Франсиско Флорес: Мексикалық күрес промоутерінің тарихы

Mexican professional wrestling promoter

Francisco Flores (date of birth unknown) is a former Mexican professional wrestling promoter who is most known for his part in creating and running the Universal Wrestling Association from the mid 1970s until the 1990s when it closed down. At one point in time the UWA's shows as the Toreo de Quatro Caminos arena were the biggest drawing shows in all of Mexico, putting the UWA in contention for being the biggest wrestling promotion in Mexico at the time. As a promoter Flores helped make such wrestlers as El Canek and El Hijo del Santo world renowned wrestlers.

Flores started his career as a wrestling promoter as a minor promoter for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest and the world's oldest wrestling promotion. After working for EMLL for years he became frustrated with EMLL's very conservative approach to wrestling and wanted to promote his vision for wrestling instead of EMLL's vision. From 1974 to 1976 Flores worked in World Wide Wrestling Federation. In 1975 Flores, along with Ray Mendoza broke away from EMLL and formed the rival Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). In the UWA Flores focused on featuring young wrestlers who were often not given a chance in EMLL, this included Ray Mendoza's sons Villano I, Villano II and Villano III. Villano III especially benefitted from Flores' way of promoting as he became one of the rising young stars in the mid to late 1970s. Flores and the UWA's promotion of El Canek made him a world wide wrestling star, booking him as the "Mexican defender" against a variety of foreign wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and André the Giant. The UWA also helped give a young El Hijo del Santo his start in wrestling. The UWA flourished in the 1970s and 1980s but hit harder times in the 1990s and was forced to close down in 1995 after which Francisco Flores went into retirement.