A note about AAA: haven't seen a lot in recent years besides a few TripleMania's here and there, but the production is top notch but unforutnately all the angles and stuff look identical to TNA, my god is Russo becoming international? is this the end of days? will gas prices go below $2 this summer? all these questions pondered (not answered) and more in the following review.
1) Black Abyss v. Ozz v. Latin Lover v. Abismo Negro- 3
Sadly i believe this was one of Negro's last matches before his untimely passing, sad to say he didn't do a damn thing here to earn that paycheck. Latin Lover is still in marginally good shape after all these years and kept the match going as far as pace. I was liking his movement in the ring, nice stiff strikes and some cool go behind reversals with Ozz. Too short to really do anything effective as far as storytelling though.
2) Alan Stone v. Elegido v. Joe Lider v. Silver King- 3
Why does this dude Alan Stone have the name of an European born English professor and the gnarled face of an older factory worker slaving away in Guadalahara? I liked Elegido's charisma and air on his flying moves, but he needed some direction....and a new look besides leopard print, are you a house wife in the mid 80's? King and Lider worked the 4 or 5 spots that came out right and i liked King's submission near the end, although probably due to age, we didn't see half of what he used to be capable of.
3) Nicho el Millinario v. ElectroShock v. Super Fly v. Octagon- 2
This match was embarrassing, Octagon at one point was in one of the greatest AAA matches of all time at When Worlds Collide, and more than held his own there, here he's in perpetual slow motion and his bumps look terrible. Electro Shock is one of the more stiff moving wrestlers i've seen in quite some time. Wearing a terrible body suit with Hannibal Lector mask he's well built but has no fluid motion whatsoever and doesn't fit the lucha style at all. Nicho takes one crazy bump in the corner but is generally useless here. I liked Super Fly though, think he has some potential, crazy fearless dive outside was so far the highlight of the show.
4) Dark Escoria v. Super Porky v. Kenzo Suzuki v. La Parka- n/a
For some reason, the disc skipped over the ending of this match, probably better off. Porky was in an Elvis costume and probably very closely resembled the King as he lay dead and bloated on a toilet seat. Porky actually took a hard bump off a clothesline early on and I loved when Kenzo (sporting a much better look) slapped the piss out of him multiple times in the corner before we were on to the next match.
5) Chessman v. Mesias (Cage w/ Weapons)- 4
My last memory of Mesias was from MTV's shortlived wrestling program wearing dark clothes and fake blood pouring out of his mouth, apparently he's a fan favorite (quite effective seemingly) and only kept the white pupil contact lenses. I'm actually enjoying his performance. He takes the dumpy Chessman and builds a match around his tired and weak offense, pulling off several spots that worked, including an Orton-like powerslam. Now the ring is filled with hardcore implements, such as barb wire and light tubes, which get used to varying degrees of success. One moment that I thought really brought some realism out was both men climbing the cage, then fighting atop the small platform to dump the other off the side, mainly Mesias was instigating the struggle, but his reckless pushing and pulling really made the ending chokeslam off the cage through a table feel more dire (even though Chessman just dropped his limp body down like you might discard an old head of lettuce in the waste basket.) Best thing on the show.
6) Teddy Hart/ Jack Evans/ Zorro v. X-pac/ Alex Koslov/ Charly Manson- 3
This actually started out decent, there was a feud brewing between Pac and Zorro where a few exchanges came out but kind of accumulated to nothing. Koslov had his act down: some neat reversals fighting off different kick combos between he and Hart was cool then his Russian dance drove the fans nuts ( just like when Gorbachev and Zangief did at the end of Street Fighter II.) Evans looked the same, i'd heard he's improved vastly down in Mexico but he was using the same offense, just not as much of it, which could be attributed to experience, to not burn yourself out which brings us to Teddy Hart who late in the match (while not legal mind you, not that he even attempted a pin cover) walked around hitting dynamic moves on people such as a powerbomb into a backcracker on Koslov and a 450 splash on Pac before just routinely exiting the ring to join the haphazard brawl outside. Mason was a pale urchin who looked bad in his one sole spot after the match had ended.
7) Aero Star/ Gran/ Fabi Apache v. Billy Boy/ Tigre Cota/ Cinthia Moreno- n/a
This also boiled down to the opening brawl then the disc moved on, and probably for the better from the mess I saw, looked like a strange episode of Drawn Together in the ring.
8) Konnan v. Vampiro- 0
At no point did this insult to every fan watching ever resemble a wrestling match. Both of these guys, physically are beyond their prime, but why subject your fan base to this joke? As soon as the bell rang, Hart and Evans were there going through one contrived spot to the next with Vamp, who seriously looked like he just did a stint in a rehab clinic that had a Joan Jett lookalike contest. Vamp was caught multiple times talking through spots, not selling what had just happened to him, or not cooperating with the spots. Marco Corleone (or Mark Jindrak to the American fans, who are still saying who?) came in and got stiff on the young guys for a few spots then back to the Unprofessional show. Konnan looked just as bad, throwing chairs like a kid having a tantrum not wanting to eat his veggies, falling so gingerly on any bump. A complete abolishment of anything athletic.
9) ElectroShock v. Latin Lover v. Silver King v. La Parka- 3
The main event for the Rey de Reyes championship, not long into this Parka was taken out, big time with a crazy tombstone from the apron off through a table by Silver King. Really crazy spot that was played up big time with a stretcher job and Shock being visibly upset. Wasn't clear but seemed like King was dq'd. Down to 2 men, where the match was really going to sink or swim and it sunk like a dead body. Lover's methodical pace that worked for him earlier was a detriment here because Shock was so mechanical and couldn't sell anything for very long or well. A few neat rollups out of the Lucha play book got me off the couch and to take notice but not much else. I'd never seen so many nearfalls where the count was that slow, they awarded Pepe Casas with a Hall of Fame trophy at the beginning of the show, but his age really took away from the match because you could tell it was physically hurting him to ref the match. There was also yet another huge brawl where nearly everyone from the tournament came back in for a stand off. Everything was worked in a really loose style and it felt totally more like an old Nitro match than anything Lucha related.
Overall this show was very long and slickly produced but for pure wrestling content, you'd be better off popping almost anything else you can find laying around, be it cereal commercials from the 80's or Pauley Shore movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment