AAA from Toluca, Edomex. Announcers/commentators: Andres Maroņas, Arturo Rivera and Jesus Zuņiga. Taped Feb/4.
***Mini Psicosis and Mini Abismo Negro vs Peso and Octagoncito.-The minis are back!! Most of 1998's second half was lacking of the minis matches, now, maybe thanks to Peso's popularity, they're back, that alone makes AAA's shows better, lets see if AAA starts pushing these guys again, maybe for Mini Abismo Negro's title...
The miniVipers controlled most of the match using their size advantage and some double teaming tactics, the minitecnicos reacted sometimes with quebradoras con giro or making the minirudos miss moves, but overall, Octagoncito was pretty grounded and did nothing special aside from a cool MichinokuDriver II (Octagoncito Driver?) which leads me to believe Octagoncito is better than the big guy, at the end, Peso misses a somersault bodyblock from the turnbuckle and decks Octagoncito with that, then, Mini Abismo Negro hits a weird looking frogsplash to get the pin and then does a diving somersault senton on Peso so the mini Vipers take the match.
A little disappointing, unspectacular for the tecnicos, but well, they need to have the rudos winning sometimes to give them some credibility.
***Miss Janeth, Xochitl Hamada and Rossy Moreno vs Esther Moreno, Fujitiva and Migala.- After running their ladies division with ONLY Brujas vs 'chaparras', AAA has started to bring more ladies into the mix, Esther Moreno debuted against Alda earlier, but this is her first wrestling on AAA TV.
Rossy and Esther trade some moves, Rossy hits a short clothsline, but then Esther does some gymnastic stuff and sends her sister to the floor via flying headsicsors, Migala enters to fight Hamada, and does an OK looking headsicsors as well, Hamada goes out of the ring after missing a corner spear. Fujitiva takes also the 'tecnica' role and tries a 'somersault from the top turnbuckle linked into an armdrag' move but mostly misses it, Xochitl enters to help her partner and puts Fujitiva into a full nelson, Rossy charges but Fujitiva makes Xochitl duck so Rossy ends doing a somersault flip on Hamada! Xochitl stays on her feet, Janeth tries to drop-kick Fujitiva but she moves away and Janeth hits her partner, who falls in a Porky-like senton on Rossy, so Fujitiva makes the 1-2-3 and The Brujas start arguing... Later, Rossy flings Esther to the corner, where Janeth sticks out her foot and low kicks Esther, a 'foul!Foul!' chant can be heard... Esther takes her sister to her corner and bites her hand!! She grabs it and walks over the top rope (Undertaker -200 pounds?) so that she can deliver armdrag-headsicsors combo on Rossy and Hamada, then send them both out of the ring with a doublearmdrag!!
Janeth hits drop-kicks and whips Esther to the ropes, she lifts her as in a powerbomb but escapes by going over Janeth's shoulder and delivering and armdrag! Next, Rossy does a couple of 'begin as powerbomb but sends opponent in a face drop' moves. Migala enters but is double teamed by Rossy and Miss Janeth, all three Brujas start ganging up and delivering elbows drops and legdrops, on Migala and then Fujitiva. After some drop-kicks, it seems Rossy screwed her hand, and things slow down a little, then Rossy goes on and passes Esther over her head so that Esther can deliver double missile kicks on Hamada and Janeth and the... other rudas reaction is on! Migala and Fujitiva brawl down of the ring with Hamanda and Rossy, Esther goes to the top turnbuckle to hit a somersault plancha on Miss Janeth, it was very short and she lands hitting Miss Janeth with her legs, then goes to the top turnbuckle again to connect a good moonsault, and Miss Janeth rolls off to the floor, she ends with her team mates, so Migala jumps in a plancha from the top turnbuckle making impressive contact with Janeth (mainly) and Hamada, Fujitiva follows with a tope suicida, she ends up hitting the rail as well as her foes... Esther ends the sequence with a top turnbuckle moonsault, again it's pretty short and nearly misses, she hits Janeth and Xochitl only with her feet! They made it back to the ring, and the Brujas regain the control after reversing a double whip and making Esther and Fujitiva collide, Rossy takes Esther to the top turnbuckle to deliver a backdrop, Esther flips and falls hard on her chest-face, don't know if she missed a flip-escape, or that was the intended move... Janeth and Migala are in the ring, Janeth nail Migala with missile kicks and then uses the Northern Lights supplex to get the pin and the match!!!
Migala and Fujitiva had to take the proxy tecnicas role, and met various level of success (or failure), not bad, but it wasn't that great either, I was looking forward to Esther's missed spots, Rivera and the guys turn those failures into the funniest things in lucha, but now they're quiet, maybe because Ms Esther Moreno nearly got killed in one of those spots...
***Oscar Sevilla, Niņo de la Calle and Venum (AAA) vs Apache, 'Mr Condor jr' and Mohicano.- Mohicano returns to AAA, he lost his hair vs Sevilla a while ago, didn't he?
El Apache sneak attacks Sevilla when he was going around the ring shaking hands with the kids, soon, the brawling is all over, with the tecnicos being completely overwhelmed, Niņo de la Calle almost loses his shirt as the rudos rip it off. The brawling goes on for a while, with only a couple of wrestling moves done, like Apache's double underhook face slam on Sevilla, or Mr Condor jr press dropping Sevilla on his mates knees. The camera shows us that Mr Condor is sitting ring side. The brawling goes on, Apache hits a reverse suplex on Sevilla, then, flings him to the corner, he whips Condor there, but Sevilla moves away and the comeback is on! Apache goes to the floor so that Oscar Sevilla nails him with an over the top tope suicida, Niņo drop-kicks Mohicano out of the ring and follows with a top turnbuckle plancha!! The tecnicos brawl for a while, then, another aerial sequence, it starts after Apache ends on the floor, Sevilla climbs the top turnbuckle and goes for a plancha, either Apache moves away or Sevilla fells short, but he misses, then Mohicano delivers a so-so tope suicida on both, Venum performs a good looking second rope moonsault (but it seems to hit nothing at all), but that was about it as far as Venum (II) goes for this match. Mr Condor jr is about to join the craze, but Niņo gets him first by slamming him to the mat, Niņo goes to eat candy (which is sort of the 'old taker urn' style'), someone taunts him in the crowd, it's Mr Condor SR, they start fighting and Mr Condor blades Niņo (Apache and Tropicasas didn't make it on time to block the view), they start fighting for a long time, beating all tecnicos, mainly Niņo, then, Angel Mortal comes out, then Mr Condor jr takes off his mask... revealing Marabunta!!! So the trio is back beating the crap out of Niņo and Sevilla... btw, the tecnicos took the match by DQd.
Mostly a brawling match, and then the flying segments seemed uncontrolled and chaotic, as if they're just jumping b/c they didn't knew what else to do. Cool match if you like Marabunta, Angel Mortal and Mr Condor. I guess they'll will work as an undercard 'trios' team, at least they're waaay better than the 'Hombres Ratas', I mean, what kind of gimmick is that?
----Los Payasos vs Legion del Terror: The Espectros--Not shown, (not that I care) but they introduced midget Payaso 'Kokito' or 'Coquito' or something that sounds like that. It looks as if AAA want to push Payasos as tecnicos.---
***Los Batos Locos vs Heavy Metal, Perrito Aguayo, Mascara Sagrada jr and Alebrije.-As Rivera comments during the match, this is their first time as main eventers to some of these guys, actually, Los Vatos Locos already headlined some shows, most notably, 'Zona de Guerra', Alebrije jumped to the main events almost immediately (and if you ask me, undeservedly--did I just made that word?). I think Perrito and Mascara Sagrada jr are really at this height of the card for the first time, actually, both of them are getting better lately, a few months ago, every time Mascara jr stepped into the ring, I feared for his life!!!
1.-Los Vatos jump on the tecnicos, as Manson attacks Heavy, Perro is beaded by Picudo, so do MyFlowers on Mascara jr and Nygma on Alebrije, anyway, the tecnicos are not in the mood of brawling and clear the ring. Perro works with Picudo and manages to deliver a couple of armdrags and a good flying headsicsors, Perrito is waaaay better than Perro (at least, what I've seen of old Perro in the last 15 years), but still, he has not the charisma; Picudo ends in the floor and jump to the crowd when Perrito teases a tope. Alebrije vs MyFlowers next, nothing too good happens, Alebrije does a 'quebradora con giro' on Flowers and the Vato fakes a foul, but the referees doesn't say anything (there was no foul). Mascara Sagrada jr vs Nygma: Mascara is performing a little better lately, this time he does a weird variation of 'la jarocha' armdrag, and a diving from the top turnbuckle armdrag on his foe, Nygma goes out of the ring, Charly Manson enters to fight Mascara jr, but he tags out to Heavy Metal, who scares Manson who takes a fall on butt bump!! Heavy whips Manson to the corner, but Charly Manson reverses, then charges at Heavy Metal, who sends him over the top rope, but Manson lands in the apron, then Heavy tries to slap Manson, but the Vato Loco blocks it and slams Heavy's face to the turnbuckle!! Heavy goes back some steps so that Manson can nail him with a top turnbuckle plancha!! (Shouldn't that sequence be done with the characters flipped?) Charlie charges again but gets a 'quebradora con giro' and then a press slam, MyFlower and Nygma are then also press slammed, Picudo is to fat for that, so a punch and a powerslam puts him down for the 3 count as the tecnicos get the fall.
2.- Manson faces Alebrije, Alebrije uses a headlock on the rudo, Charly tries to throw him away, but Alebrije keeps the hold by pulling Manson's hair, twice! At last, Manson releases the hold and does his 'manson's dance' but Alebrije shoulder tackles him and Charly leaves the ring!! Charly Manson returns to the apron, Alebrije charges but gets his face slammed to the turnbuckle, Manson jumps there and delivers a diving armdrag! He slaps Alebrije to the corner and again, does his 'manson dance', but then misses a corner spear and goes out of the ring! Perrito enters to stomp and armdrag Nygma, who is sent to the floor, Perrito teases a tope and Nygma tries to jump to the crowd, but gets stalled at the rail! Picudo sneak attacks Perrito and Manson helps him, Vatos brawling is rampart now, as Nygma beats Perrito all over the place, later, they try some 4 men team work moves, new for the Vatos, the final comes after the custom 4 way drop-kicks on Heavy Metal, followed by the pin.
3.- The Vatos keep on the brawl, that last for a while until the tecnicos react and after a couple of 'quebradoras con giro', turn the brawling to their side, they keep beating the Vatos for some time, Perrito attacks Nygma, who ends bleeding from the forehead, the tecnicos return to their corner, talk it over, and brawl again, eventually, the ring is cleared, and Manson faces Heavy Metal again, Metal taunts Manson, who gives a series of slaps to the tecnico's chest, but Metal responds with a 'Heavy punch', Picudo enters and hits Heavy, then does a powerbomb, the rest of the Vatos join in and Nygma applies a second powerbomb, after that, it seems that Metal is KOd!! Vatos start stomping him (not trying that hard) and Mascara and Alebrije cover Metal to avoid any more damage, still, there has not been any DQ, they drag Metal out of the ring and ask for the stretcher, they keep fighting, Espectros came out, fight, tecnicos win by DQ, Payasos came out to help the tecnicos, some riot up there, the show ends... I think that Picudo connected with his elbow on Heavy Metal's jaw, which put him out, not sure, he looked bad BEFORE any of the powerbombs.Perro jr ends bleeding and asks for Espectro jr's middle weight title.
Cool match, it had no that much brawling, no crazy spots, well, maybe it ended before expected as Heavy had to be taken out before the crazy spots occurred, I think they're building up for that. If anything, it shows that Vatos can hold their own even without fighting the Vipers.
CMLL.- From Arena Coliseo, taped (1st match-Feb/9th) Feb/12-- Announcers/commentators- Dr Alfonso 'Call me Tinieblas never more' Morales, Leobardo 'Que Barbaro!' Magadan and Javier 'el Gusano' Yaņes.
Black Warrior, Fuerza Guerrera and Satanico vs Olimpico, Atlantis and Brazo de Plata.- The quest to turn Olimpico into CMLL's next big tecnico continues... Fuerza Guerrera is the man for the job (uhg?), weird, Black Warrior was looking for feuds with Mr Aguila and Olimpico in mid 1998, but now, those rivalries seem to be forgotten.
1.- Somehow, Olimpico ends up in the ring, and Fuerza Guerrera starts beating him up, Warrior and Satanico don't take too much action at that, but they keep the other tecnicos at bay, down, out of the ring, eventually both teams made it to their corners, but Fuerza keeps working on Olimpico, and rips his mask open, Warrior helps Fuerza when Olimpico is taken to 'la esquina del dolor' so that Warrior can drop-kick Olimpico's head!! The rudos keep brawling and eventually all of them enter to gang up on Olimpico, Atlantis and Brazo de Plata enter to help but get beaten as well, later, they made it back to their corners and Fuerza misses a corner splash, Olimpico then slams Guerrera's face to the mat and follows with a neck breaker!! Fuerza rolls out of the ring, Satanico enters to hold Olimpico but is slapped by Warrior! Satanico goes out and is followed by a drop-kicked Warrior shortly after. The tecnicos enjoy of a brief control period, with Atlantis providing some 'quebradora con giro' and Porky gut shoting everyone on sight, Fuerza tries to take him down with a somersault flip pin, but Porky blocks and does a butt drop! Fuerza moves away! Porky is pinned!! Satanico and Warrior intercept Atlantis at the apron and slam him to a cornerpost while Fuerza Guerrera bodyslams and pins Olimpico to take the first fall...
