Lucha Libre AAA
Triplemanía Regia II
December 4, 2021
Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey
Monterrey, Mexico

Watch: FITE

Meet Our Reviewers:

Ricardo Gallegos: Ricardo is grumpy at AAA for their lazy booking and atrocious main event, but still hopeful Triplemania Regia will be a fun night of dumb action. Follow him @wallyrgr

Griffin Peltier: Griffin wishes Hugo Savinovich a Merry Christmas. That is all. @Hollywd12

The show opened with a pre-tape of a marching band and an army helicopter flying around over the stadium followed by a pre-tape of a runway fashion show for their Liga MX football jerseys. This is the AAA we all know and love. <3

Lumberjack Strap Match
Las Toxicas (Lady Maravilla, La Hiedra, and Flammer) def. Faby Apache, Lady Shani, and Sexy Star II

Griffin: This was supposed to be a dark match but made the main card for AAA reasons. Sexy Star (not that one) has improved a lot since I’ve last seen her and she was a lot of fun in this one. She was dumped on her head on a German suplex early on but did not let it faze her. It did not take long for the lumberjacks to start fighting amongst themselves which led to chaos in the ring and then El Tirantes came down to the ring to a big pop. El Hijo del Tirantes was kicked out of the ring and was chased backstage while being whipped – leading to Tirantes entering the ring to be the ref. Sexy Star continued her streak of stealing Kenny Omega’s moveset by hitting a One-Winged Angel. Hijo del Tirantes returned while Tirantes was distracted, hit Favy Apache (his enemy) and did a fast count to give Las Toxicas. This was a chaotic start to the show. After the match, Taya returned in a pre-taped promo wanting Deonna’s Reina de Reinas titles. **¾

Konnan is here to ask us if we’ve listened to his podcast. Cibernetico, on a motorcycle, interrupted him. AAA, being the absolute best company that they are, showed Cibernetico setting up on the bike before Konnan came to the ring to do his promo. Cibernetico is back to lead Los Vipers.

Nueva Generación Dinamita (El Cuatrero, Sansón, and Forastero) def. El Poder del Norte (Tito Santana, Carta Brava Jr., and Mocho Cota Jr.), Los Vipers (Abismo Negro Jr., Arez, and Psicosis)

Griffin: Los Vipers and NGD started fighting before Poder del Norte made their entrance, very indicative of the action that followed. It did not take long for PdN to introduce the weapons into the match, turning this into an action-packed all-out brawl. Goya Kong, who turned heel at Triplemania but is now a face, worked as the fourth member of PdN throughout the match. She’s not very good but she is over. Poder del Norte has a strong case as the best trio in wrestling. They never take it slow and always put in the work to make the AAA undercards can’t miss. That said, the other teams came to work and all had moments to shine. Lots of tables and chairs were broken prompting Hugo’s famous PELIGRO PELIGRO call, which intensified when bundles of light tubes were introduced by Psicosis and Arez. As fate would have it, Psicosis went ass first into the tubes and a table in just another spot in this one. NGD finally won the match with a catapult putting Arez through a table. This was intense and a lot of fun to watch. If you enjoy weapon spot fests, this one is for you. ****

La Empresa (Puma King, Sam Adonis, and DMT Azul) def. Chessman and Los Psycho Circus (Dave The Clown and Murder Clown)

Ricardo: This was the first match in Mexico’s broadcast of Triplemania Regia, and a nice introduction for yours truly. Just a dumb chaotic brawl where La Empresa run havoc. Sam Adonis has been practicing his high flying and he wanted to prove it by using a bunch of ugly dives. And talking about ugly, thank you Murder Clown for gifting us with the world’s slowest 619 spot. There were some fun hope spots that allowed Murder Clown to pump the crowd, and Dave the Clown to continue to look great in his técnico run. Tables were broken and clowns were betrayed by… more clowns. There wasn’t any originality but the chaos was fun enough to give the people a good time. Funnily enough, the best part came after the match when Sam Adonis randomly decided to moonsault off the top rope to the floor. He tried to hit someone in a stretcher but failed miserably and landed on the floor, very far from his target, thus creating an hypnotic and memorable GIF ***

