UFC legend Cain Velasquez made his pro wrestling debut for lucha libre promotion AAA last month in Mexico, and he’s now officially scheduled to make his American debut later this month at AAA Invading NY.
AAA announced finally announced more matches (we’re now at four out of seven) for the September 15 through a press release you can read here, revealing that Velaquez will be in the semi-main event. At this point, Invading NY features Tessa Blanchard vs. Taya [Valkyrie] for the Reina de Reinas Championship somewhere on the card, with the final three matches:
- A Campeonato de Parejas AAA (aka AAA World Tag Team Championship) match between the Lucha Brothers (c) and LAX
- Texano Jr., Taurus and Scorpion King (usually billed as Rey Escorpión) vs. Brian Cage, Psycho Clown, and Cain Velasquez
- Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. in a rematch of the main event of this year’s TriplemanÃa
Though Penta and Fenix vs. Santana and Ortiz could easily happen in All Elite Wrestling for the AAA tag titles (or eventually the AEW ones), it’s worth noting that while AAA is promoting Invading NY with one of their North American partner companies, it’s with Impact Wrestling, not AEW. While the Lucha Bros and LAX had a rivalry for the Impact tag titles that produced some crazy matches and are facing off again on a show whose press release says it is “is promoted by IMPACT Wrestling,” they are no longer associated with Impact, but with AEW and AAA (the Lucha Bros) and with AEW (LAX, who have a “loser leaves Impact” match airing this week.)
The late announcement of the card is far from the only odd thing about the promotion of Invading NY, which was moved from Madison Square Garden proper to the Hulu Theater at MSG, and will take place days after Raw and Smackdown take place in the building for the first time in about a decade. It’s hard to know how this show, which will be able to watch on Fite and PPV, will go down, but the matches at least look strong so far, including the one featuring Velasquez.