| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Omar Mijares (1938-04-22)April 22, 1938 (age 87) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Omar Atlas Buddy Moreno Buddy Marino Super Gladiator Buddy Silver Wolf Super Steele Omar Negro |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Billed weight | 240 lb (110 kg) |
| Trained by | Jene Howard |
| Debut | 1958 |
| Retired | 1993 |
Omar Mijares (born April 22, 1938) is a Venezuelan retired professional wrestler, best known by his ring nameOmar Atlas, who competed in North American and international promotions including theNational Wrestling Alliance,Stampede Wrestling and theWorld Wrestling Federation from the late 1950s until the early 1990s. A longtime ally of Venezuelan wrestlerCyclone Negro, he was often billed as his younger half-brotherOmar Negro when teaming with him inNWA Southwest Sports during the 1960s and later inChampionship Wrestling from Florida during the 1970s.[1]
He was also a popular star inLatin America wrestling asSuper Steele inMexico andSuper Gladiator inPuerto Rico as well asBuddy Moreno in thesouthwestern United States.
Born inCaracas, Venezuela, Mijares became involved in amateur wrestling as a youth and later competed and won a silver medal at thePan-American Games in 1958. Traveling toSpain soon after, he began acting as a cornerman for friend and former olympianCyclone Negro. Eventually persuaded by Negro to enter professional wrestling, he began training underJene Howard inBarcelona before making his debut before the end of the year. Spending eight months in Spain, he eventually moved on toColombia and spent the next four years wrestling throughout Latin America as well as returning to Spain from time to time.
In 1962, he was one of several South American wrestlers brought into Houston by Cyclone Negro and billed by promoterMorris Sigel as Cyclone Negro's storyline brotherOmar Negro.
Leaving Houston a year later Mijares toured the United States with theNational Wrestling Alliance wrestling in numerous regional territories including for promoters such asPaul Boesch,Sam Muchnick,Nick Gulas,Eddie Graham,Jim Crockett,Vince McMahon, Sr.,Joe Blanchard andCarlos Colon. He would also become a leading star in San Francisco forRoy Shire,Don Owen'sPacific Northwest Wrestling andBob Geigel'sNWA Central States where he would remain one of the area's most popular stars throughout the 1970s. Feuding with NWA North American Tag Team ChampionsYasu Fuji &Chati Yokouchi during early 1972, he andDanny Little Bear would twice capture the tag team titles before finally losing the titles to them inWichita, Kansas on March 9, 1972. Several months later, he would also defeatHarley Race for the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship inSt. Joseph, Missouri on July 7 holding the title for half a year before losing toRoger Kirby in December.
By the 1970s, Mijares began competing in Canada feuding withAbdullah the Butcher andHarley Race in Calgary-basedStampede Wrestling as well as eventually winning the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship fromGil Hayes on November 9, 1973. Enjoying a close relationship with promoterStu Hart and theHart family, he would spend the next 12 years between theWorld Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico and promoterNWA Central States inKansas City, Missouri winning the NWA World Tag Team Championship withPat O'Connor fromThe Interns (Joe Turner & Bill Bowman) inKansas City, Kansas on August 29, 1974. He would also compete internationally, visiting Australia, Korea and Japan.
While in the Kansas City-area during the late 1970s, he would faceJesse Ventura in his debut match inWichita. According to his autobiography, Ventura claimed that if he had impressed the crowd during their match, Mijares had been instructed to allow Ventura to throw him over the top rope so as Ventura would receive a disqualification. If not, he was to injure Ventura in a legitimate"shoot".[2]
Mijares joined theWorld Wrestling Federation in 1984 as it began its national expansion underVince McMahon, Jr. Although facing many of the promotions top stars such as theBritish Bulldog,Randy Savage,Honky Tonk Man,Jake Roberts andTed DiBiase, he would be used primarily as a preliminary wrestler during his career in the WWF, Atlas continued competing for the WWF until 1992.
In 1993, Mijares retired from professional wrestling and eventually went into law enforcement as aprobation officer. In recent years, Mijares works with convicts as asecurity monitor for theBexar County Adult Probation Department inSan Antonio, Texas.[3]
In 2004, Mijares was honored by theCauliflower Alley Club at their annual banquet inLas Vegas, Nevada.[4]
In July 2016, Mijares was named part of aclass action lawsuit filed against WWE which alleged that wrestlers incurred traumatic brain injuries during their tenure and that the company concealed the risks of injury. The suit is litigated by attorney Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in a number of other lawsuits against WWE.[5] The lawsuit was dismissed by US District JudgeVanessa Lynne Bryant in September 2018.[6]