1993 Coahuila/Durango lineups added to the luchadb

I added 1993 lucha libre lineups, mostly from the cities Torreon and Gomez Palacio (and an increasing amount from elsewhere), to the luchadb database over the last week. They’re integrated the different pages of this site, and they’re also just available here. This is a slow continuing project to mine the El Siglo de Torreon archive for lucha lineups and results.

This is the 10th year I’ve finished mining over this calendar year: 2005, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993. That’s with dropping the project in for a few months to work on other research. I’d love to finish the 90s (94-98 left) next year and also poke around to see what 70s stuff there is. I probably should also work on the Mexico City stuff I might have, or get a life.

Events per year:

year events
1984 142
1985 150
1986 154
1987 152
1988 176
1989 189
1990 169
1991 175
1992 181
1993 151

That number is drop from the last few. The changes that took affect at the end of 1992 carried thru to this year: very few visual posters are showing up any more, which means the Torreon/Gomez Palacio shows which were only mentioned in that form (Thursday Arena Olimpico Laguna, some Sunday Plaza de Toros/Palacio de Deportes/Auditorio) shows exist out in the ether but are written about rarely. At the same time, the parts of the paper covering nearby municipalities continues to grow, which means mentions of lucha libre shows in other cities start to become more common.

Breakdown by City

City State 1991 1992 1993
Allende Coahuila 1
Ciudad Lerdo Durango 1 14 15
Durango Durango 1 5
Gomez Palacio Durango 57 62 11
Matamoros Coahuila 15
Monclova Coahuila 1 1
Parras Coahuila 5 2
Piedras Negras Coahuila 1
Saltillo Coahuila 4 18 30
San Pedro Coahuila 1 3 3
Torreón Coahuila 104 78 74
175 181 151

This data set now covers a broader area, but less in depth than it used to be. I’m not sure this is worse – there were probably all those shows in Saltillo and Matamoros in previous years too, I just wasn’t reading about them – but it makes it harder to find any in-ring stories. Flanagan, one of the reasons I’m bothering to do this, “disappears” from much of the year. Many of his matches were at Arena Olimpico Laguna, so it’s tough to tell if he was actually not wrestling, or just wrestling in a place no longer covered. These records are never going to be complete but changes in consistency make it harder to follow. I suspect this is just the new normal for the rest of the 90s.

The notable local story is a fracturing of the local scene into two wrestlers unions. It seemed like most everyone was part of a single group, and many joined a branch of AAA’s union after that started on board. (It could be a factor in why guys like Reptil, Diamante, Zafiro, and Brillante had short AAA runs around this period, but that’s never said.) It’s mentioned in the background, and there’s a late April article saying luchadors from Arena Olimpico are now part of the Laguna branch of the AAA union. At that time, it included 40 wrestlers and 30 students at the school where Pantera del Ring, Tony Rodriguez, Caballero Halcon are the current trainers. I’d guess that would mean not-yet-Ultimo Guerrero was probably part of an AAA union at one point. The AAA union is pitched as another option to the existing one, without the two actually going to war over it.

That appears how it’s plays out in public, though the coverage of the local scene is also way down. It’s mostly just stray notes about shows being canceled or people not showing up, same thing with the national scene. Atlantis & Mano Negra are schedule to rematch in Torreon after their Anniversary mask match later in Ocotber. Lots of people come out for the show, but Atlantis doesn’t appear due to flight issues.. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. gets suspended for no-shows CMLL shows, but it turns it it’s because he’s about to jump to AAA.

There’s a complaint that Lerdo fans are being defrauded about AAA. There’s lots of talk about who may be to blame, not much about what happened. Rudo Willy Rojas complains new wrestler are being rushed to the top too fast, not being forced to earn their way, something that every generation complaints about. A columnist says bad promoters are killing wrestling, another perennial. Even a column saying
41 Million pesos have been donated for a lucha libre commission? at the end of the year, but that doesn’t seem like it went anywhere.

On the positive side, the success of AAA has people starting to write the Lucha libre: displacing baseball and soccer as the second biggest sport articles and wondering if do edecanes make lucha libre feel too much like a circus? and if that is that bad?

There’s a stray article in September saying Arena Olimpico Laguna is in danger of being shut down due to issues at boxing and wrestling shows. A few weeks later, there’s a mention that one of the people working with the building and AAA is no longer working with either, but no details.

1993 is the year Oro passed away, and that’s a national story in two parts. part 1 & part 2. Soon after, Vampiro collapses at a show – either due to stress or the things he was taking to relieve stress – and a writer does some digging to find commission health records for licensed wrestlers in Mexico City. I had no idea someone was keeping track of this sort of thing, but they share the information as part of a story talking about the health condition of luchadors.

  • In 1989, there were 715 licensed lucha libre shows in Mexico City alone, with a total of 5576 matches. (This seems off, that’d be an average of nearly 8 matches per show.) There were 672 exams of luchadors.
  • In 1990, there were 489 exams of luchadors. They found 78 cases of advanced cavities (teeth?), 30 cases of diabetes (mentioned as up 12 from the year before), and 43 cases of hypertension among other issues.
  • In 1991, there were 574 exams. 119 had advanced cavities, 38 cases of diabetes, 44 hypertension, 11 eye issues, 20 with respiratory issues. A total of 219 – about 40% of exams found some issue.
  • In 1991, 42% of the licensed luchadors were over the age of 40. That went up to 45% in 1992. 11% were between 51 and 60. I’d suspect the younger people are, the more likely they’re wrestle unlicensed.

Other longer articles found

Los Superdioses de lucha libre quick bios