Vangelis (wrestler)

He quickly began working for AAA, training at their school while only occasionally wrestling on their television shows. Vangelis was teamed up with Jimmy Boy and Billy to form a boy band inspired group called Los Spice Boys.[1] At Triplemanía VII Jimmy Boy, Billy and Vangelis defeated Los Payasos (Coco Amarillo, Coco Rojo and Coco Verde) in one of the undercard matches.[2] At the 2000 Guerra de Titanes event Los Spice Boys lost to Los Vatos Locos (Espiritu, Nygma, Picudo and Silver Cat).[3] In 2001 Vangelis was given a new ring character, that of a Nazi soldier, complete with swastika armband and the Nazi salute that naturally made him a rudo, a heel or bad guy character.[4] Vangelis formed a group known as Los Warriors along with Kevin (a sailor), Brandon (an Aztec warrior) and Uri (a viking) although Uri only worked with the group for a few months. Los Warriors had a long running storyline feud against Los Barrio Boys, former partners Billy Boy and Alan (Jimmy Boy using a new name) as well as Decnnis. The feud between the two factions saw Vangelis win his first ever Luchas de Apuestas, or bet match, when he defeated Alan in a Steel cage match that involved all members of Los Warriors and Los Barrio Boys.

In 2005 Vangelis traveled to Japan to work for an extended period of time in the Japanese Dragon Gate promotion. While in Japan he often wrestled against the comedy duo known as "The Florida Brothers" (Michael Iwasa and Daniel Mishima) as well as competing in the 2005 "Survival Gate" Battle Royal, won by Susumu Yokosuka.[5] He returned to Mexico and AAA in 2006 where he was given a masked character as part of Los Espantapájaros ("The Scarecrows"), because the three Espantapájaros all wore identical masks and outfits it was never completely verified if he worked as Espantapájaros I or Espantapájaros III for those matches. He would later leave AAA and work on the Mexican Independent circuit, including El Dandy's short lived ENSEMA wrestling promotion. During his stint with ENSEMA he seemingly won the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship from El Dandy, although no records were ever found of the show where the match took place, making it possible that the title was bought by Vangelis instead.[Note 1][6]

On December 4, 2007 Vangelis worked his first match for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and he lost the Light Heavyweight Championship to Místico in a match where Místico's CMLL World Welterweight Championship also being on the line.[7] This marked the beginning of Vangelis' stint in CMLL. In CMLL he worked mainly on the lower half of the card in trios matches with mixed success. In 2008 he was named as a member of "Generación del 75", a group of young wrestlers who exemplified the "CMLL future" in CMLL's 75th anniversary year. The group also included Flash, Mictlán, Tiger Kid, Hijo del Faraón, Axxel, El Hijo del Fantasma, Bronco, Metalik, Puma King, Skándalo, Súper Nova and Ángel Azteca, Jr..[8] CMLL held a tournament for the vacant CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship in 2008 and had Vangelis team up with Loco Max to form one of the 16 teams that participated. The team lost to Bronco and Diamante Negro in the first round of the tournament.[9] On June 27, 2008 Vangelis competed for the Trofeo Generacion del 75 (Generation of 75 Trophy), a tournament for young wrestlers who had joined CMLL during their 75th year of operation. El Hijo del Fantasma won the match but Ángel Azteca, Jr. was able to make a good showing for himself.[10] In 2009 he began to regularly appear in the corner of El Terrible and El Texano, Jr. at times replacing La Comandante, who had a similar Nazi gimmick. He was in the corner of Terrible and Texano, Jr. at CMLL's 2009 Sin Salida event as they won the main event match.[11] In March 2013, Vangelis was announced as participating in the 2013 En Busca de un Ídolo ("In search of an Idol") tournament that would take place from May to July 2013 as one of eight competitors.[12] On July 12, Vangelis defeated Valiente in the finals to win the tournament.[13] On August 11, Vangelis joined El Terrible's and Rey Bucanero's La Fuerza TRT stable,[14] which was as a result renamed TRT: La Máquina de la Destrucción ("TRT: The Machine of Destruction").[15]

On January 14, 2014, Vangelis made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), when he worked the NJPW and CMLL co-produced Fantastica Mania 2014 tour, which lasted until January 19.[16][17] In March Vangelis was teamed up with tecnico wrestler Valiente for CMLL's annual Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles, or "National Incredible Teams tournament" where a rudo and a tecnico are forced to team up for a tag team tournament. The two lost to La Sombra and Último Guerrero in the opening round of the tournament.[18][19]

In June 2017 Vangellys became involved in a storyline feud with Los Ingobernables, especially Pierroth. It was initiated on June 2 when Vangellys turned on his tag team partners Negro Casas and Rey Bucanereo to allow Los Ingobernables and Hechicero to win the match. Afterward, he asked to join Los Ingobernables, but was rejected and then beaten up.[20] The following week Vangelly attacked Pierroth during the Gran Alternativa tournament, hitting him with a bat in the shoulder. The attack was sold as injuring Pierroth so that he was eliminated from the tournament without actually losing.[21] In subsequent months Vangellys and Pierroth would face off on opposite sides in numerous matches as the storyline tension escalated. The feud ended in a Lucha de Apuestas ("bet match") between the two on July 14, in the semi-main event of the Universal Championship finals show. The match had Vangelly lose the match two falls to one, and subsequently had all his hair shaved off as a result.[22] In December 2017 Vangellys competed in that year's Leyenda de Azul ("Blue Legend") tournament, but was eliminated before the finals.[23]

Vangelly injured his right knee during a match on January 22, 2018, when he caught Valiente on a dive out of the ring. It was later revealed that he ruptured his patella tendon and required surgery to repair the injury. At the time his recovery time was expected to be between six and nine months.[24]