Latin Lover

Personal information
Born	Victor Manuel Resendiz Ruiz (1967-10-25)October 25, 1967 (age 58) Monterrey,Nuevo León,Mexico
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Latin Lover Latino[1]
Billed height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Billed weight	98 kg (216 lb)[2]
Billed from	Monterrey, Nuevo León
Trained by	El Vasco Blue Fish Katsuhisa Shibata
Debut	June 7, 1992

Victor Manuel Resendiz Ruiz (born October 25, 1967) is a Mexicanprofessional wrestler andactor. He is best known under hisring nameLatin Lover, under which he is also credited in his acting career. Resendiz is best known for wrestling in the MexicanAAA promotion, but has also worked for theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF), thePerros del Mal andConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotions under the ring nameLatino. Resendiz and his partner Mariana Vallejo Isrrade won the firstBailando por un Sueño dance competition in 2005.

Victor Manuel Resendiz Ruiz made his professional wrestling debut in 1992 atArena Solidaridad in his home town ofMonterrey,Nuevo León,Mexico, facing the team of Comando Ruso, Hijo del Solitario and Canadian Butcher.^[3] Resendiz debuted under the ring name "Latin Lover", a name he has used ever since. Originally Latin Lover was anenmascarado, or masked character, but he lost the match in aLuchas de Apuesta (bet match) against the team ofSangre Chicana and El Sanguinario on August 1, 1992. Lover and Espacial were close to win against the rudos as they made Chicana submit, but El Sanguinario was able to defeat both of them to score an upset win. After the loss of the mask Latin Lover worked briefly forConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and on various shows on the Mexicanindependent circuit. In 1994 he signed a contract to joinAsistencia Asesoría y Administración, later simply AAA and soon became a featured wrestler on the mid-card.^[3][4] Latin Lover was quickly teamed up with another charismatic young wrestler by the name ofHeavy Metal and together they won theMexican National Tag Team Championship fromLos Destructores (Tony Arce and Volcano) on September 9, 1994.^[5] The team held the title for 82 days before losing it toFuerza Guerrera andJuventud Guerrera on December 2, 1994.^[5] After failing to regain the titles Latin Lover began teaming withPanterita del Ring instead, defeating Los Guerreras for the tag team title on June 1, 1995.^[5] Lover and Panterita successfully defended the title against Los Guerreras andBlue Panther and Heavy Metal before losing the titles back to Los Guerreras on September 18, 1995.^[5] While Latin Lover had a limited repertoire when it came to wrestling, his good looks and dance moves made him a favorite with the fans, especially the women in the audience, keeping him high in the AAA rankings.^[4] On September 9, 1996 Latin Lover won theMexican National Light Heavyweight Championship by defeatingPimpinela Escarlata.^[6] He was also a participant in the 1997 Royal Rumble. On February 15, 1997 Latin Lover defeated Pierroth, Jr. to become a double champion as he won theAAA Campeón de Campeones Championship.^[7] On February 21, 1997 Latin Lover defeated Máscara Sagráda, Jr.,Jerry Estrada and Killer to earn a spot in the finals of the1997 Rey de Reyes tournament. Lover went on to defeat Heavy Metal,Héctor Garza andOctagón to win the tournament and become the 1997Rey de Reyes (Spanish for "King of Kings")^[8] On May 12, 1997Cibernético defeated him to win the Campeon de Campeones title.^[7] Three days later Latin Lover also lost the Mexican Light Heavyweight title after 252 days with the title.^[6] In late 1999 Latin Lover would win both theMexican National Heavyweight Championship and regain the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship, becoming a double champion once again.^[6][9] He only held the Light Heavyweight title for 105 days before losing it to Sangre Chicana on February 1, 2000.^[6] Due to nagging knee injuries Latin Lover's schedule in 2000 and 2001 slowed down to only select appearances.^[4] On May 5, 2002 – 929 days after winning the title Latin Lover finally lost the Mexican National Heavyweight Championship to Héctor Garza.^[9] On March 21, 2003, he received a match againstNWA World Heavyweight ChampionJeff Jarrett but lost to him inMexico City.^[10] The match came about as a result of a working relationship between AAA andTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Latin Lover was chosen to represent AAA on the card.

