Los Conquistadores

Los Conquistadores (Spanish for: "The Conquistadors") was the name of a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation consisting of two masked wrestlers known as 1 (or Uno Spanish for "One") and 2 (or Dos Spanish for: "Two"). The original team consisted of José Estrada Sr. and Jose Luis Rivera, but several other wrestlers made use of the gimmick in 2000 and 2003. The original costumes were golden spandex bodysuits and golden masks, but later teams have varied it to blue and gold wrestling masks while still using the name including Christopher Daniels and Aaron Aguilera.

Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz both won the WWF World Tag Team Championship wrestling as Los Conquistadores, although their reigns were later credited under their actual team names.

History

Original (1980s/1990s)

The original Conquistadors were a masked foreign heel team consisting of Puerto Rican wrestlers José Estrada Sr. and José Luis Rivera, billed as being "from somewhere in Latin America," who were used mainly as enhancement talent. Prior to forming the Conquistadors, José Luis Rivera had been a member of another masked jobber tag team in the WWF called the Shadows.^[1] The Conquistadors won so few matches that it was considered an upset if they beat fellow jobber teams such as The Young Stallions. The sole highlight of the Conquistadors' 1980s stint was their first and only pay-per-view appearance, as part of the 10-team elimination match at the Survivor Series 1988, where The Conquistadors and The Powers of Pain were the last two teams left in the ring. They were bit players in the double turn of The Powers of Pain and Demolition, which came about when Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined forces with The Powers of Pain. Fuji pulled down a rope causing Smash to fall out of the ring, and thus Demolition, to be eliminated by count out. The Conquistadors remained standing in the ring for over five minutes while a ringside argument between Fuji and his men took place, a fight broke out where Fuji hit Ax with his cane, Fuji was beaten up by Demolition until they walked away in disgust, the Powers of Pain stepped off the ring apron down to ringside, helped Fuji to get up and regain his composure, and guided him to their corner, at which point the match with the Conquistadors finally resumed. The Conquistadors eventually lost when Mr. Fuji tripped up Uno and The Barbarian hit him with a headbutt to win the match for The Powers of Pain. The Conquistadors spent the rest of 1988 and 1989 jobbing to established teams, except some rare victories including a win over the Young Stallions, two wins over the Rockers, a win over the Killer Bees, wins over the teams of Terry Taylor and Sam Houston, jobber tag teams Brady Boone and Omar Atlas, and John Latu and Bob Emory, and a victory over The Fabulous Rougeaus in Canada in a heel vs heel match.^[2] In 1989, Conquistador #1 (Estrada) started to appear on his own as “The Conquistador” while #2 (Rivera) appeared only sporadically before both men left the WWF.

Revivals

2000

In the year 2000, the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian engaged in a lengthy feud, with The Hardy Boyz capturing the WWF Tag Team Championship from Edge and Christian in a steel cage match at Unforgiven. The following day the Hardys won a ladder match that included a stipulation barring Edge and Christian from receiving another title shot for the duration of the Hardy Boyz' championship reign.

Weeks later, Los Conquistadors made their return, though they didn't physically resemble Rivera and Estrada; rather, the team looked and acted more like Edge and Christian, a suspicion that was boosted by Los Conquistadors immediately targeting the Hardy Boyz in the hopes of getting a shot at the titles. They later won a tag-team battle royal on SmackDown! to earn a title shot. After the match, a vignette showed Los Conquistadors being congratulated backstage by Edge and Christian. Since they were seen with Los Conquistadors, Edge and Christian claimed there was no way they could be Los Conquistadors.

Their title shot came at No Mercy, where they defeated the Hardys using tactics similar to those employed by Edge and Christian, including Conquistador Dos using Christian's finisher the Unprettier to win the match.^[3] Backstage, Edge and Christian, looking like they had just come out of the showers, politely challenged Los Conquistadors for a title shot the next night. On Raw the following night, Edge looked confident as he made his way through the backstage area toward the ring, until he found Christian seemingly put through a table. Edge was left to fight Los Conquistadors by himself, ^[3] and was shocked when they quickly defeated him. When Christian showed up at ringside, Los Conquistadors unmasked themselves, revealing themselves to be Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy. They explained that they had attacked Edge and Christian's hired goons (Christopher Daniels and Aaron Aguilera, who had doubled for Los Conquistadors in backstage segments) backstage and stole the costumes.^[3]

As Edge and Christian complained, it was declared that Edge and Christian's title victory the previous night was official.^[3] At the same time, because the Hardy Boyz had just defeated the champions, commissioner Mick Foley ruled they were now the tag team champions.^[3] After being outsmarted by the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian gave up the golden costumes of Los Conquistadors. In line with the stipulations of the prior ladder match, the ban on Edge and Christian challenging for the championships had ended when "Los Conquistadors" defeated the Hardy Boyz' for the titles, so Edge and Christian could wrestle for the titles again without disguises.

Years later, the Los Conquistadors costumes of Edge and Christian were made available as alternative outfits in the video game WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011.

2003

On the July 17, 2003 edition of SmackDown!, Rob Conway and Nick Dinsmore assumed the roles of Los Conquistadors in a match in which they were defeated by Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. Unlike previous versions of Los Conquistadors, Conway and Dinsmore wore blue and gold masks with exposed mouths, similar to the mask of Último Dragón, along with blue shoulder pads.

On July 27, 2003, another set of Conquistadors participated in the APA Invitational Barroom Brawl Match at Vengeance 2003, where they were soundly beaten up by the APA. In this case, the men under the masks were Rob Conway and Johnny Jeter, who were both working in Ohio Valley Wrestling at the time.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Slingshot catapult / Clothesline combination - José Estrada and José Luis Rivera
  • Sidewalk slam / Falling reverse DDT combination - Edge and Christian
  • Simultaneous diving leg drop / diving splash combination - Hardy Boyz

• Entrance themes
  • "Merengue" (WWE; 2000-2003;2007-2015;Present)

Championships an accomplishments

• New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • Class of 2014^[4] (José Luis Rivera)

• World Wrestling Federation
• WWF World Tag Team Championship - Edge and Christian (1), The Hardy Boyz (1)

References