José Ángel Nájera Sánchez (January 6, 1951 – April 8, 2017) was a Mexican professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Fishman. Fishman was one of the top wrestlers in the mid-1970s and 1980s and worked for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, the Universal Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Association and AAA in Mexico as well as frequent trips to Japan and the United States. Nájera was unmasked after losing a match in 2000 and retired shortly afterwards. Three of his sons are all masked professional wrestlers known by their ring names Black Fish, El Hijo del Fishman and El Único de Ciudad Juárez.
Personal life Nájera was born on January 6, 1951, in Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, with his family relocating to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, while he was still very young. At an early age his mother and aunts would bring Nájera along when they would watch professional wrestling shows at the local Toreo de Cuartro Caminos bullfighting arena from the time he was nine years old. During his formative years Nájera cited both Black Shadow and Blue Demon as his idols, favoring the rudos (term used in Mexico to refer to a heel professional wrestlers, or "bad guys") of the era over técnicos (the "good guys") such as El Santo.
Nájera was married to María González, a professional wrestler who worked under the name Lola González, but the two later divorced. Nájera would later marry Leslie González (no relation to Maria González), but that marriage also ended in divorce. It has not been confirmed which wife is the mother of two of Nájera's sons, only that his first son was born out of wedlock. Nájera's sons all followed in his footsteps by becoming masked wrestlers and as such their birth names are not revealed per Mexican wrestling style called lucha libre traditions. While it is not uncommon in lucha libre for wrestlers to license their names to wrestlers who pretend to be second-generation wrestlers,For example Cien Caras Jr. and Hijo de Cien Caras are not the biological son of Cien Caras, but instead paid for the rights to the name. Black Fish (originally Fishman Jr.), El Hijo del Fishman and El Único de Ciudad Juárez are all Nájera's biological sons.
Professional wrestling career Nájera began training at the Juárez municipal gym at a young age, training alongside Miguel Ángel Delgado (who would later be known as El Cobarde), Francisco Javier Delgado (later on El Impostor and El Cobarde II) and Jesus Aguilar (the future El Marquez), with the four becoming good friends. His in-ring debut came as a bit of a surprise, as he was asked by the local Juárez wrestling promoter to fill in when one of the scheduled wrestlers failed to show up for that night's show. Wearing what was described as "underwear and old boots" (in reality sports shorts and a pair of borrowed boots) Nájera wrestled under the ring name "Goliath Reyes" and lost the match. He continued his training for several months before he began working as a full-time luchador. Instead of working as Goliath Reyes he created the masked character "Titán", complete with a colorful jacket that his mother helped him create.
After working as Titán for about a year Nájera was inspired by an off-hand comment from a tag team partner that the eyes on his mask looked like a fish. Taking that comment and pairing it with the popularity of superheroes such as Batman and Superman he came up with the character "Fishman". He designed a gold-and-black-colored mask with a design that was inspired by the shape of a manta ray wrapped around his face. After making a name for himself in Juárez as Fishman Nájera was called on by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest wrestling promotion, and began working regularly on shows in Mexico City. When he came to Mexico City EMLL officials asked him to change the colors of his mask as the gold and black was too close to the mask of El Solitario, one of EMLL's headline wrestlers. Nájera changed the colors to a bright emerald green base and yellow markings, a color scheme that would later lead him to be dubbed El Veneno Verde ("The Green Poison") by wrestling magazines and fans.
Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (1971–1978) In Mexico City he would stay at the guest house of wrestlers José Luis Mendieta and Jesus Reza, known as Rambo and Mano Negra respectively, as he started to work for EMLL full-time. He made his debut on the same night that El Solitario unmasked Ángel Blanco, working in front of a much larger crowd than he had in Juárez. Fishman's more brutal wrestling style, common in Juárez but not so in Mexico City, almost immediately made him a rudo (wrestlers who portray the "bad guys") with the fans. During his early days he won a couple of low ranking masks, defeating El Médico I, El Monarca and Professor Konak in Luchas de Apuestas, or bet matches, as a way to establish him as a rising star in EMLL. Further promotional support came on October 3, 1973, where EMLL decided he should win the Mexican National Welterweight Championship defeating El Marquez for the championship. On December 5, 1974, he unmasked a wrestler known as the Durango Kid after beating him in a Luchas de Apuestas match. His run as the Mexican National Welterweight Champion lasted over two-and-a-half year before it was vacated on March 5, 1975. Months later Fishman regained the title by defeating Alberto Muñoz in the finals of a tournament to regain the Welterweight Championship. On February 4, 1976, Fishman challenged Ringo Mendoza for the Mexican National Middleweight Championship but was not able to win it, this was rare for the time, both because Fishman was already a champion and that he was clearly identified as a welterweight. On April 23, 1976, in the main event of the 20. Aniversario de Arena México show, Fishman defeated El Faraón in a Luchas de Apuestas match, forcing Faraón to unmask and reveal his real name after the match as per lucha libre traditions. The Apuestas success was followed up by on April 9 when he defeated Blue Demon to win the NWA World Welterweight Championship, one of the top ranked championships in EMLL. With this win he vacated the Mexican National Welterweight Championship to allow him to focus on the NWA World title. On November 19, 1976, Fishman lost the title to Mano Negra as a part of a long running storyline between the two that had begun over the summer. In early 1977 he defeated Blue Demon to become a three time Mexican National Welterweight Champion. At this time he became involved in a three-way storyline against two other hated rudo characters El Cobarde and Sangre Chicana. The three-way storyline was the driving force behind both the first 44th Anniversary Show and the second 44th Anniversary Shows held in September 1977. On the first show, on September 23, the three men competed in a three-way Luchas de Apuestas match, in which El Cobarde was able to pin Fishman to escape from the match with his mask. In the end Fishman pinned Sangre Chicana, forcing him to unmask at the end of the show. The following week El Cobarde caused Fishman to lose the Mexican National Weltweight Championship to Kung Fu, leading to the two facing off for their masks the following day. On September 27 Fishman defeated his longtime back stage friend El Cobarde, forcing him to unmask, giving Fishman two major mask wins within a week of each other.
Universal Wrestling Association (1978–1992) In 1978 Fishman was one of many EMLL wrestlers who left the company and joined the recently formed Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), founded by former EMLL promoter Francisco Flores and wrestler-turned-promoter Ray Mendoza. The UWA employed a hard-hitting style of wrestling that EMLL did not emphasize, responding to the demands of the younger lucha libre audiences.
On October 26, 1980, Fishman unsuccessfully challenged one of UWA's top tecnicos El Solitario for the UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship but was unable to defeat El Solitario. UWA also enabled Fishman to travel to Japan to work for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 1981 through their partnership agreement. On December 12, 1980, Fishman defeated Perro Aguayo to win the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, holding it until March 1, 1981, where he lost it to Villano III. Later that same year he would win another championship from Perro Aguayo, winning the WWF World Light Heavyweight Championship.The UWA was allowed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to promote the title but all reigns prior to 1997 are not officially recognized by the WWE. His first reign with that particular championship only lasted two weeks before Aguayo regained it. On July 19, 1981/ Fishman became a two time UWF World Lightweight Champion. In 1982 he appeared on several EMLL shows due to a working agreement between the UWA and EMLL. One such appearance saw Fishman the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship against Ringo Mendoza. A few months later Sangre Chicana won the UWA Light Heavyweight championship from Fishman. On February 27, 1982, Fishman regained the UWA World Lightweight Championship, making him a three-time champion. On June 11, 1983, Fishman unsuccessfully challenged Japanese Tiger Mask for the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in the semi-final of UWA's Tercera Confrontacion Mexico - Japan show that drew approximately 30,000 spectators.
The UWA had working relationships with promotions all over the world, which allowed Fishman to tour Central America and also worked select shows for the Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling, including an appearance at WCCW's June 1983 "Star Wars" event, where Fishman, Bill Irwin and the Mongol lost to WCCW regulars José Lothario, Chris Adams and Chavo Guerrero. On April 1, 1984, Fishman defeated Villano III in the finals of a tourmane to win his fourth UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, the most of any wrestler while the UWA was around.After the UWA closed the championships were still active, being defended in various companies while not being an official championship. During the "unofficial" period El Zorro won the title five times. On April 1, 1984, in Naucalpan, Mexico Fishman defeated Villano III in a tournament final to win his fourth UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1984 Fishman and fellow rudo Babe Face travelled to Japan to participate in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)'s Real World Junior Tag League. The team ended up with 0 points, losing to team such as Gran Hamada and Mighty Inoue, Chavo and Hector Guerrero, Atsushi Onita and Masanobu Fuchi, Magic Dragon and Ultra Seven. Back in Mexico Fishman began to team regularly with former rival Perro Aguayo, forming a team known as Los Compadres del Diablo ("The Devil's Companions"), a team that would later include El Canek as well. Fishman, Aguayo and El Faraón teamed up for Copa Ovaciones y Costalazos ("Cheers and Slams Cup") held by the UWA in 1984. The trio defeated Dos Caras, El Canek and Enrique Vera in the first round, Los Villanos (Villano I, Villano III and Villano V) in the semi-finals and then finally defeated Los Infernales (El Satánico, MS-1 and Pirata Morgan) to win the whole tournament.