The third and final AAA TripleMania features one Lucha Brother putting his mask on the line and the other Brother challenging the most exciting luchador in Mexico. Either of those matches may end up as the match of the year. It’s also the usual AAA chaos, where everything is a little messier than it needs to be.

TripleMania XXX: Mexico City/Chapter 3 takes place this Saturday, October 15, at 8 pm. It’ll stream internationally on FITE for 23 USD in English and Spanish. Those FITE streams have worked fine and the English announcing is the best AAA has had. AAA will upload the show in parts to their YouTube later this month. The show will additionally air on various TV outlets in Mexico, but you don’t need to know the details if you’re reading this preview in English. Mexican fans can see the big matches for free (both over the air and on cable) on the same night as the show.

TripleMania XXX: Mexico City will be great. It’s going to be better than the disappointing Monterrey show, and it’s going to be better than the surprisingly alright Tijuana one in June. There are no old luchadors booked to remind fans of a feud from the 80s, and the show isn’t built around a famous US tag team making a guest appearance in an attempt to draw international eyeballs. Fenix & Penta graduated from regular AAA appearances too, but at least Mexican fans have a long and recent history with them. The same applies to Cibernetico, who has been closer to a full-timer. The special guests are much more familiar to casual fans.

It’s beneficial that AAA fans have that built-in history with those top guys because almost everything AAA has done to build this year’s show has been self-destructive. AAA is 30 years old this year, so they’ve established that they’re never going to clean up their act no matter how many times they say it’s happening. They’re always going to be a promotion with big projects they never finish before getting obsessed with a new idea.

AAA started lots of stories with their championships this year, and few of them have gone anywhere

  • Megachampionship: Hijo del Vikingo won the vacant title last December, defended it in February, and then never again until this show. Vikingo has been healthy and available. He’s just been cooling his heels in tag matches until now. AAA just stopped booking title matches.
  • Reina de Reinas: The last title match in Mexico was the last TripleMania Mexico City, where Deonna Purrazzo cheated to beat Faby Apache. Apache has since quit AAA, Purrazzo lost the belt in the US (never seen in Mexico), and the Mexico portion of the women’s division has been on pause for 14 months.
  • Tag Titles: FTR last defended the titles in Mexico in March. Three TripleManias have come and gone without FTR appearing. The sweet irony of FTR’s AEW gimmick as “#1 team who complains about champs never giving them a title match” is they are the champions who aren’t giving the #1 contenders a title shot for another promotion.
  • Trios: Nueva Generacion Dinamita are the champs and recently won the belts on TV. They defeated La Empresa, who destroyed the AAA tecnicos for a year, then took their first loss to a fellow rudo team because it was DMT Azul’s final night in AAA. This situation is the best of the belts.
  • Mixed Tag: Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo won the belts in Monterrey. AAA hasn’t seen them since. They’ve defended them in AEW, which AAA has ignored. They appear to be vacationing in Brazil during TripleMania week.
  • Latin American & Cruiserweight: Laredo Kid’s epically long Cruiserweight title reign ended in June, seemingly so Fenix would appear with both of these belts on AEW TV. Fenix has not appeared with these belts on AEW TV. These belts are more likely to be vacated than defended by Fenix again.

Five of AAA’s seven active championships are on people who don’t regularly wrestle for AAA, and outsiders/part-timers could pick up the remaining two titles on this show. This sort of thing might naturally happen as some invasion storyline or promotion versus promotion deal. The only promotions feuding here is AAA with itself, its desire to make a name in the US by putting belts on people who wrestle there versus doing anything with their regular native roster. This TripleMania works because it’s the time when many of those part-timers make it back to AAA. It doesn’t make up for an immensely frustrating weekly show this year, but this looks normal enough that casual fans won’t notice the under-the-surface chaos.

