Humberto Garza Solano (born September 23, 1992) is a Mexican professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDownbrand under the ring nameAngel (shortened from his previous ring name Angel Garza).[2] He is one-half of Los Garzas with his cousin Berto and is a member of Legado Del Fantasma.
He is a third-generation wrestler, the grandson of luchador Mario Segura, known as El Ninja. From his debut in 2008 until 2015, Garza worked under the name El Hijo del Ninja ("The Son of the Ninja"). He is the nephew of Héctor Garza and Humberto Garza Jr. and the grand-nephew of Humberto Segura Garza. He is the cousin of fellow WWE wrestler Humberto Carrillo, who was his tag team partner in Mexico and currently is in WWE. Garza 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.
Humberto Garza Solano was born on September 23, 1992, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. He is the grandson of professional wrestler Mike Segura, also known as "El Ninja".[3] Garza was named after his great-uncle, professional wrestler Humberto Garza (real name Humberto Segura Garza). He is the nephew of professional wrestlers Humberto Garza Jr., Héctor Garza,[4] and El Ninja Jr.[3][5] Two of his cousins are also professional wrestlers, Humberto Carrillo (son of Humberto Garza Jr.) and El Sultán (son of Héctor Garza).[1]
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.[1] 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.[6] He followed up his tournament victory by winning the FILL Light Heavyweight Championship that same year.[6] 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.[6] A Lucha de Apuestas win is generally considered a bigger achievement than a championship victory and is an indicator of a promotional "push".[7] 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.[6] In 2010 he won another Lucha de Apuestas, forcing Estrella Dorada Jr. to have all his hair shaved off.[8] In 2011 El Hijo del Ninja won the FILL Rey del Aire ("King of the Air") tournament.[9]
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.[9] On September 18 of that year El Hijo del Ninja won the LyC Championship.[9] He would later give up the championship as the promotion abandoned it.[10] 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.[5] 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.[11]
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.[12] 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 del 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.[13] 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 Cruiserweight Classic, but ended up not participating in the tournament.[14] 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.[15]
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.[22] Later that night Garza Jr. teamed up with Daga to compete in a five-team match against Pentagón Jr./Rey Fénix, 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.[22][23] 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.[24] The group was named La Rebelión and would later include El Zorro and Rey Mysterio Jr..[25]
Impact Wrestling (2017–2018)
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.[4] The two made their in-ring debut by defeating Eli Drake and Tyrus.[26] Two days later Garza Jr. and Laredo Kid participated in a 4-team match for the Impact Wrestling World Tag Team Championship, against The Latin American Xchange, Decay and Reno SCUM, which was won by LAX represented by Santana and Ortiz.[27] At Slammiversary XV, Garza Jr. and Laredo Kid competed in a Four-way tag team match for the Impact Wrestling World and GFW Tag Team Championships which was won by The Latin American Xchange. at Bound for Glory, Garza Jr. competed in a Six-way match for the Impact X Division Championship which was won by Trevor Lee.
WWE
NXT Cruiserweight Champion (2019–2020)
On April 18, 2019, it was announced that he signed a contract with WWE and begun working at their Performance Center, and his ring name was changed to Angel Garza.[28] In June, it was announced that Garza will compete in a tournament named NXT Breakout Tournament,[29] where he made his debut on the June 26 episode of NXT as a heel, defeating Joaquin Wilde in the first round of the tournament,[30] but losing to A. C. H. in the semifinals on July 24 episode of NXT.[31] On the August 20 episode of 205 Live, Garza debuted on the brand while cementing his heel turn, competing on Drew Gulak's team in a ten–man tag team match against Oney Lorcan's team, where Lorcan's team was victorious.[32]
On the November 6 episode of NXT, Garza defeated Tony Nese to become the number one contender for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against Lio Rush,[33] but Garza failed to defeat Rush the following week on NXT.[34] On the December 11 episode of NXT, Garza defeated Rush to win the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, his first title in the WWE.[35] On January 25, 2020, at Worlds Collide, Garza lost the title to Jordan Devlin in a fatal four-way match, also involving Travis Banks and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, who Devlin pinned.[36] On the February 5 episode of NXT, after defeating Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, he called out Jordan Devlin, wanting a rematch as Devlin did not pin Garza to win the title.[37] The following week on NXT, Garza was defeated by Lio Rush in a number one contender's match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.[38]
Teaming with Andrade (2020–2021)
