Tag: Box Y Lucha

Box y Lucha is selling these magazines here.

Picking up with issue 207A. I’m not really sure why these issue numbers have A.

EMLL (FRI) 03/02/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 206A, Box y Lucha 207A]
1) Ángel Negro b Chamaco Vega
2) Jalisco González TLDRAW José Macias
30 minute draw
3) Daniel Aldana b Ali Bey
4) Halcón Negro b Black Killer [quarterfinal]
5) Joe Grant b Ray Mendoza [quarterfinal]
6) El Gladiador b Gorilla Flores [quarterfinal]
7) Blue Demon b Fernando Oses [quarterfinal]
8) Halcón Negro b Joe Grant [semifinal]
9) El Gladiador b Blue Demon [semifinal]
10) Halcón Negro b El Gladiador [final]

This is sort of a low wattage Friday. Blue Demon is here, Gladiador is pushed a lot but the one night (battle royal driven) tournament is the biggest draw.

There are more names on the Friday show.

EMLL (SUN) 03/04/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 206A, Box y Lucha 207A]
1) Mar Allah b Rudy Tinoco
2) Ed Mangoetech b Carlos Segura
straight falls
3) Akio Yoshihara DQ Canelo Segura
straight falls, second by DQ
4) Carlos Moreno b Chale Romero
5) El Enfermero & El Santo b Blue Demon & Joe Marín

It appears EMLL is running just Friday and Sundays at this point.

The magazine includes an update with Tarzan Lopez, who says the previous report about his injuries were overplayed. He is hurt, but not seriously, and he’s not in any danger of retiring.

Onto issue 208A

EMLL (FRI) 03/09/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 207A, Box y Lucha 208A]
1) Rogelio De La Paz b Gorila Osorio
2) Fantomas b Juan Diaz
3) Sordomudo Rodríguez b Dientes Hernández
return of Rodirguez
4) Dr. Castro DRAW Oso Negro
return of Oso Negro. Said to be a great match.
5) Fernando Oses b Canelo Segura
6) Joe Marín b Gorilita Flores
7) El Santo & Enfermero b Dorrel Dixon & Joe Grant
Santo gets the win after he and Gori were DQed last week. Article talks about how Enfermero learned his new hold from Buddy Rodgers

Santo gets the win back over Dixon & Grant from two weeks ago, with Enfermero instead of Gory Guerrero. The magazine puts over the new hold Enfermero is using – La Cruzeta – that’s proven effective. Enfermero says he saw Buddy Rodgers using it on a trip to Los Angeles and worked out how to do it in the gym. It’s kind of a figure four with the attacker using his arms to cross the legs rather than his own legs.

Rogelio de la Paz would later become La Sombra Vengadora, after a movie character. Fernando Oses actually did the wrestling scenes in the movie, but was too busy to take the character in the ring. At least one other person would use the character, possibly without permission. It’ll come up later.

A notes column mentions Monterrey promoter Chucho Garza is promoting new versions of Medico Asesino and Enfermero. Everyone, in the magazine and the wrestling industry, is aghast at the idea of putting new people in old gimmicks.

In 209A:

EMLL (FRI) 03/16/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 208A, Box y Lucha 209A]
1) Pery Lopez b Taro Hito
may have taken place after the main event
2) El Pirata b Rogelio De La Paz
3) Eduardo Bonada b Fantomas
4) Oso Negro b Akio Yoshihara
5) Gorilita Flores b Fernando Oses
6) El Mongol b Chico Casasola
debut of Mongol
7) El Enfermero & El Santo b Black Shadow & Blue Demon
Santo & Enfermero took ⅔.

Santo & Enfermero keep on winning.

Box y Lucha notes here the first match listed here (Lopez/Hito) actually took place after the main event. This gets brought up from time to time in other 1956/1957 cards. Other shows just never mention that “opener” result, which makes me think it was probably standard practice that it wasn’t worth bringing up every week (or sticking around for it.) There’s never an explanation for why it’s happening. My theory is crowd control, to keep some of the people in the building so it would be a smaller congestion out the door and onto the streets. These post-main event matches are referred to as “super estrellas”, which is now the name CMLL uses to refer to their actual main events. I’ve kept them listed as the openers because that’s how the cards list them.

