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Bam Bam – A mainstay of CMLL’s mini division and a talented high-flying tecnico. Came to CMLL at a time when they revamped the minis division and for about 2 years that division featured a lot of talent and Bam Bam was one of its top stars. Has had a long-running feud with both Demus 3:16 and Pierrothito. Had an incredible run in July 2007 were he won three hair matches against Demus 3:16 (known at the time as Pequeño Damian 666), Pequeño Halloween and Pequeño Violencia. In July 2008 he would win the CMLL Minis Title from Demus 3:16 and hold the title for over 2 years until finally losing it to Pequeño Olimpico on Ferbruary 13th, 2011. In 2008, as part of his ongoing feud with Demus 3:16, he lost a hair match. The feud between the two has had some memorable matches with the best coming from that 2008 feud.

Bestia 666 – Second generation luchador is the son of long-time Perros Del Mal member, Damian 666. Wrestled early on under a different name, but took on the “Bestia 666″ moniker in 2010. Competes in various promotions, including AAA, IWRG, IWL and other independent promotions, but his home base is the Perros Del Mal promotion. He’s also found his way onto the U.S. wrestling scene appearing on the Urban Wrestling Federation. Late in 2010, won the IWL International Tag Team titles teaming with X-Fly. They held the titles for almost a year before they were forced to vacate the titles due to their refusal to defend them. On July 24, 2011 at the Perros del Mal show held at the Lucha Libre Expo, he won the Perros Del Mal Light Heavyweight Title. He lost the title in November in a 6-way match to Super Nova. Teamed with Damian 666 & X-Fly to win the IWRG IC Trios Titles in late August. They eventually lost the titles to the Junior Dinamitas on December 1st, 2011. Has had a tryout with WWE and is talented enough that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him there in the future.

Billy Boy/Billy El Malo – Gained his early fame as part of a trio known as “Los Barrio Boys” teaming with Decnnis and Alan. They had a lukewarm reception from the fans who at the time weren’t really giving a lot of the younger guys that Antonio Pena was giving a shot to work in AAA. They eventually started winning some fans over as AAA’s exciting mid-card tecnico trio feuding with veterans like Los Diabolicos and another young faction known as The Black Family. Billy Boy briefly worked under a mask as Alfa in 2004, but went back to just being Billy Boy. It was in mid-2005 when Antonio Pena decided to revive an old storyline that he attempted several years ago were veteran rudo, Gran Apache was feuding with at that time young wrestler, Oscar Sevilla, and as part of the feud Sevilla would reveal that he was dating Gran Apache’s daughter, Fabi Apache. The storyline didn’t get over at that time and was squashed despite keeping the Sevilla-Apache singles program going. Pena decided to try this storyline out again only this time it would be Billy Boy feuding with Gran Apache and revealing that he was dating (and later married) Fabi Apache. The feud was a success as it went on for several years and was during that run, one of the best booked feuds in pro wrestling. Every week was like watching a soap or tv drama with the storyline having several twists and turns including Billy Boy going crazy after Fabi Apache dumped him and being sent to the loony bin, then coming out, tricking his father-in-law (Gran Apache) by wearing a mask and bringing back the old Alfa gimmick into training him and having him think he was a good guy and getting him to start dating Fabi Apache. The feud had many twists and turns and Billy Boy established himself as a great sympathetic tecnico (babyface) in the early run and late in the storyline he became a really good rudo when he revealed he had a mistress (Sexy Star) and started tagging with her. Not only was the storyline great and included others like Rosy Moreno, Mari Apache, Aerostar, and even baby Marvin (Fabi and Billy Boy’s son who was kidnapped by Rosy Moreno and Gran Apache), but there was some outstanding matches. The feud would finally see the end sometime in 2009 when the focus was switched to Sexy Star vs. Fabi Apache. Billy Boy worked returned to working lower card matches as a rudo. He was then placed in the La Sociedad vs. AAA storyline by joining the rudo faction known as La Milicia in 2010. He was then beaten with a bat by Konnan in a vignette were Konnan felt there was a traitor in the group and thought it was Billy Boy, who then joined Cibernetico’s Bizarros and has changed his name from Billy Boy to Billy El Malo (Billy the Bad Guy).

