Black Shadow (wrestler)
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| Birth name | Alejandro Cruz Ortiz |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 3, 1921 León, Guanajuato, Mexico |
| Died | March 8, 2007 (aged 85) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Alejandro Cruz Black Shadow Jungla Cruz |
| Trained by | Manuel Miranda El Enfermero |
| Debut | June 21, 1942 |
| Retired | 1981 |
Alejandro Cruz Ortiz (May 3, 1921 – March 8, 2007) was a Mexican Luchador (professional wrestler), known worldwide as Black Shadow. Cruz's mask vs. mask match against El Santo in 1952 is generally considered one of the most important matches in the history of Lucha Libre. Cruz often teamed with Blue Demon, working as a tag team called "Los Hermanos Shadow" (the Shadow Brothers), even though the two were not related. He was nicknamed El Hombre de Goma, translated as The Elastic Man, due to his elasticity and flexibility in the ring.
Cruz's original ambition was to be a musician but because he lacked the talent to earn a living from it he turned to professional wrestling. He had been a lifelong fan, and began training for a professional wrestling career in 1941.
Cruz made his professional debut on June 21, 1942, against Rito Romero losing his debut match. Initially he was billed as "Jungla" Cruz, named after a popular character from the funny papers but he did not like the name the promoters had forced on him. After making his debut Cruz realized that he needed to perform regularly in order to improve, thus he decided to move to Monterrey which at the time was one of the main cities for wrestling in Mexico. In Monterrey he befriended another young wrestler trying to break into the business, Blue Demon. The two struck up a friendship and soon after began teaming together on a regular basis. After working under his real name for a while, Cruz decided that he needed a different image, and came up with the ring persona "Black Shadow" and a black mask with white trim around the eye, mouth and nose openings. The new image was a hit and masked duo of Blue Demon and Black Shadow became known as "Los Hermanos Shadow" (Spanish for "the shadow brothers") despite not being related. Los Hermanos Shadow quickly became very popular and were at one point the main "Technico" (good guy) team. In the mid-1950s Los Hermanos Shadow began a decade long rivalry with the top Rudo (villain) team of El Santo and Gory Guerrero, known as "La Pareja Atómica". After selling out arenas all around Mexico for their tag team matches El Santo and Black Shadow started to work singles matches against each other.
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