07/16 AAA TV in Monterrey – Sexy Star (yes, her) returns & wins Reina de Reinas

AAA TV (SUN) 07/16/2017 Arena Jose Sulaiman, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon [AAA, LuchaMania Monterrey]
1) Australian Suicide, Mamba, Monsther Clown, Murder Clown b Bengala, El Elegido, Estrella Divina, Marty The Moth
Marty was on the tecnico team for no apparent reason and turned on the team. Murder pinned Eleigdo. Suicide and Bengala feuded.
2) Kevin Kross b Máscara de Bronce
Segment started as a tribute to Pimpinela. Kross interrupted and Mascara de Bronce ran in to make the save and start the match. Billed as winner gets the title shot briefcase, unclear if Kross ended up with it.
3) Argenis, La Parka, Psycho Clown b Averno, Chessman, Dr. Wagner Jr.
Psycho won, but was unmasked by Wagner after.
4) Sexy Star b Faby Apache, La Hiedra, Lady Shani, Goya Kong, Big Mami [Reina De Reinas]
Vampiro declared the title vacant because Taya wouldn’t come to Monterrey to defend. (She hadn’t been advertised.) Sexy Star won the title in her return to the company in her hometown. Kevin Kross beat up everyone after.
5) El Mesías b Angélico, Pagano
Angelico returned in this match, which started as him versus Pagano but Mesias added himself. He fouled Pagano to set up his win.
6) Aerostar, Drago, Raptor b Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker [AAA TRIOS]
Tecnicos lead 2-0
7) Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria © b Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. [AAA TAG]
made a title match. Cuervo & Scoria’s second defense. Kross helped them win, and got yelled at by Vampiro.
8) Dr. Wagner Jr. b Psycho Clown
Wagner beat and unmasked Psycho Clown, with Hijo del Tirantes back to helping Psycho Clown.

Air Date: August 12 and August 19th. If TripleMania is starting around 9pm (ticket website says 8pm, that could be doors open), maybe one more week of TV will squeeze thru. This still is probably going to be the last thing most people see who are going to the show.

As best I can work out, AAA and Sexy Star decided they were working together again at near the end of June. It may have been in the works for a while: that’s when Dulce Garcia appears to have taken down her pinned tweet about saying goodbye to the Sexy Star character and starting asking her fans if they’d like to see Sexy Star. It was close enough to start of Lucha Underground Season 3 Part 2 that it seemed like she was reference that, but the other things we know point at a decision then. AAA has been working hard at trying to bring some names back, and Sexy Star seems to be the one agreeable.

It does not appear to be a cheap deal. Sexy Star came back to AAA, but she came back by being given the Reina de Reinas title in her hometown. To do that, AAA had to get the Reina de Reinas title back from Taya. Taya was supposed to be on the 06/19 Nuevo Laredo taping, and maybe AAA would’ve taken it from her then, but she missed the show (and others) due a neck injury.  On today’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer says AAA then asked Johnny Mundo to bring the belt to 06/30 taping in Puebla. Johnny didn’t know anything was up, so he brought and had no problem leaving it with AAA when they told him they needed to shoot some photos of it. AAA posted the press release about the title being vacant the next day, not having told Mundo or Taya that was the plan.

Taya was booked in Los Angeles and was never advertised for Monterrey. (Mundo initially was advertised for Monterrey, then wasn’t on the poster when it came out.) Vampiro told the Monterrey crowd that Taya was scheduled to be in Monterrey but refused to defend the belt or come to the show, and that’s (now) why he was stripping Taya of the championship. A six way was held for the belt with the returning Sexy Star and the remaining women. Sexy Star won.

…and all of that was just a set up to Kevin Kross beating up six women, including putting Faby Apache thru a table for the second time. (You may not remember the first time, because it was laughed off after.) Kevin Kross currently doesn’t have a match announced for TripleMania, but he has the title shot briefcase (I think – he said so on Twitter but it’s not clear in the results) and maybe a match with Vampiro in August.

The WOR report says AAA was still planning on having Mundo lose the titles to Mascara de Bronce. (I’d guess that means Bronce is getting the briefcase back at some point, and that AAA is trying to do some variation of ECW Mikey Whipwreck. It hasn’t really been working.) It’s unclear if Mundo will come back to AAA at this point. This perfectly sets up Johnny Mundo showing up at the next Crash show in Tijuana, dumping on AAA and being entered into The Crash’s own heavyweight title match, if that’s what Mundo would want to do. It really depends on what’s he’s required to do for AAA at this point – even if he does have to come back, I don’t think this is going to set up for AAA getting great things out of him. AAA would probably be best off just moving on and taking Mundo out of the title picture, but there’s the small problem of him having the belts.

(And lord knows how this is going to go over in season 4, where the divide between people with AAA and those without are not over.)

