Mistico was the biggest star in Mexican wrestling in a generation, so his WWE signing (the first major talent acquisition by new Executive Vice President Triple H) was the talk of the wrestling world. While Mistico's home promotion, CMLL, was devastated by the loss, the hope was that making WWE a larger entity in Mexico would strengthen wrestling around the globe. Sin Cara, as he was now called, debuted in April of 2011 and, within weeks, tagged with John Cena on Raw, forming a "superteam" of epic proportions. Unfortunately, things weren't going so well backstage. Sin Cara reportedly refused to learn English or acclimate himself to WWE's wrestling style, gaining many detractors in the process. Still, he was Triple H's pet project, so he had a long leash. Problems started showing up on television, as Sin Cara's matches were often bad and filled with botched spots. He was suspended in 2011 for a drug test failure, then hurt his knee badly. Upon his return in spring of 2012, he continued to be more trouble than he was worth, so WWE all but abandoned plans to push him. Injuries and incidents kept stacking up, and when his contract expired in 2014, he was released.
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
