AAA on Televisa: 2017-12-16 

Recapped: 12/21/2016

Matches: 

All matches were taped in Arena Xalapa on 12/02

Eslabón Perdido, Poseidón, Rey Infierno beat Cosmos, Kid Lobo, Samuray
(9:28, good, via thecubsfan)

Ángel Mortal Jr., Chicano, Pardux beat Angelikal, Fetiche, Hijo Del Vikingo 
(6:21, Chicano gutwrench powerbomb Angelikal, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Argenis, Estrella Divina, Faby Apache, Lady Shani beat Australian Suicide, Goya Kong, Hahastary, Mamba
(10:19, Argenis Canadian Destroyer Suicide, ok, Lucha Libre AAA)

Bengala & Big Mami beat La Hiedra & Villano III Jr.
(5:21, Big Mami splash Villano III Jr., below average, via Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened:

Early in the show, Big Mami is looking for Niño Hamburguesa when Hernandez stops her. Hernandez hits on Big Mami, wanting her to team with him instead. Big Mami pretends to be interested for a second before turning him down and continuing her search. Checking another room, she’s jumped from behind by Villano III Jr. He suffocates her with a towel while La Hiedra takes Big Mami’s blue mixed title belt. She hands it to Hernandez, who calls someone, implies he or they took out Hamburguesa too, and tells the mystery person that they have the belt. It’s unclear who he’s talking to, though Hernandez’ only known friend in the promotion is Mundo.

The 2v2 match is billed as Hiedra & Villano III Jr. vs Niño Hamburguesa & Big Mami for the mixed tag titles, and Niño Hamburguesa’s music plays for his team. Bengala shows up instead, explaining Niño Hamburguesa is not there and no one can find Big Mami. Bengala proposes a triangle match with him and the rudos. They say no, then attack Bengala anyway, and they blow the whistle to start the match.

After about four minutes, when the rudos finally have their acts together, there’s a split screen to Hernandez finding and waking Big Mami backstage. Mami jolts to life, and Hernandez ushers her towards the ring. Big Mami hurrying to the ring is the first thing to get a reaction. Even thought his was a three way match, she’s allowed to get involved. She quickly takes out the rudos, and most of the time in the match involves her slow climb to the the rope for the finishing splash on Villano III.

Faby remembers she hates Hijo del Tirantes during this match, but it goes nowhere. Late in the match, Goya does her usual dive, but oddly onto Mamba, Hahastary and Divina, which leaves Suicide 1 on 3. He fights off Argenis with a backdrop off the top rope, and somehow moves just in time for Shani to give Faby a backcracker by mistake. Argenis still gets in a Destroy for the win.

Faby gets back up, spins Shani around, and punches in the face for the backcracker She almost goes after Argenis too when he gets involved, but walks out as the announcers remember they have a title match coming up. Shani sells the one punch like she needs medical treatment (while the doctor actually checks on Suicide, who later appeared to be goofing around.)

Fetiche is a masked Llave de la Gloria finalist, but one who was had only been seen in TripleMania matches (and he was in the bad one) to this point. About seven minutes into the opener, Mr. Aguila & Kahn-Del-Mal come to ringside. Fetiche quickly betrays Angelikal, crotching him on the ropes as he goes for a moonsault, and points to the Perros del Mal. They’ve helped Pardux up on the outside, and wave for Fetiche to join them. Angelikal recovers enough to stand up, but is Chicano grabs him from behind and finishes him. Fetiche and Parudx come back in to stomp Angelikal and Vikingo, and Angle Mortal and Chicano join in. It’s unclear who, or if everyone, is supposed to be with the Perros del Mal at this moment- Chicano looks happily surprised in a way where I keep expecting the Perros to attack him too, but the rudos just leave vaguely together.

Vampiro’s interview this week is with Hahastary. Hahastary talks about the significance of her name (she’s a warrior.) Vampiro, who ends up on talking just about as much as the guest does in giving a long pep speech at the end, tells her not to set any limits for how he she can go (not settling for just having made it to AAA) and that she can be a good role model for girls even while being a ruda. This didn’t push anything forward but it did give fans something to know about Hahastary.

While most of the big names do not appear in action on the show, it does start with promos from Texano, Dave, Fantasma and La Parka to talk about what happened with them in Juarez and build to them facing off at Guerra de Titanes. The Texano promo is reused for a Guerra de Titanes promo going into every break.

This is likely Goya Kong’s last TV appearance for the time being; she broke her right leg on a dive out of the ring on the earthqauke benefit show, in a clip shown and then shown again in slow motion as part of Noti AAA. An update with her at home appears to show she’s had four screws put in her legs. She talks about her condition and AAA helping her. A full highlight package of the Luchando del Mexico show is shown afterwards, as well as Marisela Pena announcing the entire ticket proceeds would go to repair schools. There’s also video of the AAA celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Thoughts:

There was no heat for the mixed tag that wasn’t, with everyone just totally confused as what to was going on. The story as currently told on TV doesn’t make much sense: Villano & Hiedra wanted the mixed tag titles before (nearly breaking up over not getting them), want the title match when they get to the ring but in the meantime have taken out Big Mami and given the belts to Hernandez as if they didn’t want them. Their motivations don’t make sense and they look foolish during the action. It feels like half the match is Villano III Jr. hitting la Hiedra by mistake to no reaction. This is a pattern on this show: maybe this will make sense later when we get part two or three of this story, but AAA has dropped too many stories to care about them. The match itself wasn’t much.

The opening trios wasn’t one of the stronger Llave matches Hijo del Vikingo had a bad day, messing up his first big spot and coming down knees first on poor Angel Mortal. Angelikal outshined him here easily. The finish was random and only works if it they go somewhere. I think I’m not as concerned about harming the name of Perros del Mal as most – they had all sort of random people in when they were running their own group – but I think most will feel differently. In the bigger picture, it’d be nice to have any sort of direction for these guys, but I’m not trusting AAA to remember this direction when they next show up on TV two months from now. Pardux, walking around in Strong Style gear, is an amusing pick for a replacement Perros del Mal – they used to have one those strong style guys! He didn’t seem to get to show much strong style in this match, though the rudos were good at throwing the técnicos high up in the air.

The dark match was an unexpected bonus. I almost gave up on uploading it after having problems on the first try, but I’m glad I figured it out. These Xalapa regulars worked well together, with the rudos – especially Poseidon – coming off as really good bases for the técnicos. The técnico showcase match to start is really the highlights, it slows a bit down with the rudos in control, but the dives are fun too. It felt like a more complete match that most regular AAA matches.

The mixed match was a very average match, but – just like the opener – they at least had a direction coming out of it. Australian Suicide stood out more with comedy than the highspots, but there wasn’t much way to work his highspots here. Actually, the ring that stood out most was Suicide wearing “ADIOS” shorts in a year where a lot of people have said ADIOS to AAA. Hahastary doing the Aerostar like springboard reverse tope to the floor was unexpected and cool. I’ve always believed Mamba is a person with good fashion sense but the blue hair going on in this match may cause me to reevaluate everything.