Stephanie Vaquer departs CMLL, reportedly set to join WWE
Stephanie Vaquer has left CMLL and NJPW.
The promotion announced today that Vaquer has left both promotions effective immediately, citing personal reasons. She will not be participating in her scheduled match at Fantasticamania in San Jose on Saturday.
A translation of the company’s announcement is below:
“CMLL-NJPW SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT We want to inform you that Stephanie Vaquer has abruptly informed us that she will not participate, for personal reasons, in her next fight at FantasticaMania USA. As of today, she also no longer belongs to the CMLL and NJPW.”
“SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CMLL AND NJPW
Thank you for supporting Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Citing personal reasons, Stephanie Vaquer has elected to depart from the CMLL and NJPW rosters effective immediately.
As a result, Vaquer will not compete in her scheduled match against Lluvia at Fantasticamania July 13 in San Jose. Furthermore, CMLL hereby announces Vaquer is stripped of both the CMLL World Women’s and World Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Both CMLL and NJPW would like to apologize to our fans worldwide for the abrupt announcement.
This Saturday at FantasticaMania USA, a new CMLL World Women’s Champion will be crowned in a three way match: CMLL World Women’s Championship: Lluvia (CMLL) vs Viva Van (NJPW) vs Willow Nightingale (AEW)
We remain committed to ensuring the highest quality wrestling for our fans at FantasticaMania USA this Saturday and at all future events.”
“The Chilean wrestler, Stephanie Vaquer, will be a new WWE superstar, thus managing to take a big leap in her career,” a translation of the outlet’s post reads.
Vaquer would later post a statement to X. A translation of her comments reads:
“At this moment I stop belonging to the ranks of CMLL and NJPW Clarify, I AM LEAVING THROUGH THE BIG DOOR, forever grateful to the WORLD WRESTLING COUNCIL AND NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING, and in the best terms.
From today I vacate the CMLL World Women’s Championship as well as the CMLL World Women’s Couples Championship.
For which I offer an apology to the fans. For obvious reasons, I will not be present at the next shows and I hope you can understand that the terms between companies are what lead to this statement.
With Mexico in my heart and with the commitment to represent Mexican wrestling wherever I go
Infinite thanks to SR Salvador Lutteroth for his good wishes and also to all the unconditional support of my people and my colleagues
THANK YOU”
WWE has two house shows scheduled for Mexico this weekend. They are in Mexico City on Saturday and Monterrey on Sunday.
An article published by Record on Sunday stated that Vaquer had received offers from both WWE and AEW on the heels of her well-reviewed match against Mercedes Mone at Forbidden Door.
A translation from the article reads:
“The Chilean gladiator left good impressions after her participation last week in the Forbidden Door event of the All Elite Wrestling company, in which although she lost the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship when she fell to Mercedes Moné, she earned the admiration and respect of the public who chanted her name.”
Speculation regarding Vaquer leaving CMLL continued after her match against Tessa Blanchard on Tuesday. Vaquer embraced Blanchard after the match and appeared to possibly be saying goodbye to the fans.
Our own Dave Meltzer reviewed Vaquer vs. Mone in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, awarding the match four stars.
“Vaquer looked really good, actually crisper in her work than Mone. I think the idea was to put Vaquer over strong in the early part of the match so fans saw her as someone special and a real challenge for Mone, and when Mone beat her in the end it was not just an easy and expected win, but a win that would mean something. But the reaction coming out of it seemed more for Vaquer as a potential U.S. market star,” Meltzer wrote.