El Santo
| Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta | |
|---|---|
Santo's mask
|
|
| Birth name | Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta |
| Born |
September 23, 1917 Tulancingo, Hidalgo, Mexico |
| Died | February 5, 1984 (aged 66) |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | El Santo Rudy Guzmán El Hombre Rojo El Demonio Negro El Murcielago II |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Billed weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
| Debut | 1934 or 1935 |
| Retired | September 12, 1982 |
Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (September 23, 1917 – February 5, 1984), more widely known as El Santo (The Saint), was a Mexican Luchador enmascarado (Spanish for masked professional wrestler), film actor, and folk icon. El Santo, along with Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras, is one of the most famous and iconic of all 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 a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man through his appearances in comic books and movies. He is said to have popularized professional wrestling in Mexico just as Rikidozan did in Japan. Guzmán's son followed him into wrestling as El Hijo del Santo, or 'Son of the Saint'.
Born in Tulancingo in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, to Jesús Guzmán Campuzano and Josefina Huerta (Márquez) de Guzmán as the fifth of seven children, Rodolfo came to Mexico City in the 1920s, where his family settled in the Tepito neighbourhood. He practiced baseball and American football, and then became interested in wrestling. He first learned Ju-Jitsu, then classical 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 competitively, either in Arena Peralvillo Cozumel on 28 June 1934, or Deportivo Islas in 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, El Hombre Rojo (the Red Man), El Demonio Negro (The Black Demon) and El Murcielago II (The Bat II). The last name was the same as that of wrestler Jesus Velazquez, named "El Murcielago" (The Bat), and after an appeal by the Bat to the Mexican boxing and wrestling commission, the regulatory body ruled that Guzmán could not use the name.
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