Emilio Charles Jr. (1956-2012)

Real Name - Sergio Emilio Charles Garduño

Birthdate - 10/2/56 - 12/28/12

5’9” 196 lbs. - Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

Athletic Background - n/a

Teacher(s) - Diablo Velasco, Abuelo Carrillo

Professional Background - EMLL/CMLL(`80-`07), Indies(`07-`12)

Aliases - none

Groups - Los Chacales, Los Destructores, Los Guapos, Los Talibanes

Peak Years - `88-`98

Finisher(s) - 

- Flying Splash

- La Silla (Thesz Press)

- Running Twisting Splash

- Elevated Butterfly Lock

Favorites -

- Rana

- Lariat

- Suicide Dive

- Senton

- Punch

Place in History - Emilio Charles Jr. is really everything one could want in a rudo.  He is a vicious brawler who can work the mat or come off the top when he needs to.  He can bump and sell with the best of them.  He can play a tough bully, a backpedaling coward or even a goof if needed.  Even better, Emilio called himself “El Rey de Beautiful” despite being a bit unsightly and sported a wild mane of frizzy hair that perfect to put up in “lucha de apuestas” bouts.  The son of a successful luchador, Emilio Charles Jr. trained under the legendary Diablo Velasco before debuting in 1980.  After struggling as a heavyweight, he dropped weight and found his place as a middleweight.  Charles Jr. eventually formed a partnership with the brother team of Tony Arce and Vulcano that became known as Los Destructores.  The UWA was popularizing trios matches and CMLL was following the trend by creating their own trios and Los Destructores filled that role.  While never pushed as the top rudo trio in CMLL, they were arguably the best and by 1988, they had finally won the National Trios titles.  Charles Jr. proved to be, like Pirata Morgan and Fuerza Guerrera, able to work within the structure of a trios match and yet get himself over.  Concurrent to his time with Los Destructores, Emilio Charles Jr. became embroiled in an epic feud with Atlantis.  The two exchanged the prominent NWA Middleweight title and they regularly found themselves on the opposite side of trios matches.  Emilio Charles Jr. also held CMLL and National Middleweight titles over a five year period, battling with technicos like El Dandy, Octagon and Angel Azteca.  He left Los Destructores and partnered up with Sangre Chicana and Bestia Salvaje, the latter of whom became his running buddy for years to come, to form another successful three-man unit.  In the late 1990s, Charles Jr. became a technico for a novel run leading to the last big program of his career.  Los Guapos were a top rudo group with Shocker, CMLL’s hot young rudo, having Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje bleaching their hair like he did.  When they split up, it was “El Rey de Beautiful,” Emilio Charles Jr., who took Shocker’s place and also became a platinum blonde.  He put Shocker over, losing his hair for the first time in over a decade.  Even though Charles Jr. was past his physical prime, he was still great at lucha brawls and working trios matches.  He continued to team with Bestia and Scorpio, they even took on a short-lived Taliban gimmick after 9/11.  By the time that fizzled out, Charles Jr. was hovering around fifty and spent the remainder of his career putting over up-and-coming talent.  In 2011, he was bit by a brown recluse spider in Guatemala and nearly died.  He recovered, but passed away the following year.