Welcome back to the Dark Match Dungeon! In case you somehow haven’t memorized the intro to these columns yet, this is the feature where we flip through the musty pages of the internet and find forgotten footage of today’s wrestling stars. Today marks another first for the Dungeon, because we’ll be looking at a star of Lucha Underground today. As the reigning champion of Boyle Heights, Prince Puma could arguably be the promotion’s most well-loved luchador. And if you’re a savvy fan, you’ll know that he pulls double duty. When he’s not wearing the mask, he’s the man called Ricochet, a well-travelled high-flyer who currently holds New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Best of the Super Juniors honor. If you prefer your Prince Puma masked, you’ve got permission to look away. Otherwise, here’s an 18-year-old Ricochet cutting a promo.
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Yeah, take some time to let that sink in. I remember getting a picture with Ricochet as I was leaving a SHIMMER show on the weekend of WrestleMania XXX, and the thing that always stuck with me was how effortlessly cool he was the whole time. The lesson here is that even greatness comes from humble beginnings. This video comes to us from a Chikara show that took place in November 2006. Chikara is actually the first place where he worked as a masked wrestler, becoming Helios as a member of The Future Is Now stable. As much as his “fifteen million times” comment sounds like hyperbole, Ricochet does tend to run with Chuck Taylor a lot, especially after about a decade of wrestling together.
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I think I’m going to go do some crunches. Maybe in eight years, I can have an eight-pack like that.
