Identity of AEW’s new El Clon character revealed
Hologram’s undefeated streak is in real jeopardy.
After Hologram defeated Jay Lethal on AEW Collision on Saturday, the arena lighting turned red and a video played on the screen. It read “Clon activated” and “Access Granted” before showing a more sinister-looking version of Hologram, along with the word “soon.”
It is believed that Aramis plays the Hologram character. After the angle on Saturday, many fans speculated that Arez would portray the El Clon character.
LuchaBlog has confirmed that Arez is the performer behind the new wrestler, writing:
“The new El Clon character who debuted on AEW Collision is Arez. Many people seemed to figure it out immediately, even though there really weren’t any hints. I think Arez and Aramis are just linked in people’s minds; most US people would’ve been introduced to both of them wrestling each other in places like GCW and MLW so maybe they’re just linked together.”
AEW filed to trademark the terms El Clon and The Clone for wrestling purposes in September 2024. However, the current listings for both on the USPTO website state that the applications were rejected. AEW is still able to appeal the decision.
LuchaBlog writes that AEW has had interest in Arez dating back to the trademark filing, but attributes him finally being brought in to his performance at the Dean 2 show and a recent report that WWE has shifted from targeting CMLL wrestlers to indie wrestlers, with Arez believed to have been among those they were looking at.
LuchaBlog continued:
“AEW filed for the ‘El Clon’ trademark nearly a full year ago. The story I heard was that there was an idea for that to be Arez back then, but nothing really came from it. AEW liked Arez; he was aware they had interest, but also, AEW has a million people (number needs to be fact-checked), and there was no urgency to add another person.“
Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez addressed the angle with Hologram and his clone on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, with Meltzer mentioning, “I’ve heard the rumor of Arez being the guy.” The report from LuchaBlog is available here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.