VIVA LA RAZA!! VAMOS!!

Wrestling Amino Believers!

The Phenomenal One!

Camach!

This Months Wrestling Event is about Pro Wrestling Heritage. There’s so many in this business where anyone and everyone can be involved in many forms. It’s very easy to go and pick an ethnicity you simple like. For example I could’ve easily picked Japanese which is probably my overall favorite wrestling style. Instead I decided to represent my people. Los Latinos! A mi gente! A mi Raza! Vamos!!!

Lucha Libre goes way back. It’s older than any promotion you can think of. if my research is correct Lucha Libre has been around since the 1880’s! That’s an insane amount of time which kinda adds up since CMLL is around 90 years old which they recently celebrated. Lucha Libre, Mexican or Latino Pro Wrestling helped shaped Wrestling in a very powerful way. You know it nowadays as “Juniors” or “CruiserWeights”. Lucha Libre never hit the states hard until the late 90’s when Paul Heyman brought people like Guerrero, Mysterio & Psicosis which really shook things up and helped WCW get an edge over WWE. Heck even Japan beat those in the states by brining in some Luchadores to participate in their tournaments and What not.

Lucha Libre was so important, IS so important to entire business of Pro Wrestling alongside Japanese Strong Style that helped shape and mold it to what it is today. In Mexico Lucha Libre is so insanely popular that Lucha Libre Legends like El Santo & Blue Demon would make movies where they’re the hero stopping crime. It’s crazy. A lot of guys take inspiration from Lucha Libre. In the end no one really does it like real authentic Luchadores now do they?

So, here I’m just going to talk about 6 Latin Wrestlers who I really enjoy. I will be missing a couple popular individuals but I think it’s pretty obvious who I’ll be picking and I wish I watched CMLL or AAA so I can pick some unknown wrestlers but that’s not the case. Every name on this list you will know of & most definitely have seen.

#WrestlingHeritage

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Rey Mysterio

Many people over the years have called Rey Mysterio “The King of Lucha Libre”. I have to say he’s definitely earned the right to be called that. It’s clear as day that Rey Mysterio is the most popular Masked Latino Pro Wrestler in not just the United States, not just in the world but of All Time! That’s just a fact. The most recognizable Luchador among not just casuals but non-wrestling fans. With the help of the WWE machine he was able to just do that. Many times over the years WWE have tried but failed with the likes of Ultima Dragon (not a Mexican but another masked wrestler) as well with Sin Cara and a few most recently like Kalisto who had a massive chance to be the next Mysterio in of popularity plus all the others they brought in through the Cruiserweight Classic. Mysterio is someone I could consider a once in a lifetime luchador whose legacy will stand the test of time. He’s accomplished so much in his 30+ year career. WWE & World Champion, IC Champ, Untied States, Tag Team, AAA titles, WCW titles, Royal Rumble winner amongst other awards or inductions. I could be wrong but I don’t know how many Luchadores have been able to accomplish what Rey Mysterio has. I do know one thing, it’s going to be a very long time until someone does if ever.

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Dragon Lee

The First time I ever saw Dragon Lee properly was… I wanna say 2019 Best of The Super Juniors. The first BOSJ I ever watched beginning to end. Man, he was Junior Champion at the time and watching him compete was insane. Besides the individual in Lucha Underground I never seen someone like him. He was basically the Mexican Kenny Omega to me haha. Phenomenal matches with individuals like Sho, Shingo, Ishimori, Hiromu & Ospreay to name a few. When the pandemic hit man I was so butt hurt because he basically just never went back to NJPW and I was so ready to watch him kill it in Japan and it just never happened. He signs with WWE over AEW and I was a bit disappointed but ultimately it was probably best even tho he keeps losing or gets written off for someone else. Dragon Lee unlike the makes luchadores before him aside from Kalisto has a real chance on being the next Rey Mysterio within WWE. He has all the tools he needs. The only thing that could hurt him is that language barrier but WWE have been really good recently with subtitles so that a plus. I really do with Dragon Lee the best he’s incredible. Things seem a bit bumpy right now for him in WWE but hopefully all goes well.

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Eddie Guerrero

Latino Heat, who many consider to be not just the best Mexican Wrestler but arguably the greatest to ever step foot in a squared circle. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Eddie when it comes to his in ring talent. I’m current watching 2002/2003 SmackDown and man, I’ve seen some amazing Guerrero matches and still more I’ve yet to watch. Eddie is one of the few wrestlers who when he’s a heel you adore him so much but when he’s a heel you hate him with all your guts. When he cuts a promo it sounds legit, like he means every single word he says. He’s also a hilarious comedy wrestler as well inside & outside the ring. Eddie Guerrero is the perfect package, he’s everything you could ever ask for in a wrestler. To have Eddie be Latino, someone who represents my people, man that’s just insane. Talking about Eddie just reminded me about something. The day he died, November 13th, 2005… that’s my Birthday. Don’t worry guys, it wasn’t a bad day for me. I didn’t start watching Wrestling until 2006. The reason I’m rewatching these SmackDown shows is because well, I wanted to see Eddie Guerreros final run in WWE. I didn’t grow up with him, which means I didn’t watch him week to week. I have gone back and cherry picked a few matches but I wanted that week to week, episode by episode experience and it’s been pretty damn awesome seeing him (during his SD era) go from Tag Team Heel, to singles heel to a Babyface and I’ll very soon get to him chasing the Undisputed Championship. It’s going to be a very bitter sweet rewatch. As I’m watching his run it’ll just suddenly stop dead in its tracks which is going to be very sad. It’s not like he’s going to walk out to announced his retirement, or he gets written off… he es away. I got 2 years left of SmackDown footage to enjoy Eddie’s run as much as possible. Along with everyone else of course.

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Stephanie Vaquer

The first time I ever learned about Stephanie Vaquer was about 2 months prior to May of 2023. A random highlight video of Stephane came onto my feed on Twitter. She was tagged and I was amazed and what I saw her do. How can I word this?… growing up watching wrestling, the one thing that always had me scratch my head was why the girls couldn’t or more like didn’t move as fast as the guys did. Years later I saw incredible athletic Joshi & Luchadoras. Stephanie really stood out to me when it came to female Latina wrestlers. Funny enough, like I mentioned earlier May is the month she came to Long Beach and I was able to watch her have a fantastic match against Mercedes Monè. She’s a phenomenal technical worker and her match alone that she had with Azume ok Windy City she can move incredibly fast and work pretty damn stiff. She walks, she presents herself as a massive deal. As the champion. 3 championships to be exact. She’s on the top of her game right now and getting a ton of exposer now that she’s working directly with not just NJPW but Stardom as well. Only time will tell if she’ll eventually step foot inside All Elite Wrestling. Expect to see a ton more of Vaquer in America and please go out of your way to watch her matches and watch her live if she’s near your area.

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The Lucha Brothers

Rey Mysterio like I mentioned is the most Popular Luchador ever! One thing I must say that might trigger some people, although he may be the greatest masked Latino wrestler I personally feel that one thing he didn’t accomplish is help other Luchadores come over to the states and help them achieve even a taste of what Mysterio got. He didn’t help them break in America. You know who did? The Lucha Bros. Pentagon & Fenix! They’re the ones who started that trend of Luchadores coming over to America. When Lucha Underground Began a lot of those talents were booked for PWG. Guys like Cobb, Lucha Bros, Drago, Areostar & Angélico were able to get more exposed with American audiences. Then something unthinkable happened, Lucha Bros saw the amount of money they could make and they bet on themselves and quit AAA wrestling and began to travel the world. Going to WXW, AAW, PWG, HOG and whatever other indie promotions there were and they opened the doors for other luchadores to come to the indies. Now you’re seeing guys like Vikingo, Flamita, Bandido, Black Taurus, Laredo Kid among others. They’re the ones that started this… mordern day Lucha Revolution if you will haha. Sure now AEW has helped with partnerships with AAA & now CMLL. Unfortunately WWE failed to capitalize and could’ve done what AEW is doing now and help all wrestling flourish but as always they feared the thought of getting taken down. Really quick, Rey Fenix is easily in ring wise the better of the two brothers. His matches have been some of my absolute favorites ever against Pentagon, Omega, Mysterio, Mil Muertes & Prince Puma. Incredible stuff. Then you have Pentagon who’s also a great in ring worker but has this insane connection with the fans and is so charismatic. Both these guys are something and all their hard work has paid off and they’re such a great influence on the Latin Community. CERO MIDEO! AEW needs to push these guys crazy once Fenix comes back. They’ve cooled off drastically since they lost the AEW tag titles back in…. 2022? These two are absolutely gems to this business. I honestly believe majority of fans want so much more for them. Am I wrong? Nope.

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Hernandez

You read that correctly! Someone that I’ve been wanting to talk about for years but never really had the chance to include him in a blog and what better time than now? SuperMex! Hernandez! My goodness this dude is so cool! He’s such a beast man and for a couple years he was very over with the crowd from 2006 - 2009. He had a banger theme song as well plus his pyro was cool going along with his motion. Good shit. Hernandez I feel was just a bit ahead of his time. If he came up around 2014 he would’ve been the talk of the town much how Brian Cage was around 2015. Hernandez wasn’t as agile or fast as Brian Cage for example but he had a lot of pretty simple but impactful moves that the crowd would pop for. Most famously The Border Toss! One of my favorite moves of all time! He just launches these dudes crazy! I’m just a Hernández Fanboy really haha. TNA tried so many time to push him toward the World Title & it failed each time. I don’t know whose fault that was but man it was a huge missed opportunity to put the TNA World title on him if you ask me. Love me some Hernandez.

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To end things off, I have to say my heritage has a fantastic line of Latin professional Wrestlers. Eddie Guerrero, probably the most well rounded perfect pro wrestler. If you had him at number 1 of all time I don’t think anyone would bat an eye. Rey Mysterio, the most popular Luchador in history of Lucha Libre. A real life superhero. Lucha Bros, 2 individual who opened the floodgates for all the incredible luchadores who have broken out in America in the last 7 years. Stephanie, another breakout Luchadora and one of the first to really make a name for herself not just in America but Japan as well. She has a bright future if she keeps going down that path. Dragon Lee, if all goes well for him in WWE he can reach heights maybe even Rey Mysterio hasn’t reached. That’s up to the WWE. Hernández… HE’S AWESOME! All these individuals and others I didn’t mention have made me and our entire Raza proud.