Demonio InfernalbeatFresero Jr.
(5:34, ok, +LuchaTV)
Fresero & Demonio Infernal sure ended quickly, though the move they used to end it fit. This wasn’t far off the Fresero/Corsario match in the previous round as far as going hard-hitting, it just didn’t last as long; this match is a step behind that one for this one. Fresero doing the series of supelxes and not going for a pinfall right away is bad tournament wrestling. Demonio Infernal is the guy I’ve liked the best out of this group as a single, and he seems like a good adversary for the next round.
Hip Hop Man comes off as such a one-note foreign heel in his promos – “Argentina is better than Mexico!” – and it seems like it undercuts his wrestling. I guess it makes sense that the +LuchaTV regular would most see the +LuchaTV tournament as something worthy of a big effort, but he still felt like the guy trying to do the most here to make people take him more seriously going forward. The rest of his entire bit doesn’t seem to be meant to be taken seriously, it’s an odd fit. Anyway, Arez provided the usual amount of weird moves and interesting reversals, and Hip Hop Man doing the one fall kickout fire up spot straight out of PWG killed me. This was good fun.
Ricky Marvin playing the underdog tecnico seems strange given his last decade of indie work. They set it up well – and most of this match seemed to exist to further his knee damage for future matches – but it felt like it ended too quickly before they could really exploit it for drama. Nova does seem to fit better as a rudo nowadays.
Aramisbeat Hijo de Pirata Morgan
(6:09, good, +LuchaTV)
Aramis moves fast. Hijo del Pirata Morgan kept right up with him. This was a strong performance from a guy who used to be considered good when he was hanging around AAA but never seemed to find the missing character piece. That’s not as important in this setting; all he had to worry about was moving here and he moved well. There were a couple of rough moments that still added to the match. Pirata’s expression after the wheelbarrow back suplex spot seemed to indicate it didn’t happen exactly as planned but it still went well. Pirata also has a beautiful missed suplex. I was happy to see Aramis move on but I hope we get to see more of this Hijo del Pirata Morgan.
What Happened: Payaso Purasanta and Jitsu both came out to be distractions at the end of the match, though they end up balancing each other out.
Review: Taking the fall onto the tiles stood on a slow-paced match. Ciclope wasn’t in any hurry, which early seemed to be a product of not taking Infernal seriously and alter just came off as just not being any hurry to do much. Demonio Infernal moved well when there was actual movement. The referee allowing some chair usage but stopping others didn’t make much sense. The run-ins made this a confusing pick to lead off this concept – and came off as if someone walked out too soon – but it’s not like they were disrupting a match that was firing along.
Angry Ricky Marvin took the form of a submission guy in this one, but Miedo Extremo’s inability in making those submissions look meaningful hut the match down soon. This is otherwise the usual Marvin indie format, with the younger guy getting a stretch of throwing everything he has at Marvin to pull the upset. It doesn’t work as well without a crowd to get behind Miedo and he’s not strong at come off as an underdog on his own. Miedo also spent the match going after Marvin’s knee, which serves a tournament long story for Ricky but not really this match.
Arez beat Payaso Purasanta Jr. (11:46, ok, +LuchaTV)
I don’t think I’ve seen Purasanta Jr. outside of the FILL cibernetico, which makes it hard to tell how much he was affected by working in an empty arena. His control section of the match seemed to include a few spots playing to a non-existent crowd and not a lot of action. Purasanta did take the GTS knee right to the face, something a lot of people make look bad by bailing out on. He also was pretty suicidal on his flying legdrop to the floor, something that oddly led just to Arez charging Purasanta as he came back in (so Purasanta could do Arez’s finish.) There wasn’t anything here that made me want to see more of him. It was odd to see Arez do the NXT frustration face after getting in his first move in after minutes on the defense. Arez seemed tired at the end but this wasn’t the best out of him.
Jitsu/Aramis was closer to the style of match I tend to enjoy most, but they weren’t getting all the way there. It was the third straight match where the winner was good and the loser couldn’t keep up with the style of match he worked. Jistu came closer; he understood the idea, he just couldn’t make it work. Jitsu had a few agile spots that were close to looking good but only close. Falling out of Aramis’ torture rack was the moment that most hurt the rhythm of the match.
