Triple H Promises To “Grow Lucha Libre” After AAA Capture
Triple H believes it’s an exciting time for Lucha Libre.
24 years on from Vince McMahon’s purchase of WCW, WWE has announced the acquisition of the famous Mexican Promotion AAA. Michael Cole broke the news during the WrestleMania 41 pre-show, shortly after a new Worlds Collide event involving talent from NXT and AAA was announced.
Several of WWE’s Mexican stars were on hand when the news was broken, alongside AAA President Marisela Pena and breakout star Vikingo.
Vikingo later got involved in the show, kicking El Grande Americano in the head while at ringside before helping Rey Fenix to his feet following the match.
Triple H Looking To The Future
The announcement has sent shockwaves through the world of professional wrestling, and for many came completely out of the blue.
During the post-show press conference, Triple H gave more details on the acquisition and professed his love for Lucha Libre.
“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,”
When asked by Contralona’s Joel Torres about his goals for the promotion and plans moving forward, the WWE boss broke down how it will slot into the wider WWE model.
“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.”
When WrestleMania finally got underway, Jey Uso defeated Gunther to claim the World Heavyweight Championship before Tiffany Stratton beat Charlotte Flair to retain the Women’s Title.
In the main event, Paul Heyman betrayed both CM Punk and Roman Reigns to align with Seth Rollins, helping his new charge to victory.
H/t to Fightful