Jerry Estrada

Estrada was slated to wrestle at the EMLL 52nd Anniversary Show on September 20, but it was canceled due to the Mexico City earthquake the day before.

Jerry Estrada (full name, Gerardo Hernández Estrada; born January 10, 1958, Monclova, Coahuila) is a semi-retired Mexican luchador (professional wrestler).

For most of his career, he has portrayed a rudo (heel, those that portray the "bad guys") character, nicknamed "El Puma".

His rudo persona was pattered on various Glam Rock bands, complete with colorful spandex and what was described as a "rock and roll" attitude in the ring.

Gerardo Hernández Estrada was born on January 10, 1958, in Monclova, part of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

As a teenager, two local transit agents, who also worked part-time as professional wrestlers, offered to train Estrada but ended up breaking Estrada's foot during their first session by accident.

While recovering Estrada worked to support himself by selling chewing gum, polishing shoes, driving tracks and working as a line chef.

During his various jobs, he met professional wrestler Herodes, who started to train him alongside notable wrestling trainer Alberto Moras.

After his initial training under Alberto Moras and Herodes, he would receive further training, early in his career by Rafael Salamanca, Gran Cochisse, Gori Medina Enrique Llanes, Ringo Mendoza, and Alfonso Dantés.

He was originally active from 1978 until 2003 when he was forced to retire due to chronic injures caused by his signature bumps outside the ring.

After unmasking, Estrada began working under the name Jerry Estrada, the only name he has used since 1978.

Estrada was a major star for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) during the 1980s but was one of the first wrestlers to leave EMLL to work for Antonio Peña's newly started Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) in 1992.

He slowly developed a "rock and roll" style in-ring character, inspired by various early to mid-1980s bands.

Where most wrestlers at the time wore more traditional wrestling tights and trunks Estrada opted to wear black or dark colored spandex with bright colored tassels and bandanas, similar to the onstage outfit worn by glam rockers such as Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider.

Ricardo Vega, a magazine publisher, coined the nickname "El Puma" for Estrada, a nickname Estrada had throughout his career.

It led Estrada to sporadically walk to the ring with a living Puma.

It was not long after making his in-ring debut that Jerry Estrada began working regularly for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), the world's oldest and one of Mexico's largest wrestling promotions.

The company decided to make Estrada the next Mexican National Middleweight Champion, which happened on March 4, 1984, when he defeated Ultraman.

Over the subsequent 273 days, he successfully defended the championship against Águila Solitaria, Cachorro Mendoza, Atlantis, and Mogur.

On November 30, 1984, Atlantis defeated Jerry Estrada to win the Mexican National Middleweight Championship.

In 1986 EMLL decided to team Estrada up with Pirata Morgan and Hombre Bala to form a trio known as Los Bucaneros ("The Buccaneers") as part of its emerging Trios division.

For his stint with Los Bucaneros, Estrada had his hair cut short and began wrestling wearing a faux eyepatch as part of the Pirate image.

Los Bucaneros went on to defeat the trio of Kiss, Ringo Mendoza, and Rayo de Jalisco Jr.. to win the Mexican National Trios Championship on August 30, 1987.

Their reign ended when Los Destructores ("The Destroyers"; Tony Arce, Emilio Charles Jr.., and Vulcano) were chosen by EMLL to become the next champions, taking the titles on January 31, 1988.

Estrada departed Los Bucaneros not long after the title loss, being replaced on the team with El Verdungo.

Estrada left the team because he wanted to shed the pirate image and return to the wrestling style of his "El Puma" character.

In 1990, EMLL created a Mini-Estrella ("Mini Star") division and several of the small-sized wrestlers were given ring characters matching the regular-sized wrestlers; one such wrestler was Jerrito Estrada (Spanish for "Little Jerry Estrada") who heavily physically resembled Estrada and had a similar wrestling style.

While he was a smaller version of Jerry Estrada, EMLL's conservative booking style kept the regular-sized wrestlers and the Mini-Estrellas from appearing or wrestling together.

From 1991 to 2008 Mini-Estrella Enrique del Rio worked under the ring name Jerrito Estrada, a mini version of Jerry Estrada.

Over the years Estrada has held a number of championships for both AAA and CMLL, including the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship, the Mexican National Middleweight Championship as well as the Mexican National Trios Championship with Hombre Bala and Pirata Morgan, collectively known as Los Bucaneros.

He was in the main event of AAA's Triplemanía II-A show, losing a Lucha de Apuestas, or bet match, to Heavy Metal and was forced to have all his hair shaved off as a result.

By late 1991, EMLL changed their name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and created a number of "World" championships to help usher in the new name; one such title was the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship.

CMLL held a tournament in late 1991 that saw Jerry Estrada defeat MS-1, Mascara Año 2000 and Black Magic on his way to the finals, where he defeated Pierroth Jr.. to become the first champion.

Estrada held the championship for 175 days until Pierroth Jr.. won it from him.

In early 1992, then-CMLL booker Antonio Peña decided to leave the conservative CMLL to create his own wrestling promotion, Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, later known as "AAA".

Estrada was one of the first CMLL wrestlers to leave to join AAA, causing an exodus of a large number of CMLL wrestlers to AAA at the time.

In AAA Jerry and Jerrito Estrada teamed up on several occasions, including the first-ever Triplemanía show on April 30, 1993, where Jerry, Jerrito and Blue Panther lost to rivals Máscara Sagrada, Mascarita Sagrada and Love Machine.

He also had a brief run in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1997 and 1998 when AAA and WWF had a working agreement.

In an interview with Estrada from around his 2003 retirement, he revealed that he briefly wrestled under a masked identity, using either the name "Guardián Blanco" ("White Guardian") or "Halcón Blanco" ("White Falcon").

Estrada began working select matches again in 2018.