AAA TripleManía XXXIII Predictions: Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

Saturday night, AAA presents the 33rd annual edition of TripleManía, and thanks to WWE acquiring AAA earlier this year, the show is dripping with WWE talent! In fact, of the show's five matches — four of which will be contested for a championship — only one doesn't have WWE stars involved. As a result, for the first time ever, the Wrestling Inc. staff have come together to make our TripleManía picks!

Now, you may notice something as you read through these picks, especially if you've read one of our other picks columns. The numbers for our collective consensus on each match are ... somewhat lower than usual. And also, the same across the board. Part of that is surely because most of us just don't follow lucha libre as closely as we follow American wrestling, but we're also trying to navigate the uncertain space between AAA's existing booking plans for its own roster and whatever it is WWE plans to do with it. With two WWE stars already holding AAA gold and four more gunning for it this weekend, and nobody knowing how thorough WWE's takeover will be and for how long, it's truly a fool's errand to try and predict this card.

With that in mind, let's get to the picks!

Normally, I would not ever assume a Lucha Libre promotion would be booking a title change. It's just not how championships in Lucha Libre work. That being said, AAA is not a Lucha Libre company anymore. They're a WWE subsidiary, and the company will be looking to make a big splash with the first big AAA under the WWE banner.

For this reason, a narrow majority of the Wrestling Inc. staff think that Natalya will best Faby Apache and the AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Flammer at Saturday's TripleManía XXXIII. Natalya has been something of a journeywoman as of late, competing for independent promotions like GCW and the NWA, while remaining a WWE Superstar. She seems like she'd be a solid WWE representative and goodwill ambassador on AAA shows. 

Natalya has held a majority of the women's titles available to her throughout her WWE career, and she would be a good link from that heritage to the heritage of the Reina de Reinas Title. It would also give Natalya a fresh crop of opponents, as her matches in other promotions were essentially inspired by the star wrestling seemingly everyone in WWE.

I would also be remiss if I didn't point out that Faby Apache is also a wildly popular talent, and one that cannot be counted out on Saturday, but Natalya being the foil to Apache in the coming days, weeks, and months feels like a much more likely scenario. Certainly the WINC staff have counted Apache out, as she received no support in the poll, with fully the other 45% of the vote going to Flammer to retain.

Written by Ross Berman

On a card that is largely comprised of WWE vs. AAA match-ups, El Mesias will be defending his AAA Latin American Championship for the fourth time in his roughly 280 days as champion against fellow AAA luchador El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. at TripleManía. Mesias – otherwise known as Mil or King Muertes in Lucha Underground and MLW – and Wagner Jr. have spent time in the ring with one another as opponents in recent months, notably challenging for the TNA X-Division title in a four-way at TripleManía Regia, but this will be the first time that the pair squares off in singles action. 

Although the bout had no bearing on his title reign, Mesias notably defeated Alberto El Patron – former WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio – in a Loser Leaves AAA bout, supposedly drawing an end to the controversial star's time with the promotion recently acquired by WWE's parent, TKO. Considering Del Rio only dropped the AAA Mega Championship to El Hijo Del Vikingo in the build-up to Worlds Collide, that could be considered a significant feather in one's cap. On the other hand, Wagner Jr. has yet to lay his hands on any gold, singles or otherwise, during his stay with AAA. Though, he was representing AAA in trios action on the Worlds Collide card, albeit losing to Legado Del Fantasma alongside Pagano and Psycho Clown. 

With all of that said, the Wrestling Inc. team has given the split-majority to the challenger on this occasion, as 55% predicted Wagner Jr. to dethrone the Latin American Champion. Naturally for a promotion under acquisition, there appears to be a shifting tide in the direction of the product and title changes can be expected. Wagner Jr. already being a name introduced to the WWE audience via Worlds Collide, combined with the fact that TripleManía will be airing on WWE's YouTube channel, lends to the idea that he would be a fit for the new direction.

