–Roberto Rangel, a fixture at a referee for CMLL dating back to 1953, passed away this morning due to complications from diabetes. (thanks to Steve “Dr. Lucha” Sims)
There’s a thread on box y lucha here
Back in January, Box Y Lucha had an article about Rangel (sometimes listed as Guëro Rangel) being out of the ring due to injury. I recall there was some publicity after because he was not in the best of financial situations. There was a benefit show held for him (and Solitario) in April, and there was announced one to happen at Arena Coliseo coming up in October (which I presume will go on to help his family.)
Among the famous matches Rangel refereed as part of CMLL was the Santo/Espanto I mask match. Both men bled quite a bit (“their masks turn red with blood” is the usual description), Espanto was caught in the camel clutch and would not give, but Rangel stepped in and stopped the match because of what shape Espanto was in.
Rangel is credited with recuriting Lizmark into lucha libre and coming up with the Espectro gimmick.
Like many referees, he started out as a wrestler, but he was too small. If you search thru this thread, it says Rangel wrestled at 48kgs (105lbs) and never won, so it was an easy switch to make when the referee position was offered to him.
Outside of the ring, Rangel also ran the first Super Luchas magazine (a predecessor to the one Ernesto Ocampo runs nowadays) and wrote for Box Y Lucha at other times, mostly focusing on the history of lucha libre.
Discover more from luchablog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
thats sad.he has been the main ref in CMLL for a long time.RIP
Is this the old guy that refs CMLL? RIP
yes
I was going to say Yes myself, but I realized, there a few different older CMLL referees. I hope the pictures I posted today give you a better idea of who he was.