AAA on Twitch: 2018-05-18 

Recapped: 05/18-23/2018

All matches aired live from Polideportivo La Huizachera, Tehuacán, Puebla, 05/18/2018 

Matches:

Látigo & Toxin beat Aramis & Astrolux
(9:39, Latigo flip powerbomb Astrolux, excellent, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Argenis & Hijo Del Vikingo beat Halcón 78 Jr. & Parka Negra
(9:07, Hijo del Vikingo 045 splash Halcón 78 Jr., good, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Faby Apache & Hades beat Ashley & Lady Shani
(8:59, Faby Apache jacknife cradle, good, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

La Máscara & Máximo beat Histeria & Psicosis
(10:35, Mascara campana Psicosis, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Aerostar & Drago beat Rey Escorpión & Texano
(12:07, DQ for Escorpión mask pull on Aerostar, good, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana beat Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
(11:51, Tito Santana splash Averno, great, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Hijo del Fantasma & Psycho Clown beat Hernandez & Kevin Kross
(9:07, Psycho Clown casita Hernandez, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

Dr. Wagner Jr. © beat Pagano for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship
(11:20, Wagner Driver, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA (Twitch))

What happened:

Wagner cleanly defeated Pagano. Lady Shani seconded Pagano for no particular reason (Wagner didn’t have a second), except it left her out there for Faby to attack after the match. Wagner left the ring to talk Faby down. It left the ring open for Murder Clown to attack Pagano. They meet on the next taping. Wagner got on the apron to get Murder Clown to back off, but left it to get his belt and Murder Clown resumed beating up Pagano.

Fantasma & Psycho Clown had minor problems during the match but were able to recover and had the match won. Kross broke up a pin, only to drop Hernandez himself. Fantasma & Psycho won moments later. Juventued Guerrera ran to the ring as the pin was happening, sneaking in after the match to shove Fantasma into Psycho to start a fight between them. Kross & Guerrera easily destroyed them afterwards. A man in a MAD mask, obviously Konnan but never named as such, watched the beatdown from the entrance area.

Poder del Norte jumped the OGT to start their match. They won the match clean. Super Fly needed a stretcher after taking a (worked) chair shot to the knee. Averno and Santana bled.

A vignette showed a confrontation between Aerostar & Drago and Rey Escorpión & Texano (who were hanging out with Poder del Norte). Drago said the rudos couldn’t have beat them without removing his mask. The rudos offered to fight them right now in a MMA cage, then locked Aerostar & Drago in the cage and left laughing. Samoano seconded Rey Escorpión and Texano, having apparently turned rudo offscreen. He interfered in the match, which ended with Escorpión unmasking Aerostar. Drago misted Escorpión after the match, though the cameras missed it. The rudos beat up all the ringside people.

Faby Apache attacked Hades after their team won. Ashley got taken out too. Lady Shani stared Faby Apache down.

Kross beat up everyone after the second match for no particular reason.

Thoughts: 

Dr. Wagner Jr. taking the crucifix powerbomb into the corner and the Air Raid Crash onto the chair were both shocking moments in the main event, because that’s about all he took in the main event. Wagner is getting by on a slower pace and with less action than the matches around him. It’s probably why his matches aren’t working for me, though they’re probably more tolerable in a neutral concept. Pagano wasn’t asked to do a lot but get beat up and did that fine enough. The match layout, where he never gets an all that close pinfall or kicks out of a big Wagner big move, didn’t do Pagano many favors. This being the third straight Wagner title match that wasn’t announced ahead of time and the second not to have a clear tecnico/rudo structure isn’t working for these matches either.

The semimain being OK was about all that could be expected given the set up and the story. It could’ve been a little shorter without problem, and maybe should’ve been as the seventh of eight matches on a long night. This was more about Fantasma & Psycho, and later Hernandez and Kross, not getting along then anything happened in this match. That usually caps how good the match is going to be. The end was a bit of nonsense too, with Kross breaking up a pin of Hernandez to just beat up Hernandez himself and serve him up for a pin ten seconds later. Fantamsa versus Psycho seemed to be a real issue for the first time in this TripleMania build, so it was effective as a concept even if the content itself wasn’t all interesting. No real progression to the MAD stuff hurt a bit; there was no sense in teasing new members on social media if they weren’t going to appear.

