I meet Jesus
Eddie Campa about five years ago and found a man that should write a book or
have a movie made about his life and it would be a box office smash. I have come to know this man and let me tell
you that he will never stop amazing you. Behind the image, the badge, his reputation,
and all the stuff you read about him you will find a man that is just looking
for a way to make his family proud of him.
Jesus Eddie
Campa has always had two passions in life.
His main passion can be seen in the work that he does as Police Chief
for the Marshall Police Department. His
passion for serving his community can be seen in every step he takes as the
Police Chief of Marshall. His second
passion is following professional wrestling.
So much so that he owned and wrestled in many independent wrestling
promotions. The biggest wrestling
promotion Campa was a part of was the Alliance of Lucha Libre Wrestling
Association (ALLWA), which he went on to become world champion of.
I just thought
it would be fun to add a few lines to this story that was done by the Marshall
News Messenger sometime back. I truly enjoyed
the story and thought that I would post it here once more. My
name is Ricardo Munoz and to those that read my blog @ Elreylucha.com know that
when it comes to the world of Lucha Libre I only write about the great
ones. Deputy Jesus Eddie Campa as I knew
him had always been a head of his time and a head of the game, be it in the
world of Lucha or in the police world.
Chief JesusEddieCampa.com a has a nice ring to it, pareja. Please
enjoy the story from the Marshall Messenger.
By day,
Marshall Police Chief Jesus "Eddie" Campa was known as Chief Deputy
of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
By night, he
was "El Jefe," the villainous boss of the Alliance of Lucha Libre
Wrestling Association.
It all started
as a joke. He was just trying to help a friend draw interest to his ballroom.
"I was
working an off-duty job at a grocery store back home, and a friend of mine who
was a general manager at the store decided to open up a ballroom," Campa
said. "He opened up this ballroom, and he wasn't having any luck renting
it out."
His friend
decided to host boxing matches - Campa used to do amateur boxing and kickboxing
- as a way to draw interest to the space in hopes that people would want to
rent it out for for weddings and quinceañeras.
"It's more
of a headache than it's really worth, so I said 'Well what do we do,' and he
said 'I don't know let's do wrestling,'" Campa said. "I said,
'Wrestling?' He said 'Yeah like professional wrestling lucha libre let's do
that.'"
Growing up in
El Paso with a Hispanic family, Campa had dreamed of becoming a professional
wrestler.
"We border
Mexico, and in Mexico wrestling's really big," he said. "It's known
as lucha libre (with) colorful costumes, colorful masks.
"As a kid,
you kind of grow up watching it because it was on every television station, so
you see the fancy masks and the costumes and the athleticism of the wrestlers,
the flips and acrobats so you become attracted to it. I just remember growing
up saying I wanted to become a wrestler. I want to be one of those guys."
An uncle who
wrestled as "The Mongolian" tried to deter Campa from the profession,
citing low pay as the main reason. He stressed for Campa to get an education
instead.
As Campa grew
older, he realized his dream wouldn't become a reality ... even though he said
it would have been cool.
Instead, he
went to college and joined the EPCSO. All was going smoothly until his friend
needed help gaining publicity for his ballroom. After deciding to host the
wrestling event and gaining expertise from friends who were in the wrestling
business, it took off.
"Next
thing you know, we're looking for sponsors to buy us a wrestling ring, and his
(co-worker's) dad starts telling us 'Well you have to have a commissioner, you
have to have a owner, building the story,' " Campa said. "Well, OK,
who's going to be the commissioner and everyone turns around and looks at me;
OK, well I'm the Vince McMahon. So I started seeing my little childhood dreams
coming to life."
Their first
wrestling show sold out and had guests foaming at the mouth wondering when the
next would be.
"Everyone
was like, 'When's the next show,' and we're like we don't know; we were just
trying to get people to come in and see the ballroom to have their wedding and
quinceañeras here, not turn it into wrestling ballroom," he said.
The promotion
was originally the Alliance of Lucha Libre of El Paso before becoming the
ALLWA/AWA sanctioned by the American Wrestling Association.
Campa was the
commissioner, ring announcer, host and time keeper, but it wasn't long before
he was thrown into the ring and taught how to wrestle.
"Getting
thrown around in the ring, oh it hurts, but it was kind of fun," he said.
"That's how my wrestling career got started. Next thing you know, I'm
getting thrown in matches as the Boss Man."
For six years,
Campa learned the ins and outs of the wrestling world, working both behind the
scenes and in front of the crowd, writing scripts, creating the good guys and
the bad guys and doing everything else in between.
"The
typical story was we had our good guy versus the owner of the company, and we
went into the match. If I lost, I'd have to give up control, and I lost and I
came back under a mask as Mr. Huesos, and no one knew who I was," he said.
"It was your typical story line, and the next thing you know I was the
good guy under the mask."
Wearing a black
mask and long pants and delivering a clothesline and spear to his opponents,
Campa eventually won the World Championship title, an experience he said he
won't forget.
"It was
awesome. It was a dream come true. The first time I was booed, so it wasn't as
cool as I thought it was, but when I won it the second time, I was the good
guy, so it was really cool hearing people roaring, chanting your name. It sends
chills up and down your spine," he said.
After the
release of the movie "Nacho Libre," it propelled the ALLWA into the
spotlight as they toured in San Antonio, Las Cruces and Colorado and attracted
wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero.
"It was
like a dream come true," Campa said. "It kind of started off as kind
of a joke, and the next thing you know, we ran for about six years."
In the end, the
competition forced them to close their doors.
"I don't know
if people know the difference between independent wrestling and your
professional companies," he said. "It's hard for an independent to
work out because you have limited sponsorship. It's an expensive hobby."
Given the
chance, Campa said he would do it all again.
"I always
tell people if I win the lottery, I will drop everything that I'm doing and
we'll become the next (Extreme Championship Wrestling). We'll start small, and
then expand and become a global force - but of course that's all delusions that
I have," he said. "I miss those days, those were some fun days."
