José Guadalupe Fuentes Ochoa, a.k.a. ‘Babe Face’, an early member of the Universal Wrestling Association, died on Friday.
Babe Face (pronounced ‘Babyface’) was a Rudo throughout most of his career, featured prominently in the UWA and EMLL, and had multiple tours with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
He was born on August 31, 1947, in Colima, situated nearly three hours south of Jalisco, and was dubbed ‘El Cañonero de Colima’ (The Cannoneer of Colima) during his career. It is believed he started his career around 1970 (which would peg him as a late starter when he was around 23) and wrestled as late as 1997.
After breaking from EMLL, promoter Don Francisco Jose Flores and Benjamin Mora Sr. formed their own group, Promociones Mora-Flores in 1974. The group would become La Alianza de la Lucha Libre International (LLI) but promoted itself as the Universal Wrestling Association, or UWA. The promotion drew some incredible crowds in its first year at Palacio de los Deportes and Plaza de Toros in Mexico City and had years of success with Canek as its top star.
Babe Face was among the many to join the upstart and became known for his bloodbaths. In February 1976, he challenged Villano III for the UWA World Welterweight Championship in Monterrey and lost his hair to the champion six months later in Mexico City.
At UWA’s third anniversary card in January 1978, Babe Face teamed with Scorpio, with the pair losing their hair to Bello Greco & Sergio El Hermoso, underneath a headline match between Mil Mascaras and Killer Khan.
In 1979, he went on his first tour of New Japan Pro Wrestling, teaming with Perro Aguayo. The pair went over all the lower-tiered teams on the tour. One of the big matches of the tour saw Babe Face, Aguayo & Tiger Jeet Singh losing to Antonio Inoki, Osamu Kido & Tatsumi Fujinami in Nabari. Babe Face teamed with Singh, losing to Inoki & Choshu, and to Inoki & Kido. The tour culminated with Gran Hamada retaining the UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight title on April 5 in Tokyo.
He returned one year later to NJPW to work with Kuniaki Kobayashi, Tatsumi Fujinami, George Takano, and Seiji Sakaguchi in singles matches. He was involved in tags teaming with Bad News Allen (Allen Coage) and The Iron Sheik.
In December 1981, he won the Mexican National Light Heavyweight title from Alfonso Dantes and held the title for eighteen months, losing to Mano Negra in July 1983.
In the beginning of 1982, he traveled to New Japan and, for the first time, he shared the ring with the Dynamite Kid and Bret Hart as teammates. He was also part of a unique team on January 25, teaming with Superstar Billy Graham and Wahoo McDaniel against Inoki, Fujinami, and Kengo Kimura. His big match of the tour was losing to Tiger Mask in Osaka in a match for the WWF Junior Heavyweight title, and he became a tremendous opponent for Satoru Sayama.
New Japan’s WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship League (precursor to the Top of the Super Juniors and Best of the Super Juniors) included Babe Face in 1984. Babe Face finished at the bottom of the standings in a loaded field including Dynamite Kid, George Takano, Davey Boy Smith, Black Tiger (Mark Rocco), Bret Hart, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Isamu Teranishi, and Nobuhiko Takada.
That same year, he was booked by All Japan Pro Wrestling for its Real-World Jr. Tag League, teaming with Fishman and going 0-4.
He would headline UWA’s tenth anniversary card on January 27, 1985, at El Toreo, teaming with Stan Hansen and losing to El Canek & Dos Caras.
Babe Face formed Los Tigres del Ring with Luis Mariscal and Scorpio and competed as a trio in the UWA, including feuding with Los Misioneros de la Muerte.
On August 15, 1986, Babe Face lost his hair to La Fiera at Arena Mexico, and another notable Apuestas loss was against 20-year-old Eddy Guerrero on July 31, 1988, in Ciudad Juarez.
The UWA would fizzle as the ‘90s came about and saw EMLL get mainstream television on Televisa, coupled with Antonio Pena breaking away from the promotion and launching AAA in 1992 and getting on television. The UWA became the No. 3 group in the company with an aging roster.
He would decline throughout the decade and was largely inactive after the UWA shut down, with several appearances for CMLL, including a hair match with El Dandy and wrestling for AAA in 1997.
He became known outside of the Arena Mexico for running a Lucha-themed rice stand with dishes named after wrestlers.
Several notes, courtesy:
– Obit on Carlos Maynez (Wrestling Observer Newsletter)
