[keg in kc]

Pertinent details:

The future of Sin Cara (Luis Ignacio Urive Alvride, 28) is in question after he failed what is believed to be a test for anabolic steroids conducted in early June.

Normally a first test failure leads to a 30 day suspension. At press time, the company has given two stories, funny enough, both being on its web site right next to each other on the day after Money in the Bank. The first was that he was suspended 30 days for a Wellness policy violation. The second was that he would be out of action about four weeks due to a worked fractured rib suffered in a spot where Sheamus power bombed him onto a ladder that bridged the announcers table and the apron.

However, a number of people in the company were under the impression that they had decided to cut bait on him. That was the word going around after the PPV, as well the next day after the suspension was announced. Officially, the company made no comment regarding whether he would be back when people were asked. The writing team was not told until a day or two before the PPV about writing Sin Cara out, and were told not to put any thought into any scenarios for him going forward. It was not outright said he was fired, but dropping all thoughts of ideas for him when the company is supposed to be doing long-term thinking was ominous wording. The belief was that it sounded like he was gone, but that the final decision may not have been made.

But that would be a big surprise, and not only because he was publicly brought in with such fanfare and tied to being HHH’s first public project in his initiative to create new stars. He came in and the negatives were all things people should have realized going in. There were complaints about him “acting like he was a star” backstage, when in fact, he was a star at the same level as John Cena since 2006, just in another world. But in WWE, if you aren’t a star in WWE, then you aren’t supposed to act like a star. Then, when you don’t act like a star, they say you don’t project being a star. He had the tag of “walking around like his shit don’t stink” or the idea he walks around “clueless,” which may simply be a language barrier issue. Plus there was the issue of not knowing English, and wrestling a different style, so getting the “he can’t work” tag in some corners. There was the tag of high maintenance, because they had assigned a Spanish speaking referee to be with him on the road, and they had gone to him and asked him for his favorite opponent (Averno) to bring in so he could have the best matches possible.

But if anything, he has been far more of a positive than he had any right to be. He was over huge at most house shows, and over like a superstar in some markets. In some circles, that’s good, but in others, it’s not, because of the idea that it showed he was over, particularly with the “Mistico” chants, based on what he did elsewhere, and that’s not supposed to count. Aside from a match with Chavo Guerrero on PPV, which had some botched spots, most of his matches have been fine and some have been very good.

His merchandise was moving surprisingly well, even with limited television time, and he had already broken through to the younger children market. While there were exceptions, for the most part, his matches were getting over to the live crowd. Of course when it comes to American style work he wasn’t smooth, but if you really look at things with open eyes, if you took virtually any current WWE headliner with one or two exceptions (Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio), sent them to CMLL or AAA and told them they had to work the Lucha Libre style, virtually all of them would get lost. In fact, most Americans going to Mexico work the American style unless they are guys who come to Mexico without big American names and don’t have the luxury of being over based on U.S. stardom. But nobody looks at things that way.

But it’s also obvious that just the thought of not bringing him back after one positive drug test, when a significant number of wrestlers on the current roster have a strike against them, would mean there are issues that are significant in some fashion, whether they are related to behavior or the drug test failure. Plus, the perception was that the company really wanted him to succeed. They want someone who can fill the void when Rey Mysterio steps down as the Latin masked man who appeals to kids and sells merchandise and is over big in certain markets. Plus, his name was linked publicly to HHH, and they want HHH to be associated with winning concepts.

As far as the timing of the test failure, as the results of the failed test actually came in about a month ago, and his continuing to appear on television, at house shows, and still getting pushed, creative was not aware of the failure and no change was made to his status. When it comes to test failures, in some instances (and I don’t know that this is the case here, but it was for Rey Mysterio when he got suspended), sometimes it requires examining whether the talent has a valid medical reason, consulting with their doctor, particularly if there is a doctors’ prescription involved. Once the company doctors have made a ruling that the talent has no legitimate reason to be using the drug, then they will inform the company. At that point, the policy is to either suspend them right away, or bring them to television to take a title off them or do an injury storyline, and then suspend them publicly the day after the storyline is executed. The timing would indicate that being the case here, although nobody has actually confirmed it applies to this case.

Still no official update on Sin Cara. They are still pushing his merchandise and on this past week’s Smackdown show, his name was mentioned as being injured and out for a month as opposed to ignored as if the decision was finalized that he would be let go, his name might be mentioned but they wouldn’t say he’d be back in a month. Then again, that’s trying to base what they say on logic, and with things changing so frequently, that’s possibly giving more credence than is due. His name is listed on advertising for future events, but those ads would have been cut before anyone in that department would have known he was suspended. They’ve got the Mexico tour in October and he’s been pushed hard for that. Smackdown was taped after they knew he was suspended but before they knew he did the interview with Record in Mexico, which the company was very upset about it. He’s always had a good relationship with that newspaper, as he voiced gripes with CMLL when he worked there to that paper before as he was a big enough start to get away with it (he kind of did the shoot version of the work that Punk was doing). And there’s a very good chance he doesn’t know the peculiarities about WWE and the media. He claimed in the newspaper that nobody in the company told him he was suspended and had just found out after the story broke by WWE on its web site. That’s hard to believe, actually almost impossible to believe, because of the long delay between getting the results of the positive test and his suspension (about a month). He said he didn’t know why he was suspended, that he doesn’t use drugs and thought the suspension was from steroids that he claimed must have come from an injection in his knee for knee inflammation. WWE protocol in these cases is always to tell the talent personally what the issue is before putting it on the site, so no way that’s true either. He said they also haven’t told him when he’ll be back, but he thought it couldn’t be serious because it if was, they would have told him.