Carlos Raul Cabrera (October 18, 1959) is a Colombian former newsman and currently employed with WWE, where he is one half of the company's Spanish announce team in which he is the play-by-play announcer. His longtime broadcast partner was the former Ecuadorian professional wrestler Hugo Savinovich, who was the color commentator on the announce team until October 2011. Currently, his partner is Marcelo Rodriguez.
Early career
Cabrera was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. During his career as a newsman and radio personality, Cabrera has obtained many coveted awards, including the ACE Awards both in Radio and TV categories. Cabrera has one of the most recognizable voices in both Spanish radio and TV in the United States and is constantly used as a voiceover announcer for many important corporations and brand names that wish to advertise their products nationally.
World Wrestling Federation / Entertainment / WWE (1993–present)
Cabrera has worked for WWE since 1993 and, alongside Hugo Savinovich, has been the Spanish announcer on Spanish language versions of Raw, WWE Friday Night SmackDown, ECW, and pay-per-view events. For the international versions, Cabrera and Savinovich are accompanied by announcer Marcelo Rodriguez. Cabrera and Savinovich have a show on WWE.com called WWE En Español (WWE in Spanish), a thirty-minute program that serves as a recap of RAW, SmackDown!, "ECW", and pay-per-view events. The duo taped their one-hundredth episode in April 2006. Recently, WWE launched a Spanish language mini-show starring Cabrera and Savinovich called 28 Segundos.
In recent years, while working for WWE on its monthly pay-per-views, the announce table at which he works with Savinovich, more commonly known as the Spanish announcers' table, has become a staple in modern professional wrestling as a convenient device on which for wrestlers to execute dramatic moves, such as the piledriver or the Pedigree, which almost always results in the destruction of the table, as it is designed to collapse on impact.
Cabrera and Savinovich provide live commentary for pay-per-view events at ringside, however they perform their live Raw, SmackDown and ECW commentary from the WWE Television Studios in Stamford, Connecticut. The duo used to be at ringside for all PPV events, but this practice ended in mid-2006. Originally due to the addition of the now-defunct ECW brand, the announce teams of all 3 brands were present for tri-branded pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series). Cabrera and Savinovich were still placed at ringside for brand-exclusive PPV events.
When the brand-exclusive pay-per-view concept ended in 2007, the announce teams of all three brands were placed at ringside for all PPV events. Beginning in 2009, a single three-man announce team, composed of announcers from the two current brands, was designated for pay-per-views. Cabrera and Savinovich returned to ringside for PPVs at The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania in 2009. However, they were not reinstated full-time until WrestleMania XXVI in 2010. In October 2011, Savinovich left WWE and Marcelo Rodríguez became the permanent Spanish color commentator and co-host of WWE En Español. Also in October 2011, Cabrera and Rodríguez were at ringside for the tapings of Raw and SmackDown in Mexico City, Mexico. During the SmackDown tapings, Cabrera took part in a WWE.com exclusive in-ring segment where he helped translate Triple H's dialect to the audience as they announced Mil Máscaras as the first inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2012.
In TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2012 the 3MB tag team (Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre) start to mocking Carlos and Marcelo in a racist way (Kayfabe), including an attack to Ricardo Rodriguez, only to begin a feud with Alberto Del Rio, signalling a face turn for the Mexican duo.
