Rafvela: The Asilah Strangler
#PWHS #Article #Rafvela #Spain #Europe #Barcelona #Wrestling #ProWrestling #CatchAsCatchCan #CatchWrestling #CACC
Before I get to Rafvela himself we need to set the scene. Pro wrestling, or catch/lucha libre as it was known in Spain back then, really started growing in popularity in Spain from the mid 1940s onward. By the early 1950s most of the big Spanish cities had regular shows happening throughout the year and during the summer months there would even be shows at big open-air bullrings and football stadiums. One city in particular, Barcelona, was doing quite well. The main group there was the Gran Price promotion, lead by Jose Pesudo, which would run its events at Sala Gran Price (capacity: 4,500). In the summer they would usually move their main shows to the open-air Pabellon del Deporte velodrome (capacity: 7,000 to 10,000 depending on the type of event). Another key player in Barcelona was Pedro Balañá. He was a wealthy bullfighting promoter who owned the open-air Las Arenas and La Monumental bullrings (which had a capacity for bullfights of 14,893 and 19,582 people, respectively). Every summer Balañá would promote wrestling events at his bullrings under the banner of his promotional brand Empresa Balañá. Between Balañá and Gran Price usually in the summer months there would two or three big open-air events per week in Barcelona and, while regrettably the local press did not provide attendance numbers, there's enough information provided by the press to suggest that generally these events were well-attended. In 1956 a new player entered the Barcelona scene - Luis Bamala. Bamala was a former wrestler who had now become a promoter and was running events throughout Spain. For his first run in Barcelona as promoter he introduced a bunch of new Spanish stars, mixed them up with several popular veterans, and added some new concepts on top of it all.
Bamala returned to Barcelona in 1957 with the same approach - new faces, established stars and innovative ideas. What was different this time around were the promotional affiliations. Typically Balañá, who wasn't a full-time wrestling promoter and therefore didn't really have a roster of his own, would share talent with Empresa Gran Price. In 1957, however, Balañá and Bamala joined forces. Technically, I believe, the bullring shows in Barcelona I'm about discuss were a co-promotion between Balañá and Bamala, but Bamala was the matchmaker presented to the public and I believe he was the one doing the booking behind the scenes too. The biggest names that took part in the 1957 season of bullring shows included three of the top Spanish stars (Jesus Chausson, Felix Lamban and Eduardo Castillo) as well as popular international names such as Primo Carnera, Yvar Martinson, Felix Miquet, Gilbert Leduc and others. But no one made more of a splash in Barcelona in 1957 than a newcomer by the name of Rafvela.
Not much is known about Rafvela prior to him showing up in Barcelona. He was of Spanish descent, but was born in Asilah (or Arcila in Spanish), Morocco, back when Asilah was part of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Because of this he was billed as a North African. Supposedly, before becoming a pro wrestler he had tried his hand at boxing and Greco-Roman wrestling. Bamala's shows at the Las Arenas bullring started in late May 1957, but Rafvela made his debut on June 30. Even though Rafvela made his debut in the main event, going into the show more spotlight was put on the France vs. Spain competition that was featured on the show (four singles matches between a French and a Spanish team). However, after the show everyone was talking about Rafvela and his spectacular debut. The matches in Barcelona were almost always wrestled in four five-minute rounds and most matches would go three or four rounds. It was very rare that a match would end in the first round. Rafvela's opponent for his debut was the Spanish veteran Flaviano, who Rafvela defeated in just 3:06 minutes with a strangle hold, which was to become his trademark finishing moving and which left Flaviano bleeding from the mouth (blood in wrestling matches was another rare occurrence for that era in Spain and Continental Europe in general).
And that's how the star of Rafvela was born in Barcelona. From here on out he became known as "El Misántropo" (The Misanthrope), "El Coloso de Arcila" (The Asilah Colossus) and especially as "El Estrangulador de Arcila" (The Asilah Strangler). He was known for his "brazo de hierro" (iron arm) with which he would strangle his opponents and defeat them in quick fashion.
