Pedro Aguayo Damián (18 January 1946 — 3 July 2019) better known as "(El) Perro Aguayo" (Aguayo the dog) and El Can de Nochistlan (The Nochistlan Dog) was a Mexican wrestler through the 1970s to the 1990s.
Aguayo was the first person crowned the WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, though pre-1997 title reigns are not included in WWE's official history for that title. In 2012, Aguayo was inducted into the AAA Hall of Fame. Aguayo was notably the last major rival of El Santo. Often prone to blading, Aguayo has been described by American pundits as a cross between Terry Funk and Bruno Sammartino (for his willingness to brawl and overpower opponents). One of the biggest box office attractions in lucha libre history, prominent professional wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer described Aguayo as "one of the hardest working and most charismatic wrestlers ever".[3]
Aguayo's son also wrestled as Perro Aguayo Jr. or El Hijo del Perro Aguayo ("The Son of Perro Aguayo").
Professional wrestling career
Aguayo was synonymous with the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) as one of its top heels and one of the top heels in lucha libre overall. In the 1990s, Aguayo helped found Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, later known simply as AAA, and his three-way feud with Konnan and Cien Caras proved to be one of the most successful programs in terms of box office receipts. He stayed with AAA until 2000, even making an appearance on WWF'sRoyal Rumble in 1997 in a match that featured lucha libre legends like El Canek, Mil Máscaras and up and comers who would later make names for themselves like Héctor Garza and Heavy Metal. He came to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre to feud with Los Capos. He was successful in taking the hair of Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000 but he lost his slated retirement match against Universo 2000. He remained in retirement until his son began feuding with Los Capos as well. Cien Caras claimed he could not retire until his business with Aguayo was finished so a double hair vs. hair match was set with Perro Aguayo and Perro Aguayo Jr. taking on Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000. The Aguayos were successful and Perro Aguayo returned to retirement and Cien Caras went into semi-retirement.[citation needed]
On 3 July 2019, Aguayo died at the age of 73, his death was announced through a social media post by the "Los Perros del Mal" account.[7] According to them, his death was caused by a heart attack.[8] His funeral was held on 4 July in Guadalajara at a Funeraria Gayosso.[9] On 5 July, a mass was held for Aguayo at the Parque Funeral Colonias de Guadalajara, the same place where in 2015 he farewell his son Perro Aguayo Jr., with the attendance of family, friends and fans before ultimately being cremated.[10]
^While CMLL is no longer an NWA affiliate, it still uses the NWA initials for this championship. However, the National Wrestling Alliance no longer sanctions or recognizes this championship.
^While he did win the championship 7 times, none of the reigns are recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE recognizes no reigns with the title prior to December 1997.
^This was a triangle match that also included Cien Caras.
^Nikozuna never had any of his hair shaved off after the loss.
^This was a triangle dog collar match that also included Sangre Chicana.
References
General sources - Championship Information
Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 389–402. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
General sources - Career
Various (2005). "Perro Aguayo". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. pp. 59–61. ISBN968-6842-48-9.
L.L. Staff (2008). "Lucha Libre: Conoce la historia de las leyendas de cuadrilátero". Perro Aguayo (1946) (in Spanish). Mexico. p. 44. Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre.
Luchas 2000 staff. "Luchas 2000". Perro Aguayo y sus Victimas (in Spanish). Juárez, Mexico: Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V. pp. 12–15. Especial 30.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Madigan, Dan (2007). "Dorada de lucha libre: Las Leyendas, las peleas, los fósforos del resentimiento (the golden age of lucha libre: the legends, the feuds, the grudge matches): Diablo Velasco". Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publisher. pp. 203–205. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
