 Ephesto in January 2017 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1965-06-10)June 10, 1965 (age 60)[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Ephesto Hefesto Hombre Sin Nombre Pantera del Ring/Panterita del Ring Safari |
| Billed height | 1.77 m (5 ft9+1⁄2 in)[1][2] |
| Billed weight | 95 kg (209 lb)[2] |
| Trained by | Halcon Suriano[1] Asterión[1] El Satánico[1] Blue Panther[1] |
| Debut | May 29, 1982[1] |
Ephesto (born July 10, 1965) is a Mexicanluchadorenmascarado (Spanish for "maskedprofessional wrestler"). Margarito real name has not been officially documented, a tradition in Mexican lucha libre where masked wrestlers' real names often are not a matter of public record. The wrestler currently known as Ephesto made his debut in 1982 and worked for almost 20 years asPantera del Ring with limited success.[3] He later worked under the nameSafari where he won theMexican National Trios Championship on two occasions.
His ring name "Ephesto" is derived from the Spanish name forHephaestus, theGreek god of fire, Hefesto; in fact, his name is sometimes spelledHefesto in print sources.[3] Ephesto is a founding member of thestableLos Hijos del Infierno (Spanish forthe Sons of the Inferno) withAverno andMephisto. Ephesto is a formerCMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion,Mexican National Trios Champion, andCMLL World Trios Champion.
The wrestler later known as Ephesto made his debut in 1982 at the age of 16, after being trained by Halco Suriano, Asterión,El Satánico andBlue Panther. His firstring persona wasPantera del Ring (Spanish forthePanther of the Ring), a masked luchador character (orenmascarado) with a panther inspired mask and trunks, in part as an homage to his trainer Blue Panther.[4] As Pantera del Ring, sometimes referred to as "Panterita del Ring" ("Little Panther of the ring"), he signed withConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council") in the early 1990s and began working as a low cardtecnicó (the Lucha Libre term for a "Good guy").[4] WhenAntonio Peña, the head booker of CMLL at the time broke off to form the rival wrestling companyAsistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), Pantera del Ring was one of the CMLL workers that left CMLL to follow Peña in 1992. In AAA he teamed up withLatin Lover to win theMexican National Tag Team Championship from the team ofFuerza andJuventud Guerrera on June 1, 1995. The team only held the tag team titles for three and a half months before losing them back to the Guerrera family.[5] By 1997.. Panterita del Ring was working for the newly formedPromo Azteca promotion, this time as arudo (theLucha Libre term for "bad guy"). He won the tournament to crown the first ever Aztecas Middleweight Champion defeatingÁngel Azteca and Black Dragon in the finals.[6] He eventually lost the title but kept working for Promo Azteca as an upper card worker until Promo Azteca folded in the late 1990s.[4]
In 2000, he returned to CMLL and began working under the ring personaSafari, a mid-level tecnicó.[3] Safari did not gain much momentum, generally working random tag matches until he was teamed up withMr. Niebla andOlímpico and defeated the team of Blue Panther, Fuerza Guerrera andEl Signo to win theMexican National Trios Championship on March 30, 2001.[7] The team had a rather uneventful title reign that lasted 15 months but rarely saw the team defended the title untilLos Nuevos Infernales (Averno,Mephisto and El Satánico) won the titles from them on June 23, 2001.[7] In late 2003, Safari teamed up withEl Felino andVolador Jr. to win a tournament for the vacant Mexican National Trios Championship, defeatingAlan Stone,Super Crazy, andZumbido in a tournament final to claim the title.[7] Safari's second run with the title proved to be about as long as the first one, 16 months, but once again did not result in many memorable matches or a sustained push for Safari. WhenPandilla Guerrera ("Gang of Warriors";Doctor X,Nitro, andSangre Azteca) defeated Safari's team for the titles it signaled the last time the Safari character was given the spotlight.[7]
In late 2005, only months after losing the trios titles Safari transitioned into working asEl Hombre sin Nombre (Spanish for "The Man without name"), a ring persona and name that indicates that the wrestler is a "blank slate", as he has no name and wrestles in plain black trunks and mask. CMLL started a contest for the fans to come up with a new name and ring persona for this wrestler. As Hombre sin Nombre he worked as aRudo with no public reference given to the fact that he was previously known as Safari. By the end of 2007, it was announced that El Hombre Sin Nombre finally had a name,Ephesto as suggested by a fan, named after theGreek God of fireHephaestus.[3]
Along with the new name came a new look, dressing mainly in black with a mask with a ram's horn design and a new group of allies. Ephesto joined forces with Averno and Mephisto to form the stableLa Triada del Terror (Spanish for theTrio of Terror), and although he was considered the low man in the group associating with two of CMLL's top Rudo acts meant he got more exposure as Ephesto than he ever did as Safari or El Hombre Sin Nombre. When Averno and Mephisto formedLos Hijos del Averno (Spanish forthe Sons of Hell) Ephesto was one of the first to join up with them. In late 2008, Ephesto received a couple of shots atLa Sombra'sNWA World Welterweight Championship, his first chance at a singles title in CMLL. While he did not win the title the matches with La Sombra were very competitive and well received. In mid-2009 Ephesto began targeting rivalRey Bucanero, challenging him for theCMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship. At first the storyline between the two saw Rey Bucanero turn down the challenge, only to later accept after Ephesto brought a ringside ticket for a show where Bucanero was in the main event and interfered in the match. On May 26, the two met with the title on the line, after each winning one fall the match was stopped by the referee as Rey Bucanero had suffered a serious knee injury. The referee awarded the match and the title to Ephesto, his first CMLL singles title.[8]
By virtue of holding the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship Ephesto participated in the2010 Universal Championship tournament. He was part of "Block A" that competed on theJuly 30, 2010, Super Viernes show. He co-won the eight-manseeding battle royal, but was eliminated from the tournament when he lost toEl Texano, Jr. in the first round of the actual tournament.[9] On August 16, 2010, it was announced that Ephesto was one of 14 men putting their mask on the line in aLuchas de Apuestassteel cage match, the main event of theCMLL 77th Anniversary Show.[10] Ephesto was the third man to leave the steel cage as all three members ofLos Hijos del Averno quickly left the cage keeping their masks safe. The match came down to La Sombra pinning Olímpico to unmask him.[11] On February 22, 2011, Ephesto lost the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship toRush, ending his reign at 637 days.[12]
On July 15,Los Hijos del Averno defeatedLa Generación Dorada (Máscara Dorada,La Máscara and La Sombra) to win the CMLL World Trios Championship.[13] They would lose the title toEl Bufete del Amor (Marco Corleone,Máximo and Rush) on February 19, 2012.[14] In March 2013, Ephesto was paired up withtécnic wrestlerÁngel de Oro for the 2013Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles ("National Incredible Pairs Tournament") a tag team tournament where the concept was that rivals would be forced to work together to win the tournament. While the two managed to work together they still lost their first round match to the team ofDiamante Azul andEuforia.[15][16] On August 9, 2015,Los Hijos del Infierno defeatedLos Reyes de la Atlantida ("The Kings of the Atlantis";Atlantis,Delta andGuerrero Maya Jr.) to win the Mexican National Trios Championship, Ephesto's third trios title reign but the first under the "Ephesto" ring character.[17] With the championship victory, Ephesto was eligible for the 2015Universal Championship, where he was defeated by his tag team partner Mephisto.[18] DuringLos Hijos del Infierno's championship reign they successfully defended the championship against bothtecnicó trios (such asÁngel de Oro,Dragon Lee andStuka Jr.) andrudo teams (such asLos Invasores; Olímpico,Kraneo andRipper).[19] In the 2016Universal Championship tournament Ephesto was eliminated in the first round by La Máscara.[20][21] In late 2016 Ephesto started a storyline rivalry withGuerrero Maya Jr. as the two found themselves on opposite sides in various six-man tag team matches. As the rivalry grew news outlest began speculating on if the two would put their masks on the line in aLucha de Apuestas match.[22] In January 2017, Ephesto made his Japanese debut by taking part inFantastica Mania 2017, the annual tour co-produced by CMLL andNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).[23]
From 2021, he revived the Panterita del Ring gimmick to team with his son, Panterita del Ring Jr., who would eventually be re-gimmicked as the secondMáscara Dorada.[24]
Ephesto's brother, Jesús Parra Ramírez, also works for CMLL under the name "Lucifierno" and has previously worked under ring names such as Hooligan, El Hombre Sin Nombre (years after Ephesto used the same name) and Último Rebelde.[25] For years there was a common misconception among lucha libre fans that Ephesto,Último Guerrero, andHooligan were all brothers. All three come from the "Lagunero" area in Mexico and early in their professional wrestling career, the three stuck together to try to break into wrestling. This shared experience caused them to sometimes refer to each other as "Brother" even though no familiar relationship exists between Último Guerrero and the Parra brothers.[25] Ephesto's nephew made his CMLL debut in 2014 under the name "El Rebelde".[26]
| Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Acuario (hair) | Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes | Live event | N/A | [4] |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Guerrero Negro (hair) | Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes | Live event | N/A | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Dragon (mask) | Torreón, Coahuila | Live event | N/A | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Astro Flash (mask) | Torreón, Coahuila | Live event | N/A | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Megatron (mask) | Monterrey, Nuevo León | Live event | N/A | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Principe Island (hair) | Monterrey, Nuevo León | Live event | 1992 | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | Kendo (hair) | Monterrey, Nuevo León | Live event | 1992 | |
| Pantera del Ring (mask) | White Wolf (mask) | Monterrey, Nuevo León | Live event | November 22, 1998 |
