TripleMania XXV lineup (08/26, Mexico City) – Wagner/Psycho, Mesias/Pagano

AAA TV (SAT) 08/26/2017 Arena Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
TripleMania XXV
1) ? vs ?? [Llave a la Gloria]
Finals of the tournament. Number of participants, format, and the actual participants TBA.
2) Big Mami, Dinastía, Estrella Divina, Máscara de Bronce vs Hernandez, La Hiedra, Mamba, Mini Psycho Clown
3) Sexy Star vs ? [Reina De Reinas]
winner decided in Aguascalientes. First TV defense, 2nd overall.
4) Dark Cuervo & Dark Scoria vs Aerostar & Drago and Monsther Clown & Murder Clown and Gfw 1 & Gfw 2 [AAA TAG]
3rd defense
5) La Parka vs Lashley, Moose, Psicosis II, Intocable, Scorpió Jr., Pimpinela Escarlata, Lanzeloth, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 [Copa TripleMania]
will include people who are not in AAA but maybe have worked in the past. Pirata Morgan, Sangre Chicana, Blue Demon Jr., Villanos mentioned as possibly being in the match, and AAA luchadors not otherwise booked may be in as well. Lanzeloth earned his spot from the Golden Opportunity match.
6) Johnny Mundo © vs Texano Jr., Hijo del Fantasma [TLC, AAA HEAVY, AAA CRUISER, AAA LA]
third defense for Cruiserweight/Heavyweight, fifth defense for Latin American title.
7) Pagano vs El Mesías [street fight]
8) Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr. [mask]
members of their families (Brazo de Plata mentioned, Maximo & La Mascara teased) may appear at this match

Vampiro, Dorian Roldan and a Roshfrans rep went thru all the matches, on a stream aired on Facebook Live. I was not able to watch the whole thing and there were a few techinical issues with the stream, but I think we got pretty much all of it.

Pagano & Mesias was treated as the biggest match they were announcing today. They closed the press conference by trying to get in a fight with security (and, occasionally, Vampiro) getting in between them. Vampiro talked of the extreme matches he had with Mesias elsewhere. This is clearly going to be the same sort of weapons and stunts spectacle match.

Maybe that’s the bigger theme here: the top 4 matches are all spectacle matches. They’re each a different kind of spectacle. They might be good matches, but the focus is more on being remarkable happenings.

Texano Jr. and Hijo del Fantasma appeared to talk about the triple title TLC match. Unlike Pagano/Mesias, these two tag partners turned enemies were not emotional. Hijo del Fantasma even spoke of wanting to be friends with Texano again after this, though that seemed unlikely. Vampiro confirmed Johnny Mundo had not actually relinquished the title, and blamed it on fans and media misunderstanding what was happening (and not the participants doing a poor job of doing the story in a way that the audience could follow.)

Aside 1: Vampiro’s Facebook explanation for taking the Reina title away from Taya was that Taya had won it by referee stoppage after an illegal choke, they were taking titles seriously now, and they really had to change hands by pinfall or submission. Vampiro has now made a match where the men’s titles will change hands not via pinfall and not via submission. This is reason #14 why Vampiro shouldn’t have made that Facebook post, it just keeps looking dumber.

Aside 2: the TLC stip allows for all sorts of weird finishes, especially when AAA want to be known as exciting creative storytellers. There are three belts, maybe they begin splitting them back up by having someone grab two but not one of the others. Maybe Kevin Kross, conspicuously missing from the lineup, completes his betrayal of Mundo by grabbing the belts himself. Maybe Mascara de Bronce gets the briefcase back, cashes it in during the match, and gets the belts himself. Maybe it’s just a normal finish.

Aside 3: I think Taya being caught off guard by AAA taking the Reina de Reinas title from her and giving it to Sexy Star was very real. I think Mundo & Taya’s anger over the situation is real. And I also think Taya & Mundo reached a decision that the best revenge would not to be to quit the company early, but to make sure AAA paid Mundo every dollar that was owed to him and satisfy themselves with clowning Vampiro on social media in the meantime. AAA has shown they’re not going to stop working with Mundo whatever he & Taya say about Vampiro; they’re untouchable as long as they keep on Vampiro. They’re also smart enough to be using this for attention and sympathy, but the storyline there is seems more to build them up for other promotions than one with AAA. AAA’s not deviating from their original plan, and it doesn’t seem like it was a big question from the media.

The Copa TripleMania was said to be a “ruleta rusa”, which is usually a multiman match or tournament when the winner escapes and the loser has to keep going until the last person loses their hair or mask. It’s 30 people, so I think it’s really just a royal rumble this time. AAA kind of announced this back in May when Lanzeloth won a shot for a dream battle royal at TripleMania. It was explained here as a match celebrating the different eras of AAA for the 25th Anniversary. (They should’ve made advertised it as a 25 person match!) The AAA website lineup lists only La Parka, Scorpio Jr., Intocable and Psicosis (II) in the match. However, they seemed say Lashley and Moose would be participating at the press conference, and Dorian threw out Blue Demon, Villanos, Pirata Morgan and Sangre Chicana names as possible. Chicana appeared on AAA TV this week in a cameo that seemed to foreshadow him being part of this, and Pirata is a semiregular on TV.