The PdN/OGT brawl was the best match they’ve had so far, and a great bit of set up to the hair match. It felt different more violent than anything else on the show. Even the cliched “everyone takes a turn doing a move” sequences came off like they were hitting each other very hard. The blood was effective too, especially since this was the only match that had it to this point. Poder del Norte didn’t just come off as the same level of the more experienced team, they were treated as if they were a little bit faster and little bit stronger, and OGT was going to be in real trouble in their hair match. This was totally effective.

The cheap finish to the Aerostar/Drago vs Texano/Escorpion match made it hard to rate it great for me, but I still found a lot to like about the match. Aerostar & Drago had a great run at the start and once again later in the match, they had a longer and more interesting end game than most, and they got the crowd more than the earlier matches. Samoano getting offense seemed forced in, but at least it gave someone for the técnicos to get revenge on post match. There’s probably a really strong final match between these teams possible, and they certainly teased the idea of one where the rudos couldn’t just pull a mask to win, but these two teams seemed headed into separate matches on upcoming lineups.

The Mascara/Maximo match was worked slightly harder than a house show match, mostly Maximo’s effort, but it’s nothing you need to see. Psicosis & Histeria aren’t going to be pushed into a high gear and La Mascara isn’t going to do a lot unless he’s around people who do push him. The Alvarados haven’t exactly lit the world on fire since coming in, and perhaps it’s best to keep them to the side with others who seem just to being used due to obligation than involving them in the major stuff at the moment.

The women’s match was probably the second best AAA women’s match of the year. I might be forgetting something, and that might not be setting the bar high enough: it would’ve been a one of the best match in that stretch of March tapings, it was better than the Rey de Reyes Shani/Faby match and the division would be a positive if all the matches were at this level. Ashley didn’t have the problems she’s had in other matches, getting thru her offense without issue. Hades is a big improvement on Estrella Divina and everyone else they’ve been using in these matches. Faby & Shani had good chemistry this time thru, though the heat between them needs to be turned up a bit. This didn’t have the caliber of action of the previous two matches but it had a good pace and they saved the best stuff for the end.

Vikingo overshadowed everything everyone with a couple incredible spots in the segunda. At some point, he and someone are going to put it together for an amazing match. Parka Negra is the find of the year, working as a great cruiserweight base. The gimmick is so dead (and AAA’s got so many other priorities) that he’ll probably never get pushed. He still should get some stronger role. Halcón 78 had a surprising amount of tag team spots with Parka Negra. It’s unclear if they had been training together somewhere, or if the openers were more laid out in advance than usual, but Halcón seemed OK with what he was asked to do – nearly a rudo version of Argenis.

The opener was outstanding. Maybe the Tijuana opener was a bit more insane, but it was a crazy amazing match by any other standard. It was at least a slightly more difficult one. The TJ guys have been working together for years (or forever) in that building. These guys have worked on an off together but maybe never in this specific configuration and almost definitely not in Tehuacan. They’re also more prone to off nights. Not this night. Everything looked great and was nicely timed and built well with the most insane stuff at the end. Toxin’s a guy who’ve not liked on the indies because of his hit or miss nature, but he hit on everything here and it wasn’t easy. Astrolux flew around, sometimes of his own will, impressively. Aramis showed the promise we’ve seen of him in Coacalco and IWRG. Latigo was the great glue guy. He’s never going to get noticed because he’s small and he’s not flashy on his own, but I thought he was a huge different maker in this match working and was happy he got the win. There’s no great reason to believe this stuff is going to be followed up upon to a big success given AAA’s history, but it doesn’t really matter if they’re going to keep being this great in the openers – I’d prefer them not try to go anywhere with it and risk messing it up.