Havana Pitbulls
The Havana Pibtulls/Havana Brothers were a group of NJPW wrestlers from their Los Angeles Dojo who wrestled in CMLL in 2004.
Previous to CMLL, the Havana Pitbulls were a tag team of Rocky Romero and Ricky Reyes, who'd borrowed the name from a previous team who used that name.
CMLL did not seem to know who these men were before their debut in Mexico; they were loaned to them by NJPW in a talent sharing agreement. They had wrestled for AAA at one point, but weren't known in Mexico, and CMLL didn't appear to know which man was which. To complicate things further, Ricky Reyes broke his arm shortly before their start in CMLL and was replaced, though CMLL didn't seem to figure this out. For no known reason, they also decided to call them Havana Brothers instead of Pitbulls and number them.
From July till mid September, the Havana Brothers were
- Havana Brother I: Rocky Romero (often called "Ricky Romero")
- Havana Brother II: Puma (often wearing 'Pinoy Boy' tights, unmasked)
- Havana Brother III: Bobby Quance (sometimes called "Rocko")
Part of the name confusion came from an initial interview (also notable for being remarkably bad), where Bobby Quance gave himself the nickname Rocko. The CMLL announcers presumably looked at the list of wrestlers they were supposed to have (before Ricky Reyes was hurt), and since one guy called himself Rocko and another called himself Puma, the remaining guy had to be the Ricky they had listed, and Ricky Romero was born. CMLL never corrected their mistake.
After being treated as typical evil foreign heels the first week in, this Havana Brothers trio was programmed against high flying tecnicos Volador Jr., Ricky Marvin, Virus, and the two teams ended up having a series of popular and well received matches. The Havanas had the benefit of not just being good wrestlers, but working a different style than was commonly done in Mexico, with far more MMA influence (as NJPW was teaching it's trainees at the time), as well the US Indy Cruiserweight style of increased high spot moves in matches. At the same time, the Havana Brothers benefited from training with the other CMLL wrestlers, picking up lucha style from the trainers.
The success of these trios matches led to the creation of the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship. The Mexican National Trios Championship was inactive at the time and could've been a better fit, but the Havanas were ineligible due to not being Mexican.
The Havanas finished up their scheduled dates shortly after Romero won the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship. Many of their Arena Mexico matches from their first tour made the CMLL TV show, with the notable exception of the Super Light cibernetico (clipped down to the final eliminations.)
After their initial success, CMLL brought back the group for another two month run. By then, Reyes had recovered from injuries (and Puma may have suffered one of his own), so the trios that returned to Mexico (from mid October 2003 to mid December) was
- Havana Brother I: Rocky "Ricky" Romero
- Havana Brother II: Ricky Reyes
- Havana Brother III: Bobby Quance
Since they already had a Ricky, the announcers just didn't have any idea what to call Reyes.
None of the matches from this tour made CMLL TV in any significant form, though they were reported to be good. The Havanas had more variety of opponents, facing both tecnicos and rudos. The main thrust of this tour was to set up a Virus/Romero title match, and Virus won the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship to end the Havanas run.
During the second tour, Quance got hurt on a dive gone wrong and was out of action for a couple of weeks. Alan Stone, a tecnico at the time, filled in as a third rudo.
The Havanas have not been back to CMLL since, save for one unexpected return by Rocky Romero to win back the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship; there was no build up to the match and no attempt has been made by CMLL wrestlers to win the belt back. It now seem to be under the control of the NJPW's LA Dojo, as part of it's NJPW Pro shows.
The CMLL/NJPW alliance seems to be on at the moment, so it's always a possiblity that Romero or a team of Havanas could return to Mexico three years after they last wrestled there. It doesn't seem likely, though, because they're no longer a team.
- Rocky Romero still occasionally wrestles under that name, but more often is the newest Black Tiger for NJPW. After being Black Tiger he returned to CMLL as Grey Shadow. Rocky is now in AAA
- Bobby Quance decided to leave wrestling, at least for the time being, and is currently serving in the United States Marines.
- Puma is now a masked character and also wrestles under TJ Perkins in southern California independent promotions.
- Ricky Reyes continued to team with Rocky up through 2007 until Rocky Romero turned on him at a Ring of Honor show. He has since become a singles wrestler on the American independent scene.
