The purchase of AAA Lucha Libre by TKO and Fillip, a Mexican private equity firm, was announced on Sunday during WWE’s WrestleMania pay-per-view.
The Cubs Fan, the longtime writer and publisher at Luchablog, said there are many points of contention involving the sale. AAA was floundering the last 10 years showcasing a more American style product. And there are bigger issues such as Stephanie Vaquer, whose ex-boyfriend, El Cuatrero (Rogelio Reyes) served two years in jail on a femicide and domestic violence case after he was accused of assaulting her in 2023. He is out on bail while the case remains open, and was at AAA’s last show in Mexico City.
Vaquer is one of WWE’s rising stars. She made her WWE Raw debut on Netflix on Monday, the night after WrestleMania. TCF said he sees Vaquer staying in the United States for now with WWE’s American brands. El Cuatrero is a major star in Mexico, along with his brother Sanson as well as some of their allies in the industry.
“For the WWE part of her career, I don’t think this will affect her at all. She was on Raw on Monday night, and while she isn’t on the main roster now she will be soon. But the other people involved are from very famous wrestling families in Mexico. They’re big stars themselves. At some point, whoever is in charge of AAA, will have to make a decision – do you bring in Vaquer, who is this huge star in WWE or do you keep her away? Someone is going to have a tough decision to make and some people are going to be very angry.”
Another issue for WWE is Alberto Del Rio – he was one of 15 wrestlers under contract with the company when it was purchased by TKO and Fillip. TCF said AAA has built its promotion around Del Rio over the last year, which climaxed in August when he defeated Nic Nemeth for the promotion’s biggest title. Del Rio was indicted in Texas on aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault charges in 2020. After several trial delays, the charges were dropped.
With the shadow of both civil and criminal allegations of sex assault and sex trafficking against former WWE owner Vince McMahon, Del Rio is another roster decision WWE has to contend with. TKO has handled sexual harassment allegations against top people in different ways. McMahon resigned while John Laurinaitis was fired. Executive Producer Lee Fitting has remained with the company, which made no comment after an investigation with The Athletic revealed he was fired from ESPN and the Gameday college football preview show over sexual harassment allegations.
“The last year of AAA has been booked where Alberto is the center of the universe,” TCF said. “They’ve been trying to rehab his image in the hopes he can get one more run in a top American promotion. They have to keep him around for the short term because of upcoming matches and announcements.
“It’s interesing they brought in Vikingo for the announcement and for the Rey Fenix match, but they didn’t mention Alberto who is champion.”
Major obstacles ahead for WWE in Mexico
TCF said running Mexico has been difficult for AAA for the last decade. It’s also difficult to find creative talent. Konnan, the legendary luchadore who became famous in America during the 1990s as part of WCW’s popularity explosion, has booked the company since 2017, but has been absent at times due to health issues. TCF said he’s spent still head of creative but usually helps book using Microsoft Teams and hasn’t been to a TV taping in eight months.
He believes WWE may hire familiar faces to promote AAA as being authentic lucha, but he doubts they would be running things behind the scenes or have any hand in creative.
“It’s a problem in Mexico in general,’ TCF said. “There’s not a lot of creative people you can bring in. Konnan has been with AAA since 2017, with the exception of one year. The same people have ran CMLL for the last 30 years. There’s no Jim Cornette or Bill Wats you can pull off the sideline who has credibility and experience.”
TCF said getting fans to trust a WWE-ran AAA will be difficult. Aligning with Fillip should help, but in a post on Luchablog on Tuesday, TCF said it’s not known who he majority partner is in the acquisition.
“It’s an interesting story,” TCF said. “Even in the press releases, sometimes they mention TKO as purchasing the company, sometimes it’s mentioned as an alliance. From what I heard in rumors before the announcement, a third-party was expected to take over the company with WWE manging it and owning a smaller share. I believe Fillip may end up owning the majority but I don’t have that reported.”
The biggest challenge for a TKO-ran AAA is the culture differences and WWE’s own history with Mexican and Latino wrestlers. TCF said getting into Mexico and buying AAA was important for them to compete in the growing Latino demographic in the United States and this has been something the company has prioritized.
But the lack of major star success for Latinos and Mexican wrestlers in WWE will be a hard obstacle for the company to overcome because of its past booking on its own shows in the US.
“There’s a lot of trepidation and I think it’s fair,” TCF said. “It’s WWE doing something they’re not used to doing. AAA has promoted itself as a part of the country’s culture over the years, which puts more pressure on WWE. Fillip brings Mexican involvement but they don’t have much of a public presence and they work behind the scenes with money people. I’ve read speculation that it would be called NXT Mexico and I think that would be a mistake. If they’re going to bring in a complete WWE product in, there could be a market for that but not like the size of a market for a traditional lucha libre company.”
Luchablog and WrestleVotes broke news over the weekend that NXT and AAA would host a When World’s Collide pay-per-view in the coming months. This news emerged a day before the sale became public. TCF said AAA has a lot of young talent, but has lost much of its veteran mid-card to AEW and other companies, which could be challenge for the company if it were to do a full US television show with just its roster.
The full audio of The Cubs Fan’s interview can be heard at B.J. Bethel “Interviews Everyone” Podcast on Substack. Bethel interviewed NFL Scout “Big C” Carlos Holmes to discuss this week’s NFL draft earlier in the week.
