One year after WWE acquired Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, a WWE Hall of Famer is calling the Mexican promotion the best thing in wrestling right now.
"I think it's the hottest program in the world right now. It's unbelievable. They got incredible characters," WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
WWE acquired AAA before WrestleMania 41 in 2025. Since then, the promotion has drawn significant attention, including a high-profile Mask vs. Mask match between El Grande Americano and Original El Grande Americano at an event called Worlds Collide in June 2025. That match served as an early showcase for American audiences unfamiliar with Lucha Libre. Original El Grande Americano was later revealed to be Chad Gable.
Layfield said the Mask vs. Mask match stood alongside the best matches he has ever seen. He recalled only two matches in his career where he felt the performers were doing a "different art form": Fit Finlay vs. Tony St. Clair in Europe and Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. "I felt the same way with Mask vs. Mask. I never thought I'd see another match (like that)," Layfield said. "I was hoping I would but I don't know if I'd ever see a match like I saw with Finlay and St. Clair and Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. I'd put that in that category. I just thought it was absolutely incredible. The passion, the emotion that went with it. Everything about it worked."
Layfield drew on his own experience working in Mexico early in his career to explain the appeal of Lucha Libre to American audiences. "I'd go down there and work and people have thought since then if Lucha Libre ever takes off, as I'd always say this is a sleeping giant, I think what people are now starting to see what we've known all along about Lucha Libre is just fantastic. There's Incredible characters. There's incredible passion, especially with the Mexican fans. I've always enjoyed working down there. I always say you gotta work in a few arenas to make it in life. You gotta work at the Sportatorium, you gotta work at Staples Center, you gotta work at The Garden, you gotta work in Budokan, you gotta work in Earls Court – anywhere in Mexico is like that."
He also praised the leadership behind the product. "Jeremy Borash, who is incredibly talented, Undertaker, who is a good friend of mine and also a very smart guy, I believe they've just done an incredible job with the product," Layfield said.
Looking ahead, TripleMania is set to become a two-night event for the first time in the promotion's history.
