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74-589: Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (23 September 1917 – 5 February 1984), best known by his ring name El Santo ( English : "The Saint"), was a Mexican luchador enmascarado (or masked professional wrestler ), actor and folk hero . He is one of the most famous and iconic Mexican luchadores , and has been referred to as one of "the greatest legends in Mexican sports". His wrestling career spanned nearly five decades, during which he became

148-744: A Luchas de Apuestas (Spanish for "Bet match"). During this time, he also feuded with Negro Casas , who would become his most important opponent, and took his hair in a 1987 match in the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium. In 1990, he debuted in Japan for Gran Hamada's Universal Lucha Libre promotion and moved up a weight class by winning the UWA World Welterweight Championship as well as the WWA Welterweight Championship . In late 1991, he left WWA and vacated

222-577: A brief cameo in the Batman '66 comic series, based on the Batman TV series that originally aired in the 1960s. They aid Batman in defeating the evil luchador Bane after Batman cuts Bane off from using Venom to boost his strength. Just over a year after his retirement (in late January 1984), El Santo was a guest on Contrapunto , a Mexican television program and, without warning, removed his mask just enough to expose his face, in effect bidding his fans goodbye. It

296-470: A court ruled in favor of Axxel, allowing him to again begin working as El Nieto del Santo. In July 2016, another one of El Santo's grandchildren and the son of El Hijo del Santo began working under the name "El Santo Jr." On 23 September 2016, to honor the 99th birthday of El Santo, Google Doodle ran a special El Santo Google doodle for that day. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2018 as part of

370-462: A few others, their real name. One notable exception was made for David Otunga because of his real marriage to singer Jennifer Hudson at the time, which gave WWE some mainstream exposure. Low Ki used the alias "Senshi" during his second TNA stint to reserve his primary ring name for other use. A similar example is the team known as The Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWE and Team 3D elsewhere. WWE trademarked

444-701: A folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man through his appearances in luchador films and comic books telling fictionalized stories of El Santo fighting for justice. He starred or co-starred in at least 53 movies between 1958 and 1982. During his career, he mainly wrestled for Mexican promotion Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre , where he won the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship , Mexican National Middleweight Championship , Mexican National Tag Team Championship with Rayo de Jalisco , Mexican National Welterweight Championship , NWA World Middleweight Championship and

518-458: A hair vs. mask match. The match was made a triangle match on December 6, 1996. Santo took El Dandy's hair in a bloody match in front of a sold-out crowd in Arena Mexico. The feud would continue until the 64th anniversary show on September 19, 1997, where Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo faced off in a dramatic hair vs. mask match. El Hijo del Santo won the match and began a slow face turn. Although

592-655: A mythos and background for Santo, as the last of a long line of superheroes. It was an enormous success at the box office. Only four of the 53 Santo films were ever dubbed into English, the other 48 being only available in Spanish. The English-dubbed Mexican films of that time period were imported to the United States through the efforts of K. Gordon Murray who changed the name of Santo to "Samson" for some of his releases. Most of Murray's imported Mexi-films went directly to late-night American TV. Santo's most financially successful film

666-403: A number of action/adventure films, their rivalry never really ended in later years since Santo always remembered his defeat at Blue Demon's hands. El Santo was known to never remove his mask, even in private company. When traveling on flights, he made sure to take a different flight than his crew to avoid having them see his face when he was required to remove his mask to get through customs. By

740-454: A part of it. Lomelí suggested three names, "El Santo" ("The Saint"), "El Diablo" ("The Devil") or "El Angel" ("The Angel"), and Guzmán chose the first one. On 26 July, aged 24, he wrestled at the Arena México for the first time as El Santo, although he later was known simply as "Santo". Under this new name he quickly found his style. One of Santo's greatest matches was in 1952, when he fought

814-468: A tag-team known as Los Hermanos Shadow (which consisted of famed luchadors Blue Demon and the Black Shadow ). Santo beat and unmasked Black Shadow in the ring, which triggered Blue Demon's decision to become a técnico , as well as a legendary feud between Santo and Blue Demon that culminated in his defeat in a well-publicized series of matches in 1952 and again in 1953. Although they appeared together in

