Jose Lothario

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[shoe]

With nwaclassics.com the Houston footage explosion he's a guy I'm now considering for my top 100. He's an incredible ethnic baby face. He had incredible timing . Everything he did meant something. He had great fire. Has had great matches with Gino, Black Gordman, the Guerreros. He could work tags, or singles . I'm sure we'll get more Lothario before Mania.

[Eduardo]

A few years ago, I was having breakfast with an older, theater director, and he told me he grew up attending Jose Lothario matches, and that Lothario was his favorite wrestler.

Now I'm starting to an idea of why, thanks to all this footage. Just an awesome babyface. Great at selling, bumping, and amazing punches. Also, love that he has a variety of different punches, and they all look so good. I've been really digging the stuff on NWA Classics, with the "Mexican Death Matches" with Gino Hernandez and Hector Guerrero being stand outs. He's been so much fun to watch.

[WingedEagle]

Taking into account the new NWA footage, how many matches of Lothario are now available?

[shoe]

Their is 9 from Houston so far. A few from Dallas. A handful from Mid-South. Not sure about Southwest footage.

[WingedEagle]

Is that enough for many people to comfortably say he should or shouldn't rank? I don't think I could place someone based on that sample size but curious what standards others have.

[shoe]

I bet by mania time his Houston total will be in the 20-30 matches.

[goc]

Is that enough for many people to comfortably say he should or shouldn't rank? I don't think I could place someone based on that sample size but curious what standards others have.

There are shoot style guys like Volk Han who probably had less matches total than Jose has on tape that people still seem to be really high on voting for so it's not like there's no precedent.

[shoe]

Also you'll need to eliminate Brisco, Destroyer, Robinson, Thesz, Verne , Rogers etc . I feel 10 matches you can get a feel for the guys. Especially since it's arena footage.

[Phil Schneider]

I look at Jose a lot like I look at Jackie Fargo, very similar wrestlers where we mostly have a handful of brawls near the end of their career. I am going to rank both and I need to think about who goes higher. We are getting a new awesome Lothario match a week at this point, so I imagine he will end up higher. As far as footage we have to be willing to go with some small sample size guys or we will be limiting ourselves to guys who's primes were in promotions with tape in the mid 80s and beyond. For example how many great Tommy Rich matches do we have? But no one can make a list like this and DQ Tommy Rich.

[WingedEagle]

 

Is that enough for many people to comfortably say he should or shouldn't rank? I don't think I could place someone based on that sample size but curious what standards others have.

There are shoot style guys like Volk Han who probably had less matches total than Jose has on tape that people still seem to be really high on voting for so it's not like there's no precedent.

 

 

Don't we have most of Han's work on tape though? Or close? I think there's a huge difference where a small sample of matches represents a fraction of someone's output as opposed to a majority of it.

[goc]

 

 

Is that enough for many people to comfortably say he should or shouldn't rank? I don't think I could place someone based on that sample size but curious what standards others have.

There are shoot style guys like Volk Han who probably had less matches total than Jose has on tape that people still seem to be really high on voting for so it's not like there's no precedent.

 

 

Don't we have most of Han's work on tape though? Or close? I think there's a huge difference where a small sample of matches represents a fraction of someone's output as opposed to a majority of it.

 

I just don't think it's some giant leap of faith to watch a bunch of Jose Lothario matches where he is still awesome despite being obviously way past his prime and think he was that good (and most likely better) much earlier in his career. The guy was a legend in Texas and was always treated as a big deal in Dallas & Houston and now we have enough footage that we can see why.

 

Like shoe & Phil said if you can't use a small sample size you disqualify a ton of guys who should be on the list in favor of other people just because they have more available footage. It's not just Jose that's in this boat it's a ton of guys whose primes were in the 70s and early 80s.

[DR Ackermann]

I'm glad I'm not the only one considering him after all the new footage. He might throw the nicest looking punches ever.

[KB8]

I had Jose at 97 in 2016 and he could just as easily finish 96 spots higher in 2026. Or like, 10 spots higher, so I guess I'm mostly fine with where I had him. I don't know, I have about 50 wrestlers I want to vote for in my bottom 20 so 97 shouldn't be taken as a slight, it's just that you watch him at 50 years old on that Houston footage and you can't help but think he'd be top 30 if we had him in his prime. One of the all-time great punchers with maybe the best uppercut in the history of the fake fighting. Had those Houston fans in the palm of his hand every time out -- almost Lawler-in-Memphis type reverence. The Guerreros feud is also amazing, so he has top tier matches to go with the top tier old man Clint Eastwood performances. Lothario was great. They should've given him the belt in '96 and made Michaels carry HIS bags. 

 

JOSE LOTHARIO YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Killer Karl Krupp (Houston, 3/24/78)

v Gino Hernandez (Houston, 1/19/79)

v Hector Guerrero (Houston, 5/25/84)

v Hector Guerrero (Houston, 6/8/84)

w/Hacksaw Duggan v Chavo & Hector Guerrero (Houston, 7/6/84)

[ohtani's jacket]

I am determined to watch as much Lothario as I can, and Houston too for that matter. 

[DR Ackermann]

I hate the expression, "(so-and-so) is a revelation", that you see overused any time an actor throws out a solid to good performance. But that's the feeling I got from Lothario when the Houston footage dropped. I may have overrated him at 50, but maybe I didn't.