AAA on Televisa: 2016-04-09  (Rey de Reyes Part 2)

Recapped: 04/10/2016

What happened: Xinetez are the trios champions. Dr. Wagner defeated Psycho Clown (via foul, but made sure to get in a Wagner Driver after that.) Pentagon won the Rey de Reyes in the least convincing manner possible, then the Perros del Mal were attacked by La Familia de Tijuana & Pagano.

What was good: The trios match was good I guess, but a show where Fenix and Psycho Clown lose and Pentagon Jr. is made to look like a joke is a pretty dispiriting way to spend 80 minutes. Maybe take a long walk instead of watching.

Where can I watch it: It’s on AAA’s channel and will be on mine soon enough. If you are going to watch it, I’d recommend checking out the +LuchaTV clips of the main event, because it looks like they edited out a chunk of high spots from Psycho/Wagner.

Fantasma’s in the open, but so is Goya Kong so I guess that doesn’t mean much. The bit where they try to find former Rey de Reyes to sell the history of this is nice.

Hype for Brian Cage returning airs during the show.

Match 1: Aerostar, Drago, Fénix vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro for the AAA World Trios Championship
Plaza de Toros Monumental El Paseo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, 03/23/2016
Video: +LuchaTV

Winner: Xinetez (Zorro Canadian Destroyer on Fenix)
Match Time: 11:01
Notes: Aerostar is wearing an Abismo Negro shirt. Xinetez have even newer gear and personalized vests. Zorro mocks Fenix after the win.

Review: [good] Competitive and often exciting title match. The outcome makes sense with the greater purpose of doing something with the Xinetez, but I desperately wanted to see the other team win and not much in this match dissuaded me from this feeling. The section where the técnicos took over the ring and were triple teaming was just so great. The Xinetez putting a stop to it was good as well, but they were a little bit off in their timing and occasionally things didn’t seem as smooth. I think I might have given this as great with just about any other finish, because I am so tired of the Canadian Destroyer. I’m not sure of it though, because the three cane shots would’ve been a lame finish too.

Match 2: Pentagón Jr. vs Villano IV, La Parka in a AAA’s Rey de Reyes final match
Plaza de Toros Monumental El Paseo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, 03/23/2016
Video: +LuchaTV

• La Parka fujiwara Villano IV (3:32)

• Pentagon Jr. inside cradle? La Parka (10:45)

Winner: Pentagon Jr.
Match Time: 10:45
Notes: Pentagon has the Perros del Mal Light Heavyweight championship. Villano and Pentagon jump La Parka as he comes out, as a way to distract from Blue Demon not being there. Demon was listed in the final four video previoew before the match.

La Parka submitted Villano IV and nearly does the exact same with Pentagon Jr. seconds later, only Tirantes puts Pentagon’s hand on the ropes. Parka kicked out Pentagon’s backcracker at one, then got another visual victory with Tirantes down. Parka can’t or won’t put his shoulders down for three on Pentagon’s inside cradle at the end.

After the match, Daga, Taya, Kahn-El-Mal and Joe Lider join Pentagon Jr. to celebrate. Just as Pentagon’s holding the sword and hitting the catchphrase, the lights go out then come back on with Damian, Halloween, Nicho and Pagano in the corners. They make like they’re celebrating the win, but then attack. The Perros del Mal are slowly beat down, partly because they don’t sell all that much. They’re kicked out of the ring, and La Familia make fun of them while claiming they’re the real Perros. Nicho is wearing a Bestia 666 match. The Perros music plays for them when they’re done.

Review: [terrible] utter crap. They did the match they wanted to do, but unfortunately for Pentagon, for the future of AAA, and for the crowd in the building, the match AAA wanted to do was broken down La Parka being the definitively best man who was unfairly screwed out of another win, and oh I guess Pentagon is the titular winner. AAA achieved what they laid out the match to be with some technical faults (Parka can’t roll), so I guess that’s a “below average”, but what they wanted to do in this match was so utterly noxious that I should’ve just invented a new low to my grading scale for accuracy.

This was the most grudging and useless attempt at making a new star, actually much more harm to Pentagon for being in the match than he got out of winning it. And maybe someone might have been able to – wrongly – justify it if the crowd went with it and it was just some nerd on the internet complaining about it, but the crowd hated this match. Hated when Parka was going to get the win, cheered when it looked like Pentagon might steal it. (Even beyond Pentagon being far more over, maybe people paying attention would’ve also noticed the Perros del Mal guy would’ve been over on the Perro Aguayo Jr. tribute show.) This was the worst of not just AAA, but why Mexican wrestling isn’t in a boom period and is struggling: a total appeasement to veteran egos over making the best decisions not only creatively, but for business reasons.

And that’s even before Halloween, Damian and Nicho show up! You can say a lot about Pagano, and I probably will if he sticks around, but at least he’s a new face and not broken down. Halloween, Damian and Nicho were much better than La Parka ever was, but they’re equally as broken down. At least they can be more relied on to lose in a decent way, but who even knows if that’s where this is going.

The heavyweight title match is replayed on UTDN/YouTube

Match 3: Psycho Clown vs Dr. Wagner Jr.
Plaza de Toros Monumental El Paseo, San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, 03/23/2016
Video: +LuchaTV

Winner: Dr. Wagner Jr.
Match Time: 16:05
Notes: Villano IV and Máscarita Sagrada are the seconds. A different Máscarita Sagrada was Konnan’s second on the first TripleMania show, which is the only reason I can think of doing it. Villano interferes. Psycho’s mask gets ripped off and he gets a new one. They head into the crowd, and Wagner brings back a rectangular plastic trash can to use, which just sits in the ring for large portions of the match. Villano finally pulls it out to use on Máscarita, which gets Villano ejected for some reason. Psycho bleeds from his right shoulder. Villano comes up, which causes Piero top stop counting for no reason. Villano isn’t even near the win, Piero just turns around and spots him and stops counting what would’ve been three. Piero talks to Villano, Dr. Wagner hits Psycho with a chair, fouls him, and drops him with a Michinoku Driver. Wagner belittled and unmasked Psycho Clown post match while challenging him for the Latin American championship.

+LuchaTV’s version of the match includes what seem to be at least two different dives that were cut out (including Psycho Clown toping Dr. Wagner thru a table in a spot that looks so great it’s unbelievable they edited it out) and a stretcher being used. The match seems like it must’ve had five minutes cut out of it.

Review: [ok] For most of this, I was thinking that maybe this just wasn’t my type of match and was hut by coming after the other match. The walk and brawl stuff wasn’t done in a way where it felt serious, and the second half of the match being ten second of action, a two count, and resting for a minute is really over done, but the crowd seemed to be into it and that’s got to count for something. And then they did the stupid finish where Piero stops counting a pin for no real reason and I felt much better about it being OK. They would’ve been better off if Wagner had just kicked out. Psycho didn’t get nearly the protection La Parka got a match prior, of course. This was like the Texano/Psycho match in layout, but nothing close in quality. It is pretty clear the fans saw this as the main event.