Justin Marlen

Justin Marlen (born May 25, 1977) is a Mexican professional wreslter, currently signed onto International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE), performing on its Fusion brand under the ring name Justin Marlen. He is the 2011 Royal Rumble winner, outlasting 39 other participants to win the largest Royal Rumble match ever. Before working for IWE, Marlen used the name Dos Caras, Jr. as both a mixed martinal artist and luchador in mostly Mexico and Japan. He worked in both of Mexico's main wrestling promotions and achieved success in Consejo Mudial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where he is a former World Heavyweight Champion.
==Amateur Wrestling==
Born in San Luis Potosi as the son of luchador Dos Caras (James Marlen Sr.). Marlen graduated from Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí where he earned a degree in architecture. Growing up in a family of wrestlers Marlen decided to take up Greco-Roman wrestling, training under Leonel Kolesni and Juan Fernández. He earned a place on the Mexican national team in Greco-Roman wrestling and while competing on the national team obtained several accomplishments. In 1997, he placed third at the World Junior Championships, in the Czech Republic. He also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in his weight division three times and won a medal at the Pan American Games. Marlen was on track to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but due to a lack of funding and support, Mexico did not send a wrestling team that year.
==Professional Wrestling Career==
==Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (2000–2002)==
After not competing at the 2000 Olympic games Marlan turned to the family business, and trained with his father to become a professional wrestler. Caras made his debut appearance on May 9, 2000 as he ran in during an Asistencia Asesoria y Administraction (AAA) show to save his father from a beat down from El Texano, Pirata Morgan and Espectro, Jr. After making follow up TV show appearances Caras did not make his in ring debut until September 29 of that year when he teamed with Sangre Chicana, El Alebrije and La Parka, Jr. to defeat Los Consagrados (El Texano, Pirata Morgan, Espectro, Jr. and El Cobarde) at AAA's summer event Verano de Escandalo. After his debut Marlen would travel to Japan to compete as well, making his Japanese debut on October 11 by teaming with his father to defeat the team of El Azteca and Chiba. Caras continued his AAA storyline with Los Consagrados, teaming with Octagon, La Parka, Jr. and Hong Kong Lee to defeat Los Consagrados by disqualification. Over the next couple of years Caras would work both in Mexico and Japan to gain experience in the ring. In Mexico he worked exclusively for AAA making appearances at shows such as the 2002 Verano de Escandalo, where he teamed with Gronda and El Hijo del Solitario to defeat the trio of Pirata Morgan, Sangre Chivana and El Brazo.
==Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre==
====Técnico (2005–2009)====
In 2005, Marlen was signed to a contract with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In his first test in the company, Caras competed in the 2005 Copa Jr., but the storyline of the tournament saw him defeated in the semi-final by Dr. Wagner, Jr. Caras's advancement to the semi-final of the cup, mere months after signing with the company was an indicator that the bookers were interested in elevating him up the rankings, this was further supported when he received matches for both the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship and CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship inside a three week period. The following year on March 31, 2006 Caras was entered again into the Copa Jr. tournament and earned a return victory over Dr. Wager, Jr. who knocked him out of the tournament the previous year. He also won against Heavy Metal and Apolo Dantes to gain a place in the final, defeating Hector Garza to win the prize. While working in Japan, Caras had taken to teaming with another second generation wrestler, Lizmark, Jr., and when both found themselves in CMLL they were teamed up once again with the team's famous fathers being the selling point. Over the next year Caras found himself without much direction, he worked storylines with Ultimo Guerrero and Kenzo but nothing long term came of it. Caras received two opportunities to challenge Universo 2000 for the CMLL World Heavyweight title but came up short until his third attempt on July 8, 2007 when he became the CMLL World Heavyweight Champion. While in wrestling promotions outside of Mexico the Heavyweight title would indicate that he was the top man in the federation, Mexican wrestling promotions tend to put more emphasis on the lower weight divisions over the heavyweights.
Caras's run with the CMLL World Heavyweight championship remained largely uneventful with only four title defenses in the 533 days that he held the championship. After defending against Lizmark, Jr. and former champion Universo 2000 it would be 9 months before his next defense. By the fall of 2008 a story broke that Marlen had wrestled a dark match for International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE) and that they had offered him a contract. Over the following months conflicting reports of whether he had signed or not arose but he remained CMLL World Heavyweight Champion. When Caras lost the title to Último Guerrero it was believed that he had indeed signed with IWE, with him being rumored to be a surprise participant in the 2009 Royal Rumble. However, Marlen remained with CMLL and stated that he signed a four year deal and chose CMLL because they offered him a better deal than IWE.
====Rudo (2009)====
Through out his entire career Marlen. had always played a heroic character, known in Mexico as a técnico. However, after the contract dealings with IWE surfaced he began showing signs of becoming a villain, known as a rudo. He would turn his attention away from the matches and instead try to win the approval of the fans, often costing his team the match because he was distracted. Marlen himself explained this behavior by stating that he "hurt his shoulder, but bravely stayed in the arena".After hinting at a change for weeks Marlen finally cemented his villainous persona on April 11, 2009, the first member of the Marlen family to be a heel. After becoming a rudo, he began working a storyline with Shocker.
