Tag: Box Y Lucha

These issues are part of Box y Lucha’s Coleccion Diamante.

Puños 13 (October 9, 1956)

Puños is a monthly magazine similar to Clinch. The only real difference I can tell is Puños seems to have an issue date while Clinch just has the moment. (There’s also an “A-Z” magazine mentioned, but that hasn’t turned up digitally. They were putting out a lot of pages a month.)

The main story is an interview with Rolando Vera, covering the NWA Middleweight Championship mess. The commission invalidated Vera’s title win over el Santo, Santo refused to be given the belt, and Santo declared he’d only fight for it in a singles match with Vera – he’s not participating in a tournament. Rolando Vera says he appreciates Santo having his back on this one but also insists that any rematch for the title match should happen in front of the same fans in Monterrey who saw the now disputed title change. Vera wouldn’t get his way on that one.

Retired wrestler Firpo Segura is mentioned as working as a referee back at a June 12 Arena Coliseo show for a match between Dr. Castro and Chale Romero. He tells the magazine it was a one-time thing since it was a charity show for Bobby Corona.

Raul Romero, who’s been retired himself since 1951, is running gyms. He estimates it costs 100,000 pesos to run a gym for two years, so that’s what he’ll need to make.

There’s an argument between “La Momia de Guanajuato” and “Karis la Momia” over who has the rights to the mummy gimmick. Quite a few people ended up using the Karis la Momia character over the years, so perhaps it wasn’t settled. Karis La Momis works a lot of EMLL shows outside of Mexico City. I wonder if EMLL thought the gimmick wasn’t good enough for the big shows or the worker wasn’t good enough.

Box y Lucha 238A (October 12, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 10/05/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 237A, Box y Lucha 238A, Punos 13]
1) Memo Rubio b Eskimo Blancarte
may have actually be the post-main event match
2) Frankenstein b Kiko Torres
3) Chivo García DRAW Orquídea
4) Mario Tello b Chale Romero
5) Huracán Ramírez b El Verdugo
Verdugo ripped up Ramirez’s mask. Ramirez has won six straight singles matches since debuting.
6) Jalisco González b Enfermero [MEX WELTER, final]
7) Cavernario Galindo & Gladiador b Black Shadow & Blue Demon
Shadow tope accidentally took out Demon, setting up the rudo win

Title histories have listed other locations for that Gonalez/Enfermero match and not listed it as a tournament final. It’s understandable; the semifinals were two months prior. Enfermero had a left arm injury, which both delayed a final and is an excuse for getting upset in this final. Enfermero was also dropping down in weight to compete for welterweight.

This title win prompts a Jalisco Gonzalez bio. He started his career as El Caballero Enmascarado in 1945, when the promoter just needed a fill-in guy. He lost that mask to Oso Negro, and he’s been around as a midcard guy since then. He reads like a technically solid luchador with not a lot of personality.

Nothing notable on the Sunday show. Box y Lucha notes Santo defeated Black Shadow in straight falls in Guadalajara when Shadow suffered an injury in the second fall. Box y Lucha feels Black Shadow and not El Santo is the rightful NWA Middleweight contender anyway due to winning that tournament in September. There’s also a mention of Carnicero Butcher breaking one of his hands in a match in Guadalajara and the promoting eventually paying the medical bills.

El Gladiador is still complaining that he lost his mask on a bad call by the referee.

Box y Lucha 239A (October 19, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 10/12/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 238A, Box y Lucha 239A]
1) Juan Diaz b El Coyote
“super estrella” match actually held after the main event
2) Akio Yoshihara b Fantomas
3) Orquídea b Centella Inca
4) Joe Marín b Canelo Segura
5) Jalisco González b Jorge Allende
6) Henry Pilusso b Masahiko Kimura
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Cavernario Galindo & Gladiador

Nothing going on here, and even less on Sunday. This week’s big news is the Santo/Vera title rematch is set for next Friday. Box y Lucha’s writers are confident Santo will win – he won all the other matches except the last one in Monterrey. They survey wrestlers and they instead lean heavily towards Vera winning the big match.

Box y Lucha 240A (October 26, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 10/19/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 239A, Box y Lucha 240A]
1) Chico Veloz b Fantomas
superestrella – after the main event
2) Dr. Castro b Akio Yoshihara
3) Gorilita Flores b Mario Tello
4) El Enfermero DRAW El Caballero
debut of Caballero
5) El Gladiador b Black Shadow
Box y Lucha says this was a fast count. 6.75
6) Blue Demon b Cavernario Galindo
7.5 (of 10)
7) Rolando Vera b El Santo © [NWA MIDDLE]

There is now no doubt, Rolando Vera is the rightful NWA World Middleweight champion in the last Arena Mexico show of the year. Everything leading up to this title match – to clear up a title change that happened in Monterrey in August and was invalidated out by the Mexico City commission – remains messy and confusing. El Santo doesn’t consider himself defending champion and he’s not listed as the champion in EMLL’ s program. The ring announcer still does announce him as champion. The match itself also has some controversy. Neither man seems to come to the ring with the title belt. Santo has Vera locked in a half crab in fall three and feels a tap on his back twice. He believes that’s the referee calling the match over and let’s go, but it was actually Vera’s hand. Vera quickly locks on a suastica submission hold and Santo has no choice but to submit.

Rolando Vera’s finally given the belt he won two months ago post-match. He also reveals this match almost didn’t happen: Vera was in a car accident on Wednesday. He was hurt enough that EMLL wanted to postpone the match. Vera, perhaps having seen the commission trying to take away the belt for months, insisted on wrestling anyway.

