Over the last year, Dorado wrestled unmasked over 30 times.
Joining THE LAW on Sunday Night’s Main Event for an extensive interview was Lince Dorado. After tallying up 16 years in wrestling, Dorado was asked to dive into what his legacy will be when Lince Dorado is no more. He explained why he sees himself as his generation’s Dean Malenko and Jushin Thunder Liger.
This might be blowing smoke up my own ass. I kind of see myself as the Dean Malenko and Jushin Thunder Liger of my generation where maybe I was underappreciated but damn, I was f*cking good and people always said, ‘Man, that guy entertained me. He was a great wrestler, great trainer, great friend. Somebody I totally forgot about until he posted about it.’ There was a time where there was a wrestler who I’ve never met in my life but I could tell he was upset and he wanted to talk to me and at the end, I gave him a hug. I was like, ‘Dude, you look like you just need a hug. Come here,’ and I could have just blew him off but at the end of the day, I would always want that to be me. Me personally, this character of Lince is the father figure I never had, when it comes to children or wrestlers in the back. I think that’s my legacy. That dude cared about wrestling and that dude was really good and underrated and again, to me, as long as I’m doing right by me and my children, that’s all that really matters but if my peers and everybody else wanted to praise me, then thank you. It will motivate me more and fuel me to be and do better and more better things, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for being the best me for everybody that is there for me.
In 2023, Dorado shared that he’d wrestle unmasked in 2024. During the podcast appearance, he revealed that he’s wrestled over 30 times without the mask in the last year.
He told promoters not advertise him as a ‘former WWE talent’ or ‘Lince Dorado’. He brought out a new move-set, facial expressions and gear. There’s a story he wants to tell with the mask versus no mask, but said it’s hard to do that without a pro wrestling home. He added that in 2024, the story will culminate in a Bruce Wayne meets Batman type of moment.
What if I told you, last year, I wrestled without the mask under a different name about 30 times. What would you say?
I’ve always had this manifestation dream that I will wrestle one day without the mask on my terms, whether I lose it to somebody I really wanna lose it to or I do this story that I’ve always had in my head that I would really love to do but without having a home, like a wrestling home, it’s kind of hard to just do that and just do it. But I did start planting some seeds last year. Some promoters that I used to work for that I asked ‘em, I said, ‘Hey, I want you to book me as a green guy. Don’t advertise that I’m a former WWE wrestler, don’t advertise that I’m Lince. I just want you to book me as this character.’ I wanna be the most vet-rookie out there basically and yeah, about 30 times I wrestled without the mask last year and I’m just getting ready for both parallel universes to intercept for it to explode and for people to be like, oh my God and I got that idea because there was one time I wrestled on Main Event for WWE and this is the show that they tape before, and afterwards, I was like, you know what? I just wanna go out in the crowd, in the audience, in the arena and I just wanna feel the energy. So I went out there with no mask, my regular clothes and nobody knew who I was. Not saying that they care but, they didn’t know.
I will say that you couldn’t tell that it was me (in the ring without the mask). Completely different move-set, facials are completely different, outfits obviously completely different. But eventually, this year it’s gonna culminate to a Bruce Wayne meets Batman in real-life moment and it’s gonna just maybe reignite who I am or what I wanna do or it’ll be just something else that I wanted to do in pro wrestling as all these ideas that I have for this particular person or this particular character.
From 2016-2021, Dorado was with WWE. He wrestled a handful of matches for the NXT brand and there is going to be coverage here on POST Wrestling of the 1/9 NXT on USA Network.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit THE LAW on Sunday Night’s Main Event with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
