What began as a joke ended with one of the most memorable main events in WWE’s recent history when Chad Gable was unmasked at Noche de Los Grandes.
Saturday’s performance by Ludwig Kaiser and Chad Gable as the dueling El Grande Americano characters set itself apart from any WWE performance this year, presenting an all-time company classic, and surely will gain praise during award season at the end of the year.
Arena Monterrey was the setting for a molten hot crowd, providing the atmosphere for a 33+ minute roller coaster over a one-hour presentation, achieving an emotional peak rarely demonstrated. In a year where the story of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement sendoff felt like it would have no equal, this match did its best to make it a two-horse race.
Kaiser may have won the match and left with Andrea Bazarte, but this night turned into a Chad Gable appreciation night between the lead-up, the work throughout the match, and a post-match ceremony that will surely be the highlight of his career. At 40, it was hard not to watch this presentation and wonder what the last decade of Gable’s career could have been if he were several inches taller under a Vince McMahon-led WWE.
It was appropriate that the match ended right as the clock struck midnight on the East Coast, and whether this Cinderella run ends for Gable and he wakes up in his mid-card role on Raw, or can be capitalized upon for a real run at something of significance.
Any fan observing the El Grande Americano story on both AAA and Raw over the past months would have vertigo from their head spinning with the feud presented in two detached universes. In AAA, this became the hottest program on the show, with Kaiser’s version elevated to a top-tier babyface, adopted by the Mexican fanbase, and fighting on behalf of those people. On Raw, this was an undercard comedy program, in front of lifeless audiences, with Gable as the aggrieved party and Kaiser plagiarising the gimmick. Somehow, Corey Graces had to make sense of it by calling both versions.
The show represented the highest peak for AAA since WWE’s takeover of the promotion last year and the culmination of a long build-up toward the unmasking. Its weekly television show has found an audience, albeit mainly an online one, with a TV deal in Mexico but larger hopes of landing a sizable deal in the U.S. It’s not like high-paying television and streaming contracts are falling out of the sky for professional wrestling, and it comes as wrestling fans are spread thin with available hours to watch more professional wrestling. Last week alone featured 23 hours of WWE and AEW programming (excluding AAA, ROH, and WWE on A&E), and explains why consumption of secondary promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling, TNA, Ring of Honor, and yes, AAA is going to have a harder time finding weekly audiences in high volume.
It’s a very different AAA than the Marisela Pena and Dorian Roldan-run version. Saturday’s show featured two main roster characters fighting over their masks and titles won by Rey Fenix and the War Raiders, with a clear stamp of WWE contracted talent being the prime focus. The audience is hungry for any stars with WWE exposure, adding an atmosphere not just for the big shows, but also for all the television that makes all the stars appear larger.
At its peak, Noche de Los Grandes had over 300,000 live viewers across its English & Español feeds on YouTube, with the show currently showing 1.7 million views. The word of mouth could not be stronger and will become the event that TripleMania is judged against when AAA aims for its next promotional peak in September.
TripleMania and WWE’s attack on the Mexican market became a noteworthy story after the announcement of a four-show tour in September, including television dates. The key being that WWE will run SmackDown, Raw, and one night of TripleMania in Mexico City over four nights, occurring one week before CMLL’s Anniversario card on September 18.
Friday Night SmackDown airs from Arena Ciudad on September 11 as a lead-in to the first night of TripleMania 34, now scheduled for The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. The second night of TripleMania is at Arena Ciudad on September 13, with Raw on September 14 at the same arena. Will this affect CMLL’s Annversario card? It is guaranteed that CMLL’s biggest show of the year will sell out, which is a rarity for the promotion not to sell out on a Friday night, or even on Saturday at Arena Coliseo, as CMLL continues an unmatched run of drawing dominance. But it’s a signal of WWE’s focus on the market and showing a clear aim by moving TripleMania so close to the Anniversario card (rather than Grand Slam Mexico as its target) and loading up with main roster shows and charging main roster ticket prices for the fanbase to show fans that the major league product is WWE and everything else is secondary. It’s a long-term play at perception, but it’s going against the longest-running promotional entity in pro wrestling history with deeply embedded roots within the culture.
There are multiple strategies at play, but the goal is to sell another hour of pro wrestling programming at a premium rate, and that means attracting a U.S. or worldwide distributor. WWE’s ownership of AAA is not limited to being a ticket-selling business only; otherwise, TripleMania would be running a 16,000-seat venue instead of 1,000 in Las Vegas. But there is a perception play against CMLL, and in the lead-up to its biggest show of the year, a lot of coverage will be aimed at WWE coming to town and forcing some fans to choose where they spend their money.
Whether it’s WWE’s control of AAA, New Japan’s recent sale, or TNA’s partnership with WWE, the wrestling world is getting smaller in terms of those that control the operations. The secondary groups can either fight the tide of the big entities or partner up, risk compromising their identity, but have the backing necessary to compete, while accepting their role as secondary. AAA chose the latter, and it’s been a well-received product after a year of operation, but still in the developmental period of where AAA will sit among WWE’s properties in the years to come.
Saturday’s main event was an example of what can be achieved with a different style and flavor, taking two discarded characters on the main roster and turning them into the biggest stars in the industry for one night.