Written by Max Everett

We're predicting a very WWE win-heavy TripleManía, and that's the case for the AAA World Tag Team Championships as well. A total of 55% of us who cast our prediction for the big event in Mexico City on Saturday believe that Los Garza, Angel and Berto, are keeping the titles around their waists and winning the street fight. The team won the belts, the first time they've ever held gold in their WWE careers, at AAA TripleManía Regia back in June.

Los Garza are facing Pagano and Psycho Clown, and while both AAA stars got over huge with fans at Worlds Collide when they teamed with El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. to take on Legado Del Fantasma, also back in June, we don't think Angel and Berto are dropping the titles to them just yet. WWE seems to be trying to cement their stars heavily into AAA, or at least we believe so, which is pretty obvious in our predictions for the show, and Los Garza were the first to really make their mark in Mexico following WWE's acquisition of AAA.

The street fight should prove to be a brutal match, with Pagano and Psycho Clown looking to get revenge on Los Garza after the men claimed that AAA had become a circus and they were what's wrong with Lucha libre. Angel and Berto, however, are going to use the weapons in and around the ring to prove to their opponents, and the fans in Mexico, that they are the real deal. Even though we're almost directly split down the middle at 55% in our predictions, more of us believe it's Los Garza getting the win here.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The Judgment Day is kind of like the oil in the lamp that inspired the Hannukkah traditions: A thin premise for a faction that has somehow been burning for roughly three years now, and seems to have no end in sight.

On Saturday, Judgment Day's Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, and Raquel Rodriguez will take on the wildly popular Mr. Iguana, Nino Hamburguesa, and Lola Vice in a mixed trios match, and -while Mr. Iguana has been one of the surprise hits of the summer, and Lola Vice is a budding prospect on NXT- it seems like the match is The Judgment Day's to lose. The team is simply too dominant to stop, and with Dominik Mysterio competing in the main event, it feels like the group is a tentpole part of Saturday's festivities.

It is only a narrow margin, as a win for Mr. Iguana and co. would be a nice boost for the Mexico City crowd, and would possibly earn Iguana and Hamburguesa a world tag title opportunity in the future, but Judgment Day still feel like the favorites, especially as WWE will want to make their stars look competitive against the AAA stars on AAA's home turf. This show will be as much about WWE lifting its leg on AAA as it will be about anything else.

Written by Ross Berman

El Hijo Del Vikingo is due to make his third defense of the AAA Mega Championship against three challengers at TripleManía, with WWE's Dragon Lee, Dominik Mysterio, and one of the El Grande Americanos challenging in a four-way. Vikingo became the champion in the lead-in to Worlds Collide, dethroning Alberto El Patron and defending the title on the event against Chad Gable. He has since defended the title once more over El Patron in a steel cage match, but then became the target of Mysterio's bid for another singles title when he attacked him during July's AAA Alianzas show, posing with both the AAA Mega and WWE Intercontinental titles and putting the wheels in motion for some to visualize him as the eventual holder of the belt. 

Of course, the addition of two new competitors creates the scope for slips, spills, and an entirely different champion. But that hasn't done much to dissuade the Wrestling Inc. staff from backing El Hijo Del Mysterio to walk away with the title his father never had a chance to hold. 

55% of the vote went the way of Mysterio, 27% backed Vikingo to retain the title, and a respective 9% had either Lee or El Grande Americano to claim the belt on the night. In the latter case, that would make for an interesting situation, considering four different wrestlers have donned the Americano mask since the character debuted, and the one due to compete at TripleManía is not the original iteration but rather a stand-in (Ludwig Kaiser). There's been speculation for some time now that Mysterio could become AAA Mega Champion, and while the fact that he's still WWE Intercontinental Champion might make it less likely, a narrow majority of the WINC staff still sees Dirty Dom becoming the face of AAA.

Written by Max Everett