On September 23, 2016, Google put up a new doodle to celebrate the 99th Birthday of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, otherwise known as El Santo. The famed Luchadore is considered to be one of the greatest legends in Mexican sports. His career in Empresa Mundial de Lucha Libre spanned nearly 50 years from roughly 1934 to his retirement in 1982.
Over this career, he won 12 championships with the promotion, spanning their light heavyweight, welterweight and middleweight titles as well as 2 Tag Championships with another legend, Rayo de Jalisco Sr. Two of those title reigns were with belts from the NWA that mainly resided with the Lucha Libre promotion, one run with the World Middleweight Championship and two runs with the World Welterweight Championship. He was also 35-0 in Luchas de Apuestas matches that put his mask at risk. He posthumously joined the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2013.
Aside from this, El Santo was also a film star in Mexico, starring in over 50 films as the Luchador. The character of El Santo was also in cartoons and other media including Batman ’66 in fights against Bane.
Guzmán died on February 5th, 1984, just one week after appearing on a morning talk show and revealing his face for the first time under the El Santo mask, effectively saying goodbye to his fans.
