El Santo

Childhood The fifth of seven children, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta He lost the bout, but avenged himself by defeating Lopez in a Luchas de Apuestas at the EMLL 10th Anniversary Show and claiming his hair.

On November 19, 1944, Santo teamed for the first time with Gory Guerrero to form "La Pareja Atómica" ("the Atomic Pair"), a tandem that would go on to achieve legendary status & remain undefeated throughout their tenure together. their rivalry never really ended in later years since Santo always remembered his defeat at Blue Demon's hands. He returned to EMLL by 1961, and officially became a técnico himself in 1962 as part of an angle where his rudo teammates Los Espantos turned on him.

Santo's last match took place on 12 September 1982, a week before his 65th birthday.

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. 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 the 1940s. In Mexican cinemas, audience participation with the films was common.

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.

Other media

In 1952, 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.

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 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.

Death El Santo removes his mask publicly for the only time in his career, effectively bidding goodbye to his fans. He died a week after the airing of this program. 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. 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.

In the early 1960s, a female wrestler called "La Novia del Santo" (Spanish for "the Bride of El Santo") worked the Mexican circuit. Under 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 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 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, 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 the Legacy Inductees of that year.

El Santo, complete with his silver mask and cape, appears in a few scenes of the 2017 Pixar film Coco as a guest at a party in the Land of the Dead, with actress María Félix as his date.

Championships and accomplishments

Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre EMLL Arena México Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Rayo de Jalisco (1), and Ray Mendoza (1) Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2013 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996) WWE WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2018)

Luchas de Apuestas record

Winner (wager)Loser (wager)LocationEventDateNotesEl Santo (mask) Cavernario Galindo (hair) Mexico City Live event N/A El Santo (mask) Raúl Torres (hair) N/A Live event N/A El Santo (mask) Bobby Bonales (hair) N/A Live event El Santo (mask) Black Shadow (mask) Mexico City Live event El Santo (mask) Monje Loco (mask) N/A Live event El Santo (mask) El Tercer Hombre (mask) Guadalajara, Jalisco Live event El Santo (mask) Rubén Juárez (hair) Mexico City Live event El Santo (mask) Espanto I (mask) Mexico City Live event El Santo (mask) Dick Angelo (mask) N/A Live event El Santo (mask) Jorge Allende (hair) N/A Live event El Santo (mask) Perro Aguayo (hair) Mexico City EMLL 42nd Anniversary Show (3) El Santo (mask) Bobby Lee (mask) Mexico City Live event El Santo (mask) Bobby Lee (hair) Mexico City Live event El Santo (mask) El Remolino (mask) Ciudad Obregón, Sonora Live event