Recapped: 03/04/17
All matches are Acropolis Puebla, Puebla, Puebla, 03/04/2018
The entire show aired aired on Twitch
Matches:
Faby Apache beat Lady Shani
(5:44, Faby Apache German Suplex, good)
Rey Escorpión beat Angelikal , Dave The Clown, Pimpinela Escarlata in an AAA’s Rey de Reyes semifinal
(7:12, Rey Escorpión package piledriver Angelikal, ok)
Bengala beat Dark Scoria, Máscara de Bronce, Argenis in an AAA’s Rey de Reyes semifinal
(6:50, Bengala Fire Driver on Mascara de Bronce, good)
Hijo Del Vikingo beat Ángel Mortal Jr., Dark Cuervo, Pagano in a AAA’s Rey de Reyes semifinal
(8:42, Vikingo reverse 450 splash Angel Mortal Jr., ok)
La Parka beat Dinastía, Venum, Mesias in an AAA’s Rey de Reyes semifinal
(7:24, La Parka foul and armbar Mesias, below average
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly in a TLC match which probably was for the AAA Trios Championship but I’m not 100% sure
(13:53, Mocho Cota Spanish Fly thru a table Averno, good)
Rey Escorpión beat La Parka, Hijo Del Vikingo, Bengala in an AAA’s Rey de Reyes final
(7:38, Rey Escorpión backcracker Parka, ok)
Hernandez, Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Monsther Clown, Murder Clown beat Dr. Wagner Jr., La Máscara, Máximo, Psycho Clown
(10:12, Hijo del Wagner German suplex Dr Wagner Jr., below average)
Hijo del Fantasma beat Texano Jr. taking Texano’s hair and saving Fantasma’s mask
(12:57, Fantasma Thrill of the Hunt, ok)
What happened:
Hijo del Fantasma defeated Texano in their mask versus hair match. Hijo del Tirantes, who had earlier been barred from refereeing on this show, was instead Texano’s second. Vampiro made the match no disqualification to counter that (some how.) Fantasma Sr. was there to be his son’s second, but quickly taken out accidentally by tope from his son. That seemed to be a planned bit to take Fantamsa Sr. out of the match, but he really struck the back of his head on the Twitch announce table taking the move. Tirantes helped Texano by hanging him a fork, only to end up bleeding himself. Medics took Tirantes to the back, and he didn’t return to the ring in time to save Texano at the finish. Texano began to get his hair shaved in the ring, but the show quickly and strangely ended while the head shaving was still going on.
Hijo del Fantasma now joins Psycho Clown in the four way apuesta match at TripleMania.
Rey Escorpión won this year’s Rey de Reyes tournament. He was one of four surprise entrants, which were all people already on the roster who just had not participated in a qualifying match. All block matches were one pin to a finish. Escorpión won the first block. Argenis was a surprise, but Bengala won the second block. Pagano returned, but Hijo del Vikingo won the third fall when Pagano was still outside following a crowd dive. Mesias, looking in better shape than we had last seen him, returned in the last block but surprisingly took the loss to La Parka. Mesias looked unhappy about that match, and La Parka looked equally unhappy about the finish, where he lost to Escorpión after Dave the Clown interference. Escorpión and Dave had previously formed an alliance following the opener.
Hijo del Wagner pinned his father in the atomicos, when most of the rest of the match had decided to brawl down the aisle. The announcers were quick to note this would probably mean Hijo del Wagner will be getting a title shot soon.
Mocho Cota defeated Averno with a Spanish Fly thru a table to end the OGT/Poder del Norte feud and keep the trios titles.
In a bonus match, Faby Apache once again beat Lady Shani thanks to help from Estrella Divina.
Vampiro’s plan of appearing in a box between matches and talking back to the fans and the announcers finally happened on this show. It had some issues. Early on, they twice put the Vampiro bit on the air but the announcers were unable to hear him, and they left a visibly frustrated Vampiro on screen instead of figuring it out. Vampiro didn’t really add anything of importance to the broadcast, but it did lead to moments where everyone talked in English to address the English speaking portion of the Twitch audience and to explain the storylines leading into the matches. At one point, Vampiro was asked about Dinastia being the first mini in a Rey de Reyes match, and Vampiro explained he didn’t really see those differences or the need for those divisions, that everyone should just fight each other. Which means Dinastia is now a small fish in a big pound instead of a big fish in a forgotten pond.
