Dual Booking: Sin Cara vs Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan Heel Turn

In my last State of the WWE post, I addressed the signs of Daniel Bryan turning heel over the next few months.  If you didn't catch that post, check it out [ here ].  To sum things up, I feel like there are a lot of signs that Daniel Bryan is going to be turning heel over the next few months.  My original list of reasons were: the beard, losing streak, heelish tendencies, MitB briefcase, four relevant face rule, and in-ring talent.  At the same time, I said that Sin Cara might be turning heel, but at the same time, addressed that it is more likely that this is more likely an angle to setup a Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud.  The Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud is going to be my catalyst to turn Daniel Bryan heel.



Let's start at square one.  Daniel Bryan is starting to feud with Sin Cara.  But as far as Sin Cara goes, is he a heel or a babyface?  He draws like a babyface, gets huge pops on his entrance and in the ring, but at the same time he gets booed because he acts like a heel outside of the ring, and now, on the mic.  Sin Cara's promo/interview with Josh Matthews tonight reminded me a lot of Del Rio's first in-ring promo.  To be honest, I'm half expecting a "damas y caballeros" introduction for him next time he shows up, courtesy of RicRod.  But ignoring that fact, before we can establish Daniel Bryan as a heel, we need to establish Sin Cara as a babyface.  And before we can do that, we need to go through with a Sin Cara vs Impostor Sin Cara feud just like I was talking about in my State of the WWE post last week.

So, how would you book a Sin Cara vs Imposter Sin Cara feud?  It's really quite simple, since the Impostor angle has been done so many times before.  Undertaker had an impostor in the 90s.  Kane in the 2000s.  Even La Parka had an impostor feud and because of it, we now know him as L.A. Park, or "La Autentica Parka" (authentic parka) instead of La Parka.  Impostor feuds aren't difficult to book, they're just difficult to make look unique.  Sin Cara's feud is unique because there have been no signs that Sin Cara is an impostor other than an unpredictable heel turn.  Or at least, there were no signs...until Smackdown last night.  Did anybody else find it strange that impostor Sin Cara said "I am the REAL Sin Cara"?  I did.  Let's run with that.

Next week on Smackdown, Sin Cara has a match with a jobber, but instead of the heel jobbers he's faced up until now, it's a babyface jobber: my favorite jobber, Trent Baretta.  Baretta can put a great match on with Sin Cara and he can sell a convincing beat down, so he's my guy.  The match is normal, but to win the match Sin Cara uses a LeBell Lock, mocking Daniel Bryan.  Then, Bryan comes out with a mic telling Sin Cara to come up with his own submission finisher.  Sin Cara grabs a mic and says something to the effect of "everything in this industry is a copy of something else, my new submission finisher is as unique as yours, the only difference is that we're both on the same show at the same time".  Bryan would retort, arguing the cardinal rule of move stealing: you don't do it when the guy you're stealing the move from is still an active wrestler.  Sin Cara is getting pissed at arguing semantics and tells Bryan to put the rights to the LeBell lock on the line in a match on the following Smackdown.  Bryan agrees, realizing it would be the only way for him to stop Sin Cara from using his finisher.

The following week on Smackdown, Daniel Bryan retains the rights to use the LeBell Lock as his submission finisher.  Sin Cara is extremely angry, and attacks Bryan from behind, leading to a beatdown and a La Mistica (tornado armbar) on Bryan, which Bryan can't escape from.  Then, Mistico Sin Cara (referred to from here on out as MSC) runs out and kicks Impostor Sin Cara (ISC) in the head, breaking up the submission that MSC made famous in Mexico.  This leads to a face-to-face staredown between Sin Caras, with Bryan fleeing the scene, rights to the LeBell Lock retained.

The following week, MSC comes to the ring with a translator, and cuts a promo (in spanish, with help from his translator) saying that for the last month or so, the WWE Universe has been cheering for an impostor.  He says that he is the Sin Cara that got driven through a ladder by Sheamus at Money in the Bank and he has only now finished healing from that brutal power bomb.  He says that whoever has been posing as him for the last month must have a problem coming up with unique ideas, because first he stole his gimmick, then he tried to steal the LeBell Lock, and now he's trying to steal his finisher, La Mistica - obviously it would need a new name, since he isn't Mistico anymore, but you get the idea.  He says that this thief needs to be stopped, and since he is posing as him, he is stepping up as the man to take the impostor down.

MSC is interrupted by his own music and ISC coming out.  ISC cuts a promo basically desperately trying to convince the crowd that he is the real Sin Cara, and that he isn't a wussy who takes two months to heal from a powerbomb onto a ladder.  He is the real Sin Cara, he deserves respect, he was a top star in Mexico, and he is sick of people not appreciating him as the international sensation that he is.  Basically, you have Hunico cutting a heel promo, claiming all of Mistico's achievements as his own.  This promo would get the IWC's blood to boil and is guaranteed to confuse the general WWE audience: who is the real Sin Cara?

