At the moment, Gringo Loco is one of the hottest and fastest-rising pro wrestling stars in the industry. For the past few years, he has made a name for himself in Game Changer Wrestling, launching his own show with the promotion, The Wrld On Lucha, but has more recently grabbed fans’ attention on bigger stages, like Ring of Honor. His debut ROH match against El Hijo de Vikingo was so well-received that Tony Khan came out onto the entrance ramp to raise Loco’s hand in front of the rabid crowd.
What is interesting about Loco’s recent rise to popularity is that he has been a staple on the pro wrestling scene for twenty years. In a Haus of Wrestling exclusive interview, Loco opened up about how he may have found big success sooner had it not been for a medical issue that popped up in 2017.
“Yeah, it was, it was a pretty unfortunate situation,” he began. “I’ll tell you what happened before that situation, I felt like I was finally on the rise, man, I was finally creating some noise. I was making more towns, I was getting flown places, and then, lo and behold, without ever being in a hospital for the flu, a broken finger, or anything, my heart decides to stop at 30 years old, and I woke up in a hospital saying, you know, ‘Hey, man, what happened?’
“And the doctor is looking at me like, ‘You’re a miracle to be here.’ And I was like, ‘No way, what happened?’ And I got it explained to me that there was a cardiac arrest situation, and we don’t know why it was. We went through all these tests for six days, and they decided, ‘You know, just as a precaution, we’re gonna go ahead and put a pacemaker in, just in case to make sure that if this does decide to happen again, that you’re gonna be completely fine.’
“A lot of people don’t know that, and there’s actually a mini-documentary in the works right now that will kind of go more in-depth on that story. But yeah, that actually happened, man, and I think that this is my second chance and I think I’m taking full advantage of what’s been given to me.”
It is insane to think about Loco executing some of the high-risk moves that he does with a pacemaker in his heart. With that said, it doesn’t sound like it is a big issue for The Basegod, and he looks to keep putting on banger matches for Ring of Honor, and elsewhere.
If you use any quotes from this article please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling for the transcription and link back