Kenny Omega and El Hijo del Vikingo faced off in the main event of AAA’s Triplemania XXXI Tijuana event on Saturday night (July 15).
The match itself — a Vikingo victory to retain AAA’s top championship — is getting the same high marks their match on Dynamite back in March did. The headlines about it over the past day have focused on something that happened afterwards, however.
Don Callis was in Mexico, furthering his AEW issues with Omega. He was promoted as cornering Vikingo for the match, but AAA booker & kayfabe authority figure Konnan sent him to the back before that started. While Kenny was being interviewed post-show, Callis returned to confront his former protege. Don’s current mentee Konosuke Takeshita attacked Omega while he was jawing with Callis, and when security pulled Takeshita off a downed Kenny, Don got a couple quick kicks in. At that point, someone grabbed Callis from behind and took him down to the ground.
An initial report from Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez was that “a fan who was apparently upset about what Don had said to Kenny jumped Don from behind, ripped his suit, concussed his eardrum and busted open his mouth while he was trying to choke out Don from behind.” Callis was said to be “livid” and headed to San Diego for medical treatment on his injured neck and ankle. Alvarez stressed the situation was “absolutely not a work”.
Later, PWInsider had another account of what went down. Their report agreed the incident wasn’t planned or part of an angle, but differed on everything else. In Insider’s version, “someone from the company’s security team who wasn’t clued into what was going on, grabbed Callis from behind and took him down”. They added that no fans were allowed in the area where they were filming, and that Callis was uninjured.
The Observer eventually updated their report, saying Konnan told Callis he was tackled by someone who has done security for wrestling & other events at the venue in the past, but was only at Triplemania because he had friends who were part of the show’s security detail. He was not supposed to get involved, and apparently thought he was helping.
A video from TJ Sports catches most of what happened. From where this is cued up, you can see someone wearing what looks like a camera bag restraining Callis from behind when a couple other men come over and tell him to let go (and presumably quickly smartened him up in the process). Don looks upset, but not visibly hurt. The video then replays another camera angle where you can see the person taking Callis down with a leg sweep/hip toss.
Wild stuff, and who knows if we’ll ever get a complete account of what happened/went wrong. The good thing is that Callis does seem to be okay.
Now we’ll wait to see if AEW incorporates this into their plans for Omega & The Golden Elite taking on Takeshita, PAC & Blackpool Combat Club in Blood & Guts this Wednesday night on Dynamite.
Loading comments...