By Lyman Hoyt July 10th, 2008
Lucha legend Dos Caras, Sr.
, quoting an article by fight journalism god Dave Meltzer at
The Wrestling Observer, reports that Dos Caras, Jr. is possibly headed to the WWE. The report identifies Dos Caras Jr. as a ‘former PRIDE fighter’ which is something of a stretch. With all due respect to Caras, who is a first rate luchadore and comes from a legendary family which includes his father (Dos Caras) and uncles (Mil Mascaras and El Sicodélico), his involvement in PRIDE had more to do with the lax regulatory oversight of the Japanese MMA game along with his famous family. That’s the only way to explain how a fighter with a 3-2 career MMA mark against 2nd tier competition would be allowed to fight Croatian striking monster Mirko Cro Cop. The result wasn’t surprising, as Cro Cop landed one of the more spectacular high kicks of his career and Dos Caras Jr. was fortunate to have left Tokyo with his masked head still attached to his body. This was Cro Cop’s 32nd career MMA/kickboxing bout, and Dos Caras Jr. was chosen as an opponent since he was viewed as a ’safe’ fight to promote the Cro Cop/Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight a month later. Unlike most ‘tune up’ type opponents, however, he had a ‘big name’ that was very familiar to savvy Japanese fight fans. Credit to Dos Caras for having the stones to take the fight, but it was the sort of one sided mismatch that would have never been sanctioned in the United States.
He’s definitely better suited for professional wrestling, and the WWE wants to slot him into the ‘Latino hero’ position filled most recently by Rey Mysterio, Jr. who’s rehabing a serious bicep injury. At home, Dos Caras Jr. just won the CMLL World Championship (CMLL = Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre which translates to ‘World Wrestling Council’, not to be confused with the Puerto Rican promotion run by Carlos Colon) so he may have some conflict about which move is best for his career.
PRIDE fighter to WWE @ Pro Wrestling.com
July 10th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I remember the year I went to college, when we were talking about how “who would get in the ring with Mike Tyson to collect the paycheck.” While I suppose we could talk about the “stones” we had to do something as stupid as get into the ring with a prime, ready to be beaten Tyson in 1989, we were idiots to think it. Would that have changed if we’d actually done it? NO! Ha!
Likewise, I thought I was watching a professional wrestler’s nightmare segment reel when I watched that piece with Cro Cop using his ankle as a baseball bat to the top of El Dumbass’s con Stones’ head. It’s good that he had the stones, because he could have been left a vegetable sperm donor after that fight. Also thank you for mentioning that THAT fight would have never been sanctioned in the US - because that would have been like allowing my friend or myself, to get into the ring with in-his-prime Tyson. CRAY-ZEE.