Tag: AAA TV Recap

Recapped: 12/04/2017

Matches: 

Ángel Mortal Jr., Australian Suicide, Tiger Boy, Villano III Jr. beat Angelikal, Chicano, Hijo Del Vikingo, Lanzelot  
(6:03, Australian Suicide layout frontcracker Chicano, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Aerostar, Drago, Raptor beat Argenis, Bengala, Máscara de Bronce
(6:06, Drago flipping DDT Mascara de Bronce, good, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Ashley, Hahastary, La Hiedra beat Big Mami, Faby Apache, Lady Shani 
(8:53, Hiedra powerbomb Faby, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA

Lanzelot © vs Australian Suicide for the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship
(10:40, bodyscissors cradle, good, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Thoughts: 

The episode is centered around an Australian Suicide/Lanzeloth cruiserweight title match. The layout of AAA show stayed the same (as it’s stayed for seemingly forever), but it seems like an attempt to tell a story from beginning to end in one episode, which definitely is different.

Prior to the opening tag match, Suicide interrupts Lanzeloth’s attempt at a generic promo to demand a title shot tonight if his team beats Lanzeloth’s team in the opener. Lanzeloth accepts, though adds on that Suicide will not get another shot if he loses this one.

Vampiro introduced a new sit down interview segment with Australian Suicide as new guest. (This felt like an attempt to recreate the Lucha Underground first season Vamprio sit down interviews.) They talk in English, subtitled in Spanish. Suicide talks about being rained in Australia but wanting to come to Mexico to be the best. He says AAA told him to put on the mask and how to act when he came to the group, but what we’re seeing now is the real him. He argues that he would be a better world champion than Lanzeloth, because Lanzeloth only wrestles in Mexico and Suicide’s wrestled around the world.

The title match is built around a knee injury. It’s nothing Suicide actively does, but instead caused when Lanzeloth flips to the floor. The injury comes and goes during the match. Lanzeloth catches Suicide with a cradle, against the momentum of the match that that moment.

There are other stories on the show. The intro to the show has a (unlabeled) clip from the July 15^th episode of this show, where OGT stormed Poder del Norte’s locker room to demand a trios title shot after Santana & Brava lost their masks. Neither team has anything to do on this show, but Poder del Norte come out post match to protest the existence of the tecnicos/tecnicos match, and OGT come out to attack them. It turns into a 12 man brawl.

The women’s match had Shani take out both Hahastary & Ashley with a dive, leaving the other three women in the ring. As Faby went up for a moonsault onto Hiedra, Villano III Jr. ran in (right in front of the ref, no DQ) and dropkicked Big Mami out of the ring. Hiedra pulled Faby off the ropes into a powerbomb for the win. Even though the one and only time we saw Hiedra & Villano III Jr. together ended with them breaking up, it appears they’re still together.

Texano explains that the fans taunting him are as dumb as the dummies he’s found. He’s the rightful champion, and the better luchador than Hijo del Fantasma. Texano gets into an argument with a dummy he think is calling him a liar (with the voice helpfully supplied by Zuniga) and demands his trophy.

They push the next day’s Juarez taping during the show, including Wagner looking for revenge on Mundo for faking the DQ in their title match.

There is no story to Chicano and Ashley being on different sides than usual. Ashley is probably a numbers thing, Chicano might just be the guy they wanted to take Suicide’s finish.

Review:

The atomicos was exciting early, but increasingly sloppy as it went by, with more missed spots than you’d want for something that was this short. The Tigger Boy had a rough match, though I’m not sure if it’s him or he just gets stuck with the tricky stuff. The big move firework spot was done really fast, though ending with the reverse huracanrana that didn’t go well was a downer (and Angelikal just roll out without getting hit after it didn’t make a lot sense.) The shooting star press breakups looked amazing, but also looked like they were landing on people in awkward and pinfall fashion. Vikingo is the most eyecatching of the eight guys here. Angel Mortal catching Hijo del del Vikingo was impressive but takes a little too long to get to the powerbomb, and the camera losses them for part of it.

