Mephisto (wrestler)

For the American professional wrestler and manager active in the National Wrestling Alliance during the 1960s and 70s, see The Great Mephisto.

Mephisto
Ring name(s)	Astro Jr. Astro Rey Jr. Kahoz Jr. Mephisto Sendero
Billed height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Billed weight	90 kg (200 lb)[1]
Born	December 10, 1968(1968-12-10)[2] Toluca, Mexico[2]
Trained by	Astro Rey/Kahoz[3] Franco Colombo[3] El Gallo Giro[3] Negro Casas[3] Pacoman[3] Rey Halcon
Debut	01988-07 July 1988[3]

Mephisto (born December 12, 1968), whose birth name is unknown, is a Mexican professional wrestler or Luchador currently working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Mephisto is the son of Luchador Astro Rey/Kahoz and has previously worked both as Astro Rey Jr. and Kahoz Jr. but has been most successful as Mephisto. Since adopting the Mephisto gimmick he has been associated with the group Los Infernales especially Averno who has been his regular tag team partner for years. Mephisto and Averno are considered one of the top permanent teams in Mexico since the turn of the century.^[4] Mephisto is a former holder of the NWA World Welterweight Championship and currently one third of the CMLL World Trios Champions with Averno and Ephesto.^[3]

Biography

The man who would grow up to wrestle as Mephisto was born on December 12, 1968 in Mexico City, son of Alberto Leonel Hernández López, a man who would later become known as the Luchador "Astro Rey" and "Kahorz". By 1971 his father had started wrestling which meant that the future Mephisto grew up around wrestlers, wanting to become one himself from a very early age.

In his father's footsteps

After training under his father, and his uncle the Luchador known as "El Gallo Giro" he made his debut as "Kahoz Jr.", as a tribute to his dad’s last gimmick. From 1988 until 1993 he wrestled as Kahoz Jr. His father, however, urged him to change gimmicks to the one that got his father the most fame "Astro Rey Jr.". As Astro Rey Jr. or simply "Astro Jr." he travelled the world and wrestled extensively in Mexico and Japan. On March 22, 1999 Astro Rey Jr. won the Mexican National Welterweight Championship from Arkangel de la Muerte and defended it several times during his 19 month reign. Astro Rey Jr. finally lost the title to Karloff Lagarde, Jr. on October 23, 2000.^[5]

Mephisto

In September 2001 long time leader of the CMLL base stable Los Infernales Satánico used his supposed "satanic powers" to turn technico (good guy) Rencor Latino into one of his “minions”, the rudo (bad guy) known as "Averno" in a televised storyline. After this turn was completed they were joined by Mephisto; but unlike Averno, no references to his previous identities of Astro Rey Jr. or Kahoz Jr. were made. Together the three became the new version of Los Infernales and feuded with the splinter group of Infernales consisting of Último Guerrero, Rey Bucanero, Tarzan Boy and Máscara Mágica for over a year. A year later, September 2002 at the CMLL 68th Anniversary Show, the two groups faced off in a steel cage match to determine who had the rights to the "Los Infernales" name. In the end Satánico made Máscara Mágica submit gaining the rights for his own group as well as taking the mask of Máscara Mágica. After the steel cage match the feud between the two groups more or less ending, the splinter faction changed their name to Los Guerreros del Infierno.

On June 23, 2002, the trio won the Mexican National Trios Championship from Olímpico, Mr. Niebla and Safari. After they won the trios title they began feuding with La Familia de Tijuana (Nicho el Millonario, Halloween and Damián 666). The trio lost the title to La Familia on September 27, 2002 but continued feuding into 2003.^[6] When Nicho stopped appearing for CMLL the Trios titles were vacated but Los Infernales refused to take them without a match forcing a tournament, a tournament Los Infernales did not win, Los Infernales won a tournament to become the number one contenders for the CMLL World Trios Championship but lost to the championship team of Black Tiger III, Dr. Wagner, Jr. and Universo 2000 on August 1, 2003. At the end of the year, Averno and Mephisto turned on Satánico but there was little to feuding afterwards they split from the group and ventured out on their own.

On February 4, 2004 Mephisto defeated El Satánico to win the CMLL World Welterweight Championship at CMLL’s home at Arena México.^[7] Mephisto and Averno defeated Atlantis and Blue Panther for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship in a heated match on April 2, 2005.^[8] The team would defend the tag team titles several times over the next year in some incredible matches that helped establish them as one of the best Mexican tag teams in this century so far.^[4] Their most prominent defense was on the last Arena México show of 2005 when they defeated El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas in the main event. In early 2006, they defended their titles against Místico and Black Warrior twice. In the first match, they won by disqualification when Black Warrior interfered in the match after being pinned and in the second match two weeks later, Black Warrior turned on Místico. On April 14, 2006, they lost the tag team titles to the team of Místico and Negro Casas, ending their year-long reign.^[8] While the team of Mephisto and Averno had been busy defending the CMLL Tag Team titles Mephisto also found time to defend the CMLL World Welterweight title he had worn for over three years, until he was finally defeated by CMLL’s rising star Místico on April 10, 2007^[7]

