GQ LUCHADOR

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Impact Zone Wrestling from 5/20/08 in Tempe:

NWA Impact Zone Wrestling results from The Sets 5/20/08
Nick Fury pinned Dread Pirate Bernie.
"Miracle" Mike James pinned Terra-X.
"602 Wrecking Crew" Jacob The Riot Herzberg & IrishHand Grenade Marty Murphy defeated "Boogie Knights"Frenchy Riviera & Tony Trouser.
Tommy Drake & The Great Ryan Lynch defeated LuchaReigns & "El Cholo" Mike G w/La Shy Girl.
IZW Impulse Champion Antonio Mestre defeated SergioVega by submission.
NWA IZW Heavyweight Champion "XXX" Lawrence Tyler &"Hawaiian Lion" John Williams Vs "Native Blood" NavajoWarrior & "Ghostwalker" GQ Gallo ended in a nocontest.

TOTAL CARNAGE!!!

P.P.L.L.= Gallo injured, taken out of Heavyweight title running
Current mood: pissed off

(taken from the P.P.L.L. comment board/ translated from Spanish)

Sunday's (May 18) Pirana Promotions Lucha Libre show in Phoenix,AZ ended in total carnage!!!!

The main event, which pitted fan favorite Sergio Vega and the new P.P.L.L. sensation G.Q. Gallo against the hated team of La Migra and El Payaso Asesimo, almost ended in a riot!

Each team had scored a pinfall in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

In the deciding fall, Vega had launched himself out of the ring onto El Payaso.

Gallo and La Migra were tying it up in the ring when Gallo hit his opponent with a nasty superkick. As Gallo's back was turned, out from the back came Pirana, who Gallo had cleared from the ring the week before with a steel chair.

While Gallo was down trying to claim victory for his team, Pirana slid in and blasted him in the back with a steel chair so hard it bent the steel chair completly around Gallo. Vega tried to come in to help his partner and was laid out with another brutal chair shot.

La Migra and Pirana then proceeded to bash Gallo's knee with steel chairs taken from the audience. Playboy tried to come from the back and make the save, and was left bloodied in a corner of the ring. It took all security and then some to stop the vicious attack. Gallo, unable to walk, had to be carried to the back.

As of this moment, P.P.L.L.'s governing body has revoked Gallo's wrestling license until cleared by a doctor. This takes Gallo out of the running for the vacant P.P.L.L. championship; which was going to be given to the winner of the Lucha Battle Royal on June 1.

Gallo, willing to comment ALL too much, was understandably angered by this decision.

RESULTS AND VIDEO

IZW Results from the Sets 4/08/08

"Feature Presentation" Jay Garland pinned Sergio Vega w/Beaver Las Vagas.

"The East Coast Killaz" defeated AJ Summers when AJ's partner "Hawaiian Lion" John Williams never went to ringside for the match.

Frenchy Riviera & "Ghostwalker" GQ Gallo defeated The 602 Wrecking Crew.

Fearless Jack Bull defeated "Limited Edition" Tommy Drake by count out in the first ever IZW Flip-Flop match.

IZW & NWA-AZ Tag Team Champions "Skull & Bones" defeated Lucha Reigns & "El Cholo" Mike G w/La Shy Girl.

"Feature Presentation" Jay Garland defeated "The Great" Ryan Lynch by submission.


Results from The Sets 3/25/08
"The New York Giant" AJ Summers pinned "Hawaiian Lion" John Williams.

Tony Trouser w/Frenchy Riviera pinned "The Irish Hand Grenade" Marty Murphy w/Jacob Herzberg.

"El Cholo" Mike G & Lucha Reigns w/La Shy Girl defeated "The Combat Vet" Johnny Dynamite & Sergio Vega w/Beaver Las Vagas.

Erica D'Erico pinned Destiny.IZW World & NWA-Arizona Tag Team Champions "Skull & Bones" defeated "The Great" Ryan Lynch & "Steamin" Jimmy Freeman.

