ok and Mocho Cota is doing well for a guy who’s suddenly been given a lot of talking time, but they’re not getting past their opening match stigma and nothing done here is going to help them. AAA’s given up their ideas about rules making sense in about the usual length of time, so they could have everyone out there to set up the six way match for Verano de Escandalo, but they still didn’t explain it in a way people would know it’s coming.

Ayako/Taya was most compelling AAA match so far this year, the first one I’m recommending. This came off as an attempt to match the lunacy and violence of some of Taya’s bigger Lucha Underground matches, and Ayako is definitely up for some crazy times. I thought one moonsault to nowhere was big, she decided to do two. The blood added a lot to the feeling of the match being out of control. The solid/smoothiest of the moves wasn’t consistent – Taya tossed a chair to Ayako quite a few times and the kick or whatever that followed looked good only about half of those times – but they got the emotion right and a little bit of messiness works for a street fight. Ayako being back around has been a huge help for AAA, and great for Taya – this is her best singles match in her run, I think. The passing out finish isn’t one usually done here and I wasn’t sure how it was going to get over as it was happening, but the crowd reacted loudly to the finish. It also sets up a rematch nicely, and they’re going to have interest in doing one.

La Secta’s title defense was better than the title switch match easily, a full out sprint for the six minutes it lasted. Cuervo & Scoria didn’t do much interesting but also didn’t have time to do all that much, with the match instead being built around giving Bengala & Australian Suicide as many near falls as possible before they got finished off. They had some nice team work and Suicide’s top rope moves looked pretty. If they were only going to go a short time, they got the most they could out of it. Post match idea of Cuervo & Scoria slipping away fits with the Pagano/Mesias stuff seems to be pushing the idea that they’re the really good at manipulating other people, which is at least a character trait. Mesias & Cuervo’s punch battle was not so good.

Recapped: 05/06/2017

Matches: 

All matches taped in Auditorio de Tijuana, April 21, 2017

1. Monsther Clown & Murder Clown defeat El Mesías & Pagano (9:40, Murder splash Mesias, ok)
2. Ricky Marvin beat Chessman (4:08, diving huracanrana, ok)
3. Kevin Kross beat Hijo del Fantasma in a tables match (11:39, powerbomb thru in a table, ok)

What happened: 

This is going to be quite long.

Mesias & Pagano had apparently forgiven/forgotten the problems from the last match and were best friends again going into this match. Cuervo & Scoria run in with a bat again, this time before the match is over. They attack both Pagano & Mesias, leaving the bat with Pagano again. (The idea is Scoria distracted Piero from calling a DQ, which is hard to believe when they were both beating up Pagano on the outside at the same time. Also, Mesias & Pagano didn’t see their attackers) The Clowns pin Mesias, beat him up some more, and Pagano eventually runs them off with the bat. Of course that means Mesias again sees the bat with Pagano and thinks he’s got attacked by his partner again. Mesias is clearly an idiot if he really thinks Pagano is attacking him and keeps teaming with him, but he does make mean faces at Pagano.

Backstage, Averno got a phone call from Super Fly, with Fly saying he’s on vacation and won’t be there. At least Averno leads us to believe that happens, because he wouldn’t let Chessman talk to Super Fly for whatever reason. Averno could just be a jerk, it’s hard to say. La Parka was spying on this conversation.

Ricky Marvin has new music, wears an OGT shirt with the NO symbol thru it and has a new mohawk. He thanks the crowd for their support for a while to make it’s clear he’s a técnico. Averno taunts him to facing a real serious luchador tonight, takes of his coat to tease being that luchador and then announces Chessman as the opponent. Chessman is surprised but happy. Averno adds himself to the announce team and brags for a few minutes. Ricky gets in a DDT about two minutes into the match, covers, Tirantes counts two, and then collapses on the third count. He sells getting hit in the face, and I guess Chessman did it, but it’s impossible to tell from what we see and it just seems like Tirantes collapses for no reason. Averno wastes no time getting involved, and La Parka jogs to the ring for the save. It isn’t really much a save by the time he gets there, Ricky’s rolled out, but Parka still clears house while Tirantes remains down for an absurdly long time. Parka does his dive, leads into a huracanrana on Chessman, and Tirantes pops back to life for three.

Texano is interviewed in ring before the main event, and announces his neck is healing well and he’s be able to return soon, and he’ll come back to get this his title. Texano’s asked about his feelings about Fantasma, and says he has no problem with him, these things happen in title matches, and they’re still brothers. Texano joins the announcers and continues to insist he are best friends who would never betray each other.

The vignette explaining why Mundo isn’t facing Fantasma does not air, and there’s no real explanation of what happened there; they’re basically hoping you forgot. Announcers mention Fantasma was out six months after suffering two back injuries in a previous tables match. That’s the Lucha Underground Mil Muertes/King Cuerno match (and a real back injury), which I don’t think has been talked about before. It was not immediately clear what the rules were in a table match. The announcers refer to it as an extreme match, Fantasma covers for a two count, and then the announcers later say you must put someone thru a table to win. Fantasma goes for a pin about a minute later and Tirantes counts it like normal, with Kross either easily kicking out or Fantasma pulling him out. Kross uses a chair on Fantasma’s shoulder a lot and announced argue if that’s legal in a tables match. Kross spears a table when Fantasma moves and shoves him past, and Texano scrambles to explain that you have to put the other person thru the table to win, not by themselves. (Replay show Fantasma pushes Kross towards the table, but OK.) Kross takes back over with a foul and Texano loses it again. Kross threatens to throw Fantasma out of the ring into a powerbomb thru the table, but Fantasma’s rallies back. Fantasma almost kicks Kross of the apron into a table, but Kross escapes, confronts Texano, and moves out of the way as Fantasma accidentally topes his friend. Kross grabs Fantasma and powerbombs him thru that table for the win.

Kross starts to leave, then comes back to attack Texano. The fans decide to block his path, so Kevin convinces them he’s just trying to clear a path to get Texano out of there – then chokes Texano and tosses him off the stretcher as soon as he can. That’s actually hilarious. Announcers scream about how this could end Texano’s career. Kross removes the neck brace and chokeslams Texano thru a table of pork rinds. Kross keeps the brace and puts it on Zuniaga

Noti AAA introduces us Niño Hamburguesa’s mom for mother’s day, who tells stories about a younger Niño Hamburguesa first falling in love with lucha libre and watching her son now. Niño thanks his mom for all his support.

The upcoming schedule bit doesn’t list (the canceled) Contla taping or the (replacement) Mexico City taping, so I guess they hadn’t figured out what they were doing when they put this together.

In a bonus segment, Faby Apache travels to a bar to meet Vampiro. Vampiro, like a ghost or Batman (or ghost Batman!) suddenly appears at the table when Faby’s looking the other direction. Vamp congratulates Faby for winning the trios championship and explains things and rules are changing in AAA (thanks to him) and she’s going to have to defend the trios titles against Poder del Norte next week, this time in an actual trios match. Faby points out her father and sister can’t actually wrestle right now, but I guess he’s got a week to find some partners. Faby looks away from the table and Vampiro vanishes. Some people might be spooked out by Vampiro’s magic tricks, but Faby’s seen some things here in AAA and just shrugs it off as normal.

Seven months after betraying Psycho Clown, Monster & Murder Clown have gotten their own music.

The EMW 1^st Anniversary logo is displayed on the ad screen during the show, which doesn’t usually happen with the local promoter (but there’s also not usually a giant screen like Tijuana already has.)

Thoughts: 

The main event mostly about getting Kross over, which did need the help – the crowd didn’t seem to care about this match as much as the last two, or recognize him as a big deal during them. Destroying Fantasma and Texano should help in the long run but it made for a weird outing here. Kross’s selling, even by AAA standards, doesn’t seem so great – he recovered totally from being put thru a table a little took quick unless he’s supposed to be an indestructible android (and maybe he is.) The rules were about normal for a table match but their handling of them wasn’t great, and the story of this match didn’t leave a lot of room for this match to be all that great.

Marvin/Chessman was an absolutely nothing match, but Ricky’s dive was pretty cool so I’m not going to say no to it. I don’t have a lot of hope for the third different retooling of Ricky Marvin since he’s come to AAA, especially the way he was moving around here, but he did okay for a four minute match where he only had to wrestler two and half minutes of it. I’d rather see Parka just do his offense for one minute and then go away – I mean, if this wasn’t going to be anything good, at least it was short? I still don’t know what happened to Tirantes.

