Between April and May of 1992, Antonio Peña, booker of the Mexico City-based Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), broke with the promotion in favor of establishing his own group, along with Konnan and much of the younger talent from CMLL.[3] This split resulted in the founding of the Televisa-backed Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración de Espectáculos (AAA) promotion. AAA would look for talent from other markets outside Mexico City, as they found and signed Tijuana natives Rey Misterio Sr., Rey Misterio Jr., and Psicosis. The promotion became known for signing top talent away from CMLL, such as El Hijo del Santo, Octagón, Blue Panther, Heavy Metal, Cien Caras, and Perro Aguayo. The rising popularity of AAA caused rival promotion the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) to go out of business. Peña would quickly sign up top UWA draws for AAA, including El Canek, Dos Caras, and Los Villanos.
In 1994, AAA co-promoted the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view event with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), with WCW airing the event in the United States. The event was critically-acclaimed and is credited for popularizing lucha libre in the United States.[4] Weeks after the show, Art Barr (a key member of AAA's Los Gringos Locos stable) died while visiting his family.[5][6] AAA subsequently vacated the AAA/IWC World Tag Team Championship, which Barr held with Eddy Guerrero, and Barr's Los Gringos Locos stablemates Guerrero and Madonna's Boyfriend made their departures from AAA. In the aftermath of When Worlds Collide, El Hijo del Santo also departed the promotion as a result of creative problems. When the Mexican economy began to slow down due to the 1994–1995 peso crisis, AAA's ability to offer consistent work was impaired, leading to wrestlers like Fuerza Guerrera and Blue Panther departing the promotion. Talent such as Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, La Parka, and Juventud Guerrera would depart AAA in 1996 to join Konnan's short-lived TV Azteca-backed Promo Azteca before landing in the US-based Extreme Championship Wrestling and WCW promotions.
In the mid-1990s the name of the promotion was changed to simply be AAA (pronounced "Triple A"), with Televisa maintaining ownership of the original Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración de Espectáculos name, after Peña bought out Televisa's ownership stake and became independent of the media conglomerate. AAA events would continue to air on Televisa after the purchase. In early 1997, AAA established a working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), with several AAA luchadores appearing at the WWF's 1997 Royal Rumble event.
AAA developed a working relationship with American wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in early 2004. Through the relationship, AAA sent the luchadores Juventud Guerrera, Héctor Garza, Abismo Negro, Heavy Metal, and Mr. Águila to TNA to compete in the America's X-Cup Tournament as a contingent known as Team Mexico, defeating Team USA in the finals to win the cup. TNA and AAA's initial working relationship would end in late 2004. TNA continued utilizing luchadores, but opted to contract them individually rather than booking them through AAA.
2006–2014
On October 6, 2006, AAA founder Antonio Peña died of a heart attack. Following Peña's death, his sister Marisela Peña took over the management of AAA's finances, while Joaquín Roldán and Dorian Roldán became AAA's operational managers. Konnan would take over the booking of AAA. In 2006, AAA would again partner with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), co-promoting TNA's inaugural event in Mexico, held at Arena Monterrey in November 2006. This partnership would end after AAA booker Konnan left TNA in June 2007 and filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the promotion; the lawsuit was later dismissed.[7] TNA would maintain a relationship with AAA rival CMLL from 2007 to 2009, but would begin another working relationship with AAA in February 2010.[8]
In 2008, Lucha Libre USA presented AAA's Legendary Battles of Triplemania program on American pay-per-view.[9] In 2009, AAA announced the development of a video game titled AAA El Videojuego.[10]
2014–2020
On January 12, 2014, it was announced that, with the backing of Mark Burnett, AAA would co-produce a show for the American El Rey Network in the second half of the year. The one-hour weekly program would be accompanied by monthly and quarterly specials as well as live pay-per-view events.[11] The show, titled Lucha Underground, premiered on October 29, 2014.[12] The series ran for four seasons, and received generally positive reviews.[13][14]
Beginning in March 2015, the promotion announced that it would be known as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide from that point on, marking the second name change since its founding in 1992.[15]
COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath
AAA would postpone and cancel its televised events in mid-March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with its final pre-pandemic event being the AAA vs. MLW Super Series on March 13. In April 2020, AAA hosted a tournament called Lucha Fighter, which consisted of 12 male wrestlers and 8 female wrestlers; all Lucha Fighter matches were held without a live audience.
As a response to the indefinite recess of live sporting events in Mexico, on July 20, 2020, AAA announced a project called AutoLuchas, which consisted of events at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez where fans could attend from their car.[23][24]
In December 2020, FactoryMade Ventures, one of the co-producers of Lucha Underground, filed a lawsuit with AAA; claiming to have exclusive rights to distribute AAA events and merchandise outside of Mexico.[25][26]
Acquisition by WWE
On April 19, 2025, shortly after announcing a joint event between its NXT brand division and AAA,[27] WWE commentator Michael Cole announced during the WrestleMania 41 pre-show that WWE had reached an agreement to acquire AAA, as part of a joint venture with Mexican sports and entertainment company Fillip. The following month, it was reported that WWE will own 51% of AAA with Fillip owning the remaining 49%; the acquisition closed on August 1, 2025.[28][29]
On November 25, 2025, WWE announced a media rights agreement with Fox, which will see AAA events air on Fox properties in Mexico and Latin America beginning in 2026.[30]
