The Rise Of Triple H | Wrestling Timelines
April 7, 2011 - It’s Official
WWE issues a press release on April 7, 2011 declaring, in a branding exercise, that WWE would no longer be known as World Wrestling Entertainment, but simply ‘WWE’.
The press release also confirms that “the company will bolster its core business with the launch of a new talent development department headed by Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque. The new department will put a greater emphasis on worldwide recruitment, training and character development to identify future WWE Superstars and Divas. The first recruit acquired under Levesque’s new department was the signing last month of future WWE Superstar Sin Cara, formerly known worldwide as Mistico.”
Without taking a look at the official WWE staff org chart, the basic gist here is that Levesque is in, and Laurinaitis, despite holding onto his job title for another year, is out.
April 4, 2011 - Sin Cara
Sin Cara is not a future WWE Superstar. He is a total flop.
He makes his debut on the April 4, 2011 Raw. It’s the night after WrestleMania, and with a lot of scores settled, it’s time for new characters to emerge!
Unfortunately for Cara, he barely emerges in the ring. He gets himself tangled in the ropes when he fails to clear them despite the use of a trampoline prop.
In almost every appearance thereafter, Sin Cara, who doesn't quite replace Rey Mysterio, either gets lost entirely and or botches something to oblivion. He becomes a meme and a laughing stock. Not accustomed to wrestling the U.S. style, much less the WWE style, Cara is nonetheless rushed onto television. The more cynical wrestling fans - and Triple H has attracted a great deal of them, over the course of his career - believe that an impatient Levesque wants to get over by proxy.
He is the guy who was clever enough to sign the guy who excites you!
Triple H - despite being responsible for more than one of the worst wrestling moments ever - doesn’t become the overlord of professional wrestling by being incompetent. After the farce that is the Sin Cara experiment, Levesque takes the opposite approach.
Some fans will later accuse him of hiding TV-ready wrestlers in developmental for far longer than is necessary, but Levesque, a pretty conservative guy generally, applies very strictly the lesson he learns here.