Andrade “Cien” Almas spent the first months on WWE’s roster riding the bench. However, opportunity knocked in the form of an impromptu SmackDown match with AJ Styles and now, Vince McMahon may have a crush on El Idolo.
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Fightful.com reports McMahon is behind Almas and that support came after an unexpectedly stellar SmackDown match with Styles. Fightful writes that most NXT call-ups arrive in WWE with no plan, and that was the case with Almas. It’s not until they earn McMahon’s blessing until they are given something to do. Considering Almas has been brushing shoulders with likes of Daniel Bryan and his intergender rivalry with Rusev and Lana, Almas has gone from arbitrary to necessary.
From the outside, WWE would like us to think that they operate democratically, but we all know that McMahon is more of the authoritarian type. His power is well deserved, anyone who takes a business from the bingo halls to selling out football stadiums inherently knows more than the rest of us about wrestling. So when he picks his favorites, that wrestler is all but guaranteed a long stretch of juicy opportunities.
The best example of this is obviously Roman Reigns. However, before Almas, McMahon was said to be smitten with Drew McIntyre. Since those reports, McIntyre has been elevated to Raw’s main event storyline and is currently holding a Raw Tag Team Championship. We’ll guess Almas is in store for similar success.
Almas arrived in WWE with far less fanfare than NXT legends like Finn Balor and Asuka. However, those high expectations have to lead to a lot of broken heard fans as neither Balor nor Asuka have reached the main roster equivalent of their NXT success. But for the unsung heroes of NXT like Alexa Bliss and Elias, arriving in WWE with a malleable character has done wonders for their career. Almas looks to be following that precedent.
Despite being undersized, the 28-year old Almas is one of the more physically gifted wrestlers in the company. Even more, he’s accompanied by the dastardly Zelina Vega and that partnership reeks of a classic 1980’s evil duo.
For now, Almas should hover around SmackDown’s healthy mid-card. With names like Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura to play with, Almas will have plenty of intriguing options in 2018. However next year will likely see Almas capture WWE gold. While the WWE Championship may be out of reach, a long term as United States Champion seems like a reasonable goal for Almas and WWE.
