Farina began his wrestling career in the 1950s working primarily in France as the high flying masked
face (wrestling term for those that portray the good guys) ''L'Ange Blanc
(The White Angel). His pristine white mask, trunks and boots became his trademark as he was one of the early icons of professional wrestling, with his popularity rivaling that of Hulk Hogan in the United States or Santo in Mexico. He was considered a bigger star in his home country than André the Giant (who was known in France as Le Géant Ferré
). L'Ange Blanc
was enigmatic and one of the first aerial wrestlers in the heyday of French wrestling. He had televised fights against such wrestling stars as Le Bourreau de Béthune'' (Jacques Ducrez, another famous masked wrestler),
Roger Delaporte and
Robert Duranton. Most of his televised matches were commentated by the famous French journalist
Roger Couderc which helped the promotion of his wrestling role. In his matches, L'Ange Blanc was the "avenger", while his opponents were the bad guys. By 1962, ratings started to drop so promoters decided to unmask "L'Ange Blanc", which ultimately killed the gimmick. Following his unmasking he started to work in the United States under the name Pancho Pino. In 1967 he began working in Mexico as a masked wrestler, but there was already a well known wrestler working as
Ángel Blanco so instead he began working as
El Ángel Exterminador ("The Destroying Angel") working primarily for
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL). In the fall of 1967 he worked a storyline against Ángel Blanco, and as part of that storyline he defeated
Black Shadow in a
Lucha de Apuestas, or bet match, forcing Shadow to have his hair shaved off after the match. That match was a preview of the main event of the
EMLL 34th Anniversary Show where both Angels bet their masks on the outcome of the match. In the end the Mexican Ángel Blanco defeated Ángel Exterminador and forced him to unmask afterwards as per
Lucha Libre traditions. In the years following the unmasking Pino retired from professional wrestling. ==Legacy==