Triplemania XXIII
August 9, 2015 Arena
Ciudad De Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico
AAA’s
Triplemania XXIII is the first Lucha Libre PPV to be broadcast in North America
since “When Worlds Collide” was on November 6, 1994, however it originated from
Los Angeles, California. Triplemania
XXIII is the first Lucha Libre PPV ever to originate live from Mexico.
The American
broadcast was marred with technical issues through-out the event. The commentating team of Hugo Savinovich and
Matt Striker didn’t seem to mesh well together and you could not hear
Savinovich until the final two matches.
Striker did his best, but unfortunately it was not very good yelling and
exaggerated “WOW” and “Nicely Done” instead of calling the maneuvers. I realize he was the color man and not play
by play, but knowing that Hugo could not be heard he should have switched rolls.
The show
featured 6 matches with lots of pageantry and pomp and circumstance in between
them. Also it featured the Hall of Fame
inductions of Perro Aguayo Jr. & Hector Garza, both posthumously. This even also celebrated the retirement of
wrestler Villano III and referee Pepe “Tropi” Casas. They also celebrated the Blue Demon Jr’s 30th
Anniversary in Lucha Libre. All of these
events featured what I can assume were wonderful video packages, plus the promo
videos that built the matches shown prior to them were all in Spanish. That is to be expected considering the event,
however, with Hugo Savinovich’s microphone not working there was no one to
translate what we were watching leaving all meaning gone to me.
Lucha Libre
is a different style than wrestling in America and Japan and I knew that going
in. I haven’t watched a ton of AAA
before, however, I have watched a lot of CMLL back when I had cable and it was
broadcast on the Fox Sports en Espanol.
The trios matches were very similar to what we saw on WCW when they
brought in the lucha libre cruiserweights.
At times there is a lot of tumbling and this can be done well where it
looks good and it can be done horribly where is looks really bad, and that was
what most of this evening gave us.
Another
oddity was in AAA there do not use a ring bell, they blow a whistle to start
the match and the finish is either a 3 count, which is extremely slow, or if a
submission the referees wave their hands, once, in the “safe motion” and that
signals the end of the match. AAA uses a
six sided ring.
The Matches:
Relevos Atomicos de Locura: Dinastia,
Drago, Goya Kong, and Pimpinela Escarlata defeated Daga, Mamba, Mini Psycho
Clown & Sext Star.
This match
featured men, woman, cross dressers, a midget, and a transgender. It was actually a decent match with the
typical craziness that comes from a 8 person tag, but even more so considering
those involved. The finish came when
Pimpinela Escarlata submitted Sexy Star.
Los Villanos: Villano III, IV, & V
defeated Los Psycho Circus: Monster Clown, Murder Clown, & Psycho Clown
when Villano IV pinned Psycho Clown after a low blow.
Villano III
& V had lost their masks in the past but were allowed to wear them one last
time for this match but had to unmask immediately after the match. This match rough to watch, the Villanos at
63, 53, & 50 years old and it showed.
There is family history between the two as the Villanos represent the
Mendoza family and Psycho Clown the Alvarado family and this match started with
a feud between Villano IV and Psycho Clown.
One of the
oddest things I have ever seen in wrestling happened, near the end Psycho Clown
was in the ring with a chair while Villano III stood there waiting for him to
hit him, Psycho Clown started saluting him and it was explained that his beef
was with Villano IV not III and that he respected III. He did the same thing moments later when he
would not complete the pinfall on Villano III breaking the count himself at 2 and
more saluting. That’s when Villano IV kicked him in the junk and pinned him, to
wish Villano III & V cried foul with IV dismissing them and heading to the
back.
Villano III
& V unmasked with the remaining men from both teams celebrating in the ring
Villano III’s final match. This was also the final bout for referee Pepe
“Tropi” Casa and he counted the pinfall.
During a post-match ceremony both Pepe and Villano III were awarded
plaques.
Three-Way Trios Steel Cage Match
AAA World Trios Champions: Los Hell
Brothers: Averno, Chessman, & Cibernetico defeated Fenix and Los Gueros del
Cielo: Jacks Evans & Angelico and El Hijo Del Fantasma, Pentagon Jr, &
El Texano Jr.
Nine people
is just too many people for this match.
Also the camera work with terrible, the first shot once the match
started was to pull back to the corner of the arena where you could not make
out what was happening in the ring. Then
we get this view from the top of the cage looking down into the ring at an odd
angle so the moves don’t look quite right.
Because there were so many guys there was a lot of standing around also
there were 6 rudos (bad guys) and 3 technicos (good guys).
This match
didn’t flow, there were table spots and other high spots that made no
sense. I watched it twice on different
days and my account is the same. To win
you had to pull down one of the three belts that were attached to what appeared
to be a light rigging over the ring. Los
Hell Brothers retrained when Averno, who is clearly scared of heights,
unattached a belt.
Blue Demon Jr & La Parka defeated
Electroshock & El Mesias
This matched
featured a series of that Lucha Libre tumbling that I wrote about earlier that
when done wrong looks bad, and this looked horrid. I’ve never seen anything more obvious then
when Blue Demon and Electroshock were in the ring with each other. I understand wrestling is pre-determined,
however I still like a bit of realism allowing me to suspend my disbelief. That was impossible with this match up.
Blue Demon
and La Parka picked up the win.
At this
point in the production they finally fixed Hugo Savinovich’s audio and we could
hear him for the final two matches.
Lucha de Apuestas
Mega Champion: El Patron Alberto w/Fenix
defeated Brian Cage w/ El Hijo del Fantasma
This was a
non-title hair vs hair match. From what I gather they had been feuding since
Brian Cage entered AAA in February pinned Patron in a trios match. Cage defeated Patron in a non-title match in
April. Then in June Patron defeated Cage
by DQ in the title match and it ended with Cage draping the United States Flag
on Patron’s unconscious body, which set up this non-title match that was about
honor.
I had high
hopes because Brian Cage is a fucking machine and Alberto can go in the ring as
well. It was the best match of the night
so far, but not very good. The seconds
interfered in the match several times and the referee, who is Mexican, was
apparently a bad guy and interfered on Cage’s behalf, refused to count a pin
fall and other over the top evil referee shenanigans that don’t add to a
match.
Eventually
Patron took out the evil ref and another ref ran in to call the match via
submission. I feel AAA dropped the ball
on this as it was the perfect opportunity for Pepe “Tropi” Casa to amble down
to the ring for one more last bid of glory.
Cage could say that Casa was officially no longer a referee and he
couldn’t have called the finish thus nullifying the match.
So Cage lost
and had his head shaved. After he
charged Patron, ate a powerbomb and got the Mexican flag draped on him. During the match Patron got busted open and
they booth took several chair shots to the head. Not metal folding, but those plastic folding
ones.
The mat was
very quiet through-out the event and you could only sporadically hear the
wrestlers bumping in the ring. When you
see Cage get powerbombed and when he hits the canvas you hear no impact, it’s
loses everything.
Main Event “Dream Match”
Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz
Billed as
the best masked Luchador in the States vs. the best masked Luchador in Mexico
to see who is truly the best masked Luchador in the world. The only real build up is the fact that it
was a dream match. During the introductions
they mentioned out Myzteziz started out as Mistico then became Sin Cara and now
has become Myzteziz.
This was the
best match on the show, I even liked it.
Rey reminded me of the Mysterio of old battling around the ring using
tables and other devices. Myzteziz was
busted open under his mask but managed to get pretty coated in blood. After a hard fought bout Mysterio picked up
the win forcing Myzteziz to tap out to a fujiwara armbar. I can’t recall ever seeing Mysterio win by
submission.
After the
match Mysterio went to the floor to celebrate with fans and the AAA
President. Averno, Pentagon Jr. and Joe
Lider ran down and bear the tar out of Myzteziz. Mysterio ran in for the save, took a beating
himself but eventually they teamed up and sent the rudo’s packing.
Mysterio
offered his hand to Myzteziz who spit mist in Mysterios face, turned heel and
challenged Mysterio to a mask vs. mask match.
Konnan and his crew La Sociedad ran in and attacked Mysterio and the PPV
abruptly ended.
All in all
this event was very poorly executed. I
realize that you have to look at this as an event where feuds culminate and
feuds begin and not knowing the history it can be confusing. However, this was the same for NJPW’s Wrestle
Kingdom 9 and they managed to execute an excellent night of matches.
If given the
opportunity to watch this, I probably wouldn’t.
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Readers!
