WWE announces signing of Sin Cara

@TerceraCaida

Mistico is now Sin Cara. WWE announced the signing of the biggest star in Mexico of the last decade with unusual fanfare for them: today’s press conference, a few introductory articles on their website and a photogallery of him in CMLL. He’s got an official facebook page, and hopefully a twitter account coming soon.

Sin Cara says he did not know which brand he would end up, and they were not specific on when he would debut. Everything we’ve heard is that he will be on WWE TV soon (clips from this press conference may air soon, certainly on the Mexican edits of WWE TV) and we’d expect him to end up with Alberto del Rio and Rey Misterio.

Sin Cara’s mask is very familiar to Mistico fans – it’s basically the mask he wore last year when teaming with Averno in different colors, and with cloth covering the eye lids. The intention is to be similar; they want the Mexican fans to know this is Mistico and he’s going to the WWE, and they should watch WWE even more to see him now.

I’m not sure if any of you use TweetDeck – it’s really good if you’re using multiple accounts or want to get an update every time someone’s tweet includes a word or phrase. I usually track CMLL and have been tracking Mistico the last month. Every time there’s a match or a new tweet, it gives you a little ding and pops up the message. The soundtrack to my afternoon has been “ding (pause) ding (pause) ding (pause) ding (pause) ding”. Very few of those dings were about Texano/Terrible vs Porky/Maximo. The word is out in Mexico about this change and we all hope he does very well.

27 thoughts to “WWE announces signing of Sin Cara”

  1. i am extremely surprised that the WWE isn’t gonna send him to Florida. and that the actually talked about his past in mexico. I wish him all the luck in the world and just hope he succeeds.

  2. I can see them using a voice over If Misticos English is as weak as we hear. Given that his mask covers his mouth, dubbing may not be noticed. It would give them time using vignettes before giving him live Mic time.
    OR
    Sin Caras(no face)= no mouth hence no speaking.
    They have to do something radical if he can’t cut a promo

  3. He’ll probably be like Yoshi Tatsu and do no promos except for very easy phrases.

    Do we know who all was at the press conference? I hear Steph was which is weird.

  4. @Tim: She’s quote in the WWE.com article, but she doesn’t appear to be at the press conference. JR is the big name.

  5. I wonder if Mistico has been/will be working out in Florida with FCW, but not appearing on any cards? It would make sense for them to keep him working and convert him to their style, without him appearing on their pseudo-indy shows…
    I wouldn’t think he would appear on TV until after ‘Mania. Vignettes and highlights perhaps though…

  6. @CM93:

    They are in Mexico, doing a Press Conference in Mexico, for the Mexican fans. I doubt any of this will get back to the regular WWE fans, and thus talking about his past history is beneficial to the market they were aiming at.

  7. @LUKIE: I don’t know, they’ve got him on the front page of wwe.com with links to the pictures of him in CMLL. That seems like it might get back to regular WWE fans.

    This is definitely weird in the current WWE. I can’t think of anyone they have made this big of a deal about signing since WCW and ECW collapsed. Some of the guys they brought back from either of those promotions maybe, but not someone from the outside.

    They have tried to play it both ways acknowledging Danielson’s past (all the references to Indy wrestling and “Internet fans” on NXT) and Del Rio (talking about his father in WWE the Magazine interviews). But, this definitely feels different.

    Also, interesting to see that he came out in the Mistico mask to start the press conference today, then took it off to reveal the Sin Cara mask.

  8. This is so stupid. Why the fuck are they changing his name? Not only is Mistico a much better name than Sin Cara but they are copletely killing his recognition value. Stupid WWE. They forgot how to do wrestling a long time ago.

  9. @Daniel: They’re changing his name because CMLL owns the name. This is a thing you might pick up if you read the blog posts.

  10. @Daniel: I think the mask similarity is far more important than the name. Anyone who has seen more than a few minutes of Mistico should be able to recognize that the Sin Cara mask is recognizably derivative of the Mistico mask (and I personally think it’s an improvement — and this is coming from someone who owns multiple Mistico masks).

    As far as the name itself, I didn’t like it when I first heard it rumored in the morning. Since then, I think it’s grown on me somewhat. I’m not sure why. Maybe the visual association with the cool mask is helping.

    What’s transpired so far has given me a good feeling that the WWE knows what they’re doing with Sin Cara. We’ll see whether that’s validated in the upcoming months and years, but I’m optimistic at this point.

  11. @thecubsfan: I get that CMLL owns the name but they could have changed the spelling to something like “Mystico” so that it’s still the same name but worked around the copyright law. Just like how they changed Taz to “Tazz” or like how they changed Rhino to “Rhyno”.

  12. @Daniel:

    If I remember correctly both spellings are taken. Either way its better for him to have the name Sin Cara because it means the WWE will be 100% behind him since he becomes a WWE creation. Vince will not allow his first Lucha character to fail.

  13. Call me crazy but to me the WWE has taken all the right steps so far. Acknowledge who he was, had him talk about Lucha traditions and their masks is good. Him skipping FCW going straight to the main roster is good as well.

    And I’m kinda liking the whole Sin Cara/Faceless concept so far.

    As for those complaining that he should have been called “Mystico”, I disagree they have Misterio on the roster, Mystico in FCW working as Hunico and frankly need to carve out a new path for him.

    I may have to regularly watch whatever show he ends up on, yes I’m a Mistico mark and I am not ashamed of admitting it.

  14. The only thing I would have tweaked was to have his mask look like it did not have obvious eyeholds, make it one seamless piece of fabric, that would have looked cool

  15. @Martin: If they are going to “carve out a new path”, why use a mask strikingly similar to that of Mistico? That’s not carving out a new path. It’s linking him to his past gimmick.

    Calling him Mystico, similar to Rey Mysterio/Tazz/Rhyno name changes does indeed make the most sense not only because it’s easier to market, but because the name holder of Mystico is actually employed by WWE and not even using the name and would not cause any trouble unless future endeavored.

    I’ll guess that CMLL has signed some kind of licensing deals and therefore needs a Mistico on the roster.

  16. @LLL:

    Come on man, you know WWE doesn’t do things like that with names. They don’t want another MVP situation. And I thought CMLL bought the Mystico name from Incognito/Hunico? Just be glad they didn’t change his name to Speedy Octavio Gonzalez or something like that.

    And I agree they should get Sin Cara a sidekick. I”m sure they could find Tzuki in some bar or indy show somewhere? He probably speaks better english.

  17. My only complaint with the name would have been the how it would pronounced by the wwe announcers, they are lazy and if they don’t feel like learning a guys name the clown it or butcher it.

    The WWE as stated before is doing everything right and for obvious reasons. First they are the number 1 wrestling company in he world and there is no number 2, not even a close number 2. So acknowledging CMLL doesn’t hurt them it only makes the CMLL like a minor league or training ground. Not for nothing but wrestling fans in Mexico are like wrestling fans of the 80’s and it’s the new frontier for WWE in making money. Expect a Wrestlemania within the next 5 years at Azteca if the Mexican fans continue to support the wwe like they have.

  18. @Luchava: I wouldn’t be surprised to see a SD taping there soonafter Sin Cara Debuts. They haven’t had an overseas ppv since 2003, but looking at the support they have in mexico (ppv buys, ratings, massive merch sales) I wouldn’t doubt there being a ppv there soon, maybe not a mania but definately a ppv.

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