Arturo Beristain

Arturo Beristain (born September 5, 1949) is a retired Mexican professional wrestler, or Luchador in Spanish, who works as a wrestling trainer at the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL) gym in Mexico City, Mexico. Beristain is best known for working under two different ring names, Talismán and El Hijo del Gladiador; both personas started out as enmascarados, or masked, and Beristain lost both masks in Luchas de Apuestas. He lost the Talismán mask to Atlantis in 1984 and the Hijo del Gladiador mask to Rencor Latino in 2000. As Talismán, Beristain won the Mexican National Welterweight Championship twice, the Mexican National Middleweight Championship and the Mexican National Lightweight Championship. As el Hijo del Gladiador he has won the CMLL World Trios Championship with Gran Markus, Jr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. and the IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship. When Beristain lost the "Hijo del Gladiador" he was announced as "Arturo Beristain Ramírez" to further the storyline that he was actually the son of wrestler "El Gladiador", but his last name is not actually Ramírez.

Arturo Beristain
Beristain during an interview in 2017
Birth nameArturo Beristain
Born (1949-09-05) September 5, 1949
Mexico City
ResidenceMexico City, Mexico
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Filoso (I)
Hijo del Gladiador
Santiago Ayala
Talismán
Billed height1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Billed weight87 kg (192 lb)
Billed fromMexico City, Mexico
Trained byPedro Nieves
Rolando Vera
Rafael Salamanca
DebutJanuary 1971
Retired2005

Professional wrestling career

Beristain made his professional wrestling debut in 1971 at the age of 21, wrestling under the ring name Santiago Ayala. A few years later Beristain adopted an enmascarado (masked) ring persona by the name of Talismán.[1] The change to the Talismán character was so successful that Beristain began working for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest wrestling promotion. On August 30, 1978, Talismán defeated Mario Valenzuela to win the Mexican National Lightweight Championship, his first professional wrestling championship.[2] He held the title for 221 days before losing the title to Rodolfo Ruiz on April 8, 1979.[2] It would be almost two years before Talismán won another title, defeating El Supremo for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship on March 30, 1982.[3]

Talismán successfully defended the title several times, including a rematch with the deposed champion, until losing it on November 12, 1982, to Mocho Cota.[3] In 1984 Talismán entered and won a tournament for the vacant Mexican National Welterweight Championship, defeating Américo Rocca in the finals.[3] On September 21, 1984, Talismán lost a Luchas de Apuesta, bet match, to Atlantis and was forced to unmask after the match and reveal his real name per lucha libre traditions.[1] Talismán held the Welterweight title for 222 days before Rocca finally managed to defeat Talismán.[3] On March 2, 1986, Talismán gained a measure of revenge on Atlantis by defeating him for the Mexican National Middleweight Championship.[4] He successfully defended the title for 273 days before losing it to Mogur on November 30, 1986.[4]

In the late 1980s Beristain switched ring characters, becoming an enmascarado once more, using the name El Hijo del Gladiador (Spanish for "The Son of the Gladiator"), using a storyline blood relation to deceased wrestler El Gladiador. Hijo del Gladiador began teaming with Dr. Wagner, Jr. and Gran Markus, Jr. to form the group La Ola Blanca, a group that continued the tradition started by Dr. Wagner, Jr's father Dr. Wagner and Ángel Blanco in the 1960s and 1970s. On April 22, 1994, La Ola Blanca defeated Los Brazos (El Brazo, Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata) to win the CMLL World Trios Championship (EMLL had been renamed Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 1990).[5] The trio held the title for almost a year, 343 days in total, before losing the Trios title to Bestia Salvaje, Emilio Charles, Jr. and Sangre Chicana on March 31, 1995.[5] On August 6, 1996, Hijo del Gladiador and Gran Markus, Jr. teamed up to defeat Atlantis and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. to win the CMLL World Tag Team Championship.[6] The team only held the title for 43 days before losing it to Atlantis and Lizmark on September 18, 1996.[6]

After the loss of the tag team title La Ola Blanca broke up with each wrestler going their separate ways. Due to the CMLL/International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) talent-exchange agreement Hijo del Gladiador began working for IWRG in late 1997, and in early 1998 he defeated El Pantera to win the IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship.[7] He defended it a couple of times in the following 186 days before losing the title to Magnum Tokyo on July 5, 1998.[7] On August 4, 2000, El Hijo del Gladiador was one of the participants in a Torneo cibernetico, where the last man eliminated would be forced to unmask. On that night he was bested by Rencor Latino and forced to unmask as a consequence of his loss. Beristain announced that his full name was "Arturo Beristain Ramírez" to keep up the storyline that he really was the son of El Gladiador. It was later confirmed that his last name was not Ramirez.[8] Arturo Beristain retired from wrestling in 2005 and became a full-time wrestling trainer for CMLL in their wrestling school in Mexico City, where he still works, training several of CMLL's rookie wrestlers.

