Villano III
Arturo Díaz Mendoza, best known by his ring name Villano III, was a Mexican luchador. A second-generation wrestler, he was son of luchador Ray Mendoza and the father of luchador enmascarados Villano III Jr. and El Hijo del Villano III. All five of the Díaz brothers used the Villano name; José de Jesús, José Alfredo, Tomás and Raymundo. Of the five Villanos, Arturo was considered the most successful in terms of championship and Lucha de Apuesta wins, as well as the most talented luchador in the family. He retired from wrestling in 2015, due to health issues stemming from wrestling. A few days after his death, he was inducted in the AAA Hall of Fame.
During his 35-year career, Díaz was one of the featured performers for the Universal Wrestling Association, and for all the all major Mexican wrestling promotions such as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, as well as numerous notable smaller Mexican promotions like International Wrestling Revolution Group. Díaz was an luchador enmascarado up until 2000, where he lost to Atlantis and had to unmask as a result. The match against Atlantis was later voted "Match of the Year" in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter year-end awards. In contrast one of his last matches ever, at Triplemanía XXIII was voted the "worst match of the year" in 2015.
Professional wrestling career
Arturo Díaz was born into a wrestling family; his father, Ray Mendoza, became a successful luchador when Arturo was very young. His two older brothers, José de Jesús and José Alfredo, had 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, while also getting a degree in physical education in case professional wrestling did not work out for him. His debut was on January 29, 1970, earlier than expected as he was asked to replace someone who did not show up for a match. For the first match he was billed as "Ray Rosas" and worked without a mask.After his initial match he began wrestling under various enmascarado characters such as Pulpo Blanco and Mancha Roja, in part to not reveal that he was the son of Ray Mendoza. At one point, he competed under the name "Búfalo Salvaje", a name also used by his older brothers early in their careers when they worked as Búfalo Salvaje I and II. After several short-lived names, Arturo began wrestling as Rokambole, a name he would use for several years. The name Rokambole would later be used by his younger brother Raymundo as well. In late 1970 or early 1971, his older brothers began wrestling as Villano I and Villano II and soon established that as their permanent identity, creating what would later turn into a family tradition.
Universal Wrestling Association (1973–1994)
In 1973, Arturo's father and older brothers finally deemed him experienced enough to use the Villano name, taking the name Villano III. In 1975, Arturo's father joined with wrestling promoter Francisco Flores and investor Benjamín Mora Jr. to form a new wrestling promotion called Universal Wrestling Association, which was in direct competition with the company Ray Mendoza and Flores had worked for up until that point, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre. One of the reasons behind the split was that Mendoza felt that EMLL was not giving his sons enough opportunities in the ring. All three Villanos followed their father to the newly formed UWA. While his brothers worked as a tag team, Villano III became a singles competitor and was pushed as one of its top stars, due to his father's influence and Vilano being the Vilanos' most talented wrestler. On December 14, 1975, Villano III became the first ever UWA World Welterweight Champion by winning a tournament. Over the next couple of years, Villano III defended the championship in several high-profile, main event matches, earning favorable reviews from both fans and reporters. His run with the welterweight title lasted until May 29, 1977, where he lost to El Solar. Following the title loss, Villano III moved from the welterweight division to the light heavyweight division. On March 1, 1981, he defeated Fishman to win the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, a title his father had won previously as well. Villano III lost the title back to Fishman 140 days later, ending the first of his two reigns with that championship.In 1982, Villano III started a storyline feud against Los Misioneros de la Muerte, that would lead to Villano III becoming a tecnico. As Villano III became more and more popular with the fans and the UWA officials decided to make him a tecnico, using the hated Los Misioneros trio to that end. After his "tecnico" turn Villano III joined up with El Solitario and Aníbal to form a trio called Los Tres Caballeros, who would go on to main event a series of sold-out UWA shows. His first major opponent after the turn was Perro Aguayo, starting a long-running, intense feud over the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship that the UWA promoted at the time. On March 20, 1983, Villano III defeated Aguayo to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, beginning the first of seven reigns for Villano III, tied with Aguayo for most reigns with that title. His first reign lasted 140 days before Aguayo regained the title. The feud between the two also saw Villano III defeat Aguayo in a Lucha de Apuesta, hair vs. mask match, on August 21, 1983.
In 1985, Villano III defeated Gran Hamada to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title for a second time. Villano III's second title reign lasted 826 days, which is the longest of any WWF Light Heavyweight Champion in its history. During the mid-1980s, his two younger brothers began using the names "Villano IV" and "Villano V", often teaming with Villano I. Over the following years, Villano III traded the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship with Perro Aguayo, Rambo, and Sangre Chicana. In 1991, Villano III began working against a young Canadian known as Pegasus Kid, sent to Mexico by New Japan Pro-Wrestling to train and gain experience. Villano III and Pegasus Kid had a series of matches throughout 1991, including Pegasus Kid winning the WWF Light Heavyweight Title on March 3, 1991. By late 1991, Pegasus Kid's learning excursion to Mexico came to an end, but not before Villano III defeated him in a Lucha de Apuesta match, forcing him to unmask and reveal his real name: Chris Benoit. Villano III's seventh and last reign with the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship began on July 18, 1994, when he defeated El Signo. He held the title until January 1995 when the UWA closed and Villano III vacated the title with which he had been closely associated for more than ten years.
AAA (1995–1998)
In 1995, the UWA was forced to close down, leaving Los Villanos without a home base for the first time in their careers. The brothers soon signed with Antonio Peña's Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide and began working for the promotion as a trios group, marking Villano III's transition from being primarily a singles wrestler to working more trios matches. In March 1996, Los Villanos defeated Cien Caras, Heavy Metal, and Latin Lover to become the inaugural holders of the AAA Americas Trios Championship, a title created by Peña specifically for Los Villanos as AAA did not have an active trios championship before. The team held the championship until November 19, 1996, when they lost to Los Oficiales, but regained the championship less than two months later. Los Villanos also became the first ever Mexican National Atómicos Champions, teaming with Pierroth Jr. to win the four-man team exclusive championship. By mid-1996, Villano IV and Villano V had begun working for the US-based World Championship Wrestling. In 1997 most of the wrestlers that worked for WCW split off from AAA to form Promo Azteca, which included the Villano brothers. By leaving AAA, Los Villanos vacated both the Americas Trios title and the Mexican National Atómicos Championship.World Wrestling Council / Independent circuit (1997–1998)
After leaving AAA, Villano III toured Puerto Rico several times in 1997 and 1998, working for the World Wrestling Council. On November 27, 1997, Villano III defeated Ricky Santana to win the WWC Puerto Rican Championship to start his tour with WWC. Two days later Santana regained the championship before Villano III regained it on December 21. Villano did not work in Puerto Rico between January and April, only returning to the island to lose the Puerto Rican championship to Glamour Boy Shane on WWC's 25th Anniversary Show.Villano III also worked on the independent circuit after leaving AAA, as well as making sporadic appearances for both Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and Promo Azteca at the time. On July 18, 1998, Villano III was one of 32 wrestlers putting their masks on the line in a Ruleta de la Muerte tournament where the losing teams advance and in the end the final team would face off in a Lucha de Apuestas match. Villano III and his partner Shocker lost to Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Mil Máscaras in the first round, but defeated El Hijo del Santo and Guerrero del Futuro in the second round to preserve their masks.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1999–2002)
In late 1998, Villano III began working almost exclusively for CMLL. On December 25, 1999, Villano III and Super Astro teamed up to wrestle against Lizmark and Fishman in a Relevos Suicidas. When Villano III and Super Astro lost they were forced to wrestle against each other in a Lucha de Apuesta match. In the end, Villano III won yet another Apuesta match, forcing Super Astro to unmask.On November 22, 1999, Villano III defeated Atlantis to win the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship. The title change was just one of the highlights of a long-running feud between Atlantis and Villano III, a feud that also included III's younger brothers Villano IV and Villano V who no longer worked for WCW. On March 17, 2000, at CMLL's 2000 Juicio Final event, Atlantis won his biggest Apuesta victory to date as he defeated and then unmasked Villano III in a match that was voted the Wrestling Observer 2000 Match of the Year. In 2010 Súper Luchas Magazine suggested that this may have been the lucha libre match of the decade for the 2000s.