El Canek made his debut in 1972 as "El Universitario" at the age of 18 and would later work under the name "Principe Azul".
28 Facts About El Canek
2.
El Canek is a former holder of the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, CMLL World Tag Team Championship, CMLL World Trios Championship, IWRG Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and the 2002 Rey de Reyes.
3.
El Canek's in-ring debut came about earlier than expected as a local wrestling promoted asked Estrada to fill in for a wrestler who could not make that night's show.
4.
El Canek made his debut that night working as the enmascarado El Universitario, a name that reflected that he was still in wrestling school.
5.
El Canek worked his first match as "El Canek" in the Torero de Quatro Caminos in Naucalpan, Mexican State, an arena he would sell out repeatedly later in his career.
6.
Shortly after his debut El Canek moved to Mexico City, working for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre while training at "Gym Ham Lee" under head trainer Felipe Ham Lee as well as Sugi Sito and Fantasma de la Quebrada.
7.
On September 27,1978 El Canek defeated the legendary Lou Thesz to win the UWA World Heavyweight Championship, a move that signaled that he was now the "top name" in the UWA, gaining international attention by defeating the multi-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Thesz.
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Around the time that El Canek became the world champion the UWA struck deals with various international wrestling promotions to exchange wrestlers to allow for an influx of foreign wrestlers.
9.
One such NJPW wrestler was Tiger Jeet Singh, who came to Mexico and had a short feud with El Canek before winning the UWA Heavyweight Championship on February 17,1980.
10.
The success of El Canek fighting various foreign wrestlers drew such good crowds that it became the template for how the UWA would book El Canek and the world title for more than a decade.
11.
On September 26 El Canek regained the title, which led to the next challenger in early 1983, Fujinami, UWA repeats the pattern by having Fujinami win the championship in May, 1983 and has El Canek win it back in June of that year.
12.
The match was the main event of the UWA 9th Anniversary Show, during which El Canek was able to pick up Andre and slam him winning the match.
13.
In between fighting Dos Caras El Canek had many opportunities to defend Mexico, including a match on September 2,1984 where the then WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan actually defended the championship against El Canek in Mexico.
14.
El Canek would have a successful title defense against Stan Hansen only a few weeks later.
15.
On January 31,1993 El Canek lost the championship to Canadian Vampire Casanova, a decision that was later held up as one of the critical points in the later demise of the UWA as the fans did not like Vampiro and the attendance dropped significantly while he was champion and never recovered even after El Canek regained the championship.
16.
In 1995 the UWA closed, with El Canek being the reigning and 13-time champion at that point in time.
17.
In November, 1994 El Canek stops working for CMLL, forcing CMLL to vacate the championship that he still held with Dr Wagner Jr.
18.
El Canek returned to CMLL almost a decade later, on March 26,2005 teaming with Shocker and Mascara Magica to defeat the trio of El Terrible, Rey Bucanero and Ultimo Guerrero in the main event of CMLL's weekly Super Viernes.
19.
El Canek teamed up with Hector Garza, Perro Aguayo, defeating the team of Heavy Metal, Jerry Estrada and Fuerza Guerrera when Aguayo pinned Heavy Metal.
20.
Subsequently, Cibernetico turned on El Canek, trying to take the UWA World Heavyweight Championship from him.
21.
At the 2002 Rey del Ring tournament El Canek defeated El Picudo, Septiembre Negro and El Hijo del Solitario in the semi-finals and then outlasted Pirata Morgan, Cibernetico and Octagon to win the 2002 Rey de Reyes tournament.
22.
Canel and Jalisco Jr won the match, then El Canek defeated Rayo de Jalisco Jr.
23.
El Canek would defend the championship twice in 2006, against Rayo de Jalisco Jr.
24.
Late in the year El Canek's knees had deteriorated to a rate where he had to take time off to have reconstructive surgery and then rehab and as a result only wrestled sporadically from 2007 to 2009, not just for IWRG but in general.
25.
El Canek returned to IWRG in 2009, bringing the championship belt back with him.
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El Canek became the first International Wrestling League Independent Heavyweight Championship when he defeated Dr Wagner Jr.
27.
El Canek fought in one MMA match for the Japanese DEEP 2001 promotion.
28.
El Canek fought the match with his "El Canek" mask on and defeated Osamu Kawahara in his sole MMA match.