Mr. 450 Says WWE Still Needs a Top Latino Guy

– WrestleZone spoke with WWE Universal Champion Mr. 450, who has competed in NXT as Jesús De León and will return at NXT Takeover: Respect. Check out the highlights:

On if there’s a void in WWE for Latin American wrestlers: “I feel like they need that top guy. They need a Del Rio or Rey Mysterio. They need somebody that latin people can go, “Man, that’s our guy.” Because they have the Matadores but they aren’t in that spot where the people are like, “They’re our guys.” They need someone that can represent that Latin American culture in a way that is not a “funny” way. They need somebody like Carlito. They have that void, like you said, that needs to be filled.”

On the influence of WWC on ECW: “There’s no secret that WWC was ECW before ECW was cool. The thing about Puerto Rico is that it’s so hidden that if you weren’t tape trading, if you weren’t someone that was really informed in professional wrestling all over the world, you would have never known that WWC has been doing that (ECW style) for years. WWC is what ECW was for many years. Girls were getting piledriven, they had girls taking backdrops, they did a storyline where Konnan split a guitar on top of Carlos Colon’s daughter… that was year’s ago before ECW was ECW.

On if he’s taking the WWC Universal Title to AAA: “The thing I want to do is give the prestige back to this belt that it had many years ago. Like when [Ric] Flair had it or when Carlos had it and they would take it to the states and defend it there. They would take it to different parts of the world and defend it there. If you really think about it the belt was only defended once in Texas. I believe it was Dory Funk versus Carlos Colon. Dory Funk won the belt in Texas and then Carlos got it back in Puerto Rico. So, I want to bring the prestige back to the Universal Championship where people say, “Ok, this guy is going over to Japan with the belt and representing the island there.” Or, “This guy is going to Ecuador and he’s representing there.” Now, I’m going to AAA in a couple weeks and I’m going as the WWC Universal Champion and it brings back that prestige. I want to put the eyes of the world back on Puerto Rican wrestling. That’s my goal and that’s what I’m really trying to do. I’ll be in AAA for a week for my first tour with them. I’ll be bringing the Universal Championship and I don’t know if I’ll be defending it in Mexico. I don’t know if that’s going to happen, we don’t currently have any plans for that. I’ll definitely be there wearing my belt with pride and letting people know, “Here is the WWC Universal Champion.””

On if he will defend the title at WWE NXT Takeover: Respect or the upcoming WWE NXT TV tapings: “I think that’s a long shot. Kind of in the “almost impossible” realm. I will definitely be there, I don’t know if I’m going to be doing anything for sure. I’m just there, like always. They call me, I go. I will definitely be there and we’ll see what happens.”