Cesar Gonzalez, best known as Silver King, passed away Saturday during a match in London. He was 51.
Silver King is believed to have suffered a massive heart attack during his match with Juventud Guerrera. It was his third match of the day. He’d wrestled on the afternoon show as Ramses, his character from Nacho Libre. The evening show included a CMLL-style battle royal to determine the match-ups. Silver King appeared to have trouble getting to his feet after a pinfall attempt. He stayed in the same position long enough that the crowd started to boo the inaction. Guerrara gave Silver King a light kick to the side seemingly to cover for Silver King not moving, Silver King immediately collapsed fully to the mat, and he never moved again. Both Guerrera and the referee (veteran wrestler Black Terry) seemed more concerned about protecting the integrity of the match than Silver King’s condition. No medical personnel were present while Guerrera struggled to turn over Silver King for the win, or even immediately after as Silver King laid unmoving on the canvas. CPR was started about 5-6 minutes after the start of the incident. An ambulance was called but Silver King was pronounced dead before it arrived.
Video of the incident, from many angles, is easily available on the internet. I will not be linking to it here. Those shooting video included El Hijo del Santo’s Facebook page. They continued to stream throughout the incident as if nothing strange was happening at all, mirroring the inability to comprehend the situation in the ring.
The short time period between when Silver King started showing symptoms and when he appeared to stop moving suggests it is possible there was nothing anyone could’ve done – that, short of Silver King having this episode happen in a hospital (or perhaps near a defibrillator), it all happened too fast for him to be saved. That nothing was done, that this was immediately responded to with inaction, is going to be a lasting memory of Silver King’s death.
I’ll have more about Silver King later on.
This hurts so bad.
Today my heart aches. The Lucha Libre world lost one of it’s best and I lost a friend. Cesar known to most as Silver King was one of his generation’s finest. For a time I believe he was the absolute best wrestler in the world bell to bell. Now it has been many years since I last connected with him. Time seems to do that unfortunately. I am forever grateful for all the knowledge that he shared with me and the opportunities he worked to get me. From training together one on one for hours or just hanging out at his place while his brother was in Japan. He was my wrestling Uncle. I always remember fondly being his plus one to the #NachoLibre premiere in Hollywood. It was a big deal for me getting to go to a Hollywood premiere at the Chinese Theater. But an even bigger deal for him. He walked the red carpet that night full of swagger like only he could. He was flying high full of joy. We watched the movie and as soon as it was over he turned to me to talk about it.
Cesar: Chiquilín did you like the movie?
Me: It was great! I loved it!
He looked back at me. Curled his lip in disapproving fashion and started shaking his head.
Cesar: Not me. It was shit.
Me: Wait what are you serious? Why?
He looked me straight in the eye and said with a smile.
Cesar: Not enough Ramses.
Rest in peace my friend. You leave the world better than you found it.
I didn’t appreciate AAA posting the video clip on their Instagram.
wait, AAA posted a clip of his death on their instagram?
hahaha holy shit
I forget, did they do something similar when Perro Aguayo jr died?
I think it was actually “Lucha Azteca AAA”, the Azteca run social media accounts for the TV show, who posted the video clip. AAA doesn’t run that account and has not posted the video on their social media as far as I can tell (and did not with Perro.) Azteca would probably argue it was news. I’m not sure I would argue that.
Ah, okay that’s not so trashy. I was hoping for a “booking Angel o Demonio and putting a cinder block on the flyer” level of carnie trash hi-jinks.