IZW Impulse Champion Antonio Mestre defeated "Ghostwalker" GQ Gallo by submission.

RELLIK pinned Lehi David Smith.IZW World & NWA-Arizona Heavyweight Champion "XXX" Lawrence Tyler pinned "Feature Presentation" Jay Garland.


Impact Zone Wrestling results from The Sets in Tempe, AZ 3/11/08
"Ghostwalker" GQ Gallo pinned Sergio Vega w/Beaver Las Vagas.

"East Coast Killaz" Terra-X & Dean Radford defeated "El Cholo" Mike G & Lucha Reigns.Tony Trouser w/"Freak-o-Suave"

Frenchy Riviera pinned Jacob "The Riot" Herzberg.

"Skull & Bones" Dread Pirate Bernie & "Miracle" Mike James defeated "Steamin" Jimmy Freeman & "The Great" Ryan Lynch to become the new IZW & NWA-AZ Tag Team Champions.

IZW Impulse Champion "Everyone's Favorite Brazilion" Antonio Mestre defeated "Combat Vet" Johnny Dynamite by submission.

"Feature Presentation" Jay Garland defeated "Hawaiian Lion" John Williams & "The New York Giant" AJ Summers in a Triple Threat Match.


IZW results from Broadway Rec. Center in Mesa, AZ: 3/8/08
Miracle Mike James pinned Khan Kussion in the opening match

IZW & NWA Arizona Tag Team champions The Great Ryan Lynch & Steamin' Jimmy Freeman defeated Lucha Reigns & Mike G with Freeman pinning Lucha.

"Limited Edition" Tommy Drake beat Fearless Jack Bull by DQ.

Native Blood (Gallo and ) beat 602 Wrecking Crew in the long-awaited No Disqualification Rematch.

Antonio Mestre forced Johnny Dynamite into submission to win the Impulse Gauntlet to become the first ever IZW Impulse champion!

IZW World champion & NWA Arizona Heavyweight champion "XXX" Lawrence Tyler beat Jay Garland, Hawaiian Lion, and A. J. Summers to retain the championship belts.

Gallo -"I'm too pretty for a mask."

Local wrestler Robert Gallo, AKA G.Q. Gallo, wrestles at The Sets in Tempe. American wrestlers from the local Impact Zone Wrestling also participate in the matches.

Pat Shannahan/ The Arizona Republic

The room is divided roughly into two groups. On one side, a group of Anglos. On the other, Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants.

Each group is shouting. They are screaming for blood. They are passionate, and they are drinking beer. Lots and lots of beer.

But the 100 people are not shouting at each other. They are shouting with each other.

They are watching Jay "Mr. Showtime" Garland fight Lucha Reigns in a makeshift wrestling ring at a Tempe bar.

It's American-style wrestling vs. lucha libre wrestling, and this may be one of the places left in the Valley where people from both sides of the border celebrate what they have in common, even if it is wrestling.

"Coming to wrestling events, it's real easy to get along," said Glenda Jarboe of Tempe.

Jarboe was at the April event to watch her daughter wrestle yes, women also wrestle - and she, too, was struck by the camaraderie in the room.

"No fighting. Just people having a good time."

Lucha libre wrestling is the first cousin of the brand of wrestling made famous on this side of the border by the likes of Gorgeous George, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker.

Decades earlier, starting around 1950, it became widely popular in Mexico with iconic characters such as El Santo and Blue Demon. The sport remains a favorite today in Mexico, Central America and Japan.

It is different from American wrestling:
• Lucha libre emphasizes acrobatics more than strength.
• The wrestlers, or luchadores, usually wear masks.
• The matches are theatrical, with elements of comedy, drama and camp.
Juan Martinez, 38, of Phoenix, started watching lucha when he was a child in Mexico City. Now, he takes his children to matches in the Valley.


"I went when I was a boy," Martinez said. "I like lucha and the American. Now, my kids get both traditions."

On the second Sunday of every month, the Sets, a bar in Tempe, holds a lucha event.

Sport and spectacle

The matches occur sporadically across the Valley. They draw fans who love the sport and the spectacle.

Wrestlers come in from across the state, the Southwest and Mexico.
Most arrive an hour or two before the show. They gather and chat about life before heading to their dressing room - a curtain hung next to the ring, itself constructed in the hour before the fights - and change from their everyday clothes into costumes and masks.

Few lucha wrestlers will make a regular living in the ring. Many performances will net them $50.

But in the dressing room, their love for the sport becomes more evident.
The mood changes in the last moments, as the men and women get into character for their performance.

As they are announced for their matches the luchadores stomp out from behind the curtain and immediately stake their claim as either good guys or bad guys.

The fans cheer and hiss, and the only people having a better time than the fans are the wrestlers. The matches require incredible athleticism, even if they appear entirely scripted.


Another appeal is that the fans are part of the show. The fans respond to the wrestlers and the wrestlers to the fans. Everyone takes part in the theater.

So, when the fans yell at the luchadores, the men behind the masks may pause for a moment and yell back, or challenge the fan to enter the ring if he dares.

"Everybody has a good time at a lucha match," Jose Luis Yeo Santa Marie said in the minutes before he put on his mask and tight red leotard, which did nothing to hide the fact that he is 57 years old.

Still, there is no denying the physicality in the ring.

The body slams are real. The flying leaps are real. The jumping from the highest rope is real.

And the wood floor underneath the thin mat is very real.

"I've got really bad knees. A bad neck. Bad elbows. Sometimes, it all hurts," said Roberto Gallo who grew up in Prescott and now wrestles as the Ghost Walker or GQ Gallo.


'Too pretty for a mask'
Gallo is all muscles and long hair and white teeth. He looks like he should be posing for the cover of a romance novel holding a woman in her ripping bodice. He does not wear a mask.

"I'm too pretty to wear a mask," Gallo said, smiling.

He is half-Italian, half-Navajo and will frequently play up his Indian blood when he wrestles in places like Japan. Gallo, 29, who now lives in Chandler, got into wrestling eight years ago when he decided it was time to chase his dream.

Gallo does not speak a word of Spanish but says the language of wrestling is universal.

Shortly before his match, Gallo stood up slowly and grimaced as he grabbed his knee. He knew he was about to be asked why he does this.
"It's fun. You get to be a superhero," Gallo said. "Everyone wants to be a superhero. Right?"

Skinny and bespectacled
Lucha Reigns is a 25-year-old man who does not look like a wrestler. He is thin and wears glasses. He is announced as weighing 150 pounds, but that looks like a stretch.

The most wrestler-looking thing about him is a jagged scar that streaks across his abdomen. It's from a car accident.


But when he puts on his mask and steps into the ring, he reveals a feline agility and the ability to withstand a lot of pain.

In his match against the far heavier "Mr. Showtime," Lucha Reigns does flips and jumps off the ropes. He hits Showtime and then disappears.

The crowd loves it.

Ultimately, Showtime wears him down. Lucha Reigns is finally pinned with a move a veteran fan called "a variation of the octopus stretch," which seemed as good a name for it as any.

After the match, Lucha Reigns walks slowly from the ring. Each dramatic step lets the crowd know how badly he was hurt. On his way to the makeshift dressing area near the makeshift stage, he stops and signs his autograph for a young boy.

What he will not do is reveal his name.

It's part of the tradition of the sport to keep your mask on and your identity secret.

Lucha Reigns will say that he has lived in the Valley for 10 years. That he grew up in the United States and Mexico, and is an American citizen. He speaks both languages without accent.

Lucha Reigns works at Wal-Mart where he keeps his alter-identity secret.
"People don't know," he said. "I don't really talk about it. It's kind of hard to explain."

The fans at this event would understand completely.

Some look like they are thinking about their past. Others remain right in the moment. But for all the fans, Anglos and Mexicans, the differences between them seem to dissolve.

"I guess because we all love the same sport," Martinez said. "We have very much in common here. Tonight, this is our culture."

John Faherty - May. 7, 2008 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic