As the major heavyweight working for the Universal Wrestling Association promotion, he became one of Lucha Libre's biggest attractions during the 1980s especially through his high-profile matches against non-Mexicans that sold out numerous shows and led to the UWA using the same formula of "Canek vs. the foreigner" for over a decade.

In Lucha Libre it is tradition to keep the real name of any masked wrestler secret from the general audience; the newspapers and magazines in Mexico do not speculate on them, nor do they publish clear photos of their faces.

[3] His in-ring debut came about earlier than expected as a local wrestling promoted asked Estrada to fill in for a wrestler who could not make that night's show.

He made his debut that night working as the enmascarado (Masked wrestler) El Universitario ("The Academic" or College Student), a name that reflected that he was still in wrestling school.

[5] Shortly after his debut El Canek moved to Mexico City, working for Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) while also training at "Gym Ham Lee" under head trainer Felipe Ham Lee as well as Sugi Sito and Fantasma de la Quebrada.

[6] Working mainly in the north El Canek won several headline matches, including unmasking El Destroyer and Lemus as well as winning the hair of Dory Dixon, Sunny War Cloud and Ruben Juarez but never worked regularly in EMLL's main territory in and around Mexico City.

[3][4] The UWA decided to have El Canek defeat Dr. Wagner to win the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship on January 15, 1978.

[9] The title run was used to build a storyline feud between El Canek and Dos Caras as Caras was immediately positioned as the next challenger and actually won the championship from El Canek on June 20, 1978[9] During the feud the fans responded favorably to the two wrestlers as each played their part to perfection, the physically imposing El Canek used his strength to dominate and gloat his way to becoming a rudo that the fans would gladly pay admission to see get beat up while Dos Caras became the quintessential tecnico, the hero of the people who overcame the odds and defeated the bad guys, while also being a very talented wrestler.

[3][4] One such NJPW wrestler was Tiger Jeet Singh, who came to Mexico and had a short feud with El Canek before winning the UWA Heavyweight Championship on February 17, 1980.

[10][11] El Canek's unsuccessful challenges for Tiger Jeet Singh's championship drew sellout crowds for months.

Almost a year later El Canek finally brought the championship "back" to Mexico defeating Tiger Jeet Sing on February 15.

[3][4] In between matches in Mexico against the "hated foreigners" El Canek would also travel to Japan and fight against some of NJPW's top wrestlers such as Tiger Mask and Tatsumi Fujinami.

[11] On January 29, 1984, El Canek defended the championship against André the Giant, who was billed as being 2.26 m (7 ft 5 in) tall and weighing 240 kg (530 lb).

[3][4][11] By 1991 the UWA began working together with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL, formerly EMLL), putting aside the issues that led to the split in the 1970s.

The final match took place on March 26, 1993, and saw El Canek and Dr. Wagner Jr. win the fall and thus become the first ever CMLL World Tag Team Champions.

As part of the storyline Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated El Canek to win the UWA World Heavyweight Championship on June 18, 2004.

[21] Weeks later Universo 2000 won the 2004 Leyenda de Azul ("The Blue Legend") tournament when he eliminated El Canek as the last man out of a field of 16 wrestlers.|[22] The trio of Canek, Black Warrior and Rayo de Jalisco Jr. held the trios championship for 133 days before a team known as La Furia del Norte (Héctor Garza, Tarzan Boy and El Terrible) defeated them for the championship on November 19, 2004.

[24] El Canek, Perro Aguayo and Tinieblas Jr. defeated Gorgeous George III, Jake Roberts and the Killer in the main event of AAA's Triplemanía V-A show.

[25] Two days later he also worked the main event of Triplemanía V-B as he, Perro Aguayo, Octagón and Cibernético defeated Jake Roberts, Gorgeous George III, El Cobarde II and Fuerza Guerrera.

[27] The two rivals next faced off in a steel cage match at AAA's 1997 Verano de Escándalo ("Summer of Scandal") show, which ended in a draw as both men were unable continue.

[31] The win turned out to be one of El Canek's last AAA matches, basically regaining the UWA World Heavyweight Championship on the way out of the promotion.

Early on he worked a program with Rayo de Jalisco Jr. over the WWA World Heavyweight Championship held by Rayo de Jalisco Jr.[34] While in IWRG he also defended the UWA World Heavyweight Championship, a title he still claimed despite the UWA being inactive for eight years at that point in time.

On May 5, 2005, El Canek and Rayo de Jalisco Jr. faced off against Perro Aguayo Jr. and Head Hunter I in a match where the winning team would then wrestle for the vacant IWRG Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

El Canek became the first International Wrestling League (IWL) Independent Heavyweight Championship when he defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and L.A. Park to win the title.