Former WWE Star's AEW Debut To Air Tonight On Dark: Elevation

One of the more surprising bits of news from wrestling last week was when Mascara Dorada, the Artist Formerly Known as Gran Metalik, made his AEW debut prior to last Wednesday's episode of "AEW Dynamite" in Albany, New York. Today, fans learned when the former WWE star's debut match would air. In a tweet early Monday morning, AEW unveiled the card for tonight's episode of "AEW Dark: Elevation." And among the eight match card is Dorada's debut, which will see him go one-on-one with Chaos Project's Serpentico.

Dorada's AEW debut is only the latest in a flurry of US appearances for the luchador, after a relatively quiet first half of 2022 following Dorada's release from WWE. Dorada has largely competed for NJPW Strong in the US, but most recently made two notable appearances for Impact Wrestling, including unsuccessfully challenging "Speedball" Mike Bailey for the X-Division Championship on the most recent episode of "Impact Wrestling." It's unclear whether Impact or AEW plan on using Dorada going forward following his appearances for both.

It should also be noted that Dorada's AEW appearance comes in spite of the fact that Dorada has stated he will be working for CMLL in Mexico, where he worked for almost a decade before signing with WWE in 2016, once he is able to travel internationally. As of this writing, AEW is partnered with AAA, CMLL's rival promotion, in Mexico; the rivalry had previously caused issues for AEW, most notably when it came to booking lucha talent like the Lucha Brothers and Andrade El Idolo at AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door. As always, "AEW Dark: Elevation" will air at 7 p.m. EST tonight, only on YouTube.