Alberto El Patron returns to AAA to wrestle at marquee events

Alberto El Patron (Del Rio in WWE) is coming back to AAA. El Patron was announced to compete in the Lucha Libre World Cup and the Guerra de Rivalidades.

AAA broke the news during their official press conference on Tuesday (Jan. 17) to reveal plans for 2023.

The fourth edition of the Lucha Lucha World Cup returns after a six-year hiatus. The concept debuted in 2015 and returned the following year in 2016. Both those events were held in Mexico City, Mexico. The third edition traveled to Tokyo, Japan for 2017. Now, the time has come to bring back the Lucha Lucha World Cup on March 19, 2023 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

This year’s Lucha Libre World Cup will have tournaments for both men and women. The men’s side runs 8 teams deep for trios action. There will be two teams from Mexico, one team from the USA, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, and Latin America, and the final team comprising of talent from the rest of the world. The Latin America squad will have wrestlers from South America and Puerto Rico. The worldwide team is tied into the new partnership between AAA and Qatar Pro Wrestling, so talent from QPW is expected to fill out that squad. The women’s bracket will have four teams total for Mexico, USA, Japan, and the rest of the world.

AAA declared the participants for one men’s trio representing Mexico in the tournament. AAA megacampeonato Hijo Del Vikingo, Psycho Clown, and Alberto El Patron are the Dream Team.

The Lucha Libre World Cup will mark Alberto’s first match back with AAA since 2015, when El Patron reigned with the AAA Mega Championship for 337 days before vacating the title and returning to WWE. This event is a fitting one for Alberto, since he was victorious alongside Dream Team teammates Rey Mysterio and Myzteziz (aka original Sin Cara in WWE, original and current Mistico in CMLL) to win the inaugural Lucha Libre World Cup.

That’s not all for Alberto.

AAA announced the return of three Triplemania events throughout 2023. The first stop will be in Monterrey on April 16, the second stop will be in Tijuana on June 17, and the third stop will be in Mexico City on August 12.

The feature attraction spanning across all three Triplemania events will be the Guerra de Rivalidades tournament. Four tag teams are made up of one tecnico and one rudo. The first round will take place in Monterrey. The losers advance to Tijuana. The losers advance again into a lucha de apuestas (mask vs. mask, mask vs. hair, or hair vs. hair) in Mexico City for the grand finale.

Alberto will be involved in the Guerra de Rivalidades with Pentagon Jr. as his partner. That means it is possible that Alberto will main event Triplemania XXXI against Penta in hair versus mask.

The official field for Guerra de Rivalidades includes:

• Psycho Clown & Sam Adonis
• Pagano & Rush
• Pentagon Jr. & Alberto El Patron
• Blue Demon Jr. & DMT Azul

Are you excited for AAA’s schedule of marquee events for 2023? Which team are you hoping to see in the Guerra de Rivalidades final?

Editor’s note: Alberto, whose real name is Jose Rodriguez Chucuan, was indicted for sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping in 2020. The case was dismissed the following year when a witness didn’t appear in court.