In March 2011 the Sin Cara character debuted in WWE, but it wasn’t until recently that the company’s investment paid off. Originally portrayed by Mexican star Luis Urive, aka Mistico, the Sin Cara character seemed to be a failure. Years later, the man formerly known as Hunico took over the character and now Sin Cara is a champion.
Urive failed as Sin Cara due to injuries, suspensions and the inability to adjust to the WWE and American wrestling lifestyle. The company wanted the Sin Cara character to succeed. With Rey Mysterio at the end of his career, the new luchadore would make a fine replacement for the Hispanic population. Also, surely WWE wanted to take advantage of the merchandising sales for the masks.
Hunico was spending time both on the main roster and in NXT when he took over full time as the Sin Cara character. So it wasn’t surprising to see Sin Cara wrestle mainly on NXT, though he occasionally would compete on the main roster – usually in a losing effort.
WWE and specially Triple H has done an outstanding job of building up NXT. It is among the best shows to watch on the WWE Network and often times is more enjoyable than Raw and Smackdown. Both NXT and the WWE Performance Center have been created in such a way to help up and coming superstars prepare for the big time. It makes sense for Sin Cara to continue honing his skills down in Florida.
As Sin Cara continues to improve, he has found success as the partner of another luchadore. Kalisto is making waves down in NXT with his impressive high flying skills for such a small guy. Talk about replacing Rey Mysterio, Kalisto is the more likely candidate due to his size resembling Mr. 619 so much.
Kalisto had been teaming in NXT with Ricardo Rodriguez’s alter ego, El Local. The two faced off against the Ascension at the first NXT Takeover event in May, but were unsuccessful. It was clear from the beginning that WWE was not interesting in pushing El Local very far. With Rodriguez’s release, WWE took the opportunity to place Sin Cara in the tag team with Kalisto and dub them the Lucha Dragons.
It’s a win win situation for Sin Cara, Kalisto and WWE. The Lucha Dragons finally find success and win the NXT tag team champions. WWE wins with their marketable tag team who should eventually make their way to the main roster.
It’s a great story for the Sin Cara character and the man formerly known as Hunico. WWE wanted Sin Cara to succeed and finally put the right guy under the mask. Sin Cara should continue to succeed in NXT alongside Kalisto as the young stars rise as the new ultimate underdogs in WWE.
What are your thoughts on the newly found success of the Sin Cara character? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Seth Guttenplan is a math and computer technology teacher for special education students in New Jersey. In his free time, Seth writes about wrestling. Follow Seth on twitter @sethgutt
