Máximino "Max" Linares Moreno (November 22, 1932 – July 19, 2018) was a Mexican luchador (professional wrestler) and lucha film star, better known under the ring name Rayo de Jalisco ("The Lightning Bolt from Jalisco"). He is considered to be one of the best wrestlers of his generation. Linares' son followed in his footsteps and is working under the name Rayo de Jalisco Jr., wearing the same distinctive black mask with silver lighting bolt on it when wrestling. One of Linares' grandsons is also a wrestler, known as "Rayman". During his career, Linares held the NWA World Middleweight Championship on three occasions as well as the Mexican National Tag Team Championship with lucha libre icon El Santo. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996 and the AAA Hall of Fame in 2014. Linares worked for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre for a large part of his career and was honored by them in 2013 as part of their annual Homenaje a Dos Leyendas show. Early life Máximino Linares Moreno was born on November 22, 1932, in Milpa Alta, Mexico City, Mexico. He was the middle of three Linares brothers, older brother Antonio and younger brother Dionisio. Professional wrestling career By the late 1940s, both of Max Linares' brothers had become professional wrestlers, which led to Max himself training for a professional wrestling career under his older brother Antonio. Linares made his wrestling debut in February 1950, under the name "Mr. Misterio". He would later appear in Mexico City under the name "Aguila Negra" ("Black Eagle"). in 1954 Linares began working in the Mexican state of Torreón where he adopted a masked character known as Dr. Curtis, or Doc Curtis. While in Torreón he worked a storyline feud with one of the top names in the state, Orlando Santa Cruz. The feud led to a Lucha de Apuestas or "bet match" between the two on December 12, 1954. After the loss, Linares was forced to remove his Dr. Curtis mask and state his birth name as part of the Lucha de Apuestas tradition. He continued to work as Dr. Curtis and later on "Tony Curtis". In 1960, he appeared under the name "El Rayo" and in 1962, he finally appeared as "Rayo de Jalisco", wearing his trademark black mask with a lightning bolt across the face. Success soon followed for Rayo, winning the National Wrestling Alliance Middleweight Championship and Occidente Welterweight Championship. Rayo would also win a series of matches against another famous luchador Chino Chow. He unmasked his rival La Bestia (The Beast) in a mask vs. mask match in 1964. Rayo would become the tag team partner of the legendary Blue Demon and was named "The Best Wrestler" of 1963. Rayo feuded with Blue Demon near the end of both their careers. Blue Demon actually came out of retirement to face Rayo in a mask vs mask match. Rayo was defeated, revealing his face to the world as Maximo Linares Moreno. Source: Jalisco