Cook’s AAA Noche De Los Grandes Review 5.30.26

We open with a video package explaining how most luchadores find their meaning through the mask. They tie the other matches in the card into it. We’re in Monterrey! Rey Fenix talks to a kid while Laredo Kid is WALKING! El Hijo del Vikingo talks to El Oho while the Wagner Brothers are WALKING! The Grande Americanos are WALKING! Corey Graves, JBL & AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio are our hosts. AAA Cruiserweight Championship Match: Laredo Kid (c) vs. Rey Fenix : Fenix with a dropkick right away, goes for the musclebuster, sent into the corner, kicks Laredo, Laredo responds with a kick for two. Laredo wearing white tonight. Misses a moonsault, kicks Fenix, hits a neckbreaker, Michinoku Driver gets two. Texas Cloverleaf by Laredo. Fenix gets to the ropes, and I must say that El Hijo del Tirantes has let himself go. Unless that’s actually the original Tirantes, in which case he looks ok. Fenix misses in the corner. Laredo with a cloverleaf in the corner. Laredo hits a curb stomp to Fenix for two. Fenix fights back, some clotheslines. Laredo to the floor, Fenix with the crossbody off the top to the floor. Crossbody in the ring gets two, Fenix goes to the armbar & Laredo gets to the ropes. Fenix with a kick in the corner, strikes are exchanged. Fenix flips out of the tornado DDT, kicks Laredo, off the ropes, kick, Laredo hits a Destroyer DDT for two! Fenix blocks the foul! Forearms from Fenix, one in the corner, Fenix hits a cutter for two! Superkick from Fenix gets two. Musclebuster is reversed into a cradle for two. Laredo hits a codebreaker, but Fenix blocks him up top and hits the Mexican musclebuster for two! Laredo hits a foul while Tirantes looks at the exposed turnbuckle! Frog splash gets two! Laredo misses in the exposed steel corner, and that leads to the musclebuster getting the three count! HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE IN MONTERREY! Winner: Rey Fenix (11:52 via pinfall) Match Rating: *** A big win for Fenix, who needed something since he hasn’t done a lot in WWE until this point compared to his brother. We’ll see if this gets him going. Fenix celebrates with his family, the kids wearing masks as one would expect in Mexico. Corey introduces some of the personalities at ringside, the first one I recognize is Yesca. Mr. Iguana & La Parka are also there. We then see a video package hyping the next match between famous Hijos. AAA Latin American Championship Match: El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. (c) vs. El Hijo del Vikingo (w/Dorian Roldan) : Vikingo at least has one of the Spanish announcers in his back pocket as he daps them up at ringside. Wagner attacks right away, hits a powerslam for two. Senton by Wagner gets two, Vikingo rolls outside. Wagner kicks Vikingo off the apron, but Vikingo dropkicks the knee of Wagner and sends him into the steps. Wagner placed on top of the steps, Vikingo goes up top and doublestomps Wagner! Cover in the ring gets two. Vikingo baseball kicks Wagner to the floor, then hits a shooting star press off the apron to the floor! Vikingo jumps off the top rope into a superkick from Wagner. Wagner hits a couple of moves in the corner, a splash off the top gets two. Vikingo hits a crucifix driver to shift the momentum. We see Omos wander down to ringside, Wagner hits a forearm for another nearfall, then Omos grabs Wagner’s ankle on the top rope to knock him down. Vikingo hits a meteora in the corner, then a 450 gets two! Here comes Galeno! Omos tosses Galeno into the front row, but Galeno fights back with a chair! He hits Omos multiple times in the back! Vikingo kicks Galeno, Mini Vikingo emerges and hits Vikingo with a dropkick! Meanwhile, Omos tosses Galeno into the ringpost and knocks Wagner out! 630 by Vikingo! HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE IN MONTERREY AGAIN! Winner: El Hijo del Vikingo (7:19 via pinfall) Match Rating: ** I can’t say I was a huge fan of this. Vikingo needed a big win, but the Wagner Brothers sure didn’t look great. Hopefully they have better days ahead, and hopefully this means bigger things are on the way for Vikingo. More apparent celebrities at ringside! La Catalina, Lola Vice & Bayley are also here, we’ll