EMLL seems to have made the best of whatever happened with that title situation. Vera is an odd pick going forward – he’s not a full time guy, and he’ll away from EMLL for large parts of his four year reign – but they kept the title on him when they had the chance to do so, and got some big crowds out of it.

Sunday’s Arena Mexico show has a controversy of a much milder sort: EMLL runs the first two rounds of a tag team tournament and says they’ll hold the final the following week. This is the first time EMLL’s tried it and Box y Lucha strongly dislikes the concept. CMLL still does this in 2023 and everyone still dislikes it. The idea seems to be to have a stronger second week with a built up main event, but I don’t see evidence (now or then) that it actually works.

Box y Lucha 241A (November 2nd, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 10/26/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 240A, Box y Lucha 241A]
1) Jaibo García vs El Coyote
not listed in the results
2) Kiko Torres b Eskimo Blancarte
3) Chivo García b Memo Rubio
4) El Caballero b Orquídea
5) Carlos Moreno b Manuel Robles
6) El Enfermero b Dorrel Dixon
7) Espectro & Santo b Blue Demon & Rolando Vera

The main event has the usual reversal from the week prior. Vera gets the suastica on Santo again, but Santo’s figured out an escape in the week since and ends up submitting Vera.

Box y Lucha seems to use “Espectro” and “Espectro de Ultratumba” interchangeably. Those would be two different wrestlers many decades from now. Espectro hasn’t’ been seen here for months and later explains he broke his right arm on a dive in Monterrey about three months prior.

El Gladiador & El Mongol win the delayed final of Sunday’s tournament.

Medico Asesino is long gone from EMLL, but Box y Lucha is keeping close tabs on his matches in Texas. Sugi Sito, similarly a Televicentro star, is hyped as coming back into EMLL in December. He and EMLL had issues, like Medico. Sito left to wrestle on the west coast, “the Siberia of Lucha Libre Mexicana.” He later went to Central America and the southern US.

The commission has suspended Jorge Allende for no-showing a card in Puebla on 10/27. They’re also floating a proposal that any national champion who loses three consecutive matches would be automatically stripped of their championship. It’s unclear if they mean singles matches or all matches, because the idea doesn’t really go anywhere.

A history column mentions Televicentro coming up with the relevos australiano name in this issue.

[Previous September 1956. Next November 1956. Full index]

These issues are part of Box y Lucha’s Coleccion Diamante.

Box y Lucha 233A (September 7, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 08/31/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 232A, Box y Lucha 233A]
1) Enrique Camarena b Kid Vanegas
2) Memo Rubio DRAW Carlos Segura
3) Chivo García b Kiko Torres
4) Canelo Segura b Akio Yoshihara
5) Huracán Ramírez b Giuliano
6) El Gladiador b Black Shadow [MEX MIDDLE, semifinal]
Box y Lucha claims this match went 90 minutes, which seems hard to believe. Said to be the match of the year
7) El Santo b Cavernario Galindo [MEX MIDDLE, semifinal]

Box y Lucha claims Gladiador/Shadow went ninety (90) minutes, which is tremendously hard to believe. Match 5 is the EMLL debut of Huracan Ramirez, who was most recently wrestling in Guadalajara and said to have been previously in Guatemala and El Salvador. He’s billed as not being actor David Silva – who had played the character in the same named movie in 1952 – but his 21-year-old stunt double. It is actually Daniel Garica, who’s closer to 30 years old. The magazine teases a younger brother of Huracan Ramriez is working prelims, but I don’t think any of the three brothers are at this point unless they’re doing it under unfamiliar names. Maybe it’s confusion with the unrelated Chivo Garcia?

Sunday’s show includes Tarzan Lopez and Joe Grant advancing to the final of the Mexican Light Heavyweight tournament.

Elsewhere, the magazine is fascinated by results from a show in Texas: all the matches were one fall! Also, Kimura is telling people he’s going to bring four wrestlers back with him to Japan. Kimura doesn’t seem to return to Japan as a professional wrestler, and maybe it’s just an idea to start a new promotion that never ends up taking.

Box y Lucha 234A (Septmeber 14, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 09/07/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 233A, Box y Lucha 234A]
1) Akio Yoshihara b Chico Veloz
2) Huracán Ramírez DQ Gorilita Flores
3) Bobby Bonales TLDRAW Ray Mendoza
4) Masahiko Kimura b Steiko Watanabe [judo]
5) Tarzán López b Joe Grant [MEX LH, final]
Tarzan took ⅓.
6) Medico Asesino b Lotario [MEX HEAVY, final]
Medico took ⅔ to win

Medico Asesino is the biggest star of the heavyweights, but he’s also not a full timer in EMLL. He’s not long for this promotion. Tarzan Lopez is also closer to the end of his time in on top in EMLL than the beginning, though he’ll at least be around for a few more years to come.

Steiko Watanabe starts to take over here as Kimura’s traveling partner. They have a judo exhibition, which again must’ve looked different than what fans (and writers) were used to. Clinch 227 calls it a bore.

Box y Lucha 235A (September 21, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 09/14/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box Y Lucha, Box y Lucha 1456, Box y Lucha 234A, Box y Lucha 235A]
1) Frankenstein b Centella Inca
2) Dr. Castro DRAW Moloch
3) Giuliano b Canelo Segura
4) Joe Grant b Bobby Bonales
5) Black Shadow b Cavernario Galindo
6) Medico Asesino b Masahiko Kimura
7) El Santo b Gladiador [MEX MIDDLE, final]

Santo takes falls 2/3 to claim this vacant title. Gladiador, frustrated, immediately challenges Santo for a mask match. The magazine believes Gladiador was outclassed in the tournament final and stands little chance against Santo in a mask match.

