AAA TripleMania reactions?

[Big E Lashley]

What did you all think of the show? Like I said, this was my first time really diving into AAA after only seeing a few matches here and there. Overall, it was pretty good. Every match brought something to the table, with only one noticeably bad match IMO.

 

* All of the stuff with Alberto Del Rio was great, from his opening promo to the final brawl. Even if you knew nothing about AAA or WWE, you could tell the guy is a star. My biggest complaint with ADR in WWE is that for the last several months they hadn't bothered giving his character any motivation or storyline; by the time he left he was just being thrown out there to have random matches. They were usually good matches, but the U.S. crowd isn't going to care about you if you don't have an angle. Now in AAA, from Day 1, Del Rio is given an angle and he proves he can deliver a money performance.

 

* I'm surprised by how much AAA is toeing the line with WWE's legal team: They played ADR's WWE music, the English-language announcers (Hugo and Vampiro) called him "Alberto Del Rio" (switching between that and "El Patron"), they name-dropped Vince McMahon and called him "a monster," and the ring announcer used terms like "Money in the Bank" that are surely copyrighted. I'm not sure about the specifics of a no-compete clause, but it seemed like ADR did enough in the ring to violate it. But with the announcers making such a big deal about him violating it, plus all the other WWE-related stuff, I was actually starting to wonder if this no-compete business -- maybe even this whole getting-fired thing in the first place -- is a work. Like maybe WWE has made some investment in AAA and sent Del Rio there to be the headliner.

 

* The cage match didn't work for me, mostly because of the format with the escape-only rules. It had no flow and all the blood wasn't enough to save it from being boring. And apparently we'll never see the best part of the match, as Chessman did some crazy dive off the top of the cage through a table (according to Vampiro), but the cameras were all focused on Blue Demon's entrance and none of them caught it. Or they just didn't bother showing a replay. Jeff Jarrett being unable to show up must have really thrown off their original plan, because everybody looked like they were unsuccessfully trying to wing it.

 

* The main event was a good combination of high-flying spots and bloody brawling, with even some mat/submission stuff thrown in.

 

* Hugo and Vampiro were kind of terrible on commentary. They sounded unprepared and maybe a little drunk, and for Vampiro to be a former pro wrestler who lives in Mexico, he sounded like he barely knew anything about the sport. He kept asking Hugo, "What would you call that move?" Some moves he was just making up names for, and others he was calling the wrong name. Both of them would go on weird tangents about stuff and they had some awkward interactions. To their credit, they did a good job of selling the importance of hair/mask matches to a new viewer and did a good job making the Del Rio stuff seem like a big deal.

[BoKnowsWrestling]

is this the first time they've done english commentary and had it on IPPV?  I wish I knew about it before (stopped following it here when it wasn't on tv anymore).

[AlfredoE]

I won't be ordering an AAA iPPV again. Horrible buffering issues on the feed. Even the replay has them, but at a lesser rate than I was getting on the live feed. Only got thru the Del Rio segment.

 

* Hugo and Vampiro were kind of terrible on commentary. They sounded unprepared and maybe a little drunk, and for Vampiro to be a former pro wrestler who lives in Mexico, he sounded like he barely knew anything about the sport. He kept asking Hugo, "What would you call that move?" Some moves he was just making up names for, and others he was calling the wrong name. Both of them would go on weird tangents about stuff and they had some awkward interactions. To their credit, they did a good job of selling the importance of hair/mask matches to a new viewer and did a good job making the Del Rio stuff seem like a big deal.

 

They sounded unprepared because they both were unprepared. Vampiro mentioned on twitter a few days ago that he didn't know or watch AAA. If anyone's ever heard Vampiro talk on shoot interviews or on podcasts, or anything really, they would have known that he was the wrong person to get to do English commentary.  If AAA had asked people who watch wrestling, I don't even think Vamp would have been someone they even brought up. Hugo wasn't very good either.

 

When I started watching the replay at midnight, 2 minutes into it, Vamp decides he's got to give a shoutout to the Juggaloos and at that point I switched to Spanish commentary which is fine for the Del Rio segment, but the Spanish announcing crew also happens to have a guy who once dropped the n-word on Galavision. So maybe watch the show in mute.

 

[Stay Gold]

I watched the opening so far. Strong segment and entertaining promos from Del Rio, Perro and Konnan. English commentary was brutal so that lasted about a minute for me before finding another version.

 

I'm watching a pretty screwy feed though. I'd imagine being incredibly annoyed dealing with this if I had paid for it.

[Robert]

Only seen the opener, 10 way & Psycho/Texano so far since I refuse to watch the choppy iPPV rip youtube uploads. Loved all three matches. Psycho/Texano was super memorable and a MOTYC for me. So just based on those matches (+ opening video & segment with ADR) I'd say it's a fantastic show thus far. But I do have the supposed worst stuff still to go through like Fabi/Taya & the cage.