Halcón Suriano
Profile
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Biography
The Laguna region of Mexico, comprised among other cities by Torreón in Coahuila, and Cd. Lerdo and Gómez Palacio in Durango, on the past was, along with Guadalajara and Monterrey, the Mexican hotbed of scientific wrestling marvels. And if Monterrey had a great maestro in Rolando Vera and Guadalajara had the legendary Diablo Velasco, the laguna region had Halcón Suriano. Suriano is the least popular of the three maestros as the Laguna circuit has never been, on a national level, as important as the Nuevo León or Jalisco regions, however, that does not make him a less good or skilled trainer.
But before talking about his career as a maestro, let's talk about the man himself, and his career as a pro wrestler.
Halcón Suriano was born Juan José Espinoza Meza, on June 26, 1936 in the state of Guerrero, however at a very young age he moved with his family to Mineral del Oro, Mexico State. Young Juan José fell in love at first sight with lucha libre, and idolized Tarzán López, Raúl Romero, "El Caballero Tigre" Pedro Bolaños and Alfonso "El Acorazado" Moreno (father of the Moreno sisters and Oriental). And when he decided to train to become a luchador, the latter three became his maestros.
He was a really great wrestler of his era, and he actually made it to Mexico City and competed at Arena Coliseo and Arena Mexico (before the independent revolution in the mid 70s, the old school mentality was that if you did not make it to the big D.F. arenas, you were a "nobody"). His problem was that he was a lightweight and could never get past of the low card slots because of that.
He mostly wrestled during the 60s at the arenas in the Mexico City outskirts, namely Arena Naucalpan, Escandón and Deportivo Calles, and he teamed with, and wrestled against, people like Estrella Blanca, Tony Grimaldo, El Gato, Pedro Nieves, Los Hermanos Montes (uncles of Super Calo and Alan and Chris Stone), Fernando Osés (famous because of his film career), El Chamaco Meza, El Duque, As Negro, César Sando (father of the So-Cal lucha wrestler and promoter) and El Caballero Tigre, from whom Halcón had a great respect and affection to the point that he called him "papá".
Halcón also traveled to Central America, where he wrestled masked for the first and only time in his career, during a three month tour of Guatemala and El Salvador, where he also won the Central American Lightweight Title from Guatemala native, the late Águila Roja.
Soon after such a successful tour, he had the chance to challenge for the National Lightweight Title. The first bout was in Puebla, Puebla, on May of 1962, against champion Juan Díaz, but Halcón lost in three falls. His second chance was against a different opponent, Raúl Guerrero, in October of 1964, and he lost again, but this time because of an ankle injury.
On June 30, 1961 he made his debut in the Plaza de Toros de Torreón, coming with a fellow wrestler touring the Northern region, Marco Polo. Both stayed in the locally popular Casa de la Señora Teresa, which was the place where all the famous wrestlers that came in tours stayed to sleep. In that debut match, he teamed with Al Hernández against Eddy "La Marrana" Martínez and Gran Gory, whom they defeated in straight falls.
Since Halcón Suriano was very well received by the Lagunero crowd, he decided to make the region his home. He eventually met a young lady, Rebeca Morales Rubio, who he married and had six children with: three girls and three boys, the boys being all wrestlers. But in one of those unfortunate twists of life, Doña Rebeca passed away six year after her marriage, so Halcón had to do double duty at home and be a father and a mother for the kids at the same time. Later in his life he had another relationship and had another son, who now wrestles as Junior Halcón.
However he was successful in raising his family and in his wrestling career as well. The total output of his Northern Lightweight title reigns amounts to fourteen years. He first captured the title defeating Pachuca native Rudy Valentino in the Plaza de Toros de Torreón, lost it to Vicente Nuño, and won it back again from El Moro (who would later become the incredibly gifted Espanto Jr. and original Pentagon). He never lost this title in a match, as he vacated it during the first months of 1986 handing it to the Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores.
Halcón had the chance to team with people such as untouchable legends like El Santo, Blue Demon and Black Shadow, and other really important gladiators of the era like Polo Torres and Joe Marín that have been forgotten with the past of time. Also, he went toe to toe with all of the lightweight superworkers of the Golden Era, such as Mishima Ota from Japan, Shadito Cruz (father of the Brazos), the original Estrella Blanca, Huroki Sito, Tony Sugar (brother of the original Rayo de Jalisco), Juan Díaz and Raul Guerrero among others.
He also was one of the founding members of the Sindicato Nacional de Luchadores (formed on May of 1959 in Mexico City) having the wrestler license number 463 in the capital and the license number 148 in Torreón.
However, the part of his career that over the years has been the foundation his legend was built on, was his awesome career as a lucha libre trainer. He was a maestro in several local gyms and arenas, as well as an official EMLL instructor for the Plaza de Toros de Torreón in 1969. His more than impressive listing of students, includes among others Blue Panther, Black Warrior, Gran Markus Sr., El Espanto Jr./Pentagon, Angel Azteca, Safari, Último Guerrero, Pimpinela Escarlata, Vicente Nuño (Black Danger), Chicano Montana, La Sombra, Black Charly (The King from the early 90s at El Toreo), Tony Rodriguez, Los Hermanos Star, Águila Roja, El Lobo, Ray Man, Ratón Miguelito, El Fraterno, El Infernal, and of course, his own sons.
After retirement, Suriano attended his business (a workshop where they fixed tires of buses, cars, trucks, etc.) in Torreón until passing away on March 4, 1993 after a cardiac arrest, leaving a long legacy behind.
As a curiosity, here's a history that many old time wrestlers remember. After an argument with Dr. Wagner at the gym of the Torreón Bullring, they decided to settle it in the gym mat wrestling clean, and lightweight Suriano ended up beating a much bigger light heavyweight in Wagner, who already had quite a reputation himself. This is another little thing that shows the enormous wrestling knowledge of Halcón Suriano, an undeniable legend of the Comarca Lagunera.
