Joe Marquina
Profile
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Biography
One of the best moments in the history of lucha libre in the Laguna region was the decade of the 50s, when the Palacio de los Deportes in Torreón, Coahuila would hold quality wrestling shows. This was several years before Los Espantos became household names and were key players in getting the Laguna region over as an undiscovered pool of talent, tradition that was later continued by Gran Markus, the Wagner family, Espanto Jr., Blue Panther and many others.
So as said, the local scene was hot and having a good period, as many young boys wanted to train to become wrestlers. One of those boys was Joe Marquina, who started training at the school of the Palacio de los Deportes in 1950. He actually trained at the same time than other well known locals such as Pokarito Ramírez, Chacal Ramírez, Cavernario Galindo II and III (Calixto and José Galindo, brothers of the original one) and Cavernario Galindo himself, who was actually a Lagunero as well, and stopped by at the "escuela" when he was wrestling in the area.
After four years of hard training, Marquina made his debut, as Johnny Marquina, wrestling Rudy Palma in a "mano a mano" (singles) match at the Arena Olímpico in Torreón, promoted them by Rodrigo Cortinas.
Marquina kept wrestling in that arena a few good years until he suffered a nasty neck injury crashing after a tope, that kept him inactive during ten years, as he made his return to the rings on 1970, wrestling La Mano Blanca at the local Arena Victoria, booked by Gonzalo Gómez Martínez.
He was active until some point in the late 80s or early 90s. In a late 80s interview, Marquina said that some critiziced him for being still wrestling at an old age (old as in being old in the real world, not old for wrestling because this is a business where most wrestlers stay forever, and many of them still on top, some deservingly -like Satanico- and some not). But he said he was proud to be still able to perform at a good level at his age, as he felt he was in very good shape, which was true. He also felt that going toe to toe with young guys he could set a good example for other people his age, as in encouraging them to stay fit and work hard to be figures that the youngsters could look up to.
Among his accomplishments in the business are having a title match with Rudy Palma for the Laguna Lightweight Title, back when title matches were not all that common. It was hold in 1958 at the Arena Olímpico but he lost two falls to one. He also won the hair of Lee Roy and El Guapo Ibarra, though he lost his' to Cavernario Galindo III at the Arena Olímpico in 1955.
Luchas de apuestas record
| Date | Apuesta | Winner(s) | Loser(s) | Arena and/or Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ??/??/?? | hair | Joe Marquina | Lee Roy | unknown |
| ??/??/?? | hair | Joe Marquina | El Guapo Ibarra | unknown |
| 55/??/?? | hair | Cavernario Galindo III | Joe Marquina | Arena Olímpico - Torreón, Coahuila |
