1995 Lucha Libre AAA World Wide event
Triplemanía III-A was the first of three parts of the third Triplemanía professional wrestling show series promoted by Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). 1995 was second year to feature the "Triplemanía Series" of shows with 3, referred to as III-A, III-B and III-C. The show took place on June 10, 1995 in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The Main event featured a 13-wrestler Steel Cage Elimination match, "Lucha de Apuestas" "Mask vs. Mask" match featuring the "Mini-Estrellas" division. The participants included Ninjita, Espectrito I, Espectrito II, Jerrito Estrada, Fuercita Guerrera, Mascarita Sagrada, Mini Calo, Octagoncito, La Parkita, Payasito Rojo, Payasito Azul, Super Muñequito, and Torerito. This marked the first and so far only time that the "Minis division" was featured in the main event of a Triplemanía. The show also featured the first of three "Lucha de Apuestas", mask vs. mask match series for the Triplemanía III shows as the culmination of a storyline feud between the "tecnico" team (faces, those that portray the good guys) of Super Caló and Winners against the "Rudo" (heels, those that portray the bad guys) team known as "Los Diabolicos" ("The Diabolical Ones"; Ángel Mortal and Marabunta). Six of the eight matches were later shown on AAA's weekly Televisa show.
Production.
Background.
In early 1992 Antonio Peña was working as a booker and storyline writer for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Mexico's largest and the world's oldest wrestling promotion, and was frustrated by CMLL's very conservative approach to "lucha libre". He joined forced with a number of younger, very talented wrestlers who felt like CMLL was not giving them recognition they deserved and decided to split from CMLL to create Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA, or Triple A; Spanish for "Assistance, Consulting, and Administration"). After making a deal with the "Televisa" television network AAA held their first show in April, 1992. The following year Peña and AAA held their first Triplemanía event, building it into an annual event that would become AAA's Super Bowl event, similar to the WWE's WrestleMania being the biggest show of the year. The 1995 Triplemanía was the third year in a row AAA held a Triplemanía show and the fifth overall show under the Triplemanía banner.
Storylines.
The Triplemanía show featured seven professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels (referred to as "rudos" in Mexico, those that portray the "bad guys") or faces ("técnicos" in Mexico, the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Initial plans for the 1995 Triplemanía III series of events included a storyline where "Los Gringos Locos" members Eddy Guerrero and Art Barr would turn on teammate Konnan in the fall of 1994. This was supposed to turn "técnico" and set up a "Lucha de Apuestas", or bet match, between Konnan and Art Barr where both would put their hair on the line. AAA booker Antonio Peña was hoping to actually sell out the 130,000 seat Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The plans never came to fruition as Art Barr died suddenly on November 23, 1994 before the storyline even had a chance to start. Barr's death, coupled with the Mexican peso crisis in 1994 led to Guerrero leaving AAA to work in the United States instead and thus made a "Los Gringos Locos" storyline impossible to piece together. AAA still planned on making the 1995 Triplemanía III event a series of shows, spread out over several weeks, serving as the Super Bowl of AAA's year.
The first two Triplemanía III shows were supposed to take place in late April, but for reason that have not been revealed the first show had to be canceled on the day of the event, leading to a second Triplemanía III show in "Arena Rio Nilo" in Guadalajara, Jalisco to be changed at the last moment. The show was changed so late in the day that the apron and posters in the arena advertised that the show was a Triplemanía show. The show still featured three high profile matches, starting with the trio of Perro Silva, Karloff Lagarde, Jr. and Mr. Cóndor defeating "Las Gemas del Ring" (Zafiro, Brillante, Diamante) in a "Lucha de Apuestas" match, forcing all three "Gemas" to unmask. The second high profile match was a six-man tag team match for the vacant WWA World Trios Championship, a championship that Peña was allowed to promote on AAA shows. For the Arena Rio Nilo show the father/son combo of Fuerza Guerrera and Juventud Guerrera teamed up with Psicosis to take on the trio of El Hijo del Santo, Octagón and Rey Misterio, Jr. In the end the Guerreras and Psicosis won the match and became the sixth overall WWA World Trios champions. The main event match was for the "Copa Rio Nilo", a one night special feature match between long time rivals Perro Aguayo, Konan and Cien Caras who had been involved in a long running storyline that for Aguayo and Caras stretched back into the 1980s. During the match Cien Caras' brother, Máscara Año 2000 came to ringside and attacked Perro Aguayo, seeking revenge for being unmasked by Aguayo at Triplemanía I. At one point Máscara Año 2000 broke a glass beer bottle over Aguayo's head, causing him to bleed so badly that he had to be taken from the arena on a stretcher. In the end Cien Caras pinned Konnan setting up the team rivalry with Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000 against Konnan and Perro Aguayo, a feud that would be featured on all three Triplemanía III shows.
