AAA on Twitch: 2019-08-03 (TripleMania)

Recapped: 08/03-08/2018

All matches aired live from Arena Ciudad de México

Matches:

Aramis, Arez, Toxin vs Arkángel Divino, Astrolux, Dragón Bane
(10:53, Dragon Bane 630 senton Arez, great, 00:30:42)

Lady Maravilla & Villano III Jr. beat Australian Suicide & Vanilla and Big Mami & Niño Hamburguesa © and Sammy Guevara & Scarlett Bordeaux for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship
(12:38, Lady Maravilla foul Nino Hamburguesa, good, 01:08:23)

Golden Magic, Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. beat Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Tito Santana and Mamba, Máximo, Pimpinela Escarlata
(14:31, Vikingo reverse 450 splash Carta Brava, great, 01:48:47)

Pagano beat La Parka , Chessman, Súper Fly, Averno, Aerostar, Drago, Puma King, Konnan, Rey Escorpión, Vampiro, Monsther Clown, Daga, Eclipse Jr. in Copa TripleMania
(26:43, ok, 02:15:29)

• 00:00 Eclipse IN
• 00:00 Daga IN
• 01:02 Drago IN
• 02:35 Super Fly IN
• 03:53 Murder Clown IN
• 04:07 Eclipse OUT (Daga pin, move not shown)
• 05:20 Aerostar IN
• 06:53 Monster Clown IN
• 08:10 Puma King IN
• 09:39 Super Fly (thrown out by Drago)
• 09:47 Konnan IN
• 11:18 Chessman IN
• 12:07 Drago OUT (Chessman dropkick after Konnan beer toss)
• 12:50 Vampiro IN
• 14:08 Konnan OUT (Vampiro toss)
• 14:17 Vampiro OUT (leaves thru the ropes, never is eliminated)
• 14:23 Aerostar OUT (Monster Clown toss)
• 14:23 Pagano IN
• 15:48 Averno IN
• 17:32 Rey Escorpion IN
• 18:01 Murder Clown OUT (pin after Rey Escorpion chairshot)
• 18:56 La Parka IN
• 21:23 Averno OUT (top rope headscissors by Puma King)
• 21:43 Puma King OUT (Chessman throw)
• 22:08 La Parka OUT (Chessman inside cradle via Dave The Clown distraction)
• 23:09 Daga OUT (Pagano throw)
• 24:40 Pagano OUT (Pagano throw)
• 26:43 Chessman OUT (Pagano super air raid crash)

Tessa Blanchard beat Taya, Ayako Hamada, Faby Apache, Lady Shani, Chik Tormenta, La Hiedra in for a AAA’s Reina de Reinas championship in a TLC match
(10:32, ok, 02:53:13)

Cain Velasquez, Cody Rhodes, Psycho Clown beat Killer Kross, Taurus, Texano Jr.
(13:08, Cain kimura Texano, good, 03:20:43)

Fénix, Laredo Kid, Pentagón Jr. beat Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson
(18:57, Penta/Fenix spike package Piledriver Matt Jackson, good, 03:52:16)

Blue Demon Jr. beat Dr. Wagner Jr. in a mask vs hair match
(14:41, Demon brick Wagner, excellent, 04:26:16)

What happened:

A lot. It’s TripleMania.

Dr. Wagner Jr. was seconded by his sons and many other people in Wagner outfits. Blue Demon Jr. just had his yet to be named son. That was enough, with Hijo de Blue Demon Jr. pulling out the referee after a third Wagner Driver. (He was supposed to pull him out by the second one.) Demon, who had earlier assaulted Wagner with a hammer, took advantage of the ensuing chaos to hit Wagner in the head with a rapidly disintegrating brick to set up the winning pin. Wagner got his head shaved in the ring and declared he would retire (which lasted a week.) Backstage, LA Park attacked Demon for winning the match in such a manner, only for Demon to be saved by the nearby Psycho Clown & Cain Velasquez.

The Elite lost, despite Kenny Omega stealing Fenix’s mask during the match. Omega still challenged Fenix to a title match, though everyone was very clear in not knowing when that match would happen. (They eventually settled the where would be in Mexico.)

Cain Velasquez wrestled in an El Toro mask and got the winning submission for his team.

Ayako Hamada replaced the injured Keyra, who was in a wheelchair and couldn’t wrestle. (The title was vacated.) Chik Tormenta attacked Keyra. Later, if by karma, suffered an injury when a fall out of the ring onto a ladder missed the ladder entirely. Tessa became the new champion.

The Copa TripleMania included eliminations over the top rope as well as pinfalls and submissions. Konnan and Vampiro made surprise appearances in Copa TripleMania, with Vampiro throwing Konnan out and then just leaving. Aerostar entered from a raised platform above the ring. He and Mosnter Clown feuded. Pagano & Chessman did as well, with Pagano winning in the end. Seconds after the match ended, the lights went off, back on, and LA Park and his family were in the ring. They destroyed Pagano while LA Park challenged him to a match and promised to be a pain to Marisela Pena.

The trios championships were technically vacant, but it was only a paperwork change. Hijo del Vikingo & Myzteziz Jr. still came to the ring with the belts and left with them, with Golden Magic picking one up along the way.

Silver King was added to the Hall of Fame. Antonio Pena, Joaquin Roldan and Paco Alonso were honored too; Alonso may have been added to the Hall of Fame as well.

Lady Maravilla betrayed Nino Hamburguesa, fouling him to set up the title win.

