Tag: magazine recap

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]

Box y Lucha 268A (May 10, 1957)

EMLL (WED) 05/01/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 266A, Box y Lucha 267A]
1) Juan Diaz b Taro Hito
2) Humberto Garza DRAW Chivo García
3) Manuel Robles b Murciélago Velazquez
4) Gorilla Flores b Enrique Villa
5) Carnicero Butcher b Ivan el Terrible
6) Tarzán López b Carlos Moreno
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Espectro & Karloff Lagarde
Tecnicos took ⅓.

This is the weekly Tuesday moved to Wednesday for holiday reasons (Labor Day) and with bigger names than typical.

EMLL (FRI) 05/03/1957 Arena México [Box y Lucha 267A, Box y Lucha 269A, Clinch 242, RB, SL 259]
Attendance: 10000
1) Akio Yoshihara b Chico Veloz
Rated a 6 ½
2) Chale Romero b Orquídea
Rated a 6.
3) Dr. Castro DRAW Canelo Segura
Rated a 6 ¾
4) Ray Mendoza b Tony López
Tony Lopez replaced El Caballero. Rated a 6 ½ .
5) Karloff Lagarde b Rubén Juárez
Lagarde won with what reads like a heart punch, Juarez selling temporary paralysis. Rated a 7.
6) Enrique Llanes & Rolando Vera b Cavernario Galindo & El Gladiador
straight falls, DQ in the first, which Box y Lucha thought was unfair – it was just normal rudo tactics. Rated a 7 ½ .
7) El Enfermero b Black Killer [mask]
Enfermero took ⅓. Black Killer is Luiz Marquez Munoz, who previously wrestled as Chimuelo Marquez.

The main event result is about as expected; Killer was moving up on the card to face a much bigger star and lost. It did draw, with “10,000” people listed in attendance.

Lucha Libre #117 mentioned Pepe Mendieta defeated Verdugo by excessive violence DQ on the Sunday show.

With his brothers back in EMLL, Manuel Robles wants to by his first ring name – “Taki Sito”. He ends up uses it sometimes but it doesn’t seem to stick.

Beyond Mexico, Box y Lucha has been running regular reports about wrestling from “Coliseo Houston.” They were primarily keeping up with Medico Asesino’s exploits but have expanded to covering more of the wrestlers there. Don Leo Johnson is strongly praised.

A masked tag team named Los Infernales wrestled in the Televicentro days. They were known to be brothers Joe and Paulino Mar. Los Infernales lost their masks in Leon few months ago and were revealed to be Salvaje Flores and Tomas Rinande. Box y Lucha wants an investigation and some suspensions for a bait and switch.

There’s a more serious identity issue though; Espectro and another man are reported to have attacked a woman in Mexico City. Box Y Lucha know this is false because the name they give for Espectro (Enrique Bravo Ayala) is not the masked luchador’s real name. He was also wrestling in Veracruz that night.

Box y Lucha 269A (May 17, 1957)

EMLL (FRI) 05/10/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 268A, Box y Lucha 269A]
1) José Cruz b Coyote
Jose Cruz (“Shadowito”, incorrectly believed to be the younger brother of Black Shadow), is getting rookie of the year talk. Match rated 6 ¼
2) Rudy García b Mar Allah
rated 6 ¾
3) Dr. Castro b Chale Romero
Rated 6 ¾
4) Dory Dixon DRAW Karloff Lagarde
top 4 matches set by battle royal. Rated 6 ¾
5) Jorge Allende b Espectro
Espectro wanted an immediate mask/hair match with a five minute limit, but the commission said nope. Rated 7.
6) Enrique Llanes b Ray Mendoza
Rated 7 1/4
7) Blue Demon b Enfermero
Rated 7 ½

Black Shadow’s real name is Alejandro Cruz, and Box y Lucha leaped at the idea they might be related. They do admit to the mistake later, but insist that both guys should just run with it. That also may be a wink at Black Shadow and Blue Demon pretending to be brothers.

Tuesday’s show saw Carnicero Grimaldo defeat Manuel Robles in the main event. Black Shadow & Rolando Vera defeat Sugi & Huroiko Sito on Sunday.

Box y Lucha 270A (May 24, 1957)

EMLL (FRI) 05/17/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 269A, Box y Lucha 270A, Box y Lucha 3536, Clinch 242]
1) José Cruz b Guapo Rodríguez
2) El Pirata b Akio Yoshihara
return el El Pirata (Adolfo Moreno), who’d been mentioned as wrestling in South America
3) Chico García TLDRAW Murciélago Velazquez
20 minutes
4) Dr. Castro b El Verdugo
5) Karloff Lagarde b Jorge Allende
6) Enrique Llanes & Tarzán López b Frank Butcher & Ray Mendoza [MEX TAG, quarterfinal]
rated 7 ½
7) Black Shadow & Blue Demon b Chico Casasola & El Enfermero [MEX TAG, quarterfinal]
rated 7 ½

El Pirata is the future founder of the promotion known today as IWRG.

The top two matches are part of a tournament that will cause confusion about Mexico’s tag team titles for the next three decades. EMLL announced a tournament to decide the first national tag champs. (That’s covered in 268A.) New national tag champions certainly fits with EMLL running tournaments to fill out the rest of the national titles during this stretch. The purpose of the tournament changes before the final, and the winners end up being the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Champions instead. I don’t have an issue where the tag title match happens, and none of the surrounding issues have an explanation. This is a commission call, but I don’t know their reasoning. The result is a bunch of teams being listed as “Mexican National Tag Team Champions” from here until the 1980s, when they probably actually won this Arena Coliseo tag team championship or another similarly named title.

Manuel Robles got the win over Tony Lopez in the Tuesday main event.

Espectro took advantage of a Sugi Sito mistake to beat him on Friday. The more important story might have been about Gladiador and Gorilita Flores having issues and winning despite them. It comes off like a wrestling angle, and given later context, it might not have been one.

EMLL’s offices have finally moved into Arena Mexico and the original offices the promotion was founded in are now more. It’s a little surprising they didn’t have an office space in Arena Coliseo.

Enrique Villa is suspended for weeks for missing a show.

“Caballero” Tony Lopez is considering retiring to become a farmer.

Box y Lucha heard rumors of EMLL returning to TV, but notes there are no cameras present at shows and no TV broadcasts have been authorized.

Box y Lucha 271A (May 31st, 1957)

This week’s Tuesday show had more to it than typical:

EMLL (TUE) 05/21/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 269A]
1) Mar Allah b Chamaco Vera
2) Taro Hito b Astucia
3) El Costeño DQ Ramsés
4) Juan Diaz & Orquídea b El Pirata & Gori Casanova
5) Huroki Sito b Carnicero Grimaldo
Sito took 2/3

This is said to be the best drawing Tuesday show in a while, credit to the main event match. The notable one is match 3. Ramses is a debuting masked wrestler who’s gimmick is basically “Santo but gold.” Ramses loses his first match in straight falls by DQ, which is the same as the El Santo debut. It appears he (or someone else using the name) was wrestling before this, so it may be EMLL identifying someone as a possible Santo replacement rather than creating one. The character doesn’t go beyond this; Ramses lacks the magic of El Santo. He hangs around in the secondary show prelim matches for a few years without advancing. The “El Santo” homage character in Nacho Libre was also a gold-wearing luchador named Ramses, and either that was a very deep pull or an amusing coincidence.

EMLL (FRI) 05/24/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 270A, Box y Lucha 271A, Clinch 242]
1) Jaibo García b Gorila Osorio
Rated a 6 ¼
2) Eskimo Blancarte b Chico Veloz
Rated a 6
3) Chivo García b Bobby Rolando
Rated a 6 ¾
4) Pepe Mendieta b Frankenstein
Rated a 7.
5) Ivan el Terrible b Carlos Moreno
Rated a 7.
6) Huroki Sito & Sugi Sito b Cavernario Galindo & Gladiador [MEX TAG, quarterfinal]
straight falls. Rated a 7. Gladiador appeared to be drunk, brawls with Galindo outside the ring, and hits commission Balindo trying to break it up, and had to be taken away by police officers after the match.
7) Espectro & Karloff Lagarde b Dorrel Dixon & Rolando Vera [MEX TAG, quarterfinal]
Espectro & Karloff took ⅔. Rated a 7.

El Glaidador’s license to wrestle in Mexico is canceled by the commission following that match, which means no licensed wrestling promoter can book him. It appears he’s shown up in no condition to wrestle previously (maybe as recently as that Sunday show) and had other issues. He’d be done even on the first time after hitting the commissioner. Gladiador will spend years trying to get licensed again.

Enrique Vera defeated El Enfermero on the Sunday main event, a card where the top four matches were by battle royal.

Box y Lucha 272A (June 7, 1957)

The Tuesday show kicks off a tournament for the vacant Mexican national lightweight title.

