Villano III

Arturo Díaz Mendoza (March 23, 1952 – August 21, 2018) was a Mexican professional wrestler who performed under the ring name Villano III (in Spanish Villano Tercero).

Díaz was a second-generation wrestler, son of luchador Ray Mendoza and the father of professional wrestlers Villano III Jr.. and El Hijo del Villano III himself.

All five of the Díaz brothers used the Villano name; José de Jesús (Villano I), José Alfredo (Villano II), Tomás (Villano IV) and Raymundo (Villano V).

Of the five Villanos, Arturo was considered the most successful in terms of championship and Lucha de Apuesta (bet match) wins as well as the most talented luchador in the family.

His two older brothers, José de Jesús and José Alfredo, had begun wrestling in early 1969 when Arturo was just 17 years old.

Arturo was trained both by his father and by Felipe Ham Lee, a family friend, while also getting a degree in physical education in case professional wrestling did not work out for him.

His debut was on January 29, 1970, earlier than expected as he was asked to replace someone who did not show up for a match.

For the first match he was billed as "Ray Rosas" (Ray after his father and "Rosas" after the color of his wrestling attire) and worked without a mask.

After his initial match he began wrestling under various enmascarado (masked) characters such as Pulpo Blanco (Spanish for "White Octopus") and Mancha Roja ("Red Stain"), in part to not reveal that he was the son of Ray Mendoza.

At one point he competed under the name "Búfalo Salvaje" ("Savage Buffalo"), a name also used by his older brothers early in their careers when they worked as Búfalo Salvaje I and II.

After several short-lived names, Arturo began wrestling as Rokambole, a name he would use for several years.

The name Rokambole would later be used by his younger brother Raymundo as well.

In late 1970 or early 1971, his older brothers began wrestling as Villano I and Villano II and soon established that as their permanent identity, creating what would later turn into a family tradition.

In 1973 Arturo's father and older brothers finally deemed him experienced enough to use the Villano name, taking the name Villano III (Villano Tercero).

In 1975 Arturo's father joined with wrestling promoter Francisco Flores and investor Benjamín Mora Jr. to form a new wrestling promotion called Universal Wrestling Association, which was in direct competition with the company Ray Mendoza and Flores had worked for up until that point, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL).

One of the reasons behind the split was that Mendoza felt that EMLL was not giving his sons enough opportunities in the ring.

All three Villanos followed their father to the newly formed UWA.

While his brothers worked as a tag team, Villano III became a singles competitor and was pushed as one of its top stars, due to his father's influence and Vilano being the Vilanos' most talented wrestler.

On December 14, 1975, Villano III became the first ever UWA World Welterweight Champion by winning a tournament.

Over the next couple of years, Villano III defended the championship in several high-profile, main event matches, earning favorable reviews from both fans and reporters.

His run with the welterweight title lasted until May 29, 1977, where he lost to El Solar.

Following the title loss, Villano III moved from the welterweight division (with a maximum weight of 78 kg) to the light heavyweight division (with a maximum of 97 kg).

On March 1, 1981, he defeated Fishman to win the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, a title his father had won previously as well.

Villano III lost the title back to Fishman 140 days later, ending the first of his two reigns with that championship.

In 1982 Villano III started a storyline feud against Los Misioneros de la Muerte ("The Missionaries of Death"; El Signo, El Texano and Negro Navarro), that would lead to Villano III becoming a tecnico (a face, those that portray the good guys in wrestling).

As Villano III became more and more popular with the fans and the UWA officials decided to make him a "technico", using the hated Los Misioneros trio to that end.

After his "tecnico" turn Villano III joined up with El Solitario and Aníbal to form a trio called Los Tres Caballeros ("The Three Gentlemen"), who would go on to main event a series of sold-out UWA shows.

His first major opponent after the turn was Perro Aguayo, starting a long-running, intense feud over the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship that the UWA promoted at the time.

On March 20, 1983, Villano III defeated Aguayo to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship, beginning the first of seven reigns for Villano III, tied with Aguayo for most reigns with that title.

His first reign lasted 140 days before Aguayo regained the title.

The feud between the two also saw Villano III defeat Aguayo in a Lucha de Apuesta, hair vs. mask match, on August 21, 1983.

In 1985 Villano III defeated Gran Hamada to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title for a second time.

Villano III's second title reign lasted 826 days, which is the longest of any WWF Light Heavyweight Champion in its history.

Díaz was an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, up until 2000 where he lost to Atlantis and had to unmask as a result.

The match against Atlantis was later voted "Match of the Year" in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter year-end awards.

He retired from wrestling in 2015 due to health issues stemming from wrestling.

A few days after his death, he was inducted in the AAA Hall of Fame.

During his 35-year career, Arturo Díaz was one of the featured performers for the Universal Wrestling Association, and for all the all major Mexican wrestling promotions such as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and AAA as well as numerous notable smaller Mexican promotions like International Wrestling Revolution Group.

In contrast one of his last matches ever, at Triplemanía XXIII was voted the "worst match of the year" in 2015.

Arturo Díaz was born into a wrestling family; his father, Ray Mendoza, became a successful luchador when Arturo was very young.