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888-751: A variation of it, sometimes modifying the spelling to better fit their gimmick , such as Dave Bautista becoming Batista (later reverting to his real name for his Hollywood acting career), Patricia Stratigeas becoming Trish Stratus , Jonathan Good becoming Jon Moxley , Bryan Danielson becoming Daniel Bryan (when he wrestled in WWE), Richard Fliehr becoming Ric Flair and Randall Poffo becoming Randy Savage . Others simply use part of their name, such as Bill Goldberg using Goldberg , Nicole Garcia-Colace using Nikki Bella , Mike Mizanin using The Miz , Cody Runnels using Cody Rhodes , and Michael Wardlow using Wardlow . Many female wrestlers go solely by their first name such as. It

962-604: A very successful team with Negro Casas . Over the span of his career, Guzmán has held various championships, most significantly the AAA World Tag Team Championship , Mexican National Middleweight Championship , Mexican National Trios Championship , Mexican National Welterweight Championship , CMLL World Tag Team Championship , UWA World Lightweight Championship , UWA World Welterweight Championship , WWA Tag Team Championship and WWA World Welterweight Championship as well as an honorary championship awarded by

1036-587: Is a highly respected tradition in Mexican lucha libre for performers to hide their true identities, usually wrestling under masks, and revealing a luchador's identity without their permission is considered a serious offence with real-life consequences. Professional wrestlers are often referred to by their contemporaries by their ring name. In interviews, Bret Hart regularly referred to Mark Calaway, Curt Hennig, and Kevin Nash by their ring names ( The Undertaker , Mr. Perfect , and Diesel ). Ring names are often trademarked by

1110-448: Is also common for wrestlers of all genders to use a nickname in addition to their real name for marketability and other reasons. Ricky Steamboat is an atypical instance of a wrestler adopting a ring name to sound less intimidating, as his legal name of Richard Blood was considered unfitting for his babyface persona. Some (mostly independent ) wrestlers still go to great lengths to ensure that their real names are not publicly known. It

1184-518: Is immortalized in the rockabilly band Southern Culture on the Skids ' 1996 album Santo Swings!/Viva el Santo . Santo is often resurrected in Southern Culture's live performances when an audience member jumps onstage donning Santo's mask. The Latin ska band King Changó released an album titled The Return of El Santo . Turkish actor Yavuz Selekman portrayed an unlicensed version of Santo in

1258-421: Is planning on letting one of his own sons use the "El Nieto del Santo" name. These days, the grandson of El Santo works as "Axxel" and only uses "El Nieto del Santo" as an unofficial nickname to avoid any legal issues. Axxel uses the same trademark mask, cape and trunk design as El Santo but has incorporated black trim and knee pads, presumably not to infringe on the legal rights of El Hijo del Santo. In August 2012,

1332-547: Is referred to by Mexican rock band Botellita de Jerez in their song El Guacarrock Del Santo, in which they speak of Santo's victories in the ring and in the movies as well as the great respect he was given as a Mexican movie hero. Jeffrey Bell , writer/director of the American television series Angel , has stated that El Santo and his luchador brothers were an inspiration for the show's The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco episode. El Santo and several other masked wrestlers make

1406-477: Is the only documented case of Santo removing his mask in public. Santo died at a hospital from a heart attack (during a stage show he was putting on) on 5 February 1984, at 9:40 p.m., a week after his Contrapunto television appearance. He had been complaining of pain in his arm prior to his death. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried wearing his famous silver mask. Around 10 thousand people, including Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras, attended his funeral, which

1480-686: Is the subject of a comic book published and appeared on the Mexican reality show Día de Perros . He was also the star of a 5 episode animated series on the Mexican version of Cartoon Network titled Santo vs The Clones . In 2007, he became a spokesperson for Wildcoast , an environmental non-profit organization, and campaigned to save sea turtles on the Gulf of Mexico from extinction. He has also been involved in gray whale campaigns and Tijuana clean-ups on behalf of Wildcoast. Hijo del Santo has appeared in several films, first with his father and then on his own or with other famous luchadores. In 2001 he starred in

1554-648: The NWA World Welterweight Championship . Early in his career, he worked under a variety of ring names and gimmicks both masked and unmasked, before becoming El Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata ("The Man in the Silver Mask"), in 1942. Santo's brothers were also luchadores , with Black Guzmán being the first to make his debut and later Pantera Negra and Jimmy Guzmán joining them in wrestling as well. Only one of his eleven children followed him into professional wrestling, El Hijo del Santo ("The Son of

