Mexico has produced several professional wrestlers, or luchadors, that found their way to WWE. Unfortunately, a number of these wrestlers were given personas that did not click with the fans. The personas in question were either poorly thought out or presented uncomfortably, or both. The consistent losses these wrestlers took did not help their reputations with the fans either.
These wrestlers were on WWE's roster in various eras and they all dealt with some form of mistreatment creatively and through their losses. Due to these barriers, the potential for their respective career paths was not fully realized, which is a real shame.
7 Andrade
Andrade showed during his NXT run that he possesses the in-ring ability to be a star one day, including memorable matches with Drew McIntyre and Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: War Games in 2017 and TakeOver: Philadelphia in 2018 respectively.
Upon his transition to SmackDown after WrestleMania 34, aside from some matches and rivalries with AJ Styles and Rey Mysterio, Andrade maintained a spot in the midcard. He was, according to Fightful, reportedly viewed highly backstage, but his biggest challenge from receiving a push was his struggles cutting promos in English.
He worked through some English-speaking tutoring, which did assist a little bit but not enough to sustain more opportunities. Ultimately, this disadvantage kept Andrade stagnant and played a part in his requested release from WWE in the fall of 2020, which became official in 2021.
6 The Mexicools
Juventud Guerrera, Psychosis, and Super Crazy debuted for WWE as a trio in the summer of 2005, and considering their individual and collective in-ring talents, the persona for them to work with was ill-advised.
The Mexicools would ride to the ring on lawnmowers, complete with rakes in hand, presenting them in an unappealing way. This persona immediately cast the three of them in a comedically offensive light and made it hard to see them as the talented wrestlers they could have been at that time. Whether this was the intent or not, it is not remembered fondly years later.
5 Lucha House Party
Kalisto, Gran Metalik, and Lince Dorado were three promising Cruiserweight wrestlers at one point, with Kalisto holding the United States, Cruiserweight, and NXT Tag Team Titles at different stages. WWE decided to pair the trio together and gave them a gimmick that, similar to The Mexicools, presented them as caricatures.
Lucha House Party would make their entrance holding pinatas and maracas. While these items matched the persona, it came off as WWE giving them gimmicks designed to be silly instead of serious. The gimmick led to Kalisto asking for his release in 2021, according to WrestlingInc. The entire concept ended up making a parody out of luchadors.
4 Chavo Guerrero (Kerwin White)
Chavo Guerrero represents a legendary and respected family in the wrestling business and has shown himself capable of great in-ring performances over his career. In 2005, however, WWE came up with a gimmick for him that lives on as one of the most distasteful personas and has put a blemish on Chavo's WWE tenure.
Chavo Guerrero portrayed Kerwin White throughout the summer into the fall of 2005, presented as a golfer, complete with clubs, cart, and caddy, who would talk about how great being white is in his promos. White had one short feud with Shelton Benjamin which is mostly forgotten. The gimmick, fortunately, did not have a lot of staying power and by November, Chavo Guerrero was back to being himself. Chavo did his best with this character as it was, but it was such nonsense. But ultimately, WWE did away with the gimmick once his uncle Eddie Guerrero died.
3 Humberto Carrillo
Humberto Carrillo started in NXT, was moved to 205 Live, and then went to RAW. For a period of time on RAW, Carrillo received increased TV time, feuding with Andrade and AJ Styles over WWE's United States Championship in repeated losing efforts.
After these repeated title losses and noticing Carilllo getting less of a spotlight, it became clear that WWE was not interested in Carrillo as a prospect anymore. This lack of interest resulted in Humberto dwindling in the midcard, where he continues to stay, now turned heel and in a tag team with fellow midcarder Angel Garza. Humberto is athletic and, with more in-ring seasoning and time, could be more of a force than he is now. It appears that WWE may have ended his push prematurely, as Carrillo did not have much time to develop on-screen beforehand.
2 Konnan (Max Moon)
Back in the early 1990s, Mexican wrestling legend Konnan worked for WWE for a brief period of time. During his run, Konnan came up with a gimmick to work with, according to Sportskeeda, that was originally considered creative but ended up being a flop.
Konnan wrestled some TV matches as Max Moon, designed to be a robot from the future. After some financial disagreements with Mr. McMahon over the ring gear of the Max Moon character, Konnan decided to head back to Mexico.
Years later, Konnan is revered in Mexico and the United States for his long career. Therefore, his WWE tenure could be viewed as a missed opportunity with Max Moon, but he was able to do well for himself elsewhere.
1 Sin Cara
The former Mistico debuted on RAW the night after WrestleMania 27, the idea was to find a successor for Rey Mysterio as the next luchador to make waves in the United States. In his debut, Sin Cara did not make the best first impression with WWE's fans.
Sin Cara's debut match was filled with errors in terms of moves and sequences, which led to WWE taking some heat for not giving the wrestler portraying Sin Cara enough time to adjust to WWE's match style. This pattern of botches continued up to the departure of the original Sin Cara, who was replaced by a different wrestler for years afterward. That wrestler formerly went by the ring name of Hunico.
For as much hype as WWE centered around the Sin Cara persona and debut, WWE did a disservice to the wrestler under the mask by exposing him to the audience so quickly while expecting him to learn their own style at the same time. Considering the potential Sin Cara had as an idea, the execution was a lesson learned.