AAA #618

taped 02/23, aired this past weekend in the US

Shows are a lot more fun when you imagine random non-existent angles.

Alan/Zumbido vs Pirata/Charly go into the short list of Good Matches From This Tag Team Tournament. The fans were into it (would’ve been more into if it was Chessman and Charly, but what can you do), and both teams seemed desperate to win the match. The way matches are laid out usually in AAA, with the rudos getting in all sorts of offense but not trying to win the match (and sometimes displaying they could win the match but don’t care to) and then the tecnicos getting in all sorts of offense but not trying to get the pin until everyone’s had a turn, matches come off as boring meaningless exhibitions of moves. They’re not going anywhere, they’re just milling time until the two guys who are involved with the finish face off against each other. All the moves in between don’t really mean anything, and I’m wasting my time watching them.

I’m sure this is a result of lucha libre being built around three falls – you do those long one sided tecnicos to climax to an intermediate pinfall. There’s more immediate payoff; we all know 1st and 2nd falls don’t mean that much, but they operate as waypoints. One fall matches take those waypoints out, and the path you’re traveling doesn’t make any sense any more.

Say I’m dating this girl, and we hang out at her place all the time. Because I’m awesome, I go out of my way make a couple of stops on the way – drive thru to get dinner, Blockbuster to pick up a DVD. Those stops mean I’m not going the most straight foward route, but because part of the point trip is to make those stops, the route makes sense.

Later on, things have changed. She’s subscribing to Netflix, so we don’t need a DVD, and we’re both about sick of fast food, so she’s cooking dinner.* I don’t need to make stops on the way to her place…but oddly, I’m still traveling the long route past each old stop on the way. It doens’t make any sense, and it’s a waste of time.

This is AAA – they’re not using three falls system anymore, but they’re still using the three fall psychology and it doesn’t make any sense under this setup. It doesn’t mean they need to go back to three falls, it just means they need to find a way to make whatever fall system they’re working make sense. It’s a mess right now.

It should be noted that a lot of the stuff got over, and I’ve never been in a ring so what do I know.

(* – if you are this girl, call me)

Anyway, before I went off the rails, I was talking about the Guapos tag match. The difference was both sides were actively, desperately trying to win the match. The traditional system went out the window, because the momentum shifts happened more times and more often, and wrestlers tried to win/end the match from early on. It helped that there were some good workers in there too. I’m hoping they don’t drop the Alan Stone/Zumbido team after this, because they’ve got some potential. Alan’s grown on me as one of AAA guys I actually like.

I want to say the same thing about Zumbido, but I haven’t been able to appreciate him much since the story about his, uh, domestic issues (which would be 3-4 years ago at this point, right?) It’s compartively unfair, because I’m sure I’ve heard stories about other people that are far worse and they didn’t irrevocably cross a line in my mind like Zumbido did, but I’m unable to get over it with him.

Opener was lesser than usual for that style, didn’t think much of the other tag team tournament, Mexican Powers/Foreign Legion was exactly as I figured it would be, Consgrados/Tecnicos was an AAA special and I could not be less into Octagon versus Fuerza, and the main event wasn’t so good. Cibernetico very slowly seems to be getting the idea of the tecnico thing, and it’s a shame he’s not working as one more often so he could improve a little faster.

Just to preemptively clear up my conspiracy theories, I think there’s 0% chance an secret alliance between the Vipers and the Hell Brother was actually in the plans when they did this match, and I think there’s less than 2% chance Intocable caning Zorro was supposed to foreshadow anything tangible at this point. But it’s fun to imagine something huge being started by something very small and built over months, which is why I see things like this (and consider Parka joining the Legion) and make a note out of absolutely nothing.