On Monday Night Raw (Oct 21, 2019), the mainstream audience was introduced to a sensationally gifted young man named Humberto Carrillo.
According to wwe.com, he’s a from the Garza family of lucha libre fame, and grew up around wrestling rings. While they do say he performed as a teenager in Mexico and more notably in Japan, they don’t mention those promotions.
Thankfully, we’re not confined to such things.
Indie Career
Under the ring name, Ultimo Ninja, he began competing in 2012 throughout Mexico and abroad in over a dozen promotions like Casanova Pro, Nueva Generacion Xtrema, Lucha Libre Del Norte, Lucha Libre Azteca, The Crash Lucha Libre, Chilanga Mask, Empresa Regiomontana de Lucha Libre, RIOT Wrestling Alliance, Promociones MDA, Pro Wrestling Noah, Baja Stars USA, Martinez Entertainment Lucha Libre Mexicana, and Major League Wrestling, and more and held numerous titles.
Humberto Carrillo signed with the WWE in October 2018 and began wrestling in their developmental brand, NXT, before moving onto 205 Live in 2019.
He’s shown a knack for highlight reel acrobatics that’s nearly unparalleled in the WWE ranks, and is carving out a nice niche for himself going forward.
Drafted and competing on Raw
His talent has gained the attention of the higher ups as his selection to Raw during the much malign-deserved draft was one of the few surprises.
As much as being drafted as a virtual unknown (baring those that have followed his career or watched 205 Live) was surprising, facing the WWE Universal Champion, Seth Rollins, a week later proved even bigger. Throughout the night, we were teased with glimpses of him watching the matches before he was finally interviewed.
In response to his interview, Seth Rollins (in storyline mode) challenged him to prove himself. What followed was one of the best matches of the night that went a long way to putting him over. In their match, he displayed a quickness, agility, speed, and accuracy in his movements that often made him hard to follow as we watched.
What lies ahead
Afterwards, he said he was honored and blessed for such a chance.
Just putting him in the ring with the WWE’s current golden boy Seth Rollins showed the promotion’s faith in him. For his part, Seth Rollins put him over like a champ. Seth Rollins hit him with some of his best moves, and looked frustrated when Humberto Carrillo repeatedly kicked out, not to mention nearly scoring a couple of pin falls.
While beating Seth Rollins was never in the cards for his first appearance, it shows how much faith Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman, and other WWE executives have in this talented young man.
That faith may prove to be genius as, in many ways, Humberto Carrillo and Seth Rollins’ match was reminiscent of another WWE superstar that came out to answer a challenge by Kurt Angle around 2002. Back then, John Cena was a fresh faced kid that displayed the Ruthless Aggression that defined the era that followed the Attitude Era.
Was this another one of those moment?
It may be hard to tell, but if Humberto Carrillo remains consistent and becomes the next superstar to lead the WWE forward, we may look back at this fondly and echo Kurt Angle’s catch phrase, “It’s true. It’s damn true.”
