Los Cadetes Del Espacio (AAA)
Los Cadetes Del Espacio (The Space Cadets) were originally a group based in the UWA comprised of Solar, Super Astro & Ultraman. The idea was to put three young high flyers together and they would steal the show with their crazy acrobatics. In 1995, Antonio Pena created a group called Los Power Raiders for his AAA promotion. The gimmick was obviously a ripoff of the characters from the popular Power Rangers TV series. The first three Power Rangers were given a try out in Tijuana/Mexicali shows in late 1994, with different color combinations, before debuting full time in March of 1995.
At the time of the debut, the group was made up of luchadors who had previously been Tijuana luchadors El Vagabundo and Vagaman, and Gomez Palacio brother trio Brillante, Diamante and Zafiro. The five looked nervous in their initial matches, disappointing AAA into considering giving up on the gimmick before instead shuffling the lineup. The former Brillante, Diamante and Zafiro were restored to their original gimmicks, then lost all their mask and all their hairs with in months. Replacing them, around the weekend of April 14, were Tijuana luchador Gamma and former UWA luchadors Seminarista and Sagrado.
In August of 1995, Pena was sued by Saban, the rights owners of the Power Rangers TV series. As a result he decided to take some of the guys in the Power Raiders gimmick and turn them into his own version of Space Cadets. They included:
- Venum (ex-Power Raider Verde/Green Power Ranger)
- Ludxor (ex-Power Raider Negro/Black Power Ranger)
- Discovery (ex-Power Raider Azul/Blue Power Ranger)
- Frisbee (ex-Power Raider Rojo/Red Power Ranger)
- Boomerang (ex-Power Raider Blanco/White Power Ranger)
Frisbee and Boomerang would eventually leave the promotion and the gimmicks would be passed onto younger wrestlers (Neo & Geo) who faded away after a short while.
In 1997 a new member joined the stable:
This incarnation turned out to be the most successful with their matches against Los Rudos De La Galaxia being quite memorable. They took on with success also Los Hampones and Payasos AAA, sometimes siding with luchadores like Super Muneco, Leon Negro, and Los Chivas Rayadas.
In September of 1997, a mass exodus of wrestlers left AAA for Promo Azteca. Venum and Super Nova were included in that group and they took on the new roles of Venum Black & Oro Jr.. Pena, however, decided the gimmick must go on and create new versions of the wrestlers who left him:
All the publications at the time (Box y Lucha & SuperLuchas) came out and revealed Pena was using new wrestlers under the gimmicks which all but killed any momentum the group had. They stuck around AAA until March 1999 before Venum II left for Monterrey (where he continues to wrestle till this day), Discovery left for Chicago (where he continued to wrestle till his passing in May 2020) and Super Nova II lasted only a short time because he was AWFUL and got replaced by Super Nova III. Finally, Ludxor stuck around AAA for another year or so before fading into obscurity.
In 2013, the group was reborn with two new luchadors taking the names of Venum and Luxdor under the guidance of Aero Star.
On a sidenote, there was also a Mini Cadetes Del Espacio group that formed in late 1997 but only stuck around for a few months due to the decreasing popularity of their larger counterparts. It featured Mini Discovery, Mini Ludxor, Mini Nova and Mini Venum
