Andrade 'Cien' Almas Beats Sin Cara at WWE Extreme Rules 2018
July 15, 2018
In his main roster pay-per-view debut, Andrade "Cien" Almas beat Sin Cara on Sunday as part of the WWE Extreme Rules kickoff show in Pittsburgh.
Zelina Vega offered a helping hand in the win. She distracted Sin Cara long enough for Almas to dropkick him into the corner. From there, Almas delivered his running double knee, which was a prelude to the hammerlock DDT.
Daily DDT was happy with the finish:
Almas was called up from NXT to SmackDown Live as part of the Superstar Shake-up shortly after WrestleMania 34.
The decision to call up Almas came after he dropped the NXT Championship to Aleister Black at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans one night before WrestleMania.
Despite getting called up, Almas hasn't been seen much on WWE programming aside from some pre-taped backstage promos and a couple of squash matches.
Almas was initially supposed to face Sin Cara on SmackDown several weeks ago, but the match was postponed because of an injury Sin Cara suffered while getting attacked by Almas.
That match finally happened on SmackDown five days ago, and although Almas managed to pick up the win, Sin Cara largely dominated the match and took the fight to his rival until the latter stages of the contest when Almas won with double knees in the corner.
After being pushed to his limit by Sin Cara, however, SmackDown Live general manager Paige booked a rematch for the Extreme Rules pre-show.
Although Almas hasn't necessarily made as big of an instant impact on the main roster as expected after his series of great matches against Johnny Gargano in NXT, Sin Cara stands out as a logical first opponent for him to feud with.
Almas and Sin Cara have history from their time working together in Mexico, and WWE played up to that in the weeks prior to Extreme Rules.
Sin Cara hasn't been used much on WWE programming in recent years, but he looked good in his matches with Almas and has a style that meshes well with the up-and-coming Superstar.
Despite the fact that it wasn't part of the main card, Almas finally got a chance to show off his impressive skill set to a pay-per-view audience Sunday.
Beating Sin Cara is a good jumping-off point for him, but there figures to be bigger angles and matches in his immediate future with SummerSlam approaching.
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