Former CMLL luchador and booker Franco Colombo, real name Javier Esparza Coronado, died on Sunday at the age of 73.
Coronado’s niece took it Facebook to break the news by writing.
“Today a legend died, my uncle Javier Esparza Coronado. I ask for your prayers for the entire family. My uncle was very popular with everyone. When we were little, we enjoyed going on family walks. God called him to his side, he is now with my father in heaven. We will always remember you, uncle. Say hello to everyone who’s gone.”
Coronado trained under Diablo Velasco and wrestled with CMLL while it was called EMLL Beginning in the 1970s, working most of his career without a mask, aside from a stint as “La Silhouette” and holding the Mexican middleweight title for 92 days as 1980 became 1981.
He left the promotion in the late 1980s, returning in a backstage capacity to overhaul its developmental system and was credited with hiring or training most of CMLL’s current coaches, as they were wrestlers. Coronado and CMLL parted ways for good in 2021.
according toLuchaBlog:“The reasons for his departure varied from being asked to take a pay cut due to the pandemic and deciding to leave before being pushed out of the programming committee by someone believed to be Julio Cesar Rivera.
Despite spending decades with the company, CMLL has yet to address Coronado’s death at the time of writing.
