| Lucha Libre World Cup (2023) | |
| Promotion: | Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide |
| Date: | March 19, 2023 |
| Venue: | Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco |
| City: | Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico |
| Liveevent: | Y |
| Lastevent: | The World is a Vampire |
| Nextevent: | Triplemanía XXXI |
| Event: | Lucha Libre World Cup |
| Lastevent2: | 2017 |
The Lucha Libre World Cup was a professional wrestling event and tournament organized by Mexican professional wrestling promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA). The tournament took place on March 19, 2023 at Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, Mexico. The 2023 edition of the tournament featured three-person teams, referred to as trios in Lucha Libre; this differed from the previous edition of the event which featured traditional two-person tag teams.
The tournament showcased teams with wrestlers from numerous international promotions including Mexico's Nación Lucha Libre (NLL), America's All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Impact Wrestling (Impact), and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Japan's Dragon Gate and Oz Academy (Oz), and Qatar Pro Wrestling (QPW). The men's tournament was won by Team Mexico (Taurus, Pentagón Jr., and Laredo Kid) and the women's tournament was won by Team United States (Deonna Purrazzo, Kamille, and Jordynne Grace).
The Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA, with the financial support of the Mexican brewing company Grupo Modelo organized the first ever Lucha Libre World Cup in the summer of 2015. The tournament itself was a one-night eight-team tournament for trios, or tag teams of three wrestlers. AAA reached out to several promotions both in Mexico and around the world and arranged for six of the eight teams to come from outside AAA. Japanese wrestling promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah both sent teams.[1] Both Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Ring of Honor (ROH), based in the United States, also sent representatives to the tournament, in each case bolstered by representatives of Lucha Underground, an AAA joint-venture project based on Los Angeles.[2] The tournament took place on May 25, 2015, and had the AAA labelled "Dream Team" of Rey Mysterio Jr., El Patrón Alberto and Myzteziz win the tournament, defeating Team TNA/Lucha Underground (Matt Hardy, Mr. Anderson and Johnny Mundo) in the finals.[3] A second World Cup was held in the summer of 2016. The second edition featured two tournaments, one for male wrestlers and another for female wrestlers. The men's tournament was won by Brian Cage, Chavo Guerrero Jr., and Johnny Mundo of Team Lucha Underground while the women's tournament was won by Faby Apache, Lady Apache, and Mari Apache of Team Mexico. The 2017 tournament was won by Team Mexico AAA (Pagano and Psycho Clown).[4]
The 2023 edition, the first since 2017, was officially announced on January 17 during a press conference.[5]
| Team | Team member |
|---|---|
| Dream Team | Alberto El Patrón (NLL, Mexico)[6] |
| Hijo del Vikingo (AAA, Mexico) | |
| Psycho Clown (AAA, Mexico) | |
| Team Mexico | Taurus (AAA) |
| Pentagón Jr. (AAA) | |
| Laredo Kid (AAA) | |
| Team United States | Johnny Caballero (Independent) |
| Sam Adonis (AAA) | |
| Christopher Daniels (AEW) | |
| Team Canada | Vampiro (AAA) |
| Josh Alexander (Impact) | |
| PCO (Impact) | |
| Team Latin America | Carlito (NLL, Puerto Rico) |
| Zumbi (Independent, Brazil) | |
| Hip Hop Man (Independent, Argentina) | |
| Team Japan | Takuma Nishikawa (Dragon Gate) |
| La Estrella (Dragon Gate) | |
| Kuukai (Independent) | |
| Team Europe | Thom Latimer (NWA, England) |
| Heddi Karaoui (Independent, France) | |
| Joe Hendry (Impact, Scotland) | |
| Team Rest of the World | Rage (QPW, Qatar) |
| Classy Ali (QPW, Qatar) | |
| Bhupinder Gujjar (Impact, India) |
| Team | Team member |
|---|---|
| Team Mexico | Sexy Star II (AAA) |
| Flammer (AAA) | |
| La Hiedra (AAA) | |
| Team United States | Kamille (NWA) |
| Deonna Purrazzo (Impact) | |
| Jordynne Grace (Impact) | |
| Team Japan | Emi Sakura (AEW) |
| Mayumi Ozaki (Oz) | |
| Akino (Oz) | |
| Team Rest of the World | Taya Valkyrie (Impact, Canada) |
| Dalys (AAA, Panama) | |
| Natalia Markova (NWA, Russia) |
Christi Jaynes, representing the NWA and Brazil, was previously announced for Team Rest of the World, but was pulled from the tournament due to a visa issue; Dalys replaced her.[7]