Mexican star Mr. Niebla has died at the age of 46 following complications from a blood infection that he had been hospitalized for.
He began wrestling professionally at the age of 17 and went through various incarnations before settling on the name he gained fame under in 1992.
Niebla spent most of his career wrestling for CMLL, beginning in 1995 with the oldest professional wrestling outfit. Along with Atlantis and Lizmark, the three formed La Ola Azul (‘The Blue Wave’).
The threesome became CMLL Trios champions om April 29, 1997, defeating Emilio Charles Jr., Rey Bucanero & El Satanico in Mexico City. During this title run, Niebla and Shocker won the CMLL tag titles on January 23, 1998, from Charles Jr. & Dr. Wagner Jr.
An injury to Niebla forced him to vacate both sets of titles.
At the CMLL Anniversary card in 1999, Niebla and Shocker headlined the show in a Mask vs. Mask match with Niebla winning.
On April 18, 2003, Niebla ended the 3+ year CMLL heavyweight title reign of Universo 2000. Niebla would hold the title for over a year and dropped it back to Universo 2000 on October 12, 2004.
In 2007, Niebla left his home promotion and ventured to AAA for several months as part of Los Vipers. Niebla left the group around the time of TripleMania in June 2008 after a match fell apart and was taken off the show.
He returned to CMLL immediately and teamed with Heavy Metal and Negro Casas.
In 2014, teaming with Barbaro Cavernario, the two won the Torneo Gran Alternativa tournament. Following wins over Black Panther & Diamante Azul, Ultimo Guerrero & Hechicero, and Dragon Lee & Rush, the two entered the finals and beat Volador Jr. & Soberano Jr.
His story would not be complete without going through the personal issues that greatly affected his career. He was a heavy drinker and admitted he had a problem. He was part of the Fantasticamania shows with New Japan in 2015, went missing and ended up hospitalized while in the country. This caused him to be let go by CMLL.
In September 2018, his license was suspended in Mexico City after it was believed he wrestled while drunk. This caused Niebla to be pulled from CMLL’s Anniversary card that year.
He would be re-hired and let go more times in the future and his outside problems would persist and had a big impact on his career and stability with CMLL. He had last wrestled for the group this past October and kept an active schedule up until then. CMLL sent out the following message on Monday:
⚫ DESCANSE EN PAZ MR. NIEBLA ⚫
El CMLL se une a la pena que embarga a la familia luchistica por el sensible fallecimiento del luchador Mr. Niebla, quien tuvo una destacada trayectoria en la historia de este deporte colocándose como una de las máximas figuras.Descanse en paz. pic.twitter.com/QSmthWa7b6
— Lucha Libre CMLL (@CMLL_OFICIAL) December 23, 2019
