El Texano

Personal life

Juan Aguilar was born and raised in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico but would later move to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico where he lived until his death. Aguilar and his Guadalajara native wife had three sons together, two of whom became professional wrestlers, Juan Aguilar Leos who works under the ring name El Texano, Jr. and Super Nova, who is an enmascarado (Masked wrestler) and thus his birth name is not publicized. He is the uncle of professional wrestlers Jonathan de Jesus Navarro Jímenez (works under the name Mictlán), Juan Miguel Escalante Grande (known as Inquisidor) and Pólvora (enmascarado). He is the cousin of professional wrestler Roberto Gutiérrez Frías, better known as El Dandy.

Professional wrestling career

Aguilar began training for a career in Lucha Libre (professional wrestling) at a very early age after receiving his parents' consent to do so. He made his wrestling debut on February 1, 1972 at the age of 13. In Mexico becoming a wrestler at such a young age is rare, but not unheard of if parental consent is given.Rey Mysterio made his in-ring about the same age as Aguilar, 13 years of age. He made his debut as an enmascarado (masked wrestler) using the ring name "Billy the Kid", portraying a Cowboy character. Aguilar continued to train under Antonio Cruz in the years following his debut as he worked under a number of different enmascarado characters such as Ry Navarro, El Vaquero ("The Cowboy"), Juan El Texano and Johnny Texas. After working primarily in and around his native state of Baja California he started making appearances in Mexico City around 1975, working for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), the world's oldest and one of Mexico's biggest professional wrestling promotions. During one show in Arena Coliseo, EMLL's secondary venue, a lucha libre magazine writer suggested he should simply work as "El Texano" ("The Texan"), a ring name Aguilar used from that point on until his death. While working for EMLL he also began training with Guadalajara, Jalisco based wrestling trainer Cuauhtémoc "Diablo" Velasco, one of the most famous wrestling trainers in Mexico.

Los Misioneros de la Muerte

In the late 1970s Aguilar, as El Texano, began working for EMLL's biggest rival the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) as they wanted to feature more wrestlers in the lighter divisions to strengthen their shows. UWA promoter Francisco Flores wanted to build some of the lesser known lightweights into high card workers and decided to build a storyline between the masked El Texano and the recently debut Brazo de Oro ("Golden Hand"), which later expanded to include Brazo de Oro's younger brothers Brazo de Plata ("Silver Arm") and El Brazo ("The Arm"). The Brazo brothers were given the team name Los Mosqueteros de Diablo (The Devil's Musketeers) while El Texano began teaming with Antonio Sánchez Rendón, known under the ring name El Signo ("The Sign") and Miguel Navarro, better known as Negro Navarro. The team was dubbed Los Misioneros de la Muerte ("The Missionaries of Death"). Early on in the storyline Brazo de Oro defeated El Texano in a Luchas de Apuestas, or bet match, which forced El Texano to unmask. The storyline expanded and saw the unmasked Misionaros clash with the masked Mosqueteros on UWA promoted cards all over Mexico. The fan reception to those matches and the positive coverage in various Lucha Libre magazines was so big that other promoters around Mexico wanted to book them on their shows, not as individuals but as teams, which was the start of the trios match becoming more and more prominent in Lucha Libre. With the team being so in demand UWA started to feature Los Misioneros more often, including El Signo winning the UWA World Welterweight Championship, a title he would later lose to El Gringo, who in turn would lose the belt to El Texano in order to legitimize him as a wrestler.

In 1981 the Los Misioneros de la Muerte name became a household name after a match in El Toreo de Quatro Caminos ("The Bullring with four corners"), UWA's main venue. During the main event Los Misioneros faced off against then 64-year-old El Santo, teaming with Huracán Ramírez and Rayo de Jalisco. In that match El Santo collapsed in the middle of the ring, suffering a heart attack during the match. His life was only saved due to the quick witted actions of Ramírez. After the match the Lucha Libre magazine, prompted by Francisco Flores, played off the real life tragedy by promoting Los Misioneros as the team that nearly killed the biggest name in Lucha Libre ever. The event made the team the most hated trio in Mexico for years to come and helped fill El Torero arena to the brim when Los Misioneros teamed up with Perro Aguayo to face El Santo, Gory Guerrero, Huracán Ramírez and El Solitario in El Santo's retirement match. Following Santo's retirement Los Misioneros feuded with the top faces (wrestlers portraying "good guy" characters) such as Los Tres Caballero (Aníbal, El Solitario and Villano III both in trios and in individual competition. At one point Villano III defeated El Texano in a Luchas de Apuestas match, forcing El Texano to be shaved bald as a result of the loss. During the storyline El Solitario turned on his two partners, when he attacked El Signo with a bottle and costing Los Tres Caballeros an important match. The attack made the smaller Los Misioneros more sympathetic to the crowd, who began to support them more and more despite Los Misioneros being booked on the shows as the heels ("bad guy" characters). Their popularity as a trio also led to them being invited to tour Japan, facing off against New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) light weight wrestlers such as Gran Hamada, Tiger Mask, George Takano, Akira Maeda and Osamu Kido. In 1984 Los Misioneros won the UWA World Trios Championship for the first time, although it is not documented for exactly how long. In the mid 1980s the "War" between the UWA and EMLL had cooled off enough for Los Misionerios to actually wrestle on the EMLL 53rd Anniversary Show, losing a trios Luchas de Apuestas to Ringo Mendoza, Américo Rocca and Tony Salazar. Los Misionerios regained the UWA World Trios Championship in 1987 defeating Los Villanos (Villano III, Villano IV and Villano V), after what was considered the "peak" of Los Misionerios. With an influx of other popular trios both in the UWA and in Mexico in general Los Misioneros days on the top of the Trios scene came to an end, which was followed by the end of Los Missioneros de la Muerte in its original form. During a UWA World Trios Championship match against Los Villanos El Texano threw in the towel to save his partner El Signo any more punishment. After the match and title loss his partners turned on El Texano and attacked him after the match. The attack was done primarily to write El Texano out of the UWA storyline as he had given notice that he was leaving.

Los Cowboys

El Texano left the UWA and joined rival EMLL where he began working both as a singles wrestler and as a regular tag team with his cousin El Dandy, collectively known as Los Vaqueros or simply as Los Cowboys. Later on El Texano began teaming with Silver King, replacing El Dandy as one of Los Cowboys. Los Cowboys began working for other promotions than just EMLL both inside and outside of Mexico, which led them to work for various international promotions such as International Wrestling Association both in Japan and Puerto Rico as well as working the UWA. In 1991 the team won their first tag team championship together, winning a tournament to become the first ever World Wrestling Association (WWA) World Tag Team Championship. On January 19, 1992 they added the UWA World Tag Team Championship to their collection when they defeated Gran Hamada and Kendo for the titles on a show in Japan and brought the titles back to Mexico.

At the time of their run as double tag team champions the US based World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was looking for international tag teams to compete in a tournament for the vacant National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Champions and selected Los Cowboys to represent Mexico. The team faced off against The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) in the first round of the tournament. The match took place at the Clash of the Champions XIX, which had El Texano billed as "Silver King II", was won by the Freebirds, marking the first and only time Los Cowboys worked for WCW. Texano and Silver King lost the UWA World Tag Team Championship to the masked duo known as The Can-Am Express (I and II) on June 28, 1992 as part of a longer-running storyline between the two teams. Three weeks later Los Cowboys defeated the Can-Am Express in a tag team Luchas de Apuestas match and forced the team to unmask to reveal their true identities of Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat. On November 11, 1992 El Texano became the UWA World Light Heavyweight Champion, a title he would later lose to his partner Silver King. After 1995 Los Cowboys would only team together on rare occasions.

Late career

In 1997 El Texano began working for Promo Azteca and when that promotion folded joined most of the other Promo Azteca wrestlers as they were absorbed by Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), which had grown to become one of Mexico's top two promotions at the time (along with CMLL). In AAA he became part of a group known as Los Consagrados ("The Consecrated") along with his cousin El Dandy, Sangre Chicana and Pirata Morgan. Texano and Morgan won the Mexican National Tag Team Championship from Perro Aguayo, Jr. and Héctor Garza on September 8, 2000 and held the belts for over a year until they were defeated by the duo of Máscara Sagrada and La Parka, Jr.

Illness and death

During a match El Texano injured his back and was forced to undergo two back surgeries to two different parts of the spine. These surgeries not only did not help Aguilar's back problems but caused him more health problems. During the final months of his life his breathing was supported by a ventilator and he was unable to even sit up. On the evening of January 15, 2006, Aguilar was rushed to a hospital in Guadalajara, Jalisco, for emergency surgery due to complications from pneumonia. Aguilar was pronounced dead upon arrival due to lung and respiratory failure.

Championships and accomplishments

• Asistencia Asesoría y Administración
  • Mexican National Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Pirata Morganthe Mexican National Tag Team Championship is sanctioned by the Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission, but was promoted by AAA at this point in time
• Comisión de Box y Lucha Libre Mexico D.F.
  • Distrito Federal Tag Team Championship – with Negro Navarro
• Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
  • CMLL World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Silver King
• International Wrestling Association of Japan
  • IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Silver King
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him #342 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.
  • PWI ranked him #68 of the 100 best tag teams during the PWI Years with Silver King in 2003.
• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • UWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)
  • UWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Silver King
  • UWA World Trios Championship (2 times) – With Negro Navarro and El Signo
  • UWA World Welterweight Championship (1 time)
• World Wrestling Association
  • WWA Tag Team Championship (2 times – with Silver King.
• World Wrestling Council
  • WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter :*Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2019) as part of Los Misioneros de la Muerte

''Luchas de Apuestas'' record

Footnotes

References

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