AAA TripleMania XXII lineup thoughts

AAA TV (SUN) 08/17/2014 Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal 
***TripleMania XXII*** 
1) Aerostar, Jennifer Blake, Mascarita Sagrada, Pimpinela Escarlata vs Mamba, Mini Abismo Negro, Sexy Star, Súper Fly 
2) Angélico vs Hijo del Fantasma, Australian Suicide, Fénix, Bengala, Jack Evans, Joe Lider, Pentagón Jr., Daga ©, Ricochet [AAA CRUISER]
Daga is Cruiserweight champion. Fenix’s Fusion championship will be absorbed by the cruiserweight championship. 
3) Faby Apache © vs Taya Valkyrie [Reina De Reinas]
Faby Apache is champion. 2nd defense, 1st televised defense since Faby won the title 17 months ago. 
4) Blue Demon Jr. vs Jeff Jarrett, Electroshock, Averno, La Parka, Chessman [hair, mask, cage] 
5) Myzteziz vs el Hijo del Perro Aguayo, Cibernético, ? [Copa TripleMania XXII] 
6) Psycho Clown vs Texano Jr. [hair, mask]
mask vs hair

Air Date: 08/17, obviously. But also likely 08/23 and 08/30. Maybe only 2 weeks since it’s a six match show, the first one to only be six matches since 20.04.

So. What’s been noticeable for the last year is re-enforced here: AAA’s weekly TV storylines are nearly irrelevant, and you’re best off just dropping in on the major shows. There are good matches to be found on AAA’s weekly TV, but nothing else. Attentive viewers are not rewarded. They’re actually persuaded to pay less attention so they can ignore the gaping plot holes. AAA’s drawn well this year, but that’s been a combination of choosing only building they could do fill and smart talent acquisition. It’s not really about anything they’ve done with the talent.

(It’s really hard to reconcile AAA being lauded for it’s detail work and consistently see big shows like this. People are blind or deceiving themselves.)

Not that the major shows are really building much or filling up with more than thrown together match. AAA’s clearly known they were going to run that cage match for a while, but couldn’t be bothered to run any angles to build up and have just added completely random promos to justify it after the fact. There’s not even that for the semimain. TripleMania is supposed to be the biggest show of AAA’s year with the big payoffs. There’s only one feud being paid off here.

I’ve been critical of nothing happening on AAA TV tapings this year, but maybe that’s got to be the way to do it. If anything that happens is going to be pretty much ignored, then there’s no sense in wasting the time.

Psycho versus Texano has been covered a lot, but it’s still surprising to see them in the main event. It makes sense in that it’s the only match AAA’s promoted on TV. I’m not sure their audience sees them as the top stars and there’s a real danger some of the crowd is going to walk out during the match (which is not exactly what they’re looking for when they’re obviously trying to make someone.) It is helped by only having six matches and a PPV time window; AAA can’t drag the show on as long as they might do on some other nights.

Semimain continues the proud trend of completely pointless tournaments to eat up space on AAA major shows to avoid actually doing something. (3 of the last 5!) The mystery guy is the mystery guy. Like always, it’s probably a top secret only known to a few and/or someone in the Parka Negra suit if the persons bails at the last second. It definitely helps that Hijo del Fantasma was the last guy AAA really tried with this, though it’s still way overdone. Judging from Fantasma’s interview, AAA’s probably trying to get someone from CMLL who hasn’t actually quit CMLL yet.

Fourth match is the cage match that was hurriedly thrown together in promos (when they figured out Mesias wasn’t going to be back in time.) Jarrett, Demon and Parka are obviously aren’t losing, but I wouldn’t rule out any of the other three guys – even Averno, since they may have already moved on from his program with Myzteziz and this is probably as good a payoff as he’s going to get.

Faby versus Taya was actually built on TV! Taya stands a really good chance of winning here. She’s at every single AAA press event, she might as well attend them with the belt. Sexy Star can easily be used to give Taya an out.

The second match continues the annual tradition of throwing Jack Evans in a wacky multiman match because AAA can’t be bothered to come up with angle for Jack Evans. The closest thing he’s gotten to a normal match was 2011, when he teamed with Extreme Tiger to take on Abyss and Mr. Anderson in a cage match. Repeat: that’s the closest Jack Evans has gotten to a normal match at TripleMania.

The storyline of the Cruiserweight Title Match

• Daga doesn’t show up in Tuxtla Guiterrez on 05/24, and everyone agrees never to mention this again
• His title defense instead becomes a #1 contenders match, and Aerostar beats Steve Pain to get a title shot. Everyone is shocked Aerostar actually won something.
• Bizarrely, but because much like this show AAA couldn’t be bothered to book angles for the midcard of their major show, there’s a second #1 contenders match on Verano de Escandalo, where Bengala beats Pentagon Jr.
• In a 06/27 trios in Queratro, Fenix beats Daga, and also asks for a title match. Bengala points out he’s due a shot first, but Fenix proposes putting his Fusion title on the line to make it fair. Daga accepts – under the condition he also gets to add Steve Pain and Eterno to even the numbers. Everyone there accepts. Aerostar doesn’t appear, but probably couldn’t since he got dropped on his head in the previous match.
• This match is announced! It had nothing to do with the last few bullet points except for the two titles thing.

That’s just crap story telling.

Everyone being gifted the title shot actually lost in one of those contenders match except for Ricochet (new here!) and Joe Lider (not actually a cruiserweight except for when they’re trying to give him a TripleMania payoff.) Meanwhile, Steve Pain, Eterno and Aerostar are all not booked in the match. Kind of have to wonder if Pain knew he was being left off the TripleMania show when he left – there doesn’t seem to be any obvious place where he should’ve been on, and it’s not as though Eterno made it he did it.

Also: Flamita is working in Arena Lopez Mateos the previous day, is probably just as well known by the Mexican fans as Richochet and probably could’ve been brought in just a little bit easier. Ricochet is great, really great, but is AAA really going to spend the next 19 days working hard to explain that to the fans? That’s not what they do. Are the hardcore Dragon Gate fans going to buy TripleMania just for Ricochet, when there’s an actual Dragon Gate show on that same day (not to mention SummerSlam?) Probably not. I’m pretty sure AAA has no idea there’s a Dragon Gate iPPV that day, oh well.

I would assume the real story is Ricochet’s been offered a spot on the El Rey show – and Flamita has not! – so they’re using him here even though the two projects will have very little to do with each other. So at least Ricochet is better than Ricky Reyes.

I wonder if if Fantasma is thrilled to be working the second match on the biggest show of the year. That didn’t seem to be a thing he liked. I really hope he gets his Cibernetico feud but it sure doesn’t look in the cards. Mystery Guy got your spot, maybe you should’ve waited a few more months. (I think Terrible’s the name everyone’s going to guess for the next few weeks.)

Opener is the usual Get Pimpinela A Payday. I’m 100% the excuse for pulling Aerostar from the title match was to have him face Super Fly to “get them ready for their mask match”, but Pentagon Jr. and Australian Suicide are having the same mask match feud and are in the cruiserweight match. Since Aerostar earned the shot and Sexy Star and Pentagon Jr. are the odd couple tag team champions, it seems pretty obvious those parings should’ve been swapped. Maybe not obvious enough.

It’s also insane that Mascarita Sagrada is working this show and Dinasita is sitting at home. There’s a lot of spots on this card where it feels like people are being gifted spots because of relationships and that’s honestly one of them.

Show should be good! I wish I paid a lot less attention to AAA so I could enjoy it more. I’m beyond frustrated with the booking. AAA is a fraction of what it’s capable of being and it would be awesome if they actually tried to fulfill their potential. Instead, this is probably the start of a few months of frustration.