Tag: Aaa Triplemania Xxx

The first of three 2022 pay-per-views celebrating AAA’s 30th anniversary kicks off with Triplemania XXX: Monterrey — a show that will see several AEW stars in action.

The main event is AAA Mega Champion El Hijo del Vikingo teaming with Rey Fenix against former AAA Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks in the latter’s return to Mexico.

The Ruleta de la Muerte tournament will kick off with Pentagon Jr. vs. Ultimo Dragon, LA Park vs. Villano IV, Blue Demon Jr. vs. Rayo De Jalisco Jr., and Psycho Clown vs. El Canek.

In a trios match, Pagano will team with Bandido and Reina de Reinas Champion Taya Valkyrie against Cibernético, Andrade El Idolo and former champion Deonna Purrazzo.

In a four-way for the Mixed Tag Team titles, Chik Tormenta & Arez will defend against Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti, Maravilla & Latigo and Octagon Jr. & Sexy Star II.

In a three-way tag team match, John Hennigan (Morrison) will team with Taurus against Dragon Lee & Dralistico and Laredo Kid & a wrestler to be named.

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The FITE broadcast opened with a wide aerial shot of the venue from a drone in the sky. A flashy “History of AAA” type vignette aired next. It highlighted Antonio Pena and AAA stars of both today and from the past. Memorial photos of stars from the past flashed across the screen at the end of the package, and we saw quick tributes to founder Alonso, Art Barr, Eddy Guerrero, El Brazo, La Parka (AAA version) and others.

They aired clips of big matches from the past next. We saw footage of a young Konan vs Cien Caras, LA Park vs. La Parka, Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Psycho Clown and a few others.

Joe Dombrowski and Larry Dallas are on English commentary for the show. They emphasized the importance of AAA’s history since this year’s TripleMania marked its 30-year anniversary.

A Spanish video package of Ultimo Dragon aired next. The English-language commentary was buried under the Spanish video voiceover, so I’m not sure what the team was talking about. The same thing happened for Pentagon’s promo package, with the Spanish voiceover drowning out the English commentary.

Ruleta de la Muerte: Ultimo Dragon defeated Pentagon Jr.

Ruleta de la Muerte is an eight-man single elimination tournament where a win means the wrestler is out of the tournament thus his mask is safe. Losers must continue on in the tournament until there’s only one person left, which means the last luchador left will lose their mask.

Physically, Ultimo Dragon looks amazing for 55 years old. He’s not the same in the ring as he was in the ‘90s, but he sure looks the same.

Pentagon came to the ring with Taya Valkyrie, Rey Fenix and a mini-Pentagon, a kid dressed just like Pentagon. There was another kid in the crowd cosplaying as Penta, so he brought the fan up onto the ramp and gave him a high five.

Pentagon stormed Ultimo Dragon’s corner at the beginning of the match. He got into Dragon’s face and bullied him a bit. Dragon and Penta got into quickly. Dragon didn’t look bad at all in this. He and Penta had good chemistry and went back and forth over the first few minutes. He teased an Asai moonsault, a move he made famous, but Pentagon shut that down. He’d work over Dragon more slowly for a few more minutes, slowing the pace a bit. Dragon used his signature combo of two high kicks plus one spinning savate. Pentagon answered moments later by slapping Dragon into a crucifix surfboard type deal, yanking on Dragon’s arm.

There were a few points during the match when someone speaking Spanish could be overheard on English commentary. It was random and confusing, but the announce team did a good job of not letting it throw them off.

Later, Dragon caught Pentagon with a diving plancha from the top rope onto the ramp outside the ring. He did a Canadian Destroyer before putting Pentagon away with the Asai DDT to win the match. Since Ultimo Dragon won, he’s now out of the tournament, which means his mask is safe. Pentagon must continue on in the tournament.

