LUCHA LIBRE AAA
HÉROES INMORTALES XII
OCTOBER 28, 2018
PUEBLA, MEXICO
GIMNASIO MIGUEL HIDALGO

The year is 2018 and Jeff Jarrett is in the main event of one of wrestling’s wealthiest companies. This time, the business mastermind finds himself in a Hair vs. Hair match against Dr. Wagner Jr. in AAA’s last big show of the year, which also includes a bunch of crazy multi-man matches, some surprise opponents and a complete absence of the AAA Megachampion, Fénix.

I have a hate/hate relationship with AAA so I’m usually burying their storylines and complete lack of interest in pushing new stars, but after a surprisingly good Triplemania show and their constant awesome opening matches, I’m looking forward to Héroes Inmortales XII. However, I must say this: while the final card looks fun, the build of this show was quite lackluster and booking-wise most matches don’t make any sense, but you can read all about that in thecubsfan’s fantastic preview.

By the way, AAA announced that a match would be contested inside a cage 45 minutes before the actual show started. Prime AAA.

AAA REINA DE REINAS CHAMPIONSHIP
FABY APACHE DEF. STARFIRE, KEYRA & SCARLETT BORDEAUX

A nice opener with non-stop action and barely any time to breathe. Starfire was awesome throughout the action, delivering some creative moves and helping keep the fast tempo of the match. As expected, Scarlett Bordeaux was the ‘surprise’ unannounced wrestler and she had a solid performance, doing just enough to keep things moving and also receiving some hard kicks in the face. I loved the finishing stretch: Starfire kicked out of Faby’s Alas de Angel, then got a nearfall with a beautiful tiger suplex but moments later, Faby managed to pin her with a dragon suplex. ***½

After the match, Lady Shani came out to challenge Faby for the Reina de Reinas Championship with the most generic promo ever.

More AAA promo time! Jeff & Karen Jarrett appeared – with Hijo del Fantasma as translator – to insult México, the crowd and Dr. Wagner Jr., who then made his way to the ring to defend himself. Scarlett Bordeaux reappeared to distract him, but ended up getting called a ‘zorra’ and a ‘puta’ (slut) by Wagner and the crowd. Very classy insults coming from a man wearing a Burger King crown. With the distraction, Jarrett and his posse attacked Wagner but Blue Demon Jr. showed up to save him and show his allegiance to him. if you know AAA, you knew what was going to happen between Blue Demon and Wagner later on the show.

Wagner vs. Jarret is the only well-built match of the card and I don’t think there wasn’t any need to promote it further with this long segment, but it was done in order to promote Blue Demon Jr. as Wagner’s second later in the night.

MOCHO COTA JR., CARTA BRAVA JR. & TITO SANTANA DEF. MAMBA, PIMPINELA ESCARLATA & MÁXIMO and ANGELIKAL, DRAGO & AEROSTAR

During El Poder del Norte’s entrance, Hugo Savinovich (one of the announcers) kept putting their trios titles over. That’s quite funny because Poder del Norte hasn’t defended those belts since January and they weren’t on the line for this TRIOS match.

This was another fun contest, full of action and insanity. Almost everyone performed a dive, but Aerostar and Angelikal were the clear highlights of the match, flying all over the place and getting some good pops from the crowd. Laredo Kid was announced for this match but was replaced by Angelikal, who ate the pinfall after a Spanish Fly by Mocho Cota. After the match, Monster Clown attacked Aerostar with a chair. ***¼

AAA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
TEXANO JR. & REY ESCORPIÓN DEF. BANDIDO & FLAMITA and LAREDO KID & DJZ

Another good spotfest with people flying all over the place and pretty much no time to rest. We saw a double Essex Destroyer by Laredo Kid, a double superplex by Texano, a dozen dives and some beautiful high flying lucha. Andrew Everett was injured so Laredo Kid replaced him and had great chemistry with the always underrated DJZ, who kicked ass with every awesome move he executed. At the end, Escorpión delivered a powerbomb and Aguijón Negro (Package Piledriver) to DJZ, who then got pinned after being whipped by Texano’s bullrope. Yes, the match was fun, but this was the third multi-man spotfest of Héroes Inmortales so it ended up being a tiresome affair. ***½

By the way, it always blows my mind how unknown and unpopular Flamita and Bandido are in Mexico (outside of The Crash in Tijuana). They rarely get a good pop and it seems no matter how hard they try, AAA’s crowds are rarely interested in them. They even did the same incredible Standing Phoenix Splash that blew everyone away at PROGRESS: Hello Wembley, but this crowd barely reacted to it. Why? Why are you letting me down, México?

COPA ANTONIO PEÑA
PAGANO DEF. ESPECTRO, CHESSMAN, HIJO DEL VIKINGO, KAHOS, SÚPER FLY, PARKA NEGRA, HIJO DEL FANTASMA, AVERNO, & NIÑO HAMBURGUESA

This is a AAA’s traditional Royal Rumble style match created to honor the memory of AAA’s founder Antonio Peña. 10 luchadores in total, two start the match, a new one enters after one minute and elimination occurs after going over the top rope. Hijo del Vikingo and Super Fly were the first entrants, but Zuñiga (AAA’s ring announcer) hadn’t finished explaining the rules so they had to stand there while the clock counted down to the third entrant. Oh AAA, never change.

Many of the people announced for the match never showed up. This is normal by AAA standards, but this time I actually got annoyed because I really wanted to see Dragon Bane. At some point I expected him to come out as the new Psicosis or something because during this match, Black Danger and Último Maldito appeared masked as the new Espectro and Kahoz respectively. Was it necessary to repackage these two talented guys with old AAA gimmicks? No. This was a dumb decision and a showcase of AAA’s lack of creativity.