The men’s trios match is the superior of the two highspot tag matches. There’s nits to be picked, but it’s a lot more solid match while keeping the excitement level up. Even beyond the moves themselves, stuff like breaking up every cradle with another cradle was good. Argenis throwing people around as counter to all the flying moves gave the match something different. The biggest problem is this just wasn’t long enough, and using the time for an OGT/Poder del Norte promo was not the a less exciting use of time.

The women’s match was alright, with the usual flaws. Big Mami has poor timing at times, but I was impressed that at least one of the two headscissors Hahastary tried with her worked. It really is asking too much to expect those spots to go right for her, and the double boot spot with Faby later on was similarly comedic. It’s like AAA or Big Mami can’t bring themselves to admit that there’s some stuff the other women do that she does not do as well. Hiedra appears to be 90% cleavage at this point. Ashley shows no hidden ruda characteristics – she waves to the crowd after every move – but she and Hahastary did not feel out of place here. Hahastary seemed to work well with both Shani & Faby in limited time.

There was some good action here, though the story took away from the potential of the match. Lanzelot sold his knee fine and this audience is more willing to buy into that story, but it hurts the concept when he has to suddenly feel a lot better so he can pull off his offense or get in position for Suicide. They at least had Suicide keep hammering on the bad knee, but these guys just doing big spots for ten minutes would’ve been fine with me. The finish, getting beat by a weak cradle while being in control, makes Suicide look like a chump who shouldn’t be getting any more shots, but they could’ve given Lanzeloth a stronger win to establish him. He needs to come across as the best cruiserweight after not sticking up out really into this leadup, and he’s coming off like a fluke. Suicide looked like the better guy most of the match, with his tornillo coming off really good. The only way he’s not getting a shot is if he’s leaving AAA too, but I hope he gets more things to do in between his inevitable inclusion in a multiman match.

Recapped: 11/29/2017

All matches were taped from Palenque de la Feria, Metepec, Estado de México on 10/20/2017 

Matches: 

Aerostar, Drago, Raptor beat Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
(8:47, excessive violence DQ, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Marty Martinez & Texano beat Hijo del Fantasma & Pagano
(12:19, Marty pinned Fantasma, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Dr. Wagner Jr. & Psycho Clown beat Hernandez & Rey Escorpión
(18:37, Wagner Samoan drop Hernandez, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened: 

Everyone starts fighting before the whistle in the main event, while Zuniga announces Vampiro has now made this falls count anywhere. There’s no reaction to the stip. Wagner and Psycho have surprisingly little problem with each other considering. They do some pinfall attempts in a walkway later in the match to play to the stip, but it’s not taken all that seriously and they still finish in the ring. Wagner kind of no sells a clothesline before he beats Hernandez with a Samoan Drop.

Marty is no longer wearing facepaint, but has part of his beard dyed white. He’s wearing a Marty the Moth shirt and his video says Mart the Moth. His gear says Casuas and he’s announced as Marty the Shaman. Texano still has the Copa Pena and title belt that belongs to Fantasma. Texano is still angry about Vampiro taking him out of that match and feels he’s the rightful champion. Texano’s in the middle of telling the crowd they should only be cheering him when Fantasma dives on him. Fantasma takes the belt thru the crowd to where the announcers are stationed, and leaves it there for safekeeping. Later in the match, after he’s been hit by Fantamsa’s tope, Texano walks to the announce booth and takes the title back. Texano eventually hits Fantasma with the belt and pulls Marty on top for the win. He leaves with the belt.

Noti AAA has Vampiro and a doctor talking with Mesias about his knee injury. They blame the Pagano bat shot to the knee that ended the match at TripleMania for the injury (which would seem to only explain one of the two knees, and seemed to actually hit his thigh, but I’m not a doctor.)

The New Ref is down for what seems like forever after taking a kick to the chest from Averno. OGT manage to hit Aerostar with a chair on a dive, unmask Drago, and hit a chair into a chair into Raptor’s knee over a dozen times. Security comes in the ring before the referee comes up and breaks up the match, though the referee (Negro Rosas) does get up and call the DQ. A highlight is a security guy visibly telling Averno to slap him a couple times before Averno does.

