Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (often shortened to AAA, an abbreviation of its original name Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, Spanish for "Assistance, Assessment, and Administration") is a Mexican lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City, Mexico. Founded in 1992 when Antonio Peña broke away from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) to set up a promotion, which allowed him more creative freedom, AAA has held a number of pay-per-views (PPV) over the years and has promoted shows not just in Mexico but in the United States and Japan as well.
The promotion utilizes both a hexagonal and the more conventional four-sided wrestling ring and has a reputation for its outlandish gimmicks and characters as well as having developed a more extreme match style over the last couple of years. Over the years AAA has worked together with several North American promotions such as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling, while currently having a working relationship with Japan-based Pro Wrestling Noah, US-based Impact Wrestling and the Canadian-based International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS).
Video Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide
History
AAA dates from May 15, 1992, when Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) booker Antonio Peña broke with the company in favor of establishing his own group along with Konnan and much of the young and exciting talent from CMLL. This left CMLL with a middle-aged roster and a seemingly bleak future. AAA also looked for talent from other markets, as they found and signed Tijuana natives Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Psicosis. The promotion flourished with top talent like El Hijo del Santo, Octagón, Blue Panther, the Casas brothers (Negro Casas and Heavy Metal) and possessed top draws in Los Gringos Locos, Cien Caras, Konnan, and Perro Aguayo. The rising popularity of AAA soon caused rival Universal Wrestling Association to go out of business, and Peña quickly signed up top draws including El Canek, Dos Caras and Los Villanos.
AAA's "golden years" (from 1993-1995) peaked with the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view, promoted in conjunction with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and broadcast in the United States in 1994. Weeks after the show, Art Barr (a key member of Los Gringos Locos) died while visiting his family. As a result, AAA vacated the AAA Tag Team Championships, and this led to the departure of fellow stable-mates (in Los Gringos Locos) Eddie Guerrero and Madonna's Boyfriend. El Hijo del Santo also departed as a result of creative problems, and stars such as Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther soon left too when the Mexican economy began to slow down (which resulted in the company's inability to offer as much work). Many wrestlers, including Rey Misterio, Jr., Psicosis, La Parka, and Juventud Guerrera, would also depart to WCW in 1996, as well as Konnan's short-lived Promo Azteca promotion. In early 1997, AAA established a working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation, but the only significant outcome resulted in several luchadores featuring in the 1997 Royal Rumble. In the mid-1990s the name of the company was changed to simply be "AAA", pronounced "Triple A" as the company bought out Televisa and became independent. In March 2015 the company announced that it would be known as "Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide" from that point on, although it is still referred to mainly as AAA or "Triple A".
AAA broadcasts shows regularly on Gala TV in Mexico and Univision TDN in Mexico and parts of the United States.
On October 6, 2006, founder Antonio Peña died of a heart attack. Following Peña's death his sister Marisela manages AAA financially, while Peña's brother-in-law Joaquín Roldán and his son, Dorian Roldán serve as operational managers. In 2008 Lucha Libre USA presented AAA's second U.S. pay-per-view, Legendary Battles of Triplemania. In 2009 AAA announced the official release of a video game originally entitled AAA El Videojuego. The game was later retitled Lucha Libre AAA: Héroes del Ring by the publisher of the game, with a release date of October 12, 2010.
AAA developed a working relationship with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2004. Through the relationship, AAA sent the luchadores Juventud Guerrera, Héctor Garza, Abismo Negro, Heavy Metal, and Mr. Águila to TNA to compete in the America's X-Cup Tournament as a contingent known as Team Mexico. Team Mexico dominated the America's X-Cup Tournament, defeating Team USA in the first round before retaining the Cup against both Team Canada and Team Britain. They eventually lost at the World X-Cup, which saw Team USA defeat Team Canada and Team Mexico in the Ultimate X finals to win the Cup. For multiple reasons TNA and AAA broke off their working relationship late in 2004. TNA continued utilizing luchadores, but opted to contract them individually as opposed to working through AAA.In 2006, AAA and TNA worked again for an event in Toreo de Cuatro Caminos, utilizing some of TNA's talent and stage (which includes the tunnel and lasers). After Konnan left TNA in June 2007 any chance of a working relationship disappeared especially given that Konnan has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against TNA, later dismissed. Afterwards TNA started a working relationship with AAA's rival CMLL. However, in February 2010 the companies once again began a working relationship and started exchanging talent.
In April 2014, after Jeff Jarrett, the man behind the AAA-TNA relationship, had left TNA, he announced that his new Global Force Wrestling (GFW) was now working with the Mexican promotion. When Jarrett returned to TNA (then known as Impact Wrestling, prior to merging with GFW later that year) in 2017, it was announced that AAA and Impact would once again be working together.
On January 12, 2014, it was announced that, with the backing of Mark Burnett, AAA would begin airing a show on American network El Rey on the second half of the year. The one-hour weekly program would be accompanied by monthly and quarterly specials as well as live pay-per-views. The show, titled Lucha Underground, premiered on October 29, 2014.
On July 4, 2015, Canadian-based International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) announced a talent partnership with AAA and Lucha Underground.
On April 8, 2017, AAA General Manager Joaquín Roldán died.
On 14 June, AAA began airing on FrontRunnerTV in the UK.
Maps Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide
Shows and tournaments
Each year AAA promotes a number of signature events and tournaments: some shown as pay-per-view events and others presented as Televisa television specials. The annual shows and tournaments, shown in order of occurrence during each year, include:
Special tournaments
Championships
Since its inception AAA has placed very few restrictions on the number of championships it promotes, often allowing wrestlers to defend titles that do not technically belong within AAA, such as titles from the now defunct Universal Wrestling Association. While they allowed these to be defended and used to promote their wrestlers they're not officially listed as AAA titles and thus do not appear on this list. In December 2008 AAA announced it they will no longer recognize or promote any title that does not belong to AAA - ending the long-standing practice.
Active AAA championships
Other accomplishments
Inactive championships
See also
- List of professional wrestling promotions in Mexico
- Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide roster
- AAA Hall of Fame
Notes
References
- Guerrero, Eddie (2005). Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-9353-2.
External links
- Official website
- AAA at Galavisión
- AAA Title Histories
Source of article : Wikipedia
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