Angel Garza

Humberto Garza Solano (September 23, 1992) is a Mexican Luchador, or professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) competing on the SmackDown brand. He is a second generation wrestler, grandson of luchador Mario Segura, the nephew of Héctor Garza and Humberto Garza Jr. and the grand-nephew of Humberto Segura Garza. While working as El Hijo del Ninja he often teamed with his cousin Último Ninja. Garza Solano originally worked as an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, but voluntarily unmasked in 2012 in the series finale of a dating reality show and has worked unmasked ever since.
==Professional wrestling career==
===Early career (2008–2015)===
Garza was trained by his grandfather Mario Segura as well as El Hijo del Gladiador prior to his lucha libre debut on November 8, 2008, using the ring name El Hijo del Ninja ("The Son of the Ninja"), an enmascarado, or masked wrestling character. Initially he worked for Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre (FILL) as they promoted shows in his native Monterrey, Nuevo León. On August 25, 2009 El Hijo del Ninja won the 2009 Copa Arena Coliseo Monterrey defeating Pee-Wee, Kaientai, Angel Dorada Jr. and Hombre Sin Miedo in succession to win the cup. He followed up his tournament victory by winning the FILL Light Heavyweight Championship that same year. He would win his first Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match", on September 30, 2009 when he defeated Black Morse, forcing him to unmask as a result of the stipulation. A Lucha de Apuestas win is generally considered a bigger achievement than a championship victory and is an indicator of a promotional "push". He would close out the year in another Lucha de Apuestas match, this time a Relevos Suicida where he teamed up with Silver Star to face the team of Memo Valles and Coco Viper. Since both El Hijo del Ninja and Memo Valles were pinned in the match the two were forced to wrestle each other risking El Hijo del Ninja's mask and Memo Valles hair. With the victory El Hijo del Ninja forced Memo Valles to have all his hair shaved off. In 2010 he won another'Lucha de Apuestas, forcing Estrella Dorada Jr. to have all his hair shaved off. In 2011 El Hijo del Ninja won the FILL Rey del Aire ("King of the Air") tournament.
By the late fall of 2011 a new promotion began holding shows in Monterrey, Llaves y Candados (LyC), taking over running shows in Arena Coliseo Monterrey. On September 18 of that year El Hijo del Ninja won the LyC Championship. He would later give up the championship as the promotion abandoned it. In 2012 El Hijo del Ninja participated in a Mexican dating reality TV show called Mitad y Mitad: Lucha por el Amor ("Half and Half: Fight for Love"), where he voluntarily unmasked in the show finale, taking the El Hijo del Ninja mask off on national television to publicly show his face for the first time during his professional wrestling career. From that point on he would wrestle without a mask. The TV show appearance led to a feud with local celebrity/wrestler Konan Big, a storyline feud that led to a Lucha de Apuestas match between the two. It was originally scheduled to be a one-on-one match where El Hijo del Ninja "bet" his hair while Konan Big "bet" his wife on the outcome of the match. During the lead up to the match itself both Silencio and Konan Big's show, El Hijo de Konan Big got involved, turning it into a four way steel cage match. Silencio was the first wrestler to leave the cage, followed by Konan Big. In the end El Hijo del Ninja managed to escape the cage, forcing El Hijo de Konan Big to have all his hair shaved off.
In 2014 some Mexican wrestling media sources reported that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) was interested in signing El Hijo del Ninja to a contract, but nothing substantial came of the rumors at the time. In 2015 El Hijo del Ninja and his cousin Último Ninja won the LyC Tag Team championship, only to lose them to the team of lucha libre legends Dr. Wagner Jr. and Silver King, as part of an ongoing storyline feud between the Garza family and La Dinastia Wagner. The storyline led to a six-man steel cage match where El Hijo del Ninja, El Ninja Jr. and Último Ninja took on Dr. Wagner Jr. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and Silver King Jr., with the last man in the cage being forced to unmask. In the end El Hijo del Ninja was the last man to escape the cage, while Silver King Jr. was left in the ring and thus had to unmask as a result. During the spring of 2016 Garza Jr. was invited to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida as part of WWE's research for their upcoming WWE Cruiserweight Classic 2016, but ended up not participating in the tournament. On August 13, 2016 the Garza cousins defeated Tony Casanova and Zarco to win The Crash Tag Team Championship on a show in Tijuana, Baja California.
===Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (2015–2017)===
Garza Solano began working for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), one of Mexico's largest wrestling promotions, in 2015 where was introduced under the ring name "Garza Jr.", abandoning the "El Hijo del Ninja" moniker from that point on. His first AAA match was at Héroes Inmortales IX held on October 4, 2015. He was introduced as "Garza Jr." for the first time, adopting both the ring gear and mannerisms resembling his uncle Héctor. Garza Jr. teamed up with Psycho Clown and Rey Mysterio Jr. to defeat the trio of Myzteziz, El Texano Jr. and El Hijo del Fantasma in the semi-main event of the show. Garza Jr. teamed up with La Parka II and Electroshock to compete for the vacant AAA World Trios Championship at the 2016 Guerra de Titanes show. The match also was a three-way match that included the trio of Hijo de Pirata Morgan, Hijo del Fantasma and Taurus and the winning trio of Cuervo, Escoria and El Zorro. Garza Jr. failed to qualify for the finals of the 2016 Rey de Reyes tournament as he was eliminated by Blue Demon Jr. In April 2016 Garza Jr. was defeated by El Texano Jr. and thus was not able to qualify for the 2016 Lucha Libre World Cup. Garza Jr. was teamed up with El Hijo del Fantasma for a four-way AAA World Tag Team Championship match at TripleManía XXIV against champions Los Güeros del Cielo (Angélico and Jack Evans), Drago and Aero Star, Paul London and Matt Cross. In the end Drago and Aero Star won the match and the championship. After several mid-card matches Garza Jr. competed in the main event of Héroes Inmortales X, just over a year after his AAA debut. Garza Jr. unsuccessfully challenged Johnny Mundo for the AAA Latin American Championship in a match that was originally scheduled to be lower on the card but was moved to the main event on the night of the show. Three months later Garza Jr. was involved in another featured match, this time at the 2017 Guerra de Titanes show, where he fought, and lost to El Hijo del Fantasma in a match where the AAA World Cruiserweight Championship was on the line.
===Mexican independent circuit===
====La Rebelión (2017)====
On January 21, 2017, the day after Guerra de Titanes, Garza Jr. left AAA and made a surprise appearance at a The Crash show in Tijuana, Baja California alongside Daga and Pentagón Jr. who also left AAA. The trio was joined by Rey Fénix, stating that they were now independent of AAA and were forming a group. Later that night Garza Jr. teamed up with Daga to compete in a five-team match against Pentagón Jr./Rey Fénix, Broken Hardys (Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy), Bestia 666 & Nicho El Millonario and Juventud Guerrera & Super Crazy that was won by Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix. On the same night it was announced that The Crash Tag Team Championship was vacant, stripping Garza Jr. and Último Ninja of the championship to allow the Broken Hardys to win the championship in the main event of the show by defeating Juventud Guerrera and Super Crazy. In subsequent interviews Garza stated that AAA prevented him from earning more money; when promoters across Mexico inquired if Garza Jr. would be available to wrestle on their shows AAA often told the promoters that Garza Jr. was already booked, only to not give him work on those dates themselves. The group of Penta, Rey Fénix, Daga and Garza Jr. later announced that they would not be using the Perros del Mal name for the group, like Pentagón Jr. and Daga had used in AAA but instead come up with a new name for the group. The group was named La Rebelión and would later include El Zorro and Rey Mysterio Jr.
===Impact Wrestling (2017)===
Garza Jr., alongside Mexican wrestler Laredo Kid, made his surprise debut for the Orlando, Florida-based Impact Wrestling at their TV show taping on March 2, 2017. The two made their in ring debut by defeating Eli Drake and Tyrus. Two days later Garza Jr. and Laredo Kid participated in a 4-team match for the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Championship, against LAX (Ortiz and Santana), Decay (Abyss and Crazzy Steve) and Reno Scum (Adam Thornstowe and Luster The Legend), which was won by LAX.
===World Wrestling Entertainment===
====NXT (2019-2020) ====
It was reported during March 2019, Solano signed with WWE, under his ring name Garza Jr.. After working house shows during May and June, Garza Jr. made his televised debut during the June 26 episode of NXT, advancing in the first round of the 2019 NXT Breakout Tournament, after eliminating Humberto Carrillo. During a NXT Taping, Garza was eliminated in the semi final by Jordan Myles.
==== Raw (2020-2023) ====
==In wrestling==
*Finishing and signature moves
:*Wing Clipper (Sitout Butterfly Cradle Drop)
:*El Muertito (Middle-rope Springboard Moonsault)
:*Superkick
*Tag teams and stables
:*Los Lotharios
*Nicknames
*Entrance music
==Championships and accomplishments==
*Federacion Internacional de Lucha Libre
**FILL Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*Llaves y Candados
**LyC Championship (1 time)
**LyC Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Último Ninja
*WWE NXT
**NXT Cruiserweight Championship (1 time)
*The Crash
**The Crash Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Ultimo Ninja
*World Wrestling Entertainment
**WWE 24-7 Championship (1 time)
==External links==
* Profile
* Profile
pt:Garza Jr.
Category:Mexican wrestlers
Category:Living people
Category:2008 debuts
Category:Casanova Pro alumni
Category:Empresa Regiomontana de Lucha Libre alumni
Category:Federacion Universal De Lucha Libre alumni
Category:Llaves y Candados alumni
Category:Lucha Underground alumni
Category:Promociones Contreras alumni
Category:Promociones MDA alumni
Category:The Crash alumni
Category:Total Nonstop Action Wrestling alumni
Category:1992 births
Category:Asistencia Asesoría y Administración alumni
Category:Male wrestlers
Category:Second Generation Wrestlers
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment current roster
Category:NXT Cruiserweight Champions
Category:WWE NXT alumni
Category:WWE 205 Live Alumni
Category:WWE 24-7 Champions