EMLL (TUE) 05/28/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 270A, Box y Lucha 271A, Clinch 242]
1) Coyote b Rudy Tinoco [MEX LIGHT, 8f]
2) Mar Allah b José Munoz [MEX LIGHT, 8f]
3) José Cruz b Pery Lopez [MEX LIGHT, 8f]
4) Juan Diaz b Guapo Rodríguez [MEX LIGHT, 8f]
straight falls
5) Carnicero Grimaldo & Gori Casanova b Enrique Villa & Orquídea
took ⅔

Black Shadow won the lightweight title in 1950, defended it a few times, and then vacated it in 1955 when he moved up in weight. (He’d never win a major title again.) EMLL and the commission are finally getting around to filling it. This may be EMLL doing the commission a favor by holding a tournament. The matches exclusively happen on Tuesdays, and the title will disappear from the promotion as soon as the tournament is over.

EMLL (FRI) 05/31/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 271A, Box y Lucha 272A, Box y Lucha 3536, Clinch 242]
1) Jaibo García b Tony Sugar
Rated 6
2) Antonio Ramírez b Coyote
Coyote replaced El Pirata. Rated 6 ½
3) Chivo García b Dientes Hernández
Rated 6 ¾
4) Canelo Segura b Dr. Castro
Rated 7.
5) El Enfermero b Gorilita Flores
Rated 6 ¾
6) Cavernario Galindo b Dorrel Dixon
Galindo took ⅓. Rated 7.
7) Enrique Llanes & Tarzán López b Huroki Sito & Sugi Sito [MEX TAG, semifinal]
rated 7 ½

Black Shadow defeats Karloff Lagarde in a great Sunday main event.

There are rumors that Ray Mendoza will not honor his existing EMLL contract and will instead choose to go on a Central/South American tour. The implication is those tours must be paying much better than EMLL.

Bobby Bonales is officially unsuspended. He was suspended for missing shows and proved it happened only due to a car accident.

Newcomer Zepilin Ahumada (by trainer Jack O’Brien) is said to have 20 years of experience in sumo. Zepilin is a nickname given to heavy wrestlers, so they’re trying to play it off as if it’s part of a martial arts choice.

[Previous would be April 1957, Next is June 1957, Full index]

I finished this post in April and then never posted it for really good reasons I can no longer remember

As mentioned previously, I don’t currently have any magazines covering mid-January until mid-April. Box y Lucha hasn’t put them up for sale, and they haven’t turned up elsewhere.

What we do have is a few notes from the 1956 year end review in Clinch:

• Sugi Sito returned to EMLL on 01/25. He had jumped to EMLL to Televicentro during the war, and then was left in the wild when that promotion fell apart
  • Sito was a big star in the early 50s. He’s not at the level of El Santo, but it sure seems like EMLL brought him back to help fill that gap.
• There doesn’t appear to be much news in February, in Clinch’s view.
• The first Tuesday Nuevo Valores shows takes place on March 17, 1957. That appears to be the start of Tuesday shows as a full time idea and CMLL going to a three shows per week schedule. The magazines don’t mention the Tuesday shows much; they’re always going to be old news by the time the magazines hit the stands the following Sunday/Monday. Box y Lucha does eventually get those Tuesday lineups included, though it takes a while.
  • There’s a definite ladder system to these bookings. The big stars work Fridays, some of them work Sundays, and fewer of them on Tuesdays. The Tuesday undercards are full with newer wrestlers.
• Enrique Llanes left his media gig and returned to lucha libre on March 29th at Arena Coliseo. Clinch says this drew 10,000, which is an obvious fictional number because Arena Coliseo doesn’t hold that much. Maybe treating it as sell out is reasonable enough. Llanes also might be back to help fill Santo’s spot.
• The first Arena Mexico ‘season’ begins April 5, 1957. I don’t have that lineup.

Box y Lucha 265A (April 19, 1957)

EMLL (FRI) 04/12/1957 Arena México [Box y Lucha 265A, Clinch 242]
1) Rudy García b Taro Hito
actually happened after the main event. Rated 7.
2) Dientes Hernández DRAW Red Man
rated 6
3) Adolfo Bonales DRAW Orquídea
Rated 6 ½
4) Black Killer b Jalisco González
rated 6 ¾
5) Ivan el Terrible b Tarzán López
rated 6 ½
6) Sugi Sito b Enrique Llanes
best match, Box y Lucha says Sito should get a title match with Vera. Rated 7 ½. This was a rivalry from the Televicentro promotion
7) Enfermero, Espectro, Karloff Lagarde b Black Shadow, Dorrel Dixon, Rolando Vera
Enfermero submitted Shadow as Rolando Vera submitted Espectro at the same time, but Shadow was the captain. Rated 7 ½.