The following week on Smackdown (we're at October 7th here, for those of you keeping track), Sin Cara wrestles a match against Yoshi Tatsu.  He acts like Sin Cara throughout the match, wins with that springboard senton lionsault combination, and then proceeds to beat the living crap out of Tatsu.  We know now that the Sin Cara that just wrestled a match was ISC.  MSC makes the save and while ISC is fleeing the ring, MSC gets on the mic and says, in english, "You, Me, Vengeance".  I'm sure Luis Alverde can memorize and verbalize three words of English to hype up a big PPV match that will sell tickets.  ISC accepts, but only under the condition that the loser must unmask.  We end this segment without MSC answering whether he accepts the condition or not.

October 14th is an odd show because both MSC and ISC wrestle in matches, just not against each other.  MSC wrestles Daniel Bryan in a great match where Daniel Bryan is taking liberties and using his body language, facial expressions, basically just overall psychology to show that he is skeptical as to whether this is ISC or MSC.  Bryan wins by tapping Sin Cara out to one of his submission finishers, most likely the LeBell Lock.  Bryan holds the submission for a little longer than usual after the bell rings, and when he lets go he looks irritated.  The ref goes to hold his hand up and he pulls back.  When MSC gets up, he goes to shake Bryan's hand for a truce.  Bryan grabs his hand, and when MSC goes to walk away, Bryan pulls him back and does some crazy move, maybe just a kick to the head, on MSC.  This is trigger #1 to turning Bryan Heel.  Then, ISC comes down to the ring and starts beating on MSC.  Bryan looks confused, not sure who is who, but he starts beating down the guy who is already on the ground, along with ISC.  This whole time, there is still a smidgen of doubt in the audience's mind: the chance that ISC is the one getting beat down, and Bryan and MSC are teaming up to injure the man who tried to steal something from both of them.  When Daniel Bryan leaves the ring, ISC gets on the mic and, right in MSC's face, says, again, LAUGHING so that the audience KNOWS that he is the impostor, "what do you say?  Mask vs Mask, Sin Cara...what do you say?" - the key here is that ISC refers to MSC as Sin Cara, ensuring everybody who had ANY doubt who was the impostor and who is the real Sin Cara.  Also key here is that MSC does not answer because he is either unconscious, or just out of breath.  Either way, ISC drops the mic and leaves.  MSC has to be helped out of the arena, but not on a stretcher.

Unmasked Impostor Sin Cara

On October 21st, the go home show to Vengeance, MSC, in a backstage interview, with his translator, says that he didn't deserve the beatdown last week because he never did anything to Daniel Bryan.  The impostor is the one who tried to steal the LeBell Lock and beat down Bryan after their match.  He says that all he wanted was a truce with Bryan; he didn't want trouble, but the next thing he knew, Bryan and the thief/impostor were beating him down for no reason.  He needs to put an end to this impostor, and he knows how to do it: unmasking him.  He accepts ISC's mask vs mask condition at Vengeance and plans to show the whole world who the true Sin Cara is.  Daniel Bryan interrupts him while he's saying "true Sin Cara is" and cuts a heel promo on him.  "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.  You really expect anyone to believe that you're the real Sin Cara?  You're pathet-" commence beatdown, Bryan on MSC.  This is trigger #2 to turning Bryan heel.  End segment, and we don't see Sin Cara until Vengeance, in his match with his impostor, where he wins and impostor Sin Cara removes his mask to reveal...another mask.

So, what have we accomplished here?  First and foremost, we made money: Sin Cara overcoming the odds to defeat the evil impostor despite getting beat down by Daniel Bryan merely two days before is a money match.  It isn't a main event match, but in any smaller promotion it could be.  This is a main event match in TNA, for sure.  If the WWE makes one of their amazing video packages, it only adds to the story.  The second task that we've accomplished is debuting a heel Hunico as another spanish american superstar that will help draw in Mexico.  And the third and final task that we've accomplished is turning Daniel Bryan heel.  Bryan is inevitably going to turn heel in the WWE simply because he's too talented in the ring to stay babyface.  He is great at making the guy on the other side of the ring look like a million bucks, so he can be used to make top babyfaces left and right.  And top babyfaces draw the big bucks.  Just ask Sin Cara.

ALTERNATIVE: Imposter Sin Cara is unmasked to reveal Averno, another mexican superstar that the WWE signed, who could continue working with Sin Cara while Sin Cara works to learn english.  Averno is a great heel in Mexico not only because he isn't a typical superhero-esque luchador, not even only because his name means "Hell" in spanish.  Averno is a great heel in Mexico because he has a great anti-lucha psychology that also incorporates some lucha to keep people entertained.  He works well as a comic book villain in the same way that a lot of luchadors work well as comic book superheroes.  On top of that, Averno recently unmasked (in June), so showing his real face would not be an issue.  He could have a cutesy WWE name too, like "Sin Mascara" or something like that.  Sin Mascara would actually be a very good name, playing off of his unmasking (Sin Mascara literally means "without mask" in spanish) and it sounds like a play off of Sin Cara (Mascara/Cara) to continue the whole "thief/impostor" gimmick going with him.  You know, this idea is pretty damn good.  WWE Writers, if you're reading this...you know what to do.