AAA on Televisa: 2017-06-03 

Recapped: 06/08/2017

Matches: 

Concord & Hijo Del Vikingo beat Bronco González Jr. & Guerrero de Plata
(9:11, Hijo del Vikingo 450 splash Guerrero de Plata, good)

Lanzeloth & Máscara de Bronce beat Dalton Bragg & Joe Lider (5:44, double standing moonsault on Bragg, ok)

Aerostar, Australian Suicide, Bengala, Drago defeat Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, El Mesías, Pagano (9:52, Drago’s Tail on Cuervo, ok)

What Happened:

The big event didn’t happen in a match, but in an in-ring interview with Leo Riano and Fantasma. It was preceded by a flashback of Texano bringing Fantasma into AAA, and then the more recent bit of Fantasma giving Texano that piledriver. Fantasma insisted to Riano that he and Texano were brothers who’d team up to go after Kross & Mundo. Texano came to the ring, and Fantasma apologized to him and offered a handshake. Texano turned his back on Fantasma. Fantasma pulled Texano back and wanted Texano to accept his apology. Texano took the microphone, both to say he won’t accept it and to hit Fantasma. Security had already gotten in the ring with Texano so that was the end of it, but Fantasma flipped out when he got back stage.

Suicide continued his tantrum from Tijuana, acting rudely towards Drago & Aerostar before the match, then attacking both enemies and teammates after the match, which turned into a brawl between all four teams. The bit ended with Pagano & Mesias having their usual staredown.

Joe Lider & Dalton Bragg were apparently forced to team by Vampiro, but Vampiro didn’t force them to get along. Bragg refused to work with Lider, and Lider ended up walking out on him in a non-competitive match.

There was no mention of the Verano de Escandalo lineup outside of the commercial promising one person would lose their mask on the show (the next day.) None of the matches specifically built to that show.

Thoughts:

I could not imagine a less useful show to build up a major show. AAA must’ve had complete confidence in the Ciudad Juarez promoters to be able to sell their show completely on local promotion and goodwill from previous shows, because they gave them no help. They went out of their way to give them no help; AAA could’ve switched the episode order around and aired the match with the Verano match this week, but decided to save it until after the show it was meant to build up. It doesn’t make much sense to me.

The Llaves de la Gloria matches are a bright spot on a not exactly sparking promotion at the moment. They’ve been kept out of the massive storylines and they’re featuring Hijo del Vikingo, who looks great. He actually looks like a guy who’s been doing his incredible agile style for years, with supreme balance and no sign of stage fright. Concord did some cool things, his tornillo was nice, but he’s not as much in control as Vikingo. The rudos aren’t near as spectacular but they’re doing better going with the showcased guys than others might be in their spot, and they’re willing to take big bumps.

The Bragg/Lider vs Lanzeloth/Bronce tag match looked bad on paper and was worse in reality. The Bragg/Lider aren’t good opponents for flyers and had to spend most of their not working together to get over the 9^th most important storyline in AAA. Even if either guy was good, I’ve got a hard time believing that it’s going anywhere, and Bragg again didn’t look any good. Mascara de Bronce got to do an awesome tornillo in his hometown but the rest of the match was a drag.

The work in the atomicos match was better than usual, but the rudos really slowed down with the rudos in charge. This also had another classic moment of Pagano trying to prove he’s a flyer by doing flying moves badly. Doing another match where the partners can’t get along and ending it with more partners who can’t get along is just overkill.