Fresero Jr. beat Corsario Negro Jr. (7:36, ok, +LuchaTV)
The Eddie Guerrero tribute three suplex sequence is such a cliché mid-match bit that it threw me off to see it actually a finish. It also seemed to throw off the people in the match. Corsario & Fresero had the best match they were going to have under the circumstance, just hitting each other hard for a short period of time, and were a better match to do it than most of the first round matches. It was missing a bit of excitement, but there’s not a lot more they could’ve done about it.
Camuflaje & Hip Hop Man were both working rudo but also doing a lot of flying and it didn’t mesh into any particular story. It felt like two guys trying to do their version of a Best if Super Juniors match with mixed success. They were both fine, Hip Hop Man was a little better, Camuflaje needs to apologize to Elix Skipper for his Play of the Day attempt. I think they’ll remember this stronger than I will.
shoot style
Súper NovabeatHijo del Alebrije
(6:49, ok, +LuchaTV)
They had to stop the match to check to see if Alebrije was ok after his match opening dive. It wasn’t exactly the best way to start when the idea is to build Alebrije as a flying star for this match. Nova was listed as tecnico but worked as the grounding rudo most of the match to build to that big comeback. It wasn’t really big enough to make it work, but maybe it’ll pay off building Super Nova round.
Hijo de Pirata MorganbeatMetaleón
(15:04, good, +LuchaTV)
There wasn’t a longer first-round match than Pirata/Metaleon. It never felt like it dragged. They paced it out well, with Metaleon fighting back through Pirata Morgans attacks every so often to keep it interesting. Hijo del Pirata comes off sound technically and showed some good aggressiveness along with a nice variety of attacks. Metaleon has had more spectacular performances but this was one where he fit the role the match was asking of him. Aramis might be even better at it, and I’m looking forward to how that one might go.
Ayako Hamada, Lolita, Miss DeliciousbeatDiosa Quetzal, Mary Caporal, Miku (16:39, below average, +LuchaTV)
Ayako Hamada looked visibly frustrated by the end of the women’s match. Hard to blame her after twice doing her wheel kick spot and having the receiving women bail on taking the kick way too soon. Once was Diosa Quetzal, who is supposed to be one of the more experienced luchadoras in the group and had some poor moments. Lolita did well, everyone seems like they’re trying, they’re just not there.
Two shows ago, Shun Skywalker and Super Nova were counted out. Hijo del Medico Asesino leaves the ringside area seconds into this match after a bad looking axhandle on the floor and does not return for four and a half minutes. He is not counted out. The referee waits a full minute before he starts counting, then counts as slow as humanly possible, and then stops counting because he has no idea what’s supposed to be happening. Demonio Infernal & Fresero argue with the commissioner, then actually just give up and go the back to look for Medico Asesino. Asesino returns protecting one of his arms, with limited mobility. They then brawl around ringside for a while, and it’s five full minutes before he makes it back in the ring (to cut Fresero with a broken bottle.) The referee checks both men and teases stopping the match, before letting them finish a minute later. Medico kicks out of what is obviously meant to be the finish; Fresero just covers him again and immediately gets the three.
Review: Medico got hurt seconds into this match (or was already hurt, or just decided to play up his injury as an excuse for losing), couldn’t do anything, and just wasted everyone’s time. They went long in a mistaken belief it would give people a real match, but the match they got was a one-armed guy working as an unconvincing rudo. It does have lots of bottle shards to head for blood if you’re looking for that, but it’s IWRG, you can get it a lot. I continue to regret any and all time spent watching Medico Asesino matches; he’s not any good and seems to do unprofessional stuff.
Big Chico Che, Big Mike, Big OvettbeatCapo del Norte, Demonio Infernal, X-Fly (10:03, good, mluchatv)
Chico Che bleeds a horrifying amount, fights back to do a big tope, it’s very good. Mike did a couple of good flying moves. I didn’t really notice much anyone else, except X-Fly was much better in this feud than the Capos have been at all so far. There’s not a lot to this match but it’s good at what it does (and competent, which is much better than the rest of this match.)
The main event was surprisingly good. It shouldn’t be surprising but guessing on the effort level of these shows is tough. Chicano was working super hard and looked great, with Tiago not far behind. Estrella Divina being the third to bring in more personality works on paper, but Divina’s selling was rough and the offense was iffy. The opposition (who knows with tecnicos and rudos here) didn’t stand out much but made for a good showcase match.