Rafvela's next win was on July 9 over the Frenchman Pierre Boss. The time was, again, only 3:06 minutes and Rafvela's opponent ended up bleeding from the mouth. Rafvela followed that up with another similar win on July 14 over the French villain Robert Gastel in just 2:30 minutes, again leaving his opponent with a bloody mouth. The match drew a "big crowd", reportedly. [note: from here on out I'll be including quotes by the local press describing the attendance of the bullring shows headlined by Rafvela, wherever the press provided such quotes]
And then came Rafvela's first big test. On July 17, at Las Arenas as always, Rafvela faced Gilbert Leduc from France. Leduc was a former World and European Mid-Middleweight champion and was one of the most popular and respected foreign stars in the history of Barcelona up to that point (he had been wrestling there on and off since 1949). He had suffered defeats in Barcelona before, but only from top stars. Furthermore, he had a reputation as one of the best, if not the best, wrestlers in Europe at the time. A few days prior to the Rafvela/Leduc match Rafvela had thrown out an open challenge saying that no one could last 10 minutes with him and if someone did Rafvela would give him 10,000 Spanish pesetas of his own money. Leduc accepted the challenge and this is how the two got to wrestle. Even the notable Frenchman couldn't handle the dangerous Rafvela. Rafvela defeated him relatively quick and made him bleed from the mouth.
In the days that followed Rafvela upped his challenge. He raised the stakes to 20,000 pesetas if someone could last two rounds, or 10 minutes, with him in the ring. The first one to accept the challenge was the Italian bad guy Conde Daidone. On July 24 in front of a "full" Las Arenas Rafvela defeated Daidone in 6:47 minutes, making him bleed in the process. Rafvela's next victim was Indio Mapuche on July 30 in 3:58 minutes. Just like the rest of them, Mapuche bled from the mouth.
The next one to try and win Rafvela's 20,000 pesetas was Eduardo Castillo. Castillo was one of the most popular Spanish wrestlers in Barcelona. He was a former World and European Light Heavyweight champion. The match happened on August 2 and Castillo was defeated within the time limit too.
Rafvela's next win was on July 9 over the Frenchman Pierre Boss. The time was, again, only 3:06 minutes and Rafvela's opponent ended up bleeding from the mouth. Rafvela followed that up with another similar win on July 14 over the French villain Robert Gastel in just 2:30 minutes, again leaving his opponent with a bloody mouth. The match drew a "big crowd", reportedly. [note: from here on out I'll be including quotes by the local press describing the attendance of the bullring shows headlined by Rafvela, wherever the press provided such quotes]
And then came Rafvela's first big test. On July 17, at Las Arenas as always, Rafvela faced Gilbert Leduc from France. Leduc was a former World and European Mid-Middleweight champion and was one of the most popular and respected foreign stars in the history of Barcelona up to that point (he had been wrestling there on and off since 1949). He had suffered defeats in Barcelona before, but only from top stars. Furthermore, he had a reputation as one of the best, if not the best, wrestlers in Europe at the time. A few days prior to the Rafvela/Leduc match Rafvela had thrown out an open challenge saying that no one could last 10 minutes with him and if someone did Rafvela would give him 10,000 Spanish pesetas of his own money. Leduc accepted the challenge and this is how the two got to wrestle. Even the notable Frenchman couldn't handle the dangerous Rafvela. Rafvela defeated him relatively quick and made him bleed from the mouth.
In the days that followed Rafvela upped his challenge. He raised the stakes to 20,000 pesetas if someone could last two rounds, or 10 minutes, with him in the ring. The first one to accept the challenge was the Italian bad guy Conde Daidone. On July 24 in front of a "full" Las Arenas Rafvela defeated Daidone in 6:47 minutes, making him bleed in the process. Rafvela's next victim was Indio Mapuche on July 30 in 3:58 minutes. Just like the rest of them, Mapuche bled from the mouth.
The next one to try and win Rafvela's 20,000 pesetas was Eduardo Castillo. Castillo was one of the most popular Spanish wrestlers in Barcelona. He was a former World and European Light Heavyweight champion. The match happened on August 2 and Castillo was defeated within the time limit too.
The next match was a big one. Jesus Chausson had been the reigning European Mid-Heavyweight champion for over a year and was the newest sensation in Spain (well, the newest prior to the arrival of Rafvela). Chausson took on Rafvela on August 6 and according to the report "thousands of fans filled Las Arenas to the brim". A minute into the match Rafvela put a hold on the arm of Chausson, who was already bleeding profusely, and kept it locked for a while. It looked like Chausson may lose then and there, but then Chausson got out of the hold and started firing back at Rafvela, the thousands of spectators cheering him on. However, ultimately Chausson got beat with only one second left on the clock. Yes, the match lasted exactly 9:59 minutes.
