Antonio Peña

Antonio Hipolito Peña Herrada (June 13, 1951 – October 5, 2006) was a Mexican professional wrestling promoter who founded the Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) promotion in 1992. Peña's promotion reached its height of popularity in the early 1990s prior to the 1994 downturn of the Mexican economy, but continues to operate. Peña's AAA is the promotion largely responsible for bringing the lucha libre style to the United States, with AAA wrestlers such as Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, La Parka, Konnan and others eventually competing for American promotions.

Peña began his involvement in professional wrestling as an in-ring professional wrestler working under various masks as El Genio, Espectro Jr., Kahoz, Espectro de Ultratumba, and Dalia Negra before retiring in 1986 to work in the promotional side of wrestling. Prior to founding AAA, Peña was the head booker of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, the world's oldest professional wrestling promotion.

Biography

Early life

Antonio Peña grew up in a wrestling family in Mexico City, Mexico. His father wrestled as the professional wrestler Ponzoña and his uncle was the famous original Espectro, a big star in the 1950s and 1960s. Peña was trained by Rojas, Isias Rodríguez, Toño Hernández and his uncle before making his professional wrestling debut in 1974 at the age of 18.

Professional wrestling career

Peña began his wrestling career as the masked character El Genio (Spanish for "The Genius") on April 8, 1974. After wrestling as El Genio for a couple of months Peña got his uncle's blessing to adopt the Espectro name and began wrestling as Espectro Jr.