Oro (wrestler) - Professional Wrestling Career

Professional Wrestling Career

The two brothers made the professional wrestling debut on November 23, 1990. Jesús Javier, at the age of 18, worked under the ring name Oro and his brother used the name Plata (Silver) with identical masks, only one had a gold pattern and the other had a silver pattern. The two were soon joined by a wrestler known as Platino (Platinum) to form a trio tag team known as Los Metalicos (The Metals). The team was quickly matched up against another trios team, a rudo ("Bad guy") trio known as Los Destructores ("The Destroyers"), with whom they had a series of very good matches. The fans quickly responded to the young team, vocally supporting the team when the wrestled, showing appreciation for the fact that Plata and Platino were really skilled, high flying wrestlers and Oro had an aerial wrestling style that was unusual for the time. Oro's frequent and skilled execution of moves off the top rope, helped usher in a style change in Lucha Libre as wrestlers started to incorporate more moves like planchas and topes, inspired by Oro's performances. Jesús Hernández was very dedicated to his profession, always looking for opportunities to innovate or improve, at times disregarding his own health while executing high risk moves such as leaping over the ring ropes onto the floor. Los Metalicos (Oro and Plata) was given their first professional wrestling championship just over a year after their debut, defeating Los Destructores to win the Mexican National Tag Team Championship on December 4, 1991. The following week a match between the two ends in a controversial manner and the titles are vacated. The following week Los Destructores regains the vacant titles. Los Metalicos also captured the Distrito Federal Trios Championship at some point in 1991, but would later lose the Championship to Los Guerreros del Futuro ("The Warriors of the Future"; Damian el Guerrero, Guerrero del Futuro and Guerrero Maya. Oro's popularity earned him an invitation to travel to Japan in 1992, to work Gran Hamada's Universal Lucha Libre promotion, a promotion that showcases the Lucha Libre wrestling style in Japan. His skill and charisma made him an instant hit in Japan and upon his return Oro started to break away from the rest of Los Metalicos, being groomed for a top role in EMLL. He even teamed with two of the biggest names in Lucha Libre, working with Mil Máscaras and Último Dragón.

As Oro moved away from Los Metalicos EMLL replaced him with Bronce (Bronze), a wrestling character patterned on Oro's image, replacing gold with Bronze. EMLL put Oro in a storyline feud with veteran wrestler Mano Negra (The Black Hand). On May 23, 1993, Oro would defeat Mano Negra to win the NWA World Middleweight Championship. This would be the only singles title Oro would hold during his short but memorable career. Mano Negra would regain the title three weeks later, on July 3. EMLL's plans was to escalate the storyline, ending with the two wrestlers meeting in a Luchas de Apuestas ("Bet Match") where both wrestlers would wager their mask on the outcome. At the time Oro expressed a desire to spend more time with his family and travel less, wanting to retire no later than 1994, with Oro's desire to stop wrestling EMLL replaced Oro with Atlantis as the wrestler to unmask Mano Negro, giving Atlantis a boost since he would be around for the long run.