El Halcon’s 1978 Tag Team Of The Year! Along with the Other Winners that Year!

The magazine El Halcon had a really cool issue in February 1979 were they discussed the best of 1978 and its an awesome issue. The highlight was seeing the tag team voted the best for 1978 being El Bello Greco & Sergio El Hermoso. They had been runner-ups the previous year. The magazine praised them for putting on a “great show” and having won hair matches against the tag teams of Scorpio Sr. & Babe Face and the other exotico team of Baby Sharon & Ruddy Reyna.

The other wrestlers nominated as best in a variety categories included:

Best Tecnico & Best Headliner: Anibal
Best National Champion: Sangre Chicana, who the magazine describes as “his challengers terror”
Best Prospect: El Halcon ’78
Best Out of The Country: Septiembre Negro for having a successful run in Panama.
Wrestler of the Year: El Canek
Best Battler: Astro Rey (award for never giving up)
Best Opening Match Wrestler: El Talisman
Best SemiFinalist Wrestler: Flama Azul
Best Tag Team: El Bello Greco & Sergio El Hermoso
The Grand Surprise: Tony Salazar
Most Spectacular: Black Man
Best Provincial Champion: Negro Navarro (wrestler who held the belt outside of the bigger regions like Mexico City)
Best Rudo: Perro Aguayo
Best World Champion: Cesar Valentino
Best Import/Foreigner: Pak Choo
Best Newcomer: Ruddy Reyna
Best Trio: El Santo, Anibal & El Solitario
The Scandalous Chief (El Jefe del Escandalo): Ray Mendoza (award given for garnering the most heat in an arena)
The Show of the Year: Palacio de Los Deportes del D.F. on August 13, 1978 Here’s the card:

Masks vs. Masks: Los Escorpiones vs. Bobby Lee & Villano III
WWWF Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ray Mendoza
Anibal, El Solitario & Gran Hamada vs. Canek, Karloff Lagarde & Cesar Valentino
Huracan Ramirez, Karl Gocht Jr. (Gotch?) & Ultraman vs. Perro Aguayo, Fishman & Leon Negro
Sergio El Hermoso & El Bello Greco vs. Babe Face & Scorpio

Deception of the Year: Mano Negro – This has a pretty awesome write-up. The writer wonders if its that Mano Negra lacked any opposition as NWA Welterweight Champion because he didn’t really show any improvement that year. He then questions if the “programming department” was to blame for this. What is this 2012? LOL! The writer then suggests that perhaps it was both the wrestler and the promotion’s fault.

They give a special mention to Villano III and Mil Mascaras for being very active wrestling around Mexico and in other parts of the world.

Best Champion in D.F. (Mexico City): Javier Llanes
The Special Figure of 1978: El Solitario – This was a mention for having been very active in wrestling, taking Perro Aguayo’s hair and for having 14 title defenses.
Most Popular: El Santo
Best Referees: Roberto “Guero” Rangel & El Pompin
The Grand Absentee: El Audaz – he appeared very rarely in 1978 and the writer wondered what was going on given he had established himself and seemed strange he’d disappeared for so long.
Best Commissioner: Benjamin Flores Granados

Luchadores who debuted in 1978 in Mexico City:
Blak Star
Nakamura
La Sombra
El Magnifico
Ari Romero
El Supremo
Raul Armas
Pepe Luna
Gurkhan
Ricky Romero
Sangre India
Los Jalisco
Rey David
Strong I
Strong II
El Idolo (he had to reveal his name, Carlos Ramirez, when he tried to join EMLL)
El Mago
Tony Benetto

Most Memorable Matches of 1978:
Best Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ray Mendoza for the WWWF Jr. Heavyweight Title from August 13th, Palacio de los Deportes de Mexico D.F.
Bloodiest Match: Renato Torros & Roberto Paz vs. Karloff Lagarde & Ruddy Reyna from September 5th, Auditorio Municipal “Benito Juarez” de Cuautitlan.
The Most Spectacular Match-up: Solar vs. Fishman for the UWA Welterweight Title from June 18th,Plaza de Toros “Monumental” de Monterrey N.L.

There’s a mention about the women in lucha libre with Chela Salazar getting praised for being recognized as Women’s Champion by the state of Mexico commission.

The Revelation In A Foreign Country: Dos Caras for his tours to Japan.
The Revelation of the year: Bobby Lee

They also list the masks, hair and title matches of 1978.

The magazine then makes a few list that are rather interesting. The first list is of young wrestlers they think are ready to get their big break:

1. Los Jalisco
2. Sangre India
3. Los Huicholes
4. Tony Benetto
5. Azteca de Oro
6. Brazo de Plata
7. Moloch
8. El Vaagabundo
9. Franco Colombo
10. El Supremo

The second list if of older wrestlers that the fine folks of El Halcon felt should retire. “They had their moment, now they only live from the past and without possibilities of maintaining their image” was what the writer used in referring to this list:

1. Carnicero Butcher (hey that’s Butcher Butcher!)
2. Rafael Salamanca
3. Huroki Sito
4. Sergio Borrayo
5. Gory Casanova
6. Genaro Contreras
7. El Maldito
8. Sugi Sito
9. Cavernario Galindo
10. Mr. Steel

Finally they were very unimpressed with several foreigners to Mexico. They mentioned it was more quantity than quality and said only a few were even good. Here’s their list of quantity over quality (I bet I can guess who they liked):

Gran Hamada
Temojin El Mongol
Pierre Gagne
Rorro Rogeau
Tigre Colombiano
Nakamura
Harley Race
Lou Thesz
Satoru Sayama
Dragon Rojo
Steve Peackok
Pack Choo
Billy White Cloud