AAA’s Joaquin Roldan has passed away

AAA announced Joaquin Roldan passed away early this morning. He was 63.

Roldan, the brother in law of AAA founder Antonio Peña, had been involved with AAA for about 20 years. He was a lawyer and worked in that role in his first years in the promotion. Roldan took over operation of the promotion when Peña suffered an illness and passed away in 2007 2006. Joaquin, his wife Marisela (Peña’s sister) and their son Dorian became the public face of the promotion in Antonio Peña’s absence. (Joaquin is also survived by a daughter who’s helped with AAA but in a less public role.) It’s believed Marislea was given ownership of AAA by her brother, but Joaquin was person running the promotion due to social norms of Mexico. Joaquin may have had the most power of the family members, but it seemed like the big decisions were things the family made as a unit.

Joaquin Roldan is also one of the people responsible for Lucha Underground existing. He owns some part of the promotion, and is visible sitting in the crowd on the first few tapings.

Joaquin Roldan was also the onscreen face authority figure for many years, feuding with Dorian Roldan & Konnan constantly. The rudos were always kept strong for the perennial blow-off down the line, so Joaquin was often outmaneuvered by his opponents between a few victories. Roldan broke his nose when he was tripped into a turnbuckle at one TripleMania, was tricked into having his head shaved at another TripleMania, vowed La Sociedad would be gone forever from AAA really soon a few times. Roldan didn’t seem comfortable in his role at first, but grew to like it and improved in the role. He appeared much less in that role the last couple years, with AAA dropping the feuding family members after Konnan left the company. Marisela continued to sit in the front row as the face of AAA, and Joaquin appeared to be backstage helping run the TV tapings.

Joaquin had not been seen at AAA events as much in recent months. He was at the Psycho Clown/Dr. Wagner contract signing press conference, and was part of the remembrance of Chavo Guerrero Senior. I’m not sure if he had been at the La Llave de la Gloria tryouts or the work AAA did on the movie, but those all fell under the idea of “new projects” that Dorian would be leading on. There was no outward sign something was wrong, but now I look back at Joaquin looking a little thinner and tired at that contract signing and wonder if wasn’t because it was a trying week, but because of health issues. (Plantilla Deportiva says a source has told them Joaquin died of cancer, which would certainly fit. Edit: Arturo Rivera also said it was cancer.) Joaquin was put in AAA’s Hall of Fame last year at TripleMania by Marisela & Dorian, something that seemed a little tone deaf at the time. Maybe they knew, and wanted to make sure he had a moment of recognition.

The Roldans are holding a wake for Joaquin Roldan today at the Capilla de Gayosso funeral home in Mexico City.