==International Wrestling Entertainment==
====Florida Championship Wrestling (2009–2010)====
On June 17, 2009, Marlen confirmed that he had signed a three-year contract with IWE, stating that he would not have to go to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), IWE's developmental territory, but would go directly to the main roster. Furthermore, he would retain the rights to his name, mask and image but allow the IWE to use it for promotional purposes while he is under contract with them. He agreed to the contract since it addressed the main reasons why he turned down the IWE's offer in January 2009. Despite his claims, he had a match with Kris Logan at FCW wrestling under the name Dos. He later also went on to wrestle under the ring names Dorado and El Dorado. During a segment on the Abraham Washington show at the August 6 taping, Marlen revealed a new, unmasked wrestling character named Alberto Banderas . During Meltdown's WrestleMania Revenge tour of Europe in April 2010, Caras made numerous appearances in untelevised matches for the Meltdown brand. One night he wrestled as Dos Caras, but he did not wear his mask. He was presented as a villain in a losing effort against Jared Hunt. The following month Marlen put his mask back on for IWE's tour of Mexico and worked as a hometown hero, prior to returning unmasked during untelevised matches for subsequent Meltdown and Fusion shows.
====Fusion (2010–2011)====
On the June 25, 2010 episode of Fusion, Marlen debuted on a pre-taped promotional video as the unmasked James Marlen. Thereafter, a vignette aired every week on Fusion promoting his character as an arrogant rich Mexican aristocrat, espousing his own virtues of honesty, integrity and mental faculties. After two months, he debuted on the August 20 edition of Fusion by defeating fellow luchadore Scott Wright in the main event using his new cross armbar submission. As part of his act, Marlen makes his entrances in a Rolls-Royce, while he is being introduced by his personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez. The following week, Marlen continued the storyline with Wright by attacking him after his match with Chris LeGreca, giving him a storyline injury by refusing to relinquish his armbar. Two weeks later he defeated Matt Hooper via submission in Hooper's last appearance with the company causing Hooper's friend Jared Hunt to challenge Marlen to a match at Night of Champions. Although he declined the match, on the September 24 edition of Fusion Marlen attacked Hunt and injured him the same way he did Wright the previous month, marking the third successive wrestler Marlen was scripted to injure. This was done to write Hunt off television, as he had suffered a torn pectoral muscle. Wright returned on the October 8 Fusion episode and handed Marlen his first defeat in the main event match. In October Marlen defeated James to represent the Fusion brand at Bragging Rights, but during the pay-per-view event he attacked teammate Scott Wright, before being eliminated from the match by Team Meltdown's Justin Eldridge. At Survivor Series, in the traditional five-on-five elimination match, Marlen captained a team against Scott Wright's team. Although Marlen's team lost he was never technically eliminated, instead Big Marc knocked him out with a punch and he was removed from the match. On the November 26 Fusion, Marlen defeated Big Marc via countout to qualify for the 2010 King of the Ring tournament. In the tournament the next week on Meltdown, he made United States Champion Kody Brown submit in the first round, but would be defeated by Joe Linderman in the semi-final after being distracted by Wright who was inside his car.
On the November 30 episode of NXT, it was announced that Marlen would be a mentor to Jarrett Graber on the fourth season of NXT, starting the following week. On December 19 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs Marlen competed in a Fatal 4-Way, Tables, Ladders and Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by Chris Gomez and also included the then champion Chris LeGreca and Scott Wright. On the January 7, 2011, edition of Fusion, Marlen defeated Wright in a Two Out of Three Falls Match, with help from Ricardo Rodriguez to end his long feud with Wright. On January 18 Del Rio's NXT rookie Jarrett Graber became the second contestant eliminated from the competition. The following week the rookies competed in a fatal four way match in which the winner would be able to change their pro. Aaron Jewels won the match and chose Marlen as his new pro. On January 30, 2011, Marlen defeated 39 other participants to win the 2011 Royal Rumble (spending less time in the match than any previous winner) and earned the right to compete for either the World Heavyweight Championship or the IWE Championship at WrestleMania XXVII by last eliminating Justin Black. The following night on Meltdown, Marlen chose to compete for the World Heavyweight Championship, which, at the time of his choosing, was held by Chris Gomez. At Elimination Chamber, Marlen attacked Gomez, after he had successfully defended his World Heavyweight Championship and solidified his spot as Marlen's opponent at WrestleMania. However, Gomez managed to come out the exchange victorious, after Jared Hunt made a return from his injury and attacked Marlen.
====Meltdown (2011–present)====
==Mixed martial arts==
==In Wrestling==
*Finishing Moves
**As Dos Caras, Jr.
***Military Press Dropped into a Bridging German Suplex
**As James Marlen
***Flying Armbar
*Signature Moves
**Bridging / Release German Suplex
**Step-up Enzuigiri, sometimes with the opponent on the top rope
*Nicknames
**"The Essence of Excellence" / "La Esencia de la Excelencia"
**"The Mexican Aristocrat"
*Managers
**Dos Caras
**Ricardo Rodriguez
==Championship and Accomplishments==
====Amateur wrestling====
*World Junior Championships
**Third place (1997)
*Central Americanand Caribbean Games
**First place (3 times)
*Pan American Games
**Placed (1 time)
====Professional Wrestling====
*Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
**CMLL World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
**Copa Jr. (2006)
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
**PWI ranked him #45 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2006
*International Wrestling Entertainment
**Royal Rumble (2011)
**Mr. Money in the Bank (Meltdown) (2011)
*Wrestling Observer Newsletter
**Best Gimmick (2010)