Lince Dorado
José Cordero (born May 11, 1987)[1] is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw and NXT brands under the ring name Lince Dorado (Spanish for Golden Lynx).
Cordero began his career in 2007, working for several independent promotions in Puerto Rico and United States, most notably the Philadelphia based Chikara, where he won the 2008 edition of the King of Trios, a tournament between trios along with El Pantera and Incognito. He was contacted by WWE in 2016 to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic, a tournament between several cruiserweight wrestlers. He was eliminated in the second round, but WWE offered him a contract. He was paired with masked wrestlers Kalisto and Gran Metalik to form a stable called Lucha House Party.
Dorado began his training in Mexico under El Pantera until he made his way to the United States in early 2007. On February 17, Dorado, Pantera and Sicodelico, Jr. made their Chikara debuts as a part of Chikara’s first-ever King of Trios tournament.
The team made an impressive impact, as they advanced to the semi-finals before falling to the team of Mike Quackenbush and ShaneSaw (Shane Storm and Jigsaw).[8] Shortly after the tournament, he moved to the U.S. and began residing in New Jersey in order to compete for Chikara in addition to various promotions in the area. Dorado quickly garnered fan support due to his high-flying wrestling style and he was soon entered into the first-ever Rey de Voladores tournament, which brought together some of the most talented high flying wrestlers on the independent circuit. Despite advancing to the finals, including an upset win over established Chikara wrestler Jigsaw, Dorado lost the tournament Chuck Taylor.[9]
At the Anniversario weekend,[10] Dorado began his first feud in Chikara against the returning “Marvelous” Mitch Ryder, which stemmed from Ryder’s “patriotic” dislike of “the illegal immigrant Mexicans”, which he claimed Dorado to be a part of. During the course of the feud, Dorado scored a major upset victory over Chris Hero via submission with the Chikara Special. The feud culminated when Dorado defeated Ryder in November in a hair vs. mask match. However, their match gained some notoriety after Dorado suffered a seizure and severe concussion after he over-rotated a shooting star senton in the finish of the match that resulted in his head hitting the mat.
Post-match, Dorado began suffering a seizure and was tended to by Chikara’s founder Mike Quackenbush and Daizee Haze before he was unmasked (though a towel was placed over the top half of his face in order to conceal his identity) and subsequently taken away from the arena in an ambulance.[11] In December, Dorado was released from the hospital and returned to Chikara that same month, where he distracted Ryder during his match with Tim Donst, allowing Donst to score an upset victory.[12]
