Brazo de Oro

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Brazo de Oro (Golden Arm)

Name Brazo de Oro (Golden Arm) Real name Jesús Alvarado Nieves Nicknames none Name history Chamaco Cruz, Sputnik, El Hombre del Brazo de Oro (debut - 75?), Brazo de Oro (75? - death ) Family Shadito Cruz (father), La Máscara & La Parka III (sons), Aramís (daughter), Brazo de Plata, El Brazo, Brazo Cibernético, Super Brazo, Brazo de Platino (brothers), Lady Apache (former wife), La Alimaña (brother-in-law), Máximo and Kronos (nephews); see Brazo Family Maestro(s) Shadito Cruz, Felipe Ham Lee Birth date, location October 7, 1959 - Mexico City Obituary date April 28, 2017 Debut, location October 5, 1975 - Toluca, Mexico State Lost mask to Los Villanos I, IV, V - October 21, 1988 - El Toreo Height 5'7"/170 cms Weight 220 lbs/100 kg Signature moves La Bracina (Armbar submission), Liger Bomb, Senton Titles: Distrito Federal Trios Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), National Trios Titles (2, w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), UWA World Trios Titles (5, w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), CMLL World Trios Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), Monterrey: FILL Trios Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), WWA World Trios Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata & El Brazo), NWA Americas Tag Team Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata), Los Angeles: World Tag Team Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata), UWA World Tag Team Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata), National Tag Team Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata), WWA World Tag Team Titles (w/ Brazo de Plata), Puebla Tag Team Championship (w/ Brazo de Plata), Mexico State Welterweight Championship, Naucalpan Welterweight Championship, Distrito Federal Welterweight Title, Distrito Federal Heavyweight Title (2)

Wrestling Observer Hall Of Fame Member

Notes

Brazo de Oro is ending his career. He's announced plans to retire on October 5th, and has requested no special notice of this event. Most of his CMLL matches are in Arena Coliseo DF, working a midlevel match or filling in for a tecnico who didn't show. He doesn't have the charisma of his brother Brazo de Plata, but has been a solid worker.

Brazo de Oro has held many behind the scenes roles during his career. Brazo de Oro is the head of the wrestler's union, continuing on that role during his retirement. Brazo de Oro's acknowledged son, La Mascara, has received a strong push since his debut under that name, and it is speculated that Brazo de Oro's influence may contribute to his push, or at least explain the reasoning why Mascara's pushed and similar talented wrestlers are not.

In 2006 it was confirmed that Brazo de Oro is indeed a member of the CMLL booking team and remains a member to this day. Previously, he was the booker for the Japan based UWF promotion.

LuchaBlog Obituary:

Brazo de Oro, Jesús Alvarado Nieves, passed away early Friday morning from a heart attack.

Brazo de Oro was the first member of the famous Los Brazos trio, and first of the six sons of Shadito Cruz to start wrestling. He was named after a movie (which his father also briefly used), and the name scheme and the word Brazo became associated with his entire family. Brazo de Oro is remembered as part of that trios, but he first found success as a singles wrestler when he was out on his own (winning Texano Sr.’s hair among others and many local championships), and he and Brazo de Plata were a successful tag team as well. Brazo de Oro was believed to be actual best wrestler and best prospect among the young wrestlers for a time, and Dr. Lucha’s obit for El Brazo mentioned there was serious consideration to leaving him as a single and only having him team with his family occasionally (which could’ve led to a Villano III like career.)

Instead, El Brazo completed the trio in 1981, which began as the vicious Los Mosqueteros del Diablo rudos and evolved into a beloved comedy act much later in their career. They were a strong part of the UWA/LLI, and won the promotion’s trios championships three times when it was the most important trios title in Mexico. They also were national trios champions twice. They were a popular act thru the 80s, and among the people featured in rival promotion EMLL when the two groups exchanged talent; their appearances there would’ve been their first national exposure in the US. Brazo de Oro and his brothers also travelled to Japan many times, wrestling tours for All Japan, New Japan, WAR, Michinoku Pro and other promotions as a luchador emblematic of the UWA/lucha libre style in Mexico.

Brazo de Oro’s biggest feud was the family feud with Los Villanos. The matches were violent and bloody, a rougher style used by many in the promotion and less so in major lucha promotions today. The rivalry lasted for years (and still gets called back to today) and was heated enough that there were reports of promoters around the country wanting to host the blowoff match. They eventually chose a promoter away from their homebase of El Toreo outside of Mexico City, with the 3v3 mask match taking place in Monterrey on October 21, 1988. The choice of venues and promoters was a mistake: lucha libre rivalries were mostly regional concerns, the match didn’t draw well in Monterrey, and the Brazos claimed they were never actually paid for the mask loss.