see them next week! AAA Tag Team Championship Match: Psycho Clown & Pagano (c) vs. War Raiders (Erik & Ivar) : Rey appreciates the masks Erik & Ivar wear to the ring as they remind him of Psicosis. War Raiders get sent outside right away & Psycho & Pagano hit dives. Psycho fights off both Raiders, but they get the upper hand and Ivar splashes Psycho on the floor for a two in the ring. Erik with some punches on the mat, big forearm. Psycho gets worked over by Erik & Ivar in the ring for awhile. Ivar with some forearms in the corner, he has less hair on his head than usual and the same on his face. Pagano & Erik tag in. Pagano with an elbow, another one in the corner, then a codebreaker off the turnbuckle. Pagano tornado DDTs Ivar on the floor. Pagano hits a modified Emerald Flowsion on Erik for two. Psycho tags in, he hits Ivar & Erik with some strikes. Tope suicide through the turnbuckle on Erik, Code Red on Ivar in the ring gets two. Tag to Pagano, Psycho hits a Driver on Ivar, Pagano with a legdrop off the top, Psycho with a frog splash for two. Erik breaks the count. Pagano dives onto Erik on the outside. Ivar sits on Psycho, then knocks him down with a backfist after a kick from Pagano, then there’s a malfunction at the junction as Pagano accidentally hits Psycho! Pagano is sent outside, Erik & Ivar hit the DTM on Psycho and...well, I’ve worn out that Gorilla catchphrase but we’ve got new Champions! Winners: War Raiders (9:12 via pinfall) Match Rating: ** The announcers made sure to let us know going in this wasn’t going to be the best match of all time. It wasn’t awful, it did serve its purpose of getting the belts off of Pagano & Psycho and kicking off their new feud. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of opponents War Raiders will have to work with. Psycho is not happy and shoves Pagano! Pagano fires back! Psycho tears at his mask and fires up, Pagano walks away and leaves the ring, then the War Raiders attack Psycho! Pagano opts to walk away and let Psycho eat the beatdown. Next Week: Catalina, Lola & Bayley vs. Los Toxicas! An exclusive interview with Rey Mysterio! Rey Mysterio makes his way to the ring! We see clips of the Americanos getting ready backstage. OG has a black mask, Nuevo has a gold one. We see the video package that ended last week’s episode of AAA. Mask vs. Mask: Original El Grande Americano vs. Nuevo El Grande Americano : OG comes out to a mariachi band. The fans really don’t appreciate him. He works with some fan at ringside, who gets a big pop. Nuevo gets a more ornate song as he walks backstage with his fringe jacket & cowboy hat. The fans know this song, they’re singing along. The ring announcer makes super special introductions. OG hits Neuvo with a guitar! It’s no DQ, it’s ok and the bell rings! OG goes to work on Nuevo, and chokes him in the corner. Overhead suplex by OG. Nuevo fights back! They trade punches in the corner. They trade punches on the turnbuckle. Nuevo hits a vertical suplex. Nuevo hangs on the ropes after a suplex, OG clotheslines him on the apron, gets monkey flipped into the ring post. Nuevo with a tope suicida! Running dropkick to OG! OG suplexes Nuevo on the floor, then sends him into the ringpost. Nuevo with a DVD on the floor, then he looks under the ring and finds a table! OG spears him on the floor and punches away, then sends Nuevo into the ringpost. OG sets the stairs up and rams Nuevo’s face into them a couple of times. OG lifts Nuevo up for an Angle Slam, hits it on the floor, covers in the ring for two. OG tears at Nuevo’s mask! That’s heat! Nuevo lifts OG & drops him through the table he set up! OG fires back and suplexes Nuevo on the floor, then gets a piece of the table and hits Nuevo with it. OG grabs one of the office chairs for commentary and throws it at Nuevo a couple of times. OG suplexes Nuevo on the floor, then throws him on the Spanish announce table and punches him a few times. They go back in the ring & OG still has the upper hand. Some blood on the face of Nuevo as OG fires away. Nuevo fights back, but OG hits an Exploder for two. Nuevo is placed on top, OG works him over and preps for a back suplex off the top, he hits it! Nuevo fires up! OG with some big rights, but Nuevo keeps asking for it. Chops by