Andrade On Getting Rid Of Latin Wrestling Cliches, Teaching Charlotte International Wrestling Styles
Photo Credit: Bill Pritchard
Speaking with Super Luchas magazine in his native land, WWE star Andrade had some things to say regarding how he overcame stereotypes and adapted to the WWE style on the way to the main roster of RAW. Below are a few highlights from the interview translated into English.
How have you adopted the WWE style?
“It wasn’t difficult, at least not so much. Sometimes It’s hard when you come from Mexico because it’s a different style, but I had the advantage of touring Japan. With that experience, I was able to understand what WWE wants from me. The Performance Center has a lot of coaches and some of them like one thing and others like another. Sometimes you run into Triple H or William Regal, and it’s difficult to follow their directions because sometimes they contradict each other. With time, I understood the style, now they like what I do and book me with great rivals. I feel that I have had great matches with Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins… Now I have the style I want.
On working with Charlotte Flair:
As we live in Orlando we train at the Performance Center. She helps me a lot, gives me advice on how to handle the cameras, the promos. She knows a lot about all that. And I have taught her what I learned in Mexico and Japan. Moves, holds, how to get hit, how to hit, how to show more personality, many things she likes. She gives me advice, I give her advice. We are always helping each other, and that benefits us a lot in our current relationship.
When you started in NXT you had a very stereotypical character. How did you rid out of the Latin cliche?
Well, I have to adapt. As I say, there are many coaches in the Performance Center, and some like one thing, others like another. When I arrived I wrestled strong style, but they wanted me to do more of Mexican wrestling, like headscissors, planchas, dives outside the ring. They wanted that from a Mexican because at that time there were no Mexicans left. Alberto del Río and Rey Mysterio were no longer in WWE; there were no Latinos in the Performance Center and they wanted someone with the Mexican wrestling style. Instead, I wanted to do my thing. Although I do a lot of aerial moves, I use many strong style moves. Over time, with my matches, I convinced both the fans and the coaches that my style was the best for me, and they understood who I am, and that is who I am today. I like the style I have: I do Mexican wrestling things, I have strong moves, I look strong above the ring; a bit of everything. And now they like it”.
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