WWE attempted to buy rival Mexican league AAA a few years ago

Dave Meltzer, in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, confirmed Konnan's claims on the MLW radio show, which he hosts with former indy promoter and WWE creative team member Court Bauer, that WWE attempted to buy their main Mexican rival promotion AAA a few years ago.

Konnan detailed how a WWE rep, believed to be Carl Demarco, their former President of Global Business Development, approached the Roldan family about purchasing a controlling share in the company:

"We had a meeting. I’ve never talked about this. We had somebody from WWE actually come and have a meeting with me and Dorian (Roldan), who is the son of the owner. We had a meeting with somebody from WWE and they came and offered to buy AAA. He was really cool. He was like, `We want to buy AAA.’ Dorian was like, `We’re not really for sale, but we’ll listen.’"

Konnan may have been the reason that the deal never came close to being completed, as he pushed hard for Dorian not to take the offer:

"I was like, Dude, do not do that because these (guys), the minute they don’t like something, they’re going to get rid of us.... The minute we do something they don’t like, they’re going to change it, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t give them this type of power, which he (Dorian Roldan) understood. He told them we wouldn’t sell that much of the company."

It's worth noting that Konnan had good reason to be concerned for his job, given that Vince McMahon to this day holds a grudge against him for bailing on the WWF in late 1992 without notice after they spent a lot of time, effort and money in creating the Max Moon gimmick for him.

As Meltzer explained in his story, the deal could have potentially been beneficial to both parties. In recent years, AAA has at times struggled, between WWE now being viewed as the major league in their home country and escalating criminal violence limiting the places they can run. A deal with WWE would have allowed them access to the likes of Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio and Sin Cara for their biggest shows, which would have given business a huge boost. On the other hand, WWE could have sent their developmental talent to the promotion to work in front of much bigger audiences and it would have also provided them with a pipeline to produce new Hispanic stars for their main roster, of increasing importance as the Hispanic audience in the United States grows larger.

But it wasn't to be. Although Konnan may have had selfish reasons for pushing to kill the ownership deal, it is true that most rival promoters who worked with Vince McMahon found it a frustrating experience and ended up getting screwed over in the end. This proposed arrangement would have been unlikely to have been any different, so it was probably for the best that it didn't happen.