Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre announced today their return to Televisa. The Mexican channel is one of the biggest in the country and previously had an agreement with AAA. CMLL‘s internet streaming might come to an end after the announcement this Tuesday of a new tv deal with Televisa. The company will start to show its Viernes Espectaculares (Arena Mexico Friday shows) starting on March 2. Previously, most Mexican fans watched the Friday night shows through the internet. Moreover, YouTube had almost every re-run of the show after the night of the event. Televisa previously televised AAA shows, but this deal came to an end when the company jumped to TV Azteca. With TV Azteca, AAA got a one-year contract with the television company paying for all of the production. In Televisa, AAA had created practically a tradition on Saturday evenings. The company had a deal that dated back to the 1990s, with Antonio Peña. The latter in charge of TV production for then EMLL (now CMLL), but transitioned to the newly created AAA.
Head to Head the Biggest Mexican Companies What this deal brings is a national TV competition between Mexico’s top promotions. With AAA in TV Azteca and CMLL in Televisa, the biggest companies in Mexico will have a battle for supremacy in the ratings and on national television. AAA has a short amount of time to make the deal work (one-year deal). While CMLL will surely operate at the same level that it was working before. lastwordonprowrestling.com/2019/02/19/cmll-to-return-to-televisa-with-a-new-tv-deal/
Quick rundown on the differences between AAA and CMLL? Are they Mexico's WWF and WCW?
Eli Morales
>AAA Kinda like wwe but edgier, not so serious. aaa has an english broadcast team and are very open to colaborate with other companies
>CMLL Like pre bullet club njpw, more serious and very conservative. It doesn't have an english broadcast and only has partnerships with roh and njpw
Easton Johnson
Pretty much yeah. Both are rivals atm.
Easton Gonzalez
Which one is bigger/more popular?
Aaron Lee
CMLL just partnered with The Crash
Juan Perez
AAA is bigger
Lincoln Sanchez
Psycho Clown > Rush
Bentley Smith
I don’t speak taco so I don’t care
David Ward
Imagine being this delusional. CMLL is the 3rd biggest promotion in the world. AAA is pretty far behind. Back in the 90's and early 2000's they where hot as shit and more popular than CMLL, but not anymore. But maybe the AEW partnership will change that.
Jack Wright
You're wrong.
Tyler Lewis
AAA used to be way bigger but I'd say they're neck and neck now maybe CMLL has the slight edge Smarks looking in from the outside love CMLL though so there's bias as to who is bigger
Jace Johnson
They also have different business models: AAA tours around Mexico, CMLL run most of their shows in an arena owned by them in Mexico City
Ryder Roberts
CMLL is like NJPW's counterpart with a few minor differences. You have a lot of three vs three tag teams, but it'll be 2 out of 3 falls. Also with girls holding up the numbers like they do in contact sports.
The wrestlers are either faces or heels with no in between. You also have heels and faces when it comes to the referee's. The announcers will even announce it like "Here are your winners.... the faces/heels" but in Spanish.
It's all in Spanish without English commentary, but they rarely get on the mic. They do very short backstage promos like they do in NJPW. Also, wrestlers from NJPW are sent to CMLL to train there for a year or two. CMLL have a Japanese wrestler called Okumura who's been living there for like 15+ years and speaks near perfect Spanish. He helps Japanese wrestlers by serving as a translator and helping them adjust and go over in interviews.
There are also women wrestling including one female Japanese wrestler.
I can't speak much for AAA since I've only seen a few shows, but it felt more theatrical to me from what little I've seen kinda like WWE. They also have English commentary.
Grayson Adams
And Crash is partnering with OWE too. So many alliance chains are connecting.
Mexican here and this doesnt really mean too much as most normies dont watch tv here anymore and people that watch lucha on tv is mostly low class people, the real $$$ for CMLL is the people that goes to arena mexico cause as of late its been a place where tourist go as an attraction.
Also lucha libre has a hardcore fan base but its nothing compared to 20+ years ago, now its seem as cringe caus emexicans now want to imitate social media and live a glamour lifestyle so lucha doesnt fit into that.
Christian Baker
So, CMLL sounds like smark workrate shit and AAA sounds like it has actual storylines and characters. Cool, how do I get into AAA? Is there a Raw equivalent?
Jacob Gutierrez
AAA is more like Impact, but sure check their Twitch channel if you want to watch.
