Monday, April 16, 2007

Luchadore: Héctor Garza


Héctor Garza (born Héctor Solano Segura) is a Mexican professional wrestler currently working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).

Solano began wrestling as Héctor Garza in 1992 after being trained by his two uncles for the FILL promotion in his native Monterrey. In 1995, he brought to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre on the técnico (face) side as part of CMLL's rebuilding after the split with Asistencia Asesoría y Administración. He was put over veteran rudos (heels) like Bestia Salvaje and Satánico in hair matches and Garza quickly became one of the top técnicos in the company. In the following year, he teamed with Dos Caras and La Fiera to win the CMLL World Tríos Title and won the "Copa Junior," a tournament for the sons of wrestlers. However, after being a part of the shocking El Hijo del Santo heel turn, he jumped for a short period to rival AAA.

His stay in AAA was short although he did participate in a match on the 1997 World Wrestling Federation Royal Rumble pay-per-view when the WWF and AAA had a working agreement. He went to World Championship Wrestling later in the year and WCW added "Jr." to his name although his father wrestled as Humberto Garza. He was best known in WCW for his twirling turnbuckle to floor plancha called The Corkscrew Plancha, a move he botched more than he hit. Other than a victory over Scott Hall, he did not receive any push, mostly wrestling on WCW's minor shows, even when he became part of the Latino World Order. On February 25, 1999 he suffered the weirdest of wrestling injuries in a match against Psicosis on WCW Thunder when he tore his scrotum[1]. Later in 1999, he returned to AAA and became part of a multi-man feud with other younger wrestlers like Heavy Metal, Latin Lover and Perro Aguayo, Jr.. Different combinations of the four battled in various gimmick matches with Garza winning Metal's hair in 2001. In 2002, the focus of the feud became Latin Lover and Héctor Garza. In 2003, the two faced each other in a hair vs. hair match and, for the first time in Garza's career, he lost.

In 2004, he returned to the United States for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during AAA's working agreement with the company. Along with Abismo Negro, Juventud Guerrera, Mr. Aguila and later Heavy Metal, "Team Mexico" was successful in winning the America's X-Cup. After Team Canada was repackaged, Team Mexico became faces, with Garza getting particularly good reactions from the crowd. In Mexico, he also turned face when he teamed with Latin Lover in a program with Abyss. In June, he jumped back to CMLL, claiming that AAA owner Antonio Peña owed him money for Garza's dates in TNA.

While the AAA-TNA deal was still in effect, Garza wrestled exclusively in Mexico. In CMLL, he helped Perro Aguayo turn heel and became involved in Aguayo's feud with El Hijo del Santo. Eventually, he would help found La Furia del Norte with El Terrible and Tarzan Boy. Teaming with Tarzan and Terrible, La Furia chased after and defeated the CMLL Tríos champions Black Warrior, Canek and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. Meanwhile in the United States, the AAA-TNA deal was dead so TNA decided to bring Garza back. He returned for TNA Victory Road 2004, TNA's first three hour pay-per-view when he won a Twenty Man X-Division Gauntlet. The push continued with a match against NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett on TNA's weekly TV show. In 2005, he was set to wrestle Scott Hall at TNA Final Resolution 2005 but was arrested in Houston, Texas with steroids that were legal in Mexico but illegal in the United States (He used these steroids because of a knee surgery he had). Garza was deported, effectively ending his career in the United States. Garza claimed that he did not know the steroids were illegal in the United States and that he was humiliated by the guards. Garza would later sell t-shirts that read "If Pepe el Toro is innocent, so is Héctor Garza," alluding to the story of an old movie where a carpenter is incriminated on a murder and goes to jail where he finds the true assassins and fights with them and pops out the eye of the master mind to make him confess "Pepe el Toro es inocente".

After being deported, he returned to working full time in Mexico for CMLL. He teamed with Perro Aguayo, Jr. against Los Capos and became a major part of the new group, Los Perros del Mal along with members of La Furia del Norte, Los Pierroths and La Familia de Tijuana. In August, Pierroth was kicked out of the group and Garza volunteered to face him in a hair vs. hair match, which Garza won. After the Dr. Wagner, Jr. vs. Atlantis mask vs. mask match fell through, CMLL decided to go with Héctor Garza and Perro Aguayo, Jr. vs. Universo 2000 and Máscara Año 2000 double hair vs. hair matchas the main event of the EMLL 72nd Anniversary show. Three weeks before the show, Garza hit Máscara Año 2000 with a "Martinete" (tombstone piledriver), a move that takes wrestlers out for weeks in Lucha Libre. The match for the anniversary show was changed to a triangle match with Universo 2000 vs. Perro Aguayo, Jr. vs. Héctor Garza where the last man to get pinned gets his hair shaved. In the end, Universo pinned Garza with help of a low blow from his brother, Cien Caras, and Pierroth's valet, La Nazy.
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