07/27/2017 AAA TV results from Aguascalientes (final main taping before TripleMania)

AAA TV (THU) 07/27/2017 Palenque de la Fiera Nacional De San Marcos, Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes [AAA]
1) Angélico b Joe Lider
dark match. Angelico won via crucifix powerbomb.
2) Bengala b Australian Suicide, Venum, Máscara de Bronce, Niño Hamburguesa, Murder Clown, Monsther Clown [battle royal]
Probably start of Part 1. Winner gets a spot in the Copa TripleMania (others may not be involved in it.) Order of elimination: Mascara de Bronce, Venum, Australian Suicide, Nino Hamburguesa, Murder Clown, Murder Clown, leaving Bengala as the winner.
3) Argenis, La Parka, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin b Averno, Chessman, Pirata Morgan, Súper Fly
Averno fouled Pirata, and Lanzelot picked up the pin.
4) Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. b Johnny Mundo & Kevin Kross
Fantasma pinned Mundo after Texano was put thru a table. Vampiro confronted Mundo after the match.
5) Discovery (Aguascalientes) b Xtreme-X [hair, mask]
Discovery kept his mask, took Xtreme-X’s hair.
6) Lady Shani b Big Mami, Goya Kong, La Hiedra [Reina De Reinas, #1 Contenders] 
Lady Shani beat La Hiedra to get the title shot at TripleMania.
7) Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker b Aerostar, Drago, Raptor 
Match went only about a minute. Raptor did a springboard plancha onto one of the other rudos before the match started, but the other two came thru the crowd and took out the tecnicos. Raptor was taken out (and said to be taken to the hospital) after a move in the aisle, and Drago was quickly double teamed and beat. The tecnicos lead the series 2-1.
8) Pagano & Psycho Clown b Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Mesías
Psycho won, but Wagner once again left him unmasked.

Air Date: 08/26 (hours before TripleMania) and 09/02.

You know what? This is going to come off as cruel and maybe even small minded, but it’s a busy day for me and this is a simple way to hack thru it. Let’s make this a “what’s AAA did wrong in this match” post to be quick about.

1: at least Angelico won? But it’s a dark match. Angelico not being in the plans for TripleMania is sort of fair – it was his choice to go elsewhere for a while, AAA had other things to do – but there’s no real reason he couldn’t have been in the #30 spot battle royal. Or Lider, for that matter. Maybe things will get better after this event cycle, but is only reluctantly using someone who should be an important piece for them.

2: and then the battle royal itself has people who were announced for other matches on TripleMania. Does that mean they’re working Copa TripleMania and working twice? Maybe. Maybe AAA just needed more bodies for a battle royal, but they didn’t use two guys they had. Mascara de Bronce, who’s occasionally teased as challenging for the title in this promotion, is thrown out first. It’s totally going to backfire if AAA puts the titles on Bronce, I like him a lot and do not want to see his career screwed up by a bad creative decision, and I really don’t understand why they haven’t used him stronger to this point.

3: You may remember Pirata Morgan turned on the OGT last time we saw him and had a second mysterious speech to La Parka. You may not remember this, because it hasn’t been followed up in weeks. You may remember that the tecnicos didn’t want anything to do with Ricky Marvin because he abandoned them. It’s unclear if anyone remembers any of this. AAA is doing far more storylines this year, but the week to week consistency is barely existent.

4: Obviously Mundo doesn’t have any big problems if he’s taking pinfalls. The post match was Mundo & Vampiro replaying their bit from Tijuana, where Mundo wants to give up the belts but Vampiro says giving up the belts is disrespectful to lucha libre history and says Hijo del Fantasma & Texano are going to beat him for them. The AAA recap gives the impression that Hijo del Fantasma and Texano stand meekly off camera while this is happening, they are not functional character in their own storyline. On Facebook, Vampiro put over his favorite performer (Vampiro) for his performance. Vampiro is really good at getting himself over with these bits, Vampiro is not really good at getting anyone else over, it’s unclear if this bothers anyone in AAA. (Not just AAA – LU’s Cero Miedo was all about Vampiro being awesome for going thru the flaming table, and Vampiro being awesome for revealing himself as Pentagon’s master. It’s always going to be about Vampiro.)

5:  No one should ever call themselves Xtreme-X. I want a national lucha commission just to veto stupid names, and I want to have that job. If you come in with any version of the word Extreme, any Dragon or any Sexy, you are being rejected. There are enough of all those already.

6:  Lady Shani is now in line for the title shot at TripleMania. She still may not be the only one getting it; MedioTiempo mentions the possibility of unnamed foreign women being brought into get the shot too. On +LuchaTV’s podcast, Sexy Star made it clear that she was back in AAA to be champion but the actual women in AAA weren’t worth her time. Shani’s the best woman AAA could’ve chosen of those who were there, There’s a possibly really good story that could be told her about Shani avenging her real life friend/mentor Taya to get back the title she never lost, but she’s at best just the opponent for Sexy Star to beat, and possibly will still have only a minor role on TripleMania. AAA needs to be making stars who want to work for the promotion, and will instead be using them as filler.

7: Poder del Norte vs Aerostar, Drago and Raptor seems like the best match on the show, so it goes sub 2 minutes. When I saw this result, I thought the tecnicos were going to get forced into having Match 4 on the same night, battle valiantly but lose to tie the series. Instead, the whole thing goes on hiatus for weeks.

8: Dr. Wagner standing over Psycho Clown is a great visual to set up TripleMania. That match is slotted to air the week after TripleMania. I’d like to have hope that they’ll switch things around, but they haven’t bothered in the past.

The next main taping is August 26th for TripleMania – but AAA is doing La Llave a La Gloria on Saturday in Ceyala and 08/15 in Naucalpan, and I’ve realized those are parts of AAA I’m actually more interested in by right now. So look forward to those.