AAA 11/12/93 House Show Review: "La Lucha Del Honor"
John F. Reeves
Attendance: ~10,000 (not a sellout, plenty of seats in the rafters).
The crowd was almost exclusively Hispanic, we counted 6 haole faces.
Lots of families (babies up to grandmothers). Lots of Mexican Flags.
Thankfully they didn't play the US National Anthem, which would have
caused a riot. They were filming so these matches may show up on the
TV show.
Please excuse any spelling, translation or memory errors. I'm not
bilingual (except for the basics: technico, rudo, and primara caida).
1. Piloto Suicida and another masked man (technicos) vs. Crazy
Boy and a masked Texas Hangman w/ noose (rudos). Fast opener,
not too many high spots. The Hangman choked one of the faces
outside and rolled him in for the win. **
2. Super Boy and Captain D'Oro (technicos) vs. Louie Spicoli and
a small guy doing a B-Boy gimmick (rudos). The story of this
match was Spicoli coaching the smaller guy (very small, like 150)
and berating him when he missed a move. Super Boy and the Capitan
are Super Astro clones, small fat guys who do a lot of acrobatics.
Rudos got the win and Spicoli beat up his partner after. **
There was a running story line throughout the card with the
rudo ref refusing to allow tags by the face team if they didn't
have a hand on the turnbuckle. The entrance announcements were
in Spanish, and then an English announcer would introduce the wrestlers
in English. The English announcer was introduced as Bill Anderson,
but I don't know if this is the same Bill Anderson who teams with
Louie Spicoli in the Mercinaries. I guess they figured out that
the English announcements weren't necessary, because Anderson
vanished after the intermission.
3. El Mexicano, a guy doing a bullfighter gimmick, and Winners
(technicos) vs. Los Exoticos: My Flowers, Baby Sharon, and Rudy
Renya (rudos). Los Exoticos to a tranvestite gimmick so most of
this match was sexual double entendre comedy spots. My Flowers
has to be seen to be believed. Winners got up in the lights on
a couple of dives. Technicos win two of three falls. **1/2
4. El Mysterioso, Volador, and Rey Mysterioso, Jr. (technicos) vs.
La Parka, The Mummy, and El Espectro (rudos). El Espectro came to
the ring in a coffin, and not to be outdone The Mummy came in a
sarcophagus. This match was mostly set lucha one on one spots,
a couple of bounces off the ropes and a flying throw. La Parka
did a lot of great acting outside the ring. Judging by mask sales,
La Parka will have to do a face turn pretty soon. The finish had Rey
do a catapult plancha off Volodor's back to the floor, followed by
Volador doing a backflip off the second rope to the floor. Technicos
win two of three falls. ***
Intermission. They made a long announcement here after which there
was a standing ovation. We didn't understand, but stood and applauded
anyway.
5. El Hijo De Santo, Octagon, and Mascara Sagrada (technicos) vs.
Fuzera Gurrera, Jerry Estrada and Heavy Metal (rudos). During the
introduction the announcer said that Heavy Metal didn't want to be a
rudo anymore, but would now be a technico, so he basically did a face
turn before the match started. El Hijo De Santo got the biggest
entrance pop of the night. The story of this match was Metal
refusing to do double teams and cheap shots, causing his partners
(partic Fuzera) considerable consternation. While the storyline
was solid and welldone, I was a little bit disappointed because
we didn't get to see Metal's spectacular flying moves. The faces
won two of three falls when the end of the match broke down with
Fuzera and Estrada beating up Metal. In the brawl, Metal did the
crimson mask thing and Fuzera was de-masked, setting up a hair
vs. mask match for the the next card. Finally, (at the urging
of the announcer) Santo, Octagon, and Sagrada made the save. ***
6. Konnan, Perro Aguyo, and Blue Panther with Cien Caras in their
corner (technicos) vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Love Machine (Art
Barr), and Eddie Gurrero with Diamond Dallas Page in the corner.
The announcer said something about Blue Panther and Volador before
the match started, but I couldn't understand it. I think it had
something to do with Blue Panther's rudo status while being on the
face team. The heel entrance got as much heat as I've ever seen
at a live card, Roberts and Page were showered with paper, nachos,
and other trash. There wasn't really a whole lot of work in this
match, it was mostly an out of control brawl. Roberts was great
with his limited repertoire -- he did the DDT spot at the beginning
with Konnan (Konnan gets beat up and then hulks out of the DDT),
and the drunk stagger ala Flair and Valentine. Perro Aguyo got
huge pops when he tagged in, and his double boot stomp got a huge
reaction each time he did it. Panther, Barr, and Gurrero were pretty
much wasted though they did some solid brawling in and outside the ring.
Caras and Page also brawled on the outside. After each side won a fall,
the end of the match had Panther do a dive to the outside and lose
his mask. The heels got the fall and retreated to the back in a hail
of trash. Panther got his mask back and went after Konnan, and Caras
got involved so we got an impromptu match with Konnan and Aguyo vs. Caras
and Panther. They brawled to the back and then Konnan and Aguyo came
out for a curtain call. ***1/2 (1/2 for the heat and crowd work)
Notes: This card is a classic of house show booking. All of the matches
ended with clean finishes. You got to see stuff that wouldn't be shown
on TV (well mostly, AAA tends to show everything anyway). They set up
grudge matches for the next time around. So everyone goes home happy
and motivated to see the next card. If AAA keeps going with one good
show every two months, they should be in a good position to sell out
the Colosseum sometime next year.
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John Reeves -----------------------------------------------------------
The Aerospace Corporation ree...@aerospace.aero.org
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Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 --------------------------------------------