Grappling With Tragedy: Silver King

Brian Damage

Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.

Silver King

Cesar Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez Barron was the son of legendary luchador Dr. Wagner. Barron started his own career in 1985 and would span nearly 35 years. Barron first wrestled under a mask as ‘El Invasor’ or The Invader and ultimately changed names to Silver King. He lost his mask just two years into his career against El Hijo del Santo.

Silver King wrestled for all the major promotions in Mexico including UWA, CMLL and AAA as well as All Japan, New Japan and WCW. He won a total of 17 championships throughout his long career. He famously donned the mask of Black Tiger, taking over for Eddie Guerrero. Silver King also was a member of Guerrero’s faction the LWO aka the Latino World Order in WCW.

Aside from his wrestling career, Barron also became an actor. He was cast opposite Jack Black in the 2005 movie…’Nacho Libre.’ His character was the masked villain known as Ramses. Barron would continue his wrestling career competting for several independent promotions.

On May 11, 2019, Silver King wrestled a match against Juventud Guerrera in London, England. During the course of the match, Silver King collapsed to the mat…and shortly thereafter died. His autopsy revealed no drugs in his system and his death was caused by a heart attack. After his death, actor Jack Black paid tribute to his Nacho Libre co star by writing…“César González…vaya con dios, hermano” Translated in English means “Go with God, brother.” Silver King was just 51 years old at the time of his death.