Germán Figueroa

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Germán Figueroa


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Nuevo Gran Apolo Gran Apolo Apolo El León Peter El Stripper
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Billed weight	265 lb (120 kg)
Born	May 6, 1975 Ponce
Resides	Orlando, Florida
Trained by	Hector Soto Savio Vega Miguel Pérez, Jr.
Debut	1999

Germán Figueroa (born May 6, 1975 in Ponce) is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, better known as Nuevo Gran Apolo, or simply Apolo.

1 Career
2 Finishing and signature moves
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Career

Figueroa was originally a professional basketball player, and represented Puerto Rico in a game against the United States basketball team in Madison Square Garden in 1991. His career in basketball was cut short when he was forced to return home and begin working in order to support his family, who were poor.

[edit] International Wrestling Association

After deciding to become a professional wrestler, Figueroa trained under Hector Soto, Savio Vega, Miguel Pérez, Jr. and others and debuted in the Puerto Rican International Wrestling Association in 1999 as Nuevo Gran Apolo ("New Great Apolo"), facing Andy Anderson. He quickly ascended the ranks of the promotion, at first forming a tag team with Ricky Banderas known as the Nueva Generación ("New Generation"). They first won the IWA Tag Team Championships on May 7, 2000 in Moca, defeating the Starr Corporation. They held the titles twice more that year, but on August 6, a day after their third reign began, Banderas turned on Figueroa and named Miguelito Pérez as his new partner. In 2001 Figuero and Pérez formed a tag team, and on February 24 they won the IWA Tag Team Championships, making Figeroa a four time tag team champion. However, on March 23 Pérez no-showed a scheduled title defence, and Figuero fell to the Starr Corporation in a de-facto handicap match.

Having been betrayed by two tag team partners, Figueroa decided to focus on the richest prize in the IWA; the IWA Heavyweight Championship. His goal was swiftly realized; on June 16, 2001 in Bayamón Figueroa defeating reigning champion Ricky Banderas and Tiger Ali Singh in a Three Way match to become IWA World Champion. He lost the title to Pain on September 29, who in turn lost to Glamour Boy Shane. Figueroa began feuding with Shane over the title, winning the title for a second time on October 27. Shane was, however, unwilling to relinquish the title, and two months later the title was held-up after a TLC Match ended in controversial fashion. Figueroa immediately went after the vacant title, but lost a crowning match to Primo Carnero when IWA President Victor Quiñones threw in a towel on his behalf. Figueroa soon returned to the title pictures, however, and won the IWA Heavyweight Championship three more times in 2002, and one in 2003 and 2004 respectively. In April 2003 he was sidelined for eight months with a serious neck injury.

Figueroa shortened his name to Gran Apolo, then simply Apolo. He later added the prefix "El León".

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling

Figueroa joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in July 2002 as Apolo. He made several appearances for the promotion, with his last match being a loss to Jeff Jarrett on August 7 in a match with Ricky Steamboat as the special guest referee.

Sonny Siaki and Apolo

On January 14, 2004, Figueroa returned to TNA under a mask as El León (" The Lion"), attacking Jarrett. The following week he faced Jarrett in a street fight that ended in a no-contest. Figueroa unmasked on March 31, and formed a tag team with D'Lo Brown. That same night, Figueroa and Brown defeated three other teams to become number one contenders to the vacant tag team championships. On April 14, 2004 Figueroa and Brown defeated Kid Kash and Dallas for the NWA World Tag Team Championships, winning by disqualification (in TNA, title can change hands on count-outs or disqualifications) when Dallas brought a pipe into the ring. The following week, Kash and Dallas claimed their rematch. In the course of the match, Kash attempted to hit Figueroa with a pipe, but Figueroa was able to wrestle it from him. However, referee Rudy Charles saw him with the weapon and disqualified him as a result, thereby returning the titles to Kash and Dallas. The two teams faced one another for a third time on April 28 in a Nightstick on a Pole Match to determine the undisputed NWA World Tag Team Champions, and Figueroa and Brown were defeated. Figueroa then left the promotion once more.

Figueroa returned to TNA for a third run on March 4, 2005, with Director of Authority Dusty Rhodes welcoming him as part of his "open door policy". After defeating Sonny Siaki on the March 25 episode of iMPACT!, Figueroa earned the respect of his Samoan opponent, and the duo formed a tag-team. On June 19 at Slammiversary they were defeated by Simon Diamond and Trytan. The team was split when Siaki's contract expired in December 2005.

On the December 31 episode of iMPACT!, Figueroa helped Konnan and the debuting Homicide to ambush Bob Armstrong. The trio were later identified as the "Latin American Exchange".

After Figueroa no-showed TNA Final Resolution 2006, he was removed from TNA television. At TNA Against All Odds 2006 on February 12, 2006, he was replaced with Machete. He was released from the promotion that same month.There is talk of making Apolo and "Hector Guerrero" a tag team

Apolo's TNA theme song titled "I'm Everything" was a played off version of Carlos Santana's "Smooth".

[edit] New Wrestling Stars

Figueroa left IWA due to backstage problems with Savio Vega and debuted in New Wrestling Stars(NWS) on June 25,2006 during a run-in after the main event when Team NWS beat Team WWC in the NWS Gran Prix. Figueroa later returned to NWS under a mask called "El Rey Romano" due to his IWA contract which expried in March 2007. He stayed in the company's roster until it folded in 2006. After the company closed down Figueroa spent some time wrestling in independent promotions among wich was WWS, until his contract expired.

[edit] World Wrestling Council

After his contract with IWA expired Figueroa joined Carlos Colón's wrestling promotion the World Wrestling Council under his former IWA Apolo gimmick.