Update On AEW Backstage Issues Involving Another Promotion

AEW

An update has emerged on a recent report regarding apparent backstage issues in AEW involving another promotion.

In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter a few days ago, Dave Meltzer reported the following:

As noted before, the deal with CMLL is that on any television show that their talent appears on, no other Mexican wrestlers can appear. It doesn’t matter if they work for AAA or not, or did in the past, it’s no other Mexican wrestlers can appear.

Some of the prior Mexican talent is mad that Tony Khan agreed to those terms, noting that AAA never made a demand like that for AEW to not feature CMLL talent even though they were warring in Mexico. We do know at the start that Tony Khan’s vision was to work with everyone and in the early days CMLL didn’t allow its talent to go there because they were working with AAA and New Japan didn’t work with them under Harold Meij

It was noted that Penta and Fenix were in AEW from day one in particular and the feeling it’s disrespectful to them that there would be shows including perhaps multiple PPVs this year, including any PPV anyone from CMLL is booked on, that they couldn’t even be allowed on the show. Previously it was just Forbidden Door.

There was an incident with Penta coming off the Jericho Cruise where he stayed for Dynamite as he was under the belief he was booked on, and was there, only to find out that he couldn’t appear on the show because they had booked CMLL guys for both Dynamite and Rampage

Since then, Fightful Select has released a report stating the claim that no other Mexican talent can work on AEW shows with CMLL talent on is “outright false” according to AEW sources.

Fightful also reported that Penta was planned for AEW programming last week, but travel issues were the reason he didn’t appear.

Fightful was told, however, that “CMLL talent is not supposed to be booked in angles or matches with AAA talent”.

After that, Meltzer provided  his own update in the Wrestling Observer Daily Update. He wrote:

Somehow this turned into a controversy yesterday about what we wrote in the Observer about CMLL demands of AEW regarding usage of its talent. It’s not even new, as Rocky Romoero was on with Bryan Alvarez when the deal first started and explained it. When I asked those involved if anything had changed, we were told no and that “AAA and CMLL wrestlers are very unlikely to be on the same branded show.”

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• Penta El Zero Miedo
• CMLL
• AEW

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