Black Shadow – One of the all-time legends of lucha libre. Is considered the “father of high flying wrestling” as he used several variations of the ‘tope’ (flying headbutt) in matches. There had been others who had used those types of moves years ahead of him, but due to his athleticism, he made the moves look far more spectacular. He formed a tag team and friendship with Blue Demon that was when he finally reached success. The duo was known as “Los Hermanos Shadow”. They became bitter rivals to another legendary duo known as “La Pareja Atomica” (El Santo & Gory Guerrero). The tag team rivalry would soon lead to a singles feud between Black Shadow and El Santo, which eventually led to a mask match at Arena Coliseo on November 7th, 1952, which Black Shadow lost. The match to this day is still regarded as one of the biggest and most important matches in lucha libre history. Black Shadow’s career continued after the mask match as he was still very flashy in the ring. He continued to have strong feuds against the likes of Dorrel Dixon, Tony Borne and Rene Guajardo. He continued to wrestle until 1981 (39 years in the business by that point) and after he wasn’t cleared medically to continue wrestle he retired.

Black Terry – One of the best workers in Mexico. Veteran still keeps on going and continues to have quite a following. He was considered a good worker for much of his career working primarily for the UWA promotion or as an independent. With the popularity of the trios in the UWA promotion, Black Terry would eventually be put into a trio with Jose Luis Feliciano and Lobo Rubio known as Los Temerarios. This was the first version and was primarily a mid-card trio in the mid-’80s. The late ’80s – early ’90s version would feature Terry, Feliciano and Shu El Guerrero. This version became the more popular and better working trio. They would tour Japan as well for Hamada’s UWF promotion. Black Terry and Jose Luis Feliciano left UWA in 1992 and Terry would be repackaged as Guerrero Maya and be part of another mid-card trio known as “Los Guerreros del Futuro”. While its possible to go on about his early career, were he made his mark was entering the early part of this century, he would garner a cult-like following among die hard lucha fans for being one of the few luchadores who kept the old-style of lucha alive on the independent circuit and also giving a new generation of lucha fans a glimpse as to what an old school lucha brawl is all about. He’s also found a home in IWRG were he not only continues to wrestle, but also trains a new generation of luchadores. In the past several years he’s been a part of one of Mexico’s top trios known as Los Terrible Cerebros with Dr. Cerebro and Cerebro Negro. He’s also had several battles with another veteran, Negro Navarro. He’s one of the must-watch luchadores for any fan who really wants to delve into watching good lucha.

Black Tiger – This Black Tiger is the Puebla version, who has been around for a really long time and is considered the original Black Tiger in Mexico. In 2001 when Silver King was wrestling as Black Tiger for both New Japan and CMLL, CMLL asked this Black Tiger to change his name. So he went with “The Tiger”! Once Silver King dropped that gimmick, this Black Tiger began using the name again. He’s been a long-time Puebla local luchador and is a very good worker. Works mainly low on the card as the main CMLL wrestlers tend to be the ones working the top 2 or 3 matches on most nights. He had a really good showing in matches were he teamed with younger CMLL wrestlers a few years back.

Black Warrior – Best known for having his own signature tope suicida that is generally considered to be the tope of all topes of the past 20 or so years. Spent most of his career as a masked rudo that got his big break in CMLL in the late ’90s when CMLL decided to elevate several younger wrestlers on the card. He joined Blue Panther and Dr. Wagner Jr. to form the awesome trio of Los Laguneros and they captured the CMLL World Trios Titles. He had some moments as a tecnico as well, but it was after turning rudo in a tag team match teaming with Mistico against Averno and Mephisto that he would have his career highlight moment and feud. He would spend a good portion of 2006 feuding with Mistico and their feud would climax as the main event mask vs. mask match at the Anniversary show in 2006. Black Warrior is at his best as part of a trio and in 2009, after some back and forth disagreements with those in charge in CMLL, Black Warrior was placed in a trio with Dragon Rojo Jr. and Sangre Azteca. The trio was known as Poder Mexica and while it was positioned as a mid-card trio, they became popular and even won the Mexican National Trios titles. Black Warrior was replaced by Misterioso Jr. in the trio. Instead Black Warrior was placed in the feud with Japanese wrestlers, Yujiro and Naito. He lost a hair match to Yujiro in October 16, 2009. He then disappeared from CMLL and wrestling for several months. He reappeared wrestling on independent and AAA spot shows. He made his return to CMLL in early 2011.

