AAA - The Thread

[Loss]

I thought I'd sprinkle these out and do these for every promotion. AAA comes first alphabetically, so it comes first here. Basically, here's how it works:

 

1. How was AAA overall in 2007?

 

2. What was the best overall period for AAA and why?

 

3. What was the worst overall period for AAA and why?

 

4. What are the must-see matches, covering the entire history of AAA?

 

5. Which wrestlers have had the best runs in the history of AAA?

 

6. How would you describe AAA booking overall?

 

7. Five best AAA matches ever?

 

8. Any interesting AAA-related links?

 

9. Are there things that are sort of unique to AAA that someone who is watching for the first time should know? If so, what?

 

10. What do you think AAA will be most remembered for, good or bad?

[Tim Evans]

I thought I'd sprinkle these out and do these for every promotion. AAA comes first alphabetically, so it comes first here. Basically, here's how it works:

 

1. How was AAA overall in 2007?

-Very good. Probably one of there best since the early 90's. You got a great undercard, a OK midcard and a decent at times Main event.

 

2. What was the best overall period for AAA and why? 1993-1996.

-It was probably one of the best promotions in the world around that time. The Rey Jr. era and just great matches all over the place.

 

3. What was the worst overall period for AAA and why?

-The late 90's. You had all the greats like Rey Jr., Psicosis, Original Parka, Konnan and others leave for America and Promo Azteca. Then to replace them you had Over the hill Jake Roberts, Green as hell Cibernetico, Fake Razor and Diesel and the Kickboxers.

 

4. What are the must-see matches, covering the entire history of AAA?

-Santo/Octagon vs Gringos Locos, Any Rey Jr./Psicosis or Rey Jr./Juvi matches. And of course the Apaches/Billy Boy saga.

 

5. Which wrestlers have had the best runs in the history of AAA?

-Rey Jr., Psicosis, Konnan, Cibernetico, Santo, Octagon. I could go on.

 

6. How would you describe AAA booking overall?

-Great except for the Mexican powers stuff and the Main event. The Undercard is what makes me a fan of it. But they got to cut it down to 2 hours. All the commercial breaks are ridiculous.

 

7. Five best AAA matches ever?

-I can't cut down just to five.

 

8. Any interesting AAA-related links?

-English or Spanish? For English I would say Cubsfan's blog or Luchawiki.org. For Spanish. There's Auturo Rivera's blog and NotiAAA blog.

 

9. Are there things that are sort of unique to AAA that someone who is watching for the first time should know? If so, what?

-It's kinda like a wrestling circus. You have Tranny's teaming with midgets and Women. You have Aliens, Soccer Goats, Devil worshipers, Guapitos, and a guy that survived being thrown into a Volcano without a scratch. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

10. What do you think AAA will be most remembered for, good or bad?

-Reinventing Lucha Libre in the early 90's and being the launching pad for wrestlers worldwide.

[Loss]

1. How was AAA overall in 2007?

I sadly haven't seen much of it, much to the chagrin of Bix.

 

2. What was the best overall period for AAA and why?

From what I've seen, definitely 1993-1995, although I know that's sort of a stock answer. So many great matches, and it rivaled any wrestling promotion in the world at that point, at what was a pretty competitive time.

 

3. What was the worst overall period for AAA and why?

I saw some 1999 AAA that totally left me underwhelmed, along with some 2005 stuff with Waltman and Juvi that I thought I'd like more than I did. But I'm sure there are worse periods.

 

4. What are the must-see matches, covering the entire history of AAA?

Well, the Triplemania shows and When Worlds Collide are the obvious answers, but there's also the Santo/Octagon vs Los Gringos Locos match from one year and one day before the more famous hair match (11/05/93) that is incredible and is probably my favorite AAA tag. Aside from the usual suspects, anything involving Jerry Estrada is guaranteed to at the very least be very fun. And of course, there's Fuerza Guerrera, who will always be amazing.

 

Estrada is kind of this cracked out guy who stumbles around and beats up his partners, but also is a great wrestler in spite of it all. I hate to call Fuerza Guerrera a comedy wrestler because it seems degrading and he really encompasses so much more than that, but he's tremendous and probably has the best schtick and body language of just about any wrestler you'll ever see. In terms of bumbling heels that can never quite get their evil plans to work they way they hope, he may be the best ever in wrestling.

 

5. Which wrestlers have had the best runs in the history of AAA?

From what I've seen, Psicosis deserves major props. Others have probably had better short peaks, but I think Psicosis may be the guy who has had the most good matches over the longest period of time. I may be wrong.

 

6. How would you describe AAA booking overall?

Fun. Not really a booking thing at all, but just a general comment about AAA. I love how in the early 90s, you can watch three or four consecutive shows, and they all feel totally different, meaning the TV show theme changed every week, the colors and graphics they used changed every week. AAA has always seemed like a pretty daring promotion that would try just about anything once, sometimes twice.

 

7. Five best AAA matches ever?

I like the Santo/Octagon vs Eddy/Barr 11/05/93 match I mentioned. Rey/Psicosis from 09/22/95 is classic and must see. The Rey/Juvi matches aren't really all great, but are fun to watch to see them constantly trying new things in every match based on tape watching.

 

8. Any interesting AAA-related links?

Not personally.

 

9. Are there things that are sort of unique to AAA that someone who is watching for the first time should know? If so, what?

Again, they will definitely try anything once. Anything meaning anything.

 

10. What do you think AAA will be most remembered for, good or bad?

Being a feeder promotion for WCW and ECW undercards and drawing bigger in Los Angeles than the WWF ever really could.

[Loss]

7. Five best AAA matches ever?

-I can't cut down just to five.

Then don't.

 

 

8. Any interesting AAA-related links?

-English or Spanish? For English I would say Cubsfan's blog or Luchawiki.org. For Spanish. There's Auturo Rivera's blog and NotiAAA blog.

Either. The more direct links, the better. Think of this thread as a starting point for someone wanting to watch AAA for the first time.

[Loss]

By the way, anything I don't mention above that is AAA-related that you think has a place here should definitely be included.

 

I'm curious what you think caused the downturn in the late 90s. Do you think it was simply a matter of losing so many big stars or was there more to it?

 

If you have YouTube links or downloads, feel free to post them here, out in the open, by the way.

[Tim Evans]

http://notitriplea.blogspot.com/ NotiAAA

http://www.ovaciones.com/deportivo/columnistas/arturo.html Arturo Rivera's blog

Thecubsfan.com/cmll Cubsfan blog

 

The loss of talent had a lot to it. Also Pena's booking of outragous gimmicks on guys he found at the strip clubs. Didn't he have a guy that was like 14 years old as one of his top guys? Nino de la calle I think his name was.

 

As for links,

 

Here's part 1 of 3 of a AAA match I posted. It's Rey Jr vs Juvi vs Picudo vs El Hijo Del Perro Aguayo(who was about 16 here) in a Mask vs Mask vs Mask vs Hair match.

[S.L.L.]

1. How was AAA overall in 2007?

Very good. I started watching it regularly again this year at Bix's insistence, and was really struck by what a good show it was. Much has already been written about the Apache family saga, so I probably don't need to do any more to tell you how great it's been. The main event stuff has been a lot of fun despite the questionable in-ring talents of some of the people involved. Cibernetico and El Mesias are really charismatic, and they do try really hard in the ring, even if they're not great workers strictly speaking. Chessman and X-Pac both deliver good stuff in the main events to help those guys along. I really dig Kenzo Suzuki, too. The Mexican Powers are pretty hard to watch, but Juvi is still really good and his matches with his dad were really good. Real Fuerza Aerea are a ton of fun. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Guapos VIP/Bellos Stone feud, which is really one of the best overlooked feuds going on today. Just total chaos, sort of like the Lawler/Funk empty arena match in that their matches feel more like big brawling angles than actual matches. Only this has evil refs to push around and evil midgets to chuck at your opponents.

 

2. What was the best overall period for AAA and why?

'92-'96, for reasons we've already gone over.

 

3. What was the worst overall period for AAA and why?

'02-'03 seems like the period where Pena just cared the least and the roster was the least interesting

 

4. What are the must-see matches, covering the entire history of AAA?

The Santo/Octagon vs. Eddy/Barr matches, though I'm one of the guys who thinks the When Worlds Collide match is overrated, it's something that gets talked up enough and is important enough that it probably should be seen. There's a whole host of Mysterio vs. Psicosis and Mysterio vs. Juvi matches worth checking out, but in particular, I do feel I must pimp Rey Mysterios Jr. & Sr. vs. Fuerza & Juventud Guerrera. Santo/Octagon/Mysterio vs. Fuerza/Panther/Psicosis and Santo/Octagon/Mysterio vs. Fuerza/Juvi/Psicosis are two of the better trios matches of the 90's.

 

5. Which wrestlers have had the best runs in the history of AAA?

Barr '92-'94

Santo '92-'95

Panther '92-'95

Fuerza '92-'95

Eddy '93-'94

Rey Jr. '93-'96

Psicosis '93-'96

Juventud '95-'96

 

6. How would you describe AAA booking overall?

When Pena died, Jose Gonzalez wrote something on the DVDVR board that describes AAA booking better than anything new I could write:

 

"Peña was a genius. He provided people with the best wrestling they had seen at a time when the (superior) CMLL product was labeled as old and boring. He did what Vince McMahon always claims he did (but didn't): he took wrestling out of dirty and smokey arenas, because he turned those same places into colorful places with lights all over the place and pop hits playing on the arena's sound system.

 

When he went out on his own and couldn't get good arenas in the hot cities due to the decades-long CMLL monopoly, he literally created his own wrestling cities. Once his good workers left, he found a new niche audience that didn't care about quality wrestling - but even then, he was always aware that you need good wrestlers around, so Gran Apache and the Diabolicos were always there as the glue to hold stuff together.

 

He was a guy that would give everybody a chance. If you were good looking but a bad worker, you'd get your chance to work with world class professionals to get better. If you were a good worker with no charisma (or at least his vision of charisma), you'd put on a mask and get your chance to put on good performances.

 

People who don't know about lucha talk about this boom like it's something that just happened overnight, but after a bad slump where the promotion almost died, he has been drawing huge for the big AAA supershows during more than half a decade, and filling arenas for weekly TV for just as long.

 

He did a lot of things that nobody thought he could have done - like outdraw the WWF in their own turf, take wrestling to the mainstream and make it a "cool thing" instead of entertainment for the poor, and provide us with countless hours of entertainment (for the good and for the bad).

 

His "let's throw shit to the wall and see what sticks in" approach to wrestling is what made his booking style unique - he had a lot of busts we have forgotten about, but when he had a hit, it almost always was a huge hit.

 

Ultimately, I'll personally remember him as a guy that, at several points in time, created and pushed a human ice cream cone, Power Rangers, mariachis, football players, hockey players, teenage soccer players, soccer playing goats, a pumpkin, ninjas with colorful attires, ninja turtles, Elvis, one eyed monsters, a stable of kickboxers, a Tiger Mask clone, a fourth rate Dump’s Army, a dozen different types of insects, Chucky, several stables of wrestling clowns including gay clowns, Micro Konnan, two monkeys, Acapulco beach bums, a gringo lion, evil goblins, a shark, male and female mentally ill wrestlers (including an insane version of Gloria Trevi, a famous star convicted for being a pedophile), rabbits, mafioso, midget versions of Mankind, Goldust, and Vader, zombies, bats, ghosts, spectres, dead men, evil monks, two dozen masked martial artists, Japanese kamikazes, satanists, aliens, a very fat guy and a very tiny guy with currency names, crying monsters, an evil policeman called Policeman, whatever Alebrije and Cuije are supposed to be, street gang members, midget street gang members, evil witches, Andre The Midget, mini Head Hunters, a Fuhrer, several monsters coming from deep in the sea, Blue Demon from other space, Hannibal Lecter, American farm boys, several scarecrows, bullfighters, mummies, yetis, roosters, transvestites, the wolfman, an over the top gay character mocking a rival network's president, snakes, Dracula, a hunchback, Aladdin and his genie, rappers, skaters, underage street cleaners, female strippers, themed male strippers (an Aztec, a nazi, and a pharaoh), a stable of wrestlers named after guns, Kiss and Marilyn Manson themed wrestlers, The Crow, a male version of the Spice Girls, a sultan and his slave, a wrestler based on a serial killer, sewer rats, second and third versions of half of those mentioned before, an evil El Santo, a stable of American rebels, a Canadian vampire, five dancing skeletons, and GRONDA."

 

7. Five best AAA matches ever?

There's a couple of big matches I'd like to see before I make a top 5. I figure the 1993 Santo/Octagon vs. Eddy/Barr match would probably be #1.

 

8. Any interesting AAA-related links?

I got nothing.

 

9. Are there things that are sort of unique to AAA that someone who is watching for the first time should know? If so, what?

See Jose's comments above

 

10. What do you think AAA will be most remembered for, good or bad?

Giving the world Rey Mysterio.

 

11. What do you think caused the downturn in the late 90s?

Aside from the huge loss of talent, I think Pena was just burnt out.

 

Two more questions I'd like to add here:

 

What do you expect from AAA in 2008?

What do you hope for from AAA in 2008?

[Tim Evans]

What do you expect from AAA in 2008?

-More Konnan influence. Probably more American talent and less of the Apache/Billy Boy feud. I also expect Konnan to become lead technico and feud with Zorro and Mesias.

 

What do you hope for from AAA in 2008?

- More of what they are doing right now with the undercards and midcards. More foucs on the Cibernetico/Zorro feud and involve some new guys like Intocable, Latin Lover and Less Konnan and La Secta run ins. Also less use of weapons and no more cage matches for at least 6 months.