Francisco Flores | |
---|---|
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Francisco Flores Blue Scorpion El Torro Mexican Angel El Ángel Mexicano Golden Falcon Yaki Joe The Avenger |
Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
Billed weight | 163 lb (74 kg) |
Francisco Flores (date of birth unknown) is a former Mexican professional wrestling promoter who is most known for his part in creating and running the Universal Wrestling Association from the mid-1970s until the 1990s when it closed down. At one point in time the UWA's shows as the Toreo de Quatro Caminos arena were the biggest drawing shows in all of Mexico, putting the UWA in contention for being the biggest wrestling promotion in Mexico at the time. As a promoter Flores helped make such wrestlers as El Canek and El Hijo del Santo world-renowned wrestlers.
Flores started his career as a wrestling promoter as a minor promoter for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest and the world's oldest wrestling promotion. [1] After working for EMLL for years he became frustrated with EMLL's very conservative approach to wrestling and wanted to promote his vision for wrestling instead of EMLL's vision. From 1974 to 1976 Flores worked in World Wide Wrestling Federation. In 1975 Flores, along with Ray Mendoza broke away from EMLL and formed the rival Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). [2] In the UWA Flores focused on featuring young wrestlers who were often not given a chance in EMLL, this included Ray Mendoza's sons Villano I, Villano II and Villano III. Villano III especially benefitted from Flores' way of promoting as he became one of the rising young stars in the mid to late 1970s. Flores and the UWA's promotion of El Canek made him a world wide wrestling star, booking him as the "Mexican defender" against a variety of foreign wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and André the Giant. [2] The UWA also helped give a young El Hijo del Santo his start in wrestling.
The UWA flourished in the 1970s and 1980s but hit harder times in the 1990s and was forced to close down in 1995 after which Francisco Flores went into retirement.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., Ltd. is a lucha libre professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City. The promotion was previously known as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). Founded in 1933, it is the oldest professional wrestling promotion still in existence.
José Ángel Nájera Sánchez was a Mexican luchador or professional wrestler best known under the ring name Fishman. Fishman was one of the top wrestlers in the mid-1970s and 1980s and worked for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, the Universal Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Association and AAA in Mexico as well as frequent trips to Japan and the United States. Nájera was unmasked after losing a match in 2000 and retired shortly afterwards. Three of his sons are all luchadores enmascarados known by their ring names Black Fish, El Hijo del Fishman and El Único de Ciudad Juárez.
Sangre Chicana is the ring name of retired Mexican professional wrestler Andrés Durán Reyes. Reyes made his professional wrestling debut in 1973, wearing a red mask with a gold stripe, under the name Lemus. A year later he changed his name to Sangre Chicana but kept the mask with the golden stripe. He rose to prominence in a feud with El Cobarde and Fishman that led to a Lucha de Apuesta, mask vs. mask match where Reyes lost his mask.
Felipe Estrada, known as El Canek or simply Canek, is a Mexican luchador enmascarado or masked professional wrestler best known for the 20 years he worked for the Universal Wrestling Association where he held the UWA World Heavyweight Championship a total of 15 times. As the major heavyweight working for the Universal Wrestling Association promotion, he became one of Lucha Libre's biggest attractions during the 1980s especially through his high-profile matches against non-Mexicans that sold out numerous shows and led to the UWA using the same formula of "Canek vs. the foreigner" for over a decade. He made his debut in 1972 as "El Universitario" at the age of 18 and would later work under the name "Principe Azul". In 1973 he adopted the ring name El Canek, a name inspired by the Mayan Indian leader Jacinto Canek, that he has used ever since. While he has worked in Mexico for the majority of his career he has also made several, frequent, tours of Japan and has worked in the United States as well as Europe.
The Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) was a Mexican Lucha Libre or professional wrestling promotion based in Naucalpan, Mexico State that operated from 1975 until 1995. The name of the actual promotion was Promociones Mora y Asociados and later Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI) but outside of Mexico it is generally referred to as the UWA as it was the name of the fictional international sanctioning body that in storyline terms oversaw all championships promoted by LLI. The company was founded by wrestler and trainer Ray Mendoza, promoter Francisco Flores and investor Benjamín Mora, Jr. as when they broke away from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre to form their own promotion. The company had working agreements with wrestling promotions both in the United States and Japan as they worked with Lou Thesz's American-based Universal Wrestling Association, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Universal Lucha Libre (UWF), and Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP) amongst other promotions.
José Luis Rodríguez Arellano is a Mexican Luchador Enmascarado who wrestles under the ring name Dos Caras. His most active years were in the 1970s and 1980s, and he achieved his greatest success in Mexico's Universal Wrestling Alliance (UWA), where he won the UWA World Heavyweight Championship three times. He has been called "the greatest heavyweight ever to come out of Mexico". He is the creator of the Dos Caras Clutch, a hammerlock head scissors pinning combination.
Roberto González Cruz was a Mexican professional wrestler who wrestled under the name El Solitario. During his career he held both the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship. After achieving stardom in Mexico's oldest promotion, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, Gonzalez Cruz joined the breakaway promotion, the Universal Wrestling Association, where he held four more world championships in the early 1980s.
Salvador Lutteroth González was a Mexican professional wrestling promoter of the mid-twentieth century. Lutteroth's organization, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), was the dominant Mexican wrestling promotional enterprise from its founding in 1933 until Lutteroth left the company in the 1950s. Under its current name of Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), it is, to date, the longest-running active professional wrestling promotion in the world presenting three weekly shows. Lutteroth was known as the "father of lucha libre," and, in his position as promoter and booker of the dominant promotion, was the most powerful man in Mexican wrestling, and one of the most powerful wrestling executives in the world. He was, in large part, responsible for the widespread fame of the most famous Mexican professional wrestlers of the mid-twentieth century, such as Octavio Gaona, the first Mexican wrestler to win the middleweight championship of the world by defeating Gus Kallio, Carlos Tarzán López, El Santo, Gory Guerrero, René Guajardo, Karloff Lagarde, Enrique Llanes, and the international league wrestler Medico Asesino, Rito Romero, Dorrel Dixon and Mil Máscaras, who wrestled in the United States, Japan, and Europe.
