WWE seems to be benefitting from the acquisition of Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA, recently drawing a strong audience for its September 12 crossover event Worlds Collide.
Marking the second Worlds Collide featuring talent from WWE and AAA, the broadcast from the Cox Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas pushed past its predecessor to eke out 773,000 live concurrent viewers — a record for the event, per the wrestling promotion.
Worlds Collide was established in 2019 and had primarily been held for WWE’s developmental brand NXT, but the company brought it back after a three-year hiatus for the AAA crossovers this year.
As with the June 7 event in Los Angeles, the WWE didn’t disclose average live viewership.
However, the company did say that last week’s event was watched by more than 4.1M viewers within the first 24 hours. That’s right about on par with the audience for the last Worlds Collide, suggesting that while the promotion didn’t necessarily grow its audience between events, it did entice more viewers to watch live.
The event was also simulcast across many more channels than the June affair. Last week’s Worlds Collide could be seen across the WWE, WWE Español, and AAA YouTube and Facebook channels, while the first of its kind aired only on the WWE and WWE Espańol YouTube channels.
Still, the core audience was likely generated by WWE’s main channel, which boasts more than 109M subscribers, making it one of the most powerful on the platform.
There were an additional 127M digital views generated across social platforms, the WWE also said.
The WWE has set several audience records since acquiring AAA earlier this year in partnership with Mexico-based sports and entertainment holding company Fillip. The deal was announced at WrestleMania in April. Last month, AAA’s TripleMania XXXIII drew more than 4M viewers within the first 24 hours for the first time ever.
AAA was founded in 1992 by Antonio Peña and has been a family-operated business for more than 30 years, with some of the greatest talent in lucha libre history, including Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio and Penta, calling AAA home throughout their careers. The Peña family will continue to be involved in the next chapter of the AAA business alongside WWE and Fillip.
