October 25, 2006 Observer Newsletter: Antonio Pena bio, Kurt Angle

Every time you see Rey Mysterio in a WWE ring, it is the living embodiment of how Antonio Pena changed pro wrestling all over the world.

When Pena, the long-time booker of the EMLL (now CMLL) promotion, left to form AAA in 1992, the idea was to build around a mix of established stars, and to create new stars. Oscar Gutierrez, then 17, and only 5-1 and maybe 120 pounds, was one of the first people he waved his magic wand on.

Gutierrez, a high school student in Chula Vista, CA, had wrestled for a few years on the Tijuana circuit as the high-flying Colibri. Most veteran wrestlers scoffed at him as too small to have credibility, and his matches were based on doing far too many flying moves and not enough basic wrestling. In truth, it was Konnan, who wrestled in Tijuana and was already good friends with him, since both were trained at the same time by Miguel Lopez, Gutierrez's uncle, who was the original Rey Misterio,(Psicosis and Halloween were also part of that class), who recommended him. But it was Pena who pulled the trigger. At first the idea was to use him as a mini, a new division that was also a Pena creation. 

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