Box y Lucha added a new group of old issues this past week. I’ve been meaning to get back to recapping these, though I’m starting with a bigger challenge than usual. Box y Lucha was releasing these pretty close to in sequence, and this time it turned out to be twelve issues spread over five years. I don’t expect to have a lot to say about each issue, this is more “things I found interesting” more than a complete summary, so these standalone posts may be short.
Box y Lucha 609, from June 26, 1964, has El Santo and Huracan Ramirez on the cover. It’s a generic cover, neither are doing much this week. Most of the headlines are boxing-related, and I skip over that half of the magazine.
The big EMLL recap is of the June 19, 1964 show. Unmasked rudos Karloff Lagrade, Rene Guajardo and Benny Galant defeat masked heroes “The Blue Demon”, Reyo de Jalisco and Huracan Ramirez, taking falls one and three. Galant, who is the NWA Middleweight Champion at this point, submits Demon for the win. Dorrel Dixon defeats Ray Mendoza in the semi-main. Felipe Ham Lee and El Gladiador have a bloody singles match earlier on the show.
Galant had beaten Santo to become #1 contender and beat Rayo to win the title in May. Jalisco would finally defeat Galant for the title at that year’s Aniversario. Ramirez is coming off a win over Espanto III in a mask match the week prior. Getting Rayo and Huracan going seems like a big EMLL focus in 1964, and Galant has his biggest run as opposition.
The Box y lucha issue also includes previews of the June 26th show and previews lineups for that Sunday; it’s more detail than usual around this time.
Also in this issue
- A Cavernario Galindo bio. A 1954 singles match with Gori Guerrero is said to be one of the savegist matches in history. He’s currently living in the US after being moved down in EMLL bookings.
- a profile of Raul Reyes and protege Tony Reyna.
- an interview with Conde Dracula, who praises the wrestlers union for helping him recover from being partially paralyzed in a match. A notes column mentions a Puebla SNL event that raised 12,588 pesos, and Pepe Casas wrestled on the show even though he was sick.
- also bios of Dandy Rodriguez (teased as coming to EMLL, doesn’t arrive), Raul “Bufalo” Reyes, Rudy Palma, Ben Ali Pasha (went on a 17 week winning streak with brother Benny in Pachuca)
- some notes from Ciudad Juarez (Dragon Verde I leaving to the US, Espectro II doing well, Gorila Ramos as promoter, Ray Valadez and El Olimpico wrestling in Tennessee as “Medicos Misteriosos”)