"Santito", as he is often called, was the only one of his father's 11 children to become a professional wrestler. He began wrestling without his father's consent in February 1982 as "El Korak" but he made his official debut as "El Hijo del Santo" in October of that year after he earned his college degree at the
Universidad Iberoamericana in Communication Science per his father's request. He shared his father's look, the silver mask, tights and cape, and moves but he is shorter than his father was and, although he would never become the same cultural icon, he has been said to be a better in-ring performer than his father. Early in his career, he wrestled mainly for
World Wrestling Association (WWA) (The
Tijuana circuit) and
Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) (a promotion that worked in the Mexico City area) but he did make his debut for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL), the promotion that later became
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in
Arena Mexico, in the summer of 1983. He also was voted "Rookie of the Year" in Mexico. He next feuded with Espanto Jr. (whose father feuded with the original El Santo) and Hijo del Santo took his mask. Espanto Jr. took Hijo del Santo's title but he regained it in 1988 and took Espanto Jr.'s hair as well after winning a
Luchas de Apuestas (Spanish for "Bet match"). In late 1991, he left WWA and vacated the Welterweight title but continued to wrestle for UWA until the formation of
Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). His most memorable feud during his time with AAA was against the American team,
Los Gringos Locos.
Eddy Guerrero's stiffer
Japanese style offense, combined with "Love Machine"
Art Barr's cocky mannerisms made Los Gringos Locos a very exciting yet hated tag team. During the feud, they played up the old
Pareja Atómica tag team which consisted of El Santo and Eddie's father,
Gory Guerrero. Eddie turned on Santo, leading to a hair vs. mask challenge for the
When Worlds Collide pay-per-view. The object of the jump was to revitalize his feud with Negro Casas. El Hijo del Santo lost a match to Casas at the CMLL 63rd Anniversary show on September 20, 1996, and took a brief hiatus. While gone, Negro Casas
turned técnico (face) and his former allies,
Scorpio Jr. and
Bestia Salvaje said they had a surprise for Casas. The set-up was a trios match with Negro Casas,
El Dandy and
Héctor Garza on the
técnico side with Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje on the
rudo (or heel) side. El Hijo del Santo came down to the ring with Scorpio and Salvaje but was wearing a disguise and pretending to be
El Felino, the brother of Negro Casas. During the match, Scorpio and Salvaje began attacking Casas and the fans, unaware of the ruse, expected El Felino to save his brother from the beating. Once he entered the ring, Hijo del Santo removed the disguise and revealed himself as Scorpio and Salvaje's partner, thus turning
rudo for the first time in his career. El Hijo del Santo won the match and began a slow face turn. Although the angle was very successful and drew a lot of money for CMLL, Hijo del Santo continued to wrestle as a babyface throughout the country, even teaming with
Rey Mysterio in Tijuana. Hijo del Santo began to be at odds with his heel allies, namely Scorpio Jr. and Bestia Salvaje. Finally, in September 1998, the face turn was made official when Hijo del Santo's partners,
Villano III and
Fuerza Guerrera turned on Santo. Scorpio Jr. and Salvaje joined in on the beat down, leading Santo's next big feud. Santo worked in the
World Wrestling Federation from 1998 to 1999 for
Super Astros; Spanish-language television program. His tenure ended due to WWF's mandatory marketing policy regarding characters on their programming, which Santo refused to agree to due to his well-known protectiveness of his IP. Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo began teaming together and chased Scorpio and Salvaje's recently won
CMLL World Tag Team Championship. They defeated Scorpio and Salvaje for the titles on February 5, 1999, by disqualification but Hijo del Santo and Casas refused to accept the titles. The big match in the feud was a mask/hair versus mask/hair tag match between the two teams at CMLL's 1999
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show. Santo and Casas were victorious and took the tag titles as well. El Hijo del Santo has continued wrestling as an independent worker doing shows all over Mexico. He even started his own promotion called
Todo x el Todo. The promotion's main show so far was a "25 Year Anniversary Show" shown by
Televisa, a testament to Hijo del Santo's appeal as Televisa rarely show independent promotions. The show featured a
Relevos suicidas tournament where the losing teams advance until the finals, where the final team would fight each other over who would unmask. El Hijo del Santo ended up unmasking Pentagón Black in the finals, which meant that he booked himself to lose three times during the tournament. Around the time of Hijo del Santo's 25th Anniversary, the
World Boxing Council (WBC) named him their "WBC World Wrestling Champion" complete with title belt due to his "significant accomplishments in wrestling". While the title is technically an honorary championship Hijo del Santo defended it several times in 2008. In 2008, Hijo del Santo began running shows in
London, England featuring independent talent from Mexico. On May 11, 2013, Hijo del Santo and his rival, Blue Demon Jr., joined forces to win the Pro Wrestling Revolution Tag Team Championship from
Brian Cage and Derek Sanders. On November 25, 2013, Santo announced a break to repair damage in his spinal area. After successful rehabilitation returned to the ring, teaming with his son El Santo Jr. at a Lucha Ilimitado card in Yakima, Washington on October 12, 2016, and closing out 2016 with two matches alongside his son in Tijuana on December 16 and in Ciudad Juarez on December 18. ==Outside wrestling==