Ultimo Dragon and Pentagon Jr shook hands afterwards. He went to the front row and thanked Marisela Pena, AAA president and Antonio Pena’s widow. He signed a few autographs and thanked fans before heading to the back.

Four-way Mixed Tag Team Championship match: Parka Negra & Tay Conti (w/ Sammy Guevara) defeated Komander & Sexy Star, Latigo & Lady Maravilla & Arez & Chik Tormenta

A video of Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti aired next. Since Guevara is hurt, Conti sounded worried, but Guevara didn’t seem rattled ahead of their match. “It’s gonna be OK,” Sammy said. He apparently has some kind of plan in place. They said they loved each other and then started open-mouth kissing like it was an audition for a late-night Cinemax movie.

Octagon Jr. was replaced by Komander in this. There was no immediate reason as to why he wasn’t there. 

Arez & Chik Tormenta weren’t listed as part of the match beforehand, either. They showed up anyways. They’re the current AAA Mixed Tag Team champions. 

Tay Conti and Chik Tormenta were in first. The announcers mentioned that wrestlers didn’t have to tag into the match for this, though, but they still used a one-on-one layout. Conti used a big boot. Tormenta knocked Conti down with a big shoulderblock. They traded forearms. Conti caught Tormenta with a release German suplex, then tried a dive off the apron onto Tormenta outside the ring, but Tormenta caught Conti mid-air and slammed her back-first into the ringpost, then tossed her onto the floor. 

Komander and Parka Negra had a nice exchange. Sexy Star (not the original) broke up Negra’s pin attempt, then got into it with him, eventually using a headscissors to launch him under the ropes to the floor. Latigo and Arez then came into the ring and bashed Sexy Star with a baking sheet. They’d then lay her out with a double power bomb/neckbreaker. Chik Tormenta did a running double knee drop for good measure. No pin, though.

When Arez went for a slingshot DDT on Latigo, he accidentally kicked Lady Maravilla in the face upon landing. 

Suddenly, Parka Negra and Tay Conti were back in the ring and setting up a double high spot. That was quick. Conti used a Gotch-style piledriver while Parka Negra used a lungblower for two. 

Sexy Star and Komander would take Parka Negra out next. Komander did a pretty-looking rope-walk shooting star press onto Parka Negra. 

Latigo and Maravilla were in next and took out Komander. Latigo then started arguing with Maravilla and face-mushed her and she fell over. 

On the floor, Kommander did a wild rope-walk plancha to the floor. He seemed to bang up his knee on it. Sexy Star did a suicide dive next, then Chik Tormenta used a tope suicida tope con giro, squashing Latigo and Komander. 

Parka Negra did his own version of the La Parka dance before launching himself onto the floor. Conti landed a somersault plancha onto whomever was on the floor at this point. The coup de grace spot was Arez doing a top rope Spanish Fly to Lady Maravilla and stuck it perfectly. 

Chik Tormenta and Arez land tandem diving knee drops onto Parka and Conti, but Sammy Guevara interrupted the ref’s count on the floor and blamed it on a ringside fan. Guevara eventually got into the ring and took the champions out with his crutch. He took Tormenta out with a superkick. Conti landed a big pump kick to take out Arez. The AEW couple would pick up the win, which means your new AAA Mixed Tag Team champions are Guevara & Conti. 

So despite Sammy Guevara claiming he wasn’t in the match, in the end, I guess he was. He was? Or was Parka Negra not a part of the match? I’m not sure. 

Outside a few cool dives, this was pretty much a mess. New champions Conti & Guevara celebrated with more PG-13 tongue-kissing in the ring.

Ruleta de la Muerte: LA Park defeated Villano IV

For some reason, LA Park’s Ruleta de la Muerte pre-match promo package had a voiceover in English. The three others were in Spanish.

The crowd was nuts for LA Park. Villano met him on the entrance ramp during his entrance and got into fisticuffs with him from the get-go. He DDT’d Park on the ramp. 

