ASISTENCIA ASESORÍA Y ADMINISTRACIÓN
AAA INVADING NY
SEPTEMBER 14, 2019
NEW YORK CITY, USA
HULU THEATRE

It was a bumpy road to get to Invading NY. AAA booked the MSG but ticket sales were very poor and they eventually had to change the show to the smaller Hulu Theatre inside MSG. A final card was never released, probably due to Visa issues and the usual AAA lack of organization. But that’s all in the past and AAA is finally running a big show in the US again.

Let’s see how it goes.

MASCARITA SAGRADA & CHRIS DICKINSON DEF. DAVE THE CLOWN & DEMUS

Just look at this match! No better way to start a AAA show in New York than to have Chris Dickinson team up with Mascarita Sagrada (who’s actually Mascarita Dorada) in a nice little opener that featured a very hot crowd. Chris Dickinson was great and made Dave the Clown look like the world’s slowest wrestler: their interactions were cool, but Dave just couldn’t match Dickinson’s pace. For the finish, Mascarita Sagrada took Demus for a long, magnificent tijeras ride ending up in a cover to pin him, getting a huge pop in the process. ***¼

JOSH ALEXANDER, MICHAEL ELGIN & SAMI CALLIHAN DEF. FABY APACHE, MURDER CLOWN & DRAGO

Chaotic action in this AAA vs. Impact match that had some nice teamwork from both sides. The first half of the match consisted on the Impact guys overwhelming Faby Apache; the crowd – that didn’t care about the Impact wrestlers – ate this up and reacted with a big ovation when Murder Clown got the hot tag. 

The last five minutes were excellent. Sami piledrived Faby, but Drago saved her and hit a Canadian Destroyer for a pinfall. Next, Josh Alexander hit an Avalanche Belly to Belly Suplex to Drago but Murder took him out before he could do more damage. Big Mike entered the foil, he german suplexed Murder and then hit a tope con giro on a bunch of guys outside the ring. Then, Murder Clown appeared and hit his own tope con giro for a huge pop. Murder took Big Mike inside the ring and tried a superplex, but – while Sami was distracting the ref – Elgin gave him a low blow and hit an Elgin Bomb for the win. Also, big props to José Manuel Guillén, who not only was superb calling the action but also managed to talk about Impact storylines and tried to get over their stars, all the contrary to Rudo River, who was alongside him and kept confusing Josh Alexander with Michael Elgin. ***½

DAGA DEF. PUMA KING, FLAMITA & AEROSTAR

This was a #1 Contender match for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship. It’s a shame that AAA Cruiserweight champion Laredo Kid will be shooting a reality show on an island during the next 3-4 months. Anyway, the match was the spotfest you’d expect with Flamita flying around, Pumita doing Frankensteiners, Daga doing solid work all around and… well, the only thing missing here was Aerostar dropping from a tall structure. Sometimes the match was too much but the work by everyone involved was top notch. ***¾

AAA REINA DE REINAS CHAMPIONSHIP
TAYA DEF. TESSA BLANCHARD (C)

Another good match in this AAA show, now featuring an intense confrontation for the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship between two women that know each other very well thanks to their recent Impact feud. The heat and pace with which Taya and Tessa were working helped the match tremendously; the crowd didn’t look that interested at the beginning but they got more and more invested in the action, especially after Tessa savagely dropkicked Tessa into the metal steps. We got many nearfalls towards the end of the match, but Taya managed to get the upper hand with some nice moves like a Package Piledriver, a Northern Lights Suplex and finally, the Road to Valhalla for the win. Taya is now a 3 times Reina de Reinas champion. ***¾

AAA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
LUCHA BROTHERS (FÉNIX & PENTAGÓN JR.)  DEF. LAX (SANTANA & ORTIZ)