José Díaz Velázquez was a Mexican Luchador, or professional wrestler, better known under his ring name Ray Mendoza. Diaz had great success in the National Wrestling Alliance, where he was a five time World Light Heavyweight Champion, as well as the first Mexican to hold the championship. In 1975, Diaz helped establish Universal Wrestling Association with Francisco Flores and Benjamín Mora. During his many title reigns, Diaz faced many present or future stars, such as Gran Hamada, Killer Kowalski, John Tolos, El Solitario, Fishman, René Guajardo, Gory Guerrero, El Santo, and Cavernario Galindo. After retiring, Diaz became an actor and appeared in several Mexican films. Mendoza was the father of Los Villanos, Villano I, Villano II. Villano III, Villano IV, and Villano V.
Genaro Jacobo Contreras, better known by his ring name Ringo Mendoza, a Mexican professional wrestling trainer and retired luchador for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Mendoza wrestled his last match in 2011, transitioning to being a full-time trainer instead.
César Baltazar de Lucio Valencia is a semi-retired Mexican Luchador, or professional wrestler best known under the ring name Karloff Lagarde Jr. Despite what his ring name might suggest, he is not the son of Karloff Lagarde, but his nephew. Lucio is a former CMLL World Welterweight Champion and Mexican National Welterweight Champion. He currently makes limited appearances for International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) in Mexico.
Raymundo Cuesta Veloz was a Mexican Luchador or professional wrestler best known under the ring name Kung Fu. As Kung Fu he made a name for himself as part of Trio Fantásticos along with Kato Kung Lee and Black Man, a very popular tecnico trio in the early 1980s.
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (2010) was a professional wrestling supercard show event, scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. The Dos Leyendas show took place on March 19, 2010 in CMLL's main venue, Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event was to honor and remember CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth, who died in March 1987. Starting in 1999 CMLL honored not just their founder during the show, but also a second lucha libre legend, making it their version of a Hall of Fame event. For the 2010 show CMLL commemorated the life and career of wrestler Ray Mendoza, the father of Los Villanos. This was the 12th March show held under the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas name, having previously been known as Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth from 1996 to 1998.
José de Jesús Díaz Mendoza, known by the ring name of Villano I, was a Mexican luchadorenmascarado, or masked professional wrestler. He was the son of luchador Ray Mendoza, and the first of the five Díaz Mendoza brothers to become a professional wrestler, although not the oldest. His older brother Alfredo wrestled as Villano II until his death in 1989, while his younger brothers wrestle under the names Villano III (Arturo), Villano V (Raymundo), and Villano IV (Tomás).
José Luis Alvarado Nieves was a Mexican luchador best known under the ring name Brazo de Plata, a name he had used since his debut in 1977. He is also well known for his appearances in WWE as Super Porky. Alvarado was a member of the Alvarado wrestling family which includes his father Shadito Cruz, five brothers who used the "Brazo" name at some point and several third-generation wrestlers who have appeared over the last couple of years.
Negro Navarro is the ring name of Miguel Calderón Navarro, a Mexican luchador, or professional wrestler. Navarro works as a Freelancer on the Mexican independent circuit as well as making regular appearances for International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). Navarro often teams with his sons, who are known as Trauma I and Trauma II. Negro Navarro was part of Los Misioneros de la Muerte with El Signo and El Texano; a team that is credited with popularizing the Trios match in Mexico to the point that it became the most common match for Trios teams in Mexican Lucha Libre.
Los Misioneros de la Muerte was a Mexican Lucha libre, or professional wrestling Trio that has been credited with making the two out of three falls six-man tag team match the most common match form in Mexico instead of the traditional one-on-one match that is the most common match everywhere else besides Japan. The original Los Misioneros trio consisted of Negro Navarro, El Signo and El Texano and worked together as a unit from 1977 until 1987. Later versions of Los Misioneros featured Navarro and Signo teaming with wrestlers such as Black Power, Rocky Santana or El Texano, Jr. but their success never approached the success of the original team. The original Los Misioneros would occasionally reunite in the years following their 1987 break-up, but with the 2006 death of El Texano the Los Misioneros de la Muerte was not used by Navarro and El Signo. El Signo retired in 2010, making Negro Navarro the only active competitor left of the trio.
Antonio Sánchez Rendón, is a retired Mexican luchador, or professional wrestler best known under the ring name El Signo. Rendón was part of Los Misioneros de la Muerte with Negro Navarro and El Texano a team that is credited with popularizing the Trios match in Mexico to the point that it became the most common match for in Mexican Lucha Libre. Sánchez made his professional wrestling debut in 1971 and officially retired in 2010, after 38 years of active competition. At least one of Sánchez's children is also a professional wrestler, working under the name Hijo del Signo since 2008.
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas (2017) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. The Dos Leyendas show took place on March 17, 2017 in CMLL's main venue, Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event was to honor and remember CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth, who died in March 1987. Starting in 1999 CMLL honored not just their founder during the show, but also a second lucha libre legend, making it their version of a Hall of Fame event. For the 2017 show CMLL commemorated the life and career of Arturo Díaz Mendoza, better known under the ring name Villano III. This was the 19th March show held under the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas name, having previously been known as Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth from 1996 to 1998.