Some people say don’t meet your heroes. I have never subscribed to that notion, but I do believe in meeting your heroes in the right time and the right place. Almost like waiting for destiny to bring you together. The incredible Negro Casas is one of my heroes and maybe destiny wasn’t at play, this time.
I purchased my ticket to the 58th Annual Cauliflower Alley Club in early 2024. I had never been to the CAC as “in my day”, the 2000s, it was still a gathering of retired greats who had spent four decades entertaining the masses to come together once a year. I didn’t feel like I belonged when I was still performing in-ring during those years. Now that some time has gone by since my most recent match (March 2023) and those matches became more sporadic over the years., including seven years between singles matches. So I thought 2024 would be the perfect year to make that trip to the CAC happen — especially with that hero about to be announced on the bill.
Having become a lifetime member of the Cauliflower Alley Club feels like the perfect little bow on what I would consider a less-than-major-league career. I spent 20 years working with independents across Canada, the U.S. Midwest and one tour of Japan in 2011, which did not go so well. You can find more about that here.
I never got signed by a big organization and that’s alright. Most wrestlers never do. But I had expectations of myself because I came up with names in Winnipeg, like Kenny Omega, MENTALLO, Rawskillz, amongst other incredible talents, and because on nights when I was good, I was real good, and nights when I was bad, I could be really …not good. I did get to do cool things, I did get to meet cool people and go to great places but the one thing I never got to do on my career’s checklist was getting in the ring in Mexico.
I had discovered the art of lucha libre through the incredible era of WCW’s Cruiserweight division. Juventud Guerrera, Blitzkrieg, Psicosis, Hector Garza were all names I was familiar with attached to the beautiful, poetic style that is lucha libre.
But it was my very first road trip in the business in 2003 that opened my eyes to how Mexico worked, that I got to sit in the locker room and pick the brain of Eddie Watts, whom many of the boys knew as Scales. Eddie Watts had just come back from Mexico and spent the next few hours before his match telling stories of cups of piss being thrown on him, taking a Spanish Fly bump into a concrete ring in a bullring in Mexico, to working with the great La Parka. To me, this sounded even wilder than the stories he told of me of Puerto Rico, where the crazy bastard ended up with blood poisoning from being in too many barbed wire matches!
It was after that conversation that Mexico became a goal for me, though I had yet to even see a full Mexican card besides a copy of AAA When Worlds Collide on what could have been 8th gen VHS for all I knew. But when CMLL debuted on TLN Canada in 2004, the likes of Black Warrior, Ultimo Guerrero and Perro Aguayo Jr. helped further solidify that goal of wanting to find myself in one of those aforementioned concrete rings.
But it was the first time that I heard Chris Jericho talk about Negro Casas being one of the all-time greats that I really sat down and listened. Not that Jericho was the end-all be-all of wrestling opinions for me. I just really related to him because Jericho himself was so gifted. Jericho later referred to Negro as “the greatest wrestler you’ve never heard of.” (Solely speaking to non-Mexican and Japanese fans, I think.)
Of course, by then, I had already knew who Negro Casas was. I knew of him through hundreds of hours of tapes and YouTube that I had found of him, and had seen him in every nook and cranny of wrestling history that I could find him in, including on those sweet episodes of WWF Super Astros.
Therefore, Negro has grown from a simple name that I’d heard Chris Jericho bring up, to a bust on my Mount Rushmore of Lucha Libre. He could do everything, he could work, he could sell, he could work tecnico or rudo, but most importantly, those people that knew about him all along, he could make them care. He could make them invest their feelings into what he was doing in the ring. And that is what the wrestling business is all about.
It was a goal while wrestling in Mexico, to share the ring with Negro Casas. To feel what he felt, to feel what the crowd was feeling. To totally immerse myself in the aura in “the greatest wrestler that you’ve never heard of.” But to me, he was one of the greatest that I HAD heard of, he was royalty.
So when it was announced that Negro Casas would be in attendance to receive the Lucha Libre Award at the 58th Annual Cauliflower Alley Club. I couldn’t have been more elated. It was finally a chance to see what made him so special.
When I walked onto the third floor of the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas to attend the first of a two-night banquet to honor many of the incredible stars of pro wrestling, past and present, there he was. With hair slicked back into a neat ponytail and a blue AAA Lucha Libre shirt tucked into his track pants, long gone were the CMLL logos from years gone past after he and fellow wrestler, his wife Dalys defected from the world’s oldest wrestling promotion.
I have to admit, I was a little bit star struck and I’ve only been star struck once previously in my life, that was during a Bret Hart autograph signing at Winnipeg’s City Place in the mid 1990s.
Negro did not walk with a limp, seemingly didn’t show any signs of the nearly 45 years in the ring. He was spry, clear, with a smile on his face. Just as if he would walk into an arena full of screaming fans while Grupo Kual’s “Soy Maraquero” blasted over the speakers.
The Plaza’s banquet hall was already buzzing and the dinner had not even begun by the time, I made my way over to Negro’s table, where he was being surrounded by old friends and fans alike. I spotted the great Vandal Drummond near his table and introduced myself as I had followed him on social media. After a moment of sharing stories, it was Vandal that told me to get in for a picture with Negro, the legendary member of the Casas dynasty.
As I approached a man that I had been a fan of for so many years, I could almost hear the chants of NEGRO, NEGRO, NEGRO booming around me, I was nervous, I was never nervous. In this business, I had met so many faces that I’d adored as a child and many I respected as a professional, and they were the only celebrities that I’d ever cared about that it gave me a good feeling to feel those feelings of being a fan again. But like I mentioned, I was nervous, so when our hands locked up into a shake, I introduced myself! I should mention here, that Negro speaks very little, if any, English. Luckily for no one, I speak zero Spanish, so I think I endeared myself to him when I said “me llamo Stefan.” But I wasn’t sure if I had said “my name is Stefan” or “I love Stefan” at the time, either way, he smiled and couldn’t have been nicer despite the language barrier.
It seems like a distant shot to ever end up across the ring from him or to pair with him in a trios match in a sold-out arena in Mexico City, but if this was as close as it would ever get. I’m totally okay with that. My only regret, I didn’t bring up my Negro Casas-inspired RUDO knuckle tattoos to him, simply because of the growing crowd and language barrier.
The 58th Annual Cauliflower Alley Club was one of the most rewarding experiences that I’ve had in the business of professional wrestling. I met names that I’d only heard of, I met faces that I’d been friends with online, and I got to meet one of my favorites of all time, the incredible, Negro Casas. One more thing, if destiny is truly at play … and if you hear about this, Negro, maybe we square off with our hair on the line!
TOP PHOTO: Stefan Epic and Negro Casas at the 2024 Cauliflower Alley Club reunion.
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