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m LIFE & DEATHon the ROPES THE DEATH OF A LUCHADOR IN THE RING SENDS MEXICAN WRESTLING TO THE MAT BY THOMAS GOLIANOPOULOS Marisela Peña, president of AAA Wrestling, has a tradi- tion: She brings an urn, a vase made of gold and silver so ornate it practically glows, to every major AAA event. The urn contains the ashes of the company founder, her brother Antonio, who died in 2006. Backstage at the Arena Ciudad de México, 20 min- utes before the start of Triplemanía XXIII, the biggest lucha libre show of the year, here is Peña in a poufy baby- blue evening gown more appropriate for the Met Ball than a wrestling match, holding the urn and delivering a pep talk to her roster—her children, as she calls them. She stands next to Luz Ramírez, who also clutches a memorial—a modest carved mahogany box with a tiny gold crucifix secured near the lid. It contains the ashes of her son Pedro “Hijo del Perro” Aguayo Ramírez, one of tonight’s inductees into AAA’s Hall of Fame. Illustration by Jason Holley 50 51 1 3 4 2 On the night of Friday, March 20, 2015, Aguayo wrestled in Tijuana in a four-person match that, when compared with the bloody brawls he was known for, appeared fairly sedate. “Everything was normal,” says T.J. “Manik” Perkins, 5 Aguayo’s tag-team partner that evening. “Up until the moment we were both on the ropes, everything was totally normal.” 1. Hijo del Perro Aguayo (right) faces Rey Mysterio in his final match. 2. About five minutes in, Aguayo charged Aguayo slumps on the ropes before one of his opponents, Óscar “Rey Myste- the match is stopped. 3. Aguayo’s rio” Gutiérrez Rubio, in the corner, where mother with the press. 4. Rey Mys- Mysterio delivered Aguayo a double boot terio. 5. Aguayo with his father, wrestling legend Perro Aguayo Sr. to the face. Aguayo then rolled forward 6 and took a flying head scissors to the out- 6. Father and son in the ring. side, resulting in an awkward bump on the ring apron. When Aguayo reentered Taya Valkyrie says through her own tears. Bring the physicality up,” Konnan the ring, Mysterio drop-kicked him in the “After he died, I swear I saw him in the directs. “I need it to be pure and crisp.” shoulder. He crumpled into the middle dressing room. It still feels like a pres- Before exiting, he remembers a big stunt rope, the perfect position for Mysterio’s ence is missing.” planned for the match. “Listen, there’s signature move, the 619. Manik fell next Aguayo’s death has been called a freak something you need to know about the to Aguayo. Both were supposed to duck accident. It is also a tragedy with more particleboard. The best way to break it when Mysterio swooped in, but Manik, than one victim. is to fucking flip into it. If you go into it sensing something was wrong, whispered, shoulder first, it will just break in half. If “Perro, Perro, down!” As Mysterio flew • you flip, it will blow up, and the fucking over him, Aguayo lay still, then slumped to A few minutes before Peña’s address, crowd will blow up. I watched the match the bottom rope and, finally, to the canvas. Konnan, director of AAA’s Creative between Perro and Myzteziz, and when He died at a nearby hospital. The cause of Department, lumbers between dressing Myzteziz threw Perro into the particle- death was cardiac arrest, likely the result rooms, providing last-minute instruc- board, Perro did a full flip and the of a cervical stroke that occurred when his tions to the luchadores. A 51-year-old fucking thing exploded.” neck was broken. He was 35. Cuban born Carlos Ashenoff, Konnan Konnan thinks of Aguayo often— Peña’s speech outside the locker room was the biggest star in Mexican wrestling and not just because he was ringside in is brief, a few words on the company’s suc- in the early 1990s. He now walks with Tijuana. He remembers meeting—and cess and the tragic circumstances of this a slight limp after hip-replacement sur- threatening—Aguayo when the boy was evening. It ends with another AAA tradi- gery; he’s also had a kidney transplant. 