Tag: Lucha Capital

Recapped: 11/27/2019

Matches:

Carta Brava beat Argenis
(10:25, Carta Brava Jr. Air Raid Crash, good, 00:09:25)

Villano III Jr. beat Dave The Clown, Abismo Negro Jr.
(12:00, Villano III Jr. Double Spanish Fly Dave & Abismo, ok, 00:26:31)

Lady Shani beat Keyra vs La Hiedra
(12:13, Lady Shani fujiwara armbar Keyra, great, 00:45:26)

Puma King beat Pagano and Aerostar
(10:29, Puma King armabr Aerostar, good, 01:08:17)

Taurus beat Psycho Clown, Mocho Cota Jr.
(11:47, Taurus foul Psycho Clown, ok, 01:31:32)

What happened:

The show starts with an explanation of how the men’s side is going to work.

• Argenis and Carta Brava Jr. had a tiebreaker match to determine which of their team advances to three-way matches tonight. Mocha Cota represented the team in the second round (which implies Arez or Mr. Iguana was sitting around backstage ready to go.)
• The winning men’s teams would meet in a three-way next week. The two winners advance to the final.
• One person from each of the losing teams would get a second chance entry. There was a fan vote to determine those winners. Those four winners face off for the last spot in the final. The four fan vote winners were Pagano, Psycho Clown, Hijo del Vikingo and Carta Brava.

Thoughts:

The rhythm of the main event felt off and it felt slow. Psycho Clown’s done more in other matches as well; not sure if the leg injury from Juarez was still bothering him, or if it was just that sort of night. It was not an unwatchable main event and one the crowd was very into, just one to go back and watch.

The Puma King triangle match suffered a bit from feeling like just random moves strung together for a long way, then coming to a halt do Aerostar’s injury angle. The injury did at least pay off into the finish, Puma pulling out a relevant submission not seen from him before. Pagano was all over the place as usual but there was some solid action otherwise. Puma King looked strong in the end.

Lady Shani vs Keyra vs La Hiedra match was outstanding, the best women’s match I’ve seen from Mexico this year. It was hard-fought, it had momentum switches that felt like more than people switching moves, and it played off spots we’d seen before from them in new ways. Lady Shani specifically appeared like she’s level up here, combining the llave spots she’s been doing this year better with more hard-hitting moments. The sequence of going adeptly from hold to hold to put away Keyra was unlike anything done in AAA and put Shani over as a smart killer. This was really a group effort – Keyra kicked people in the face, Hiedra is also a lot improved – but they got Shani over huge by the end and that seems like the goal. The women wrestled this like a big-time tournament match and the only thing missing was the tournament feeling big enough to match it.

Two straight all rudo matches to open up the card was an unusual choice. At least Dave & Abismo attacked Villano off the start to establish him as the guy to root for here. It couldn’t really stick that way over ten minutes and so it was just a lot of spots. There were parts of this match where Abismo Negro Jr. was worse than Dave the Clown, about the most devastating thing you can say about a person. Dave wants to do a lot of things, doesn’t know if they make sense for him (a two-person headscissors?), doesn’t care. The Villano III Jr. double Spanish Fly spot was another moment of wrestlers trying to do something they weren’t really capable of doing, and it could’ve gone very badly.

Poder del Norte delivered consistently in this tournament. Carta Brava once again against Argenis, coming off aggressive while being just on time in the right places for his big dives. The block of the Volador Sprial right into the Air Raid Crash for the finish was smartly done. Brava kept the action going in a ten-minute singles match with Argenis, someone who’s not really shown that aptitude in prior chances. The rudo turn has given him an added dimension – he can still fly a little bit but seems free to do other things. This was a fun opener and I wouldn’t argue with anyone rating it higher.

Vikingo

Recapped: 10/23/2019

Matches:

Dinastía beat Arez and Mocho Cota Jr.
(7:27, Dinastia Spanish Fly Arez, good, 00:08:08)

Faby Apache beat Lady Maravilla and La Hiedra
(6:38, Faby Apache armbar La Hiedra, ok, 00:23:37)

Tito Santana beat Dave The Clown and Hijo Del Vikingo
(13:14, Tito Santana backcracker, below average, 00:39:43)

Taurus beat Súper Fly and Puma King
(11:02, Taurus double underhook piledriver Super Fly, ok, 01:03:29)

What happened:

Vikingo needed some medical attention after his match.