In 2005 Resendiz, officially billed as Latin Lover on the show, competed in and won the inauguralBailando por un Sueño dance tournament with his partner Mariana Vallejo Isrrade. The win led to Latin Lover becoming a household name in Mexico, leading to more acting parts both on television and on stage.^[4] Resendiz appeared in thetelenovelaVelo de Novia ("The Bridal Veil") and on stage and TV as part of theSólo para Mujeres ("For Women Only") dance/stripping group.^[3] During a stage performance Resendiz performed a dive off the stage and injured his knee, tearing theanterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his knee. On January 26, 2006 Resendiz announced that he had to retire from wrestling due to this injury and that he was scheduled for what would be the eighth knee surgery since his debut in 1992.^[4] In 2010 Latin Lover was selected to represent Mexico as one of the Juries onSecond Dance World Championship. Resendiz appeared in the telenovelaQué bonito amor andLa tempestad.

In late 2008 Latin Lover returned to wrestling, initially teasing that he would join the CMLL based groupLos Perros del Mal, but in the end returned to AAA. At theRey de Reyes (2009) tournament on March 15, 2009 he defeatedAbismo Negro,Black Abyss andDark Ozz to qualify for the final. In the final he was the last wrestler eliminated by the 2009Rey de ReyesElectroshock.^[11] Following theRey de Reyes tournament Latin Lover began teaming withMarco Corleone, a wrestler with a similar "Ladies man" character. The team challengedAAA World Tag Team ChampionsLa Hermandad Extrema (Spanish for "The Extreme Brotherhood";Nicho el Milinario andJoe Líder) in one of the featured events atTriplemania XVII, only to lose due to miscommunication between Latin Lover and Corleone.^[12] On March 18, 2010, AAA announced in a press conference that they would no longer be booking Latin Lover, due to monetary issues and him no-showing the 2010Rey de Reyes event where he was scheduled to be part of the main event.^[13] On April 11 Perros del Mal announced that Latin Lover would be joining the promotion and debuting the following month.^[14] On June 4, 2010, Latin Lover returned to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, brawling with Héctor Garza.^[15] After not appearing again for CMLL for months, Latin Lover returned to the promotion on November 26, 2010, confrontingLos Invasores, arudo group led by Garza. He was then attacked by the group, before being saved byShocker.^[16] Upon returning to the promotion, Resendiz adopted the new ring name ofLatino.^[1]

In early April, 2010 ex-AAA wrestlersHisteria andEl Alebrije sought legal action against AAA over the issues of name and ring character ownership as well as unfair termination by AAA. The two claim that they have wrestled for 13 years to create the characters and thus own them. The parties met in Mexico City’s Board of Conciliation and Arbitration to see if a settlement can be reached or if the matter will be taken to court.^[17] The parties met for a second arbitration meeting in late April, 2010. This time the plaintiff group was joined by Latin Lover who, like Alebrije, Histeria and the others, claimed that he should be allowed to use the ring name on theindependent circuit since he's worked as Latin Lover for 18 years and thus should be allowed to continue using it. After the meeting it was stated that all parties involved were cooperating over the matter.^[18]

• AAA
  • AAA Campeón de Campeones Championship (1 time)^[7]
  • Mexican National Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[9]
  • Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[6]
  • Mexican National Tag Team Championship (2 times) – withHeavy Metal (1) andPanterita del Ring (1)^[5]
  • Rey de Reyes:1997^[8]
• Federación Internacional de Lucha Libre
  • FILL Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him #46 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2004^[2]

• Latin Lover's profile atCagematch,Internet Wrestling Database

• 1967 births
• Living people
• Mexican male professional wrestlers
• Mexican male film actors
• Mexican male telenovela actors
• Mexican male television actors
• Professional wrestlers from Nuevo León
• Sportspeople from Monterrey
• Male actors from Monterrey
• 20th-century male professional wrestlers
• 20th-century Mexican professional wrestlers
• 21st-century male professional wrestlers
• 21st-century Mexican professional wrestlers
• Mexican National Tag Team Champions
• Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champions
• Rey de Reyes winners
• Mexican National Heavyweight Champions

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata