Palomeque received further training from famous Mexican wrestling coaches
Diablo Velasco and
Ray Mendoza before changing his character and ring name to "Pequeño Samurai"—a masked persona patterned after the Japanese
Samurai tradition. In 1991, Palomeque began working for
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; Spanish for "World Wrestling Council"), the biggest wrestling promotion in Mexico at that time. In CMLL, he worked as Furor, another masked ring persona. While working as Furor, Palomeque won his first
Luchas de apuestas, or "bet match" when he defeated his mentor El Noruego in a match where Noruego's hair and Palomeque's mask was at stake. The following year at
Triplemanía II-A he teamed up with
Rey Misterio and
Rey Misterio Jr. to defeat the team known as
Los Destructores (Tony Arce, Vulcano, and Rocco Valente). In 1995, Winners participated in a
Relevos Suicidas Tag Team match, in which the losing team members have a match of their own, with the loser of that encounter being forced to unmask. Winners team won the match, keeping him from having to defend his mask in a match. Eight days later at
Triplemanía III-B, Winners' mask was on the line in a match against Marabunta; Winners defeated Marabunta in a
Luchas de Apuestas, Mask vs. Mask match. On June 30, 1995, at
Triplemanía III-C, Winners participated in another "mask vs. mask" match, his third in three weeks. This time, Winners was not successful, as he lost to Super Caló and was forced to unmask. A month later, Winners, Caló,
La Parka and El Mexicano defeated
Jerry Estrada,
Fishman,
Villano IV, and May Flowers in one of the featured matches of
Triplemanía IV-C.
Abismo Negro In January 1997, Palomeque's character was changed from that of the quintessential heroic ladies' man known as "Winners", to that of a cheating
villain (referred to as a
Rudo) known as "Abismo Negro". Part of his new routine as Abismo Negro was a flamethrower display, created by using a lighter and an
Aerosol spray can. Shortly after his debut as Abismo Negro, he made his
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut on the January 19, 1997, episode of the
WWF Free For All pay-per-view event pre–show before the
1997 Royal Rumble. On the telecast, Negro teamed with
Heavy Metal and
Histeria in a losing effort against the team of
Octagón,
Blue Demon Jr., and
Tinieblas Jr. in a six-man tag team match. This match was one of the early results of a working relationship between the WWF and AAA that had been created in late 1996. Los Vipers engaged in several scripted rivalries with other AAA groups, such as the group of masked wrestlers dressed as clowns known as Los Payasos. They also had a long-running rivalry with Los Vatos Locos—consisting of Espiritu, Picudo,
Nygma, May Flowers, and Silver Cat during the rivalry—over the
Mexican National Atómicos Championship. Los Vipers won the Atómicos titles from Los Vatos on several occasions, but Negro was not part of the teams that won. Palomeque wrestling as Abismo Negro did capture a title of his own when he defeated Pentagón on May 19, 1998, to win the
Mexican National Middleweight Championship, a title he held until January 1999. In 1999, Los Vipers split into two factions, with Abismo Negro leading a splinter group called
Los Vipers Extreme consisting of Electroshock, Pentagón,
Shiima,
El Cuervo and Mini Abismo Negro while Cibernético created a group called
Los Vipers Primera Clase (First Class Vipers). After less than two months, the
angle was dropped and Los Vipers reunited. Not long after Los Vipers reunited, Cibernético formed a group called Lucha Libre Latina (LLL), a group intent on taking over AAA that was inspired by
World Championship Wrestling's
New World Order. In 2000, Palomeque participated in a AAA tour of Japan and competed at
Triplemanía VIII, where he was on the losing side of an eight-man tag team match main event; Negro teamed with Cibernetico,
Shiima Nobunaga and Electro Shock against Octagón,
Jushin Thunder Liger,
Latin Lover and Cuije. While touring with AAA, Palomeuqe also made an appearance at
Michinoku Pro's April 9 Sumo Hall card, where he defeated
Oriental. On May 7, Abismo Negro and Electroshock regained the Mexican National Tag Team title by defeating Haytor and the Panther but only held on to the title for two months before losing it to
Héctor Garza and Perro Aguayo Jr. Negro became one of the driving forces in LLL's feud with AAA owner Antonio Peña and his AAA loyalists. Over the years, Negro feuded with the top técnicos of AAA such as
La Parka Jr., Octagón and Latin Lover. Negro's position as one of AAA's top workers was cemented on March 5, 2000, when he competed in AAA's annual
Rey de Reyes tournament. In the opening round, he defeated
Dos Caras, Killer and Psicosis II and in the finals, he defeated
El Alebrije,