Vampiro’s responded on Twitter – Storify helpfully keeps deleting Tweets – with the idea that Actually, this is all Taya’s fault for refusing to go along with their plan and they can’t let talent have dictating the plans of the “hundreds” of people involved in creating storylines and lineups. People who pay attention to AAA will note that AAA changes storyline and lineups all the time, and that the talent has always had a role in dictating storylines. It seems safe to assume that Sexy Star was only coming back if she was going to be champion on her first day in Monterrey – there’s literally no other reason to do that match, as it would’ve been a selling point for TripleMania if Sexy Star instead challenged for it. Heck, it’s even faintly possible Taya might been willing to go with whatever storyline they’ve got here, but it doesn’t appear Vampiro or anyone else actually told Taya was going on before it happened. They’ve been lying to her and Mundo for a while now, and the AAA view on the wrestling business is it’s her fault for not silently enduring it.

Vampiro’s promised a video later, which will probably be attacking people who don’t see the wisdom of AAA’s ways if it’s anything like those Twitter comments. He’s best just not saying anything, every social media thing he’s done in this situation in the last couple weeks has just made things worse for him and AAA. It’d be great if he could clear this all up and explain AAA’s position but I suspect he’s just going to be digging a bigger hole.

Sexy Star last was Reina de Reinas champion in 2012, when she vacated the championship. It wasn’t explained on TV that it was due to pregnancy – they instead let her do a self serving interview talking about how she was the real champion no matter who else would hold the belt but she was giving it up for secret reasons. Sexy Star was last in AAA in February 2016. She had been having problems with the company for months, including bailing on a January taping claiming a neck injury from a car accident on the way to the show. (In a remarkable coincidence, Sexy Star’s good friend Keira happened to be available as a substitute with flashy new gear.) Sexy Star was scheduled to defend – and lose – the long dormant mixed tag titles in February because AAA had figured out she was losing and wanted to move them to Taya & Daga while they could. Sexy Star told her fans that she believed the mixed tag titles were actually trophies she was entitled to forever and had no idea she was required to defend them, and told AAA that she wasn’t coming to lose them because she had retired. (AAA instead had Pentagon defend the titles 1 vs 2, win to surprise everyone, and then declare the title vacant anyway. It was really dumb. They just brought the belts back a month ago.) Sexy Star has spent the time out of AAA claiming she was totally retired, then that was she retired in Mexico but wrestling in the US ($$$), then that she was not retired part of the time but willing to wrestle when she could fit in her boxing schedule. Sexy Star had one boxing match (and some private warm up matches) where she won against a tomato can while looking like a mid 30 year old women trying professional boxing for the first time in her life and not being a natural at it. She had recently said she was going to have her next match in August; it’s unclear if that’s still on.

There’s no reason for Sexy Star to ever agree to lose her title belt again if she doesn’t want to, because it’s clear AAA will let her get by with anything. She is above the law and has played this out masterfully. Sexy Star’s interviews should always be treated as playing a character – she appears to have been lying about focusing on boxing because she must’ve already agreed to go back to AAA – but it doesn’t matter, people bend to her will anyway.

I have no idea how this is going to work if/when all these disputes are part of the same Season 4 Lucha Underground locker room and I’m glad I don’t have deal with figuring it out. All that said, and all everyone’s said, what the Sexy Star situation shows is AAA will probably take back anyone if the circumstances are right for them and they think the person is an important enough deal. Sexy Star left the company on pretty bad terms, said not nice things about AAA, and got her spot back as strong as ever when she wanted it.

There were other matches here too! If we weren’t talking about Sexy Star and Taya, I think we’d be talking about whatever’s going on with the Lucha Underground rights in Mexico. It appears AAA can’t put the LU gimmicked wrestlers on their TV show for some reason. Marty the Moth came as Marty Casaus last year, but his two matches as Marty the Moth have not aired on TV this year (one made it on YouTube only) and he appears to be in a dark match spot too. (That probably means Killshot didn’t wear his Killshot mask because he was told not to.) The LU match from last year’s TripleMania did not air on TV either. It’s unclear why AAA would still be bringing in Marty if they can’t use him on TV, or why they wouldn’t just stick with calling him Marty Casaus, but there’s some rights issue going on.

The change in matches is the usual bit of changes, but I think the order is back to being in TV order again, with Psycho & Wagner wrestling twice to get them on both weeks of TV before TripleMania. Two thru four will air the first week, five thru seven will be the week prior to TripleMania. (EDIT: or this could be all wrong because I forgot to actually put the women’s match in the results.) There’s a startling lack of other matches being set up for TripleMania, but they seem to assume Psycho & Wagner will be the match and nothing else really matters.

Angelico is back! Angelico got nothing to do on his return, just a bystander to another feud. He doesn’t seem to have a big role for TripleMania.

The tecnicos going up 2-0 in the best of five is odd. OGT & Poder del Norte still teasing a match on TV is odd.

Other random AAA things

• La Parka’s column mentions a final La Llave de la Gloria tryout. AAA hasn’t mentioned another one or the date for it, but it’s probably coming.
• Roshfrans posted an interview with Muncea de Plata from the last tryout.
• This week’s AAA TV is up. The main event is good.