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Meltzer mentioned this morning on the radio show that this week issue will probably have the most "death notices" (my word) that any issue ever has because there have been so many luchadore deaths recently (both COVID and non-COVID related)

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12 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Meltzer mentioned this morning on the radio show that this week issue will probably have the most "death notices" (my word) that any issue ever has because there have been so many luchadore deaths recently (both COVID and non-COVID related)

I noticed this weeks had a lot of them too. But it's also odd Dave has folded Mexico into the misc section.

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While not all names have come out, the deaths in Mexican wrestling listed in the current Observer may be just the tip of the iceberg. El Fantasma, the head of the Box y Lucha commission and legit father of the NXT star, said that he knows of 30 deaths since the start of May and he believes 90 percent of them are related to COVID-19, although in most cases no causes of death were released to the public

 

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Dr. Julian Shabazz, who was a frequent guest on our shows in the Eyada days, and wrote the book “Black Stars of Professional Wrestling” in 1999, passed away this past week. He was quite the public speaker

There have been a crazy amount of deaths in the Mexican wrestling scene in recent weeks, a lot of which have been COVID-19 related

Rogelio de la Paz, who had one of the longest careers in Mexican wrestling history, best known as Sombra Vengadora, passed away on 6/13 at the age of 87. De la Paz started wrestling in 1950. Sombra Vengadora was a masked movie character, who was the lead in two movies in the 1950s. The people who were behind the movie wanted to help publicize it by having a wrestler play the role and de la Paz ended up being given the name in 1958. Because of the movie, he was a big star for the next few years, including headlining against El Santo. In 1960, there was dispute with the owners of the gimmick and to get out of the dispute over the mask design, he lost his mask to El Enfermero. The mask was very similar to the one that Rayo de Jalisco, and later his son, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., wore starting in 1961. Sombra Vengadora continued to wrestle with his last match at the age of 78 in 2011, often teaming with his son, who has since passed away

Victor Gongora, who was a heavyweight star of the 80s in CMLL as Herodes, passed away on 6/14 at the age of 69. A former Mexican national heavyweight champion, Herodes, or sometimes called Chacho Herodes, started wrestling in 1969. Later in his career he used the name El Boricua in CMLL in 2000 and 2001. He grew up in Monclova wanting to be a bullfighter. He competed as an amateur boxer around Monterrey as a teenager but after winning six straight fights, took a beating against a more experienced boxer and quit that sport. He started training for wrestling at the age of 16 with Principe Judas and Antonio Cruz before debuting at the age of 18. He started with EMLL (now CMLL) in 1977 and had a reputation as a heavyweight who could bump. He was given a major push as on November 18, 1977, at Arena Mexico, he defeated Enrique Vera, one of the biggest stars of the era (who held the UWA world heavyweight title, the Mexican heavyweight title, all kinds of light heavyweight titles and even the NWA world tag team titles in California with Ron Starr) in a hair vs. hair match. That stands out as one of his biggest career wins. By that point in time he’d already lost hair matches to Cobarde, Masakre and Rayo de Jalisco Jr.. He went to Japan with the IWE group in 1981, did well, but during his prime never worked Japan again since New Japan was affiliated with UWA and he was an EMLL guy, and EMLL had no overseas ties in those days. He came just a few years too late as a true heavyweight who could go who was Mexican would have gotten work in California and maybe Texas had he come years earlier. He defeated Cien Caras on March 28, 1982, at Arena Mexico, to win the Mexican national heavyweight belt. He lost the title on June 20, 1982, to El Halcon Ortiz. Ortiz was his big rival. Ortiz beat him in a hair vs. hair matches on December 2, 1977 and on September 23, 1981, both at Arena Mexico. Eventually taking so many big bumps as a short, fat, 255 pounder led to back and knee issues. He also lost three hair matches to Tony Salazar, on September 18, 1983 at Arena Mexico, then after a little hair had grown back, lost that hair on October 3, 1983 at Arena Coliseo in Mexico City, and then lost a third one in March 1984 at Arena Mexico. He also lost a hair match to MS 1 on April 15, 1988, at Arena Mexico. When Antonio Pena became booker in 1991, he tried to revitalize his career by having him play like he was crazy, dying his hair different colors, and dressing up in different costumes where he’d think he was a Roman emperor or something like that. In 1992, Pena brought him to AAA when it started and at first Pena put together a trio of Chavo Guerrero Sr. & El Sicodelico & Herodes as heels to feud with the top two faces, Konnan and Perro Aguayo. But they disbanded the trio because they didn’t get over, and in particular Sicodelico, on the advice of brother Mil Mascaras, refused to lose a mask vs. hair match to Konnan so they had to drop that feud. He stayed in AAA through 1994. He was out of the picture on the national scene until 2000 when he returned to CMLL as El Boricua. He was the second El Boricua, as the first was David Sierra in the 90s. The Boricua character, which largely ended his career as far as national prominence went, was part of a very controversial series of bouts. He was going to lose his mask in 2001 to Atlantis, but he then booked three mask matches instead of one. On August 13, 2001, he lost to Atlantis in Nuevo Laredo and said his name was Big Von Hammemberg. Two days later he lost his mask to Atlantis again in Celaya. Because the matches weren’t in Mexico City, they didn’t get the immediate national attention. However, the magazines came out on August 16 and covered the Nuevo Laredo match. He was in Cuernavaca to lose a mask match to Mascara Sagrada, but with the magazine Lucha 2000 having come out that day and fans reading it, the fans were furious. The reaction of the crowd chanting about the main event fraud was such that he came out, unmasked before the match started, acknowledged he lost the match a few days earlier and he and Sagrada did a regular match. While he continued to wrestle for several more years, he never had any kind of a spotlight on him after that point. He largely retired in 2008 although did some legends matches after that point in time. His son wrestles as Herodes Jr., who currently wrestles on Mexican indies. He’s the cousin of Lluvia, a woman wrestler in CMLL, and La Hiedra, a top star woman in AAA.

Promoter Esther Leon de Moreno passed away on 6/11. Besides helping build Arena Azteca Budokan in Neza in 1961, she is the mother of male wrestler Oriental and women wrestlers Esther, Rossy, Alda and Cinthia Moreno, who were all stars in Japan at one point. The younger Esther was a pretty significant name in All Japan women during the early 90s heyday. Alfonso and Esther built the arena and promoted it for decades

Martin Hernandez, 53, who worked as Kraken, Cyborg, Arlequin Verde and Rafaga Azul, passed away this past week. He worked CMLL in the early 90s as Kraken and Rafaga Azul and AAA in the late 90s as Kraken

Jorge Robles, a wrestler out of Acapulco known as Sangre Guerrera who worked undercards on the CMLL shows and was a doctor as his regular job, passed away this past week

Mario Delgadillo, 60, from the State of Mexico, who worked as Pilatos and Super Porto Salvaje, and Raul Ramirez, 45, known as Temerario I, as well as his mother and brother all died in the last week

 

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22 hours ago, odessasteps said:

A few days after her 60th Wedding Anniversary to Bob

 

I can't find the tweet now but apparently Bob is also in very poor health and has discontinued his cancer treatments.

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7 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Those Portland matches in the Clubbering thread are killer (pardon the pun). 

RIP

I went to post this in the thread and twitter.  As I said on twitter, it is fucking crazy that some rando in the pick up truck rolls in and this is the take they keep.  If you'll notice, the truck is lingering in the background for the rest of the promo.  I'm sure Gary had his straight razor at the ready.  

 

I also remember the one time that Brooks got a "Go Tim Go!" chant from the sportatorium crowd.  He was as baffled by it as much as I was.  I forget who he was against in that match, I guess it might have been a heel vs. heel match against someone from Devastation.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Per Dave (who I assumed got it from Cubs)

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The death of Anubis Black, real name Francisco Lizzaraga, was not health related but he was murdered, speculated as a revenge killing. Lizzaraga was the suspect in the shooting death of a man and woman eating at a Wings Burger restaurant in Mexico City on 3/25. A person matching his description along with a second man shot both of them. No reason is known for the killing. While both were laying on the ground after being shot, they were both shot again. Witnesses identified him but police weren’t able to find him. On 6/20, Lizzaraga was out with his girlfriend in the same part of Mexico City when a man on the street saw him and shot him at least eight times. The police recognized it was the person they had been looking for over the past three months. Other witnesses confirmed it was the same person. A delay in connecting this story in wrestling circles is that the 3/25 shooting, the wrestler listed as a fake Barba Roja, while the 6/20 death was of Anubis Black. Lizzaraga worked under both names

 

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