EMLL (FRI) 03/23/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 209A, Box y Lucha 210A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Kid Vanegas b Bruno Lopez
actually happened after the main event
2) Carnicero Grimaldo b Sordomudo Quiroz
3) Akio Yoshihara b Dientes Hernández
4) Oso Negro b Orquídea
5) Carlos Moreno b Ray Mendoza
best match of the night
6) Chale Romero & El Mongol b Halcón Negro & Joe Marín
Halcon Negro also listed as Halcon Quintana
7) Enfermero CO Black Shadow
Black Shadow has Enfermero beat with a tope but referee Rudy Blancarte is out of the ring due to a neck injury. Shadow tries another tope, Enfermero moves out of the way, and Shadow can not stand before 20.

“Tope”s at this point at more running in the ring headbutts, not the dives that are technically “tope suicida”

Box y Lucha says Black Shadow is filming a movie about his life, which means he’s put his mask back on for scenes for the movie. El Santo was offered a spot in the movie as part of including the mask match but declined. (Box y Lucha implies it was a money issue.) Medico Asesino is instead wrestling as “El Enmascarado de Plata”, the name used in a previous movie.  This is only 1956, so wrestling movies are a thing, but El Santo himself has not appeared in a movie yet. That’s still a couple years off.

EMLL (SUN) 03/25/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 209A, Box y Lucha 210A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Mar Ala b Rocky Man
2) Daniel Aldana b Joaquin Murrieta
3) Gorila Macias II DRAW Dr. Castro
4) Dorrel Dixon b Gorilla Flores
5) Blue Demon & Tarzán López b Gladiador & The Black Killer

Blue Demon is having issues with his right eye, an injury originally suffered against Ray Mendoza in Mendoza’s EMLL debut match. Blue Demon end up with a long list of injuries during his career.

Box y Lucha 211 covers the last “Friday” of this match.

EMLL (SAT) 03/31/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 210A, Box y Lucha 211A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Taro Hito b Mar Ala
2) Juan Diaz b El Corzo
3) Chico Veloz DRAW Kiko Torres
4) Sordomudo Rodríguez b Orquídea
5) Pepe Mendieta b Black Killer
6) Halcón Negro b El Mongol
7) El Santo & Enfermero b Dorrel Dixon & Joe Grant

This is a Saturday show, which appears to be related to Easter even though Easter is actually April 1st. Box y Lucha calle it a Noche de Judas for the rudos winning the main event, the third match between those teams.

That’s it for March

Box y Lucha started releasing digital sets of 1950s magazines in August 2023. The sets themselves jumped around a bit; these weren’t the first magazines released but they’re the earliest by original publish date so far. I’m going to continue to do month by month recaps, focusing on the Friday shows. Some of these might end up pretty short.

We don’t have a lot of history from the 1950s; a lot of it is later magazines recapping this period, and it’s not only complete. My general sense of 1956 is enough time has passed that both the Televicentro/EMLL war and the denouncement (no lucha on TV or women wrestling in Mexico City) are firmly in the past and everyone’s moved on. It’s still the 50s though, so the stars of that war are largely still the biggest names and some of the business practices from that battle are still intact. EMLL and other promoters – Elias Simon of Guadalajara most mentioned – are signing wrestlers to exclusive contracts, seemingly for a few months at a time. EMLL keeps most of “their” guys around, with wrestlers who became stars in the rival promotion coming in and out. 

These issues are part of this Box y Lucha Diamante collection set.

The champs as of February 1956:

• NWA Welterweight: Blue Demon
• NWA Middleweight: El Santo

(The NWA Light Heavyweight will not come to Mexico until 1960. There are no EMLL tag or trios titles at this point.)

All of that and I’ve only got two Fridays to talk about. We can pick up with the February 17th show.

EMLL (FRI) 02/17/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 205A, Box y Lucha 237A]
1) Carnicero Grimaldo b Mara
2) Chico Veloz b El Corzo
3) Dr. Castro b Fantomas
4) Fernando Oses b Murciélago Velazquez
5) Ray Mendoza b Jalisco González
Ray Mendoza’s first win in Arena Coliseo
6) Halcón Negro & Tarzán López b Carlos Moreno & Gorilita Flores
7) Blue Demon © b El Enfermero [NWA WELTER]
Enfermero has Demon in a hold but Demon is in the ropes, Enfermero argues with the referee, Demon topes him and wins.

