Lizmark
| Lizmark | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Juan Baños |
| Born |
December 18, 1950 Santiago Llano Grande, Oaxaca, Mexico |
| Died | December 16, 2015 (aged 64) |
| Cause of death | Respiratory failure |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Lizmark |
| Billed height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Billed weight | 93 kg (205 lb) |
| Billed from | Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico |
| Trained by | Braulio Mendoza Abundio Radilla Hércules |
| Debut | March 14, 1976 |
Juan Baños (December 18, 1950 – December 16, 2015) was a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler better known by the ring name Lizmark. The name was taken from the German battleship Bismarck. He was a multiple-time champion, having held singles and tag team championships in both Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre / Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (EMLL/CMLL) and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). In 2001, Lizmark was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. His nickname was El Geniecillo Azul, which is Spanish for "The Little Blue Genius". He has two sons who are also professional wrestlers, Lizmark, Jr. and El Hijo de Lizmark.
Baños grew up in Acapulco, and started a career in hotel management. He was also into bodybuilding, winning the 1971 Mr. Acapulco and 1972 Mr. Guerrero competitions. He was trained to be a boxer by his uncle, and made his professional wrestling debut on March 14, 1976. He chose to wear a mask to hide his wrestling identity from his clients and co-workers at the Hilton Hotel. His ring name of "Lizmark" was inspired by the German battleship Bismarck he had been fascinated with since childhood. Lizmark quickly became one of the innovators in lucha libre, incorporating flashy, high flying moves into the matches, a style that is common today but in the 1970s was new and exciting.
After working mainly around Acapulco for a couple of years he was signed to a full-time contract by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) in 1978. On April 18, 1978 Lizmark defeated Américo Rocca to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship. Over the following year Lizmark defended the title on several occasions, often in the most well received match of the night. His first title reign lasted 346 days, ending on March 29, 1980 when Rocca regained the title, but it was an indicator of things to come for Lizmark. In June 1980 Lizmark won the highest ranking Welterweight title in Mexico, the NWA World Welterweight Championship when he defeated El Supremo for the title. His run with the title lasted 506 days until he was defeated by La Fiera. Lizmark's next title win came at the expense of a wrestler who would become one of Lizmark's most frequent opponents and a man with whom he's had a series of great matches, El Satánico. Lizmark defeated Satánico to win the Mexican National Middleweight Championship on February 10, 1982. In 1983 he lost the title to, and then regained the title from Espectro, Jr.. Over the next couple of years Lizmark would win the NWA World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship to become only the second man in history to win the NWA title in all three weight divisions promoted by EMLL, the first being Gory Guerrero. Lizmark ended up holding the World Light Heavyweight title four times in total, losing it for the fourth and final time to Satánico on April 5, 1992. Lizmark defeated El Cobarde II to win the WWA World Light Heavyweight Championship in 1988 and held it for an undetermined amount of time.
...
Wikipedia