So 1996 AAA starts off with the UWA/LLI having died & CMLL taking over running Arena Neza regularly back in October 1995. With the wrestling wars being what they were, ex-UWA/LLI booker Marcos Medina who now controls this building strikes a deal with Antonio Pena & proclaims AAA would be running TV tapings every Friday (direct competition to CMLL in Mexico City about an hour away) for 12 straight weeks. I don't think they made it to 12. Or we are missing results. But the shows very much take a dip starting in March & start relying on more ex-UWA people. This also saved AAA a lot of costs from going to tape TV in other places as the peso had just been destroyed so everyone was cutting back. Two matches air on TV from this show... we think. The 1/5 & 1/12 results have historically been jumbled. Sometimes you look at the crowd to figure out which show is which but it's tougher when running the same building with the same look + fans in the front row who are always in the same spot often wearing the same thing. We're gonna go with this for the 1/5 show. Our first AAA 1996 match is for the ever so rarely seen Mexican National Women's Tag Team Titles. I remember seeing clips of this on a Year in Review show on Telelatino. It may have been one of my first exposures to women's wrestling in Mexico. La Rosa was a very promising young tecnica in 1993 who suffered one of the most gruesome injuries you'll ever see trying a flying dropkick & snapping her leg in half. Yes, they aired it. Yes, they replayed it multiple times. She missed almost two years & was never the same again. Changed her name to Galilea in the late 90's but retired very young relative to how long most luchadoras stick around. She is the star of this match. Tons of cool stuff. Great look, athletic, charasmatic... it's no wonder she didn't last. La Sirenita is the opposite. An aging luchadora who has experienced the worst of being a female in the world of lucha libre (she has said this in multiple interviews). So she's very much doing stuff like kissing Pepe Casas to break up pinfalls if you catch my drift. Nevertheless, I liked the match! They were working hard, probably for a number of reasons. As I said La Rosa does tons of cool stuff & is very over. Finish is the rare double countout which means a title switch! How often do you see that? Crowd popped! File this under women's matches Rob enjoys but we'll still call him a woman-hater because: 1) he dares to treat them equal to men, if you suck or your match sucks I'll say so & 2) he has the nerve to comment on looks compared to the definitely not at all frightening twitter people who are suddenly asexual when discussing the not-at-all cosmetic business known as professional wrestling. Moving onto the main event we have the start of what would end up as the Junior Atomicos vs Payasos feud (because the Villanos move onto better things). The announcers refer to an angle I only vaguely recall reading about but not seeing where Blue Demon was being presented a plaque only for the Villanos to attack him & destroy it. Funny enough to end 1996 Pena runs the exact same angle with Pierroth/Fuerza/Mosco as the rudos doing the bit. I wonder how many times he ran that same angle? So this match has Demon Jr/V-III feuding including mask ripping. Crowd is into it of course, Villanos were staples of this building during their UWA days. I wasn't so into the match. Halcon Dorado Jr. is the shits. Very leftover UWA wrestler when all the real talent had long since bolted. They mention he was just back after a long layoff due to injury which didn't ring a bell to me. Announcers have a funny bit where El Hijo Del Santo comes up in conversation & Arturo Rivera says something to the extent of "hello to Hijo Del Santo, wherever he may be". Well Arturo, he's probably on the block of TV right before this one since he's in CMLL but you're not allowed to call those shows so I see the confusion. 50% hit rate on this first show of 1996.
Opener is the yet unnamed Cadetes Del Espacio which is basically the leftover Power Rangers along with Thunderbird who was making a go of it in Mexico City. This is actually one of his last TV appearences if I recall correctly. Lots of tecnico shine in this as you can imagine since those rudos are masters of their craft. It's a mix of AAA's Diabolicos & the ex-UWA Diabolicos. Do I even need to say what happens to that side? They split. It becomes the big feud during this Arena Neza residency all the way into March. Angel Mortal is missing here as he got SHOT WITH A GUN AT A CHRISTMAS PARTY. True story. There's a great monkey flip spot using the ropes by Thunderbird on all-time underrated rudo Marabunta. They do some great comedy during the comeback sequence which only these rudos can pull off & would look completely odd to anyone with 2026 eyes. Venum gets the win with a 450 splash. He busted out two in-ring tornillos in this match. I can't explain to you now how mind blowing that spot was 30 years ago. Brains literally got broken. Good stuff. They cut away right after the finish but I presume live the rudos had issues because they fall apart a week or two later. Semi-main is for the non-existent IWAS Tag Team Titles. I have no idea how this match came to be other than we had these guys booked, let's give the rudos some random belts. Would love to find the original lineup for this show to clear it up. This match was another one I put on my old best of lucha libre VHS set. If you go to my list of great matches on LuchaWiki I have it as ****3/4! I've been going through these older matches & coming across many matches I think are better than I originally rated them. Lucha brain maturity & all that. In this case I gotta say I did not think I was watching a ****3/4 match. Don't get me wrong, it was excellent. Maybe ****1/2 although leaning more towards ****1/4. What made this match stand out was how un-AAA it was. It's a loooooooooooong match clocking in at nearly a half hour. There's tons of drama with each fall having a spot where someone has to come back from 1 man down to save the fall for their team. You could say it was more Japan style than lucha but you still got all the lucha spots. I know many non-lucha fans ended up seeing this match & really liked it as I guess they felt more comfortable with it due to all the nearfalls (like a match in Japan as I noted). Psicosis wins the belts with a sick Victory Roll off the top rope on Volador who does a stretcher job. Would love to hear the story behind this match some day although I guess the only person who could tell it honestly would be Psicosis, if he even remembers it. Main event is where the Blue Demon Sr. ceremony happens & he gets attacked so that match above with the Villanos can't possibly be from 1/5. Match itself is rudo brawling, tecnico comeback with comedy from La Parak & a DQ finish when Blue Demon Jr. & the Villanos do run-ins. Very AAA (+ UWA). Still a show definitely worth checking out.
Semi-main is one of my earliest lucha memories. Back when my tape collection was just 4 or 5 casettes, one of which was just random Mexico matches I recorded not knowing who was who. So I certainly viewed this match a few times! It actually starts with an interview with Rey Misterio Jr. who builds up his upcoming car vs car match with Juventud Guerrera. I'm shocked WWE never picked up this footage for a DVD they put out since it's probably one of his first ever interviews in this kind of backstage setting. He comes out wearing a weird kimona style deal which I assume he picked up in Japan the month before & wearing a Love Machine mask over his own mask which is sweet. Gran Hamada had just showed up in AAA the week or two before & doesn't last here long. Vegas is not Black Warrior Vegas, this is Vegas II aka Black Power - another UWA guy picking up work during this Arena Neza residency. Pretty good match as you'd expect! Rey Jr & Psicosis being the starts of course but really it strikes you how Pentagon (version Espanto Jr.) was right with them. It's such a shame what happened to him a month or so after this, he was so fuckin good. Don't do drugs! Or do drugs but don't do enough to cause your brain to shut down, eh? Rey Jr busts out the Dragon Rana in this match! A spot he used a month or so earlier in ECW & never got credit for inventing. Pentagon is the one who actually takes it here which shows you how much Rey trusted him with Psicosis right there. The finish was the first time I ever saw the Splash Mountain counter into a huracanrana that they'd use as the finish of their famous Bash at the Beach match later that year. Still amazing even 30 years later. Easy **** match, definitely worth checking out. Main event is for the IWAS Heavyweight Title. Basically just a new title to give Konnan although the announcers make up some backstory about it & say hi to poor John Arezzi who ends up having this title stolen from him. The match is actually pretty solid with matwork early on. Konnan liked working with Pierroth because Pierroth wasn't all that good so it never seemed like Konnan was being carried, just two guys at the same level doing what they could do inside the ring. Konnan takes the first fall. In the second fall Pierroth suffers a "leg injury" which grinds the match to a halt. The commision doctor intervenes, Konnan is concerned, Tirantes is concerned........ you know where this is going, right? As Konnan is calling the match off & Pierroth is handing him the belt - he decks him & scores the easy second fall win. Classic! Crowd loved it. This was an anti-Konnan crowd as you'd expect in Arena Neza with the Canek supporters. We get another "what the fuck ever happened to El Hijo Del Santo???" needle on commentary. Third fall is more along the lines of what we expect with Konnan booking via Antonio Pena where Espectrito interferes, Psicosis interferes - including dropkicking poor Torerito from behind off the top rope. Even Mr. Condor gets involved before Rey Jr., Super Calo & maybe someone else I'm forgetting running out to even things up leading to Konnan picking up a roll-up victory on a Tirantes fast count (Pierroth had just yelled at him which angered Tirantes). Post-match has Konnan going right up to the hardcore UWA fans (all 5 of them) who always sat in the same spot front row & mocking them to their face but all in good fun. Feel good match. I enjoyed it! Very fun episode that brought back all the memories.
This was a very random new find from who else by Roy Lucier. I assume Jeff Lynch or any of the older tape trading folks never had it it in cirulation because of the quality. It's very jumpy with the video cutting forward for a second or two at a time. Not to mention the top two just air in extended clips while the opener is a shorter two fall match. I'm not even sure when this should have snuck into the TV rotation. It's taped in San Martin which is a location I think AAA only had TV from maybe one or two other times - all 96/97. The opener appars to be in the midst of a feud between specifically Toreo/Zafiro vs Hijo Del Espectro/Karis La Momia. Ludxor & Yet just along for the ride. It's a two fall brawl with both falls ending in DQ. I'll address this in the Aguascalientes comments below. As I said, top two matches are just highlights. Kinda like watching an AAA spot show at the time to be honest. TV cameras just happened to be present. It sounds cool to see Rey Jr & Venum teaming but they didn't really do much of anything besides miscommunication spots with the rudos. For the sake of weirdness this is a must-see show if you can handle the video issues. It really made me happy as a Rey Jr completionist.
A notable show! Before getting into the details I have to say - this crowd was RABID. Dangerously rabid. The amount of incidents with fans would take two hands to count. Security definitely earned their money but also the rudos were totally instigating all night long. All matches listed end up airing although we have Hijo Del Espectro in for Picudo (they are family) in the opener. This is another match much like the previous day in San Martin where we have brawling with Venum/Halloween being the background guys this time around. My feeling watching this with 2026 eyes is Pena was heading in the direction of some sort of apuesta featuring these lower card acts. Maybe with Karis La Momia as the destination loser & boy would that have changed history. It's a two fall DQ like the previous night. At one point Hijo Del Espectro loses his wig which is pretty funny. Venum & Halloween are trying to do stuff when the brawling subsides for a bit. Like as the match is fading out into commercial Venum just lauches himself with a springboard plancha taking both into the crowd! Next up is a weird one. There is no such thing as the IWAS Light Heavyweight Title but whatever. Go with it. Damian 666 had always been an undercard comedy guy or even just a second in his AAA appearences. So for him to suddenly get a random title shot against main eventer Octagon really doesn't fit but this is clearly Konnan influenced booking as you should be able to tell by the lineup. The story here is a weird one as Octagon gets the commision to remove Tirantes as referee before the match begins. Pepe Casas takes over but then Damian wins the first fall by cheating right in front of him! It made Pepe Casas come off as a total rudo allowing him to get away with it. They may as well have left Tirantes there & then done the switch (I think Pepe Casas was supposed to have been turned around to not see the cheating, oops). The second fall has a spot where Karis La Momia is interfering so Pepe Casas leaves the ring to get him to stop just as Damain goes for a tope & of course hits poor Pepe. Being a total pro even though they barely touched, Pepe Casas slices himself open & bleeds a gusher. This means Tirantes is back in as ref so you can imagine how that third fall goes. Angry crowd! Damian cheats to win as the crowd throws stuff into the ring. Heat! Entertaining. Semi-main has Heavy Metal in for La Parka & I think meant to be starting something with Psicosis? It's a bit unclear but they do have a finish where Psicosis low blows him to steal the win in two straight falls. Psicosis was just a bump machine here as his partners weren't about to do much of anything. Konnan had a near slip off the top rope & the announcers made fun of him. Imagine a scenario where like top babyface Will Ospreay messes up a spot & the AEW announcers just laughing & burying him for being clumsy. LOL Lucha Libre is a special. Well, used to be special. Then we come to the main event. CAR VS CAR CAGE MATCH! Yes, not listed on the poster but this was the original car vs car match. It's even announced beforehand by the ring announcers that both cars are parked at the AAA offices in Mexico City & only the winner will be allowed access to both cars upon return. This is one of my favorite cage matches ever. Right up there with Zona De Guerra, Lucha Bros/Bucks, Ospreay/Fletcher, NOT Bret/Owen which sucked. They do a great job trying to do creative spots inside the cage while keeping up the pretense of it being a heated rivalry with big stakes. The near escapes get great reactions & both guys sell failing to climb out great. I'm not sure a match like this works these days for the mere fact it wasn't a complete stunt show. Also, everyone was kept out of the cage! What a novel concept! The ECW influence is alive & well here as 6 months after it happened in ECW we get Rey Jr tying Juvy to the ropes in a crucifx position & smashing him in the head with a chair. He even does the Tommy Dreamer pose afterwards. In 1996 I'm sure I thought this was the greatest thing ever. My two loves - lucha libre & ECW coming together. In 2026 it comes off pretty cringe. LOL Seeing Rey Jr with long hair is so wild. An all-time great finish with both guys trying to escape the cage by climbing over each other. How has nobody copied this spot??? Do people not study tape any longer??? Brilliant. This leads to both STANDING on top of the very high & very shaky cage only to crotch themselves & fall back into the ring. Double KO! Unbelievable ending. ****3/4. There was an edit early on so maybe the full ***** if we saw the entire thing. They'd end up having the rematch for the cars at Triplemania in July. Awesome epsiode of TV!
According to our records AAA ran this building 3 times in February. I know times were tough with the peso crashing & wanting to keep shows closer to Mexico City to avoid travel costs + production costs but... I wonder if our data is wrong. From this Queretaro show the only thing that makes TV is the 'Relevos Tijuanenses'. Do you know how footage of this exists at all? RF Video! Yes, it's true. If you are a nerd about the source of lucha matches - you are definitely reading the right blog. RF Video didn't give a fuck about lucha. Ever. Feinstein would carry random stuff but he never had a specific source, he just took from other collections. Except this one tape called "Super Lucha Fall Fury 1996". I remember it clearly because it had a Venum/Histeria trios match on it that I never knew existed. The entire tape was matches from 1996 including this one. So without even knowing it RF happened upon rare lucha footage. Relevos Tijuanenses seemingly is a fancy way to say four corners match. But I'll just explain to you how they ran it... it started with all the guys in the ring like a battle royale & the announcers said the order you hit the floor (doesn't have to be over the top) is the order of who teams with who. Except that didn't seem to be the case. Then you had Jerry Estrada/Super Crazy (sub for Picudo) clearly on a team (dressed the same!) but at one point they just start wrestling each other. Hell, Mascara Sagrada eliminates Tornado! So really this was just an 8 way match. The stars of it are Super Crazy (first legit AAA TV appearence) & La Parka/Psicosis who end up as the final two. The majority of time is given to their singles match at the end so this ended up a ****+ match because those two lunatics killed it. Tope suicida into a BASEBALL BAT SWING CHAIRSHOT! Psicosis ends up getting the best of Parka. Thank you RF? If you notice the undercard, there is a Pierrothito listed. The CMLL Pierrothito claims he never left CMLL at any point. No video of him working AAA exists. I found magazine photos of this Pierrothito & it certainly appears to be the same guy. It could be an Alan Stone/Chris Stone 2003 deal where they jumped to AAA for one show, realized it was a big mistake, the match never aired & they returned to CMLL with nobody any the wiser. I dunno. A lucha mystery. Bonus add-on! Here I am a week after watching this show & I remembered the Konnan vs Killer match actually made it onto YouTube completely at random. We are in the Konnan thinks ECW is the coolest company in the world era so it's your typical ECW match spread over three falls. Rey Jr. is in Konnan's corner & Killer/Andy Barrow/Juventud Guerrrera are in Killer's. There's interference, a table spot (it broke!) & referee nonsense. In the end Konnan wins. You're shocked! What was notable to me was Rey Jr (pink mask) & Juvy are wearing gear. Did they wrestle on this show? Is that the missing result? Hmmmmm.
A very CMLL-ish episode of AAA TV. The poster doesn't indicate it but this ends up as a one night trios tournament. Block A of the tournament to crown AAA Americas Trios Champions. New titles. There's a seeding battle royale just like CMLL would do. There's many quick one fall matches just like CMLL would do. The only twist is the final (which the poster somehow knew ahead of time - Sexy Boys vs Villanos) ends up being 2/3 falls. There really isn't much to say beyond the results. None of the matches were much good. Frisbee gets taken out with an injury in the first round so Sagrada/Tinieblas Jr. have an out for losing their semi-final. There's an apparent previous issue between Blue Demon Jr. & Heavy Metal that I'm unaware of but is pushed hard during the other semi-final. Winners bleeds a lot in the final & they tease Heavy Metal is going rudo. Villanos win this block. But don't you worry if you're a big Latin Lover fan! In typical AAA fashion, this tournament ends up a mess & some people are back in for a second time in two weeks! Stay tuned!
Back in Queretaro! Lots of ?'s in the listings that I'd love to clear up but only the top two aired - and even those appear to have been by pure luck. Rey Jr/Juvy pops up on a Best of Lucha Satellite TV tape from our friend Ron Rivera/American Wild Child. If not for him, that match is lost forever. I had a copy & I'm not sure who else did. This kinda thing makes you wonder how much AAA TV was actually airing around this time. Full shows could be available by people who had a satellite & chose to record it all. I could be watching Mini Frisbee & Octagoncito vs UNKNOWN PEOPLE! (It was probably Los Jibaritos who pop up on the taping above) This Rey Jr/Juvy is very edited although not as much as I recalled in my head. I remember only a minute or two of each fall but it actually gets about 11 minutes total. Hard to fully judge quality but of course what was shown was excellent. These two could do no wrong. This was the weekend after Juvy's ECW debut I believe so he was probably amped. There's some spots in this match that go hard like the second rope plancha to the floor where Juvy took it while he was on the apron. Clean finish with Rey retaining his title. Post-match has Juvy congratulate him & they hug... so you know what's coming... but maybe production didn't because they are mid-throwing to commercial as Juvy attacks him. Oops. Main event is a weird one. This one popped up only on the Year in Review show. I remember seeing it on TLN & being very excited because Rey Jr/Juvy were the seconds. Even seeing Rey Jr as just a s second I knew I'd see something cool & sure enough he does a dive off the top of the cage. The match actually makes zero sense to me though. Fishman is just returning to AAA here after being away since early 95... or even earlier? Why is he suddenly main eventing against Parka? In a cage? Where both guys are ripping masks? Something feels off here as if he subbed in for someone last minute. Maybe if my magazine purchase goes through we'll get a little bit cleared up if I can track down the lineup for the show & see if it had another name or the dreaded luchador sorpresa. In theory the opponent here should have been Pierroth Jr. based on who Parka was feuding with at the time. Or Jerry Estrada. Match is JIP. Finish is both men climbing, Fishman pulls Parka's mask & escapes as Parka falls back in to protect his identity. Both Juvy & Fishman underestimate the cage setup & jump down thinking there's a bit of apron to land on but there isn't... so both go tumbling down hard to the floor. It was pretty funny.
Block B of the Americas Trios Titles tournament! As you can see this was not really planned out well so we have lots of people eliminated in Block A getting another chance with different partners. Including the super strange team of Los Sexy Boys minus Winners plus Cien Caras. CIEN CARAS SEXY BOY??? I mean, he was growing a mustache at this time. The other change is unlike last week being a 2/3 falls final, this was just one fall. The OCD in me really doesn't appreciate that, Mr. Pena. The rest of the tournament pretty same as the previous block is just really quick pretty non-interesting matches. But this was the stronger of the blocks in terms of work because you have a Rey Jr team & the UWA Diabolicos bumping around. That match actually has Angel Mortal sitting front row waving an AAA flag to signify the real Diabolicos are in AAA. This leads to him being attacked & the UWA Diabolicos losing by countout. Not much else to really note here aside from Latin Lover/Heavy Metal/Cien Caras winning so they take on the Villanos in the final next week.
At least we're being consistent in the Observer. I don't know if there were 1000 fans here but there were a ton of empty seats visible right on the hard cam all show long. This entire show felt like the B crew that would soon turn into the A crew. This also appears to coincide with rising tension between AAA/CMLL (the Mexican stand-off just occurred weeks earlier) which led to Arturo Rivera geting a column in SuperLuchas to present AAA's side publicly every week. It also led him to sign off with something akin to "... and if I've offended you, please forgive me" which apparently ties into that Konnan/Signo incident. Why do I mention this? Because he now starts saying that during EVERY FUCKING MATCH sometimes multiple times. Way more annoying than Jose Manuel Guillen screaming his catch phrase after every highspot. Opener is a very standard tecnicos vs rudos trios match. Work was good enough although it was hard for me to get into since I really don't enjoy that tecnico team. But nothing offensive. A gentleman's **1/4. Next up is the continuation of the AAA Diabolicos vs UWA Diabolicos issue that is going to take us into March. Angel Mortal is back so that gunshot wound must have just been a flesh wound. Two fall match as you'd expect with the feud just getting started. Some good action, especially from Marabunta who was always criminally underrated. Just watching these six do their thing reminds me exactly what current lucha libre is missing. Guys like this. Semi-main is more storyline stuff as Toreo/Heavy Metal are not getting along & Latin Lover tries to play peacemaker. It's not as overt as I might make it seem since I am one show ahead as I write this but if you know what to look for it's there. Match itself is fine with the Payasos bumping around nicely. The rudos in the main event end up attacking the tecnicos so that's our segway straight into the main event tecnicos coming out to start the match. Very basic stuff. Konnan is in working mode as he preps for his WCW run & he always liked working with Angel Blanco Jr. so he was trying some things. Finish is actually Konnan taking the pin as he gets low blowed by Blanco just as Pierroth is rolling him up. That was a bit surprising. We get some challenges afterwards.
Kicking things off here with another in the AAA Diabolicos vs UWA Diabolicos feud. This one turns bloody as one would expect now that they got the clean match out of the way. Mr. Condor ends up with a nasty gash on his arm. Angel Mortal is all bloodied up. It's a good heated match, these guys are all pros so you expect no less. Good way to start the TV, probably didn't get the recognition it deserved back in the day because it was being compared to where are Rey Jr, Juvy, Psicosis, Parka, etc. Semi-main is more obvious tension between Heavy Metal & Torero who fall apart in the second fall of their match and never get it back together leading to the tecnicos loss. The first fall was really good as they crammed the entire working portion of the match into it. Jerry Estrada is just a genius at everything he does. Or a coked up no idea what he's doing risk taker. Either way it works perfect for professional wrestling. I loaded the main event & saw it clocked in at 33 minutes. I was expecting the worse. It didn't end up that bad. Konnan brings a blind child to the ring during his intro which I only mention because he then passes him to Pierroth Jr. to help into the ring. These two are supposed to be in a big feud at this point so I thought that was notable. I guess you go with the hatred doesn't start till the whistle blows. The story of the match is Miss Janeth trying to place peackmaker and convince Cien Caras to come back to the rudo side. Killer is caught in-between, Pierroth wants no part of it. Konnan is just there to do his moves & chase Janeth around when she interferes. They do an American style gimmick where Janeth has a bracelet on which the rudos keep using until finally Konnan gets a hold of it & knocks out Pierroth to win the match. We get some challenges afterwards. Decent enough show for this crew.
We return to the Arena Neza residency for the next couple weeks. Top three from this show made it onto TV. Slightly disappointing as this is the earliest lineup we have for Mini Psicosis & I'd love to see if it was the original or someone else. Probably original if he's working with Babe Rabbit. Show kicks off with another AAA Diabolicos vs UWA Diabolicos two fall match - again the UWA team coming out on top to keep them strong. Again a good match & heated with it being in this arena. The apuesta matches are around the corner. Semi-main is the continuation of the Heavy Metal turn (problematic since he's still in the finals of the Americas Trios Titles tournament, no?). He completely falls apart with Torero here with Winners taking Latin Lover's place as mediator. Not much of a match besides that. Main event is also not much of a match unless you really want to see 20 year old (!) Cibernetico trying to work spots with Cien Caras. I didn't realize Perro Aguayo was off on vacation since before Christmas. That's very nice of AAA. Cien Caras is so miscast as a tecnico but we're still going with it for the time being as he feuds with Pierroth Jr. A very very very skippable show in terms of the overloaded 1996 year of AAA TV.
Oh hey, did anything important happen on this show, Rob??? Welp. So this is the infamous Aguascalientes show where Pentagon (Espanto Jr.) had his life changing "accident". It was meant to be notable for some other reason, obviously. But let's go into the other part of the show first. I have no idea where I got a copy of this. I had it in my collection, obviously I traded for it at some point. Nobody else seemed to have a copy. My copy was pretty bad VQ (that means video quality, kids) but it was all that existed so we went with it. In the 2000's Televisa did a show on tragedies in lucha libre so for the first time the Pentagon accident made it out in excellent quality. In more recent years Roy Lucier found a copy of the top two matches I had but in better VQ. For you old tape trading folks, mine would be a Fair/Good, Roy's would be a VG/EX. Semi-main has the debut of someone named Ebola. For the longest time I assumed this was Super Crazy. I'm still not convinced it wasn't. To this day we have not ever had it confirmed who was under this advertised "nueva imagen AAA". I should have asked him last year at Wrestlecon! Doh! Anyways, it's a lanky dude in a lime green outfit. The way he works when in the ring with Rey Jr. is what made me think it was Super Crazy. The bumps match up perfect. But other stuff does not match up. The height is a bit off but Crazy could have been wearing lifts. There's an MS-Jr. who is the son of MS-1 that wrestled as Ebola in 94/95. The height seems to fit. We have no footage of him outside of one (very edited) match in the 1995 Gran Alternativa. MS-1 was largely inactive at this time, certainly not on the AAA roster. So it's very weird his son would come in immediately in a semi-main event working with this crew. It's also the ONLY time Ebola appears on AAA TV. I think he does another taping or two but then he's gone. Everything he did in this match was fine so it can't be an issue that he wasn't any good. So I lean more towards Super Crazy who did a couple non-TV matches already for AAA & suddenly pops up again in May. Maybe the magazines I recently purchased will help clear things up. Enough about Ebola & let's get to the match. There's an edit immediately so we come back into this red hot Rey Jr/Juvy sequence ending with a headscissors to the floor & ropeflip moonsault dive. 1996 REY JR FTW! He's not done as later he works a great exchange with Ebola ending with him flipping over the ropes & hitting a crossbody taking both into the crowd. 1996 REY JR DOUBLE WIN! Announcers discuss that Mascara Sagrada has a "son" who is about to debut. This will be important later on, not on this show. Match ends on a lame DQ but was pretty entertaining up until that point. We move to the main event which is where the real story is. This was the AAA debut of Ultimo Dragon. He decided to walk away from CMLL after 5 years. As his career would turn out, it was the right move - he got Rey Jr to Japan, he got into WCW & he walked right back into Arena Mexico by March 1997. This was supposed to be his big moment & everything was supposed to circle around him. It did not go that way. First fall is the first fall. We see the first ever Ultimo Dragon/Psicosis interaction. The second fall is where the incident happens. La Parka & Pentagon are working their normal exchange. Pentagon takes his knee-to-the-back backdrop as usual...... except this time he doesn't get up. He just lays there. Parka waits & waits before realizing something is wrong. When he goes to lift him up he realizes he's lifting up a dead person. For whatever reason (probably he was spooked), he tries to roll Pentagon out of the ring while screaming towards Konnan "he's dead" (as per Konnan's telling of the story). This is when everyone panics. Naturally. Octagon totally breaks kayfabe & immediatly runs to tend to Pentagon. Psicosis has a moment where he tries to continue the match but he's being no-sold. Konnan runs for help & the referees jump into action. It's a pretty frightening scene. They get the stretcher out there quickly & run with Pentagon to the back. Everyone is freaked out. Naturally. The rest of the match is a mess as you would expect with a crew who thinks their co-worker just died in front of their eyes. The crowd seems to not understand anything that has happened. Rudos take the second fall. In the third fall Ultimo Dragon cleanly beats Psicosis which is supposed to end the match but for some reason the refs don't call it so Konnan improvises to beat Cibernetico as well. Tecnicos win, show goes off the air. The good news is Pentagon did not die. He was only temporarily dead, they revived him backstage which is actually a miracle because you would not assume this building in Aguascalientes would have the proper equipment to do that. As per his own telling of the story Espanto Jr. claims he had been hurting for weeks leading to this match & took a bad bump on his head. But thanks to the grace of god he was given a second chance at life. It's a great story. Other people involved in the match tell a different story. Their version which lines up much better is the guy was loaded (on drugs for you kids out there) & went to the ring fucked up. The bump may have rattled his brain which was already dealing with the effects of whatever he put in his body so everything shut down. The hospital was very closeby & they pumped his stomach to remove all the bad things which allowed him to live. However, after that kind of traumatic experience the body does not ever to return to what it once was. He never wrestled again. An amazing worker for his time - he could hang with Rey Jr/Psicosis - had his career cut short by overdoing the drugs. A tale as old as time. The incident got so much press that even CMLL had to run a benefit show (organized by Espanto's long time rival El Hijo Del Santo) for him. This was after they had been called out in the press for not allowing their wrestlers to participate on the benefit show AAA organized. Espanto Jr. recovered to the point he would make appearences at shows to thank fans for their support. He also became super religious & would take donations from anyone who wanted to help him on his journey. I believe he still does that to this very day. Very sad story.
I'm not sure these results are in the right order but it's how it aired on TV so let's go with it. We finally get the finals for the AAA Americas Trios Titles with the Villanos against LOS SEXY BOYS of Latin Lover, Heavy Metal & ... *checks notes* ... Cien Caras with a mustache. Oh my. You'll recall Heavy Metal is in the process of a rudo turn but thankfully it's put on hold for the tournament final. Or perhaps with the commission there & a title match Antonio Pena decided he didn't need any more trouble. So the match is wrestled 100% clean. It's not a bad match at all. Not terribly exciting but aside from one laughably messed up spot by Cien Caras, the work is good & action keeps moving. Villanos win clean & everyone shakes hands afterwards. A gentleman's **3/4! *** for the mustache! Semi-main event which I have to presume went on before the title match is our first in a series of AAA Diabolicos vs UWA Diabolicos hair matches. This round goes to Team UWA! Heated match with Rocky super over in Arena Neza as you'd expect with this being the UWA leftover fans. Pretty good stuff. Some excellent punches thrown! Interference from Mr. Condor & Bronco who are the seconds. Angel Mortal bleeds a bunch which helps the drama. Even with all the interference I'm gonna call the finish clean as Santana just submits Mortal near the corner of the ring. Mortal gets his head shaved while blood continues to pour out of him. Attaboy! Rocky cuts a promo shouting out Estado de Mexico! We also get challenges for Mr. Condor/Bronco in a hair match which I've already spoiled is actually going to happen. Main event listed on THE CUBS FAN DOT COM is actually INCORRECT! The Mascara Sagrada in this match is Mascara Sagrada Jr. making his debut! This is obviously NOT the son of Mascara Sagrada. This is the start of a legal issue that would span... no joke... decades. The announcers even poke fun saying stuff like "I had no idea Mascara Sagrada had a kid!" & "He is in better shape than his dad!" The real Mascara Sagrada had left AAA but Antonio Pena claimed ownership over the gimmick. In the following years he'd just put someone new under the mask & carry on with life. Here he was still restrained by the commission & thinking his fans deserved a little respect so he just added the Jr. part & away we go. Pierroth Jr. refuses to even wrestle the match at first claiming this kid shouldn't even be allowed in the ring. He tries to walk off with Miss Janeth but it's Pena himself who orders him back to the ring. This happens again & Perro Aguayo sticks up for the kid. So the match begins. It's a long pretty uneventful match. Sagrada Jr. gets his ass kicked most of the way of course. This may be the match where Konnan decides he & Cibernetico are not going to be friends because after weeks of working with Pierroth Jr. & Angel Blanco Jr. who managed to base for all Konnan's stuff, Cibernetico obviously is not capable of that & Konnan ends up looking the fool multiple times. Going forwards I will now note how many times Konnan works with Cibernetico. Spoiler: It's zero. A big fat zero. You're welcome. Tecnicos end up taking such a beating the refs call a DQ. Very interesting & notable show if you are into the history of AAA. A busy two day stretch!
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT TERCERA DIDN'T AIR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Sad times. This was mid-week between Rey Jr. & Juvy doing their ECW & Tijuana matches. I can't even imagine the craziness they would have busted out. I saw photos in a SuperLuchas magazine which is the closest we'll ever get. Kids these days just don't know how it was! So we start with the semi-main which is actually notable to me personally. I was still just a few months into being a lucha libre fan, I was probably just at the point realizing AAA/CMLL were two different companies with big differences & different rosters. I remember seeing this match with a clown team + a mummy & figuring out they are a regular team & those guys they are always facing are their rivals. This must be a feud. And I was right! Imagine how easy it was to use your eyes & brain instead of needing a 20 minute promo of backstage skits or whatnot. These teams would be all over my TV for the next few months matched up heading to their Triplemania match (this part I didn't know at the age of 13). Naucalpan is pretty heated for this one including an old lady repeatedly trying to hit Karis La Momia with her horn. At first he seemed really pissed & security came over. Then it was clear he realized it's an old lady & a plastic horn - what damage could this do? So he encouraged it. She went to town! The second fall finish was one of the clowns tossing his own mask to a tecnico so guess how the match ends? You got it. This was a finish even I figured out as a newbie lucha fan without needing any explanation as to what was going on. Pretty fun trip down memory lane here. Work was sold too. This was once again Mascara Sagrada Jr. - hence the team name Los Junior Atomicos. Main event is Ultimo Dragon's second AAA TV appearence. This one goes better in the sense nobody almost died. But I wouldn't say it went well. He had lots of issues working with both Psicosis & Pierroth Jr. strangely. I don't think he was prepared for the different way AAA matches were working compared to the rigid CMLL formula. He felt so out of place & I think he realized it very quickly. In CMLL he was still one of the more spectacular guys since the underneath guys were largely bland & up their in age. In AAA he had to follow an undercard full of guys like Venum & Frisbee. His stuff didn't stand out as much... and he wasn't about to bust out all his tricks on every show so it kinda seemed like he was half-assing it at times. Sometimes you're just not a fit, what can I say. The match isn't bad or anything, it's actually perfectly fine. Rudos do their job making the tecnicos look as good as possible (Perro is not moving well although he does bust out a tope suicida near the end). Psicosis yanks Dragon's mask off for the DQ finish.
The usual back-to-back Northern Mexico loop ends up with some TV matches but just the main event from each night. Sometimes AAA would pluck a match from here & there but my guess is more than just the main events aired - we just don't have recordings. I would love to see this undercard stuff of course. Even if it blows up my theory of Ebola being Super Crazy since they are both booked here. Perro Aguayo vs Cibernetico is said to be for the WWA Heavyweight Title but the UWA Junior Heavyweight Title is being used. I dunno. That's the least of our problems. 21/22 year old Cibernetico trying to have a straight wrestling match with breaking down Perro Aguayo is the main concern. There were some real laughable moments in this one from Perro jumping (falling) off the top rope to do something & Cibernetico just standing there completely confused as to what to my favorite... Perro attempting a wacky submission I've seen before but don't know the name of only for Cibernetico to of course have no idea what he was trying so the finish is called before Ciber can decide whether he should be selling whatever Perro is doing or not. Shockingly Perro wins clean & retains his title. I have no idea what the purpose of this match was. Maybe they were testing Ciber to see how far along he was. A test he failed. I think going forward he gets restrcited to only singles matches that are full of interference as we shift into the era of less serious titles matches happening on AAA shows.
The Nuevo Laredo portion of the TV has La Parka vs Jerry Estrada which sounds AWESOME & guess what? WAS AWESOME! ****+ match for sure. I should have noted this above but the same seconds were in both title matches - Latin Lover & Heavy Metal. The announcers explained Heavy Metal hasn't officially turned rudo yet, he was just thinking over his options. He hasn't done the turn on TV yet so it sounds right but also he was openly interfering for both Cibernetico above & Jerry Estrada here so I think the answer is clear? Early on there appears to be something distracting the fans - maybe a fight in the crowd. Parka & Jerry are just perfect opponents. First fall has Parka win with a double jump corkscrew bodyblock which is exactly what I named it when I created him in the TNM wrestling simulator. Another huge part of my wrestling fandom! Jerry takes the second fall with his standing double arm bow-and-arrow submission... yes, also what I called it in TNM. I was the lucha guy, nobody was gonna question me! Even though I misspelled quite a few names. Sorry, Oliver. Third fall is bonkers with Parka doing this wild ass dive upside down hitting the barricade. Good thing he's a skeleton or he would have broken something. Jerry gets a running somersault plancha in. Parka tries to one-up himself by doing this insane rope trick... rope walk... somersault plancha. Absolutely fucking insane! This would hold up in 2026 as a DOTYC. People really don't realize how athletic Parka was when he wanted to be. He showed some glimpses in WCW when he first came in. Finish is very new for AAA... Parka puts Jerry in a grounded choke where he's using his legs to choke the life out of Jerry. There's no immediate submission, they just kinda lay there with Jerry struggling to get out... until he doesn't. He just passes out. The ref calls the match & they do a big sell job with Jerry being stretchered out & taken immediately into an awaiting ambulance! How about that! Parka celebrates with the belt as Latin Lover/Heavy Metal have words. Just as we're about to cut away some random hits the ring & starts beating on Parka. Who is it? Why it's a young Pimpinela Escarlata! So weird to be doing an angle for the local shows on national TV but that was the fun of AAA TV even into the 2000's. Definitely check this match out if you haven't seen it!
Well here we go... RobViper lore! This was the first ever minis match from Mexico I ever saw. It's very hard to explain unless you understood a time pre-internet & having all sorts of information at your fingertips immediately. Imagine not only are you just figuring out what this lucha libre thing is but suddenly you are exposed to a match with midgets. The only wrestling connection you have to midgets are through WWF where they were doing comedy spots with the referees or wrestling as clowns against smaller versions of Jerry Lawler. Total sideshow comedy to be laughed at & mocked. Then you are suddenly confronted with these characters - a couple of which you recognize as wrestlers you'd seen on TV before except they were taller so clearly these are smaller versions & not only are they smaller versions - they are smaller versions who are in some cases more athletic than their counterparts! It was just mind blowing. Impossible to process honestly. I very clearly remember when I got the internet months later & started to find pro wrestling pages I would search out the ones where lucha libre was mentioned & e-mail questions to whoever ran the page. Inevitably one question would be explain why Mexico has midgets running around doing the same gimmicks as the bigger versions. I can't remember how many replies I got, maybe it was just the one, but Pete Stein (DVDVR!) was the one who explained to me how this all works. Even shared stories of some crazy stuff he had seen them do which only made me want to search out all the footage I could of these little guys! This Baby Rabbit fella in particular won me over immediately. Not only was he adorable but he was doing some of the craziest shit I'd seen at the time! I guess I should note the lineup has Pierrothito/Jerrito Estrada but this was at the time of the switch over from original minis to new era minis so Espectrito II & La Parkita end up in those spots. I didn't know any of this at the time of course but would come to realize Baby Rabbit had been on TV in 1995 as Conejito, a small sidekick to Super Rabbit who had been teaming with Super Muneco & Jugadero as a new era kids trio. He also had a TV match or two but this was considered his "re-debut". He would go on to become the new Mascarita Sagrada (Jr.) & then of course Mini Rey Misterio Jr. followed by Tzuki. My 2nd favorite wrestler of all-time who I finally got to meet in person in 2023 in Los Angeles! So there's your RobViper lore. A confused just turned teenager trying to figure out what in the world is going on down in Mexico?!?!?!? The match itself is awesome as you can imagine. Rudos just shining up the tecnicos almost the entire way. Super Munequito was always such an underrated mini. I'd love for someone to find him these days & do an interview. He just kinda disappeared one day in like 1997. A random fun fact is this match features the first-ever standing on the shoulders spot as far as I can tell. If someone has a previous example let me know but Mini Frisbee does it to Espectrito I here. Actually, I can correct myself in real time here. Ninjita (future Octagoncito version 2) does it with Espectrito I in a match in 1995. Tecnicos win the match when Rabbit surprises Espectrito I with a roll-up. Announcers put it over big! Crowd loves it! One of my all-time favorite minis matches. Next up you'd think would be the Diabolicos feud raging on but it gets skipped this week! So we move to the semi-main event which is the Junior Atomicos vs Karis & Villanos (in for Payasos) feud raging on. Demon Jr./Villano III bring back their issue from January. I now realize why Antonio Pena was a genius. He looked at these four shmucks & realized all these juniors are fucking terrible. I'll never get anything out of them alone so why not just lump them all together & see what happens? It wasn't the worst idea! Demon Jr. doesn't look too bad when you compare him to bums like Dorado Jr. & Tinieblas Jr.! It's a decent match, I always tolerated these atomicos matches & the crowd was often really into them. Classic lucha finish here as Karis La Momia traps Demon in a surfboard but Sagrada Jr. sneaks in & covers him for the win! Big pop! I love that finish. These days it wouldn't even be counted. The machine is totally broken. Moving onto the main event we have a cage match with Heavy Metal's first official appearence on the rudo side. I have to admit even I'm confused here as I know the original Mascara Sagrada had left the company now on bad terms. I just can't remember who this first fake Mascara Sagrada was. It wasn't current day Kraneo yet. Either way, this is his TV debut. The notable thing mentioned on commentary is the announcers go out of their way (legal reasons?) to note the Mascara Sagrada Jr. in the previous match is NOT the son of Mascara Sagrada. Just someone who grew up idolizing Mascara Sagrada & asked for permission to carry on the legacy. A nice way to explain things but leaving out the fact oh yeah we also have a fake Mascara Sagrada hanging around now too. This Sagrada ends up chained to the cage & a bloody mess allowing both rudos to escape & win the match. It was a lucha cage match so you kinda get the idea of what went on. Good show though! Great show for my happy memories!
A double apuesta show! We've reached the end of the line in the AAA Diabolicos vs UWA Diabolicos feud. It isn't the end of the Arena Neza residency although by this point AAA has the cameras on the road full time so they rely less on showing these weekly Friday Neza shows. Kicking things off is the first apuesta match as Marabunta looks for revenge for Angel Mortal taking on Rocky Santana who won two weeks ago. If you ever wanted to attack Dave Meltzer being a highspots-only lucha guy - this should be your go-to match. It appears he gave it **** in the WON. This is no **** match. It's a fine match but breaking ***... no. What does it have that got it up to ****? Well I suspect Dave was wow'ed by the same thing young 13 year old Rob was. For the longest time this was my go-to obscure trivia question: Which luchador holds the record for most dives in a single match? Answer: Marabunta! That's right! He does *5* dives in this match. You're reading this in 2026 thinking "so?" I don't blame you. This is now commonplace, especially in big CMLL matches. But back in 1996 not even Rey Jr. was doing 5 dives per match. So for this lowly undercard rudo part of a trio to suddenly be flying all over the place... it was super memorable. The match isn't much otherwise. You have Mr. Condor & Gallego on the outside interfereing to set up what is to come later. You also have a bunch of super awkward moments where Pepe Casas is not counting falls because shoulders aren't down. He's right but also it brought the match to a total dead stop at least twice. Finish is all sorts of lame as he stays distracted for too long so Marabunta has to lay there dead forever after taking nothing but a vertical suplex. I did not enjoy this even though I recalled it fondly in my head. Before the next apuesta match we get the Junior Atomicos vs Payasos feud continuing. This is a lot of mask ripping. It ends with Karis La Momia running in to attack Blue Demon Jr. & Halcon Dorado Jr. making the save to a big pop. The clowns end up DQ'ed for the interference. The second apuesta match has Mr. Condor looking for revenge for Angel Mortal *and* Marabunta against Gallego (who would end up part of the AAA Diabolicos when Marabunta moves onto different things in 1997). Marabunta is ringside sporting his freshly shaven head. Another match full of interference just with a different referee monitoring it all. Not as much excitement in terms of dives. Finish has a series of events ending with Tirantes tripped by the UWA Diabolicos duo which makes him unhappy. They try to cheat but he's recovering. Gallego goes to yell at him which Tirantes doesn't appreciate so he fast counts Gallego when Mr. Condor rolls him up. AAA Diabolicos lose the war but win the final battle as I guess they tried to claim Gallego was the captain of the UWA Diabolicos? Main event is Ultimo Dragon still doesn't fit into AAA Part 3. A decent match but nothing exceptional. Honestly it was Pantera in his AAA TV debut who looked much better. He had some very nice exchanges with both Heavy Metal (flashback to their early Arena Mexico days) & Psicosis. Octagon winning the first fall with an Atlantida was humorous. Heavy Metal's selling of it especially. Clean as a sheet finish with the tecnicos going over. Decent little TV episode.
What a weird little portion of TV. I have to presume this wasn't a full TV show unless we are missing a lot if so. The copy I have has a weird very non-AAA TV graphic introducing the semi-main. You'd think it was a local TV show if not for the Televisa announcers (who are clearly doing this commentary in post trapped inside a box). It's just highlights for the most part. No idea who the Diaboliks or why you'd debut people named Diaboliks when the last 2 months of TV featured a feud between two Diabolicos teams over the name. I have to presume these were just local wrestlers or local wrestlers put under random Pena gimmicks he created but never really used. Maybe someone else can fill in the details. Spoiler: Nobody else will ever fill in the details unless I do the research. Welcome to life as the only person who still cares. This is a two straight falls DQ with Fishman unmasking Mascara Sagrada. BTW I should of course note this taping was at the famous Auditorio Municipal in Juarez which hosted many famous wrestlers & matches over the years. It doesn't look like an authentic taping, AAA never really taped here. The floor is covered up with some weird carpeting. The canvas has giant yellow tape obstructing something (I presume a sponsor not cleared for TV). It's very strange. Speaking of... EDDY GUERRERO IS BACK! LOL He's already started with WCW at this point of course but Juarez being a big Guerreros town I guess he did Konnan or Pena a solid & returned to do a shot. Of course this ends up being his final AAA match ever. Accompanying him to the ring is some kid who would end up becoming Chavo Guerrero Jr.. Eddy is a rudo here but clearly wants no part of being a rudo. He does some good stuff with Konnan & Parka which leads to them shaking hands with him. Killer & Miss Janeth disapprove. In the third fall La Parka does the SABU chair to top rope springboard plancha which was neat. Chavo ends up involved & Eddy comes to his defense, officially turning tecnico & reuniting with Konnan. This was like a bubble episode or whatever the term is for a stand alone show. The Diaobliks are never heard from again. Fishman disappears for the most part. Eddy is never seen again. Even Killer doesn't really do much. I guess you could say this was a taped spot show.
Speaking of stand alone shows... how about a stand alone match? Somehow the segunda on this show with all IWRG locals ends up making this national TV show. AAA used to always do stuff like this so it wasn't completely out of the norm, it just always comes off as weird with hindsight. Remember they were still airing something like 3-4 hours of TV every weekend so you just needed content. Just seems odd they wouldn't air that minis match over the locals having a match that furthers a local angle. This Dr. Cerebro is not the Dr. Cerebro you are probably thinking about. I believe this is Joe Mercado who would go on to work as the new Pentagon in 1997. Mastadonte would portray a ton of roles in his career. In fact, he had already gone through a few in AAA like Rinocerante. He's fat, you see. Very. Tony Rivera is the guy who would go on to start in CMLL in mid-97 & stick around for a long time until an ugly falling out. I should rewind before discussing Oriental. This TV episode was a new one unearthed by Roy Lucier. So it was only two or three years ago it showed up. My first exposure to Oriental was in February or March 1997 when he randomly appears on CMLL TV working an Arena Coliseo opener in a time when openers never aired. So to me he was a total mystery guy who did awesome moves & I desperately wanted to see more but had no option to do so. I wasn't even sure his name was Oriental to be honest. I may have given a fake name in TNM (but some jacked up stats for sure). If somehow this show would have been available on some tape lists, I would have made one awesome discovery when coming across this match! Would have solved one of my early lucha mysteries! The match is pretty good as you'd figure with the locals wanting to show out with the TV cameras present. It was loaded with all the good stuff early since they were getting to the angle at the end. Goleador was a very entertaining rudo. It's possible he got re-gimmicked but off the top of my head I can't think of who he would have become. Oriental & Rivera both look sharp. In the third fall the tecnicos have some communication issues until finally Mastadonte has had enough & turns on his partners. I *think* he had alread turned rudo on these Arena Naucalpan shows but they re-did it for TV maybe hoping it would stick with Pena. Worked out great for him because even though he caused the DQ - he ends up on the winning side! Since the minis are skipped which makes me a very sad person, we move onto the continuing Junior Atomicos vs Payasos saga. With guest stars! Many! First off we know an angle is coming because Halcon Dorado Jr. is seated front row. We see the debut here of BIG Kraken who in later weeks would just go by the name Kraken. RELEASE THE... nvm. I had no memory of him being called anything besides just Kraken so this is a cool little easter egg. I guess Pena had a change of mind after it showed up on TV. On the other side we have this thin guy named Kraneo. An Arena Naucalpan local at the time. Remember on an earlier TV show I was trying to figure out who was playing Mascara Sagrada at this time so clearly it wasn't him. This is the only time we see Kraneo until he shows up at Triplemania 97 held in El Toreo De Naucalpan. After that he takes on the Mascara Sagrada gimmick & in late 1998 he becomes Alebrije who would hang out many years before finding himself in CMLL back under the name Kraneo except much much much fatter. Look, I have nothing against fat people - just making very obvious observations here. This is a decent enough match. They play up a couple spots right in front of the old smoking lady who was a fixture at these weekly Arena Naucalpan shows. It's a two fall DQ when Coco Azul (who was there pre-match to show he was injured) interferes. I'm only just noticing as I type this in the lineup above SuperLuchas totally spoils who Kraken is. Oops. Karis La Momia was the one who replaced Coco Azul. Halcon Dorado Jr. jumps out of the crowd to save the tecnicos & they do a very long post-match brawl. Things are heating up! Main event is another attempt to make Ultimo Dragon fit in on this roster! This is the best one yet! But it's a little unfair if you ask me because Arena Naucalpan was like his local arena from when he arrived in Mexico as Asai. Nevertheless, the match goes very well with him getting to do good stuff with all three rudos. Pantera looks good too, also in his home arena. The tecnicos win clean as a sheet, no angle, no nonsense. That makes two weird TV shows in a row in terms of new characters & feeling like they were just spot shows that ended up on TV because the cameras were there.
I feel like I should be combining the next two shows but I'll just do them seperately & explain. For the longest time we had combined two tapings into one. AAA runs Veracruz proper on the Wednesday & Xalapa, Veracruz on Thursday. It's largely the same lineup minus one or two changes. On tape lists people just listed it as "Veracruz" both nights so it looked like the same show twice. It was only many years into trying to collect all the AAA TV that I realized oh shit these are different shows. I think it was the mini's match where the realization came to me because the first fall finish was not at all what I remembered from the match I remembered. I remember seeing this match (or the next night) on TLN. It aired overnight so I cued the tape up early in the morning before school & was so happy to see more minis! I didn't know this at the time but later I'd find out if you knew your lucha shit you'd be aware there were two Panteritas running around at this time. CMLL had one, AAA had one. The AAA one here is the guy who would go on to play La Parkita (not the current La Parkita) by year end before becoming the new Octagoncito who these days wrestles as Mini Rey Misterio. He was a Veracruz local so it makes sense he's in this spot. The announcers even mention it, maybe slyly addressing the fact they know there's a Panterita over on the other side (so two Panterita matches could have made TV the same weekend?). Match is pretty good as you'd expect. Espectritos give the tecnicos a ton. Munequito ends up winning it for the tecnicos. I should note the referee was TIRANTITO! Yes, a midget Tirantes. More like Micro. He was very tiny. Next up is a match that would have fit over on the CMLL portion of the show from Arena Coliseo. Just a totally solid trios match with a simple formula using veterans. Boomerang here is Skayde. I remember thinking the outfit was so fuckin cool but the name was laughable. I mean c'mon... what 13 year old is gonna think "Boomerang" is a good name? Pretty sure I re-named him as something else in my head at the time. It's one of my favorite Skayde gimmicks now. Destructores win in two straight falls, total domination but the match isn't a squash or anything. I think it's a very good match to re-watch if you're a wrestler looking to construct a two fall match where one team is clearly stronger but the other side gets in some nice moments so it doesn't have to be a total squash. Semi-main is more Junior Atomicos vs Payasos fun. This is worked as a totally straight match. Loved the second fall finish which is Demon Jr. trapping Karis in a cool submission right in the middle of the star! Do you remember the star? Probably not, you'll never see it again in current lucha libre. But it used to be one of the most traditional spots there was. I remember Mike Tenay even having to explain it at WCW World War 3 1996 when they busted it out in the lucha trios match. Tecnicos go over clean so you can guess what's gonna happen the next night, huh? Main event is the semi-main as the Konnan tag match does not air. I'm not too broken up. Another pretty straight forward trios match with some funny La Parka comedy & the Villanos working hard to make the new Sagrada & Octagon look good. Post-match the tecnicos get attacked by... uhhh... Jason The Terrible??? That's a weird one. He was last seen in CMLL in 1995. The deal here is apparently he was trying to organize international tours with AAA talent. It must have taken a while because it wasn't until the summer of 1997 when he organized a tour under the W*ING name in Japan bringing over some AAA names. It bombed. To the extent I never believed the shows actually happened until someone dug up old photos & a couple clips from a Samurai TV news show. Jason ends up working a few matches here as you'll see in the upcoming TV episodes. Not a must-see show or anything but you can't go wrong investing time into watching this start to finish. As an aside - during the main event the announcers talk about how cool it would be to see an Octagon/Pantera/Ultimo Dragon team one day. This confuses me because that literal team just worked together in Naucalpan 7 days earlier & these same announcers did commentary. Is it possible they recorded the commentary out of order? It was definitely done in post because you can hear they are sitting in a bubble, not live in the arena. But it's so weird that they'd be recording things out of order based on how I always knew lucha libre to operate. Maybe they just blanked on the team & it's as simple as that.
Night 2 of the Veracruz swing! In the show intro we are alerted to the fact Halcon Dorado Jr. is not present because he is "very busy working shows in another part of Mexico". Good cover for the angle to come later. As I said above, lots of similar looking matches on this show including a straight up re-match of the minis tag. I liked this one a little better than the match the previous day. It's almost as if they swapped the tecnico roles. Super Munequito won the match the night before with an asai moonsault, this time it was Panterita who won the match that way. Tirantito was back refereing this match as well. I wonder whatever happened to him? Good stuff. Next up we find out Winners got injured wherever he was wrestling in the previous days so he is being subbed for by "Joque". That's how Jeff Lynch spelt it on his tape list, that's how everyone copied it. It sounds like "Yo-que" so maybe that's right but I can't be sure. No idea who this guy is. My best guess is a local & my better guess is the local promoter putting himself on TV. He was just a random small older looking dude who really had no business on TV. The match is fine though, the vets make it work. I note the announcers calling Frisbee "El Dragon De Plata" because I feel like that was a nickname they moved over to Venum in due time? Announcers also go on this super weird tangent explaining the original Mascara Sagrada can still wrestle elsewhere & complain all he wants but AAA is not going to get rid of Mascara Sagrada Jr., Antonio Pena has authorization to use the name & the mask is a little different than the original Mascara Sagrada. I pesume this is them shouting back as Sagrada sued AAA over the gimmick. A lawsuit that would last way too many years. The funny thing about this clapback is we are only weeks away from Pena actually debuting a copycat Mascara Sagrada with the exact same mask which renders everything said by the announcers here completely useless. I guess Sagrada's lawyers didn't tape the show & couldn't play a copy in court? Seems like a slam dunk case. Back to the match... it's solid but unspectacular. Shockingly the tecnicos go over in straight falls as the rudos get DQ'ed for excessive violence. Next up is the raging on Junior Atomicos vs Payasos feud. Clowns attack during the intros. Coco Amarillo gets busted open which is actually important. During the second fall he falls out of the ring... only for ANOTHER Coco Amarillo to show up & take his place! Pepe Casas is immediately suspicious as the announcers point out (!!!) beacuse this one has no blood on his mask. They swap in & out of the ring a couple times before finally Pepe Casas has had enough & yanks off the second Coco Amarillo's mask to reveal Karis La Momia! Another straight fall DQ win for the tecnicos. May not sound cool in 2026 but I vividly recall watching this & thinking it was very cool back in 1996. These were the finishes I was used to when masked men were involved (Killer Bees!). Everyone played their role great here. Good stuff. Semi-main is skipped which is interesting since they previewed it as airing in the show intro. We go straight to the main event cage match which is exactly as you'd expect. Not so good. Perro Aguayo does manage to make Ciber bleed & rip his mask to the point Ciber's face is basically exposed & he's doing his best to cover up while still working spots. A bunch of rudos interfere leading to chants for Konnan who makes the big save. But oh no! During his save he accidentally gets waffled by a chair from Perro! This allows Ciber to climb out & win the title. He even cuts a post-match promo which is tough to decipher between the terrible audio & him covering his mouth as to not expose his face. A fun enough show! Definitely exceeded my expectations/memories.
Well this is as random of a taping as it gets! Note there is no mention of taped for TV on the poster so my guess is they were not planning to tape this - it certainly looks like a generic spot show - but cameras ended up there so they decided fuck it let's go for it. The Payasos vs Destructores match makes it to TV. It also somehow made the year end review show which is the first time I ever saw it. It's a lumberjack strap match. The way the announcers were explaining the rules makes me wonder if this was the first of it's kind on AAA TV? I'm struggling to think of another. It would certainly make sense if this was the first one as they toss in every trope we've come to love from this kind of match. Yes, I say love because I think these matches are great if you don't over-do them. When AAA ran at Wrestlecon a couple years back I had to beg Konnan to book one. If the participants are into them & know how to work them properly they can be a ton of fun. If WWE/AEW were still doing house shows I'd even go as far as to say these would be fantastic matches to do so the top people can avoid having to do bump heavy matches. Especially WWE with the amount of kids/families they draw to shows. This match was super fun, they even went after the famous fan with the black glove who was sitting front row. Payasos won by faking a low blow. Main event is NOT Konnan & Torero vs Mascara Sagrada & Frisbee. Nor is it a 4 corners tag as LuchaDB has it lsited. This is another one of those Relevos Tijuanenses, you may remember the one from Queretaro in February. It's basically an 8 way match where you can tag anyone but have to make contact first before you can tag out. There are a couple subs here. Villano III replaces Villano V. Octagon replaces Frisbee. For some reason the YouTube video & thus LuchaDB have Karloff Lagarde Jr. in for Torero but that's not accurate. Torero is most definitely here & Karloff is most definitely working CMLL by now or is just about to start. The match is nowhere near the excellent February match. It's honestly a bunch of absolute nothing until they start rapidly eliminating people to get down to the final two which are Konnan & Mascara Sagrada Jr. This is Konnan's chance to show the boys in the back he's here to put over people to. He ends up getting pinned by Sagrada who is getting the monster push for reasons I've already explained. Smart idea by Konnan. Easy loss to take & setting an example that if even he can lose to someone new, nobody else should have a problem with it. And on TV no less! Definitely one of the stranger episodes of AAA TV in 1996.
Welcome to Arena Queretaro! Not the usual venue for AAA to be taping TV around this time. The trios match opens things up. This also feels like maybe it was a spot show that turned into a TV taping with that set of rudos. Video qualify is iffy here as clearly someone recorded off a satellite so it keeps dipping in & out + getting audio from other channels. What I can establish for sure is the tecnicos won by DQ when Kraken unmasked Sagrada. This starts one of the first lucha angles I watched & understood. Kraken took on a mask collector gimmick. Every show he would unmask someone & on the next show he'd walk out with their masks on a stick. I loved it! It went nowhere. Typical AAA. The ring announcer speficially mentions the title match as the main event so I'd love to see what this full card looked like because as good as these two were + them being international names at the time - they weren't often main eventing. More RobViper lore... in my early internet days I would look all over for people discussing or recapping lucha libre related things. This led me to RSPW (yes, we're all old) which wasn't as active any longer but had the archives up. That's where I found all Pogo Pete Stein's old AAA/CMLL TV recaps. I may still have them saved somewhere. He was my favorite, very entertaining & clearly loved lucha libre at the time. I clearly recall him reviewing this match b/c he mentions a tope suicida to nowhere, superplex to the floor & Drive-By (flip dive) before ending it by freaking out because his cable went out so he never got to see how the match ended. LOL I would have been a mess too, Pete! This stuck with me for so many years b/c I collected every single Rey Jr/Juvy match I could find of course & nothing he described happened in any of them. I even wondered at one point did he make up a match in his head or just misremember what he had seen occur? But of course one day I picked up these Lucha TV Satellite tapes from Ron Rivera & wouldn't you know it... a brand new Rey Jr/Juvy match was on one tape! As I watched it I saw all the spots from that Pogo Pete review! The unicorn of Rey Jr/Juvy matches! Success! So let me fill in the blank for you Pete (definitely not reading this) - Juvy wins! They do a finish where he does a springboard dropkick but Rey moves so Pepe Casas gets hit. Juvy then low blows Rey & press slams him onto Pepe Casas for good measure. Casas gets up & shoves Rey Jr. away - declaring Juvy the winner & new champ by DQ! Creative finish. Oh, and great match! These guys were hitting their groove here as you imagine with them hitting it big internationally. Juvy was trying all sorts of new things & they weren't afraid to bust out the big spots they'd bring to Japan/US in due time. The tope to nowhere was INSANE. The suplex to the floor is something you don't even see being done these days. Rey Jr. even takes the first fall with an awesome sunset flip bomb - a shotout to me no doubt! Easy ****1/4 calibre match here. I was trying to see if there was an edit in the third fall but it was tough due to the satellite issues. So it could have been even longer & better in it's full form. Definitely track this one down & feel free to thank me because it looks like if I didn't put it on YouTube, nobody else likely has a copy.
Back in Arena Naucalpan! I remember watching this show originally here on TLN. Core lucha memory unlocked! Opener is a trios with the two atomicos teams currently feuding which seems strange until you get to the finish. One thing I noted to myself watching this was a difference in how lucha libre used to be vs how it is now. Worse or better is in the eye of the beholder of course. What I noticed was the chaos. People brawling everywhere, inside & outside the ring. There were always multiple places to look so the fans had to be paying attention to all sides + corners. These days you can see that on the indy level but it's mostly terrible crowd brawling. This was done in the semblance of a pro wrestling match. Whereas these days the two main Mexico groups - well one doing somewhat lucha style - it's all about one guy in to get triple teamed, take a move, next guy in to get triple teamed. They don't want the action spilling to the floor & they want all the focus on one thing at a time. Anyways, Blue Demon Jr. takes a beating in this match. So much so the tecnicos win the first fall by DQ. In the second fall another Mascara Sagrada hits the ring! HAS THE ORIGINAL RETURNED??? That would be a no. In fact, such a no that the announcers are making jokes about "that can't be the original, he's busy in court". LOL It turns out to be Coco Azul. But wait - wasn't Coco Azul in the match? Yes, he was! Well it tturns out that Coco Azul wasn't the actual Coco Azul, it was Karis La Momia as we find out when he unmasks, throws his mask to Coco Azul who swaps it with his Mascara Sagrada mask. Please don't ask me why they needed to do this convulted switching of masks. I don't know, I don't care, I fucking thought this was amazing. LOL I remember marking out for it as a kid since I was catching onto who was who & who was feuding with who on these shows. Next up is another core memory as it was my first time seeing Ultimo Dragon I think? Plus La Parka & Psicosis who I had seen before but this match is where I really remember going fuck these guys are awesome. Psicosis had to be awesome - look at his partners. He does all the work here, working exchanges with all three tecnicos. Parka is in awesome mode too. The only negative is there was a lot of focus put on Tirantes. I don't really remember what I thought watching this as a kid. I understand it now so it's second nature but you'd think to a still realtively new lucha viewer the referee being so physically involved would be strange. There's a nasty spot in the second fall where Psicosis gives Parka a TOP ROPE FRANKENSTEINER TO THE FLOOR! Now this wasn't as bad of a fall as in a normal ring since Naucalpan's ring was a touch smaller but it's still a nasty tailbone bump to take & you can see Parka is definitely feeling it. I remember watching thinking this was the coolest thing ever so mission accomplished! A chair gets involved in the third fall, these guys really were Sabu fans! There's an Arabian Moonsault from Psicosis which Rob fun fact: My 2nd favorite "regular" all-time move after the sunset flip bomber. Both due to seeing them in my first ever Sabu match on video. Take note. Finish is of course another DQ as Kraken is doing the mask collecting gimmick. He takes Octagon's mask this time. Psicosis tries to set it on fire with a lighter but Kraken talks him out of it so he can keep it in his collection which now has Sagrada & Octagon. Collecting that shit like monopoly pieces. Memorable angle for me. Main event is another Perro Aguayo vs Cibernetico match, this time minus the cage. Which meant they had to wrestle. Which meant it didn't go well. Much like the first time. Ciber was just so young here & so green. You could tell how overwhelmed he was. Constantly looking to Perro to take the lead & tell him what to do. Perro somehow manages to hit a tope suicida even though he seemed to be having trouble moving. Finish is not a DQ but instead we get the usual AAA stuff going on. Parka/Pierroth are the seconds. Ciber is supposed to low blow Perro as he's caught in the ropes but he WHIFFS badly so he has to re-do it since Perro won't sell that shit. Yes, they replayed the missed first low blow. As this is being debated as a foul or not & Parka/Pierorth are getting into it, Perro low blows Ciber & Tirantes turns around to count the pinfall. Perro keeps his title. Crowd goes CRAZY on the finish. I don't think the Naucalpan has been that hot since. True emotion for a legend winning. Post-match we get promos including Perro promising to take Pierroth's championship. I think this is the early build to the Campeon De Campeones Title that was decided in a match at one of the Triplemanias this year. Very good show!
Back to Arena Neza this time! An interesting show with some new/old faces. Picudo has not been around in a while, maybe not since he lost his mask to end 1995? Ravana is an older gimmick that has been doing non-TV stuff but this is his first TV appearence in quite a while. Super Crazy makes sense here since he was still technically a UWA (whatever that means in 1996) guy & this was their last building. El Mexicano hasn't been seen on TV since the tag title match in January. Aguila Solitaria making his AAA debut I think? This is all off the top of my head. Thunderbird of course has been around but this is it for him. So this feels like a match of guys looking for work & being given an opportunity to stick around. Sadly, it didn't really work out. Not a great match. El Mexicano & Crazy looked the best. Aguila Solitaria was just so out of place. A perfectly seviceable wrestler in the 80's but with the style turning more spectacular he just couldn't keep up. He was also very colorless. A much better fit for CMLL at this time. And then there's poor Thunderbird. You know at one point Konnan said (correctly) he had more potential than Rey Misterio Jr.? When the Tijuana guys showed up to AAA in 1992 - it was Thunderbird who was projected to be the breakout star. He could certainly do some spectacular things. But it just never seemed to click & then he suffered knee injuries. He spends most of the match struggling to do things here including a horrific first fall finish that Ravana had to save as best he could. He gets to bust out a Space Flying Tiger Drop in the third fall but it doesn't even look that spectacular & he ends up taking out his partner Mexicano which leads to the tecnicos downfall. Picudo/Crazy stick around as regular after this match, I'd agree with that assessment. Next up is the AAA debut of Oro Jr. This is the brother of Oro who passed away & worked in CMLL as Oro II in late 95/early 96. No idea why he decided to make the jump here. I can see why AAA would pick him up though. It's a better idea than execution. Much like Aguila Solitaria he is very servicable & that's where it ends. Doesn't have the smoothness of his deceased brother nor the charisma. So on this kind of roster, that's a recipe for disaster. This match wasn't too hot either. It's a lot of beating up Halcon Dorado Jr. by Villano III. Kraken is still doing the mask deal, this time he swipes Halcon's to add to his collection. Sadly this neat little bit is coming to an end soon. Main event is WEIRD. In the sense last I saw Cien Caras he was a tecnico. Why is he a rudo now? What did I miss? He's also apparently feuding with Latin Lover but this is the first time they've crossed paths since teaming in the trios titles tournament. I felt so lost. As a stand alone ignoring the continuity problems, it's fine. Easily the match of the show. Some nice work by Pantera/Metal & Ultimo/Estrada. We're still not getting the real Ultimo Dragon here. I think the best explanation of how Ultimo's entire AAA run went is at no point did he bust out his namesake asai moonsault. Not once. Not TV, not spot show (that we have on video). That tells you everything about how much he was enjoying himself here. Saving the big stuff for when it counts (Japan). Rudos get a totally clean win after reversing moves from the tecnicos in the third fall. Latin Lover bled which is rare for him. Not a terribly exciting show but you can kinda see AAA going in a different direction as this WCW deal starts to take shape & Pena is seperating out his own group of Mexico talent he can focus on. I don't think he knew what would come later in the year but he certainly understood he couldn't have all AAA revolve around guys who were starting to become internationally successful. So that immediately puts him ahead of Promo Azteca who built their entire thing on guys who would never be available for tapings or treat it as a day off.
A very rare TV episode! Not a single person ever had this on their tape list. Not Jeff Lynch. Not Ron Rivera. Not even Roy Lucier via Mike Tenay! This episode popped up on the random Gambe Lucha channel which has since disappeared. Thankfully a channel that steals videos from other channels had it saved or it would have been lost forever again (don't worry this time I downloaded it!). When it first popped up I was very confused. These matches didn't seem to fit anywhere. So I did what I usually do - pawned it off on The Cubs Fan. He listened to the audio carefully & figured out they were talking about some soccer game, searched out said soccer game & thus we get this date. It's an inexact science of course, perhaps my upcoming magazine delivery will shed more light on this show including what didn't air. What we get is the semi-main which is a good looking match on paper but never really clicked for me. A lot of rudos in control with Juvy seemingly having beef with Oro Jr including ripping his mask almost completely off at one point. There's a feud out of nowhere. Winners & Perro Silva definitely have an issue going. In the second fall Winners does this somersault over the ringpost which is so out of control he flies over Perro Silva who instead of lunging back to catch him just walks away as if he moved away from the dive. Pretty smart actually. The third fall has a SFTD by Super Crazy which surely would have had me jumping off my couch in 1996 had I seen this originally. Not sure where else I'd have seen something like that except maybe Hakushi in WWF the year prior. We come down to Super Calo & Juvy who exchange some nearfalls. Super Crazy sneaks back in to low blow Calo so Juvy can pin him. This felt like a bunch of feuds converging but nothing really goes anywhere except Winners/Silva stay married. It could have been this was just a spot show that ended up on TV so they weren't intending for this to be seen. Main event is about as standard as it gets. Very dull match for the most part. Finish is Kraken yanking Tinieblas' mask for the DQ. Another mask for his collection! Cool rare find, not much content to take away.
And right back to Arena Naucalpan! It's a funny building because IWRG
starts airing on ESPN Internacional around this time so two seperate TV
networks were taping footage out of this old wrestling building in
Naucalpan. I remember in like 1999 (?) when I found out IWRG was airing
on ESPN 2 (that was the logo used) I searched for any low quality online
stream that existed to try and see if it was in the listings. When I'd
travel to the US for winter vacation I'd constantly monitor ESPN2
looking for it. Nada. It was only years later I'd find out in
Mexico/South American ESPN International was known to them as ESPN 2, it
had nothing to do with the similarly named US channel. This lineup has a
Rey Misterio Jr. vs Juventud Guerrera match pictured that we still
don't believe actually happened on the show. A Blue Demon Jr. vs Karis
La Momia match for the Mexican National Cruiserweight Title ends up
added so most likely it was the substitute match. What a downgrade! But
before we get to that we start off with the semi-main. Instead of Heavy
Metal's music playing we get some fancy mariachi type music & he
comes out with a cake to present to his dad referee Pepe Casas. Poor
Pepe is moved to tears as everyone hugs him (including Tirantes!)
pre-match. I remember watching this back in 1996 & being very
confused as to why they were celebrating a referee's birthday. It is
something very lucha libre & not at all US wrestling-ish. Of course
the match is somewhat built around giving Pepe Casas the big pop at the
end as in the second fall Tirantes ignores a blatant low blow which
upsets the crowd. In the third fall Casas won't let him call a DQ again
& then counts the winning pinfall off an Ultimo Dragon tiger suplex
on Jerry Estrada. It's a good group of talent here minus Octagon but the
match was not much at all. I found it interesting they noted it was an
inter-promotional match as Ultimo Dragon was representing Grupo
Revolucion (IWRG). Odd since he has worked a couple AAA TV matches in
different cities by this point. TV semi-main is the aformentioned title
match. This title which few knew existed would go on to disappear after
this title change. Again we have a heavy focus on Tirantes as the rudo
ref with him slow counting Karis down & fast counting Demon down. I
can't remember what I thought about this in 1996 but I'm sure I was
confused as fuck. It gets great heat live. I remember having a
discussion with Konnan many years later asking him why he still allows
this shtick & he referenced the heat factor. I said that's great for
a spot show but it really hurts a TV product when you're watching it
week in & week out. Plus the ref has no credibility & becomes
the focus of any match even when that's not the intended goal. Demon
ties things up in the second fall by locking in a submission &
basically calling it on his own since Tirantes never signals that Karis
gave up. I didn't know you can do that. Third fall is the big
angle/moment where they do a horribly mis-timed ref bump taking Tirantes
out. As he's struggling to get up Karis gives Demon a tombstone! The
dreaded martinete! This was definitely my first exposure to this illegal
move that I had been seeing for years on TV from The Undertaker so I
know I was very confused. Karis then puts Demon in a sloppy figure-four
& Tirantes tries to wake Demon up but when he can't calls the finish
via KO making Karis the new champion. Is shaking someone's head smart
when they just took a tombstone? Probably not. This is treated like a
major deal with minutes spent on loading Demon onto a stretcher &
taking him to the back. In the next match they even have the doctor come
over to the announcers to give an update on his status. Main event
wasn't Tirantes heavy! It was Miss Janeth heavy! Literally the entire
match was built around her interfering & the tecnicos trying to get a
hold of her to do harm. Again - great heat. Not exactly the best TV
product though. Fans were throwing anything they could at Janeth. The
finish has Konnan finally grabbing her & going to suplex her only
for Killer to low blow him mid-suplex so the tecnicos lost. A wild show
but not really an interesting one to me all these years later.
Back-and-forth we go, this time to Arena Neza! No, I'm not going to waste my time breaking this show down. This was an AAA show in the mold of 1970's CMLL - one night random tag tournament where every match is one fall & the final is 2/3 falls. My only hope is the live crowd got another match or two instead of this being the entire show. It's pretty low on star power too like why are there two fake Huracan Ramirez's suddenly on my AAA TV? Pantera does a flip dive into the crowd in his match which seems to actually shake him up as he lands on the wooden seats & he never gets back into the ring abruptly ending things. The big idea was to push Mascara Sagrada Jr. even more. He got destroyed in the first round including having his mask ripped so badly he basically was working the entire match with his face exposed. The only thing that would prevent you from having a clear shot of his face was the fact he was a bloody mess. He gets the winning pinfall in all three matches giving his team the tournament win, in two falls no less! Cien Caras then turns on Pierroth Jr., stomping him & ripping his mask off. I told you I didn't understand how these guys were suddenly friends after Cien Caras started the year as a tecnico! Now I'm even more confused... and very sad because I spoiled myself looking forward & there's a singles match between these two on the horizon. GOD HELP ME! Bonus note: Super Calo works his match in a mask that has no hat attached! Someone tell Bobby Heenan!
I love the look of these Nuevo Laredo shows with the ring that is always set up & it being in the middle of a bull ring you have these giant posts on all corners. Really makes it stand out to a building where the ring is just set up like usual. What I don't like is Televisa wasn't spending money sending the announcers out to this kind of show so they did post-production in a studio & you can tell. The announcers sound trapped in a bubble & you can hear almost nothing of the crowd. Except at points they have to mute the announcers (for saying dumb shit or... ?) which means you only get the crowd audio & the heat is OFF THE CHARTS. This was the hottest territory in the world at the time & they drew over 10K. But so it goes with lucha libre production, you'd never know unless you were told. Even though the Parka/Pimpinela match was set up on TV the last time we had footage from Nuevo Laredo, the title match doesn't air. A true tragedy. Instead we get another Oro Jr. appearence on the undercard & a rare Sanguinario appearence as well. The match is built around Sergio Romo Jr. sitting ringside. Another case of AAA's national TV setting up local angles. He seems to have an issue with Villano III but by the end of the match it's with all three rudos. Jerry Estrada is working his ass off here, he always does on the Nothern Mexico shows. Oro Jr. continues to look shaky. Pantera just seems disinterested. After egging him on all match long Romo finally snaps & hits the ring to attack the rudos which leads to the DQ. Not much here. Main event starts with the tecnicos attacking the rudos during their entrances which is a nice change of pace. One of the rudos (Jason?) was using the Ultimate Warrior's WWF theme music which was funny. This appears to be a Super Libre match which means the referee is outside the ring the entire time & the rules are more lax. It's actually a pretty heated well done brawl. Miss Janeth gets involved a ton of course. Sagrada Jr./Pierroth Jr. work very stiff with each other at points including some stomps that looked very intentionally painful. Don't know what that was all about. Jason has his mask removed & then gets beat with it. The tecnicos actually lose the second fall for excessive violence. Excessive violence in a match where the rules aren't supposed to be enforced! A rare tolerable main event with this crew.
Back to Neza but this will be a short one! The only match that aired was the main event & if you think I'm going to break down a match with those two... you are most definitely reading the wrong blog. I will note this poster doesn't mention it was for the Mexican National Heavyweight Title. Pierroth cheats to defeat Caras. There was a DQ fall in there somewhere too. The rest of this show doesn't look especially hot except maybe that segunda but I would have taken anything else over seeing this main event.
The first show that has the Triplemania IV logo printed on the canvas. They would make this a regular thing over the summer which led to mass confusion in my early tape trading days & collecting lucha results days about which shows were actually Triplemania & which weren't. Now I'm at expert level so I understand but I still don't get why AAA did this. Maybe they were marketing these road TV tapings as Triplemanias or Road To Triplemania in all the advertising? WWF was kinda doing something similar around this time to spice up their lousy touring business so it stands to reason Antonio Pena would follow their lead. Opening match is Mascarita Sagrada Jr.'s TV debut. He is listed on a 5/19 Monterrey show that was probably taped for TV but no matches ended up airing or we just never had access to the footage. So I am making the executive decision calling it the debut! This is right in the midst of the big legal problems going on with the original Mascara Sagrada so I wonder... does Baby Rabbit stay as Baby Rabbit if Pena isn't determined ot prove a point about owning the likenesses? It's an interesting point to ponder, no? Obviously Mascarita aka future Tzuki (change the listing Cubs!) looks tremendous in this match. Everyone does. It's your typical fantastic AAA minis match in front of a hot crowd. For as good as Mascarita was, Munequito may have been better. He was always very underrated. And they both manage to look so good because of the rudos. In fact, Arturo Rivera explains Konnan did an interview for an American publication (Torch Talk?) & picked Espectrito I as the most underrated complete wrestler in AAA. Tecnicos take the first fall & their music starts playing which is a very spot show thing that somehow slipped onto TV. Second fall actually has eliminations! Espectrito I goes out first but Espectrito II gets two falls in a row to save the match for his team. Third fall is Espectrito I faking a foul from Munequito which the local ref assigned to this match believes. Good stuff. Next up is a totally random trios that turns into an interesting development. Why is Bobby Lee Jr. here? Well, look where the taping is. The announcers are pretty open up about it. His dad is now the local commissioner so his son gets to wrestle on the show. Honesty! It's a pretty standard match early on. Bobby Jr. looks terrible of course. The rudos end up taking over & destroy the tecnicos... except Muneco. He keeps fighting back but his partners keep getting beaten down & have their masks ripped up. Finally he can't take any more so he decides to........ enter the ring & lay down for the rudos??? Yes! This is the start of the Super Muneco upside down smile mask rudo turn! He just got so frustrated with his lame partners. I understand it. This story will progress! The semi-main is another one of those Relevos Tijuanenses so we get a pre-match coin flip to decide which two guys start out. The run time on the match was just over 9 minutes so I thought oh no am I gonna have to search out the full match somewhere else? Nope. It's just a super quick match. All action. Eliminations start almost immediately & come rapid fire. The end is mass confusion with Karis La Momia (in a mask that allows his hair to hang out!) faking a foul only for Demon Jr. to immediately follow faking his own foul for the decisive win. Crowd was very into all this. They were hot the entire night actually. One extra note is the announcers start the match explaining there is some confusion over this Mascara Sagrada Jr. character. He is NOT the son of Mascara Sagrada, he is the son of Principe Zafiro. Que??? The guy under the mask is the ex-Principe Zafiro. Of course we're not supposed to know that, that's just for people who read the Observer at the time. So why would they openly say that kinda giving away who it is? Part of the legalities? This whole situation confuses me greatly. Main event is a very heated match with Miss Janeth running around doing her usual thing while garbage is thrown at her. You can see security going all over ringside trying to tell fans to stop & threatening to throw them out. She isn't afraid. She just keeps doing it & right near the guardrail as people take swings at her. A bucket gets involved. Octagon bleeds. Tineiblas Jr. has his mask tornw up. Konnan has his knee destroyed. It's a wild scene. Tecnicos end up taking the match by DQ. This is all supposed to be build for Triplemania matches but who knows what exactly Pena had in mind at the time. A pretty hot show heading towards the first Triplemania in a couple weeks. The audio was still a negative as you could see & somewhat hear how hot the crowd was but the announcers still drowned them out broadcasting from their bubble.
A pre-Triplemania stop in Arena Aficion, second time so far in 1996. All these smaller arenas really tell the story of AAA compared to the year before. Not that it was all fault of their own, the Mexican peso being devalued hurt everyone so they had to stay closer to Mexico City. Show starts with some new names. The Apaches are both long-time journeymen from Pavillon Azteca to CMLL to UWA to now AAA. I wonder if Apache I (Gran Apache) knew he would never end up leaving & literally wrestle here till his dying day. On the other side we have Quarterback who snuck into some multi-mans with the Space Cadets in 1995 & had been running around in non-TV matches. His partner is Mosco De La Merced making his TV debut. So skinny that they made him wear a random AAA t-shirt to hide it! If you don't know the story with Mosco - apparently he was a street kid who wanted to take up wrestling & he'd just follow the AAA production team around (living in the truck), help set up before shows & train with whoever was available. He had been friends with Perro Aguayo Jr. dating back to growing up in Guadalajara together so it was Perro Aguayo (Sr.) who asked Pena to take care of him. I believe he was only 16 here, maybe 17. It's a pretty fun match! You can see the Apaches leading Mosco through everything. He seems to be having a blast taking some cool bumps. Quarterback similarly is bumping all over. All four guys were trying to earn spots by working their asses off. And you know what? It worked! Apaches would end up as the Chivas Rayadas before year end, Mosco would get actual gear & Quarterback would just hang around until becoming the 2nd Histeria in late 1997. Matches like this were must-watch in my formative lucha libre days trying to piece gimmicks together. Moves that Quarterback did in this match is how we figured out who the new Histeria was like his somersault kick on the apron & bump over the ringpost. Similarly with the second match on this show. Guys like Winners & Perro Silva weren't long for this world under those names - they'd become Abismo Negro & Maniaco by year end. There's no Fantasma De La Quebrada here, instead we get Hijo Del Espectro who sticks around for many years & eventually ends up as Silver Cat in the Vatos Locos. Another really fun match with some guys hoping to get noticed. Winners/Perro Silva are somehow already in a blood feud? Maybe a local deal or maybe Pena hedging his bets for Triplemania. Speaking of which - it's mentioned multiple times on this show by the announcers that the big Triplemania IV-C is coming up at El Toreo De Naucalpan on 6/29. FALSE. They even list off Rey Jr/Juvy in the car match happening on that date along with a cage apuesta match. Those both end up on 7/15/96 in Madero so clearly plans changed. I remember reading about this in an old SuperLuchas. I forget why the change was made but the show had definitely been announced for El Toreo although no full lineup ever came out. Rudos end up winning the match when Winners is caught revenge fouling Perro Silva. The DQ is called by El Greco in his refereeing TV debut! That would be Super Calo's dad. Highlight of the match was a great second fall finish from the tecnicos. Semi-main is another chapter in the atomicos feud heading towards Triplemania. Karis La Momia is back to his original gear here. This one goes to the tecnicos in two straight heated falls with a somewhat creative finish where Blue Demon Jr. is eliminated but he ends up unmasking his own partner Halcon Dorado Jr. & sliding into the ring to cover the rudos who had trapped the tecnicos in a triple submission. The refs didn't realize it was Demon so they counted the fall as the rudos protested. This was revenge for the deal on a previous TV where these same rudos pulled the same swap on the tecnicos. Don't accuse Pena of not trying to be creative! I liked this. Main event is a weird one. We have Hong Kong Lee. Why the fuck is Hong Kong Lee headlining the TV before Triplemania? This is the ex-Dragon Chino, clearly a buddy of Octagon because in later years he'd take on the Pentagon (III) gimmick & lose his mask to him. So of course the only roles for Heavy Metal & Jerry Estrada here were to make him look like a million bucks. They tried. That's the best I can say. We get the deal where Octagon is tied to the ropes by his mask. The match ends in a schmoz with all the undercard running in & everyone fighting. I guess this was playing off stuff Pena had heard about in ECW & maybe seen in WCW at the time where the show ends with everyone fighting. It was a novel for AAA, I'll give them that. But a very strange way to lead into Triplemania with so many top acts not around. I will say this definitely felt like a transitional TV show with so many new faces/names around that would end up becoming the core of AAA down the road. We've entered the time frame where so many of the regulars were on the road doing WCW & Konnan/Pena's relationship was starting to fracture.
Triplemania has arrived! Well, it already did. Triplemania IV-A was held in Chicago a month earlier. No footage exists. Those who attended said it was a poor show that drew similarly. It was very typical of AAA's US expansion plans for the next 20 years. Poorly advertised & completely disorganized. As the story goes the show was held the same day Rey Misterio Jr. was getting married so he didn't attend & neither did Psicosis. Two of the biggest AAA international names at the time. Not sure it would have effected the draw but you can't book a show the day two guys like that are not available & I'm sure they never told the local promoter about it until the day of. But anyways... it's a largely forgotten Triplemania so this one is recognized as the first official one of 1996. The top three matches aired on TV. The other three were LOST FOREVER... until... Oscar Manuel saved the day! My favorite AAA office employee (once gifted me a 1996 SuperLuchas w/ Rey Misterio Jr. on the cover that I had been looking for forever!). He dug around the AAA archives, most of which is in Televisa's hands. I guess AAA still had access to certain major events including this one so one day he just won the internet for the day by uploading the entire undercard. Only crowd audio for opener & no audio for segunda as neither match was ever intended to be seen. Beyond hidden gems. These are right up there as my all-time gold standard footage finds. The opener has Thunderbird listed but he had already bailed on Mexico City so it's Geo in his spot, probably brought in by Skayde who was Boomerang here. Watching this it dawns on me how we haven't really seen these Space Cadets/ex-Power Rangers guys together on TV for most of the year. They've been working, just non-TV. So this was a super fan treat for someone like me to watch them do their thing. It's worked just as you'd want... lots of tecnico offense with everyone getting to shine, rudos take over, then a strong finishing run. That's all these all action openers need to be. Boomerang looked the best on his team. Geo was clearly trying to impress but had some rough moments. We get to see the first ever "Ludxor dive" as we branded it back in the day. It's a running twisting plancha. Not a full corkscrew, kinda halfway. We used to think of that as one of the most crazy dives but clearly by now (2026) the bar has been raised so much it hardly looks like much of anything. Considering it was a Triplemania Venum is pretty reigned in. Frisbee ends up pinning Picudo to eliminate him - then in a funny moment displayng how luchadors don't quite get American rules, Picudo tags out to Espectro. YOU WERE ELIMINATED BUDDY! lol Frisbee then pins Espectro who is the captain of his team so that's that. Space Cadets win. Fun! Next up is a trios that actually ties into stuff we had seen on TV (Nuevo Laredo). Sergio Romo Jr. is here & he's feuding with Jerry Estrada & Sanguinario. See, you just had to have faith in Antonio Pena! Arandu takes a couple of his usual awesome sallida de banderas bumps including one where he somehow lands on his feet! That can't be good for the ankles/knees. It's a long match with the majority spent on the first fall which the tecnicos win. The rudos win the second & then get DQ'ed in the third fall rather quickly. Felt like one of those get people on the show kinda matches, especially with Jerry Estrada working this low. Tercera is the wackiest of wacky! What an assortment of people! My reset point for all lucha libre is to the Space Cadets/Vipers (RobViper...) so I immediately took note 3/4 of the team Winners (Abismo), Mosco De La Merced & Perro Silva (Maniaco) are involved here. We may have been one no-show away from Super Crazy being a sub! You'll note Rey Misterio Jr. is here in Veracruz the night before he works WCW Great American Bash against Dean Malenko. He's in the outfit he'd use on Nitro the next day. It's kinda wild by today's standards WCW was totally cool with having this new guy fly in the day of the show & it's not like he was in Mexico City - this is Veracruz. That's a decent ride back for an early AM flight. I'm not sure who Kraken is here because the person doing the gimmick changed at some point. I tend to think this was the second version because there is one terrible exchange with Super Calo where it looks like he has no idea what he's doing. It's also strange because the TV storyline over the past month has been Kraken doing the mask collector bit & there are no masks on the ringpost here & he's treated as just another guy instead of main event player. Odd. Rey Jr. doesn't take the day off, has a nice exchange with Halloween & hits a big dive during the dive train late in the match. That dive train is INSANE! If this footage was available originally there's no doubt Halloween's assisted backflip plancha would have been #1 or #2. He was trying to earn a main roster spot instead of just being Konnan's TJ guy! Mosco De La Merced busts out his asai moonsault to nowhere we've come to associate with him. It's for the best I didn't see this in 1996 because I don't think my mind would have been able to process it. I first saw it in 1997 during one of the infamous Space Cadets/Vipers match & I still couldn't wrap my head around it. Super fun match with the spot where everyone misses a flying move followed by La Estrella followed by a dive train & then Winners got Perro Silva for the win to continue that issue. So happy this finally got released. You rule Oscar! Now we move to the portion that was readily available on TV - another chapter in the Junior Atomicos vs Karis La Momia/Payasos feud. You remember Blue Demon Jr's Space Cadet inspired gear he started wearing in late 1997? He blamed Antonio Pena for it & said he never wanted to do it. Completely untrue but that was his claim. Meanwhile here he is on the big Triplemania show wearing inverted colors so a silver outfit with blue only on the kneepads & around the eye holes of his mask. This was absolutely a guy who wanted to change up the Demon look. I didn't recognize him at first & thought maybe AAA subbed him out for someone else. This is the usual fun heated brawl with the two teams. There's some mask ripping as the next Triplemania will have the cage match between these teams as already had been announced. If I tell you the second fall finish (Karis faking a low blow), surely you can figure out the third fall finish on your own, correct? It got a huge pop & Tinieblas Jr. played it up great. No complaints here. Very logical build. Semi-main is a match that made TV but not any TV most had access to. I found it on a Satellite TV tape from Ron Rivera so I guess my video is the only one that exists. History has treated this as an 8 way match. In reality it was the Relevos Tijuanenses concept that Pena had been using throughout the year. Maybe there was a method to the madness? The idea of these participants is everyone holds a championship of some kind so this is a match to crown the Champion of Champions aka Campeon De Campeones. A title that would actually stick around in AAA for many years & actually became what is now known as the Mega Heavyweight Title. Also a concept CMLL would take many years later for this Universal Title tournament although that belt is never defended, it's just a yearly concept often given to someone new to spread the wealth. So again I refer back to giving Pena credit - he had some sort of vision. Pimpinela attacking Parka back in March (Nuevo Laredo) & then winning the title from him on a TV taping (even if it didn't air) was clearly him putting pieces in place for this kind of match. Same with the Villanos getting the new AAA Trios Titles & Juventud winning Rey's title. Pena gets tons of slack for dropped ideas but he was always thinking forward. I admire that. This is a very long elimination match where it seemed they didn't work out much ahead of time. There's a lot of obvious spot calling & general confusion at times. Maybe the one that stands out the most is Pierroth being sent outside, Pantera going for his dive & Pierroth realizing oh do I have to catch this? He gets back in place, catches, but no-sells it completely, rolls Pantera back inside, power bombs him & immediately eliminates him. A very weird deal. Pimpinela looked good in his first real exposure of this level although the crowd didn't seem to know what to make of him since the Exoticos were always bottom level comedy guys in AAA. The best action is between Juvy/Psicosis who get the rare chance to wrestle each other. Psicosis scores a surprise elimination of Perro Aguayo leaving himself, Konnan & Pierroth as the final three. Konnan gets rid of Psicosis. The final 2 minutes is just Pierroth power bombing Konnan over and over for nearfalls before finally one just works. Just like that, Pierroth is the first ever Campeon De Campeones. Konnan even congratulates him afterwards. Crowd wasn't that hot for this match. I think it went way too long for their liking & it wasn't the usual AAA formula with all the match kept inside the ring + many nearfalls. Main event of this Triplemania is one of those total chaos matches Konnan brought over from Tijuana combined with the lumberjack strap stip match Pena reently introduced (again... there was a reason that Destructores/Payasos random match from Pachuca happened!). But before I discuss the match - it has to be noted this is the RETURN to AAA of Mascara Sagrada. The timeline has been all messed up due to the passing of time & results listed incorrectly. Any Mascara Sagrada you've seen work this year has been the Jr. aka Principe Zafiro. I've already mentioned a bunch of times how the TV announcers handle that situation. The legal issues are still ongoing. We don't have a poster for this show but I believe the main event featured a luchador sorpresa spot. This ends up being Mascara Sagrada. It's sold as his RETURN to AAA, as mentioned. But it's not the original Mascara Sagrada. I think this is the future Alebrije. Whoever it is isn't important for the time being. What is important is this is the moment Pena decided to say fuck the legal system, fuck the commission & this is the day where Pena realized he can get away with re-gimmicking anyone he wants. A very important day in lucha libre history considering 30 years later this has become the norm everywhere! So yes - this match is just chaos. Rey Jr. did not catch an early ride back to the city for his flight to Baltimore because he is here as one of the lumberjacks. Lady Victoria shows up for the first time as a second for the tecnicos to combat Miss Janeth (again... this is why Pena had her all over TV causing trouble recently). She is taken out early. The big tecnico comeback is spurred by her returning & fighting with Janeth which gets a huge pop. There are weapons, there's mask ripping, there's people getting whipped with the strap including Tirantes, etc. The notable thing to me was how Octagon & Cien Caras wanted NOTHING to do with any of this. Pierroth, Konnan, Psicosis, Halloween all end up more involved than the actual participants. At one point you can see Cien Caras just standing at ringside hands on hips staring at everything going on with a bewildered look on his face. He isn't even around by the time they get to the finish where the tecnicos win to send people home happy. Overall I'd say this was really good historical show but it misses the mark of being a Triplemania as we know it. There was no real big memorable match either in terms of being great or someone losing an apuesta. It's more of a setup show for the 7/15 Triplemania IV-C show coming up. Maybe that was intentional, I don't know & Pena isn't around to chime in any longer. But to me it felt like a show where Pena changed his mind leading into the show & ended up going with a lesser lineup than he orginal had written in pencil.
I complained about it before & I'll do it again because it's my blog so I can do what I want... and no it's not the terrible in a booth audio again... the canvas has the Triplemania logo plastered on it. As an early tape collector, this was sooooooooooooo confusing! Even now smartened up 30 years later I can't imagine showing this to someone & them not thinking oh this is one of the Triplemanias! Well, if it was shame on us for not having full results in 2026! The four matches listed made TV but surely one is missing. I just picked up a bunch of 1996 SuperLuchas so let's hope it fills in some of these blanks! Opener is a great match with the minis as one would expect. Notable for Espectrito I somehow getting busted up mid-match which leaves him a bloody mess & both tecnicos probably needing their gear washed. It was a 70/30 tecnicos match which is great because these tecnicos are so much fun to watch do their thing! They end up picking up the win & Mini Frisbee makes an indication for a rematch which is fine by me! Next up is another Space Cadets match but with the B team... or I guess C team. The announcers note Venum & I quote... "one of the other guys who's name I can't remember" (thanks Arturo Rivera!) are out injured. So the subs are called in! Neo & Geo. We just saw Geo at Triplemania proper. This time he's with his partner Neo who would forever remain a mystery to me since he disappeared at some point in the mid 2000's. Well one day that mystery was cleared by of all fucking people... Mike Quackenbush! Yes, you read that write. Quack obviously had access to Skayde & he had constantly e-mailed me about lucha stuff. So one day I decided to ask him if he could run the name Neo by Skayde & see if anything clicked. That's when it was revealed to me Neo = Caligula in CMLL. Something that blew my mind at the time. This one-off AAA appearence wasn't very notable but his work as Neo on random tapes opposite Skayde was always wonderful to watch. He became one of my favorite mystery wrestlers (shout out to Flying!). Mystery finally got solved! I would guess Skayde who is Boomerang got them in here hoping they'd stick. Well unfortunately they don't. Pena already had many guys he could suit up as Space Cadets & if we're being honest these two really didn't stand out. Geo was outright bad in this match & you could tell by his reactions he knew he was blowing a major opportunity. It's a pretty tame match by Space Cadets standards. Not bad, just tame. No real big highspots. The work is generally solid except for Geo's sequences. On the rudo side Perro Silva & Mosco De La Merced really stand out. Early on we get the lightest sunset flip bomber to the floor you'll ever see by Ludxor on Mosco. I'll cut them a break because in later years they showed they were not afraid to go wild! I should have started with this but oh well - this is Relevos Japoneses. These are 5 on 5 matches Antonio Pena came up with specifically for his Power Rangers. But they have specific rules. The idea is the match only ends when the captain is pinned. BUT... the captain cannot enter the ring to get involved in the match until someone on the opposing team has been pinned. Anyone else pinned after is just counted as an elimination & it goes on until one captain is pinned. It's an interesting concept. I can see the flaws immediately but it's pro wrestling. Why do most 2 out of 3 falls go 3 falls? Because it's pro wrestling. Don't overthink it. The bigger issue is even though these rules get explained, very often the wrestlers are not made aware & just work the match like a normal 5 on 5 elimination match. Which is what happened here. The captains just wrestled whenever they felt like it. We got a series of eliminations... everyone actually. Leaving the captains Ludxor & Mr. Condor left to settle things & the tecnicos won via submission. Fun! Semi-main is....... a **** match courtesy of Dave Meltzer? Well, OK! I really liked the match but this did not end up leaving me with the thought Dave would have been super high on it. But he was in love with Rey Jr. in 1996. Who wasn't? Rudos attack from the start & it's a bit confusing because Mascara Sagrada Jr is out there. Rey Jr is actually replacing him in this match. The announcers explain he was taken out on a recent show by a tombstone from new rudo Super Muneco. Que? That didn't happen at Triplemania & there was no taping between then & this show unless the 6/24 Leon is the wrong date & was actually 6/17? But I skipped forward to check the video & there is no such spot. So we're either missing something in here or they came with a BS reason for him not to wrestle. The rudos who are dubbed a new quartet named 'Los Rockeros' beat the shit out of him & poor little Mascarita Sagrada Jr who runs out to help his counterpart. In the chaos the tecnicos are awarded the first fall by DQ. We get a big comeback in the second fall, big dives including a huge asai moonsault by Rey Jr onto Heavy Metal. It seems to be headed towards wrapping up in straight falls until Jerry Estrada fakes a low blow & the rudos tie things up. Third fall is very good with lots of back & forth action. Crazy sallida bumps by both Super Crazy & Jerry Estrada at different points. The camera misses Rey Jr doing a moonsault off the guardrail at one point. It comes down to Tinieblas Jr turning the tables & faking his own low blow to give the tecnicos the win by DQ. Crowd goes WILD for this! I remember in my formative lucha days thinking what a lame finish that was & now I miss it more than ever. Partly because that was back when the fans cared about the wrestlers - especially tecnicos vs rudos - instead of just waiting to chant 'esto es lucha' like robots after big dives like today & whoever wins or loses is the furthest thing from their minds. Really good match. I'll go **** & back Dave up! Main event is basically the Triplemania rematch except no lumberjacks & no weapons. But similarly a match with tons of brawling, focus on Lady Victoria vs Miss Janeth & a super hot crowd. We get a glimpse into the future as La Parka has his mask torn up & wrestles most of the way with 3/4 of his face exposed to the world. He's basically biting down on it just to keep it on his face. Octagon does absolutely nothing the entire match. It's wild. He did less than Cien Caras did at Triplemania. The culmination of all this brawling is Janeth getting into the ring & attacking the tecnicos. This causes Lady Victoria to do the same but while swinging she hits Tirantes who of course DQ's the tecnicos much to the anger of the fans. This played out very much like the kind of match Konnan would book in Tijuana or Mexicali. A pretty interesting show overall though with a couple matches (mini/semi) you should probably go out of your way to see.
I am immediately skeptical of the date of this show due to the next show that airs. But let's go step by step anyways. Super Muneco has turned rudo. When? That's what I'd love to know. He teases problems with them back on the 6/3 Leon show but he's already in his upside down smile mask here & not at all helping partners. He even flat out costs them the match in straight falls. The announcers keep saying he's only teaming with the tecnicos here because these lineups have been booked 2-3 months ahead of time (true! kinda!) so he's fulfilling his obligations. Good cover story. But when did he turn? That's why this date is suspicious. I wonder if this show is actually 7/1. The announcers also say this is the first time we are seeing Century 2000 on TV but losers like me know he showed up randomly in 1993 & 1994. Both one-offs. This one is kinda the same deal. After Muneco costs his team the match both Super Munequito & Mascarita Sagrada Jr run out to attack him & promptly get destroyed. This helps me though because it means they worked an undercard tag match (probably vs Los Espectritos based on the booking patterns). Would love to know what else is on this show. Only other thing we know is the atomicos "main event". A really heated & great brawl start-to-finish. There's actaully a big storyline development here as the second fall ends in DQ when Tinieblas Jr. lays out Karis La Momia with the dreaded tombstone piledriver! So out of character for a tecnico to do that but it shows how frustrated the Junior Atomicos were getting with Karis (+ Los Payasos). It's also seemingly revenge (if I'm right about the dates being wrong) for Sagrada Jr being taken out the same way. The Triplemania cage match has already been announced so this puts both their participation in doubt. They do the entire stretcher deal leaving the rudos at a disadvantage in the third fall. There's a big dive sequence, a very cool one actually! All topes, all impactful. Then Demon beats Espectro clean. Definitely a match worth watching! AAA at it's best with the action & drama.
So this show definitely has to take place BEFORE Morelia & Leon since this is the match where Sagrada Jr gets laid out & ends up in a neck brace. Huge storyline development & executed very well. It was Super Muneco who did the deal in his fist match as a rudo. Way to make an impact! They do the entire stretcher deal here as well. Match was very heated. The Muneco rudo turn is well remembered by non-Mexican lucha nerds online mostly for his new mask. In reality the turn only lasts a few months because Muneco didn't really enjoy being a rudo & I'm sure it was costing him bookings. It's too bad because it was very over with the crowd & really freshened him up. During this match they also drop the news that the Mexican National Atomicos Titles are on the way! It's even noted the first elimination matches are happening at Triplemania IV-C in a couple weeks. Well let me tell you - plans change! Or... maybe the torneo cibernetico on that show was actually a seeding torneo for the tournament? And then plans changed? I haven't done the appropriate legwork. But just to be clear this is the story they were going with when this show was taped. Main event is your basic deal & I mean basic in every sense of the word. Konnan seemed less than enthused to be present. Maybe he had a tough travel date coming back from WCW or maybe he was starting to realize where his bread is now being buttered. Do you listen to his podcast? At one point Pierroth has to leave the match to get some repairs done & the announcers openly joke about how they thought he "ran away to WCW" which is then met with "he must have won the raffle!" So that pretty much sums up what people in AAA were thinking about the talent agreement. The finish is all sorts of fucked up as a chair gets involved, Heavy Metal is in the wrong position at least twice & then Sagrada is lost as well. Eventually they figure it out & Sagrada pins Pierroth to get his first real big win here. Although keep in mind we're not supposed to be aware this is a brand new Mascara Sagrada.
So this is almost all wrong. Starting with the date. There was no Monday night taping in Arena Neza. I don't know the correct date as of writing this bit, maybe I will be the time I make this post public. Second, the top two matches are the only ones from Neza. The bottom three listed are from a Veracruz show in April I already wrote about. Finally, it's Super Crazy in the match, not Jerry Estrada. WHAT KIND OF RINKY DINK WEBSITE YOU RUNNING THE CUBS FAN? Opener should have been called something like "futuras estrellas" since it kinda is a look into the future of AAA. You have all the Vipers in one match! ALL FOUR! Winners/Perro Silva are still feuding here. I know where this goes so I'm tempted to spoil it here but I won't. We'll wait for the end of the year. So Silva ducks Winners to start the match. Super Crazy looks like a million bucks or should I say makes Salsero & Oro Jr look like a million bucks which in turn makes Super Crazy look like a million bucks! I wish I could explain that easily to some people these days who just wanna be the "get my shit in" guys but their shit isn't as good as they think. Mosco also looked better than he had in previous appearences but it's very evident he needs to put on some weight which is why the bodysuit is coming pronto. Crazy takes a wild sallida de bandera where it looks like he got stuck in the air & almost broke his neck coming down. But he survived so we can all laugh about it! During the tecnico comeback Mosco's mask gets untied which plays into the finish. We get a wild dive sequence where the most wild part is somehow nobody ended up in the crowd even though the space between the crowd & ring is tiny in this building. They sure did try though! Finish will read well but the execution was a bit off. Winners is fighting off both Mosco & Perro Silva. He spins Mosco's mask around blinding him. Silva pushes Winners away & goes to fix his partner's mask but Mosco low blows him thinking it's Winners. In the process Silva yanks off the mask & it goes flying into Winners' hands. He's caught red handed when the refs turn around & rudos win by DQ. I love the concept, just needed it to be set up better than having Silva standing around watching Winners beat up his partner. TV main is the big feud. We're missing Mascara Sagrada Jr. & Karis La Momia who are both selling their injuries from being tombstoned. Both are present at ringside so you know where this is going! Announcers keep saying over & over how both guys can't work tonight but will be cleared to participate in the big cage match at Triplemania. Definitely seemed like Pena was hammering them as they recorded commentary. In fact, at one point they switch their story to how both guys were actually cleared to wrestle here but chose not to since they want to be 100% for the cage match. This is a pretty heated brawl as you'd expect with the tecnicos instigating from the start & taking it to the rudos most of the way. Mexicano does a great tope suicida knocking himself & Espectro into the crowd. Considering everyone involved it was very odd that the finish ended up being an accidental (but on purpose, not fucked up) unmasking as Mexicano goes to throw Espectro across the ring but his mask comes flying off. Everyone keeps brawling even after the fact. If this was the TV lead-in to Triplemania, a fine go home match. Although I'm almost positive there's at least one taping left to go in my order. If this ends up being taped later in July, then yes this would be the official go home show.
The official go-home show for Triplemania IV-C although it likely aired after the show already happened. Honestly kind of a nothing going on show... and a weird one. Opener is an entire collection of Los future Vipers! Super Crazy takes an all-timer sallida de bandera in the first fall. Super Calo is on the verge of being WCW bound which is more about his friendship with Konnan than his performances lately because he was easily the third best tecnico in this match. The rudos were all really good. You could see how hard they were working to get noticed by anyone who may be watching (Konnan). Good enough match but not on the level of the Neza tros with Oro II instead of Calo. Next up is a trios match - Sagrada Jr & Karis still selling their tombstones do not participate. They just stand in the corner at first but then eventually get involved as you'd expect. The finish has Karis trip one of the tecnicos from the floor so Sagrada does the exact same thing. They get in the ring to brawl and Karis low blows him. Then Karis gets low blowed & of course that's when Tirantes turns around & DQ's the tecnicos. Kinda lame. These teams have had much better matches. Coco Rojo (Cobarde) did take one super bump off a slingshot to the floor. Semi-main is a rare non-stip singles. This is where the weirdness kicks in. It's a very short match. At first I thought the video was incomplete based on the run time but nope... Sagrada wins the first fall quickly, Killer wins the second fall in a couple minutes & the third fall is a clusterfuck. They do this weird deal where Miss Janeth is fed up with Killer & alligns with the tecnicos. It's so obviously a swerve. I can't tell if they're all bad actors or it was decided to be so over-the-top obvious intentionally. Either way she eventually betrays her new friends by attacking Lady Victoria & low blowing Mascara Sagrada so Killer can win. Very lame. Post-match we get run-ins which leads right into the main event where I had the same issue thinking my video was incomplete. Nope. Rudos win the first fall very quickly. Honestly if you told me Jerry Estrada wasn't actually in this match I'd believe you. I think I only saw him once in the 8 minutes it lasted. We get weapons, Parka does a triple jump corkscrew plancha onto Psicosis which seemed like the only reason he was in this & the rudos end up winning in two falls by DQ which goes against the result listed. I dunno what was up with all this. There must be a story of some sort like the taping was going long or everyone had to get somewhere else quickly so they wrapped it up as fast as possible. In this time period AAA still had the long entrances so any given trios would add 15 minutes or so to the show. To just cut all that from the main event is.... strange. Not a very enjoyable show.
The unofficial halfway point of the year is upon us - Triplemania IV-C! My original viewing of this show was the Rey Jr/Juvy match & minis trios. So I really lucked out! The main event cage would wind up on a Year in Review show & later available when I started collecting video tapes. The Konnan/Pierroth Jr + Relevos Incriebles match ended up on a satellite TV tape or some other source I can't recall. The National Atomicos match - which wasn't that - came out only a couple years ago via the AAA Twitch or as a YouTube exclusive. I can't recall which. Both those opening matches ended up appearing & without commentary! Super rare! As I said, the mini's trios aired here on TLN. It was one of those matches on my now legendary (if you've been following along) two VHS Lucha TV tapes I had. The only isssue is somehow I taped over the ending! So Mascarita Sagrada Jr's insane Hector Garza corkscrew plancha was lost forever except on my Lucha Spotfest tape! If not for that AAA upload this entire match would have been lost forever which is crazy to think about. It's your usual fantastic minis match, what else can I say? They got wild with the dives, maybe like 8 or 9 in total which is nothing by today's standards of course but me just getting into lucha it was absolutely insane to watch. Mascarita got the big pin at the end. La Parkita was fantastic as a rudo here. Next up is the other digital exclusive which is said to be part of the tournament to crown National Atomicos Champions. Problem is neither team was a team in the actual tournament. What I *think* the idea was is the eliminations would set up the first round matches. Which is also a problem because we have some double eliminations & either way there are teams in the eventual tournament that features guys not represented in this match. Latin Lover doesn't even work here, it's El Mexicano instead. I'm gonna chalk it up to an Antonio Pena idea that he never followed up on & couldn't be bothered to keep straight. Lots of other things going on around this time, it's fine. Match itself is very entertaining as you'd expect with this crew. Parka/Estrada in particular is an awesome combination. May Flowers works his butt off & has some funny moments. Calo takes at least two nasty spills onto his head for no apparent reason other than he's excited for his upcoming WCW trip! Tecnicos go over in what turns out to be just a special attraction match. No complaints. Next up is the big one! Car vs Car! Originally scheduled for January, finally getting around to it in July. Who says AAA doesn't do stories? So for RobViper Lore context - I had only seen a handful of Rey Jr matches when this popped up here on Canadian TV. It's not like he was on weekly & we didn't get WCW at the time. I had just gotten the internet so hadn't even made my first purchase of any tape. So Rey Jr popping up was an all-time core memory no matter what the match was. He was that special. And in a singles match! At one point they brawl up onto the stage & Rey gives Juvy a power bomb. Behind them are the entrance doors which have the Mortal Kombat logo. I remember being very intrigued by that, not realizing at the time there are no copyright laws enforced in Mexico & just thinking holy shit I love Mortal Kombat & they are working with this company in Mexico which I'm just starting to love! This match is only one fall & this match is absolutely awesome. Just balls out right from the start with Rey hitting the big Silver King dive into a somersault plancha which is a dive nobody does these days & that's very sad. Juvy hits this wild asai moonsault where his legs crash into the guardrail at a sick angle. You'd be certain he broke both legs. I think there was a rumor he got hurt here but the results show he works in Japan days later & misses no time. Speaking of Japan - on commentary Arturo Rivera notes this show was delayed in airing & in the time since Rey Jr/Juvy went to Japan where they were treated as superstars. He even notes "Rey Misterio Jr & Jushin Liger had a great match at the Tokyo Dome, one people in Japan are calling the best match of all-time." They did not. They had an 8 man tag... that was fine but many people thought underwhelming considering the talent involved. But their first (& only) singles wouldn't come until December 1996 in WCW. Juvy sells that his leg is broken by slipping off the ropes trying a springboard. Tons of great moves & nearfalls. Rey suplexes Juvy off the turnbuckles to the floor & hits a crazy somersault plancha. Pierroth Jr eventually makes his way out & knocks Pepe Casas out from behind. Pierroth/Mosco/Juvy triple team Rey & hold him in the cross position as Killer's music hits. Killer is here but no Miss Janeth which is your big clue something's up. Also, if you knew Konnan's fascination with ECW at the time you knew exactly what was up. Konnan convinces the rudos to give him their singapore cane & then proceeds to beat them up, yanks off the Killer hood & the crowd explodes. Super Calo is out to even up the odds. Doomsday to Mosco. Victory Roll off the top rope to Juvy & Rey Jr wins the car! Monster pop! Juvy is in tears losing his cherished automobile. Notably Bello Greco (father of Calo/Alan Stone/Chris Stone who also worked in the AAA office at the time) is the one handing the papers to Rey. Easily makes my list of all-time top 25 memorable matches just from a fandom perspective. Next up is a weird relevos incriebles match. I'm not even sure why this is the way it is. I can only assume Pena had other plans but people were busy (Ultimo Dragon? Pantera? Both in Japan?). I mean it's a total waste of Psicosis. There's no reason for Octagon & Perro Aguayo to be fighting each other (which they don't anyways). It goes exactly the way you'd expect. The rudos beat up the tecnicos by the end. Who makes the save? Not Konnan or Konnan dressed as Killer... this time it's Perro Aguayo Jr.! He's back! Yes, he had been away from AAA for the entire year probably finishing school but more likely bulking up & learning the business back home. It gets a big reaction & is a cool deal but I just think a more logical & better match could have made this moment even bigger. Semi-main is Konnan vs Pierroth Jr in a Dog Collar match. Maybe also for the Campeon de Campeones Title? Pierroth had his belt & there was a big sign that said 'CAMPEON DE CAMPEONES'. Spoiler: There's no title switch so I can't confirm it that way. Intros are missing from video so we don't see if there was a title presentation. This is the exact kind of match you either didn't mind at all or absolutely hated & refused to watch AAA because of things like this. It's basically everyone vs Konnan. He has Rey Jr as his second but Rey is playing the innocent tecnico who doesn't want to get involved even though Pierroth has Psicosis & Tirantes openly interfering. Tirantes literally stops Konnan from touching all four turnbuckles multiple times including hanging onto his leg & getting in his way physically. They were definitely out here to instigate the crowd & it worked! Early on you can see security running over to calm something going on directly on the hard cam side. They make another appearence later in the match as well. There's a hilarious spot during Konnan's comeback where he goes to hit Pierroth with the singapore cane but somehow part of it goes flying & you couldn't replicate this if you tried it 1000 times... it goes flying RIGHT INTO PSICOSIS' FACE KNOCKING HIM OFF THE TURNBUCKLES! LOL An amazing moment. I mean, probably not if Psicosis had lost an eye or something but he was fine & sold it great. One of those happy coincidences. Rey eventually gets jumped himself on the floor along with Super Calo who is having a busy night. Konnan/Pierroth race for the final turnbuckle & Tirantes refuses to allow Konnan to touch it so Pierroth gets in there first to win (& retain his title?). I was entertained! Main event is what we've been building to all year long! Maybe not at first since the Villanos were involved but definitely by late February! Just to ensure this is a total cluster we have Mascara Sagrada, Lady Victoria, Killer & Miss Janeth at ringside. Maximum chaos! Crowd is into all this so if you're an AAA fan, this is heaven. If you don't care about any of these people, you just look at it as another terrible lucha cage match. Personally, my secret shame is I love lucha cage matches. I like the escapes, I like the chaos of it all, it's just a personal favorite of mine. If you look at it strictly from a psychological POV it doesn't really work, does it? When you escape the cage you are basically leaving your team down a man. If 3 guys escape, the team with 4 guys left vs 1 should just destroy him & then all leave together. But I look at it as risk vs reward. You save yourself & worry afterwards about how your partners will get out. It's not like AAA cage matches have ever relied on the rules where you can't get involved after leaving. This match starts during the entrances so the tecnicos are already beaten down & bloody before they get thrown into the cage. There's no "you have to stay in the cage for X minutes" rule that CMLL instituted when they started running these kind of matches. The rudos start in control & eventually start escaping. Two clowns are out early. This leaves the tecnicos with the advantage so naturally they use it. Meanwhile we have fighting going on outside the ring as you'd expect. Mascara Sagrada Jr takes a nasty tumble during his escape. It works it's way to two-on-two so you have lots of drama. Mascarita Sagrada Jr makes his way to ringside to help out as Mascara Sagrada & Lady Victoria have been handcuffed to the cage. I think the idea was he would unlock them but he seems to have issues doing it or was using the wrong key. Either way the other tecnicos help him out to get them free'd. In the meantime inside the cage we're down to Halcon Dorado Jr vs Karis La Momia. Mascarita starts climbing the cage! OH MY! Dorado is actually in control. He sees Mascarita up top of the giant cage & grabs Karis to re-create the infamous original Mascarita Sagrada cage dive from LA. Mascarita stands up... jumps... AND MISSES! Karis moves so Dorado actually catches him! Karis then kicks them both down & he's got his own handcuffs! He cuffs them to each other. Why not just cuff Dorado to the cage? I think in tellings of this match years later people described the match as ending here. Karis climbs out & wins. Not correct. Mascarita actually gets up first & urges Dorado to get up to stop Karis from escaping which he does successfully. Karis is now down so Dorado goes to escape but he can't climb the cage with Mascarita attached to him. AHA! GENIUS KARIS! This time Karis yanks him down, dumps Mascarita onto Dorado & climbs out to save his mask! Great finish. Dorado is pissed. People are brawling outside the ring. Crowd is angry. Dorado lays out Mascarita inside the ring. Everyone brawls back into the cage where the tecnicos are out numbered as not Dorado is attacking all of them too. There's no real official announcement of his name or age, he just rips his mask off during the chaos. I don't hate it. The idea here was actually to make Dorado into a top guy as Cien Caras' underling. MA2K/U2K weren't around any longer of course so Pena needed someone to do the work for Cien Caras & maybe get some of his rub. How it works out... well... we'll see in the coming weeks. But this was the plan at the time as confirmed by multiple people including Dorado himself in an interview with Arte de Gotch. And that's the end of Triplemania season! I'd say a very successful show. WON had it as 12,000+ in Madero which is a great number for this time period. Lots of issues that built throughout the year got resolved. New top rudo. Perrito is back. Atomicos Titles tournament on the way. New hot period coming for AAA? Well... stay tuned I guess!
First post-Triplemania stop brings us to Actopan as you'll see AAA starting to return to regularly touring going forward. No more constantly being in Neza or Naucalpan or even Pachuca. This show skips the opener with Tzuki & skips the main event with Rey Misterio Jr. AND I TOOK THAT PERSONALLY!!! I have memories of this airing here on TLN on the Monday late night time slot. I had to be in bed so I remember setting the VCR to record & eagerly checking for it the next morning. The entire middle portion of the show aired but interestingly enough they joined the Diabolicos match in the second fall & cut the semi-main off after just two falls. I remember being super pissed but it wasn't my recording, the station just ended the show after the second fall. Must have been a timing issue. I eventually saw this full show when I began buying off Jeff Lynch. Glad someone grabbed it because this was a good one! Opener only got two falls but it's the Diabolicos show. The wrestled great, they played bumbling rudos great, they based great... you name it they did it great! Tecnicos were more than fine to come along for the ride & shine thanks to the rudos. The first fall finish where Ludxor is vaulted into a Victory Roll on Angel Mortal is just super fuckin sick. Not sure I've ever seen it since. Ludxor also does a gorgeous moonsault plancha near the end of the match. Mexicano ends up pinning Marabunta with a sit-out power bomb. ***3/4. Very good! Next up is a rare mini's singles match! Young Rob who was already perplexed by these minis actually being good now got to watch a full serious match with them! I can't remember my exact feelings but 2026 loved it so it's hard to imagine 1996 Rob didn't as well! Just awesome awesome awesome lucha by both guys who are so underrated. Munequito doing a bunch of dives. Espectrito taking rolling bumps throughout. You just can't go wrong watching any of this. It's AAA so of course we gotta get a fuck finish which features Espectrito II interfering & spraying something in Munequito's eyes as he's in the surfboard. Mascarita Sagrada Jr objects & starts beating up Espectrito II which was funny. He sends him out & hits a big flip plancha! But Tirantes has had enough & DQ's Mascarita for interfering. By lucha libre rules titles change hands on DQ's so Espectrito I wins the title! Another very good ***3/4 match! Main event is SUPER WEIRD. Everyone shakes hands to start out. That's weird enough for AAA. But then they spend the early part of the match.................. wrestling. Huh? There's a lot of really well done cross-up spots in the match as well as if they sat down & came up with a bunch of things to do. Now I'm not saying this in shock because any of these guys are bad - it's just such a random trios match with guys who rarely work together you wouldn't naturally expect it. In the first fall Psicosis almost paralyzes Venum by going for a front-layout suplex where he drops him on the ropes but Venum isn't aware of the spot & instead of shifting his body comes straight down almost onto his neck. Turned at the absolutely very last second! Even Psicosis seemed worried for a moment. Don't worry, it wasn't the last big bump Venum would take in this match! First fall ends with Venum crotching Psicosis on the ropes, following with a corkscrew splash off the top to get the surprise win on the captain. Second fall is just as good as the first ending with the rudos winning & Venum taking a horrific bump on a top rope rana to the floor! HE BOUNCED! You have to see this bump to believe it. Stuff like this is why I was never surprised Venum's career ended as early as it did. The flying didn't do it, it was these kind of insane bumps at insignificant times. This is where TLN cut away. The full version has an excellent third fall. I liked one spot where Psicosis was about to do a dive but Pantera hit him with a flying spin wheel kick as Psicosis was starting to run. So he got him from behind! The timing on something like that is insane. We get a dive sequence but not a normal one. They do things in between to stretch it out. Like I said... they put the work into this one. Match ends with a double pin between Pantera & Psicosis so we have a DRAW! A DRAW ON AAA TV! This match was just batshit wild by AAA TV standards. Here's the kicker... even the announcers were pointing this out... this entire match goes 30+ mins! Unheard for ring time for an AAA match. For sure the longest of the year here. I'll go ****1/4. I may be the high man on it but I really respected the work they put in. A bottom-to-top very strong wrestling quality episode of AAA TV & that was with cutting those two matches I mentioned at the start!
Poster date is wrong as are many of the listed matches. All you need to know is the next episodes of TV, whenever they may have aired, cover the Mexican National Atomios Titles tournament. I say whenever they may have aired because I'm almost certain we only have partial episodes coming up. For example on this one we just get two matches. A pointless undercard tag & two of the three matches in the tournament. Why would you aire two of the three matches instead of just all of them? Something feels off but it's more evident with the next show so let's just get into this one. We open TV with Discovery & Tornado vs El Duende & Ravana in front of what appears to be a very small Puebla crowd. Many empty seats visible & you can tell in the audio the sound is of people screaming into the emptiness. This wasn't a star-heavy show in advertising as you can see. Speaking of stars... Tornado! OK, not really. I will never complain about randoms making it onto TV because seeing new faces is always fun. I just insist if you are going to luck onto a TV taping & possibly a TV spot you bring your 'A' game. Try to stand out in some way. This match was not it. Duende was pretty good. Discovery did a thing or two. But in general it was just a completely needless time waster & even worse it ended in a shitty DQ where the rudos wouldn't stop beating up Tornado outside the ring. I can't explain why this was this booked this way. We could have had a killer Space Cadets match here or the minis or literally anything else. Thinking forward I do think this marks the last time both the Tornado & Rabana gimmicks make it to AAA TV, two gimmicks that go back years here. Next up is the first tournament match which is Pierroth Jr. & Los Villanos vs Los Payasos & Super Muneco. Super weird bracketing because Payasos just won the Triplemania main event & Muneco just turned heel. Would seem like locks to win these brand new titles or at least make it out of the first round but... no such luck. They just get beat in realtively short fashion & totally clean. I wonder if Muneco was already having second thoughts about the turn here & Pena could see what was coming so he just figured get them out of the tournament before he bails on the concept after they get the titles? Instead of seeing the other first round match we just go straight to the finals where Cien Caras/El Halcon (Dorado Jr)/Angel Blanco Jr/Fishman have advanced over the random atomico team of Latin Lover/Super Calo/Mascara Sagrada/Blue Demon Jr So this is rudos vs rudos with the Pierroth/Villanos team on defense right away. Pierroth has his mask ripped up & actually has to leave to go get a new one. He eventually returns with a chair to cue the comeback. This is another weird booking decision as El Halcon was being positioned as like a new era Cien Caras but he's the first one eliminated on his team. No cheating. no nothing, he just got legdropped by a Villano and pinned. So long! The finish has Villano IV catching Cien Caras in a small package for the surprise win. Cien was the captain so that's that. His teammates angrily confront him about blowing the match. Pierroth/Villanos grab the mic & thank the crowd for their support. They are heading to the final. Very lackluster show & tournament set up here.
So this poster is missing half the matches on the show & doesn't even have a fourth guy listed on the first team in the National Atomicos Titles tournament! You messed up a sure thing Mr. Pena! All we get from here on the footage available are two tournament matches. Really, we only got one. One of the first round matches no less. The second one showed up a couple years ago via Roy Lucier who had someone from Canada taping off TLN send him a video tape that had that match recorded. Up until then that match was only saved in fuzzy memories in my brain! The match is Antifaz/Sergio Romo Jr/Silver Star/Latin Lover vs Damian/Halloween/Karis La Momia/Espectro. All of these guys were total unknowns to me back when I originally watched 30 years ago. I had a vague memory of seeing this match with these guys doing wild dives & landing in the crowd. That's something you don't forget because it was very uncommon at the time. I can't recall why I didn't hit record or whether I did & then taped over it. Not a clue. But I would mention this occasionally on message boards or whatnot & figured it was a match I'd never see again until Roy uploaded it one day. All the memories came rushing back! Halloween taking a header. Silver Star finding himself upside down in the first row. Total madness on this dive sequence. I did not remember who won - it was the rudos. But it was fun to re-live. Piecing together a puzzle that had been in my head for like 25 years. It was not common but once in a while TLN did seem to get a show that either never aired in the US or nobody in the US ended up recording like this one. The next first round match was the one I clearly remembered watching & is one of my core wrestling memories. Konnan/Rey Jr/Tinieblas Jr/Venum (!!!) vs the new rockers quartet of Picudo/Super Crazy/Jerry Estrada/Heavy Metal. It's a makeshift team vs a team Pena is trying to establish. Who do you think wins??? Exactly! haha But let's slow down. This is memorable to me of course because this was during prime Rey Jr becoming a worldwide sensation era. I had probably just seen him wrestled at Bash at the Beach, maybe gotten my first ECW video tape with him & here he was popping up on my TV for free in his awesome lime green outfit. This aired on the overnight TLN show so I watched it when I woke up before school. One of those matches I couldn't help but think about all day. Rey Jr did sooooooooo many awesome things. His exchange with Picudo in particular is one of the most fluid things I've ever seen in a pro wrestling ring to this very day. This looks like it was Venum's big moment teaming with Rey + opposite his future best opponent Super Crazy but he's rather toned down. He doesn't look bad at all but he's clearly saving some stuff. The rudos are just tremendous - bumping all over the place & busting out some cool offense. Crazy was definitely here to impress, he took all Konnan's stuff like a champ. It's only one fall but gets lots of time building to a hot finish. The tecnicos win! Yes, you knew it! Konnan gets the win for his team to advance to the next match & I think this new rockers group is done after this. Short but sweet run! I have this match committed to memory by now due to many repeated viewings so I may not be putting it over as much as I should be but at least a **** effort here. We don't get to see the block final & that match remains a forever mystery to me. I got a SuperLuchas magazine which had photos & the match looks awesome as you'd expect. I presume that's where Venum was saving his stuff for. I've given up on any hope of ever seeing the match but at one point I thought we might! Way back when there used to be this kid in Monterrey who would record the local TV for us with the help of his dad & ship Alfredo Esparza the videos which he would convert to DVD & share with everyone. At one point we asked if he had a list of his entire collection, perhaps he had some matches from whenever that we would be interested in as well. I don't know what happened to this list but I swear one match listed on it was this tournament final. It makes sense being in Monterrey the match would have aired locally either on the AAA TV itself or the local wrestling broadcast of matches held every Sunday from Arena Coliseo. I don't expect it to ever turn up but this match is absolutely one of my hidden gems if it were to ever be unearthed some day. BTW, that kid was Roberto Figueroa, current host of AAA TV.
You know if this poster wasn't in the DB I'd have just had the image of Mr. Cubs Fan's results which contain about 9 video links to 3 different matches on this show & every single link goes to the same match because only the tournament final aired. I don't know what he was smoking the day he edited those links. The tournament comes down to Pierroth Jr. & Los Villanos against Karis/Damian/Espectro/Halloween. Kind of an upset? You'd think the Junior Atomicos would be involved or at least one tecnico team instead of two makeshift teams. I feel like plans changed during this tournament which is very Antonio Pena-ish. So we have an all rudos final but the Villanos team turn into the tecnicos of course with this being their old UWA stomping grounds. It's a brawl from the start with the first fall ending via DQ when Damian's team won't stop using his singapore cane. Oh, also they knocked Tirantes down. We come back with the comeback already complete (or never happened?). Halloween has his mask torn up & takes a backwards bump into the crowd at one point. One of the Villanos gets eliminated followed by Espectro going out. Damian hits a tope suicida somewhere in here. Match wraps up soon after with Team Pierroth getting the clean win to become the first ever Mexican National Atomicos Champions. This must have been a real long show since the crowd is OUT immediately after that final pinfall. Pierroth does a thank you speech & all you can see behind him are empty seats. Kind of a bummer since I love the atomicos concept & AAA really did have the teams at the time to make this work but it just wasn't meant to be. Spoiler: Strapping up the Villanos turns out to be a mistake as they are part of the mass exodus coming up.
Amazing we don't have a full lineup for a Gimnasio Juan De La Barera show in 1996. I'm sure I'll come across it in my latest magazine haul but just wild. Imagine not having full results from a WWF MSG show in the same year. TV opener is Parka, Dragon & Winners (in his ugly gear) vs Los Villanos fresh off becoming new National Atomicos champions. Pretty good match! Parka was hilarious doing his comedy with the Villanos in the first fall. The entire finishing sequence is wonderful with Winners hitting a moonsault bodyblock, Parka a twisting bodyblock & Dragon executing a perfect rolling huracanrana. When this aired here on TLN the match was joined after this fall so I never saw it until years later when I ordered the tape off Jeff Lynch. Second fall starts with more of the Villanos bumping all over for both Parka & Dragon. They finally take control & win the second fall. In the third fall Parka does the bit where his mask is so loose, it flies off every time he gets hit but he is biting down on it so it doesn't go too far. A bit he would bring into the regular rotation in later years & led to his face being exposed many times with new HD cameras & the ability to go frame by frame. Live by the sword, die by the sword. At least I can be certain Adolfo couldn't give a fuck about his identity being revealed online. Parka takes one of the Villanos out with a pescado, Dragon does an asai moonsault fakeout into a tope suicida & Winners does a plancha over the post. Tecnicos get the win to a big pop. If this match happened today on a CMLL show, people would lose their minds at how entertaining it was. There'd be screams of FIVE FUCKING STARS to @davemeltzerWON who I'm sure would throw the snowflakes. I'll go ***3/4 on the scale of a normal person who has seen a ton of lucha libre. Next up is a hair match between La Migala & Miss Janeth. Que? It's pretty random. I *think*... well... I'm actually certain the idea was Janeth vs Lady Victoria as the two were feuding for about a month a half by this point. Maybe the commission wouldn't authorize Lady Victoria to wrestle? Maybe something else happened? I feel like when I get around to reading the SuperLuchas issue covering the week before it will all be explained. But Migala has not existed on AAA TV at this point for years. I don't even remember her working the tapings. So I'm sure she was just the first one to answer the phone call about losing her hair. Let me tell you though... she earned a spot with this performance! This match was AWESOME! I will go on record as saying one of the best women's matches I've ever seen in Mexico. Janeth busted her ass here too. She had something to prove. It was the perfect combination of two women determined to kill it in a high profile spot + Konnan using all the tricks he took from Heyman/ECW. In fact, I believe it was the fallout from this match that got Pena to take the booking reigns away from Konnan outside of the Tijuana shows. They basically broke every rule in this match from fighting in the crowd (near a baby!), using weapons, man on woman violence, run-ins, throwing objects into the crowd, etc. It was great! Lady Victoria is the second for Migala, Pierroth Jr. for Janeth. Seems unfair! Pierroth of course gets into with Victoria. This leads to Konnan coming out. He ends taking out Janeth at one point. WHERE'S THE COMMISSIONER??? (fuming in the front row) Janeth throws a chair at Migala that bounces off her into the crowd hitting a fan. Oops. Janeth is soaked in blood in the third fall. Tirantes refuses to count Migala's nearfalls. La Sirenita hits the ring to attack Janeth. SIRENITA??? Pierroth obliterates her with a chair to the head which is the funniest visual ever. Janeth gives Migala the tombstone which KO's her. That isnt the immediate finish as we still have things going on but Migala doesn't move again. She ends up having her head shaved as she lays on the mat & then gets stretchered out. A fucking glorious spectacle this was! I believe the fallout had everyone involved suspended from wrestling in Mexico City for a month or two. Hard to remember if it was upheld or not. I would guess not, maybe fences were mended when Pena publically removed Konnan from power as the commission just wanted to get one up on the guy making them look impotent. I'm going ****1/2. Legit. Janeth's best match ever. No doubt Migala's as well. All the extra curriculars worked great & added to the match instead of just being things for the sake of having things happen. The ECW Arena would have went nuts for all this. Main event is a CORE MEMORY match for me. It aired here in Canada on TLN (women's match was skipped). Imagine seeing Spiderman look Rey Jr at the peak of your wrestling world expanding & realizing this is the best wrestler on the planet who nobody knows about (his WCW run was still very early). Plus a rare Juventud Guerrera appearence. I'll never forget re-watching the match over & over. I had no context at the time of course so now I can fill in certain things such as this was *kinda* Perro Aguayo Jr's debut in this building. He worked the 12/15/95 show which never ended up on TV (or we just haven't found it yet). He's actually been missing most of the year so this is his official return & the start of him basically being a regular until the day he passes away. The rudos do a good job picking on him throughout the match & he does a good job selling. He was still very green here & it's very noticeable when he's trying to do tag spots with his dad & he's constantly a step too slow. Imagine being too slow for Perro Aguayo Sr in 1996! But yes the star of this match is Rey Misterio Jr of course. Not only in my mind - the match was specifically designed to set up a Rey Jr vs Pierroth Jr match! REALLY! You see, Pierroth won the Champion of Champions match at Triplemania IV-B which unlike the current CMLL champions tournament meant he won a real title that he could defend. These two could never have any sort of title match since they were in very different weight classes but with this new title they absolutely could. Pena outsmarted the commission once again! So the story here is the tecnicos won in two falls with Rey Jr scoring the winning pinfall in each fall including beating Pierroth at the end. Quite unheard of to have the smallest guy in the match doing that, even in 1996! The first fall finish was absolutely mind blowing as Konnan monkey flips Rey Jr into a huracanrana on Heavy Metal! The snap was so fast that they almsot over-rotated & Konnan had to keep Rey Jr on top for the pinfall. Afterwards they do the Steiners pose which was funny. You can barely see it as the hard cam is zooming out but at one point in the second fall Rey Jr gives Juvy a huracanrana off the guardrail & Juvy almost takes a header onto the concrete. TOTAL NERD MOMENT COMING UP... there's two versions of this match. One has an extra 45 seconds or so & a really great sunset flip bomb spot by Juvy. The regular version does not as there's a very obvious & poorly done edit to skip forward. I have no idea why this is but I'm not afraid to nerd out & point stuff like this out here where if you found this blog you can appreciate something like this. Heavy Metal gets backdropped onto his own partner (Juvy) at ringside, then Perrito takes them out with a tope suicida. Finish is kinda clunky but I get the idea... Konnan press slams Rey Jr off the top onto Pierroth who catches him, throws him up & Rey counters with a huracanrana for the win! Konnan helped with that pinfall too. Rey Jr makes belt motions afterwards. I have no idea if Pena was legit going to run the match or not. It was gonna be tough with Rey's WCW schedule increasing + the commission likely pushing back but it ends up being moot with this being one of Rey's final AAA TV appearences before the split. Special mention to Perro Aguayo & Cien Caras who took a backseat role in this match even though one could argue they were the biggest stars. I'm actually a bit surprised Halcon Dorado Jr wasn't here instead of Heavy Metal as post-Triplemania mask loss they were trying to establish him as Cien Caras' buddy. Maybe Konnan didn't trust him in a match like this? Great main event, great TV show. One for the all-time AAA TV episodes list.
A one match show! But thankfully they chose the right one! Another core memory match for moi. Aired here in Canada on TLN which marked two weeks in a row with Rey Jr matches! A hot streak! All four wrestlers seemed to be annoyed making their entrances as the aisleway was very thin so the fans were on top of them all. Poor Rey Jr got smacked in the head at least twice. I didn't see it with my own eyes but I can imagine many of the young boys enjoyed the edecanes passing by. Pre-match is funny because under the guise of suspending your disbelief you can say both sides were working out their match strategy. If you watch it from a smart ass know it all perspective, you can clearly see Rey Jr/Juvy are explaining the fall finishes to their respective partners. It's just too obvious how Rey Jr is using his hands to motion what we'd eventually see in fall two haha. Match is great, duh. Totally carried by Rey Jr/Juvy of course with Juvy being very motivated as he's primed for his WCW debut a week or two later. This was the night of the Doomsday Device ideas as in the first fall Juvy hits a springboard spinning leg lariat as Rey Jr is being held up. In the second fall the tables turn & it's Rey Jr hitting a springboard moonsault bodyblock as Juvy is being held up! One of those one-and-done moves. Never seen it since. Looks visually awesome so you'd think someone would have seen this video & busted it out but who has time when you are planning your next Destroyer variation??? Rey Jr looks spectacular in the third fall with Juvy bouncing around. More nerd shit... there's one version of this match (I think the TLN one) that has a weird random edit removing about 45 seconds & jumping to Estrada taking Konnan out with a tope suicida. Nothing that was cut needed to be so I assume just random time shaving, especially with no effort being put into the edit, it's just a jump cut. Konnan eliminates Jerry (although the announcers call it a double pin). Then they do the BIG FINISH! Juvy goes up top, Rey Jr cuts him off, they battle for a bit... then Juvy goes to POWER BOMB REY JR OFF THE TOP ROPE... ONLY FOR REY TO COUNTER WITH A HURACANRANA!!! An all-timer spot, probably in my top 10 all-time spots to this day. Would blow people away if anyone was doing it these days, now imagine seeing it in 1996! Tecnicos win the match & the IWAS Tag Team Titles (which weren't real titles, just existed for this match). I remember watching this as aired here & of course recording it. That spot just blew my mind. I instantly rewound the tape to watch it over & over because I couldn't believe it. Also, I had nobody to explain it to. None of my few friends who tolerated wrestling cared about the Mexican wrestling & it was in my early days of having the internet where I hadn't found people to discuss lucha libre with. I recall having a family function that night & my mind just kept replying that spot over & over. I rushed home just to watch the finish over & over once again. Very happy memories. Let's go **** on the match.
The run of Rey Jr continues! The only good thing you can say about this weird show. It's not marked down as such, nor was it promoted as such but this is a Future Stars tag team tournament. Some of the combos don't really indicate that but what can you do. This is in Tlalnepantla but it's not Arena Lopez Mateos. It's in the Rodeo Sana Fe which I *think* is where I went to see the Pura Raza show in 2018 or 2019 that featured the ROH guys & completely bombed. I would say this show did about as well. Even though the building is darkened you can see many empty seats & it sounds like very few people are in attendance. It's just a weird deal in general because this is such a weak lineup for an AAA TV. It would get weirder in the coming weeks! Seeing as this is a random tag tournament, I'm applying the CMLL rule here & not going through it match-by-match. There's only one real match of note of course - Rey Jr/Frisbee vs La Parka/Venum. Only time Rey Jr/Venum squared off which is a dream match to some (hello!). It's obviously a short tournament match clocking in at 7-8 minutes but it's all great stuff. Rey Jr/Parka get to bust out some of their old comedy bits from back in 1993 when Parka was still a rudo. Venum/Frisbee do the mirror spots as they are regular teammates so it makes sense instead of being masturbatory work to get "this is awesome" chants. I loved the dive cut-off where Parka runs away & Rey Jr sticks his head out to look for him but Parka comes back to snap his neck on the ropes. We get a dual asai moonsault from Rey Jr & Venum! Rey's ass gets exposed at one point. Yep. You read that right. Finish is Parka/Frisbee making Rey Jr give his own partner Venum a Drive-By. That's an ECW reference, we'll see who gets it. Looked brutal. Both team shake hands afterwards. The semi-main with Konnan & Parka doing some fun stuff was also decent but nothing you'd remember minutes later. Konnan & Sagrada end up winning the tournament to nobody's surprise. At some point Pierroth, unhappy at being eliminated, threw a chair at Tirantes' head which was funny. Very meh show but they snuck in that one match that I'll never forget.
You know it's not very common for a show to skip a Rey Jr match & me to respond by saying that's alright, they aired something better. This show is that 0.000000001% occurence. I'm sure that cage match was fun & Rey/Juvy probably did something wild but a Mascarita Sagrada Jr singles match??? RIGHT INTO MY VEINS PLEASE! Another match I remember airing here on TLN & being super happy to see as I was falling in love with the minis every time they showed up on my TV. Super Calo & Mosco De La Merced were the seconds which also peaked my interest because Calo had not yet (that I can recall) made it onto TLN so this was my first time seeing the guy in Mexico who had just shown up in WCW. The match has a lot of great Mascarita highlights as you'd expect but really it's a showcase of how great Espectrito was. There's a lot of slips by Mascarita where Espectrito either saves him or covers it up like nothing happened. A true master rudo. At one point he applies this wild submission on little Mascarita. The story of the match is Tirantes acting super rudo & refusing to count at times, picking up trash instead of counting other times & fast counting Mascarita down only to slow count Espectrito. I don't remember being bothered by this as a still new viewer to lucha. I remember thinking it was funny. 30 years later, I think the act has worn itself out haha. Lots of awesome dives by Mascarita in the third fall. There's a weird edit right near the finish for some reason that just takes out like a few seconds unless something super weird happened. Mascarita hits a big dive & a split second later you see Calo hoisting him into the ring. An obvious jump cut but no idea why. As Tirantes is yelling at Calo for getting involved, Mosco brains Mascarita with a chair. On TLN they had a freeze frame here as to not show the chairshot. Espectrito rolls back inside & covers Mascarita to retain his title. Crowd is upset! Very enjoyable stuff here. Fun to see a lot of spots I'd see a few years later when he was Tzuki working against Espectrito.
Back at Gimnasio Juan De La Barera already! Quick turnaround! Show starts with a special appearence by soap opera star Huicho Dominguez. Completely insignicant at this point in time but just over 2 years later he'd become involved in a storyline with Tirantes that actually drew some attention & was part of a Triplemania main event. Opener actually airs! Poor Space Cadets. I remember re-watching this opener a few times over the years, especially back when I was trying to figure out who the new Space Cadets/Vipers were in AAA so I had to study Quarterback's move set. Sure enough, he was confirmed to be the new Histeria. Back before the days where even before someone new under a gimmick made their debut you'd have it spoiled by someone on the inside or the wrestler themself being very obvious about it on social media. Had to put in the work to know your shit! King Balam I didn't immediately recognize. Like with any random AAA gimmick, I just presumed Dizzy. But in looking him up it all came back. This was a member of the LA Park/Super Parka/Volador Jr family. He didn't have much success in the business but got some chances due to his family. Apaches are well known journeymen types & of course Gran Apache I would go onto to be a legendary member of the AAA roster. Everyone was trying to earn a job here & they were doing it by just doing lots & lots of dives! Apache II & Balam seemed to have a few miscommunications along the way. The finish is just a total clusterfuck & would be absolutely mocked forever if it happened these days on a live show. This was taped but they couldn't even hide it. There's a very messy sequence leading to Apache I giving Balam a sunset flip while Quarterback has reversed Apache II's roll-up. Referee El Chocolate counts to three. The announcers declare the tecnicos won. The music plays. Chocolate declares the match is over. But... it's not? Apache I & Quarterback are very clearly confused & don't know what to do. As we are panning through the crowd, it cuts to replays & there's also an audible skip forward on the audio track. During these replays we see Apache I armdrag Quarterback off the top rope & pin him. A spot that didn't air. So clearly they still did their planned finish but for whatever reason it wasn't airable. AAA! Next up is a fun trios with my boy VENUM! Also, Karis who would become Parka Jr, Perro Silva who would become Maniaco & Oro Jr who would... uh... disappear until many years later! Say what you will about Pena - he had his next wave of wrestlers ready to go. He wasn't caught with an empty closet when Konnan took his boys & left. The empty closet was a year later when all the guys he pegged as replacements for Konnan's crew also left. It's hard to do a complete revamp twice in the span of a year. There will be growing pains. But you can see Pena may not have known for sure Konnan was one day gonna take some of the roster, nevertheless he was prepared just incase that scenario played out. Super Muneco is obviously still a rudo here although he does a lot of comedy spots that show his time as a rudo may be coming to an end shortly. As I noted earlier, he hated being a rudo even if it was working out well for the promotion. In the first fall Venum tries a somersault plancha over the ringpost & just crushes his tailbone in coming up short. I don't even blame Perro Silva for a bad catch. He clearly had no idea what Venum was trying (I think it was supposed to be a 450 over the post?) & lept forward to break his fall but Venum didn't come down flat in order to be caught, he just kinda flipped onto his own tailbone from a great distance. He was in a lot of pain between falls & limping to start the second. But it's Venum so he didn't quit! He even had a great sequence during the second fall! And what does he do in the third fall? You guessed it! A Space Flying Tiger Drop! Except it takes out his own partner Oro Jr leaving Mexicano alone in the ring to get beat by all three rudos. They pin Oro Jr for added measure. Clean rudo win! A good match! Following that we get an atomicos all-stars match. Rey Jr has his midsection taped up. This was all action. Even Cien Caras was moving well! Takes a great bump to the floor where his knee hits the ropes & he has a delayed reaction before flipping out. Loved that! Rey Jr & Juvy tear it up every time they step into the ring together including an insane second fall sequence. Halcon Dorado Jr was working very hard knowing who else was in the match. If you manage to make Rey Jr/Juvy have a bad match in 1996, you are not going to be long for the world of AAA semi-main events. Konnan was always watching. Match only goes two falls & ends with Halcon low blowing both Demon & Tinieblas. Just a way to get him some more heat. Main event is joined in progress after the first fall where the announcers explain the rudos got DQ'ed for a low blow. No idea why it was edited out, maybe a time thing, maybe it aired in full in Mexico but not the US version. Miss Janeth is interfereing freely which leads to security led Antonio Pena come out to escort her to the back which gets a big reaction. One of the early times Pena appeared in an on-screen role like this. The tecnicos make their comeback & get the win totally clean. Villano IV appears to want to shake Konnan's hand afterwards but Konnan balks. Villanos tecnico turn incoming? Pierroth Jr comes out to help Cibernetico out of the ring which is the first real time those two have been linked up on TV. As usual with the Juan De La Barera shows, very fun stuff throughout. Couldn't come close to matching the show two weeks prior but not many shows would be able to do that. This is the final show in this building with the original AAA crew. They don't return here until 10/18, there's no September date. September is when Konnan says goodbye & takes his friends with him. So this show really is the end of an era as this building was a big part of AAA's history up until this point. I don't think Rey Jr ever worked in this building again. I can't remember where that bomb of a show in 2016 (or 2017?) was with Cody & all the US dudes. It may have been here in which case my statement is wrong. But I like to pretend that shitshow never happened, as do the performers.
Well... this is it! The end of an era! How anti-climactic. Yes, this is Konnan's last AAA TV appearence until his return at the end of 2004 when he got off Pena's shit list. He works this TV, then heads to Northern Mexico for two weekend shots & the next time we see him is at the press conference announced PROMELL is becoming Promo Azteca & Konnan is bringing all his boys in. There's a gap in time of course. Konnan & Rey Jr as usual are insepreable so they are the first two out the door after this weekend. It takes time for the other to filter out whether it's out of loyalty to Pena or wanting to be pros & honor their commitments before bolting. Don't miss out on the irony here where Pena formed AAA with a mass exodus & was now on the receiving end of the same thing. In hindsight the writing was clearly on the wall. When Konnan was fully invested in AAA, things were always happening. He was helping Pena write the shows & making sure to put himself in notable situations. Look at the last couple of tapings. A random tag tournament, a going nowhere main event in Juan De La Barera & this totally nothing show where a battle royale sets up matches. Konnan wins the tag tournament & this battle royale. AAA was in pause mode & Pena was just keeping Konnan happy by giving him the big wins. But it wasn't gonna change the inevitable. Konnan worked this show in gear with the WCW logo. That's where his bread was being buttered. Mexico was always gonna come second with that kind of money now in play. So here we are... the last stand in a famous building - Arena Xochimilco. I think the first time they taped here in over a year. The show was booked around the 'Ruleta Rusa' concept where a battle royale determined one tag match & two trios matches depending on order of eliminations. Shock of all shocks the matches turned out just as you'd expect from a normal booked show! I always wondered what would happen if someone jumped the gun & got eliminated too early. I assume they'd just ignore it & go with the matches that were planned. I remember that happened once in CMLL during some torneo & it led to not absolute chaos but enough chaos that we were amused watching on the feed. Nothing to say about the battle royale. Konnan is left with three rudos. Jerry Estrada knows how to handle these things so he bumps through the ropes instead of going over. Psicosis is a nutcase, takes a wild bump to finish things off. Now that I think about it... shouldn't Konnan have teamed with Psicosis & Juventud being they were the last three? Either way we skip right to the main event but there's no intro & it sounds like the announcers are joined mid-sentence so I suspect the rest of this show aired in Mexico but never made it's way to the US version. I wonder how much stuff aired that we'll never see because nobody kept recordings. I'm sure it's plenty based on everything that Roy dug up. Also, (see my comments on the next show). Beyond the people who had access to satellite feeds where the entire live shows were being transmitted at times, there were Saturday & Sunday blocks that were at least 90 minutes each. If you guess four hours every weekend you'd be right but it was probably more than that. The US had a Saturday show & a Monday show but sometimes it was shortened so we (well, you, I'm Canadian) missed out on plenty. Anyways... this match is focused on Salsero vs Juventud Guerrera. Your random feud before AAA got blown to smithereens. Salsero is actually one of the first jumps to Promo Azteca. No, not because he was any good. No, not because he got a special deal. It was just spite. Once this ended up on TV & Konnan knew Pena was heading in the direction of Juventud Guerrera taking Salsero's mask, he made sure Salsero was one of his first recruits just to stick it to Pena. But he actually did him a favor. Salsero STUNK. Especially in this match. He did NOTHING right here. It was almost laughable. I could make a supercut of his work here & send it to Maffew who would absolutely include it on the next Botchamania. He horribly blows a huracanrana to end the first fall. Juvy takes a crazy bump over the top to the floor courtesy of Konnan. I don't think you can say no to the guy booking you into America so sucks to be Juvy. A chair gets involved so the ECW influence is still around here. Juvy ends up bleeding through his mask. There's a funny moment where Konnan holds Jerry Estrada up for a Doomsday something or other & Parka jumps with a dropkick but Konnan takes the worst out of it. He seems frustrated. Parka gives him a shoulder tap to apologize. Don't wanna lose that promised WCW gig next week! Another hilarious moment is Juvy giving Konnan not one but TWO low blows which Konnan no-sells & seems angered by. It becomes evident why about two minutes later. Juvy jumped the gun. Konnan pins Jerry while Psicosis rolls up Parka. As the refs aren't paying attention, Juvy low blows Konnan who sells it this time. Salsero does the same to Psicosis & we get a double pin leaving Salsero/Juvy to finish things off. Salsero whiffs terribly on a dropkick to counter a flying bodypress. Juvy does this cool sprinning huracanrana off the top rope but Salsero rolls him up during the pinfall attempt to score the win. Very mediocore match for the talent involved. The WCW effect had begun. They were gonna save their best stuff & big bumps for where they were getting paid. You can see it for the one year or so Promo Azteca lasts. The WCW guys who worked there, which was very irregularly, always mailed in their matches. Nothing like how they worked in AAA. Fans caught onto it. It's one reason why Promo Azteca was an all-time failure (which doesn't get talked about enough). Also something not talked about... how there's very much a comparable between what I just wrote & what is starting to happen with the CMLL wrestlers working AEW, especially certain names under dual contracts. Just the reality of the economics.
Moving to Monterrey for the traditional Sunday late afternoon show. Two matches aired on US TV. We had nothing else from the show (I'll probably find full results in my new magazine haul) for the longest time until one day a new match popped up! There was this YouTube channel called 'LuchaClick'. It was one of those channels that steals video from other places & shares it as their own. But every once in a while they'd sneak in something that I hadn't seen before. Obviously not their own video, they were just sourcing it from somewhere that we just haven't found yet. This bonus match with Pantera on one side was the match they uploaded. Very cool find. Unfortunately I didn't save it & the channel got deleted. I saved highlights in a music video & can tell you Pantera does a crazy dive into the crowd but that's about it. We get a strange opening tag that feels like they just aired the local TV show on national TV. It even includes a graphic I've never seen before on AAA TV so maybe they did, in fact, just take the local show straight up. Venum is wearing a variation of his outfit I never saw before or after this. He looks much skinnier in this so I'm glad he dropped it & I'm sure it was Pena who told him this was a bad idea. Winners also looks like a lost puppy in this black & white outfit that doesn't scream sexy boy (his gimmick). They are matched up with two experienced rudos so it's a solid match focused on the tecnicos looking sharp. Loved the first fall finish where the ref accidentally helps the tecnicos pin the rudos while they are all stacked up. Winners assists Venum into a gorgeous springboard plancha, then Venum rolls in to assist Winners over the top with a running backflip dive. Made my 1996 DOTY countdown! Tecnicos get the win. Good stuff. TV main is all three Sagrada's teaming for the first time. I'm sure the original Mascara Sagrada was thrilled! Spoiler: He was not! Another good match with Mascarita looking fucking amazing with Espectrito basing like a maniac for him. They pull off the shoulder stand spot to perfection. There's a satellite headscissors that may be the fastest ever version of said move. The tecnicos end up winning in two falls although they don't look like winners. The latter half of the match is a massacre with Sagrada having his outfit ripped up, Sagrada Jr a bloody mess & Mascarita throws around all over the place including over the top for the straight falls DQ. A couple boards were also introduced & each tecnico got put through one-by-one. Sucks to be a Sagrada. I really liked the way this was all executed.
UPDATE: Instead of just erasing what I wrote I'll leave it as & just add this at the end. It turns out *I* saved that bonus match! Good for me! Was cleaning out a folder of old YouTube saves & there it was. Usually I'm not the type to remember to save things so it came as a shock. A happy one! Match was great! I've said it a few times already how Ultimo Dragon & Pantera never really seemed to click after their jumps to AAA in this calendar year. Just kinda going through the motions, not really adapting to the AAA style or their new opponents. Well, they got some familiar opponents here in the Villanos & took full advantage! Some really great sequences & spots. Pantera finally looked like the guy who was good enough to be regularly touring Japan at the time. Villanos did a great job basing for them & looked like two guys who were no-brainers to include in the group going to WCW soon enough. Long match clocking in at roughly 25 minutes but moved very well so no dragging. As I mentioned above Pantera does a crazy springboard somersault plancha dive where he winds up bouncing off Villano V into the front row. Tecnicos get the win. Very happy we have this one preserved! Also, I decided to look it up. This is also Ultimo Dragon's last weekend here. He finishes up on the Nuevo Laredo taping below. Pantera sticks around into 1997 but is gone basically a full calendar year after coming in which would indicate he signed a one year agreement for exclusivity & chose not to renew.
Well, if you're taping in Monterrey on Sunday, the next stop is always the same on Monday night. Big crowd for this show as Nuevo Laredo was hot & only getting hotter around this time. It's a shame we have so few results & lineups from the area considering there were probably many people crossing the border to see the shows. Only two matches air from this show. The title match popped up on a Year in Review show. There's a dead Gambe Lucha YT link there but I have to assume it was the same highlights version. It's extended clips & what we see looks really good. Pimpinela was a super worker who along with La Parka & Pierroth Jr was carrying this Nuevo Laredo territory every Monday night. Miss Janeth is interfering on Pimpinela's behalf & at some point Mascara Sagrada/Pierroth Jr come to ringside & get involved as well. The finish is Janeth low blowing Pimpi by accident so Latin covers & wins the title to a huge pop although muffled on video since the audio on these shows always sucked. You can see people losing their minds, Latin was super over & Monterrey isn't far from Nuevo Laredo. Before that was a trios where as I noted Ultimo Dragon is finishing up here. Let it be known in his entire AAA run Ultimo Dragon never busted out the asai moonsault. That kinda sums it all up! Imagine AEW signing... oh god this sucks because I don't know too many new people... uh... the Steiner kid who does the spear. Sure, him. Now imagine he works AEW for a full calendar year but at no point does the move people associate with him before leaving back to WWE. It would certainly say a lot about how he felt being in that new company, right? Anyways, Parka is listed in results here but it was Pantera in his spot. This isn't anything to do with the exodus, Parka just got double booked so he was busy with the other crew including Konnan/Rey Jr/Psicosis working shots in Chihuahua & Juarez. Parka still has at least a month here before he joins Team Konnan. Pretty solid match. Rudos take control immediately & win the first fall. Tecnicos fight back & take the second fall including a great flip plancha by Pantera. Third fall has Ultimo slipping on a couple spots so going out here with a whimper. Halcon fakes a low blow from Tinieblas to get the win for his team. A gentleman's ***1/2. Main event is a wild cage match full of blood, weapons, more blood, interference & of course... MUCH MORE BLOOD! Seriously, you gotta see Sagrada Jr in this one. His white outfit literally turned all red by the end of the match. Sagrada himself was bloody & had his mask torn up so badly he had to fight just to keep it covering his face. Pierroth was also bleeding & had a torn mask. Lots of spots where the rudos are picking on poor little Mascarita who is at the mercy of everyone here being trapped in this cage. Speaking of the cage - it's the Northern Mexico cage. Meaning... AAA has a cage they take on the road with their ring. They never bring it out to Monterrey/Nuevo Laredo because those towns both have buildings where the ring is built into the building & never moves. That means they also use the local cages which are made special for the rings. So this is a different looking cage that make it easier to see inside & easier to climb as well. It's just not as tall as your standard giant AAA cage. I remember being in awe the first time I saw the AAA cage since the WWF blue cage looked so pathetic in comparison & it was the only cage I knew. Miss Janeth is interfering in this one too, passing objects into the cage & stopping every Sagrada from escaping. It comes down to Mascarita Sagrada Jr vs Pierroth which seems SLIGHTLY UNFAIR! From the outside Pierroth has a drink thrown in his face. A fire extinguisher goes off which sends so much dust or whatever you call it into the air it actually makes it almost impossible to see what's going on in the ring. Made for a great visual at least! Totally chaotic atmosphere with fans throwing shit too. Mascara Sagrada Jr ends up climbing back inside to save his little buddy but they end up left inside as Pierroth escapes & Arturo Rivera does his famous LOS RUDOS LOS RUDOS LOS RUDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS call on the mic as we fade out. Really loved this. I've said it before & I'll say it again - I'm a sucker for lucha cage matches, especially AAA ones. I love the screaming as people are trying to escape, the drama of people re-entering & the general chaos they all bring. The CMLL ones are more toned down so not as fun. In closing a quick story since I won't get to tell it again! It hit me watching that opening match because of the gear Ultimo Dragon was wearing. Every winter vacation I'd end up in Florida for 2 weeks like a proper Jew. I had family living there. So in 1995, the year I discovered lucha libre, I was down there for the holidays & we went into a dollar store one day. I was allowed to pick out some toys & I came across these random wrestling figures. Which figures? Well... it was the CMLL line put out by (I forget). They had Ultimo Dragon & Pierroth although to me at the time it was "masked guy #1 & masked guy #2". I recognized Pierroth because I had seen him on TV even if I didn't know his name yet. Ultimo Dragon was a bit of a mystery to me but I eventually saw him more. The outfit the action figure had was the same one he wore in this AAA match I'd end up seeing months later. They were my favorite action figures at the time, more than the WWF ones I was collecting which made no sense since I was a WWF kid but I just thought these two masked action figures were the coolest thing. I was destined to be a lucha libre fan!
This Tehuacan venue immediately stands out when you see it because it's rounded. AAA does other buildings that look like this but they seem to always find a way to hide it as best as possible. Not this one. You have the entrance & then a giant circle. Opening TV match is a minis tag with the four best minis in the company at the time... which is what makes this so disappointing. The match isn't bad, it's just very repetitive. As if they went to the ring with zero ideas & just wanted to get the match done as easy as possible. There were at minimum 5 different versions of that spinning armdrag spot. The second fall just ends with Espectrito I faking a low blow which was clearly not a low blow. It just appeared to be a comedy spot where Tirantes would laugh it off but instead they get into this big debate, show a replay & then Tirantes seems to call the DQ although we never get any whistle or graphic to start the third fall. It felt like maybe Tirantes improvised on a match that was supposed to go two falls? It kinda fits since Mascarita ends up pinning Espectrito I to win the match which sets up his upcoming title shot. Definitely felt like a two fall finish. I expected much more from this. That carries on into the semi-main which is very interesting mix of people. I just read the SuperLuchas that has the lineup for this show & Oro Jr was actually scheduled in Frisbee's spot but it looks like he's bolted from here (not one of the jumps in Konnan's stable of guys). This is another one where it appears everyone was mailing it in, just wanted to get outta dodge as quick as possible. Except Psicosis. Always except Psicosis. Dude is a mad man. You have to see the spot he hits in this match - very Sabu-ish - where he sets up a chair, gets a running start, jumps off it onto the top rope in order to take Venum off the top with a frankensteiner. The distance he got on the jump was mind blowing. There's no way he should have been able to hit this spot as clean as he did. First fall has a huge mess of a finish with people in the wrong place. They set up a spot where we've got a dual Doomsday & Venum/Ludxor are boosted into what is supposed to be dropkicks to knock the rudos to the floor which sounds awesome but Venum's boost fails him & Ludxor barely makes contact with Karis. At least Frisbee had a cool ropeflip armdrag into a Skayde Special. In the third fall they have some dive teases which sets up a bunch of people outside so Venum can do a somewhat off-target Space Flying Tiger Drop. This leaves Winners & Perro Silva in the ring, two guys who were very much feuding on some of those summer shows. Silva just cleanly beats Winners. That's that. Nothing too offensive here but didn't wow me in any way which is ideally what you expect from these group of people. Main event is a very heated trios. At one point they are brawling near the crowd & an old man tries to pick up a chair to hit Cien Caras as everyone flees. Real lucha libre! Tecnicos take the first fall when Perrito hits a somewhat creative twisting double stomp off the second turnbuckles on Heavy Metal. Metal was working his ass off in this one carrying Perrito. He doesn't get enough credit for getting Perrito going when the kid could have been matched up with others who would have eaten him alive. The finish is Perro giving Cien Caras a low blow when nobody is looking & pinning him as the crowd goes wild. This really felt like a show from a crew that was being overworked & dealing with other things going on behind the scenes. It filled the TV time but you can safely skip anything here.
This entire taping was actually a total mystery. The dog collar match aired on a Year in Review show but we had nothing else from the show until one day Roy put up another Year in Review episode which contained the mini's title match here. New Tzuki! More recently I uncovered the full lineup in a SuperLuchas magazine so mystery solved! The mini's title match has extended clips so we basically get to see the full thing. Another great job by Espectrito carrying Mascarita who at this point is still super green. We get all the great Mascarita flying spots like the flip plancha & corkscrew plancha. He ends up rolling up Espectrito to CLEANLY win the title! I was very surprised. Was definitely expecting at least one or two run-ins. Later that night Mascarita is back out to second his big version for the dog collar match. We join as both are already bloody. Mascarita is throwing chairs from the ring to the floor trying to keep Picudo from interfering. At one point he pulls the chain from the outside trying to choke Pierroth which was adorable. At another point Tirantes seems to signal there's a problem but I can't figure out what the issue is. A bit later one of the runners comes from backstage with two yellow flags which Tirantes puts in each corner. As the match goes on I realize the *idea* is each flag belongs to one wrestler & they have to put it in the ringpost of each corner they touch. You see lucha dog collar matches are like US indian strap matches where you gotta hit all the corners. The problem with this idea... beyond the fact you need to have the flags out there to start the match... is both were the same color. So even if you understood the rules, it would be very confusing to remember who's flag was who's. Also, you probably just need 4 flags a piece to make it easy to figure out which corners have been hit so far. I admire Pena trying to fix a stip match that has always been confusing but it seems like one of those typical Pena deals where thought how it would work in his head but didn't communicate it properly to those who need to know. Pierroth ends up cheating to win.
The end is near! Dum dum dum. This is Psicosis' last AAA TV appearence until 2005 as Nicho El Millonario. What a way to go out. The semi-main atomicos match is setting up a Mascara Sagrada Jr vs Psicosis feud which of course we would never get to see play out. Match only goes two falls, Psicosis cheats to beat him in the first & then Sagrada Jr yanks Psicosis' mask in the second. This is notable personally because this was the moment I found out Psicosis' hair wasn't real! It was attached to the mask! :o As I would start to get more lucha shows on video tape I'd see stuff from 93/94 where he has his mask pulled & it's clear back then too but this was my first exposure to Psicosis' real hair & it was quite jarring. In the first fall they do this somewhat creative dive sequence involving a chair where the first spot is supposed to have Cien Caras sitting on a chair so Parka can do a pescado & miss him. Cien Caras *very much does not want to be sitting on this chair*. It takes the three other tecnicos to force him to sit & he moves immediately. This wasn't "let's make it real looking", this was Cien Caras sick & tired of the hardcore nonsense. I'm almost positive this was the moment he decided fuck this shit & left AAA. BTW, this is also his last TV match in the company. You will find me pointing that out a lot in the coming weeks. Halcon then goes for a tope suicida & gets BLASTED in the face with a chair by Parka. He manages to stumble to his feet & catch Tinieblas Jr with a chair shot trying a pescado. Fun stuff! Parka does his comedy stuff in the second fall which includes a friendly fire spot with Octagon. They have a little issue but get things back on track. This was actually the first tease of Parka going rudo. Something that Pena had in the works but doesn't get to play out of course. He was going to turn on Octagon. They shoot a couple more things in the following weeks. It's why when La Parka Jr shows up, he's a rudo. That was where Parka was going to be slotted. I pass this info on to you, mysterious readers, so you can have this information for when I'm gone & people try to re-write history. Another funny spot in the second fall was a triple tope suicida spot where Tinieblas is a step slower running the ropes so he almost falls through them after his partners have already bounced off. LOL Main event is a CMLL style title match. Yes, this is young Kraneo vs Pierroth. Pierroth is very upset at Tirantes & refuses to let him be the referee. Antonio Pena has to come out to solve the issue. Hmmm... more Pena on AAA TV. Interesting. What else was happening around this time in WWF & WCW? These two have a very slow & plodding match full of leg work. Not exactly the style we watch AAA to see! They swap the first two falls of course & in the third out of nowhere Sagrada just clean submits Pierroth to win the title. Not at all what I was expecting from a blood feud. Literally, the last time we saw Sagrada he was just covered in blood head-to-toe. Pierroth congratulates Sagrada post-match & it feels like he's turning tecnico or something but then he just blasts Sagrada with the belt. *insert evil Pierroth laugh here*
Before discussing the match that aired I should note the announcers are big time hyping up the future tapings noting you will see many debuts including New Winners (Mosco De La Merced) who it's explained got that name because Winners trained him in Tabasco, Villahermosa but it's not a relative of his so he can't give him the Hijo or Jr name. To me this is hilarious considering we are about to see La Parka Jr show up in a month or so & AAA just created a Mascara/Mascarita Sagrada Jr even though neither were juniors. So I guess Pena had a charge of mind on presentation. They also hype the upcoming debuts of Mini Killer & Mini Miss Janeth! As well as La Parkita has requested to turn tecnico so he will make his debut on that side in Xochimilco. The actual story is the La Parkita who had been around just left the promotion to join the other original minis on the indy circuit. Pena kept the gimmick & gave it to a promising young luchador (Sakurita). He only lasts a few months as La Parkita before Pena swaps him to become his new Octagoncito. This Octagoncito is the one who to this day works as Mini Rey Misterio so he's certainly had quite the run of famous characters! Now onto this show... if I told you what match aired from this show, there's zero chance you get it on your first guess. I'm pretty sure the top three all aired in Mexico & the US version just got cut down with lucha libre beginning to get less TV time on Galavision. My proof will come later below. The match that airs from here is the tercera which is billed as 'Double Power'. That was a 1994 concept when AAA/UWA began working together doing interpromotional matches. UWA needed AAA, they were dying. Rapidly. So AAA tossed them a life preserver & of course Canek fucked it up with his ego. Bringing this concept back for 1996 made little sense as UWA was long since dead except in the minds of many old men like Canek. Arena Neza was still running Sunday shows using the leftovers of the dying organization which included the three rudos - Loco Valentino, Skeletor & Retador. If we presume the best three were picked to represent the company on AAA TV... oh boy must those shows have been putrid. Loco Valentino is doing a crazy mental patient bit. He was good. The only one of the three who looked even remotely TV ready. Took great bumps, lots of charisma, didn't mess anything up. Skeletor & Retador were... uh... not good. Very slow, no charisma, messed up many things. The match gets lots of time too which is even more of an annoyance considering what could have aired in it's place. Loco ends up faking a foul to get the DQ win for the don't call it UWA team. Can't believe Pena booked his own people to lose even though they are just midcard dudes. Post-match we get replays & after the replays are done there's a clear jump cut back to a longshot of the ring as the announcers sign off. You can see La Parka, Octagon & Latin Lover taking photos at ringside so clearly this aired in Mexico. A magazine recap of this show notes Parka & Octagon had problems in the main event which is more of the Parka rudo turn going on. As a sidenote & a story to babyface myself - I once dubbed a copy of this show for Flamita. You see, El Retador was his father. He died when Flamita was very young so Flamita never got to see him wrestle. This was the only match of his that ever seems to have made video. So when I helped get Flamita booked for BOLA 2017, I presented him with a copy of this show as a gift. He was amazed any footage of his dad on video existed.
I got this show from RF Video! Oh yes, cancel me! I don't regret that decision at all. The matches all came on a video tape called "Super Lucha Fall Fury 1996" which was just a bunch of totally random matches I guess somehow RF got his hands on or had someone make for him. RF doesn't give a shit about lucha, just incase you were wondering. The thing that made this video tape special was it had three matches from an upcoming December show that didn't turn up anywhere else for many many many years afterwards until someone put them up on YouTube. Rare stuff! Still no idea how they ended up in RF's possession. He really missed the boat if he had someone with satellite access, could have made some money off recording all the lucha stuff. Meanwhile for this show we are in Arena Xochimilco which is always notable for how awkward the setup has to be. The exit from the locker rooms literally takes you right to ringside so any time someone bumps/dives on that side, they basically fall down some stairs & almost take out various AAA personnel standing there watching like Jesus Nunez. No idea who Mancha Negra was in the opener. He's a one-and-done. Perhaps re-gimmicked although no idea as who. There is nothing in the LuchaWiki to support this but I'll give you the exclusive here & someone can steal it - Century is 2000 is the ex-Apolo from the early days of AAA. He also stuck around way into the early 2000's working all the AAA 'C' or 'D' shows. Those tiny shows with only like 3 matches, usually in Mexico State. He may have even been running them. Most of you are probably more familiar with him under his refereeing names - Copetes Salazar. Yes, that's right. Long time AAA office guy. He was not a very good wrestler. Ludxor & Quarterback were the standouts here, both in line for nice little bumps up the card once all the Konnan guys are officially out the door. We get a dive sequence in the second fall which is capped off by the "vuelo de Ludxor" which was his running twisting dive - a dive he created but is often associated with Mr. Aguila. Tecnicos take it in two straight falls. Next up is the debut of all the minis as promised. Mini Miss Janeth was played by Alda Moreno at one point. Not sure if this is her here? It's hard to tell, I'm bad with faces. I don't think it is but whoever it is certainly knows how to bump. La Parkita stood out to me in this one because back in 1996 the minis were still generally smaller people who moved differently & couldn't do what normal sized guys do... such as top rope springboards. Suddenly here is this mini who can do that. He immediately made me sit up & take notice. He looked great here, especially working with Mini Karis La Momia. They pulled off this CRAZY awesome toss into a headscissors spot. These two would eventually find their way into the Octagoncito/Mini Abismo Negro gimmicks & have many excellent matches together. Mini Karis was also super basing for Mascarita here. All three rudos got a chance to work with him. Really good stuff! Lots of wild dives as you'd expect. Espectrito ends up beating Torerito clean in the third fall, then Mini Killer/Mini Miss Janeth team up to pin poor little Mascarita. A great introduction to the new minis & that finish is actaully going somewhere as you'll see soon! Ultimo Dragon shows up for this main event. I was wrong when I previously said he finished up on the previous shows. *This* was his farewell. I promise you. He leaves for Japan & by the time he comes back he's a WCW contracted guy so no more AAA. This is another two fall special because we've got some stories to tell! Mainly Super Muneco is not interested in helping his partners. In fact, he wants to be friends with all the tecnicos. So we are correcting the world & ready to retire the sad face Muneco mask. Sorry internet people who found it hilarious! After he costs them the match by laying down for Parka in the second fall, the Villanos absolutely massacre him. The Payasos run out to make the save for their friend but the damage has been done. Muneco is left a BLOODY MESS. A huge puddle of blood is left in the ring where he was laying dead & he's being dragged to a corner for medical attention. Gruesome bladejob. Parka seemed legit concerned & rushed to get a bandage. Crowd was very into this turn & the Payasos making the save. There are still issues to be worked out though because the Payasos don't seem to be going tecnico like their friend... hmmm...
