On April 19th, WWE announced that the company had purchased AAA.
AAA has been around since 1992 and is considered one of the two top promotions in Mexico, alongside CMLL.
Speaking on the TKO first quarter financials call, WWE President Nick Khan, TKO CFO Andrew Schleimer, and TKO COO Mark Shapiro commented on the deal.
"If you look at some of the recent wrestlers who came into WWE, Penta and his real-life brother Fenix in particular, both social media impressions- Penta on his debut, almost 100 million social media impressions. We see a spike in Latino viewership when he comes out. It's something we noticed a few years ago when Bad Bunny came in on his run with WWE. The Latino audience would be there if there is someone like them who was there. Number one, it's a new influx of wrestlers. It's added to the demographic where we're already strong. [Worlds Collide and Money in the Bank] will be produced from one truck. There are efficiencies there, there are good dollars there, and we're excited about the overall opportunity," said Khan.
WWE x AAA Worlds Collide and WWE Money in the Bank will be held on June 7th in Los Angeles.
Schleimer said, "The only thing I would add is, strategically, we do think this is a significant opportunity. The short-term financial impact is not meaningful to the overall picture. Just as we've done with UFC and WWE, this was a family operated promotion that we think we can leverage, institutionalize, loan our expertise to create value. We'll increase media rights, we'll increase live event revenue, we'll increase partnership revenue, and we'll increase consumer products and licensing opportunities. It's squarely in our wheelhouse on top of the rich cultural heritage and strategic importance to WWE."
Finally, Shapiro said, "First week we came out of the gate with Penta. When he first debuted, he led all merchandise sales that week. New to the party and he was number one. We're looking to mine these opportunities everywhere. Obviously, this is an established league."
Penta made his debut on the January 13th episode of WWE Raw.
Fightful will provide more details on the WWE-AAA deal when they are known.
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