The Desperate Housewives star has invested in a Mexican football team, and even ropes in Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in her attempts to make a thrilling documentary. But it’s extremely hard to care about any of it
Welcome to Wrexham is one of those TV shows that has moved its genre up a level. After years of glossy “behind-the-scenes” documentaries that were just another part of million-dollar sports franchises’ marketing portfolios, the story of unlikely celebrity investors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney taking the extremely unlikely decision to buy AFC Wrexham was an unexpected tonic and a worldwide hit.
Inevitably, imitations are now spawning, with Amazon last month debuting the underwhelming Built in Birmingham, about NFL superstar Tom Brady’s half-hearted involvement in Birmingham City. Necaxa should have better prospects, since it’s on Disney+, the same platform as Welcome to Wrexham, and Reynolds and McElhenney are in it. But all the peculiar magic of the parent show is painfully absent.
Club Necaxa was the biggest team in Mexico City until the turn of the millennium, when it fell into decline, outspent and outplayed by its city rivals Club América, Cruz Azul and Pumas. So in 2003, Necaxa relocated an hour and a half’s drive north to Aguascalientes. The Mexican first division abandoned promotion and relegation in 2020, so Necaxa’s elite status is secure, but in its new home it has found it hard to make the playoffs, let alone challenge for the league title.
