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WWE acquired Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) ahead of WrestleMania 41 in 2025 and the Mexican promotion’s growth over the past year might be one of the underrated stories in professional wrestling over the past 15 months.
AAA attracted a lot of attention with the build-up to their Mask vs. Mask between El Grande Americano and Original El Grande Americano, Worlds Collide in June 2025 was a great way to reintroduce Lucha Libre to an American audience and TripleMania will be a two-night event for the first time in the company’s history.
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El Grande Americano enters the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb., accompanied by Rayo Americano and Bravo Americano on Monday Night RAW on May 4, 2026. (Georgina Dallas/WWE)
“I think it’s the most popular show in the world right now. It’s incredible. They have incredible characters,” WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield told PK Press Club Digital in a recent interview.
He remembers working in Mexico early in his career and how incredible the energy was in the country when he performed there.
“I was going there and working and people have been thinking since then that if Lucha Libre ever took off, like I always say it’s a sleeping giant, I think what people are now starting to see what we’ve known all along about Lucha Libre is just fantastic. There’s some incredible characters. There’s incredible passion, especially with the Mexican fans. I’ve always loved working there. I always say you have to work in a few arenas to make it in the life You have to work at the Sportatorium, you have to work at the Staples Center, you have to work at the Garden, you have to work at Budokan, you have to work at Earls Court – everywhere in Mexico, it’s like that.
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JBL makes his entrance during WWE RAW at the American Airlines Center on January 20, 2025 in Dallas, Texas. (WWE/Getty Images)
“It’s just incredible. The passion of the people there – I love it. And I just think AAA has done an incredible job. Jeremy Borash, who is incredibly talented, Undertaker, who is a good friend of mine and also a very smart guy, I think they’ve just done an incredible job with the product.”
Mask vs. Mask was one of the first major successes since the WWE acquisition was announced.
This saw El Grande Americano defeat Original El Grande Americano, who was later revealed to be Chad Gable. The match had everything a professional wrestling fan could want: incredible characters, an exciting build, and one of the best matches of the year.
Bradshaw said there were two matches he had seen in his career that he thought the men in the ring were practicing a “different art form.” – Fit Finlay vs. Tony St. Clair in Europe and Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. He said the Mask vs. Mask match was pretty much the same.
“I felt the same way with Mask vs. Mask. I never thought I’d see another match (like that),” Bradshaw said. “I was hoping I would, but I don’t know if I’ll ever see a match like the one I saw with Finlay and St. Clair and Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. I would put it in that category. I just thought it was absolutely incredible. The passion, the emotion that went with it. It all worked.”
Today, El Grande Americano has a new challenge: the revitalization of Los Perros del Mal.
The group recently reformed with Daga, Angel, Berto, Bronco Nima and Karmen Petrovic who have been wreaking havoc on the AAA roster.
Bradshaw said he can’t wait to see where the new story goes.
Karmen Petrovic attends NXT at WWE Performance Center on June 30, 2026 in Orlando, Florida. (Conor Kvatek/WWE via Getty Images)
“It’s killing me with Los Perros del Mal. It’s kind of like an episodic TV show like ‘The Walking Dead,’ when the governor dies and it’s like, ‘What are you going to do now?’ And then all of a sudden you have a new villain,” he told PK Press Club Digital. “The first day of the next season and you’re like, ‘Oh great! This is awesome.’ I watch “Blacklist” and as soon as they get rid of one bad guy, another one comes along. …And you think about what could top that?
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“As soon as we’re done with Mask vs. Mask, Jeremy Borash starts bringing back Los Perros del Mal – this incredible band. That visual of them there, I just thought, my God, man, this is awesome. Now we have something for, I don’t know how long, next year or however long it is. But it’s an incredible new journey that this is going to be like for El Grande Americano.”
