Espanto IV and V

Espanto IV and V
Tag team
Members	Espanto IV Espanto V
Name(s)	Los Espantos Los Nuevo Espantos
Debut	1989
Disbanded	2001
Promotions	Independent circuit

Brothers Espanto IV and Espanto V (Spanish for "Terror 4"/"Scare 4" and "Terror 5"/"Scare 5") are a Mexican professional wrestling tag team who has worked primarily as a rudo (term used for wrestlers who portray the "Bad guys") team on the Mexican independent circuit. While both brothers have been unmasked in the ring no documentation of their birth names have been found.

They are the sons of professional wrestler Miguel Vázquez Bernal, better known as Espanto III and adopted the Espantos name and mask eight years after their father retired from wrestling. Their uncle Jose Eusebio Vázquez was also a wrestler, better known as Espanto I but was killed in 1968. Espanto IV retired in 2001 and Espanto V is semi-retired, working only the occasional show around his hometown of Torreon, Coahuila.

Personal lives

The wrestlers known as "Espanto IV" (Spanish for "Terror 4" or "Scare 4") and Espanto V ("Terror 5"/ "Scare 5") were both born and raised in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico sons of Miguel Vázquez Bernal who was better known as the wrestler Espanto III. As Espanto III Vázquez was an active wrestler from the 1960s through the early 1980s. In a 1996 interview Espanto IV revealed that their father never pushed them to become wrestlers, but insisted that they learned a trade as well as training for wrestling to make sure they had options in life.^[1] Espanto IV also shared the fact that it took a lot of convincing from the brothers to allow them to be known as "Espanto IV" and "Espanto V", but the fact that Vázquez and Fernando Cisneros Carrilo (Espanto II) had given Jesús Andrade Salas permission to work as Espanto Jr. finally convinced their father to allow them to become "Espanto IV" and "Espanto V" instead of being a "Junior" or "hijo" ("son").^[1]

Team history

In 1989 Espanto IV and Espanto V made their in ring debut, both wearing the distinctive mask of the original Los Espantos.^[2] and soon verified that they were legitimately the sons of Espanto III, not "storyline" releatives or wrestlers who paid to use the ring name of a famous wrestler.^[3][4] Due to the secretive nature of masked wrestlers in Mexico it has never been confirmed or denied if the brothers actually made their in-ring debut prior to 1989 and just used other masks and names to gain experience, of it their debut as Espanto IV and Espanto V was their true in-ring debut.^[5] The two worked regularly as a tag team in and around the Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico area under the names Los Espantos or Los Nuevo Espantos and would work for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) among others.^[3] The brothers later toured Japan, working for the Japanese Universal Wrestling Federation and Michinoku Pro. In Japan the unsuccessfully challenged the Great Sasuke and Gran Hamada for the UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship on April 19, 1993.^[3] They also appeared on the Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) Fourth Anniversary Show, teaming up with Super Delfin as the trio lost to the Great Sasuke, Kendo and Choden Senshi Battle Ranger.^[3]

On April 20, 1997 Espanto VI and Espanto V lost a Luchas de Apuestas, or bet match, to the team of Takeda and Maravilloso and were the two were forced to unmask under lucha libre rules. While they unmasked and revealed their birth names, no records of what their actual names are were kept. The duo was later involved in controversy as they lost their masks once more, losing another Luchas de Apuestas match, this time to Blue Fish and Mongol Chino in Monterrey and then later on also lost yet anther Lucha de Apuestas, this time losing their masks to to the brother-team of Stuka and Stuka Jr. in Gomez Palacio, Durango.^[3][6] Lucha Libre has strong rules in place around Luchas de Apuestas matches, not allowing wrestlers to wear the mask again after losing them in the ring.^[7] In the pre-internet days wrestling results from the independent circuit was often not reported outside of the state, allowing Espanto IV and Espanto V to lose their masks three times without the fans catching on to this.^[3] Over time wrestling commissions in the different states did discover the blatant violation of their rules and the state of Nuevo Leon barred them from wrestling there for two years for the infraction.^[8]

In late 1999 the brothers both competed in a three-way Lucha de Apuestas match against Aguila Roja, a match that Espanto IV lost and thus was shaved bald afterward. By 2001 Espanto IV worked less and less, either retiring from wrestling or adopting a new masked identity.^[9] On December 25, 2006 Espanto V was one of 11 wrestlers putting their hair or mask on the line in a steel cage match along with Hijo del Soberano, Brillante, Ángel Azteca Jr., Moro III, Súper Leopardo, Depredador, Semental, Dorado Jr. and Máquina 27. Espanto V escaped the cage and kept his hair safe for the night.^[10] In 2007 Espanto V gained a small measure of revenge on Espanto V as he defeated Stuka in a Lucha de Apuestas match, forcing him to be shaved bald after the match.^[3] On September 12, 2010 Espanto V teamed up with Exótico Sexy Francis for a Ruleta de la Muerte ("Roulette of Death") tournament, losing to the teams of Crazy Daisy and Dulce Paola, Pimpinela Escarlata and Sexy Libra, Sexy Piscis and V-57. Because of the loss the two were forced to fight each other in a Lucha de Apuestas match, which Espanto V won. After the match, Sexy Francis was forced to have his hair shaved off as a result.^[11]

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager)	Loser (wager)	Location	Event	Date	Notes
Takeda and Maravilloso (masks)	Espanto IV and Espanto V (masks)	Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua	House show	April 20, 1997	[3]
Blue Fish and Mongol Chino (masks)	Espanto IV and Espanto V (masks)	Monterrey, Nuevo Leon	House show	Unknown	[3]
Stuka and Stuka Jr. (masks)	Espanto IV and Espanto V (masks)	Gomez Palacio, Durango	House show	Unknown	[3][6]
Aguila Roja (hair)	Espanto IV (hair)	Deportivo Halcon Suriano	House show	November 21, 1999	[3][Note 1]
Takeda and Enigma (masks)	Espanto IV and Espanto V (hair)	Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua	House show	June 2000	[3]
Espanto V (hair)	Stuka (hair)	Gomez Palacio, Durango	House show	2007	[3]
Espanto V (hair)	Sexy Francis (hair)	Torreon, Coahuilo	El Homenaje a Dr. Wagner	September 12, 2010	[Note 2]

Footnotes

1. This was a three-way match that also included Espanto V.
2. This was the finals of a Ruleta de la Muerte

References

1. "Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre". Espanto I (in Spanish) (Portales, Mexico). November 2008. p. 23. 17.
2. "1988 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 10, 1989. pp. 2–28. issue 1864.
3. Encyclopedia staff (July 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Espanto IV y V (in Spanish) (Mexico). p. 29. Tomo II.
4. Madigan, Dan (2007). "A family affair". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizare & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 128–132. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
5. "1989 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 7, 1990. pp. 2–28. issue 1917.
6. "Tecnicos – Stuka, Jr.". Fuego En El Ring (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2009.
7. Madigan, Dan (2007). "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
8. "1999 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 10, 2000. pp. 2–28. issue 2436.
9. "2001 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 13, 2002. pp. 2–28. Issue 2540.
10. "Lo Mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana duranted el 2006". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). December 23, 2006. Issue 192. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
11. "Número Especial - Lo mejr de la lucha ilbre mexicana durante el 2010". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 12, 2011. 399.