Santo winning the title is odd given the other title situation. It’s two conflicting stories: Santo wouldn’t be normally allowed to be a national champion if he’s considered a NWA champion, so whomever booked this tournament seems to have signed off on the title change.

Box y Lucha notes this show had a bad turnout, unusual for an El Santo main event.

There’s also an interview with Medico Asesino, bragging about the fancy cars he owns thanks to his winnings and talking about how he’s manged by former luchador Black Guzman. El Santo interrupts, and tells Medico Asesino is doing so much better as a masked man than when he was wrestling unmasked here years ago. It doesn’t seem like that’s a fact Medico Asesino wanted out. Asesino does reveal he’s now suspended from EMLL for the next three months, though it’s not clear why. I haven’t any more Medico Asesino in EMLL before he passes away in 1960, so this may be his last match with the promotion. His name still will come up in magazines often in the next few years.

September 16th, 1956 – Independence Day – is the first ever day where EMLL ran Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo on the same day. (They didn’t have both arenas until then.) Bobby Bonales & Gladiador defeat Cavernario Galindo & the returning Verdugo in Coliseo, while Dorrel Dixon and Joe Grant win a one night tag team tournament in Arena Mexico. Grant & Dixon are said to have earned 10,000 pesos for winning the tournament. Box y Lucha notes a disappointing turnout led to a gate of 16,000, which meant EMLL lost money running the shows if the prize amount is accurate.

Box y Lucha notes that Jorge Allende and Ray Mendoza nearly got suspended for brawling into the crowd; the ring announcer Maximiliano Aguilar is credited for calming the situation.

Box y Lucha 236A (September 28, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 09/21/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 1456, Box y Lucha 236A, Clinch 227, DJ Spectro, El Hijo del Santo, Punos 13]
***EMLL 22nd Aniversario***
1) Chivo García DRAW Kiko Torres
2) Orquídea DQ Adolfo Bonales
Box y lucha has this as a DQ, Clinch 227 lists as a draw
3) Lotario b Miguel King
4) Huracán Ramírez b Carlos Segura
Canelo Segura replaced Jorge Allende
5) Henry Pilusso b Ray Mendoza
6) Black Shadow & Tarzán López b Cavernario & Mongol
7) El Santo b El Gladiador [mask]
35 minute match. Santo takes fall 1/3. Santo submits Gladiador to win, though Gladiador argues he didn’t give up and the match is resumed. Santo again submits Gladiador to a double armbar and there was no doubt that time. Gladiador is Luis Ramirez Romero.

Gladiador’s been built up with big wins over 1955 and 1956, but the Aniversrio main event really gets set up with just one week build.

I’m guessing Torres/Garcia actually took place after the main event and that’s why there’s no results. This is a sellout, though what a sell out means depending on the source. Box y Lucha 1456’s history piece calls it “20,000” fans. Box y Lucha 236A’s report the week of the show says 15,000. That report also guesses at payouts, based on the gates and what they must know about percentages:

• King/Loatario 460 pesos
• Pilusso/Mendoza 675
• Tarzan/Shadow/Caverario/Mongol 1,600 pesos
• Santo/Gladiador could not be making more than 2000

Box y Lucha 237A (October 5th, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 09/28/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 236A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Bobby Rolando b Carlos Segura
2) Centella Inca b Chico Veloz
3) Pepe Mendieta b Giuliano
4) Black Shadow b El Santo [quarterfinal]
an opening round tournament match! Rated 7 ¾
5) Gladiador b Dorrel Dixon [quarterfinal]
6) Cavernario Galindo b Tarzán López [quarterfinal]
7) Bobby Bonales b Blue Demon [quarterfinal]
8) Black Shadow DQ Gladiador [semifinal]
Gladiador fouled Shadow by accident. Rated 7 ¼
9) Cavernario Galindo b Bobby Bonales [semifinal]
10) Black Shadow b Cavernario Galindo [final]
Shadow wowed with his technique. Rated 7 ¼

This is previewed in 236 as a #1 contenders tournament to the NWA Middleweight Championship. The Mexico City commission puts it foot down, declaring they recognize Santo as champion, he can’t be in a #1 contenders tournament for his own title, and so the commission is out. The commission tries to fix the situation by recognizing Santo as the rightful champion, but Santo refuses that. He believes titles are meant to be won or lost in the ring and he lost the title, simple as that. Santo also makes it clear he doesn’t want to be in another title tournament to decide a new champion – he’s tired from the recent tournaments – and he’ll either face Vera in a decision match for the vacant title or he’ll have no part in it.

Black Shadow wins what’s was supposed to be a title show. Box y Lucha nonetheless brings him up as rightful contender for a time to come.

In other championship news, Mexican National Women’s Champion Rosa Williams says she’ll be retiring soon to marry luchador Tony Lopez and become a housewife. Times are different, but it’s evident things are tough for luchadoras right now; there’s no talk about lifting the ban in women’s wrestling in Mexico City, so anyone left is stuck traveling long distances and working on small shows

Clinch 227 – October 1956

Box y Lucha has two monthly magazines: CLINCH and PUÑOS. It would make sense for one to be wrestling and one to be boxing. They’re the usual half boxing, half lucha libre mix instead. They cover the previous month’s notes.