Thoughts:
Rey de Reyes was an overall OK show. Nothing lasted too long, and it didn’t have the disasters of Guerra de Titanes or TripleMania, but it also didn’t have anything of great peak value. There were a few good matches, some clunkers, and a lot of forgettable stuff in between. I think I liked this show more than most people who I was watching it with on Twitter, but even then I wouldn’t come away strongly recommending anything on this show.
AAA seemed to have a change of thought about Tirantes & Bengala’s involvement in the main event, removing Bengala entirely and making sure Tirantes wasn’t around for the finish. It wasn’t enough. Just the specter of Tirantes inevitably getting involved hurt the enthusiasm for the match, and the match itself wasn’t that great or memorable. There wasn’t a moment in the match where Fantasma seemed in any danger of losing; even the table powerbomb spot was bizarrely followed up by a figure four reversed into a small package. Fantasma recovered from what should’ve been a debilitating landing on an unbroken table to win seconds later. It felt like they were hoping the blood alone would make the match dramatic, but we’d already seen plenty of blood in the TLC match. I thought there was some value in the match, with Fantasma obviously motivated by the win to do a lot of stuff. Still, when they ditched the Bengala/Tirantes based ending, it felt like they had no ending to replace it with. Ending the show abruptly during the hair cut hurt the moment.
The semifinal atomicos seemed to exist simply to get to the Hijo del Wagner pinfall over Dr. Wagner with not a lot more effort to it. It seemed liked the Alvarados might have had something big plan for that brawl to the stage, but nothing much came of it. This seemed like a very slight use of Psycho Clown for a big show. It feels as if AAA signed La Mascara & Máximo with the idea that they’d come up with a plan to use them later, and have not with that idea yet.
The best match on this show might have been the Bengala, Argenis, Mascara de Bronce and Scoria tournament match. There were some sloppy moments balanced by a lot of action. Mascara de Bronce came off as an upcoming star for the first time in months and Argenis & Bengala did a good job working with him when they were doing their own spectacular moves. The rest of the tournament was just ok to not very good. Pagano is back but does not seem healthy, needing multiple tries to lift guys from moves early on. Pagano threw himself into spectacular dives but dragged his match down. Pimpinela & Dave limited that match, but Rey Escorpión was as good at working Angelikal as he is with all flyers. The last semifinal was a mess. Venom and Dinastia were thrown around like garbage, because Parka can’t do much and Mesias wasn’t happy. Mesias has a right to be unhappy – if the match was going to treat Venom & Dinastia as jobbers, they probably should’ve been doing the job instead of a guy making his surprise return. Mesias & Parka punching each other and not selling it each other, and then just not selling the whole thing while they stood on the stage and shoved each other, was total low ending indie stuff. Parka was disinterested and an anchor to the final match, where Hijo del Vikingo was again trying to make a name for himself and might have ended up hurt. (Shooting Star Press splashes to the floor are bad ideas that maybe should be stopped.) The final of Rey de Reyes being more build to a Dave/Parka feud is not a good use of resources. They did allow Escorpión to soak in his win more than they allowed Fantamsa.
The TLC match was the usual plunder match which didn’t seem to go exactly like they had originally planned. No belts were hung, and the ladders were barely used. It wasn’t clear if it was meant to be a title match. They had made a point to hype light tubes being involved. They weren’t. The match did have the usual weapons and the last few big spots looked spectacular. The stuff in the middle was the usual numbing violence where people take big moves but don’t disappear long enough for them to mean anything. Carta Brava stood out as having a big match and for bleeding a lot into his light colored hair.
Faby Apache versus Lady Shani felt tacked on and not as tight at their Guerra de Titanes match. Estrella Divina running in to hit Shani with a weak kick to set up the finish of a match with a lot of hard ones didn’t help. They still hit each other very hard, harder than anything else on this show. If the run-ins don’t hurt that match like they did with Fantasma/Texano, Faby/Shani should be pretty good. I’m just sure only the hardcore people who watch every AAA show will care, since this feud is treated as only something to warm the canvas.
This was the first wrestling show in this new Puebla building. It looked like a big deal visually, but they’re going to want to work on fixing the crowd micing in the future. It was tough to tell if the crowd wasn’t into the show, or if we just couldn’t hear any of the crowd beyond the first few rows. That quiet environment hurt the matches.
