By Welcome to Hard Time Blues: The World of Pro Wrestling from Merry-Go-Round Magazine! It’s a great time to get into professional wrestling. In each Hard Time Blues feature, MGRM contributors Luke Phillips and Max Flynn will be exploring the wild, weird, and wooly world of the squared circle, and all of the angles, feuds, gossip, and evil wizards therein.
This week, they’ll be recapping Night Two of AAA’s TRIPLEMANIA XXX: TIJUANA pay-per-view.
LUKE PHILLIPS: Just to be upfront, I don’t have as much of a knowledge base on lucha as you do, so you might have to hold my hand a bit here. I’ve watched the Triplemania events from the last two or three years and that’s probably all I’ve watched—the only familiarity with lucha is what I’ve seen from the homegrown promotions and all the familiarity I have with the guys. One thing I do really like about lucha libre is how the whole vibe is generational and it’s based on family. I love that, at any moment in a lucha libre match, your dad can step in the ring and help you out.
MAXWELL FLYNN: Or your dad’s arch nemesis can step in the ring and fuck YOU up.
LP: Yeah. It’s like blood feuds. All of the angles are blood feuds and shit.
MF: I just looked it up, and I didn’t realize that Psycho Clown is Super Porky’s son!
LP: I didn’t realize that! Wild.
Anyway, this is the second Triplemania event of three this year.
MF: They usually only do one, but I think in honor of the 30th anniversary of the company, they’re doing three big events to celebrate. The first five Triplemanias were also three night affairs.
LP: It’s cool, and it gives them the opportunity to do a variety of marquee matches and showcase matches highlighting the anniversary and the history of the company—that’s what lucha’s all about, what a lot of wrestling is about, *history.* WWE is very steeped in the history of the business, history-based loretelling. The WWE Hall of Fame being a storied institution.
MF: It’s for the nerds who want to get into lore more than stats
LP: That’s kind of the thing in wrestling. The older you are, the more powerful you are. All of the old guys are like SUPERPOWERED because they’re like Level 99. They never lose their experience points. All the years of kayfabe power built up, their power levels are outrageous. They’re like Z Fighters. Elden Ring grinding ass veterans.
Lucha de Apuestas Mask vs. Mask Match
Seven-woman Steel Cage Match
LP: Starting off the PPV, I didn’t really know anything about Las Tóxicas or any angles going into this match, but I thought it was really compelling. This match being a qualifier and leading into the Mask vs. Mask match that ultimate Chik Tormenta and Flammer was a great setup. I really like it on PPvs. when there’s outcomes and unknowns for a subsequent match determined by a previous match on the card.
MF: I thought that was very cool. It’s a better payoff than this whole Ruleta de la Muerte. Sure the RUleta has higher stakes, per se, since more guys are involved, but doing it all in the same night gives that one night a huge draw, I get more invested in it and want to keep watching.
LP: I don’t really know anything about Flammer. She’s a second generation wrestler like many people in lucha. That’s kind of the story going into the match. I thought she looked great. Chik Tormenta was really incredible too. The story of the cage match was really everyone trying to beat down Chik Tormenta, the tough veteran who debuted in the deathmatch scene and has an extreme wrestling background, bringing the light tubes and stuff to the table. I thought it was a really cool match. Really great storyline that went into both matches, that’s the best kind of wrestling. Just being able to watch it and not have any preconceived idea of what’s going on and be able to follow the story.
MF: Yeah, exactly, if they kinda walk you through the whole thing: Set up and pay off in the moment, I think it’s the most compelling way to experience professional wrestling. This show works well, you can go into without knowing a whole lot about it, because they give you a little bit of history, they explain the stakes. I feel like it’s great for a casual viewer.
Copa Triplemanía XXX
Tijuana Match
LP: That leads us into the battle royal for the Copa Triple Mania 30 Cup. This is obviously a pretty fun battle royal, one thing I noted was Mecha Wolf coming out to the Halo theme, that was pretty nutty. I don’t know if that’s his theme elsewhere or anything, but… Yeah, that’s funny.
MF: Also notable was Vampiros appearance in the match…
LP: I was gonna mention that too, with the ICP’s Amazing Jeckel Brothers Joker Card shirt. Whoop whoop, much wicked clown love. Love Juggalo Championship Wrestling representation.
MF: Last year he was diagnosed with Parkinson and Alzheimer’s and was on the verge of death. So it’s actually really incredible how good he looked in there. I didn’t know that he had gotten that diagnosis, I was just reading about it today…
LP: Wow. Holy shit. He looked great. Yeah, there was Bestia 666s’ father coming out and helping them in the ring randomly for a spot, and then I thought it was interesting that there was two exóticos in the battle royal, and we’re at the point now where an exótico is like one of the last people standing in the battle royal but all of their spots are still built around gay panic, so it’s all just like Golddust spots. They’re just kissing everybody still.
MF: I loved the spot with Mr. Iguana, Dulce Canela threatening to kiss Jessica the iguana. I was losing my shit, definitely some of the best wrestling I’ve ever seen!
LP: I couldn’t tell if commentary was trying to treat it in kayfabe like an iguana or a puppet…
MF: Yeah, I think it’s supposed to be a real iguana, it’s a fantastic gimmick. We also got some peak appearances from Charly Manson and Cibernetico, who I love.
LP: The Cibernetico/Pagano stuff was cool. Rey Xolo didn’t really do much, but he was there because the stadium is named after him.
MF: Yeah you gotta get the mascot in there!
LP: Fun match overall. Niño Hamburguesa was good. The big part of the match was basically like, how can we get this gigantic dude out of the ring and… no, he ended up taking the cup and won the match by virtue of just being a big guy.
MF: This is his second Copa Cup win, the last was in 2019. He’s been in bigger and bigger storylines over the past few years. A couple of years ago he was in the mixed tag scene with Big Mami and then last year or the year before he did an angle where Sexy Star was in love with him. This was a good win for him, and he looks like maybe he’s working his way towards being a more serious competitor.
LP: Yeah, he was looking really good in the match… definitely got a huge pop from the crowd.
MF: One thing that rules about lucha is all the big fat dudes that fuckin’ brawl.
LP: The Kevin Steen-ass wrestlers.
MF: That’s true! When I saw Niño Hamburguesa come out, I said “He’s in his Kevin Steen era right now.”
LP: With the jersey and everything!
Five-way Match For The AAA World Cruiserweight and Latin American Championships
LP: You mentioned it was the match of the night. I think I definitely concur. This is the best thing I saw through the entire pay-per-view besides the women’s storyline. What can you say about it? Five-way for the World Cruiserweight and the Latin American Championships. Just insane
MF: Hands down five of the best wrestlers in the world right now.
LP: Totally, yeah, or definitely five of the best Luchadors in the world at least.
MF: AEW has already talked about wanting Vikingo to come through at some point, which would just be amazing. The number of dream-matches there, wild to think about.
LP: I know Kenny [Omega] really wants to wrestle Vikingo… which would just be insane. It’s so funny that Taurus was technically wrestling for the cruiser weight belts.
MF: I love that they just had to put Taurus in the match to be the base for everybody.
LP: Oh yeah, for sure. That was incredible. The match was essentially “How do you beat Taurus?” He grounded everybody. Taurus is so sick, he’s one of my favorite Luchadors and favorite wrestlers in general. He’s just an incredible big man. He’s intimidating and can do those insane fucking tope suicidas. He puts Luchasauras to shame.
MF: It’s kind of weird seeing Fenix in this match because while he’s great in AEW, when you put him with people that are actually all on his level, it’s just, he’s out of the stratosphere.
LP: It feels a little bit more natural. Sometimes with Fenix, in AEW, I feel like he’s kind of jockeying for getting in his style working with the other guys, and he’s kind of just setting up spots and stuff a lot of the time. When he’s in the ring with a bunch of other luchadors they’re just putting together a fucking clinic, it’s like “Yeah. This guy is on another level.” I almost thought though that Phoenix was overshadowed by all four other guys. Even though he won, he’s the guy that AAA wants the belts on and it’s 100% obvious that he’s one of the faces of the company, I almost thought the other four guys in the match out wrestled him.
MF: Yeah, I can agree with that, which is just a testament to the sheer amount of talent in the match. Laredo kid, he was the champion for over a thousand days going into it, so that says something about him, but just another fantastic performer. I got to see Bandido wrestle live a couple of months ago at a West Coast Pro show. He was great there, but just another situation where when he’s in the ring with people that work the same style as him it’s just next level.
Blue Demon Jr. vs. Pentagón Jr.
Psycho Clown vs. Villano IV
Ruleta de la Muerte Semi-Finals
LP: We got that Blue Demon versus Penta, that was pretty good. A slobberknocker match. That’s kind of how Blue Demon has to do it now, considering how old he is.
MF: I feel like his brawl in April was a little bit better, but I agree, the brawling rules. And I will always react positively when Blue Demon pulls out the hammer and starts swinging it around!
LP: He pretty much got Penta’s goat the entire match.
MF: Both of these matches worked similar styles. Lots of brawling, punches, weapons. Really just two guys kicking the shit out of each other. They’re putting a lot of faith in Penta putting him into the final. Without trying to predict the booking too much, it seems pretty obvious that Villano IV is towards the end of his career, so I don’t necessarily think he’s gonna take Pentas mask.
LP: Right, for sure, for sure. I think the booking of the roulette is pretty obvious.
