Cinta de Oro
José Jorge Arriaga Rodríguez is an American professional wrestler. He is the founder of Cinta De Oro Promotions and works on the Mexican independent circuit, under the ring name '. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, under the ring name ', where he was the second and longest-tenured wrestler to use the persona.
Prior to his signing with WWE, he wrestled under the ring name ' or ' under which he worked for Mexican professional wrestling promotion AAA and various independent promotions in the United States and Mexico. During this time, CMLL wrestler Místico grew in popularity, and since CMLL originally owned the legal rights to the character, Arriaga had to change his ring name to Místico de Juarez and later to Incognito, under which he wrestled in promotions like Chikara, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance.
Arriaga signed with WWE in 2009 and debuted on the main roster in 2011 as Sin Cara, temporarily replacing the original performer of the character, who coincidentally was also Luis Urive. Following the return of Urive, the two began a storyline, with Arriaga donning a black mask, and was referred to on commentary as . Arriaga subsequently lost a Mask vs. Mask match against Urive and began wrestling unmasked under the ring name Hunico. In 2013, after the release of Urive, Arriaga reprised his role as Sin Cara. In contrast to Urive, Arriaga's portrayal of Sin Cara was bilingual due to Arriaga having grown up in the United States, thus knowing how to speak both Spanish and English, and doing so depending on the intended audience, whereas Urive legitimately did not know English. In September 2014, Arriaga won the NXT Tag Team Championship alongside Kalisto as a part of the Lucha Dragons. He departed the company in December 2019.
Early life
Jose Jorge Arriaga Rodriguez was born on September 5, 1977, in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican immigrant parents. Arriaga grew up in El Segundo Barrio in El Paso. While working towards his goal of becoming a professional wrestler, Arriaga worked in his grandfather's funeral home in Juarez, Mexico. He also gained a degree in embalming and funeral director services in Mexico. Arriaga attended El Paso Burges High School and in 1996 was an undefeated state wrestling champion who was voted the MVP of the state tournament.Professional wrestling career
Early career (1999-2004)
Arriaga began wrestling at Burges High School from 1992 to 1996, where in 1995 he placed 3rd in State of Texas and in 1996 he became an undefeated State Champion. He then embarked on a professional career, as he managed to continue working for his family's funeral home in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, during the early 2000s under the ring name "Mistico". This masked ring persona may or may not have preceded the in-ring debut of Místico in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, but Paco Alonso owned the legal rights to the name "Místico" since 1999 anyway, forcing Arriaga to change his name to "Mystico" or "Mistico de Juarez" to differentiate from the original. On February 2, 2004, he defeated Nicho El Millonario to win the WWA Middleweight Championship but was stripped of the title in March when he had to stop wrestling in the Tijuana, Baja California area where the World Wrestling Association was based.Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (2004–2005)
In early 2004, he began working regularly for Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, CMLL's main Mexican rival and had to change his name in order to avoid any type of legal problems. With minor adjustments to his mask and tights, he became known as "Incognito" instead. While he was signed to AAA for over a year, Incognito made few wrestling appearances, spending most of his time training in AAA's school to improve his wrestling skills. In 2005, he had left AAA and began working for various independent wrestling promotions on both sides of the US/Mexico border, exploiting the fact that he was a US citizen and spoke English well to get more bookings in the US than most luchadors typically can.Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2006)
Incognito first made a name for himself in the United States when he participated in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's 2006 World X-Cup Tournament. As part of Team Mexico, Incognito's only match in the World Cup tournament was a 16-man gauntlet match that included all four World Cup teams. Incognito was eliminated by Sonjay Dutt. Team Mexico finished in third place out of four teams.National Wrestling Alliance (2007)
Following his appearance for TNA, Incognito began working regularly for the National Wrestling Alliance, often teaming with fellow Luchador Sicodelico Jr. The two participated in a tournament to crown new NWA World Tag Team Champions, but lost to Joey Ryan and Karl Anderson in the final match, a match that also included Billy Kidman and Sean Waltman.Chikara (2007–2008)
On September 22, 2007, Incognito made his first appearance for the Lucha Libre inspired Chikara promotion when he participated in their annual 16-man torneo cibernetico tournament. Incognito was part of an eight-man team consisting only of masked wrestlers. The team lost to the Kings of Wrestling. Incognito returned to Chikara in 2008 for a series of appearances. He teamed with El Pantera and Lince Dorado to form the team winning Chikara's 28-team King of Trios 2008 tournament when they defeated BLKOUT in the finals. Incognito went on to win the 2008 Rey de Voladores tournament when he defeated Helios in the finals on May 18, 2008. In April 2009 Incognito made two appearances for Ring of Honor, working on the same shows where his friend Blue Demon Jr. worked. On April 3 he teamed with Chris Hero and Eddie Edwards to defeat Jay Briscoe, Kevin Steen and Magno and on April 4 he teamed with Hero, Edwards and Davey Richards in a loss to El Generico, Steen, Briscoe and Magno.World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2009-2019)
