ASISTENCIA ASESORÍA Y ADMINISTRACIÓN
VERANO DE ESCÁNDALO 2019
JUNE 16, 2019
MÉRIDA, MÉXICO
POLIFORUM ZAMNA

After the highly praised Lucha Brothers vs. Young Bucks match for the AAA tag titles at AEW: Double or Nothing and last week’s Lucha MOTY Contender between Laredo Kid and Hijo del Vikingo, AAA has some buzz coming into Verano de Escándalo… sadly, the card doesn’t look too promising and it looks like the company could be wasting a chance to get some new fans. You can read thecubsfan’s excellent preview for this show here.

REINA DE REINAS CHAMPIONSHIP
KEYRA DEF. LADY SHANI (C) & CHIK TORMENTA

The audio had been pretty bad throughout the previews and introductions so we should’ve seen this coming: exactly when the match was about to start, the feed completely died. Fortunately, after a couple of minutes, the stream returned BUT we still didn’t have any sound from the crowd. It was like watching 205 Live but in this case, the lack of noise was due to technical reasons.

As for the match, it was fast, hard-hitting but pretty underwhelming. Shani applied some cool submission holds, Tormenta looked good once again and Keyra was a bit sloppy, but still managed to get the win after the ugliest Eat Defeat ever followed by an even uglier foot stomp on Shani. I just couldn’t enjoy this due to the lack of crowd noise… and the fact that we couldn’t see the first few minutes made it even worse. **½

The Lucha Brothers came out to greet the crowd. Konnan interrupted them and cut his usual promo insulting the city of Mérida, his people and the local soccer team. Konnan said the Lucha Brothers turned their back on him and he would make sure that the Young Bucks would return to the USA with the tag titles. Penta swore and urged Konnan to stop using the heat of famous luchadores to get himself over. Konnan slapped Penta and The Young Bucks appeared to attack the Lucha Brothers with the championship belts. A dumb, yet (unfortunately) necessary AAA segment to create heat around the tag team match later in the night.

AAA aired a video package about Hijo del Tirantes, but we got no audio from that.

FABY APACHE DEF. HIJO DEL TIRANTES

This was horrendous.

Chik Tormenta was Tirantes’ second so the match quickly became a handicap affair. Faby was overwhelmed for a while and received many hits with a metallic tray. After what felt like an hour of terrible brawling, Faby managed to get rid of Tormenta and dropkicked Tirantes – who was holding a trash can – to pin him. After that, Tormenta and Tirantes kept attacking Faby which means we will get more abominations like these in the future. AVOID THIS MATCH. 1/2*

AUSTRALIAN SUICIDE & SAMMY GUEVARA DEF. MAMBO & MÁXIMO

Three-quarters of this match was some of the worst pro wrestling you’ll see all year: just a bunch of bad comedy and Sammy overreacting to everything. Inexplicably the match went on for more than 10 minutes and just when I was ready to slap a DUD on this thing, Sammy and Suicide started doing flips everywhere: fosbury flops, tornillos, moonsaults and more fun stuff rescued the last couple of minutes of what could’ve been a Worst Match of the Year Contender. *

Another AAA promo, this time there’s finally audio… but it’s loud and echoing all over the place. Also, we could see someone trying to lower the volume in the interface of Media Player. Almost there, AAA!

TAYA & LAREDO KID DEF. DAGA & TESSA BLANCHARD

An entertaining hard-fought match with some boring stretches, some cool Laredo Kid spots and just the necessary amount of heat to keep things moving. Lately, Daga has been doing great rudo work in AAA and is starting to get bigger crowd responses, but hasn’t been that impressive in-ring wise: he is a good wrestler, but most of this matches feel the same to me. And this was no different: as I write this, I can’t recall anything he did except for the last minutes in which he tried to hit Laredo with brass knuckles only to find Tessa’s face instead. Laredo Kid hit took advantage of the confusion, put Daga in the top rope and hit Laredo Fly for the win. A gentleman’s three for this one. ***

AEROSTAR, PAGANO & PUMA KING DEF. CHESSMAN, KILLER KROSS & MONSTER CLOWN

Your trademark chaotic AAA match with a couple of highlights and some hilarious stuff from Pagano, who had the audacity to try a handspring, botched a top rope leg drop and collided with the ropes while trying a tope. It was tremendous. Also, this match had some fun interference from Scarlett Bordeaux who seduced Aerostar and then hit a Canadian destroyer on him; the Kross/Scarlett dynamic was very successful and generated important reactions from the crowd.

In yesterday’s AAA show in Cancún, Aerostar launched himself from a high metallic structure and not even 24 hours after that, he repeated the feat by dropping all the way from a very high lighting rig, however this time the landing looked really bad. Aerostar is always so spectacular and passionate, but he needs to stop with these dumb, DUMB dives. AAA should just talk with him and prohibit his nonsense. Not long after that, Puma King set up a ladder between two chairs and powerbombed Cheesman through it for the win. Immediately, Killer Kross beat Puma King. Very entertaining stuff. ***¼

HIJO DEL VIKINGO, MYZTEZIZ JR. & LA PARKA DEF. LOS MERCENARIOS (TEXANO JR., LA HIEDRA & REY ESCORPIÓN)

Los Mercenarios – who had some cool matching gear – controlled the early portion of the match, but then I started suspecting this show was cursed because Myzteziz missed Rey Escorpion with a Shooting Star Press to the floor (fortunately he continued wrestling) and minutes later, Vikingo botched a move on the ropes, although that didn’t stop him from giving beautiful tijeras to everyone and pumping up the crowd. Vikingo was owning this match… then he tagged La Parka and, oh boy did he looked more Parka than ever: the exchange this man had with Texano was just pathetic. Escorpión powerbombed Myztezis into a couple of chairs but was nowhere to be found to stop Hijo del Vikingo hitting an Inverted 450º Splash to pin La Hiedra. But of course, as every victorious babyface on this show, Vikingo was destroyed by Los Mercenarios after the match. **¾


AAA WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
THE LUCHA BROTHERS (PENTAGÓN JR. & FÉNIX) DEF. THE YOUNG BUCKS (NICK & MATT JACKSON) (C)

Fast-paced action to start things off, with Young Bucks controlling the action but still having trouble getting reactions from an uninterested crowd. Match kicked into high gear after a superb sequence that included Canadian destroyers, a big splash and a kickout. Soon after, Pentagon hit Fear Factor for a nearfall; they kept at it, and Lucha Brothers combined to hit Matt with Factor Animo (Fenix-assisted Fear Factor) but Nick dragged Tirantes out of the ring to stop the count. Matt foul kicked Penta, took his mask off and was assisted by his brother to hit Meltzer Driver but this time Fénix interrupted the count. Nick accidentally kicked Tirantes in the face, Fénix took him out and then entered the ring to hit a cutter on Matt. Piero rushed from the back to make the count, but Matt kicked out. All of this stirred the crowd and suddenly they were hot and going crazy for every count. Lucha Bros hit Factor Animo on Matt for the three count. Oh, and Fénix made sure Nick couldn’t save his brother by hitting him with a Tope con Giro.

I was surprised at the number of people disappointed that this wasn’t better than the Double or Nothing performance; maybe they forgot this match was in Mexico in front of a crowd that couldn’t care less about the Young Bucks. Of course, this wasn’t as good as DON, but I think it was perfectly worked for this type of audience and an utter success given how little the Mérida fans cared when the match started and how hot they were when it ended… they even threw money to reward the wrestlers. There wasn’t a bunch of new stuff in the match, but I thought it was a fantastic sprint that achieved its goal and pushed this show out of the mud. ****

PSYCHO CLOWN & DR. WAGNER JR. DEF. BLUE DEMON JR. & BLACK TAURUS

Dr. Wagner bleeding? Check. Blue Demon Jr. bleeding buckets? Check. Table bump? Check. A minotaur destroying a clown in front of some sad kids? Check. The clown getting revenge using a broom as a weapon? Check. This is why I love AAA: a chaotic main event that was highly entertaining and sent the fans home happy. Taurus looked good sweeping the arena floor with Psycho but it was all about the Wagner-Demon rivalry. After brawling all around the floor, Wagner put Demon through a table in the weakest way possible and hit his signature Driver for the victory. That straight, definitive pinfall win was weird considering Triplemania is a few weeks away, but I’m not questioning AAA’s booking. ***½ for the match and negative stars for Dr. Wagner’s hair.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Verano de Escándalo 2019 felt more like a random taping that a PPV-level show and that is a problem. AAA had potential new viewers that parachuted after the superb Bucks/Lucha Brothers match from AEW Double or Nothing… but instead of giving them a somewhat coherent show, they delivered a nonsensical card and a show barred with technical issues. To be fair, the problem laid on a first half that was legit Worst Show of the Year Contender material only to improve things in the second half, which was your typical AAA plunder plus an excellent tag team match. In fact, the last hour of Verano de Escándalo was a great summary of what the company is: weird, chaotic fun with some excellent matches thrown here and there.

Besides the announced Wagner vs. Demon Apuestas match, it’s not clear what other matches will compose the upcoming TripleMania card but if logic prevails (which rarely does in AAA) we should be looking at another Hijo del Tirantes vs. Faby Apache match, something involving the Big Mami – Niño Hamburguesa – Lady Maravilla love triangle feud (which I love, by the way) and a big match to showcase Los Jinetes del Aire (Vikingo, Myzteziz and Laredo). Also, let’s not forget former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velásquez will be wrestling in the show and AAA really should build something around that because time is running out.