Marcela (in blue) in the ring with Princesa Blanca (in black)
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Birth name | María Elena Santamaría Gómez |
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Born | May 31, 1971 |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Marcela |
Billed height | 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) |
Billed weight | 60 kg (130 lb) |
Trained by | Panchito Villalobos Rafael Salamanca Franco Colombo Jose Luis Feliciano Satánico Fantastik |
Debut | December 1985 |
María Elena Santamaría Gómez (born May 31, 1971) is a Mexican professional wrestler, known mainly for her work in the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where she works under the ring name Marcela. As Marcela, she is one of the top tecnicas (good guy characters, or faces) in CMLL and is a four-time CMLL World Women's Champion and one-time Mexican National Women's Champion.
María Santamaría made her professional wrestling debut in 1985, using the ring name "Marcela" and initially worked on the Mexican independent circuit. In the early 1990s she began working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In the mid-1990s and early 2000s CMLL did not focus on their women's division, which meant that Marcela also worked for a variety of other minor Mexican promotions. In 2004 CMLL began featuring more and more women's wrestling again and Marcela was one of the wrestlers who was given a full-time role with CMLL. On September 9, 2005, Marcela and Dark Angel were the last two women in a 12-woman Cibernetico match, earning the right to wrestle for the vacant CMLL World Women's Championship the following week; a match which Marcela won. Subsequently she defended the title against Hiroka once and La Amapola on a number of occasions until her title reign ended on June 9, 2006 when Hiroka defeated her. On May 4, 2007, Marcela defeated Princessa Sujei to win the vacant Mexican National Women's Championship, after first surviving a 14-woman Cibernetico match. She held the title until January 30, 2009, when she lost the title to Princessa Blanca. Marcela is also a former holder of the Distrito Federal Women's Championship but lost it to La Diabólica at some point in 2009. On April 12, 2009 Marcela defeated Rosa Negra in a Lucha de Apuesta, hair vs. mask match and forced Rosa Negra to unmask after the match and reveal her name per Lucha libre traditions. On October 28, 2011, Marcela succeeded in her thirteenth title shot at La Amapola and defeated her to regain the CMLL World Women's Championship. She lost the title to Ayumi in Tokyo, Japan, on November 26, 2011. Marcela regained the title from Ayumi on March 9, 2012, in Mexico City. On August 5, Marcela defeated Tiffany in a Lucha de Apuestas, forcing her to have head shaved bald. On December 9, 2012 Marcela defeated Ludark Shaitan to win the Xtreme Mexican Wrestling XMW Women's Championship. On June 30, 2013, Marcela traveled back to Japan to successfully defend the CMLL World Women's Championship against Ray at an event held by the Reina Joshi Puroresu promotion. Marcela returned to Japan and Reina on December 12, 2014, when she lost the CMLL World Women's Championship to Syuri, ending her over two and a half year reign. She regained the title from Syuri back in Mexico on April 10, 2015. On March 11, 2016, Marcela lost the CMLL World Women's Championship to Dalys la Caribeña.