MF: It’s gonna be cool. I think Penta being in a mask versus mask match in October is gonna be huge. It’s going to get a lot of AEW fans to tune in for that, if they haven’t been watching already, just because of the chance that Penta loses his mask.
LP: Totally. I don’t really think they’re gonna put a stop to that Merch sale machine.
MF: I felt like the Psycho Clown Villano IV match was a little bit better than the Blue Demon Penta match, but that’s just because the former are both maniacs. Psycho Clown is for the children, but breaking bottles over each other’s heads and wrestling around in the glass will always get my attention.
LP: One thing that kind of takes me out of AAA is the fucking tables and the cookie sheets they use are just so thin looking and sounding that it breaks kayfabe a little bit.
MF: I love the cookie sheets. They remind me of playing ECW Hardcore Heaven for the Nintendo 64. Those boards are just clearly like thick styrofoam painted black… It’s pretty ridiculous.
LP: Yeah, it doesn’t even look like plastic, it just looks like… it looks like they’re just going through air, it’s such a thin membrane of fucking like… What’s supposed to be wood? It’s shit wood, to quote Tim Robinson. Body after body busting out of SHIT WOOD.
Los Hermanos Lee vs. Matt Hardy and Johnny Hardy**
Tag Team Match
**After an alleged DUI Jeff Hardy was replaced in the match with John Morrison, AKA Johnny Hardy
LP: On paper Johnny Hardy is extremely funny as a concept. I dunno about the execution per se..
MF: It’s a great bit but it’s not enough to build an entire match around. I can imagine Matt Hardy wrestling Los Hermanos Lee in his prime, but this was kind of sad. He put it all out there though, he looked a lot better than on any given night in AEW unfortunately. Dragon Lee and Dralistico had to carry the match, and there were some decent spots but all said and done it wasn’t great. The relationship, or lack thereof, between Matt and Johnny Hardy broke down throughout the match leading to Johnny Hardy attacking Matt late in the match. Everything gets really sloppy from there, but I guess they did the best they could given the last minute shuffle. At the Triplemania XXX event in April John Morrison was part of the formation of a heel faction so this was clearly an attempt to push that forward. Was it successful? Eh.
LP: Yeah, that’s part of the current wrestling tire fire, it’s like, we’re on track for a Jeff Hardy DUI, and wouldn’t you know it? It’s right on schedule. He’s the Billy Joel of professional wrestling. What can you say? It sucks. Obviously the Hardys were poised for a huge run in AEW and it almost looks like they were about to be handed the tag belts but Jeff’s own demons caught up to him. It sucks to see. Jeff is one of my favorite wrestlers, and you want what’s best for him, but also it’s just like… man, he wasn’t looking good the last couple of months. Both Hardys are just rough right now. Even as of six months or a year ago I thought Jeff was decent in WWE. He was a pretty reliable worker and it all just went south, I guess. They were booking him really shitty, and I guess there were other factors potentially going on, so yeah, all you gotta do is hope that he can recover. I don’t know if he should be wrestling…
MF: Yeah, I don’t think he should be. Unfortunately a common notion is that he immediately went to AEW, started doing these crazy spots, and you gotta imagine that he’s hurting his body doing that and he’s seeking solace from that kind of pain. It could be possible for him to wrestle and just not do the crazy spots, but I mean that’s not what people want him to do.
LP: We’ve talked about it before, but just do Broken Hardys again. Get them off TV, get them off doing live tapings. Just do prerecorded, like cinematic Hardy’s matches. People would still like that shit.
MF: They’re at the age where they need to change their style. Do mat wrestling, do submission work.
LP: The Hardys have been known for reinvention, so I don’t really know why a lot of their AEW tenure is based on their old “classic” gimmicks. I guess I get it. On one hand when you have the opportunity to use whatever Hardy gimmicks you want, you wanna play the hits… but I feel they’ve run that well dry.
MF: It’s 25 years old now. Why do they have to do that gimmick in every single promotion that they hit?
LP: I don’t really get why they have to be classic Hardys in like fishnets and stuff, it’s like…they’re in their mid-40s.
MF: It looks silly to a degree, it looks like a farce.
LP: That’s why the Broken Hardys were cool. They were old and it was like…
MF: Yeah, there was a wiseness to the characters and that kind of comes with age.
LP: In kayfabe, they were possessed by 2000 year old spirits, so that’s doubly true. And that’s the beauty of professional wrestling!
MF: But we digress. TRIPLEMANIA XXX: TIJUANA was a solid block of wrestling. With a huge variety of styles on display there’s something for everyone. If you’ve ever been interested in Lucha Libre I’d say this is a fine show to throw on. Even if you’re just watching it in passing I guarantee you’ll find yourself glued to the action before long!
We’ll be back next time with our review of AEW x NJPW: FORBIDDEN DOOR and Luke’s field-report of AEW’s BLOOD AND GUTS.
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