Francisco Islas Rueda[1] (born December 3, 1973) is a Mexican professional wrestler, or luchador, best known by his ring name Super Crazy.
In Mexico, Islas has worked for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) and made appearances for various independent promotions. As Super Crazy, Islas gained American exposure by working for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) between 1998 and 2000 and for World Wrestling Entertainment between 2005 and 2008. He has also toured Japan on several occasions working for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (Zero-1) and most recently for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) where he held the World Junior Heavyweight Championship in 2021.
Professional wrestling career[]
Early career (1988–1997)[]
Francisco Islas made his professional wrestling debut in February 1988, at just 14 years of age, after being trained by his older brother Rey Pantera. Islas took the ring name "Super Crazy". He initially worked as an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, but lost the mask just over a month after his debut when he lost a Luchas de Apuestas (a "bet match") to El Seminarista in March, 1988.[4] From 1988 until 1995 Super Crazy was a mainstay on the Mexican independent circuit working for various promotions, including appearances for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) in the year leading up to its closure. In the UWA Super Crazy won the UWA World Welterweight Championship on November 17, 1995 and held the title when the UWA closed in December 1995.[5] After the UWA closed Super Crazy still used and defended the UWA title on various independent shows but once he signed with Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) promotion in 1996 the title was not mentioned. In AAA he was given a new gimmick, a masked Rudo (villain or heel) character called "Histeria" (sometimes Anglicised as "Hysteria"). Together with Abismo Negro, Maniaco, Mosco de la Merced I and Mach-1 he comprised a wrestling group called Rudos de la Galaxia (Spanish for "The bad guys of the universe"), a group that was involved in a storyline feud with a tecnico (good guy or face) group called Los Cadetos del Espacio (Spanish for "the Space Cadets"). In the spring of 1997 Islas, as Histeria, made a couple of appearances for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) due to an AAA/WWF working agreement. Histeria worked mainly against Los Cadetos del Espacio, especially Venum in his appearances on RAW is WAR and Shotgun. In September 1997 Islas left AAA, giving the "Histeria" name and outfit to another AAA wrestler who had worked as "Quarterback" up until that time, he still wrestles as Histeria today.[6]
Islas resumed working as "Super Crazy" when he left AAA to join the newly created Promo Azteca. Super Crazy also continued his feud with Venum, who now worked as "Venum Black" after leaving AAA, a feud that culminated in a "mask vs. hair" Luchas de Apuesta that Super Crazy won, unmasking Venum Black.[7][8] After leaving AAA Super Crazy began defending the UWA World Welterweight title, losing it to Kid Guzmán in 1997.[5] Super Crazy regained the title on June 15, 1998 during a show in Japan and successfully defended the title until October 13, 2000 where he lost it to El Oriental.[5] In November 1997 Islas began working for WWF under the name "Super Loco", mainly on their Super Astros shows, his only "Main show" appearance was a loss to El Águila in the first round of the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship tournament.[9]
New Japan Pro-Wrestling/Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (2002–2005)[]
He made four tours with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 2002 and 2003. His first tour lasted from November to December 2002 and saw him work mainly tag matches, teaming mainly with Koji Kanemoto and/or The Stampede Kid against a variety of opponents including Jushin Thunder Liger, El Samurai and Heat. His second tour took place in February 2003 and saw Super Crazy team up mainly with Curry Man and Tiger Mask. Super Crazy mainly faced Jushin Thunder Liger's CTU faction. The third tour took place in May 2003, this time Super Crazy often worked with other Luchadors touring NJPW at the time including Último Guerrero, Rey Bucanero and Sangre Azteca. His fourth NJPW tour took place in October and November 2003, again Crazy mainly worked in tag team matches, siding with Koji Kanemoto or Tiger Mask against a variety of opponents.[10]
Between January and March 2005, Crazy worked for the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE, winning the ZERO-ONE/UPW/WORLD-1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship from Tatsuhito Takaiwa on December 18, 2004.[11] Crazy lost the title on Ikuto Hidaka on April 14, 2005 at Zero-1's Outburst Revolution show.[11]
All Japan Pro Wrestling (2009–2010, 2021–2022)[]
In July 2009, Crazy traveled to Japan to participate in All Japan Pro Wrestling's Junior League. Crazy qualified for the semifinal by defeating NOSAWA Rongai and Toshizo and wrestling to a draw against Kaz Hayashi. In the semifinal Crazy defeated Minoru, before losing to Shuji Kondo in the final on August 7.[12] In December 2021, Crazy returned to AJPW to take part in the 2021 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, teaming with TAJIRI, where they finished the tournament with a record of two losses and one double count out, failling to advance to the semifinals. Later that month, on December 16, Crazy defeated Izanagi to win the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He lost the title to SUGI on January 3, 2022.
