Paco Alonso Spins His Side Of The Santo Story To Luchas 2000

EMLL President Paco Alonso gave an interview with Luchas 2000 for their latest issue and talked about many hot topics surrounding his promotion. Paco started off by saying that he hasn’t intended on becoming bigger than his wrestlers but with the controversy regarding Hijo del Santo, his name has been hot in the press lately and has made his job harder to deal with. Paco said that his decision regarding Santo and his employees was strictly a business decision and not a personal decision because he still has a lot of respect for Santo and they did great business together with hopes of maybe doing business together again in the future but for the now it can’t happen due his dealings with other promoters. Paco said that Santo knew that EMLL has interest in Monterrey as they have their own building that they have a lot of input with (Gimnasio Nuevo Leon) and that if he wants to work for competition in Monterrey then he had to do what he had to regarding his other buildings and talent. Paco said that he didn’t even know what was going on until his guys in Monterrey told him what Santo was doing so he had to make a decision quick before it got out of hand.

Paco talked about the salaries of the wrestlers and said that pretty much everyone gets the same except the top level guys and pretty much everyone in EMLL hasn’t complained about their salaries and are very happy but Santo recently started complaining about his salary and that is the main reason why he hadn’t been around because they weren’t going to overpay for his services. Paco said that a top level guy should be paid what he is worth in all facets of the game such as in-ring work, merchandise, and more than all, their box office and that lately Santo hasn’t been bringing in as much as his salary demands would expect. Paco went on to say that Santo is receiving a lot of bad advice right now from these rival promoters and members of his family who wants more money from him and that he needs to think about the decisions he makes because it could really hurt his career for the future. Paco then talked about the relationship between Santo & Mistico and knows that his feelings of Mistico also had something to do with his problems in that Mistico is becoming a big star in Mexico maybe even bigger than Santo and he might be jealous. Paco talked about Mistico’s box office value right now and says that it is just as good as Santo’s and that the fans know when Mistico wrestles it will be worthy of main event status and they would get their money’s worth. Paco said that they are entering their 74th year now and that they won’t let someone use their television to get their name out there and work some other promotion running competition, it just won’t happen under his watch. Paco said that EMLL would run strong regardless if Santo works with them or not because they have excellent wrestlers and quality matches.

Paco then went on to talk about the Dos Leyendas concept and mentioned that he still owns the Leyenda de Plata tournament name although he is sure that he will have to go to court soon because Santo wants that name. Paco said though that he has backup plans as he will still honor his father Salvador Lutteroth and that there will be events in honor of Perro Aguayo/Black Shadow/Cien Caras/Huracan Ramirez in the future. Paco also talked about Mistico saying that he received an offer from the WWE and wouldn’t have blamed him if he took it but he didn’t because of his loyalty to EMLL and his values saying that he wouldn’t leave the people that made him what he is today. Paco said that Mistico will stay in Mexico and probably wouldn’t even work indy dates in the United States as he wants to make his name stronger in his home country.

Paco concluded by saying that once again this is only a business problem and he still considers Santo a friend just receiving bad advice and that reconciliation could happen in the future. Paco expressed his thanks to Luchas 2000 for getting this off his chest and that this would be the first and last interview he would give on this subject.