AAA Rey de Reyes recap: Taya Valkyrie, Microman, Heavy Metal, & more surprises

AAA kicked off the 2022 season with the Rey de Reyes special event Saturday night (Feb. 19) from Veracruz, Veracruz. Surprises were aplenty throughout the evening.

First up to open the show was Fenix as the bearer of bad news. He announced that he was not medically cleared to compete in tag team action with Pentagon against Dragon Lee & Dralistico. For a bit of good news, Fenix revealed the surprise luchadora for the #1 contender bout to the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship. Fenix was proud to welcome back his Perros del Mal sister, Taya Valkyrie!

Taya took on Flammer, Maravilla, Keyra, and Lady Shani in a five-way. The top highlight was Keyra with a Spanish Fly off the apron down to the floor.

The finish came down to Taya and Shani duking it out. Taya won with the Road to Valhalla double chickenwing facebuster. The winner earned a future shot at Deonna Purrazzo and the AAA women’s title. Taya sent a message that she is coming to reclaim the belt she never lost.

The next surprise was Carlos Cabrera calling the action for the national television broadcast. Cabrera parted ways with WWE after 29 years at the Spanish announce table. He was longtime broadcast partners with Hugo Savinovich, and now the two were reunited in AAA.

You may recognize Cabrera’s voice from all the times WWE wrestlers broke the Spanish announce table.

The surprise train kept rolling with Microman accompanying La Empresa. Microman was a superstar in CMLL.

Microman did not appreciate the nefarious tactics of Nueva Generación Dinamita on La Familia Real in the three-way trios bout with La Empresa. When Sanson kicked LA Park in the cojones, Microman dropkicked the referee and rained down punches in bunches to prevent the count.

The final surprise of the evening was the return of a AAA original. During the Rey de Reyes tournament, Heavy Metal arrived on the scene.

Heavy Metal won the AAA Campeón de Campeones Championship in 2001. He joined Laredo Kid, Bandido, Psycho Clown, and Cibernetico for the gauntlet style contest. Heavy Metal rocked hard with a somersault senton to the outside.

The match came down to Psycho and Cibernetico. Pagano ran in to hit Cibernetico with a chair after he suffered a 6-on-1 beatdown from Los Vipers earlier in the show. Psycho used a magistral cradle to win the Rey de Reyes reward of a giant sword.

Other Rey de Reyes results include:

• Los Vipers (Psicosis II, Abismo Negro Jr., & Latigo) defeated Myzteziz Jr., Mr. Iguana, & Niño Hamburguesa. The Vipers used a baseball bat and thumbtacks to their advantage. Psicosis hit a flying leg drop on Myzteziz through a table. The Vipers rolled Myzteziz back into the ring for a triple pile pin.
• AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship: Arez & Chick Tormenta retained against Villano III Jr. & La Hiedra and Octagon Jr. & Sexy Star II. This title bout was an impromptu lumberjack match. That meant zany hijinks were added to the high-flying. Arez pinned Sexy Star on a driver to keep the belts. Afterward, La Empresa ran out to beat up Villano and Hiedra as part of the feud with Los Mercenarios.
• La Familia Real (LA Park, Hijo de LA Park, & LA Park Jr.) defeated La Empresa (Sam Adonis, DMT Azul, & Puma King) and Nueva Generación Dinamita (Sanson, Cuatrero, & Forastero). I’m not actually sure if there was a winner, but LA Park did have his hand raised. After the Microman bit on the referee, Los Mercenarios attacked La Empresa, and there was never a pinfall to finish the match. Los Mercenarios got revenge for the earlier attack.
• Pentagon defeated Dralistico. With Fenix injured, the dream tag team bout of Lucha Bros versus Los Hermanos Lee turned into a singles duel. When Penta hit the package piledriver, Dragon Lee ran down to pull the referee out of the ring. Dralistico and Lee pulled off Pentagon’s mask. Fenix was on stage wanting to fight, but doctors held him back from approaching the ring. The hullabaloo allowed Penta to roll up Dralistico for victory. Afterward, Dragon Lee said it was only the start of this feud, and he also called out FTR for the AAA tag titles.
• AAA Megacampeonato: Hijo del Vikingo retained against John Morrison. (Full details here.) The Saturday Night Delight arrived with a new name as John Superstar. Johnny tried to cheat using a spotlight as a foreign object, so Laredo Kid ran in to stop him. Vikingo turned the tide for an inverted 450 splash to win.

Overall, it was an average evening of entertainment from AAA with Rey de Reyes. Cool lucha libre moves were by the truckload. The majority of matches had too many bodies, so there was little room to let the action breathe. As such, the two singles bouts were the primo offerings of the evening. Pentagon versus Dralistico and Hijo del Vikingo versus John Morrison were pretty good. All in all though, AAA put on a fun show.

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