Vince McMahon Very Impressed With Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas
John Castro Andrade 'Cien' Almas appears to have impressed the person backstage whose opinion is the most important, WWE chairman Vince McMahon.
Since the draft during the summer of 2016, it has become tradition for WWE to stage a Superstar Shakeup in the weeks following WrestleMania. Not an entire draft from scratch, but a way to freshen up the Raw and SmackDown Live rosters so that the new WWE year can begin with rivalries we either haven't seen for a while or in some cases never before.
Not only do Superstars move between Raw and SmackDown Live, but there are also a number of call-ups from NXT during the Shakeup. This year, in particular, there were a lot. The Iiconics, Sanity, Andrade 'Cien' Almas, just to name a few. Considering the lack of screen time some of those call-ups got once they arrived on the main roster, you could argue that there were too many.
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Almas was one of those call-ups who we didn't see very much of early on in his main roster run. The first we saw of him was when he clashed with Sin Cara and after that, he was quickly promoted to marquee matches with AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan. That was no coincidence. Fightful recently reported that Almas has caught the eye of Vince McMahon and the boss has been very impressed with his work so far on SmackDown Live.
Multiple sources backstage at WWE apparently told Fightful that Almas wasn't expected to shine in the spots he has been put in thus far but obviously has. That hard work has caught the chairman's eye hence the amount of trust that has been placed in Almas since. Fightful also reported that Mr. McMahon often plucks Superstars from NXT without having seen much of what they can do, hence why they are often misused or not used at all on Raw and SmackDown Live.
Whether NXT call-ups end up being successful on the main roster often ends up being something of a lottery and now we know why. However, we are certainly thankful that Almas has wound up winning that lottery. Those of us who saw his work in NXT and before know how good he is, and now that Mr. McMahon has realized that too then the future is bright for the Mexican Superstar.
