WWE releases Armando Estrada

Photo courtesy of wwe.com


Earlier today, I read on the World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE] website that the company had come to terms on the release of former Extreme Championship Wrestling [ECW] General Manager Armando Estrada [pictured above], officially putting an end to the role of a traditional manager in WWE.

Honestly, I am sorta shocked that Estrada was released but it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise, especially when one considers that the WWE creative team had more for him to do when he was the mouthpiece manager for Umaga and once replaced as the General Manager of ECW, had very little to do, other than jobbing to Colin Delaney and Braden Walker.

I personally feel that if the company had kept him as a manager instead of an in-ring performer [let's be honest, he was ripped but very limited in his wrestling skills], this wouldn't have happened. I feel that what doomed Estrada was the fact that when Umaga and him first debuted on Raw, Estrada got himself "over" with the crowd, something Vince McMahon and the creative team didn't think too fond of.

Basically, the crowd began chanting in stereo along with Estrada everytime he introduced himself by saying, "My name is ARMANDO....ALEJANDRO....ESSSSTTTTRRRRAADDDAA," which Vince frowned on because Estrada was suppose to be a "heel" and not have the crowd like him, hence putting an end to Estrada's in-ring introduction, which in turn, took away from Estrada's personality and the crowd stopped caring about him.

Had McMahon and the creative people put Estrada with someone else after his time with Umaga ran its course, Estrada could have easily done the same for someone who had limited microphone skills. Also, one cannot help but think how much more "over" Estrada would have been hand McMahon not put an end to his in-ring introduction.

Sadly, and this has been expected for several years now, this release confirms the fact that the role of a traditional manager in WWE, and pro wrestling in general, is dead. I cannot think of the last time when either WWE or Total Nonstop Action [TNA] had a wrestler with a real manager, meaning they had someone who themselves wasn't a wrestler on the side.

I would have to go all the way back to Paul Bearer to think of the last traditional manager and no disrespect to Bearer, that just shows how endangered a species the traditional manager was in professional wrestling.