Triplemania is AAA’s major yearly event, like WrestleMania is for the WWE. If you don’t know, I’ll give the quick rundown. AAA is a major luchador wrestling promotion stationed in Mexico and within the past year, WWE started a groundbreaking partnership with them to host crossover shows a few times a year and allow each other’s wrestlers to occasionally appear on one another’s programs. This was the first Triplemania since the partnership and you could tell it because there was a heavy WWE influence all over the card. The show started with the Bardahl Cup, which is basically their version of a battle royal or Royal Rumble match but with 14 participants. This match was an utter circus of chaos and hilarity, but in the best ways possible. There were drag queens, dwarf luchadors, and even a surprise appearance from an Otis and an Omos to cap things off. I think the main event was the best overall wrestling match without question (more on that later), but the Bardahl Cup may have been the most entertaining just for the mayhem. Where else are you going to see a 3’3″ luchador square up with a 7’3″ giant? Or a wrecking ball of a man team up with a drag queen to eliminate other participants? Nowhere else, that’s right. In the end, it came down the Nigerian Giant, Omos against the dancing skeleton, La Parka. Parka had a couple hope spots and even had Omos dazed on the ring apron at one point, but Omos recollected himself and tossed La Parka over the top rope by his throat to win the Bardahl Cup. Honestly, I’ve been wondering forever where Omos was and if we’d ever see him in a WWE ring again. Turns out he’s been in the Japanese program Noah where he’s been dominating and just randomly showed up at Triplemania to win the Bardahl Cup, so I guess the guy is doing alright for himself. Expect we’ll see him back in a WWE capacity sooner than later though now that he showed up at a partnership promotion and won a big match at their biggest show of the year.
Next up, the Latin American Championship was on the line as El Mesias defended his title against Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. Fun fact, but I believe this was the only match on the entire night that didn’t feature anyone from the WWE. Kind of wild actually when you think about, first Triplemania that they’ve ever been involved with in 33 years and they certainly left their mark all over it. Wagner Jr’s father (an accomplished legend in the luchador world) sat ringside for the bout. Mesias took control of Wagner Jr in the early goings of the match, slowing things down on him and taunting his father at ringside at one point, tugging at the eyehole of Jr’s mask and threatening to rip it off of him. Wagner Sr. got involved when Mesias’s manager got on the apron trying to involve himself in the matchup. A punch from Sr. sent him down, and Jr. hit a 450 on Mesias, followed up by a Wagner Driver for the win, to become the new Latin American Champion. This was a fun enough match, and I was able to understand and pick up on the story without being too aware of either of these guys before coming in. Then the Judgment Day (Finn Balor, JD McDonaugh, and Raquel Rodriguez) took on the team of Nino Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, and Lola Vice) in 6-person mixed tag team action. The ladies started the match off, but the tags were happening quick and loose here. McDonaugh and Balor had a hard time getting a handle on the large Hamburguesa in a pretty funny moment, and that’s what a lot of this match felt like really. A collection of fun or funny moments featuring AAA vs WWE people. Balor brought out ‘Demonito’ (a Demon Finn Balor hand puppet), to face off against ‘La Yesca’ (Mr. Iguana’s iguana hand puppet) at one point. In the end, Raquel chokeslammed Lola out of her boots amidst the chaos for the pin and win.
Following that, we turned towards a bit of the hardcore as Los Garzas defended the AAA tag team championships against Pagano & Psycho Clown in a Street Fight Tornado Tag match. This was hardcore chaos right out of the gate as all 4 competitors faced off with kendo sticks. Los Garzas won the duel and wrapped Clown and Pagano’s legs up in the turnbuckles before unloading on them with the sticks. Trash cans, tables, and more entered the fray shortly after that. This wasn’t a technical affair by any means. This was car crash TV, but it lit the crowd up and brought them to life. After many bumps and I’m sure many bruises from all involved, Pagano wrapped Berto in barbed wire and Psycho Clown hit him with a Spanish Fly for the victory, to become new AAA tag team champs! After the match, the other clowns in the Psycho Circus in AAA came down to celebrate with the new champs. Next up, the Reigna de Reignas (Queen of Queens) championship was on the line as the champ Flammer defended against Faby Apache and Natalya in a triple threat match. Natalya was disposed of out of the ring in the early portions of the match by Faby and Flammer so they could focus in on their personal rivalry some, she got more involved as the match progressed though. All 3 of these women have some power and some in-ring ability though so this was a pretty entertaining, fast paced, solid matchup. All 3 of them had good moments of believable offense and Faby Apache had a moment where she felt like she could’ve had the win, but a deliberately slow count by the crooked referee saved Flammer’s title. In the end, the devil reincarnated, Flammer, was able to hold onto the belt following a rather fast count on Faby Apache given by the referee.