Highlights include

• a editorial complaining about kids under 15 being banned from attending lucha libre
• an interview with Salvador Lutteroth, which seems re-printed from the year prior. Some details here: the key office people are Lutteroth Jr., Manuel Flores (who seems to be the accountant), Antonio Andere (publicity) and Chucho Lomeli (programmer.)
• A look back at Medico Asesino’s 1952
• September 1952 rankings:
  • El Santo is wrestler of the month, most popular, biggest villain and half of the best team with Medicno Asesino
  • Top 10 best: Rolando Vera, Santo, Gori Guerrero, Rito Romero, Blue Demon, Chico Casasola, Black Shadow, Tarzan Lopez, and El Enfermero
• An article with wrestlers talking about the lowest and highest pays they’ve got. Black Shadow says he got 7,000 pesos for his mask match and about the same for a NWA MIDDLE challenge. Gladiador mentions he got 4,000 pesos for his match on the Arena Mexico opening show.

One bio that caught eye was a long profile of Rosa (Rosita) Williams, the current national woman’s champion. The headline feels very 50s: “Rosa Williams, weaker sex? Yes, but she’s also a champion!” There’s more of a point to it. Young Rosa saw a photo of a woman covered in blood in a newspaper, noticed it said “This is the weaker sex?” and asked her father about it. He explained it was a luchadora. She forgot it about it, but later got became a boxer when a friend was invited here to her own match. Williams says she was an undefeated boxer until the day her boxing match and toured a bit, eventually fighting in the semimain of a show main evented by a Pantera Surina match. (This has to be a previous Pantera Surina luchadora; the famous Pantera Surena was born the same year this magazine was published.) Williams had never seen lucha libre before, and talked to luchador Octavio Gaona Jr. at the show to understand what was happening. She fell in love with it, starting training, and gave up boxing completely.

Williams’ first match was a mixed tag in Plaza el Progreso Guadalajara, teaming with Mario Prado against Golden Terror and the same Pantera Surina. She was very nervous, but her partner helped her get through it and they won the match. Her hardest match was in Torreon’s Palacio de los Deportes, another mixed tag with Raul Torres against Rudy Galindo and Pantera Surina again. Galindo was not yet a Cavernario but fought like one; Williams talks about all the hard shots she took in the match, which left her crying in the corner after the she tagged out. She had a headache for two weeks, and ended up shaving her head to reduce the pain. Williams wrestled around Mexico as a tecnico for five years, got tired of the beatings, and retired – to become a bull fighter instead. That didn’t work out (she didn’t have the right size for it) and she ended up returning to lucha as a ruda instead. She seems to be having much more fun in that style, and won the title as a ruda.

Williams says she won the women’s championship from Irma Gonzalez in El Toreo Cuatro Caminos (!) in February 1955. That’s a pretty big building for a women’s title match and suggests Mexico State didn’t ban women’s wrestling immediately after Mexico City did. Gonzalez is also said to be the first champion, which is different than what we have on the wiki right now. (There, Dama Enmascarada is the first champion; Williams actually says Enmascarada’s never had a chance but would make a good champion.) Williams says she’s since defended against Irma Gonzalez in Cuernavaca and Acapulco, with another match coming in Guadalajara.

Williams plans on getting married to fellow wrestler Tony Lopez in February or March of 1957 and retiring then. “Like any other woman, I want a home, a spouse, and a couple of children.” She cautioned one of her sisters not to train wrestling like Rosa. Her sister isn’t an athlete and won’t want to take the beating. William’s parents also have mixed feelings about this career: her mother hates seeing her get beat up, and her father wish he had never let her see the bloody woman photo, thinking she might have never taken this path. That bloody woman turns out to be Mildred Burke, and Williams is very proud to be the champion and The Best just like Burke was. She wants to retire as champion.

(The story doesn’t end the way Rosa Williams plans here; she’s back wrestling and champion again in 1959.)

The other profile is with referee Gonzalo Avendano. The referee gig is the less important job: he’s the original EMLL trainer, meeting Salvador Lutteroth in 1933 and training the first generation of Mexican born wrestlers. Avenando is military vet and a world traveler. He learned greco-roman wrestling and jiu jitsu in 1908 while attending military college. He says he reached the sixth grade of jiu jitsu and was the only one in America to do so. He also became friends with US wrestling pioneer William Muldon, and learned wrestling from him. Avendano served in World War I, earning the rank of Coronel, then ended up wrestling in Hollywood as “Maravilla Enmascarada” for four matches. He was invited back to Mexico by the governments to teach wrestling and lucha libre in 1931, and met Lutteroth a few years later.

Others lucha libre historians have pointed to Avenando’s jiu jitsu background as a reason for the rolling bumps and other peculiarities of Mexican wrestling style. He definitely seems to have great historical importance for someone we know little about.

[Previous August 1956. Next October 1956. Full index]

I’ve breezed past the weird situation with the national champions at this point in time. According to the history we have right now.

• Lightweight: vacant since 1955?
• Welterweight: vacant since 1954?
• Middleweight: vacant since 1949
• Light Heavyweight: vacant since 1951?
• Heavyweight: vacant since 1955?

They’re all vacant, most for quite some time. I’m reading these a bit out of order in real-time. The summer 1955 issues include a bit where Black Shadow wants and plans to give up his long undefended lightweight title. It doesn’t happen, and the implication is he was told he has to lose in the ring. The light heavyweight and heavyweight are mentioned as being similarly forgotten. The unique aspect of the Mexican National titles is the Mexico City Commission controls them, and they’re especially strict and involved around the time. I guess that the commission just refused to recognize wrestlers vacating their titles for years, and somewhere in the issues we’re missing, they were finally convinced otherwise. The Box y Lucha ones I have picked up with title tournaments for all these championships in progress or starting soon. There’s an acknowledgment there’s a lot of them happening at once, but no explanation of why.

Box y Lucha 230A (August 17, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 08/03/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Canelo Segura b ?? [MEX WELTER, quarterfinal]
2) Joe Marín b ?? [MEX WELTER, quarterfinal]
3) Jalisco González b Black Killer [MEX WELTER, quarterfinal]
4) Enfermero b Orquídea [MEX WELTER, quarterfinal]

EMLL (SUN) 08/05/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 230A]
1) Miguel King b ? [MEX HEAVY, quarterfinal]
2) Lotario b Carlos Moreno [MEX HEAVY, quarterfinal]
3) Medico Asesino b Joaquin Murrieta [MEX HEAVY, quarterfinal]
4) Pepe Mendieta b ? [MEX HEAVY, quarterfinal]

I don’t have magazines covering the first half of the month. I’m more figuring out what matches must’ve occurred here based on other magazines’ stories. I’m missing a few more matches, which may include a more conventional (and bigger name) main event.

EMLL (FRI) 08/10/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 230A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Jalisco González b Canelo Segura [MEX WELTER, semifinal]
Rated 7 ½
2) Enfermero b Joe Marín [MEX WELTER, semifinal]
mentioned in a photo caption. Rated 7 ½
3) Espectro & Santo b Blue Demon & Dorrel Dixon
Santo & Espectro were praised as a team. Dixon lost but talks about getting a title match against Santo in September later in the magazine. Rated 7 ½

Another set of results patching together mentions in a few different magazines. Gonzalez and Enfermero will decide the title, though not on the next Friday night show. Box y Lucha eventually puts together that Enfermero got hurt in this match, and the final was delayed rather than changed. Santo and Espectro are a veteran/rookie team, and Espectro is quickly rising to the main event level.

A notes column mentions Santo is working Monterrey on Sundays. That’s about a week from being very important.

EMLL (SUN) 08/12/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 230A]
1) Bobby Rolando b Ali Bey
2) Adolfo Bonales b Kiko Torres
3) Lotario b Miguel King [semifinal, MEX HEAVY]
Lotario got a big head cut and was out for a short amount of time. 
4) Medico Asesino b Pepe Mendieta [semifinal, MEX HEAVY]
Straight falls. 
5) Jorge Allende & Ray Mendoza b Joe Grant & Tarzán López [super libre]
Rated 7

Just noting the progress of the heavyweight tournament.

Box y Lucha 231A (August 24, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 08/17/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 230A, Box y Lucha 231A]
1) Troglodita Flores b Chico Hernández
2) Kiko Torres b Centella Inca
3) Adolfo Bonales DRAW Murciélago Velazquez
4) Tony Barbetta b Dr. Castro
5) Umeyiri Kiyomigawa b Miguel King
6) Carlos Moreno b Masahiko Kimura
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon DQ Cavernario Galindo & Ray Mendoza
Blue Demon replaced Lotario (out of action after getting a head cut the previous Sunday.) Box y Lucha notes Blue Demon is an upgrade. Tecnicos took 2 (weird DQ) and 3, with Black Shadow landing a (reverse) tope that wows everyone. Rated 7 ½

A lot is going in Box y Lucha 231. The visible thing on the lineup is the new names Kiyomigawa and Kimura. Masahiko Kimura is considered one of the best judo practitioners, maybe the best. I don’t know much of his history, but he appears to have gotten into wrestling in the early 50s, then left Japan after a match with Rikidozan that Kimura claims broke down into a shoot. Kiyomigawa is his traveling partner here, though there’s a lot less available for him.  Kimura’s style, in particular, looks alien to the Box y Lucha recap, they have no idea what to make of it. Kimura is around until early next year.

(Sunday has a one night tag team tournament won by Black Killer & Gladiador over Blue Demon and Tarzan Lopez.)

The big news of the issue is taking place in Monterrey

EMLL (SUN) 08/19/1956 Arena Coliseo Monterrey [Box y Lucha 231A, SuperLuchas]
Attendance: 6000
1) Jaibo García b Mario Texas
2) Johnny Rodríguez b El Fugitivo
3) Karloff Lagarde b Sordomudo Rodríguez
4) Mongol & Samar Selem b Emilio Charles & Huracán Ramírez
5) Rolando Vera b El Santo © [NWA MIDDLE]

Vera defeats Santo cleanly to become the new world middleweight champion. Box y Lucha’s recap says Santo got frustrated enough in the third fall to throw punches, Vera grabbed an arm and locked Santo in la reinera, and Santo gave. Vera is respected for his technical ability, but this would be the only time he won a world title.

This title change causes an uproar in Box y Lucha. The Mexico City commission protests the decision, saying Vera shouldn’t have gotten a third shot – Santo has already beaten him in Arena Mexico and Arena Puebla over the last two months. The commission argues those defenses made Santo too tired, and it was unfair for him to defend. One of the Box y Lucha agrees with the criticisms. The magazine had been setting up Dorrel Dixon as Santo’s next challenger, and instead has to pivot to a Dixon interview where he says he wants to challenge no matter who has the belt.

Box y Lucha clearly indicates when they think a person has a belt they don’t deserve. That’s not what happened with this title win; the magazine heaps praise on Vera’s abilities whenever they get the chance, and will continue to as he holds the title. Instead, there’s a steady message that Santo’s loss wasn’t planned, or not everyone who normally would be on that sort of plan was told.

Box y Lucha 232A (August 31, 1956)

EMLL (FRI) 08/24/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 231A, Box y Lucha 232A]
1) Eskimo Blancarte b Sordomudo Quiroz
2) Centella Inca b Fantomas
3) Mario Tello DRAW Frankenstein
4) Gladiador b Gorilla Flores [MEX MIDDLE, quarterfinal]
5) El Santo b Blue Demon [MEX MIDDLE, quarterfinal]
Rated 7 ½
6) Black Shadow b Bobby Bonales [MEX MIDDLE, quarterfinal]
Rated 7 ¾
7) Cavernario Galindo b Espectrito I [MEX MIDDLE, quarterfinal]

The middleweight tournament becomes the third ongoing one. The matches were set by battle royal, so Santo/Demon just happened to take place with no forewarning.

El Santo being in this national middleweight tournament makes no sense if he was thought to still be the world middleweight champion at this point. It’s not impossible, stuff like that does happen from time to time.

Still, the talk is more of that other middleweight title. Box y Lucha seems to imply Santo lost a title he definitely wasn’t supposed to, and may have gotten some incentive to do so. Another weird factor is that much of EMLL’s owning family was probably in Monterrey for that title match. Enrique Lutteroth, credited with designing and running the building, got married in Monterrey that same weekend. It was a big ceremony with lots of important names, including El Santo himself.

EMLL (SUN) 08/26/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 231A, Box y Lucha 232A]
1) Joe Grant b Ray Mendoza [MEX LH, quarterfinal]
2) Tarzán López b Adolfo Bonales [MEX LH, quarterfinal]
said to be a great match even though it went two falls. Rated 7 ¼
3) Pepe Mendieta b Chivo García [MEX LH, quarterfinal]
4) Mongol b Moloch [MEX LH, quarterfinal]
5) Henry Pilusso & Lotario b Masahiko Kimura & Umeyiri Kiyomigara
a hard win

Sunday has the fourth national tournament, this one for the vacant light heavyweight title. The fifth and final tournament will kick off in September. The last Friday of the month (08/31) falls into notes that are mostly September, so I’ll save the rest of this for then.

[Previous July 1956. Next September 1956. Full index]

Some notes since the last one of these I’ve done

• There’s now an index of these recaps to make it easier to go through them.
• I asked Box y Lucha about the mystery “A” in these issue numbers. They didn’t know for sure, but their best guess was to keep the numbering distinct from other magazines in the Box y Lucha family.
• I also asked Box y Lucha about these releases and if some of the skipped numbers might pop up later. It sounds likely no – issues have gone missing or damaged as ownership of the magazine has changed over many years, and so some just appear to be lost to time.

It’s better to have some issues rather than none, but there will be some gaps here. There are no issues currently from June or July to go through. A later 1956 year in review article does mention two shows in June.

• a card on the 8th where El Enfermero defeated Blue Demon in the main event
• a card on the 22nd where Demon successfully defended the NWA Welterweight Championship over Enfermero, and Santo did the same with Rolando Vera and the NWA Middleweight championship. That’s the first piece in a longer story.

Box y Lucha hasn’t released any July 1956 issues. However, in a bundle of 1955 issues, they also released the August 1956 Clinch 225. Clinch was a monthly version of the magazine and the 1956 issues happen to include a full recap of every Mexico City EMLL match that took place the prior month. There’s less detail to these and it’s missing the final Sunday of the month, but it’s much better than the nothing I thought we had.

EMLL (FRI) 07/06/1956 Arena Coliseo [CLINCH 225]
1) El Pirata b Rudy García
2) Juan Diaz TLDRAW Seki Moto
15 minutes
3) Frankenstein b Chico Veloz
4) Mario Tello b Oso Negro
5) Jorge Allende b Pepe Mendieta
6) El Enfermero b Bobby Bonales
7) Dorrel Dixon, Joe Marín, Rolando Vera b Carlos Moreno, El Mongol, Gorilita Flores

“Seki Moto” is a newer face who’s not around long. Clinch 225 happens to have a bio. It’s probably actually “Sekimoto” as a last name, but a real name isn’t given (and I’m not sure who it would be.) He was born in Okinawa on February 5, 1931 and trained in judo and jit-jitsu. He was a part of Jack O’Brien’s “Promoter Unidos Mexicanos” in a tour of Guatemala, then later traveled to El Salvador and eventually Mexico. He wrestled in Mexico, where he suffered a spine injury and was sidelined for 2.5 months in a match with Abel Krim. He returned in Guadalajara and defeated Huracan Ramirez there. Guadalajara promoter Elias Simon recommended him to people in Mexico City.

Carlos Moreno gets a less positive article in Clinch, via a letter published from the Aguascalientes Box y Lucha Libre commission. In the previous issue, Carlos Moreno apparently said he was wrongly jailed after a crowd brawl. The commission sent in a letter saying Moreno was out of control and rightly banned for wrestling in the state for a year.