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1628-860: The World Boxing Council . He has also won the Leyenda de Plata tournament (held in honor of his father), the 1995 version of the CMLL International Gran Prix tournament and the 2004 Gran Alternativa tournament. In 1997, he was voted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame . His son wrestles under the ring name Santo Jr., becoming the third-generation Guzmán to use the name "Santo". Guzmán's uncles, Black Guzmán , Pantera Negra and Jimmy Guzmán were also wrestlers. His nephew Axxel originally wrestled as "El Nieto del Santo" ("The Grandson of El Santo"), but Guzmán owned

1702-482: The promotion that creates a character or gimmick for a performer. It is common to see one performer use a variety of ring names throughout their career, even if their overall persona remains similar. This is especially true in WWE , which has largely forced most wrestlers that have debuted since 2006 to use a WWE-owned ring name instead of a ring name that they used on the independent circuit or, such as with Daniel Bryan and

1776-406: The técnico side with Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje on the rudo (or heel) side. El Hijo del Santo came down to the ring with Scorpio and Salvaje but was wearing a disguise and pretending to be El Felino , the brother of Negro Casas. During the match, Scorpio and Salvaje began attacking Casas and the fans, unaware of the ruse, expected El Felino to save his brother from the beating. Once he entered

1850-728: The "Dudley Boyz" name, leading them to have to change their name when they went to TNA. The members' individual names were also trademarked by WWE, forcing them to have to change their names. WWE partially repealed the policy in 2015, allowing wrestlers who were well known in other promotions such as Samoa Joe , A.J. Styles , Shinsuke Nakamura , Austin Aries , Bobby Roode , and Eric Young to use their long-standing ring names (or, in Nakamura's and Roode's cases, their real names) as well as wrestlers who sign "Tier 2" NXT brand contracts such as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa , who wrestle both on NXT and

1924-536: The "La Novia del Santo" name, but El Santo took action and put an end to the unauthorized use of the name. In the 1990s, one of El Santo's 25 grandchildren made his professional debut. After gaining some seasoning under different identities, he began working as "El Nieto del Santo" (Spanish for "the Grandson of Santo") during the 2000s. El Hijo del Santo took legal actions to prevent this as he owns all "El Santo" rights when it comes to wrestling, presumably because he himself

1998-656: The 1920s, where they settled in the Tepito neighborhood. He practiced baseball and American football, and then became interested in various styles of wrestling and grappling . He first studied Ju-Jitsu and then later competed in amateur wrestling . Rodolfo has a brother who entered the wrestling business as well, Miguel, who is known as Black Guzmán (due to his dark skin). Accounts vary as to exactly when and where he first wrestled professionally, either in Arena Peralvillo Cozumel on 28 June 1934 or at Deportivo Islas in

2072-404: The 1940s. In Mexican cinemas, audience participation with the films was common. His best-known movie outside of Mexico is also considered one of his best, 1962's Santo contra las mujeres vampiro ("Santo vs. The Vampire Women"), which was also featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 . In this movie, the production values were better, and there was an attempt at creating more of

2146-539: The Guerrero colony of Mexico City in 1935, but by the second half of the 1930s, he was established as a wrestler, using the names "Rudy Guzmán", "Hombre Rojo" ("the Red Man"), "El Demonio Negro" ("The Black Demon") and "Murciélago Enmascarado II" ("The Masked Bat II"). The last name was the same as that of El Murciélago Enmascarado ("The Masked Bat"), and after an appeal by Murciélago to the Mexican boxing and wrestling commission,

2220-844: The Legacy Inductees of that year. A skeletal version of El Santo, complete with silver mask and cape, appears briefly in the 2017 Pixar film Coco as a guest at a party in the Land of the Dead, with actress María Félix as his date. Coco (movie) 2017 Ring name Ring names are much more common in professional wrestling than any other sport; famous examples include Terry Bollea becoming Hulk Hogan , Michael Shawn Hickenbottom becoming Shawn Michaels , Roderick Toombs becoming Roddy Piper , Dwayne Johnson becoming The Rock , Christopher Irvine becoming Chris Jericho , and Phillip Jack Brooks becoming CM Punk . A number of wrestlers adopted their real name or

2294-771: The Pro Wrestling Revolution Tag Team Championship from Brian Cage and Derek Sanders. On November 25, 2013, Santo announced a break to repair damage in his spinal area. After successful rehabilitation returned to the ring, teaming with his son El Santo Jr. at a Lucha Ilimitado card in Yakima, Washington on October 12, 2016, and closing out 2016 with two matches alongside his son in Tijuana on December 16 and in Ciudad Juarez on December 18. Like his father, Hijo del Santo has also crossed over into other media. He

