Last week, it was announced that CMLL’s Mistico would be debuting in AEW in a match against Rocky Romero on the October 20th 2023 edition of AEW Rampage. CMLL later released a statement that seemingly indicated the match was the start of a working relationship between the two companies, a surprising move considering AEW’s long-time ties to CMLL’s rival promotion AAA.
Dave Meltzer provided more insight into the partnership in last week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, reporting that it does not affect the relationship between AAA and AEW. AEW is said to be able to book talent from both companies so long as they are not wrestling each other, an issue that CMLL cares deeply about. As has been the standard for the last two AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door events, Mexican talent who last competed for AAA are unable to compete on the shows due to NJPW’s relationship with CMLL.
It seems that the partnership is already paying dividends for AEW as Mistico was the apparent source of a huge surge in tickets sales for last night’s AEW Dynamite. During the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that between the announcement that Mistico will be competing on Rampage and the taping of the show last night, AEW sold over 2,000 tickets.
It was noted that the company lowering some tickets for the event to just $10 & $20 was likely a factor but that tactic usually only sells upwards of 1,000 extra tickets when used in both AEW and WWE. That, on top of the very loud reaction Mistico received on the Rampage taping, makes it very likely that the CMLL star was responsible for a significant portion of tickets being moved ahead of the show.
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