AAA CEO Dorian Roldan was recently interviewed by Super Luchas to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Roldan was asked about possible competition with WWE NXT if they decided to do a Mexico event, how he thinks fans would respond to an NXT Mexico, and more.
Here are the highlights:
His thoughts on WWE:
WWE is an impressive machine, but if you look at the WWE numbers from 2014 to date, they have a very clear strategy. Mexico is not a territory that is important to them in terms of income. In fact, Latin America, as a market, is the one that represents them the least. Europe is a very strong market for them, the same as India; what they are doing in the Middle East is crazy.
Latin America does not stop seeing it, but they see it out of the corner of their eyes. They are not focused on having your product enter one hundred percent here. And today they have other priorities, such as growing the subscriber base of the WWE Network, knowing how to use all the talent they have and generating more content for their platform.
If WWE decided to do an NXT Mexico:
Welcome. I believe that competition is always good. I do not doubt that they can achieve it, although they have more strategic markets – they have just made the biggest tryout in China – and they need someone to operate Mexico. Mexico has a beauty, it is a very open market, but at the same time we have barriers and business borders. And it would be difficult, not impossible, for them to get an open television channel.
How fans would respond to a potential NXT Mexico event:
Depending on what fans you’re referring to. There are the hardcore fans, those who know who Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are, who know New Japan. There are the casuals, who know how to differentiate between AAA and CMLL, but they have no more knowledge. And then there is the audience in general, which can go to Arena Mexico and think that it is in AAA. Of the first is 5%, the second 45%, and the last 50% … And 5% is the one who knows NXT. What we have to try is for that 5% to grow as little as possible.
I see very complicated that the WWE Network platform, which is where you can see these contents, grows in Mexico, because even though the OTT market is growing, you have other priorities before WWE Network, like Netflix and soon Disney +, and the market that WWE has left is very small. WWE’s biggest mistake in Mexico was to get out of open television. As I was saying, open television is still the main axis.
Joaquín del Rivero (Vice President of WWE for Latin America) is a great operator, he knows the Mexican market very well, but it is difficult without those contracts. WWE was very successful in Mexico, and that was their biggest sin, because they can not deliver those rating points. Everyone expects those numbers but the market had a reduction.
Read More: Talent Confirmed For AAA’s Madison Square Garden Event in September
