Lucha legend Black Man passes away.
Legendary luchador Black Man – real name Alvaro Melendez Tibanez – passed away on Feb. 28 at the age of 73. No cause of death has been released at this time.
Black Man is best known as a member of the legendary trios Los Fantasticos, consisting of himself Kato Kung Lee and Kung Fu. A stellar amateur style wrestler growing, Diablo Velazco, who was one of the most accomplished lucha trainers of the 1960s and 70s, trained Black Man in lucha libre. He made his debut in 1965 under the name La Gacela (the gazelle) and quickly made a name for himself for his acrobatic, high-flying style of wrestling. He also worked under the Spiderman gimmick during the 1960s and 70s.
While small luchadors being treated as stars is the norm in modern lucha libre, in the 60s and early 70s it was very uncommon. Though he had some success with EMLL (the original name of CMLL) he was eventually brought into ILL, the precursor to the UWA promotion. UWA’s promoter and owner, Francisco Flores, was known for his use of lightweight wrestlers and pushing them as stars.
Tibanez was given the Black Man gimmick in a team with another luchador called White Man. Injuries forced Black Man’s partner to partially retire from the business by 1978 and Black Man was teamed with Kung Fu and Kato Lung Lee. Their Los Fantasticos group was highly successful and a big draw for UWA. During this time, he had storied rivalries with the likes of El Matematico and a young Blue Panther. While these matches were highly regarded, little footage exists of this era.
Black Man also went on to feud with the legendary original Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) and have a series of classic matches in Japan.
While little footage of Black Man exists of his first 15 years in the business, he was still a revolutionary high flyer and was one of the inspirations for luchadors like Rey Misterio Jr., who would go on to revolutionize wrestling further in the 1990s. Black Man is thought to be the first wrestler to use springboard moves as pictures – and stories – of him doing them dating back to the 1960s exist. He also spent time as El Santo’s stunt double for high-risk stunts in movies.
In the 1990s, Black Man reinvented himself with a new mask and gimmick as Celestial where he continued to work for UWA and then CMLL. He even completely changed his style – and began working more slower paced matches – so as to not give off that he was Black Man to the fans. Eventually, he returned to the Black Man gimmick and lost his iconic mask to Japanese high-flyer Super Delfin. This, of course, coming after he remasked to work in Japan after originally losing the mask to Blue Panther in 1986.
He retired from the ring in 1995 and opened a lucha gym, though he returned to the ring in 2008 for one match, teaming with Solar and El Hijo del Santo as Celestial against Blue Demon Jr., Cien Cars Jr. and MS1 Jr.