We're gonna do something different here & go out of order since I have a lot to say about the TV opener. Straight to the semi-main of the Villanos vs Payasos. Payasos still rudos, Villanos still very over tecnicos. It's a brawl from the start with the Payasos being in control. First fall is a well done DQ where V-III & Coco Rojo are having a punching exchange with V-III getting the best of it so Rojo suddenly ducks one & yanks the mask. I loved Arturo Rivera's reaction to this. Villano V also his mask ripped up & gets bloodied but leaves the match to get a replacement gold mask so he can continue on. Villanos takes the match again by DQ in the second fall. Pierroth Jr comes out to help his co-National Atomicos champs (remember that title?) but receives a beatdown as well leaving him hurt going into the main event which he works with his head already bandaged. Main event is a cage match & is generally chaos. But kinda more chaotic than usual due to whatever was happening outside the ring. Around 4 or 5 minutes in you hear a scream & suddenly fans start jumping over the guardrail on one side of the ring & running around ringside far away from whatever is going on. AAA staff & "security" rush over. It's hard to tell what exactly is going on but people are in full on panic mode. It didn't seem like a fight in the crowd, people don't run from fights, they stick around to watch (or in 2026: film them). This felt like someone either pulled a gun or knife & maybe did something with it. The announcers even note wow something crazy must be happening because look at all those people running through our match! The aftermath lasts a couple minutes with AAA personnel figuring things out. The match just keeps rolling inside the cage although you can see someone tell Tirantes something which he then passes on to Demon Jr inside the cage & he passes it on to everyone else. I assume it was something like "let's GTFO of this town ASAP, preferably alive". Not sure if the rudos were originally gonna win & something was changed on the fly to make sure the crowd was happy or what. Soon after we start getting the escapes. Weapons get involved, Parka puts both Killer & Pierroth Jr through makeshift tables because AAA doesn't have actual tables yet. Parka gives Miss Janeth a chairshot to the head. Venum makes a random appearence to pass weapons into the cage. God bless Antonio Pena just sending randoms out! Sagrada & Pierroth are left at the end, the Payasos come out with a chair to prevent Pierroth from escaping. I'm not sure he would have been able to anyways, the cage was basically falling apart to the point Coco Rojo couldn't climb it to hit the chairshot so he just hit the cage on the outside & Pierroth had to sell it knocking him back inside. Wild shit. So now let's circle back to the TV opener... it was the tercera from the poster. For some reason that poster has two tecnicos against three rudos? Also, Konnan, Perro Aguayo & Juventud Guerrera pictured? Clearly this show was sold before shit hit the fan. So maybe they edited the names on the poster but not the photos & didn't know who the subs would be yet. The match ends up an atomicos with Winners/Perrito/Venum/Ludxor vs Mosco De La Merced/Karis La Momia/Hijo Del Espectro/Ice Killer. This aired here on TLN on the Monday night airing of lucha so I had my VCR set & when I woke up for school that day I checked to see what aired as I was having breakfast. If you were to make a Top 10 matches that shaped me as a wrestling fan - this makes the list. Maybe even Top 5. No joke. This was still just over a year into me watching lucha & figuring out what all of this is. I had the internet by now but there was still nobody to really talk to about it. So everything was still new & unexplainable. Suddenly I have this match on my TV & it's 8 guys - most of whom I had never seen before - doing things in & out of the ring I had never seen before! To me just see *a dive* was still a novel concept. This match featured *13 dives* since they did a 7 person dive train in the third fall. I know reading that today may not seem like anything special... there were probably 13 dives in the first hour of Dynamite last week. But in 1996, this was absolutely mind blowing. Not only that but these were a lot of INCREDIBLE dives I had never seen before like the Venum springboard tornillo plancha to cap off the dive train which was life changing. Even Mosco going for a moonsault only to take two feet to the chest from Perrito blew me away. That was the first time I saw that spot - their creation - one that Perrito took to CMLL to do with Mistico & became a staple to this day in all CMLL major matches. I clear as day remember that school day. Instead of paying attention & learning, I was busy trying to remember off the top of my head how many dives they did in the match. I could sorta picture in my head Venum's tornillo but it didn't make any sense to me. The physics! No, I couldn't ask any science teacher - I was in Grade 8 at this time. I remember trying to explain to my best friends David & Ryan (both somewhat into wrestling but obviously just WWF & the limited ECW we had seen in magazines) how cool it all was but once they knew it was Mexican wrestling they were less interested. Needless to say I wanted to rush home & re-watch the madness. The tecnicos win the match, a match that is basically Perro Aguayo Jr's coming out party. He's got a little confidence, especially working with his best friend Mosco who is bumping all over for him. At one point Mosco goes for a top-rope frankensteiner & Perrito catapults him OVER THE POST to the floor! That was super scary because Mosco didn't get as much height as I'm sure he wanted & I thought he was going to end up with a ringpost stuck up his ass. Please, no jokes about that happening later in his career. At one point Venum walks the ropes around the entire ring which was fuckin madness to someone who had only seen Undertaker & Hakushi walk the one side. I basically have this entire match memorized to this day. Over on my alternate IG account where I upload wrestling things that made me happy over the course of time, this was one of my first uploads. To me a ***** match. One day when I'm not here any longer if anyone wants to make a RobViper playlist to inspire future generations of lucha fans (hahahahahahahahahahaha I wish), this has to be one of the first picks. Oh, how did I not mention... ICE KILLER! There was a fucking hockey inspired gimmick! The icing on the cake! That's a hockey joke.
The perfect storm! Watching this show just as I pulled the magazine covering this week in time. So let's clarify some things. This show is actually on October 2 so it pre-dates both Xochimilco & Fresnillo. Second, that's New Winners in the opener. Winners did not work twice. New Winners was one of the new gimmicks being pushed way back on that 9/27 Arena Neza show so it all fits together neatly. The only hiccup is New Winners = Mosco De La Merced. Meaning he made his debut here, then went back to the Mosco gimmick in Fresnillo. Who will he appear as next? Stay tuned! This is by far one of the weirdest AAA tapings of the 90's. Maybe not overall but certainly in terms of which matches made air & why. I have to assume there was a lot of paranoia going on about who was staying, who was going, who to trust, who not to trust. So Pena was hesitant to give TV time to people who were about to walk. So we get these two matches. The opener is a Lumberjack Strap match. You'll never convince me these are not entertaining.... especially with the minis as lumberjacks! I was laughing my ass off watching Mascarita Jr chasing the rudos around & Venum taking absurd bumps but jumping onto the apron just in time to avoid getting whipped. It's a one fall match due to the stip & obviously you gotta keep it all inside the ring. Cold debut for New Winners. He gets a kick in the butt from Torero before the match which is a good luck kid type deal. He hits a couple fancy armdrags on Yeti & then it falls apart with both on different pages. Don't know if it was Mosco being nervous or Yeti unable to base properly in that hilarious outfit. The rudos take over when suddenly Winners (THE Winners) shows up & gives Perro Silva a low blow. Remember that feud??? Well, now you do. I think he may have jumped the gun on the run-in because it came so early in the rudo beatdown & nothing happened afterwards. People just seemed generally confused as to what to do next. Mascarita Jr knows he had to get a dive in but is just standing on the apron trying to figure out what to do next. Yeti grabs him & ends up having to look like a fool letting him go, taking a random bump & then almost getting in the way of Mascarita doing a plancha onto Espectrito. Off camera Venum takes some wild bump we just catch the tail end of. We also miss whatever happened for the exact finish as Winners is back in the ring attacking Silva so the rudos win by DQ. A total fucking disaster. Remember this when you see where New Winners pops up next! Main event is just as strange. Chicano Power? Ice Killer? Killer? Being billed as a Legion Extranjera type team? I mean... I guess. America & Canada. But these arepeople who besides Killer had not been positioned as anywhere near top of the card at any point recently. Safe gimmicks to throw on TV as part of AAA though! First fall is good, Winners does a nice running somersault plancha. There isn't much to the match after that as Winners seems to legit injure his leg (make a note of this too). Sagrada's both hit dives in the third fall. Miss Janeth ends up taking a big bump off the apron courtesy of Winners but gets her revenge re-entering to foul him from behind so Killer can score the win. Yay sorta Team Canada! We get the rare show closing which has the announcers in the Televisa studio talking about the show & previewing coming up shows. Definitely time filling. This is a weird one, as I noted. Don't get too attached to New Winners or even Winners himself. The times, they are a changin'!
THE END IS HERE! And also the beginning! Oh, I could write a novel on this show alone & at the perfect time too since I am reading through some SuperLuchas magazines covering this time period. I also have some RobViper Lore (the main reason I am sharing all this, someone has to document how I ended up the way I did, who better than me?) - everyone's favorite topic.
Let's start off with what this show was SUPPOSED to have: The debut of a wrestler named "LSD". Who is LSD? It doesn't stand for anything, it's the drug. I'm not joking. If you asked me a few days ago, I couldn't have even told you. Now that I finished a new SuperLuchas magazine, I can. LSD was the original name Pena was going to give Super Crazy before he settled on Histeria. I'm not joking. There are multiple articles referring to this new gimmick debuting on this Friday show & the descriptions are absolutely Super Crazy (from Hidalgo, likes to fly, used wrestle in Neza a lot). I don't know what changed between those articles being written & the actual lineup then having "Histeria" listed but clearly something did. The thing is... Histeria was listed in the Space Cadets 5 vs 5 match. Which is the normal spot you'd expect, all his future teammates & opponents. The main event has a "luchador sopresa" listed on the rudo side which is where Histeria ends up working. My theory is that spot was meant for Psicosis who then told Pena he was leaving the promotion & would not be wrestling. Things were moving fast, Pena took his name off the lineup & as they say... we'll do it live, pal! That would be a Friday problem. Now let's table this part of the story for now...
I was just a lowly Canadian lucha libre fan who had access to anywhere from 90 minutes to 180 minutes of lucha TV every weekend. Sometimes none if it just didn't air. At this time I was just building up my tape collection, I had maybe 3 or 4 tapes of random lucha matches at this point. I remember it clear as day because I'd label them "Mexican Wrestling Vol. 1" & so forth. Mixed with WWF stuff I was recording too of course. My collection started to really expand after I got tied in with Mike Bochicchio who would eventually run Highspots. Back at this point he was doing tape trading/mask selling off his Wake Forest University website. I had placed some orders with him at first, then he reached out saying would I like to record lucha libre off TV for him. He didn't want the full shows, he just wanted the best matches on a tape so he could sell compilations to others. I said sure. This officially started our friendship as Mike was way too fucking nice and would send me like 3 shows in exchange for 1 so my collection started to grow. One day I told him about all these great shows Jeff Lynch had, how I was having a hard time trying to decide which shows to buy as I was a lowly teenager with limited funds. Mike offered a deal... we would purchase together. 50/50. At the time Jeff was doing a buy 4, get the 5th free deal. So Mike pitched a bulk order where the tapes would be sent to him & then he'd dub them for me at no extra charge. He was a quality snob. Still is! This also meant instead of me combining 3 shows onto one tape in SLP/EP, each show would be on it's own tape so Mike could get the best quality & then re-sell it on his website of course. I didn't give a shit, I just wanted the footage any way I could. So we did a bulk buy where I think the first batch was something like 20 tapes total. He let me choose the shows because of course he did. Between having to send a money order + blank tapes, wait for Jeff to copy them all, send them to Mike who then had to dub them himself & then get it shipped to Canada (I can't even remember how much that would have cost back in 1998)... it was a long wait for these video tapes. But the day they came... oh my goodness was I the happiest kid! I remember having to go to the post office to bring it home because of course they couldn't deliver it to my apartment. To go from having 4 lucha tapes I recorded myself to suddenly 20+ & all stuff I had never seen before... it was too much to process. And I had to rewind them all before watching because Mike's machines didn't do that after the dubs finished!
All that story just to get to this one fucking tidbit... out of all those tapes it was *this* show that I went to watch first. The main event aired here on TLN, that's a story for later. But you had an opener with new people I had never seen, THE SPACE CADETS & MINIS! A no-brainer first overall draft pick show. You can tell with the way people we were working (+ what Pierroth does...) this was definitely a crew who got sat down backstage & no doubt given a rah-rah speech by Antonio Pena about the state of the company. How they were now gonna carry things & we need to show the world why AAA is still the best! The Apaches kick it off against 2/3 of Los Diabolicos. Marabunta has a new look with short black hair & a goatee. The graphic for him was a photo from over a year previous. He looked so different that for years I swore that was not the same Marabunta & Pena switched that gimmick as well. It was Marabunta, I was incorrect. I should have been smarter & I should have taken notice only Marabunta would have taken the crazy bumps he did in this opening match. He takes a corner bump that is just fantastic & a sallida de banderas that I have nightmares about to this day. I have no idea how he didn't destroy his ankles or tailbone or back on the landing. Truly frightening... yet he gets up & keeps going without missing a beat. It's a really good opener start-to-finish as these teams know each other well & are working to the best of their capabilities. Apaches get the win & a nice ovation. We're off to a great start! Next up is the Space Cadets! My favorite group at the time! Yes, loved them more than DX! The colors! The different types of masks! It was all so lovely. The rudos are a mix of people we've seen before but are just so random to be grouped all together. Kraken had the big push back in April/May stealing masks but has been largely non-existent since then. He pops up here as as the sub for Histeria. Mosco De La Merced has dropped the Winners II gimmick ALREADY to go back to this one. The same SuperLuchas hyping up LSD also said he would form a trio with Picudo & Histeria. Picudo is rocking his new futuristic gear so I believe Pena saw those first couple New Winners presenations & decided Mosco/future X-Fly is not the guy to be doing a sexy boy gimmick - not to mention Winners is about to go bye bye (not to Promo Azteca) - so he just made the call to pretend like it never happened. Rounding out the team is Quarterback & Mr. Condor. The intros alone for all 10 guys take abour 4 minutes so how do things start? You guessed it... GIANT EDIT! Could we not have just skipped the intros... just like what was done for the top two matches? Whatever. We get a mostly action packed match as you'd expect with these people. Highlights including a dual Space Flying Tiger Drop from Venum & Ludxor where poor Venum gets caught up in the ropes. Venum also takes a wild sallida de bandera. We get triple somersault planchas from the remaining Cadets. Then the eliminations begin as remember this is Relevos Japoneses so you need to pin the captain to win. Venum missed his tornillo into the ring & is dispatched. Mosco sends Ludxor outsdie... goes onto the apron... AND DOES AN ASAI MOONSAULT TO ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE! LANDING ON HIS FEET BEFORE CRASHING DOWN! I had already seen this from another match that would take place in 1997. When I saw that one I lost my ever loving mind. Still one of the greatest spots I've ever seen in my life. This was my second time seeing it & it hit just as hard. The nerve to do something like that... it's probably not great for your knees but bumping every night in a hard ring can't be good either so might as well go all out! You only live once, right? Ludxor follows with a plancha & if you can believe it the PLANCHA gets the replay - not Mosco's spot. My god. The finish is really cool with Kraken using a grounded rocking submission I don't think I ever saw before or after. A one-and-done submission. Remember when luchadors used to bust that kind of shit out instead of a fireman's carry & splash off the top? We are 2 for 2 to kick off this new era of AAA! And guess what? Mascarita Sagrada Jr is next up to just check off 3 for 3 before I even give my comments! This is the minis tecnico dream trio here. I love Munequito. Such a fun character & so exciting in the ring. Would be one of the all-time adorable minis if not for the fact his partner tonight wins that award. It struck me how awkward it must have been for the Espectritos to be working against the new version of La Parkita. The original was their brother. On the last TV taping I speculated he left the company but now I'm wondering if I misremembered & he is actually still around as Mini Killer? It would make sense based on who he is basing for. Tons of cool shit in this match as you'd expect. Mini Miss Janeth gets involved & bumps around. Definitely Alda Moreno here. All the dives you'd expect from the mini tecnicos including an out of control tornillo by Parkita & huge asai moonsault from Mascarita. In the third fall we get eliminations & someone jumps the gun playing the tecnicos music after Mini Killer is pinned but the match isn't over yet. Both Espectritos pile onto Super Munequito to eliminate him & win the match. They seemed unhappy at the music playing as they got the win. Crowd whistled so they caught the mistake. Technological problems aside, really fun match. Next up is the National Atomicos champs against their future challengers Muneco/Payasos. They win the match in two pretty unexciting falls. Pierroth works in a t-shirt for some reason. The main goal here is to establish Super Muneco is a full-fledged tecnico & the Payasos are as well. Super Munequito runs out & gets assualted by Pierroth who actually clumsily drops him at one point which seemed to really hurt Munequito. I hate seeing the minis abused like that. You gotta be careful, many of them are fragile. Sanson & Forastero should be in jail for what they did to Mije is the opinion I stand on forever. We get some mask ripping to establish these teams are upset with each other. Pierroth gets DQ'ed in the first fall for accidentally hitting referee El Chocolate. Muneco rolls up Pierroth for win the fall two. We don't even need a title challenge... Pierroth walks over into the crowd where the announcers are set up & declares they are fighting champions, they lost in two falls, they understand this means they need to defend their titles. Wow, how easy! This ends up being just a way for Pierroth to keep talking & deliver the only line he intended to deliver by walking over here - he says "on another note, I just want to make it clear unlike others I am 100% loyal to the organization & man who opened the doors for me to be here!" It didn't get the pop you'd think it would because Pierroth is a rudo & most the crowd probably had no idea what he was even alluding to since the Promo Azteca stuff was just starting to leak into the magazines. Coco Amarillo tries to say something as well but the music starts playing & he seems very angry he got cut off. Was he going to declare he's always been a Carlos Maynes guy?
Now we go to the main event for RobViper Lore #2! My first internet exclusive news??? Like I said, this aired here on TLN in Canada. When it did my immediate reaction was... huh... Psicosis looks so different. Something is definitely off. What happened here was the luchador sorpresa ended up being Histeria. Pena just moved him into the main event & dressed him like Psicosis. This match is the ONLY time Histeria has ever looked like this. What probably happened is he was set to debut in his new gear but then Pena, pissed that Psicosis didn't show up, told him hey you need to wear the wig & outfit - since AAA had all the wrestler outfits in their production truck. So Super Crazy did as he was told, put the outfit on & for some reason also wore the futuristic Histera kickpads which is why he looked so strange. Psicosis never wore this in his AAA matches unless he had the full robotic outfit to go with it. This must have been super awkward for Juventud Guerrera who was best friends with Psicosis & now teaming with Pena's literal clone of him. Or how about La Parka working this match, seeing the fake Psicosis & having no idea what Pena would do with his gimmick in less than a month? But back to me... the important one... I watched this & afterwards immediately ran to my computer & logged onto my FREE INTERNET SERVICE! Yes, my mom didn't want to pay for real internet so I was on a dial-up free internet where you had a one hour time limit, any phone call could disconnect you & oh... no graphics. All text based. I had found one wrestling message board where I was sharing my probably very stupid opinions. I have no idea what board it was. DVDVR didn't exist yet. I'm also positive from my limited memory this was a random geocities or angelfire page that happened to have a message board. With my internet being text only it was a bit harder to navigate the boards which were full of images so I'd miss replies or posts but it was the only way I could discuss wrestling at the time outside of hoping people would e-mail me. Anyways, clear as day I recall making a post explaining I was watching this AAA TV show today & they debuted a FAKE PSICOSIS! I remember being so proud of myself because people actually replied asking me how do you know it's a fake & do you have a photo? Obviously I could not provide a photo because of what technology was back then. Plus it would have taken me more than an hour to upload it on my connection even if I could figure it out. So I just replied explaining they put this fatter guy under the outfit & made some slight changes to the look so this probably means the original Psicosis (I probably spelled it Psychosis like a loser) was gone from the company. Even my ignorant 14 year old self could see through this Pena sham! It didn't help that Super Crazy did not seem comfortable at all in this outfit & was busy making sure everything stayed on more than trying to take advantage of this big main event opportunity. It's a long match. Parka/Juvy do a bunch of stuff together that they'd then take to WCW as Parka is close to making his debut against Juvy on Nitro. This is their last match on AAA TV until many many many years later. Both formally jump to Promo Azteca the following week, as per Konnan's oders if they wanted to remain with WCW. That's why I say this show was both the end & beginning. In this one match you have their end & the beginning of Pena re-gimmicking any character who would leave him. Yes, he already did that with Mascara Sagrada but that was a Jr where he made sure the announcers made it clear it was not the original. He only started cloning the original in the summer when the actual original sued & turned it into a very public story. I could write so much more about all this but as for the match itself I have to focus on the ending & a funny bit. That funny bit is early in the match Arturo Rivera in referencing Latin Lover talks about all the 'sexy boy' gimmicks in Mexico currently & references Tarzan Boy in PROMELL. This is your timeline for when the press conference happened where Konnan blasted Pena. At this point it's safe to mention PROMELL aka Promo Azteca on AAA TV. It would never be safe again. It really caught me off guard to hear it. The ending of the match... Octagon backdrops fake Psicosis/Histeria out of the ring & does a bullet tope suicida... so much of a bullet that he drives his own head straight into the ground & seems to KO himself. Latin Lover takes out Heavy Metal with a plancha, Juvy follows with a huge running somersault plancha. It seems like Parka was supposed to get in the ring to do the Sabu triple jump with a chair in hand & "accidentally" hit Octagon, furthering his rudo turn & their split. But Octagon is unable to get up to Latin Lover steps in to take the chairshot. Now things are a little chaotic because Octagon is supposed to be rolling into the ring & pinned but that can't happen. They do a messy nearfall on Parka who is not staying down here to get pinned. Instead we get two clumsy low blows where the refs have to intentionally look away to miss & the rudos get the win as the crowd boos. Super disappointing finish. Octagon gets stretchered to the back. Parka apologizes & hugs Latin Lover as the crowd has already mostly filed out of the building. A very sad ending to this era of AAA even though at the time Pena was clearly not aware he was about to lose even more talent. All-time memorable show to me for all the reasons explained above.
One day after that Juan De La Barera show the crew has flown to Acapulco where AAA has booked a baseball stadium show. Uh-oh! We have no attendance numbers & it's a very dark broadcast but it sure sounded like a very empty building. The full lineup isn't available, I'm sure I'll come across it in a SuperLuchas issue soon enough. What we get to see is the minis opener & main event... yes... that is the actual show main event. I assume the missing matches are gimmicks that are either in the process of coming to an end or have wrestlers Pena was unsure if they'd stick around so he didn't want their matches on TV. Everyone in the opener is safe & thank you lord for that! An awesome minis tag! ****+. Say whatever you will about AAA around this time, you cannot deny they still had the best minis division in wrestling even with all the people defecting. The rudos are fucking incredible here as bases, allowing the mini tecnicos to shine. This was one of the matches I included on my VHS series of the best lucha matches you've never seen. They get tons of time & make great use of it. Highly reccommended! Main event not so much. It's a clean match since it's a title match although the funny thing is no intros are shown & we see no actual title belts post-match. I would bet those titles were not at the show. The Villanos are about out the door here to join Konnan's group & in leaving they end up stealing the actual title belts. The story of the match is Pierroth's elbow getting worked on to the point he has to leave the match for a while. It's solid enough work but in front of a very dead crowd who is not into either side even though this Super Muneco tecnico turn is supposed to be carrying the promotion right now. Pierroth eventually returns to trip Muneco while he runs the ropes, allowing Villano IV to use a magistral cradle to win the match. Pierroth clearly had a hand in booking at this time & this is the definition of selfish booking.
I've combined these shows both so I can finally move out of October but also to point out we are experiencing holes in our AAA TV timeline. Not sure if stuff wasn't airing (more on that later in the year) or it just wasn't making it's way to the US which may have cut down on how much lucha was airing around this time. We get only the main event of the Madero show (another show missing full results) & the title match main event from Neza although that is just highlights from a Year In Review episode. This will continue into November unfortunately. I wish there had been some reporting done to explain what was or wasn't airing. Instead you are all in the dark with me. The cage match features Fuerza Guerrera's hilarious return to AAA. Why hilarious? Well, Fuerza had spent over a year badmouthing the promotion to put over his own PROMELL group. He said some of the most awful things about Pena (before Konnan came along to take over...) & swore he would never go back to the company that tried to ruin him. All of this was very public. So a luchador sorpresa was advertised for this show & who does it end up being??? Well, I guess I already told you. The story Fuerza told afterwards was PROMELL was his creation & now that Konnan was coming in with his boys to re-name it as Promo Azteca, he decided he'd rather work for the enemy than sell his soul once again. I guess so buddy. I'm more thinking he knew he was fucked, CMLL's door was closed to him & so he went to the one place that would pay him money to wrestle. Plus, no doubt Pena was looking for any names at this time to bolster a weakened roster. The not shown on TV angle is Fuerza attacking old nemesis Octagon & Perro Aguayo which of course sets up the cage match where they interfere to cost him his return match. An Octagon/Fuerza Guerrera rivalry on TV in 1996. Time standing still. Nothing else notable in the match aside from it being the Villanos official farewell to AAA. A few days later in Arena Neza we have the full lineup available which shows you what is going on with this roster at the moment. It's pretty rough. Even if more matches had aired, I'm not sure what I'd be looking forward to watching. Latin Lover/Jerry Estrada seems to come out of nowhere but was possibly set up in matches that didn't air from the previous shows. The match is fine in the clips we see but the story is the seconds are Mascara Sagrada Jr. & Heavy Metal. Metal is having problems with Jerry & ends up costing him both the second & third fall - the final by throwing a drink in his face. So Heavy Metal has flip-flopped one more time (3rd time this calendar year alone!) onto the tecnico side. I think Pena was setting the stage for his new Sexy Boys trios with Latin Lover, Heavy Metal & someone else... maybe Tarzan Boy... maybe New Winners... maybe someone else who won't become evident for another 2 months. Hmmmmmmm............
UPDATE: I found a JIP version of the semi-main event. I *think* it aired as part of a Year in Review special. It's literally joined in progress at the end just to show the big angle which is Mosco De La Merced smashing a beer bottle over Perro's head. It's the 4th or 5th time Pena has re-done this same famous angle Mascara Ano 2000 did with Perro back in 1993. Mosco gets him real good, Perro is instantly bleeding & the bottle explodes everywhere. Dangerously, in fact. Perrito's reaction is pretty weak. He just kinda stumbles around eyeing Mosco like "why'd you do that, bro?" It's not the reaction a son should have & most certainly not the intense Perrito we would come to know in later years. Perro is covered in the blood as the doctors tend to him by the time the video cuts out.
***AAA November 4, 1996 in Puebla***
Special insert! I totally forgot about this taping for a couple reasons. First, it's not listed in the DB since we didn't even know it existed & when we found out we didn't know what date it happened on. So as of me writing this it's currently in the DB as both 11/2 & 11/23. It's actually 11/4 as per my new stack of SuperLuchas magazines. Second, the only matches that exist on video from this show are very hard to track down. The main event ended up on a disappearing YouTube channel, the other I just found randomly on a disc I had & it's all clipped up. After watching I have vague memories that both those matches aired on a Year in Review episode, probably the same out that aired that Perros vs Fuerza/Mosco tag match above. The problem with forgetting about this show is it frames comments I've already written below differently so I wish I had watched in order but what can you do.
*This* show is actually the in-ring debut of the new La Parka (Chuy, ex-Karis). He teams with Octagon & Tinieblas Jr vs Canek (making his AAA return on the rudo side), Cibernetico & Fuerza Guerrera. So this totally goes against the upcoming angle I've already written about where Canek claims Parka is his student & he is his padrino. Nothing is mentioned about that here & they interact numerous times. It's just something Pena changed his mind on by the time those next tapings occur. Canek has problems with his rudo teammates throughout the match, especially Cibernetico. The finish is Cibernetico unmasking Tinieblas Jr for the DQ which prompts Canek to say he wants no part of being on a team with people who would do stuff like that. The crowd was not especially into any of this match which I found surprising. In the SuperLuchas article they note turnout for this show was "acceptable" which means even the AAA magazine knew things weren't looking too hot if that's the best word they could come up with.
The other match here is newly turned tecnico Heavy Metal taking on Jerry Estrada in a Dog Collar match. This was awful. Jerry may not have been in his right mind as there are many questionable moments in this match. I found one bit fun which was Heavy Metal exiting the ring, circling around, entering the ring, then exiting again. Why is that fun? Well since they are chained that meant Jerry Estrada was now wrapped up & choking at ringside. Clever! There's a weird cut to a mid-match promo from Jerry backstage. I do recall Pena experimenting with this kind of editing. Kinda like the old WWF weekend programming back in the day. Sexy Piscis interferes for some reason & I have no idea what's going on because nobody seems to be selling anything he's doing & eventually he leaves the ring so they can continue. Shot in the dark no proof at all theory: Pena saw how badly this was going & sent Piscis out there to get them to wrap it up. It ends soon afterwards with Jerry fouling (kinda......) Metal & then touching all four corners. Well, he touched three & then Tirantes had to kinda indicate hey Jerry you got one more to go. Crowd was not into any of this either.
Hey it's a random tag tournament! As I've mentioned & you should be well aware of if you're doing a watch-along with my comments (hahahahahaha) there is a clear lack of direction in AAA right now. Pena doesn't know who's coming or going & thus cannot actually run angles or decide who to push. So we're about to have two tapings in a row (of undetermined order) where things are just happening & the chips fall where they may. Case in point: La Parka has officially left so AAA comes up with a bullshit reason (family issues) as to why they didn't stop advertising him for this show. I think the plan was to debut him here or the Puebla taping but Pena wasn't ready to decide how he wanted to proceed. My reasoning is the new La Parka (Jr) gets mentioned in SuperLuchas as if he's already shown up here & is included in the yearly 11/20 parade - at a point in time his actual debut would not have aired on TV yet. We only see the semi-finals & finals from this tournament. The first is Blue Demon Jr/Mascara Sagrada Jr vs Los Villanos IV/V. Solid enough match with Tirantes cheating to help the Villanos win. Next up is Super Muneco/Pantera vs Canek/Histeria. What a team! This is Histeria's OFFICIAL debut in the gear we most recognize him as using. I was blown away when he walked out behind Canek. Back in 1996 seeing that colorful gear with the tassles - your imagination immediately went wild wondering what crazy things he could do. I wouldn't find out until much later. He did absolutely nothing in this match which was just a backdrop for an angle. They work tecnico style to start as Canek is in the process of turning tecnico (he was a rudo?). The real shock is Muneco & Pantera win CLEAN! Canek doesn't take a pin but he does get counted out after two dives from Pantera. Cibernetico then makes his way to ringside & starts fighting with Canek for reasons unexplained. This is why I think there's a missing tape here. Histeria tries to prevent them from fighting. Mosco De La Merced shows up for some reason as well (I assume Canek/Histeria beat Ciber/Mosco in round 1?). This is kinda cool because these would be the group that form the original Vipers some 10 months later. At this point they have no connection & I don't think Pena had any inkling he would head in this direction. Tournament final is 2/3 falls. I always dislike this. Obviously I like 2/3 falls but when you do a tournament where everything is 1 fall, you can't just switch in the final because the crowd doesn't understand & they've already seen these guys wrestle twice so they are not looking for a longer match with them. When Pantera/Muneco take the first fall the crowd pops like crazy because they think they've just won the tournament. But then we start the second fall & the crowd never gets up again. Pantera does a flip plancha landing himself in the crowd at one point. Tecnicos trap Villanos in dual submissions leading to Villano III hitting the ring for the DQ. Muneco/Pantera win the insignificant tournament. We then get the usual general AAA chaos that would become a staple of the promotions where Canek/Cibernetico are back to fight, Payasos get involved to go after Villanos & none of this matters at all since half these guys are out the door soon.
ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SHOWS IN AAA'S HISTORY! It's true! Read on. But first... I am almost positive this is not the correct date. I'll find the right one eventually in one of my SuperLuchas magazines, no doubt. There's no reason for Canek/Cibernetico to be teaming after what happened in Actopan above & the way the announcers are referring to Histeria/Mosco makes me think this is their first time seeing them or at least paying attention to seeing them in matching gear of course. We'll go in reverse order since the real story is in the semi-main. The main is just Canek refusing to stand in the same corner as his partners or help them at all. He ends up attacking Cibernetico which actually gives his own team the win by DQ in one of those strange results where the tencicos should be mad if results actually mattered here. Kraken being involved screams Pena had other ideas as to who would be here & it just didn't work out or they left. Kraken was just seen in a fucking midcard match with the Space Cadets a couple weeks back. Post-match we get more chaos with Canek telling Cibernetico he's now a tecnico & has found his new arch rival. This feud would go on for years on-and-off in AAA. Rewinding to the semi-main we have A VERY STRANGE MATCH! On the tecnico side we have Flying who is brand spankin' new. No idea where he came from or whatever happens to him eventually. He's one of my all-time mystery dudes. Showed up first in front of my eyes on a September 1997 AAA TV episode & looked like the best new flyer to come along in ages. He would pop up on TV 2 or 3 more times before never being heard from again. He got re-gimmicked, is what you're obviously thinking. Nope. I checked & asked around. He did not. Later would come to find out in magazines he was being pushed as "the next Rey Misterio Jr" around this time. Seems strange to have all that hype & Pena never attempted to re-gimmick him. His last known appearence to me was in the early 2000's where he's in the background of a photo Drago posted from his early days working as Morpho. My gut feeling on Flying is he was way too good to be a rookie. I am thinking he was one of these late era UWA guys who started in 1993/1994 under a name we don't know because no footage was ever available. I would guess he just hung around the indies working under whatever name until the company officially died. Pena knew of him & brought him in but had him pegged as a UWA guy so just had him hanging around. Maybe eventually offered him a new gimmick but Flying may have had that UWA mentality about how AAA is a joke, you gotta be true to to what we taught you or whatnot. So he just slums in on small shows until one day he decides this wrestling thing is going nowhere & he leaves the business quietly. There's no other reason explanation for what happened ot him. I once asked Dr. Lucha Steve Sims & he ribbed me with an answer which I still laugh about to this very day. Anyways... when I got a tape of this match the listing didn't even have Flying listed... it was just "?". So when I watched it & realized it was him I lost my mind! But he does absolutely NOTHING in this match. The weirdest debut ever. The announcers were gushing about him & then he didn't even get a single move in since the match was so rudo dominated. Speaking of the rudo side you have Histeria/Mosco/Perro Silva (soon to become Maniaco). And who's on the other side??? Why it's Winners aka the future Abismo Negro! So the Rudos de la Galaxia aka future Vipers are all involved here. Perro Silva we haven't seen in a while, he bloodies up Winners to re-ignite that rivalry from earlier in the year. Karis La Momia also hasn't been doing much here lately but suddenly him & Perrito Aguayo seem to have some sort of blood feuding going as they tear it into each other. The rudos win the first fall. Mosco hits an ugly 450 splash at one point which is the only real highspot of the match which was a huge bummer to me when I saw this match listing & then had the bonus of finding out Flying was involved. As I said, it's all a backdrop for the big angle which is....................... Perro Aguayo Jr gets so frustrated at being beat down by the rudos he grabs Karis La Momia & against the warning of all the wrestlers & referees............... gives him a tombstone piledriver! Instant DQ. Huge sell by Karis going into convulsions. Everyone freaking out. Doctor immediately hits the ring & Karis ends up stretchered out. Such a random big anlge during a random match. I wish we could have had the chance to ask Pena what was going through his mind doing this. This is the end of this version of Karis La Momia. A week or so later he interferes in matches in Tijuana/Mexicali under his new La Parka Jr gimmick. Yes, the Jr was part of the name until at least 2001. Next time we would see Karis La Momia I believe is late 1999 when a new one showed up just to work undercard matches. This is sold so big that even during the main event on this show we had the announcers giving updates about Karis being taken to the hospital & there is fear his life may be in danger. In the magazines they played it up big saying Karis' career is 100% over & Perrito crossed the line. This is also our last time seeing Perro Silva & Winners. Pour one out for two guys who had been on TV for a couple years now! It's time for Antonio Pena to unleash his new ideas taking AAA into 1997 with a fresh start!
No, you are not looking at the same image twice. At a very turbulent time AAA decided hey let's go tape two weeks of TV in Tijuana & Mexicali... two places we haven't done from since 1994. That's not suspicious at all! What I believe is happening here is after the split Promociones Mora (Tijuana promoter running the Auditorio De Tijuana) sided with Konnan. So all those Friday night shows at the Auditorio featuring AAA guys turned into shows with Promo Azteca/CMLL wrestlers. Pena couldn't have been happy about this so he found himself a different local promoter in the area & had to promise TV tapings to sweeten the pot. That's how we end up with a show at the Palenque (not Parque) de Tijuana which is *not* the Auditorio even though results mix them up regularly. For example the famous Santo/Rey Jr match is listed as Auditorio De Tijuana but it was here at the Palenque. This building is not a TV building. You will never see an AAA TV episode from this building except this one-off show. It's very ugly looking. The lineup changes of course since we are in November 1996... Damian 666 is Team Konnan so Misterioso (!) pops back up here. He was living in San Diego but his last AAA match would have been late 1995 I believe. This is also his only weekend back in AAA. He also jumps to the Konnan side right afterwards. La Parka is listed for these shows, this would be the original La Parka (Tapia). He is also a goner as I explained above. On the Tijuana show they have Canek show up as a surprise to replace him. On the Mexicali show they have someone in a Parka outfit (no idea if it was Karis yet) get beat up pre-match which leads to Canek "leaving commentary" to take over for him in the main event. The recycled semi-main on each of the shows has Leon Negro who had made an AAA TV appearence way back in 1994 & will show up again in early 1997. I think Pena was a fan of his work because he gets put over strong on these shows & of course in September 1997 becomes the new Psicosis. Part of me wonders if Pena's brain went there after failing with the new Psicosis a couple weeks before this taping - then seeing a talented guy with long hair from Tijuana on these shows. Why'd you have to die Pena? I have so many questions I want to ask you! The TJ match is the better of the two. Perrito works a lot with Mosco, childhood friends, and it goes much better than Perrito trying to work with Fobia. Fobia is Psicosis' (original) older brother. At one point people said he was the more talented of the two. Nothing on this weekend would indicate that at all. Pena had given him a shot back in 1994 & he fizzled then too. Negro cleanly submits Fobia for the win. The Tijuana main event angle is another clown shows up from the crowd to attack Pierroth. It's revealed to be Canek who is actually moving around quite well compared to the previous tapings. It's a two fall match that ends when Leon Negro interferes by tripping Pierroth as he comes off the ropes allowing Canek to submit him with a camel clutch.
Mexicali is a fucking disaster of a show. Probably the most unprofessional looking episode of AAA TV ever unless you count the Fusion show in which case the Arena Lopez Mateos taping takes the cake. The audio is clearly canned, a common problem with AAA but really stands out more here as you can see people chanting things & none of that is getting through. The venue is not suited for TV, there is nowhere to hang any banners or AAA signage except the ring skirt so it looks like the lowest of low end indy shows. Most fans are standing up which tells me there weren't enough seats provided, something evident on the few ringside shots we get. The ringside camera is not working properly during the main event so it's basically a one camera shoot like a low end indy. In the background you can see neon lights from a restaurant/gaming area which adds to the low ending feeling. But here's the kicker... the ring is elevated. I don't know why. But whoever set this ring up or wherever they got it from - it makes everyone look tiny. At one point Pantera had problems just jumping back up onto the apron. EAW vibes. The locals in the opener are not minis but look like minis in this ring. When they end up on the floor a couple of their heads just barely end up taller than the apron. Lots of bumps were changed on the fly by the wrestlers who didn't want to take big falls outside from an elevated height. Only Jerry Estrada still stuck to doing his sallida de bandera and looked to be in pain immediately. There is also a ring bell for some reason which I never heard of in AAA until the WWE purchase recently. But it's not a ring bell as much as an actual bell someone is ringing. LOL Speaking of those locals - if the production/visual didn't give off a low end indy feeling - their match certainly did. Brutal. Just bad bad bad wrestling with guys who had no business on any sort of national TV show. You know Pena had no options here because the Antonio Pena I know would not have allowed any of these guys onto his TV looking the way they did. Semi-main is basically same as night before only different finish. Estrada low blows Perrito, Pantera low blows Estrada & puts Perrito on top. The announcers are clearly not there but they had to pretend to be because Canek was on commentary (aka in the Televisa studio). He talks about how he is La Parka Jr's padrino (yes, he's La Parka Jr in the debut appearence) & how he trained him + told Antonio Pena about him. This leads to him leaving commentary to go make the save but all we see (during a long shot) is Canek strolling to the ring to join the match. My guess is they wanted to re-do what they did in Tijuana with him coming out of the crowd or something similar but they couldn't film any other part of this building for whatever reason. So it comes off so poorly. The match sucks, just one big aimless brawl. At one point the Payasos do dives & just disappear off screen because we have no cameras working ringside. Canek beats Pierroth again. Just brutal TV all around.
Now here's the kicker... these sets of shows were the same weekend the WWF working deal was announced. We get the debut of NOTI AAA! Yes, the first ever insert of a segment that would remain with AAA until the start of 2005. These segments were designed to get important storyline points across, introduce new characters, have interviews & most importantly flash upcoming dates for TV tapings. All the images used in the intro are from the 10/18/96 taping so you can pinpoint that as the extra show Pena decided it was time to add this segment. Or even more stuff like this because the Mexicali show starts with a split screen Canek vs Pierroth/Cibernetico promo battle where Pierroth reveals he's wearing a WWF shirt. Why's that? Well, during Noti AAA we see clips from the Royal Rumble press conference where it's announced AAA will be participating. Pena/Pierroth/Latin Lover are the AAA reps & Televisa was even there to cover it. There's a Shawn Michaels video package set to "Simply The Best" by Tina Turner spliced in here which I don't remember? Arturo Rivera then runs down the Survivor Series results, pronouncing many WWF names incorrectly of course. Watching this & the horrible production of that Mexicali show only hammers home how WWF had no idea what they were getting into here. They just knew WCW was using Mexicans & it was helping them so they decided to go team up with the competition. There is zero chance Vince would have wanted his promotion affiliated with anything like that AAA TV above looked. The other interesting stuff in this Noti AAA segment is the official introduction of La Parka Jr as part of the Junior Atomicos. So he's a tecnico... for now. We also get the official debut of Las Chivas Rayadas. The infamous soccer goats played by the Apaches. In a recent SuperLuchas I was reading they show up in a Promo Azteca lineup around this time & it's noted "our newest signings" on the lineup sheet. They never end up making that show. I suspect they went to tell Pena they were leaving & he convinced them to stay offering up this gimmick that he was going to use on TV going forward. They accepted it & the rest is history. But imagine if they didn't accept it? I like alternate world scenarios & this is a real good one. What if the Apaches leave? Pena gives the Chivas gimmick to two other people (Diabolicos?). Who knows if it works out or not. There is no Billy Boy vs Apache feud. There is no head trainer for AAA (Gran Apache). Fabi & Mari never make their way to AAA since they just go wherever their dad is. It really changes the course of AAA history going forward. OR the simpler outcome is Final Destination-ish. We stay on the same path, just arrive at it in a different way. Apaches end up doing nothing in Promo Azteca, ask to come back to AAA, Pena says OK. They return as the Apaches or some other gimmick (Insectos?) & Gran Apache becomes an AAA regular one way or the other. BUT WHAT IF... *dum dum dum*
We are in the home stretch! More importantly we are in the home stretch where things are happening that not a single soul in the world remembers except this fuckin nerd! This is the shit that allows me to kick O'Connor's ass in wrestling trivia. We are back in Arena Neza. You'll remember the year began with AAA running here almost weekly for a couple months. It stays a regular arena for AAA heading into 1997 but soon Pena moves his troupe onto other buildings. Two matches air here that show us the winds of change are continuing. This is the official debut of Las Chivas Rayadas but the match does not air on TV, at least not the TV we have. Somewhere out there I'm sure it aired. Their opponents are the also debuting Los Hampones who are gangsters being played by the ex-Diabolicos (AAA, not UWA). I don't know which movie Pena saw that spawned that idea. The undercard is full of end of day UWA guys which is more proof to me Flying had another gimmick. The minis match we get to see is the shining light of a crumbling AAA. Pena knew he still had something there so I'm happy he focused on airing all their matches for a few months going forward. We have Mini Psicosis here who pops up on lineups in early 1996 but this is our first chance seeing him on TV. No idea if it was this same one all year long or not. This is the one who would go on to become Pequeno Warrior. The announcers marvel that he is using the original Psicosis colors. There is a lot of that on this TV episode & I presume going forward where they don't waste a second taking shots at Konnan's crew & anyone else who is on AAA's bad side - especially the ones who are doing the same gimmicks Pena has recycled. This is a great match as you'd expect. Both Mascarita Jr & La Parkita looked fantastic. Mini Psicosis was basing like a madman for all the tecnicos making me wish we had seen more of him throughout the year. Some highlight reel stuff with Mascarita Jr/Mini Psicosis in the second fall. Also Parkita tries a crazy rana to the floor off the second rope but almost brains himself with there being so little space at ringside. Wild dives to end each fall. Rudos steal the win which is our first inkling of a real life Torerito/Espectrito feud. Of all the minis to pick - why Torerito??? Before the main event we get Noti AAA which is NOTEWORTHY! We get Fuerza Guerrera delcaring for the Royal Rumble. He does not end up in the Royal Rumble. He does that shitty trios match on the main show that died a death. Who figured sending Canek & Perro Aguayo to work a WWF show in 1997 would bomb?!?!?!?!? (People with zero knowledge of the other company they are working with) We get the rundown of the year end 12/13 show in Jerez, Zacatecas. A weird location for TV but possibly another deal where Pena is trying to keep a local promoter on his side. We also get the debut of a new character! I love me some new AAA characters! We are introduced to El Juez! *crickets* Wait a minute - you guys don't remember El Juez??? Shame on you! *crickets* It's OK, let me explain. I recently read a SuperLuchas issue hyping this guy up. I sent a message to Cubs asking if that name means anything to him. It did not. So I chalked it up to a new gimmick that just never happened. Then I saw this video & it all came rushing back. Who is El Juez? Why it's none other than the ex-Winners being re-gimmick! It's Abismo Negro! Except Pena's original concept - gear looks exactly the same - was a tecnico in the mold of Judge Dread, a movie released around this time period. As far as I can tell El Juez never has a match under that name. Pena must have seen this air on TV & had second thoughts or was worried about someone coming after him for the name/look combination. Or he works a match we had no records of - the December TV is still missing some results. Either way Abismo Negro debuts on January 10, 1997. Or as he was originally called - Avispon Negro. He's also a rudo right off the bat which is a shift from this original presentation. Moving onto the main event we have an angle alert immediately! Two big Pierroth fans are shown sitting in the crowd cheering him on! Couldn't have made it any more obvious. This match has the debut of La Calaca who is doing a La Parka gimmick but with the reverse colors. Remember La Parka's nickname? That's why this name was chosen. What I believe happened is Pena couldn't do the La Parka rudo turn since Tapia left, then didn't want to introduce the new one as a rudo but still wanted a rudo Parka running around - so this was the compromise. Under the mask is veteran El Sanguinario from Monterrey. Also here is THE YETI! No, not the WCW guy. This was said to be Masakre under a mask but I think it may have been MS-1 & there's been some historical confusion or he did some very quick outfit changing in about 30 minutes. He's not alone... accompanying him is POGUI! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! AN EVIL MINI YETI TO FEUD WITH ALUSHE! The stuff dreams are made of! This was years before Pena went with the Alebrije/Cuije vs Monster/Chucky feud that was a staple of AAA & is now a CMLL regular attraction (the mascots). Pogui is the future Chucky of course. Only one person can do that role properly. He's great here trolling Alushe & then getting clowned on. I immediately notice a bunch of balloons all over the ringside area. That was from a pre-match ceremony where they gave Carlos Maynes an award for promoting wrestling in Arena Neza for (X) number of years. Canek was standing beside him clapping which made me scratch my head because where is Canek on this show? Aside from the Alushe/Pogui antics there's not match to digest from this match. The tecnicos win. We put new tecnico Heavy Metal & his friend Latin Lover over strong although the finish is Tinieblas Jr having his mask yanked. Then the real fun begins. The two fans we saw throughout the match are invited into the ring by Pierroth & Fuerza for a huge & photo op. Big mistake! The fans attack! They take off their masks to reveal... holy hell... David Sierra & Ricky Santana! WHAT IN THE EVER LOVING FUCK??? They bloody up Pierroth & Fuerza badly. But if you think the insanity ends there, think again! Pena is just throwing anything at the wall to end the year! Out to make the save are.............. JAQUE MATE & MASAKRE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? THE FUCK??? Pierroth's ex-Intocables friends from the early 90's who have never been in AAA. It turns into a huge brawl with people coming out to seperate things including Antonio Pena who is getting more & more comfortable inserting himself onto TV shows. This is batshit wild stuff. Pena was clearly feeling the heat of everyone leaving & decided to just bring in anyone who came to mind as a way to show the water wasn't just flowing one way. But to choose these four guys really shows you how low Pena had to go to find anyone willing to make the jump. Also, might explain AAA's current financial situation. Where does this all go? hahahahahahaha C'mon you already know the answer! Like most AAA things - nowhere! That's the charm. Sierra & Santana don't work a single match. What I think happened is Pena was gonna run a Mexico vs Puerto Rico feud to start 1997. They show up on TV in the coming weeks cutting promos (likely filmed while doing this angle). But Pena finds out at some point soon after this that as part of his talent trade with WWF - they're sending the fake Diesel & Razor down along with Jake Roberts. It makes no sense to have a Puerto Rico vs Mexico feud the same time as a USA vs Mexico feud so the Puerto Rican duo doesn't get invited back & this angle was shot for nothing except my forever amusement. Jaque Mate & Masakre work a couple AAA shots (off TV) but are also gone weeks later with no mention ever made of them again. Pena either changed course or didn't honor whatever it was he promised to pay them. No big loss. That would have been a nightmare main event scene. As you can tell AAA is just a total disaster zone to end 1996. I'm sure Konnan had the time of his life when someone explained to him what Pena booked on this show. And we're not even done yet! We have a couple other new gimmicks/idea waiting in the wings before the calendar strikes 1997!
The penultimate 1996 AAA show brings us to Zacatecas! We don't have a full lineup for this show & originally we only had two matches from it until I remembered I grabbed a bonus match from a random YouTube upload way back in the day. Unfortunately that bonus match is just the first fall. But it is the official match debut of La Parka Jr as a tecnico with both Tinieblas' against the debuting Maniaco alongside Histeria & Yeti (so we get Alushe/Pogui spots). Maniaco has a bit of a different look. For many years this confused me & made me think there were two Maniaco's. He has no face covering that would become a staple of his look in all future appearences. They took photos at this show or at the office this week before Pena made the change so all his match graphics for the next couple years feature his painted face exposed even though the guy is wrestling in an 'antifaz' (word used for a partial face covering). The one fall of action we get is great. Parka/Histeria are on fire. Maniaco takes big bumps. Alushe/Pogui are hilarious. Wish we had been able to see the full match. Next up Los Hampones make their TV debuts & we get extended entrances like old school AAA. Almost 10 minutes total! Chivas have an edecan dancing with them. Pena getting his swagger back! If you strip away the gimmicks here this is a great match on paper - Venum & the Apaches vs Los Diabolicos. Nerdy internet lucha fans & "conocedores" would be marking out for something like that. But you add the wacky gimmicks & it became a laughing stock to most people. I never could understand why people couldn't seperate one from the other. This match is excellent, as you'd expect. Big bumps from the rudos. Great creative spots from the tecnicos. You can't go wrong watching it. The rudos end up DQ'ed after throwing one Chiva over the top rope, backdropping Venum on the floor & refusing to stop beating up the remaining Chiva. ***3/4 match that people gave no respect to back in the day. Noti AAA has clips of Heavy Metal's band singing in the ring at this show but is mostly used to introduce us to the "new faces" of AAA such as La Calaca, the three Mascara Sagradas (new one/Jr/mini), Mini Killer & what everyone remembers from this skit... Mini Vader & Mini Mankind accompanied by Mini Paul Bea... excuse me... Mexican Paul! MEXICAN PAUL! I will not accept any other name. Arturo Rivera still has no idea how to pronounce these names, why bother to learn the names of your new partner promotion's top stars? WCW really missed the boat not teaming with this very professional AAA company! There is also a tease of a ceremony coming up on the final taping of the year for Perro Aguayo. A wrestling ceremony? What could go wrong?!?!?!?!?!?!? Our main event gets the same treatment as the previous match - extended 10 minute entrances that take up so much time we get a commercial before the match actually begins. Honestly the match wasn't too bad considering who was involved. Mil isn't gonna sell for everyone, Canek not much either & Ciber/Pierroth cannot always be counted on to take bumps but they had to work a little harder here to avoid a total walk & brawl. Calaca was really good working with Latin. There was one hilarious sequence near the end where Canek seemed to take about 20 seconds just to summon up the energy to do a dropkick as Ciber waiting forever on the apron. Canek then tried to a tope suicida but just kinda went through the ropes & straight down to the floor. Keep in mind this is 1996! When he was still SOMEWHAT mobile! Brutal. The shocking part of this match was really the finishes. They had Mil Mascaras SUBMIT in the second fall to Pierroth! Then in the third fall you figure Mil is getting it back - he does his plancha, rolls through & then Pierroth fakes a low blow which Tirantes buys. Rudos win by DQ! Mil drops TWO falls! He must have been really excited to do that WWF stuff that he was more agreeable to certain things Pena requested. Speaking of Pena... guess who's back on TV this week? You know it! And in his Royal Rumble t-shirt which is a photo of Sid/HBK/Bret/Taker. We get some promos after the match to send us home, the Pierroth one is out of focus. Wonderful production work.
So this is where I can use my knowledge from my new magazine haul to combine with what's on video & inform people of certain things. This show in Tala, Jalisco (Perro Aguayo's hometown) was held at a building he had built to host lucha libre shows during his time away from AAA earlier this year. Centro Unidad Municipal de Perro Aguayo. Or as it's written on the canvas......... CUM Perro Aguayo. Yes, I'm a child. I couldn't stop laughing. I referenced a video tape from RF Video at some point in these 1996 recaps called 'Super Lucha Fall Fury'. That tape had some of these matches on it & I believe is the only source for these matches existing. That was the main thing that pushed me to get a copy of that tape, otherwise this entire undercard probably would have been lost to existence. The opener is cut up as RF just really wanted to focus on the Venum/Histeria stuff which is understandable. They were fucking amazing in this match. Two guys who just found out they were WWF bound & with the mass exodus of talent they knew they'd be positioned as top AAA wrestlers. So they are busting out all their awesome tricks here. This match also ended up being very confused in terms of names since we have local talent mixed in but they were identified incorrectly in the listings & my Spanish wasn't good enough when I first got the tape to understand how the announcers were calling them. So I had one rudo as Killer Boy for some reason. Slayer became Flyer who I assumed was Flying but that wasn't true. I believe this Slayer is the one who would go on to work local AAA shows mostly in Toluca for the next 20+ years. It's said here he won a local tournament to get this spot. No clue on Aullido, it's not the same one from AAA's past. Less of a clue on Depredador who has futuristic gear. We get an awesome dive sequence & then a big climax with Venum/Histeria ending with Venum winning with his trademark tornillo used as a splash inside the ring. It's not often he did that spot. A nice hidden gem of a match if these are your guys & let me tell you... these were my guys! Next up is the out of nowhere hair match with the minis. We are immediately introduced to late 1996 AAA as we get the dreaded "fallas de origen" after a quick clip meaning the original recording got damaged. There was a rumor around this time AAA was being dropped from Televisa. It was never true, likely a planted story from Konnan's side in the ugly war going on. But you can see why some people thought it may be true. The TV shows were looking poorly produced, you had technical snafus like this & they are about to go dark for two weeks doing Year in Review shows which most people likely took as Televisa not filming (non-existent) tapings any longer. It was a rough patch & I'm sure AAA PR had to work overtime. I don't know why Torerito was given this win instead of Mascarita. There's probably some really dirty story about the why but I don't really want to think too hard about it. He was never any good & is quite awful in this match. Espectrito is trying his best. They camaflouge how bad he is by doing lots of Tirantes bits like ignoring a first fall submission & refusing to count his second fall pinfall. This leads to Antonio Pena... yes... back on TV... coming out to exchange Tirantes for Pepe Casas. Pena took a lot of things from American wrestling over the course of his time running AAA & you can definitely see as this year comes to an end one thing he absolutely took from WWF/WCW were the actual bosses puting themselves in prominent roles on TV. Torerito ends up winning on a Victory Roll spot Espectrito had to save. Mascarita Sagrada Jr dropkicks Espectrito II out of the ring post-match & does a dive onto him although we don't see it. Either he messed it up & they didn't want to show it or the more likely scenario they just had more technical issues. Espectrito gets a nice little trim, he didn't have much hair to start with. Before the semi-main we have a ceremony to honor Perro Aguayo as was alluded to on last week's TV. The debuting Hector Garza - oh yeah Hector Garza is here! - is out with Perrito, other tecnicos & even the rudos join in which is of course bad news for Perro. It's all good until Mosco De La Merced shoves him & even Pierroth is disappointed in his protege & scolds him which sends Mosco to the back. But he returns soon after with a chair & lays into both father & son, this time with Pierroth's help. This is very much a recycled angle from literally the first or second TV show of 1996 where they did this with Blue Demon/Blue Demon Jr. Perrito is helped away by his dad & medics which leaves the Tinieblas' handicapped against La Calaca, Mosco & Yetti. Alushe is no help because Pogui is there to keep the numbers on the rudos side! You would think this is where someone runs out to even the odds but no such luck. The entire match is worked 2 vs 3 & the tecnicos actually dominate the first two falls. Lots of funny Alushe bits. Pogui plays off him so well. It is weird to make Mosco this new young dastardly heel with no respect for his elders & then immediately book him to be on the receiving end of comedy spots from Tinieblas & Alushe. In the third fall Perro Aguayo Jr runs out to attack Mosco causing the DQ & we get a big brawl. Noti AAA is up next where we get a Venum/Histeria face-off as Arturo Rivera mentions they just made their WWF debuts on Shotgun Saturday Night. The camera is on them facing off for a good 30 seconds which is slightly awkward. Still, what an amazing visual. Setting the stage for my 1997 fandom (although I was watching this all after the fact). Hector Garza cuts a soft spoken promo about how he's here in AAA to help Latin Lover & re-form the Sexy Boys act. This was one of those overnight deals. Garza worked the CMLL Friday Arena Coliseo show, then informed the company he would be leaving & the next day he was in Tala, Jalisco debuting for AAA. No 90 day clauses. No weeks of rumors. Just BAM right in your face someone on a rival promotion's show. Fun times. I wonder why he didn't wrestle here as the replacement guy in the semi-main? Moving onto the main event - the final AAA match of 1996! It's not a good one! But it has all their "big stars" who would be part of the Royal Rumble the following month (except for Killer). It ends in a total schmoz with people brawling all over including Mosco/Perrito/Garza/Yeti/etc A very standard AAA show ending for the next 20 years.
And that's that for 1996 AAA! What a ride!
It goes without saying you can split the year into two parts - January through September & everything afterwards. AAA closes out the year with an identity crisis at the worst time possible for them. The WWF deal has just been finalized but Antonio Pena is left with a roster full of holes. Holes he is trying to patch by bringing in any old name he can think of who is willing to work for what AAA is offering. It's fine temporary patchwork for Mexico but it ends up killing the WWF deal almost immediately. Pierroth, Cibernetico, Canek, Fuerza Guerrera are not the people you want out there being compared to what WCW was presenting. WWF is at fault for not doing their homework on who they were getting into bed with but Pena is no dummy. He had to know this wasn't gonna work but I think part of the problem is to lure some of these guys like Mil, Canek, Fuerza - he had to promise them US dates. So in that sense the WWF deal fell into his lap at the perfect time just to keep AAA running business as usual. If he didn't have that cheese to lay out, what kind of product is AAA presenting? It's slim pickings. And it continues on into 1997. Pena doesn't really find his new AAA image until later in the year & even then he is hit with another talent raid that puts him in more trouible.
I am very sentimental about 1996 AAA for obvious reasons. My first full year watching my favorite promotion of all-time. I like the fact the TV tapings never stopped. You could have four in one week, only seeing a couple matches from each. There was lots of variety, lots of new faces popping up. I can poke fun now at the disorganization of it all but when you are just starting to dive into this new world - you WANT to see as much as possible. It would not have been fun if the TV was week-to-week like CMLL & Perro Aguayo/Cien Caras/Cibernetico were constantly taking up 25% of the time. This was the year I discovered minis wrestling & colorful luchadors which both really shaped my wrestling brain going forward.
The best stuff in-ring is pretty obvious if you followed along. Anything with Rey Jr/Juvy of course. The atomicos from Fresnillo in October is very sentimental to me but don't sleep on it even if you don't have the emotional connection to it that I do. The Volador/Mexicano tag from early in the year & the trios with Venum/Psicosis are definitely must-watch. Migala/Janeth is one of those real hidden gems if you like the wild AAA style with ECW elements. 1996 AAA is totally in my wheelhouse, the exact way I'd book a promotion if given the chance. Make sure Konnan knows I said that since his fingerprints are on much of it.
Where to next? Well, I was gonna work my way backwards to 1995 to continue on the sentimental track since that was the year I discovered lucha libre. It's also an amazing in-ring year for the company. But I think recapping all this late 1996 stuff has gotten me addicted to the week-to-week drama & Antonio Pena changes of mind. I think I'll stick with 1997 to see how the craziness plays out & discover more things that are out in the open but most people have forgotten like the El Juez deal. 1997 was when I started to "smarten up" as a lucha fan (I was still dumb, don't worry) & would get the TV more regularly so I have more solid memories of real-time reaction to many things going on. So 1997 it is!
