Mario Pérez Jiménez

Mario Pérez Jiménez was a Mexican Mini-Estrella luchador, or Mini professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Espectrito. Jiménez worked for WWE as “Mini Vader” and “El Torito” between 1997 and 1999. Jiménez was the first ever Mexican National Mini-Estrella Champion and IWC World Mini-Estrella Champion. Jiménez was originally an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, under the Espectrito name but lost it to Mascarita Sagrada in a Luchas de Apuestas match, a bet match where each wrestler puts his mask on the line. The Espectrito ring character is a Mini-version of wrestler Espectro, who was a well-known Luchador from the 1960s-1980s. Mario Jiménez made his professional wrestling debut in 1984 under the ring name Centellita, working as a Mini-Estrella, or “Mini”, division; working in the Mini division does not necessarily mean that Jiménez has dwarfism, as short wrestlers can also work in the “Mini” division.[3] In 1989 Jimenez became part of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre’s (EMLL) newly created Mini-Estrella division. He was given the ring persona of “Espectrito” (Spanish for “Little Ghost”), a mini version of a wrestler named Espectro I (Ghost) who had been very successful in the 1960s and 1970s. As Espectrito he began working a storyline feud against Mascarita Sagrada. In 1992 CMLL created the CMLL World Mini-Estrella Championship and held a one-day tournament to find the first champion. Espectrito defeated Octagoncito in the first round but lost to rival Mascarita Sagrada in the finals.

In 1997 AAA began a working agreement with North American-based WWE, which meant that several AAA workers appeared on WWE television programming. Jiménez was given the ring personal “Mini Vader”, a miniature version of WWF wrestler Vader as he bore a striking resemblance both physically and facially. Mini Vader made a couple of appearances in early 1997, at times teaming with “Mini Mankind”, Jiménez’ real life brother.In Mid-1997 all the “Minis” that worked for WWE were repackaged and Jiménez became “El Torito” (Little bull), a “human bull” character. As Torito he would work a series of matches against Mascarita Sagrada, repackaged as “Mini Nova” (after Super Nova) and Mascarita Sagrada, Jr. who had been repackaged as “Max Mini”. Jiménez made one pay-per-view appearance for WWE, teaming with Battalion and Tarantula (his brother under a new name) losing to the team of Mini Nova, Max Mini and Mosaic at the 1998 Royal Rumble.After AAA and WWF stopped working together in 1999 Jiménez still made appearances as El Torito until 2001 where he lost the mask in a Luchas de Apuestas against Pierrothito.

Personal life

Mario Pérez Jiménez is the brother of twins Alejandro Jiménez, who wrestled as Espectrito II, and Alberto Jiménez, who wrestled as the original La Parkita. The Jiménez twins were both murdered on June 30, 2009, in a crime that was covered worldwide