Developmental territories (2009–2011)
On December 14, 2009, Arriaga worked a "try out" match for World Wrestling Entertainment working without a mask, under the name Jorge Arias, losing a tag team match against The Dudebusters. Shortly after Arriaga signed a developmental deal with WWE following his try out match and started in WWE's farm league Florida Championship Wrestling. He later changed his ring name to Hunico although his mask and outfit remained unchanged. In April Hunico began teaming with Tito Colon, wrestling Florida Tag Team Champions The Uso Brothers but were unsuccessful. Later on Tito Colon was given a new ring persona, an enmascarado character called "Dos Equis", which was later changed to "Epico", and the team was named. On June 3, 2010 Los Aviadores defeated The Uso Brothers to win the Florida Tag Team Championship. On July 15 Los Aviadores lost the tag team titles to Kaval and Michael McGillicutty, but regained the titles the following day in a rematch. On August 12 Hunico and Epico lost the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship to Johnny Curtis and Derrick Bateman in a three-way match, which also involved the team of Donny Marlow and Brodus Clay. On July 26, 2011, Hunico wrestled in a dark match at the NXT tapings, losing to Justin Gabriel.Main roster debut and unmasking (2011–2013)
On the August 12 episode of SmackDown, Arriaga made his WWE debut, taking over the role of Sin Cara from Luis Urive, the former CMLL Místico, who was serving a 30-day suspension for violating WWE's wellness program, and defeated Tyson Kidd. Arriaga reprised his role of Sin Cara the following week, taking part in a battle royal to determine the #1 contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, from which he was the last man eliminated by the winner, Mark Henry. On August 20, Urive took back the role of Sin Cara for a live event. At the following tapings of SmackDown, Arriaga once again appeared under the mask. On the August 30 episode of SmackDown, Sin Cara defeated Daniel Bryan and attacked Bryan after the match, turning heel for the first time.At the tapings of the September 16 episode of SmackDown, the original Sin Cara made his return, confronting Arriaga's impostor version of the character. On the September 19 episode of Raw, the impostor Sin Cara attacked the original character prior to his match with Cody Rhodes, but was forced to flee after a brief brawl. On the September 23 episode of SmackDown, the impostor Sin Cara attacked the original version during his match with Daniel Bryan, took his place in the match and pinned Bryan for the win. The following week, he revealed a new black attire to distinguish himself from the original version, while also explaining that he was going to steal the Sin Cara identity from Urive, just as Urive had stolen the Místico identity from him six years prior. At Hell in a Cell, the impostor Sin Cara, now being referred to as "Sin Cara Negro", was defeated by the original Sin Cara, now referred to as "Sin Cara Azul". The feud continued on the following SmackDown with Negro attacking Azul. The rivalry culminated at the October 16 taping of SmackDown in Mexico City in a Mask vs. Mask match, where Sin Cara Azul was victorious, unmasking Arriaga after the match.
On the October 28 SmackDown, Negro was interviewed by Matt Striker, where he wanted payback for losing to Azul while revealing his name to be Hunico, a name he used in FCW. He also adopted a new gimmick, portraying a stereotypical Mexican hoodlum, wrestling in street attire and addressing the audience in both Spanish and English. On the November 4 SmackDown, Hunico continued his rivalry with Sin Cara by attacking him together with his debuting FCW tag team partner Epico. Despite Epico's cousin Primo soon joining them, this was short lived as Primo & Epico went on to align with Rosa Mendes. Hunico's feud with Sin Cara was cut short when Sin Cara suffered a legit injury at Survivor Series, which required surgery. On the December 15 Superstars, Hunico introduced FCW's Donny Marlow as his new bodyguard as they rode to the ring in a lowrider bicycle. The following week, Marlow's new name was revealed as Camacho. It was revealed that Hunico and Camacho's friendship arose from Hunico once saving Camacho from several attackers, resulting in Hunico being stabbed but biting a man's eyeball out in the process.
In January 2012, Hunico started a feud with Ted DiBiase after Hunico was offended that he was not invited to one of DiBiase's Posse parties. After both wrestlers scored two wins apiece, Hunico defeated DiBiase on the February 17 SmackDown to end the feud. After his feud with DiBiase, Hunico wrestled extensively on Superstars, going on an unbeaten streak in Superstars singles matches by defeating the likes of Ezekiel Jackson, Yoshi Tatsu, and Justin Gabriel. In April, Camacho began regularly teaming with Hunico. In June, Hunico lost to the returning Sin Cara, on the June 4 Raw and at No Way Out. In the pre-show of Money in the Bank, Hunico and Camacho lost to the WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston and R-Truth in a non-title match. At Raw 1000 in July 2012, Hunico, along with Camacho and four other wrestlers attempted to ambush Kane to make a statement, but The Undertaker returned to save Kane, disposing of Hunico with a chokeslam and a tombstone piledriver. Hunico then underwent surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the knee.
Hunico returned to in-ring action at the WrestleMania Axxess live event on April 4, 2013, once again teaming with Camacho. Hunico and Camacho returned to television on the November 6 Main Event and lost to The Usos. Hunico and Camacho's first title shot was for the NXT Tag Team Championship on the December 11 NXT, where they lost to the defending champions The Ascension.