WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.960 I want you to close your eyes for a second and 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:03.960 just put yourself in a very specific place. Okay. 00:00:04.099 --> 00:00:06.500 You're in Mexico City, it's a Friday night, and 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:09.099 you've just managed to squeeze your way into 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:12.220 Arena Mexico. The Cathedral of Lucha Libre? Exactly 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:14.560 the cathedral. The air is hot, it smells like 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.980 beer and chili popcorn. And the noise is just 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:20.600 absolute chaos. You're standing in the ring and 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:22.559 you're expecting the classics, right? Right. 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:25.440 You want the Aztec Eagle Warriors, the guys in 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.699 the silver masks. Capes, the high -flying acrobats 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:30.920 jumping off the top rope. That's the standard 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:32.899 iconography. You know what's on all the postcards. 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.359 Yeah, but then the house lights cut, the usual 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:38.700 fast -paced mariachi or rock music stops. And 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:41.979 over the speakers, you hear this heavy, rhythmic, 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:46.229 almost hypnotic. tribal drumbeat. Oh, yeah. And 00:00:46.229 --> 00:00:48.990 walking down the ramp isn't a superhero. It's 00:00:48.990 --> 00:00:51.469 a group of men dressed head to toe in flowing 00:00:51.469 --> 00:00:54.429 blue robes with indigo veils wrapping their faces 00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:56.509 so you can only see their eyes. They look like 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:58.270 they've just walked off a dune in the Sahara 00:00:58.270 --> 00:01:00.570 Desert, not out of a locker room in Mexico. It's 00:01:00.570 --> 00:01:03.270 so jarring. It creates this incredible visual 00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:06.370 dissonance. You have the ultimate Mexican cultural 00:01:06.370 --> 00:01:09.349 product, lucha libre, suddenly interrupted by 00:01:09.349 --> 00:01:13.170 a very specific, respectful homage to the... 00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.730 people of North Africa. It makes you stop and 00:01:15.730 --> 00:01:18.430 pay attention. And that visual confusion that, 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:21.310 wait, what is this moment, is exactly where we're 00:01:21.310 --> 00:01:23.569 starting our deep dive today. Into Los Guerreros 00:01:23.569 --> 00:01:26.730 Tuareg. The Tuareg Warriors. On paper, they were 00:01:26.730 --> 00:01:30.209 a stable or a faction in CMLL, the oldest wrestling 00:01:30.209 --> 00:01:32.670 promotion in the world. But if you look at the 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:34.750 stack of research we've pulled together for this, 00:01:34.870 --> 00:01:37.969 the history of their formation, their championship 00:01:37.969 --> 00:01:40.489 runs, their betting records. Or Luchas de Apuestas, 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:42.290 yeah. Right. If you look at all of that, this 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:44.510 isn't just a biography of some wrestler. Our 00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:47.090 mission today is to look at this as a case study 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:49.069 on corporate survival. Absolutely. It's about 00:01:49.069 --> 00:01:51.269 middle management. That's the angle that really 00:01:51.269 --> 00:01:54.290 grabbed me. This is a story about branding, about 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:57.269 reinvention, and how a group of bad guys or rudos 00:01:57.269 --> 00:01:59.230 went from being the punchline of a reality TV 00:01:59.230 --> 00:02:02.810 spoof to becoming a distinct tribal entity. How 00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:05.230 they kept their jobs for a decade, not by being 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:07.390 the main event stars, but by being the guys who 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:10.539 made the stars look good. So we have a fake university 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:13.479 origin story. We have a mid -career identity 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:17.840 crisis. And we have some truly tragicomic betting 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.620 records. The betting records are really the key 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.240 to understanding their hierarchy. But let's start 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:25.340 at the very beginning. Because before they were 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.240 desert nomads, they were rejects. And I don't 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:29.699 mean that metaphorically. I mean their origin 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:32.500 story literally involves flunking out of school. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:34.979 Guapos University. I still can't believe this 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:37.219 is a real thing. Handsome University. It's amazing 00:02:37.219 --> 00:02:39.870 to understand this. You have to look at the landscape 00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:43.710 of wrestling back in 2005. In the U .S., WWE 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:46.629 had a show called Tough Enough. Right. It was 00:02:46.629 --> 00:02:49.449 this massive reality series, very serious, trying 00:02:49.449 --> 00:02:53.610 to find the next breakout superstar through rigorous 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.110 training. And CMLL, being the institution they 00:02:56.110 --> 00:02:57.969 are, saw this and basically said, we can make 00:02:57.969 --> 00:03:00.389 fun of that. Exactly. They had a massively popular 00:03:00.389 --> 00:03:03.569 faction called Los Guapos, the handsome ones. 00:03:03.729 --> 00:03:06.870 The core members were Shocker Mascara Magica 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:09.969 and El Terrible. Their whole gimmick was vanity. 00:03:10.169 --> 00:03:13.189 They were complete narcissists. So they launched 00:03:13.189 --> 00:03:15.449 a storyline where they held a university course 00:03:15.449 --> 00:03:18.310 to find a new member who was, quote, handsome 00:03:18.310 --> 00:03:20.699 enough to join the club. So instead of obstacle 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:23.080 courses, were they doing like mirror gazing competitions 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.240 or what? Mostly skits, training segments and 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:29.080 in -ring tryouts. It sounds ridiculous, but from 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:30.740 a business standpoint, it was actually brilliant. 00:03:30.860 --> 00:03:32.500 It allowed the audience to get to know a bunch 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:34.400 of rookies before they ever had to carry a serious 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:36.639 match. You learn their names, their personalities. 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:39.099 And in this class of hopeful students, we find 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:41.599 the two protagonists of our first act, Sangre 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:44.460 Azteca and El Coreano. Right. Sangre Azteca had 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:46.759 a very traditional look. Aztec imagery, very 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:49.129 stoic. And El Coreano was another solid. worker. 00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:52.090 So they grind through weeks of this university 00:03:52.090 --> 00:03:54.610 storyline. They are just desperate to prove they 00:03:54.610 --> 00:03:56.870 belong to the handsome faction. But because this 00:03:56.870 --> 00:03:59.229 is wrestling, graduation day is never just a 00:03:59.229 --> 00:04:01.669 ceremony with caps and downs. No, it was a disaster. 00:04:01.810 --> 00:04:04.069 It happened during a live show. El Terrible, 00:04:04.110 --> 00:04:06.250 one of the mentors or professors, if you will, 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:09.469 turns on his partners. The classic Rudo betrayal. 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:11.849 He just starts beating down Shocker and Musker 00:04:11.849 --> 00:04:14.689 of Magica. Now, in any normal movie, if you see 00:04:14.689 --> 00:04:17.100 your bosses fighting, you stay out of it. But 00:04:17.100 --> 00:04:19.980 Sangria Azteca and El Coreano decide to get involved. 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:23.000 They try to be the heroes. They see the faction 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:25.220 collapsing and they rush the ring to save their 00:04:25.220 --> 00:04:28.720 mentors. And here is the inciting incident of 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.620 our entire story. Because in a standard narrative, 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:34.120 this loyalty would be rewarded right. Yeah, the 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:36.379 mentors would say, you passed the test, you saved 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:39.779 us, you're in. But CMLL flipped the script entirely. 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:42.459 The other members of the class physically prevented 00:04:42.459 --> 00:04:45.939 them from making the save. And because they broke 00:04:45.939 --> 00:04:48.259 protocol, because they failed to stop the beatdown, 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.600 they were expelled. They got fired for trying 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:52.639 to help. They were rejected by the cool kids. 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:55.500 And that is such a powerful motivator in wrestling 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:58.079 storytelling. Even though these guys are technically 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.540 villains or bad guys in training, you instantly 00:05:01.540 --> 00:05:04.160 feel for them. They are the outcasts. They're 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:06.579 the kids sitting alone at the lunch table. Exactly. 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:09.399 And that's when the savior figure appears. But 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:13.329 it's not a good guy. arguably the biggest, baddest 00:05:13.329 --> 00:05:16.170 villain in the company at the time, Ultimo Guerrero. 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:19.170 The ultimate warrior. Though, obviously not the 00:05:19.170 --> 00:05:20.949 American warrior. No, Mexican legend. Yeah. He 00:05:20.949 --> 00:05:24.310 sees these, rejects these misfit toys, and he 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:26.550 realizes they have utility. He recruits them 00:05:26.550 --> 00:05:29.029 not to be the stars, but to be his foot soldiers. 00:05:29.230 --> 00:05:31.930 Right. He forms a new group called Pandilla Guerrera. 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.439 The Gang of Warriors. I love that name change. 00:05:34.779 --> 00:05:37.480 Pandia. It implies something gritty, you know, 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.259 street level. It established a clear class divide. 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:43.240 Los Guapos were about vanity and aesthetics. 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:45.839 Pandia Guerrero was about violence and enforcement. 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:48.420 It was basically, you weren't pretty enough for 00:05:48.420 --> 00:05:50.920 the university. Fine. Come join the gang. We'll 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:52.779 beat people up in the alley. And this is where 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:54.759 the roster really starts to flesh out. It wasn't 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:56.839 just the two rejects for long. Looking at the 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:59.079 list we pulled, it's a rogues gallery of mid 00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:02.079 -card talent. A very solid lineup. You have Nitro, 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.500 who becomes the workhorse of the group. Archangel 00:06:04.500 --> 00:06:06.560 de la Muerte, the archangel of death who is a 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.060 highly respected veteran. Right. Hooligan. Local 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:13.160 Max. Dr. X Ramstein. I have to ask, Ramstein, 00:06:13.220 --> 00:06:15.740 like the German industrial metal band? Lucha 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:20.699 Libre has a long, proud tradition of, shall we 00:06:20.699 --> 00:06:23.779 say, borrowing pop culture copyrights. That's 00:06:23.779 --> 00:06:27.019 amazing. But yeah, this group became the distinct 00:06:27.019 --> 00:06:30.339 B team to Ultimo Guerrero's A team. And this 00:06:30.339 --> 00:06:32.180 brings us to that concept you mentioned earlier, 00:06:32.379 --> 00:06:35.079 middle management. Because looking at this roster, 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:37.459 none of these guys were headlining the anniversary 00:06:37.459 --> 00:06:40.439 shows. No. And it's crucial to understand that 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.819 they weren't supposed to. Their role was very 00:06:42.819 --> 00:06:45.519 specific in the ecosystem. In industry terms, 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:47.839 they were gatekeepers. Explain that job description 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:50.500 for us. Because to an outsider, losing matches 00:06:50.500 --> 00:06:52.379 sounds like you're just bad at your job. Think 00:06:52.379 --> 00:06:54.620 of it like a stress test in engineering. You 00:06:54.620 --> 00:06:58.439 have a young, high -flying technico. A good guy 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:00.519 who the company thinks might be the next big 00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:03.420 superstar. But he's green. He's inexperienced. 00:07:03.579 --> 00:07:05.019 Right. You can't just put him in the main event. 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:06.620 Exactly. You can't put him against the world 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:09.560 champion yet. He might get hurt or he might look 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:11.459 foolish and expose the business. You throw him 00:07:11.459 --> 00:07:13.360 to the wolves. You throw him to Pandia Guerrera. 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:19.240 Precisely. If you wrestle Dr. X or Nitro, you 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:22.240 are in there with a guy who knows every... Hold 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.699 every transition and how to control the crowd. 