El Hijo del Santo

Jorge Ernesto Guzmán Rodríguez is a Mexican luchador enmascarado, or masked professional wrestler and political activist, best known under the ring name, El Hijo del Santo (“The Son of the Saint”). Guzmán is the youngest child, out of eleven, of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, better known as El Santo, a professional wrestler, film actor, and Mexican folk hero. Jorge Guzmán’s son made his debut under the name “Santo Jr.”, the third-generation Guzmán to use the name “Santo”. Jorge Guzmán’s uncles, Miguel “Black” Guzmán, Jesús Guzmán (Pantera Negra) and Jimmy Guzmán were also wrestlers. Axxel, Jorge Guzmán’s nephew, originally wrestled as “El Nieto del Santo” (“The Grandson of El Santo”) but Jorge Guzmán owned the rights to the “Santo” name and objected. Guzmán has also followed in his father’s footsteps, as he has starred in several lucha films. He made his wrestling debut in February 1982 under the name El Korak, but officially adopted his most famous ring name and silver mask in October 1982. During his career as Guzmán has worked for every major Mexican wrestling promotion including Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, Universal Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Association as well as stints with WWE in the United States as well as working in Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, All Japan Pro-Wrestling and various other promotions. Early in his career he formed a successful tag team with Eddie Guerrero called “La Pareja Atomica”, inspired by their fathers (El Santo and Gory Guerrero) teaming up from the 1940s to the 1960s. From 1998 through 2006 he also formed a very successful team with Negro Casas. Over the span of his career Guzmán has held various championships, most significantly the AAA World Tag Team Championship, Mexican National Middleweight Championship, Mexican National Trios Championship, Mexican National Welterweight Championship, CMLL World Tag Team Championship, UWA World Lightweight Championship, UWA World Welterweight Championship, WWA Tag Team Championship and WWA World Welterweight Championship as well as an honorary championship awarded by the World Boxing Council. He’s also won the Leyenda de Plata tournament (held in honor of his father), the 1995 version of the CMLL International Gran Prix tournament and the 2004 Gran Alternativa tournament. In 1997 he was voted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.