A very brief story on noroeste says Abismo Negro has passed away. LMDLL’s RFC is also reporting his death, which is enough to cause me to believe it (though there’s a small hope this may be a hoax.) Edit: RFC found another person who’d confirm it. That’s the end of the hope.
The complete noroeste story:
El luchador profesional, Abismo Negro, murió esta madrugada en el municipio de El Rosario al parecer ahogado en el río. Su cuerpo fue encontrado esta tarde. Al parecer el luchador iba con rumbo a la Ciudad de México cuando decidió bajarse en este municipio; las autoridades ya investigan el hecho.
Translated:
The professional wrestler, Abyss Black, died this morning in the town of El Rosario allegedly drowned in the river. His body was found this afternoon. Apparently the fighter was heading to Mexico City when he decided to stop in this town, the authorities are already investigating the incident.
The last time we heard about Abismo Negro, is when he didn’t make the show Friday night in Madero. This would’ve been Sunday morning. Abismo certainly had his personal issues take over his life the last few years, though we have no idea if this has anything to do with those.
Abismo Negro was one of only three remaining wrestlers in the company who were on the debut show in May of 1992. (Octagon and Jerrito Estrada are the others, and Pepe Casas and Tirantes were two of the referees on that show.) Abismo was debuting as Winners at that point, and is a rare wrestler who’s succeeded under two different gimmicks; it’ll may only now be publicly acknowledged Winners became Abismo.
The Abismo Negro gimmick is as identifiably a part of AAA as any. A lot of that is owed to Antonio Pena’s design, but a significant credit must go to man under the mask, who made the character larger than life. Abismo was a top rudo for AAA at many points during his run, so much so that he gained fan following (which caused at least one ill advised tecnico turn) and cross over work on other Televisa shows.
The mask of Abismo Negro is a symbol of AAA. It’s already scheduled to live on as part of the anime later this year, and the video game for next year. Abismo was scheduled to be a big part of the US Tour the next two weeks. I don’t know what they can do with that gimmick now – I think Black Abyss has to disappear for a while (and probably come back as something else), and I think no one can appear as Abismo Negro for a good long time, but I don’t what we’ll think about all this in two weeks. The Abismo Negro name will never go away thanks to those who worked to make it mean something, but I don’t think even the open minded AAA fans would accept anyone else under that mask maybe for years to come.
Edit: 907am – Noroeste has updated it’s story with details of Abismo’s death. In usual Mexican newspaper fashion, this article includes a picture of Abismo’s body, as they found it.
It sounds as though (for whatever reason), Abismo Negro had a panic attack on a bus, ordered the bus driver to stop near the river, sent a text message to his wife that he was lost in the mountain,and walked in. The theory is he got knocked out by a waterfall and drowned from there.
Let me see if I can get this straight: Abismo is believed to have had a panic attack, ordered the driver to stop (driver later reported the incident to the authorities, which caused the search for him), wandered off, text messages his wife that he was lost in the mountain, and was found in the river.
