Blue Panther

Blue Panther
Birth name Genaro Vazquez Nevarez
Born (1960-09-18) September 18, 1960[1]
Gómez Palacio, Durango, Mexico[2]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Blue Panther[3]
Billed height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[2]
Billed weight 98 kg (216 lb)[2]
Billed from Gómez Palacio, Durango[2]
Trained by Héctor López
Halcón Suriano
Debut October 8, 1978

Genaro Vazquez Nevarez (born September 18, 1960) is a Mexican professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Blue Panther. The "Blue" part of his ring name is an homage to Aníbal, a wrestler he looked up to growing up who wore a blue mask. He works for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), the same promotion for which two of his sons debuted in January 2014, working under the ring names Cachorro and Black Panther.[4]

Professional wrestling career

Blue Panther began wrestling in northern Mexico in the late 1970s before getting noticed by wrestler and promoter 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.[5] 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 after the company changed names and created new championships. In late 1991, he began feuding with 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 Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración (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 Eddy Guerrero. Much of his time in AAA was spent in programs based on the Mexican 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 over 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 Villanos (Villano 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 championship was vacated. Fuerza Guerrera replaced Black Warrior on the team 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 ("The Blue Wave") 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 title against Olímpico and Rey Bucanero, Atlantis and Panther lost the championship to the team of Averno and Mephisto in April 2005. When Atlantis turned rudo, Panther feuded with him intermittently 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 Villano V in Mexico. He was unmasked as Genaro Vazquez Nevarez.[6]

In late 2011, Blue Panther began feuding with La Peste Negra ("The Black Plague"; 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] In March 2013 Blue Panther was forced to team up with the rudo Rey Escorpión to participate in the 2013 Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles ("National Incredible Pairs Tournament"), a tag team tournament teaming up wrestlers who would never team up otherwise. The two defeated Delta and Tiger in the first round, but lost to the team of Dragón Rojo Jr. and Niebla Roja in the quarter finals.[10][11] On September 13 at CMLL's 80th Anniversary Show, Blue Panther lost his hair to Averno in a submissions only Lucha de Apuestas.[12][13]

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager) Loser (wager) Location Event Date Notes
Blue Panther and Matemático (mask) La Bestia and Simio Blanco (mask) Monterrey, Nuevo León Live event February 28, 1979 [Note 1]
Blue Panther (mask) Oro[Note 2] (mask) Monterrey, Nuevo León Live event 1980
Blue Panther (mask) Gorila Infernal (mask) Xalapa, Veracruz WMLL Live event February 23, 1984  
Blue Panther (mask) El Brillante (hair) Querétaro, Querétaro EMLL Live event June 24, 1984  
Blue Panther (mask) Bull Power (mask) Puebla, Puebla EMLL Live event September 7, 1984  
Blue Panther (mask) Luzbel (mask) Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas EMLL Live event October 18, 1984  
Blue Panther and Black Man Los Sombras de Plata (mask)
(Sombra de Plata I and Sombra de Plata II) 		Naucalpan, Edomex EMLL Live event November 20, 1984 [18]
Blue Panther (mask) Black Man (mask) Naucalpan, Edomex EMLL Live event February 16, 1986  
Blue Panther (mask) El Avispón Negro (mask) Naucalpan, Edomex EMLL Live event March 16, 1986 [19]
Blue Panther (mask) Kendo (mask) Tijuana, Baja California EMLL Live event May 1988 [20]
Blue Panther (mask) Love Machine (mask) Mexico City 36. Aniversario de Arena México April 3, 1992 [21]
Blue Panther (mask) Vulcano (hair) Mexico City AAA Live event April 9, 1993  
Blue Panther (mask) Love Machine (hair) Tonalá, Jalisco AAA Live event July 18, 1993  
Blue Panther (mask) El Nuevo Huracán Ramírez, Jr. (mask) Cuernavaca, Morelos CMLL Live event February 3, 2000 [Note 3][22]
Blue Panther (mask) Lizmark Jr. (mask) Mexico City CMLL 74th Anniversary Show September 28, 2007 [Note 4][23]
Blue Panther (mask) Tigre Universitario (mask) Monterrey, Nuevo León CMLL Live event July 5, 2008  
Villano V (mask) Blue Panther (mask) Mexico City CMLL 75th Anniversary Show September 19, 2008  
Blue Panther (hair) Diluvio Negro II (hair) Monterrey, Nuevo León Live event December 18, 2008 [Note 5]
Blue Panther(hair) El Felino (hair) Mexico City Sin Piedad (2011) December 16, 2011  
Draw Blue Panther (hair)
Negro Casas (hair) 		Mexico City Homenaje a Dos Leyendas March 2, 2012 [Note 6][9]
Averno (hair) Blue Panther (hair) Mexico City CMLL 80th Anniversary Show September 13, 2013 [12]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Finals of a losers advance tournament.
  2. ↑ Not the more well known Oro who worked in the late 1980s-early 1990s.
  3. ↑ Relevos suicidas with El Hijo del Santo and Fuerza Guerrera vs. Blue Panther and El Nuevo Huracán Ramírez, Jr.
  4. ↑ match included Perro Aguayo, Jr., Atlantis, Último Guerrero, Místico, Villano V and Dr. Wagner, Jr..
  5. ↑ Three-way match that also involved Tigre Universitario.
  6. ↑ The match ended in a draw.

