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BACKSTAGE NEWS & NOTES FROM AAA'S RETURN TO NYC

The AAA Invades New York PPV brought in about 3,000-3,500 fans tonight in the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden with a huge walkup crowd, selling out just about every section that was open for sale.  Several of the farthest sections were not open for sale and the side balconies were not released to the public.  The crowd was predominantly Latin families with a mix of hardcore wrestling fans sprinkled in.  Lots of kids wearing lucha masks.

Konnan did not appear before the live crowd, but was backstage at the show, running the event.  After its completion, Konnan commented on Twitter:

Former WCW and WWF Director Craig Leathers directed the show for FITE.TV.  This was only Leathers' second pro wrestling event in many years following a recent New Japan FITE broadcast in Australia.

ROH star Flip Gordon was backstage.

Dorian Rodan was walking around in the crowd for a good part of the show.

Impact Wrestling were the local promoters of the event, having come on board several weeks ago.  Their team set up the ring and the stage the day before.  Scott D'Amore, Ed Nordholm and Ariel Shnerer were there backstage.

The merchandise booth was swarmed with long lines before and after the show.  AAA was selling event and Cain Velasquez t-shirts for $35, luchador masks for $40, professional level La Parka masks for $240, Lucha Invades U.S. Hoodies for $70 and a Lucha Invades US varsity jacket for $300.  There was no Impact merchandise on sale.  The lines were so long that 45 minutes before the show began the Theater looked like a ghost town because everyone was on concession stands in the lobby.

The Fight Network was filming a documentary on Cain Velasquez leading into the show all weekend.

Hijo del Tirantes missed the show due to his work visa not coming in.  Due to the nature of the political world right now, there were a number of visas that AAA attempted to get that did not come through.  John E. Bravo and Brandon Tolle were used as referees for the show.  Bravo was heavily involved in getting the production and ring set up the night before.

Production company Tupelo Honey were brought in for the live production of the event and are scheduled to handle next month's AAA event in Los Angeles at the Forum.

Josh Alexander of the North worked alone without Ethan Page as Page already had a booking for an independent promotion in Seattle and Impact didn't want to force him off that show at the last minute.

The digital board outside Madison Square Garden advertising the show featured LA Park and Lady Shani, neither of whom appeared on the show.  Shani noted online that it was beyond her or AAA's control, which sounds like it was likely her visa not being approved in time.

English commentary was handled by Hugo Savinovich and Matt Striker.  From what little of the PPV commentary I heard live at the show, it was excellent.  JM Guillen, Arturo Rivera and Jesus Zuñiga handled the Spanish language commentary.   Rivera doubled as a host for the live event from the ring with Melissa Santos joining him and handling ring announcing.

There was a lot of new theme songs debuted tonight as the company would have run into rights issues with things like Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine being used for Dr. Wagner Jr.  

There were zero injuries coming out of the show.

There were only some audio issues at the show, but beyond that, the production seemed pretty well run.  They actually opened the doors a little later than usual to insure everything was in order.

The most over act of the entire show was easily the Lucha Brothers.  While the crowd enjoyed the entire show, LAX vs. the Lucha Brothers was off the charts in terms of crowd response to everything.  It was an emotional night for LAX, having grown up in NYC and making their debut inside the Madison Square Garden complex.

Killer Kross was replaced by Rey Escorpion upon the request of Impact management.

This was the first AAA event in New York since July 1994.  I believe Konnan was the only person to work both shows.

There was a vignette filmed backstage where Puma King pinned Mascarita Sagrada to win the DDT IronMan Heavyweight Championship, which has 24/7 rules:

Sagrada had won the belt from Daga earlier in the show, who had defeated Puma King, so they went in a complete circle.

No word on a potential return date.  Hopefully it's not in 25 years!

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