There are four outside of AAA TV events that will likely affect this show:

  1. The AAA five-way match on the Ric Flair ‘retirement’ show got strong reviews. It may have momentarily convinced management focusing on Mexicans having great matches might be their brand instead of being a land of international dream matches that couldn’t happen elsewhere. It may be why AAA isn’t in a hurry to pay to bring in those outsider champions for this show.
  2. “PWI 500 day” in most of the world was people making fun of a placement, getting angry about their number, or making fun of an angry person for about 24 hours. Everyone moved on except in Mexico, where “Hijo del Vikingo at 8” became a wrestling discourse talking point for weeks. It was much higher than people expected or were ready to see him, including AAA and Vikingo. It may have convinced all parties that Vikingo is a significantly bigger star than they’ve booked him so far.
  3. Hijo del Vikingo still is waiting for his US work visa, but – after years of being stuck in bureaucracy with no timeline to escape – he’s expected to receive permission to wrestle in the US sometime before the end of the year. Maybe that’ll work out smoothly, like Laredo Kid & Taurus working Impact, among other US dates, and still wrestling frequently for AAA. Maybe it’ll be chaos like Fenix & Penta quitting AAA (and also working Impact.) Anyone saying they know where Vikingo will be a year from now is a liar.
  4. AAA put tickets on sale for a December show in Tempe, Arizona, then announced they were running a show in Tempe a few hours later. That is the correct order of events. They have not talked about the show since. I’m skeptical this show is happening, especially since wrestlers who should be on an AAA US show keep getting advertised in other places that day. Either AAA goes overboard in promoting that Arizona show on TripleMania, or we can chalk it up to AAA putting tickets on sale for a show they weirdly never wanted to run.

TripleMania will kick off with a Marvel Lucha Libre match.

AAA’s poster pictures teams while stating those weren’t the actual teams. It’s just superheroes versus villains, participants TBA. Even knowing the characters involved wouldn’t necessarily help, as AAA has changed the people doing the gimmicks over different shows. AAA has billed this as the first part of a tournament to decide a Marvel Lucha Libre championship on a December show in Acapulco. AAA’s dedication to this concept is hard to understand. Marvel/Disney appeared to move on from this concept long ago, but maybe some relaunch is coming because of how insistent AAA is that this is a live idea.

The second match is the usual Copa TripleMania battle royal (called Copa Bardahl for sponsorship reasons.) Microman won this in Monterrey, Mr. Iguana won in Tijuana, and Nino Hamburguesa seems the favorite to win this one as the third person in the group. The Iguana, Hamburgeusa, Microman trio is feuding with a Crazy Boy-led unit of Dragon Gate’s SB Kento & Takuma Fujiwara. Crazy Boy’s crew isn’t advertised but may end up involved. Chessman, Taurus, Sexy Star (II), Lady Shani, Flip Gordon, Diva Salvaje, Jessy Ventura, and Aerostar are advertised, as well as an unknown number of surprise participants.

AAA has been typically weird with basic concepts like “what time does the show start?” mentioning one in a pre-show at 7 pm local, never saying what would be on that pre-show, and never mentioning it again. Maybe those first two matches will end up taking place before FITE starts. Maybe AAA is adding bonus matches for people who show up early. Maybe AAA just quietly dropped the pre-show. I don’t know.

Látigo & Toxin vs. Komander & Myzteziz vs. Arez & Willie Mack vs. Dragón Lee & Dralistico; the winner gets an AAA tag title shot at FTR (someday)

FTR’s last defense in March ended with Pentagon accidentally costing Dragon Lee the title win. It appeared to set up some combination of FTR, Lucha Brothers, and Hermanos Lee as the subsequent title match. FTR instead ghosted, Fenix & Pentagon exited the tag division, and Dragon Lee & Dralistico were left wrestling in never-ending and never-meaningful 2v2 matches against the rest of the roster. Dragon Lee & Dralistico criticized this match at the press conference where AAA announced it. They’re correct; they should already be the #1 contenders. AAA benefited from being the fourth most important tag team championship on AEW TV while everyone ran in place in Mexico.

