Backstage Update On CMLL’s Response To WWE-AAA Deal

WWE’s acquisition of Mexican promotion AAA is one of the biggest wrestling news stories to come out of Mexico in a number of years. Many fans, wrestlers, and media insiders are still unsure as to what the future holds for AAA, and Lucha Libre as a whole, but in a special column posted on Figure Four Weekly, Dave Meltzer was able to give some insight into what AAA’s main rival, CMLL, thinks of the deal, and what they will be doing in the near future.

Relaying the thoughts of Superluchas’ Ernesto Ocampo, when talking about the list of AAA talent that have reportedly signed some sort of deal with WWE already, Meltzer explained that WWE is also looking to bring in some of CMLL’s top talent as well. CMLL are reportedly not going to make changes to their current wrestler’s contracts, something that both Ocampo and Meltzer see as a major red flag as they are leaving themselves at the mercy of whatever WWE wants to do in Mexico, and leaves them in a similar situation that happened with Stephanie Vaquer following the AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view in 2024, who ended up leaving CMLL just a few days after the event after WWE had offered her a contract.

On the topic of AEW, they will be running a number of events with CMLL in mid-June, with the most noteworthy being the Grand Slam Mexico edition of “AEW Dynamite” that will air from Arena Mexico, CMLL’s main venue, on June 18. Meltzer believes that WWE will be watching that show extremely closely, and keeping an eye on any CMLL talent that catches their eye, as he believes that those who do impress WWE will receive an offer from them almost immediately after. Ocampo explained that CMLL need to act immediately regarding their contracts, and formulate a strict schedule with their partners, AEW, NJPW, ROH, and RevPro, so that talent can’t get poached, but amazingly, that hasn’t happened.

Not only are the CMLL contracts not changing, but it seems that the overall direction and vision for CMLL isn’t going to change either. WWE have talked about AAA being a traditional Lucha Libre company, something that Meltzer has disputed many times as AAA is more Americanized than most Mexican companies, and now with WWE in charge, that will only continue to be the vision.

This was something that CMLL had reportedly discussed according to Ocampo, who said that the company wanted to modernized its booking and programming department after several years of sustained growth. However, now that WWE owns AAA, that isn’t going to happen. In fact, Meltzer claims that a number of people in the know in Mexico have said that CMLL is completely fine with WWE’s purchase of AAA as it leaves them as the last remaining true Lucha Libre promotion in Mexico, as opposed to AAA, who Meltzer stated took a number of ideas from the likes of ECW and WCW, two companies AAA had partnerships with in the 1990s, rather than keeping with the traditions of Lucha Libre.

Ocampo explained that CMLL’s thought process was to originally compete with AAA as they will have more money to play with following the deal being complete, but the company now feels that AAA won’t be viewed as authentic by the Mexican fanbase, ultimately leading to their new slogan “Lucha Libre Will Never Die,” something that CMLL were reportedly very excited about. While many traditional American wrestling companies did eventually go out of business, there is a growing feeling that CMLL will be fine as long as they keep to their traditional Lucha Libre values, the fact that they are the oldest wrestling company in the world, and that they are so entrenched culturally, with Arena Mexico itself being a major tourist attraction in Mexico City.