It’s cloudy right where I’m at right now, but it’s been a pretty illuminating day.
Sin Cara has been suspended by WWE for a violation of their drug policy. WON believes he failed a steroid test in early June. This has quite a ripple effect.
- Sin Cara may not be staying with WWE. Don’t know any more than that, but the WON report mentions it as a possibility. WWE did seem to protect him at the PPV, but did not seem to protect him by releasing his real name. (Which I’ve already had to take off the wiki once, thanks.)
If Sin Cara left WWE, he’d be immediately scooped up by AAA. I’d presume they’ve got or are getting an offer ready for him right now. They’ve been planning for this since he went to WWE, just in case they had a chance. There’s almost no chance he’d return to CMLL, though he could do the independent thing for a while. His name is going to be an entire issue in itself, and there’s no telling what this will do to his image in Mexico. (Rey Misterio’s PED suspension appeared to have no long term affect on him.)
It’d be very easy for WWE to write off bringing in Mexican luchadors if Sin Cara left after this. They’re still going to want another Rey Misterio or a replacement one, but this would be a disaster of epic proportions and might sour WWE on at least reaching out of the country for a Latino wrestler.
I can’t believe Sin Cara and WWE are leaving, because they benefit from that relationship more than any other. But something needs to be fixed.
- Averno is staying in CMLL – for a great deal longer, if he’s even still going. Don’t need Mistico’s opponent if Mistico isn’t going to be around for 30 days. He should be feuding with Sheamus when he returns, though WWE isn’t really consistent about those sorts of things, so maybe WWE doesn’t need him for longer. Since Averno’s whole purpose in WWE is to work with Sin Cara, he’s not going to be brought in if Sin Cara is gone, and Sin Cara might have lost the privilege of naming his favorite opponent.
It’s really great Averno has been awesome as a unmasked rudo in CMLL, because he may be one for a while to come. It’s also great that he hasn’t appeared to burn any bridges on the way out – he’s made every date, he’s made Mascara look good, and he’s added greatly to the program. CMLL would be a fool to punish him right now, and they know it, because they gave the Avernos the trios titles.
- CMLL has known about his for a while. Maybe not known Sin Cara was suspended, but obviously known Averno was going to be around for a lot longer. And – they managed to keep it a secret this time! Good work, everyone!
(Things are finally starting to make sense. I’d like to thank billzero for his inspirational cat picture that got me thru the dark hours.)
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Thank goodness Averno has proven himself a true professional for his own sake. A shame that Sin Cara’s personal decisions not only affected him, but put his friend’s job status in jeopardy as well. If Averno had burned bridges with CMLL, I’m sure he’d get work in AAA, but the man still has every option available to him because he appears to have his head on straight; no thanks to his buddy Sin Cara.
So WWE is using a failed test to possibly get rid of Sin Cara? That’s a typical strategy. But why get rid of him? His mask and t-shirt seem to be selling. He’s over. Not super over. But over enough that WWE can do Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara at Mania and make a killing selling merch and have a match people will talk about.
Cubs. Why do you think that CMLL would never take him back? They would probably take him back in a second. He’s Mistico, not Konnan or el Hijo del Santo.
@LLL: They blurred out a Mistico mask on a fan last week. Not an isolated occasion, they’ve removed him from history wherever they can easily control it. They’re treating him like he was Hijo del Santo, maybe more bitterness.
@thecubsfan: Blurring out a Mistico mask makes sense. No doubt they are mad he left and don’t want to remind viewers that the top star left. But he’s someone they would almost certainly take back. And I’m not sure he’d go to AAA nor do I think AAA could get him over. Sure, AAA has Aero Star and means a little something, but their focus is on blood brawls, objects, Konnan/Dorian, and I don’t think they would handle Mistico properly, but I could be wrong.
@LLL: No doubt that AAA has a good chance of mishandling Mistico, but they don’t believe they’d mishandle him. They went after Argos and kept Argenis around just to make it more enticing for Mistico, and Mistico wanted to appear on the TV where Argos debuted.
I think HHH will convince WWE to give him one more chance. He needs to go to FCW for at least a month or two however.
I don’t think Sin Cara is actually going anywhere and neither is Averno now. Cara is too big of a draw (not in America) for WWE to dump. Unless WWE brings up Hunico, there’s no chance for WWE to have a character replace Cara for the possible taping in the fall.
AAA would not handle Mistico right, they never let faces get over anymore and also he is “too small” for the current AAA style.
I doubt they are planning on releasing him at this point, but they may be trying to scare him into line. Hopefully Mistico has some friends who will keep him away from talking to any Mexican press about this for at least the next 30 days since that would probably push them over the edge. Thankfully he doesn’t have a history of giving out crazy quotes or anything.
I do however think that Vince is probably secretly thrilled about this. It gives him a chance to show off how seriously they take their wellness policy. Triple H’s golden boy gets brought in for relatively big money and an instant push and even he can’t escape punishment. Of course, the truth is that Cara probably has little affect on the WWE’s bottom line at the moment and they clearly weren’t in the middle of any sort of storyline with him until after the positive test.
Yeah it’s not like Cara was involved in a major angle or title match. WWE needs a successor to Mysterio and Cara is their best choice right now.
It would make no sense to suspend him now and release him afterwards. He will surely get another chance.