Griffin: Dave The Clown is full tecnico now, coming to the ring in the Sultanes jersey! This was really rough until they brought weapons into the ring, but even that didn’t add much. Estrellita stayed in the ring for most of the match, making this a four versus three. This lacked everything the previous match excelled at. This felt boring, the action was middling, and the heels controlling the match went way too long. The faces got the upper hand when they put Puma through a giant plank of wood with light tubes on it, Murder speared Adonis and Estrellita through another plank of wood, and then Dave traded arm drags with DMT Azul to bookend that violence. Everybody was outside so Murder Clown did a dive. The clowns who came out with Psycho Circus turned on Murder Clown, leading to DMT Azul to powerbomb him off the top rope through a not-so flaming table. They ripped off Dave The Clown’s mask to get the easy win. This was not good, the energy felt off and the finish was lacklustre. I’m done with the La Empresa storyline. DMT, Adonis, and Puma King do not feel like invaders and them never adding any new members despite always having random masked people with them leads to the same finish every time. Add more people, add some new stuff, or please end this story. **

Los Hermanos Lee (Dragon Lee and Dralístico) def. Laredo Kid and Willie Mack

Ricardo: Willie Mack was Laredo Kid’s surprise opponent, and it proved to be an inspired choice. He’s already popular in the North of México and, before the start of the match, he gifted us with dancing so sexy that it pushed this to the Show of the Year Contender conversation. Willie “Chocolate Caliente” Mack was super over. Throughout the match, the crowd chanted “Chocolate Sensual” at him and his big spots were received by huge pops. When he was pinned at the end of the match, heavy boos fell over Dragon Lee. And the match itself was fast and well-worked, but didn’t reach any spectacular heights. The match only came alive whenever Willie Mack was in the ring. An entertaining match where technically everyone looked good, HOWEVER, how bad is AAA’s booking that a man dancing gets more cheers than Laredo Kid, the AAA in-ring MVP of the last few years and possibly Mexico’s best wrestler? ***¾

Griffin: “Chocolate Caliente” Willie Mack is Laredo Kid’s surprise partner. Hugo marked out for Mack, as he should! Willie Mack’s dance routine was interrupted by a dropkick. Laredo Kid and Dragon Lee had an intense chop exchange early on and this match popped off afterwards. Willie Mack may be the most over guy in Monterrey and he had a fun back-and-forth with Dralistico. Laredo Kid is the MVP of Mexico in 2021 and added to that case in this match. Everything he did was super crisp. Los Hermanos Lee were very impressive in their AAA tag team debut. I understand why AAA management wants their titles on American television via AEW but this should be their big tag team feud mixed in with the Lucha Bros. This was a lot of fun and never had a dull moment. Dives and Destroyers galore and the crowd was going absolutely nuts for every single one. Willie Mack got a nearfall that got one of the loudest reactions in wrestling all year but was quickly taken out with a running knee from Dragon Lee. This was fantastic and a contender for Lucha MOTY! Four wrestlers doing their all with such an electric crowd. If there’s any American promotion that wants to use luchadors as something different, this is a match they should repeat. Highly recommend checking this one out! ****½ 

AAA World Tag Team Championship, Ladder Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) © def. Lucha Bros (Pentagón Jr. and Fénix)

Ricardo: While Willie Mack used his charisma to get over organically, FTR had to use the old racist American trope to try to elicit an ounce of a reaction from the crowd. How original of them. 

Anyway, this was a match. There were ladders, there were flips, and there certainly were people climbing up and down. **

Griffin: Vickie Guerrero and FTR, wearing American flag gear, had to harass my main man Hugo Savinovich earlier in the night to get heat. I’m not sure why they didn’t start the match then but if there’s one thing AAA is known for, it is sticking to the rules and match order. This was turned into a Ladder Match for some reason. Despite all the heat from earlier, FTR got zero crowd reaction in their entrance. This was a generic AAA ladder match where weapons were involved but things felt clunky in between the spots. Fenix did have some cool spots as he always does. I don’t know why Vickie was here. She did a few interference spots and held a USA flag while FTR declared independence or something. I don’t know, I’m Canadian. Pentagon’s mask was tied up in the ring ropes and him taking it off (while hiding his face) to push over a ladder got a nice pop. Vickie threw powder in Pentagon’s face and he jumped off the ladder backwards through a table while Dax unhooked the belts. This was fine, nothing spectacular. The crowd died as soon as the match ended. ***