Dinastia, Faby Apache, Tito Santana, and Taurus won their matches. We’re still refusing to pay attention to the group standings until this is halfway done.

Vampiro led a round of applause for La Parka at the start of the show.

Fantasma appeared to present the Lucha Capital belts. They are new belts, they have 2019 on them.

Thoughts:

The main event was good in spots but never really came together. The pieces just didn’t fit as well as they could’ve had. Taurus got to do so some strong spots and the finish looked brutal but felt like he could’ve done more against one of the flyers.

Upon first viewing, I thought there was a chance Vikingo got hurt enough to cause his match to end unexpectedly. It doesn’t seem that way watching again, which makes the whole thing confounding. There’s some logic in having the rudos take a lot of the match to set up a big Vikingo comeback. They did that, Vikingo did a few spots, and they strangely went back to beating up Vikingo. It doesn’t square with Vikingo winning the Copa Pena a few days ago. Even if Tito had to get the win for tournament reasons, he could’ve gotten it over Dave instead. This outcome doesn’t make sense from a wrestling logic standpoint and the match was long and boring to boot.

The women’s match couldn’t overcome the usual disruptions which are brought on by a three-way match. Everyone seemed to work hard, it just didn’t come together as anything beyond a bunch of moves and a finish. Maravilla had the coolest bridging moves.

The opener was the best match of the night. Arez’ creativity mixes well with Dinastia’s energy, even when it is as simple as grabbing Dinastia’s tail to pull him into a suplex. All the Poder del Norte guys are probably underrated as individuals because they just work as a team; Cota came off here like he’d be one of the better solo rudos of his size if things went differently. The finish was tricky and came off well.

Recapped: 10/16/2019

All matches this season emanate from the Pinche Gringo BBQ in Mexico City.

Matches:

Ayako Hamada beat Big Mami and Hades
(7:53, Ayako AP Cross, good, 00:05:37)

Flamita beat Willie Mack and Máximo
(12:19, Flamita crucifix cradle Willie Mack, ok, 00:21:05)

Rich Swann beat Nino Hamburguesa and Argenis
(8:28, Rich Swann middle rope 450 splash Argenis, ok, 00:42:10)

Drago beat Villano III Jr. and Aerostar
(11:49, Drago Dragon’s Trail Cradle Villano III, good, 00:59:28)

What happened:

Ayako, Flamita, Rich Swann, and Drago picked up the wins for their teams in the first week of matches. Everyone seemed to know who their teammates were, which was fairly amazing.

Hades was hurt after taking the finish of her match.

La Griega has been replaced by La Regia.

Thoughts:

The overall presentation is improved. They’ve got fancy graphics to help ease the understanding of the team system this year. Vampiro and his co-host of the year aren’t good but they are kept to a minimum. There’s little dead time between the matches, and I’d happily trade the sometimes enjoyable weirdness for the show being done 45 minutes quicker. JMG & Adrian are more focused on the matches than the Konnan/Vampiro announce teams had been.

I’m not really thrilled at the match format though. I don’t like three-way matches because they usually seem worse than any 1v1 match that could’ve happened instead. They tend to repeat the spin short term partnership/pin break-up spots in all of the matches. That’s what happened here; if there’s even a way to make four different triangle matches, AAA hasn’t figured out yet. I think they’re and we’re stuck, unless they rethink this tournament on the fly. That puts a cap on how good this is going to be during the group rounds.

Aerostar & Drago & Villano III Jr. was the match of the night, a bunch of typical highspots and occasional Villano power moves. It wasn’t without flaws (or people standing around waiting to get hit); Villano looked more noticeably green here than he does in normal AAA TV matches. Aerostar did make it through the match unscathed for once.

Rich Swann calling Nino Hamburguesa & Argenis two of the best wrestlers in Mexico after they all had a very average match was more fun than the match. It was alright, Swann looked the best, Argenis has fully bought into evil, Hamburguesa did some of his usual stuff, it just really wasn’t much.

The Willie Mack/Maximo/Flamita match tried to make the three-way format work by just disappearing Maximo for the last few minutes of the match. It felt like they had lost the crowd then, with a stilted early pace and comedy that didn’t get. The communication barrier here was more with the DJ not understanding what music Willie Mack needed to dance, but Mack and Flamita didn’t feel as smooth as they should’ve been early. This felt like an off night for Flamita. Maximo kiss spots were the most over thing but also kind of felt they didn’t fit.

