El Sanguinario
Profile
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Biography
"El Sanguinario" was born Luis Alberto Medina Delgadillo on November 29, 1968 at the Colonia Topochico in Monterrey, Nuevo León, hence his nickname, "El Escandalo del Topochico".
On his late teens he was trained by local Monterrey maestro Mister Lince and made his debut on March 26, 1986, under the name "Thunder Jet", at the now demolished Arena Pabellon in Monterrey teaming with El Nazi (a local, not the El Nazi of the 60s) to face El Torito Tovar and Universo 2000 (once again, a local, not the Dinamita brother).
He didn't achieve local fame until he switched to the name that would make him famous in the Northern area, El Sanguinario (Bloodthirsty). To clear up any confusion, he is not related to the original El Sanguinario or El Sanguinario Jr. The original Sanguinario of the 70s was Super Muñeco's father, and the current Sanguinario Jr. on the indies is Muñeco's brother, even though Muñeco himself used the name at some point too.
He became a top player in the very successful Monterrey promotion FILL, run by Carlos Elizondo, after losing his mask as El Invasor del Norte II to El Ninja (local veteran star Mario Segura) on November 24 of 1991 at the Plaza de Toros Monumental in Monterrey, which historically is the hottest building ever in Nuevo Leon state. For those wondering who was his partner in the Invasores del Norte (Northern Invaders) tag team, it was La Parka, who had lost his mask almost half a year before against Stuka. After losing the masks, both Invasores were seen as future stars by just about everyone. His work was actually pretty good, but his biggest strength was his charisma, as he was excellent at making the crowd despise him.
Sanguinario perhaps was the leading rudo local star at the Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre, a promotion that used a very well balanced mix of veteran CMLL stars such as Sangre Chicana or Perro Aguayo, proven foreign stars such as "Fabuloso Blondy" Ken Timbs, Gran Hamada, the Grundy's (Solomon Grundy and Aaron "Mike Shaw" Grundy) or Vampiro, weird foreign imports such as "El Policia Canadiense" Rick Patterson (Leatherface), Dusty Wolfe or "Vampiro Americano" (Bradshaw) and a big host of talented local stars such as Principe Franky, Valente Fernandez, Latin Lover (who was over huge here before even joining AAA), Bronco, the Garza brothers (Humberto Jr. and Hector) and Ruben Juarez Jr.
His important rivalries in that promotion were with Latin Lover, Principe Franky, Ruben Juarez Jr., and Héctor and Humberto Garza. He was at one point the FILL World Light Heavyweight champion and made 26 defenses of the title before losing it to Héctor Garza on August 22, 1993 at the Monumental.
But his biggest match, no doubt, was a double hair vs. mask match on August 1, 1992, at the Plaza de Toros Monumental, where he teamed with Sangre Chicana against then masked Latin Lover and Polimero Espacial (who would become Principe Franky). In the third fall, the masked tecnicos already had Chicana out, but against all odds Sanguinario pinned both tecnicos to unmask them.
Even when AAA was in town, this promotion was highly successful using a mix of CMLL and now also UWA stars with the locals, some of which were seen as major stars on the level of the top guys. But it all went down the toilet after on May of 1993, Elizondo held a Konnan 2000 (Scott Putski of all people) vs. Ruben "Puas" Olivares (a very famous Mexican boxer of the 70s) hair vs. mask match where he invested a lot of money. This match did not generate a lot of interest and to make it worse there was a rainstorm that day so the money loss was even bigger. But as if that was not enough, the match was so terrible and business exposing that it killed the fan base there in such a WCW-like manner that the company did not last much more.
After the promotion went down Sanguinario kept wrestling in the North, as he was a star in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas as well, and in that area there is a lot of cards and good money so he did fine.
He appeared several times on AAA TV during the Summer of 1994, on cards held in Monterrey or Nuevo Laredo, to continue his natural rivalry with Latin Lover, who now had jumped to AAA and was seen as one of the rising "young stars". They had a hair vs. hair match on November 27, which of course Latin Lover won.
As AAA was so loaded with young great workers and deserving veterans, he did not get too serious of a look, but he actually wrestled some full AAA tours in late 94 with the forgettable King Lion gimmick, as a part of the "Gringos Locos" stable. Wearing a pretty ugly furry orange costume, some may remember him from some Atomicos matches that made TV.
Around mid-1996, Peña needed new talent so he was used more often in the Northern cards when AAA was in town, and he was eventually given a spot in the full time roster with a gimmick he debuted on December 13, 1996 - "La Calaca".
La Calaca, meaning the skeleton of death, was sort of a heel La Parka wearing an inverted version of Parka's outfit (white skin, black bones). Of course the original Parka was already gone and there was only a La Parka Jr. in AAA, but they were not feuding and Calaca was not promoted as an evil clone of Parka. He was given decent tercera to semi-final spots on the cards and often worked against Latin Lover, too.