Pro Wrestling Noah (2012–2015, 2022)[]
From February 2012, he wrestled a month with the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH, where he had a lot of matches, including a match against Ricky Marvin for the XNL Championship and a title match against the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions ANMU (Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki) with Marvin, but they were defeated.[13][14]
Crazy returned to NOAH, in July. On July 22, Crazy along with Ricky Marvin, billed as Los Mexitosos defeated Special Assault Team (Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki) to win the GHC Heavyweight Junior Tag Team Championship.[15] They lost the titles to Genba Hirayanagi and Maybach Taniguchi, Jr. on March 10, 2013.[16] Crazy spent the first six months of 2013 in Mexico. However, he returned to NOAH in June with his nephew Pesadilla, in the Southern Navigation tour. In July 2013, Los Mexitosos took part in the 2013 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League for the vacant GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They finished the tournament with a record of three wins and one loss, same as block winners Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori, but failed to advance to the finals due to losing to them in their head-to-head match. Crazy continued working regularly for NOAH until 2015, teaming with Genba Hirayanagi in a winning effort against Hitoshi Kumano and Yoshinari Ogawa.
On January 5, 2022 at Reboot, Crazy made his return to NOAH, joining the Los Perros del Mal de Japón stable. On February 9, Crazy challenged Daisuke Harada to a title match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Prior to their title match, Crazy pinned Harada, before stating that he would take title back to Mexico, if he won the championship. On February 23 at Gain Control In Nagoya, Crazy unsucessfully challenged Daisuke Harada for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Crazy made his last match for the promotion on May 5, teaming with Los Perros del Mal de Japón stablemate El Texano Jr., in a winning effort against Atsushi Kotoge and Haoh. On November 23 at Noah the Best, after concluding their feud with Stinger's Yoshinari Ogawa, Nosawa Rongai decided to disband Los Perros del Mal de Japón, due to his eminent retirement from professional wrestling on February 21, 2023.
Personal life[]
Islas is married to Maria Ramírez and they have two children together. He has a tattoo of a sun on one of his upper biceps, as well as a Mexican designed signature tattoo on the other. Islas' brother, cousin and nephew are also professional wrestlers, and they compete under the ring names Rey Cuervero, Crazy Boy and Pesadilla, respectively.
Islas appeared in a German television contest between Joachim Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf when one of them had to wrestle alongside Islas. Islas had previously taught him several basics of "Lucha Libre".[1]
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Signature moves
- Brainbuster
- Corkscrew plancha[3]
- Dropkick,[3] sometimes from the top rope
- Inverted surfboard[17]
- Mexican Facebuster (Sitout inverted Suplex slam)
- Elevated mounted punches with the crowd counting to "10" in Spanish
- Multiple moonsault variations[1]
- Double jump
- Side slam
- Crazy Special (Springboard)[3]
- Standing
- Tornillo Mortal (Corkscrew)
- Rope run tornado DDT
- Spinning heel kick
- Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
- Entrance themes
- "El Coco No" by Roberto Junior Y Su Banda[18] (NOAH; Pro Wrestling NOAH)
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI ranked him #37 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1999[20]
- PWI ranked him #198 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Marvin[15]
- NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League Technique Award (2014) – with Matt Striker[21]
- Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE
- ZERO-ONE/UPW/WORLD-1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[11]
- Universal Wrestling Association
- UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[22]
- UWA World Welterweight Championship (2 times)[5]
Luchas de Apuestas record[]
Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
El Seminarista (mask) | Super Crazy (mask) | Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico State | Live event | March 1988 | [4] |
Super Crazy (hair) | Kid Guzmán (hair) | Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico State | Live event | 1996 | |
Super Crazy (hair) | Venum Black (mask) | Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico State | Live event | March 6, 1998 | [7][8] |
Zumbido (hair) | Super Crazy (hair) | Mexico City, Mexico | 48. Aniversario de Arena México | April 30, 2004 | [4][23] |
Super Crazy (hair) | X-Fly (hair) | Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas | Live event | January 10, 2009 | [Note 1] |
Psycho Clown (hair) | Super Crazy (hair) | Mexico City, Distrito Federal | Perros del Mal Anniversary | May 29, 2011 | [Note 2][24] |
Super Crazy (hair) | El Felino (hair) | Mexico City, Mexico | Lucha Elite show | February 28, 2016 | [25] |
Rey Bucanero (hair) | Super Crazy (hair) | Mexico City | CMLL 83rd Anniversary Show | September 2, 2016 | [26] |
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Cagematch profile .
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Statistics for Professional wrestlers". PWI Presents: 2008 Wrestling Almanak and book of facts. Kappa Publications. pp. 66–79. 2008 Edition.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Super Crazy Profile . Online World of Wrestling.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Enciclopedia staff (October 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Super CrazySpanish. Mexico City, Mexico. p. 56. Tomo IV.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: UWA Lightweight Title", Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications, 398. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ↑ Enciclopedia staff (August 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Histeria (II)Spanish. Mexico City, Mexico. p. 49. Tomo II.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Enciclopedia staff (November 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Venum BlackSpanish. Mexico City, Mexico. p. 23. Tomo V.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Centinela, Teddy 2015-03-06. En un día como hoy… 1998: Súper Crazy desenmascara a Venum Black… Satánico traiciona a Emilio Charles Jr. (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved on 2015-07-01.
- ↑ Cawthon, Graham 1997-11-03. WWF Ring Results (1997) . HistoryOfWWE.com. Retrieved on 2009-08-24. “WWF Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Quarter Finals: Aguila pinned Super Loco with a twisting splash off the top”
- ↑ Super Crazy: New Japan Pro Wrestling (in de). CageMatch.net.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Pro Wrestling ZERO1-Max International Junior Heavyweight Title . Wrestling-titles.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-15.
- ↑ Flores, Manuel (August 10, 2009). "Súper Crazy: Subcampeón en la Liga Jr. de All Japan". SuperLuchasSpanish. Mexico City, D.F. pp. 10–11. issue 326. Retrieved August 24, 2009.
- ↑ http://www.cagematch.de/?id=1&nr=75960
- ↑ http://www.cagematch.de/?id=1&nr=75961
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Great Voyage 2012 in Ryogoku ~力皇猛引退セレモニー~ (in Japanese). Pro Wrestling Noah. Retrieved on 2012-07-22.
- ↑ ja:2013年3月10日(日) (in Japanese). Pro Wrestling Noah. Retrieved on 2013-03-10.
- ↑ Extreme Championship Wrestling (1999-01-10). "Super Crazy Vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri". ECW Guilty as Charged.
- ↑ Themes .
- ↑ Flores, Manuel 2010-04-29. Ultima hora: Súper Crazy y Bushi ganan el torneo de parejas Jr. de AJPW (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-04-30.
- ↑ Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 - 1999 . Wrestling Information Archive. Retrieved on 2008-07-05.
- ↑ 「第8回日テレG+杯争奪ジュニア・ヘビー級タッグリーグ戦」各賞発表 (in Japanese). Pro Wrestling Noah (2014-08-03). Retrieved on 2014-08-03.
- ↑ Box y Lucha staff (January 13, 2002). "2001: Los Campeones". Box y Lucha MagazineSpanish. pp. 15–17. issue 2540.
- ↑ Lucha 2000 Staff (April 2006). "Arena México: 50 anos de Lucha Libre". Lucha 2000Spanish. Especial 28.
- ↑ Rodríguez, Édgar 2011-05-29. Pierde cabellera Super Crazy . Récord. Retrieved on 2011-05-30.
- ↑ Valdez, Apolo 2016-02-28. a locura, Super Crazy rapó al Felino (in Spanish). MedioTiempo. MSN. Retrieved on 2016-02-28.
- ↑ Ocampo, Ernesto 2016-09-02. Resultados CMLL 83 Aniversario: La Máscara vs. Dragon Lee, máscara contra máscara (in Spanish). SuperLuchas. Retrieved on 2016-09-02.