This is the latter stage of Arena Coliseo being EMLL’s top building; Arena Mexico is a couple of months from opening. El Enfermero finishes revolving around a referee issue becomes a reoccurring bit, and it will set up another title match later this year.

In my mind, Ray Mendoza has always been the younger partner of Rene Guajardo and Karloff Lagarde. In reality, he’s established in EMLL before those two. It just takes him a little longer to make progress.

Dr. Castro appears to be Max Linares, the future Rayo de Jalisco. He’ll be this identity for a while yet.

EMLL (FRI) 02/24/1956 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 205A, Box y Lucha 206A]
1) Rudy Castillo vs Bruno Lopez
2) Sordomudo Quiroz vs El Pirata
3) Dientes Hernández vs Fernando Oses
4) Eduardo Bonada vs El Califa
5) Akio Yoshihara vs Orquídea
6) El Gladiador b Chale Romero
7) Dorrel Dixon & Joe Grant DQ El Santo & Gori Guerrero

Box y Lucha only recaps the top two matches. Santo & Guerrero loss by excessive violence DQ – for putting on La Estrella! The referee rules that putting on the two man star hold is illegally two men in at the same time, I guess. I had no idea that hold went back to the 50s and can’t think of it ever being a DQ. Dixon claims in the post match that he is such a big admirer of Santo that he had trouble fighting him here.

Gori Guerrero is around for the month of February before disappearing from Mexico City (at least the portion we have recorded.) It seems that way the previous few years, but we’re missing far more in those years. Guerrero is still a few years away from quitting EMLL entirely but it seems like he wasn’t interested in working there much even prior.

Tarzan Lopes and Gori Guerrero have a singles match on 02/25 in Arena Puebla. Box y Lucha reports Lopez suffered an injury “three broken ribs and dislocated neck.” A dislocated neck sounds like death. Lopez is hurt but those injuries are not correct.

That’s all for February.

I’m still trying to figure out how to do this. I’m going to try to bunch them by months when possible. It’s not often possible.

Box y Lucha 994 (November 11, 1971 publish date) covers a big Arena Mexico show on October 29th:

EMLL (FRI) 10/29/1971 Arena México [Box y Lucha 1002, Box y Lucha 993, Box y Lucha 994]
1) Agente X vs Dick Angelo
listed in the lineup, not mentioned in the results.
2) Látigo Watson b Cesar Valentino
3) Raúl Reyes b Coloso Colosetti
Raul Reyes
4) Kitazawa b Alberto Muñoz
5) Anibal & Blue Demon b Karloff Lagarde & Shibata
6) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario DQ Rayo de Jalisco & Tinieblas
Straight falls, Rayo fouled both rudos.
7) Rene Guajardo L Renato Torres, Black Shadow [hair]
first three way hair match. Renato Torres won the battle royal, causing Shadow and Guajardo to have to fight in the first fall. (It’s meant to be multiple falls here, not separate matches.) Shadow submitted Guajardo to the Gory Special in the first fall, Torres defeated Black Shadow in the second, Guajardo beat Torres in the third to leave everyone tied at 1 fall won. Black Shadow beat Rene Guajardo again, meaning Shadow escaped the match, and Torres pinned Guajardo to take Guajardo’s hair. Box y Lucha later called one of the Black Shadow/Rene Guajardo the best singles match of 1971.

This is typical of this apuesta matches in this era: there wasn’t much build to it. Guajardo & usual tag partner Karloff Lagarde won a one night tournament the week before. They defeated Black Shadow & Blue Demon in the semifinals, then El Soltiario & Renato Torres in the final. They hadn’t been wrestling each other much prior, and there wasn’t any obvious set up for a hair match even in the tournament outcomes. The matches just happen and that’s the inherent issue with doing a look back at this period; the dots don’t always connect. Box y Lucha plays up Lagarde almost unmasking Demon in their tag match more than the hair match.

This issue also includes results for Arena Coliseo Acapulco on Sunday 10/24 and Wednesday 10/27. The setup there is like Guadalajara in modern times: Mexico City based wrestlers work on the midweek show, Sunday is more local focused (though some lower card CDMX wrestlers will work more as time goes on.)