He had a quickie turn as a tecnico just to he could lose his mask. His work as a comedy tecnico was not good at all and looked very unnatural. He lost his mask at the "Triplemania V-B" at El Toreo on June 15, 1997 in a cage match with Super Muñeco and Mascara Sagrada Jr. against Los Payasos. The storyline here was that Parka Jr. was injured so Calaca substituted him. He climbed out of the cage first, but as his two partners were destroyed he decided to re-enter and ended up being the last man left inside after Coco Amarillo (Yellow Coco) left. After the match he turned rudo and started a feud with Muñeco, Parka Jr. and Sagrada Jr. that was quickly forgotten. Not too long after he dumped the skeleton gimmick, which was a smart move, and kept wrestling as Sanguinario.
Sanguinario wasn't a regular AAA TV feature again until the Summer of 1998, as he became one of Sangre Chicana's recruits to fight Los Vipers. Peña must have liked his work because he was used often again, and him being popular in Monterrey was a plus, as during he last few years that has been AAA's most successful weekly promotional city.
His feud with Latin Lover took another chapter, which lead to another hair match. This time it was a cage match where Latin Lover and The Panther fought Jerry Estrada and El Sanguinario. Sanguinario ended up losing his hair to Lover after Estrada mistakenly hit him with a foreign object. This was the third time that he lost his hair to Lover, who sure had a hell of a revenge after getting unmasked.
From then on he was a regular main eventer at Arena Solidaridad in Monterrey, always as a rudo and often teaming with Jerry Estrada and Hator.
During his last days he was the last in a countless list of Mascara Maligna versions. This is somewhat funny because at one point he actually was one of the many reincarnations of the AAA Mascara Sagrada. As Maligna, his work was acceptable but sometimes he looked a bit out of shape compared to his older self.
Less than three full weeks before his death, on August 18, he lost the Maligna mask in a four way Electrified Cage Match with Perro Aguayo Jr., El Dandy and his nemesis Mascara Sagrada. This show, which was the Arena Solidaridad anniversary show, had a sold out crowd. Maligna losing was actually a good swerve as Dandy was seen as the clear loser of the match. While we had been getting many hints that he was about to drop the mask, it was also kind of shocking that they decided to unmask him in his hometown, where everybody knows him, and everybody obviously felt ripped off.
There was noticeable criticism to Peña and to himself for this, and Sanguinario, in a comment that is now an irony, said to the local media that he was never going to put on a mask again and just keep on as El Sanguinario. Well, sadly, he actually never had a chance to.
Things looked like he was in line for a push on the Northern territory again but death got in the way. His last match was on August 25 at Arena Solidaridad, teaming with El Texano, Pirata Morgan and Bull Terry, and just one day before passing away he attended a card at Pueblo Nuevo and seemed in very good spirits. Recently he had also had talks with Humberto de la Rosa, the Arena Solidaridad promoter, who gave him his full support.
This past Sunday, August 8, he was in the family home at San Nicolas when he was having trouble to breathe. He went to the courtyard to get some fresh air but he fell unconscious to the floor. The last few months he had been complaining of having trouble to breathe after the matches, but he seemed fine after a while. He was taken to the local Green Cross hospital immediately, but nothing could be done to revive him. He was pronounced dead at 5:40 PM and the official cause of the death was listed as a heart attack.
Two days later, a mass was held on his honor. Tons of local wrestlers and people in the business attended, including Latin Lover (who was a good real life friend of his), Monje Negro Jr. (whom he unmasked), Centurion Negro, Hator, Salsero, Humberto Garza and others. His casket was then carried to the pantheon on a funerary car escorted by wrestlers with a huge following even under a huge rainstorm.
He is survived by his wife Diana Montes Paloma, his son Luis Alberto (age six), his daughter Dayana Monsterrat (age three), his father Hipolito, his mother Berta Alicia and his sister Claudia.
Descanse en paz.
Luchas de apuestas record
| Date | Apuesta | Winner(s) | Loser(s) | Arena and/or Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ??/??/?? | hair | El Sanguinario | Monje Negro Jr. | Monterrey, Nuevo León |
| ??/??/?? | hair | Latin Lover | El Sanguinario | Monterrey, Nuevo León |
| 91/11/24 | mask | El Ninja | Invasor II (El Sanguinario) | Plaza de Toros Monumental - Monterrey, N.L. |
| 92/08/01 | masks | Sangre Chicana & Sanguinario | Latin Lover & Polimero Espacial | Plaza de Toros Monumental - Monterrey, N.L. |
| 94/11/27 | hair | Latin Lover | El Sanguinario | Arena Coliseo - Monterrey, Nuevo León |
| 97/06/15 | mask (1) | Coco Amarillo | La Calaca | El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State |
| 99/07/18 | hair (2) | Latin Lover | El Sanguinario | Arena Solidaridad - Monterrey, Nuevo León |
| 02/08/18 | mask (3) | Máscara Sagrada (AAA) | Máscara Maligna (Sanguinario) | Arena Solidaridad - Monterrey, Nuevo León |
| (1) Cage match w/ Mascara Sagrada Jr., Super Muñeco and Los Payasos; (2) Cage match with Jerry Estrada and The Panther; (3) Electrified cage match also with Perro Aguayo Jr. and El Dandy. | ||||