Then, it was main event time! El Hijo del Vikingo defended the AAA Mega Championship in a Fatal 4 Way match against Dragon Lee, El Grande Americano, and Dirty Dominik Mysterio. All 4 of these men had special entrances or outfits coming into this match, which was cool and really set that big fight feel into the air. Dom and Americano formed their alliance early and went after Vikingo and Lee, but that plan backfired, as Vikingo and Lee took control of them both after forming a temporary alliance of their own. These 4 guys flew around the ring, putting on a show that was well worthy of being the main event. Americano and Dom put Vikingo through the English announce table at one point in the brawl (oh the irony) and the commentary team lost their mics for a few minutes. JD and Finn made their presence known at one point, helping Dom when and where they could until the LWO came down and fought them off, evening the playing field. Dominik ended up putting his loaded mask on that’s equipped with a piece of metal in the forehead, but as he was looking to use it against his opponents, a hooded and masked figure thwarted his plan. Revealing themselves to be AJ Styles, he then hit Dom with a forearm before connecting with a Styles Clash. Vikingo took advantage of the downed Dom and hit a beautiful 630 Splash for the victory, to retain the Mega Championship. The crowd booed Vikingo throughout this match and cheered Dom and Americano, even though Vikingo was the face and they were the WWE heels. From what I can gather, AAA fans are upset because the whole Vikingo push feels forced. Del Rio was champion and apparently the crowd liked him as an entertaining heel, but WWE has history with the guy, and it isn’t good. Not to mention, there are more allegations against him since they let him go years ago for that sort of behavior, so they didn’t want to work with the company with him as champion (understandable if you ask me, he doesn’t seem like a great guy). So, the company took the belt off of him and put it on Vikingo and the crowd seems to be rejecting it. I hate that he’s the one being punished by the fans for this, it’s not like he didn’t deserve the push regardless. I don’t know much about AAA admittedly, but I know that Vikingo is an awesome wrestler and I’ve been impressed by every match of his that I’ve seen. He’s probably my favorite AAA wrestler from what I’ve seen, if I had to say, so I was pleased with this entire match as a whole. Not saying those fans are wrong for their reaction either, I understand they’re more in tune with the product than I am, I am just giving my take on it from what I know and see. Del Rio has been given and squandered chances at a lot of promotions (and I used to like the guy back in the day in WWE), but Vikingo is younger, more athletic, and more explosive in the ring than he ever was if we’re being entirely honest here.
That’s all from Triplemania though! I’ll be back to talk with you soon about whatever comes up next. So, make sure to stay up to date with the blog to stay in tune with the latest WWE wrestling, new movie, horror movie, NFL football, and NASCAR Cup Series discussions!
Match ratings: 1-10 scale (.25’s applicable)
The Bardahl Cup- 7.5/10
Latin American Championship match: El Mesias (c) vs Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr.- 6/10
6-person mixed tag team match: The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, JD McDonaugh, and Raquel Rodriguez) vs Nino Hamburguesa, Mr. Iguana, and Lola Vice- 6.25/10
Street Fight for the AAA Tag Team Championships: Los Garzas (c) vs Pagano & Psycho Clown- 7.25/10
Triple Threat match for the Reigna de Reignas Championship: Flammer (c) vs Faby Apache vs Natalya- 6.75/10
Fatal 4 Way for the AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs Dragon Lee vs El Grande Americano vs Dominik Mysterio- 8.75/10
