CIUDAD JUAREZ, CHIHUAHUA.- Ten professional wrestlers from yesteryear are being honored in Juárez, where the treasured history of Mexico’s iconic lucha libre dates back to seeds planted in the Borderland over 90 years ago.
Champions, masked heroes and villains from Juárez who fought in Mexico and internationally, including in El Paso, as far back as the 1960s were inducted into the Juárez Lucha Libre Hall of Fame in festivities over the weekend, city officials and wrestlers announced.
The honorees are Rocky Star, La Bestia, Serpiente Blanca, La Sirenita, Sombra de Plata, Rossy Solís, La Araña Negra, Master, El Tupamaro and El Trovador Solitario.
It is good to honor people when they are living, it does no good once they have died, said El Trovador Solitario, who is also the president of the Hall of Fame association, said at a May 18 news conference at Juárez City Hall.
El Trovador Solitario (The Lone Troubadour) is a singer and a luchador in a mask with musical notes who would enter arenas singing along with mariachi. He made his wrestling debut in 1968 under the name Rudy Damián before becoming El Trovador Solitario in 1971, according to information from the city of Juárez.
Lucha libre, meaning “freestyle wrestling,” is marked by lightning-quick grapples and movements, high-flying acrobatics, and colorful masks in a Mexican cultural art form of the eternal battle of Tecnicos against Rudos, the good-guy clean, technical wrestlers against the crude bad guys.
Rocky Star and other Juárez lucha libre legends
The rough-and-tumble life of a professional wrestler can be tough with injuries and travel. But there is also glory to be found in the adrenaline of the ring, the cheers of fans, and the delight of children.
Rocky Star, real name Federico Ramirez, nicknamed “El Idolo de Ciudad Juárez,” the idol of Juárez, was one of the most popular Luchadores of the 1980s representing his hometown with a star-eyed mask and his dark hair sticking out on top.
“Rocky Star is another hometown boy who made good,” stated an El Paso Times feature article on the Juárez lucha libre scene in 1984, when fans would fill the 10,000-seat arena for shows on Sundays and Thursdays.
At the time, Rocky Star was also a 24-year-old optometry student at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez who had started wrestling seven years prior in Mexico City.
Source: Diario.MX