In injury updates:

• Ray Mendoza’s knee surgery went well, he’s got a good prognosis to return
  • Mendoza suffered a serious knee injury in October, may have wrestled through a it a bit, and Box y Lucha’s been fearful that is the end of his career. He would return in April 1972, though is time in EMLL is coming to an end.
• Huracan Ramirez has a left arm fracture.
• Villano I suffered a broken nose against Tauro.
• Matematico messed up a tope, hit his head, and will be three months.

The magazine’s various notes columns also mention Villano III and Tony Salazar may be headed in soon. Both are there eventually, though it’s much farther down the road.

Box y Lucha has a few ‘notes’ columns. They add another one in this issue, debuting “Teodulfo” as the first ever masked lucha libre reporter.

Modren Box y Lucha skipped over 995 or 996 in their run, which may mean they don’t have access to copies. 994 does has the next Arena Mexico lineup, and a later year in review mentions the main event

EMLL (FRI) 11/05/1971 Arena México [Box y Lucha 1002, Box y Lucha 994]
1) El Greco vs Mario Alcala
2) Villano I vs Carlos Plata
3) Manuel Robles vs El Rostro
4) José Luis Mendieta b Gemelo Diablo II
5) Gemelo Diablo I vs Látigo Watson
6) Black Shadow, Blue Demon, Garo Katcherian b Karloff Lagarde, Kitazawa, Shibata
debut of Garo Katcherian (or something like that) from Armenia.
7) Rayo de Jalisco & Tinieblas b Ángel Blanco & El Solitario
bloody match

“Garo Katcherian” is a borderline impossible name for lucha libre magazines to get right; I’m not sure why they didn’t have anyone change it. (They did just that with Whipper Watson Jr., switching him to Latigo Watson to make it more palatable.) I can’t find anything about Katcherian in wrestling outside this tour, but it’s possible we’re all spelling his name wrong.

The November 12th results popped up in a Super Luchas a long time ago.

CMLL (FRI) 11/12/1971 Arena Coliseo [RB, SL 333]
1) Joe Martin b Pepe Casas
2) Escorpión II b El Greco
3) Escorpión I DRAW El Rebelde
4) José Luis Mendieta DQ El Enfermero
5) Vic Amezcua b Chino Chow
6) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario b Anibal & Garo Katcherian [semifinal]
7) Karloff Lagarde & Kitazawa b Látigo Watson & Raúl Reyes [semifinal]
8) Ángel Blanco & El Solitario b Karloff Lagarde & Kitazawa [final]

That’s the future Tropicasas (and father of Felino, Heavy Metal and Negro Casas) in the opener. He worked a lot in EMLL in the early 70s, but was a guy who considered to small to book on most Friday night shows.

Box y Lucha 997 (November 26th) has Rayo de Jalisco in a University of Michigan sweater on the cover. This is a great inexplicable lucha libre photo that is never explained.

EMLL (FRI) 11/19/1971 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 997]
1) Mario Alcala b Buddy Montes
2) Mario Alcala DRAW Dick Angelo
3) Escorpión II b César Silva
4) Estrella Blanca b Escorpión I
5) El Enfermero b Carlos Plata
6) Látigo Watson DQ Vic Amezcua
Watson’s best performance so far. Straight falls, last a DQ for foul
7) Anibal, Black Shadow, Garo Katcherian b Ángel Blanco, Dr. Wagner, El Solitario
tecnicos took ⅔

Anibal gets credited for carrying his side in the main event. He’s the rising young tecnico at this point. Latigo Watson is also pretty new – he admits on his debut that he’s green and he’s hear to learn – so his best performance is a hopeful sign of some improvement. The results really do list Mario Alcala in two matches, which is probably at typo. It’s possible one of them is his brother Marco, but Marco doesn’t otherwise turn up on these shows until 1975.

One of the notes columns mentions Tinieblas is off the Friday night shows, and is now demoted to Pista Arena Revolucion. Tinieblas, like Mil Mascaras, was a guy built up by the lucha libre magazines before he debuted. He looked impressive in still photos, not so much when it came to actually moving, and got poor reviews early on. The reviews never got all that much better for Tinieblas, but he’d make it back to Friday shows eventually.

That’s it for November.