Triplemanía I (Referred to as just "Triplemanía" the first year) was the first ever Triplemanía lucha libre, or professional wrestling show promoted by Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). The show took place on April 30, 1993 in Mexico City, Mexico's Plaza de Toros bullfighting arena. The Main event featured a "Retirement" match between Konnan and Cien Caras, where the storyline was that the person that lost would have to retire from professional wrestling. The match was billed as the first time such a stipulation had ever been used in Lucha Libre, while it was rare, retirement matches had happened in Mexico before that time. The semi-main event featured the zenith of the storyline feud between Perro Aguayo and Máscara Año 2000 as the two fought in a Lucha de Apuestas, or bet match, where Aguayo put his hair on the line and Máscara Año 2000 bet his wrestling mask on the outcome of the match.
The show was the first major show for AAA, taking place just short of a year after Antonio Peña and a number of wrestlers broke away from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) to establish AAA. With time the annual Triplemanía show(s) would become AAA's biggest show of the year, serving as the culmination of major storylines and feature wrestlers from all over the world competing in what has been described as AAA's version of WrestleMania or their Super Bowl event.
Production
Background
In early 1992 Antonio Peña was working as a booker and storyline writer for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), Mexico's largest and the world's oldest wrestling promotion, and was frustrated by CMLL's very conservative approach to lucha libre. He joined forced with a number of younger, very talented wrestlers who felt like CMLL was not giving them recognition they deserved and decided to split from CMLL to create Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). After making a deal with the Televisa television network AAA held their first show in April, 1992. Peña's ideas included playing up the show aspects of wrestling, elaborate entrances, fireworks and shows that would rival those put on by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), particularly their WrestleMania shows. Originally he wanted to hold three shows of that caliber close together, which combined with the nickname for AAA, Triple A, led to him creating the Triplemanía concept. In 1993 they only put on one Triplemanía show but in subsequent years Peña's vision for multiple Triplemanías would come true.
Peña and the AAA management staff booked the Plaza de Toros bullfighting arena for the first Triplemanía event, which was considered a huge financial gamble for a promotion that was not even one year old. The arena could normally accommodate 41,262 spectators for bullfighting, but with additional seats on the actual floor of the arena around the ring the capacity grew to over 48,000.
Storylines
The Triplemanía I event featured eight professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels (referred to as rudos in Mexico, those that portray the "bad guys") or faces (técnicos in Mexico, the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
To help make the show a success Peña relied greatly on the rivalry between Konnan and Cien Caras to sell tickets. Konnan and Cien Carasa had been rivals back when both were in CMLL, in fact Konnan had defeated Cien Caras in a tournament final to become the first CMLL World Heavyweight Champion and Caras had later won the title from Konnan, holding the title when they both jumped from CMLL to AAA. The two had previously wrestled each other in the main event of the EMLL 58th Anniversary Show and the rivalry was a natural one between the charismatic tecnico Konnan and the cheating rudo Cien Caras, especially when he brought his brothers Universo 2000 and Máscara Año 2000 to help him gain an unfair advantage during matches. With his growing popularity Konnan was offered several roles on TV and had hopes of pursuing an acting career, which led to Peña and Konnan devising the idea of a "retirement match" stipulation for the Triplemanía main event. It was billed as if it was the first time ever such a stipulation had been used in Mexico, which was more a work of marketing than fact but was a stipulation that helped sell out the Plaza del Toros stadium.