Cassandro

Cassandro
Cassandro in 2012
Birth name	Saul Armendariz[1]
Ring name(s)	Andromeda[2] Cassandro Cassandro el Exotico[3] Mr. Romano[4] Satanico del Exotico[5]
Billed height	1.66 m (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in)[4]
Billed weight	77 kg (170 lb)[4]
Born	(1970-05-20) May 20, 1970[6] El Paso, Texas, United States[1]
Resides	El Paso, Texas, United States[7]
Billed from	Juárez, Nuevo León
Trained by	Rey Misterio, Sr.[8] Victor Ojeda[4]
Debut	1988[8]

Saul Armendariz^[1] (born May 20, 1970)^[6] is an American born-Mexican luchador, or professional wrestler, who works as an exotico for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) and several independent promotions all over the world under the ring name Cassandro. He is the current NWA World Welterweight Champion and a former UWA World Lightweight Champion. In 2009, Armendariz signed a contract with American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), but was released before making his official debut.

Professional wrestling career

Armendariz was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, United States and began training in lucha libre in 1987 just across the Mexican border in Juárez, Nuevo León, his family's native town.^[7] He officially began his professional wrestling career in 1988, working under a mask as Mr. Romano.^[4][8] In late 1989, Armendariz joined the Mexican Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) promotion, abandoning his mask and adopting the new ring name Cassandro in the process. Under his new name, he began working as an exotico, a wrestler with a transvestite character, often teaming with fellow exotico Pimpinela Escarlata, whom he had first met when the two were trained together in Juárez.^[7][9] On January 28, 1991, after a negative backlash to reports that he was going to get to wrestle El Hijo del Santo for the UWA World Welterweight Championship, Armendariz attempted suicide by cutting his wrists with a razor blade, but was saved by Escarlata, who found him in the bathroom.^[7] The title match happened a week later and Armendariz credits it as the match that earned him the lucha libre community's acceptance.^[7] Though Cassandro failed to win the UWA World Welterweight Championship from El Hijo del Santo, he managed to win his first title, the UWA World Lightweight Championship, on October 29, 1992, by defeating Lasser, becoming the first exotico in history to hold a championship in UWA.^[10] After a twenty month reign, he would lose the title to El Seminarista.^[10] He would wrestle for UWA until 1995, when the promotion closed its doors,^[11] and began then wrestling on the independent circuit for promotions both in Mexico and the United States.^[9]

After several quiet years, Cassandro returned to mainstream lucha libre in December 2005 by joining top Mexican promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), starting a rivalry with former partner Pimpinela Escarlata.^[9] The big grudge match between Cassandro and Escarlata took place on May 18, 2006, and ended in a no contest, after which the two competitors agreed to a Hair vs. Hair match at a future date.^[12] On June 18 at Triplemanía XIV, Cassandro led a four man team to face Escarlata's team in an eight man tag team match, which ended in another no contest.^[13] Shortly afterwards, Cassandro suffered an injury, which led to him leaving AAA and returning to the independent circuit.^[9] A year later on July 15, 2007, at Triplemanía XV, Cassandro made a one night return to AAA, teaming with Alfa, Cynthia Moreno and Faby Apache to defeat Escarlata, Cynthia Moreno, El Oriental and Mini Abismo Negro.^[14] Three months later, Cassandro began again wrestling regularly for AAA, now working as a technico, teaming with Escarlata against the rudo exotico stable Los Night Queens (Jessy, Nygma, Polvo de Estrellas and Yuriko).^[15] Eventually, Cassandro and Escarlata formed the stable Los Exoticos with May Flowers and Pasión Cristal to even out the numbers between the rival groups.

After once again leaving AAA in April 2008, Cassandro began working for promotions such as National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Perros del Mal Producciones (PdM), Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South (IWA-MS) and in early 2009 signed a contract with American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).^[2] Armandariz made his TNA debut on January 27, 2009, working under the ring name Satanico del Exotico in a dark match, where he defeated Petey Williams.^[5] In March, TNA began promoting Armandariz's upcoming debut under the new ring name Andromeda.^[2] However, after several months of inactivity with the promotion, it was reported in August that Armendariz and TNA had parted ways. Armendariz publicly blamed his departure on homophobia.^[16][17] On April 3, 2010, Cassandro made his debut for Ring of Honor (ROH), defeating Rhett Titus at The Big Bang! pay-per-view.^[18] During the match, Armendariz broke his leg, which forced him to pull out of Chikara's King of Trios tournament later that same month.^[18][19] On June 25, 2011, NWA Mexico, while touring the United Kingdom, set up a match to determine the first NWA World Welterweight Champion since getting the title back from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In the match Cassandro defeated Dr. Cerebro to win the championship.^[20]

On October 9, 2011, at Héroes Inmortales, Cassandro made his return to AAA, saving Pimpinela Escarlata from exoticos Nygma, Pasión Cristal and Polvo de Estrellas, who had recently started a storyline rivalry with Escarlata based on their envy of the new Reina de Reinas Champion.^[21] Cassandro wrestled his AAA return match on November 5, teaming with Escarlata and La Braza in a six man tag team match, where they defeated Nygma, Pasión Cristal and Yuriko.^[22] On February 17, 2012, Armendariz announced he was taking an indefinite hiatus from professional wrestling.^[23][24] It was later revealed that Armendariz had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus and would have to undergo surgery, which would sideline him from professional wrestling for ten to twelve months.^[25] Cassandro returned to the ring in early 2013.^[26] On March 16, 2013, Cassandro took part in Ray Mendoza, Jr.'s retirement event, where he teamed up with El Hijo de Pirata Morgan to compete in a Ruleta de la Muerte, a losers advance tag team tournament. The duo lost to Máscara Año 2000 and Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. in the first round and to El Solar and Toscano in the second round qualifying them for the finals, where the losing team would be forced to either unmask or have their hair shaved off. The team faced, and lost, to the team of Villano IV and Ray Mendoza, Jr., which meant Cassandro had to have his hair shaved off, while El Hijo de Pirata Morgan had to unmask as is traditional with Luchas de Apuestas losses.^[27]

Personal life

Armendariz is openly homosexual.^[1][3] Through his regular tours of the United Kingdom and his fluency in English, Cassandro has gained some mainstream attention in the country, including being interviewed on The Sun and BBC Breakfast.^[8][28]

In wrestling

• Signature moves
  • Liplock (Kiss)^[4]

• Nicknames
  • "Diva de Juárez"^[9] (Spanish for "Diva of Juárez")
  • "Queen of the Ring"^[8]

• Entrance themes
  • "Suavecito, Suavecito" by Laura León^[29]

Championships and accomplishments

• NWA Mexico
  • NWA World Welterweight Championship (1 time, current)^[20]

• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA World Lightweight Championship (1 time)^[8][10]

• Other titles
  • Chikara Welterweight Championship (1 time)^[30]1

¹Championship not recognized by Chikara.

Lucha de Apuesta record

Footnotes

References

External links

• AAA profile
• Cassandro on Facebook
• Cassandro on the Art of Wrestling