It ended up being steamrollered by talk of the New Level’s interview with Ariel Helwani, but a quote by AEW National champion Andrade El Ídolo also drew a big reaction from the wrestle web yesterday (Sept. 1).
Speaking with Latin Lover on his Luchando Por Tus Sueños podcast, Andrade spoke about the challenges he experienced during his two stints with WWE. It led to him contrasting how people of Latin and Polynesian ancestry are promoted by the company (thanks to Fightful’s Luis Pulido for translation):
“When WWE wants to push you, they will push you, it’s that simple. There are wrestler who have been given a chance WWE about 20 or 30 times and they still push them until they become stars. It doesn’t matter how bad you are because they want to make you a star.
“I feel that I never got to be given the opportunity, they never gave me a chance, but when it was my turn to be on television, I took advantage of it. If I won or lost, those 10, 15, 20 minutes, I took advantage of them and I sold myself because I said: ‘The public is watching me, I still got it.’ I always thought that way.
“Yes, I got championships in WWE and all that, but I saw that there were people who gave them a chance and kept giving them another chance. And I just said: ‘He was already with this one, let him loose a little bit’, because there are very few opportunities they give Mexicans. It’s that easy, they have Humberto Garza… Well, Garza, Berto, very good friends of mine, they haven’t been given a real chance. When I returned to WWE they tell me: ‘Hey, we’d love you to be in AAA’, but I told them that I sign with WWE, I didn’t want to return to AAA. I know that AAA is a big company, but it’s at the national level, at the Mexican level. Maybe one or more places in the world knows them, but it’s not WWE.
“You want to be a WWE star, he doesn’t want to be a AAA star, here in Mexico they already know me. Now that they have already given them the Perros del Mal, and I hope they do very well, but it is a national level, if you go to Saudi Arabia, they don’t know what it is AAA, they have no idea. If you go to Scotland they don’t know AAA, it’s not for speaking badly, it’s just that it is.
“You know me, I was already a star in Mexico, maybe I didn’t fill as many arena, but I was a star. I wanted the opportunity to be in WWE, not in AAA. Now people ask me why I’m going back to CMLL, but I’m going to return a date or two, but I see Berto (And Garza), and they both have a good physique; they work well, they have charisma, they have everything to be superstars in WWE. Why don’t they give them the opportunity? Escobar (Santos Escobar) never had the opportunity.
“Then you see wrestlers, maybe it’s going to sound bad, but there are some jokes about the Samoans. Not everyone; Roman Reigns succeeded, he did well, but there are several that don’t got it and they are constantly pushed. I’m there like, ‘They’ve been doing it for 20 years and they still don’t have it, and we never had those opportunities.‘”
He’s certainly right about there being “some jokes” about WWE’s Bloodline faction/saga these days. It’s the company’s most successful angle in decades, and one it’s been understandably reluctant to move away from as a result. That’s led to some frequently questioned personnel and creative decisions. Andrade also isn’t the first to question the way WWE presents wrestlers from different ethnic or racial backgrounds, either.
They’re all hot button issues, though — and that’s before you add in that they’re coming from an AEW-signed talent. Amidst the clamor that followed aggregation of Andrade’s comments, an X user who goes by sleekinfinity reached out to him with three questions for him (plus a few names and some unsolicited career advice):
– Why did you leave AEW and join WWE again?
– Were the Samoan guys holding you back in AEW too?
– Does AEW also push Samoan guys?
The Real Latino Man responded with:
1 I wanted to work with my ex-wife.
2 No! They always treated me great.
3 AEW is the best wrestling company and respects all wrestling styles; the company is less than 10 years old and features wrestlers from all over the world, they give everyone a chance.I’m tranquilo, happy, and focused on AEW
That first one is so personal and involves so much that we have no clue about, the only thing I’ll say is that Charlotte Flair’s spoken a bit about that time after Andrade’s return to WWE and how there were efforts to “save” the marriage before they ultimately filled for divorce. So whatever you think about his leaving AEW in 2023, hopefully we can all agree to take that one on its face and move on.
Either way, El Ídolo dodges the second and third questions a bit (or misunderstands them in a way that results in him kinda dodging them). In my estimation though, he answers them while reinforcing his points from the interview.
It’s pretty clear what Andrade’s talking about in the translated quote when he says, “Samoans”. It’s the Bloodline. There is no comp to that in AEW. Samoa Joe and GoA don’t count. And seemingly answering the question about something that doesn’t exist in AEW by saying the Bloodline was great to him, reinforces the lack of a Bloodline-like group in AEW and squashes the perception he was upset with Roman, The Usos, or any of the “Samoan guys” at WWE. He was just pointing out that they get more chances than Mexicans have.
That helps explain why Andrade praises AEW’s overall approach rather than get into whether Samoans get pushed there. Seem like pretty savvy answers to me.
How I know?
If I were attempting to “gotcha” Andrade on his “Samoans” quote, instead of a clique or stable of Pacific Islanders that doesn’t exist at AEW, I’d compare The Bloodline to The Elite or Death Riders or something that actually does exist, and at times seems to influence booking decisions. And I’d probably actually be interested in Andrade’s answers.
But that’s just me. What do you make of Andrade’s quote and Twixter exchange, Cagesiders?