Thoughts: 

The main event was hurt a bit by being the third match done in the same style, and not being done in a particularly interesting way. The crowd reacts to the spots they wrestlers want to them to react to, and generally how they’d like to react, but it comes across as nothing special on TV.

The Fantasma/Texano match focused on getting people into that issue, but come off too long and not that interesting in between the angles. Marty & Pagano didn’t really have any chemistry. Pagano’s selling is so bad. He looks like he’s bored when he’s taking German suplexes from Marty here, and just disinterestedly move from spot to spot. To be fair, I was just as bored with this match at times. Marty took a bump from Pagano throwing a drink at him, which as good a way as any to waste time while the attention was on Fantasma & Texano. Crowd got into those two but I didn’t think the action was all that special. This is another finish that doesn’t make much sense with the story they’re telling: Texano is upset about people thinking Fantasma is the rightful champ, so why is he passing off a free pin on his hated rival to Marty? Probably because none of this matters.

The trios match was all about putting OGT strong over as rudos. It was successful at that, even though it wasn’t clear why it was being done – if these guys aren’t OGT’s next técnico opponents, it’s unclear who would be. If they are, the other matches might be better: the rudos took most of this and the técnicos barely got to do anything at the end. Not really sure why they did a ref bump when the match is ending in DQ anyway. The finish came off as if was an injury angle for Raptor, only Raptor was back on the next TV taping as healthy as ever. Something got lost.

Recapped: 10/30/2017

I’m watching these shows with the hope that maybe the action will turn out to be better than described in the results. Unfortuantely, this was a show that was worse than expected. Cage matches and battle royals in lucha libre remain consistently terrible, and the singles match had a terrible finish telegraphed from the opening. AAA best matches are the ones with the least booking to them, because their storytelling is usually badly executed and detracts from everything they’ve done in the match. Nothing is going to change.

The show starts with the roster coming out for a Marisela Pena speech remembering Antonio Pena.

Noti AAA airs AAA wrestlers being part of a march to remember the victims of the September earthquakes. We also see the annual Dia de Muertos offering, with pictures of people who’ve passed away.

Hijo del Fantasma defeated La Parka, Rey Escorpión, Psycho Clown, Johnny Mundo ©, Hernandez, Psicosis II, Mamba, Murder Clown, Dark Cuervo, Monsther Clown, Dark Scoria, Estrella Divina, Histeria II, Marty Martinez, Pimpinela Escarlata, Dave The Clown to win the AAA Latin American Championship and the Copa Antonio Pena
(21:53, below average, via Lucha Libre AAA)

01:50 Hijo del Fantasma enters
01:51 Pimpinela Escarlata thrown out (by Dave the Clown)
03:19 Hernandez enters
04:34 Estrella Divina enters
05:35 Dave The Clown thrown out (Psycho Clown)
05:57 Monster Clown & Murder Clown (Psycho Clown)
07:10 Johnny Mundo enters (last enter)
07:55 Monster Clown out (Murder Clown)
08:08 Murder Clown & La Parka out (Cuervo & Scoria)
09:40 Psycho Clown out (Rey Escorpion)
10:46 Estrella Divina out (Mamba)
11:52 Rey Escorpion out (Psycho Clown)
12:31 Mamba out (Fatnasma)
13:04 Scoria out (Histeria & Psicosis)
13:31 Histeria out (Cuervo)
13:41 Psicosis out (Cuervo)
14:24 Cuervo out (Johnny Mundo)
15:44 Hernandez out (Marty)
17:06 Marty out (Fantasma)
21:53 Johnny Mundo pinned (Hijo del Fantasma Thrilled of the Hunt)

What Happened:

Prior to the show, announcers Arturo and Jesus are talking about the show. Arturo is sitting in a van for some reason. Texano comes up to say hello and Arturo says he hopes Texano is going to win Copa Antonio Pena. Vampiro happens to stop by, and explains Texano is not going to win because he’s been suspended. Texano is confused, and Vampiro says it was for threatening Fantasma on the last taping, you can’t threaten a member of the commission. You could’ve told Texano this before he came all the way to San Luis Potosi, Vampiro!

