After AAA Triplemanía 34 Night 1 in the MGM Grand on September 11, Night Two emanated from Arena CDMX in Mexico City. Title matches and showmanship galore dominated the card with an overbooked main event that, at the very least, left everyone happy. Let’s review Night 2 starting with a Royal Rumble-styled battle royal!
Your English commentators for the night were JBL and Corey Graves.
15-Man Copa Bardahl
Eliminations occurred with luchadores being thrown over the top rope or by pinfall and submission. Mr. Iguana and Abismo Negro Jr. started this off with the green man being the beating heart of this whole match. All three of Los Vipers (Abismo, Taurus, Histeria) slowed down the pace to bring the heat, but workers like Mecha Wolf and La Parka (III) shot the quality back up. El Mesias and Texano Jr. were among the peeps familiar with the crowd to get some reactions with their offense. But then, all the momentum of this match stopped in its tracks with Omos.
Omos eliminated pretty much everyone still in the match, then eliminated Chris Carter, then a returning Niño Hamburguesa. The crowd briefly woke up to show all the support in the world for Burger Boy, but alas it came to nothing. This was a pretty okay battle royal to kick off the night, but a deflating winner didn’t feel like the best start of the show, especially when this is Omos’ second year in a row winning the Copa Bardahl.
Flammer (c) v. La Catalina – AAA Reina de Reinas Championship Match
It’s become increasingly obvious that Corey Graves’ voice was gone, with no sign of return. This match had the defense of Flammer’s 1128 day title reign at stake, and La Catalina worked her whole life to get this moment, as per the video package. La Hiedra didn’t appear in Flammer’s corner, which Flammer looked disappointed about as the match progressed. Hip attacks and open-hand chops galore would discombobulate both women, and then the finish came outta nowhere.
A Hip Attack and Busaiku Knee combo would decisively put away Flammer to get La Catalina the victory and the championship. Over a thousand-day title reign, over just like that?? What?? This was definitely the most shocking victory of the night because of its sudden, abrupt nature. Having this massive title match end in this underwhelming way just felt wrong, and a disservice to the title.
Psycho Clown v. El Carnicero – Mexican Street Fight
El Carnicero possesses the energy of a madman. If I didn’t have contacts in, he could easily pass as Luchasaurus. This match used some trash cans and chairs to beat the hell out of both men, and Carnicero brought out a toolbox to try and bash Psycho’s head in towards the end. But Pagano arrived with a kendo stick to even the playing field against this unknown monster. Or so we thought.
Pagano allowed Carnicero to attack Psycho with the toolbox and get the subsequent pinfall win. Pagano cemented his heel turn from back at Noche de Los Grandes and let Psycho Clown get beat down again. This match put over El Carnicero as a new threat to watch out for, although it’s been made clear that his motives are still unknown. Why must this movie villain-type fighter keep demonizing the Psycho Circus?
Rey Fénix (c) v. Jack Cartwheel v. Mini Vikingo v. Nathan Frazer – AAA World Cruiserweight Championship Fatal-4-Way Match
Finally, a match tonight we can call better than good. Fantastic even! The athleticism in this match was beautiful to watch as all four guys got the chance to shine in the spotlight. Jack Cartwheel specifically got the crowd going wild for his flips and spins in midair. Everyone flew with Tope Suicidas, Moonsaults, and Spanish Flies, and the crowd loved it. We saw lots of creative stuff in this match too, like a Tower of Doom Muscle Buster?! And those near falls after everyone hit high-flying moves fooled everyone into convincing false finishes.
In the end, Fénix won with the Mexican Muscle Buster onto Mini Vikingo. This was easily the match of the night, and very reminiscent of a PWG multiman match. Basically, everyone got to fly and pack so much offense to make the most of their in-ring time. Hats off to all four involved here; there were no blemishes in this match unless you’re a stickler for the “flippy-doos over storytelling” argument of wrestling. Personally, I love this junk-food style of wrestling; it’s super fun to watch. More of this in AAA and I might have to start watching every week.
After this match, Los Perros del Mal ran down to the ring to attack everyone in the match, featuring the return of their old theme song! Daga, Angel, Berto, and Karmen Petrovic all punked out the four Cruiserweight Title match competitors, as the crowd lit up at the sound of Cartel De Santa blaring over the speakers. What a cool moment to cap off an awesome match.
War Raiders (Erik & Ivar) (c) v. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno – AAA World Tag Team Championship Open Challenge Match
All the beef in this match popped Big E somewhere. Seriously though, the former Vikings hit their big ol’ moonsaults and tag finishers, and it wasn’t the finish? How surprising. Also surprisingly, this match was over fairly quickly with Wagner hitting his Wagner Driver and Galeno hitting a Frog Splash for the win.
The meat colliding in that ring looked solid, with all four guys showing off their undoubtedly strong bodies. It appeared that the War Raiders were not long for the world of AAA, as the Tag Titles have jumped back onto familiar faces to the brand. This could be the catalyst for the Raiders jumping back over to Raw or SmackDown.
Dominik Mysterio (c) v. El Grande Americano – No Disqualification AAA Mega Championship Match
Dorian Roldán at ringside aided in Dominik’s mega-heat from the crowd to rival Grande’s super babyface reactions. As the match progressed, Dominik targeted Grande’s ribs more and more. The iron will of Grande kept raging on, though, even when the run-ins became hot and heavy. JD McDonagh tried to screw Grande out of the title since it was legal thanks to the last-minute No DQ stip. However, Bravo and Rayo Americano would help their Americano brother even those odds. And as per usual with a high-stakes Americano match, Bravo (Bate) jumped off of something high to take out the opposition.
As if that wasn’t enough, out came Omos to lay waste to everyone. But Grande fought back to put Omos through the barricade with the help of steel chairs and some heart. And THEN, Liv Morgan ran down to try and make the third interference on Dominik’s behalf, the charm. But after a 619/Frog Splash combo, it still wasn’t enough to put away Grande. More fighting concluded with a Flying Headbutt from Grande and the pinfall win thanks to a new referee. It was Rey Mysterio with the neck brace and his referee-striped mask! The AAA General Manager counted the pinfall to crown a NEWWWW Mega Champion and send the crowd home happy.
Wow, you want to talk about overbooked? While the Mask v. Mask match was the correct kind of overbooking, this match was not. It appeared as if WWE tried to capture the magic of that Mask v. Mask energy again, but it failed. Don’t get me wrong, Kaiser winning the Mega Title is a huge moment, but doing it in this WCW-ified manner felt silly.
Overall, this event’s enjoyment weighs heavily on your loyalty to the AAA brand. If you’ve previously invested your time into AAA before WWE took it over, you’d love some bits like Perros Del Mal’s theme or Niño Hamburguesa returning. Otherwise, AAA has been totally Americanized. If you watch this event for nothing else, though, I must seriously recommend the AAA World Cruiserweight Title Four-Way. It’s such a diamond in the rough.
