More on WWE’s Acquisition Deal for Lucha Libre AAA, Triple H on WWE Acquiring AAA

More on WWE’s Acquisition Deal for Lucha Libre AAA

As noted before, WWE announced during Saturday’s Countdown to WrestleMania 41 pre-show in Las Vegas, Nevada that they have officially acquired Lucha Libre AAA. WWE also confirmed a new Worlds Collide event will be taking place this June featuring NXT and AAA talent.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that there had been talks about AAA trying to find new partners for years after their AEW partnership ended. Those spoken to stated that once the WWE-TKO merger happened, discussions about that potential new partner being WWE started to pick up and there were talks between the two sides for quite some time.

It was reported that WWE’s acquisition deal for AAA had been kept under wraps prior to the announcement while the deal itself is believed to have been finalized after AEW and CMLL’s announcement of a co-promoted Grand Slam Mexico event.

In regards to the status of current AAA Mega Champion Alberto El Patron, former Alberto Del Rio in WWE, it was reported that WWE officials had given a “hard no” on working with El Patron again due to him being the subject of much controversy through his career and allegations of abuse in his personal life. Those close to El Patron spoken to reportedly claimed that El Patron has said otherwise and the two sides had talked about possible future appearances in WWE. El Patron reportedly claimed that his relationship with WWE was no longer “contentious.”

In a follow-up report, Fightful reported that AAA talents spoken to stated that they had heard of rumors of a relationship with WWE. Those spoken to reportedly stated that they had thought WWE officials would be at AAA’s most recent television tapings to confirm it but that did not happen.

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Triple H Comments on WWE Acquiring AAA

Following Saturday’s WWE WrestleMania 41 Night 1 event, WWE held a post-show press conference featuring WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque as one of the guests. One of the topics discussed included Levesque’s thoughts about WWE’s acquisition deal for AAA.

“Very exciting time for us. Very exciting opportunity, I think, for us to continue to grow Lucha Libre. It’s woven into the fabric of the culture. It resonates with everybody. It’s impressive to see. We want to make sure that not only exists, but continues to thrive and continues to grow. I’m a big fan of lucha as a style. I think having all styles is incredibly valuable. Obviously, we have a particular one that we like to do with WWE, but that does not mean we’re looking to massively revamp anything. I’m looking to keep traditional Lucha Libre as traditional Lucha Libre within that world and just help it to grow, and help the athletes who grew up fans of it in those markets to realize their dream, just like we’re helping to do in the US. That will be our goal globally. To have the best of the best from around the world, and we will continue to do that. Very excited about that.”

Levesque also gave his thoughts about WWE’s goals for their acquisition deal going forward and his plans to use AAA as a platform to help talents become globally recognized entities and grow Lucha Libre.

“The intent is to grow it and grow Lucha Libre. It has such a cultural impact in South American, Central America, Mexico. Then, you come into the United States, there was a New York Times article where they talked about the power of Lucha Libre and what it means, especially in markets in the US like [Los Angeles]. The intent is to grow it, to grow that brand. NXT started [small] and over time it became massive. When done right. Shawn [Michaels] mentioned it last night; when you look at WrestleMania now, most of it came directly out of NXT. A large percentage of it. That’s the success of it. Mexico, AAA, Lucha Libre, it opens up the door for those athletes as well to not only grow to be the biggest thing in lucha, but if their desires are to go beyond that.

You can call it what you want, sport, sports entertainment, what we do is the greatest form of that entertainment in the world. It’s a global thing. There are places in the world where it is culturally significant to them. We’re not looking to take away from that culturally significant product, we’re looking to enhance it, to grow it, to make it bigger. To give opportunities for talent to grow beyond that and become worldwide celebrities as opposed to, not that there is anything wrong with it, but as opposed to a certain genre of something. There is room for everybody. As people grow through their careers, they don’t have to stay in one place. From a learning standpoint, to learn different styles and techniques, it’s important and it’s powerful for us to be in those markets and to be able to grow our talent in that manner.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com