Shadow disappears from lineup for the next few months. 7.5 are high ratings on this magazine’s smashed together scale.

Nothing much from Sunday. Or from this magazine entirely. Carlos Moreno has been suspended for two months. It’s unclear why.

Box y Lucha 266A (April 26, 1957)

The Friday show this week was moved to Saturday; maybe a Good Friday holiday situation?

EMLL (SAT) 04/20/1957 Arena Coliseo [Box y Lucha 265A, Box y Lucha 266A]
1) El Coyote b José Munoz
2) Humberto Garza b Tony Fusary
rated 6 ¾
3) Murciélago Velazquez b Jalisco González
Rated 6 ¼
4) El Verdugo b Orquídea
Orquidea replaced Enrique Villa. Rated 6 ¼
5) Carnicero Butcher b Pepe Mendieta
Pepe Mendieta replaced Bobby Bonales. Rated 6 ¼
6) El Enfermero CO Black Killer
they clonked heads in the third fall in the ring, neither could stand up. Enfermero had his shoulders flat on the mat, Killer fell on his side. Rated 7 ½
7) El Espectro & Karloff Lagarde b Black Shadow & Blue Demon
Espectro & Lagarde took ⅓, a great win for team. Rated 7 ¼

In match 6, both wrestlers were knocked out on the mat while the referee counted to ten. It used to be a staple of 80s/90s matches I watched, and I’m not sure if that’s even a spot that people would recognize today. The “everyone down” spot still happens, it’s just an applause break and no one counts. I can’t recall a normal match ending with one of those countouts though. Box Y Lucha says the fans didn’t understand the finish either, thinking that someone actually had to be covered for the match to end.

Bobby Bonales missed that match with an illness, but it also said to be suspended, strangely. Carlos Moreno’s suspension has bene lifted by the commission, but another incident – even a minor one – will cause him to be suspended for a year. Box y Lucha notes there’s no real definition of a minor incident, and Moreno may be forced to wrestle as a tecnico rather than risk a suspension over normal rudo behavior.

Sunday’s show had El Gladiador defeating Enrique Llanes by a debatable foul.

The magazine has a profile on Rolando Vera, who mentioned his usual training session on Tuesday due to a dentist appointment. His regular Tuesday routine is training with Professor Romero on jiu-jitsu, judo and “lucha oriental.”

Gorilita Flores is out a month with a lesion at his waist, suffered in a match in Torreon.

Box y Lucha 267A (May 3, 1957)

EMLL (FRI) 04/26/1957 Arena México [Box y Lucha 266A, Box Y Lucha 869, Clinch 242, Matt Farmer, Roy Lucier]
***Arena Mexico 1st Anniversary***
1) Orquídea vs Frankenstein
Rated 6 ¾
2) Pepe Mendieta vs El Plebeyo
Plebeyo debuted. Rated 6
3) Jalisco González vs Rubén Juárez
Rated 6 ¾
4) Chico Casasola vs Gorilla Flores
Rated 6 ¼
5) Black Killer b Enfermero
Rematch of a draw the previous week. Killer won an upset; he immediately pushed his luck by asking for a mask vs mask match. Rated 6 ¾
6) Blue Demon © b Espectro [NWA WELTER]
Rated 7
7) Rolando Vera © b Sugi Sito [NWA MIDDLE]
Rated 8 ½, said to be a match of the year to this point and the highest number they’ve given out since doing these ratings (mid 1956)

Arena Mexico is officially one year old with this event. They celebrated with matches that had no real build-up but still turned out pretty good. The recap focused on the top three matches; they gave ratings but no results for the others. Vera’s been talked up a lot as a wrestler in these magazines, and this is Sito’s biggest match in the period since returning to EMLL.

Killer and Enfermero are indeed building to a mask match in a few weeks.

Sunday’s show included a strong Verdugo/Canelo Seugua match and more praise for Llanes in the main event.

In weekly suspension news; Joaquin Murrieta is suspended for no-shows. He’d been in EMLL since 1939. I don’t have him wrestling in Arena Coliseo  since the end of 1956. His career looks to be pretty much over at this point.

Referee Rudy Blancarate has an angry response to recent criticism of him by Box y Lucha. He notes that his pay is frozen at 50 pesos and has been that number for the last 10 years.

That’s it for April.

[Previous would be March 1957 but I have no issues, Next is May 1957, Full index]