WWE News: Lucha Underground’s Prince Puma Coming To WWE Later This Year?
WWE has been high on signing some of the top workers in the world for quite some time now. In fact, it has become a growing trend these days that, if you develop a name on the independent circuit, WWE probably has you in their sights. If a contract has any hole in it, or someone’s deal is about to expire, WWE will know about it as well. If you’re good at what you do, they will find you and they will pay you to come and jump to the company.
With the rise of WWE NXT, a lot of people are fighting to get into WWE now more than ever before. It is most likely due to the fact that WWE is showing they care about pro-wrestling nowadays, just as much as they value sports entertainment. Those who would once never be signed to WWE are getting offers and opportunities that they never would have gotten if it were not for NXT. Take Samoa Joe and Austin Aries just as a few examples.
Even the likes of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were the products of what NXT gave to the world from 2014 and on. It should come as no surprise that other independent names are being targeted, and one man in particular has been on WWE’s radar for some time. He is known by many as Prince Puma, a great young luchador-like figure of Aztec origin who fights out of Lucha Underground. To others, he is known as the great highflyer named Ricochet.
Prince Puma has become the top star out of Lucha Undeground, but the problem is that there have been a lot of issues involving pay for most of the athletes in LU. At one point, a lot of the talent had trouble booking dates for independent companies because Season 2 was not officially announced and they had to be around when the tapings started. Money was the main issue with doing it, which made total sense. The company spends far too much on production costs to keep people around.
WWE has a big interest in Puma and are most likely willing to pay him a good bit of money to come in. According to The Wrestling Observer, there is a belief that Prince Puma will be coming to WWE. The problem is when. As of now, there is said to be a clause in his Lucha Underground contract that allows him an out after Season 3 is over. The tapings for Season 3 happen to end this summer, which means Puma could get out of his deal fairly soon with LU. He will also need to finish up his time with NJPW as well.
There was some hope that WWE could get him in for the Global Cruiserweight Tournament, but that does seem unlikely due to the way things are timed at this point. Cageside Seats reports that the tournament will be finalized with all the members taking part within the next week. Unless Prince Puma can get out of his deal before then, which is not likely, he will miss it.
That does not mean we cannot expect to see him make his presence known by the end of the summer. There is a thought among most that if Puma can get out of his deal with Lucha Underground, he would be with WWE before the end of the year. He most likely would head to WWE NXT, where he would surely take over for people like Finn Balor, who is departing for the main roster.
Prince Puma is currently 27 years old. That said, he has a lot of time to work with WWE. He could be a huge part of NXT for a little while. By the time he is 30 years old, he could make his main roster debut and have a name that can get him far into the business. Due to his amazing ability in the ring, he’ll be a favorite immediately with WWE fans. This might even speed up his main roster debut. However, regardless of when he gets signed, he’ll start in NXT first.
[Image via Lucha Undeground]
