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WCW talent exchanges with AAA (and CMLL?)


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How did this work? I'm watching a match from late '98 involving Silver King and the Villanos in CMLL. But they were also working in WCW at the time, with Silver King in Eddy Guerrero's LWO. But I thought WCW worked with AAA. But then the WWF started working with AAA in early 1997, which adds confusion. Did something change? Is there anywhere that has a good rundown of how all of this worked? And what was Konnan's role in procuring talent?

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I was typing this up as Kris replied. From lucha wiki:

 

 

Promo Azteca was a short-lived promotion based in Mexico. The promotion was originally known as PROMELL promoted by Fuerza Guerrera which cross-promoted with AAA but went their separate ways in 1995. But the promotion changed drastically when Azteca TV bought the promotion with help from Konnan & Jorge Rojas following their fallout with Antonio Pena in 1996. The promotion was intended to be a place for all the wrestlers who had left AAA after joining WCW with Konnan in 1996/97, like Super Calo, La Parka, Psicosis, and Rey Misterio Jr., to wrestle in Mexico while under contract with WCW. Those going to WCW were assured they'd still be able to wrestle in Mexico when WCW didn't need them, and those wrestlers were intended to be the stars of Promo Azteca.

Promo Azteca got it's name from it's television partner, TV Azteca. CMLL and AAA were allied with Televisa, so it was a chance for their main television rival to get into lucha libre.

Despite the fanfare and the stars, the success of Promo Azteca was short lived. WCW, fearing injuries to the wrestlers who were while working elsewhere, later rescinded their promise of allowing them to work both promotions and banned it's wrestlers from working in Promo Azteca. With most of their big stars gone, Promo Azteca struggled and fell apart by the end of 90s.

 

Promo Azteca started co-promoting with CMLL in the latter half of 1998 as the company was going down, so that explains why Silver King and the Villanos worked a few dates for CMLL in that period.

 

Regarding AAA working with the WWF that was a retaliatory move for Konnan breaking away from AAA and taking all the WCW talent with them. The WWF were receptive at the time to work together due to WCW's success using Mexican wrestlers and the need to sell tickets for the San Antonio Alamodome show where the Royal Rumble was held in 1997.

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Jake Roberts had been in AAA before their deal with WWF. I don't know about them expecting to get some wrestlers and getting fake Diesel and Razor instead, but AAA did get mini-Goldust, mini-Mankind and mini-Vader managed by a mini-Paul Bearer.

When I was working on my "Glenn Jacobs: Or How I learned to stop worry and love the demon Kane" piece for B/R, I was so surprised to discover that Fake Diesel had worked Mexico!

 

5/11/97 AAA @ Iguala de la Independencia, Guerrero, Mexico

(Fake) Diesel, Jake Roberts & (Fake) Razor Ramon defeat Cibernetico, El Canek & Latin Lover

 

5/7/97 AAA Sin Limite @ Ciudad y Puerto de Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico

(Fake) Diesel, Fuerza Guerrera & (Fake) Razor Ramon defeat Cibernetico, El Canek & Latin Lover

 

5/1/97 AAA Sin Limite @ Arena Neza in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, Estado de Mexico, Mexico

(Fake) Diesel & (Fake) Razor Ramon defeat Cibernetico & El Canek

 

4/30/97 AAA @ Santiago de Queretaro, Queretaro, Mexico

(Fake) Diesel, Fuerza Guerrera & (Fake) Razor Ramon defeat Cibernetico, El Canek & Latin Lover by DQ

 

3/22/97 AAA Sin Limite @ Victoria de Durango, Durango, Mexico

(Fake) Diesel, Pentagon & (Fake) Razor Ramon defeat Cibernetico, El Canek & Octagon

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Wasn't one of the stories about the WWF-AAA deal, that AAA thought they would be getting Bret Hart, or The Undertaker for a match, but instead got Fake Diesel, Fake Razor Ramon, and Jake "The Snake" Roberts?

 

This is correct. I think there was even a graphic on TV for Bret coming over but instead they got Jake and the two fakes.

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Semi off topic, but Jake's run in AAA circa 1994-ish is probably his last great run before the demons completely took over.

 

It was indeed a fantastic run. I guess it would have been as good but also a much longer feud had it been Funk though (Konnan wanted Funk, Pena didn't even know who he was and he wanted the guy he had seen on WWF TV who he thought was a much bigger star). Funk could have also feuded with Aguayo which may have resulted in a hair vs hair match in between five and ten stars.

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Konnan used WCW dates as the hook to get people in to Promo Azteca. That's one of the reasons why he got apparent CMLL lifers like Silver King, Hector Garza and Dandy to jump. Garza easily came back, SK was eventually forgotten partly thanks to his brother being such a big star, Dandy has never been forgotten.

 

Konnan is a great conman and hustler. A lot of the Mexicans thought that this would be like getting Tijuana Friday night spots or to an extent like New Japan and a different crew of guys would go in every month for a different "tour". Many where upset when they realised the same guys were the only ones being called over and over.

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I thought I read at one point that WCW didn't want guys working Mexico for fear they'd get hurt. However, I know some guys were doing it anyway and just trying not to get caught. Is that likely what happened with Silver King and the Villanos here?

 

Many of the Tijuana guys and independents like the Villanos got away for a very long time working dates secretly. This sounds crazy because there was internet back then but it wasn't the same. I'm sure some of you remember Psicosis rushing to lose his mask in Tijuana for a payday a few weeks before WCW made him drop it.

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