Thoughts:

Blue Demon and Dr. Wagner Jr. figured out their formula a while ago – blood – and went all the way with it for the climax. This is a match without a lot of moves but an extreme amount of drama. And that extreme amount of blood; Demon seems to blade himself once, then a couple of times later thinking the first time wasn’t enough. He ended up soaked in his own blood, a dark red covering his face as much as the mask by the end. That blood and the hammer made the match feel like a serious fight and added so much to the armbars that followed. This wasn’t the most technically sound match and it was messed up by some confusion at the end – Tirantes tells Hijo del Demon something near the ned, Hijo del Demon goes to get the brick, then doesn’t make it back in time to grab him to break up a two count- but it is an amazing spectacle. It’s absolutely one of the must-see matches of the year.

The crowd was whistling about ten minutes into the Elite vs Lucha Brothers/Laredo match. They wanted another match. They got ten more minutes of this match. It was a hard-working match of a lot of spots that also felt a bit soulless and inorganically part of this show. They could’ve worked the same match most anywhere, and it was really only when the AAA referee tropes stated when the crowd decided to care about this match. This wasn’t anyone’s best effort, it wasn’t a poor effort either, it just was a misplaced one. These six guys were doing the same kind of match that had opened the show, except the guys opening the show had crazier moves and did while people were filling in, instead of doing while people were wanting to see the main event already. No meaningful stakes and no real purpose to this match made this tough to get over; it really relied on the work being that much better than any other match, and it wasn’t that much better. It was still good, it was also nothing I had any great urgency to see a second time. Enough fans knew Kenny Omega to give him a reaction when he first came in, but not enough to make this match feel like a big deal or the teased match feel like something they had to see. It probably would’ve been aggravating to see AEW come in and win on this show but Omega should’ve beat Fenix if that was the challenge to be made after the match.

The Cain Velasquez match seemed to exist to give the people some big Velasquez moments and to give Velasquez a chance to have a real match. It worked for both. Slams and suplexes would’ve been fine but the headscissors and armdrag was something extra people weren’t expecting. Velasquez got the full experience. Everyone else was less so involved; they weren’t completely ignored, but they gave a little to get the point of the match over. Cain has places to improve when the novelty wears off but the novelty was plenty.

A lot of the undercard felt very fast-paced. The women’s match was the one that felt like it was being rushed as if they were cut on time but still trying to get everything in. The Chik Tormenta injury seemed like a product of that situation. She wasn’t lined up to fall on a ladder as seemingly planned but it was time to go so go she went. It was lucky it wasn’t worse in a lot of ways. It didn’t feel like there were many attempts to actually climb the ladder in real-time. It did happen, I can see it in the replay, if only because everything else doesn’t feel overwhelming. It still feels numbing and with a lot of stuff that doesn’t stick; I have no idea why the thumbtack spot happened and it doesn’t end up meaning anything. People disappear for long stretches. I’m not sure where Faby is most of the match. The finish felt anticlimactic because the director switched to Ayako going nuts on the outside rather than show the moment where Tessa knocked Taya off the ladder to win. It was just a mess.

I thought I had something written about the Copa TripleMania but apparently, I didn’t. That’s about right. The cameras couldn’t keep up with the match either, missing eliminations that weren’t replayed (but usually caught by the announcers.) The high points of the match – the brief Vampiro/Konnan fight, Aerostar’s dive, Pagano wining, LA Park showing up – got over. The rest in between was nothing special, but this format hasn’t really lend itself to great matches. This wasn’t good and it still probably was the best recent Copa TripleMania, which is where the match is. If they’re going to keep doing them (and they’re probably going to keep doing them), then it’ll probably be more of the same.

The Jinetes title win was a great match, full of craziness. It was also the point where there seemed to be so much of the same sort of craziness that either this one is better appreciated as a standalone match or they needed to something slightly different in this spot. I think the Exoticos were meant to contribute that something different, by adding some levity, but this was also a lot of big match Maximo working very hard to keep up with everyone else. Pimpinela and Mamba kept up where they could, though having so many people running in and out did hurt the match; there’s an obviously higher level for a Poder del Norte/Jinetes match. We’ll get to see this eventually it and this was very strong for something on the way there.

The mixed tag made the best use of eight people all hurrying around the ring as they could. There was so much happening that a little of it didn’t stand out and some of it didn’t look good. It was overall entertaining and a satisfying pay off to the story they’d been telling. Vanilla was trying a lot we haven’t seen from her before, and I’m not sure how she didn’t break her knee on the odd landing of the missed 450 splash. Suicide was trying a lot too, though it seemed like he was either betrayed by the camera angles or didn’t cleanly land a couple of them. I’m not sure exactly when Villano III Jr. got hurt, he takes a lot of falls that look like they could be it. He is clearly out of it when he comes back in the ring the last time, with Big Mami visibly calling spots and Villano still not seeming the grasp them. I’m not sure what they were meant to be doing on their part of the finish.

The first minute of the opener, when there’s no noise except for the ring and Aramis & Dragon Bane botch a spot very obviously, seemed like this was going to go wrong. It did not go wrong. The six-way submission brought in everyone and they just kept going from there. There were a couple of moments past that which didn’t go right, but they were just going so fast that there was no time to dwell. Everyone got their moments, helped out by getting significantly more time than usual for this sort of thing. The absurdity of Aramis’ double torture rack slam finally got the crowd into it. Astrolux seemed more useful as a tiny guy who could get killed easily than what he got to show up on offense; maybe Dragon Bane was best at that. Toxin seemed also more notable for taking the big moves, though he did get a big run in the middle of the match. This totally achieved what it was set out to do.