Triplemanía II-A was a major ''
lucha libre
Lucha libre (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term used in Latin America for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form ...
'', or
professional wrestling event
Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) that took place at the
Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes (; ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Aguascalientes), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and ...
baseball stadium on April 26, 1994. The show was the first of three Triplemanía II shows held in 1994 with two subsequent shows held in May. 1994 was the first year AAA held multiple Triplemanía shows in a year, a tradition they would continue through 1997, after which Triplemanía became a single annual event. The annual Triplemanía show(s) are AAA's biggest show of the year, serving as the culmination of major storylines and feature wrestlers from all over the world competing in what has been described as AAA's version of
WrestleMania or their
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
event.
In the main event of the first Triplemanía II show was a ''
Lucha de Apuestas'', or bet match, where both
Heavy Metal and
Jerry Estrada "bet" their hair on the outcome of the match. The main event originally ended in a disqualification loss for Heavy Metal, which seemed like he was going to be shaved bald. Moments later AAA owner and booker
Antonio Peña came to ringside and restarted the match, with Heavy Metal winning the match and the hair of Jerry Estrada. On the under-card the team known as ''
Los Payasos'' (Spanish for "The Clowns"; Coco Rojo, Coco Verde and Coco Amarillo) defeated ''
Los Hermanos Dinamita
Los Capos (Spanish for "The Bosses") was a Lucha Libre stable consisting of Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000 (often written as "Dos Mil") and Universo 2000, and at one point also included Apolo Dantés. Los Capos is also often referred to as ''Los ...
'' (
Cien Caras
Carmelo Reyes González (born October 18, 1949) is a Mexican retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Cien Caras ("Hundred Faces"). He is best known for his appearances with the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre.
Personal l ...
,
Máscara Año 2000 and
Universo 2000) to win the
Mexican National Trios Championship. The show featured six additional matches with AAA wrestlers as well as the Japanese
Tiger Mask III from
New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Production
Background
AAA founder
Antonio Peña had originally envisioned the
Triplemanía
Triplemanía is the biggest annual professional wrestling event promoted by the Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) promotion and is traditionally held in August each year. A majority of the shows have been presented as pay-per-view events, with som ...
series as three shows held over the summer, but for the first year AAA only held 1 show,
Triplemanía I. In 1994 AAA announced that they would hold three Triplemanía shows, building the storylines into its climax at the third and final Triplemanía II show. The first Triplemanía II show would take place in the outdoor baseball stadium in
Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes on April 26, the second show, ''
Triplemanía II-B'', would be at the
Estadio Olímpico Benito Juárez in
Zapopan, Jalisco on May 15 and the third and final Triplemanía II show,
Triplemanía II-C, would happen at the
El Toro bullfighting
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
There are several variations, including some forms wh ...
arena in
Tijuana,
Baja California on May 27, 1994.
Peña decided that
Konnan and
Jake Roberts, who were slated to main event Triplemanía II-C would not face off at Triplemanía II-A, making it more special when they actually fought on the later Triplemanía shows.
[
]
Storylines
The Triplemanía show featured eight professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels
The heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg.
Structure
To distribute the compressive forces exerte ...
(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.
Event
During the fifth match of the night cameras showed wrestlers Miguel Pérez, Jr.
-->
Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to:
Places
*Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands
*São Miguel (disambi ...
and Chicano Power in the crowd, holding up a Puerto Rican flag while heckling Konnan. At one point during the match Konnan's partner Máscara Sagrada had to prevent him from jumping into the crowd to go after the two heckling wrestlers.
Aftermath
AAA's main storyline post Triplemanía II-A and for more or less the entire year that followed was ''Los Gringos Locos'' and their storyline war with all of AAA. The next chapter came at Triplemanía II-B where Black Cat was unmasked after losing a ''Lucha de Apuestas'' to Máscara Sagrada. The main event of Triplemanía II-B saw Miguel Pérez Jr. debut as part of ''Los Gringos Locos'', following up on his appearance in the crowd during Triplemanía II-A. Pérez, Roberts and Love Machine would lose to Konnan, Aguayo and Cien Caras. That match served as a preview to Triplemanía II-C's main event between Konnan and Jake Roberts where Konnan finally ended the storyline with Roberts that had started a year earlier. The ''Los Gringos Locos'' storyline carried AAA into their subsequent major shows "Night of Champions" and later on their first ever pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
(PPV) AAA When Worlds Collide
When Worlds Collide ( es, Cuando Los Mundos Chocan) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event that took place on November 6, 1994, at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. It was scripted and produced by t ...
that was driven by the feud between ''a Pareja del Terror'' ( Eddy Guerrero and Love Machine) facing off against El Hijo del Santo and Octagón in a ''Luchas de Apuestas'' match where Guerrero and Love Machine ended up losing their hair. 19 days afterwards Love Machine, real name Art Barr, dies of unknown causes. The popularity of Konnan in the wake of his victory over Jake Robers made his turn to the ''rudo'' side months later ever more shocking, with Konnan attacking his longtime friend Perro Aguayo during a match and joining ''Los Gringos Locos'' instead. As When Worlds Collide Aguayo defeated Konnan in a steel cage match.
''Los Payasos'' winning the Mexican National Trios Championship would be one of the last victories in the trios' "Undefeated Streak"[The wrestlers who played ''Los Payasos'' had lost several times in their previous identities, but AAA had booked them to win every single match they had up until this point.] ''Los Payasos'' lost the Mexican National Trios Championship to the team of Ángel Azteca, El Hijo del Santo and Super Muñeco on May 22, 1994. ''Los Payasos'' and ''Los Hermanos Dinamita'' in what became a non-title rematch at Triplemanía II-C which tool place inside a steel cage match. At the show ''Los Hermanos Dinamita'' were able to hand ''Los Payasos'' their second loss ever.
NJPW representative Tiger Mask III also competed at the next Triplemanía II show, teaming with fellow NJPW representative Jushin Thunder Liger and AAA representatives El Hijo del Santo and Octagón, defeating the team of La Parka, Psicosis, Blue Panther, and Eddy Guerrero at Triplemanía II-B Afterwards Tiger Mask II and Jushin Thunder Liger returned to Japan but AAA and NJPW would work together repeatedly over the years until NJPW began partnering with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., Ltd. (CMLL; , "World Wrestling Council") is a ''lucha libre'' professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City. The promotion was previously known as ''Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre'' (''EMLL'') (''Mexi ...
(CMLL) in Mexico. At that point AAA began working with Pro Wrestling Noah and has toured Japan on more than one occasion.
Reception
John Molinario, who writes about wrestling for the Canadian Online Explorer
Canoe.com is an English-language Canadian portal site and website network, and is a subsidiary of Postmedia Network. The phrase Canadian Online Explorer appears in the header; the name is also evidently a play on words on canoe (or ''canoë'' in ...
, wrote that the main event ''Lucha de Apuestas'' match was considered the best match on the show and stated that "Fans and critics were blown away by the show, thinking that there was no way the remaining two shows could possibly match its quality".[
]
Results
Footnotes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Triplemania 02a
1994 in professional wrestling
Triplemanía
April 1994 events in Mexico