On the February 3 episode of Raw, Garza made his debut on the Rawbrand as a heel associate of Zelina Vega and opposed his cousin Humberto Carrillo, viciously assaulting Carrillo until the latter was rescued by Rey Mysterio.[39] Garza subsequently faced Mysterio, where Garza lost via disqualification, after performing a DDT to Mysterio on the concrete floor.[40] Garza was scheduled to team with Vega's other associate, Andrade to face The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) for the Raw Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 36, but Andrade was removed from that match due to an injury and was replaced by Austin Theory, who is another associate of Vega.[41] At WrestleMania, Garza and Theory were unsuccessful at capturing the titles.[42][43] On the April 13 episode of Raw, Garza, Andrade and Theory attacked Akira Tozawa as all three posed together, confirming their status as a faction.[44] However, on the May 18 episode of Raw they kicked Theory out of their faction for accidentally costing them a match against Kevin Owens and Apollo Crews. The following week on Raw, Garza defeated Kevin Owens in an upset victory. On the June 8 episode of Raw, Garza competed in a Triple Threat match against Andrade and Owens for an opportunity at the United States Championship at Backlash but was pinned by Andrade. During the match, Andrade and Garza accidentally knocked out Vega after getting in to an argument.[45] At Backlash, Garza attempted to help Andrade defeat Crews but was stunned by Owens at ringside which led to Crews retaining the title. The following night on Raw, Garza lost to Owens after Andrade's interference on Garza's behalf backfired.[46]
On the June 22 episode of Raw, Garza and Andrade attacked the Street Profits after their match with The Viking Raiders making their intentions known for the Raw Tag Team Titles.[47] Over the next few weeks, Garza and Andrade would feud with The Viking Raiders defeating them in a Tag Team Elimination match but struggled to get on the same page as a tag team.[48] Andrade and Garza would start to coexist as a tag team as they defeated The Viking Raiders and Cedric Alexander and Ricochet to earn a Raw Tag Team Title shot against Street Profits at SummerSlam.[49] At the event they were defeated by the Street Profits after a miscommunication between Garza and Andrade. On the September 14 episode of Raw, Vega ended her association with Garza and Andrade having had enough of them constantly arguing and fighting with each other. The following week on Raw, Garza and Andrade (without Vega) defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy and Dominik Mysterio and Humberto Carrillo to once again become #1 Contenders for the Raw Tag Team Titles against the Street Profits at Clash of Champions. At the event they were once again unsuccessful at capturing the titles as Garza suffered a legitimate knee injury during the match thus causing an unexpected quick finish to the match, the following day Dave Meltzer reported that despite the botched ending The Street Profits were originally scheduled to Win the match and that plans did not change because of the legitimate injury.
Garza returned on the October 12 episode of Raw, defeating Andrade, thus officially splitting up the team. On December 31, 2020, Garza won his first WWE 24/7 Championship from R-Truth during a New Year's Eve party that was streamed live on TikTok. However, on the January 4, 2021 episode of Raw, The Boogeyman appeared and scared him, thus pinned by R-Truth to retain the 24/7 Championship title. On the May 3 edition of Raw, Gulak confronted Garza which lead to a match, which Garza won. After the match Garza shoved a rose down Gulak's pants and then kicked it.
In the following months, Garza would occasionally be seen backstage pursuing the 24/7 Championship. On the September 20 episode of Raw, Garza formed a tag team with his cousin Humberto Carrillo, defeating Mansoor and Mustafa Ali.[50] As part of the 2021 Draft, both Garza and Carrillo were drafted to the SmackDown brand.[51][52] On the November 5 episode of SmackDown, the team was named Los Lotharios, with both Garza and Carrillo shortening their ring names, being billed as Angel and Humberto.
As part of the 2023 WWE Draft, Angel and Humberto was drafted to the Raw brand.[53][54] Angel and Humberto returned on the June 13, 2023 episode of NXT, laying out Axiom and Scrypts. Later in the show, they were interviewed and said that they wanted to join the competition in the NXT tag division as Malik Blade and Edris Enofe, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen, and Hank Walker and Tank Ledger brawled in the ring.[55] On July 11, his ring name was reverted back to Angel Garza.[56] At NXT No Mercy, Los Lotharios failed to win the NXT Tag Team Championship in a fatal four-way tag team match. Los Lotharios returned to the main roster on the December 22 episode of SmackDown as masked men to assist Santos Escobar defeat Bobby Lashley in the United States Championship #1 Contender Tournament semifinals, aligning with Escobar in the process.[57] On the January 19, 2024 episode of SmackDown, the newly revived Legado Del Fantasma defeated Latino World Order's Carlito, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro in a six-man tag team match.[58]
On December 11, 2019, immediately after winning the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, Garza proposed to sports journalist Zaide Lozano in the middle of the ring.[59] They got married on July 23, 2020.[60] They have a daughter named Dara (born July 2022).[61][62]
^Relevos Suicida, El Hijo del Ninja and Silver Star faced Memo Valles and Coco Viper, with Hijo del Ninja and Valles losing the falls and had to wrestle each other.
^ abMadigan, Dan (2007). "A family affair". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publisher. pp. 128–132. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
^ abcdefghOcampo, Ernesto, ed. (January 8, 2010). "Lo Mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana 2009". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Impresos Camsam, SA de CV. ISSN1665-8876. 348.
^Madigan, Dan (2007). "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 29–40. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
^ abOcampo, Ernesto, ed. (January 12, 2011). "Número Especial – Lo mejor de la lucha libre mexicana durante el 2010". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Impresos Camsam, SA de CV. ISSN1665-8876. 399.
^ abcdOcampo, Ernesto, ed. (January 13, 2012). "Número Especial – Lo mejor de la lucha ilbre mexicana durante el 2011". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Impresos Camsam, SA de CV. ISSN1665-8876. 450.