11 years old. At the time, Konnan was tion: a cheer for the departed. His concern at the moment is the hair battling on-screen with Pedro “El Perro” “Perro! Perro! Long live Perro! Rah, vs. hair match between Alberto El Patrón Aguayo Sr., possibly the most popular rah, rah!” and Brian Cage, an American with Wol- nonmasked wrestler in Mexico’s history. When Peña talks about Aguayo, the verine sideburns and an “evil foreigner” It was the hottest feud in the country, and son of a legend who became a legend gimmick—he wears a VOTE FOR TRUMP: during an appearance on Y Usted…¿Qué himself following a decade-long stretch MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN T-shirt. Opina?, a long-running talk show, Kon- as the most popular rudo (heel, or bad Konnan listens as Cage runs through nan told Aguayo Sr., “I hope your son guy) in Mexico, she still aches. “I feel a the outlined finish. “Super kick, one, two, gets in the wrestling business, because pain in my heart,” she says. “The peo- that’s the slow count, DDT, slow count, we once I’m done whupping your ass, I’m ple of Mexico feel a pain in their heart.” head to the top rope, I catch him, power going to whup his ass.” Later, in the dress- The mourning spread across borders. “I bomb off the ropes, false finish, low blow, ing room, Perrito, as the younger Aguayo was just in Colombia and there were fans he takes me into the chair that’s set up in was nicknamed, refused to shake Kon- with tears in their eyes, holding pictures the corner the whole time, then arm bar.” nan’s hand. He was terrified. His father, 52 of him,” Aguayo’s on-screen girlfriend “Just so you know, I talked to Alberto. an old-school type, (continued on page 138) more versatile performer than his father. He could chain wrestle on the mat or dive from the top rope. He was very athletic, and he was polished on the microphone. His greatest attribute, though, was his cha- risma, especially when working as a heel. “I’ve seen a lot of good wrestlers, but not all of them have that charisma—in Span- ish we call it an angel, as in ‘the grace of an angel,’ and that’s what Perro had,” Peña says through an interpreter. “He always took m over. He was that bad guy who, when he came onto the scene, he just took control LIFE & DEATH ON THE ROPES of the audience.” Aguayo was a true rudo. He knew how to Continued from page 52 get heat, how to conjure villainous energy. had yet to reveal that wrestling—and all the He was a throwback to a time when bad guys violence and rivalries within it—is scripted. could whip fans into a frenzy. No matter the It wasn’t until Konnan visited the Aguayo town, no matter the opponent, he identi- home and played with the family dog, a fied every trigger point for the crowd. He chow chow named Bola, that Perrito felt registered emotions well with his face. His safe around him. timing was perfect—he recognized how and Konnan and Aguayo Sr. were tag-team when to suppress a babyface (a good guy or partners when Perrito made his profes- hero) trying to mount a teased comeback. sional wrestling debut in June 1995 at the A low blow was one of his finishing moves. age of 15, a rarity even in Mexico. But in Aguayo was a different person outside front of 19,500 fans at the Río Nilo Coli- the ring. He was humble and well-spoken. seum in Tonalá, Jalisco, Aguayo lived up to Whereas his character was a blood-licking the high expectations that came with being thug, Perro was fresa—Mexican slang for his father’s son. “The younger Aguayo is “preppy.” He wore suits. He lived near his such a natural in the ring,” gushed Wres- parents in Tala, Jalisco, a town 30 minutes tling Observer Newsletter, which awarded three west of Guadalajara. And though he was and a quarter stars to Aguayo’s match with fiercely private, it’s known he was divorced. Juventud Guerrera. Afterward Konnan told He got his big break after leaving AAA Aguayo Sr. he would look after his son for in 2003 for CMLL, the world’s oldest run- him once he retired. ning wrestling promotion, where he formed “Those words haunt me sometimes,” a heel group called Perros del Mal (Dogs Konnan says today. of Evil). In the tradition of such antiheroes as the N.W.O. and D-Generation X, Perros • made it cool to be bad and became the hot- Aguayo Sr. was fearful and reluctant to test act in the company. (Their catchphrase allow his son to follow in his footsteps. was “God forgives; the Dogs…no!”) A 2007 He knew the dangers of the business, the turn on the highly rated reality-show compe- wounds and broken bones that could be tition Los 5 Magníficos heightened Aguayo’s inflicted inside the ring. A botched pile- popularity. Later in his career he was a reg- driver had almost left him paralyzed.

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