It’s a foregone conclusion that Dragon Lee & Dralistico are winning, not just because of that lingering title shot. The rest of the field is talented but not threats. AAA books Los Vipers Latigo & Toxin as lower-level goons. Arez also was part of the Vipers until splitting with them in May to form a unit with Fenix & Penta. We’re still waiting for that team to happen. Arez will instead team with Willie Mack here, which means the match will start with a minute-long dance break. Komander and Myzteziz are two living human tecnicos in AAA and are available, so they’ll also be a duo. Arez & Latigo seem good at constructing matches with many people involved, and this one has the talent to be memorable if they can keep it somewhat organized. It may feel like one too many similar matches by the night’s end.

Nuevo Generacion Dinamtia (Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón) vs. Bandido, Laredo Kid, Psycho Clown vs Brian Cage, Johnny Caballero, Sam Adonis for the AAA Trios Championship

Someone forgot to book a program for Psycho Clown in time for TripleMania, so he’s wedged into a random trios title match. AAA has started the build towards a Psycho/Adonis – an indie version of the match that got Adonis into AAA in the first place – but it’s too soon to do the singles. Plus, there’s a bunch of other people with nothing to do for AAA’s biggest show of the year. Laredo Kid and Bandido are adrift; AAA has most recently ported in Bandido’s feud with Flamita from his own Big Lucha promotion as something to do. It’s probably not a great sign AAA needs to borrow from a once-a-month indie promotion for ideas, but it’s better than nothing.

NGD has seemed more motivated since getting to these trios titles. AAA appeared to promise them a chance to face some foreigners for a change, then brought in the three most familiar foreigners to AAA fans. Johnny Caballero had been mostly light comedy in his latest post-WWE stint, so at least he’s not doing it in the main event this time. Brian Cage is here probably because he’s also supposed to be a Marvel character, which isn’t the most compelling reason to see him booked on a show. Cage at least fits in with the AAA chaos well. A title change is doubtful.

Taya © vs. Kamille for the AAA Reina De Reinas Championship

How we got here:

  • Deonna Purrazzo does some mildly anti-Mexican commentary before beating Faby Apache for the AAA Reina de Reinas title.
  • The avenging Mexican hero who defeated Purrazzo the Mexicans is Taya. On an Impact show, not an AAA one. AAA references a title change happening but never shows clips or anything useful.
  • AAA books Taya for the TripleMania Tijuana show with no real purpose, and she does a promo offering the winner of the mask match on the show a shot at the championship.
  • Flammer unmasks Chik Tormenta, and fans start talking about the upcoming Flammer/Taya title match.
  • AAA does not book the Flammer/Taya title match on TV, but maybe it’s happening at TripleMania?
  • AAA announced Taya/Thunder Rosa for TripleMania instead. Fans are slightly disappointed but understanding: it’s Thunder Rosa near the peak of her AEW title run. She’s a famous Mexican who’s rarely wrestled in Mexico and never for AAA. It’s something fans already have a reason to see.
  • Thunder Rosa pulls out of TripleMania due to injury. Flammer’s getting her title shot for sure!
  • AAA announced Taya/Kamille. Everyone is unhappy.

AAA realizes they’ve messed this one up enough to acknowledge it on TV. Flammer and the rest of Las Toxicas complained to Taya about repeatedly defending the Reina de Reina championship against foreigners. Taya correctly pointed out she’s not the one booking the matches. (Is it a good sign to have multiple wrestlers questioning the promotion’s booking as part of AAA segments?) I believe AAA eventually plans on giving Flammer her title shot. In the meantime, they’re left with a rematch from a promotion almost no one in Mexico watches, with only a couple of subtitles promos to build it.

Dorian Roldan optimistically hyped Taya versus Kamille as being the best women’s matches in Mexico this year and possibly one of the best anywhere. Roldan’s hype came a few days after the universally praised La Jarochita/Reyna Isis CMLL match, and it seems massively unfair to expect Taya & Kamille to equal that. Tay has been average at best in AAA this year, but the mechanics of wrestling are only some of the obstacles. Taya/Kamille is a cold match where a group of fans loudly wanted something else. These two women could kill it, but it might not get over. I hope everyone who enjoyed this feud in NWA buys this show, but it will be a tough battle to win over the live Mexico City audience. Taya will likely retain, though I wonder if it would make a big difference either way.

Cibernético vs. Pagano, hair vs hair

Simple build for this one.

Cibernetico showed up in February, representing a past AAA era returning for its 30th Anniversary. Pagano confronted him, telling him to move aside for his new era. Cibernetico and his Los Vipers beat up Pagano. Repeat these four-eight months, with nothing progressing. Pagano and Cibernetico have occasionally survived ‘severe injuries’ only to show up perfectly normal (for them) on the next show. Konnan has loosely allied himself with Pagano, which means he’s a 75/25 bet to ‘shockingly’ betray Pagano during this match. AAA has brought Vampiro as a recurring guest referee for the later stages of this feud. AAA has yet to announce him as the referee for his match, but he is likely to be involved.

This match will be a car crash, as all big Pagano TripleMania matches end up being. Cibernetico couldn’t do much even in his best days and is limited now, but he’s got a half dozen people ready to run interference for him. Other wrestlers of Cibernetico’s era – Charly Manso, Zorro, Heavy Metal – have been hanging around AAA and might find ways to get involved. Konnan and Vampiro will make sure they get a pop on the biggest AAA show of the year. This match won’t be conventionally good, but it’ll be dramatic, meme-worthy, and helpfully something different than the seven other matches on this show.

Pagano’s character can absorb losing as long as he does it memorably, and he doesn’t have much hair to lose anyway. Cibernetico was once the top guy in AAA, a level never reached by Pagano, and Pagano doesn’t have much hair to lose. Conventional wisdom is that Cibernetico is beating Pagano here. I believe the outcome is going the other way. Ciber doesn’t appear under an AAA contract and may not be long for this promotion and will need a new reason to exist as soon as this match wins. It makes more sense for Pagano to overcome the ghost of AAA’s past. I’m not sure I can count on AAA making sense.

Fénix vs. Hijo Del Vikingo for the AAA Mega Championship

Kenny Omega appears to be a decent guy and has had a lot of great matches. He also unwittingly messed up a year of booking for AAA’s title by trying to do a nice thing. AAA booked Omega/Vikingo because that’s the match Omega wanted to do until Omega was physically unable to do it. Omega was the one who saw Vikingo as a top guy. AAA saw Vikingo instead as a great guy who might be a top guy in a year or two and booked him looking like that sort of secondary champion. AAA has stacked their roster with guys who would’ve been perfect title defense opponents – Taurus, Laredo Kid, Rey Escorpion, Bandido – who could’ve made Vikingo come off as that unbeatable top champion.

AAA instead had him beat Johnny Caballero once in March and drift in meaningless trios matches, waiting for that Omega-level match to be the proper start of Vikingo’s reign.

Clinging tight to the hope of the Vikingo/Omega messed up the final leg of this journey. AAA’s other TripleManias built towards a Fenix/VIkingo match, while the commentary seemed directed to keep Omega/Vikingo alive. There was no unity of thought in AAA, and AAA eventually pawned the decision to the fans. AAA’s big idea was to leave the decision to an open fan vote to pick whomever they want. The likely plan was AAA would pay attention to who was getting votes but mainly use it to explain why AAA wasn’t at fault for not delivering whichever title defense they had teased but weren’t going to run. The idea backfired, as it is often left up to the internet to decide things. Juventud Guerrera fully embraced being the Boaty McBoatface of this contest and quickly rallied enough support to win the social media poll. Konnan, just as much trying to get himself in the news, revealed he’d tried to book Omega on TripleMania for the spot and had gotten turned down as part of sharing a podcast story about the length of Omega’s suspension. Most fans would’ve accepted and been excited for Fenix as Vikingo’s opponent at the original press conference. AAA made the match instead in a fashion that made it clear Fenix wasn’t the rightful winner of the poll (that was Guerrera) or the person AAA wanted in the spot (that was Omega.) It was an amazingly self-defeating build to what will still be an outstanding title match.

(Officially, Omega isn’t on TripleMania because his current AEW status doesn’t allow him to wrestle anywhere. Unofficially, it seemed like a polite way to ask out. Omega could’ve won the fan poll easily with just one Twitter post asking his followers to vote and instead stayed away from acknowledging this silliness. Coming to Mexico to lose makes less sense when NJPW is back on your horizon.)

