I never really wrote about it because I just never really had the time or the opportunity or the perfect timing to put my thoughts to brog about it, but I’ve been a fan of El Grande Americano since Chad Gable first put the mask on and began parading around as an obvious goof on lucha libre as well as Mexican culture. Not because it was a goof on Mexican culture, but the sheer hilarity of the notion that Chad Gable put a silly mask on and worked with the expectation that nobody would know that he and El Grande Americano were one and the same, despite the fact that the ring attire was almost entirely the same save for the tassle-ey boots.
It was a little bit of a throwback in a time where fans and followers of the industry are smarter and more connected than ever, and for the most part, the WWE had figured out that fans actually appreciated it more when their intelligences weren’t being tested, but El Grande Americano instead did go back in time, and for weeks and months, Chad Gable would often be performing double duty on television, as regular all-American Chad Gable, and then acting as if El Grande Americano were a completely different human being outright.
And under the El Grande Americano mask, he would clown and he would cheat, but the fact of the matter was that he was starting to win more matches, and I’d never been more entertained than when he started putting the metal “plate” into his mask and using loaded headbutts to win matches underhandedly.
But then Chad Gable got hurt, with some sort of shoulder injury, and my immediate reaction was, what’s going to happen to El Grande Americano??? Fewer things are more deflating in the world of professional wrestling than when a talent finally begins to start to gain some traction and momentum with a gimmick that appears to be working, only to be derailed by injury. As a fan, I felt crushed for Gable, whom I’ve often been high on as a worker, as well as the fact that he really was beginning to blossom into an entertaining personality as well, only for an injury to completely derail all the hard work that was starting to pay off.
I figured the El Grande Americano storyline was going to die right there without its rightful mask wearer. Even when the also-underutilized Marcel Barthel AKA Ludwig Kaiser took over the mantle in a second-tier goof of Who Is El Grande Americano, I figured this was an instance of Ludwig basically taking over the mantle just so that they could tie up loose ends with the persona and eventually kill it off, so that El Grande Americano didn’t just abruptly vanish and make it obvious for the two fans out there that didn’t actually know the identities that El Grande Americano was Chad Gable.
I don’t know how much the creation of the El Grande Americano character coincided with the E purchasing Mexico’s AAA promotion, but when the E really started to take over operations of AAA, it was very apparent that there was no better place for the El Grande Americano persona to apply their trade than there, since he was basically the anti-luchador, pretending to be a luchador, going up against real, authentic luchadores.
And at first, El Grande Americano did his job as was to be expected; being booed the fuck out of Mexican venues, by Mexican people who were supposed to be incensed and offended by a guy who was obviously not even Mexican, pretending to be a luchador, cheating and defeating actual luchadores. And it didn’t help that he was aligning himself with Dominik Mysterio, who was supposed to be the rudo (read: heel), invading AAA and setting his sights on the AAA Mega Campeonato, and even went as far as helping him upend El Hijo del Vikingo for their top championship.
But the thing is, Mexican fans really loved and really popped for all of the WWE talents that were crossing the border to make appearances for AAA, and in spite of their expected alignments, Dom was getting pops that were almost Stone Cold Steve Austin in the 90s-level in Mexico, and everyone in his gravitational pull, including El Grande Americano was benefitting from the proximity.
Along the way, El Grande Americano started cutting promos in AAA, and unlike Chad Gable before him, Ludwig actually was multilingual as most people born outside of the United States tend to be, and Español was one of the languages that he knew how to speak, and he would address the Mexican people in words that they could understand. And despite the fact that he was trying to cut heel promos on the Mexican people, the problem was that his ability to communicate was endearing to them, and something was beginning to change.
Eventually, there was a match where El Grande Americano teamed up with Dominik Mysterio, against Rey Mysterio and Rey Fenix; and after the match in which the rudos lost, Dominik Mysterio would shove El Grande Americano in frustration and leave the ring alone. Not a lot was made of it on the main roster, but after that, El Grande Americano would get up, and while in the ring with Rey Mysterio and Rey Fenix, he would shake the hands of his opponents in a moment of respect, and the fans were quite pleased to see the positive turning of El Grande Americano.
And then came the serenade, where El Grande Americano sang a Mexican folk song (Cielito Lindo) during his entrance, and by the time he was done, he had the fans eating out of the palm of his hand. The man was a full-fledged face at this point, and even with the introduction of his British backup, also pretending to be Mexican luchadores, and the fact that he was still utilizing the metal plate in his mask to cheat to win matches didn’t change the fact that El Grande Americano was now completely over with the Mexican fans, and not just in a, we appreciate a good comedy act kind of way. El Grande Americano was quickly becoming one of the top guys of AAA.
And since the persona did not die, after the injury to Chad Gable, the question that was, what’s going to happen when Gable is cleared to compete again. It was answered in the Royal Rumble, where even after El Grande Americano entered the Rumble at #12, when #13 was buzzed in, El Grande Americano’s music hit again, and the video board showed Original El Grande Americano, and much to the disbelief to Ludwig and all the Saudi fans, out came the obvious Chad Gable rendition, and the two shared a Spider-Man meme moment, before everyone remembered that this was a main roster event, and both were eliminated with no consequence or genuine interest by the American commentary.
So now we arrived at a moment in time where there were now Los Grandes Americanos, and what would happen over the next few months proved to be, at least to me, one of the most fascinating as well as entertaining executions of the storyline. Because on the main roster in American shows, Gable Grande was being treated as the good guy in the feud, while Kaiser Grande was the heel. They even added visual emphasis, by making sure Gable Grande was always in the overly-obnoxious red, white and blue tights, while Kaiser would be wearing dark colors and not very Americano.
