El Hijo de la Leyenda Azul, the Son of the Blue Legend. Blue Demon Jr carries with him the legacy of one of Mexico’s most fabled masks, and to say he has not lived up to the mask’s billing would be a disservice to his illustrious career.
His journey in lucha libre stands out as one of the most intriguing, marked by challenges and detours that most others in professional wrestling have not faced.
Despite these trials, Blue Demon Jr. remains a renowned figure in lucha libre, and his name still commands the attention of any professional wrestling fan even in the later stages of his celebrated career.
The Legacy of the Blue Demon
Naturally, before Blue Demon Jr. came Blue Demon, one of the iconic figures in lucha libre whose in-ring career spanned four glorious decades.
To have called Blue Demon a mega star in his prime would have been an understatement as he was a part of arguably the greatest feud in the history of pro-wrestling in Mexico against the great El Santo during the early 1950s.
Together the two took the profession by storm and even after their rivalry reached its peak in 1953 they continued to send crowds wild, whether it be inside the ring or at the movie theatre where they starred in a number of lucha libre-themed horror movies.
By the late eighties it would soon be time for Blue Demon to call time on his in-ring career and, much like his rival El Santo, he intended to pass his legacy onto someone else so that one of the most important masks in lucha libre did not die with him.
Unfortunately for Blue Demon, his biological son Alfredo Muñoz had no intention of becoming a professional wrestler and so Blue Demon gifted his name and his mask to his adopted son who became Blue Demon Jr.
The man now known as Blue Demon Jr. was born in Mexico City but grew up in Monterrey Nuevo León before entering into a military academy, which he attributes his discipline and determination to.
While in high school he trained in sambo and as a freestyle wrestler, though it’s alleged that Blue Demon would not allow him to set foot into a professional wrestling ring until he had studied for a university degree in computer and administrative systems.
Balancing his studies with his wrestling training, Blue Demon Jr. was a hopeful for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles where, had it not been for a shoulder injury, he would’ve likely been a member of Mexico’s Olympic wrestling team having already competed as a member of the national team in Cuba and in Chile.
1984 was still a year of much promise for Blue Demon Jr. as it was time for him to make his long awaited professional wrestling debut.
Around this time, Blue Demon had been working for World Class Championship Wrestling, under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner, in Texas and also for the second biggest lucha libre promotion in Mexico at the time, the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA).
It was only right that the man destined to continue the Blue Demon name debut in Mexico and so Blue Demon Jr.’s first match came in the UWA as part of a trios match.
He, Blue Demon and Villano III faced off against Perro Aguayo, Fishman and Kato Kung Lee in Tijuana Baja California but, given the calibre of the opposition, Blue Demon Jr. was defeated in his debut.
The young luchador continued to team with Blue Demon for the remaining years of the latter’s full-time career and this led to Blue Demon Jr. being named Mexican rookie of the year in 1986.
However, the sheer amount of time that the two spent in such close proximity to each other in front of thousands of fans each night led to some to question whether Blue Demon Jr., who had been billed as the legitimate son of Blue Demon, was actually Blue Demon’s son due to the difference in skin colour the two had. This forced Blue Demon to set the record straight and confirm that Blue Demon Jr. was his adopted son.
Surprisingly, by the time that Blue Demon Jr. became a huge name in lucha libre, the biological son of Blue Demon, Alfredo Muñoz, disputed the claim that Blue Demon Jr. was the adopted son of Blue Demon.
Muñoz raised several allegations in an albeit failed attempt to discredit Blue Demon Jr., one being that that Blue Demon only called Blue Demon Jr. his adoptive son in order to ensure his legacy was passed on like his rival El Santo’s had been.
Muñoz also claimed to own the rights to the Blue Demon name and legacy, while he accused Blue Demon Jr. of making profit from the character outside of an established agreement that the two supposedly shared.
Whether these claims are true or not, Blue Demon Jr. continued to live up to the legacy of the man before him long after Muñoz’s accusations were made.
Blue Demon Jr – Forging His Own Path
Following Blue Demon’s official retirement from full-time competition in 1988, Blue Demon Jr. took the next step in his career and signed for Empresa Mexicana De La Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico’s biggest and oldest promotion who in just a few short years would rebrand as Consejo Mundial De Lucha Libre (CMLL) away from the National Wrestling Alliance banner that the promotion had been under for multiple decades.
While very much a popular figure, largely due to the mask he wore, and very much a capable technical wrestler in the ring, Blue Demon Jr. struggled to break into the main event scene in CMLL as the 1990s progressed and he found more success during brief tours in Japan. Genichiro Tenryu’s Japanese promotion Wrestle and Romance (WaR) brought Blue Demon Jr. in for a number of tours in April, 1993.
Blue Demon Jr. had what was, in truth, the first big match of his career against the exciting Ultimo Dragon, who had skyrocketed to international fame through his unique blend of high flying and Japanese puroresu.
There in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall the two battled over the UWA World Middleweight Championship with Ultimo Dragon coming out on top.
The following year Blue Demon Jr. had an equally high stakes match against MS-Jr., another second generation star in lucha libre who was the son of former CMLL stalwart MS-1.
Though neither had the billing of their fathers at the time, the match had an added stipulation which would see the loser be forced to unmask.
By this point, Blue Demon Jr. had already taken the masks of a number of other luchadores but none were as big as the possibility of taking the son of MS-1’s mask.
Respectfully, Blue Demon was a far bigger star than MS-1, who had unmasked during his career, and this fact may very well have played into the result of the match between their sons as Blue Demon Jr. unmasked MS-Jr.
A year later, Blue Demon Jr. did the same to El Gran Sheik, the only man ever to take three people’s hair in Luchas de Apuestas (wager) matches in a single week.
Coincidentally, a second match against MS-Jr. saw Blue Demon Jr. claim the first major title of his career in the Mexican National Cruiserweight Championship, which at the time could be defended anywhere in Mexico for any promotion recognised by the lucha libre commission.
The occasional Luchas de Apuestas main event match was not enough to keep Blue Demon Jr. in CMLL forever and at the turn of the year to 1996 he made the jump to CMLL’s biggest rivals Asistencia Asesoria y
Administracion (AAA). Blue Demon Jr. was quite the acquisition for AAA as a large group from their roster were on the verge of leaving the promotion, which they ultimately did, to find success in the United States with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and their partners in Mexico, Promo Azteca.
For the first few months AAA trialled Blue Demon Jr. in a number of different trios and ultimately decided he would be better off as part of a group of four with Mascara Sagrada Jr., Tinieblas Jr. and Halcon Dorado Jr. as Los Junior Atomicos.
The aim of the group was to give these for next generation stars a platform simultaneously and this seemed to work for the most part as the group picked up a string of victories over rudo (heel) teams like Los Payasos.
Los Juniors Atmoicos did not make it through the year as a team due to Halcon Dorado Jr.’s rudo turn. Another casualty of the year was Blue Demon Jr.’s National Championship as he lost that to Karis La Momia, who eventually became AAA’s second La Parka and was a pseudo-replacement for Halcon Dorado Jr. in Los Junior Atomicos.
In a strange occurrence, Blue Demon Jr. made his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), then WWF, debut in a multi-man dark match at the 1997 Royal Rumble due to the relationship that AAA had with the promotion at the time.
For the most part of his five years in AAA, Blue Demon Jr. could not escape the trend of being a part of multi-man matches, which in Mexico is not necessarily a bad thing.
Los Junior Atomicos continued as a group of four, with Blue Demon Jr. and Mascara Sagrada Jr. being the two original members of the group to stay for the long-term, and this allowed the group to compete for the Mexican National Atomicos Championships as the years went on.
Now a seventeen-year veteran, Blue Demon Jr. departed from AAA to join up with Mexico’s biggest independent promotion, the International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG).
This promotion didn’t have a wealth of history in lucha libre but their formation was responsible for saving independent lucha libre during the peso crash in the mid-1990s and so the promotion garnered some respect from seasoned pros.
Incidentally, IWRG had a working relationship with CMLL at this time and the latter often sent younger luchadores to the former to help with their training.
As most probably expected, Blue Demon Jr.’s appearances in IWRG were little more than a gateway for him to return to CMLL, which he did half-way through the year.
Blue Demon Jr.’s second run in CMLL didn’t last forever. Splitting his time between CMLL and IWRG, he mostly competed in trios matches for CMLL at Arena Coliseo and only saw a main event singles match at Arena Mexico come in late 2002.
This singles match was one worth waiting for though as it was against El Hijo del Santo, the first time that the two had squared off one-on-one in their careers.
The match ended when El Hijo del Santo snatched Blue Demon Jr.’s mask, which is an illegal move warranting a disqualification in CMLL.
For the next few years, Blue Demon Jr. worked as an independent wrestler not tied down by allegiances to a big promotion.
For the most part he still made semi-regular appearances for both CMLL and IWRG but he also showed up for the occasional AAA show.
This freedom allowed him to make special appearances in the UK and the US, most notably under the NWA banner in Texas where Blue Demon had wrestled many decades ago.
Independence also afforded him the opportunity to compete in El Hijo del Santo’s new promotion Todo x El Todo following his falling out with CMLL, which in turn meant that Blue Demon Jr. would not be looked kindly upon by CMLL for associating with this new brand.
One of the more important matches of Blue Demon Jr.’s career took place in this period, around the time that Alfredo Muñoz was throwing accusations around about the legitimacy of Blue Demon Jr.’s identity.
At Estadio Calimax in October, 2007, Blue Demon Jr. faced Espectro Jr. in a mask vs. mask match. Here it was heavily rumoured that Blue Demon Jr. would lose his mask to Espectro Jr. due to the possibility that Alfredo Muñoz could take Blue Demon Jr.’s identity away from him anyway. This helped to draw a crowd and Blue Demon Jr. ended up victorious to the surprise of many.
Blue Demon Jr. also appeared in a lucha libre-themed horror movie, much like Blue Demon did in his prime. The 2007 movie, Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy, was the first lucha libre film starring one of lucha libre’s big three (El Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras) to be produced in English language. The movie was the first in a trilogy of Mil Mascaras movies, though Blue Demon Jr. only featured in the first.
NWA: Mexico
To continue the legacy of Blue Demon, Blue Demon Jr. decided to look to the former’s past and align himself with the National Wrestling Alliance, whose influence over professional wrestling had declined considerably since the time when Blue Demon toured Texas under their banner.
On August 30, 2008, Blue Demon Jr.’s new promotion NWA: Mexico opened their doors as an official territory of the National Wrestling Alliance, the first NWA territory in Mexico since CMLL.
Over 1,500 fans packed themselves into Gimnasio Juan de la Barrera to see NWA: Mexico’s debut show where Blue Demon Jr., El Hijo del Santo and El Rayo de Jalisco Jr. defeated El Dandy, El Hijo del Solitario and Fuerza Guerrera in the main event.
The NWA World Heavyweight Championship was also on the line on this show; Brent Albright retained the ten pounds of gold against Adam Pearce.
By NWA: Mexico’s third show Adam Pearce had captured the title he failed to win on the debut show and now it was time for him to defend the title in Mexico against the promotion’s founder Blue Demon Jr. on October 25, 2008.
There Blue Demon Jr. made history after Adam Pearce passed out from the pain caused by the former’s single-leg crab submission.
For the first time ever, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship had changed hands in Mexico. Not only that, but Blue Demon Jr. became the first ever Mexican to win the title and only the second masked wrestler to do so.
The most important championship victory of his career saw Blue Demon Jr. hold on to the title for 505 days, defending it ten times across both Mexico and the United States.
The years ticked on and NWA: Mexico continued to offer a mix of talent from the United States and legends from Mexico to the fans on their shows.
Behind the scenes, Blue Demon Jr. worked to reclaim some NWA property that had been lost for some time. When CMLL left the NWA banner in the 1990s, they continued to use their NWA-branded championships despite no longer being affiliated with the NWA.
Blue Demon Jr. made it his mission to retrieve these belts for the NWA, who had been unsuccessful in doing so since the initial split.
He sent letters to CMLL in March, 2010 and demanded that they cease their promotion of these NWA titles. This appeared to be successful as by August CMLL started to promote three new “World Historic” championship belts in place of the NWA ones.
In response, NWA: Mexico introduced the NWA Mexico Lightweight Championship and NWA Mexico Welterweight Championship.
The promotion continued their operations until late 2013 when Blue Demon Jr. affiliated himself with a group in San Jose, California that promoted lucha libre for a US audience and had worked closely with the NWA in the past.
This group, Pro Wrestling Revolution (PWR), ran monthly shows and the flexibility in their schedule seemed to appeal to Blue Demon Jr. who was once again free to work where he pleased on a regular basis. He also became PWR’s World Heavyweight Champion upon joining the group.
The Blue Demon Lineage Continues
With no hope of returning to CMLL given his confrontations with them over championship belts, Blue Demon Jr. primarily worked for AAA for the next decade and sprinkled in appearances for independent promotions where possible.
This alignment with AAA saw Blue Demon Jr. become the promotion’s third Latin America Champion at Triplemania XXI when he defeated El Mesias.
Being in AAA’s good books also meant that he could appear for their spin-off show on the El Rey network in the United States – Lucha Underground.
This show had somewhat of a cult following in the four years that the show aired for and ran much like a soap opera blended with wrestling.
Blue Demon Jr.’s Lucha Underground appearances were sparse and his matches were often short but he was billed as a big deal and a legend of the profession when he did appear.
With a career spanning four decades, the life of Blue Demon Jr. has been just as intriguing outside of the ring as inside it. But had he lived up to the Blue Demon name?
While that’s up for debate from person to person, it’s fair to say that Blue Demon Jr. is a capable athlete in the ring with a knack for the technical side of professional wrestling.
For one reason or another, Blue Demon Jr. has been largely unable to feature in matches one could call historic and perhaps this has been due to his determination to do things his way.
Every five years or so, Blue Demon Jr. tends to embark on a new challenge or return to an old haunt and so it is surprising that he hasn’t featured in more Luchas de Apuestas matches.
Though, not many can imagine the man without his mask, so these matches must be chosen carefully to make them appear worthwhile, which is telling of how the fans view him as a perfect fit for the continuation of the Blue Demon legacy.
Fans of lucha libre will no doubt have to make a similar decision in the future as Blue Demon Jr. does not intend for the mask to die with him.
In February 2024, Blue Demon Jr. introduced the third incarnation of the Blue Demon character to the world. A much taller individual, we can assume that this new incarnation is the son of Blue Demon Jr. or is at least related to him in some way.
