Bob Orton, Jr.
In 1982, Rivera returned to the WWWF, but by this time was now under new leadership as Vincent Kennedy McMahon had bought the WWWF from his father Vincent James McMahon during the time Rivera was absent, and changed the name of the company in 1979 to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Rivera then changed his nickname to Mac Rivera and was mostly used as a face preliminary wrestler for WWF TV-Tapings, excluding a non-televised event in which Rivera participated in a 22-men Battle Royal won by Bob Orton Jr. After a losing streak during all of 1982 and early 1983, Rivera defeated "Baron" Mikel Scicluna on New York City at Madison Square Garden on March 20 in a match where Scicluna believed he would win. Rivera, however was unable to step up the card and eventually continued his losing streak, as Jose Luis Rivera and occasionally as Mac Rivera as well, but defeated Scicluna again at a WWF untelevised event on May, 18. Untelevised victories over fellow preliminary wrestlers Rene Goulet, Butcher Vachon, Bob Bradley followed, with Rivera eventually ending 1983 in a winning streak. Rivera started 1984 continuing his winning streak throughout January of that year with televised victories over fellow preliminary wrestlers Tony Colón, Frankie Williams, and Israel Matia, and an untelevised victory over John Callahan but was eventually defeated by another preliminary wrestler, Tiger Chung Lee. Starting with an untelevised $20.000 battle royal won by André The Giant on January 21, Rivera was once again unable to move up the card and found himself on the losing end of many matches, losing to more-established stars such as SD Jones, Mr. Fuji, and Tony Garea, although Rivera was victorious in matches against less-established wrestlers such as Charlie Fulton and Fred Marzino. One of Rivera's highlights was a boxing match against "Boxing" Bob Orton, Jr. in early 1986. Orton won the match by TKO. This was "warn up" for Orton as he had an upcoming boxing match against Mr. T.