AEW Stars To Compete In AAA Showcenter Tournament

By Eric Mutter

It's been nearly three months since Lucha Libre AAA began a tournament taking place exclusively at shows the promotion has been putting on in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon's Showcenter Complex. Despite that, the format of the tournament remained a complete unknown to fans and pundits; until today.

This afternoon, AAA finally revealed a Winners Bracket for the Showcenter tournament, featuring twenty-four competitors. Among those twenty-four are two performers from AEW; Death Triangle member Rey Fenix and "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Fenix will take on Flip Gordon, while Daniels will battle former Ring of Honor World Champion Bandido.

Fans will not be surprised by Fenix's involvement; the AEW star is a frequent presence in AAA and was part of the last tapings at the Showcenter Complex in late May. Daniels' involvement however comes as more of a surprise, as the AEW star/head of talent relations has hardly wrestled in AEW the last year; his most recent match was in early March, where he was defeated by Bryan Danielson on "AEW Dynamite."

It will be Daniels' first match in AAA since 2010 when he competed in a four-way elimination match for the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship at TripleMania XVIII. Daniels outlasted NOSAWA and Extreme Tiger before being eliminated by the eventual winner, former AEW star Jack Evans.

In addition to Fenix and Daniels, the tournament features notable names such as AAA Mega Champion Hijo del Vikingo, former ROH Television Champion Dragon Lee, Impact stars Laredo Kid, and Taurus, former Impact star Willie Mack, MLW/GCW star Gringo Loco and others. Vikingo, Mack, Taurus, and Loco have already advanced to the second round, having won first-round matches against Flamita, Aramis, Hijo de LA Park, and Rey Horus respectively.

Fans who examine the bracket will notice a unique wrinkle for the quarterfinal rounds; instead of competitors facing off in one on one matchups, the quarterfinals will feature four triple threat matches between first-round winners. The winners of the threeway bouts will move onto the semi-finals; both the semis and the finals will be traditional one-on-one matchups.

The next AAA Showcenter Complex event is scheduled to take place on June 26 and will feature first-round matchups between Lee and Jack Cartwheel, as well as up and coming luchador Komander vs. Villano III Jr. While the first Showcenter Complex show aired live on FITE TV, the second did not, making the status of this show up in the air in terms of live viewing.

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