How I Would Book: AEW’s El Clon

Haven’t done one of these for a while. As with the being interested in writing the right subject has to come to light. The last one I done was on Master Wato and what I would do to evolve him into the (one of) the top players in the junior division of New Japan. While Gedo has gone in a different direction I won’t be deterred and instead I’ll look towards another one of my favourites in Hologram.

Making his AEW debut roughly this time last year and remaining undefeated since we have seen Hologram become more a part of AEW programming most recently being part of All In’s multi man match with The Costco Guy. However, I did feel at one point we were on the verge of more a Holoverse if you will. Before Hologram got injured and also took some paternity leave it was uncovered that AEW had trademarked ‘The Clone’ and ‘El Clon’ for future use. Trademarking the Spanish phrase as well led many to believe we would get evil Hologram but alas to this day we still haven’t. So much like Beast Mortos leaving LFI and joining Hounds of Hell I have not lost hope in this happening. So I wanted to just breakdown what I’d do now for a character such as El Clon.

You first need to find the right place for him and I do believe that adding another member to The Don Callis Family is the best place. They don’t have a Luchador at the moment (Rocky Romero does not count), and they have had issues with Hologram and Bandido the top two face Luchadors in AEW. It would make sense for Don Callis to say he’s ‘created’ the perfect copy of Hologram the one man to snap his undefeated streak and once he’s done that he will end the ROH title run of Bandido. A perfect copy of Hologram apart from in one respect this one listens to Don. As far as attire goes I imagine something like Hologram’s the eye part of the mask has to be red though, he’s an evil clone so that’s a given. I don’t have much past that every time I think of the attire it ends up looking somewhat like Sin Cara Negro’s look at you’d want something new.

So what do you do with the guy. Build up a win streak, multi man tags and the like up until your first big Hologram vs. El Clon match and honestly I’d have him lose. Now I’d do this because I actually don’t like the name El Clon as a through line for the man behind the mask. Just being ‘The Clone’ limits you. Who’s putting a belt on The Clone? Why are people feuding with someone else’s clone. So he losses this match BUT from here we can evolve the character. A new more unique look, a new name (it was at this point I was fuming Virus was already a Luchador because that was the name I thought fit the most). You can always have Don Callis cut a promo about going away refocusing and upgrading his family then you set up Hologram vs. The former El Clon and have him win.

So the last question remains as who would be behind the mask and honestly I have no idea. Look I’m not a talent scout and Hologram under his previous name of Aramis was likely initially spotted on PWG shows and hey it worked out for him going from AAA being the main place to now being in AEW and main eventing Arena Mexico, there’s no reason that it couldn’t work again finding a younger performer on the Mexican Indy’s. One thing I would say is to bring in someone of similar age to Hologram, allow yourself the years to help grow and develop the character. Maybe there’s a good American Luchador out there you could use or someone much like A-Kid who went from no mask to wearing a mask and that’s helped his career (given him a better name as Axiom as well).

All in all while I small idea with no larger direction I do think AEW should look at the idea of El Clon again and help shape their future direction for Lucha Libre action on their programming. With the right guidance and time El Clon could be renamed and with enough work AEW could end up with a top Latin heel on their roster.