El Latino (Lemus)

Profile

El Latino

Name El Latino Real name Carlos O. Musquiz Nicknames San Antonio's Original Vato Loco Name history El Latino (debut - ), Lemús III (96 - 97) Family Lemús I (uncle), Lemús II (brother), Juan Reynosa (cousin) Maestro(s) Lemús II, Tito Sánchez, Juan Reynosa, "Rudy Boy" González Birth date, location March 3, 1972 - San Antonio, Texas, USA Obituary date Debut, location July 12, 1992 - Valadez Arena - San Antonio, Texas Lost mask to Height 6'1"/186 cms. Weight 209 lbs./95 kg. Signature moves Latin Death Drop (Stone Cold Stunner), Latin Time Bomb (Top Rope Kangaroo Dropkick) Titles: Texas Light Heavyweight Title (Houston version), UTW Heavyweight Title (2), TXW Tag Team Titles (w/ Tito Sánchez)

Biography

El Latino, was born within a family with lucha tradition, as his uncle was already working as Lemus I, and his brother would eventually also become a pro under the Lemus II mask. He first started training during the summer of 1984, a training partner for his brother Lemus II who taught him the basics. His formal training was in the pure Mexican lucha style.

His debut match was on July 12, 1992. against his own brother, Lemús II, and he won. He was not wrestling full time then, and didn't do so until 1994, when he got out of the Navy. He got his in-ring polish working mostly for the different minor lucha promotions in San Antonio and South Texas. It was then when he also started training and working out with respected local workers Arandú, Rudy Boy Gonzalez, Juan Reynosa and Tito Sánchez. He learned bits and pieces from all of them, and still credits them as his maestros. He also had other mentors during his career, like Bobby Perez, Ken Johnson, Jose Lothario and Dusty Wolfe.

He got his first taste of wrestling gold in September of 1995, when he defeated El Vikingo to capture the Houston version of the Texas Light Heavyweight Title. Soon thereafter, to be exact on January of 1996, he adopted the family name and became Lemús III, paying homage to his uncle, his brother, and his childhood hero Sangre Chicana. He didn't use this name a lot, but when he did it was on the Nuevo Laredo circuit working against Mexican talent. The two most important matches he had with this name were the time the three Lemus masked men joined forces to face Mr. Nuclear, El Universitario and Estrella Universal, and when he had the honor of teaming with his uncle's old partner, Amenaza del Norte, against Tigre Universitario and El Marvik.

He enjoyed wrestling in Mexico very much, however he didn't want to have on his shoulders the pressure of upholding the tradition of the name and decided to become his one self again, going back to El Latino during the early months of 1997.

The character that he has always portrayed since his debut is the one of a homeboy born and raised in the mean streets of Southside San Antonio. He has got attitude but is not the one to disrespect anybody. However, if he is disrespected, he's sure going to take care of his business.

It was also around this time when El Latino's career took almost a U turn. Noticing the envy, egos and general bad attitudes displayed by some of the Texan lucha workers, he didn't feel comfortable in that environment and with help of mentor Tito Sanchez, started working more for non-lucha based independent promotions.

He also had to adapt his style to his new set of opponents and a different crowd, and ended up mixing the flash and flavor of the high flying Mexican moves while working a solid, traditional American style match. He likes to go technical, but if he has to, he can brawl as well. Due to his height and weight he is a natural cruiserweight, however he is not afraid to mix it up with any heavyweight and give him a tough match.

Latino finally got his big break in late 1998 by working for the San Antonio based Pro Wrestling International, ran by the legendary Jose Lothario. With this promotion he had the chance to be featured on the local news various times, and also had the opportunity to have a singles match with Sho Funaki, of the WWF, Michinoku Pro and BattlARTS fame. But once Shawn Michaels took over in early 1999, creative differences led to El Latino being let go.

In late 1999, El Latino went to work for Underground Texas Wrassling in San Antonio, and after a few months of hard work, in May of 2000 he won the UTW Heavyweight Title. He would go on to win the title one more time before the promotion folded in early 2001.

Since then, he's been working for several companies all over South Texas while mantaining a management position in South Texas Extreme Wrestling, where he is the assistant trainer of up and coming wrestlers within the promotion. In the training, he uses his knowledge to teach the fundamentals of the lucha moves and tumbling to the aspiring young wrestlers. Due to his experience, working for virtually anybody that has run down South Texas in the last 10 years, in his classes he also puts insight in working as a team, thus trying to create an ego-free environment with a locker room full of guys that will put anybody over with no complaints.

Even though now he rarely works for pure lucha promotions in Texas, El Latino still gives credit to Lucha Libre for the opportunity to get his start in the wrestling business.