Blue Demon – Right behind El Santo as the biggest lucha star of all time. He was a cross-over star as he appeared in numerous films in the ’60s and ’70s. Trained by Rolando Vera and starting out in Monterrey. He was initially a rudo when he made his way to EMLL in Mexico City. He was put into a tag team with Black Shadow and both would eventually be referred to as “brothers” (Los Hermanos Shadow) as it was basically a storyline that blurred the line and some people just assumed they were real-life brothers. Blue Demon eventually turned tecnico after the classic mask battle between El Santo and Black Shadow. After Black Shadow’s loss, Blue Demon vowed revenge for his brother against the rudo, El Santo. Los Hermanos Shadow feuded with El Santo & Gori Guerrero. While his feud with Santo is the one that is most talked about, he also had memorable feuds against Cavernario Galindo, Tony Borne and Karloff Lagarde. Blue Demon also had the nickname of “Manotas”, which translates to big hands as he really did have big hands. He was also given the nickname “El Profe Manotas” (Professor with big hands) when he too started training wrestlers. El Dandy credited him for being one of the veteran wrestlers that helped him out early in his career. His son, Blue Demon Jr., continues to carry the famous name. CMLL has also honored Blue Demon by holding a tournament called “La Leyenda Azul” (The Blue Legend) as an annual event.

Blue Demon Jr. – The adopted son of lucha legend, Blue Demon. He’s had a long successful career of his own, but not at the level of the original Blue Demon. He has name value, but unlike his father, he never has had the national success in the ring or the celebrity status. He’s still had a strong career. Spent about 7 years with CMLL from the late ’80s up until 1996 and then joined AAA for a few years and by the 2000s has been an independent with a return to CMLL mixed in during the early 2000s. Teamed and feuded with another second-generation wrestler El Hijo del Santo for much of their careers. Perhaps his best opponent over the years was Blue Panther as the two always seemed to have great chemistry in the ring and usually had fun matches. In late 2008 won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Adam Pearce. By this point the NWA was long past what it use to be on a worldwide or national level, but it was rather significant at the time as Blue Demon Jr. was the first Mexican and masked wrestler to win the title. He held the title for over a year until finally losing it back to Adam Pearce in March 2010. Blue Demon Jr. was also running the NWA Mexico group that would run shows in Mexico sporadically and probably created more of a buzz over legal threats directed towards CMLL over the use of the NWA World titles. This never really led to much outside of CMLL just adding the word “Historic” to the names (i.e. NWA World Historic Middleweight Title, etc.). Besides creating enemies with CMLL, he also has had issues with the rest of his family over his use of the “Blue Demon” name and likeness. In 2007, leading up to a mask match with Espectro Jr. in Tijuana, rumors were rampant that Blue Demon Jr. would be the one dropping the masks due to the legal fight with the rest of the family over the “Blue Demon” name. The result ended with Blue Demon Jr. victorious over Espectro Jr. The post-match rumor buzz was that someone within Blue Demon Jr’s camp was the one that leaked that rumor to get more people to attend the show. Blue Demon Jr. also has an energy drink deal with Full Throttle.

