Juan Manuel Zúñiga (June 24, 1963 – March 18, 2007) was a Mexican professional wrestler, or Luchador as they are called in Spanish, best known for working under the ring nameÁngel Azteca (Aztec Angel) since the late 1980s. Zúñiga is not related to wrestlers "Ángel Azteca, Jr." and "Ángel Azteca II", instead they paid Zúñiga to use the name and image. As Ángel Azteca Zúñiga worked as an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, until losing a match against Arkangel de la Muerte in 2003 where he was forced to unmask.
Zúñiga died of a heart attack on March 18, 2007, only a few hours after wrestling in the main event of a local promotion.
Professional wrestling career
Juan Zúñiga trained under Héctor López, Asterión and Lucha Libre superstar Dr. Wagner before making his professional wrestling debut in 1980. Initially he worked as "Charro" or "Charro de Jalisco", winning the Mexican National Cruiserweight Championship On October 24, 1986, from Adorable Rubí.[3] On December 28, 1986, he lost the title to wrestler "Judas".[3] In 1988, he changed his ring persona, creating the "Ángel Azteca" (Aztec Angel) character that he would be most known as for the remainder of his career as he began working full-time for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL; later renamed to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL)).
Azteca would make several successful defenses against the former champion as well as El Hijo del Gladiador.[5] On May 25, 1990, Atlantis and Ángel Azteca were finally beaten for the Mexican Tag title by Pierroth, Jr. and Bestia Salvaje.[4] A couple of months later El Dandy won the NWA World Middleweight Championship from Ángel Azteca.[7] The loss of the Tag Team titles was used as the storyline motivation for Ángel Azteca turning rudo (villain or heel after attacking his partner. The feud between the two continued off and on until Ángel Azteca's death in 2007, while the two remained close friends backstage.[1] On March 9, 1991 Ángel Azteca and Volador teamed up to win the Mexican National Tag Team Championship from Pierroth, Jr. and Bestia Salvaje, holding them for two months before dropping them to Los Destructores (Tony Arce and Vulcano).[4] In 1992 Ángel Azteca left CMLL and joined a large number of ex-CMLL employees in the newly created Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) promotion. In AAA Ángel Azteca teamed up with El Hijo del Santo and Super Muñeco to win the Mexican National Trios Championship from Los Payasos (Coco Amarillo, Coco Azul and Coco Rojo).[8] The trio held the championship for 124 days before losing it back to Los Payasos.[8]
After losing the Trios title, Ángel Azteca briefly worked for AAA as "Charro de Jalisco", but left AAA not long after. When he returned to CMLL the creative team was planning on giving Ángel Azteca a new mask and outfit to "freshen up" the character, but when Azteca temporarily retired from wrestling, the new mask design and tights was given to a new CMLL wrestler dubbed Último Guerrero.[9] Zúñiga only worked in a very limited capacity from the mid-1990s until early 2003 where he returned to CMLL. Azteca began working a low card feud with Arkangel de la Muerte that received limited publicity until CMLL began hyping their 70th Anniversary show, where Ángel Azteca versus Arkangel de la Muerte was booked in a Luchas de Apuestas match where the loser would have to unmask. Arkangel won, unmasking Ázteca in what was Ángel Azteca's last high publicity match.[1] After the mask loss Ángel Azteca left CMLL, working a limited scheduled on the independent circuit, sometimes even working as a referee instead of a wrestler.
In 2006 Ángel Azteca returned to the ring, mainly to help push "Ángel Azteca II" and "Ángel Azteca, Jr."; two wrestlers who paid Zúñiga to use the "Ángel Azteca" name. After Zúñiga's death Ángel Azteca II changed his name to Emperador Azteca while Ángel Azteca, Jr. still uses the name in CMLL, but does not make any claims about being the son of Ángel Azteca.
Personal life
Juan Zúñiga was married and the couple had five children together. Zúñiga had a reputation of being a gentleman both inside and outside of the ring and was very respected by his peers.[1]
Death
On March 13, 2007, Zúñiga teamed up with Demonio Rojo and Pinkusky as they lost a match to Atlantis, Imperio Dorado and Rebelde Punk in the main event of a local Campeche show. After the match Zúñiga signed autographs for the fans, but then began complaining of chest pains in the locker room. The event doctor immediately took him to the Manuel Campos Hospital but Zúñiga died shortly after arriving.[1] The autopsy revealed that Zúñiga had died from a heart attack. The body was later taken to Mexico City for the wake before being transferred to Zúñiga's home town of Torreón, Coahuila where he was buried.[1][2][10]
^ abcRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: National Cruiserweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 398. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^ abcdRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: National Tag Team Titles". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 396–397. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^ abLucha 2000 Staff (December 20, 2004). "Los Reyes de Mexico: La Historia de Los Campeonatos Nacionales". Lucha 2000 (in Spanish). Especial 21.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ abcRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: National Welterweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 392. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^ abcRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications (4th Edition). pp. 389–390. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^ abcRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 393. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^ abEnciclopedia staff (July 2007). "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Ángel Azteca (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. pp. 12–13. Tomo I.
