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Author’s Note: Good evening/day everyone. I know I said I wouldn’t really do any more author’s notes, but I just wanted to say that I’ve been and will continue to be really busy this week to come up with an original column, so I’m reposting this one. For those who don’t follow the Columns Forum, this is my last column before my call-up to the main page, and because of events that followed on TV soon after (i.e. Sin Cara turning heel), my joke is that this is the column that justified my promotion.

This column will have some addendum attached to the end due to events that will happen on this Friday’s SmackDown, so at least you will be getting some new material. That said, I apologize for this cop-out, but I guarantee that most of you probably have not read this one before, so it’s kind of original material, in a way. You get a 100% new Ro is War next week, and you might even catch me on an LOP Podcast session, if you pray hard enough. Huzzah!

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The upside to a masked wrestler, as most wrestling organizations know by now, is that the mask easily allows for different people to assume the role. While the traditions of Mexican lucha libre hold their individual characters, and by extension, their masks too sacred for two people to be sharing one specific character (hence, all the El Hijos), their brethren up north are a little more liberal. TNA has done this mainly with the Suicide character, while WWE has done this with Kane, Doink the Clown, and currently, with much hullaballoo backstage, the Sin Cara character.

For the very few who are unaware of the proceedings, the original Sin Cara was found to have violated the WWE Wellness Policy, and was thus suspended for thirty days after being written out of storylines at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Shortly after, the WWE seemingly realized that keeping Sin Cara the character – not the actual person under the mask – on the sidelines was not good for their investment, so they remembered that they can still run the character with a different person wearing the costume.

Enter Hunico, another luchador who took and is still currently taking the original’s place under the Sin Cara mask. Anyone with a decently sharp eye can tell the difference between Hunico and the original Sin Cara; Hunico is noticeably heavier, taller, and slightly less agile than the marvellous original, but he’s no slouch himself. (Ironically, both men made their debuts at around the same time using the Mistico name.)

Now, there are talks going on of releasing the original Sin Cara and just letting Hunico run with the character, as the original is just too much of a liability, especially when it comes to his spotty in-ring work and the fact that he can’t speak English, which, even if he was able to put on matches with most people, is still a detriment when it comes to communication, and wrestling is at least 50 percent communication. There are also rumors of him having an ego (he is pretty much already a living legend in Mexico), but so far one can easily attribute that to either political backstabbing, racism, plain miscommunication, or all of the above.

So the question is: should the WWE get away with this setup? Should Hunico really just continue to play Sin Cara, and Mistico be sent back to Mexico?

Simply put, I think it’s a real waste if they let Mistico get away. One reason is the huge amount of publicity that was accrued when Mistico was signed will all go to waste – and you can’t even truly fall back on the excuse that the Sin Cara character is still alive, as anyone can and will tell you that Hunico is clearly not Mistico. If Triple H wishes to keep his stock within the company, he’ll find a way to go to bat for his first big signing, lest he allows it to become his biggest failure as a suit behind the scenes.

Another reason is that there’s just that intangible something that Mistico brings to the table. “Botchery aside, the Mistico version of Sin Cara is breathtaking to watch and I just don't see Hunico delivering that slickly,” independent wrestler Sugar Dunkerton opined on Twitter recently, and it’s a comment that succinctly describes the contrast between the two workers. Watch any early Sin Cara match, and if you see past the errors he makes, you’ll easily notice that there’s a raw athleticism within him that just needs the right person to help tame it and rein it in.

And again, in another ironic point, there’s no better person to help him with his struggles than his replacement, Hunico. It should’ve really been either Chavo Guerrero or Rey Mysterio, but we all know that Chavo took issue with putting over Sin Cara (although the writers are at fault for that one), and the WWE couldn’t risk blowing a big-time angle in Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara early on, not to mention Rey is slowly starting to become the cruiserweight Undertaker. The man who is in the best position to help him out is really Hunico.

Think about it, because it’s not really a stretch: like Rey, Hunico works the same style as Mistico and can speak both Spanish and English. If they work together, Hunico can easily understand instructions and just as easily relay them to Mistico, allowing for better in-ring chemistry and more sensible matches. The only obstacle left to work around is getting both men in a program together, and pulling that off is really easy: a Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara feud.

Allow me some space to perform some fantasy booking again, because one cannot suggest something without pulling out an idea or two from his imagination to support it. The setup for this particular feud would be simple; after Hunico Cara wins a match over a random jobber like, say, Heath Slater, the lights would act strange while he is celebrating, a la Undertaker omens. Something weird would appear on the TitanTron, like the Sin Cara mask or some ominous message written in Spanish. This would occur for a couple more weeks until finally, the original Sin Cara makes his appearance (and everyone would be able to tell it’s him because of his size) and tries to attack Hunico Cara, who would flee. On the next SmackDown, original Sin Cara would call out Hunico Cara (via the ring announcer, for those of you who are really detail-oriented) and the two would end up brawling, with Hunico Cara getting the upper hand and laying him out for this week’s segment.

This is where it would get interesting. There’s very little reason to push forward a feud between two mute characters, so at this point I would have Hunico be the talker of the storyline, because he can actually speak English. On the next SmackDown, Hunico will come out to a modified version of the Sin Cara mask which reveals the mouth, so that he can talk. In that promo, he’s going to explain that he stole Sin Cara’s mask to use for his own personal gain and fame, and will conclude with the point that he’s a better Sin Cara than Sin Cara will ever be. There’s your feud.

Of course, that particular storyline will have to depend on how good Hunico can talk, because as the only one who can talk between the two of them, the burden of advancing the story rests more upon his shoulders. But this is something they need to do if they want to polish and tame their investment, which right now is still valuable to let go, and there is still enough time and opportunity to turn things around.

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Now a couple of weeks have gone by since these words were first written, and let’s rattle off the things that are now true:

- Hunico Cara has turned heel.
- Hunico can actually speak in English, and from what little we’ve heard from him, it seems like he’s already better than Rey Mysterio on the mic.
- (SPOILER) Mistico is coming back on this Friday’s SmackDown, under a modified version of his costume (see picture above)

The feud is going to happen (you heard it here first), and while it hasn’t gone exactly according to my plan just yet as we’ll have to wait and see how Mistico furthers it on his end, as the challenge is more on him due to the fact that he is basically a mute character.

My main problem with it now is the fact that Daniel Bryan was used as the catalyst for this feud. Daniel Bryan is currently the SmackDown Money in the Bank winner, and it’s already been established that he will cash in his shot at the next WrestleMania. Knowing this, shouldn’t the booking logic be to continue building him up by putting him in angles that will allow him enough opportunity for upward mobility? Why should he be forced in an angle wherein he can’t even be one of the lead actors? Why not use someone like, say, Trent Barreta to be Hunico’s cannon fodder? Daniel Bryan has more important things he needs to be doing if he is to become a legit contender by WrestleMania season, and we only have three months left in this year before that begins in the build-up to the Royal Rumble. It would have been better for him to be involved somehow with the Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase feud for the Intercontinental Championship.

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Source: lordsofpain.net