EMLL (FRI) 07/13/1956 Arena Coliseo [CLINCH 225]
1) Kid Vanegas b Carnicero Grimaldo
2) Beau Brummel b Bobby Rolando
3) Orquídea DRAW Frankenstein
4) Mario Tello b Manuel Robles
5) Giuliano b Chale Romero
6) Rolando Vera b Jorge Allende
7) Dorrel Dixon & Joe Grant b Enfermero & Medico Asesino

Dixon stays winning in the main event. Match 5 is  the debut of Piero Giuliano (or Giullano), who would be in and out the rest of the 50s.

The magazine also included a Jorge Allende profile. He trained under Pablo Romero, then got sent to Giraldo Hierro in Torreon to debut. He gave his real name as Jorge Allende Guerrero, so they announced him as Gori Guerrero’s nephew. He debuted in (Old) Arena Mexico on June 18, 1950 in a battle royal. (Text actually says July, but this is June based on the rest of the data.) He was third out, wrestled Oso Negro, and went to a half hour draw. He went on a winning streak, then ended up facing Gori Guerrero after a another battle royal. Guerrero was said to be not happy about having a fake nephew. The match lasted one fall, when Guerrero smashed Allende into an armrest on the outside and Allende was unable to continue. Allende took a high profile loss to Blue Demon and left the territory for four years. His 1954 run went better, though he eventually lost his hair to Demon.

EMLL (FRI) 07/20/1956 Arena Coliseo [CLINCH 225]
1) Guapo Rodríguez b Mar Allah
2) Centella Inca b Memo Rubio
3) Canelo Segura b Orquídea
4) Black Killer DQ Mario Teelo
5) Giullano b Gorilita Flores
6) El Santo & Medico Asesino b Dorrel Dixon & Joe Grant

Santo’s back, so the main event result goes back in his favor. A notes column mentions he’s reached 14 years of wrestling this month, and that he did wrestle unmasked before being El Santo.

The bigger show is on Sunday:

EMLL (SAT) 07/21/1956 Arena Puebla [Clinch 225, Lucha Libre 106]
1) Kiko Torres vs Frankenstein
2) Pepe Mendieta vs El Espectro
3) El Enfermero & Medico Asesino vs Mongol & Ray Mendoza
4) El Santo © b Rolando Vera [NWA MIDDLE]
Santo’s 6th defense, said to be the first Mexican to reach that mark with a world title

This is the 3rd Anniversary show for Arena Puebla, which would have CMLL shows on Saturdays at this point. Santo retains over Vera a second time in a high profile match. (Some of the other six defenses happened during a tour of western Mexico; Box y Lucha briefly alludes to them but has no dates.)

EMLL (FRI) 07/27/1956 Arena Coliseo [CLINCH 225]
1) Wama b Mar Allah
2) Chico Veloz b Eskimo Blancarte
3) Tony Barbetta b Kiko Torres
4) Black Killer DRAW Jalisco González
5) Espectro b Joe Marín
6) Giullano b Mongol
Mongol first loss (as a singles?)
7) El Santo & Medico Asesino b Joe Grant & Rolando Vera

Santo again defeats Vera.

Match 5 is the Arena Coliseo debut of El Espectro, which would become one of the most enduring gimmicks (and most past down) gimmicks in EMLL history. Both Espectro and the less memorable Guapo Rodriguez are profiled as newcomers in Clinch.

Clinch also includes a rankings:

Top 10 wrestlers of the month

1. El Santo (also most popular)
2. Gori Guerrero
3. Blue Demon
4. Rito Romero
5. Rolando Vera
6. El Enfemero
7. Black Shadow
8. Medico Aseisno
9. Cavernario Galindo
10. Tarzan Lopez

Santo & Medico Asesino is the top team. (Santo & Enfermero is the 2nd team.) Polo Torres, Joe Grant and Blue Demon are the best trios. A list of champions and top contenders notes both the Mexican Light Heavyweight and Welterweight championships are vacant.

Other features include a look back at the 1944 Gorila Ramos/Tarzan Lopez match for both the NWA MIDDLE and MEX LH title. Lopez was the middleweight championship, demanded the match at his weight, and won both titles. Elsewhere in history pieces focusing on past Augusts, there’s info on heavyweight and lightweight title changes in past years.

One last article is on referee (and booker) Chucho Lomelin, who scared everyone by puking blood on June 29th. It’s said to have been caused by an ulcer. He was taken to the hospital and got gravely illy on July 13th. He’s doing better now; the title says he beat “La Parka” in straight falls. He thanks for Salvador Lutteroth for the support.

[Previous May 1956; there is no June post. Next August 1956]

WordPress missed posting this one, so it’s going up out of order.

Box y Lucha is selling these magazines here and here.

There’s a left over Sunday result from 211A:

EMLL (SUN) 04/01/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 210A, Box y Lucha 211A]
1) Carnicero Grimaldo vs Bruno Lopez
2) Akio Yoshihara vs Red Man
3) Dr. Castro b El Bulldog
4) Joe Marín DQ Chale Romero
straight falls, DQs in both.
5) Black Shadow & Blue Demon DRAW Bobby Bonales & Gladiador
double pin with Shadow and Bonales.

Double pin finishes don’t come up often.

212A has the first Friday of April

EMLL (FRI) 04/06/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 211A]
1) Johnny Black vs El Gavilán
not listed in the results
2) Rogelio De La Paz b Carlos Segura
3) Chico Veloz b Dientes Hernández
4) Eduardo Bonada DRAW Moloch
5) Black Killer b Orquídea
Orquidea replaecd Fernando Oses
6) Dorrel Dixon b Joe Marín
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Chale Romero & El Mongol
lots of topes to knock down the bigger man

Shadow & Demon remain the top tecnico team.