The match started with 11 people in the ring, but the last seven people entered royal rumble style. It was supposed to be one minute intervals, but they screwed up the first one. Monster & Murder entered together for no reason. Johnny Mundo entered to Texano’s video.

Psycho Clown pulled Rey Escorpión right in front of Tirantes (though behind Copetes, who was in the ring for no real reason.) Escorpión pulled Psycho Clown off the apron to eliminate him, then went back in, and Tirantes let him continue. Later, Psycho pulled down the middle rope and Escorpión went thru, which apparently eliminated him anyway.

Mundo, Marty and Hernandez briefly worked along against Fantasma at the end, until Marty eliminated Hernandez and Fantasma eliminated Marty. Mundo & Fantasma went to a pinfall, with Fantasma winning. Fantasma got the cup for winning, and the title belt. Texano came out of the crowd to attack Fantasma, teases breaking the trophy, but instead takes it, the mask, and the title for himself. Even though Texano was suspended, there’s no attempt by anyone to stop him. You’d think Vampiro would be involved since he specifically didn’t want Texano to have the title tonight and Texano ended up with the title, but it’s treated as no big deal.

Review: [below average] The three minute Johnny Mundo/Hijo del Fantasma match at the end was pretty good. Fantasma worked much of the rest of the match and seemed tired, but it held together long enough and the crowd was pleased with the outcome. That was good. The rest was garbage. AAA only knows how to do royal rumbles one way, very badly. I can’t even explain why this was a Royal Rumble: 11 people were in the ring to start with, and only 6 more people came out. More people would’ve gotten in the way, but most of the match was people standing around and doing nothing while other people were using the center of the ring, so it would’ve fit in. The rumble section had a lot of stuff that looked bad and just didn’t make sense – I’m sure there was a plan out there where the Escorpión/Psycho stuff made sense, but it was executed laughably bad – and the match was more bad comedy than anything. Dave the Clown messing up whatever Psycho Clown was supposed to do with Hernandez so he could spear him instead was comedy. Everyone popping up to take a bump for Murder and Monster was comedy. Murder eliminating Monster after all that was comedy. Everyone deciding to do superplexes, pulling people inside the ring in a battle royal, was bad comedy. It’s not just this was bad, but they also didn’t seem to learn much from the mess that was the Copa TripleMania. They never really learn.

Johnny Mundo © defeated Rey Wagner  for the AAA World Heavyweight Championship
(13:02, disqualification for faked chair shot, via Lucha Libre AAA)

What Happened: Tirantes has a speech saying any foul or object usage will be a DQ and a title change if Mundo loses. Wagner, who’s using a chair in just about every match, is really thrilled about this. Hernandez is Johnny’s second; he wrestled in a shirt for his match but not here.

Hernandez pulls Tirantes out; after all Tirantes said about things being a DQ, this is not. Hijo de Wagner and Hernandez some how sandwich Tirantes between them, which knocks Tirantes dead. Hernandez stires to take out Hijo de Wagner, but Hijo de Wagner hits him with a chair. Johnny Mundo fouls Wagner Jr and drops him with a Moonlight Drive, then flies out of the ring with a pescado out onto Hijo Wagner. Mundo grabs the chair and hits Hijo Wagner, then throws him in to rips his mask. Mundo hits both Wagners with a chair again. Announcers wonder why another referee isn’t coming on as Mundo kills more time. Hijo de Wagner bleeds and takes another chair shot. Mundo stalls and stalls and then throws the chair to Wagner for no reason. Tirantes gets up at that moment (maybe a moment late?) and sees Wagner with the chair. Wagner never swings the chair, but that’s a DQ. There’s money thrown in the ring, but I tend to wonder if that’s less as appreciation for the match and more objects aimed at the performances – Mundo gets ducked by a couple of cups.

Review: [good] The first eight minutes of the Wagner/Mundo match were a lot of fun. Wagner was working very hard and he and Mundo had more chemistry than you’d expect. It didn’t go deeper than each man doing their signature spots, but I’d take that over most AAA matches. It de-evolved into silliness as soon as Hernandez pulled out Tirantes. This is one of those finishes where the concept is the fans will be upset with the heel for cheating, but I believe the fans end up being upset with the referee and the promotion for the silliness. Hijo del Tirantes sold being dead off a slight impact for about three minutes, and then got up perfectly fine the moment the story required him to be fine. Maybe he’s turned heel again, it’s hard to tell. At any rate, the finishes up and down on Heroes Inmortales are completely sabotaging Vampiro’s role as guy laying down the law. Mundo out smarted him, Texano outsmarted, OGT & Poder del Norte outsmarted him for most of the show. They’ve switched from Vampiro being the ultimate hero to Vamprio being off stage while all his plans backfire. Neither is particularly good.

Tito Santana loses a domed cage match and his hair, in a match also with Argenis, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin, Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly, Mocho Cota Jr., Carta Brava Jr., Raptor, Drago, and Aerostar[domed cage]
(13:24, below average, Lucha Libre AAA)

03:39 OGT all escape
05:40 Ricky Marvin, Argenis and Lanzeloth escape
07:00 Mocho Cota escapes
07:40 Aerostar escapes
10:53 Raptor escapes
12:11 Carta Brava escapes
13:24 Drago escapes

What Happened: The rudos work together, the técnicos bleed, then OGT all climb out to leave Poder del Norte behind. The tecnicos all work together then the Lanzelot, Argenis and Ricky Marvin group al climb out. (Marvin has trouble getting over, but everyone just decides to stop trying to get him.) That means the six people supposed to be in this match are all out of it after five minutes.

Mocho Cota climbs out with almost no one noticing. He slides in a chair for the rudos to use. There’s already a ladder in there from the start, so it’s not like they really need it all that much. Rudos handcuff Raptor to the ropes, and Cota waves around the key. This backfires pretty easily– the tecnicos just come back, attack Cota, and Aerostar eventually passes the key to Drago. (That takes some time. Rudos make no attempt to escape.) Raptor leaves immediately, leaving Drago behind. Drago cuffs Tito Santana and taunts Carta Brava with the key. Drago tosses the key out, Carta attacks him and escapes. Tito thinks Carta has left him for dead, but Carta is actually going for the key. (A ringside worker has picked up the key and starts to walk away with it, but Carta gets it from him.) Carta tosses the key in, but too far away from Tito and Raptor jumps on Carta from the top of the cage. Drago climbs out and that’s it for the match.

Tito is freed from the cage. They cut off a chuck of his hair, but he’s clearly not shaved by the time they cut away.

Review: The main event was a very whatever match. The action wasn’t good, and the people supposed to be in the match leaving quickly was a rip off. It makes it harder to get your next storyline over when you so fail to deliver like they did here. There’s never a lot of action in a cage match and the stuff here was not good and not shot well. The earlier trios title match was not good, but still better than this. They tried to create drama with the key bit, and I kind of wonder if it would’ve worked better if Carta never gets to toss in the key because Raptor cuts him off with the dive first, rather than Carta screwing up and throwing the key too far away from Tito. That’s the least of the problems with this match, which has never been good any time they’ve done it and that won’t stop them from doing it again.

Recapped: 10/26/2017

Matches: 

Ashley, Pardux, The Tigger beat Ángel Mortal Jr., Chicano, Hahastary
(6:38, Ashely Canadian Destroyer Hahastary, good, via Lucha Libre AAA )

Lanzeloth beat Johnny Mundo ©  Máscara de Bronce, Venum, , Hijo Del Vikingo, Solaris, Dragón Solar, Villano III Jr., Angelikal, Tiger Boy to win the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship
(10:11, Lanzeloth moonsault Villano III, good, via Lucha Libre AAA )

Lady Shani beat Ayako Hamada to win the AAA’s Reina de Reinas championship
(8:21, Lady Shani guillotine choke, ok, via Estrellas del Ring)

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker beat Aerostar, Drago, Raptor for the AAA World Trios Championship
(9:30, Carta Brava frontcracker, good, via  Lucha Libre AAA )

What happened: 

Aerostar does a big dive off the light tower, which wipes out Mocho & Tito. Drago and Carta are left in the ring for about 20 seconds before OGT get involved. Dragon has Carta in his cradle, but the referees pull referee Copetes away. Drago argues, and Carta gives him a backcracker and an odd looking cradle for the win. Carta was posited so oddly that he might have also had the ropes, but they didn’t really show it.

Averno says his guys want a shot at the trios titles (which was teased between these two teams before the start of this, though no one brings it up), and it’s not important what Vampiro thinks of it. An angry Drago demands Vampiro come out to fix the result. Averno says Drago’s scared of them as Drago continues to yell for Vampiro. Vampiro does show up to salute the crowd. Drago rather angrily gets in Vampiro’s face and demands he do something about his team being cheated out of the titles. Poder del Norte says his side is the real champs. Vampiro stops for a Vampiro chant. Vampiro’s solution is to put Drago’s team in the cage match so they can get revenge on OGT. Drago likes this idea. Poder del Norte like this idea too, which seems to say it’s a bad idea. Vampiro reacts by putting Poder del Norte in the cage match too. They storm out.

Ayako teased fighting Shani after the match, but instead put the belt on her and they hugged.

All the Llaves guys came out as a group for the Cruiserweight, which makes it quicker but just gets people to think of them as a “Llave” guys. They haven’t done anything to help the fans get into them as individuals and it’s probably not happening any time soon. Everyone attacks Mundo at the opening, which eventually leads to him just rolling out. Mundo stayed outside a long time, and then refused to participate in the dive train. Leo Riano is confused on the finish; referee counted one as he was doing an over dramatic flop to the mat.

Noti AAA has Marisela congratulating Pagano & Psycho for winning the LWC belt back from the Americans. Psycho and Pagano also talk about their win while still in Japan.

Thoughts: 

The two trios had better matches earlier in the series then they did to end it. This is definitely one of those things where what I’m looking for in matches just doesn’t fit with what they feel will get the best reaction. The Aerostar dive is incredible, but it also ceased the momentum of the match, which really could’ve used a more dramatic ending for being the fifth in a five (or really six) match series, but neither team was close to winning before the interference kicked in. And the interference didn’t make a lick of sense, as the OGT could’ve just as easily challenged the técnicos if they won – there was no reason for them to care who won this match enough to get involved. Before, the work was generally good, though off in small places. Raptor’s outfit now looks better than his shaky wrestling. It’s good AA did this series because the matches were good early on, but the idea of doing a five match series is to build upon what you’ve done before, and this one just felt like it could’ve been announced the day of the show for all the meaning it had. I guess I liked it enough to be good, but I don’t feel strongly about it.

Lady Shani and Ayako Hamada went for it – and missed. They were self consciously trying for a great match and ended up with a sloppy fight that the fans never really got into it. It felt closer to the fans turning on it when Shani messed up the Gori Special, but they were mostly polite and there were enough of fans of Shani cheering for her win that this wasn’t embarrassing. It just didn’t come together at all, with moves looking off, strike exchanges looking messy, and no real build to the finish. Ayako’s offense looked better, crushing Shani with a powerbomb later. Shani’s choke came out of nowhere, isn’t a move the fans are used to seeing a finish, and no one seemed to think it was the finish until the referee stopped the match. They can do better than this, but the OK is a generous grade.

The Cruiserweight match had some enjoyable moments amid stuff that didn’t work out go anywhere. The good stuff was good enough for me, but it also felt like they could’ve had more with less people. The match was split up into parts: everyone stomping Mundo, everyone else taking a turn of offense, Mundo beating up everyone one on one, and a very quick wrap up to a finish. The non-Mundo offense was the most entertaining, but it was hard to miss the story of the match being Johnny Mundo being much better than these scrubs. I don’t know that they’re really trying with anyone here, but it doesn’t help for Mundo mow thru each one of them as if he’s much above their level. Bronce’s big revenge after all of this was a DDT on the floor, which was cut away from as quick as possible (even though Bronce was taking a Spanish Fly on the floor.) The one on ones were quick and exciting, but so numerous that it was tough for anyone or anything to have a singular impact. There were some rough points, and they could’ve done them favors by editing around the Villano III spots with Solar and Hijo del Vikingo. (Even despite this, V3 looked like the best rudo.) Mascara de Bronce and Venum’s experience in AAA for the last year should’ve helped them stand out, but they looked as shaky as everyone else. This win seemed to mean a lot to Lanzeloth, but he came off like the winner of a door prize than obviously the best guy, and there’d be a lot more to do if they wanted to get him or this title over. Not sure they’re that invested in it.