Mephisto and Averno remain as solid a unit as ever, now often wrestling in trios matches with new partner Ephesto (the Luchador formerly known as Safari); billed as "Los Ku Klux Klan" and later "Los Hijos del Averno" in main or semi-main event matches for CMLL. On February 15, 2009 Mistico successfully defended his CMLL Welterweight Championship against Mephisto on a NJPW Show in Sumo Hall, Tokyo.^[9] On May 27, 2009 Mephisto defeated La Sombra to win the NWA World Welterweight Championship. During Mephisto's reign, the title was replaced with the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship. On August 16, 2010 it was announced that Mephisto was one of 14 men putting their mask on the line in a Luchas de Apuestas steel cage match, the main event of the CMLL 77th Anniversary Show.^[10] Mephisto was the second man to leave the steel cage as all three members of Los Hijos del Averno quickly left the cage, keeping their masks safe. The match came down to La Sombra pinning Olímpico to unmask him.^[11] On March 13, 2011, Mephisto lost the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship to La Sombra.^[12] On July 15, Los Hijos del Averno defeated La Generación Dorada (Máscara Dorada, La Máscara and La Sombra]]) to win the CMLL World Trios Championship.^[13]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves

• Demon Driller (Double underhook facebuster)^[14]

• Signature moves

• Boston crab^[14]
• Gedo Clutch (Double leg nelson)^[14]
• Moonsault onto a standing opponent transitioned into an inside cradle

Championships and accomplishments

• Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre

• CMLL World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Averno ^[15]
• CMLL World Trios Championship (1 time, current) – with Averno and Ephesto^[13]
• CMLL World Welterweight Championship (1 time) ^[16]
• Mexican National Trios Championship (1 time) - with Satánico and Averno † ^[17]
• Mexican National Welterweight Championship (1 time)†
• NWA World Welterweight Championship (1 time)
• NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 54 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2006.

Notes

†title recognized and promoted in CMLL as well as several other Mexican wrestling promotions.

Lucha de Apuesta record

See also: Luchas de Apuestas

Luchas de Apuestas

Wager	Winner	Loser	Location	Date	Notes
Mask	Astro Rey Jr.	El Métalico	Mexico City	November 19, 1995
Mask	Astro Jr.	Gekko	Sapporo, Japan	June 25, 1996
Hair	Astro Rey Jr.	Karloff Lagarde Jr.	Puebla, Puebla	October 30, 2000

References

Professional wrestling portal

1. ^ ^{a b} PWI Almanac Staff. "Statistics for Professional wrestlers". PWI Presents: 2007 Wrestling Almanak and book of facts (Kappa Publications). 2007 Edition. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Rudos - Mephisto" (in Spanish). Fuego en el ring. http://www.fuegoenelring.com/wrestlers_full_rudo.php?wrestlers_id=30. Retrieved October 17, 2009. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Arturo Rosas Plata (2009-06-11). "Mephisto y su buena racha" (in Spanish). Ovaciones (Mexico, D.F.: Editorial Ovaciones, S. A. de C.V.): p. 18. Número 21615 Año LXII. http://itecor.v1.myvirtualpaper.com/11062009/2009061101/en/?page=18. Retrieved 2009-06-11. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Dan Madigan (2007). Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: The Bizarre and Honorable World of Wild Mexican Wrestling. Rayo. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3. 
5. ^ "Comision de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F. National Welterweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. 2007-06-28. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/mex-wl.html. Retrieved 2007-10-13. 
6. ^ "Comision de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F. National Trios Title". wrestling-titles.com. 2007-08-13. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/mex-6.html. Retrieved 2007-10-13. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre World Welterweight Title". wrestling-titles.com. 2007-04-10. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-wl.html. Retrieved 2007-10-13. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre World Tag Team Title". wrestling-titles.com. 2007-07-20. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-t.html. Retrieved 2007-10-13. 
9. ^ "(Results) New Japan, 2/15/09". Strong Style Spirit. 2009-02-15. http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/?p=413. 
10. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (AUgust 15, 2010). "Liger, Atlantis, Mr. Niebla y Ultimo Guerrero entran al Juicio final del CMLL" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. http://superluchas.net/2010/08/15/liger-atlantis-mr-niebla-y-ultimo-guerrero-entran-al-juicio-final-del-cmll/. Retrieved August 16, 2010. 
11. ^ Ocampo, Jorge (September 3, 2010). "Cobertura CMLL: El Juicio Final. LXXVII Aniversario de la Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. http://superluchas.net/2010/09/03/cobertura-cmll-el-juicio-final-lxxvii-aniversario-de-la-empresa-mexicana-de-lucha-libre/. Retrieved September 4, 2010. 
12. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (March 14, 2011). "Arena México (resultados 13 de Marzo) ¡La Sombra nuevo campeón mundial histórico NWA de peso Welter!" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. http://superluchas.net/2011/03/14/arena-mexico-resultados-13-de-marzo-%C2%A1la-sombra-nuevo-campeon-mundial-historico-nwa-de-peso-welter/. Retrieved March 14, 2010. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Rodríguez, Édgar (July 16, 2011). "Hijos del Averno ganan títulos". Récord. http://www.record.com.mx/luchalibre/2011-07-16/hijos-del-averno-ganan-titulos. Retrieved July 16, 2011. 
14. ^ ^{a b c} PWI StaffPWI Staff (August, 2008). "Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 - 2008: 105 Mephisto". Pro Wrestling Illustrated (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, USA: Sports and Entertainment publications LLC): p. 78. October 2008. 
15. ^ "C.M.L.L. World Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-t.html. 
16. ^ "C.M.L.L. World Welterweight Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/emll/cmll-wl.html. 
17. ^ "National Trios Title (Mexico)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/mex-6.html. 

Persondata
Name	Mephisto
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 10, 1968
Place of birth	Toluca, Mexico
Date of death
Place of death