Recapped: 07/08/2017
All matches were taped from Gimnasio Municipal Josué Neri Santos, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua on 06/04/2017
Matches:
Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Argenis, La Parka, Lanzeloth
(9:34, Averno foul Lanzeloth, ok)
Hijo del Fantasma and Texano Jr. went to a draw in a cage match also including Kevin Kross in a cage match
(9:06, escape at the same time, ok)
Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown defeated Monsther Clown & Murder Clown and Carta Brava Jr. & Soul Rocker in a tag team mask match
(10:01, Dr. Wagner & Psycho Clown beat Carta Brava & Soul Rocker, ok)
What happened:
The announcers announce before the match that the losing team, not the losing person, will lose their mask. Only the Traidor Clowns really seem to react strongly to the stipulation and the crowd does not really care. The Traidor Clowns find a screwdriver in a turnbuckle (maybe one they use the tighten the ropes) and stab Poder del Note with it. Copetes is taken out by a dive, and the two rudos teams quickly have the two técnicos pinned with no referee. They cover them for a bit of time before Mocho Cota Jr. arrives with Hijo del Tirantes to make the count. Wagner & Psycho kick out TV. Mocho takes out Tirantes with a chair a few seconds later. Poder del Norte ends up throwing the Traidor Clowns out, Wagner & Psycho give Rocker & Brava backcrackers and cover, and Vampiro shows up to count three. Mocho Cota argues that Vampiro is not a referee, but Vampiro unzips his jacket to reveal he’s smarter than us all and put on a referee shirt since the cage match. Psycho beats up Poder del Norte to force them unmask, though we’re not really given a great shot of them unmasking – they’re eventually shown standing around outside after the fact for a moment.
The cage match was specifically explained as only having one winner, who would get the title shot at TripleMania. True to form, that meant there would be two winners. They used US rules for cage matches instead of Mexican, where the winner was determined by the first person who touched the floor (instead of just getting on the outside of the cage.) Hernandez came out and got involved for reasons no one seemed sure of, least of all him – he stopped Texano & Fantasma leaving at one point, then Kross at another point. Mascara de Bronce came out and attacked Hernandez in term. Fantasma and Texano shockingly worked together at times, and then didn’t get along at other times.
Fantasma escaped the cage first, which meant he would’ve been the winner under normal rules (but they weren’t playing but those rules so it didn’t matter, and the announcers were aware of what was going on.) Fantasma and Texano very carefully climbed down the cage next to each other before taking the plunge off the bottom of the cage to the floor for the usual draw spot in a cage match. Copetes and Hijo del Tirantes did the usual bit of each favoring one of the guys in a draw, though Copetes does eventually make the motion for a tie match before Vampiro arrives. Hernandez waylays Mascara de Bronce with the briefcase while this is going on, and brings him into the cage to destroy him while Fantasma and Texano argue on the outside. Kross interrupts to take the briefcase away from Hernandez, who asks for it back. Vampiro walks out, and everyone ends up in the cage with him. Vamp announces the match as a draw with both men facing Mundo at TripleMania and takes the briefcase back from Koross. This angers Kross, who shoves Vampiro twice. Vampiro teases leaving the cage, but instead locks the door and takes off his jacket to tease fighting Kross. Mascara de Bronce climbs up the cage in the meantime, waits for his cue, and does a plancha onto Kross, Fantasma and Texano. (This seems to take forever because they focus on Bronce climbing up instead of showing the near fight – the spot is hurt because everyone knows it’s coming for too long.) Vampiro hands the briefcase to Bronce, who leaves with it. Vamp leaves too, and Kross beats up everyone else.
No lucha libre cage match is good and this match would’ve been better without the stipulation. Texano and Fantasma had to go at each hard because of their issue, but they couldn’t because Kross was always in there too. The cage meant they had to work all three in on every spot instead of focusing on the individual issues. It also meant there wasn’t much room for people to sell and get out of the way. The cage also didn’t allow rope running spots to look good at all (so much stopping right in front of the ropes and gently tapping them because they couldn’t run into them) and they just couldn’t stop doing those spots. The finish is a lame WWE finish, and the post match was primarily about Vampiro. You can see them thinking the Mascara de Bronce plancha spot would get him over to balance what happened before, but it came off as tacked on and fake looking.
Before the opener, Averno bad mouthed the fans and taunts Parka, telling him to leave like Ricky Marvin. Marvin gets named this time, though it’s more just the cue for Parka’s music to play. Averno taunts Argenis & Parka for having no partner (though we just saw Lanzeloth advertised for this match). Parka says Averno talks to much, acknowledges Marvin’s not here, and introduces one of the future stars of AAA as their partner. He poses before OGT beats up the lot of them. As usual, the rudos controlled the entire match until they do their pose spot, and then someone (Argenis this time) comes in to hit one of them. Averno eventually distracted Hijo del Tirantes and snuck in a behind the back foul to beat Lanzeloth. They took his mask too.
Thoughts:
This week’s show as the Vampiro show, as much as it’s been since he’s been back. The cage match post match was designed to set up a TripleMania match or two, but the key focus was on Vampiro standing up to the new big scary heel and thwarting his plan. The main event had ref bumps seemingly just so Vampiro could be the big hero at the end, and a bit that put the spotlight on him instead of the guys who won the match and are headlining the biggest show of the year.
The main event seemed on paper like it would be a match to show Wagner & Psycho are way above every one else. It didn’t turn out to be that at all. It was a frustratingly even match throughout. Everyone did a big move, everyone did a dive spot, everyone ripped someone’s mask and eveyrone’s got their mask ripped up. Usually all in turn, one after another, as if they were going around in a circle during a preschool match. They even gave the other four a long visual pin over the guys who are main eventing TripleMania. Maybe it was intended to scare people into believing the impossible to happen, but it didn’t sound like the fans bought at all that much. After all that effort to make everyone see the same importance, Carta Brava & Soul Rocker’s mask removal seemed rush and unimportant. When the entire year is built around how meaningful it’ll be for one person or another to lose their mask, you’d think that act would be played up a little better, and less like a minor stipulation the heels were almost escaping.
The opener was better than the last version of that match because the handicap match really didn’t have anything going on it with it. It also helped by the rudos going out of their way to try to make Lanzelot look like someone special as a surprise guy; they even did the Mistico toss spot with him. He did well except for one weird spot with Super Fly, but then was beat and humiliated at the end so I’m not sure how much was really accomplished. La Parka slows this matches down so much, and the rudos seem uninterested in doing anything much during the three minutes they control at the start of every one of these.
