Blue Panther - Professional Wrestling Career

Professional Wrestling Career

Blue Panther began wrestling in northern Mexico in the late 1970s before getting noticed by René Guajardo in Monterrey. Guarjardo got Panther booked in Universal Wrestling Association and Panther made his debut in their main building, El Toreo de Cuatro Caminos in Naucalpan, in 1981. He wrestled on the undercard as a rudo (heel) before getting his first push in 1984 by winning the UWA World Welterweight championship from veteran worker Matemático at the end of the year. He had a feud with Black Man that saw him lose his UWA Welterweight title but win Black Man's mask in 1986. During the remainder of his UWA career, he won the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship from Gran Hamada and traded the title back and forth with Solar I and won the mask of Kendo.

In 1991, he jumped to Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre and began a feud with Atlantis over the NWA World Middleweight Championship. Although Blue Panther was unsuccessful in his August title challenge, the feud established him as a top rudo in EMLL, leading to him defeating El Satánico to become the first CMLL World Middleweight Champion when the company changed names and created new titles. In late 1991, he began feuding with the American Love Machine. Their April 1992 "Mask vs. Mask" mask, where Love Machine was disqualified for using an illegal Martinete (piledriver), sold out Arena México and 8,000 fans watched the match on big screens outside the arena. The following month, he jumped to Antonio Peña's new AAA promotion and continued his feud with Love Machine with a "hair vs. mask" match win in July 1993. The match featured a double turn which led to Love Machine becoming a rudo and forming Los Gringos Locos with Eddie Guerrero.

Much of his time in AAA was spent in programs based on the National Middleweight Championship. He worked programs with Ángel Azteca, Super Astro, Solar I and Octagón. After the downturn of the Mexican economy, he started his own promotion with several business partners called PROMELL (later Promo Azteca). When the promotion failed, he returned to AAA briefly in 1997 but he was unhappy being programmed with Máscara Sagrada, Jr. and jumped to CMLL by the end of the year. In 1998, Panther teamed with Dr. Wagner, Jr. and his real-life nephew Black Warrior to form "Los Laguneros." The team won a tournament to win the vacant CMLL World Trios Championship. In 1999, Panther and Wagner teamed to feud with Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship with an unsuccessful title challenge in September of that year. In 2000 and 2001, Los Laguneros successfully defended their titles against Los Villaños (III, IV and V) and the team of Negro Casas, Emilio Charles, Jr. and Tarzan Boy while Blue Panther had a singles feud with Olímpico.

In 2002, Black Warrior left Los Laguneros and the trios titles were vacated. Fuerza Guerrera replaced Black Warrior and they won another tournament for the CMLL World Trios title but they reigned for only three months before dropping the titles to Black Warrior, Atlantis and Mr. Niebla. Over time, Blue Panther was getting booked more as a técnico (face) and began to team with former rivals, Atlantis, Lizmark, Jr. and Mr. Niebla as La Ola Azul in a feud with Los Guerreros del Infierno. In 2004, Atlantis and Blue Panther defeated Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero to win the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. Three months after successfully defending the titles against Olímpico and Rey Bucanero, Atlantis and Panther lost the titles to the team of Averno and Mephisto in April 2005. When Atlantis turned rudo, Panther feuded with him off and on and the two often ripped at each other's masks, hinting at a possible mask vs. mask match. On September 19, 2008, he lost his mask to Villaño V in Mexico. He was unmasked as Genaro Vazquez Nevarez. In late 2011, Blue Panther began feuding with the team of Negro Casas and El Felino, which led to the main event of Sin Piedad on December 16, where Panther faced El Felino in a Hair vs. Hair match. A week prior to the match, Panther was disqualified in a tag team match, after giving El Felino a Martinete. This led to the Distrito Federal Box y Lucha Commission announcing that Panther was suspended for two weeks, starting after the December 16 event. At Sin Piedad, El Felino tried to exact revenge on Panther, but was disqualified after the referee caught him going for a Martinete. As a result, El Felino was shaved bald. On March 2, 2012, at Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, Panther and Negro Casas wrestled to a draw in a Lucha de Apuesta and were, as a result, both shaved bald.