I was looking through my drafts and realized I never posted this one. It was the last regular weekly version of these for a while, but it’s also very old by this point. My vague plan has been to do one big catchup post of these capturing anything I’ve written since the pandemic outage before things go back to normal. That was assuming everything would just go back to something close to normal at the same time, and now I’m not sure it’s going to be all that coordinated.
Nothing really stuck out from this week’s batch of matches, though the last AAA TV taping for the moment was all watchable. People might rate Titan/Polvora a little higher than I did.
recommended matches
rating
matches
TV Show
taped
good
Big Mami, Mr. Iguana, Octagoncito vs Australian Suicide, Parkita Negra, Vanilla
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Dinastía, Lady Shani, Niño Hamburguesa vs Keyra, Lady Maravilla, Villano III Jr.
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Hijo de LA Park & LA Park Jr. vs Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr.
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., Octagón Jr. vs La Hiedra, Rey Escorpión, Texano Jr.
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Fénix, Pentagón Jr., Psycho Clown vs Averno, Chessman, Súper Fly
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Blue Demon Jr., Drago, Laredo Kid vs La Bestia Del Ring, LA Park, Rush Toro Blanco
AAA on Twitch: 2020-03-07
2020-03-07
good
Titán vs Pólvorain a lightning match
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
Other Matches
rating
matches
TV Show
taped
ok
Audaz, Flyer, Kráneo vs Hechicero, Toro Bill Jr., Vangellys
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-09
2020-03-09
ok
Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Titán vs Felino, Negro Casas, Templario
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-09
2020-03-09
ok
Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-09
2020-03-09
ok
Bengala & Leono vs Apocalipsis & Inquisidor
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
ok
Arkalis, Magnus, Robin vs Akuma, El Coyote, Espanto Jr.
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
ok
Drone, Pegasso, Stigma vs Cancerbero, Okumura, Raziel
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
ok
Kráneo, Star Jr., Volcano vs Shocker, Terrible, Vangellys
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
ok
Ángel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Valiente vs Ephesto, Gran Guerrero, Mephisto
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
ok
Diamond & Principe Daniel vs Cholo & Difunto
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
ok
Princesa Sugehit, Silueta, Stephanie Vaquer vs Amapola, La Infernal, La Metálica
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
ok
Audaz, Rey Cometa, Soberano Jr. vs Hechicero, Luciferno, Rey Bucanero
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
ok
Atlantis Jr. & Flyer vs Hijo del Villano III & Templariofor the Mexican National Tag Team Championship and in a tournament final match
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
ok
Carístico, Cavernario, Diamante Azul vs Felino, Negro Casas, Volador Jr.in a relevos increíbles match
CMLL on ClaroSports.com: 2020-03-13
2020-03-13
below average
Stigma vs Okumurain a lightning match
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-09
2020-03-09
below average
Blue Panther Jr. vs Dark Magicin a lightning match
CMLL YouTube: 2020-03-10
2020-03-10
not rated
Arkalis, Halcón Suriano Jr., King Jaguar vs Black Tiger, El Coyote, Inquisidor
Pentagón Jr.beatHijo Del Vikingo
(9:44, Factor Miedo, great, 01:10:37)
LA ParkbeatDr. Wagner Jr.
(7:47, LA Park spear, good, 01:27:40)
What happened:
Wagner argued with Piero on a two count, and Piero shoved him into LA Park’s spear. Chessman snuck in a foul on Pagano.
Big Mami and Lady Maravilla exchanged attacks after each match.
Psycho Clown suffered a shoulder injury in his match but still won his match.
The announcers were not on set for this taping, calling the matches instead from what appeared to be a TV studio. (They were shot as if they were separated though they had the same furniture behind them.) Maximo and Vanilla were also shown commenting on social media and appeared to be in a TV studio somewhere. AAA used crowd noise for the first match and then for some of the entrances later on.
Thoughts:
Vikingo outside in springboard 450 splash
The early mat exchanges between LA Park and Dr. Wagner played out as you’d expect from two guys proving they could do something other than brawl, right before they start brawling anywhere. The Wagner/Park match never got to that second part, ending when it just felt like it was about to get going. These guys were going at a measured pace, which also suggested a longer match than it happened. It was still enjoyable for how it lasted and shocking for how relatively straightforward it was, but the shortest singles match they’ve had is probably not going to be one people need to seek out much later.
