03/19/2017 AAA TV Lineup (Monterrey, Rey de Reyes)

AAA (SUN) 03/19/2017 Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon
1) ? & ?? vs ??? & ????
may be a dark match
2) Faby Apache vs Mary Apache, La Hiedra, Lady Shani, ?, Goya Kong, Big Mami [Reina De Reinas, #1 Contenders]
3) Taya © vs ? [Reina De Reinas]
4) Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria vs El Mesías & Pagano [#1 Contenders, AAA TAG]
5) Aerostar vs Súper Fly [mask, hair]
6) Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown vs Monsther Clown & Murder Clown [falls count anywhere]
7) Hijo del Fantasma vs Texano Jr. vs Johnny Mundo [Rey de Reyes]

Air Date: 03/25 and 04/01; perhaps the show could air live, but there’s no indication of that right now.

Remember the story about AAA having everything planned out thru April? I’m not sure about that story now. Maybe just they had the venues planned, or maybe a lot of things went out of the window when people left, because there’s stuff here that are left turns from where they were going before. Lady Shani goes for Taya’s challenger to just one person in a match, Psycho & Wagner are suddenly on the same side, the OGT and the Apaches aren’t in a match, and Fantasma & Texano go from doing nothing to main eventing a show? Super Fly versus Aerostar was set up at Guerra de Titanes, Wagner vs Psycho is the year long program, and the Clowns betraying Wagner will air this week or next, and nothing else that’s airing in these first few months seems to matter all that much.

Maybe the biggest change is the venue. This week’s TV finally announced it, but announced it as Plaza de Toros Monumental (about 11K fans.) The poster has it in Arena Jose Sulaiman, the old Arena Solidaridad. I can’t find a capacity right now, but that’s more in the 6k range, give or take 2K. AAA’s sold out a lot of shows by being wise in which arenas they’re going to, and running the smaller arena is probably a wise move with this lineup. The Aerostar/Super Fly match is the only one that feels like it means anything and they’re usually midcard guys. (They were show opening guys last time AAA was in Monterrey.) There are a couple of matches I’d like to see, but AAA’s still rebuilding star power and there’s no special guest stars here to help outside of the periodic Mundo & Taya appearances. I think they’ll do ok, AAA seems to have a way of filling arenas, but they’re also putting together another big card that just seems like marking time until TripleMania. There’s one show they’re interested in loading up this year and it’s not Rey de Reyes.

If AAA told it, there’s an interesting story to the main event. It’s AAA’s three singles champions (Fantasma is Cruiserweight, Texano is Heavyweight, Mundo is Latin American) having a match to determine who’s the king of the kings. All three guys have no challengers, because of departures or lack of interest on AAA’s part, and this could work as a reset point. AAA’s small roster doesn’t really have a need for three different singles tiles, and if they just treated the winner of this as the guy who was actually The Man, they might be able to make one of the titles mean something. All three guys are generally considered talented luchadors, but have generally had OK to good matches for the longest time. They can fix that, and maybe it’s AAA’s best shot at a non-apuesta MOTYC caliber match this year.

Guerra de Titanes set up title matches for Mundo & Taya at Rey de Reyes. Given how sparingly they’re being used, I’d figured that meant they’d both lose their titles on the same day, and they wouldn’t be around much going forward. (Taya supporting Pentagon and others on Twitter so publicly also makes it seem like she’s not worried about AAA’s feelings going forward.) That doesn’t look to be what’s happening now. Taya will still defend her title, but Mundo isn’t scheduled to defend his and so they both must be sticking around for a while longer.

Psycho Clown is kind of a dummy if he actually teams with one enemy to face two other enemies, but Psycho Clown is always kind of a dummy so it works out I guess. He probably could use some promo time to explain why on earth he’d do such a thing (and why seeing him and Wagner make peace is going to make us want to see them fight for their masks.) That match just doesn’t make any sense to me. Falls count anywhere means they’ll have a big stunt somewhere. I suspect it’s some space filler for whatever the Rebelion guys were going to do.

I don’t think a single person believes Super Fly is winning Aerostar’s mask on this show, but the match itself has the potential to be good. Their TV work has been good, both will try hard in an apuesta match, and the crowd will be into it. The problem, and why my hopes are not as high as they might be, is every AAA singles match is actually a lame two on one handicap match, with the rudo second interfering freely and the tecnico second standing around meekly until they get in their one dive at the end. Carta Brava and Drago are the seconds, and there’s no reason to expect AAA to stop doing this until they actually run one normal. The upside is AAA’s roster turnover has essentially led to Aerostar being pushed as one of the top tecnicos, and who would’ve thought that would’ve ever happened.

AAA’s lost track of their tag team titles or are being confusing or just wanted to put Pagano & Mesias in a tag team match to do their breakup and nothing else matters. There’s already a #1 contenders match in Apizaco with the Piratas, Angelico & Suicide, Bengala & Joe Lider and Cuervo and someone replacing Zorro. I keep checking the AAA website every few days to see if they’ve redone the poster and put Scoria in, and Zorro’s still there every day. AAA rushed to get Pentagon and friends off the lineups, not so much with this one. Anyway, the tag champions are Drago & Aerostar, so it would’ve figured to be a rudo team, and Scoria & Cuervo made more sense than the Piratas. Except, they’re probably not going to get two #1 contender spots, so it’s going to be someone else. Angelico & Suicide would make sense, but Angelico’s got a lot of outside Mexico bookings the next few months. Or maybe La Secta win the shot and put that up against Pagano & Mesias? I dunno. In the long run, I’d suspect Mesias & Pagano are heading to some sort of death match at TripleMania, but it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch for AAA to actually have them win to keep stringing out the breakup. Whenever you think an AAA angle has gone long, they’ll make it go a little big longer.

I suspect Lady Shani is still getting the title shot, and the women’s match is just a way to give her a win before going into the title match. It’s unlikely she’ll get two. There are plenty of luchadors in Monterrey who could fill the mystery spot, which almost has to be a new person given there’s almost no one else left in AAA. (Hechicera is still around, still never on TV.) They could also do the Pimpinela comedy bit, forgetting they’ve already done the Pimpinela wins the women’s title as comedy bit.

I’m cautiously interested in the main event. I want to see whatever crazy thing Aerostar is going to do. Everything else seems not too promising – two different tag team matches where we know a team is going to split up, and the two women’s matches will probably have OGT and other nonsense. AAA hasn’t run an iPPV since TripleMania and there’s no reason to believe this one will be on iPPV either.

Next taping is 03/31 in Tampico.