Beristain made his professional wrestling debut in 1971 at the age of 21, under the
ring name Santiago Ayala. A few years later Beristain adopted a masked ring persona by the name of
Talismán. The Talismán character was so successful that Beristain began working for
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), Mexico's largest wrestling promotion. On August 30, 1978, Talismán defeated Mario Valenzuela to win the
Mexican National Lightweight Championship, his first professional wrestling championship. He held the title for 221 days before losing it to Rodolfo Ruiz on April 8, 1979. It would be almost two years before Talismán won another title, defeating
El Supremo for the
Mexican National Welterweight Championship on March 30, 1982. Talismán successfully defended the title several times, including a rematch with the deposed champion, until losing it on November 12, 1982 to
Mocho Cota. In 1984 Talismán entered and won a tournament for the vacant Mexican National Welterweight Championship, defeating
Américo Rocca in the finals. On September 21, 1984, Talismán lost a
Luchas de Apuesta bet match to
Atlantis and was forced to unmask after the match and reveal his real name per lucha libre traditions. Talismán held the Welterweight title for 222 days before Rocca finally managed to defeat him. On March 2, 1986, Talismán gained a measure of revenge on Atlantis by defeating him for the
Mexican National Middleweight Championship. He successfully defended the title for 273 days before losing it to Mogur on November 30, 1986. In the late 1980s Beristain switched ring characters, becoming an
enmascarado once more, using the name
El Hijo del Gladiador (
Spanish for "The Son of the Gladiator"), creating a
narrative blood relation to deceased wrestler
El Gladiador. Hijo del Gladiador teamed up with
Dr. Wagner Jr. and
Gran Markus Jr. to form the group
La Ola Blanca ("The White Wave"), continuing the tradition started by
Dr. Wagner (Jr's father) and
Ángel Blanco in the 1960s and 1970s. On April 22, 1994,
La Ola Blanca defeated
Los Brazos (
El Brazo,
Brazo de Oro and
Brazo de Plata) to win the
CMLL World Trios Championship (EMLL had been renamed Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 1990). The trio held the title for 343 days before losing the Trios title to
Bestia Salvaje,
Emilio Charles, Jr. and
Sangre Chicana on March 31, 1995. On August 6, 1996, Hijo del Gladiador and Gran Markus, Jr. teamed up to defeat Atlantis and
Rayo de Jalisco, Jr. to win the
CMLL World Tag Team Championship. The team held the title for 43 days before losing it to Atlantis and
Lizmark on September 18, 1996. After the loss of the tag team title,
La Ola Blanca broke up, with each wrestler going their separate ways. Due to the CMLL/
International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) talent-exchange agreement, Hijo del Gladiador began working for IWRG in late 1997, and in early 1998 he defeated
El Pantera to win the
IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Championship. He defended it several times in the following 186 days before losing the title to
Magnum Tokyo on July 5, 1998. On August 4, 2000, El Hijo del Gladiador was one of the participants in a
Torneo cibernetico, where the last man eliminated would be forced to unmask. On that night he was bested by
Rencor Latino and forced to unmask as a consequence of his loss. Beristain announced that his full name was "Arturo Beristain Ramírez" to keep up the storyline that he really was the son of El Gladiador. It was later confirmed that his last name was not Ramirez. Arturo Beristain retired from wrestling in 2005 and became a full-time wrestling trainer for CMLL in their wrestling school in Mexico City, where he still works, training several of CMLL's rookie wrestlers. ==Championships and accomplishments==