Hunico has revealed in an interview the reason why he failed as Sin Cara in the WWE – because Triple H did not back in the mask, to avoid looking like a “failure”.
Hunico took over the mask of Sin Cara in 2013 after the original Sin Cara was released by WWE due to incredibly poor performances in ring. Despite coming in as a huge signing, he failed to meet expectations, botching regularly in the ring and refusing to learn English, limiting which talent he could work with in the ring.
Injury problems also plagued Sin Cara before he and WWE called it a day. They released the wrestler underneath the mask, but wanted to continue with the character so repurposed his gimmick, handing it to the wrestler formerly known as Hunico.
While he was a much more effective wrestler as Sin Cara, WWE never got behind Hunico as Sin Cara. He was generally used as a jobber to the stars, losing to mostly midcard talent or competing on WWE Main Event or Superstars.
He did manage to win some gold in WWE. Teaming with Kalisto, he became an NXT Tag Team Champion in 2014, as part of the Lucha Brothers tag team. On the main roster, his success was much more limited and he had no real storylines or interesting matches until his release in December 2019.
Sin Cara in WWE
In an interview with Chris Van Vilet, Hunico (real name Jose Jorge Arriaga Rodriguez) revealed the reason why he wasn’t pushed in WWE as Sin Care. He claimed that the reason was that Triple H did not want him to succeed under the mask – because it would show him up as a failure.
He claimed that two wrestlers Triple H had pushed for in WWE – Sin Cara and Kharma (Awesome Kong in TNA)- had failed to live up to expectations, for a variety of reasons, and that if Hunico had succeeded him his role it would have made Triple H’s decisions look bad in the eyes of Vince McMahon.
In the interview with Chris Van Vilet, Hunico explained;
“Sin Cara didn’t cut out to be what they wanted out of him. Why not me now? And I always had that mentality. But it was tough, let me tell you why. Because imagine having this kid coming from Mexico trying to make him a big star, especially during that time when Hunter was trying to show the boss that he could take over the company”
“That was before NXT. And then he hires big Kharma, remember? And then she had to leave the company, I don’t know why the reasons. And then this is like the biggest signing that he had from Mexico comes in and he doesn’t do anything. So, in the eyes I think of Vince [McMahon], it was harder for Hunter to think, ‘Oh man, I failed twice now.’ You know?”
“And then the decision for the name of Sin Cara, of what I know, it was made by Vince to give me the name. So, I think I never got that opportunity or that support from Hunter because it wasn’t his project anymore. And if I succeeded, then it was a bigger failure for him, because he was the one that brought this kid from Mexico over to make him a big star.”
So it looks like, according to the second Sin Cara, that he did not have the backing of management, due to Triple H, to succeed as a star in WWE. What do you think is the reason Sin Car in WWE failed? Tell us in the comments or click below to read about WWE signing AEW’s Bandido.