The Debut of Prince Puma

When Trevor Mann was signed by the WWE in January of 2018 there was one major question on everyone's minds: How long will it take for them to screw this up? Luckily for everyone, NXT has been Mann's home since the signing, a perfect place for a smaller independent style wrestler, and was billed under his indie wrestling name, Ricochet. Both were good signs for things to come and ever since his debut in the 6-man ladder match for the newly minted NXT North American championship, he hasn't slowed down. NXT is the platform that allows small, aerial wrestlers to do small, aerial moves inside the ring so naturally Ricochet feels right at home alongside wrestlers like Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Rodrick Strong, etc. With his one year anniversary coming up soon, and his in ring debut only being eight months ago, I think it is premature for fans to be speculating when Ricochet will make his main roster debut. While a match against AJ Styles or Rey Mysterio would be amazing, where does he go from there?

The issue with this thought process is we, the fans, aren't thinking of the right call-up. If Ricochet was called up he would be eaten alive by the likes of Braun Strowman and jobbed out to Baron Corbin by his third match. All the fanfare would be swiftly silenced just like they did with Finn Balor, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, and nearly every other call up from developmental dating all the way back to Cesaro and Neville. This is precisely why it shouldn't be Ricochet who moves up to the main roster, the best option is to send his alter ego, his darker side, the masked predator known as Prince Puma. Like Finn Balor and his face paint, once the mask goes on Ricochet turns into a more sinister and mysterious character. The buzz surrounding the possibility that Ricochet in NXT and Prince Puma on RAW or SmackDown are actually the same person would be something never seen before and that alone makes it the most interesting thing on television, and in the WWE Universe as a whole.

Imagine on NXT you see Ricochet defending the North American championship against Adam Cole then a few days later Prince Puma is on RAW challenging Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental championship, and potentially winning it. Then on Wednesday you tune in to see the Intercontinental championship on NXT but instead Ricochet has no recollection of the events a few days prior, and is back defending his NXT championship. Maybe Rollins shows up to confront him wanting to know where his title is and challenges him to a match then and there but Ricochet not only has no idea where the title is but also has no clue what Rollins is even talking about. In that moment it is revealed that Ricochet and Prince Puma might share a body, but they are not the same person. Once the mask goes on Ricochet has no control, no memory of what what Prince Puma does.

Continuing this story line, Rollins can call bull on RAW the next week, threatening Ricochet, so Prince Puma comes down to the ring, Intercontinental championship in hand, telling Rollins not to be mad at Ricochet but rather take out his frustration on the man who actually defeated him. A new twist has surfaced, Puma knows all about Ricochet and eventually reveals that the mask has full control over where and when Ricochet puts it on, similar to the movie The Mask, the person in possession of the mask cannot resist the urge to put in the mask. The mask controls the possessor. One minor detail that should be added but never really talked about should be that the mask is the original mask Puma wore in Lucha Underground, not for a call back but because that particular mask was different from the likes of Rey Mysterio's. Mysterio has a mask that could be taken off easily, where as Prince Puma's was skin tight and is difficult to remove, making it look more permanent and more like a part of Ricochet's face then just a mask.

This mystical aspect of Ricochet and Prince Puma being the same body, one completely unaware of the other, and the mask having the power to control Ricochet are all ways to tell a really captivating and completely fresh story. Just the fact that it hasn't been done before will draw people in and keep fans interested in both RAW/SmackDown and NXT, along with both Ricochet and Prince Puma.