The opener was an enjoyable Llave de la Gloria match. The rudo team carried it for me for the most part, coming off as an effective unit for an improvised trio. Chicano seems like he’s always in the right position and both he and Mortal took big bumps. Hahastray had one of her better matches. Pardux stands out with his dives, and I’m kind of surprised he wasn’t in the cruiserweight match – I guess not everyone could be.

Recapped: 10/01/2017

All matches were taped on Palenque Inforum, Irapuato, Guanajuato on 09/04/2017 

Matches: 

Mini Psycho Clown © beat Dinastía for the AAA World Minis Championship
(4:20, Psycho foul Dinastia, below average, via luchalibreaaatv)

Hijo del Fantasma & Texano Jr. vs EC3 & James Storm
(9:07, Storm superkick Fantasma, ok, via luchalibreaaatv)

Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Rey Escorpión & Psycho Clown 
(8:12, Wagner casita Psycho Clown, ok, via luchalibreaaatv)

What Happened:

Psycho Clown starts the show by talking about TripleMania. There are noticeable boos, but it’s even more noticeable the building is half full at best. It would fill up later on but it looks bad for this promo. Wagner shows up to give Psycho respect for the win and to repeat the unmasking for this crowd. They’re interrupted by Rey Escorpión, who says he’s looking to face the best in AAA, and not really happy Wagner is ripping off his “Rey” idea. Both Wagner & Psycho attack him and Wagner hits his catchphrase to end the bit.

Finish of that main event is Escorpión fouling Psycho while Tirantes is distracted, Wagner shoving Escorpión out of the way, and using a casita to beat Psycho. Kevin Kross came out of the crowd to beat up all three men after the match.

Texano & Fantasma aren’t getting along from the start of their match, which is played up as US vs Mexico by the Impact guys. Fantasma and Texano attacked each other when they got the advantage, which meant that advantage was short lived. Fantasma gets the Thrill of the Hunt on EC3, Texano shoves Fantasma off the pin, Fantasma kicks Texano, and Storm superkicks Fantasma for the win.

Noti AAA talks about the Heroes Inmortales lineup: dome cage match, the three way match (where extreme stuff is promised), Mundo defending all of his titles, Ayako & Shani for the women’s title, and the trios title final. The Antonio Pena mess is on 10/05. There’s also an interview with unmasked Wagner, who talks about love.

Marty comes down to watch this match and pulls Dinastia off Psycho Clown after a Spanish Fly. A weird looking shot (like they missed the original shot and digitally zoomed in from another angle) shows Psycho fouling Dinastia for the win.

Thoughts: 

The main event was another generic OK match. The crowd was way into it, because they really want to cheer for Wagner right now, but the action was nothing special. Psycho Clown is truly a Super Muneco for a new generation, as most of his selling appears to be head nodding. Rey Escorpión was fine, but didn’t make a strong impression one way or another. Kevin Kross laying everyone out and not being in.

The tag match was very much just a match, something were the brawling was OK but this was just another time killing moment until they get to whatever they’re going with Texano/Fantasma. They should be there by now, they’ve been feuding since May, and seeing them cost each other matches has long outlived it’s interested. The crowd didn’t know the Impact guys and why would they with no effort made to introduce them. EC3 is entertaining even as much as it seems he doesn’t want to be there.

