Saptarshi Sinha on January 21, 2023
Dragon Lee and Dralistico won the AAA Tag Team Championship from FTR at Noche de Campeones last month. Immediately after the victory, Lee announced that they were vacating the titles because he had signed a contract with WWE. The deal makes Lee the highest-paid star in WWE NXT. WWE has been an island to themselves for the history of the company, but a change in the company’s creative direction could always cause that policy to shift as well.
The news caused people to speculate whether AAA’s relationship with AEW was weakening. Giving away one of the most promising stars to WWE so discreetly is something that could taint AAA’s working relationship with AEW forever.
In a recent interview with Wrestling Inc., Konnan revealed whether there had been any conversations about a working relationship between him and WWE Head Of Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
“No. I’ve never talked to Hunter personally, but through other channels. There’s been an interest in doing something. Now, this is very telling. For around, I’m not kidding, 15 years plus, I would ask Rey [Mysterio], almost like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football every year, I would ask Rey to ask Vince [McMahon] if he could send a promo for our TripleMania show, or show up. And the answer was always no.
And this last year, which was a special year, 30 years, and I was getting an award in Tijuana, the promotion that discovered Rey in the city that he first trained, in the city where he lives and represents, for the guy that’s his best friend, and the answer was still no. And I was like, ‘Motherf*cker, how does this, in any way, hurt you?'”
While WWE had high extremely lofty boundaries under Vince McMahon’s regime, things changed when Triple H became the one to ask for permission.
“He only asked [Levesque] once. [Levesque] said yes. He sent the video to open up TripleMania this year, and bro, it was a humongous pop.”
WWE and AAA previously had a working relationship in 1997, as an answer to WCW’s relationship with Konnan and Promo Azteca. That relationship only last a few months.
“The second thing, Hunter sent a Spanish digital crew and film cameras to record when Dragon Lee, which is Rush’s brother, who’s a hell of a talent, he’s going to kill it in ‘NXT. When Dragon Lee announced that he was going to WWE, that had never been done before. Hunter gets it, he gets that you got to play with others and have relationships, where Vince was like an island unto himself and didn’t play well with others.”
While it seemed that WWE was slowly kicking down the Forbidden Door, especially after the Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Great Muta match at Pro Wrestling NOAH, Vince McMahon’s return could change whatever progress Triple H had made with regard to establishing a working relationship with rival companies. We will have to see what’s next in this situation, because a lot of people are paying close attention to the always-changing landscape in WWE.
What’s your take on this situation with WWE and AAA? Sound off in the comments!
January 21, 2023 3:04 pm
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