References

General sources – Championship Information
  • Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). "Mexico". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 389–402. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
General sources – Career
  • "Luchas 2000". Blue Panther 30 Años: La Historia (in Spanish). Juárez, Mexico: Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V. pp. 1–35. Especial 34. 
Specific
  1. ↑ Dark Angelita (September 18, 2014). "Al maestro con cariño: Feliz Cumpleaños Blue Panther". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Statistics for Professional wrestlers". PWI Presents: 2008 Wrestling Almanak and book of facts. Kappa Publications. pp. 66–79. 2008 Edition.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Blue Panther". Online World of Wrestling.
  4. ↑ "Debutarán Dragon Lee, Black Panther y Cachorro en el CMLL". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). MSN. December 30, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Centinela, Teddy. "En un día como hoy… Carnaval de Campeones en El Toreo". SuperLuchas Magazine (in Spanish).
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-09-23. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  7. ↑ Ruiz Glez, Alex (December 15, 2011). "Video: Blue Panther sí podrá luchar el próximo viernes en "Sin Piedad"". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved December 19, 2011.
  8. ↑ Ruiz Glez, Alex (December 17, 2011). "Blue Panther gana la cabellera del Felino vía descalificación.". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved December 17, 2011.
  9. 1 2 Valdés, Apolo (March 3, 2012). "Blue Panther y Negro Casas rapados". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). MSN. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Reviven por una noche los Guerreros de la Atlantida". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). MSN. March 9, 2013. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  11. ↑ "Atlantis y Ultimo Guerrero a la final del Torneo de Parejas Increíbles". Estrellas del Ring (in Spanish). March 9, 2013. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  12. 1 2 Salazar López, Alexis A. (September 14, 2013). "Resultados Arena México Viernes 13 de Septiembre '13" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on September 14, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  13. ↑ Valdés, Apolo (September 14, 2013). "Averno rapó con trampa a Blue Panther". Medio Tiempo (in Spanish). MSN. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 – 2008: 313 Blue Panther". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States: Sports and Entertainment publications LLC. August 2008. p. 112. October 2008.
  15. ↑ "C.M.L.L. World Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
  16. ↑ "C.M.L.L. World Trios Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003.
  17. ↑ Flores, Manuel (July 18, 2008). "Histórico de ganadores del torneo: La Gran Alternativa". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  18. ↑ Enciclopedia staff (October 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Sombra de Plata (in Spanish). Mexico. p. 56. Tomo IV.
  19. ↑ Centinela, Teddy (March 16, 2015). "En un día como hoy… 1986: Blue Panther gana la máscara de Avispón Negro, en El Toreo — Mil Máscaras y Villano III vs. Perro Aguayo y Fishman". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  20. ↑ Enciclopedia staff (October 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Kendo (in Spanish). Mexico. p. 6. Tomo III.
  21. ↑ Lucha 2000 Staff (April 2006). "Arena México: 50 anos de Lucha Libre". Lucha 2000 (in Spanish). Especial 28.
  22. ↑ "SLAM! Wrestling International -- 2000: The Year-In-Review Mexico". Slam Wrestling!. Canoe.ca. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  23. ↑ Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
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