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2368-501: The Saint") making his debut in 1982. El Hijo del Santo's son made his debut as "Santo Jr." in 2016. Another grandson (not a son of El Hijo del Santo) originally wrestled as "El Nieto del Santo" ("The Grandson of Santo"), but now works under the name Axxel. Santo is said to have popularized professional wrestling in Mexico just as Rikidōzan did in Japan. He was buried in his silver mask, in one of

2442-782: The Saint"), is a Mexican luchador enmascarado (or masked professional wrestler ) and political activist . He is the youngest child, out of eleven, of El Santo . Guzmán has also followed in his father's footsteps, as he has starred in several luchador films . He made his wrestling debut in February 1982 under the name El Korak , but officially adopted his most famous ring name and silver mask in October 1982. During his career, Guzmán has worked for every major Mexican wrestling promotion including Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre , Asistencia Asesoría y Administración , Universal Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Association as well as stints with

2516-662: The Welterweight title but continued to wrestle for UWA until the formation of Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). El Hijo del Santo regained the WWA Welterweight title and brought it with him to AAA. One of the first feuds he was put in was against Negro Casas' youngest brother, Heavy Metal . Heavy Metal took Hijo del Santo's WWA Welterweight title and won the Mexican National Welterweight Championship but Hijo del Santo would come out on top of

2590-488: The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE ) in the United States as well as working in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling , All Japan Pro-Wrestling and various other promotions. Early in his career, he formed a successful tag team with Eddie Guerrero called La Pareja Atomica , inspired by their fathers (El Santo and Gory Guerrero ) teaming up from the 1940s to the 1960s. From 1998 through 2006, he also formed

2664-477: The Zombies"). Santo was given the starring role with this film, and was shown for the first time as a professional wrestler moonlighting as a superhero. When Santo's film career took off in 1961, the producers of the first two films slyly entered Santo's name into the titles and finally got them released. Santo eventually wound up appearing in 53 luchador films in all (two of which were just cameo appearances). Because

2738-512: The angle was very successful and drew a lot of money for CMLL, Hijo del Santo continued to wrestle as a babyface throughout the country, even teaming with Rey Mysterio in Tijuana. Hijo del Santo began to be at odds with his heel allies, namely Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje. Finally, in September 1998, the face turn was made official when Hijo del Santo's partners, Villano III and Fuerza Guerrera turned on Santo. Scorpio Jr. and Salvaje joined in on

2812-471: The artist and editor José G. Cruz started a Santo comic book, turning Santo into the first and foremost character in Mexican popular literature, his popularity only rivalled in the 1960s by the legendary Kalimán character. The Santo comic book series (four different volumes) ran continuously for 35 years, ending in 1987. Santo also became an animated mini-series on Cartoon Network in Latin America , and

2886-515: The beat down, leading Santo's next big feud. Santo worked in the World Wrestling Federation from 1998 to 1999 for Super Astros; Spanish-language television program. Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo began teaming together and chased Scorpio and Salvaje's recently won CMLL World Tag Team Championship . They defeated Scorpio and Salvaje for the titles on February 5, 1999, by disqualification but Hijo del Santo and Casas refused to accept

2960-492: The biggest funerals in Mexico. Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre honors him with the annual Leyenda de Plata ("The Silver Legend") tournament. In 2018, WWE inducted Santo into their Hall of Fame 's Legacy wing. The fifth of seven children, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta was born on 23 September 1917, in Tulancingo , Hidalgo , son of Jesús Guzmán Campuzano and Josefina Huerta (Márquez) de Guzmán. Rodolfo's family came to Mexico City in

3034-613: The bootleg Turkish film 3 Dev Adam . This movie is also known in the United States as Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man. An unauthorized Santo appeared in three films directed by Lee Demarbre – Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter , Harry Knuckles and the Treasure of the Aztec Mummy , and Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace – in the films, Santo is portrayed by Jeff Moffe. He also

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3108-442: The critically acclaimed match that would receive a 5-star rating from Dave Meltzer but it was the last stand for Los Gringos Locos as Barr died three weeks later. AAA owner Antonio Peña tried to run an angle with an evil version of El Santo called "El Santo Negro" who supposedly came from South America. When the other members of Santo's family objected, the feud was scrapped and Hijo del Santo jumped to CMLL in 1995. The object of

