Antonio Peña  Antonio Hipolito Peña Herrada (June 13, 1951 – October 5, 2006) was the founder of the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) in 1992. Peña's promotion reached its height of popularity in the early 1990s before the downturn of the Mexican economy. Peña's AAA is the promotion largely responsible for bringing the "Lucha" style to the United States, with such wrestlers as Rey Mysterio Jr., Psicosis, La Parka, Konnan and others. Peña was the former head booker of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) before forming AAA. Peña began his professional wrestling career as a wrestler or "Luchador", as they're called in Spanish, working under various masks as El Genio, Espectro Jr., Kahoz, Espectro de Ultratumba and Dalia Negra before retiring in 1986 to work with the promotional side of wrestling. Antonio Peña grew up in a wrestling family in Mexico City, Mexico. His father wrestled as the "Luchador" Ponzoña and his uncle was the famous original Espectro, a big star in the 1950s and 1960s. Peña was trained by Rojas, Isias Rodríguez, Toño Hernández and his uncle before making his professional wrestling debut in 1974 at the age of 18. Peña began his wrestling career as the "enmascarado" (masked) character "El Genio" (Spanish for "The Genius") on April 8, 1974. After wrestling as "El Genio" for a couple of months Peña got his uncle's blessing to adopt the "Espectro" name and began wrestling as "Espectro Jr." Peña wore the "venom green" mask and trunks like Espectro, but unlike the original he wrestled barefoot most of the time. As Espectro Jr., Peña blended a good solid wrestling foundation with various psychological antics to create a character, while being a hated "rudo" (Heel or "bad guy") character drew the crowd's attention and soon he found himself challenging the top wrestlers of the 1970s for both the Mexican National Welterweight Championship and the Mexican National Middleweight Championship, two of the top championships in Mexico at the time. While a gifted performer in the ring backstage he was described as more of a quiet, thoughtful person who would often talk about how he would change Lucha Libre and add more character and showmanship to it.