AEW’s Bandido Is Quietly Building His Wrestler of the Year Resume [Exclusive]

Bandido is one of All Elite Wrestling‘s fastest-rising stars. From the moment he signed with the company in 2022, it was clear he’d be a major player for them in the future. Unfortunately, due to injury, his wrestling career took an indefinite hiatus.

After 18 months away from the ring, he returned earlier this year and hasn’t slowed down since. From winning the ROH World Championship in April to becoming AEW World Tag Team Champions with Brody King and having two Match of the Year contenders, he’s making his case for the shortlist of Wrestler of the Year.

VICE had an opportunity to chat with Bandido after winning the Tag Team Championships at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

 VICE: You were out of the ring for an incredibly long time, over a year. It looked like you were really hitting your stride after signing with AEW. What was your recovery process like in getting back to the ring this year?

 BANDIDO: Well, well, you know, that was very hard for me. I thought… it will be like just six months. After my first surgery, they say, ‘Hey, your wrist is not good. We need to restart everything.’ So I feel very bad about it. But now I know that everything has a purpose, you know?

 You’re a two-time Ring of Honor World Champion; you just won the AEW Tag Team Championships. What does it feel like to come back from such a big setback to now being on top of two wrestling companies?

 That feels unbelievable. You know, it’s amazing. It’s crazy for me and for Brody too; we are very happy. We have eight years, nine years now, we know each other. So when somebody say, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be with Brody,’ I told him, ‘Hey, this is our opportunity to show all the people how our relation is together.’ It’s crazy. It’s amazing!

 I’m so excited to talk about Brodido in just a second, but I also want to give you your flowers because I feel like this year, since you’ve come back, you’re having such a great year. You’re in contention for Wrestler of the Year, in my opinion. It’s just so great to see.

 Thank you very much. I really love to do wrestling so I’m very grateful to do that and that God allowed me to redo again. So I’m just happy to do the thing that I love.

 What has your reaction been to the fans really taking to your guys’ relationship? Because I feel like it’s not often we see in wrestling that these types of things develop so organically.

That’s amazing. I’m telling all the people who ask me, the rap people, heavy people, [they] love Bandido, and all the Mexican people love Brody. It’s fantastic and I’m grateful and I just say thank you to everybody because this [is an] amazing combination and our styles — he knows some lucha styles, so it’s fabulous. He helps me a lot.

I did see some chatter online of people talking about how it’s maybe not something that you would’ve thought about or expected, but it just makes so much sense.

A lot of people say, ‘Hey, we don’t know that we need Bandido and Brody together, but now that we have, we need Bandido and Brody together!

 Like you mentioned, you guys have been friends for a really long time, almost 10 years, which is so crazy to think about. How has it been so far collaborating with Brody on this?

We never thought, because we’re always in separate lanes, you know? Now we are together and it’s fantastic because he’s taking care of my back and I take care of — his back so big, but I can take care of him!

 One thing I appreciate about tag team wrestling, ’cause I’m a huge fan of tag team wrestling, when teams get thrown together like how you guys have been, I love when they still make it feel like a real tag team. I really appreciate that you guys have matching gear. You’ve been wearing the Brody Adidas collab, I think that’s such a nice touch.

Yeah. When he released that collaboration with Adidas, I told him, ‘I need one of [those] shoes!’ And he told me, ‘Yeah, yeah, for sure. I will bring that for you.’ And that was amazing. And also, you know, like you say, almost 10 years knowing each other. I think since day one we start to do the thing [does handshake gesture to the camera]. Then in the locker room, wherever I see him, we always do this. And people love it.

Yeah, and I think that the chemistry really shows in the ring as well when you guys are wrestling.  This pairing comes at a time in AEW when the Tag Team Division is in a rebuilding period. The Young Bucks are on an incredible run right now. Not to mention Jetspeed, The Outrunners, The Hurt Syndicate, FTR. Cope and Christian reforming. Do you feel that shift happening in AEW and in the tag team division?

Well, you know, AEW is always with the surprises. So that is the fabulous thing to work here because we don’t know what is next. But we are very excited because, like you say, there are so many great names in the tag team division, and I’m very excited to work with everybody. The Young Bucks, FTR, the whole roster, it has been fantastic for me.

 Fans have been talking about this since Bryan Keith signed with AEW. People really want to see you, Hangman, and Bryan Keith have this bounty hunter, cowboy-esque stable together. Have you seen the fans online talking about this? What are your thoughts?

That’s amazing. You know, that will really work for that business. I’m really open to do that probably in the future. We don’t know, who knows? But yeah, I was talking with Bryan and he said, ‘yeah, that will be, money, bro.’ That’s amazing. So hopefully one day we can do that.

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