Blue Panther – Is often referred to as “El Maestro Lagunero” for being one of Mexico’s top technical wrestlers, a trainer at an early stage in his career, and for the region in Mexico that he comes from. Spent most of the early part of his career as a rudo, but due to his skill level, fans grew to like and respect him so late in his career he’s been a tecnico. Gained early success in the ’80s wrestling in the UWA promotion were he was involved in the middleweight and welterweight division and held both titles during his time there. He had rivalries with the likes of Blackman, Kendo, El Hijo del Santo and Solar I. He became a regular for EMLL/CMLL in the late ’80s and continued to put out some very solid performances. In the early ’90s, Blue Panther also became a regular touring Japan for Gran Hamada’s Universal Wrestling Federation. Blue Panther and Atlantis had a memorable rivalry in 1991 over the NWA Middleweight Title, which featured an excellent match-up between the two in August. Perhaps the most memorable feud Blue Panther had came in 1992 when he became involved in a feud with American wrestler “Love Machine” Art Barr. The two not only had an in-ring feud, but also didn’t like each other outside of the ring. The two faced off in a big mask vs. mask match on April 3, 1992 which Blue Panther won when Love Machine was DQ’ed for using the piledriver (el martinete), which was an illegal move in Mexico. The fans cheered for Blue Panther despite him being a rudo. They cheered for their fellow Mexican against the foreigner. When Antonio Pena created AAA in 1992, one of the first EMLL wrestlers to jump ship was Blue Panther. Soon “Love Machine” Art Barr would follow and the two would restart their old feud. The two faced off once again in a singles match. This time in a mask vs. hair match on July 18th 1993. Again the fans cheered the rudo Blue Panther. Blue Panther was victorious once again, but the match was highlighted by the double-turn during the match as Blue Panther became a tecnico and “Love Machine” Art Barr would become one of the hotter rudos in Mexico. Blue Panther also had his share of memorable technical matches in AAA against the likes of Super Astro, Angel Azteca and Solar as El Mariachi. He and Fuerza Guerrera formed a promotion called PROMELL after leaving AAA. The promotion was short-lived, but was the precursor to Promo Azteca. Blue Panther wrestled for that promotion as well. He made his way back to CMLL in 1997 and immediately started feuding with old rival Atlantis. He spent about a year as just one of the main semi-main/main event luchadores without a major feud. It wasn’t until late in 1998 when he teamed with Dr. Wagner Jr. and Black Warrior to form the trio of Los Laguneros that he seemed to reinvigorate his career. That trio had some great matches against a variety of tecnico trios and held the CMLL World Trios Titles. The trio also had a change when Black Warrior left and was replaced by Fuerza Guerrera, but they kept having good matches. In 2000, Blue Panther had a memorable feud in Monterrey with El Hijo del Santo over the WWA Welterweight Title. In 2004, Blue Panther made the switch to being a tecnico full-time. He teamed with rival Atlantis and other tecnicos in a feud with Los Guerreros Del Infierno (Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy & Olimpico). On June 25th, 2004, Blue Panther and Atlantis won the CMLL World Tag Team titles against Ultimo Guerrero and Rey Bucanero. They had a successful title run that spanned about 10 months until they eventually dropped the titles to Averno & Mephisto. Continued to be a top star for CMLL and also had success in other territories. He continued to wrestle in the Monterrey, Nuevo Leon region feuding with Charles Lucero over the WWA Middleweight Title. Also began feuding with Atlantis again, when Atlantis turned rudo and joined forces with Ultimo Guerrero and crew to form Los Guerreros del Atlantida in late 2005. On September 28th, 2007 at the 74th Anniversary show, Blue Panther won the mask of Lizmark Jr. in a multi-person cage match when the two were the last in the cage. On July 5th, 2008, he took the mask of Tigre Universitario in Monterrey. Two months later at CMLL’s 75th Anniversary show, Blue Panther lost his mask to Villano V in a surprising result. He continued to be a big part of CMLL. When he’s not in a major feud he’s become a key veteran in helping the younger wrestlers improve in the ring. He’s still capable of delivering great matches and in 2011 and in 2012 continued to do so especially in his feud with Negro Casas. The two spent most of 2011 feuding and by late November it was announced that they would have a singles hair match. At the press conference to sign contracts, Felino became involved and asked his brother Negro Casas to let him take his place in the match to restore the name of the Casas family. Negro Casas agreed. On December 16th, 2011 at the annual last big CMLL show, Blue Panther won the hair match against Felino due to interference by Negro Casas. The two continued to feud and eventually had a hair match at the March 2nd, 2012, Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show were the match ended in a draw and both got their heads shaved. The feud continued. Blue Panther is now part of CMLL’s programming department/booking committee.

Los Brazos (Brazo de Plata, Brazo de Oro & El Brazo) – One of the popular trios from the 1980s during UWA era and amongst the memorable trios from that era. Second-generation wrestlers, who are all brothers and sons of Shadito Cruz. There are additional brothers and the Brazo family lineage has increased in the past several years as a newer generation including the sons and daughters are now all involved in wrestling. However, the trio of Los Brazos is/was the most recognizable portion of the family. Los Brazos had many feuds with the top trios from the ’80s like Los Misioneros de la Muerte and had a long-running feud with Los Villanos, which included a trios mask match in 1988 were all the Brazos lost their masks. They continued to wrestle as a trio into the mid-90s and while most modern fans might remember them for being a comedy trio, they were actually quite good in the ring. They also held numerous trios and tag team titles throughout Mexico. However, once unmasked, Brazo de Plata’s charisma outshined his other brothers and he became a popular tecnico who’s continued to succeed in CMLL. Brazo de Plata also was given the nickname Super Porky. Brazo de Oro’s singles success wasn’t at the level of Brazo de Plata’s, but he continued to be a solid mid-carder up until his retirement. El Brazo meanwhile wasn’t as successful for several years until he made his way into AAA in around 2001 and since that time has been used as a comedy rudo, who hates fat people.

BUSHI – Currently wrestles for All Japan Pro Wrestling. He spent about a year in Mexico wrestling on the independent circuit, primarily for the IWRG promotion out of Arena Naucalpan. Wrestled under a mask in Mexico, but dropped it to Oficial 911 in late 2009. He continued to wrestle in Mexico without a mask. He held the IWRG IC Lightweight Title twice. Started as a rudo and then turned tecnico in Mexico. Had a feud with Avisman for much of that year as well plus he got to wrestle quite often with a strong crew of IWRG regulars that consisted of Freelance, Suicida and Dr. Cerebro. If you are an AJPW fan and don’t know what BUSHI looks like and are too lazy to search out videos of him in Mexico, well kcidis has you covered with a profile pic!