Alberto El Patron's Return To AAA Announced

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide has announced the return of a wrestler most figured would never work for a mainstream wrestling promotion again.

At a press event on Tuesday, AAA announced the return of Alberto El Patron {fka Alberto Del Rio), who will take part in AAA's Lucha Libre World Cup event this March. The former WWE Champion will also be part of AAA's three-show TripleMania series, teaming with Pentagon Jr. in an all rivals, eight-team tag tournament that will see the losing teams advance, much like last year's AAA mask vs. mask tournament. The last team left will then face off in a mask, or hair, match at TripleMania XXXI: Mexico City this August.

"They say that one returns to where he was always happy," El Patron tweeted shortly after the announcement. "Family, I have a new home. That household is 100% Mexican just like me and its name is Lucha Libre AAA. I thank Dorian Roldan and Marisela Pena Roldan for making me part of their beautiful family. God's time is perfect. Yes! Yes! Yes!"

El Patron returns to AAA for the first time since October 2015, when he left the promotion as AAA Mega Champion to join WWE for a second time. He parted ways from WWE less than a year later. Since then, El Patron has made headlines for his volatile, and allegedly violent, relationship with current AEW star Saraya, as well as accusations that he sexually assaulted his then-girlfriend in the spring of 2020. He was arrested in May 2020 and later charged with one count of aggravated kidnapping and four charges of sexual assault, but the case never went to trial after charges were dropped in December 2021.