Antonio Peña
| Antonio Peña | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Birth name | Antonio Hipolito Peña Herrada |
| Born | June 13, 1951 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Died | October 5, 2006 (aged 55)[1] Mexico City, Mexico |
| Family | Ponzoña (father) Espectro (uncle) El Picudo (cousin) Silver Cat (cousin) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Dalia Negra Espectro de Ultratumba (II) Espectro Jr. (I) El Genio Kahoz (I) The Rose |
| Billed height | 5 ft 11 in (179 cm) |
| Billed weight | 227 lb (103 kg) |
| Billed from | Mexico City, Distrito Federal |
| Trained by | Rojas Isaías Rodríguez Toño Hernández Espectro |
| Debut | April 8, 1974 |
| Retired | 1986 |
| Part of a series on |
| Professional wrestling |
|---|
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Antonio Hipolito Peña Herrada (June 13, 1951 – October 5, 2006) was a Mexican
Peña began his involvement in professional wrestling as an in-ring wrestler, or
Biography
Early life
Antonio Peña grew up in a wrestling family in Mexico City, Mexico. His father wrestled as the luchador Ponzoña and his uncle was the famous original Espectro, a big star in the 1950s and 1960s. Peña was trained by Rojas, Isias Rodríguez, Toño Hernández and his uncle before making his professional wrestling debut in 1974 at the age of 18.[2]
Professional wrestling career
In-ring career
Peña began his wrestling career as the enmascarado (masked) character El Genio (Spanish for "The Genius") on April 8, 1974.[2] After wrestling as El Genio for a couple of months Peña got his uncle's blessing to adopt the Espectro name and began wrestling as Espectro Jr. Peña wore the "venom green" mask and trunks like Espectro, but unlike the original he wrestled barefoot most of the time.[3] As Espectro Jr., Peña blended a good solid wrestling foundation with various psychological antics to create a character, while being a hated rudo (Heel or "bad guy") character drew the crowd's attention and soon he found himself challenging the top wrestlers of the 1970s for both the Mexican National Welterweight Championship and the Mexican National Middleweight Championship, two of the top championships in Mexico at the time.[4] While a gifted performer in the ring backstage he was described as more of a quiet, thoughtful person who would often talk about how he would change Lucha Libre and add more character and showmanship to it.[4] In 1980 Peña decided to change wrestling personas, giving the Espectro Jr. outfit and name to his cousin Jose Elías Pinceno, who has wrestled as Espectro Jr. since then.[5] Instead of working as Espectro Jr., Peña came up with a totally original character of his own called Kahoz (sometimes spelled Kahos or Khaoz), a sinister masked rudo character who invoked various dark spirits as part of his pre-match ritual. Many have likened the Kahoz character to one of Lucha Libre original showmen, Murciélago Velázquez.[4] Kahoz would often carry a bag of live pigeons to the ring with him, releasing them at his opponent and then making it seem like he ripped the head of one of the pigeons and smeared the fake blood all over himself or his opponent.[4] To Peña the Kahoz character was not about winning championships, but about the psychology of the character and actually scaring the audience, so while he did not win any titles as Kahoz it was considered a huge success and he main evented shows all over Mexico.[2] While Peña had the mind for wrestling his body could not handle the heavy main event schedule that he wrestled as Kahoz and by 1985 he gave up the gimmick to work as Espectro de Ultratumba ("The Ghost from Beyond the grave"), giving the Kahoz gimmick to Astro Rey instead. Astro Rey's Kahoz was nowhere nearly as important nor as successful as Peña as Astro Rey lacked the charisma and theatrics of the original.[4] Peña only worked as Espectro de Ultratumba for a short period of time, giving the gimmick to his cousin in 1986. Peña tried working as "Dalia Negra" but his body could not take the strain, forcing Peña to retire in 1986.[2] Peña would briefly wrestle as "the Rose" in 1994 but only worked a handful of matches. Peña's final match at the 2001 Guerra de Titans where he wrestled, and lost to Cibernético.[2]
Wrestling promoter
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
Peña had been active backstage for years before his retirement, always offering suggestions of wrestling gimmicks, storylines and booking, so when he retired Peña was hired by
Asistencia Asesoría y Administración / AAA
After Paco Alonso chose to ignore Peña's booking ideas Peña began negotiations with Televisa television channel to fund a new wrestling promotion that would provide Televisa with weekly wrestling shows. In 1992 Peña started a booking agency, providing wrestlers and matches for the Televisa owned
Trademark controversies
Peña was occasionally criticized with trademarking gimmicks and not allowing the original performers of the gimmicks to use the name elsewhere. Wrestlers such as
Death and legacy
Peña died on October 5, 2006, due to a massive heart attack.[1][10] In the days following Peña's death several wrestling promotions in Japan that AAA had worked with over the years paid tribute to the promoter.[11] Peña's death left a void in AAA, he had always been the man in charge and always had the final word. In the years up to his death, Peña had brought in his brother-in-law Joaquin Roldan and Roldan's son Dorian Roldan and taught them the business of running a wrestling promotion.[6]
AAA holds a tribute show to Antonio Peña each year around the anniversary of his death as part of the Antonio Peña Memorial Shows AAA holds the
Championships and accomplishments
- AAA
- AAA Hall of Fame (Class of 2007)[15]
- Mexican independent circuit
- Texcoco Middleweight Championship (1 time)
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)[16]
References
- ^ a b c d Brady, Hicks. "2006: The year in wrestling". PWI Presents: 2007 Wrestling Almanac and book of facts. Kappa Publications. p. 26. 2007 Edition.
- ^ a b c d e f Ocampo, Ernesto (October 7, 2006). "El fin de una era: Adiós a Antonio Peña". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). issue 182. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- Asistencia Asesoría y Administración. Archived from the originalon 4 October 2009. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 968-6842-48-9.
- ^ Enciclopedia staff (August 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Espectro Jr. (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. p. 24. Tomo I.
- ^ a b c d e Ocampo, Ernesto (October 7, 2006). "El fin de una era". Súper Luchas Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ "TripleMania: Mexico's answer to WrestleMania". SLAM! Sports. July 5, 2000. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved June 16, 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
- ^ Enciclopedia staff (August 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Histeria (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. p. 39. Tomo II.
- ^ Ocampo, Ernesto (October 5, 2009). "Falleció Antonio Peña". Súper Luchas Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ Ocampo, Ernesto (October 7, 2006). "Peña recordado en Japón". Súper Luchas Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ "AAA Misc. Cards – Pena Memorial show 2007". Pro Wrestling History. Archived from the original on 25 March 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
- ^ "AAA Misc. Cards – Pena Memorial show 2008". Pro Wrestling History. Archived from the original on 25 March 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
- ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 19, 2009). "AAA Héroes Inmortales III – Arena Monterrey (26 de septiembre) – Charly Manson vs Chessman por las Cabelleras –". Súper Luchas Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved September 19, 2009.
- Asistencia Asesoría y Administración. Archived from the originalon 19 June 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
- ^ Gallipoli, Thomas M. (2007-09-01). "List of Deceased Wrestlers for 2006". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