2.- Rudo brawling is going on, they take it to the ring side, where Olimpico is beaten right next to 'la porra ruda'. They go back to the ring and keep punishing the young CMLL welter champ, Fuerza does his half powerbomb/foul move, but the referees won't see that, then Warrior drops Olimpico on Fuerza's knee... Atlantis and Porky try to react, but the rudos won't sell yet so they punish them as well, whipping them to each other. They clear the ring and whip Atlantis so that Satanico and Warrior do double half-powerbomb, and put him into a submission hold which: 1-Nobody surrenders to it. 2.- Makes them to get their backs to the mat. and 3.- Always have another tecnico getting a pin on the move performers. In this case, Porky cover them for the pin and they got the fall.
3.- Satanico and Black Warrior keep supporting Fuerza working on Olimpico, who hinted reactions, but was contained by timely attacks from the rudos. Atlantis and Brazo de Plata at last stage the reaction, with some 'quebradora con giro' and Porky corner splashing Satanico and clotheslinning Black Warrior out of the ring. Tecnico brawling coming up, Olimpico takes Fuerza to the 'porra ruda' area and flings him over the chairs twice!!! They cool down a little and made it back to the ring, Olimpico is right on command now, and does a half-powerbomb on Fuerza and puts him into a crab but Warrior makes the save! Plata enters the ring but goes to the floor after Warrior drop-kicks him, then, Warrior gets him with a over the top rope side plancha, but Plata was too lazy to sell and doesn't even falls to the floor... Atlantis gets another 'quebradora con giro' on Satanico, then, 'quebradora con giro' again, Atlantis goes for 'Huracanrana' but Satanico blocks it and gets a 2 count, next, he is dropkicked out of the ring and nailed by a side plancha, so its Olimpico and Fuerza left in the ring, Fuerza Guerrera low blows Olimpico and gets the match his way. He challenges Olimpico to a title bout.
So now, it turns out that the only way Fuerza Guerrera can win is by fouls!! Fuerza asked for a title shot and remembered that Olimpico's welter CMLL title's first champ was no other than Fuerza Guerrera!! 'La porra ruda' was really into this match, chanting 'rudo' and 'duro con el puerco', this last, means, 'beat the pork', Brazo de Plata got into some arguing with that crowd, and now it seems that SuperPorky is porra ruda's main target.
Star Man, Ringo Mendoza and Astro Rey jr vs Ultimo Guerrero, Shu the Guerrero and Valentin Mayo.- CMLL has nearly 200 workers with them, out of those, it seems that 130 are rudos, so many of them have little action, for instance Shu and Mayo.
1.- Star Man and Shu start doing some matwork, they trade armbars and hiptosses and Shu takes a weird 'stance' sitting on the mat with his arms and legs crossed!! Star Man is armdraged every time he gets near!! Eventually they got even after an armdrag sequence by the tecnico. Mayo and Mendoza enter the ring and... well, it's Ringo, so they trade some moves... Ultimo Guerrero and Astro jr speed up by trading slaps and kicks, and Astro Rey jr does a high drop-kick to send Guerrero out of the ring, Starman and Shu get to work a little more, with Star Man doing some cool armdrags, for instance, one in which it looks as if Shu the Guerrero is going to do a 'quebradora con giro' on the tecnico, but Star Man manages to pull the armdrag!! Mayo and Mendoza get into the ring again, this last short, then Astro Rey delivers armdrags or flying headsicsors on each rudo until they got to the finish: Astro Rey goes to the ttb, and performs Huracanrana to pin Shu, Ultimo went for the save but Starman got him with a side plancha, and them an inside the ring second rope moonsault. So the first fall goes for the tecnicos.
2.- The tecnicos are too much for Shu the Guerrero and Valentin, as they hardly can do anything at the beginning of the fall, then, Ultimo Guerrero enters and decks Astro jr with a clothsline, then a corner splash, Astro Rey jr falls out of the ring, Ultimo seems willing to go down and start the brawl, but Ringo taunts him, Shu sneaks attack Ringo and holds him so that Ultimo can kick him, the rudos start dominating the fall, as Shu takes Ringo to the corner so that Mayo can punish him for a while, Star Man enters but gets DDTd by Shu the Guerrero!! Star Man oversells the move and tags out to Astro jr, Mayo helps Ultimo Guerrero to do a half powerbomb on Astro, then Shu enters and performs two back breakers on the tecnico, the rudos are about to kick into brawling mode, but Mendoza stops that by doing two 'patadas a la filomena' on Ultimo and Mayo, and the tecnicos get the control of the fall again, Shu got 2 pin attempts on Star Man after a couple of clotheslines, but Astro assist Star into a missile drop-kicks on Shu, which send him out of the ring, then Astro jr assist Starman again in a flip back body drop on Shu!! Mayo also ends in the floor so that Astro Rey jr can perform a second rope springboard moonsault!! Just when the match was getting better, Ultimo Guerrero fouls Ringo and the match comes to an end... did I miss the second fall and this was the third?