On August 9, this time at La Monumental, the reigning Spanish Heavyweight champion Felix Lamban, who had been one of the most popular Spanish stars for a number of years now, tried to overcome Rafvela's challenge. Rafvela won again, but this time by disqualification. Lamban finished the match with a bloody mouth. According to the report the bullring was "full".
On August 13 at Las Arenas in front of a "truly impressive crowd" the popular Chausson had his second try at going the distance with Rafvela and winning his 20,000 pesetas. A couple of days prior to the show both Chausson and Leduc had requested a match with Rafvela and it was Chausson who got it. However, even the second time around he was unsuccessful and lost at the beginning of the second round.
On August 9, this time at La Monumental, the reigning Spanish Heavyweight champion Felix Lamban, who had been one of the most popular Spanish stars for a number of years now, tried to overcome Rafvela's challenge. Rafvela won again, but this time by disqualification. Lamban finished the match with a bloody mouth. According to the report the bullring was "full".
On August 13 at Las Arenas in front of a "truly impressive crowd" the popular Chausson had his second try at going the distance with Rafvela and winning his 20,000 pesetas. A couple of days prior to the show both Chausson and Leduc had requested a match with Rafvela and it was Chausson who got it. However, even the second time around he was unsuccessful and lost at the beginning of the second round.
On August 16 at La Monumental Lamban got his second chance at Rafvela too and lost in 6:24 minutes. On August 20 Leduc got a rematch as well, but he was also beaten in less than 10 minutes.
Around this time an article appeared in the Barcelona press calling Rafvela "the biggest atraction of all the wrestlers" and said that he's been wrestling in Madrid too where he has been a true magnet of attention. And so I tried to research Madrid as well. Researching Madrid, however, is much harder to do since the Madrid newspapers are not readily available like the Barcelona ones are. Still, there is some information that can be pieced together. The big shows in Madrid in the summer of 1957 were taking place at the 20,000-seat Estadio Metropolitano. From July 20 through September 7 Rafvela wrestled there on at least eight occasions. Among his opponents were Boss, Gastel, Leduc, Mapuche, Chausson and Lamban. He had the exact same challenge in Madrid as well - initially 10,000 pesetas if someone could last 10 minutes with him and then from the August 10 show onward he raised it to 20,000. He was winning his matches in Madrid in quick fashion too. In addition to Barcelona and Madrid he was also wrestling in Mallorca. At a local stadium, I think, but I'm not sure. From August 7 through September 26 he wrestled there at least six times. His opponents in Mallorca included Daidone, Castillo, Jean Bout, Chausson and others. In Mallorca he also wrestled in a Torneo del Campeon tournament with Chausson, Lamban, Daidone and Zuazua. What Torneo del Campeon is will be explained below. In short, most weeks Rafvela was headlining three, sometimes four, shows in big open-air arenas/stadiums. And for all I know, he may have wrestled in other Spanish cities I don't have information on.
Anyway, back to Barcelona. Lamban wanted another crack at Rafvela, but having lost to him twice already he had to put something on the line in order to get the match. That something ended up being Lamban's Spanish Heavyweight Title, which he had held since 1953. On August 23 at La Monumental in front of "an impressive crowd" Rafvela took on Lamban in a 10-minute challenge, Spanish Heavyweight Title versus 20,000 pesetas. Rafvela won in the second round, thus ending Lamban's 4-year run with the championship.
Then on August 27 at Las Arenas Rafvela took on a newcomer to Barcelona - Kim Max. It was billed as the battle of the colossi. The Asilah Strangler vs. The Portuguese Giant. Rafvela's 103 kg (227 lbs) vs. Max's 108 kg (238 lbs). Max fell in 8:30 minutes and failed to win the 20,000 pesetas. The bullring was "impressively packed" with fans wanting to see the match.
In 1956 Luis Bamala introduced a unique new tournament in Barcelona. It was called Torneo del Campeon (Champion's Tournament or Tournament of the Champion, depending on how you prefer to translate it). The rules were as follows. In one night five wrestlers would wrestle each other in 10 matches altogether. The matches had a 10-minute time limit. There was a jury of judges, which gave out points at the end of each match based on the wrestlers' performance. You could win your match via pinfall, submission or on points. At the end of the night the wrestler with the most overall points was declared the winner of the tournament. Felix Lamban won the 1956 tournament, with 31 points. The second Torneo del Campeon tournament took place on August 30, 1957, at La Monumental and drew "a huge crowd that almost completely filled the large stands of the bullring". The participants were Rafvela, Chausson, Leduc, Castillo and Lamban (i.e. the five biggest names working for Bamala/Balañá at that point). After wrestling four matches, Rafvela won the grueling tournament with 43 points, two more than the runner-up Chausson. However, the big story of the show was the outcome of the final match of the evening. Chausson did what no else had been able to do so far - he lasted 10 minutes in the ring with Rafvela, which got him a thunderous ovation from the crowd.
This is when Rafvela stopped doing his 20,000 pesetas challenge in Barcelona (he was still doing it in Mallorca and maybe in Madrid too), but he continued taking on notable opponents. His next opponent was a big one - the Frenchman Felix Miquet. Miquet was one of the biggest stars in France in the late 1940s and through the 1950s, and that era was a very successful time in French pro wrestling as they were running regular shows at Palais des Sports (capacity: 18,000) in Paris and drawing strong crowds. At one point Miquet held the World Heavyweight Title (French version), which he won from Frank Sexton in Switzerland, and he also had a 3-year run as the European Heavyweight champion (French version). In fact, in 1957 in Barcelona he was billed as the reigning European Heavyweight champion. I don't think he was, but I could wrong. Not sure. Long story short, he was a big name, and not just in France. On September 3 in front of a "completely full" Las Arenas Miquet lost to Rafvela. The time? Less than 3 minutes! Then on September 6 in front of "another good attendance" at La Monumental Rafvela followed up his big win over Miquet with another win over Chausson. They went 10:20 minutes, which was the longest anyone had lasted against Rafvela so far.
And this gets us to the biggest match of the year, which, reportedly, "broke the record for biggest wrestling crowd in the history of Barcelona". On September 10 at Las Arenas Rafvela took on Primo Carnera. The Italian Carnera was a former boxing World Heavyweight champion and one of the biggest pro wrestling stars of the late 1940s and 1950s. At the time he was also the recognized World Heavyweight champion in Italy and had been defending his claim there during the summer months. Rafvela won over the Italian World Title claimant in 11:22 minutes. Rafvela and Carnera were fighting with each other right next to the ring ropes, the referee started a ten count for them to come back to the center of the ring, Rafvela did so in time, but Carnera did not as he was still caught in the ropes and therefore Rafvela was declared the winner.
After this Rafvela had another two routine victories. First on September 17 at Las Arenas he defeated the Frenchman Jean Bout in 9:23 minutes, and then on September 20 at La Monumental he beat the up-and-coming Spanish wrestler Zuazua in the second round.
On September 24 at Las Arenas, on a show that had "magnificent attendance", Rafvela finally met his match and suffered his first defeat. The person to defeat him was the Argentinian standout Gran Amenaza (Alberto Amessa), who was making his European debut. In the second round Rafvela fell hard on the ropes, hurt his neck, Amenaza took advantage straight away and beat him. That instantly made Amenaza a top name in Barcelona.
On September 27 at La Monumental Rafvela wrestled in the semi-main event for the first time, beating the Spaniard Larsundi. In the main event Amenaza defeated Chausson in the fourth round.
On October 4 at Las Arenas Rafvela returned to his usual main event spot and had his rematch with Amenaza. The match lasted 6:50 minutes and Rafvela lost again, but this time by disqualification. Each wrestler had received two warnings by the referee already for using illegal holds and then at one point Rafvela had put a neck hold on Amenaza, which the referee ruled a choke hold, warned him to let go, and when Rafvela didn't the referee had no choice but to disqualify him.
This ended the 1957 season of bullring shows in Barcelona, as the weather no longer permitted open-air shows, but this was not the end of Rafvela in Barcelona for that year. Right as he was about to leave for a tour of France things in Barcelona changed a bit. Earlier in the year there had been only one full-time promotion, the Gran Price one, which was running two to three shows per week in Barcelona, and now there was a second promotion running two events per week as well at the 1,600-seat Teatro Fronton Novedades. These new weekly shows were with Luis Bamala's wrestlers. On October 22 Rafvela wrestled in the semi-main event of the first show and won over Conde Daidone by disqualification. In the main event Gran Amenaza defeated the former Spanish and European Middleweight champion Celso Sotelo, who had recently returned to Barcelona after a tour of South America.