A rudo/rudo brawl with a lot of people you’d like not to see brawl for a while. This OK in the same way the second Tuesday match is ok, because I can’t be bothered to think of it’s worth it. It actually turns into a Pagano/Monsther Clown match for what seems like much longer than 80 seconds it lasts. Murder is so definitely better than Monster now, though it seem weird to have an opinion on that. Every time Pagano tries to do a tricky agile move to impress, it never actually positives impresses. He does try, while Mesias seems to be not at all interested in any of this. This storyline is so dumb nonsense that it’s approaching coming back around as entertaining.

Recapped: 04/30/2017

Matches: 

All matches taped at Domo de San Luis, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí on 04/12/2017.

1. Big Mami, Lady Shani, Pimpinela Escarlata beat Goya Kong, La Hiedra, Mamba (6:46, Mami sit Goya, ok)
2. El Mesías & Pagano  beat Australian Suicide & Bengala  and Aerostar & Drago (9:14, Mesias powerbomb Bengala, good)
3. Carta Brava Jr. & Soul Rocker beat Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown  (6:53, Soul Rocker frog splash Psycho Clown, ok)
4. Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Psycho Clown  (8:14, Wagner foul Psycho, ok)

What happened: 

The main event is promoted as being Psycho Clown versus Dr. Wagner. Nuevo Poder del Norte’s music interrupts the start of the match. (The audio is not synced up.) They change the match to a tag match, and it’s credited/blamed on Vampiro. Mocho Cota goes to the back, then returns when Psycho Clown has Carta Brava probably beat with a powerbomb. His music plays again and everything. Psycho does try to unmask Carta Brava instead f pinning, so he’s not frozen in time. Soul Rocker and Cota take out Wagner, then, distract the referee and trip up Psycho to set up a sliding dropkick from Carta. Soul Rocker frog splashes Psycho for the win.

Mocho Cota bragged about beating the TripleMania main eventners, and challenges them to a mask match on behalf of his partners for Verano de Escandalo. Psycho Clown accepts the challenge for himself. Wagner accepts, though it seems like he accepts so Psycho won’t lose it before he faces Wagner. Psycho stars ts to leave, and Wagner bring sup that they were supposed to have a singles match, so they can still have a singles match. Psycho doesn’t seem interested, but Wagner attacks him, and it leads into a real match. Psycho managed to lose two main events!

Leo Riano claimed Lady Shani is on the tecnica side on orders of Vampiro. She had no problem being on the tecnica team thru the match and the after math. All six women fought for no particular reason post match in the ring., then we’re shown Mamba and Pimpi grabbing each other’s hair after they get backstage. No one seems all that interested in breaking that up. There’s a clear guidance in that post match and the commentary that Pimpi & Mamba is the real issue here but it doesn’t feel like they’re close to doing anything about it unless you’re reading ahead.

Cuervo & Scoria ran in at the end of the three way tag match. They got to the ring too late to break up the pin, but hit Mesias in the back with a bat, left it near Pagano and ran away before he could figure out what had happened. Mesias saw Pagano with the bat and assumed his partner had betrayed him. Pagano really didn’t seem interested in clearing up the confusion, and they were face to face as the segment ended.

Armando, a boy, takes over Noti AAA for Kid’s Day.

Thoughts:

The surprise tag match got decent time but it never really picked up to anything interesting. If the goal was to make the Poder del Norte credible challengers, it didn’t really work. They got the win, but lost most of the match and didn’t surprise or impress in anyway. Mocho Cota’s talking was the best part of the act.

The entire bonus match felt like a dark math special, not something we were meant to see on TV. It was a regular match, but played out like something we would’ve seen prior to the current direction: Tirantes is back to being a rudo, Wagner is cheats, Psycho Clown is losing a lot. The crowd cared a lot more about that match, and it’s clear that’s the feud that matters.

They went for it in the three way tag match, it’s just too bad it was for a crowd who wasn’t all that into it. (I wonder if there were just audio issues on this taping, because Cota’s promo in the main event is not synced and nothing outside the ring sounds right.) They wrestled it without sitting out a team for that long, and instead teams coming in and out at random and frequently, which kept the pace high but also led to some awkward moments. There were good moments, especially with the Suicide/Bengala vs Aerostar/Drago match within a match. They got a lot time, but the frenetic everyone getting a turn nature of the match didn’t let itself to much of a story or a build to an end, everyone else just happened to be busy. I’m not sure if Cuervo & Scoria were late or right on time, their attack seemed strange, but Pagano & Mesias played the roles reacting to it well.