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:28.100 Yeah. Their job is to guide the rookie through 00:07:28.100 --> 00:07:30.879 the match, make the rookie look fast and exciting, 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:33.379 rough them up enough to get the crowd sympathetic, 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.480 and then usually lose the match so the rookie 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:39.139 gets the win. So their win -loss record isn't 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:41.240 a reflection of their skill. It's a reflection 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:43.860 of their function in the company. That's the 00:07:43.860 --> 00:07:47.060 paradox of the midcard. To be a good gatekeeper, 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:49.839 you have to be credible enough that beating you 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.660 means something. But you have to lose often enough 00:07:52.660 --> 00:07:54.639 to elevate the next generation. But looking at 00:07:54.639 --> 00:07:56.279 the source material, they weren't just losing 00:07:56.279 --> 00:07:58.540 constantly. They held some serious hardware during 00:07:58.540 --> 00:08:00.680 this time. They did. And that's important because 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.040 without championships, a stable loses its teeth. 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:06.420 You can't be a threat if you never win. Sangre 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:08.699 Azteca, Dr. Axe, and Nitro captured the Mexican 00:08:08.699 --> 00:08:10.899 National Trios Championship. Now, for listeners 00:08:10.899 --> 00:08:13.300 who mostly watch American wrestling trios titles, 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:15.420 it might sound like a niche thing. But in Mexico, 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:17.639 that's the main event, right? It is the bread 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:20.360 and butter. In the U .S., tag teams two versus 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:23.839 two are standard. In Mexico, Lucha Libre is built 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:27.819 on trios, three versus three. Holding the national 00:08:27.819 --> 00:08:30.540 trios belts is a legitimate accolade sanctioned 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:32.600 by the Wrestling Commission. They held those 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.940 titles for seven months. Wow. They defended them 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.519 successfully three times. That tells me the company 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:40.419 trusted them to carry a division. Absolutely. 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:44.240 Dr. X and Sangre Azteca also had runs with the 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:46.019 National Welterweight Championship. They were 00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:47.960 threats. You couldn't sleep on them. There's 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:50.399 one statistical oddity in the notes I have to 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:53.220 bring up, though. It's Nitro holding the IWRG 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.340 Intercontinental Middleweight Championship. Oh, 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:57.940 yes. The blink and you'll miss it reign. The 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.779 notes say he held it for 14 days. Two weeks. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.659 What is the point of giving someone a belt for 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:06.000 two weeks? Politics and partnerships, mostly. 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:09.100 CMLL had a working relationship with the smaller 00:09:09.100 --> 00:09:12.960 promotion IWRG. Sometimes titles are traded just 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:15.220 to grease the wheels of a business deal or to 00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:17.419 transition the belt from a wrestler in one company 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:19.740 to a wrestler in the other without them having 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:22.440 to fight directly. Nitro won it from a guy named 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:25.179 La Pantera and lost it almost immediately to 00:09:25.179 --> 00:09:27.990 Pentagon Black. It was a purely transactional 00:09:27.990 --> 00:09:30.269 reign. Before we get to the big rebrand, we need 00:09:30.269 --> 00:09:32.610 to close the loop on El Coriano. He was one of 00:09:32.610 --> 00:09:35.970 our original two Guapos rejects, but looking 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:38.090 at the timeline, he disappears pretty early. 00:09:38.309 --> 00:09:40.230 He serves as the control group in this experiment. 00:09:40.649 --> 00:09:43.389 While the others evolved and adapted, he hit 00:09:43.389 --> 00:09:46.529 a wall. He left the group, and instead of rebranding 00:09:46.529 --> 00:09:48.669 his character, he hit the hard reset button. 00:09:48.970 --> 00:09:52.450 He put on a totally new mask and became Apocalypsis. 00:09:52.529 --> 00:09:55.110 Just erase the hard drive completely. Completely. 00:09:55.190 --> 00:09:58.289 He became a generic low -card wrestler. It shows 00:09:58.289 --> 00:10:00.769 the risk. If you don't find a strong identity 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:03.330 like the others, did you just become guy in mask 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:06.289 number four? Which leads us to 2007, the year 00:10:06.289 --> 00:10:08.710 of the identity crisis. The group is successful. 