| 1 | 12.09.2020 | ElPolloLoco | 0.0 | One of the most infamous characters of lucha libre, he achieved immortality by losing his own Fantomas mask 21 times, each time managing to avoid having his face put on a nationwide magazine and each time giving a different (and false) identity. Fantomas was actually quickly caught pulling off his little trick, when he lost his mask in 1956 in Mexico City (I think against a young Septiembre Negro): the DF Boxe y Lucha Commission found he had already lost his Fantomas mask twice (once in Puebla and the other somewhere in the Laguna), each time giving a false identity, and banned him from performing in Mexico City. Undeterred, Fantomas started plying his trade around Mexico, becoming a sort of urban legend in the process: while lucha libre historians managed to confirm 21 instances of him losing his mask, the total is probably much higher but I honestly doubt he managed to pull it off 83 times as some websites claim. The end for Fantomas came in 1965, when sports reporter Arturo Ortega managed to break a story with both Fantomas' real identity and clear pictures of him unmasking after losing a match (and giving once again a false identity). With public opinion finally turning against him, Fantomas wisely decided to retire a couple of years, never to be seen or heard again. Fantomas is widely suspected to have "gamed the system" since at that time most Boxe y Lucha Commissions effectively operated in a vacuum and to make matters worse several commissioners were not even on speaking term with each other: he moved around as free as a bird, leading to his peculiar nicjname, pajarito. |
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