Mask vs. Mask: El Grande Americano vs. Original El Grande Americano5 of 6<\/p>\n
Last Time in Action: El Grande Americano and Los Americanos defeated Original El Grande Americano and Los Americanos Hermanos (Raw, May 18)<\/p>\n
The best ongoing story in professional wrestling wrote its final chapter Saturday night in the much-anticipated Mask vs. Mask match as El Grande Americano squared off with the Original El Grande Americano (OG for the sake of this recap).<\/p>\n
The heel attacked El Grande Americano from the opening bell with a guitar shot before laying into him with a flurry of rights and lefts to the dismay of the fans. The babyface fired back up and fended his opponent off, surviving a collision with the ring post and delivering a Death Valley Driver on the floor.<\/p>\n
In a moment that drew the biggest heel heat of the match so far, the OG ripped and tore at Americano’s mask, only for the babyface to drive him through a table. The heel recovered, first applying an ankle lock, then dumping Americano with a German suplex.<\/p>\n
The action intensified at ringside, where the OG continued his brutal assault on his opponent, punishing him as fans chanted in support of their favorite wrestler, hoping to will him back into the match.<\/p>\n
The babyface fired off a tremendous comeback, daring his opponent to bring more, then rocking him with a suplex of his own. He turned to the crowd to help energize him, and they did. He ripped and tore at his opponent’s mask, then sent him face-first into the ring steps. <\/p>\n
Despite being busted open, the OG countered a steel chair attack with a German suplex. Americano recovered and caught his opponent with a steel chair, only for Los Hermanos de Americanos to make the save. Julio and Bruto pulled the babyface to the floor and drove him through the announce table.<\/p>\n
The heel delivered a diving headbutt, but Americano kicked out at two in a dramatic near-fall. Rayo and Bravo hit the ringside area, fighting off Julio and Bruto. Bravo dove out of the audience and onto the mass of competitors below as the crowd again broke out into “esto es lucha” chants. <\/p>\n
Comedian Ojitos de Huevo hit the OG with a walking cane, and Pimpinela Escarlata returned to lay out the heel. Still, he refused to stay down, even after a running headbutt from Americano.<\/p>\n
The heel recovered and utilized a bullrope, brutalizing his opponent with it. As the OG choked Americano in the ropes, the babyface’s girlfriend, Andrea Bazarte, appeared and provided the motivation needed for Americano to turn the tables.<\/p>\n
Neither the ankle lock nor the Chaos Theory could keep Americano down. He fought back, delivered the running headbutt, and finally put the OG down for the win.<\/p>\n
After the match, the OG unmasked to reveal himself (unsurprisingly) to be Chad Gable. Bloodied but gracious, he cut a babyface promo, introduced the fans to his family, and promised to return to AAA before leaving the ring to Americano.<\/p>\n
Americano defeated the OG Americano<\/p>\n
\nThe reaction for Americano was otherworldly. He entered the arena as a cultural hero, despite being a German-born wrestler, and that is a testament to Ludwig Kaiser throwing himself into the character and embracing Mexico and its fans. Their love for him made for one of the most incredible atmospheres for a WWE match in years.<\/p>\n
This was pure cinema. A brilliant, hard-fought match with an abundance of drama, logical run-ins, blood, a little romance, and a definitive finish. JBL repeatedly referred to the match as a “defining moment” for the winner, but this was a career moment for both participants, something each man should be incredibly proud of. They had the weight of the world on their shoulders to deliver a match befitting all of the hype and creative build that went into it, and they succeeded. A Match of the Year contender for AAA and WWE as a whole\n<\/p>\n
\nGable was a total babyface after the match, earning chants of “thank you, Gable” from the fans. He delivered in his role and added gravity to his opponent’s victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mask vs. Mask: El Grande Americano vs. Original El Grande Americano5 of 6 Last Time in Action: El…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-705254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}