Psycho Clown, Pagano, and Cain Velasquez def. L.A. Park and Los Mercenarios (Rey Escorpión and Taurus)

Ricardo: This was one weird match. As expected, LA Park was over and Caín Velásquez was heavily booed. The match was built around them teasing interactions, doing some mat work, and finally going at it. But, except for Pagano doing some horrendous wrestling, I honestly can’t remember anything anyone else did here. After chaos ensued and Park was dominant in the middle of the ring, lights went out and instead of El Sabu showing up, 61-year-old Rayo de Jalisco Jr. appeared in the entrance ramp. This distracted LA Park which allowed Cain to make him tap out with an armbar.

Rayo, visibly upset because of the negative reaction he got, walked to the ring, but was interrupted by Nueva Generación Dinamita who insulted him. Rayo insulted back and reminded them of how he took Cien Caras’ mask (father of Cuatrero and Sansón). NGD got angry and attacked Rayo who was saved by Psycho and friends. The crowd couldn’t care less: they were here for LA Park. **

Griffin: LA Park is so over with this crowd that they are booing Cain Velasquez and Psycho Clown! Bizarro Land has travelled down to Mexico and found a new home in Monterrey, one of the few places I have heard Psycho Clown booed for every single thing he did in the match. This match was fine until Park and Cain got in the ring where it seemed more like a shoot fight than traditional lucha libre. They beat the shit out of each other until Taurus and Escorpion jumped in to make this the standard AAA trios brawl around the ring with assorted weaponry. Park and Cain brawled into the crowd where drinks went flying and chairs were broken. While the match continued, the lights went out and 61-year-old Rayo de Jalisco Jr. came out on stage to distract LA Park that led to Cain locking in a submission to make Park tap. That was a classic AAA finish. Rayo finished his respectful promo but was then interrupted by NGD to beat him up. Psycho, Pagano, Cain, and Rayo fought them off and the crowd hated it. **

AAA Mega Championship
Hijo del Vikingo def. Samuray del Sol, Jay Lethal, Bobby Fish, Bandido

Ricardo: The AEW people got a good (or, at least, better than expected) reaction which is quite interesting and, in this case, gave a little extra juice to the match. I hope that means AEW is steadily growing in México. 

Everyone worked hard and the flow was good. Lethal and Fish legit looked excited to be wrestling here. However, the match could never break out of its generic structure. This was a flippy fast scramble whose only “different” quality from the stuff you see in GCW or any other US indie, was Vikingo’s tremendous talent: he made sure to send the front-row fans happy back home. At the end, he pinned Samuray del Sol after a shaky middle-rope moonsault and a Cuerno del Vikingo. AAA técnicos came out to celebrate with Vikingo for his great win, and it was definitely a beautiful moment. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how better it would have been if this moment was the result of Vikingo defeating Kenny Omega in the middle of the ring after a MOTY contender. It’s the least he would have deserved. ***¼

Griffin: It’s time for the main event! This is such a weird collection of guys. This did have a lot of cool spots and all five guys did work hard. Vikingo was a human highlight reel, as usual, but the others worked very hard and got over with this crowd on their own merit. Bandido should be brought back to AAA a lot more than he is, he’s always been a favourite and works well in these big spots. Bandido and Vikingo had a lot of cool moments with each other and that’s a match I would not mind seeing more of down the line. However, most of the match felt very basic. It was five guys doing spots. It did not feel like a Triplemania main event nor did it feel like a World title match. Vikingo winning was a cool moment and something that has been a long time coming but it does not feel like a huge moment because he beat four random outsiders. I know Kenny Omega’s injuries changed the story but it would’ve meant so much more to this win if they waited until Omega was available again. We’ll probably get that match at some point. I’m a big Vikingo fan, he’s one of the best in the country, but this did not feel like a crowning moment. They had the locker room cheer him on and the pyro to signal this as a big moment but it felt off. Nice moment, decent match, but could have been a lot hotter if they waited just a little bit longer to finally pay off their big Kenny Omega vs. Mexico’s best storyline. ***1/4