A vignette recently aired on CMLL programming has made its way to their official YouTube channel, teasing what appears to be the arrival of Andrade El Idolo.
This has raised some questions about El Idolo’s status with AEW, prompting Dave Meltzer to address the situation on Wrestling Observer Radio:
His deal is coming up relatively soon unless it’s extended or something because of time off or injuries or whatever but he thinks that his deal is up pretty soon and so he wanted to go back in case he ends up going to WWE.
He’s not made the decision what he’s doing next, he’s not signed a new deal but if he does go to WWE, he knows he can’t go back to Arena Mexico.
Per F4WOnline, Andrade was out of action for nine months due to a torn pec from September 2022 to June 2023, meaning this could be added onto the length of his AEW contract, a deal that was signed in June 2021 and believed to be a three-year agreement.
LuchaBlog has responded to the conversation on social media, stating:
AEW and CMLL have a current working relationship, though LuchaBlog addressed this on their website:
I don’t think AEW ‘sent’ Andrade as part of CMLL/AEW deal. The people who need to understand this won’t read this, but there is no massive talent-sharing deal. There is just an open line of communication. It’s much more likely Andrade is using his freedom to take outside dates and making an agreement with CMLL for some shows on his own.
It helps that AEW and CMLL have talked, and I would assume Andrade gave the top people in AEW a heads-up. Andrade/CMLL probably means nothing towards Rush or Dralistico status for the moment; they will be separate peace accords, ones I don’t expect in the near future.
As of time of writing, El Idolo remains in AEW and is currently competing as part of the Continental Classic in the Blue League, with his match against Bryan Danielson set to air this Saturday on Collision.