These issues are part of Box y Lucha’s Coleccion Diamante.
Box y Lucha 247A (December 14th, 1956)
EMLL (FRI) 12/07/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 246A]
1) José Munoz b El Coyote
rated 6
2) Kiko Torres b Maravilla Enmascarada
rated 5.5
3) Murciélago Velazquez DRAW Giuliano
rated 7.
4) Frankenstein b Manuel Robles
rated 7.
5) Huracán Ramírez b Canelo Segura
rated 6 ¾ .
6) Masahiko Kimura & Teizo Watanabe b Bobby Bonales & Henry Pilusso
Rated 8
7) Black Shadow b El Espectro
Shadow took ⅔. Rated 7.5
Back-to-back Friday night main event wins for Black Shadow, following his hair match win over El Gladiador on the last Friday of November. Gladiador & Carlos Moreno get a win on the Sunday show, defeating Blue Demon & Tarzan Lopez.
Henry Pilusso points out to Box y Lucha that he and Tarzan Lopez are still the Arena Coliseo tag team champions, as far as he can figure. They won it in 1952 over Black Shadow and Cavernario Galindo and never lost it. We do have records of a September 5, 1952 show where those two teams won semifinals for new Arena Coliseo Tag titles, so that fits. Pilusso wasn’t in EMLL from the tail end of 1963 until August 1956 as far as I have records, so it’s not like he was around to defend (or lose) these belts. The idea of a tag championship will pop up confusingly in 1957.
“Last Sunday” (date unclear), Dr. Castro lost his hair to Karis La Momia in Cuernavaca. Wrestlers often lose their hair before switching to a different gimmick, but this turns out not to be the end of Dr. Castro (and the start of Rayo de Jalisco.) He’s just stuck as a midlevel guy who occasionally loses big matches.
Box y Lucha 248A (December 21th, 1956)
EMLL (FRI) 12/14/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 247A]
1) Ángel Negro DRAW Jaibo García
finish unlcear; “quedaron tablas”
2) Centella Inca b Eskimo Blancarte
rated 6 ½
3) Giuliano b Dr. Castro
Rated 6 ¾
4) Canelo Segura DRAW Manuel Robles
Rated 7 ¼.
5) Frankenstein b Huracán Ramírez
bad match. Rated 6 ¼.
6) Bobby Bonales b Tarzán López
rated 7 ½ as the best match of the week
7) El Santo & Espectro b Blue Demon & Henry Pilusso
Espectro lost alone, but he and Santo are undefeated as a team. Pilusso won’t be defending the tag team titles on this run either; he’s already done and headed to Juarez. He won’t return until November 1957.
Sunday’s show includes the Mexico City debut of Monterrey’s Ruben Juarez in a semi-main loss to El Verdugo. He’ll be a regular for the EMLL until the beginning of the 70s, usually as a tecnico.
The week’s controversy is Box y Lucha reporting El Santo wrestled in a semi-main in Guadalajara. (He defeated Cavernario Galindo by disqualification.) Santo is said to be upset about this next week; he doesn’t want it out there that he would ever wrestle beneath the main event. Box y Lucha is insistent that he did.
A notes column ends with a mention that two luchadors – Juan Gonzalez and Ricardo Mata, passed away at the small wrestling building “Arena Tarzan Lopez” in Villa de Guadalupe. They’re said to be “victimas de dos cafreaficionados”, and I have no idea what that means. This never is mentioned again.
Box y Lucha 249A (December 28th, 1956)
EMLL (FRI) 12/21/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 248A, Box y Lucha 249A]
1) Astucia b Rudy García
Astucia debut. He’s a masked wrestler, trained under Murcielago Velazquez
2) Joaquin Murrieta b Daniel Aldana
3) Humberto Garza b Akio Yoshihara
4) Rubén Juárez b Manuel Robles
5) Frankenstein b El Verdugo
6) Bobby Bonales b Gorilla Flores
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Espectro & Santo
The Santo/Espectro win streak comes to an end at the hands of Hermanos Shadow. Black Shadow’s own wins streak is a bit stronger.
Sunday’s show has the Japanese team of Kimura & Watanabe winning when Carlos Moreno & El Gladiador had issues. The previous week had an odd DQ where Gladiador came back in after being eliminated, costing Moreno the win that time too. It doesn’t go anywhere, and it’s tough to tell if it’s the booking being erratic or El Gladiador, known to have some issues, being erratic.
