I’m going to start listing the current champions at the beginning of these months. The championships are not the end all or be all of Mexican wrestling, even at this point in history, but more context helps.
- NWA Welterweight: Blue Demon
- NWA Middleweight: Rolando Vera
- Mexican Lightweight: vacant (tournament underway)
- Mexican Welterweight: Jalisco Gonzalez
- Mexican Middleweight: El Santo
- Mexican Light Heavyweight: Tarzan Lopez
- Mexican Heavyweight: Medico Asesino
Don’t expect that list to change quickly or often.
Box y Lucha 272A (June 6, 1957)
The Sunday show this week (June 2nd) has a Black Shadow/Karloff Lagarde match rated 7 3/4.
EMLL (TUE) 06/04/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 271A, Box y Lucha 272A, Clinch 242]
1) Chu Chu García b Pancho García [MEX LIGHT, quarterfinal]
straight falls. Garcia is debuting, from Coahuila
2) Mar Allah b Bobby Ramírez [MEX LIGHT, quarterfinal]
Box y Lucha said Allah is a naturalized citizen (and because of that, eligible for this title). Ramirez debuted, from Hidalgo
3) José Cruz b Zepelin Ahumada [MEX LIGHT, quarterfinal]
Ahumda debuted from Veracruz
4) Juan Diaz b El Coyote [MEX LIGHT, quarterfinal]
straight falls.
5) Huroki Sito & Manuel Robles b Carnicero Grimaldo & Gori Casanova [super libre]
All the debuts also suggest that the lightweight championship is a commission thing, getting in people who don’t normally work for EMLL. All of those outsiders get a bye in the tournament and then lose right away, though some stick around for a bit. Both the Zeppelin name and the previous “sumo” backstory is odd for a guy in a lightweight tournament.
“Sheik” Mar Allah’s wrestling career dates back to the earliest days of EMLL. He was born in Lebanon and is a naturalized citizen, which Box y Lucha says makes him eligible to challenge for national champions. That belief will be an issue before the end of the year, though not for Mar Allah.
Box y Lucha 273A (June 13, 1957)
EMLL (FRI) 06/07/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 272A, Box y Lucha 273A, Box y Lucha 3536, Clinch 242]
1) Taro Hito b Guapo Rodríguez
rated 6 ½
2) Antonio Ramírez b Chico Veloz
Rated 6.
3) Tony Barbetta b Murciélago Velazquez
Rated 6.
4) Carnicero Grimaldo TLDRAW Orquídea
20 minutes. Rated 6 ½
5) Ray Mendoza b El Enfermero
Terrific match (though only one fall), rated 7 ½
6) Enrique Llanes b Chico Casasola
Rated 7 ¼
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Espectro & Karloff Lagarde [MEX TAG, semifinal]
Rated 7 ½
At this point, this tournament is still to determine the first commission-recognized national tag team champions.
The 06/09 show has Cavernario Galindo & Jorge Allende go to a main event draw with Huroki & Sugi Sito. Sugi & Galindo knocked each other out.
EMLL (TUE) 06/11/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 272A, Box y Lucha 273A, Clinch 242]
1) José Munoz b Rocky Man
2) Zepelin Ahumada b Chamaco Vega
3) Chuchu García b Mar Allah [MEX LIGHT, semifinal]
4) Juan Diaz b José Cruz [MEX LIGHT, semifinal]
5) Manuel Robles b Canelo Segura
This show was noted to have a good turnout, though sparse details beyond the results.
Referee Rudy Blancarate, brought up in April for a series of poor calls, is officially suspended for a recent poor DQ call.
Ivan el Terrible pled to the commission to reinstate El Gladiador’s license. It didn’t work.
Dr. Castro showed up in Cuernavaca without his gear, and borrowed enough from other wrestlers to still go out and wrestle.
Box y Lucha 274A (June 22, 1957)
The publish date seems to have shifted from Fridays to Saturdays.
EMLL (FRI) 06/14/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 273A, Box y Lucha 3536, Clinch 242, RB, SL 311]
1) Chico Veloz b Pancho García
Rated 6 ¼
2) Gori Casanova b Antonio Ramírez
Rated 6 ¾
3) El Verdugo b Enrique Villa
Rated 7
4) Jalisco González b Canelo Segura
Rated 7
5) Carlos Moreno b Chico Casasola
Rated 6 ¾
6) Sugi Sito DQ Cavernario Galindo
another unfair DQ according to Box y Lucha, this time for sending Sito into a post. Rated 7
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Enrique Llanes & Tarzán López [MEX TAG]
Tecnico/Tecnico final, brothers vs trainer/trainee. Third fall said to go a half hour. Match came down to Llanes and Demon, Demon getting the win. Rated 8.
Blue Demon & Black Shadow are called tag team champions of Mexico in this week’s magazine. Notably, there are post-match photos of the teams congratulating each other but no visible title belts. Sister magazine Clinch 242 will later recap 1957 and refer to this as “the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship” instead. There’s understandable confusion about the history of the Mexican National Tag Team championships from this period forward, and neither magazine has any insight about what changed – was it a commission issue? Was Box y Lucha just calling them by a name that they weren’t meant to be? All I can be sure of at this point is Box y Lucha thought they were national title and they don’t appear to be national titles next time they’re brought up.
On Sunday, Espectro & Lagarde defeated the Sitos in the main event.
EMLL (TUE) 06/18/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 273A, Box y Lucha 274A, Box Y Lucha 868, Clinch 242]
1) Mar Allah b Pery Lopez
2) Humberto Garza TLDRAW Gori Casanova
some controversy around referee Polo Juarez. Both won a fall, Casanova seemed to have the third one won but refeee Polo Juarez called time.
