Lucha Libre AAA
Triplemania XXXI: Mexico City
August 12, 2023
Arena Ciudad de Mexico
Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, Mexico

Watch: FITE

Third Triplemania of the year. Surely this one will be good, right? Right!?

La Hiedra, Maravilla, Chik Tormenta def. Dalys, Lady Shani, Sexy Star

Obligatory not that Sexy Star. Hijo del Tirantes was the ref so ref shenanigans were guaranteed. I can’t hear the crowd at all. The work was slow and uninspired with ass shots and all that. Sexy Star was the highlight, like usual, and should be doing better things than this. Tirantes did the slow count and then attacked Shani leading to Tormenta driving Shani through a table for the win. Tirantes Sr. and Tirantes Jr. fought after the match. Who gives a shit? *¾

Copa Bardahl Triplemania XXXI Battle Royal
Laredo Kid def. Komander, Willie Mack, Dave The Clown, Pagano, Aramis, Mr. Iguana, Murder Clown, Arez, Octagon Jr., Myzteziz Jr., Nino Hamburguesa

Lots of talented wrestlers in this match who could be used in awesome matches on this show. So here they are in a battle royal with camera cuts that actively take away from the match. The wrestling was fine, it’s hard to be actively bad with the amount of talent in the match. Dave The Clown creampied Arez. Willie Mack did his dance. Texano Jr. blindsided Pagano during his entrance and the two brawled around the stage. Texano threw Pagano off a forklift aiming for the two flaming tables below but Pagano missed. They lost signal to the venue a bit after that. Laredo Kid beat Komander for the win. **¾ for what we saw, I guess? If you’ve seen one Copa Triplemania, you’ve seen them all.

AAA Reina de Reinas Championship
Flammer def. Taya Valkyrie ©

They finally did the Flammer/Taya match! Las Toxicas seconded Flammer, Lady Shani seconded Taya. Taya had MTN DEW Baja Gold hair. Las Toxicas got involved quickly and Taya ran the razor from coast to coast. She bled a lot and it added to the match. The wrestling was pretty basic. Las Toxicas interfered again to distract the ref, leading to a gnarly piledriver from Flammer for the win. Flammer became the 31st Reina de Reinas champion. This was Taya’s best match in a long time. **½

Negro Casas def. Nicho el Millonario

Argenis seconded Nicho, battle rapper Aczino seconded Negro. To borrow a phrase from everyone’s favorite US announcer, this was “bowling shoe ugly”. This needed a lot more smoke and mirrors than it had. Nobody expected this to be a great match but this still fell short of expectations. It took Casas approximately 84 years to take off Nicho’s boot for a thumbtack spot… that the production team completely missed. Love that AAA. Casas rolled Nicho up with La Casita, rolling through the tacks in the process, for the win. **

AAA Latin American Championship
QT Marshall def. Pentagon Jr., Dralistico, Texano Jr.

After over twenty minutes of commercials, dance contests, and other shit, QT Marshall came out for this match. Texano replaced Brian Cage. I’m having a hard time coming up with words to describe this match. It was a nothing match. Is there anything as boring and as predictable as the basic layout of a four-way match? Two guys wrestle, one gets the upper hand and a nearfall, the guy rolls out of the ring to be replaced by someone else. Rinse and repeat and because this is AAA they added weapons to the paint-by-numbers formula. Dralistico and Pentagon botching the table spot was hilarious though. QT fouled and grabbed Pentagon’s mask to get the win. QT became the 13th Latin American champion. The most Gentlemen’s Three wrestling match you’ll see on PPV this year. ***

AAA Mega Championship
Hijo del Vikingo © def. Mike Bailey, Daga, Jack Cartwheel

Vikingo carries a AAA show once again. This four-way was better than the previous four-way and that can be attributed to the plethora of multi-man spots instead of following the basic multi-man match formula. Vikingo and “Speedball” Mike Bailey are two of the best highlight reel wrestlers going today and they really shone in this match to the point where it had me wishing this was a singles match between them instead of a mindless four-way. Daga looked pretty good – being in a big match probably helped with motivation. Cartwheel held his own too and is someone to keep an eye on. That being said, I don’t think this match ever reached the next level. Lots of high spots, lots of shine on everyone when needed, but it was missing a connective tissue. Once again, that boils down to being a random four-way for the title on what’s supposed to be the biggest show of the year. ***½

Lucha de Apuestas, Hair vs. Mask
Psycho Clown def. Sam Adonis, Rush, LA Park – Sam Adonis loses his hair

Psycho Clown versus Sam Adonis and Rush versus LA Park would’ve been great Apuestas singles main events but, you guessed it, we have a four-way! Preston Vance getting a Triplemania pay cheque was not on my bingo card. This was two singles matches merged into one and it was very clunky because of it. Only in AAA could an Apuestas match featuring Rush and LA Park be boring and bad. Tirantes – who earlier in the night attacked his son for being a shitty biased ref – was a shitty biased ref favoring the rudos. The violence was devoid of anything substantial. There was a ref bump leading to outside interference in a no disqualifications four-way match. That’s AAA. La Faccion Ingobernable and Sam Adonis beat the life out of Psycho Clown but everybody refused to pin him. So Psycho stood up nonchalantly, hit Sam with a light tube, and hit a Spanish Fly for the win. Sure, okay. That’s a finish, I guess? What a disappointing main event. Rush and Park got paid. Adonis is bald. LA Park grabbed a live mic to shoot his own angle and was cut off. **

Final Thoughts

Some people are so far behind in the race that they actually believe they’re leading.