Ray Fernandez Raymond Fernandez ( May 7 , 1956 – March 6 , 2004 ) was an American professional wrestler who primarily wrestled in Florida and Texas before joining the World Wrestling Federation . He was best known by the ring name Hercules or variations thereof . Fernandez was also a featured bodybuilder , appearing in several muscle magazines . Career . Early career ( 1981 - 1985 ) . Fernandez started wrestling in 1981 , mainly performing in the Florida and Texas territories , as ” Hercules ” Hernandez . In 1982 , Hercules joined the NWA Central States territory ( which ran out of Kansas City and promoted shows in Kansas , Missouri , and Iowa ) . While in Central States , Hercules teamed up with Dewey Robertson , the future Missing Link , and the two won the Central States tag team championship on two occasions ; they beat Mike George and Mark Romero ( aka Mark Youngblood ) both times . He also held the Central States Television title for a little over 6 months , winning it from , and losing it back to , his main rival , Mark Romero . His two other notable feuds in the Central States territory were with Manny Fernandez and Harley Race . His feud with Race garnered Hercules significant attention in the national wrestling scene , due to Race ' s stature as a former NWA World Champion . This feud began because Race had an issue with Oliver Humperdink ’ s House of Humperdink stable , which Hercules had become a part of soon after joining the promotion . One match between the two had the stipulation that if Race won , he would get 5 minutes inside a steel cage with Humperdink . Hercules was caught using brass knuckles and disqualified , which meant that the cage match was on . When the match was about to start , Hercules ran to ringside , knocked Race out , in kayfabe , and threw him into the ring with Humperdink . In the end , Race recovered and piledrove Humperdink onto a steel chair ( an act scripted to allow the " injured " Humperdink to leave the territory ) . After losing his manager , Fernandez did not stay in the Central States territory for long but instead signed up with Jim Crockett Promotions ( JCP ) . In JCP , Fernandez was paired up with Jody Hamilton , who had been wrestling as the Masked Assassin ; Fernandez became the Masked Assassin 2 , a gimmick that had been played by several other wrestlers over the years . The two competed at the first ever Starrcade beating the team of Rufus R . Jones and Bugsy McGraw . Fernandez ' s run as one of the Assassins ended less than a year later , after he was unmasked by Jimmy Valiant . After being unmasked , Fernandez moved on to Bill Watts ' Mid - South promotion , where he once again donned a mask . Mr . Wrestling II had recently turned on his tag team partner Magnum T . A . and become a heel . Mr . Wrestling II renamed himself simply “ Mr . Wrestling ” and got a new protégé , “ Mr . Wrestling II ” , who was Fernandez under a mask ( referred to as “ Mr . Wrestling III ” in magazines to avoid confusing their readers ) . Mr . Wrestling II seconded Mr . Wrestling in his feud with Magnum T . A . Later on , Fernandez unmasked and competed once again as “ Hercules Hernandez " , and feuded with ” Hacksaw ” Jim Duggan under the tutelage of Jim Cornette . Hercules would soon join Skandor Akbar ’ s stable known as Devastation Inc . alongside future WWF co - worker Ted DiBiase . As part of Devastation Inc . , Hercules would feud with the Junkyard Dog and Terry Taylor , before leaving for Florida . In “ Championship Wrestling from Florida ” , Hercules quickly won the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship from Brian Blair , and then won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship from Hector Guerrero the following month ; this made him a double champion . Some time during July 1985 , Fernandez was fired from CWF after a dressing room fight with Wahoo McDaniel and stripped of both titles . After leaving Florida , Fernandez signed with the World Wrestling Federation . World Wrestling Federation ( 1985 - 1992 ) . Fernandez debuted in the WWF in 1985 , managed by " Classy " Freddie Blassie . His first major national exposure came when he competed at WrestleMania 2 in a losing effort against Ricky Steamboat . Blassie would soon retire , in storyline terms selling his stable to Slick . Hernandez soon found himself floundering in the WWF midcard . In late - 1986 , however , his contract was " sold " to Bobby Heenan . Soon after , he would drop " Hernandez " from his ringname , begin carrying a long steel chain to the ring , and re - emerge with a visibly changed , more - muscular physique . On the November 26 , 1986 edition of Saturday Night ' s Main Event , Hercules received a highly hyped shot at the WWF World Heavyweight Title , facing champion Hulk Hogan . Although he was able to put the 300 lb . Hogan in the " Hercules Backbreaker " torture rack , he came up short in what was arguably the biggest match of his wrestling career . Also in the fall of 1986 , Hercules would rekindle a feud with Billy Jack Haynes that went back through every promotion the two were ever in together . Both men at the time were using the full - nelson submission hold as their finisher . Heenan on an episode of WWF Challenge , called out Haynes saying he ' d like to see him get out of Hercules ' version of the hold . Haynes promptly answered the challenge and was waiting for Hercules to apply the hold when Heenan appeared to have second thoughts . Haynes grew tired of the charade and shoved Heenan . This gave Hercules the opening he needed and he clotheslined Haynes . Haynes was unable to defend himself and Hercules slapped the full - nelson on and maintained the hold until Haynes passed out . This incident set the stage for their match at WrestleMania III . The momentum swung back and forth throughout the contest until Haynes clotheslined Hercules over the top rope . When he refused to re - enter the ring , Haynes gave chase and successfully applied the full - nelson only to have both men counted out . Heenan attempted to break Haynes hold by driving a knee into his back . Haynes attention turned to Heenan once again as Hercules grabbed his steel chain and wrapped it around his fist . When Haynes turned to deal with his adversary , Hercules drove the chain into his forehead . Haynes bled profusely while Hercules and Heenan both gloated . The feud culminated some weeks later in a chain match that saw Hercules as the victor . In the early part of 1988 , during an episode of WWF Superstars of Wrestling , Hercules was swinging his chain in the direction of The Ultimate Warrior . Warrior caught the chain , and the two began a tug of war , which led to the steel chain snapping at the middle . The broadcast commentators gave credit to the Warrior for snapping the chain , to the chagrin of Hercules and Heenan . This led to their match at WrestleMania IV , which ended with Warrior pinning Hercules after pushing off from the turnbuckle while in Hercules ' full nelson and landing on top of him . During the fall of 1988 , Bobby Heenan sold Hercules ' contract to “ The Million Dollar Man ” Ted DiBiase ; DiBiase claimed that in Hercules , he had now purchased his own slave " . This comment angered Hercules , who stated that he was owned by no man and turned face to feud with DiBiase . The two were on opposite teams at Survivor Series 1988 where DiBiase eliminated his “ slave ” from the match . After the feud with Dibiase ended , Hercules had a series of matches with ” King ” Haku . Despite pinning Haku at WrestleMania V , he did not become “ King ” . Hercules ’ career stalled following his feud with Haku . He was mainly used as a jobber to help push the latest heels such as The Earthquake , who squashed him at WrestleMania VI . In the summer of 1990 , Hercules turned heel alongside Paul Roma and the two formed Power and Glory , managed by Slick . They had a high profile feud with The Rockers , defeating them at SummerSlam ' 90 in Philadelphia and challenged WWF World Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation . Yet , despite the fact that the two worked well together as a team , they were never given the opportunity to cement themselves as serious players in the tag team division . When the Legion of Doom squashed them in 59 seconds at WrestleMania VII , it was evident to fans that the team was not destined for greatness . After SummerSlam 1991 , Roma left the WWF . Hercules spent the rest of his time in the WWF jobbing again , losing to wrestlers such as the Big Boss Man and Sid Justice , and then Intercontinental champion Bret Hart . His last televised WWF match was against Sid Justice at MSG where he was squashed in under a minute . Hercules lasted nearly forty minutes in the 1991 Royal Rumble . In 1992 , he lasted less than a minute . After the WWF ( 1992 - 1999 ) . After being with the WWF for 7 years , Fernandez signed with World Championship Wrestling . He once again adopted a masked persona , this time as Super Invader , a supposed oriental assassin under the management of former rival Harley Race . As Super Invader , he beat Todd Champion at WrestleWar 1992 and beat Marcus Bagwell in a dark match before the Great American Bash 1992 PPV . The highlight of his run as Super Invader was his appearance at teaming with Rick Rude , Jake Roberts , and Big Van Vader in an elimination tag team match against Sting , Nikita Koloff , and the Steiner Brothers . Although Sting eliminated him early , Super Invader ' s team won the match . By the end of 1992 , Ray Fernandez had left WCW and was competing on the independent circuit , as well as overseas . One of the promotions he worked for was New Japan Pro Wrestling where he appeared as “ Hercules Hernandez " once more , mainly teaming with fellow powerhouse wrestler Scott Norton to form The Jurassic Powers . The team would win the IWGP Tag Team Championship from the Hell Raisers ( Hawk Warrior and Power Warrior ) in August 1993 and hold it for about 4 months before losing it back to the Hell Raisers at NJPW ’ s January 4 Dome Show ( NJPW ’ s biggest annual event ) . While holding the title , the Jurassic Powers successfully defended against teams such as The Japanese Jollyjacks ( Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami ) , Masa Saito and Manabu Nakanishi , and the Barbarian & Haku . The team also had a series of matches with the Steiner Brothers and made it to the finals of the 1993 Super Grade Tag League where they lost to Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase . In 1994 , Hercules wrestled in the American Wrestling Federation promotion taking part in the tournament to crown the first AWF champion . In 1999 , Ray Fernandez retired from wrestling after working for various independent promotions across the world . Death . Fernandez died in his sleep in his home on March 6 , 2004 . The cause of death was attributed to heart disease according to his wife .