Championships and accomplishments

Luchas de Apuestas record
See also: Luchas de Apuestas
Winner (wager) Loser (wager) Location Event Date Notes
Talismán and Mr. Niebla[lower-alpha 1] (mask)Los Tigres del Ring (mask)Tijuana, Baja CaliforniaLive eventApril 1, 1977 
Talismán (mask)Irazu (hair)Mexico CityLive eventAugust 23, 1977 
Talismán (mask)Tauro (hair)Mexico CityLive eventApril 2, 1978 
Talismán (mask)Huroki Sito (hair)Mexico CityLive eventJune 23, 1978 
Talismán (mask)Arisona (mask)San Luis Potosi, San Luis PotosiLive eventNovember 21, 1979 
Talismán (mask)El Mago (mask)Mexico CityLive eventOctober 7, 1980 
Talismán (mask)El Legendario (mask)N/ALive eventDecember 1980 
Talismán (mask)Tiburon (mask)Mexico CityLive eventSeptember 29, 1981 
Atlantis (mask)Talismán (mask)Mexico CityEMLL 51st Anniversary ShowSeptember 21, 1984[1][9]
Talismán (hair)Américo Rocca (hair)Mexico CityLive eventOctober 26, 1984 
Talismán (hair)Lemus II (hair)Mexico CityLive eventJune 8, 1905 
Mocho Cota (hair)Talismán (hair)Mexico CityLive eventMarch 7, 1986 
Sangre Chicana and Mocho Cota (hair)El Faraón and Talismán (hair)Mexico CityLive eventMarch 7, 1986 
Los Bravos
(Fuerza Guerrera (mask), El Dandy (hair) and Talisman (hair)		Los Destructores
(Lemús II (mask), Tony Arce (hair) and Vulcano (hair))		Mexico CityLive eventJuly 5, 1985[10][11]
Los Misioneros de la Muerte (hair)
( El Signo, El Texano and Negro Navarro)		El Dandy, Talismán and Jerry Estrada (hair)Mexico CityLive eventSeptember 5, 1986 
Américo Rocca (hair)Talismán (hair)Mexico CityLive event1987 
El Hijo del Gladiador (mask)Sangre Guerrera (mask)Mexico CityLive event1988 
Rencor Latino (mask)El Hijo del Gladiador (mask)Mexico CityLive eventAugust 4, 2000[lower-alpha 2][8]
Tony Rivera (hair)El Hijo del Gladiador (hair)Puebla, PueblaLive eventFebruary 19, 2001[8]
Ricky Marvin (hair)El Hijo del Gladiador (hair)Mexico CityLive eventOctober 14, 2001 
Justiciero (hair)El Hijo del Gladiador (hair)Coacalco, State of MexicoLive eventOctober 19, 2003 

Notes
  1. This was the 1st version of Mr. Niebla, not the current Mr. Niebla
  2. Lost in the final of a Torneo Cibernetico elimination match.

References
  1. Enciclopedia staff (November 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Talismán (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. p. 12. Tomo V.
  2. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Lightweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  3. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: National Welterweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 392. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  4. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Middleweight Championship". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 392. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  5. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: EMLL CMLL Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 396. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  6. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: EMLL CMLL Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 395. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  7. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: IWRG Intercontinental World Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 402. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  8. Enciclopedia staff (September 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Hijo del Gladiador (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. p. 25. Tomo II.
  9. Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  10. Centinela, Teddy (July 5, 2015). "En un día como hoy… 1985: Lost Bravos vs. Los Destructores: máscara y caballeras contra máscara y caballeras". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  11. Enciclopedia staff (September 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Fuerza Guerrera (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. p. 25. Tomo II.
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