Psicosis being there was actually the biggest surprise of the night. The luchador also known Ripper left AAA in 2009, and was part of a group of wrestlers (Kraneo/Alebrije and Morphosis/Histeria most notable) who fought AAA for the rights to their names in court. There was no dispute that AAA created the characters, but they argued they had given value to them by carrying them for many years and should be able to keep them. They joined CMLL in 2010 as Los Invasors, but eventually changes to their current names because CMLL decided they no longer wanted to be part of any lawsuit. It appeared these guys never won the rights to names, but could still get away with using them off TV and out of CMLL. Showing up in this press conference means quitting CMLL, but I don’t think it necessarily means Psicosis will be appearing in AAA full time – like Scorpio and Intocable, it may just an AAA special appearance or two and headed to the indies. Histeria/Morphosis has barely been used in CMLL the last few years and I’d suspect he’ll be in this match if AAA is interested. I’m doubtful Kraneo will do the same.

Aside 4: Psicosis and Sexy Star returning to AAA shows that AAA is willing to make a deal with anyone, no matter what happened before, if they like the deal. I don’t think Fenix or Pentagon or Daga or Garza want to go back to AAA right now or any time soon, but there will be an offer if they ever change their minds. Never say never because never is a very long time.

Despite probably being in the middle of a Best of 5 Series, the Aerostar/Drago/Raptor vs Poder del Norte feud won’t appear here, with Aerostar & Drago challenging (and unlikely to win) for another team title. The Poder del Norte and OGT have been large focuses of TV time the last three months and they’re maybe in the battle royal but didn’t even get announced for it.

Dorian talked around not having a specific GFW tag team to announce for the tag title match. Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards had been announced as appearing at TripleMania months ago and they may have been planned to be the team, but Davey Richards had said he wasn’t staying with GFW just this week. (Richards & Edwards had also broken up and been feuding, but that’s probably a lesser concern here.) They’ll probably find someone else to team with Edwards.

AAA has a 2v2 women’s tag match on their poster for Aguascalientes, but the two women most likely to get that title shot – Faby Apache & Ayako Hamada – are not booked in it. AAA could easily acknowledge who’s in the #1 contenders match, which might be an added reason for people to come to show to Aguascalientes. This year has shown AAA will obstinately continue to promote the lineup they’ve acknowledged is false, and it’s probably not a smart idea for to be spending this many words on this lineup too.

Aside 5: Big Mami & La Hiedra being announced as in the Relevos AAA is an oversight, since I’d assume they’re still going to be in the contender’s match and we’re supposed to believe they have a shot at winning it.

I’m still not quite sure what’s going on with the La Llave a la Gloria contest, but they did announce dates for things. The final tryout is Saturday in Celaya. They will select the finalists in Arena Naucalpan in August (probably the 12, but Record has it as the 15?). The finalsts will appear on TripleMania. Not sure if the means two teams of finalists facing off or some AAA wrestlers being added to an opening match.

Psycho Clown & Dr. Wagner did not appear at the press conference, with the idea that they’d appear at a future press conference and this was more about the rest of the card. They did mention Super Porky and perhaps other members of both families in the corners of both men. That’s a tease of Maximo & La Mascara, though Maximo’s already said he’s taken a booking elsewhere. One of the reasons to bring Sexy Star back would seem to be these sort of media events, but she did not appear either.

This show will probably air live at least in Mexico, but AAA was not ready to say when or how. It certainly appears Leo Riano’s claim that Televisa would be broadcasting the show is at least on the table, since that’s the only non-PPV option. There’d be a certain strangeness about Televisa airing the show. AAA never can refer to the Arena Ciudad de Mexico building by name on TV because the building is owned by rival Azteca, so Televisa broadcasting a show from there would be unusual.

AAA does not list a start time, which might be an oversight or it might be up in the air because of the television situation. The ticket website lists an 8pm start and that’s what MedioTiempo reported. It’s possible that’s just when the doors open and it’s 9pm.

AAA claimed they’ve sold 60-65% of the arena. At the last press conference, they were claiming to have sold 80% of the arena. Those numbers seemed like pressure sales tactics and probably still are, but I can’t imagine this being any less than 90% full when it happens

The lineup is – ok? There’s a lot of caveats and a lot of adjusting for what AAA is now as opposed to a few years ago, but it’s a good effort considering what they have. Psycho/Wagner will probably be worth the price of admission, with the high emotion overcoming a likely predictable worked match. Pagano/Mesias will probably be a gory death match but they’ll both go so far over the top that it’ll be memorable. Ladder matches in AAA (and most of lucha libre) don’t usually hold together all that well, but Mundo’s got experience in some very good ones and he could make it work.

The front half of the card isn’t as promising but it’s not death. The Copa TripleMania will probably be jaw dropping bad at points if the likes of immobile 2017 Scorpio Jr. are already being included, but there will at least be the novelty of seeing who else will show up – if they’re giving away Ripper at the press conference, there’s probably at least one more random name being kept secret. The tag title match is actually kind of disappointing: I’d have much rather seen the tecnicos against Poder del Norte, it’s a match that shown to have a higher ceiling and neither Cuervo/Ozz or Murder/Monster have been that interesting with a lot of TV matches this year. I wasn’t sure Dinastia was making this card so I’m glad to endure another Relevos AAA for his 60 seconds of ring time. And the Llave match might steal the night depending on who makes it thru and what limitations they have.

I’m really happy they’re not wasting time with an Alberto match. Moose and Lashley in a battle royal seems a waste of bringing them in, but I’d rather see them wasted then them being wedged into a different program they don’t fit in. (More AAA’s fault for not setting anything up prior.) There’s also no NOAH guys announced, but perhaps they’ll side into the Copa TripleMania too. There’s a lot of OK stuff here but there’s nothing truly terrible, and that’s an improvement. You take what you can get from AAA this year.