Landing Feet First (vs. Shintaro Majima)
Dec 14, 2015 1:05:05 GMT -5
Post by Lou on Dec 14, 2015 1:05:05 GMT -5
We fade in on a cemetery in the city of Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The camera pans in on a headstone a few feet in front of our view. It is beautifully adorned with daisies, roses and other brightly colored trinkets. The flowers flutter in the gentle December breeze, brushing across the headstone and drawing our eyes inward toward the name upon the granite slab. It reads as follows (in Spanish):
Beneath the inscription is the image of a wrestling mask etched into the stone. While this individual was surely loved by his family and friends, not even they could deny that the career path he followed--one in which allowed Miguel Ángel Reyes Morales, known in the ring as Corazón de León throughout North and Central America, to achieve supreme popularity and a beloved icon status within the confines of the squared circle--the career path he followed encompassed his life and everything within it. He was lucha libre.
Knelt before this patch of dirt is the son of the Mexican legend himself, LDFC newcomer, Santana Alejandro Morales, better known to the professional wrestling world as simply Credo. For the last couple years, Credo had been working with his father, learning the family business and carving his niche as the next great hope. His first year on the circuit in Mexico was widely regarded as a success. Then tragedy struck.
“I love you, Dad,” he mutters underneath his breath.
Today, Credo stares at the headstone in front of him with a sullen look on his face. For a time, his father was his world. Death took that all away, and it’s been a struggle to regain his footing since losing his him some months ago.
His head drops and his eyes travel to the soil beneath his feet. He grasps some in his right hand and pushes it around between his thumb and index finger. Suddenly, he lets out a sigh as his brown eyes meet with the camera.
“For over 30 years, my father was worshiped like a God in this city. Mi padre...he taught me how to be a man. He molded me into the man I am before you today. Everything I know, it is because of him. Everything I have accomplished, it is because of him.
He is the reason I became a professional wrestler. Why I decided to pursue a lucha libre career and sought his tutelage. The performance, the art of it all...I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to feel it. Live it. Breathe it. It engulfed my father’s life, and I could never understand why until I began training under him. Until I walked out under those lights and absorbed it all. That first night I stepped out onto the stage, I knew I was destined to be a professional wrestler forever.
But I lost it all when my father passed. Walking in my father’s footsteps was no longer an option...at least not here, in Mexico. No, living in his shadow while he was still alive was one thing. But to attempt to live up to the impossible expectations heaped upon me after his death? I know that I am a wrestling legacy, but I am striving to leave behind my own legacy, not surpass my father’s.
That’s what brought me to LDFC...after battling some demons and mustering the courage to tell my family goodbye, I will forge my own journey. A new era in the Morales family legend. Today, you know me as El Hijo de Corazón de León. However, one day, the glory associated with my name will be my own. You will be unable to speak of wrestling icons without uttering the name Credo among them.
Shintaro Majima, I welcome your challenge at the upcoming Pride event. I won’t pretend to be an expert on you, but I have done my homework and I feel confident heading into this matchup. This is the first page in a new story for me, and I intend on making a good first impression as I make my American debut. May the best man win, but know you are going to get nothing less than 110% from me. I have a legacy of my own to fulfill, and I cannot not fail to live up to that legacy and etch my name among the greatest to ever step between those ropes. I will not fail…”
Fade to black.
HERE LIES
MIGUEL ÁNGEL REYES MORALES
BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER, ICON
MIGUEL ÁNGEL REYES MORALES
BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER, ICON
Beneath the inscription is the image of a wrestling mask etched into the stone. While this individual was surely loved by his family and friends, not even they could deny that the career path he followed--one in which allowed Miguel Ángel Reyes Morales, known in the ring as Corazón de León throughout North and Central America, to achieve supreme popularity and a beloved icon status within the confines of the squared circle--the career path he followed encompassed his life and everything within it. He was lucha libre.
Knelt before this patch of dirt is the son of the Mexican legend himself, LDFC newcomer, Santana Alejandro Morales, better known to the professional wrestling world as simply Credo. For the last couple years, Credo had been working with his father, learning the family business and carving his niche as the next great hope. His first year on the circuit in Mexico was widely regarded as a success. Then tragedy struck.
“I love you, Dad,” he mutters underneath his breath.
Today, Credo stares at the headstone in front of him with a sullen look on his face. For a time, his father was his world. Death took that all away, and it’s been a struggle to regain his footing since losing his him some months ago.
His head drops and his eyes travel to the soil beneath his feet. He grasps some in his right hand and pushes it around between his thumb and index finger. Suddenly, he lets out a sigh as his brown eyes meet with the camera.
“For over 30 years, my father was worshiped like a God in this city. Mi padre...he taught me how to be a man. He molded me into the man I am before you today. Everything I know, it is because of him. Everything I have accomplished, it is because of him.
He is the reason I became a professional wrestler. Why I decided to pursue a lucha libre career and sought his tutelage. The performance, the art of it all...I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to feel it. Live it. Breathe it. It engulfed my father’s life, and I could never understand why until I began training under him. Until I walked out under those lights and absorbed it all. That first night I stepped out onto the stage, I knew I was destined to be a professional wrestler forever.
But I lost it all when my father passed. Walking in my father’s footsteps was no longer an option...at least not here, in Mexico. No, living in his shadow while he was still alive was one thing. But to attempt to live up to the impossible expectations heaped upon me after his death? I know that I am a wrestling legacy, but I am striving to leave behind my own legacy, not surpass my father’s.
That’s what brought me to LDFC...after battling some demons and mustering the courage to tell my family goodbye, I will forge my own journey. A new era in the Morales family legend. Today, you know me as El Hijo de Corazón de León. However, one day, the glory associated with my name will be my own. You will be unable to speak of wrestling icons without uttering the name Credo among them.
Shintaro Majima, I welcome your challenge at the upcoming Pride event. I won’t pretend to be an expert on you, but I have done my homework and I feel confident heading into this matchup. This is the first page in a new story for me, and I intend on making a good first impression as I make my American debut. May the best man win, but know you are going to get nothing less than 110% from me. I have a legacy of my own to fulfill, and I cannot not fail to live up to that legacy and etch my name among the greatest to ever step between those ropes. I will not fail…”
Fade to black.