Andrade "Cien" Almas To Debut At WWE NXT TakeOver: The End

Former CMLL Universal Champion to take on Tye Dillinger.

Andrade Almas
WWE.com

Though his first vignette only aired one week ago, NXT announced on Wednesday's show that Andrade "Cien" Almas - formerly Manny Andrade in NXT and La Sombra in CMLL - would be making his television debut at next week's TakeOver: The End special.

On Thursday, NXT General Manager William Regal announced that "Perfect 10" Tye Dillinger would be Almas's opponent.

As La Sombra, Andrade became one of the top wrestling stars in all of Mexico. Debuting one month before his 14th birthday, the star - then named Brillante Jr. in honor of his father - gained valuable experience that allowed him to become a nationwide sensation in his early 20s.

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In the course of a few short years, La Sombra won the masks of El Felino, Olmpico, and Volador Jr., created the stable Los Ingobernables, and even defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Title.

In November 2015, Sombra - who lost his own mask to Atlantis two months earlier - signed with WWE and began competing in dark matches under his real name, Manny Andrade. He picked up several wins - including a victory over Christopher Girard prior to the start of TakeOver: Dallas - with many expecting him to debut in the Cruiserweight Classic.

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Those predictions were proven wrong when he was repackaged as Andrade "Cien" Almas, the newest subject of NXT hype videos.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013