Tragedy struck Saturday during a Lucha Libre London card where 51-year old Silver King (Cesar Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez Barron) suffered a health-related issue during a match at the show and later died.
Silver King was wrestling his second match of the day with an afternoon and evening show by the group. He was wrestling Juventud Guerrera and delivered a clothesline before going down and attempting to cover Guerrera, who kicked out and Silver King was not moving.
The show was canceled in the wake of the tragedy and the audience exited the venue.
We are still awaiting confirmation on the official cause of death.
Silver King began wrestling in November 1985 when he was 17 years old and went on to have a storied career.
He received fame for his role as Ramses in the 2005 film “Nacho Libre” starring Jack Black and playing the lead villain of the film. Earlier in the day, he wrestled as Ramses as the card in London on the afternoon show.
He was a second-generation wrestler, following his father Dr. Wagner along with his brother, Dr. Wagner Jr.
He was unmasked early in his career, losing it to El Hijo del Santo in November 1987 and made it known he was the son of Dr. Wagner.
Along with the late El Texano (Juan Conrado Aguilar Jauregui), they formed Los Cowboys and they became tag champions in the UWA, CMLL, and were two-time World Wrestling Association champions.
While competing for UWA, Silver King would rise to become the UWA world light heavyweight champion in October 1993. He defeated his Los Cowboys partner in Naucalpan and held it until New Year’s Day 1994 when he lost it to Villano V.
He left for CMLL in 1994 and won their heavyweight championship in July defeating Brazo de Plata and held it for almost one year. Silver King dropped the title to Apolo Dantes in June 1995 while also becoming a two-time tag champion with El Texano and having a run with his brother as champions in February 1997.
He was one of many luchadores to go to WCW during their era and under-utilized during his three-years with the company until being released in 2000.
As Black Tiger III, he competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling and wrestled under the mask until 2006.
After New Japan, he had a brief with All Japan and became junior heavyweight champion in March 2008 defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima and dropped it to Ryuji Hijikata in April that year.
His next stop was in AAA, where he arrived in 2008 and wrestled for regularly until slowing down his schedule over the past few years.
We will continue to follow this story and have more on the passing of Silver King. We send our condolences to his friends and family following Saturday’s tragedy.
