#20: Solar I

by TomK

Phil described how in lucha, guys can go round for years under the radar, putting in anonymous performances and then get some focus put on them and be able to step up to the plate with big resurgent runs. There also are guys like Solar who really never have any lulls in their performances. Technico in his fifties who for the longest time, every time you saw you thought, “Holy shit this guy looks like the best wrestler in the world." Unfortunately you don’t get to see him often enough. But whenever you found footage it was rewarding. He wrestled for the UWA in the 80s, was re-gimmicked as El Mariachi in AAA in the early nineties, in his forties at the end of the nineties he showed up in M-Pro and looked faster and more impressive than the guys surrounding him in their twenties, he’s spent most of this decade in the world of indy lucha often paired opposite Negro Navarro having deliberate throwback technical matches. He also had a pretty masterful title match with the useless Blue Demon Jr. in London. Solar can still work superfast and hard exchanges, has tough looking mat exchanges and comes off really strong with his big demonstrative quebradora. But he’s starting to show some age over the last two years as he now moves less like a guy in his late twenties and more like a guy in his mid thirties.

Recommended 2008 matches:

~w/ Super Astro vs. Negro Navarro/Shu El Guerrero, Monterrey 5/18/08
~w/ Super Astro/Ultraman Jr. vs. Black Terry/Capitan Muerte/Shu El Guerrero, Naucalpan 8/21/08
~vs. Blue Demon Jr., London 12/9/08
~vs. Engendro vs. Negro Navarro, Guadalajara 12/13/08

Career Recommended Matches:

~w/ Super Astro/Ultraman Jr. vs. Sergio El Hermoso/Bello Greco/Rudy Reyna, UWA 1984
~El Mariachi vs. Blue Panther, AAA 10/30/94
~w/ Dos Caras Jr. vs. Satoshi Kojima/Kaz Hayashi, Hustle 1/4/04
~w/ Ultraman Jr./Super Astro vs. El Texano/Negro Navarro/El Signo, IWRG 02/10/05
~w/ Dos Caras Jr./Heavy Metal vs. Negro Navarro/Villano IV/Villano V, AULL 11/2/06

2009 Outlook:

The more Solar footage the better he’ll do. I actually think Solar’s 2009 outlook is somewhat good. The Youtube revolution means we have more footage of Mexican indy wrestling. I have no idea what kind of money is behind UWE. And I may be completely misreading the tea leaves but I get the sense that the Konan’s AAA shakeups will result in kind of a post AJW split up joshi scene with more taped vanity indies, and with more of your Diabolicos style veteran wrestler/agents out I expect better organized indies. All of this works in Solar’s favor.