But in Mexico on AAA programming, Kaiser Grande would be decked out in the greens, reds and whites of the Mexican flag, with crowds firmly behind the clearly adopted honorary Mexican, while Gable Grande would come out in the bad guy dark colors, while fans tried to boo him the fuck out of every venue he appeared in.
The two Grandes would collide in a more official capacity during the Rey de Reyes tournament, where both Grandes would ascend to the main event, where they would be in a fatal-four way along with La Parka and Santos Escobar, and no disrespect to the other two guys, but this really was all about the two Grandes. Ultimately, Kaiser Grande would win, after his Los Americanos backup would handcuff Gable Grande to a guardrail, and prevent him from getting to the ring, where Kaiser Grande would use a loaded headbutt on Escobar to capture the win and the Rey de Reyes crown.
Ultimately, everyone was pretty aware that the only finish to this feud was going to be lucha de apuestas, which in this case was going to be mask vs. mask. The thing is, there were rumblings about how it should be at Wrestlemania 42, or if it would be better off being saved for AAA, since this was a very traditionally Mexican affair and should probably be saved for a Mexican event.
I felt extremely strongly about how burning this at Wrestlemania should be out of the question, and could only be done under an umbrella in Mexico. I figured it should be saved for AAA’s biggest event of the year, Triplemania, but it turns out that they had earmarked it for Noche de los Grandes; I was just relieved that it was going to be headlining a AAA show, and not done under the WWE banner.
Throughout this whole saga, I’d really grown to love AAA, and it’s frankly my favorite E property currently, and the further away from America, the E umbrella and TKO’s shitty corporate influence the better, in my opinion, and I was stoked that the culmination of Los Grandes Americanos was going to be kept in Mexico.
Mythical wife actually put the bug in my ear that I should probably go down to Monterrey to watch it in person, and believe me, I was super, super, mucho tempted to do such. To the point where I was looking at plane fares and checking Super Boletos’ website to see how much tickets would cost. It would be the perfect opportunity to put my Duolingo Español lessons to the test, as well as actually having a weekend to myself.
Family obligations kept me from jumping the border, and I don’t regret the choice I made, but I’d be lying that after watching Noche de los Grandes, the thought that I could’ve been there, didn’t cross my mind multiple times.
Needless to say, I don’t throw this assessment around a lot, but the battle between Los Grandes Americanos was simply, art. From the buildup, the promo packages, the entrances, the match itself, the ending, as well as the post-match, everything about the whole journey was wonderful, beautiful, and a reminder of why I love professional wrestling.
Gable Grande and Kaiser Grande put on an excellent match that told a story, had well timed and tasteful spots, and it’s clear they took the consideration of the preferences of the crowd, by busting each other open and bleeding all over the place, because much like Latinos’ renditions of Christ on the cross, both Grandes had to look like they were beat to shit and bloody in order for the crowd to get into it.
Los Americanos and Hermanos Americanos obviously made their appearances, but massive props to Tyler Bate Bravo Americano for jumping off of what had to have been 25-30 ft in the air to splash three other guys and logically take them all out of the match from any further shenanigans, and letting Los Grandes continue their story. I found the match to be a great reminder of how presentation on the main roster of WWE should never be indicative to the massive depths of talent that many superstars actually possess, and when actually allowed to showcase their ability, magical matches can absolutely happen.
Predictably, Kaiser Grande won the match, which meant he would get to keep his mask, and a profusely bleeding Chad Gable would unmask to the least surprising unveiling since Walt Weiss being named manager of the Braves, but it was the post-match promo that Gable cut that caught me off guard.
Instead of attempting to escape and pussy out of his end of a lucha de apuestas, Gable handled it like a man, and in front of his wife and kids, and a passionate Mexican crowd, he unmasked and basically pulled a massive babyface turn, and completely put AAA, lucha libre and Mexican culture over massively, and formally yielded the identity of El Grande Americano over to Kaiser, solidifying him as the one and only El Grande Americano from here on out.
And so we have it, the saga of two El Grande Americanos has come to an end, and the path for the one sole surviving Grande is open and free, which if I’m a betting man is going to be a shot at Dominik Mysterio and the AAA Mega Campeonato, since historically those who win Rey de Reyes typically get a shot at the prize, probably at Triplemania, which I’m already considering, that is, as long as El Grande Americano gets to perform in Mexico and not shitty fucking Las Vegas why the fuck does TKO keep trying to make wrestling in Las Vegas such a thing god please fucking stop
Going back to the title of this post though, how can you not be romantic about lucha libre though? El Grande Americano was clearly meant to be a joke of a gimmick, almost a throwback to Vince McMahon era of tasteless racist humor, and at first, Chad Gable was doing a great job of pulling it off. But the man gets injured, and Ludwig Kaiser is basically thrown into the mask, mostly on account of the fact that his career wasn’t amounting to anything else at this point.
But then it’s like nobody told Kaiser that he wasn’t supposed to put any effort into the character; he fully embraces Mexico, and not only manages to get pretty much all of the country to endear him, he gets massively, massively over, not just as a babyface in Mexico, but still remains a heel in America, and now he’s basically Mexican Hulk Hogan now and probably the top draw in all of AAA.
He was dumped by Tiffany Stratton before becoming El Grande Americano, and then he goes down to Mexico and gets with a beauty queen and AAA interviewer, Andrea Bazarte.
The man took an obvious goof gimmick that just needed a warm body to help get it across the finish line to the cemetery, and molded it into the most beloved babyface AAA has probably seen since Dr. Wagner. His career was middling before that, and now he’s basically King of Mexico now.
How can anyone not be romantic about this kind of journey?
