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AAA TRIPLEMANIA 2017 TODAY, COMPLETE LINEUP

COMPLETE AAA TRIPLEMANIA 24 REPORT
by Bill Bodkin @ 8:47 AM on 8/30/2016
 

One of Mexico's most prominent lucha libre promotions AAA held their version of Wrestlemania this past Sunday with Triplemania XXIV (24).

The event, which was streamed on iPPV, was a markedly better PPV in terms of match quality than last year's universally panned event. However, this show was not without serious faults on all ends of the production.

The stream of the event was super, with only a few minor hiccups. The English translation didn't kick in until 24 minutes in, but you didn't miss anything important in regards to commentary. The production value on the show was pretty terrible. Too often their cameramen missed big spots, and whomever directed this event should be taken to task because there's no reason you should be cutting to close-up shots of the crowd during the climax of any match -- and this happened in every single match. We missed way too much. Also, there was tremendous feedback during entrances. It's so bad I had to mute the stream at times.

The commentary on the show done by Matt Striker and Hugo Savinovich was very hit or miss. There were some glaring errors that made them sound really unprepared. One notable gaffe included Savinovich screaming that Damien 666 and Nicho El Millionario (Psychosis) were "invading" and had "nothing to do" with AAA when in fact they've been with the company for the past three-four months, and were the impetus for the Pagano/Psycho Clown Match. There were a few other "he doesn't belong here!" moments, when in fact the wrestler in question was a regular. 

Striker at times seemed to just be making weird inside jokes to amuse himself. Other times he was absolutely on fire. Savinovich seemed off up until the final few matches on the card.

There were also two really, really weird cross-promotion moments. The first was a taped "greeting" from Simon Pegg to promote Star Trek Beyond, the other was the incorporation of the new Ben-Hur film into the main event. If you thought the Triple H/Terminato Genisys crossover was weird, watch this one.

Onto the show...

Triplemania Cup (Copa Triplemania): La Parka, El Eligido, Taurus, Hernandez, Pimpinela Escarlata, Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Daga, Superfly, El Zorro, Australian Suicide, Mamba and "Luchador Sopresa" (Surprise luchador).

Note: Garza Jr. was originally scheduled for this match, but was pulled. More on that later

Entrants:

1. Mamba

2. Australian Suicide

3. Daga

4. La Parka

5. Taurus

6. Superfly

7. Hernandez

8. Argenis

9. Hilo del Pirate Morgan

10. Pimpinela Escarlata

11. El Eligido 

12. Zorro

Match:

Elimination: 

1. Mamba by Taurus 

2. Superfly by Daga

3. Pimpinela Escarlata by Taurus

4. El Hijo del Pirata Morgan by Daga

5. Argenis by Hernandez

6. Taurus & Hernandez eliminate each other

7. El Eligido by Daga

8. El Zorro by La Parka

9. La Parka by Daga

This was a fun way to open up the show. Argenis was the "luchador sopresa" or surprise entrant. The crow didn't seem to care about the "surprise." As expected Taurus and Hernandez acted as the tanks of the match, and the two had a nice brawl and double elimination spot. Would like to see this continue as Taurus has a lot of potential. Superfly had some great spots. El Hijo del Pirata Morgan took a scary bump in his elimination, but was luckily unharmed. La Parka and El Zorro had a really, really bad moment where one of them botched the elimination and they basically redid the spot.

Triplemania Cup Final Match: Daga vs. Australian Suicide

This was a really weird one. Daga cuts a promo about how he's dedicating this match to his founder of Perros del Mal -- Perro Aguayo Jr. Yes, the heel Daga cut a massive babyface promo. And the crowd gets behind. 

The match was quick, but extremely fast paced. Suicide hit a great standing shooting star press, a double springboard into a DDT. Daga countered a second standing shooting star by snapping in a kravat which was great.  He also hit a Perro Aguayo-esque double stomp.

The finish comes when Suicide hits a twisting splash, but Daga puts his foot on the romps. The referee doesn't see it, and he counts to three.

Winner: Australian Suicide

Post-Match: The crowd takes a MASSIVE dump on the finish. Daga destroys Suicide, and the Triplemania Cup -- the crowd rejoices. Striker loses his mind, and all Hugo can say is "uhh...no replays here, people make mistakes!"

An extremely bad finish. It overshadowed the hard work that was put into the match, and it really set the tone for weak finishes for the night. The crowd was squarely behind Daga, so instead of having him go over, or at least losing fair and square to Australian Suicide they do a wonky finish the crowded hated. Also, the point of this (I guess) was take make Australian Suicide look like an underdog hero who was beaten up bad in cup then came from behind to beat Daga. Instead, all the crowd will remember is that Daga got screwed.