Charly Manson and Cibernético to win the 2000 Rey de Reyes tournament. Negro's status as a main eventer caused storyline problems between LLL's leader Cibernético and Abismo Negro, leading to a series of matches between the two to see who should lead Los Vipers. On September 29, 2000, Negro defeated Cibernético in a one on one match at
Verano de Escandalo (2000). When the two faced off in a
steel cage match at
Guerra de Titanes (2000), the match ended without a winner, after which the rivalry between the leader and the deputy leader was put on the back burner. In 2001, Negro almost won Rey de Reyes again, but La Parka Jr. defeated him in the finals. His string of losses continued at
Triplemanía IX, where the LLL team of Abismo Negro, Cibernético, Electroshock and Mascara Maligna lost to Mascara Sagrada, El Alebrije, Octagón and La Parka Jr. when Negro was forced to submit. In 2000 Abismo Negro won the hair of the Panther in
Lucha del reves match, a contest where two masked wrestlers put their hair on the line instead of their mask. In 2004, LLL was phased out in favor of a new super group known as
La Legión Extranjera or the Foreign Legion in English, which meant that Los Vipers now regularly teamed with foreign wrestlers, especially
NWA-TNA performers such as
Abyss.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2004) In 2004, TNA and AAA began a working relationship that saw TNA wrestlers work in Mexico and AAA wrestlers make several appearances on TNA's
weekly pay-per-views. Managed by AAA owner Antonio Peña, Palomeque, working as Abismo Negro, along with Héctor Garza,
Juventud Guerrera,
Mr. Águila, and later Heavy Metal, worked for TNA as
Team AAA in the
TNA 2004 America's X Cup Tournament. The team made their debut on January 28, 2004, at TNA Weekly pay-per-view event #78, defeating the team of
Eric Young,
Shark Boy,
Matt Stryker and
Chad Collyer. In the following weeks, Negro and Team AAA won against
Elix Skipper, the team of
Jerry Lynn and
Sonjay Dutt and finally all of
Team USA in a 4 on 4 match to claim the Americas X Cup. Four weeks later Team AAA successfully defended the X Cup against
Team Canada, as Abismo Negro and Juventud Guerrera defeated the team of
Teddy Hart and
Jack Evans to tie the score between the two teams, allowing for a final four-on-four elimination match that Team AAA won. Abismo Negro and the rest of Team AAA returned for the
2004 World X Cup Tournament where they now competed as "Team Mexico". Abismo Negro remained undefeated until April 7, 2004, when his team lost to James Mason and Jason Allgood in one of the first matches of the World X Cup Tournament. Later in the night, Team Mexico defeated
Team UK to even the score. The World Cup saw Team Mexico lose to Team USA, Team Canada (Eric Young and
Bobby Roode), and Team Japan (
Ryuji Hijikata and Mitsu Hirai Jr.). Team Mexico tied in points with Team USA and Team Canada, which meant that a representative of each team met in an
Ultimate X match to determine the winner of the tournament. Héctor Garza represented Mexico, but in the end Team USA's
Chris Sabin won the match and the tournament.
Return to AAA (2005-2009) After the World X Cup tournament ended, Negro returned to AAA full-time taking full charge of Los Vipers. AAA hinted at a possible técnico
turn when Negro, along with Psicosis and
Mini Psicosis, attacked Cibernético. The two faced off in a cage match, won by Cibernético, but they eventually reconciled their differences once more. At some point after 2005, Abismo Negro won the hair of
Stuka Jr. in a Lucha del reves match. The on again, off again storyline with Cibernético was put on hold when Cibernético suffered a severe knee injury in late 2006.
Black Abyss In late 2007, AAA created a ring persona for a new wrestler called
Black Abyss; the gimmick featured the same mask and attire as Negro and used a similar wrestling style to Negro as well. Initially, it was believed that this was done because there were rumors of him jumping to CMLL or to cover several
no-shows. During the fall of 2008, AAA pushed the storyline further by having Black Abyss "injure" Negro with his own trademark move the "Martinete". Subsequently, the storyline between Negro and Black Abyss seemed to be building to a Luchas de Apuestas fight between the two, with their masks on the line. Both Abismo and Black Abyss were booked in the same four-way elimination match qualifier at the
Rey de Reyes (2009) event. Negro was able to eliminate Black Abyss from the match but was in turn eliminated by Latin Lover. Black Abyss still competed under the Black Abyss name, still as a rudo, but seemingly only a couple times on TV since then. Black Abyss has stated his wishes to continue with the character to honor the memory of Abismo Negro, but AAA didn't shown a lot of interest in using it on TV. In October 2010 it was reported that Black Abyss had left AAA.
Abismo Negro II On September 27, 2011, AAA announced the start of a competition to find a new Abismo Negro. In the end no one was chosen to take over the Abismo Negro character. ==Personal life==