Mosco de la Merced (Juan Valdez Valentino) is a Mexican '' Luchador'' or

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

, best known for his time in

Asistencia Asesoría y Administración Antonio Peña Promotions, S.A. de C.V. d/b/a Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide is a Mexican Lucha Libre (professional wrestling) promotion based in Mexico City, Mexico. Commonly referred to as simply AAA (pronounced "triple A"; an abbreviation of its ...

(AAA) where he was a part of ''

Los Vipers Los Vipers is a professional wrestling group, called a stable, which has existed in various incarnations in the Mexican wrestling promotions Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) since 1997. The group has consistently been presented as a '' ...

'' for many years. Before adopting the Mosco de la Merced

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

he worked for as Loco Valentino for over 10 years. He is a former holder of the

Mexican National Tag Team Championship The Mexican National Tag Team Championship ''()'' is a national Mexican professional wrestling championship controlled by the (Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission) and competed for by two-man tag teams. The championship was created in ...

with

Fuerza Guerrera Fuerza Guerrera (born December 13, 1953) is a Mexican '' Luchador enmascarado'' (or masked professional wrestler) who made his debut in 1978. In his career Guerrera has worked for every major wrestling organization in Mexico including Consejo Mun ...

and held the

Mexican National Atómicos Championship The Mexican National ''Atómicos'' Championship ( Spanish: ''Campeonato Nacional Atómicos'') was a tag team championship for four-man teams, or ''Atómicos'' as they are referred to in Lucha libre. The title is a national championship, controll ...

four times with Histeria,

Psicosis II Juan Ebodio Gonzalez (born February 22, 1967) is a Mexican '' Luchador'' '' enmascarado'' better known under the ring name Psicosis. Gonzalez was the second wrestler to work as Psicosis, given the ring character by Asistencia Asesoría y Adminis ...

and

Maniaco Maniaco (born May 20, 1966) is a Mexican ''Luchador'', or professional wrestler best known for being a part of the Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) group ''Los Vipers''. He currently works for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), alth ...

. His name roughly translates to "Mosquito of Mercy".

Professional wrestling career

He began his wrestling career under the name Loco Valentino, son of the original Loco Valentino who also trained him for his professional wrestling career. Valentino wrestled for the

Universal Wrestling Association The Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) was a Mexican ''Lucha Libre'' or professional wrestling promotion based in Naucalpan, Mexico State that operated from 1975 until 1995. The name of the actual promotion was Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI) ...

in the early 1990s, where he defeated Semanarista to win the

UWA World Lightweight Championship The UWA World Lightweight Championship (''Campeonato Mundial de Peso Ligero UWA'' in Spanish) is an inactive professional wrestling championship promoted by the Mexican wrestling promotion Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) from 1975 until some ...

on September 22, 1994. Valentino would hold the championship until the UWA closed down in January 1995 when he had to vacate the championship.

Asistencia Asesoría y Administración

After the UWA closed Valentino began working for

(AAA), one of Mexico's largest wrestling promotions. His first major show appearance was on June 13, 1997 at Triplemanía V-A when he teamed up with '' Los Hampones''losing to the team k own as ''Los Cadetes del Espacio'' ("the Space Cadets" Discovery, Ludxor, Super Nova and Venum). Later in 1997 he teamed up with Picudo to compete in a tournament for the

, but were eliminated in the first round by Heavy Metal and Venum. At the 1997 '' Verano de Escandalo'' teamed up with ''Los Hampones'' once again, only to lose to a team composed mostly ''Los Cadetes'' (Discovery, Ludxor and Venum) with added the spectacular undercarder Flying.

Los Vipers

In August, 1997

Cibernético Octavio López Arreola (born April 12, 1975) is a Mexican professional wrestler who is best known under the ring name Cibernético and for working for the Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA) promotion in Mexico. During AAA's short partnership with ...

formed a "Super Rúdo" group called ''

'' a group that included

Abismo Negro Andrés Alejandro Palomeque González (July 1, 1971 – March 22, 2009) was a Mexican luchador (Spanish for "masked professional wrestler"). He is best known for appearing under the stage name Abismo Negro, which is Spanish for "Black Abyss", ...

, Histeria, Mosco de la Merced and

. A few weeks after ''Los Vipers'' was born Histeria was replaced by a new Histeria. Mosco de la Merced left AAA not long after the formation of ''Los Vipers'', leaving AAA a man short in the stable. Mosco also held the Mexican National Tag Team Championship with

and his departure forced AAA to either vacate the championship or come up with an alternative plan. The solution was to give the Mosco de la Merced mask and full-bodysuit to Loco Valentino replacing the original Mosco de la Merced without publicly acknowledging it was a different wrestler under the mask. This allowed Mosco de la Merced (II) and Fuerza Guerrera to remain tag team champions and also fill the void in Los Vipers. On June 7, 1998 Mosco de la Merced and Fuerza Guerrera lost the tag team title to

Perro Aguayo Pedro Aguayo Damián (18 January 1946 — 3 July 2019) better known as "(El) Perro Aguayo" (Aguayo the dog) and El Can de Nochistlan (The Nochistlan Dog) was a Mexican wrestler through the 1970s to the 1990s. Aguayo was the first person ever ...

and

Perro Aguayo, Jr. Pedro Aguayo Ramírez (July 23, 1979 – March 21, 2015) was a Mexican ''luchador'' or professional wrestler and promoter who achieved fame in lucha libre as Perro Aguayo Jr. or El Hijo del Perro Aguayo ("The Son of Perro Aguayo"). He was the rea ...

On August 23, 1998 Mosco de la Merced, Maniaco, Psicosis II and Histeriateamed up to participate in a tournament for the vacant

, representing ''Los Vipers''. ''Los Vipers'' won the tournament by defeating ''

Los Payasos LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

'' (Coco Amarillo, Coco Azul, Coco Negro and Coco Rojo) in the finals to win the Atómicos title. Over the following months ''Los Vipers'' began a storyline feud with another group called ''Los Vatos Locos'', which at the time consisted of

Charly Manson Jesús Luna Pozos (born February 18, 1975) is a Mexican luchador (professional wrestler) who primarily works on the Mexican independent circuit as Sharlie Rockstar, where he competes as a member of ''The Kl4n''. Pozos is best known under the ri ...

, May Flowers, Nygma and Picudo. On February 14, 1999 ''Los Vatos Locos'' defeated ''Los Vipers'' to win the Atómicos championship. ''Los Vipers'' won the title a second time on September 17, 1999 when they defeated ''Los Junior Atómicos'' ( Blue Demon, Jr., La Parka, Jr., Mascara Sagrada, Jr. and

). ''Los Vatos Locos'' managed to end ''Los Vipers'' second reign only three months later as they defeated Psicosis and partners on the undercard of the 1999 '' Guerra de Titanes'' show. ''Los Vipers'' regained the Atómicos title on April 15, 2000 effectively ending the storyline with ''Los Vatos Locos''. ''Los Vipers'' reigned as Atómicos champions for over a year, until they were surprisingly upset by a little-known group called ''Los Regio Guapos'' (Hator, Monje Negro, Jr., Potro, Jr. and Tigre Universitario) on August 19, 2001. ''Los Regio Guapos'' only held the title for under two months before ''Los Vipers'' regained the title and began their fourth reign with the Atómicos title. Their fourth reign also turned out to be the last reign for ''Los Vipers'', ending on November 23, 2001 as a new version of ''Los Vatos Locos'' ( Espiritu, Nygma, Picudo and Silver Cat) defeated them in one of the featured matches of the 2001 '' Guerra de Titanes''. ''Los Vipers'' took part in an eight-man

Steel cage match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

at Triplemanía X against

Los Diabolicos LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service (transportation), Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a ...

(Mr. Condor, Ángel Mortal and El Gallego) and Gran Apache where the last wrestler in the cage would lose either his mask or be shaved bald. Mosco de la Merced was able to escape the cage and thus save his mask, although his fellow Viper Maniaco was less fortunate and was unmasked. Following Maniaco's mask loss Los Vipers were used less and less in AAA, especially Mosco de la Merced. During mid-2004 Los Vipers, in this case Mosco, Histeria and Psicosis II became involved in a feud with Heavy Metal, El Intocable and

Zorro Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilant ...

that led to a Steel Cage match at '' Verano de Escandalo 2004'' in which the last man in the cage would be unmasked or have his hair shaved off. This time Mosco de la Merced was the last man in the ring and was forced to unmask per Lucha libre traditions.

Independent circuit

Not long after his mask loss Mosco de la Merced left AAA, but continued to wrestle as Mosco de la Merced on the

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective noun, collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor lea ...

. In 2009 he began working for the Perros del Mal promotion, teaming with former Vipers' team mates Histeria and Psicosis II after they left AAA as well. He also teamed up with the original Mosco de la Merced, who wrestles as

X-Fly Juan Francisco Domínguez (born September 8, 1977) is a Mexican '' luchador'' or professional wrestler, currently performing under the ring name X-Fly. He is also known as the original Mosco de la Merced ("Mosquito of the Mercy"), a name which has ...

Championships and accomplishments

( 5 times) – with Histeria,

and

(4) **

( 1 time) – with

The original Mosco de la Merced won the title with Fuerza Gurrera but was replaced with Mosco II during the reign without it being made public knowledge, the reign is considered one continuous reign despite Mosco II not winning the title. *

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

**PWI ranked him #106 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the

PWI 500 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publis ...

in 1999 *

( 1 time)

''Luchas de Apuestas'' record

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosco De La Merced 1964 births Living people Mexican male professional wrestlers Mexican National Atómicos Champions Mexican National Tag Team Champions 20th-century professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers UWA World Lightweight Champions