In the ring, Villano tried tearing LA Park’s mask off. He got most of it off only a few minutes into the match. Park’s face was almost completely exposed.

Out on the floor, Villano hit Park with a steel folding chair. Park escaped into the crowd and Villano followed after him. They brawled among the fans for a bit before getting back into the ring.

Villano kneed LA Park and started biting him when they were back inside. Park bleed a lot. Park’s whole head was exposed by now.  

The referee stopped Park from punching Villano with a closed fist. So mask-ripping, chair shots and biting are fine, but closed fists? Well, that’s just too over the line. I guess.

They did this because later on Park would go for another closed-fist punch and accidentally deck the referee. Park took Villano out with a chair, then launched him over the guardrail with a lariat. On the way down, Villano’s foot caught a female fan in the head. 

Park began headbutting Villano on the floor before decking him again with a chair. The crowd started chanting for Park like crazy after one of the shots. He set up a wooden board on the floor and powerslammed him through it. It wasn’t a table, for the record. It looked as though it was a nondescript object made to function as a pro wrestling weapon and that only. Park laid in more headbutts on the ground. Fans started chanting “Este lucha!”

LA Park scored a close nearfall in the ring. Villano used another DDT on Park, this time inside the yellow ring now splattered with Park’s blood.

Villano grabbed another chair outside the ring and went after Park’s ankle with it. Moments later, behind the ref’s back (like it matters), he kicked LA Park in the groin. The low blow upset fans. Villano pinned Park but only earned a close two-count. The crowd erupted from here. Park then nailed Villano with a low blow from behind, then school boy’d him for a close two of his own. 

Park and Villano traded ugly punches on their knees. Park scored another nearfall. When Park climbed to the top turnbuckle, Villano shoved the ref into the ropes which caused Park to fall off. Villano used a senton but didn’t score the pinfall. He acted cocky and proud, but when he went for a figure four leglock, Park cradled him into a pin to win the match. The crowd exploded. Fans threw money into the ring afterwards. LA Park is safe from officially losing his mask while Villano IV will continue on in the  Ruelta de la Muerte tournament.

This was a raw, sloppy brawl, and old school in many ways, from the style of wrestling to the crowd reactions. 

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Between matches, AAA officials presented Latin Lover with an achievement award; he even kissed the mat upon stepping foot in the ring.

In the middle of Latin Lover’s speech, Jeff Jarrett’s music hit. Him, Karen Jarrett & Rey Escorpion interrupted, taking AAA’s ring announcer with them as hostage/promo translator. Jarrett got into Marisela Pena’s face at ringside and trash-talked fans. In the ring, he had the announcer translate for him. He bragged about his career accomplishments and shoved his WWE Hall of Fame ring in Latin Lover’s face. Karen Jarrett said Latin Lover was “just like all these people” in attendance. Jarrett then called him a “dirty, filthy, greasy Mexican.” Latin Lover finally went after Double J, but Rey Escorpion took him out. 

The opening chords of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” then blared over the PA:  Vampiro appeared at the entrance, ready to make the save. They cued his theme music up properly this time around. The crowd went apeshit. Vampiro jumped into the ring and cleaned house. He took someone out with his signature spinning roundhouse kick. Latin Lover caught Dixie Carter and planted a smooch on her, the classic “sexual assault revenge” spot. The crowd sounded like they loved that. Vampiro looks to have lost a good amount of weight. He looks healthy. He and Latin Lover posed in the ring together after the scuffle. The two then posed at ringside with president Marisela Pena.

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Three-way tag team match: Johnny Caballero & Taurus defeated Jack Cartwheel & Laredo Kid and Dragon Lee & Dralistico

Jack Cartwheel was X. He has wrestled for PWG and GCW in the past.

John Hennigan went by the name “Johnny Caballero” tonight. 

FYI Dralisitco is f.k.a Carisitco who was f.k.a. Mistico (the first one). 

