TripleMania XXVI has come and gone, and it was… a show.
AAA pulled out all the stops for their biggest show of the year, with a four way mask match between LA Park, Pentagon Jr., El Hijo del Fantasma, and Psycho Clown as the main event.
This show was over five hours long, and it felt like it easily could have been an hour shorter. The opening match started a bit after 7:30 pm local time and the final promo after the main event went until almost 1:00 am.
Long shows like this are fine when executed properly; New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom show regularly reaches five hours with no issues.
The problem with TripleMania XXVI was, however, the pacing of these five hours. The undercard of the show was solid, but so many matches felt so similar. They were multi-team tornado no disqualification matches. Having one or two of these types of matches on a show is fine, but when five of the first six matches have this same formula, it gets tiring.
Also, the production was mediocre at best. Matt Striker and Vampiro were tasked with calling the action. It was a struggle for both them and the viewers at home. Vampiro can be heard throughout the show cursing people out through the microphone, whether that be people on twitter or producers when they did not play his music in a timely fashion.
The biggest note from the undercard is that Bandido and Flamita are now the #1 contenders for the AAA tag team championships after a crazy ladder match that saw many competitors, including Bandido many times, almost die.
The show started to change it up a bit in the fifth match, a three way trios lumberjack match that saw the Trios Champions El Nuevo Poder del Norte (Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., and Tito Santana) defeated team ELITE (El Hijo de LA Park, Puma King, and Taurus) and team AAA (Mamba, Maximo, and Pimpinella Escarlata). This match felt like more of a brawl than any match before the main event. That being said, it was still one of the weaker matches on the card.
In the middle of the show, Vampiro and Konnan signed a loser leaves AAA match. These two have hated each other for years.
Speaking of brawls, the next match saw Los OGTs (Averno, Chessman, and Super Fly) defeat MAD (AAA’s heel invader faction; Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, and Juventud Guerrera). The highlight of this was when Chessman stopped selling for Evans, so Evans legitimately started punching and kneeing him. If you missed it the first time, don’t worry, because the legitimate shoot brawl was shown clearly on replay after the match.
The street fight between Pagano, Murder Clown, and Joe Lider against Los Mercenarios (Texano Jr., Rey Escorpion, and La Mascara) was a complete mess. It is 2018, guys do not need to be breaking light tubes and setting themselves on fire to get over. This match didn’t need to happen, and Pagano looked seriously injured after going through a flaming table.
Faby Apache vs Lady Shani mask vs hair was very interesting in that the wrestlers in the ring felt secondary to their escorts, Taurus and Nino Hamburguesa, respectively. In the end Shani won, meaning Apache had to have her head shaved. It was nasty considering Apache had a nasty cut on her head that they had to shave over.
Jeff Jarrett defending the AAA Mega Championship against Fenix, Rich Swann and Brian Cage was probably the highlight of the show. The only thing is, Swann and Cage really did not need to be in this match. AAA explained that they were added so that Lucha Underground and Impact would have representation, event though Fenix is a regular on both programs. The finish was a callback to when Jarrett won the title. The referee was down, and out came someone in a La Parka costume with a referee shirt. When Jarrett won the title, it was revealed that the man under the mask was Konnan. This time, however, it wasn’t. Instead, it was Dr. Wagner Jr., the man Jarrett beat for the title. Fenix capitalized on this, hit Jarrett with a cutter, and won the title.
Main event time. Park, Pentagon, Fantasma, and Psycho in a steel cage. When two escape, it becomes a regular singles match with the loser having to unmask. It seemed like Pentagon was just there to collect a paycheck, because he was the first person to escape by a wide margin. Eventually it came down to Fantasma and Park. The crowd got super hot for this, very much in favor of Park. They brawled forever, ripping at each other’s masks, with Park bleeding like crazy from the head. The part that took this match down a couple of notches was heel referee El Hijo de Tirantes. Sometimes he was biased against Park, sometimes against Fantasma, and seldom would he call it down the middle. In the end, Park pinned Fantasma, it was a fast count. It makes no sense, but Park kept his mask.
The post match saw both men show great respect for each other, with Fantasma finally unmasking. He is good looking enough that losing his mask won’t hurt him that much.
Then, as things are wrapping up, Wagner came down to the ring. He challenged Park to a mask vs hair match for next year’s TripleMania. Park accepted, noting that he’s going to give Wagner a lesson in protecting a mask, poking fun at Wagner losing his mask at last year’s TripleMania.
Overall, TripleMania XXVI was a thumbs-in-the-middle show. It was very long, with some good action in there.
What did you think of the show? Share your thoughts with a comment down below.
