Murciélago Velázquez

Jesús Velázquez Quintero (February 22, 1910 – May 26, 1972), better known under the ring names El Murciélago Enmascarado and Murciélago Velázquez, was a Mexican professional wrestler. Velázquez was the fourth professional wrestler in Mexico to wear a mask and the second Mexican to work as an masked wrestler in the history of professional wrestling in Mexico. He became the first wrestler in Mexico to be forced to unmask, losing a Lucha de Apuestas (or "Bet match") to Octavio Gaona, creating the most prestigious match type in his native country. He once held the Mexican National Middleweight Championship and after his retirement was the head of the Mexico City boxing and wrestling commission for a while.

Near the end of his in-ring career, Velázquez began acting in various Mexican films, including several luchador films, working both with two legends of professional wrestling as El Santo and Blue Demon. He also became involved in the creative aspects of movie making, writing several screenplays and stories over the years. The last movie he wrote the story for, La mujer del diablo, opened two years after his death.

Professional wrestling career Jesús Velázquez made his professional wrestling debut on April 3, 1938 in the original Arena México, working for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). He started out his career wrestling as the enmascarado (Masked) character "El Murciélago Enmascarado". Velázquez was the fourth wrestler in Mexico to wrestle in a mask, and the second Mexican wrestler to do so, second only to "El Enmascarado" (The Masked Wrestler). Velázquez was one of the first native Mexicans to really play up the show aspects of lucha libre, wearing a black leather vest with a hood as he would stalk towards the ring and wrestle in black trunks and mask. His entrance theatrics would at times include him hiding a couple of live bats under his vest, releasing them in the arena during his in-ring introduction, letting them fly free among the audience. His rough, brutal in-ring wrestling style added to the aura of El Murciélago Enmascarado, quickly pushing him up the rankings as he was wrestler that drew fans by the fact that they wanted to see him lose. The storyline between played out in a way that the brutal rudo Murciélago drew the normally more technical Gaona into a series of brawls, matches that often ended inconclusively. After a particularly violent match Gaona challenged Murciélago to put his mask on the line in a match. With El Murciélago being lighter than Gaona he demanded that Gaona put his hair on the line as well. With the challenge, the Lucha de Apuestas (or "Bet match") was created. In the build up to the high profile match El Murciélago Enmascarado faced and defeated a number of other wrestlers in Luchas de Apuestas matches leaving Merced Gómez, Bobby Bonales, Dientes Hernández and Ciclón Veloz bald as a result as they built to the match with Gaona. Guzmán adopted a new ring character, El Santo, and in subsequent years became one of the most popular wrestlers in Mexico. Over the next 10 years, Velázquez had roles in a number of different films, including luchador films starring El Santo and Blue Demon.

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager)Loser (wager)LocationEventDateNotesEl Murciélago Enmascarado (mask) Merced Gómez (hair) Mexico City EMLL show

Filmography Actor Year Original title English title Role Notes Refs.1957 Ladron de Cadaveres The Body Snatcher Uncredited 1957 La momia azteca The Aztec Mummy El Murciélago Credited as Murcielago Velazquez 1957 La maldición de la momia azteca The Curse of the Aztec Mummy El Murciélago credited as Murcielago Velázquez 1968 Blue Demon contra cerebros infernales Blue Demon vs the internal brains Credited as Jesus Velazquez 'El Murcielago'

Writer Year Original title English title Wrote Notes Refs.1959 Triunfa la pandilla The triumphant gang Screenplay 1974 La mujer del diablo Devil Woman Story

Footnotes