Lucha Libre Legend, Santo, part 2

In the early 1940s, Guzmán married María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Montaño (Maruca), a union that would produce 10 children; their names were Alejandro, María de los Ángeles, Héctor Rodolfo, Blanca Lilia, Víctor Manuel, Miguel Ángel, Silvia Yolanda, María de Lourdes, Mercedes, and the youngest child Jorge, who also became a famous wrestler in his own right, El Hijo del Santo (Son of Santo). One of his grandsons (not a son of Jorge) wrestled under the name El Nieto Del Santo (Grandson of Santo), but after Son of Santo took legal action against him using the name Santo, he changed it to Axxel, but people still refer to him as Nieto del Santo.

In 1942, Rodolfo's manager, Don Jesús Lomelí, was putting together a new team of wrestlers, all dressed in silver, and wanted Rodolfo to be a part of it. He suggested three names, El Santo (The Saint), El Diablo (The Devil), or El Angel (The Angel), and Rodolfo chose the first one. On the 26th of June at the age of 25, he wrestled at the Arena Mexico for the first time as El Santo. Under this new name he quickly found his style, and his agility and versatility made him very popular.

One of Santo's greatest matches was in 1952, when he fought a tag-team known as Los Hermanos Shadow (which consisted of famed luchadors Blue Demon and the Black Shadow). Santo beat and unmasked The Black Shadow in the ring, which triggered Blue Demon's decision to become a técnico, as well as a legendary feud between The Blue Demon and Santo that culminated in Blue's beating Santo in a well-publicized series of matches in 1952 and again in 1953. Their rivalry never really ended in later years, although they appeared together in a number of action/adventure films, since Santo always remembered his defeat at the Blue Demon's hands.


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Wolf Rubinsky - Latvian Luchador

Wolf Rubinsky (also known as Wolf Ruvinskis) was born on October 30th, 1921 in Riga, Latvia, a pretty good distance from Mexico. Wolf was an actor and luchador. He was married to Beatriz Perez, the dancer Armida Herrera and to actress Lilia Michel.

Born to Jewish parents, they relocated to Argentina during World War II.
In spite of living in extreme poverty he excelled in sports and as a professional wrestler he toured South America, the United States and Mexico.
This last country became his place of residence where he stayed in the ring well into the 1960s, wrestling El Santo, Black Shadow, El Médico Asesino and Lobo Negro.
As a wrestler he was introduced to Mexican film playing luchadores, in particular the masked Neutrón a character he created.
Neutron appeared in five films.
One of his most memorable roles was in La bestia magnífica ("The Magnificent Beast") in 1953.
He also appeared in well over 100 films during his career.
Wolf was so good that he won the Ariel Award from the Mexican Academy of Film for Best supporting actor in the film Juego limpio (1996).
And he also appeared on the American TV show, I Spy (with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby) in the episode "Shana" as Andreyev.



You can watch Neutrón el Enmascarado Negro (1960) in in entirety on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t69HCjwHXZo

The father of lucha libre passes away - Alejandro “Black Shadow” Cruz - RIP

The father of lucha libre passes away - Alejandro “Black Shadow” Cruz - RIP
Friday, March 09, 2007 - Scott Adams

Friends, relatives and fellow Luchadors gathered at Pantheon Garden to bid a final farewell to “The Black Shadow”. The Lucha legend was buried today in Mexico. He was 82 when he passed.

The Black Shadow real name Alejandro Cruz was born in the city of León, Guanajuato. He grew up idolizing the likes of Chino Achiu, Henry Pilusso and Murciélago Velázquez, and while he was a lucha enthusiast, his initial ambitions were to seek a career as a professional musician. He moved to Guadalajara to purse those dreams but he eventually gave up and abandoned them for lucha libre. Before becoming a luchador, he worked as a shoemaker, and he practiced some sports like cliffdiving and football (soccer).

His professional debut was a loss against Rito Romero on June 21, 1942 at the Arena "Canada Dry" in Guadalajara. He used the name "Jungla" Cruz, which he didn't really like, and his first outfit was made out of leather. Jungla Cruz was a popular newspaper comic strip character so the promoter he first wrestled for, an Arab called Elías Simón, gave him that name.

Full Story at:
http://www.kocosports.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=14062&z=4

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