Pentagon Jr. figured to be one of the least invested performers in this tournament. AAA is his side job and this could’ve just been something to fill time while waiting for the ability to return to AEW. Penta’s also been getting by with a lot of help from his charisma and crowd connection, which weren’t going to be in play here; he’d stand out more here if he was just coasting. Pentagon instead has turned into the MVP of the tournament so far. Hijo del Vikingo was great here, pulling off moves no one in the world is even trying, but he wasn’t really asked to do more than his flashiest high spots in this match. A match with Octagon Jr. or Myzteziz Jr. would’ve been less exciting but it’d be hard to find another rudo who could’ve pulled off Penta’s side of it. The match structure, especially Vikingo’s desperate attempt to end it before Pentagon even got started, was remarkable. Penta gleefully beat up on Vikingo and did in such a way that there was no question who everyone was supposed to be cheering for in this match. (Perhaps Pentagon is better at playing a complete heel with no crowd rooting him on for being evil.) They built well into Vikingo’s comeback and his near chances at winning, making Vikingo look as good as possible before he took the loss. This was different than Hamburguesa being smothered, as it should’ve been. It was same in being another strong Pentagon performance.
Mami spash
Chessman defeating Pagano was standard AAA booking leading into TripleMania. (You’d have to go back to their similar TripleMania apuesta to find a time where Texano actually beat Psycho Clown.) It’s still hard to believe Chessman’s going to get the same outcome there but it is hopeful that AAA is booking their matches as if TripleMania is still happening. It’s equally hopeful these two had a match that didn’t fall apart. AAA doesn’t seem to be editing these, so Pagano putting together a move heavy match where he doesn’t have a major flip is a positive sign. The execution of the moves still aren’t pretty – the neckbreakers look worse than the dives to me – but Pagano’s not going to be a guy with pretty looking offense and probably shouldn’t be one. This is close to a border line match but I can’t imagine someone sitting down to watch this who wasn’t a big Pagano fan already. Chessman still has looked better in this tournament than recently though.
The action in Psycho Clown/Texano Jr. was fine, but it wasn’t memorable enough to overcome the obvious outcome. Texano hasn’t won these matches for about six years and this wasn’t about to be a different outcome. It was about as dramatic as a Tuesday CMLL lightning match, where maybe Psycho Clown’s shoulder injury was more meaningful than anything they had in the match.
Shani/Maravilla was the better of the two women’s matches easily, so it was strange it went so short. Maravilla comes across as a lot more aggressive than she used, making it a bigger deal when Shani’s able to turn the table and put on holds. Maravilla still needs to keep it up at all times; her stomps are not so good.
La Hiedra’s strategy of doing nothing and just getting hit by Big Mami worked out for the win – she just pulled Mami off the ropes for a powerbomb – and worked out better for the quality of the match. They didn’t do a whole, so nothing went wrong. It was a better result than last week but it wasn’t something anyone will need to see again.
Alas de Oro, Alas De Plata, Puma de OrobeatHip Hop Man, Mosca, Rey Halcón Jr. (17:42, ok, +LuchaTV)
What Happened: Mosca & Hip Hop Man beat up Halcon for taking the loss.
Review: The action here was fine, no major problems, but the pace was slow and the rudos seemed that way in name only. Hip Hop Man did the most at that (though he wanted no part of being posted), but Halcon seemed on the wrong side. Alas de Oro & Plata did little teamwork for a set duo.
Halcon de Oro being tricky
Black Dragón, Eragón, Hijo del AlebrijebeatCanival King, Death Metal, Toxin (17:36, ok,mluchatv)
What Happened: Death Metal gave Black Dragon a martinete for the DQ.
Review: It’s a long way to go for a DQ finish, but this does do a lot to heat up the Black Dragon/Death Metal feud. They bled and brawled all match, and it came off as a big issue going into their hair match feud. (I’m now more disappointed it wasn’t better.) The other four ware fine but nothing special but the focus was very IWRG.
Big Chico Che, Big Mike, Big OvettbeatCapo del Norte, Capo del Sur, Lunatik Xtreme (10:10, ok,mluchatv)
The role of the Capos here was to bump around for the Big Strippers, and they didn’t even do that well. They also struggled at standing close enough to the ring to catch dives. Lunatik Exterme at least took the finish great. These matches are all about the same but I got the least out of these easily.
The main event had no particular story to it, but the action was good and the match held together well. Demonio Infernal & Puma King had some serious exchanged which felt like they could’ve done a lot more with a spotlight. This is a borderline match, getting a higher grade maybe because I just wanted to like something.