Of the three brothers in the primary trio, Brazo de Oro seems like the one most damaged by losing his mask. Brazo de Plata and Brazo were more charismatic luchadors and Brazo de Oro never had the singles success once forecast for him. The trio stuck together even as LLI fell apart, moving to CMLL where they found some success in the early 90s. After a few years, Brazo de Oro turned into the guy with a name who would lose apuesta matches every year or so, first in Arena Mexico and later just about anywhere. CML had a intra-family feud in 1995, with El Brazo splitting from the other two and winning Brazo de Oro’s hair before losing to Brazo de Plata. It seemed to reflect some actual issues between the family members, as El Brazo left CMLL in 1996 never to return and Brazo de Oro remained in CMLL for the rest of his career.

Brazo de Oro remained active thru 2006. I first saw him during those late stages of that career, where he was not much of an exciting luchador and nothing like he had been in his best days, but a name from the past who was kept around to have some experience mixed in with the younger wrestlers. Brazo de Oro announced a retirement around 2006, but of course continued to wrestle from time to time, even being brought back to Arena Coliseo Guadalajara a few times. He would also appear as a corner man for his son La Mascara’s title matches at times, especially early in his career. The last confirmed Brazo de Oro match appears to be a Christmas 2015 match with Brazo de Plata and Robin (filling in for Brazo de Platino) versus Canek, Dos Caras and Mil Mascaras; a lot of Brazo de Oro’s final matches were LLI tribute matches or Villano/Brazo tribute matches. Many of the participants in the match don’t look like they should be still wrestling at that stage, but such is the long lasting popularity of that era of Mexican wrestlers that people will still come out to see them more than two decades after the promotion ceased to exist. Those opportunities to see those wrestlers are shrinking; with also Fishman passing away earlier this month, it feels like those times are beginning to slip away for good.

A 1991 CMLL vignette which frequently gets brought up when talking about Los Brazos. The brothers are having childlike dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. Brazo wanted to be a rock star, Brazo de Oro wanted to be a businessman, and Brazo de Plata dreamed of being Brazo de Plata. The dreams have often been said to be reflection of what they really wanted to be, and Brazo de Oro spent much of his career behind the scenes working on the business of lucha libre. He was part of LLI’s office late in the promotion’s run, then moved over to being the man in charge of wrestler’s union in the CMLL around 1994 when the UWA went rapidly downhill. Last anyone’s said, Brazo de Oro was still in charge of the wrestler’s union, though he’s been also been mentioned as being part of the programming team in the distant past and had appeared as a reserve referee a few times earlier this decade. He likely had other behind the scenes roles.

El Brazo passed away in 2013. Brazo de Plata is now the only remaining member of the famous trio, too hurt to continue wrestling. He hopes for a return, but it’s unclear if it’ll happen. Their brother Brazo Cibernetico/Robin Hood passed away back in 1999. Brazo de Platino and Super Brazo still wrestle on small shows. Brazo de Oro is survived by La Mascara, who’s currently scheduled to main event tonight’s Arena Mexico show. He also appears was at least billed as the father of Brazo de Oro Jr., who wrestled a few shows with Brazo de Oro and continues to wrestle on smaller shows today, but hasn’t been billed as one of his sons in the obits today. The Brazos seemed fond of wrestling, but were also seemed fond (or in need) of making as much money from wrestling as they could, and it was not uncommon for them to license out the Brazo name to non-family members.

CMLL & AAA have already posted condolence message. He’ll be remembered at shows this weekend.

Luchas de apuestas record

Date	Apuesta	Winner(s)	Loser(s)	Arena and/or Place
??/??/??	hair	Brazo de Oro	Roberto Paz	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Brazo de Oro	Atila	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Brazo de Oro	Mohicano I	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Ringo Mendoza	Brazo de Oro	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Dr. Wagner Jr.	Brazo de Oro	unknown
77/??/??	mask (1)	Brazo de Oro	Golden Rogers	Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua
??/??/??	mask	Brazo de Oro	Tamakun	unknown
??/??/??	mask	Brazo de Oro	Serpiente	Unknown
??/??/??	mask	Brazo de Oro	Muerte de La Barranca II	Unknown
??/??/??	mask	Brazo de Oro	Mr. Krimen	Unknown
77/12/04	mask	Brazo de Oro	El Texano	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
78/01/29	mask (2)	Brazo de Oro	Águila Roja	Plaza de Toros Monumental - Monterrey, N.L.
79/02/21	hairs	Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	Danny Grimaldo & Tauro	Arena Naucalpan - Naucalpan, Mexico State
79/12/02	masks	Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	El Migra I & El Migra II	Palacio de la Deportes DF
80/07/13	masks	Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	Aquaman I & Aquaman II	Arena Naucalpan
80/10/26	mask	Brazo de Oro	Frankenstein	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
81/07/12	masks	Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	Mr. Wrestling I & Mr. Wrestling II	Palacio de los Deportes - Mexico City
82/08/22	masks (3)	Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	Enfermero II & Flama Azul	Palacio de los Deportes - Mexico City
83/02/27	mask	Brazo de Oro	Orión	Pachuca, Hidalgo
85/08/??	hair	Brazo de Oro	Babe Face	unknown
87/09/03	mask	Brazo de Oro	Ultraman	Auditorio de Tijuana - Tijuana, Baja California
87/09/04	mask	Brazo de Oro	Ultraman	Los Angeles - California, USA
87/11/13	mask	Brazo de Oro	Indio Rojo	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
88/10/21	masks	Villano I, Villano IV & Villano V	El Brazo, Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata	Plaza de Toros Monumental - Monterrey, N.L.
1990/11/07	hair	Brazo de Oro	Babe Face	?
90/11/29	hair	Brazo de Oro	El Signo	El Cortijo - Mexico City
91/01/13	hair	El Hijo del Santo	Brazo de Oro	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
92/06/19	hair	Sangre Chicana	Brazo de Oro	Arena México - Mexico City
92/12/20	hair	Brazo de Oro	Troglodita	Arena México - Mexico City
93/11/06	hair	Brazo de Oro	Popitekus	Pista Arena Revolución - Mexico City
95/03/31	hair (4)	El Brazo	Brazo de Oro	Arena México - Mexico City
96/08/30	hair	Rambo	Brazo de Oro	Arena Mexico
98/04/24	hair	Gran Markus Jr.	Brazo de Oro	Arena México - Mexico City
99/04/21	hairs	El Brazo, Brazo de Oro & Brazo Cibernético	Las Bestias Negras I, II & III	Palenque de la Feria - Celaya, Guanajuato
99/11/29	hair	Satánico	Brazo de Oro	Arena México - Mexico City
00/05/01	hair	Brazo de Oro	Valentín Mayo	Arena Coliseo - Mexico City
01/02/11	hair	El Signo	Brazo de Oro	Estacionamiento Las Brisas - Oaxaca, Oaxaca
01/06/01	hair	Negro Navarro	Brazo de Oro	Arena San Juan Pantitlán - Neza, Mexico State
01/12/??	hair	Brazo de Oro	Toro Salvaje	Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez
02/08/08	hair	Villano III	Brazo de Oro	Arena Naucalpan - Naucalpan, Mexico State
03/04/16	hair (5)	Nitro	Brazo de Oro	Arena López Mateos - Tlalnepantla, Mexico State
04/01/15	hairs (6)	Brazo de Oro & Super Brazo	Bestial & Impacto	Arena Isabel - Cuernavaca, Morelos
04/07/11	hair (7)	Villano III	Brazo de Oro	unknown
04/11/20	hair (8)	Villano IV	Brazo de Oro	Centro de Convenciones - Acapulco, Guerrero
06/01/03	hair	Villano III	Brazo de Oro	Arena Queretaro - Queretaro
06/07/16	hair (9)	Cesar Dantes	Brazo de Oro	Arena Coliseo - Guadalajara, Jalisco
07/12/16	hair	Exterminador	Brazo de Oro	Arena Coliseo Guadalajara - Guadalajara
10/03/30	hair	Asesino Negro	Brazo de Oro	Arena Coliseo Guadalajara - Guadalajara
(1) Oro & El Hijo del Santo & Huracán Ramirez vs. Rogers & Atila & Saeta Azteca; (2) Relevos suicidas vs. Senor Tormenta & Jungla Negra II; (3) Finals of a 24 man tournament; (4) Triangle match with Brazo de Plata; (5) Cage match with Pierroth, Violencia, Brazo de Oro Jr. y Brazo de Plata; (6) Cage match; (7) Losers of a match a week before vs. Shocker & Perro Aguayo Jr.; (8) Los Brazos vs. Los Villanos cage; (9) Cage match w/Brazo de Platino, Super Brazo, Danger, Asesino Negro

Gallery

Los Brazos w/ masks

earlier picture of Brazo de Oro

1975 - cool mask

winning Ultraman's mask

In press conference before Masks Match

With Brazo de Plata punish Villano I in Masks Match

1976

In dressing room after was unmasked by Villanos in Monterrey

CMLL Trios champ, with Plata and El Brazo