Recapped: 10/30/2017
I’m watching these shows with the hope that maybe the action will turn out to be better than described in the results. Unfortuantely, this was a show that was worse than expected. Cage matches and battle royals in lucha libre remain consistently terrible, and the singles match had a terrible finish telegraphed from the opening. AAA best matches are the ones with the least booking to them, because their storytelling is usually badly executed and detracts from everything they’ve done in the match. Nothing is going to change.
The show starts with the roster coming out for a Marisela Pena speech remembering Antonio Pena.
Noti AAA airs AAA wrestlers being part of a march to remember the victims of the September earthquakes. We also see the annual Dia de Muertos offering, with pictures of people who’ve passed away.
Hijo del Fantasma defeated La Parka, Rey Escorpión, Psycho Clown, Johnny Mundo ©, Hernandez, Psicosis II, Mamba, Murder Clown, Dark Cuervo, Monsther Clown, Dark Scoria, Estrella Divina, Histeria II, Marty Martinez, Pimpinela Escarlata, Dave The Clown to win the AAA Latin American Championship and the Copa Antonio Pena
(21:53, below average, via Lucha Libre AAA)
01:50 Hijo del Fantasma enters
01:51 Pimpinela Escarlata thrown out (by Dave the Clown)
03:19 Hernandez enters
04:34 Estrella Divina enters
05:35 Dave The Clown thrown out (Psycho Clown)
05:57 Monster Clown & Murder Clown (Psycho Clown)
07:10 Johnny Mundo enters (last enter)
07:55 Monster Clown out (Murder Clown)
08:08 Murder Clown & La Parka out (Cuervo & Scoria)
09:40 Psycho Clown out (Rey Escorpion)
10:46 Estrella Divina out (Mamba)
11:52 Rey Escorpion out (Psycho Clown)
12:31 Mamba out (Fatnasma)
13:04 Scoria out (Histeria & Psicosis)
13:31 Histeria out (Cuervo)
13:41 Psicosis out (Cuervo)
14:24 Cuervo out (Johnny Mundo)
15:44 Hernandez out (Marty)
17:06 Marty out (Fantasma)
21:53 Johnny Mundo pinned (Hijo del Fantasma Thrilled of the Hunt)
What Happened:
Prior to the show, announcers Arturo and Jesus are talking about the show. Arturo is sitting in a van for some reason. Texano comes up to say hello and Arturo says he hopes Texano is going to win Copa Antonio Pena. Vampiro happens to stop by, and explains Texano is not going to win because he’s been suspended. Texano is confused, and Vampiro says it was for threatening Fantasma on the last taping, you can’t threaten a member of the commission. You could’ve told Texano this before he came all the way to San Luis Potosi, Vampiro!
The match started with 11 people in the ring, but the last seven people entered royal rumble style. It was supposed to be one minute intervals, but they screwed up the first one. Monster & Murder entered together for no reason. Johnny Mundo entered to Texano’s video.
Psycho Clown pulled Rey Escorpión right in front of Tirantes (though behind Copetes, who was in the ring for no real reason.) Escorpión pulled Psycho Clown off the apron to eliminate him, then went back in, and Tirantes let him continue. Later, Psycho pulled down the middle rope and Escorpión went thru, which apparently eliminated him anyway.
Mundo, Marty and Hernandez briefly worked along against Fantasma at the end, until Marty eliminated Hernandez and Fantasma eliminated Marty. Mundo & Fantasma went to a pinfall, with Fantasma winning. Fantasma got the cup for winning, and the title belt. Texano came out of the crowd to attack Fantasma, teases breaking the trophy, but instead takes it, the mask, and the title for himself. Even though Texano was suspended, there’s no attempt by anyone to stop him. You’d think Vampiro would be involved since he specifically didn’t want Texano to have the title tonight and Texano ended up with the title, but it’s treated as no big deal.
Review: [below average] The three minute Johnny Mundo/Hijo del Fantasma match at the end was pretty good. Fantasma worked much of the rest of the match and seemed tired, but it held together long enough and the crowd was pleased with the outcome. That was good. The rest was garbage. AAA only knows how to do royal rumbles one way, very badly. I can’t even explain why this was a Royal Rumble: 11 people were in the ring to start with, and only 6 more people came out. More people would’ve gotten in the way, but most of the match was people standing around and doing nothing while other people were using the center of the ring, so it would’ve fit in. The rumble section had a lot of stuff that looked bad and just didn’t make sense – I’m sure there was a plan out there where the Escorpión/Psycho stuff made sense, but it was executed laughably bad – and the match was more bad comedy than anything. Dave the Clown messing up whatever Psycho Clown was supposed to do with Hernandez so he could spear him instead was comedy. Everyone popping up to take a bump for Murder and Monster was comedy. Murder eliminating Monster after all that was comedy. Everyone deciding to do superplexes, pulling people inside the ring in a battle royal, was bad comedy. It’s not just this was bad, but they also didn’t seem to learn much from the mess that was the Copa TripleMania. They never really learn.
