Box y Lucha 994 & 997 (November 1971) recaps

I’m still trying to figure out how to do this. I’m going to try to bunch them by months when possible. It’s not often possible.

Box y Lucha 994 (November 11, 1971 publish date) covers a big Arena Mexico show on October 29th:

EMLL (FRI) 10/29/1971 Arena México [Box y Lucha 1002, Box y Lucha 993, Box y Lucha 994]
1) Agente X vs Dick Angelo
listed in the lineup, not mentioned in the results.
2) Látigo Watson b Cesar Valentino
3) Raúl Reyes b Coloso Colosetti
Raul Reyes
4) Kitazawa b Alberto Muñoz
5) Anibal & Blue Demon b Karloff Lagarde & Shibata
6) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario DQ Rayo de Jalisco & Tinieblas
Straight falls, Rayo fouled both rudos.
7) Rene Guajardo L Renato Torres, Black Shadow [hair]
first three way hair match. Renato Torres won the battle royal, causing Shadow and Guajardo to have to fight in the first fall. (It’s meant to be multiple falls here, not separate matches.) Shadow submitted Guajardo to the Gory Special in the first fall, Torres defeated Black Shadow in the second, Guajardo beat Torres in the third to leave everyone tied at 1 fall won. Black Shadow beat Rene Guajardo again, meaning Shadow escaped the match, and Torres pinned Guajardo to take Guajardo’s hair. Box y Lucha later called one of the Black Shadow/Rene Guajardo the best singles match of 1971.

This is typical of this apuesta matches in this era: there wasn’t much build to it. Guajardo & usual tag partner Karloff Lagarde won a one night tournament the week before. They defeated Black Shadow & Blue Demon in the semifinals, then El Soltiario & Renato Torres in the final. They hadn’t been wrestling each other much prior, and there wasn’t any obvious set up for a hair match even in the tournament outcomes. The matches just happen and that’s the inherent issue with doing a look back at this period; the dots don’t always connect. Box y Lucha plays up Lagarde almost unmasking Demon in their tag match more than the hair match.

This issue also includes results for Arena Coliseo Acapulco on Sunday 10/24 and Wednesday 10/27. The setup there is like Guadalajara in modern times: Mexico City based wrestlers work on the midweek show, Sunday is more local focused (though some lower card CDMX wrestlers will work more as time goes on.)

In injury updates:

• Ray Mendoza’s knee surgery went well, he’s got a good prognosis to return
  • Mendoza suffered a serious knee injury in October, may have wrestled through a it a bit, and Box y Lucha’s been fearful that is the end of his career. He would return in April 1972, though is time in EMLL is coming to an end.
• Huracan Ramirez has a left arm fracture.
• Villano I suffered a broken nose against Tauro.
• Matematico messed up a tope, hit his head, and will be three months.

The magazine’s various notes columns also mention Villano III and Tony Salazar may be headed in soon. Both are there eventually, though it’s much farther down the road.

Box y Lucha has a few ‘notes’ columns. They add another one in this issue, debuting “Teodulfo” as the first ever masked lucha libre reporter.

Modren Box y Lucha skipped over 995 or 996 in their run, which may mean they don’t have access to copies. 994 does has the next Arena Mexico lineup, and a later year in review mentions the main event

EMLL (FRI) 11/05/1971 Arena México [Box y Lucha 1002, Box y Lucha 994]
1) El Greco vs Mario Alcala
2) Villano I vs Carlos Plata
3) Manuel Robles vs El Rostro
4) José Luis Mendieta b Gemelo Diablo II
5) Gemelo Diablo I vs Látigo Watson
6) Black Shadow, Blue Demon, Garo Katcherian b Karloff Lagarde, Kitazawa, Shibata
debut of Garo Katcherian (or something like that) from Armenia.
7) Rayo de Jalisco & Tinieblas b Ángel Blanco & El Solitario
bloody match

“Garo Katcherian” is a borderline impossible name for lucha libre magazines to get right; I’m not sure why they didn’t have anyone change it. (They did just that with Whipper Watson Jr., switching him to Latigo Watson to make it more palatable.) I can’t find anything about Katcherian in wrestling outside this tour, but it’s possible we’re all spelling his name wrong.

The November 12th results popped up in a Super Luchas a long time ago.

CMLL (FRI) 11/12/1971 Arena Coliseo [RB, SL 333]
1) Joe Martin b Pepe Casas
2) Escorpión II b El Greco
3) Escorpión I DRAW El Rebelde
4) José Luis Mendieta DQ El Enfermero
5) Vic Amezcua b Chino Chow
6) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario b Anibal & Garo Katcherian [semifinal]
7) Karloff Lagarde & Kitazawa b Látigo Watson & Raúl Reyes [semifinal]
8) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario b Karloff Lagarde & Kitazawa [final]

That’s the future Tropicasas (and father of Felino, Heavy Metal and Negro Casas) in the opener. He worked a lot in EMLL in the early 70s, but was a guy who considered to small to book on most Friday night shows.

Box y Lucha 997 (November 26th) has Rayo de Jalisco in a University of Michigan sweater on the cover. This is a great inexplicable lucha libre photo that is never explained.

EMLL (FRI) 11/19/1971 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 997]
1) Mario Alcala b Buddy Montes
2) Mario Alcala DRAW Dick Angelo
3) Escorpión II b César Silva
4) Estrella Blanca b Escorpión I
5) El Enfermero b Carlos Plata
6) Látigo Watson DQ Vic Amezcua
Watson’s best performance so far. Straight falls, last a DQ for foul
7) Anibal, Black Shadow, Garo Katcherian b Ángel Blanco, Dr. Wagner, El Solitario
tecnicos took ⅔

Anibal gets credited for carrying his side in the main event. He’s the rising young tecnico at this point. Latigo Watson is also pretty new – he admits on his debut that he’s green and he’s hear to learn – so his best performance is a hopeful sign of some improvement. The results really do list Mario Alcala in two matches, which is probably at typo. It’s possible one of them is his brother Marco, but Marco doesn’t otherwise turn up on these shows until 1975.

One of the notes columns mentions Tinieblas is off the Friday night shows, and is now demoted to Pista Arena Revolucion. Tinieblas, like Mil Mascaras, was a guy built up by the lucha libre magazines before he debuted. He looked impressive in still photos, not so much when it came to actually moving, and got poor reviews early on. The reviews never got all that much better for Tinieblas, but he’d make it back to Friday shows eventually.

That’s it for November.