Lucha Brothers need new tag teams to feud with. Their LAX and Young Bucks rivalries were too long and therefore I wasn’t very excited with this match and it took awhile for me to get invested in anything these guys were doing. But, the tag team stuff was too good and I eventually couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. The chemistry was palpable and the sequences were tremendous: the spanish announcers were utterly impressed, the crowd was living and dying for the Lucha Brothers and the last five minutes were very entertaining. However, I felt I had already seen some of the stuff and the ridiculous amount of canadian destroyers hurt the match for me. Lucha Brothers go the win after hitting Factor Ánimo (and Fénix taking out Ortiz with a tope). ***¾

CAÍN VELÁSQUEZ, PSYCHO CLOWN & BRIAN CAGE DEF. TEXANO JR., REY ESCORPIÓN & BLACK TAURUS

Everyone worked hard in this fun, easy-to-watch match that featured another solid performance by Caín Velássquez, who got to dive from the top rope to a bunch of guys on the floor and even pinned Taurus after a Springboard Ace Crusher. Cage was superb and even the always-lost Rudo Rivera on commentary had to praise his efforts. Just like in Triplemania, Black Taurus was the key component here, bumping all over the place for Cain but also hitting cool power moves when needed. Rey Escorpión and Texano played their parts to perfection, always trying some dastardly moves to take advantage of the técnicos and giving some nice storytelling to the action. Psycho was a shiny ball of energy that was in charge of pumping the crowd. Everything blended nicely and it was a blast to watch. ***¾

If you are wondering what was the thing that followed the Cain match, it was a ‘Grito de Independencia’ ceremony: a tradition in Mexico’s Independence Day (September 16th) in which we honor the heroes that kicked off Mexico’s (then known as Nueva España) attempt at becoming independent from Spain in 1810.

WAGNER JR. DEF. BLUE DEMON JR.

No cinder blocks in this one. Wagner and Demon just wrestled and it might’ve been the best I’ve seen Demon in non-plunder stuff in a while. The work wasn’t clean and there was lots of sloppiness going on, but I felt Wagner and Demon were really trying to give this foreign crowd a taste of good old-school lucha libre (Wagner even wrestled 95% of the match with his mask on) and I really appreciated the effort. The match might not have been spectacular but it wasn’t bad and it managed to absorb me until the weird finish in which Demon dived from the top rope, Wagner caught him and reversed into a pin that got him the victory: I liked the idea and the fact that it was something ‘different’ but it felt too random and didn’t land with the crowd. Anyway, I thought this was a nice way to cap things off and give some lucha libre nostalgia to the fans in attendance. ***¼

After the match, an enraged Blue Demon attacked Dr. Wagner Jr. and was soon joined by the Impact wrestlers. But the AAA guys came to the rescue and Cain Velásquez even got to give Sami and armbar. The crowd went nuts and after the heels were successfully repelled, Dr. Wagner Jr. took the mic to cut a promo: “Fellow countrymen, we party because we are celebrating our Independence. We are all happy to be here because lucha libre is 100% from Mexico to the World. As I’ve always said, this catchphrase is yours: ‘En esta casa y con mi gente, se me respeta’ (In my house, and with my people, I get respect!)”.

FINAL THOUGHTS

AAA Invading NY was a great, fun and easy to watch show that showcased some of AAA’s biggest qualities: a colorful and unique roster, lots of dives, crazy spotfests and tremendous performers. Fellow VOW writer Taylor Maimbourg was in attendance and mentioned the Hulu Theatre was full and the atmosphere was hot for the matches, and that’s something that definitely translated to the stream because I got to hear loud chants and much emotion throughout pretty much the entire 2 and a half hour show, which by the way is fantastic: I wish all AAA shows would last under three hours.

If AAA had aimed for this show to be in the Hulu Theatre (or a small arena like that) in the first place, this would’ve felt like a huge success. However, the fact that they tried to fill the MSG and then had to backtrack to a smaller arena due to poor ticket sales, left a bad impression of them. I don’t know how many PPV buys AAA Invading New York got, but I sure hope they were many because this show was perfect to push the brand – at least a little bit – forward in their efforts to expand into the US. We’ll see if this helps the ticket sales for the upcoming LA show.