Johnny Mundo © defeated Rey Wagner for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship
(13:02, disqualification for faked chair shot, via Lucha Libre AAA)
What Happened: Tirantes has a speech saying any foul or object usage will be a DQ and a title change if Mundo loses. Wagner, who’s using a chair in just about every match, is really thrilled about this. Hernandez is Johnny’s second; he wrestled in a shirt for his match but not here.
Hernandez pulls Tirantes out; after all Tirantes said about things being a DQ, this is not. Hijo de Wagner and Hernandez some how sandwich Tirantes between them, which knocks Tirantes dead. Hernandez stires to take out Hijo de Wagner, but Hijo de Wagner hits him with a chair. Johnny Mundo fouls Wagner Jr and drops him with a Moonlight Drive, then flies out of the ring with a pescado out onto Hijo Wagner. Mundo grabs the chair and hits Hijo Wagner, then throws him in to rips his mask. Mundo hits both Wagners with a chair again. Announcers wonder why another referee isn’t coming on as Mundo kills more time. Hijo de Wagner bleeds and takes another chair shot. Mundo stalls and stalls and then throws the chair to Wagner for no reason. Tirantes gets up at that moment (maybe a moment late?) and sees Wagner with the chair. Wagner never swings the chair, but that’s a DQ. There’s money thrown in the ring, but I tend to wonder if that’s less as appreciation for the match and more objects aimed at the performances – Mundo gets ducked by a couple of cups.
Review: [good] The first eight minutes of the Wagner/Mundo match were a lot of fun. Wagner was working very hard and he and Mundo had more chemistry than you’d expect. It didn’t go deeper than each man doing their signature spots, but I’d take that over most AAA matches. It de-evolved into silliness as soon as Hernandez pulled out Tirantes. This is one of those finishes where the concept is the fans will be upset with the heel for cheating, but I believe the fans end up being upset with the referee and the promotion for the silliness. Hijo del Tirantes sold being dead off a slight impact for about three minutes, and then got up perfectly fine the moment the story required him to be fine. Maybe he’s turned heel again, it’s hard to tell. At any rate, the finishes up and down on Heroes Inmortales are completely sabotaging Vampiro’s role as guy laying down the law. Mundo out smarted him, Texano outsmarted, OGT & Poder del Norte outsmarted him for most of the show. They’ve switched from Vampiro being the ultimate hero to Vamprio being off stage while all his plans backfire. Neither is particularly good.
Tito Santana loses a domed cage match and his hair, in a match also with Argenis, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin, Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly, Mocho Cota Jr., Carta Brava Jr., Raptor, Drago, and Aerostar[domed cage]
(13:24, below average, Lucha Libre AAA)
03:39 OGT all escape
05:40 Ricky Marvin, Argenis and Lanzeloth escape
07:00 Mocho Cota escapes
07:40 Aerostar escapes
10:53 Raptor escapes
12:11 Carta Brava escapes
13:24 Drago escapes
What Happened: The rudos work together, the técnicos bleed, then OGT all climb out to leave Poder del Norte behind. The tecnicos all work together then the Lanzelot, Argenis and Ricky Marvin group al climb out. (Marvin has trouble getting over, but everyone just decides to stop trying to get him.) That means the six people supposed to be in this match are all out of it after five minutes.
Mocho Cota climbs out with almost no one noticing. He slides in a chair for the rudos to use. There’s already a ladder in there from the start, so it’s not like they really need it all that much. Rudos handcuff Raptor to the ropes, and Cota waves around the key. This backfires pretty easily– the tecnicos just come back, attack Cota, and Aerostar eventually passes the key to Drago. (That takes some time. Rudos make no attempt to escape.) Raptor leaves immediately, leaving Drago behind. Drago cuffs Tito Santana and taunts Carta Brava with the key. Drago tosses the key out, Carta attacks him and escapes. Tito thinks Carta has left him for dead, but Carta is actually going for the key. (A ringside worker has picked up the key and starts to walk away with it, but Carta gets it from him.) Carta tosses the key in, but too far away from Tito and Raptor jumps on Carta from the top of the cage. Drago climbs out and that’s it for the match.
Tito is freed from the cage. They cut off a chuck of his hair, but he’s clearly not shaved by the time they cut away.
Review: The main event was a very whatever match. The action wasn’t good, and the people supposed to be in the match leaving quickly was a rip off. It makes it harder to get your next storyline over when you so fail to deliver like they did here. There’s never a lot of action in a cage match and the stuff here was not good and not shot well. The earlier trios title match was not good, but still better than this. They tried to create drama with the key bit, and I kind of wonder if it would’ve worked better if Carta never gets to toss in the key because Raptor cuts him off with the dive first, rather than Carta screwing up and throwing the key too far away from Tito. That’s the least of the problems with this match, which has never been good any time they’ve done it and that won’t stop them from doing it again.