El Gran Luchadore
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El Gran Luchadore is the name of a masked Mexican professional wrestling character in World Wrestling Entertainment, seen on its SmackDown! brand in 2004. El Gran Luchadore (loosely translated from Spanish to "The Great Fighter/Wrestler," "Luchadore" is also an incorrect spelling, luchador is the correct spelling) was mainly used as a jobber gimmick to put over other wrestlers.
The first WWE superstar to wrestle as the El Gran Luchadore was Paul London on June 22, 2004 in a squash match against John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL), Paul Heyman convinced Bradshaw to accept a match with the "Mexican Heavyweight Champion" after hearing that El Gran Luchadore punked out Bradshaw at an airport.
Next up was Shannon Moore on July 8, 2004, billed as the "champion of Mexico", would face WWE Champion JBL in a champion vs. champion match (no titles on the line). A second squash match for JBL took an unexpected turn when El Gran Luchadore pulled a switcharoo with Eddie Guerrero (in El Gran's costume) who came back fighting. When JBL finally clued that it was Guerrero, he ran away from the ring getting counted out in the process, allowing El Gran Luchadore to pick up his first victory.
The next appearance of El Gran Luchadore was on July 15, 2004 edition of SmackDown!. During a Steel Cage between Guerrero and JBL which saw both men sat on top of the Cage, exchanging punches until El Gran Luchadore ran down and climbed into the cage. This El Gran Luchadore held Eddie Guerrero's leg, allowing Bradshaw to climb down the side of the cage to win. After the match El Gran Luchadore tried to get out of the locked door, but then decided to climb out the way he came in. Eddie Guerrero got to his feet and climbed up the cage struggling to get him back into the cage. Luchadore was able to get away, but in the struggle Guerrero pulled the mask off of him, revealing him to be the supposedly injured Kurt Angle.
[edit] Trivia
- El Gran Luchadore even came to the ring with a "Mexican Heavyweight Title" belt, which was a replica WWE Women's Championship belt with a "mexican" look including Mexico's flag colors.