3182-516: The early 1980s, El Santo slowed down his in-ring activities leading up to his inevitable retirement. His farewell tour was announced for August and September 1982. The first of three events took place on 22 August 1982 at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. On that night, Santo teamed up with El Solitario to take on Villano III and Rokambole , in a match that naturally saw the legends win. After

3256-415: The feud and took both titles from Heavy Metal before he lost them again to another young star, Psicosis . His most memorable feud during his time with AAA was against the American team, Los Gringos Locos . Eddy Guerrero 's stiffer Japanese style offense, combined with "Love Machine" Art Barr 's cocky mannerisms made Los Gringos Locos a very exciting yet hated tag team. During the feud, they played up

3330-534: The film Infraterrestre , which received positive reviews from critics such as the respected Mexican film critic, David Wilt. In 2007 he appeared in the film Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy (also known as Mil Mascaras: Resurrection ), which also received positive reviews. In March 2013, it was announced that one of Hijo del Santo's sons was going to travel to Japan to train in Pro Wrestling Noah wrestling school to prepare him for his wrestling debut under

3404-433: The films were produced quickly and cheaply, they relied on recycled plot structures and stereotypical characterization. The style of the movies was essentially the same throughout the series, with Santo as a superhero fighting supernatural creatures, evil scientists, various criminals, secret agents and so on. The tones were reminiscent of U.S. B-movies and TV shows, perhaps most similar to the old Republic Pictures serials of

3478-672: The first two movies, Santo contra el cerebro del mal ("Santo vs. the Evil Brain") and Santo contra hombres infernales ("Santo vs. the Infernal Men"), both made in 1958, and directed by Joselito Rodríguez. Filming was done in Cuba , and ended just the day before Fidel Castro entered Havana and declared the victory of the revolution. The films apparently could not find a distributor for several years. Santo's film career really took off in 1961 with his third movie Santo Contra los Zombies ("Santo vs.

3552-414: The hero. In 1958, Fernando Osés, a wrestler and actor, invited Santo to work in movies, and although Santo was unwilling to give up his wrestling career, he accepted, planning to do both at the same time. Osés was planning on playing the hero (a masked cop named "El Incognito") in these two films, with Santo appearing as his costumed sidekick, "El Enmascarado". Osés and Enrique Zambrano wrote the scripts for

3626-477: The independent circuit to keep their ring names (or, in Gargano's case, his real name). Gargano and Ciampa have since signed exclusive WWE contracts. "In-house" WWE wrestlers still use WWE-owned ring names. In rare cases, the rights to a wrestler's ring name may be owned by a company with little or no connection to professional wrestling, such as Marvel Comics ' ownership of the name Hulk Hogan until early 2003, which

3700-447: The jump was to revitalize his feud with Negro Casas. El Hijo del Santo lost a match to Casas at the CMLL 63rd Anniversary show on September 20, 1996, and took a brief hiatus. While gone, Negro Casas turned técnico (face) and his former allies, Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje said they had a surprise for Casas. The set-up was a trios match with Negro Casas, El Dandy and Héctor Garza on

3774-415: The legend of Santo, he won his last match and retired as the hero he always portrayed in the ring and on the screen. His retirement tour was also used to introduce Santo's son Jorge as the next generation El Santo, as he was ringside at each show wearing the silver mask and being introduced as El Hijo del Santo . In 1952, a superhero motion picture serial was made entitled The Man in the Silver Mask , which

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3848-462: The legend of the Silver Mask, wrestling as El Hijo del Santo wearing the silver mask, cape and outfit that is very close to what his father used to wear. While El Hijo del Santo is not as big an icon as his father, he is considered a more technically proficient wrestler. In the early 1960s, a female wrestler called "La Novia del Santo" (Spanish for "the Bride of El Santo") worked the Mexican circuit. Under

3922-700: The match, Villano and Rokambole lifted Santo up on their shoulders as he received the adulation of the sold-out arena. The following Sunday, Santo appeared at Arena México , where he teamed up with Gran Hamada to defeat Villano I and Scorpio. Santo's last match took place on 12 September 1982, a week before his 65th birthday. In his last ever match, Santo teamed up with Gory Guerrero who came out of retirement to reform "La Pareja Atómica" as they teamed up with Huracán Ramírez and El Solitario. Their opponents included one of Santo's biggest rivals in Perro Aguayo , as well as El Signo , Negro Navarro and El Texano . True to

3996-586: The old Pareja Atómica tag team which consisted of El Santo and Eddie's father, Gory Guerrero . Eddie turned on Santo, leading to a hair vs. mask challenge for the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view . The match was changed at the last minute when Barr pleaded with AAA officials to be included on the show which would be broadcast in the United States. The new match was a double hair versus double mask match with Santo teaming with Octagón against Los Gringos Locos. El Hijo del Santo and Octagón were victorious in

4070-684: The prefix "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Numerous boxers have used ring names or nicknames as their mode of identification during their professional boxing careers, particularly during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ring name "Kid" was particularly popular, indicating the boxer's comparative youth. Since the mid 20th century, ring names for boxers have typically been less common, although nicknames have become more popular in recent years. Famous examples of boxers who used ring names include: El Hijo del Santo Jorge Ernesto Guzmán Rodríguez (born August 2, 1963), best known under his ring name , El Hijo del Santo ( English : "The Son of

4144-697: The promotion that later became Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Arena Mexico , in the summer of 1983. He also was voted "Rookie of the Year" in Mexico. He won his first title, the UWA World Lightweight Championship , in October 1985 and traded the title with Aristóteles. He next feuded with Espanto Jr. (whose father feuded with the original El Santo) and Hijo del Santo took his mask. Espanto Jr. took Hijo del Santo's title but he regained it in 1988 and took Espanto Jr.'s hair as well after winning

4218-456: The regulatory body ruled that Guzmán could not use the name. In the early 1940s, Guzmán married María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Montaño (Maruca), a union that would produce eleven children; including his youngest child Jorge, who also became a famous wrestler in his own right, El Hijo del Santo ("The Son of Santo"). In 1942, Guzmán's manager, Don Jesús Lomelí, was putting together a new team of wrestlers, all dressed in silver, and wanted him to be

4292-600: The rights to the "Santo" name and objected. "Santito", as he is often called, was the only one of his father's 10 children to become a professional wrestler. He began wrestling without his father's consent in February 1982 as "El Korak" but he made his official debut as "El Hijo del Santo" in October of that year after he earned his college degree at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Communication Science per his father's request. He shared his father's look,

4366-481: The ring name "El Nieto del Santo" ("The Grandson of El Santo"). The training started in May 2013 and he was set to return to Mexico three months later for his official in-ring debut. El Nieto del Santo was the first masked wrestler to attend the wrestling school, in honor of the lucha libre traditions and anonymity of their enmascarados . He made his wrestling debut in 2015, working under the name "Tempestad", before adopting

4440-461: The ring, Hijo del Santo removed the disguise and revealed himself as Scorpio and Salvaje's partner, thus turning rudo for the first time in his career. The fans were irate and fistfights broke out in the crowd as Hijo del Santo attacked Casas. The feud helped ease sagging business caused by the split with AAA and the downturn of the Mexican economy . The following week, the two trios had a rematch and both El Dandy and Negro Casas challenged Santo to

4514-577: The roster. He returned to CMLL in the summer of 2004, initially to work with Místico to help him become a main eventer and to feud with Aguayo and his La Furia del Norte group. After the feud ended, he had a program with young Guerreros recruit Averno and they had a WWA Welterweight title match on October 22 where Hijo del Santo retained and ended his tour with the company. El Hijo del Santo has continued wrestling as an independent worker doing shows all over Mexico. He even started his own promotion called Todo x el Todo . The promotion's main show so far

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4588-500: The silver mask was Irma González , a well-known wrestler who had promised her fiancé that she would stop wrestling, but went back in the ring under a mask when she could not resist the draw of competition. La Novia got El Santo's blessing to use the name and is the only non-family member ever given the right to use the Santo name. Gonzáles only wrestled as "La Novia del Santo" for 7 months until she got married. Later on, another wrestler adopted

4662-480: The silver mask, tights and cape, and moves but he is shorter than his father was and, although he would never become the same cultural icon, he has been said to be a better in-ring performer than his father. Early in his career, he wrestled mainly for World Wrestling Association (WWA) (The Tijuana circuit) and Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) (a promotion that worked in the Mexico City area) but he did make his debut for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL),