The stupidity in getting to Fenix vs. Vikingo doesn’t change how stupidly good the match will be. Those two guys want to be the best and are fully capable of being it on the right day. AAA will give them that platform; they’ve consistently given these guys a clean platform to go all out. There’s not going to be interference or evil referees – I expect former Lucha Underground referee Marty Elias to handle this match and do unusually normal three counts. They’ll get all the time they want, and there is no ceiling to the match.

This reign has no momentum. Vikingo never traveled a road to the title and has yet to do much with the belt since winning it. There are helpful stories to be told of Vikingo taking a painful loss and fighting his way back to the top again, proving himself to fans who still see him as too small to be the center champion. On the other hand, Vikingo does have a lot of fan support, and Vikingo, as AAA’s centerpiece champion, gives AAA something no one else has. Putting another title on a part-time guy seems insane, given how many other titles are on part-time people that have meant nothing. I want the result to be Fenix winning to run this back again later, and I suspect that will happen; the idea of the two Lucha Brothers standing tall at the end of the night is too tempting. I’m just skeptical AAA can tell the rest of this story.

Pentagón Jr. vs Villano IV, mask versus mask

Breaks can be everything in wrestling. The biggest match of Villano IV’s career (and maybe even after) was his family defeating the Los Brazos family in a mask match that’s an integral part of Mexican wrestling history. That feud started as Villanos I & II against Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata and grew to include III and El Brazo. Villano III went on to great success, Villano II left wrestling, so it was Villanos I, IV, and V who captured the masks of the rivals they’d known since they were all children. Los Villanos likely expected to wrestle their entire life in UWA, only for the group to collapse around them during a period of meaningful changes in the early 90s. That left Villano IV and V into AAA, and to the vision of Konnan as he was looking for a bunch of Mexican wrestlers to take with him to WCW, the best-paying run of their career. Even recently, CMLL had restarted the Villano III/Atlantis feud with their sons and brought in Villano IV to mentor his nephew. The pandemic derailed that, leaving Villano IV as credible and available when AAA came up with this tournament idea. Villano IV has had a solid career as a decorated tag team wrestler and will have his biggest singles match ever at 57 because that’s how the cards fell.

Pentagon’s never really had his big singles moment in Mexico. His biggest singles title wins have come in Lucha Underground, Impact, and the indies. His only singles reign in AAA was a brief reign to build heat for Johnny Mundo. Penta has done well in AEW, but there’s no obvious path upward from where he’s at it, especially not as an individual. This mask match is about as significant for him as for Villano IV.

The Villano IV tournament matches have exceeded expectations so far. This one might not, only because everyone understands what to expect now. Villano IV will throw hard punches, show great emotion, and probably bleed heavily. Pentagon used to do all of those things before he got a bit more cleaned up and toned down as a US TV wrestler, and Villano IV pulling him back into the muck for one night sounds fun. It’s a great contrast with the other big men’s singles matches. Cibernetico and Pagano will be a production of contraptions and run-ins, Vikingo and Fenix will be about impressive moves and lots of near falls, and Pentagon and Villano IV should be two guys slugging it outside a bar.

Only two of the Villanos ever lost their mask in the ring. Villano III lost his to Atlantis. He put up a massive fight only to be so broken in the end that there was nothing left to do but run straight into the finishing hold of the hero of CMLL. Villano V lost his mask to Ultimo Guerrero, but only after pulling off the greatest mask match-upsets of all time by defeating Blue Panther. Villano IV beating Pentagon would be an even bigger upset. I feel safe in believing Villano IV’s night will end up like III, fighting his heart out until he discovers he has no choice but to succumb to a painful loss. Saturday night (or perhaps early Sunday morning) will see Fenix and Penta standing in the center of the ring with newly won trophies.

A show with two matches that might be the best of the year from a country is an easy recommendation. You might want to watch it on a delay to skim through the less exciting parts, but this feels like one not to skip. And the best news is after this TripleMania is over, you can steer clear of the rest of AAA until 2023.