José Gutiérrez Hernández (born March 1, 1972), better known by his ring name Último Guerrero (Spanish for Last Warrior), is a Mexican (or professional wrestler), who works for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). He is not related to the lucha libre legend Gory Guerrero or any of his children; "Guerrero" in this case is the Spanish word for warrior and not the surname of the character. On September 19, 2014, Último Guerrero lost a Lucha de Apuestas match to Atlantis, after which he was forced to unmask and reveal his birth name.
He is a former holder of the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Historic Middleweight Championship, the CMLL World Tag Team Championship (where he and Dragón Rojo Jr. are the longest reigning tag team champions) and CMLL World Trios Championship on multiple occasions. Guerrero is a charter member of the stable of wrestlers known as Los Guerreros de Infierno / Los Guerreros de la Atlantida and has also made appearances for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in the United States. In TNA where he was part of Team Mexico, which won the 2008 World X Cup. Guerrero is the only wrestler to win the Torneo Gran Alternativa tournament three times and the CMLL Universal Championship tournament twice. He is also part of the CMLL booking committee.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1990–1997) Gutiérrez was trained in "Gimnasio El Ranchero" by Tinito and Halcón Suriano and made his debut in 1990 as "Halcón Dorado" (Spanish for "Golden Hawk"). Shortly after his debut he changed name and "ring persona", or gimmick, and became known as "Flanagan". He worked for several years in local promotions in his native Durango area before getting his first break in Promo Azteca. Guerrero and his training partner Super Punk changed their names in 1996 with Guerrero adopting the name "Último Guerrero" ("Last Warrior") and Super Punk becoming "Último Rebelde" as they started teaming together using a British hooligan inspired gimmick. The team was scheduled to lose their masks in a Luchas de Apuestas mask vs. mask" match (a "Bet match" where the loser would unmask), but instead Último Guerrero decided to join Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council") in late 1997 and thus saved his mask.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (1997–present)
Initially Guerrero worked lower card matches, in the first-to-third match on the show with some success. On September 11, 1998 he defeated Mr. Águila in his first ever Lucha de Apuestas match, forcing his opponent to unmask and reveal his real name as part of the CMLL 65th Anniversary Show. Mr. Águila already worked for the World Wrestling Federation without his mask, so it was not seen as a surprise that he lost to Guerrero. In 1999 Último Guerrero teamed up with veteran Blue Panther to win the Gran Alternativa ("Grea Alternative") tournament, a tournament where a young wrestler teams with a veteran. Winning the Gran Alternativa tournament is often a sign that the promotion has plans to move a wrestler up the rankings. Shortly after winning the tournament, Guerrero won a match that made him the number one contender for Great Sasuke's NWA World Middleweight Championship. Último Guerrero did not win the match but the fact that he worked a featured match in CMLL's main arena, Arena México, showed that the company had plans for him.
Los Infernales (1999–2001)