4736-592: The titles. The big match in the feud was a mask/hair versus mask/hair tag match between the two teams at CMLL's 1999 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show. Santo and Casas were victorious and took the tag titles as well. El Hijo del Santo had a brief falling out with CMLL management and the tag titles were vacated. He returned and won the tag titles again with Casas from Los Guerreros del Infierno ( Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero ) but later lost them back to Los Guerreros in 2002. El Hijo del Santo took another sabbatical from CMLL with Perro Aguayo Jr. filling in his spot on

4810-578: The tournament. Around the time of Hijo del Santo's 25th Anniversary, the World Boxing Council (WBC) named him their "WBC World Wrestling Champion" complete with title belt due to his "significant accomplishments in wrestling". While the title is technically an honorary championship Hijo del Santo defended it several times in 2008. In 2008, Hijo del Santo began running shows in London , England featuring independent talent from Mexico. On May 11, 2013, Hijo del Santo and his rival, Blue Demon Jr., joined forces to win

4884-455: The wrestler's gimmick changes, either subtly or dramatically. After debuting in WWE as the " Connecticut Blueblood " Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Paul Levesque's character later morphed into Triple H . A more drastic change sometimes occurs when a wrestler turns heroic or villainous , such as when Hulk Hogan joined the villainous nWo (New World Order) and became "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. His new attitude

4958-647: Was The Mummies of Guanajuato (1970), which co-starred Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras . The Santo film series inspired the production of similar series of movies starring other well-known luchadores such as Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, Superzan, and the Wrestling Women (a.k.a. Las Luchadoras ), among others. Santo even co-starred with Blue Demon and Máscaras in several of his movies. Blue Demon invited Santo to co-star with him and Máscaras in Los Campeones Justicieros ("The Champions of Justice"), however, Santo

5032-437: Was a "25 Year Anniversary Show" shown by Televisa , a testament to Hijo del Santo's appeal as Televisa rarely show independent promotions. The show featured a Relevos suicidas tournament where the losing teams advance until the finals, where the final team would fight each other over who would unmask. El Hijo del Santo ended up unmasking Pentagón Black in the finals, which meant that he booked himself to lose three times during

5106-525: Was among the largest in the history of Mexico. He was entombed at a crypt on the Mausoleos del Ángel cemetery in Mexico City . It reportedly took hours for Santo's coffin to make it from the funeral parlour into the hearse. After his death, a statue of El Santo was erected in his home town of Tulancingo and other statues have been created since then. Santo's youngest son with his first wife, Jorge carries on

5180-487: Was called Santo Contra Los Clones . On 27 October 2004, Cartoon Network released an only season of 5 short episodes. Each episode is about 2 minutes long, and they were shown weekly on Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM. El Santo also inspired the Flash animated series ¡Mucha Lucha! and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera . In ¡Mucha Lucha! he's called "El Rey", and is represented as an icon of all positive things. Santo

5254-596: Was due to Hogan being advertised as " The Incredible Hulk Hogan" early in his career, while Marvel owned the trademark for their comic book character. Sometimes, a wrestler will buy the rights to their own ring name; for example, Steve Borden owns the rights to the name Sting and licenses it to the musician of the same name . The wrestler formerly known as Test took this one step further and legally changed his name to "Andrew Test Martin". Jim Hellwig, known as The Ultimate Warrior , had his name legally changed to simply "Warrior". In many cases, ring names evolve over time as

5328-595: Was enhanced by changing his costume color scheme from his famous red and yellow to nWo's black and white. Steve Williams adopted the ring name Steve Austin to avoid confusion with the then-more established performer "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Austin would wrestle under that name for several years before signing with the WWF and being given the name "the Ringmaster". This gimmick failed to catch on, and Austin reverted to his established name, reaching his greatest level of success with

5402-413: Was supposed to star Santo, but he declined to appear in it, because he thought it would fail commercially. The film was made instead with well-known luchador El Médico Asesino in the lead role, wearing a white mask similar to Santo's silver one. A villain named "The Silver-Masked Man" was introduced into the plot at the last minute, thus the title of the film strangely became a reference to the villain, not

5476-611: Was too busy making other films to participate. By 1977, the masked wrestler film craze had practically died off, but Santo continued to appear in more films over the next few years. His last film was Fury of the Karate Experts , shot in Florida in 1982, the same year he retired from the ring. Seventeen years after Santo's death, his real-life son played the lead role in a brand new Santo movie called Infraterrestre ("Inner Earth"), which co-starred Mexican wrestler Blue Panther . In 1952,

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