Hades wrestled as if she really wanted to make a positive impression on her return. She did, and then she ended up on a backboard. That wasn’t a happy ending. The three-way overdelivered, with Mami’s spots getting over and Hades showing a lot more than expected. Ayako did relatively little, which seemed like too much a tell she was going to get the win in the end. It was still a surprising match, enough to make it worth checking out.

 

Recapped: 12/19/2018

Matches:

Golden Magic beat Máximo
(4:51, 450 splash, ok, 00:09:54)

Killer Kross beat Murder Clown
(5:01, Kross back suplex, ok, 00:21:40)

Laredo Kid beat Hijo Del Vikingo
(7:49, Laredo Fly, good, 00:38:05)

Psycho Clown beat Pagano
(7:29, casita, ok, 00:51:15)

Pentagón Jr. beat Australian Suicide
(5:57, package piledriver, great, 01:07:40)

Laredo Kid won a five-man ruleta rusa for the Lucha Capital men’s championship
(8:07, good, 01:29:40)

• Pentagon Jr. & Golden Magic started
• Laredo Kid entered (1:18)
• Psycho Clown entered (2:29)
• Psycho Clown threw Golden Magic out (3:11)
• Killer Kross entered (3:46)
• Killer Kross threw Psycho Clown Pentagon Jr. out (5:09)
• Killer Kross threw Pentagon Jr. out (5:54)
• Laredo Kid threw Killer Kross out (8:07)

What happened:

Laredo Kid won the Lucha Capital tournament. The final was a five-man royal rumble. It appeared to be a four-man royal rumble for a bit; Killer Kross was announced as not being able to participate in the final due to a knee injury, but then came out as the final entrant anyway.

(As best as can be determined, Kross did have a knee injury but may have decided to wrestle after all since he was to be the last person out before the finish. Kross was grabbing his right knee after getting hit by Murder Clown’s dive in their match. Máximo and Golden Magic also appeared to be injured during the course of the show.)

The final came down to Laredo and Kross. Scarlett, a weapon, and Pentagon all got involved for a long moment, but none directly figured into the finish. Laredo eventually threw out Kross for the win. His post-match promo including throwing out a challenge to Fenix for the megachampionship again.

Fenix appeared earlier on the show to present the most popular luchador award to Pagano. La Parka handled the arm wrestling.

Thoughts:

The main event had the most AAA feel of the show so far, with run-ins that didn’t go anywhere and inexplicably injury situation. The result actually made sense as far as setting someone up for a title program instead of just giving a top guy a win to have a win. (It seemed like Konnan booking.) Like most every other match in this tournament, there was more craziness than you’d expect – I don’t know what Golden Magic was thinking – and it was probably the best five man royal rumble you’ll ever see. I didn’t really like the end of ending a tournament built around singles matches with a royal rumble and over the top eliminations. It also might have worked out for the benefit if turned out Kross couldn’t do a real match.

Suicide is supposed to be nuts but now also his matches are also nuts. They decided to go for big spots from the get out, Suicide nailing the Dragon rana and a cool dive quick, wonderfully teasing the shock upset. They kept it exciting throughout. Suicide was trying everything and paying for half of it. Like the Laredo/Vikingo match, they tried a lot, but it came off better here. The shooting star press counter superkick spots didn’t quite have great timing, but they were close enough to look cool and this match was just about cool looking moves.

I didn’t care much for Pagano/Psycho Clown. Pagano is really slow and prone to weird and bad looking spots, and the flashy move he tries to do to make up for it really don’t. Psycho Clown was fine but not as interesting as other matches. This was the match where it finally clicked Psycho is using the casita because his wife’s family taught him the secrets to make that cradle unbeatable, a fantastic story.

Vikingo/Laredo was only disappointing in there were really high expectations. A few things didn’t work well in the first half of the match. They never lost the crowd and the ring was filled with coins after, but I think the missed headscissors and the shakiness leading to the shooting star press to the floor spot really stood out. The match was put together with more drama than usual, Vikingo’s missed corner knees coming out as a surprise. The counter before the finish was also shot really well. I think they could have a better match with another try but this was still pretty good.

The Kross/Murder match was the weakest Murder Clown match of the series. He and Kross didn’t have any chemistry. Whatever that wanted that forearm battle to be, it was definitely not, and didn’t otherwise take advantage of having two big guys. The sequence where Murder Clown hit a 619 and it caused Kross to go out of the ring to (sort of) catch a dive didn’t look so great. Perhaps Kross came into the match with the knee injury and that’d explain the performance. It was nice of them to try and protect Murder by having him kick out of Kross’ suplex, but it didn’t seem to amount to much when Kross just beat him as soon as he was done acting really shocked. This is not a promotion built about people taking finishing moves that seriously.

