WWE’s New Goal: South America
At WWE’s 2018 Business Partner Summit, Paul Levesque took the stage and raised up an idea of building a global empire, set in Europe, Japan, the Middle East, India, and most importantly, South America.
He brought the idea of a territorial network that expanded through all continents, putting into work a developmental system in each one, just so WWE could expand through the world in a way no other wrestling company did. This was the “NXT Global Localization” project.
“…Going into individual markets around the world, we will create scaled versions of the template we’ve created: organizing tryouts, recruiting talent, establishing Performance Centers and building, on the ground, NXT-style brands. “We envision NXT-style promotions, not just for fans in Europe or the Middle East, but also for India, South America, and more. It’s the same grassroots territory feeder system that existed before—except now, not on a national level but on a global level. And all under the WWE banner.”
One of these brands was called NXT South America, mere months before their tryout in Chile and a year after the live shows for Argentina and Chile alike. This was made taking in consideration their successful investment in the European scene. The South American tryout, hosted from December 3rd to December 5th, included wrestlers from all the territories, and yes, that’s where they discovered Stephanie Vaquer.
Vaquer wasn’t the only one, though. Several South American wrestlers were contacted by various promotions around the US and were set to work some dates. Nonetheless, Levesque couldn’t make this project an actual thing because COVID-19 stroke and former Senior Vice President of Talent Development of WWE, Canyon Ceman—Levesque’s second right hand in this project—was fired from the company.
Thanks to losing against AEW in the so-called “Wednesday Night Wars,” Vince McMahon decided to pull NXT from Levesque’s control and give it a whole rebrand as “NXT 2.0,” where Shawn Michaels took over. So not only was the “NXT Global Localization” project out of the way, but his own stay in the company was in discussion.
In 2022 there were a lot of talks about his future role and if he was actually going to be in WWE’s rebrand by the hand of TKO, but it seemed like Nick Khan thought of Levesque as a great asset. When Vince departed from WWE, it seemed like Levesque was back and started “running” the company. Many things happened between 2022 and 2025; there was a tug of war for power in WWE, there were a lot of controversies thrown around, and many people pointed at Paul as the one at fault. Amongst all of it, I started seeing something: that “NXT Global Localization” project was back on track. But of course, not as “NXT.”
WWE started collaborating with Pro Wrestling NOAH, Marigold, and Sendai Girls. Further developing relationships in Japan that were denied back in 2019, when “NXT Japan” was a strong rumor growing and they actually tried to buy NOAH.
When I thought WWE was done with their “collaborations,” Michael Cole announced the buy of AAA Lucha Libre right at WrestleMania, out of all places, and things changed. Now, the plans for a South America investment weren’t as far-reaching as they were in 2020. Moreover, when they gave Chile’s own Stephanie Vaquer the WWE Women’s Title, giving her an astronomical push and making her a top star in the division.
As I said, Levesque’s proposition back then was to have several NXT brands around the globe, and Mexico was not in the plans because that was CMLL’s and AAA’s playground. Now, WWE has AAA, and they can compete against CMLL or go further beyond.
And this is when things start to get interesting.
After WWE buys AAA, Planeta Wrestling (one of the top Hispanic news sites) reports a meeting between Dorian Roldán, AAA’s General Director, and RCW Latam representatives on November 18th, 2025. RCW Latam is the top promotion in Argentina but is linked to the original RCW, which is a company in Spain that had Romeo Moreno on its roster. It also has ties with the Joshi scene. Planeta Wrestling reports that said meeting had interesting news for both the Argentinian scene and the South American scene in the future.
Back on April 14th, 2026, WWE announced the return of the company to Ecuador on September 9th, Colombia on September 10th, Argentina on September 11th, and Chile on September 12th, which have had growth in their respective scenes (Chile being the most notorious one). Chile, which has had its fair share of international stars wrestling in the country (Andrade, Nic Nemeth, and Zack Sabre Jr., to name a few), is one of the most promising territories right now. The icing on the cake is the announcement of a new WWE tryout in South America in September, hosted in Santiago de Chile, which also coordinates with the dates of their live shows, as it did in 2018.
This is the same method they used in Europe, where they signed Lizzy Rain.
There’s an insane pool of wrestlers coming from South America right now, with many like Sara Phoenix, Hans Kaempfer, J-Master, Bruno Astro, Owen Campos, Acce, Chuck Dixon, Zatara (who participated in that 2018 tryout), Ryan O Patrao, Lucio (who is wrestling in Spain), Argentinian legend Hip Hop Man (who wrestles in Mexico and Japan), or Dylan Fabrizio, who had a fair scrap with ZSJ out of all people, in South American soil.
The former WWE Undisputed Champion, Sami Zayn, and other WWE representatives have thrown out the possibility of a WWE Supershow being hosted in Chile. WWE signed another Chilean wrestler that they had on their roster back in 2019, being “La Catalina,” but they decided to sign her for AAA, becoming a main star in their roster. Chile also has one of the most passionate fanbases and a long history with WWE. Argentina is not close to Chile’s passionate fanbase, but their history with wrestling is more local, with projects like Titanes en el Ring or 100% Lucha, which actually caught the attention of WWE back in 2007/2008.
So, WWE investing in South America doesn’t seem far away, taking all of this into consideration, because there’s a market here worth exploring.
This is not WWE’s first rodeo at trying to invest in a market unexplored by them. WWE had a strong relationship with India for a long time, and they even gave Jinder Mahal the WWE Championship to strengthen that bond. It doesn’t seem crazy to say WWE giving Vaquer the World Title was an attempt at having a grip on South American audiences, and they were successful at it because it was all over the news. AAA having a hot streak also helps because the main show South America consumes right now is AAA Lucha Libre, proven by the magical rivalry between Los Grandes Americanos, or the Los Perros del Mal storyline.
To bring an example of the grip WWE has in South America, Argentina’s live show tickets were sold out instantly in the height of another economic crisis, and even the VIP packages, which were pretty expensive, were sold out too.
Movistar Arena, the venue WWE is going to book, has a capacity of 15,000 people in both Argentina and Chile. We’re talking about 30,000 wrestling fans (and the many fans that can’t afford those tickets). If WWE were to invest in both countries that have proven to have a wrestling culture and have grown from the last tryout in 2018, they could duplicate that.
In fact, South America gives WWE a million of its 2.5 million viewers on Netflix.
So, the gate could be opened by AAA, working as a developmental brand for these South American wrestlers and expanding their reach far from their local scenes, which suffer from the fact nobody is willing to invest in them on a national scale. Back when Stephanie Vaquer talked about Chile’s scene being “non-existent,” many Chilean wrestlers were mad for her declarations, but there lay some truth in them. The South American scene is condemned to be the spectacle of a few. But maybe there could be a chance that WWE, in the search for a true global expansion, invests in the territory to showcase a bright wrestling scene that captivates their audiences and shows the power hidden in South America.
Or, it repeats the formula of NXT UK.
