Welcome back to A View From the Rafters. We’re back with another preview and predictions column, aka the laziest form of wrestling column writing known to man. Don’t worry, we’ll be back again tomorrow with…, you guessed it, yet another preview and predictions one for Clash in Italy.
Tonight we’re looking at AAA Noche de Los Grandes, LIVE from Monterrey, Mexico, and if you’ve been sleeping on AAA programming you’re picking the wrong night to keep that habit. Masks on the line, championship gold up for grabs, and enough cross-promotional intrigue to make your head spin. Let’s break it down.
Mask vs. Mask Match
El Grande Americano vs. “Original” El Grande Americano
This one crosses promotions, and the AAA side of it is where things get genuinely interesting. Ludwig Kaiser stepped under the El Grande Americano mask when Chad Gable got hurt, learned the culture, spoke the language, and won the Mexican crowd over completely. When Gable came back wanting his identity back, the roles flipped in a way you don’t see often: Kaiser became the hero and Gable turned progressively nastier, going after beloved AAA figure Pimpinela Escarlata and demanding interviewer Andrea Bazarte be fired as a contract stipulation. That last part lands differently when you know Kaiser and Bazarte are a couple in real life. Mask versus mask, two promotions, and a crowd that’s emotionally invested. This one has real match of the year potential.
The El Grande Americano character has been one of the better surprises of the past year, but every story needs an ending and this feels like Gable’s exit ramp from the whole thing. Kaiser winning makes sense on every level: he earned the crowd, he did the work in Mexico, and he deserves to walk away with his mask intact. Gable losing his means he’s unmasked, the chapter closes, and hopefully WWE has something waiting for him on the other side that actually uses what he’s capable of. Good feud, right finish.
Prediction: El Grande Americano (Ludwig Kaiser) wins the mask versus mask match.
AAA World Cruiserweight Championship Match
Laredo Kid (c) vs. Rey Fenix
Laredo Kid has been AAA Cruiserweight Champion for 534 days and the weight of that reign is starting to show. After a non-title loss to Fenix, he accused the Lucha Bro of being jealous, and when the title rematch came around he faked a concussion and won with a low blow. That’s not a champion confident in his ability to retain clean. Rey Mysterio, now the general manager of AAA, saw enough and booked the rubber match, making it clear he wants Laredo to defend the title with some honor. Laredo’s paranoia and his willingness to cheat his way through a title defense tells you everything you need to know about where his head is at right now.
Five hundred and thirty four days is a good run, but the reign ends tonight. Laredo has been booked into a corner with the heel turn and the dirty finish last time out, and Fenix is too good to keep losing this feud. Mysterio as GM adding the honor stipulation to the narrative gives the title change a clean moral framework, and Rey Fenix winning feels like the right payoff for a feud that’s built to this moment properly.
Prediction: Rey Fenix wins the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship.
AAA Latin American Championship Match
El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. (c) vs. El Hijo del Vikingo
Hijo del Vikingo is a two-time AAA Mega Champion who’s been on a rough stretch lately. The heel turn, the alliance with power-hungry Dorian Roldan and the giant Omos, the failed rematches for the Mega title, coming up short against Penta for the Intercontinental Championship. None of it has worked out the way he planned, and now he’s redirected his ambitions toward the Latin American title. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. is a worthy champion in his own right, working to carve out his own legacy from under a very famous last name. The wild card here is Mini Vikingo, who has made a habit of showing up and costing Vikingo in title matches recently, and there’s no reason to think tonight will be any different.
Vikingo needs a win badly and the Latin American title is his best shot at getting his momentum back. The Mini Vikingo wrinkle adds some uncertainty but ultimately this feels like the night Vikingo stops the skid and picks up some gold to show for all the chaos he’s been through. Wagner is good but Vikingo is the bigger star and WWE has invested too much in him to let him keep coming up empty.
Prediction: Hijo del Vikingo wins the AAA Latin American Championship.
AAA World Tag Team Championship Match
Psycho Clown & Pagano (c) vs. The War Raiders
The last time Psycho Clown and Pagano defended the AAA Tag Team Championships against the War Raiders, the referee couldn’t keep a lid on it and threw the whole thing out. Since then the partnership between the champions has gotten messy. Someone has been attacking people backstage and sending clowns out in ambulances, and Psycho pointed the finger at Pagano. That accusation hit Pagano hard, and whether he’s guilty or not, the trust between these two is cracked heading into a title defense they can’t afford to lose. Nobody has figured out who the mystery attacker actually is yet, and Pagano being the mastermind behind it all is still very much on the table. Whatever the truth is, they’ve got to put it aside long enough to handle the War Raiders tonight.
They won’t be able to. The War Raiders are a wrecking ball of a tag team on their best day, and Psycho and Pagano walking in with unresolved tension between them is a recipe for disaster. Whoever the mystery attacker is, the timing couldn’t be better for them. Expect the dysfunction to surface at the worst possible moment and the War Raiders to capitalize on it.
Prediction: The War Raiders win the AAA World Tag Team Championships.
Noche de Los Grandes has the makings of a great show, and if AAA delivers on the card they’ve put together tonight, a few of these matches are going to be talked about for a while. There’s something here for everyone who remembers when lucha libre was appointment television. Enjoy the show, drop your predictions in the comments. Hasta luego.
You can watch the full event below beginning at 9pm CT:
