Over the course of his 18-year career, Andrade El Idolo has already proven himself to be an all-time great under a variety of ring names and for a variety of promotions. As the masked La Sombra, he was a top star in CMLL and founded the influential Los Ingobernables faction. Unmasked as Andrade “Cien” Almas in NXT and WWE, he established his reputation as a top-tier heel for a whole new audience.
Now, as Andrade El Idolo, he’s got a greater degree of freedom and can take on a variety of opponents in AEW, AAA, and pretty much anywhere else he wants to show up. Let’s take a look at Andrade’s best matches from every phase of his career.
10 Averno vs. La Sombra (CMLL Super Viernes, 9/16/2011)
Andrade made his CMLL debut as the masked La Sombra in 2007 and was immediately pushed as a fast-rising technico (babyface), eventually winning the company’s NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship in 2011. That got him a spot in the 2011 Campeon Universal Del CMLL, a tournament featuring every current champion in the promotion. La Sombra would win the tournament by defeating Averno in a 2/3 falls match, which featured two fast pinfalls followed by an incredibly long and tense final act.
9 Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Drew McIntyre (NXT TakeOver: WarGames, 11/18/2017)
As Andrade “Cien” Almas, the former La Sombra started out as a vanilla babyface before finding his footing as a heel with Zelina Vega as his manager. All he needed was a huge win, and that came with a surprise victory over Drew McIntyre to become NXT Champion. The bout features lots of great maneuvers including a memorable moonsault spot, but unfortunately a botched finish would put McIntyre on the shelf for months. Despite that, the match is still an outstanding one, especially due to the upset.
8 La Sombra vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW Kizuna Road - Day 9, 7/20/2013)
Shinsuke Nakamura’s quest to elevate the status of New Japan’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship came to a brief halt in Mexico where he lost the title to La Sombra in a strong 2/3 falls match. Two months later, the rivals would have a rematch that exceeded the quality of the previous one and added further prestige to the belt.
The rematch, contested under single-fall rules, saw La Sombra delivering an unexpectedly hard-hitting effort that forced Nakamura to pull out some uncharacteristic lucha libre dives. Ultimately, Nak would win the belt back.
7 Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Johnny Gargano (NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 3, 8/19/2017)
Opening the third of NXT’s epic Brooklyn shows was beloved underdog babyface Johnny Gargano taking on Andrade “Cien” Almas in what was the latter’s first match with Zelina Vega as his manager. The match is full of lots of great chains and counters, but ultimately Vega would use Gargano’s still-healing emotional wounds from the #DIY breakup against him, getting Andrade the win. This victory would lead to an even better match months down the line.
6 La Sombra vs. Volador Jr. (CMLL 80. Aniversario, 9/13/2013)
This is the match that changed everything for La Sombra. This was a mask vs. match apuestas match between La Sombra and his rival Volador Jr., but the fans openly rejected this main event because they were hoping for an apuestas match between Atlantis and Ultimo Guerrero, who had a much hotter feud going on. While the match was very good, Volador’s loss and ultimate unmasking earned sympathy for him, facilitating a technico turn. The opposite happened for La Sombra, as CMLL decided to transition him into a heel, after which he would link up with future ROH Champion Rush and form Los Ingobernables.
5 Andrade vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE SmackDown, 1/15/2019)
If there’s one match fans can expect WWE to book repeatedly, it’s a Mexican heel against a Mexican babyface. It happened with Alberto Del Rio and every masked good guy — Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara, and Kalisto — so of course the same would be true of Andrade and Mysterio. The formula was exceptionally good here, with Andrade being a great lucha heel and Mysterio being a consummate babyface legend. It’s one of the bestSmackDown matches of the 2010s, one that created hope that Andrade was going to be a major force on WWE’s main roster.
4 Andrade El Idolo vs. PAC (AEW Rampage, 10/22/2021)
To date, Andrade El Idolo has only had a handful of singles matches in AEW, the second of which would be a strong effort against PAC on AEW Rampage in September 2021. Their rematch, happening weeks later, would end up blowing the first one out of the water.
Andrade had been trying to undermine PAC’s friendship with Penta El Zero M and Rey Fenix, so the match featured some ridiculously high-risk maneuvers and brutal spots worthy of the storyline surrounding it. It’s Andrade’s best AEW match so far.
3 Aleister Black vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas (NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, 4/7/2018)
This NXT Title match at TakeOver: New Orleans would ultimately be overshadowed by the emotional, violent Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa main event, but is still a worthy bout. This fast-paced style clash features the grounded striker Aleister Black taking on the overconfident lucha libre rudo Andrade “Cien” Almas with a story involving Zelina Vega’s constant interference. Eventually, the interference backfires, costing Andrade the match and the NXT Championship. On top of being a great match, this bout also is a great example of how Vega’s presence really brought Andrade’s character to the next level.
2 Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Johnny Gargano (NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia, 1/27/2018)
For many fans north of the border, this is not only THE Andrade match and THE Johnny Gargano match, but also THE NXT match, a 32-minute epic hailed as one of NXT’s best matches ever. Andrade and Johnny are respectively pure heel and pure babyface, and their NXT Championship match is so dramatic and further bolstered by the typically spirited TakeOver crowd that it’s tough for another bout in the promotion’s history to hold a candle to it.
1 Atlantis vs. La Sombra (CMLL 82. Aniversario, 9/18/2015)
The only Andrade match that could be better than the TakeOver: Philadelphia match would have to have even higher stakes than the NXT Championship. By 2015, La Sombra was WWE bound, and shot for the stars on his way out, taking on Atlantis in a 2/3 falls mask vs. mask match. Atlantis was a veteran legend approaching his mid-50s at this point, and one of Mexico’s greatest active luchadores, so La Sombra taking such an icon’s mask in anapuestas match would be an achievement greater than any title belt. The result was one of the best matches ever for both luchadores, and ended with La Sombra losing and unmasking, revealing the face fans know today.