Scorpio jr, Apolo Dantes and Bestia Salvaje vs Felino, Shocker and Mr Niebla.- Mr Niebla: The good news first, you won't team with Super Porky and Grundy this night!!!
1-2-3.- As soon as the tecnicos get near the ring, the rudos start brawling, punches, kicks, slaps, clotheslines, corner splashes, more punches, more kicks, etc, and Apolo pins Mr Niebla after a top turnbuckle plancha, more of the same in the second, they brawl all over the ring and ringside, Felino gets his mask ripped (he looks a lot like Negro, I wonder if they're related -lol-), Dr Morales keep saying 'ahi viene the Perro!' ('Perro is coming!'), Shocker ducks from Apolo's clothsline, delivers one of his own, Apolo gets mad and fouls Shocker, so the rudos are DQd. Before the final fall starts, a 'man in black' goes to the ringside, he looked like Universo 2000, it seems that even Magadan thought that, but the show producer told him that he wasn't, that he was the 'man in black', anyway, this guy gets close to the ring and points his finger to Apolo, as if telling him something, then leaves. The match goes on, rudos keep the same thing going, eventually Felino dodges a slap and Bestia hits Scorpio so the tecnicos get a brief reaction, as the rudos take the control of the match again with some more brawling. Bestia backdrops Felino on the metal-covered access ramp! In the ring, Shokcer whips Apolo, but then Apolo brings him down with a slap, Mr Niebla enters to help his partner and they team to do a half powerbomb on the rudo, then, a double clothsline sends Apolo to the floor, so that Shocker can assist Niebla onto a flip back body drop!! Scorpio enters to attack Shocker but ends in the floor, Shocker goes for a second turnbuckle springboard plancha, but Scorpio didn't sell, actually, he hit Shocker's chest with his forearm, so I wonder if he countered the move (as if to push him to face Santito) or simply was as lazy as Brazo de Plata and didn't sell. Probably he countered it, as he goes back to the ring to double team Felino and force him to quit with 'la de a caballo'. The rudos take the match and keep brawling for a while, taking off Felino's mask, but they got the match, I thought that the referees might reverse the result, but they didn't.
Mr Niebla: The bad news-- You'll go against Scorpio and Bestia and you won't do anything but get beaten!!! This match was from Friday's 12th show, 3 days after the 'deadline' to drop the gimmick, I guess they can still hold there for him, but here, they didn't work for any angle leading to a possible mask losing.
Cien Caras vs Tinieblas jr--Superlibre-- Oh well, gimme a break!!! After doing 80% play-by-play to 4 or 5 matches, I won't say that much for this match. Caras win the first fall, Tinieblas the second. In the third, Tinieblas jr puts Cien Caras in a crab, Apolo and the 'man in black' come out, Apolo distracts the referee, Carmelo fouls Tinieblas jr, got the pin, end of story. Tinieblas ended with his mask ripped open, but they didn't bleed or anything. Mascara Aņo 2000 vs Pierroth jr looks great next to this... Was this a 'superlibre?'. Better luck next time, see ya at Arena Mexico!!!!!!!!
I think CMLL wants to push Tinieblas jr, maybe turning him into the next Rayo de Jalisco jr, but, if that's the plan, it failed, the crowd was pretty cold, and if anything, some 'Carmelo' or 'Cien Caras' chants could be heard!!!
COMMENTS.- Well, I liked this week better, AAA returned to its normal self, the 1 fall format only affected the match with Apache/Sevilla, as they only brawled, as opposed to the 'mini falls' approach the ladies and minis match have taken, still, it seems AAA wants to improve their wresting quality, Marabunta/Condor team could work really good for the undercards, and overall, the Vipers-Vatos brawling war has diminished lately. On the other hand, CMLL is trying to book better, it is weird, but I feel that they're now using AAA's gimmick, Universo 2000's piledriver... sure, Love Machine did it while in CMLL, but then took it to AAA and Abismo Negro used is early last year, 'man in black'? Didn't AAA did something like that last year?
