The WWE has signed another CMLL star, this time in the form of long-time rudo (villain) Averno. According to Lucha Libre news site LuchaBlog, the signing came about as a result of the WWE not being happy with the work of Sin Cara in his brief stint with the company thus far. In an attempt to improve his work, WWE management asked Sin Cara who in the world he’d most like to work with. Cara responded by referring them to Averno, who he feuded with extensively while performing as Mistico in his pre-WWE career.
Interestingly, it appears as though the WWE will be presenting Averno as a maskless heel upon his arrival. The luchador has demanded to be booked to lose his mask in Mexico, an indication that he’ll be performing without it in the states. While this transition has worked while for some in the past, like Alberto Del Rio, not every luchador who has unmasked to embark on a WWE career has found such success.
There are a few aspects of this signing worth considering. For one, I’m a little surprised that the WWE isn’t too pleased with Sin Cara’s work so far, as he seems to be very over with live crowds. Moreover, it’s interesting that despite not being happy with his work, they’re doing everything in their power to make sure he succeeds by allowing him to choose his own feud partner. At 34 years of age, Averno is no spring chicken either, making the signing an even more uncharacteristic one for World Wrestling Entertainment. For those of you interested in checking Averno out, I direct your attention to our first ever installment of Full Match Friday, which incidentally featured a match between Mistico and the WWE’s newest signee.
I think its more of a frustration of Sin Cara’s style fitting in what WWE has. They have fallen into a safety net the last couple years of having a defined style that all the superstars have to fit into and tried to bring in a guy with a style that clashes with it thinking it could work. I have read that they rave about his matches with Chavo, but needed to bring in another opponent he was comfortable with so that he could still be successful while working on improving his WWE style.
[…] success story as far as luchador to unmasked character conversions go. Hopefully the newest WWE signee Averno can follow […]
[…] capable of matching his style. Months ago, it was reported that the WWE had inked fellow luchador Averno to a deal for the specific purpose of working with Sin Cara, but if Cara is indeed done with the promotion, it’s a safe assumption that his longtime […]