Nothing too notable on the Sunday show.

213A gets more interesting

EMLL (FRI) 04/13/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 212A, Box y Lucha 213A]
1) Taro Hito b Kid Vanegas
2) Sordomudo Quiroz b Rogelio De La Paz
3) Gorila Macías III DRAW Joaquin Murrieta
4) Oso Negro b Sordomudo Rodríguez
5) Joe Marín DQ El Mongol
6) Halcón Quintana b Frank Butcher
7) Rolando Vera b El Santo

Rolando Vera and Frank Butcher are notable names from that Televicentro rival promotion. Vera appeared in EMLL prior to that group starting, Butcher is making his debut. Vera is a tecnico through and through, impressing Box y Lucha not just with the win over El Santo but with his in-ring ability. Vera uses la reinera – set to be another Gory Guerrero invention – to win the first fall, and a cangrejo to submit Santo again in the third.

Box y Lucha immediately attempts to build up a NWA Middleweight Championship match, but Vera’s not interested. He declares he’s a light heavyweight and not a middleweight. The interview points out Vera is the current Occidente Middleweight Champion, and Vera says he values that title and not the NWA one. We think of those titles as Arena Coliseo Guadalajara in-house belts now, but they were originally Elias Simon’s championships and defended in a loop around western Mexico. Vera’s essentially saying he puts more weight on the rival promoter’s belts. Left unsaid is Vera has actually challenged and lost to Santo twice for that title in other locations. There’s more with those two coming.

EMLL (SUN) 04/15/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 212A, Box y Lucha 213A]
1) Carlos Segura b El Corzo
2) Chico Veloz b Red Man
3) Dr. Castro DQ Murciélago Velazquez
straight falls (one of them by DQ)
4) Chico Casasola & El Enfermero b Black Killer & Bobby Bonales
5) El Gladiador b Black Shadow
a savage battle

EMLL is getting Gladiador ready for bigger things, but it’s also maybe punishment for Black Shadow. He’s reportedly suspended two months by EMLL for no-showing a match on 04/12 in Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas. Referee Eddie Palau is also suspended two weeks for trying to keep it quiet.

214A has Demon getting a new tag partner

EMLL (FRI) 04/20/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 213A, Box y Lucha 214A]
1) Mar Allah b Johnny Black
appears to have actually taken place after the main event
2) Red Man b Juan Diaz
3) Sordomudo Rodríguez b Chico Veloz
4) El Califa b Dr. Castro
5) Black Killer b Canelo Segura
6) Pepe Mendieta b Chico Casasola
Mendieta took ⅓, losing the second by DQ.
7) Blue Demon & Rolando Vera b Bobby Bonales & El Gladiador

Vera again looks super.

214A is published right before Arena Mexico opens. There’s a feature strongly praising Salvador Lutteroth, saying the promotion is as valuable as any of the wrestlers and the new building is proof of that. Capacity is listed as “25,000”, higher than any other estimate I’ve ever heard.

EMLL (FRI) 04/27/1956 Arena México [Box y Lucha 215A, CMLL, Lucha Libre 148]
1) Erick Bouloff b Carlos Segura
2) Canelo Segura b Dr. Castro
3) Black Killer b Manuel Robles
4) Joe Marín b El Califa
said to be best match on the show
5) Bobby Bonales b Gorilla Flores
6) El Gladiador b El Enfermero
7) El Santo & Medico Asesino b Blue Demon & Rolando Vera
Medico Aseisno debut in Arena Mexico. He had been a Televicentro star who wrestled independently and internationally following the demise of that group. (He wouldn’t be around long; those other places pay better, but Box y Lucha notices he’s got a big size advantage on his opponents.) Santo & Asesino took 2/3.

1930s/40s stars Firpo Segura, Tarzan Lopez and Dientes Hernandez make special appearances as part of the inauguration. Segura smashes a champagne bottle on the side of a ringpost as one might do for a new boat. EMLL has three ring announcers for the show Picoro, Maximiliano Aguilar and Alfredo Adam (who normally just did boxing.) Box y Lucha insists the attendance is 25,000 people and says EMLL broke the gate record with “over 100,000 pesos.” The Shadow/Santo mask match had that record at around 87,000 pesos.

Medico Asesino is clearly the biggest star from the Televicentro days, and seeing him team with El Santo is a gigantic deal. He’s also a heavyweight in a promotion full of smaller guys and stands out. Box y Lucha praises him in peculiar fashion: Medico knows about four moves but he’s so strong that he doesn’t really need to know more because he’s so big.

Manuel Robles eventually becomes EMLL’s Arena Puebla promoter, and his son now has the role.

The opener here again took place after the Santo/Asesino match, but you wouldn’t call it the main event. Bouloff goes back to at least 1937 and barely wrestles after this; he’s one last link to the earliest days of a promotion that’s grown greatly in it’s first 23 years. Carlos Segura is the son of Firpo Segura, who is seen in the (mostly empty) stands watching his son wrestle an opponent he wrestled long ago. Box y Lucha says Carlos is a long way from being Firpo.

In other news, that Black Shadow’s suspension will likely be lifted. EMLL received 50 letters from fans protesting the suspension. (Box y Lucha is always a big Black Shadow supporter.) While on hiatius, Shadow is rehabbing injuries and working on new moves. A new tope called “a ciegas” gets attention. It’s described like a reverse tope, and Black Shadow does start doing those after his return.

That’s it for April.