1997 Coahuila/Durango lineups added to the luchadb

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I added 1997 lucha libre lineups, mostly from the cities Torreon and Gomez Palacio (and an increasing amount from elsewhere), to the luchadb database a few weeks ago. 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 time, I wrote this post before diving into the next year. It looks like I went fast, but it was actually a lot slower.

Events per year:

year events
1990 169
1991 175
1992 181
1993 151
1994 113
1995 144
1996 114
1997 199
1998   9
1999 235

That’s an explosion. I don’t think the lucha scene rebounded. It seems like the paper is just covering more of the smaller shows it might not have before as the page count increases. The visual posters that were the only way the shows were covered are virtually gone, the one up there is the only one I found all year. The non-show writing about lucha libre dries up as well. The last Super Dioses de Lucha Libre national article appears in August, and there’s only handful of local stories in the last few months.

It might also be because I had to do these differently. I usually just use a text search for “lucha”, sort thru the vast majority of articles which don’t have anything to do with lucha libre, and then maybe double check on certain arenas. The text search was broke from July to the end of the year this year. Instead had to find the sports section in each days paper, look for any lucha articles, and go from there. It was slow but it seemed to work, so I’m doing it that way for 1998. It does mean anything lucha libre not in the sports section was missed – like if they covered another area elsewhere in the paper.

Not much news means not much to write about here. There are a few big bios and history pieces. A Polo Torres thinks lucha libre is bad nowadays article leads into a nice bio of a famous wrestler who’s not well known today. A bio of Joe Marin improves on one from a few years prior, revealing the former Mexican lightweight champion was actually born in Arizona. His parents moved to Coahuila months later and registered him as being born there. There’s also a story of him almost dying in a match with Manuel Robles. One with Espanto II talks about him and his brother working their way of a Tuesday shows with a 20 match win streak. Maybe that’s what Magnus needs to do. Gran Markus reveals he was originally Dr. Markus because they thought his body looked a lot the then recently deceased Medico Asesino. They switched it to Gran when he started wrestling in Mexico City. King I talks about wrestling in the US for years, including winning the Tennessee Tag Titles (??) and going to one less and one draw with Lou Thesz. He trained a lot of luchadors, including Blue Panther, Pimpinela Escarlata, and Babe Face.

There’s a big article on the AAA versus Promo Azteca TV war, noting they claim to be promoting different styles of products but look about the same to casual fans even though Promo Azteca says they’re more serious. CMLL is treated as if they don’t exist, but really all the promotions are treated that way – it doesn’t read like they were interviewed for this article. The idea that lucha libre is scripted is off handily confirmed by Mexico City lucha libre commission official Rafael Barradas, but in way to prove not everything is scripted – Gori Guerrero walking out of EMLL rather than drop the NWA LH title to Ray Mendoza is the example.

Pentagon talks about his injury about one year after it happens. The spine injury meant he didn’t get oxygen to the brain for six minutes, which caused a serious brain injury. He remembers nothing about the following two months, it took six months for him to even be able to move his hand, with his condition improving from there. Last year, articles said AAA didn’t support Pentagon. This year, Pentagon says they helped pay for his hospital bills and will be running 2-3 charity shows for him. One of those shows in Torreon gets canceled, though that’s because they’re running one in Monterrey the same day. It seems to get made up late in the year. Late in the year, Pentagon II wrestles locally, and no one treats it as a big deal after fretting about the possibility in 1997.

Local luchador Gran Kalifa (Luis Alberto Salazar Rosales, suddenly passes away at 24 years of age. There’s no details, though it doesn’t appear to be in-ring related.

The lucha libre commission in Torreon, Gomez Palacio and Lerdo have a meeting where they unify on regulations and licensing, trying to get onto the same standard as Mexico City. There’s talk of doing the same with Ciudad Juarez. The 4 promoters given licenses at the time are Rudy Palma (Arena La Ribera), Santiago Valdes (Palacio de la Deportes), Ministro (de la Muerte?) I (Arena Calderon Rocha) and Alberto Dipp of Arena Olimpico Laguna.

Tony Rodriguez and Diamante get profiles before their July apuesta match. There’s one two articles about the 64th anniversary of lucha libre, mentioning plans to bring in Haku & Barbarian from WCW. It doesn’t actually happen.

Mil Mascaras says it’s better to honor luchadors while they’re still alive. Espanto III is remembered one year after his passing.

Super Dioses quick bios