Franco Colombo

Javier Esparza Coronado, known throughout Mexican lucha libre as Franco Colombo (also spelled Franco Columbo), was born on August 11, 1953, in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Wrestling databases sometimes list his surname as Descalza, but his niece Yadira Esparza and nephew Aldo Esparza publicly identified him as Javier Esparza Coronado, and Spanish-language obituaries followed that family spelling. He grew up in the sierra without knowing lucha libre until his brothers brought him to the city and he watched televised cards from Arena Coliseo de Occidente. He fell in love with the sport at once, tried several gyms, and finally found Cuauhtemoc "Diablo" Velasco, the legendary Guadalajara trainer who accepted him as a student.

Colombo spent about five years on Olympic wrestling and Greco-Roman foundations before Velasco cleared him for the professional ring. Fellow wrestler Americo Rocca gave him the ring name Franco Colombo. He debuted in September 1975 at Arena Coliseo in San Luis Potosi and, after recommendations from El Solitario, Angel Blanco, and Alfonso Dantes, reached Mexico City in 1977. He started on Arena Coliseo's popular Tuesday cards for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), the promotion later known as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).

On November 1, 1980, substituting for Kung Fu after a disagreement with the office, Colombo defeated Americo Rocca at Pista Revolucion to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship. He defended it against opponents such as Mario "La Fiera" Valenzuela and Mocho Cota before dropping the title to El Supremo on February 1, 1981. Wrestling Title Histories and later summaries credit him with two Mexican National Welterweight reigns and with the Occidente Welterweight Championship. Roughly 5'8" and about 185 pounds in his prime, he was known for a Fujiwara armbar and plancha suicida, and he briefly wrestled under the mask as La Silueta.

His apuestas record was busy and bruising. Hair-versus-hair and mixed mask-and-hair matches in Mexico City, Puebla, and Cuernavaca put him opposite names such as Dr. O'Borman, Gran Cochisse, Guerrero Negro, Divino Roy, Jerry Estrada, Hombre Verde, Javier Cruz, and Los Destructores. One of the most notorious nights of his career came on August 17, 1982, at Arena Coliseo: teaming with El Faisan against Manuel Robles and Panico in a mask-and-hair versus mask-and-hair bout, conflicting referee decisions created a near-riot. Under pressure from an angry crowd, Colombo accepted a shave while El Faisan unmasked; the Box y Lucha commission later ordered Robles shaved and Panico unmasked as well. A spinal injury suffered at Pista Revolucion left him unable to walk for about a year. He wrestled for roughly fifteen years before retiring from active competition in the late 1990s.

After he left the ring, CMLL owner Paco Alonso persuaded him to stay as a trainer and then as part of the programming (booking) team alongside Jose Luis Feliciano and Juan Manuel Mar (Panico). For close to two decades Colombo helped shape weekly cards at Arena Mexico and Arena Coliseo, rising to second-in-command of CMLL booking. Students and talent he helped polish include Mistico, Los Guerreros Laguneros, Atlantis Jr., Star Jr., and Dark Panther. In interviews with La Tijera Lucha Libre he said he carried Diablo Velasco's discipline and would gladly teach anyone willing to learn. During the COVID-19 pandemic the company offered half pay; he chose to retire from programming around early 2021 rather than continue under those terms, closing a career that had spanned in-ring, coaching, and matchmaking roles.

Colombo died on September 20, 2026, at age 73. Yadira Esparza announced the death on Facebook, asking for prayers and remembering family outings with her uncle. Superluchas, Heraldo Deportes, Mas Lucha, and other lucha outlets confirmed the news. Cause of death was not made public. Across Guadalajara gyms, Arena Mexico offices, and generations of CMLL talent, he left the imprint of a welterweight champion who became one of the quiet architects of modern Mexican lucha libre.