In the early 1990s then-Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) Promoter Antonio Peña created the "Mini-Estrellas" concept, building on the classic midget wrestling concept but adding a "Lucha libre" flair to it. When Peña left CMLL to form AAA he made sure the "Mini-Estrellas" were given a strong presence on the shows and for Triplemanía III-A they were actually given the main event slot. Building off several individual storylines between the "Mini-Estrellas" AAA promoted a 13-man steel cage match where the last person in the cage would be forced to unmask under "Lucha de Apuestas" rules. One of the focal points was the emergence of "Los Payasitos" ("The Little Clowns"), two "Mini-Estrella" versions of "Los Payasos", known as Payasito Azul and Payasito Rojo as they fought against the "técnicos" Mascarita Sagrada and Mexican National Mini-Estrella Champion Super Muñequito on several shows. Another storyline leading up to the cage match was the feud between and Espectrito I, who had back up in the form of his younger brothers Espectrito II and La Parkita. Octagoncito. Octagoncito had actually defeated Espectrito I in a "Lucha de Apuestas" match on May 31, 1995 forcing the "Mini-Estrella" to be shaved bald after the match only 10 days before the show. Others included in the cage match included former Mexican National Mini-Estrellas Champion Furcito Guerrera, Jerrito Estrada, Mini Calo, Torerito and Ninjita.
One of the main storylines that would highlight not only Triplemanía III-A but also Triplemanía III-B and Triplemanía III-C was the feud between the two masked, young técnicos, Super Caló and Winners, fighting against the"rudo" team known as "Los Diabolicos", in this case the two masked members Marabunta and Ángel Mortal. The basic storyline centered around two the "veteran" wrestlers in "Los Diabolicos" getting annoyed with the fan reaction Super Caló and Winners were getting without, in their opinion, earning it by proving themselves in the ring. In the weeks prior to Triplemanía "Los Diabolicos" had faced off against Super Caló and Winners, often in six-man tag team match with the third "Diabolic" Mr. Condor against Caló, Winners and various young "tecnicos". During those matches "Los Diabolicos" would often either steal the mask of their opponents, or rip the masks apart during their matches. This led to all four wrestlers signing a contract for a series of "Lucha de Apuesta", or bet matches, where each competitor would wager their mask on the outcome of the match. In "Lucha Libre" a "Lucha de Apuestas" match is viewed as more prestigious than a championship match and is often promoted as the main event of major shows. The three match series would mean that three out of the four wrestlers would be unmasked by the time the third and final Triplemanía III match was over.
In 1994 AAA luchador, and star of several "Luchador films" Octagón was one of AAA's main draws, which let Peña to the idea to give him an "Evil twin", creating an "Evil mirror image" of Octagón for him to fight against. Peña turned Jesus Andrade, previously known as Espanto Jr. into the masked "Pentagón" character, a rival and distorted mirror image of Octagón. Pentagón made his in-ring debut a month prior to Triplemanía III-A but the in-ring interaction between Pentagón and Octagón had deliberately been limited by AAA, mainly with Pentagón doing sneak attacks during matches leading up to the show. Triplemanía III-A marked the first time the two rivals truly faced off in the ring.
On November 6, 1994 then-Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champion La Parka teamed up with Jerry Estrada and Blue Panther, losing to a team of international wrestling stars The Pegasus Kid, 2 Cold Scorpio, and Tito Santana as part of the AAA When Worlds Collide pay-per-view (PPV). In the weeks following the team loss Jerry Estrada turned on La Parka, turning the increasingly popular La Parka to the "técnicos" side as Estrada demanded a match for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship. On March 28, 1995 Estrada won the championship from La Parka in a high profile match in Matamoros, Tamaulipas as part of the long running storyline between the two. For Triplemanía III-A the two found themselves on opposite sides of each other in an eight-man "Atómicos" tag team match that paired up four high profile feuds of the time between Konnan and Cien Caras, Perro Aguayo and Máscara Año 2000, La Parka and Jerry Estrada and finally Octagón and Pentagón to complete the two sides.
Event.
This first two matches of the show were not broadcast on Television as part of AAA's weekly wrestling show on Televisa but were dark matches that only the fans in attendance at the Plaza de Toros de la Concordia bull fighting arena saw. The opening match featured AAA's women's division with Martha Villalobos, La Nazi and Neftali taking on a trio of women who had primarily worked for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), La Sirenita, Irma Gonzales and Irma Aguilar. The UWA trio was working the show due to a work agreement with the UWA, a promotion that was one of the major Mexican promotions in the 1970s and 1980s but by 1994 was close to going out of business and actually would close in 1995. Villalobos, La Nazi and Neftali defeated the UWA trio, although no records indicated who was pinned. The second Dark Match of the show featured a trio known as "Los Misioneros de la Muerte" ("The Missionaries of Death"), also originally from the UWA but by this time AAA regulars taking on the team of El Torero, El Mexicano and Dragón de Oro. "Los Misioneros" originally consisted of El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano and later on brought in Black Power II to replace El Texano while working in the UWA. When the group joined AAA Black Power was replaced by a mask wrestler known as Misionero, which may have been Black Power under a mask or possibly former "Misionero" Rocky Santana, but the identity was never confirmed. "Los Misioneros" defeated Torero, Mexicano and Dragón de Oro.
The third match of the night was also the first match to be shown on AAA later on, first airing on July 1, 1994 on Televisa along with the fourth match and the main event steel cage match. The fourth match of the night, another traditional "lucha libre" [ix-man tag team match contested under best two-out-of-three falls rules featured another trio that made its name as part of the UWA but was transitioning to AAA by 1994, "Los Villanos", in this case Villano I, Villano III and Villano IV facing one of AAA's top "rudo" trios "Los Payasos" ("The Clowns"; Coco Rojo, Coco Verde and Coco Amarillo) who had held the Mexican