00:10:08.809 --> 00:10:10.909 They have belts, but they are stuck in the shadow 00:10:10.909 --> 00:10:13.350 of their boss, Ultimo Guerrero. They'd hit a 00:10:13.350 --> 00:10:15.360 glass ceiling. As long as they were Pandilla 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:16.860 Guerrero, they were just the henchmen. They wanted 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:19.440 to be their own entity, so they split. A corporate 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:22.320 spinoff. Exactly. Sangre Azteca actually got 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.740 promoted to the main team, leaving a power vacuum. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.080 Nitro stepped up as the leader. They brought 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:30.419 in a guy named Scandalo, and they decided to 00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:32.720 repackage themselves entirely. And this is where 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.059 the creativity or madness, depending on how you 00:10:35.059 --> 00:10:37.360 look at it, really kicks in. They go from street 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.440 gang to North African nomads. They become Las 00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:42.940 Guerreras Tuareg. It's such a fascinating pivot. 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:46.789 Why Turek though? Is there any record of why 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:48.929 they chose this specific culture? Did one of 00:10:48.929 --> 00:10:50.929 them go on vacation to Morocco or something? 00:10:51.169 --> 00:10:53.269 There's no record of a specific connection. It 00:10:53.269 --> 00:10:55.690 seems to have been purely aesthetic. They wanted 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:58.389 a look that was distinct from the Aztec and Mayan 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:01.620 imagery that dominates Lucha Libre. So they adopted 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:04.600 the taggle must, the indigo face veil, and turban. 00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:06.639 Which, if you think about it, is actually a brilliant 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:09.480 connection. The Tuareg men traditionally veil 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:12.259 their faces. Luchadores mask their faces. It's 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:14.179 a cross -cultural parallel that actually works 00:11:14.179 --> 00:11:17.440 really well. It does. It gave them a silhouette 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:20.559 that no one else on the roster had. When they 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:22.940 walked out to that tribal music, you knew exactly 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:26.600 who it was. Branding 101. Differentiate your 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:28.759 product. If everyone else is wearing spandex, 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:31.620 wear a robe. But the branding hit a snag immediately. 00:11:32.059 --> 00:11:34.820 A legal snag, from what I'm seeing. The Guerrero 00:11:34.820 --> 00:11:37.320 problem. Ultimo Guerrero, their former boss, 00:11:37.539 --> 00:11:40.519 took issue with them keeping the name Guerrero's 00:11:40.519 --> 00:11:43.779 Touareg. His argument was that Guerrero was his 00:11:43.779 --> 00:11:46.299 brand. Which is wild because Guerrero literally 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:48.940 just means warrior. It's a common noun. It's 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:50.759 like a baseball team calling themselves the players 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.700 and suing anyone else who uses the word. It is. 00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:56.419 But in wrestling, ego drives business. Ultimo 00:11:56.419 --> 00:11:58.919 Guerrero didn't want brand confusion. So for 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:01.679 a very short, confusing window, the group had 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:04.399 to pivot names. They were called Los Heraldes 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:07.049 del Desierto. The Rebels of the Desert. That 00:12:07.049 --> 00:12:09.230 sounds like a straight -to -DVD action movie 00:12:09.230 --> 00:12:11.409 you find in a bargain bin. It didn't stick at 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:13.269 all. And here's the lesson in corporate inertia. 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:15.549 The dispute just sort of faded away. They eventually 00:12:15.549 --> 00:12:17.470 just went back to using Los Guerreros to our 00:12:17.470 --> 00:12:19.450 egg, and nobody said anything. Just waited them 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:22.090 out. Sometimes, if you just ignore a cease -and 00:12:22.090 --> 00:12:24.370 -desist order long enough in wrestling, people 00:12:24.370 --> 00:12:26.110 forget. So they have the look. They have the 00:12:26.110 --> 00:12:28.129 name back. They have the momentum. But looking 00:12:28.129 --> 00:12:30.649 at the timeline act three of their story is really 00:12:30.649 --> 00:12:33.190 defined by bad luck. It's the what -could -have 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:37.110 -been era. The biggest blow was in 2009. Nitro, 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:39.549 the leader, the mouthpiece, and arguably the 00:12:39.549 --> 00:12:42.409 best worker, blows out both knees. Double knee 00:12:42.409 --> 00:12:44.529 surgery. That is a career ender for some people. 00:12:44.610 --> 00:12:46.990 He was out for eight months. In a weekly episodic 00:12:46.990 --> 00:12:49.250 TV show, disappearing for eight months is fatal. 00:12:49.690 --> 00:12:52.730 The audience has a short memory. Arcangel de 00:12:52.730 --> 00:12:54.649 la Muerte tried to lead in the interim, but the 00:12:54.649 --> 00:12:57.049 chemistry was just... off. They tried to keep 00:12:57.049 --> 00:12:59.470 the brand alive with a franchise expansion, right? 00:12:59.870 --> 00:13:02.269 Bikini Nitro. The mini Estrella division, yes. 00:13:02.610 --> 00:13:04.330 Now, for you listening, this is a unique part 00:13:04.330 --> 00:13:07.009 of Lucha Libre. Smaller wrestlers, often people 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:09.409 with dwarfism, who perform as miniature versions 00:13:09.409 --> 00:13:12.029 of the main stars. It's considered a legitimate 00:13:12.029 --> 00:13:14.470 competitive division, not a sideshow. So the 00:13:14.470 --> 00:13:16.370 idea was to have a mini version of the Touaregs. 00:13:16.509 --> 00:13:19.309 They introduced Bikini Nitro. And he was talented. 00:13:19.750 --> 00:13:22.509 But he was the only one. They hinted at a whole 00:13:22.509 --> 00:13:25.250 tribe of mini Touaregs, but it never materialized. 00:13:25.409 --> 00:13:28.309 So you had this one small wrestler waving the 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:30.289 flag while the main leader was in the hospital. 00:13:30.429 --> 00:13:33.210 It felt disjointed. And then there's the rivalry 00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:35.870 that never happened. Los Canserberos del Infierno. 00:13:36.070 --> 00:13:39.110 The Hell Cerberus, another mid -card Rudo team 00:13:39.110 --> 00:13:41.830 that formed around the same time. Viris, Raziel, 00:13:41.889 --> 00:13:43.909 Canserbero. It writes itself, the Desert Warriors 00:13:43.909 --> 00:13:46.389 versus the Hell Dogs. It's a perfect mid -card 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:49.370 feud. And yet it never really ignited. They existed 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:51.450 in parallel lanes. This is the frustration of 00:13:51.450 --> 00:13:54.350 the midcard. If the main event storyline runs 00:13:54.350 --> 00:13:56.710 long or if the promoter loses interest, your 00:13:56.710 --> 00:13:58.950 feud gets cut. They were all dressed up with 00:13:58.950 --> 00:14:01.009 nowhere to fight. Let's talk about the luchas 00:14:01.009 --> 00:14:03.750 de apuestas, the betting matches. Because if 00:14:03.750 --> 00:14:05.370 you want to understand where the tour regs stood 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:07.370 in the pecking order, you just have to look at 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:09.309 who was winning and who was losing their hair. 00:14:09.529 --> 00:14:12.289 It is the ultimate currency. In Mexico, matches 00:14:12.289 --> 00:14:15.879 are often wagered. Mask versus mask. Hair versus 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:18.720 hair. Losing your mask is a loss of identity. 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:21.679 It's a national shame. Losing your hair is a 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:24.220 public humiliation. And looking at the Toreg 00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:26.779 track record in these bets, it's a bloodbath. 00:14:27.379 --> 00:14:31.000 Specifically for one man. Loco Max. Poor Loco 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.460 Max. I'm looking at the dates here. June 2006 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:37.000 loses hair. June 2007 loses hair. October 2008 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:41.110 loses hair. December 2008 loses hair. He was 00:14:41.110 --> 00:14:43.429 bald more often than he had hair. Locomax is 00:14:43.429 --> 00:14:46.730 the tragic hero of this stable. His role undeniably 00:14:46.730 --> 00:14:49.870 was hair for hire. But look at who he lost to. 00:14:49.909 --> 00:14:52.649 He lost to Maximo. He lost to Rush, who is a 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:55.490 global superstar now. He lost to Virus. He was 00:14:55.490 --> 00:14:57.929 the sacrificial lamb. His job was to get the 00:14:57.929 --> 00:15:00.529 crowd riled up, be the maniac, and then give 00:15:00.529 --> 00:15:02.490 the fans the satisfaction of seeing him shaved 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:05.419 bald. It's a vital role in the ecosystem. But 00:15:05.419 --> 00:15:07.139 surely that damages the group's credibility. 00:15:07.340 --> 00:15:09.320 If your guy loses every time he bets. That's 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:11.340 why you have a hierarchy. While Locomax was getting 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:13.340 shade Nitro, the leader was actually winning. 00:15:13.659 --> 00:15:15.759 The notes show Nitro taking the mask of a guy 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.940 named Galatico and another named Power. Exactly. 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:21.919 Nitro wins to keep the group dangerous. Locomax 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:23.960 loses to pay off the storylines for the good 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:26.360 guys. It's a balanced ecosystem. If everyone 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:28.500 wins, you have no drama. If everyone loses, you're 00:15:28.500 --> 00:15:31.500 a joke. They walk that line perfectly. But eventually, 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:34.730 the desert winds die down. How did it end? Was 00:15:34.730 --> 00:15:38.110 there a final explosion? A loser disbands match 00:15:38.110 --> 00:15:41.389 in a steel cage? No. And that's the most realistic 00:15:41.389 --> 00:15:43.289 and perhaps the saddest part of the story. It 00:15:43.289 --> 00:15:46.110 wasn't a bang. It was a slow fade. Attrition. 00:15:46.330 --> 00:15:50.870 Dr. X, a key member, left CMLL in 2011. That 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:53.429 was a huge loss of talent. Local Macs left in 00:15:53.429 --> 00:15:56.169 2012. The roster just started shrinking. They 00:15:56.169 --> 00:15:58.190 stopped getting booked as a unit. And the final 00:15:58.190 --> 00:16:01.440 nail. February 2015. Hooligan, one of the founding 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:03.460 members, walked out one night, not as Hooligan, 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:06.659 but as Luciferno. Even repackaged into a new 00:16:06.659 --> 00:16:09.320 group, Los Hijos del Inferno. So he essentially 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:11.460 got a transfer to a different department in the 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:14.039 corporation. Basically. And with that, Los Guerriles 00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:16.620 Tuareg just ceased to exist. No press release, 00:16:16.860 --> 00:16:19.320 no retirement ceremony. They just... Stopped 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:20.899 wearing the robes. It's surprisingly poignant. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.299 They spent 10 years building this identity, this 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:25.360 tribe, and then it just evaporated. That is the 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:27.600 life cycle of the industry. But I think it brings 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:29.919 us back to that core idea of why this matters. 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:31.799 Why are we spending all this time taking a deep 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.000 dive into a defunct wrestling stable? Because 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.279 without them, the show doesn't happen. Exactly. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:38.620 Yeah. If you only have generals and no soldiers, 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:43.309 the army fails. were the soldiers. They trained 00:16:43.309 --> 00:16:45.769 the rookies who became today's stars. They filled 00:16:45.769 --> 00:16:48.350 the TV time. They provided the color and the 00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:50.929 pageantry that made the show feel full. They 00:16:50.929 --> 00:16:53.330 were the reliable infrastructure of CMLL. And 00:16:53.330 --> 00:16:55.610 they did it with a level of commitment to a bizarre 00:16:55.610 --> 00:16:59.350 gimmick, African nomads in Mexico City that made 00:16:59.350 --> 00:17:01.710 them unforgettable to the people who saw them. 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:04.099 It makes you think about the concept of rebranding 00:17:04.099 --> 00:17:06.220 in general. We saw them change from gangsters 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:09.180 to nomads, but the work rate, the wrestling style, 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:11.480 the role in the company that barely changed. 00:17:11.700 --> 00:17:13.539 The rapper changed, but the product remained 00:17:13.539 --> 00:17:15.980 exactly the same. So here's a thought to take 00:17:15.980 --> 00:17:18.440 with you. In your own life or your own workplace, 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:22.230 how often do you see a rebrand? A new job title, 00:17:22.369 --> 00:17:25.349 a new project code name, a new office layout. 00:17:25.549 --> 00:17:28.289 New paradigm, same spreadsheet. Exactly. Is it 00:17:28.289 --> 00:17:30.210 a fundamental change or is it just putting on 00:17:30.210 --> 00:17:32.390 a Touareg robe to make the same work feel fresh 00:17:32.390 --> 00:17:34.670 for another few years? And more importantly, 00:17:34.809 --> 00:17:37.410 if it works, does it matter? In the case of the 00:17:37.410 --> 00:17:40.069 Touaregs, that robe bought them an extra five 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:43.250 years of employment. Sometimes the wrapper is 00:17:43.250 --> 00:17:45.829 everything. Something to chew on the next time 00:17:45.829 --> 00:17:48.890 HR announces a strategic pivot? Thanks for taking 00:17:48.890 --> 00:17:51.130 this deep dive into the weird world of Lucha 00:17:51.130 --> 00:17:53.730 Libre with us. Always a pleasure. Keep looking 00:17:53.730 --> 00:17:55.930 beneath the surface. We'll see you next time.