Al Madril was the first person to get one of the great performers of the 90's over.  When Roddy Piper transformed Art Barr into Beetlejuice this was a gimmick aimed at the kids, and since Beetlejuice was a friend to all of the kids it was only natural for him to feud with Al Madril.  Beetlejuice and Al Madril had a memorable lumberjack strap match which I remember for the fact that everyone seemed to take pleasure in hiding Al.  Every time Al got chucked out of the ring even his fellow heels swarmed around him to get their licks in.  Beetlejuice was a gimmick in a promotion that did not have many of them around, PNW wrestlers were wrestlers not characters, and soon, in large part due to the feud with Al Madril, Beetlejuice was the number one face in the promotion in terms of popularity.

Al also hosted an interview segment called 'The Fiesta Garden.'  On his show Al would run down all the towns where the promotion was coming to in the next couple of weeks and he would then announce a guest.  If the guest was a heel Al would schmooze and laugh with the heel, if it was a face, Al would bait and goad them.  What made this show unique, and really made it work was the way Al would use his facial expressions as an aside to the camera, Al also had a superb fake laugh which he would use to either agree with a crony or mock a foe.

To me Al Madril is a true representative of the days of kayfabe, he knew how to work the people.  Even when his physical skills were sliding he was able to truly help and keep a promotion strong with psychology and personality and he seemed to have no problem in building up other wrestlers.  I have been told that Al no longer acknowledges his wrestling past, this is a shame because there are many a young wrestler who could learn a thing from 'the Latin Lover,'  Adios, Gringos.

NEXT MONTH:

The many faces of Ed Wiskowski