Catching Up on 2014 AAA

Angelico, Zumbi & Australian Suicide vs. Los Infierno Rockers, AAA 2/21/14

I saw this match getting pimped as a really fun spotfest. Well I like a good spotfest as much as the next guy, so I was game. I wasn't too familiar with all the participants, some (Angelico) because I'd seen them before and disliked them, others because I don't watch AAA nearly as often as I watch CMLL, so they're just underexposed to my eyeballs. And after this I can't see myself going too far out of my way to watch any of these guys. Spotfests can be goofy and cooperative and nonsensical. I have no problem with that. But the cooperation throughout this was just shoddy, obvious, and poorly executed. At bare minimum a spotfest should be well executed, but this match was full of poor connection and an overabundance of spots where the giver seemed to get the worse end of a move than the taker. Angelico and Zumbi are mostly horrible. Zumbi is the best wrestler I've ever seen at incorporating capoeira dance into his wrestling. However, that is a thing that absolutely no fucking person has ever wanted, ever. "That chef was really great at integrating dogshit into that meal." "That ska Radiohead cover band was really great!""That was the best Ozu movie centered entirely around boner jokes!"  Nobody likes capoeira, and that same amount of people want capoeira in their wrestling. If you like moves that look like they don't hurt, AND take an eternity to set up while doing goofy handstands, then look no further than Zumbi. Angelico wrestles like the worst possible Kofi Kingston. All of the poorly utilized athleticism, all of the pillowy soft offense, but with more lousy kick combos than you ever wanted! Australian Suicide had a better blend of crazy highspots with minimal set-up, but even then it was more "jeez at least this guy isn't Angelico or Zumbi". He did hit a wild shooting star to the floor, so that was neat. Infierno Rockers were fine at catching all of the stupid stuff the tecnicos threw out, but not very keen about smoothly getting into position for the catching. As in, all of the fliers got caught and didn't die, but all of the Rockers were really bad about just standing still waiting to catch, never making it look like they were doing anything other than waiting around to take offense. It's hard to casually look blindsided when your opponents do an intricate Step Up 2 the Streets routine before hitting a spin kick, but the Rockers seemed more poor than average. There was a lunatic moment where one of them (I…don't know which one, I'm sorry) "hits" a crazy fast flip tope that soared right over the head of his opponent. Bad catch, out of control dive, pure nuts. So of course he was back in the ring doing moves a moment later. This match did have some dives I liked (Zumbi hit a mammoth crossbody off the top to the floor) and some okay sequences, but man was a lot of this bad and poorly planned out. Not a great start to my 2014 AAA fling.