Tag Team Match (Lucha de Parejas): Special Referee: El Gran Apache -- Faby Apache & Mary Apache vs. Averno and Chessman

This match was a hell of a lot of fun...until the finish. The Apache Sisters came with their work boots on, and Averno and Chessman sold like mad man of them. Mary Apache, the bigger of the two sisters really had some great aerial spots including multiple cannonball topes and dives. Faby wrestled like a woman possessed, and hit one of the most vicious corkscrew planchas I've ever seen. Inf fact all her moves had aggression and anger behind them, which told a great story.

The Sisters' momentum was foiled by interference from their rudo father who was the guest referee. Averno and Chessman slowed the match down, and grinded the sisters down.

Then came the finish. 

To exact revenge from a few weeks back (when Faby cracked Averno over the head with a bottle,) Averno stopped wrestling, chugged a bottle of beer, and goes to crack Faby in the face with it. In an expected, but well done move, El Gran Apache stepped in to stop them.  Gran Apache gets booted from the ring. Chessman goes for a top rope Razor's Edge, but Faby counters with a rana and went for the pin.

As she was going for a pin, Averno brought three comically MASSIVE light tubes into the and smashed them over Faby. She was busted wide open. Chessman and Averno then bust open Gran Apache.

Winner: The Apache Sisters by DQ

Thoughts: This non-finish would've gotten over so much better if you didn't have the bad finish in the first match. Los Hell Brothers (Chessman/Averno) are now super over as heels, but the extreme violence against the ladies in the match was a bit unsettling. I give it to the Sisters though, they took a hell of a beating.

4-Way for The AAA Tag Team Titles (Campeonato de Parejas): Angelico & Jack Evans (C) vs. Paul London & Matt Cross (Son of Havoc) vs. Hijo del Fantasma (King Cuerno) & Garza Jr. vs. Drago & Aerostar

Note: Fenix was supposed to team with Fantasma, but was replace by Garza Jr. I read reports he might not be at the show, but I cannot confirm why he was not.

Apologies for the lack of recap, but there was way too much happening to even type down. The match's biggest problem was that they had too many people in it. Cross and London, when given the chance, got some really nice spots in, but they were a bit of an afterthought. Angelico had an awesome moment where he did a running leap over Drago, who was hunched on the top turnbuckle, and he wiped out everyone.

This was most definitely the match of the night for me. Go find this on YouTube because it was so much fun. There was lot of brawling, double team maneuvers, dives, high spots, and even green mist. That mist was used by Drago on a flying Paul London. When London came down, Drago slapped on his amazing Dragon's Whip pinning combination and scores the win.

Winners: Drago and Aerostar -- NEW Tag Team Champions

Hall of Fame Induction: "Love Machine" Art Barr, and Joaquin Roldan were both inducted.

AAA Latin American Title Match (El Campeonato Latino Americano AAA): Pentagon Jr. (C) with Taya and Joe Lider vs. Johnny Mundo with Hernandez

Thoughts: Going into this bout, I thought two things. 1.) This would be the show stealer and 2.) They needed to make Pentagon look strong.

Neither happened.

Mundo and Pentagon never seemed to get out first gear in this match, and their ringside counterparts did not help at all. There was one point where Hernandez is choking Pentagon illegally with a cable wire. Taya and Lider, both very physical competitors who can brawl, stood there and kinda yelled at Hernandez. Finally as the referee tried breaking it up Lider points his staple gun at Hernandez. Logically that makes zero sense. Fight the guy! Also, Lider got busted open at one point, and no one knows why or how.

The in-ring action was fine, but fine isn't a word I thought I'd use when reviewing this match. Neither competitor seemed crisp. Neither seemed to connect fully with their moves. Listen, even the best in the world have off nights. Were there good spots? Of course! Pentagon hit a beautiful low dropkick to Mundo as he was attempting a Tajiri backspring elbow. Mundo turned an Alabama Slam into a spinning Canadian Destroyer. 

Then came the ending.

In a move we saw coming a mile away, Taya awkwardly kicked Pentagon in the groin, turning heel. This allowed Mundo to score the victory.

Pentagon remains super over with audiences, but AAA has made him look very weak in his victories, and his defeats. 

Winner: Johnny Mundo -- NEW Latin American Champion

Lucha Underground Trios Match: Rey Mysterio Jr., Prince Puma (Ricochet) & El Dragon Azteca Jr. vs. Mil Muertes (Mesias), Mantanza Cueto & Marty "The Moth" Martinez

This had awesome written all over it. Sadly, it did not deliver on the hype. Everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion. The dynamic move set of Mantanza was trimmed to down to kicks and punches. The usually crisp Mil Muertes seemed very off. El Dragon Azteca Jr. was barely involved in the match.

The majority of this match consisted of Prince Puma getting knocked around, trying to make the tag to Rey, there'd a few multi-man breakdown spots, and we go back to Puma getting pummeled. Weird.

Luckily, things picked up big time in the last part of the match. Rey was attempted a double 619 on Marty and Mantanza, but he ate a HUGE spear from Mil. There was another awesome spot where Marty tried to rana Puma, but Dragon came in, and rana-ed Marty off of Puma's shoulder. Puma followed with a 630. They also did a nice spot where Rey held the ropes up and Puma dove between his legs, and Dragon jumped over him.