Rafvela's second Barcelona run started after he came back from France in mid November. All of the following matches were at Fronton Novedades. First on November 15 Rafvela defeated Robert Duranton, one of the biggest French stars at the time, in less than 10 minutes. Then on November 29 he defeated the Spanish veteran Gregory Jarque, who had returned to Spain after wrestling in North America for a few years. And then on December 6 Rafvela scored a huge win over the Hungarian Stan Karolyi. Karolyi had been coming to wrestle in Barcelona ever since 1949 and was one of the most popular and respected foreign wrestlers there. He had always been the recognized World Mid-Heavyweight champion in Spain, never losing his title during this whole time. On top of that only two people had ever managed to defeat him in Barcelona - Victorio Ochoa and Jose Tarres (two of the biggest Spanish stars of the era). Therefore, a win over Karolyi in Barcelona was a big deal. Rafvela's win over Karolyi earned him a shot at Karolyi's World Mid-Heavyweight Championship. That match took place on December 13 and Karolyi won it in 13:18 minutes, thus continuing his 8+ year run as champion and becoming the second man to defeat Rafvela in Barcelona.
Rafvela's final matches in Barcelona in 1957 took place on December 20 when he participated in a torneo relampago (a one-night four-man single elimination tournament), which was for 10,000 pesetas. He first defeated Gregory Jarque in the semi-final in 14:45 minutes, but then in the final he lost to Jesus Chausson. Same as in their previous encounters, Rafvela bloodied Chausson's mouth, but this time around, as the crowd was chanting his name, Chausson staged a comeback and finally, after multiple attempts, managed to finally defeat the dangerous Asilah Strangler. And not only did he defeat him, he even managed to dp so in less than 10 minutes.
This is where I'll end my story on Rafvela. He continued wrestling in Spain and was a top star for the next several years, but this article here is only for his debut year in Spain. And what a year it was. No other Spanish wrestler in history up to that point had been that dominant over the course of a year, let alone his first year in Spain. There had been guys like, for example, "Iron Head" Jose Tarres and Pedro Bengoechea, who were big stars and at times held World and European Titles simultaneously, but no one had dominated his opponents so much and beaten them so quickly like Rafvela did. Over the course of his run in 1957 Rafvela scored wins over European and World champions, both former and current, ended Lamban's 4-year title run as Spanish Heavyweight champion and became only the third man in history with a win over Karolyi in Barcelona. Plus, he was headlining multiple big open-air shows per week and by the looks of it drawing strong crowds, including reportedly breaking the record for wrestling in Barcelona with his match against Carnera.
As great as Rafvela's run was a lot of it was down to Bamala's excellent booking over the course of the year. He took a complete unknown and made him a sensation overnight by having him almost squash his opponents and not only beat them, but draw blood as well. Quick dominant wins and blood weren't a common thing in European pro wrestling back then so this type of booking was very novel for its time. But the cool thing about the booking was that yes, Rafvela dominated his competition, but when needed Bamala used him to elevate others as well. The perfect example of this being Chausson, who was being pushed as the newest top babyface star in Spain. During the course of his series of matches with Rafvela he became the first one to almost win Rafvela's unique 20,000 pesetas challenge, then the first one to actually last 10 minutes with Rafvela, then the first one to last more than 10 minutes with him, and finally in the end Chausson scored a win over Rafvela too, thus ending their rivalry in the perfect culmination. There was also Gran Amenaza, who came in as an unknown, defeated Rafvela on his debut and because of this he immediately became a top star going forward in Barcelona. There were other cool details along the way too, but overall Rafvela's run was excellently booked and very unique for its time.
So when you add it all together Rafvela, The Asilah Strangler, is a very strong candidate for the biggest pro wrestling breakout star of 1957. At least in my opinion anyway.
Three final notes: First of all, as you may have noticed in one of the adverts, some of these bullring shows used to take place at 11 pm in the evening! That was because sometimes there were bullfights in the afternoon or in the evening and therefore the wrestling events could only happen late at night. And secondly, as alluded to at the beginning of the article, the Bamala/Balañá bullring shows were not the only big shows in Barcelona in 1957. Far from it. In the summer Empresa Gran Price was often running two shows per week at Pabellon del Deporte and featuring popular Spanish stars such as Jose Tarres, Pedro Bengoechea and Jim Oliver as well as foreign stars like Masahiko Kimura, Liano Pellacani, Rito Romero, Jack van Dooren and others. Finally, it is important to mention that Spain had a healthy pro-wrestling scene prior to catch wrestling taking over, it was just in the Greco-Roman style.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Rafvela: The Asilah Strangler.
Author: Phil Lions.
Published: April 21, 2020.
Article: #234.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Rafvela: The Asilah Strangler.
Author: Phil Lions.
Published: April 21, 2020.
Article: #234.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.