Dragon Lee and Laredo Kid had a fiery exchange early. Jack Cartwheel did cool-looking gymnastic spots and escapes, like doing a split to evade his opponent. He also did a no-handed—wait for it—cartwheel. He and Dralistico had a good exchange before Johnny Caballero got into it next. Caballero did a reverse fireman’s carry roll. He caught Cartwheel with a rolling Parkour lariat. 

Caballero and Taurus did a cool wheelbarrow suplex + slingshot kick double-team move. Dralistico was a little bit shaky in his offense before eventually sticking the springboard hurracanrana. 

Caballero used a spinning BT Bomb-into-uranage. Jack Cartwheel did more gymnastic moves when he was in with Cabellero and Dragon Lee. He did a moonsault that looked absolutely perfect but landed on his feet. 

Taurus looked awesome in this, especially in his short time in there with Dragon Lee. Lee & Dralistico double-teamed Taurus before doing tandem tope con giros to the floor. Laredo Kid did an insane looking tornillo to the floor. Cabaellero did a distinct sidescrew plancha next. In the ring, he pinned Laredo Kid but only scored two. 

This turned into a rapid-fire spotfest in the end, with four of the six competitors laid out after a minute or so. 

Dragon Lee caught Taurus with a slingshot German suplex, a V-Trigger and a reverse Frankensteiner before hopping over the top rope and catch Taurus from the apron with a hurracanrana.

Cartwheel did a Space Flying Tiger Drop to the floor. It looked like how you’d imagine a move like that would look if done by an Olympic gymnast. The crowd liked that one. Dralistico followed up with a springboard shooting star press to the floor.

In the ring, Caballero accidentally doused the referee with a plastic water cannon. Laredo Kid grabbed it and bashed Caballero over the head with it before taking him out with a low kick to the face. Laredo Kid looked to be going for the finish when Caballero kicked him low, then cradled him into a pin for the win. Lots of cool spots in this but not too much rhyme or reason for much of it. 

Ruleta de la Muerte: Rayo De Jalisco Jr. defeated Blue Demon Jr. 

We had blood, mask-tearing, a chain, and a cookie sheet introduced within the first five minutes. Blue Demon Jr. busted Jalisco open after ripping at his mask and biting him down on the floor. Demon later wrapped Jalisco’s arm around the ring post and stretch him. 

The crowd sounded somewhat into this despite Demon and Jalisco wrestling in slow motion for much of this. 

The camera kept cutting back and forth between the entrance and the ring, which basically telegraphed that something was about to happen. The legendary then Cien Caras appeared with NGD (Cuartero, Forastero, Sanson) in tow. They attacked Jalisco Jr., whose father was once one of Caras’ rivals. Jalisco held his own, but when he went to take them out with a guitar, he accidentally smashed Blue Demon instead. This was convenient and allowed Jalisco to win his match. 

Afterwards, Cien Caras and NGD went back after Jalisco. It was a messy pull-apart, a continuation of the rivalry between families. Blue Demon Jr. was stretchered out after the bout.

Pagano, Bandido & Taya Valkyrie defeated Andrade El Idolo, Cibernetico & Deonna Purrazzo

IMPACT’s Deonna Purazzo and Taya Valkyrie were in first for their teams and looked good together. Pagano and Cibernetico were in next. 

It began raining outside the venue when Bandido and Andrade El Idolo got into the ring together for a wild exchange. It’s the first taste of whatever dream match they’ll eventually do down the road, I think.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, a table suddenly appeared in one of the ring corners. Purazzo and Andrade whipped Pagano into the corner to spear Cibernetico through the aforementioned table. The two then brawled in the front few rows. 

Purazzo would challenge Pagano back in the ring. She slapped him a few times in the face, but Pagano caught her with a shot. Andrade would then take Pagano over the ropes with a lariat.

Taya Valkyrie laid Purazzo out with a short lariat of her own before curbstomping Valkyrie to earn a nearfall. Andrade and Bandido separately pinned Valkyrie and Purazzo. Those two then went at it again and had another lighting-fast exchange. They really need 15–20 minutes together in a singles match some time. Bandido press slammed Andrade before landing a sloppy frog splash for two. The rain apparently made the ropes slippery and caused Bandido to lose some of his balance before the jump. Bandido then landed an unbelievable dive from the top rope to the apron where he caught Andrade with a hurracanrana to the floor. 

Pagano spiked Cibernetico with Emerald Frozen before taking Cibernetico out with an elbow suicida onto the floor. Pagano tried re-setting up the broken table on the floor to put Cibenetico through it. Los Vipers’ Latigo then came to ringside with a fire extinguisher. Lots of chaos around ringside by this point.

Andrade blasted Purazzo with a big boot in the ring. Bandido did a destroyer on Andrade before Taya did a plancha to the floor. Bandido followed up with an Orihara moonsault onto the rest of the bunch on the floor. 

When Pagano went to the top rope, Latigo sprayed the fire extinguisher in his face, knocking him to the floor and “through” the table. It was more like he landed into the table, his lower back and ass cratering a section of the table which made for a stiff, rebound-less landing. Cibernetico then  grabbed the extinguisher and sprayed referee Tierantes next. 

It wasn’t clearly explained, but after this, the match was over. Bandido, Pagano & Taya Valkyrie picked up the win via disqualification. I think. Bandido & Andrade stole the match, though. Pretty exciting together.

Ruleta de la Muerte: El Canek defeated Psycho Clown

Canek has been wrestling for 50+ years. Psycho Clown came to the ring with a few mini-Psycho Clowns, who I believe were Clown’s actual children. The kids bounced around with Psycho Clown on his way to the ring. Lots of kids in the crowd showed up on camera during his entrance and looked super happy to see such a demonic looking clown. 

Early on, Psycho Clown went for a tope to the floor. Canek moved, and Psycho Clown crashed face-first into the guardrail. He looked to be out for a few minutes before Canek slammed him again over the guardrail into the crowd. 

Canek flexed for the audience while Psycho Clown collected himself on the floor. Clown’s mask was ripped open and was bleeding already. Canek locked him in a shoulder stretch, but Psycho Clown was able to make a late comeback and connect with a low dropkick. He went for another dive and again crashed into the guardrail. He got some of it this time, though. 

Psycho Clown discovered another Wooden Board (not table) from under the ring and slid it into the ring. He started ripping at Canek’s mask. He brought a chair into the ring and bashed Canek with it. Clown then set up the Wooden Board, propped Canek up against it and proceeded to execute the most ginger, low-impact spear into the board. The board, which is thinner than a table, didn’t break, just dented. Canek press slammed Psycho Clown off the top rope and caught him with a bad-looking savate kick in the corner.

Then, Dr. Wagner Jr. and his family appeared at the ring entrance. It looked like he was going to attack Canek, but he instead hit Psycho Clown in the stomach with a baseball bat. Canek plopped himself atop Psycho Clown for the pin; Canek is your winner.

Dr Wagner Jr. continued attacking Psycho Clown with the bat after the bout. This must have been revenge for Psycho Clown beating him at TripleMania in 2017, which was when Wagner lost his mask to Clown.

Psycho Clown got back up and went to attack Wagner when Andrade el Idolo appeared and took Psycho Clown out. The two celebrated in the ring. Andrade unmasked Psycho Clown. Wagner invited Andrade to join his Lagunero group, which he did. The crowd was not happy with Andrade nor Wagner. 

The Young Bucks (w/ Konnan) defeted El Hijo del Vikingo & Rey Fenix

Fenix & Vikingo came into the stadium with a crazy-looking vehicle. It looked like the Batmobile from Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies. Their entrance had a proper main event vibe.