Rey eventually hit a 619 on Marty, followed by a springboard frogsplash for the win in a slow-building match that ended pretty fun.

Winners: Rey Mysterio Jr., Prince Puma (Ricochet) & El Dragon Azteca Jr.

AAA Megacampeon Title Match: Texano Jr. (C) vs. Brian Cage vs. Dr. Wagner Jr.

This was a very physical match-up, and I liked it. There were a few curious spots like Texano inexplicably getting busted open and bleeding like a pig throughout the match. Seriously, he was gushing blood after a kick from Cage -- not a move one would be bleeding THAT much over. All three men really gelled together in the ring nicely. Cage was his usual power move self, although I would've loved to have seen him use his Weapon X finisher. Dr. Wagner was great as always. I do have to say the announcers really undersold him pulling out his Wagner Driver finisher. Texano, who took a few powders during the match, probably had the best match I've seen him have in AAA in the past year. He worked his ass off, and really took over as the sympathetic Mexican hero (a hard thing to do with Dr. Wagner in the ring).

If there's a major complaint I have with this mach is that it really needed about 10 more minutes. I wanted to see some more false finishes, some more physicality between Wagner and Texano, and Cage to hit a sick dive to the outside. I will give super bonus points to this match for Cage shouting out his mentor Kanyon when he yelled, "Who better than Cage?"

The finish was a little wonky, as Cage went for a Steiner Screwdriver on Texano, but Texano rolled him up for the win. Not a huge fan of this finish because I didn't feel there was enough drama over Texano losing built up yet, and lucha libre refs count so slow that the anticipation of a surprise win is really drawn out.

Winner: Texano

Post-Match: The Sons of Trump - Mundo, Mesias, Taya, and Hernandez come out and lay waste to Texano. Wagner has bailed -- logically that makes no sense since he's been anti-Trump. Out comes Drago followed by Aerostar. They take a few people out, but get thrown out. Then these two guys basically take a Tebow on the outside and watch what happens for the rest of the post-match fight. I'm not even kidding. They couldn't even sell their beating. Garza Jr. comes out, and he ends up clearing the ring until Mundo and Taya team up on him, and toss him. Even though he was left lying, Garza Jr. looked like a star, and poised to be a main event guy. Why Pentagon, Daga and Lider didn't come out makes no sense.

Hair vs. Mask Match: Psycho Clown vs. Pagano 

A lot of people have crapped on this feud, but I've enjoyed it. The outcome was predictable as Pagano doesn't have that much hair, and Psycho Clown sells a lot of masks. However, they had a pretty fun brawl. Was it main event of a Wrestlemania-esque event worthy? No. But, it had a big match feel, and these two luchadors really worked their asses off. It was an ECW-esque brawl to say the least. Pagano, already an indie darling in Mexico, was raised to the next level in this match, and he could really become a big time technico down the road. Psycho Clown is just stupid over, and when he did win the match, the crowd went ballistic. There was a ton of plunder in this match. Barbed wired a plenty. Thumbtacks. Fire. The crowd. Yes, there were multiple spots were the two clowns were launched into the crowd. At one point Pagano was launched into like the 10th row and he wiped out dozens of chairs. Awesome visual. Psycho Clown super bombing Pagano through chairs and barbed wire will make any old fan of The Pitbulls bark in appreciation. Towards the end of the match Damien 666 and Nicho el Millionario hit the ring and attack Psycho. Instead of his Psycho Circus partners coming out, Dr. Wagner comes out. Place goes bananas. Wagner dispenses of the "invaders." Then he turns on Psycho, who he's had a rivalry with. In fact these two had some awesome brawls. this year. Wagner helps Pagano lay waste to Psycho. They prop a huge board in the corner, and (after some attempts) set fire to it. Psycho spears both men through the flaming table (Pagano getting the worst of it), and scores the win.

Winner: Psycho Clown

Post-Match: Here's where things get interesting. Instead of Pagano getting his haircut right away, Dr. Wagner cuts a promo. He challenges Psycho Clown to a mask vs. mask match at Triplemania 25. Now that is huge. Wagner's mask is iconic. Psycho's is insanely popular. Now that's how you build a program! I'm actually amped for that match. Things get even more interesting when a virtually paint-free Pagano takes the mic, and says he lost the match, and he'll take his lumps like a man. The crowd loves him now. I'm telling you, he's going to be a big time babyface real soon. He gets his head shaved, and the crowd celebrates with Psycho Clown.

Overall Thoughts: This was a night of weak finishes. However, it was still light years better than last year. Putting that fact aside, this show was rough around the edges. Each match had really good moments, but some had just dreadful finishes. The tag title match, the Megachampionship match, and the Hair vs. Mask match are definitely ones to find online -- especially if AAA releases this show on YouTube in a few months.

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