Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
He was supposed to be the next great high flyer in WWE history. He was the heir apparent to an aging Rey Mysterio. His merchandise would fly off the shelves and every kid would own his mask. His name is Sin Cara or “Faceless” as is the English translation.
The character of Sin Cara came from the mind of Triple H who made a big splash by signing highly touted luchador Mistico aka Luis Urive to portray him. A press conference was held in Mexico City, Mexico trumpeting his signing to the WWE. It was Triple H’s first big move as the newly promoted Executive Vice President of Talent in 2011.
The Sin Cara project started off rather uniquely, because the wrestler portraying the character (Urive) bypassed WWE’s developmental system and went directly to the main roster. That in itself, was an odd decision seeing as every other talent had to at least get themselves acclimated to the WWE’s style of wrestling. The place to do that was in developmental.
Perhaps the thought process was that as Mistico in Mexico, he was already an established star and brand. No doubt about it, Mistico was/is an extremely gifted performer who was both agile and charismatic. The belief was that those attributes would immediately translate to the main roster. It never went according to plan.
Sin Cara was plagued by numerous injuries including one to his knee and another to his hand. It all For the most part, it seemed that Sin Cara was on the disabled list more than he was in the ring. A legitimate reason was perhaps his lucha libre style wasn’t translating well in the WWE. Not going down and training in the WWE style in NXT was affecting him physically. While the difference in ring size and form was causing several mishaps for him….there was also the suspension he received for violating the WWE’s Wellness Policy.
According to Urive, he had legally injected a substance for his injured knee. The WWE didn’t buy his excuse and he was suspended for 30 days. There were also reports of Urive’s attitude behind the scenes. If you believe reports, Urive had an ego that wasn’t checked at the WWE’s door. Some believed that the ego was attributed to his largely successful pre WWE career and carried himself with a certain bravado that rubbed some the wrong way. Urive, naturally denied those rumors.
The WWE was ready to pull the plug on the Sin Cara project, but Triple H went to bat for Urive…still believing that the gimmick could work. It also greatly helped that his masks were a hot selling item for the company. Urive seemed committed to making his WWE career take off…but the multiple injuries, botched moves and suspension made Sin Cara fodder for jokes and creative memes.
Despite strong merchandise sales, it had become evident that the WWE lost all confidence in Luis Urive. He began wrestling less and less on the main shows and even began jobbing to other wrestlers. Urive had also become despondent with his WWE tenure as his career was going nowhere fast. Urive was eventually let out of his WWE contract and returned to Mexico. After briefly using the Sin Cara gimmick, (claiming he owned the rights to it)…he now competes for AAA in Mexico as Myzteziz.
That left the Sin Cara mask faceless in the WWE. That is when the company turned to developmental wrestler Jorge Arias aka Hunico as their new Sin Cara. While Arias may not be as athletically gifted as Urive, he is more familiar with the WWE ring and style of wrestling.
Jorge Arias was also well versed in the Sin Cara gimmick, as he portrayed the character while Urive was sidelined and worked against him in matches as Sin Cara Negro and as Hunico. While Arias continued to be known as Sin Cara in the WWE, he was mostly used as a glorified jobber on the main roster. He was more effectively used down in NXT teaming with developmental wrestler Kalisto.
The Sin Cara gimmick was rushed way too soon. Ultimately it failed with two different luchadors under the mask.