The minis title is dead in importance and so are the guys fighting for it. Mini Psycho and Dinastia are having worse matches than when this started (in 2015) and the finish was a joke. Marty’s interference was crap. How can you have Ricky Marvin be disqualified last week for doing something illegal the ref didn’t see, and Mini Psycho isn’t disqualified for something the ref did see? Dinastia no longer comes off as special and didn’t stand out at all in this match. They’re obviously being Marty, but I don’t know why anyone would care about the rest of this.

Recapped: 10/01/2017

All matches were taped on Palenque Inforum, Irapuato, Guanajuato on 09/04/2017.

Matches: 

Angelikal, Hijo Del Vikingo, Solaris beat Ángel Mortal Jr., Tiger Boy, Villano III Jr.  
(7:15, Angelikal & Hijo del Vikingo shooting star press Villano III & Tiger Boy, good, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Lady Shani beat Big Mami, Ayako Hamada, Faby Apache, La Hiedra  to be part of the AAA’s Reina de Reinas decision match (6:02, Lady Shani Gori Special La Hidera, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly beat Argenis, Lanzeloth, Ricky Marvin
(9:44, Ricky Marvin DQed when Super Fly hits the referee with the chair and frames Marvin, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., Soul Rocker beat Aerostar, Drago, Raptor
(7:49, Carta Brava foul Raptor, ok, via Lucha Libre AAA)

What happened: 

OGT threw chairs at the tecnicos to start the match early. Ricky bleeds off a chairshot to the face. Argenis mask is tore to pieces, he’s covered in blood too, and Lanzelot is bleeding by the end. Super Fly hits Copetes with the chair and tosses it to Ricky to draw the DQ win. Averno gets about three words of taunting Marvin before Vampiro comes out to kiss up to everyone. Vampiro, in a long speech, makes a dome cage match where the loser loses their hair or mask.

Vampiro explained his concept of having Johnny Mundo defend each of his titles at Heroes Inmortales to Dorian, in revenge for Johnny trying to manipulate AAA. Dorian gives the OK. Dorian is on the phone after Vampiro leaves, and it’s shot like it’s supposed to be a mystery conversation.

Noti AAA hypes the Ring & Rock Stars, the Panini magazine, the upcoming remembrance of Antonio Pena, and the charity work AAA did with the Red Cross helping out people of the (first earthquake.)

Thoughts: 

The two trios were consciously trying to have a Great match in the main event, but it wasn’t coming together. A lot of stuff didn’t look as crisp or clean as usual. Raptor had two moves off the top in the match and seemed to mess up the landing on both. Drago’s flip DDT didn’t go well, Aerostar’s springboard went ok but the move on Tito didn’t look right. The pace of the match was slow with the rudos control early. It picked up later, but this one didn’t feel all that close good even before the foul finish. Hope the final goes better.

OGT vs técnicos seemed like it was going to be successful in building up the issue between two teams to explain the cage match. It got really serious from the get go. The blood was a bit too much, but it fit with what they were going for. The finish really didn’t work; rudo Super Fly outsmarting Ricky Marvin doesn’t fit the tone of the heated dispute going on. The OGT are jerks, but it felt like a time where they could’ve better gotten away with a foul win (or even an angry Ricky fouling the técnicos.)

There’s probably enough of AAA multiwoman matches for the time being. There’s not really producing anything interesting. The highlight is cheering for Shani after she pins Hedra, then quiet as people try to figure out if it was an elimination match, and then cheers again when she gets her arm raised. Otherwise, there as just people doing moves and none of them really coming off as important. Ayako and Faby mostly stayed out of it; you’d have trouble remembering Faby is still in AAA right now if she wasn’t in the bumpers. Pushing different people isn’t a problem, it’s just such a drastic switch from the last decade plus of programming – she’s not even being asked to take the losses, she’s just being asked to make up the numbers. Finish looked nice anyway.

The opener was another fun match with the Llaves guys, the best new thing AAA has going this year. This wasn’t a técnico showcase as the TripleMania match, with the rudos seemingly taking the match for longer and looking more impressed while they did. It’s a small thing, but I really like Tiger Boy’s taunting punch duck spot. The técnicos dive spot looking amazing, as did the finish. It feels like these are more worked out in advance the most AAA matches, but it’s making them look like future stars whoever they do it.