Lucha Libre Thread - AAA, CMLL, & the rest of the masked lads

[Merzbow]

 

[Snitsky's back acne]

6 hours ago, Merzbow said:

 

This is utterly bonkers.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

15 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

This is utterly bonkers.

 

3min 40 secs is one of the most crazy spots I've ever seen.

[Chico Torres]

Fantastic match here, 2 literal OAPs (both men are well over 60) beating each other up in the junkyard.

https://youtu.be/VaVYqTi1yb0?si=WCWpKR2078MiL666

[waters44]

The last three matches of last nights Triplemania show are up on the AAA YouTube page 

If loving the main event is wrong, I don’t want to be right

[The King of Old School]

The handcuff spot being particularly excellent.

[BomberPat]

whereas I absolutely hated that main event! I normally love AAA's incessant overbooking of a main event angle, and maybe it would have worked out if the crowd hadn't been completely set on rejecting Vikingo, to the point that they were booing every other babyface who got involved, but nobody came out of that match looking good at all, and AAA itself came off looking worse. 

[waters44]

I didn’t think you’d like it Pat! It’s the first AAA show I’ve watched properly so I embraced the chaos! I still enjoy HOT so I’m a sucker for all the bullshit

Out of interest do you know why Vikingo was booed so badly? Is it just down to bad booking or are there other things behind the scenes?

Edited June 16, 2025 by waters44

[BomberPat]

In fairness, I usually love the chaos and the bullshit, I just don't think it worked in this instance. It didn't help that nothing about the match played to Vikingo's strengths - he did very little in the way of spectacular high spots, and isn't a good enough brawler to go down that route instead, and the cage escape rules just made the match very silly, especially given the cage door was wide open for almost the entire match.

There's a few reasons why Vikingo was booed so heavily, though honestly it was much worse and much more uniform a response than I had expected. Sections of the audience had started to turn on him during his first Mega Championship run, before he got injured, and that's mostly a result of babyface fatigue, no different to people turning on Cena or Reigns when they had been on top too long, though there were some unique aspects to it with Vikingo - he was never really booked as a top star in AAA, even when he was main eventing. Quite often the actual main event of a Triplemania or another big show is a Hair/Mask match, so title belts aren't as meaningful as you might think, but even so, he was never booked to mix it up with any actual top stars of AAA, and didn't have a single feud to speak of in his entire title reign. Every match he had was basically a showcase, and he was often in multi-mans, scrambles, tag matches, that sort of thing, and usually against imports.

From the match he won the belt at in 2021, which was a five-way where he was the only person who actually worked for AAA, his next Triplemania match was losing to the Young Bucks, then being in a five-way for two titles but not his own, two four ways with people who either didn't regularly work AAA or weren't anywhere near the main event picture, and only two singles matches - one with Rey Fenix, and one with Kenny Omega. And it's basically because the only reason they put the title on him in the first place was because a clip of him went viral and Kenny Omega decided he wanted to wrestle him; Kenny was the Mega Champion at the time, but got injured, so they put the title on Vikingo ready for a match with Omega when he came back. But that meant just taking this guy from opening match to main event with no real build, and his booking continued to reflect that - he was booked for GIFs and clips to go viral outside of Mexico, not for the live audience, and I think they started to resent that. 

Since he returned from injury, AAA had moved on, and weren't interested in him as a main event guy any more, he was back to being in random babyface trios on the undercard. Maybe he would have got his shot again eventually, but it wouldn't have been any time soon. But then WWE came along, and suddenly Vikingo is hot-shotted back to the main event picture, arguably at the expense of other babyfaces, and of the long-running story between Alberto el Patron and Latin Lover that seemed like it would play out until at least Triplemania in August. Even though he is a top heel at the moment, Alberto is still broadly well liked and respected in Mexico - a lot of the negative press he's received over the last decade either hasn't really affected him, or has culturally not been seen in the same light; his reputation there is still very much as a guy who made his name in the US and returned to Mexico as a national hero. So, especially after they spoiled the result of his title win before it even happened, the audience have latched on to Vikingo as a representation of WWE as a larger (and Trump-affiliated, which I can't imagine doesn't play into it) American company suddenly calling the shots in Mexico at the expense of who they see as their bigger stars. Any time WWE got a mention, or an advert for one of their live shows appeared on the big screen, it got loud boos too, so the rejection of WWE is definitely a big part of it, but on top of existing issues.

On top of that, Monterrey is traditionally more of a "smart" town than Mexico City, so there's an element of John Cena at One Night Stand about it, except I'd assume AAA weren't expecting the reaction to be quite as vitriolic as it was.

[Winston]

Very minor but cool to see Los Garza pick up some gold, think the pair of them have been pretty underutilised through out their career.

Two good talents with good looks.

[BomberPat]

13 hours ago, Winston said:

Very minor but cool to see Los Garza pick up some gold, think the pair of them have been pretty underutilised through out their career.

Two good talents with good looks.

There was a point when Berto, in tiny trunks, was staring out Psycho Clown and I just glanced up from my laptop at the TV screen and muttered, "good grief" to myself under my breath. Imagine having those two lads under contract and doing as little with them as WWE have. Stick them on a poster and you're pulling in audiences who have never even seen wrestling before.

[Lorne Malvo]

Does anyone know where I could watch the CMLL vs AEW/ROH event from the night before Grand Slam? Apparently you can watch it through CMLLs Youtube page (behind a paywall) but unless I'm being really thick (theres a good chance of this tbf), I just can't see it. 

EDIT: Ignore, I've found it! 

Edited June 21, 2025 by Lorne Malvo

[DavidB6937]

GIVE HIM THE BELT

 

 

[TildeGuy~!]

Booked for TripleMania

[Snitsky's back acne]

Seems like El Grande Americano is quite popular in AAA.