A very brief story on noroeste says Abismo Negro has passed away. LMDLL’s RFC is also reporting his death, which is enough to cause me to believe it (though there’s a small hope this may be a hoax.) Edit: RFC found another person who’d confirm it. That’s the end of the hope.
The complete noroeste story:
El luchador profesional, Abismo Negro, murió esta madrugada en el municipio de El Rosario al parecer ahogado en el río. Su cuerpo fue encontrado esta tarde. Al parecer el luchador iba con rumbo a la Ciudad de México cuando decidió bajarse en este municipio; las autoridades ya investigan el hecho.
Translated:
The professional wrestler, Abyss Black, died this morning in the town of El Rosario allegedly drowned in the river. His body was found this afternoon. Apparently the fighter was heading to Mexico City when he decided to stop in this town, the authorities are already investigating the incident.
The last time we heard about Abismo Negro, is when he didn’t make the show Friday night in Madero. This would’ve been Sunday morning. Abismo certainly had his personal issues take over his life the last few years, though we have no idea if this has anything to do with those.
Abismo Negro was one of only three remaining wrestlers in the company who were on the debut show in May of 1992. (Octagon and Jerrito Estrada are the others, and Pepe Casas and Tirantes were two of the referees on that show.) Abismo was debuting as Winners at that point, and is a rare wrestler who’s succeeded under two different gimmicks; it’ll may only now be publicly acknowledged Winners became Abismo.
The Abismo Negro gimmick is as identifiably a part of AAA as any. A lot of that is owed to Antonio Pena’s design, but a significant credit must go to man under the mask, who made the character larger than life. Abismo was a top rudo for AAA at many points during his run, so much so that he gained fan following (which caused at least one ill advised tecnico turn) and cross over work on other Televisa shows.
The mask of Abismo Negro is a symbol of AAA. It’s already scheduled to live on as part of the anime later this year, and the video game for next year. Abismo was scheduled to be a big part of the US Tour the next two weeks. I don’t know what they can do with that gimmick now – I think Black Abyss has to disappear for a while (and probably come back as something else), and I think no one can appear as Abismo Negro for a good long time, but I don’t what we’ll think about all this in two weeks. The Abismo Negro name will never go away thanks to those who worked to make it mean something, but I don’t think even the open minded AAA fans would accept anyone else under that mask maybe for years to come.
Edit: 907am – Noroeste has updated it’s story with details of Abismo’s death. In usual Mexican newspaper fashion, this article includes a picture of Abismo’s body, as they found it.
It sounds as though (for whatever reason), Abismo Negro had a panic attack on a bus, ordered the bus driver to stop near the river, sent a text message to his wife that he was lost in the mountain,and walked in. The theory is he got knocked out by a waterfall and drowned from there.
Let me see if I can get this straight: Abismo is believed to have had a panic attack, ordered the driver to stop (driver later reported the incident to the authorities, which caused the search for him), wandered off, text messages his wife that he was lost in the mountain, and was found in the river.
Shitty way to go. I didn’t believe it at first but Roberto reporting it seems to confirm it since he would have been with the AAA crew as of a few hours ago.
R.I.P. Abismo.:(
The AAA people in the show did not know anything
Wow. Very sad news. RIP.
Meltzer’s running with the story as well saying some AAA wrestlers confirmed it so I’m guessing Konnan tipped him off.
Augh… this is a really bad one. :( Hopefully it’s not what I suspect it is, but based on the reports… doesn’t look too good.
RIP Abismo.
RIP Abismo. I think it was about a month ago I was talking to Kurt Brown about how there haven’t been too many deaths in wrestling and in the past week or so, there has been Test, Abismo and I just read Steve Doll passed away. Damn!
That’s really sad news. After just having watched a documentary on the infamous “Northern Tours” this is a pretty bitter wrestling pill to swallow.
The guy was so talented and oozed charisma but couldn’t get his act together. Descanse en paz Abismo Negro.
Cubs: can you edit the title of the post to Abismo Negro (1971-2009)?
Sad. So soon after Ocampo’s warning to Mexican wrestlers.
In terms of importance and star power, Abismo could be the biggest premature death in wrestling. He was a solid main eventer for years and a household name in his country, where he was featured on a day time entertainment show, and main evented from 1997-2005 or so.
RIP Abismo.
@ LLL:
As far as premature deaths in wrestling, Love Machine’s death had to have been just as shocking as Abismo Negro’s, or at least somewhat comparable.
Now the question is whether or not AAA will produce an Abismo Negro tribute show.
First Test, then Steve Dunn, and now Abismo Negro. I don’t know what to say. Abismo Negro was my favorite AAA personality ever since I saw him back in 2000 for the first time. Sounds like murder but it also sounds like suicide. So who knows. This is a great lost. I am truly sadden by this news.
My first exposure to Abismo Negro was during TNA Wrestling’s America’s X Cup Tournament in 2004, and I was impressed with his abilities in the ring with a lot of the smaller X Division wrestlers. :(
@J. Corzo Cubby: They better do a tribute show. He was an icon to AAA, who was with them since the beggining, and he has played a significant role, so he would deserve a tribute show.
Would Black Abyss appear to freak out people?
AAA should not do a tribute show.It just not right for obvious reasons. A video package is enough
No! I’m very very sad.
I watched Abismo’s live show in Noah Japan 2006.
He was pretty cool.
I believed that he came to Japan again.
Rest in Peace, Abismo.
R.I.P. Abismo.
I was never much of a fan, but it’s sad to hear. R.I.P.
~rl
If someone doesn’t mind elaborating, I’m still fairly new to this whole outside-the-ring info about luchadors, so what were the slew of personal issues Abismo’d been dealing with the last few years?
damn I can’t believe this has happen to him.i remember seeing him as winners back in 95 and seen him wrestle since then.I enjoy his work as a heel.it’s sad that we won’t see him in the ring anymore.RIP Abismo Negro
@John G. drugs
Man. RIP Abismo. I was stoked seeing he came back and was hoping that this would lead to something really good, and was enjoying Abismo vs Black Abyss. I know they gotta get rid of Black Abyss out of good taste, but where does this leave Mini Abismo?
Whole thing is rather strange. But because it was well known that Abismo had his vices, it’s not hard to think that he was flipping out on some drug or that there’s a possibility that this was some sort of hit job. Personally, I’d rather just believe the heart attack theory.
Before I read the articles the first thing that popped into my head was “the dude got whacked.”
I remember when Hotstuff Hernandez died, and everyone said “he got whacked” because the deadbolt to his apartment was open. I always figured Hernandez was getting high with a married woman, or someone on the WCCW roster, and when the person realized Hernandez OD’d the person got the hell out of the apartment. Fritz Von Erich probably would’ve fired whoever was with Hernandez that night.
I remember when Hotstuff Hernandez died, and everyone said “he got whacked” because the deadbolt to his apartment was open. I always figured Hernandez was getting high with a married woman, or someone on the WCCW roster, and when the person realized Hernandez OD’d the person got the hell out of the apartment. Fritz Von Erich probably would’ve fired whoever was with Hernandez that night.
My point is, we sometimes wish it wasn’t drugs that killed one of favorite wrestlers, so stories of foul play are invented.
Any word on if he gave AAA an excuse for no-showing on Friday?
According to the Noreste report, the incident when he stopped the bus, collapsed and fell into the river happened on friday at 1:30 a.m.
Drifting in a river for two days should be reason enough to no-show the taping.
For some reason I was thinking of Friday at 1:30AM as what would really be Saturday at 1:30 AM. Everything makes sense now.
Abismo Negro (1971-2009) vaya con dios , he will be missed.
To LLL:
I think you mean Gino Hernandez, Hotstuff is still alive.
@Victor: Yes Hotstuff Hernandez wrestles for TNA with Homicide.
I’m shocked and just very sad at the death of Abismo Negro, I didn’t think that he had any probs and all his vices were behind him. RIP Abismo, I’ll always remember you forever as Winners.
**Plays “Strike It Up” by Black Box in memory of Abismo Negro/Winners**
YO SOY ABISMO NEGRO!!! VIPERS EXTREME! TRIPLE L!!
Vaya Con Dios, Abismo.
Abismo Negro was one of my all-time favorite lucha personalities. His work in Mexican television was very amusing as well. I followed his career (and his problems) as much as I could from the U.S. Please don’t consider me silly or naive when I say that this death has had as profound an impact on my wrestling world as that of Bruiser Brody’s death in the late 80’s.
@Victor: I always knew him as “Hotstuff” Gino Hernandez, or “Hotstuff” Hernandez.
why am i not seeing the death pics?
yes,my morbid curiosity is taking over.
They probably removed them.
R.I.P Abismo. A shame that he has passed, but even more so because he died alone.
@USAUSA1: For what reason should AAA not do a tribute?
When I checked the article from noroeste this evening, the picture of the body was no longer posted.
Well, it depends on what you mean by tribute show?
1. Focus everything on the show to him like WWE did with Eddie. Then my answer would be no because you might get a story later on that would make AAA look bad for giving him a tribute show due to his drug history.We don’t know the full story yet.
2. Video package tribute. Perfectly fine
@USAUSA1: WWE did a tribute on Chris Benoit before the details of his death came out. The day that the details did come out he went on television and explained that there will be no more tributes now that the details are clear. WWE didn’t look bad for doing a tribute before the details came out.
We may never know what happened with Abismo but I think a tribute show is in order.