Kung Fu (wrestler)
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| Birth name | Raymundo Cuesta Veloz |
|---|---|
| Born | January 20, 1951 |
| Died | January 3, 2001 (aged 49) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Ray Acosta El Estudiante Kung Fu |
| Billed height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) |
| Billed weight | 77 kg (170 lb) |
| Trained by | El Duque Rafael Salamanca |
| Debut | 1968 |
Raymundo Cuesta Veloz (January 20, 1951 – January 3, 2001) 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 (Face or "good guys") trio in the early 1980s.
Raymundo Cuesta made his professional wrestling debut in 1968, using the ring name Ray Acosta, and generally working low card matches while gaining experience. On August 4, 1974 Cuesta lost a Luchas de Apuesta, or bet match, to Villano III and had his hair shaved off after the match per. Lucha libre traditions. In the early 1970s Cuesta adopted a new ring persona, an enmascarado (masked wrestler) character called El Estudiante (Spanish for "the Student"). In 1975 Cuesta changed ring characters once again, although he would reprise his role as "El Estudiente" from time to time.
Cuesta drew on his interest in martial arts and came up with the ring character "Kung Fu", an enmascarado inspired by the martial art and its practitioners. Cuesta had a black and orange mask created that would become his trademark for many years, he wore martial artist pants and jackets and started to incorporate various kicks and chops into his wrestling style. Kung Fu's debut match was a tag team match where he would team with El Santo against Ángel Blanco and Ray Mendoza, an indicator that the promoters were pushing the new character to the top of the card. His wrestling style of wrestling, martial arts and various comedic elements quickly earned Kung Fu a lot of fans. On September 26, 1977 Kung Fu defeated Fishman to win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship, holding the belt until November 23, 1977 when Fishman regained the title. Kung Fu regained the title from Fishman on April 2, 1978 and went on to hold it for six months before losing the title to Américo Rocca on December 10, 1978. Around the time of his title victory Kung Fu was teamed up with Kato Kung Lee, a Panamanian wrestler who used the same combination of wrestling and martial arts as Kung Fu did. Together the team won the Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship at least two times. The team also won the masks of Los Jaliscos (Jalisco I and Jalisco II) in a Luchas de Apuestas, mask vs. mask match. In 1979 the team was joined by Satoru Sayama (the future "Tiger Mask"), forming a trio known as El Triangulo Oriental ("The Oriental Trio), despite only Sayama actually being from the orient.
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