Super Kendo

Profile

Kendo

Name Kendo Real name Ezequiel Antonio Rivera Nicknames The Swordsman, El Chombo Name history El Brillante (debut - 08/84), Kendo (08/01/84 - ), Kendo Star (original), Kato Kung Lee II (92), Transformer (92 - 94, L.A., 04 - ), El Ninja (01/95 - 04/95), Ninja de Fuego (04/95 - ), Super Kendo (07/98 - ), El Idiota (11/04 - ), Super Araña (Pachuca, 01/05 - ), AKIYOSHI (AJPW 2007) Family Kendo Star (2nd version, cousin), Kimura (son) Maestro(s) unknown Birth date, location September 18, 1956 - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Obituary date Debut, location 1972 - Dominican Republic Lost mask to Dos Caras (as Brillante); Blue Panther - May 1988 (as Kendo) Height 5'9"/174 cms Weight 189 lbs/86 kg Signature moves Kendo kip-ups and jump taunt, Springboard Blind Tope, Huracarrana, Plancha, Tope Suicida Titles: Santo Domingo Light Heavyweight Title, UWA World Tag Team Titles (w/ Gran Hamada), Central American Middleweight Title, National Cruiserweight Title, WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Title

Biography

Kendo made his pro debut in 1972 and wrestled as El Brillante (The Brilliant One) in his home country of the Dominican Republic, as well as Panamá, for several years. While wrestling in Panamá, Perro Aguayo and Anibal discovered him and took him to the UWA. His Mexican debut was in 1981, and he wrestled for several years in small arenas still as El Brillante. Under that name, he lost his mask to Dos Caras and his hair to Blue Panther.

He became Kendo on August 1, 1984 at El Toreo and adopted a Martial Arts gimmick along the lines of "Los Fantasticos": Kato Kung Lee, Kung Fu and Black Man. He was a regular lightweight El Toreo undercarder and teamed many times with El Hijo del Santo against rudos like Negro Casas and Blue Panther. In the smaller arenas, he was also a part of several "Fantasticos" trios with Kato, Black Man, Avispón Negro and Silver King.

Kendo lost his mask to Blue Panther in May 1988 at the Auditorio Fausto Gutiérrez Moreno ("Auditorio de Tijuana"). This was a big match, and he definitely was paid well, but... without his mask, his popularity went down big time. He'd do the same jumps, taunts, and tricks, but without the mask his charm was gone. Seeing that his career was going downhill, he (along with Ultramán, whose case was exactly the same,) asked the commission for permission to get masked again but both petitions were rejected.

However, his luck changed in 1990 when he was sent to Japan for a tour with Gran Hamada's Universal Pro. He put his mask back on and got over HUGE. The Japanese crowds loved him and would continuously cheer his name while clapping. He came back to Mexico with renewed spirits and got masked again as Kendo Star (his cousin, Salsero, would later wrestle as Kendo Star too), but people knew it was a fraud so he was stuck in the undercard. A few weeks later, Kato Kung Lee II was born. Benjamín Mora (Tijuana promoter) got real mad since he knew it was Kendo and he was the one who booked the Kendo vs. Panther mask match, so KKL II ended early. At the same time, El Celestial also appeared in the UWA. This was Black Man I, who, funnily enough, suffered the same fate as Kendo after losing his hood. Everybody in Mexico and Japan thought that Celestial was Kendo, so, by Kendo's request, the Japanese magazine Weekly Gong broke the story that Kendo was Kato II. This had everyone confused, so they had Celestial and Kendo together in a photo spread to prove they were different luchadores, and Black Man I finally admitted he was Celestial.

Kendo had a bad rep and he wanted a change, so he became Transformer (not to be confused with AAA's 1995 Transformer) in both Mexico and Japan. With the UWA going down, Ezequiel ended up in PROMELL and changed his name to Ninja de Fuego. As PROMELL and AAA co-promoted during some months, he also wrestled some for Antonio Peña, that launched a mini called Ninjita that fought in the 13-Minis Cage Match of Triplemania III. PROMELL later became Promo Azteca and Kendo stayed there, though during 1997 he was booked in some CMLL Japan tours where he used both the Ninja and Kendo gimmicks.

On December of 1997, he jumped to CMLL, where he still wrestles. He underwent a final name change in July of 1998 and became Super Kendo, though he hasn't totally dropped the Ninja de Fuego gimmick as he still uses it from time to time. Kendo is still an Arena Coliseo and Mexico undercard feature and he tours Japan several times a year competing for Great Sasuke's Michinoku Pro. As a fun fact, Kendo is also a mask designer (during the late 80s and early 90s he had a big masks shop) and the original designs of all his masks are his own creations.

Luchas de apuestas record

Date	Apuesta	Winner(s)	Loser(s)	Arena and/or Place
??/??/??	mask	Bestia Salvaje	Ninja de Fuego	Arena Coliseo - Guadalajara, Jalisco
??/??/??	hair	Super Kendo	Mosco de la Merced	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
83/06/05	mask (1)	Dos Caras	El Brillante	Palacio de los Deportes - Mexico City
83/12/20	hair	El Brillante	Destino Negro	Pista Arena Revolución - Mexico City
84/06/24	hair	Blue Panther	El Brillante	Arena Querétaro - Querétaro, Querétaro
88/02/19	hair	Kendo	Silver King	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
88/05/??	mask	Blue Panther	Kendo	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
92/??/??	hair	Panterita del Ring	Kendo	Monterrey, Nuevo León
92/02/09	hair	Kendo	El Mohicano II	Arena San Lorenzo - San Lorenzo, Mexico State
92/05/28	mask	Transformer	Zeus	Pista Arena Revolución - Mexico City
93/12/19	masks (2)	Transformer & The King	Aguila Negra & Siniestro	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
02/06/16	mask (3)	Super Kendo	Solar II	Arena Mexico - Mexico City
02/07/26	mask	Super Parka	Super Kendo	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
03/09/27	hair	Shu El Guerrero	Super Kendo	Deportivo Moctezuma - México Citu
04/10/22	hair (4)	Intocable	Super Kendo	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
(1) 12 man ruleta; (2) Finals of a 12 team losers advance tournament; (3) 8 men cage match; (4) Super Kendo beat Intocable with a faul, but the commission reversed the decision

Gallery

as Brillante in rookie year

Los Nuevos Fantasticos

Los Nuevos Fantasticos

looking awesome as Transformer

another shot of Transformer w/out helmet

as Idiota on the left

Autographing masks he had just finished doing

Showing another design of Kendo's mask

After winning Solar's II mask

Kendo on his early years

Kato Kung Lee 2

as AKIYOSHI in AJPW 2007