There’s also a special Tuesday show for Christmas. It’s another tag team tournament, with the final decided on 01/01. Espectro & Santo emerge from one half of the bracket, Black Shadow & Dory Dixon from the other half.
America Martin is this year’s Reina de Lucha Libre. It reads like this is the third year Box y Lucha’s held a vote to decide the top female wrestling fan, very much supported by EMLL. Fans could vote via form in the magazine – or at least they could until that form disappeared a few weeks earlier. Box y Lucha started running pro-America articles instead, so they knew who was winning this. America is said to have gotten 78,740 votes, a record. Last year’s winner, Elsa Galvan, arrived to the cermony/holiday party with El Santo to handover the role. Blue Demon presented Martin the scepter and Salvador Lutteroth the crown. There are a bunch of photos lucha libre people attending the party.
Rito Romero is mentioned in passing as getting married to Hollywood actress Ann Robinson. I don’t see that mentioned elsewhere and it’s possibly a Dia del Inocenets joke at this time of year. Robinson did marry a Mexican bullfighter the next year.
Box y Lucha 250A (January 4th, 1957)
EMLL (FRI) 12/28/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 249A, Box y Lucha 250A]
1) Tony Sugar b Mar Ala
result is cut off in Box y Lucha, taking a guess from what we can see. Rated a 5 ¾
2) Jaibo García b Carnicero Grimaldo
3) Chivo García b Centella Inca
4) Karloff Lagarde DRAW Huracán Ramírez
Return of Karloff Lagarde
5) Rubén Juárez b Canelo Segura
6) Dorrel Dixon & Tarzán López DQ Gorilla Flores & Ray Mendoza
straight falls, second by DQ
7) Espectro b El Gladiador
More Gladiador controversy. Box y Lucha has felt referee (and original EMLL trainer) Gonzalo Avenado is biased against him ever since a controversial call in his mask match. In this singles match, Box y Lucha accuses Avenaldo of ignoring an Espectro submission in fall two, then helping him remask in fall three. They want Avenaldo busted down to the prelim matches or outright suspended. In reality, EMLL’s gone cold on Gladiador.
Carlos Moreno, teaming with Cavernario Galindo instead of Gladiador, beats that same Japanese team of Kimura & Watanabe on 12/30. Black Shadow & Dory Dixon defeat Santo & Espectro in the 01/01 final of the tag team tournament. That show is also the return of referee Eddie Palau, sidelined due to illnes.
Enfermero is said to have defeated Raul Reyes for his hair back on 01/01.
That’s it for 1956. I’m missing any great summary of the year. Box y Lucha has been rating the best matches on a 10 point scale, so maybe the best way to look back is to list those best matches. It’s not a complete list because we don’t have all the magazines, and they’re not even doing them that often until the last few months. Box y Lucha uses 10 point scale (probably taken from soccer), but rarely are matches above 8 or below 6.
rated 8
- 10/28 El Gladiador & El Mongol vs Joe Marin & Tarzan Lopez
- 12/07 Masahiko Kimura & Teizo Watanabe vs Bobby Bonales & Henry Pilusso
rated 7.75
- 08/24 Black Shadow vs Bobby Bonales
- 10/26 Espectro & Santo vs Blue Demon & Rolando Vera
rated 7.5
- 08/17 Black Shadow & Blue Demon vs Cavernario Galindo & Ray Mendoza
- 08/24 El Santo vs Blue Demon
- 11/04 Gladiador & Mongol vs Blue Demon & Rolando Vera
- 11/16 Black Shadow vs El Gladiador
- 11/25 Rolando Vera vs Espectro
- 11/25 Carnicero Grimaldo vs Juan Diaz
- 11/25 Blue Demon & Henry Pilusso vs Masahiko Kimura & Teizo Watanabe
- 11/30 Black Shadow vs El Gladiador [hair match]
- 12/02 Blue Demon vs Espectro
- 12/14 Bobby Bonales vs Tarzan Lopez
Blue Demon doesn’t have an 8 in what we have, but he does show up six times on that list, the most of any.
[Previous November 1956. Next January 1957. Full index]