Jesus Alvarado Nieves, best known as Brazo de Oro, a member of one of the most noteworthy trios of all-time, Los Brazos, passed away today from a heart attack. He was 66.
Brazo de Oro was the older brother of Super Porky, Brazo de Plata, who was one of the biggest and most enduring stars in modern Lucha Libre. The two started as a tag team in the late 70s and then became a trio when adding a third brother, El Brazo. Other brothers they on occasion teamed with included Brazo Cibernetico, Brazo de Platino, and Super Brazo.
As the son of Shadito Cruz, the Alvarado family has produced at least 17 major name pro wrestlers, including current stars La Mascara, Maximo Sexy, Psycho Clown, Goya Kong, and Muneca de Plata.
Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata, when they were first starting out, were a tag team known for speed and crispness, and in California, during the dying days of the regional territory, they held both the Americas tag team and World tag team titles in the early 80s.
While they worked Lucha Libre shows in the U.S. regularly for more than a decade, because of the death of territories, they never worked for any major U.S. promotion on a regular basis after 1982.
Eventually they joined with a third brother, El Brazo, to form one of the most famous trios in wrestling history. Originally they were known for being super heel workers, but as Plata gained more and more weight, and transformed into Super Porky, and they got older, they added more and more comedy into their matches.
For years they feuded with Los Villanos, building to a triple mask vs. mask match on October 21st, 1988, which Los Villanos won, which is among the most famous matches in Mexican wrestling history.
They also achieved fame in Japan from their matches airing on World Pro Wrestling on TV-Tokyo. However, the Brazos remained a star trio for several more years. When Lucha Libre style matches live started to be a thing in Japan in 1990, Los Brazos were among the first stars brought in. During the early 90s, they continued to hold World Trios Championships in CMLL, UWA, and WWA. They were among the key stars during the heyday of the UWA promotion.
Later Brazo de Oro headed the wrestlers union and also worked as a booker for CMLL.
La Mascara, one of CMLL’s current headliners, is the son of Brazo de Oro and Lady Apache. Maximo, the current CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, is his nephew.
He also may hold a dubious record for a name wrestler, as he lost at least 17 different hair matches over a 30 year period.
