Villano III
| Villano III | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Arturo Díaz Mendoza |
| Born |
March 23, 1952 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Búfalo Salvaje Mancha Roja Pulpo Blanco Ray Rosas Rokambole Villano III |
| Billed height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) |
| Billed weight | 96 kg (212 lb) |
| Trained by | Felipe Ham Lee Ray Mendoza |
| Debut | January 29, 1970 |
Arturo Díaz Mendoza (born March 23, 1952) is retired a Mexican professional wrestler best known for performing under the stage name Villano III (in Spanish Villano Tercero). Díaz is a second generation wrestler, son of luchador Ray Mendoza and the father of professional wrestlers Villano III Jr. and El Hijo de Villano III himself. Five of the Díaz brothers all used the Villano name; José de Jesús (Villano I), José Alfredo (Villano II), Tomas (Villano IV) and Raymundo (Villano V). Of the five Villano brothers Arturo is considered the most successful in terms of championship and Lucha de Apuesta (bet match) wins as well as the most talented luchador in the family. He retired from wrestling in 2015 due to health issues stemming from wrestling.
For years Arturo Díaz was one of the featured performers for the Universal Wrestling Association and during his carrer that spanned from 1970 until 2015 he worked for all major Mexican wrestling promotions such as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and Asistencia Asesoría y Administración as well as a large number of notable smaller Mexican promotions like International Wrestling Revolution Group. Díaz was an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, up until 2000 where he lost to Atlantis and was forced to unmask. The match against Atlantis was later named "Match of the Year" by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards.
Arturo Díaz was born into a wrestling family; his father, Ray Mendoza, was already a successful luchador and his two older brothers José de Jesús and José Alfredo has begun wrestling in early 1969 when Arturo was just 17 years old. Arturo was trained both by his father and by Felipe Ham Lee, a family friend, before making his debut on January 29, 1970, under the name "Ray Rosas" (Ray after his father and "Rosas" after the color of his wrestling attire). He later wrestled as various enmascarado (masked) characters such as Pulpo Blanco (Spanish for "White Octopus") and Mancha Roja ("Red Spot" or "Red Mark"). At one point he used the name Búfalo Salvaje ("Savage Buffalo"), a name also used by his older brothers for a while as they wrestled as Búfalo Salvaje I and II. In late 1970 or early 1971, his older brothers began wrestling as Villano I and Villano II and soon established that as the "family" name. Arturo began wrestling as Rokambole, a name later used by his younger brother Raymundo as well, and often teamed with his older brothers.
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