Nuevo, blockbuster gets two! Neuvo fires away in the corner, places OG up top, then tears at his mask on the top rope! Nuevo is knocked to the floor, OG misses a move, rolls through but is sent into the steps! OG gets dropkicked against the steps, back into the ring & Nuevo fires away. Big kick to OG gets two. OG’s mask is almost destroyed and he’s busted open too. Nuevo throws some chairs into the ring and places one between the turnbuckles. OG hits a German suplex while Nuevo is busy arranging furniture. They swing chairs, Nuevo wins that battle and gets a two count, Los Americanos Hermanos broke the count! Bruto & Julio drive Neuvo onto the announce table! They’ll break the darn thing eventually, and the second try is the charm. OG hits the diving headbutt on Nuevo in the ring, that gets two! Here come Los Americanos! Rayo & Bravo fight Julio & Bruto to the back! Rayo’s got a kendo stick! Bravo dives onto all three from the balcony! They won’t be a factor now! OG looks on like he’s seen a ghost. He sees the blind comedian he beat up before, who hits him with a walking stick! Nuevo with a blockbuster! OG fights back with a Liger kick that knocks Nuevo to the floor. Pimpinela hits OG with a guitar! She was one of the mariachi performers and wore a mask! Nuevo hits a running headbutt for two! Nuevo goes outside, finds a bull rope under the ring! Shades of Texano! OG hits Nuevo low, and strikes him repeatedly with the bull rope! OG chokes Nuevo and plants him face first on a chair for two! OG chokes Nuevo with the rope around the mouth! Here’s Andrea, the interviewer that got fired thanks to OG! She screams encouragement from the audience! OG sees her and moves towards her! She shows her ticket, and Nuevo attacks OG from behind with the bullrope! DDT on the chair in the ring to OG! Nuevo covers for two! The Americanos trade punches! OG suplexes Nuevo into the corner, hits the moonsault for two! OG bounces Nuevo’s leg off the ringpost, then hits it with a chair a couple of times! Ankle lock by OG! Nuevo gets out it and locks in La Cavaneria! OG rolls through and goes back to the ankle lock with a grapevine! Nuevo fights out, hits a back suplex! He goes off the ropes and the ankle gives way! OG puts his straps down, hits the Chaos Theory for two! OG charges, hits the ringpost shoulder first! Nuevo runs the ropes, hits the running headbutt and gets the three count! Winner: Nuevo El Grande Americano (33:17 via pinfall) Match Rating: ****1/2 They gave us what we came here to see and delivered. Mask vs. Mask matches in Mexico have a certain level of meaning & require all of the bells & whistles possible, and that’s what we got here. Andrea, Pimpi & Los Americanos celebrate with the man who is now the official El Grande Americano! The ring announcer tells us we’re about to learn the name of the original. The original’s family joins him in the ring. He put on this mask to learn the art of Lucha Libre so he could learn the art of all the luchadores that he hated. In that process, he learned everything there was to know about lucha libre, AAA, Mexico & the Mexican culture. He stands in front of us not as a mask, but a man. It pains him to say it, but tonight he could not overcome the Mexican spirit. He will always be the original El Grande Americano! Tonight, he looks EGA in the eye and tells him he will now be the only El Grande Americano. He unmasks as Chad Gable! He was born March 8, 1996 in Minneapolis, MN, he wrestled in the Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling and has been a pro wrestler for 13 years. He introduces his wife & children. He doesn’t know when or how, but Chad Gable will be back in AAA. Gracias! Chad hands the mask to EGA and says that from now on it’s his. Grande celebrates while the Gable family walks to the back. Confetti falls while the fans sing & EGA & Andrea embrace. What else can I say but so long for now! If you’d like to chime in with your own thoughts on tonight’s show, feel free to join your fellow 411 Maniacs down in the comment section! As the legendary Larry Csonka always said: Have fun and don’t be a dick. When I’m not here you can catch me on social media from time to time. To be honest, e-mail is a better option and you can reach me at [email protected] .