Paul Gomez, the 1949 Mr. California makes his pro debut under the name Pepper Gomez in El Paso, TX under the tutelage of Mexican wrestling legend Miguel “Blackie” Guzman. Gomez blew out his knee in his first match. Gomez ended up being a huge star, particularly in Texas and California as “the man with the cast iron stomach.” He still holds the record holding the Texas heavyweight title on 12 occasions between 1955 and 1963.
Pepper was worldwide main-eventing at the old Madison Square Garden, the top arenas in Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Australia, New Zealand and was regarded as Pro Wrestling’s Jackie Robinson in terms of other Latino athletes breaking the barrier and finally getting work in U.S. rings. “And I had one of wrestling’s best bodies a long time before any of these guys picked up a steroid needle. I’ve never approved of those cheap shortcuts,” Pepper said recently when he was training some future stars, such as Crash Holly.
Gomez set his incredible string of SRO attendance records at the Cow Palace, Oakland Kaiser Center, Sacramento Auditorium, etc and usually against the likes of another great, late San Francisco legend; Ray Stevens. “Ray and I sold out the Cow Palace for many years and still hold the all time attendance and gate record there in 1963 (17,000+ $65,000 take) which now would be against the law because they kept letting people in and we turned away usually 5,000 more each time. The fire marshals wouldn’t allow that now. Our feud was so big the media came from all the world.”
Pepper held numerous titles both as a singles wrestler and as part of a tag team. 7 times he wrestled for the world championship, 5 against all time champ, Lou Thesz. Pepper got 3 draws, but never won the big one, it simply wasn’t time for a Latin to be the ‘Champ’.
Great piece on a special time and some special wrestlers.
Never know what I’ll see and read here.
Informative and interesting piece with cool photos and posters.
So good!