3) Frankenstein b Dr. Castro
4) Enrique Llanes & Rubén Juárez DQ Carnicero Grimaldo & Cavernario Galindo
5) Juan Diaz b Chu Chu García [MEX LIGHT, final]
Juan Diaz is 32 years old upon winning this vacant championship
Juan Diaz started as a boxer and moved to wrestling while in Guadalajara. His name first appears in Arena Nilo shows in Guadalajara in 1945, and he seems to have won the Jalisco Featherweight Championship in 1946. He appeared on the Televicentro program – one of the show’s promoters was the Guadalajara promoter – and moved to EMLL in September 1953, with stints elsewhere. He works in the first two matches on Fridays when he works them at all. Diaz is not long for Mexico City; he’ll relocate to the Torreon circuit by summer and lose this belt there. Again, this lightweight title isn’t one that sticks in EMLL any time soon, and running this tournament for a champion who’s going to take it elsewhere seems appears to be a favor to either the commission or the Torreon promoters.
“Chuchu Garcia” would become El Rebelde by 1959. El Rebelde is Mano Negra’s father and Sanely’s grandfather. I knew this, had it written down, but didn’t have in the database until Julio Cesar Rivera brought up in CMLL commentary recently.
Bobby Bonales will become an agent of “Direccion Federal de Seguridad” in his non-wrestling time; that’s the Mexican CIA. This doesn’t seem to come up again, but Bonales seems away from CMLL until a few matches in early 1958.
Box y Lucha reports on rumors of Rolando Vera leaving EMLL to work independent, which appears to be what happens. He’s not back around until August 1958, and that means the NWA Middleweight championship is out of EMLL with him.
Box y Lucha also pushes that Blue Demon and Karloff Lagarde are setting up a title match in Puebla, though they’re getting a little ahead of themselves – that match is scheduled in July. Those two men are feuding, and that feud is coming to Mexico City.
Box y Lucha 275A (June 29, 1957)
EMLL (FRI) 06/21/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 274A, Box y Lucha 275A , Clinch 242]
1) Zepelin Ahumada b Mar Allah
actually took place after the main event. Rated 6 ¼
2) Jaibo García b José Cruz
Ratead 6 ¾
3) Enrique Villa b Murciélago Velazquez
Rated 6 ½
4) Rubén Juárez b Jalisco González
Rated 6 ¼
5) Lotario b Ivan el Terrible
return of Loatario. Rated 6 ¾.
6) Jorge Allende & Ray Mendoza b Huroki Sito & Sugi Sito
Rated 7
7) Espectro & Karloff Lagarde b Black Shadow & Blue Demon [super libre]
Rated 7 ½.
Two wins this week for the Espectro/Lagarde combination, though this is deemed a big upset. This is the start of the Lagarde/Demon issue; Lagarde is a promising young wrestler at this stage.
Carlos Moreno and Cavernario Galindo defeated Enrique Llanes and Tony Lopez in the Sunday main event. After the tournament, the Tuesday show returned to matches with no great meaning. The combination of Humberto Garza and Ruben Juarez defeated Carnicero Grimaldo and Gori Casanova in the last match on that Tuesday show.
Halcon Negro has signed back with EMLL again and started with shows on Thursday.
Roberto Rangel is named-checked as refereeing in Arena Coliseo. He’d referee here for the next five decades. In trivia notes, Box y Lucha claims that Humberto Garza once wrestled as Tony Smith, and that the luchador listed as “Dr. Castro” is actually Dr. Heriberto Castro.
Box y Lucha 276A (July 6, 1957)
EMLL (FRI) 06/28/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 275A, Box y Lucha 276A]
1) Zepelin Ahumada b El Coyote
may have actually happened after the main event. Ratead 7.
2) Akio Yoshihara b Antonio Ramírez
Ratead 6 ½
3) Gori Casanova TLDRAW Juan Diaz
15 mintue draw. Rated 7.
4) Jalisco González vs Chivo García
Rated 7
5) Rubén Juárez b Jorge Allende
Rated 6 ¾
6) Karloff Lagarde b Blue Demon
Rated 7 ¼
7) Black Shadow b El Espectro
Rated 7 ½
The last two matches follow up from last week’s tag match, and specifically set up title matches for the future. Lagarde gets a previously scheduled title match on June 30th in Arena Aficion (Demon wins by DQ.) The plan is for a title challenge in Mexico City on 07/26, and another title match will be announced for Arena Puebla to take place 07/30.
Those plans all go out the window, though. Blue Demon suffered a serious head injury on 07/01, said to have come while he was going for a rana. Demon was knocked out for three hours and found to have a skull fracture. He’s bedridden. We don’t have a lot of results from the rest of the year, but Demon doesn’t appear in them again until November.
The Sunday main event of Enrique Llanes, Lotario and Tarzan Lopez over Carlos Moreno Cavernario Galindo, and Ray Mendoza gets a rare “8” score.
EMLL (MON) 07/01/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 275A]
1) Pery Lopez b Guapo Rodríguez
2) Lorenzo Soto b Hércules Poblano
3) Antonio Ramírez b Ramsés
4) Canelo Segura b Orquídea
5) Huroki Sito & Manuel Robles b Humberto Garza & Jalisco González
Jalisco Gonzalez replaced Ruben Juarez (hurt in a match on Sunday)
I have this on a Monday, and I’m not sure why.
Murcielago Velaquez is said to be suspended for a week for a foul, which seems odd and harsh.
The Box y Lucha archive has nothing else for July, nothing for August, nothing for September and nothing for October. The next issues I have are in mid-November, so we’ll pick up then.
[Previous May 1957, Next is July 1957 (but there are no issues), Full index]
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