Cinta De Oro Recalls Paul Heyman Telling Him "Sin Cara Is Dead"
WWE veteran Cinta de Oro, f.k.a. Sin Cara / Hunico, was on a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily to talk about his upcoming appearance for Qatar Pro Wrestling. Following a series of WWE releases last week, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked the luchadore about the time he asked for his WWErelease and was eventually given it.
"Well, it wasn't easy. As a human being, as a person, imagine this little kid from El Paso, from Juarez having a dream all his life and then getting there to the biggest company in the world thinking that things are going to be amazing and have an opportunity because of your talent," de Oro described. "Unfortunately, it's not about talent anymore, and that's the truth. It's unfortunate for a lot of people and a lot of amazing wrestlers.
"It's not your talent anymore. It's whoever they point the finger at, and that's how it is and it's unfortunate because you go in with a mindset of I want to accomplish everything. You want to take over the world. You want to do all these amazing things, and then through the years, I realized it wasn't about that anymore. The mentality about Sin Cara was, 'Oh Sin Cara, no matter what we do, no matter what he is, people loved him. Kids loved him, so it doesn't matter,' and it was just sad because I was being overlooked in that sense.
"And I didn't mind working with anybody, and I didn't mind helping anybody. The guys that worked with me know that I'm unselfish in that sense. Anything they needed from me, anything they wanted from me, it was gonna be for a good purpose, especially for our matches. I didn't mind doing stuff like that or helping other guys, and it was just unfortunate that I never really got the opportunity to succeed in that sense.
On the main roster, de Oro continued his tag team with Kalisto as part of The Lucha Dragons. However, once they split up, de Oro had infrequent TV appearances. He spoke more about how he was used in WWE and described how difficult it was to get to the point of requesting his release.
"Obviously, there were little runs during that time, but there was never a continuation of me being on television for a year," de Oro noted. "I had a couple meetings where I said, 'Just give me a shot. Just give me a shot. Give me a year. Give me a year on television and let's see if I don't get over.' Simple as that. You're giving other people an opportunity for a year or two years, and you guys make them because they're on television every week. Every week, you're building them up. You're telling stories with them.
"You're letting people know what they like, what they don't like, but when you just use me for one week and then I'm off the next four weeks, use another week and then off another two months, that doesn't do anything for anybody. Not for me, not for the talent that I work with, not for anybody and that was my main thing. And I thought about it for a few years. It wasn't 'I'm gonna ask for my release today, and that's it. I'm done.' No, it was at least a couple years where I was already thinking about leaving, and during that time, I was still married, and I was talking to the mother of my kids and I was asking her, 'What should I do?' And she would always tell me, 'Just do what you think is best for your career and what you want to do, and we'll support you.' And it was tough because a lot of people are depending on me, and I was getting paid.
"The guy that makes masks. The guy that makes boots. A lot of people that were around me and it was just tough to realize that no matter what I did, no matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I trained, no matter how I gave ideas, or I talked to this person or talk to that person. Everybody would throw the ball to the other person. 'Talk to him. Talk to him. Talk to him.' It just became something that I was just fed up with. I was just tired of it."
De Oro recalled the day he requested his release during a WWE European tour. Revealing what Paul Heyman, who was executive director of RAW at the time, said about the Sin Cara character.
"We were in Europe actually when I had a meeting. We had television," de Oro recalled. "My last match was with Drew McIntyre, and that day, I remember I went in to talk to the people in the office and public relations office. And I just said, 'Let me go. I'm done. I'm tired of this. I already spoke with the people that you asked me to talk with, and nothing happens.' Everybody says one thing. The other one says that Sin Cara is dead. That's what Paul Heyman told me. 'Sin Cara is dead,' and I was like, 'What do you mean?' 'Oh yeah, he's dead.' I said, 'It's because you guys killed him.' You guys never gave me an actual opportunity to really succeed and become a star in the company that I love, that I wanted to work with and I wanted to give everything that I've given 10 years of my life.
"And it was just unfortunate, and for me, it was very sad because I love. I love the sport. I love the business. I love being around my friends. I had a lot great relationships with a lot of the boys, and it was just tough realizing that nothing was going to change. And they said that they were going to think about it to see about giving me my release because they weren't giving releases to anybody. I was like, 'Well, to be honest, I'm not happy anymore. Why do you want me here if I'm not happy anymore? Let me go.' You have all these guys that want to continue working here. That's okay. I just don't want to be here anymore because I'm not happy anymore.
"I lost the love for what I love, and that's bad. That was the hardest part is realizing that moment, so we went on the tour. We continued through. I did my match with Drew. As soon as I finished the match, I didn't even stop in Gorilla. I just left straight to the locker room, took a shower and got in the bus. I didn't say nothing to anybody. People, they were back in Gorilla. I was just tired of it. I was just like, these guys don't really care about me. So I realized that, and then I just left. And I'm not talking bad about anybody, and I understand that it's a business, and we're numbers. It's part of life, and it's part of the business. I'm not saying, 'Oh, poor Cinta de Oro, poor Sin Cara.' No, none of that. I just realized that it wasn't my place anymore."
De Oro's final run in WWE is most remembered by his feud with Andrade and Zelina Vega. De Oro spoke more on Heyman's comment that "Sin Cara was dead", and he revealed an idea he pitched to help further his character.
"I spoke with Michael Hayes. I spoke with him a little bit about what they wanted to do with Sin Cara," de Oro said. "During that time, we had a little feud with Andrade and Zelina Vega, and it was pretty cool. I was enjoying the feud, and it was fun, but I asked them, 'What's next for me? What do you want?' You guys brought this young lady from Chile, Catalina, up to the main roster to work with me. What is it that you guys want to accomplish?'
"Then I went to Paul Heyman, and he was in catering. I asked him straight out, 'You guys haven't touched me. What do you guys want to do with me because I really want to know.' I need to know what's going on because I don't want to continue my career like this. You see me one week, and then leaving again, and then coming home and feeling miserable. So then that's when he told me that Sin Cara was dead, and I gave him a few ideas as well.
"Let's do it like Spider-Man where in the movie, people don't know who he is, and then when he becomes a superhero, he puts on a mask, but then you're not going to be Sin Cara anymore because they can see your face. They would give me one thing after the other, and for a long time, since I've been out, I never said anything just out of respect, but at the end of the day, they don't really care about me, so why should I care about people that don't care about me. I understand that maybe they have a lot of people, which is fine. I'm not saying that is bad. This is not personal. This is mostly business. It was just unfortunate that I got to experience that.
You can follow Cinta de Oro on Twitter @CintaDeOro. Cinta de Oro will make his Qatar Pro Wrestling on February 26, 2022! For more information please visit www.QPW-Wrestling.com. You can find the full audio and video from Cinta's interview below: