LUCHA LIBRE AAA WORLDWIDE
AAA NOCHE DE CAMPEONES 2022
DECEMBER 28, 2022
ARENA GNP SEGUROS
ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO

Watch: FITE

The show opened with a boring promo exchange between FTR and Konnan with Hugo Savinovich translating the promo in real-time in the middle of the ring. FTR want Hijo del Tirantes as the ref for their match later. Konnan agrees but Tirantes will be suspended if he doesn’t call it down the middle. There will be funny business.

There are a lot of empty seats ringside. Crowd looks empty.

AAA World Trios Championship
Nueva Generacion Dinamita (Cuatrero, Forastero & Sanson) © def. Aramis, Myzteziz Jr. & Willie Mack

Willie Mack started the match with his sexy dance routine. You’ve got to give the people what they want.

This was aggressively fine but a bit boring. NGD controlled the match from the opening bell and had a long beatdown period on all three members of the opposing team. Things, thankfully, picked up when Aramis and Myzteziz took to the air and Willie did some cool moves.

Mascara 2000 Jr. interfered to cut off the tecnicos’ momentum, allowing NGD to put things away and get the win. NGD make their 4th defense. I really miss the Poder del Norte openers. **½ 

AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship
Abismo Negro Jr. & Flammer def. Komander & Sexy Star and Lady Shani & Octagon Jr.

Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo have been stripped of the titles. They had two defenses in AEW, zero in AAA.

Before the match, we got another Konnan appearance so he can explain why the titles were vacant. This is AAA, I’m not sure why they’d feel the need to explain to the fans the status of the titles but I’ll take it, I guess.

This was OK. As is always the case with these kinds of matches in AAA, everybody gets a chance to hit their spots and then the rudos bring in the weapons to get an advantage over the rest of the field. This type of match can be really fun with the right wrestlers but this one seemed to lack something. Komander’s dope tijeras was the highlight of the match. 

Flammer pinned Sexy Star after a gnarly sitout hammerlock piledriver. I don’t have high hopes for these titles going into 2023 but anything will be better than the Sammy & Tay reign. ***

Copa Mundial Imperial
Pagano def. Dave The Clown, Murder Clown, Panic Clown, La Parka Negra, Aero Star, Blue Demon Jr., Jessy Ventura, La Diva Salvaje, Mr. Iguana, Nino Hamburguesa, Vampiro

This was contested under scramble rules. Pinfalls, submissions, and being thrown over the top rope count for an elimination.

These are usually bad. This was no different. Wrestlers did some spots. Aero Star and La Parka Negra showed some fire when beating the shit out of each other. Pagano did a jumping nothing from the apron into a table. Pagano pinned Vampiro with a sitout powerbomb to end the torture. ½* solely because of Aero Star and La Perka Negra’s stuff.

AAA Leyenda Azul Blue Demon Championship
Arez def. Taurus and Villano III Jr.

This title will be defended once a year. We’ll see if it makes an appearance in 2023.

This was a breath of fresh air after the Copa battle royal. Arez, Taurus, and Villano are all very good wrestlers and had a good match! Things really picked up near the end of the match when Arez was spiked directly on his head with a super poison rana. Taurus’ impact moves look super violent and his powerbomb onto his knees had me wincing in pain.

Arez, decked out in blue tights and blue face paint, got the win after the Sahawari Suplex on Villano III Jr. in around 11 minutes. This didn’t overstay its welcome and was a fine showcase of all three guys. Hopefully this leads to more uppercard opportunities for Arez in 2023. Probably not. ***½ 

AAA World Tag Team Championship
Hermanos Lee (Dragon Lee & Dralistico) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) ©

No matter the company (their recent AEW, ROH, and NJPW matches are Match of the Year Contenders) FTR will always have one of the greatest tag team matches you’ve ever seen… except for AAA. They come in with their generic “we’re an American tag team, USA! USA! USA!” shtick and don’t really do anything that stands out. Add in the Tirantes gimmick and this was never going to be a classic.

In fact, it wasn’t even good. I wouldn’t even put most of the blame on the wrestlers. This was the standard AAA international wrestler bullshit. The wrestling was fine when they actually wrestled but all the smoke and mirrors around it hurt my enjoyment. Guess who inserted himself into this match? Konnan, of course.

Konnan ejected Tirantes from ringside. Piero came out to be the new ref because this “dream match” needed ref drama and then Hermanos Lee won the titles for Mexico. Despite this being a “BIG WIN” for AAA and Mexico against the foreign invaders, the camera panned to the crowd where Marisela Pena looked bored beyond belief. FTR lose in their 5th defense. **½ 

The big news about this match came after the bell. First reported by ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, Dragon Lee has signed with WWE and will be reporting to NXT in January. Dragon Lee needs to learn to work the hard cam, pal! Luchablog has more about the story and notes that the AAA World Tag titles are now vacant. Tremendous!

This was also FTR’s last appearance in AAA. Tremendous!

Lots of speculation on Twitter and Newsletters the past 24 hours (I am writing this on December 29th) about the AAA-AEW relationship being done and AAA looking to work with the WWE. I won’t miss the AAA-AEW partnership if it is indeed over. It should give AAA a kick in the ass to develop their own big stars in the undercard for titles that kinda matter and maybe push guys like Arez and Octagon Jr. to higher spots on the roster. They probably won’t though because it’s AAA and they will rely on whatever old or American star they can get.

I don’t know if anybody will benefit from a WWE-AAA partnership. I think WWE would sign all the guys who would jump, promise something that will never happen, and never return their phone calls.

As for Dragon Lee, I wish him the best in his future endeavors in WWE. He is very talented and could be a major player if used properly. WWE does not have a good track record though. We’ll see what happens.

AAA Mega Championship
El Hijo del Vikingo © def. Bandido

This is why I sit through some of those awful undercard matches on these AAA shows! El Hijo del Vikingo is a wild man and continues to have great matches as the Mega champion. Add Bandido in the mix and you have a recipe for success.

Vikingo is so good at adapting on the fly. There were a few instances where he tried to springboard, slipped, but then hit a springboard from a different rope in one fluid motion. Most other wrestlers would give up but Vikingo makes it look easy.

Somehow Vikingo continues to add new stuff to his moveset that is just bonkers. At one point he jumped from the top rope to one of the steel trusses holding the lighting rig to hit a beautiful moonsault on Bandido below.

Bandido, a great high flier on his own, played his part as the power wrestler perfectly in this match. He was a good foil for Vikingo’s antics. His use of the exposed turnbuckle was particularly gnarly. Vikingo may be the human highlight reel of this match but Bandido helped make this as great as it was.

AAA’s production was horrible with the overhead chop exchange. A camera cut for every single chop in the sequence. It gave me a headache.

Here’s your late contender for spot of the year:

Vikingo hit the inverted 450 Splash for the win in just over twenty minutes. A tremendous match that is a late Match of the Year contender. You need to go out of your way to watch this! Vikingo makes his 7th of the AAA Mega title. ****½ 

Final Thoughts

Watch the main event. It’s the only thing worth watching on this show.

2023 will be a very interesting year for AAA. El Hijo del Vikingo will continue to get some bookings in the United States and I think there’s a good chance that he might be poached by one of the bigger companies in the States, especially after the Dragon Lee to WWE news.

Happy New Year! Maybe the Pagano vs. Cibernetico Hair vs. Hair match will end before the ball drops!