Brace yourself, wrestling fans, worlds are about to collide on Saturday (not to be confused with "AEW Collision," which was Wednesday night this week)! The worlds of WWE and Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA haven't collided in quite some time, minus the pomp and circumstance around the announcement that WWE is acquiring AAA during the WrestleMania 41 festivities in Las Vegas in April. The then-WWF did work with AAA's luchadores for the 1997 Royal Rumble, but it's been a relative detente in the decades since.
That's all going to change tomorrow afternoon as WWE presents Worlds Collide, an event featuring some of AAA's best against WWE's stars. You'll be able to watch it all go down from Inglewood,California, via YouTube. Most of the matches are, in essence, exhibition matches allowing WWE fans to potentially find some new faves or become even more familiar lucha libre. Having said that, there are two matches with some definite stakes. WWE NXT North American Champion Ethan Page's title will be on the line, as will El Hijo Del Vikingo's AAA Mega Championship.
With two six-man tag matches, a women's tag match and two titles on the line, here are Wrestling Inc's predictions for Worlds Collide.
It seems like it might be time to make or break for Legado Del Fantasma, with the troubled trio of Santos Escobar, Berto, and Angel facing the AAA team of Psycho Clown, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., and Pagano. The bout came after months of gradual dissension between the faction, with Escobar directing his frustration at Los Garzas leading to a falling out with Berto and Angel left in the middle of the rut. In a bid to pull his side back together, Escobar announced on May 23 that the three of them would team up at Worlds Collide, and their opponents were subsequently announced.
Amongst the team facing LDF is a former Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Heavyweight Champion in El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and a multiple time AAA World Trios Champion in Psycho Clown, but until now they have not achieved anything notable working together; Pagano and Psycho Clown unsuccessfully challenged Nueva Generacion Dinamita for the AAA tag titles on May 31, and have otherwise made a regular habit of wrestling together. Likewise, Pagano and Wagner Jr. have regularly teamed with one another. But as a trio they are still treading relatively new ground.
However, it would seem as though the lack of cohesion between LDF has played heavily into their expected chances, with 71% of the Wrestling Inc. staff poll backing the AAA trio to take the win on the night. Escobar has not won a match on a broadcast show since August last year, while Los Garzas only managed to halt a losing streak since January during last week's "WWE SmackDown" with a win over Je'Von Evans and Rey Fenix.
Written by Max Everett
As anyone familiar with Steiner math knows, in a fatal four-way match with a championship on the line, whoever is holding the title has just a 25% chance of retaining (absent any potential genetic freak factors in play). However, in this instance, the Wrestling Inc. staff are pretty confident that Ethan Page will be retaining his North American Championship in his Fatal Four-Way match against Je'Von Evans, Rey Fenix, and Laredo Kid with 86% of the vote predicting that Page will retain and 14% of the vote predicting that Evans will be crowned the new titleholder.
Page just won the North American Championship from Ricky Saints a matter of days ago on the May 27 edition of "NXT". While Evans has a storied history with Page and has largely been involved in the North American Championship scene for a number of weeks on "NXT" television, it wouldn't make a lot of sense for Page to lose his title so soon after he just won it. Rey Fenix and Laredo Kid are both stars in their own right and have accomplished a lot in their storied careers, but neither are full time stars on the "NXT" brand with the former competing on "SmackDown" and the latter being signed full time to TNA Wrestling. Because of this, it makes it unlikely that either man will emerge as the victor and win a title that is exclusive to "NXT."
Written by Olivia Quinlan
In the only women's match on the card, newly called-up "WWE Raw" star Stephanie Vaquer will be teaming alongside "WWE NXT" star Lola Vice against the AAA team of Chik Tormenta and Dalys. Tormenta and Dalys were present for Battleground, during which Vaquer successfully retained her NXT Women's Championship against Jordynne Grace, and were seen talking to "NXT" General Manager Ava before taking their place in the crowd to watch the title match. Later that night, they got into a confrontation with Vaquer and Ava informed her two days later that she would have to find a partner for the match at Worlds Collide Vice then volunteered to back Vaquer up, making the match official.
Having reigned previously as the CMLL Women's Champion, this will be the first time Vaquer is wrestling on a card under the AAA banner, and she will also be working double duty having also qualified for the Women's Money in the Bank ladder match later on in the night. Either way, Vice and her are the unanimous favorites to pick up the win on the night, with 100% of the Wrestling Inc. staff vote falling on their side. It will technically be the last of Vaquer's commitments from her time with the "NXT" brand as well, having accepted the match prior to being dethroned by Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women's Championship.
Written by MaxEverett
Through unfortunate circumstances, Lince Dorado will be replacing Joaquin Wilde in teaming with the LWO's Cruz Del Toro and Dragon Lee against the AAA trio of Aero Star, Mr. Iguana, and Octagon Jr. at Worlds Collide. In terms of history, this is just the second time that the AAA trio will be wrestling together on the same team, and they will be looking to have a better day of it than the first outing: a March loss to the Tokyo Bad Boys, Kento, Nobu San, and Takuma.
On the other hand, while Del Toro and Lee have grown accustomed to teaming together under LWO, they will also be experiencing something new in teaming with Dorado; Del Toro teamed with Wilde to face Dorado and Gran Metalik during their run as Lucha House Party on "WWE NXT" in 2020 and 2021, while Lee has only ever wrestled Dorado once in a three-way tag match between Lee and Dralistico, Dorado and Viento, and Bestia 666 alongside Rey Horus in 2022.
With very little to work from to separate the teams, the Wrestling Inc. staff poll found a 50% split decision favoring either side.
Of all the names in the bout, the only one currently holding a title is Mr. Iguana; alongside the controversial La Hiedra, he has reigned as AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion since December 2024, with their first title defense coming in May.
Written byMax Everett
Seven days after winning the AAA Mega Championship, El Hijo Del Vikingo will now defend it against WWE's Chad Gable at Worlds Collide. Simply due to the short duration in which Vikingo has held the title, 92% of Wrestling Inc. staff are confident that he will retain it with the potential of then building to a subsequent defense against another WWE star (technically, anyways).
In recent months, Chad Gable has largely found himself on the losing end of matches singles, tag team, and multi-man. A notable one came in Gable's triple threat Money in the Bank qualifying match when Vikingo struck him with a kick, which then allowed Dragon Lee to stomp him and Penta to finish him off with Penta Driver. Elsewhere, Gable has come up short against Penta in singles action and the Latino World Order in six-man tag team action. Gable's suspected alter ego, on the other hand, is currently undefeated across the board.
As El Grando Americano, Gable is 7-0 in the ring, with one of those victories earning him the WWE Speed Championship. As such, he could be on a path toward another title soon, and given his outward appearance as a masked luchador, it seems only natural for that path to lead to AAA, the popular lucha libre promotion now linked to WWE. To do that, history must repeat itself first.
Much like Gable lost his Money in the Bank qualifying match, the majority of us expect him to suffer defeat to Vikingo at Worlds Collide. Conversely, much like Americano won his Money in the Bank qualifier a week, many of us believe Americano, not Gable, will be the one to dethrone Vikingo.
Written by Ella Jay
