Hugo Savinovich Comments On WWE’s Booking Of Latin American Talent
On a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, legendary pro wrestling commentator Hugo Savinovich sat down with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman to discuss Andrade's release from WWE. Savinovich was the first to interview Andrade after his release, and since then Andrade has continued to call out WWE for their treatment of Latin American talent. Savinovich gave his opinion on those comments.
"I am sure that WWE is not racist. I don't think they dislike Latinos, but I don't think they know Latinos," Savinovich explained. "I think that because you speak Spanish, they can put you on commentary, and it happened with Lilian Garcia, and she really doesn't [speak] Spanish fluently. It happened with Tito Santana. A great wrestler but more American than Spanish. Nobody has bothered to really see how in the states, there are 48 million [documented] Latinos and 20 million [undocumented].
"These are people that love soccer. They love music. They love to have a party, and they love their Lucha. The majority of them are huge fans. That's why in Mexico, WWE doesn't draw because in Mexico, they respect Luchadores. They respect the foreigners that go there. They see what they're doing to their heroes like Rey Mysterio or 'El Idolo' La Sombra, Andrade. Have you seen what they're doing to Angel Garza?
"Garza has the looks. He [speaks] English. He's a young generation, and I don't want to give out all the creative stuff because I get paid for that, but you don't even have to build him in the ring. Just give him the flower, have him create problems trying to seduce other other girls there. You have Maryse and Miz. You have many couples there that you could do stories with Angel Garza. It's like a Kiss Bandido kind of thing where you don't have to do that much in wrestling. Just that cynical laughter. That smile and he's good-looking. They're wasting all the other guys, and you gotta wonder what the heck is happening here."
Savinovich later recalled his time in WWE creative. He compared and contrasted how it was then to how it is now..
"It was Brother Bruce [Prichard], and Pat Patterson and me. That was the whole creative team and Vince, and we would work on a storyline for two hours every day," Savinovich recalled. "And then after two weeks of working, doing some changes, Vince comes, and sits down, and just reads it, and in four minutes, our dream gets destroyed. That's where I come. I still believe Vince is one of the top visionaries that we have in this industry, but he doesn't control the whole WWE. That's that's my whole point.
"There's other people that don't even know wrestling that are successful in reality shows. There's too many 'yes people', and Vince said to me once, 'Hugo, I cannot teach you how to get to the moon, but I can surely get you down from the moon,' which meant your boss cannot teach you how to dream big to create great stories, but you give me a story, and I can tell you it's too much. Let's bring it down.
"How it came from that to microwave finishes now, storylines that people don't even know, wrestlers that were told that they were going to do this, and then they hit the building and now the story's changed. Vince not knowing Andrade came back. You have a doctor that makes the wrong analysis of your top star being pregnant, and this is the same guy that said her fiancé had taken a medication that was prohibited by the rules of the Wellness Policy. What the heck is happening here?"
You can support Hugo by following @LuchaLibreOnlin. You can find the full audio and video from Hugo's interview below: