Mark Jindrak On Moving To Mexico And His Soap Opera Roles

Mark Jindrak says his aerial style helped make Mexico the right fit after his WWE run. Speaking on Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury, he explained that decision and how his soap-opera work eventually made him more popular outside the ring.

Jindrak’s career had taken him from WCW television to WWE before he pursued opportunities in Mexico. Looking back at that choice, he pointed to both the wrestling style and the language.

“My style was more like the aerial that favored more lucha libre, which lucha libre brought. So I had an easier transition going to lucha libre, even in terms of the language. I felt like it’s just gonna be an easier language to learn than Japanese. Again, my style suited me better. So that was pretty much, in a nutshell, my decision to go to Mexico. And then there I had some success I wish I had more obtained in WWE, if that makes any sense.”

Jindrak also recalled becoming a regular on Mexican soap operas. He compared that exposure with the success he’d seen firsthand while traveling with WWE stars.

“I did a lot of stuff there. When I was in WWE, I hung around the majority of my time on Raw with Randy Orton. And obviously he had a huge amount of success. And then when I moved to SmackDown, my best friends on SmackDown were Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio. I traveled with those guys on the road for this time I was on SmackDown.”

“So I saw success, like real true success, firsthand. And obviously being in OVW with the Cenas and the Batistas and the Lesnars, those guys and Orton, those guys went on and had mega, mega success. So when I went to Mexico and had a chance to do these things myself, even bigger stuff, a lot of the soap operas I was on were like number-one shows in Mexico, and I was a regular on those shows.”

“So it was like imagine a John Cena being on nightly episodes of Two and a Half Men. It was that type of television, huge. So I did that, to the point where I was more popular outside the ring than I was in the ring in lucha libre. So that was kind of a weird dynamic as well.”

Jindrak also explained what moving to Mexico required outside the ring. He said he took learning Spanish seriously.

“I took it really seriously. When I moved to a foreign country, I made sure that it was going to mean something. I learned Spanish. I took Spanish very seriously. And just like the character Vampiro in the ’90s hit in Mexico, I kind of hit in the 2000s.”

Source: Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury.