Fishman

José Ángel Nájera Sánchez (January 6, 1951 – April 8, 2017) was a Mexican luchador or professional wrestler best known under the ring name Fishman.

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 lucha libre 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 (lucha libre term for those that portray the bad guys) of the era over tecnicos (the "good guys") such as El Santo.

Nájera was married to María González, a luchadora 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 wrestlers enmascarados (masked wrestlers) and as such their birth names are not revealed per 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, Black Fish (originally Fishman Jr.), El Hijo del Fishman and El Único de Ciudad Juárez are all Nájera's biological sons.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nájera was unmasked after losing a match in 2000 and retired shortly afterwards.

Three of his sons are all luchadores enmascarados (masked wrestlers) known by their ring names Black Fish, El Hijo del Fishman and El Único de Ciudad Juárez.