Pentagón Jr. was born on February 5, 1985, in Veracruz, Mexico. His real name is not a matter of public record. This is often the case with masked wrestlers in Mexico, where their private lives are kept a secret from the wrestling fans. Most will know Penta and his real life brother Rey Fenix as the Lucha Brothers, currently signed to AEW wrestling.
To explore the backstory Pentagón Jr, we will need to go back to Mexico in 1995. At this time Penta was 12 years old but the original Pentagón was just starting his career in AAA (a offshoot of the popular CMLL wrestling federation). One of the top Stars of CMLL at the time was a Luchador who went by the name Octagon.
Octagon was such a crowd favorite that the promotion wanted to create a mortal enemy for Octagon to face off against so a rival was created and went by the name Pentagón.
The original Pentagón would look just like Octagon but with minor differences. The original Pentagón would only use this mask and persona for a small amount of time from 1995 to 1996. It was here in early 1996 when the curse of Pentagón began.
The original Pentagón was wrestling in a tag match against popular luchador Le Parka. When La Parka threw Pentagón into the air, he ‘crouched’ too much, to such a degree that he exposed his neck and in the fall immediately caused him to have a cardiorespiratory arrest. In the blink of an eye, he lost his life in the ring.
It did not take long to transfer him to the hospital, inside the ambulance he was receiving CPR to revive him but the attempts failed. When he arrived at the emergency room, the defibrillators joined forces to return his pulse. It took them almost eight minutes to bring Pentagón back to life. Due to his injuries and his age the original Pentagón decided to retire, more about the curse later.
In 1997 – the Penta that we know today was 12 years old and being told that his father would only have 3 years left to live. As he was the oldest of his three brothers at the time he was the one who had to drop out of school and work to support his family and to make enough money to buy medicine for his father.
Meanwhile also in 1997 a second Pentagón was selected, Jose Mercado Lopez who was now known as Pentagón 2. Mercado was more successful than the original Pentagón and even won the Mexican National Middleweight Title from the original Octagon in March of 1997. Mercado stuck with AAA until 2000. When he left a third man took over the role of Pentagón, Ricardo Moreno Antonio, a fifteen-year veteran who had previously worked as “Dragon Chino”.
It was decided that the Pentagón moniker would be retired at Triple Mania 10. Octagon and Pentagón were forced to team up and take on another team. Whoever lost this match would have to face each other with the loser having to be unmasked. So for the last time Pentagón would face his longtime rival Octagon.
Pentagón would lose this match and would be forced to unmask putting an end to an almost 10-year rivalry.
In 2012 AAA was seen as the number 2 promotion to CMLL and in a attempt to gain popularity they decided to try and recreate some of their best angles from the 90s so they created a new Octagon, Octagon Jr and they tapped the original Kalisto from the WWE to wear the mask. But Octagon would need his rival, Pentagón, so a new Pentagón was to be created.
When the man now known as Pentagón Jr started wrestling for AAA in 2011 he had a “Dark Dragon” gimmick. But it wasn’t working, so in 2012 AAA wanted to give him the Pentagón mask.
Some of the other wrestlers told Penta it was cursed because the other guys who wore the mask had bad luck. Some of this bad luck included the original Pentagón who almost died in the ring and another Pentagón was sentenced to 27 years and six months in prison. But they were also just afraid that it was a dated gimmick and no one could get it over. Pentagón would ALWAYS be second to Octagon they thought.
Pentagón thought this was stupid and it inspired him to create the motto “Zero Fear”.
He wanted to make it known that he was not afraid of ANYTHING. He would use “Zero Fear” as his war cry and a lifestyle. Penta says that people have told him that it has “changed their lives”. Penta says that wherever he goes in character people will stop him and tell him that thanks to his motto of “Zero Fear” they were able to overcome an illness or some other hardship they have faced.
One such story he shared during a recent interview on the Vampiro podcast was of a man who approached Penta with a large stack of papers and he wanted Penta to sign it. Penta was at first hesitant to sign since he didn’t know what it was and it looked like some kind of legal contract. The man explained that it was a contract, but it wasn’t for Penta, it was for his wife. The man went on to say that he told his wife that he had “Zero Fear” when he resolved to divorce her. He wanted Penta’s autograph on the document so that the man who invented the slogan “Zero Fear” would also stand by him in his resolve.
While the Pentagón gimmick was working better than his original mask and title, Penta was still struggling to break through in AAA. So when an opportunity to go to the United States and join a newly forming wrestling federation was presented to him, he decided to have No Fear and accept the offer from Lucha Underground.
When asked about joining Lucha Underground Penta said that he was the last one they recruited for the short lived but critically acclaimed promotion. Penta said that they originally only wanted high flyers including his brother Rey Fenix. But with the urging of WCW wrestling legend Vampiro who was part of the Lucha Underground commentary team, Penta was signed.
Vampiro was a strong supporter of Penta, so much in fact that he decided to come out of retirement to work a match with him during their time together in Lucha Underground.
In a podcast interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Vampiro revealed that he wasn’t supposed to be Pentagon Jr’s opponent at Ultima Lucha but after Pentagon Jr’s original opponent backed out of the match. Vampiro went up to creative and requested to work the match with Pentagón Jr. and put him over because of how over Pentagón Jr. is with the fans despite being portrayed as a villain.
Vampiro wrestled this match AGAINST the advice of his doctor who told him that due to the size of his heart and his weight that if he wrestled he could suffer a heart attack. This all but added to the emotional effect that the match had and it even had a effect on the crew when at the end of the match all the cameramen came and hugged Vampiro and Penta.
This ended up being the match that made Penta a star. After that match Penta says that he became known worldwide and it generated a lot of work in the United States in particular. Penta tore things up on the independent scene for a few years until he landed in Impact wrestling and even won the Impact world Championship. It was during this time that Penta was booked to fight Kenny Omega at the original ALL IN event that preceded the formation of All Elite Wrestling. After this match Penta went back to AAA with his brother and won the AAA World Tag Championship that they would then defend at Double Or Nothing in 2019 against the Young Bucks.
The Lucha brothers have been AEW world Tag Team Champions and Trios Champions as a part of death triangle with PAC and are bound to hold AEW gold again. Penta’s father ended up far exceeding doctors expectations and is still alive today! Pentagón Jr. and Vampiro have teased a rematch and the Lucha Brothers will be hosting a Lucha Underground revival at the Lucha Temple on Saturday June 1st 2024.