@Ringo: That was my initial thought too, and I still think that if he serves his suspension quietly they will bring him back. But, they can suspend him for 30 days and then give him his 90 day notice, basically taking him off the market for 120 days if they wanted to.
I’m sure he’ll get another chance but it does look really bad that HHH’s first signing was caught doping within a few months of being in the company. That reflects bad on HHH. We’re not all naive enough to think nobody in the company is doing bad things that are suspension worthy but that’s not the point. The point is Mistico was dumb enough to get caught while the others know the tricks by now.
In my opinion the major issue here is how this reflects on HHH. Sure Mistico witll get another chance but if this has soured HHH’s opinion of him – what is the point of Mistico coming back? His work has been subpar so far and the promotion has gone out of their way to try and cater to his needs. All that for only one reason – he’s HHH’s pet project. Thus Mistico has been very carefully protected since day one. Now if the guy who has been protecting you suddenly loses interested… that’s bad… very bad. Mistico returning without HHH’s protection puts him in Ultimo Dragon-land. A small masked guy who doesn’t know the language. Guys like that don’t fare well in Vinceland.
Mistico does have one positive going for him though – he’s selling lots of merch. He did effect the WWE’s bottom line almost on his own his first two months in as Meltzer reported on the radio show. Now whether that’s due to him or the WWE machine is up to everyone’s own opinion but it’s a fact that his merch has been flying off the shelves and the kids (a big part of the current WWE fanbase) love him. How far that takes him… we’ll see. But I guarantee you if he weren’t selling merchandise and the crowd was indifferent towards him that would be a much bigger problem than a failed drug test.
Let’s just hope Mistico has learned his lesson from the past and doesn’t pick up the phone when all the Mexican press start calling. Last thing he needs is to be quoted saying something that angers the WWE b/c they won’t release him – they’ll bring him back and BURY HIM DEAD – then release him.:) That will be when we can actually discuss AAA or CMLL. Until then it’s useless to speculate.
I doubt HHH is very pleased with this development, especially since Cara knows how much HHH is trying to help him.
BTW how the hell was Cara doing roids? He sure as hell doesn’t look like he uses them.
Whatever the real reason, it’s no good news for Luis Ignacio. I hope this turns out well.
You know who I blame is Triple H…How come he didn’t teach Sin Cara the proper way to conceal being on the juice? You would think that if he was his pet project that would have been the first thing he’d teach him.
I don’t think they’ll drop him that soon.
I think people are reacting way too soon here. Is there any of their top guys who haven’t failed a wellness yet? or two? At least guys who pre-date the system. I guess it would be an easy “out” for them, but if he’s really moving merch near a Cena/Rey level, I think he’ll be fine. And it’s not as if he’s taking a significant part of the show up, so they can afford to continue to try with him.
I mean, there are advantages to being one of HHH’s projects (unless, as has been said, HHH is upset about this too.)
Also, remember it’s not as if the WWE really cares if their workers use the drugs–it’s just a cover for criticism, and given that presently people seem to be focusing on GLAAD-type stuff, I don’t think he’ll be irreparably damaged.
@Wirehead: There are different kinds of steroids for achieving different types of goals with your body. Certain ones help you burn fat by helping convert it into muscle, some help you retain water and build up more muscle. To say Sin Cara didn’t look like he was on the juice is somewhat ignorant – how do you think a guy his size puts on all that muscle? You don’t have to look like Scott Steiner or Strongman to be a juice freak.
Also, unless the exact drug he was found to have taken in violation is revealed, “steroids” is such a catch-all-term for any “performance enhancing drug” that it is unfair to make a judgment about what he took. Maybe he was just taking something on the banned list that wasn’t necessarily a steroid per se, like a masking agent, or andro…
They should just bring in Averno as a fake Sin Cara. Then when the real one comes back, have a mask vs mask match. Like the Kane vs Kane feud but better.
I for one think Sin Cara’s punishment was releasing his name. But I also believe releasing his name also has to do with the trademark probkems WWE has had in convincing the US gov that Sin Cara is a character and not a person.
Sin Cara is not going anywhere they have spent way to much money devolping the character, having top guys job, and most importantly he was and is being sold to Mexico as the next great Latin superstar. He will be back but just not with all the hype on american tv as before.
@Crpls:
So yeah after Eddie and a certain other guy didn’t die you have a point. I think they do because of say the MVP issue from August 2007 that kept him out of action. I have no problem with steroids due to what they do to repair injuries (Bret Hart has used it for that) and who knows Cara might have been injured leading to the use of PEDs but we don’t know the whole story and most likely never will.
A few things about the WWE Wellness Policy. It does not forbid the use of anabolic and androgenic steroids; what is forbids is non-supervised use of them. MANY of the top wrestlers are hormone replacement therapy, which is testosterone, but it is done in monitored way, thus it is part of the “wellness” plan.
Here is the policy, “The Substance Abuse and Drug Testing Policy (“Policy”) prohibits the non-medical use and associate abuse of prescription medications and performance-enhancing drugs, as well as the use, possession and/or distribution of illegal drugs by WWE Talent.
I will bet this has NOTHING to do with performance enhancement and EVERYTHING to do with pain medication. I know the reports say differently. But what is better? I got caught juicing or I am addicted to painkillers?