Picudo was one of the original members of the roster of Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) when it began. Achieved his most success as a member of Los Vatos Locos. In 2009 left AAA with brother Espectro de Ultratumba over disputes on how they should be used. Picudo then went independent. He would return in 2012 as Devil Rocker apart of the Infierno Rockers. Picudo passed away on August 3, 2018 due to complications from diabetes.
If you watch the 2003-2005 AAA shows on their Twitch channel long enough, you’re eventually going to see a match with a bunch of run-ins and interferences and maybe even duelling promotions. It seemed to happen in just about every episode when I was cataloguing them. In the middle of it, inevitably, will be a wildly dressed man blowing fire as a big spot. That man was Picudo, who passed away yesterday due to complications from diabetes. He was 51, and had appeared last in AAA as part of the Copa TripleMania. Picudo was a young luchador, wrestling different names in small promotions in 1992 who got his big break when AAA started. He was one of the original members of the promotion, an undercard rudo doing a sort of British punk gimmick. Picudo wasn’t especially pushed, but he was good and good enough to be used as Perro Aguayo Jr.’s first major rival. Aguayo took Picudo’s mask just four months into his own career.
Picudo got a more prominent role after the AAA/WCW/Promo Azteca split happened. He formed Los Vatos Locos, essentially a KISS tribute band as a wrestling group with Charly Manson, Nygma, and May Flowers. Espiritu, Silver Cat, and short-lived characters Slam & Super Kiss were part of the group later on. AAA increasingly focused on big characters in the post-1998 period. Luchadors dressing up like a rock band with makeup fit in, were pretty popular and frequently fought for the Mexican Atomicos (4v4) Tags. The group was phased out from a regular TV role in the mid 2000s; like most rock bands, they’d just run their course as an act and were moved down to smaller venues. Picudo made a surprising, if concealed, return to AAA in 2012 as Devil Rocker, one of the masked Infierno Rockers. The Rockers were a midcard trios match at time when AAA wasn’t doing a lot with midcard trios, but they were having good matches when matched up with the right opponents.
After AAA stopped using the Rockers, Picudo continued to use the Devil Rocker character with new people under the Machine Rocker & Soul Rocker characters. This was a strange situation because AAA was threatening lawsuits over people using “Fenix” and “Pentagon Jr.” names elsewhere, but appeared not to have the same issues with the Rocker characters. The difference was Picudo is part of the Pena Family, a cousin of both Antonio & Marisela. Picudo passed away on his birthday, which was also Joaquin Roldan’s birthday. I can’t imagine how rough a day it is for that family.
