Cachorro

Personal life Black Panther is a son of professional wrestler, Genaro Vazquez Nevarez, better known under the ring name Blue Panther and a brother of Blue Panther Jr. and Chachorro Lagunero. His full given name is not a matter of public record in accordance with Lucha libre traditions where the true identity of masked wrestlers is kept private whenever possible. He is the cousin of Jesus Toral López, better known as Black Warrior, a long time wrestler. While he wanted to become a professional wrestler, his father disapproved of the idea, while his mother supported him from the beginning. In April 2020 a younger brother was introduced to the wrestling world, using the ring name Chachoro Lagunero ("The Lagunero Puppy"), wearing a version of his father's Blue Panther mask design.

Professional wrestling career Early career CMLL originally stated that the wrestler known as Black Panther made his professional wrestling debut in early 2014 when he began working under the "Cachorro" ring name, but later on revealed his true debut year as 2011. In 2020, Black Panther revealed that he began training for a professional wrestling career without his father knowing about it. He made his debut, wrestling as the masked character "Silver" without the knowledge of anyone in his family. Following La Copa Junior both Cachorro and Black Panther stated to team up with their father for six-man tag team matches, with the trio being billed as Los Divinos Laguneros ("The divine from the Lagoon"). They quickly began to face La Dinastia Casas ("The Casas Dynasty"; El Felino and his two sons Tiger and Puma), continuing a long running storyline between Blue Panther and the Casas family. Later that month Cachorro entered the 2014 Torneo Gran Alternativa ("Great Alternative") tournament, which is an annual tag team tournament that has a wrestling rookie team up with an experienced wrestler for the tournament. Cachorro was teamed up with his father for the tournament, defeating the team of El Rebelde (rookie) and Averno in the first round before losing to Oro Jr. (rookie) and La Sombra in the second round of the tournament.

On March 23, Cachorro competed in a 16-man tornero cibernetico match, competing for one of eight spots in CMLL's annual En Busca de un Ídolo ("In search of an idol") tournament. Cachorro, along with Cavernario, Dragon Lee, Guerrero Negro Jr. Hechicero, Star Jr., Soberano Jr. and Super Halcón Jr. qualified for the tournament while Black Panther, Canelo Casas, El Rebelde, Espiritu Negro, Flyer, Herodes Jr., Metálico and Oro Jr. were all eliminated. The first round of the tournament saw Cachorro face off against all 7 opponents in a round-robin tournament format. After the matches each wrestler was given points by a panel of judges as well as points off an online poll. After the first round Cachorro ended up ranked third, winning four of the matches, gaining 216 points from the judges and 137 points from the online poll. In the second round of the tournament Cachorro only defeated eventual tournament Cavernario and ended up in 4th place, 3 points behind 3rd place and 55 points behind the highest point scorer. On August 25, it was announced that Cachorro would team up with fellow rookie Dragon Lee for the CMLL 81st Anniversary Show, marking Cachorro (and Dragon Lee's) first appearance at CMLL's Anniversary Show, the promotion's most important show of the year. They were scheduled to compete in the first match against the brother-duo of Puma and Tiger.

The Panther (2014–2018)

During a press conference on November 19, Cachorro announced that he was changing his ring name to "The Panther" and adopting a new mask as well. At the same press conference, Black Panther announced he was taking the name "Blue Panther Jr." On December 19, 2015 The Panther and Guerrero Maya Jr. teamed up to defeat La Comando Caribeño ("The Caribbean Commando"; Misterioso Jr. and Sagrado) to win the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship, The Panther's first CMLL championship. In early December CMLL announced that Súper Comando and The Panther would joint 10 other wrestlers; Blue Panther Jr., Puma and Tiger, Cancerbero, Esfinge, Fuego, Pegasso, Raziel, Sangre Azteca and Tritón in the main event of the 2015 Infierno en el Ring show. The Infierno en el Ring match came down to Súper Comando and The Panther being the last two wrestlers in the steel cage, with The Panther forcing Súper Comando to submit. Afterwards Súper Comando was forced to unmask and announce his real name. In 2018, during a match on Arena Mexico's Tuesday show, the announcer kept calling The Panther "Black Panther", the first ring name of his brother.

Japan and United States (2016–current) In January 2016, The Panther made his Japanese debut by taking part in the CMLL and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) co-produced Fantastica Mania 2016 tour. On the fifth show of the tour, he and The Panther successfully defended the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship against Bobby Z and Okumura. On November 3, 2016 The Panther made his debut for the US based Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion at their Survival of the Fittest double show in Texas. On night one The Panther defeated Will Ferrara, Silas Young and Yohey to advance in the "Survival of the Fittest" tournament. On the following night he lost a six-way match when he was eliminated by Dalton Castle in a match that was won by Bobby Fish.

Championships and accomplishments Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Guerrero Maya Jr.

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager)Loser (wager)LocationEventDateNotesThe Panther (mask) Súper Comando (mask) Mexico City, Mexico Infierno en el Ring

Footnotes