Lucha Libre Elite International Tournament Is Very Surprising

[Big Red Machine]

Source: 6/20/2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter


Elite Lucha Libre announced its own international tournament, which is really weird since CMLL is also doing a tournament of this kind, and both are at Arena Mexico. The CMLL tournament will be a major show on iPPV on 7/1. The Elite tournament opens with first round matches on 6/23 and 6/25 and I believe the finals will be on 6/30. What’s notable is that Elite is working with TNA and not ROH, but also is using wrestlers under contract with New Japan. Announced in the tournament are Bram (representing the U.K. but obviously a TNA guy), DJZ (representing the Philippines, as in the Pennsylvania section, but also a TNA guy), Michael Elgin (New Japan, representing Canada), Hernandez (representing Puerto Rico, but ths is a big one because he’s a AAA guy and AAA and Elite are at war), Heddi Karaoui (representing France, although he’s a regular in Mexico), Kushida (New Japan)_, Lio Rush (United States, an ROH guy), Jinder Mahal (representing India but actually Canadian), David Tita (Cameroon), Tama Tonga (a New Japan guy representing Tonga), Veneno (Panama), Zumdi (Brazil, notable because he’s also in the WWE cruiserweight tournament,, plus four more to be named including the winner of a 6/16 Royal Rumble type match at Arena Mexico who will be the Mexico rep.

[Big Red Machine]

It seems to me that they're trying to be a Mexican version of PWG by using guys from everywhere who you'd otherwise never be able to see work together (ROH vs. TNA, TNA vs. New Japan, New Japan vs. AAA, etc.)

[cero2k]

It seems to me that they're trying to be a Mexican version of PWG by using guys from everywhere who you'd otherwise never be able to see work together (ROH vs. TNA, TNA vs. New Japan, New Japan vs. AAA, etc.)

that is a good comparison, right now they're like a dream indie bringing in people from everyone, but if a AAA guy is there, they usually do have to leave AAA. The only difference is like if PWG was running Full Sail or the Impact Zone instead of the Legion Hall