Weekend show feedback

Thumbs down
Best Match : Myzteziz vs Rey Misterio Jr
Worst Match : Villanos vs Psycho Circus

That was my first AAA event ever, and I ordered it on a whim. Did not expect such horrendous wrestling and production hiccups. It was worth it for all the laughs I got out of it, especially on that last Myzteziz botch on the tope in the very end, and the fact that there was still action in the ring and a story being told while the credits rolled. Definitely glad I got to be a part of this, but seriously, never paying money for something like this again.
Yuriy Bortnik

: Thumbs Up

: Best Match – Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz

: Worst Match – Los Villanos III, IV, V vs. The Psycho Circus

This was a last minute decision to order the PPV and I figured for $20 what the heck. Overall despite the audio problems which weren’t really that bad I still enjoyed the show. The opening two matches did nothing for me as I’ve never been a fan of mixed tag matches and the Los Villanos vs. The Psycho Circus match was dreadful. It looked like something from a kids television show with three purple Barney the dinosaurs lumbering around the ring. Everything else outside of that I liked and the Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz match I thought was really good although Myzteziz timing on some moves seem off since his Sin Cara days in the WWE. The post match attack on both guys seemed pointless with Myzteziz turning heel anyways. I was entertained enough that I will give the October show a shot providing it will air in Canada.

-Ed Ludwig

Burnaby, BC

AAA TripleMania 25

thumbs down
best Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz
worst Los Villanos III & IV & V vs. The Psycho Circus (has to be the worst match in the last 10 years or so….what was that finish were they were really hitting each other. 

wow i don’t even know what to say about that…the production was an all time low…the commentary from what you could hear of it when the sound was buzzing in and out or when they were running production test was awful they kept talking over each other all night. the last match was fine actually it was pretty good but nothing else was worth going out of your way to see. the only thing you can take pride in is the fact that you probably saw one of the all time worst ppv train wrecks. 

g1
thumbs up 
best Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii (really good everything this week has been good. lord im done complaining about the g1 after tonight it looks like the best stuff on earth compared to the triple a show tonight.
john juett 

Hi guys:

Wanted to write you about my ordering experience with TripleMania 23 tonight. That name is appropriate because if you Triple the number 23 you get the number of ways in which this was a fail for me.

So on Friday I ordered the show in advance because being someone with a visual impairment I need someone to navigate the on-screen menus for me. I mention the visual impairment because it is kind of important later.

Anyway, the preview show starts at 5:30 with no problem. The show starts at 6 and my friends and I are treated to the same technical issues that plagued everyone else.

Then after the Villanos match, right as they were making preparations for the Trios title match the PPV feed cut off and we were taken back to the menu screen. We waited a few minutes to see what was happening, thinking that things with the show had just gotten worse. Well after seeing people still tweeting about the show I figured maybe it wasn’t a problem with the show so I rang up my cable company.

Generally, I like my cable company and think they have great customer service. I even like that they charge the same amount for HD as they do for SD, so the HD feed of this show was only $19.99. Anyway, I called and told them that we were watching the show and that it had just stopped.

Tonight, the guy was helpful but had to put me on hold several times. Once was because they couldn’t find a listing for this anywhere. Eventually, they did and decided that what they were going to do is reset my box and order the show for me again. So that’s what they did.

When the box came back online they directed me away from channel 808 where we were watching the show to channel 807. I told them that it was showing, the guy asked if Mysterio had wrestled yet and then we ended the call. Then I realized that we were now watching the Spanish feed of the show which explained why they asked me to change the channel.

The Spanish version of the feed was miles ahead of the English version even though my friends now were watching an SD picture. Being visually impaired, I rely on commentary for a lot of information but given the quality of the first two matches commentary wise I think I also may have been better off listening in Spanish.

But this is where it gets really weird. I tweeted about how my cable company ordered the wrong version of the show. They replied asking for my account info which I sent via direct message. They messaged me back and said that they apologized but they had to order me the Spanish feed because according to their schedule the next English broadcast wasn’t until tomorrow morning. Keep in mind that this is during the Hair vs. Hair match.

The happy ending is that they credited me for $15 on my account. So unless I get double charged for this show which they said they would reverse if it happened, I’m going to get it for $5. That may still be too much.

Strange times all around.

Casey Trowbridge
Huron, SD.

–Thumbs Down
Best match: Mysterio vs Myzteziz
Worst Match: Los Villanos vs Psycho Circus

There is no way I can recommend the English version of this show. I don’t have anything against Matt Striker but he and Hugo were terrible, they didn’t work with each other and constantly flubbed things that should not be a problem for either of them (like Rey winning with La Mistica). I wish I could make a crack about the technical problems being an improvement but the horrible buzzing and scratching noises they produced had me changing the volume constantly. It was a struggle watching this live. As soon as it seemed they righted the ship they some screwed up worse by cutting away in the middle of the big show ending angle. They completely missed Konan’s promo at the end and came back to the show with no explanation of what was going on and why it was such a big deal. On the plus side the two main events were very good. Cage wearing a Donald Trump shirt was great heel stuff, he and Alberto put on a fun brawl. Mysterio and Myzteziz were excellent but I felt the match itself might have been too short. The undercard was unremarkable with the cage match being a total let down. Watch this show in Spanish if you must, otherwise don’t bother.
Jack Wofford

Thumbs down
Best match Rey Jr vs Mysteziz
Worst match Los Villanos vs Psyco Circus

The rare thumbs down show that i didnt regret paying for at all. I highly enjoyed both main events especially Rey vs Mistico even if the postmatch stuff was something else. Albero vs Brian Cage was fun and I enjoyed myself and in the opening match I fell in love with Goya Kong.

Everything else on the show was something else with the constant technical difficulties and when there werent any difficulties Matt Striker was so grating that I was wishing for more technical difficilties. The Villanos match will also go down in my book as one of the worat matches I have ever witnessed…enough so that I expect I will watch it multiple times just to see if it was really as bad as I remember it.

Wade Haugen

Thumbs DOWN!

Best Match: Rey vs Myzteziz
Worst Match: Villanos vs Psycho Circus

I paid $19 dollars for this putrid, sorry excuse, for a PPV.  I took a chance knowing this would happen seeing as they had issues with the Trios World Cup show but I honest to God thought they would get it right this time.  Nope, I was a fool!

Good luck ever getting another chance like this AAA because I doubt Cable companies are going to want to continue airing your PPV’s in the United States after this debacle.

Anyone who paid for this show needs to get a refund ASAP in order to send AAA a message.

David Penton
San Antonio, TX

Hey Dave,

Overall: thumbs down show.
Best Match; Rey vs. Myzteziz
Worst Match; The Villanos vs. Clown posse rivals the Rosa Mendes singles match for worst match in recent memory.

Thoughts:

I have never been much more than a casual fan of authentic lucha libre wrestling. The only time I really watched AAA or CMLL consistently is when I first started to train to wrestle in 2003. Back then, I watched Sunday morning Lucha Libre in an attempt to learn new moves and transitions.  Needless to say, I did not have the skills needed to execute such complicated maneuvers. On many occasions I have heard other people, both wrestlers and wrestling fans, state they did not understand the psychology behind Lucha Libre. I share similar sentiments.  In other words, forgive my ethnic bias. Triplemania is Mexico’s biggest Lucha Libre Event. A lot can be said for watching an event and being able to feel the culture and vibrant energy through the television screen.  I believe this is why the World Cup and other live sporting events generate such buzz and viewership from casual fans. People want to feel the event. I wanted to get the feeling of authentic lucha libre through the viewing experience.

Obviously, the audio difficulties were a source of frustration and distraction for the majority of the show. The multiple distractions severely hurt the experience. It is hard to judge the show based on the merits of the in ring action when everything built to enhance the presentation failed.  To make matters worse, out of befuddlement, Striker resorted to his sarcastic super smark comments.  I feel Hugo’s role was to fill in the backstory to place each event and match into a context. Without Hugo’s commentary, I was unaware of the essential relationships and stakes that make each match important.  The continuity between the camera work, live audio, timing, and commentary was off all night.  As a viewing experience, it was unique, but not in a good way. Unlike Wrestle Kingdom 9, this did not leave me wanting more or urge me to direct more attention to AAA.

1. Drago & Goya Kong & Dinastia & Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Daga & Sexy Star & Mini Psycho Clown & Mamba. Good variety, notable diversity, and a lot of high energy. The match had some good sequences and an abundance of confusion. I was entertained yet perplexed.  The momentum of the match did not flow or build into the finish.
2. Los Villanos III & IV & V vs. The Psycho Circus. Some like to lean on the card of cultural relativity. I am not going to be one of those people. This was a cluster fuck of the worst kind. The audio feed made the action worse. Got to love Matt Striker. He took chicken shit and compiled it into a chicken shit septic tank. Awful.
3. Cibernetico & Chessman & Averno defend the trios titles against Jack Evans & Fenix & Angelico and El Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr. & Pentagon Jr. Another match ruined by audio distractions and camera mis cues. The top of the cage cam actually subtracted from the effect and impact of many of the moves. It was supposed to be a train wreck match up. It was a train wreck, just a train wreck I could easily bypass without second thought.
4. Blue Demon Jr. & La Parka vs. Mesias & Electroshock. I attempted to tune out the audio, and enjoyed some of the action. If Blue Demon was two steps faster, he would be quite amazing. Striker was able to relay enough commentary to portray the historic importance of Blue Demon.
5. Alberto El Patron vs. Brian Cage. This was an American style heel/face match. It was fine.  Alberto did not showcase anything we have not seen from him in WWE. When Cage is not hitting spots, he shows an abundance of amateur tendencies.  The ref bump was perhaps the silliest part of the entire match. Matt Striker telling the American wrestling fans that the American flag is a symbol of ethnocentrism in Mexico was great.
6. Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Myzteziz. This match had a story I could follow. I dream match built on respect devolved into a grudge match. For the most part, the action was solid. Mysterio is still capable of performing his trademark maneuvers in a quick and believable way. Myzteziz played the aggressive role better than I expected. All in all, it was good but fell short of hype and expectation. The after match shenanigans were a booking disaster that made WWE run in finishes appear to be sacrament like in execution.

Thanks,
Derrick Hubbard from Utah

Hi Dave and Brian 

All I can say about the show was “ugh”! It was pretty bad from start to finish. Mysterios match was the best on a show that was horrible. Aside from the audio and technical problems Hugo was horrible as well. Striker was ok. Thumbs down.

Peter Leong

Dave,

Hope you had a better weekend than that show. I only wish I had more hands, so I could give TripleMania four thumbs down. What a total disaster. One of the 4 or 5 worst PPVs I’ve ever watched, and I stayed to the bitter end of WCW. 

Rey vs. Myzteziz was, but FAR, the best match. You could draw the rest out of a hat for worst match, but if I had to pick one, I guess it’s the Villanos-Psycho Circus debacle. I think Vince Russo booked that swerve fest mess at the end of the show. 

Even without the gaffs in production, this show was beyond awful. Striker makes doing wrestling commentary seem like rocket science, like it’s the hardest thing in the world to figure out. How can anyone be as bad and unprepared as he was tonight? My favorite was him asking Hugo what Myzteziz translated to. What a dolt. Hugo wasn’t much better, either. 

Why is it that 30-40 years ago, there were dozens of promoters and bookers that could put out a quality product around the world and today, whew, only a small, small handful. 

AAA has a long way to go before I plop down $30 for one of their shows again. 

All the best,
Sammy Eanes

Thumbs in the middle
Best match: Mysterio/Myzteziz
Worst match: Villanos/Psycho Circus

Well…it wasn’t When Worlds Collide but I had fun watching this show with a friend. The opener was fine, exactly what I expected. The Villanos match was bad, like worst match of the year bad. Cage match was a blast even with the technical problems. Hated the Blue Demon Jr. match and that Cage/Alberto match was horrendous. The Perro tribute was my favorite thing on the show. I’m glad they did as good of a job with that as they did. The main event was excellent as well. On the whole, I felt like I spent $30 reasonably well. I had fun if nothing else and I’m looking forward to seeing heel Myzteziz vs. Rey in a mask match.

Ricky Schmidt

G1 night 8/8/15

Thumbs in the middle

Most of the card wasn’t great and would probably be thumbs down but the Tanahashi match elevated it beyond that.  Though even Tanahashi playing to the crowd didn’t seem as great as it normally is, probably because of the crowd.  It was noticable how few people were left when the camera pulled away as Tanahashi was walking back up.  Naito and Ibushi continue to be the other standouts in the A Block.

Best Match – Tanahashi vs. Shibata

Worst Match – Opening 6 man (mainly because it is the same as all the other 6 man tag matches that have taken place on this tour)

G1 night 9/8/15

Thumbs up

Much better than previous day, it is amazing how much of a difference having commentary makes to the presentation, even though I basically understand nothing they say. The crowd also seemed much more into it tonight. All the tournament matches tonight were really good. A lot of Bullet Club interference as well but not to the point that it was too much. Elgin and Anderson had a great match, much better than I thought it was going to be.

Best Match – Goto vs. Ishii

Worst Match – Tonga & Fale vs Finlay & White

Looking forward to the last few nights of tournament, it should really start to pick up from now on.

Lee Dunn

GLORY 23

Decent. MMA defector Dustin Jacoby, showing improvement, wins a 4 man tourney MW tourney which allows him to enter the next 4 man MW tourney for (I think) a title shot. HW Xavier Vigney does a 3R paint job on Daniel Sam but has to settle for an incomprehensible split decision. Nieky Holzken repeats his previous stoppage of Raymond Daniels, this time for the WW title left vacant by Joe Valetillini’s medical suspension. Holzken avoided all Daniels’ movie kicks and picked his shots, and in the 3rd cornered Daniels, landed a flurry, and then backed away, talking to ref BJM, who took one look at the cut over Daniels’ eye, caused by a legal knee, and waved it off. The cut was horrible.

UFC FN 73

Thumbs middle. Too many mismatches.
Best fight: Glover-OSP
Worst fight: Rosholt-T. Johnson
Best performance: Glover, Nunes
Worst performance: yet again, the judges
KO: Wilson
Sub: Vera

Onesided UFC debut win for Scott Holtzman over Anthony Christodoulou, who still needs to drop at least one division, dominating standup completely then finishing with RNC in the 3rd. Chito Vera, probably behind, taps Ramon Salazar with a triangle/arm bar in the 2nd and then screams and yells a lot. Quick UFC debut KO for Raymond Wilson over the badly outsized Chris Dempsey, who has no business at 205.

Frankie Saenz gets a dubious 30-27 x 2, 28-29 SD over Sirwan Kakai. Very close fight. Onesided 3rdR G&P TKO for Distin Ortiz over late sub Willie Gates. Onesided, tedious UD for Chris Camozzi over Tom Watson. Quick win for Uriah Hall catching a kick and spilling way overmatched late sub indy phenom Oluwale Bamgbose and bombing him out with G&P. 

Onesided but fast paced and sorta entertaining FlyW grapple-fucking card sweep UD for Ray Borg over UFC debuting Geane Herrera.

Amanda Nunes comes through, stuffing Sara McMann’s TDs, dropping her with a combo capped with a right, and not letting her off the hook, taking back, pounding and opening up the RNC for the tap.

Jared Rosholt barely survives the 3rd but has plopped and schmopped his way to a 29-28 HW porkfest UD over Tim Johnson. Dreadful.

Derek Brunson batters Smilin Sam Alvey on the fance till he goes down and Yamasaki jumps in prematurely. Eh.

Beniel Dariush gets an EXTREMELY dubious 29-28 SD over Michael Johnson, who certainly seemed to win at least the 1st and 2nd.

Best performance in a couple years from Glover Teixeira. After a back and forth 1st, takes over completely scoring TDs at will and puts OSP to sleep with RNC early in the 3rd. OSP’s TD defense was nonexistent.
Crimson Mask

Here are my tournament thoughts on a thumbs up show. The best match of the night was Shibata vs Tanahashi. The worst match was Naito vs Yano.

Night 13 

Ibushi vs Fale

Fale is using his size to beat down Ibushi. They do a good job of giving Ibushi hope spots only for Fale’s size to be too much. This even makes more sense this late in the tourney. They tease a Razor’s Edge on the floor, but Ibushi escapes and delivers an Asai Moonsault. It looks like Ibushi is about to make a run, but Fale cuts him off with a Samoan Drop. Some more and eventually it builds to a finish. From a story this was pretty basic, and honestly they needed it to be.  2 3/4*

Naito vs Yano

Some comedy early. Naito kicking Yano’s ass. Some Yano shennanigans. 1 1/2*

Styles vs Tenzan

AJ with some fun hair pulling. AJ is working another smart match. Tenzan has now busted his mouth. AJ selling the Koppo kick big. Nasty kick in the corner by AJ. Styles working the leg. Calf Slicer!!!!! Followed up by a Figure 4. Tenzan comeback after AJ mocking him. I bought Tenzan’s nearfall. I like how the story went back to Tenzan’s leg. I bit again on AJ’s close call. Yes and I loved that the leg work was paid off. I can’t wait to see AJ next month. He can go so many different ways in a match and tell so many different stories. He’s a lot like Billy Robinson in that regard. 4*

Gallows vs Makabe

Hoss fight. Gallows choking Makabe with his own chain. Now he’s punching him with it. Big sternum bump into the guard rail by Makabe. Gallows smashes a guard rail and chairs on Makabe. I guess the ref is giving him leeway. Makabe comeback. Gallows bumping good for him. A cursing battle to boot. Gotta give Makabe credit, he’s taking an ass kicking, and his strikes seem on point. A fun match. 3*

Tanahashi vs Shibata

Liking the mat work to start. The battles for positioning is really cool. Very old school build with a modern update. Tanahashi’s ankle pick was  sweet. Tanahashi doesn’t give Shibata a clean break. A nice piece of history in the match. Shibata transitions into an Abdominal Stretch into a Figure 4. I’m really liking the chess build here. Shibata beating Tanahashi down. Tanahashi tricks him and gives a low level drop kick. Dragon Screw by Tanahashi. Tanahashi presses his advantage on the floor. Shibata does a fighting spirit comeback, but at least it’s after 2 Tanahashi pussy elbow strikes. Shibata with some nasty work in the corner. A modified Octopus by Shibata. A kick stops Shibata cold. Tanahashi going back to the leg was awesome. This feels epic and a total battle. Super hot finishing sequence. What a match. The finish was perfect NWA champion. 4 1/2*

Pete Schirmacher
@titansowrestlin