Mr. Niebla

Ringwork Rating - 

Intangibles Rating - 

Place in History - In the late 1990s, Mr. Niebla and his partner Shocker were the young technicos that really changed the style of lucha libre that CMLL was presenting.  Influenced by Japanese wrestling and the junior heavyweight style, the hard-hitting and big moves infused nicely with traditional lucha libre.  Mr. Niebla was not only a quality wrestler, but his uniquely designed mask and dancing antics made him a fast fan favorite.  Niebla hooked up with veteran technicos Atlantis and Lizmark and they captured the CMLL Trios titles.  Concurrently, he and Shocker became the CMLL Tag Team Champions and held the titles for the bulk of 1998.  Then an injury forced Niebla to vacate both sets of titles.  In his absence an imposter Mr. Niebla showed up, giving him a natural program when he returned, culminating in a mask match, which Niebla won.  He and Shocker had an unsuccessful reunion, which led to a mask match, which Niebla won.  Curiously, unmasking catapulted Shocker to greater heights while Mr. Niebla continued at the same level.  Eventually, he began a rivalry with Universo 2000 and eventually ended the rudo’s long reign as CMLL Heavyweight champion.   The belt stayed with Mr. Niebla for a year and a half with numerous defenses before losing it back to Universo.  He left CMLL for AAA when he was still a hot commodity and was moved into a power struggle with Abismo Negro for control of Los Vipers.  The storyline did not progress to Niebla’s liking and he left after only a year.  Returning to CMLL as a rudo, Mr. Niebla adopted an outrageous new persona as the leader of La Peste Negra with Negro Casas, Heavy Metal and Felino.  Their dancing intros with giant afros, their black paint and carrying garbage to the ring made for an unforgettable package.  They also infused more comedy into their matches than other top rudos, which might not have made for classics in the ring, but they were fun crowd-pleasers.  Mr. Niebla’s spitting and dancing persona moved him back into a prominent place on the cards, but his substance abuse issues have caused problems for him.