This was a nothing match. Just lots of people brawling with no purpose or psychology. The ending was terrible: when Hijo del Fantasma and Pagano were the two wrestlers left, the Mercenarios (Texano & Rey Escorpión) showed up to help Fantasma, then Niño Hamburguesa returned to give Fantasma a chairshot (who minutes before, eliminated him from the match with a low blow), but Mercenarios saved Fantasma and whipped Niño Hamburguesa. Seconds after that, Fantasma – who was on the edge of the ring – fell backwards and to the floor when trying to avoid a Pagano move. Yes, this was confusing and dumb. We all know Pagano is bad at non-extreme wrestling, but I expected more from the always reliable Hijo del Fantasma, who by the way tried to pin Pagano during this Royal Rumble style match. *½

After getting the win, Pagano was attacked by Los Macizos (Cíclope and Miedo Extremo) a couple of violent guys you might recognize if you’ve followed GCW recently. This was a set-up for the Ciclope/Miedo vs. PaganoJoe Lider match that will be happening in Veracruz on November 10.

While the ‘Domo de la Muerte’ for the next match was being set up, some of the female wrestlers that were on the first match went out dressed by the sponsor and handed out food to the fans. Why?

DOMO DE LA MUERTE MATCH (CAGE MATCH)
MURDER CLOWN & PSYCHO CLOWN DEF. MONSTER CLOWN & KILLER KROSS

Remember TNA’s weird Steel Asylum? The Domo de la Muerte is the same thing. However, this one had some ladders inside the cage in order to help people escape the structure.

This was a boring blur of kicks and chair shots with some fun stuff thrown here and there. Murder Clown was the first to escape thanks to Psycho Clown’s help, who therefore had to fight Monster Clown & Killer Kross by himself. I like Killer Kross’s look and he’s a decent promo but in-ring wise he’s just a generic tough guy with tedious offense and it showed here: every time he took control of the match, you could feel the drowsiness setting in. Thankfully, Kross escaped and Psycho Clown was free to beat the crap out of Monster Clown with some chair shots. Minutes later, Psycho climbed the cage and launched himself with a plancha to definitely destroy Monster (who was on a table). Psycho climbed again and escaped. I enjoyed Psycho Clown’s performance here, but everything else was lackluster. **½

An enraged Aerostar entered the cage and delivered some chair shots to Monster Clown, who earlier in the night, had attacked him. I like Aerostar and I’m happy to see him getting a singles rivalry.

HAIR VS. HAIR
DR. WAGNER. JR. DEF. JEFF JARRETT

If you want to watch a classic AAA clusterfuck, this is it. Peak AAA. A hilariously bad match that had countless interference and a predictable AAA trademark heel turn.

Jarrett came out with full stars and stripes lucha attire – mask included – and demanded Hijo del Tirantes (AAA’s #1 heel referee) to ref the match. However, a clearly broken Hijo del Tirantes showed up, limped all the way to the ring and explained he would be unable to do it. Then Mr. Selfishness himself, Vampiro appeared to assign his handpicked referee: Copetes. Are you following this? Good. It gets better.

Finally, the match started and Dr. Wagner was immediately the victim of numerous cheap shots courtesy of that pesky Rey Escorpión and the always treacherous Karen Jarrett. Lucha Jarrett dominated the match until the bloodied Dr. Wagner had his comeback, however, it turns out Copetes (Vampiro’s babyface ref) was evil all along so he helped Jarrett kick out a couple of times by doing a super slow count. Wagner attacked Copetes, Jarrett picked his guitar to hit Wagner, but Blue Demon Jr. quickly snatched the weapon away from this hands and… I know this might sound incredible, but Blue Demon turned heel and hit Dr. Wagner with the guitar!! I know, totally crazy and unexpected, right? But evil would not have his way, no sir! Psycho Clown showed up and got rid of Blue Demon, allowing Dr. Wagner to hit Jarrett with a guitar. Another referee – this one called Piero – quickly entered the ring and quickly counted to three.

So, we got at least a dozen different interferences, extreme heel refereeing, a predictable heel turn that didn’t affect the ending of the match, oh and after the finish, Dr. Wagner Jr. punched Karen Jarrett for no reason at all. This was bad and offensive, but at some point, it started getting funny. *¼

Why did Blue Demon Jr. decided to betray Wagner, you ask? It seems as if AAA was trying to book LA Park vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. in a Mask vs. Hair match for next year’s Triplemania. LA Park himself was booked in this Héroes Inmortales show but pulled out a couple of weeks ago and hilariously refused to say why on his twitter account; he might be finished with AAA for now. So, it looks like AAA might try to do a Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. Apuestas match instead. Considering Blue Demon Jr. is not a good professional wrestler, this sounds like a bad idea but one that would probably sell a good amount of tickets.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, this was not AAA’s best showing. If you want to see some crazy moves and high flying action, you will probably enjoy the first half of Héroes Inmortales. But if you’re into telenovelas, poop and nonsensical storytelling, I strongly urge you to watch the second half of the show.

Seriously now, it’s well known that AAA wants to make an incursion into the US market, but how in the blue hell can someone in the back look at that Wagner-Jarrett match and think: ‘yes, this is what international wrestling fans want’. AAA has the wrestlers and the potential to produce decent content, but they just refuse to do so, instead they resort to dumb angles, cheap heat and lame matches. And I can’t see that changing anytime soon.