Máximo got hurt on his own dive a few minutes into the opener. The match wasn’t super before it and was pretty much done after it. Máximo was nice enough to let Golden Magic kick out of the kiss cradle and let Golden Magic hit a 450 splash to what appeared to an injury. That can’t be a fun issue with a rib injury.

Recapped: 12/12/2018

Matches:

La Máscara beat Carta Brava Jr.
(7:00, campana, ok, 00:14:11)

Máximo beat Máscarita Sagrada
(9:12, kiss cradle, bad, 00:25:15)

Golden Magic beat Aerostar
(8:42, super powerslam, ok, 00:40:23)

Laredo Kid beat Texano Jr.
(9:14, Laredo Fly, good, 01:03:40)

Hijo Del Vikingo beat Drago
(9:21, imploding 450 splash, great, 01:19:22)

Taya beat Keyra and Vanilla
(6:09, Taya northern suplex + double stomp, good, 01:36:00)

What happened: 

Taya won the (newly created) women’s Lucha Capital championship, beating Vanilla & Keyra in the final. Martha Villalobos presented Taya with the championship.

Hijo del Vikingo, Laredo Kid, Golden Magic, and Máximo join Pentagon Jr., Psycho Clown, Pagano and Australian Suicide in next week’s final. I’d still assume Killer Kross will be added until proven otherwise.

Fenix joined the commentary for the last few matches. He said he was recovering day by day and was moving around much better, but there was no update on exactly when he’d be back.

Aerostar suffered a head injury on an early Golden Magic dive. The match ceased for a couple minutes as the doctors wrapped up the outside of Aerostar’s mask to stop the bleeding, which did not actually stop the bleeding and seemed to distract Aerostar. He took it off a minute after they continued, and continually checked his head for blood.

Thoughts:

The women’s match was a strong final for the tournament, the best all women’s match of this tournament. Taya’s double slam spot seemed like it got the biggest reaction of a spot in over an hour. Keyra kicked people very hard. Taya as the strong woman throwing people around is maybe the best use they’ve come up with her so so far. Vanilla’s weakness was better hidden with two other people in the match. She seemed to best serve as a target for really hard offense. Vanilla couldn’t quite keep up with the pace, but didn’t drag the match as much down as she would’ve in a singles match. This was a short main event but it really didn’t need to be any longer.

Drago/Vikingo was Vikingo’s best singles match so far. The shooting star press to the floor was crazy, and he was impressively flying even before that. Vikingo has a deeper reserve of offense to fill out a singles match. Drago was the secondary figure, but was able to keep up with the pace. There’s a few errors noticeable in rewatching it and the imploding 450 could’ve had a better landing, but Vikingo looked top level most of the way. They keep calling Vikingo the future of AAA and he probably will be, but he’s a trios champion who’s going to the final day fo this tournament, Vikingo is the present too.

Texano hasn’t been impressive on this show, but Laredo Kid is a mental case taking crazy bumps to the floor so the match was still easily worth watching. At least Texano’s slow pace gave Laredo time to recover from taking a scoop slam to the floor, and his big spots looked really good. Glad he’s moving on and hopefully he gets a better opponent next week.

Golden Magic/Aerostar was thrown off course by Aerostar’s injury. The crowd seemed concerned it was serious and never got back into the match after the restart. They still seemed to want to do most of their planned match, but the pace was off in between the spots. This match was still much better than what preceded it, but not what you’d hope for out of this matchup.

Maximo/Sagrada was the worst match of the tournament so far. Maximo was committed to doing nothing, and they did a lot of nothing for about five minutes. Sagrada eventually getting a comeback woke the matchup slightly, but at that point I was disappointed the accidental mask pull didn’t end the match much earlier. Every tease of Sagrada advantaging in this match was like a horror movie villain coming out from behind the corner. Máximo didn’t even bother trying in the least, but it is also obvious no one can figure out how to work with Sagrada in the least.

Carta Brava tried, which put him one up on La Mascara. A rudo/rudo match was going to be a struggle, and Mascara continued his bit of not exactly being excited to be in these matches. He also looked totally gassed by the end of the match. The dives were nice but there’s no reason to watch there.