Julio Domingo Estrada, who wrestled and managed as Rico Suave, has died.
Estrada was the son of José Estrada Sr. and brother of José Estrada Jr. For most of his career, he opted to wrestle without the well-known surname and was best recognized as Rico Suave, a stalwart for the World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico.
He began training in his teenage years and debuted in 1984 in Puerto Rico but made his mark in the early ‘90s when venturing to WWC where he spent the lion’s share of his career.
Suave became a prominent manager for the group where he was attached to the Americans that would come into the territory and required a mouthpiece such as Dick Murdoch, Eddie Gilbert, Greg Valentine, and Buddy Landell among others.
Throughout his career, he formed various championship teams as he held WWC’s tag titles on ten occasions. His partners included Eddie Watts, Ricky Santana, Agente Bruno, Diabolico, Eric Alexander, Tim Arson, and El Bronco throughout the 2000s.
Suave feuded with Santana over the WWC Television Championship in 2002 where he had one reign as titleholder and another two title victories in 2007 before vacating the belt.
Outside of Puerto Rico, he toured with Big Japan throughout 2000 as “Crazy Sheik”, often teaming with Abdullah the Butcher. In March of 2000, he participated in the Big Japan World Extreme Cup where he finished in fourth place after losing to Tomoaki Honma in a Barbed Wire Board Death Match in a tournament won by John Zandig.
In the summer of 2002, he wrestled multiple dates for CMLL including at Arena Mexico as part of Los Boricuas with Canadian Bulldog, Pierroth Jr., The Killer, and Violencia.
Suave winded down his career in 2013 but returned for matches as late as four years ago before experiencing myriad health issues.
Due to diabetes, he was forced to have his right leg amputated several months ago. In February of this year, he suffered two heart attacks and required three stents and a pacemaker to be inserted and was scheduled for double bypass surgery later this month.
It is unknown what the cause of death was and we extend our condolences to his family and friends.
Several notes: El Nuevo Dia