The women’s match had a lot of Mami/Goya and so it wasn’t for me and probably not for most people (it didn’t seem as over as usual too.) It shows how high they’re on Mami that it’s her getting the pins win they’re supposedly doing a Mamba/Pimpinela feud. Shani/Hiedra often off on their own to do their own exchanged, which were messy at some times and rehashed looking at others, but still had the best hope of anything watchable coming from this. Just not this time. I think Hiedra would be better as the tecnica and Shani as the ruda, and the only reason for the current status quo is for a feud that dropped cold.

Recapped: 04/26/2017

Matches: 

All matches were taped from Domo de San Luis in San Luis Potosi on April 12. They can be seen on the Lucha Libre AAA channel

Concord, Hijo Del Vikingo, Octagoncito beat Bronco González, Guerrero De Plata, Mini Histeria (9:19, triple pin, ok)

Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Lanzeloth, Máscara de Bronce, Venum (8:46, Super Fly frogsplash Venum, ok)

Johnny Mundo, Kevin Kross, Taya defeated Argenis, Ayako Hamada, Hijo del Fantasma in a non disqualification match (rudos, Taya chair shot to the head Ayako, 11:27, ok)

Notes:

Taya introduces Kross to the crowd. Fantasma responds by introducing the new champ, Ayako in Taya’s face. A table and a chair came into play late. The no disqualification stipulation wasn’t emphasized, but explained away the work. Taya hit Aayko in the head with a chair for the win. Taya tried to boat about the win, but was cut off by Vampiro’s music. Vampiro reminds everyone that Mundo cheated to win the title, and gives Fantasma a rematch for the championship in Tijuana. Vampiro also makes Taya & Ayako in a street fight for the Reinas de Reinas championship.

OGT unmasked their opponents after their match. Ricky Marvin cleaned house after the match when Pirata Morgan showed up and attacked Marvin. (On the taping, Pirata was already seen on the show, but he really comes out of nowhere here.) La Parka shows up to make the save and everyone scatters, though Pirata makes sure to stare at La Parka for a while before slowly exiting the ring. Parka challenges the OGT & Pirata.

Mini Histeria replaced Mini Abismo Negro. He got his own entrance away from the new guys, while Octagoncito comes out with his partners. The four new guys are introduced as Llave de la Gloria contestants, but none of the four are listed among the finalists AAA has posted to far. The referee is the mystery referee who worked the Neza show, so he’s probably actually a regular addition. Guerrero de Plata has a pirate theme going on and is wearing no silver (red and gold), suggesting he was previously working under a different name.

Noti AAA promoted some tiny action figures being given out by the Pasala newspaper every Monday. AAA showed Fantasma, Faby Apache and Parka figures, but there’s clearly at least two more figures partly showed and partly cropped out by AAA. (One appears to be an Octagon or Octagoncito.) There’s 19 being given out.

Noti AAA credits Vampiro for creating the new OGT, which doesn’t quite make sense unless the idea is Vampiro restarting the Rey de Reyes match is supposed to have pushed Super Fly to joining the group. Averno has a promo where he doesn’t show much.

Highlights of the AAA & Impact press conference are shown. Jeff Jarrett talking about going after Fantasma and Parka’s mask, and Fantasma challenging him back, so they’re clearly building a TripleMania match this week.

Thoughts:

The main event was a messy match, not in execution of moves but of flow. I would’ve assumed they would do a US style tag match given the people involved, but it was more like an AAA style. Kross didn’t immediately fit in – he used a chinlock in an AAA trios match to slow down the action, can’t think of the last time I saw that – and didn’t get to throw around as much. (He also did the three amigos and Eddie Guerrero shake which was lost on the announce crew and production.) Taya & Ayako didn’t look great, but they did look better in Monterrey. Argenis was back not standing out

The middle match did was it was intended to do, the OGT looking strong as a new unit by destroying the técnicos most of the match. They came off as much more impressive unit than the tecnicos. The rudos worked well for the técnicos, but they didn’t have their best nights. The second triple dive spot didn’t come off well, Mascara de Bronce took too long setting up and Lanzeloth crashed and burned. They did have some good offense, it just came smoother for it in other matches.

The opener was sloppy and disorganized at times, but it finished strong and gave us good long looks at some new people. Hijo del Vikingo looked great, and has the potential to be something really good. Concord tried big offense but looked sloppy, though that could’ve been the rudos. Bronco Gonzalez was the better of the two rudos, with Guerrero de Plata not showing much at all. Octagoncito worked hard and Mini Histeria was fine.