Vikingo caught Matt Jackson with a frankensteiner early. He sprung from the ring post onto the ropes and into the ring with dropkick. The Bucks slid to the floor for a breather. Vikingo and Fenix then did their own version of the Young Bucks pose in the ring, so the Bucks acted like they were so offended that they were leaving the match. When the two made chase, the Bucks caught both with simultaneous superkicks; it was all a ruse. 

The Young Bucks took control of the match from here for a bit, until Fenix fought them, landing a big step-up kick in the corner. Fenix did a somersault slingshot armdrag-thing to both Bucks. I have no idea what to call it but it was impressive. Konnan threw a drink at Fenix and Nick Jackson rolled Fenix up, but referee Tierantes wouldn’t count the pin, so the Bucks and Konnan again walked down the ramp to regroup. Konnan was ejected from ringside. 

The Bucks went back to the ring, but Vikingo and Fenix caught them with superkicks of their own. The two then went into a sequence of some of the wildest high-flying I’ve seen in a long time. Vikingo walked the full length of one of the ropes, hopped onto the next, then did a corkscrew moonsault to the floor. Fenix followed up with a mega-tornillo. Insane.

The two went off on a nonstop strings of innovative offense. It was hard to keep up with live. Vikingo hit a shooting star press to the floor. 

When Fenix came off the rope in the ring, the Bucks caught him with a double superkick. They then placed Vikingo on Fenix’s shoulders and did an elevated superkick spot, with Matt hoisting Nick into the air so that Nick could catch Vikingo with it. The momentum from Vikingo falling backwards led him to “inadvertently” give Fenix a poisonrana. 

They locked Fenix and Vikingo in tandem sharpshooters but the local team wouldn’t give up. Moments later, we got a brief superkick party from all involved. Everyone was laid out after a minute. Fenix accidentally caught Vikingo before Nick Jackson laid Fenix out with a cutter.

Fenix ran across the top rope to land a missile dropkick to Matt Jackson, who was draped over a nearby rope. Then, Vikingo did a running springboard 630 onto Matt Jackson. This looked unreal. The crowd went wild for it. Fenix took Nick Jackson out with a spinning Muscle Buster and earned a really close two-count. 

Nick Jackson caught Vikingo with a low blow, which allowed the Bucks to put Fenix down with the Lucha Bros. finish, the piledriver with a double-stomp assist. They even did Pentagon’s “Ciero Miedo” call, but it only earned them another two-count. 

When Vikingo came off the ropes with a cross body block, but the Bucks caught him mid-air, flipped him into a tombstone piledriver position and drilled him with the Meltzer Driver for the win. There looked to be some miscommunication between the wrestlers and Tierantes, and there was an awkward pause after the first pin attempt. Matt Jackson staid on top of Vikingo and Tierantes then counted to three. To save the spot, Jackson acted really angry at him and forced Tierantes to count a few more times. It made it come off like it was intentional in the end.

Afterwards, Fenix looked unhappy with Vikingo. Before anything could happen between the two, though, the Bucks took both out with superkicks. They laid Vikingo out with a low blow. Then, Johnny Caballero, Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti came to the ring and got in on the action, putting the boots to both Vikingo and Fenix. Pentagon Jr. then came to the ring and cleaned house, superkicking Tay Conti flush in the face, leaving her lying in the ring. Sammy Guevara had to carry her out as the foreign heel group exited to the back.

The show wrapped with a pyro show at the entrance while the AAA theme song played. Thus concludes TripleMania XXX: Monterey.

Final thoughts: LA Park vs. Villano IV had. the best heat of the night, from what I saw. And the tag team main event is worth your time because of how crazy some of the offense was at times, but much of tonight’s card was messy. I was left confused often, which is par for the course at TripleMania, some say. It wasn’t terrible, and it wasn’t great. It’s best to check the show out for yourself, if interested, but I can’t say it was must-watch.