El Solitario

**Roberto González Cruz** (May 22, 1946 – April 6, 1986) was a Mexican professional wrestler who wrestled under the name **El Solitario**. During his career he held both the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Middleweight Championship. After achieving stardom in Mexico's oldest promotion, Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, Gonzalez Cruz joined the breakaway promotion, the Universal Wrestling Association, where he held four more world championships in the early 1980s.

## Professional wrestling career

Gonzalez Cruz came from a working-class family and was the youngest of seven children. At the age of twelve, his older brother Jesús, who was also a professional wrestler, began teaching him basic wrestling moves.

In 1959, Gonzalez Cruz's brother was killed in the ring while wrestling as Othon Banzica, but rather than becoming deterred, Gonzalez Cruz drew inspiration from his death and dedicated himself to lucha libre. He began training under the tutelage of Joe el Hermoso and made his wrestling debut in 1960 at the age of fourteen.

Gonzalez Cruz was initially billed as being the son of the legendary wrestler El Santo but later changed his name to El Zica II in honor of his deceased brother.

Gonzalez Cruz moved to Tijuana to pursue his career as a luchador but had a difficult time finding regular work as he was young and still small at the time.

He continued working local arenas until he began making a name for himself as he grew physically and refined his wrestling skills. Cruz realized that in order to take his career to the next level, he would have to select a more crowd pleasing name and character.

He chose the name *El Solitario*, derived from the popular comic book character *El Llanero Solitario* ("The Lone Ranger"'). He also adopted his now trademark gold and black colored costume and golden mask with a fringe around the eyes representing the Lone Ranger's mask. After the change, promoters and fans took notice of the new dynamic wrestler.

On November 16, 1965, El Solitario faced Panchito Ramirez in Arena Coliseo located in Guadalajara. He would make his debut in Arena Coliseo Mexico City on September 6, 1966, when he defeated Tony Reyna. In 1966, El Solitario defeated and unmasked Águila Tapatía, that was followed by a win over Mano Blanca. He won his first world title when he defeated Occident Welterweight champion Luís González.

El Solitario was now working for EMLL, Mexico's largest promotion company. He was catapulted into stardom within the lucha libre world when he defeated veteran Rey Mendoza in a mask vs hair match on December 13, 1968. A few weeks later, he defeated another legend, Rene Guajardo, and also took his hair in another wager match.

El Solitario formed a wrestling trio alongside Dr. Wagner and Angel Blanco; the group was known as "La Ola Blanca" (*The White Wave*). He was wrestling as a rudo at this time but when his partners Dr. Wagner and Angel Blanco turned on him, he became one of the most popular tecnicos of his era.

It also started a legendary rivalry between himself, Wagner and Blanco. He continued wrestling as an individual during this time, and in 1969, won the NWA Middleweight world title by defeating El Rayo de Jalisco. In 1970, El Solitario won the NWA Light Heavyweight title by defeating Ray Mendoza. In 1972, he unmasked his rival, Angel Blanco, in the ring.

El Solitario was one of the first stars to leave EMLL to join the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) promotion, which was run by Francisco Flores and Ray Mendoza. He won the UWA's first Junior Heavyweight title in 1982. He also toured Japan in 1972, 1979, and 1981, where he would face and team up with premiere stars such as Tiger Mask and Tatsumi Fujinami, along with other Mexican wrestlers such as Chavo Guerrero and El Canek.

He was unable to fully exhibit his wrestling skills during his tours, as the junior's division formula in Japan consisted of popular Japanese wrestlers facing off against foreign heels. However, he gained a following outside of Mexico as a result of those tours.

While in Mexico, he remained one of the most popular headlining stars throughout the country. In the early 1980s, he formed a short lived trios team with Aníbal and Villano III, the group was known as *Los Tres Caballeros* that ended when Aníbal turned on El Solitario.

He won the UWA Junior Light Heavyweight title in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, he won the NWA Light Heavyweight title. That same year, he participated in El Santo's final career match when he teamed up with legends El Santo, Gory Guerrero, and Huracan Ramirez to defeat El Signo, Negro Navarro, El Texano, and Perro Aguayo. Perhaps his biggest match took place on December 1, 1985, when he defeated and unmasked Dr. Wagner in a mask vs mask match.

## Death

El Solitario had suffered injuries during the latter part of his career, resulting in several infections and illnesses. During a match with Fishman, he re-injured himself and was taken to the hospital while complaining of abdominal pain. His doctors initially misdiagnosed his condition, and it was later discovered that he was suffering from internal bleeding that required immediate surgery. On April 6, 1986, at the age of 39, El Solitario died while on the operating table as a result of a cardiac arrest. His death was noted in an archive of elsolitario.com:

"*This path begins with the end of one of his intense fights on CD. Juarez in the middle of winter with temperatures below 0% degrees, being a person always neat and careful of his image, he decides to shower in ice water, in the middle of a terrible snowfall, causing this later in the hotel, a tremendous temperature, requested I support his compadre “El Vikingo” who immediately took him to a doctor, diagnosing pneumonia, prescribing antibiotics, which were promptly suspended by an always strong Loner at the very moment he began to feel a little better. This decision was costly since it caused him frequent relapses of flu and cough, and being little affected by visits to doctors, he self-medicated. This situation did not help his body at all, also causing him not to recover quickly from the frequent injuries suffered in the fights, which were more and more delivered, accentuating an injury to his elbow, to which the liquid was spilled, 3 weeks of rest at least the doctor demanded and true to his style, he ignored the recommendation and continued fighting. Already with an infected elbow and despite the doctor's recommendation, he exposes his mask in the fight of the decade “El Solitario vs. Dr. Wagner” same that he wins after a bloody fight, being physically very weakened but with his spirit restored for having achieved such a feat.*

*With this victory, the calls to fight double, having a full agenda for 5 months and with their usual dedication, no time is given for rest. He did not imagine that inside his body, little by little, 4 different viruses grew, all of them lethal, that any person would have finished in weeks. In his last fight in Laredo, against Fishman, he ended up badly injured, complaining of abdominal pain, caused by a poorly executed kick from his professional partner, who nailed the toe in the abdominal area. This kick gave way to a small internal hemorrhage that began to worsen due to the conditions that the Solitaire had been carrying, unfortunately, the first opinion was a misdiagnosis of a spinal problem, without knowing that little by little he was bleeding from within. The symptoms that preceded this were unfair to this figure, inflammation in the joints, unbearable pain that prevented him from walking and a strong infection constantly oozed from the old elbow injury.*

*The strong Solitaire, thought that this was temporary and that he would get ahead, but nevertheless days later he finds himself in the need for the first and last time in his life to enter a hospital, choosing San Francisco. Already with the conclusive results that his discomfort was not caused by problems in the spine, the new analyzes discover internal hemorrhages along with a huge amount of lung tissue invaded by different viruses, causing the blood inside his body to begin to coagulate, and forcing the use of a mask with constant oxygen to help his breathing.*

*His situation did not improve and the decision was made to change his hospital, to the Mexican-American, where they were able to put an end to his intense pain, placing him in an oxygen chamber. Even so, the infections did not subside and with the airways almost completely obstructed, they threatened a tracheostomy. Later, after studies, the doctor informs that the Solitaire is recovering little by little asking the family to retire to rest, because the patient will get better. False and misleading calm before the storm, that after this diagnosis, after a few hours, the cold and sharp call arrives that warns the decline of an idol, who suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest, caused by the hard battle that the Solitaire did not fight against these terrible conditions.*"

Although El Solitario's life was fairly short, his professional career spanned over twenty-five years and he is regarded as one of the greatest Mexican professional wrestlers of all time. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996. His son, El Hijo del Solitario, made his wrestling debut in 1990.