Jose Lothario, a popular babyface in several territories and well-known for his run role as the mentor of Shawn Michaels on television, has died at the age of 83.
Lothario, real name Guadalupe Robledo, was reported to have passed away by Bill Apter after learning of the passing from Robledo’s son.
He began wrestling in the early 50’s in Mexico but made his larger impact coming to Texas, where his career was most closely associated. Lothario was a major babyface in the state.
In the early 60’s, he was working in San Francisco and won their version of the tag titles with area legend Pepper Gomez on September 14th, 1963. They held the titles for more than one year and dropped them to Dan Manoukian and Ray Stevens in November 1964.
Lothario spent time working in Florida where he won their version of the Brass Knuckles championship three times and won versions of their tag titles with Wahoo McDaniel, Eddie Graham, Sam Steamboat, Don Curtis, Dory Funk Sr., Joe Scarpa, and others.
During his singles run, he became NWA Brass Knuckles champion in Texas five times. He defeated Johnny Valentine for his first reign in January 1972 and held it off and on throughout the decade. His won it one final time on Christmas Night 1981 in Dallas and dropped it to Bugsy McGraw in March 1982.
Lothario won the NWA American tag championship with several partners including Ivan Putski in 1973, Mil Mascaras in the same year, El Halcon in 1979, as well as two reigns with partner Tiger Conway Jr. with the last run in March 1980 where they held the title for three months.
In World Class, he also won the television title twice with the first championship reign beginning on November 30th, 1979 defeating Bill Irwin and dropping it back in January 1980. He beat Irwin again for the title in March 1980 and dropped it once again to Irwin in August.
While a strong territorial babyface, the run Lothario is most remembered for by modern fans is with the World Wrestling Federation in 1996.
Lothario was legitimately the mentor for Shawn Michaels and helped break him into the industry, so there was a relationship between them. He was brought in as Michaels’ mentor in preparation for Michaels’ big championship match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 12 in March 1996 for the Ironman match.
Michaels won the title and Lothario remained as his manager throughout 1996. This included Lothario being involved in several angles with Jim Cornette. At the Survivor Series that year, Sid attacked Lothario with Lothario grabbing his chest and the announcers insinuating he may be having a heart attack. Michaels left the ring to check on his mentor and was attacked with a camera and led to Sid winning the title. The plan was to take the title off Michaels for a big rematch at the Alamo Dome in Michaels’ hometown of San Antonio at the Royal Rumble, where Michaels won the title back.
In the lead up to the rematch, Lothario’s son Pete was used for an angle with Sid attacking him as well.
Lothario also worked with Michaels in 1999, when the latter opened the Texas Wrestling Academy, which produced Bryan Danielson, Brian Kendrick, Lance Cade, and Paul London among others.
