the true story that inspired the eliminadora

Jesus Renteria is one of nine kids born to Juanita and Jesus Martinez. As a boy he enjoyed working to earn money to help his parents. As a teenager he played sports but what sparked his interest was wrestling. At the age of fourteen he would watch wrestling all the time. His favorite wrestler was Tito Santana and Ricky Romero.

One day at age twenty two he was watching wrestling with his brother in law and they began talking about wrestling and his brother in law said they should wrestle as tag team partners. Jesus began looking into it and took his physical. He began training hard. One day he was just standing listing to a promoter talk to his friend and asked if he meaning Jesus would be ready to wrestle next week. His friend looked at Jesus and said yes. Jesus stunned looked at his friend because he thought he wasn’t ready. He began doing matches under the name krypton. He wrestled in small stadiums for a while. Jesus did not like the name Krypton that was originally given to him by his trainer. He thought he could get a better stage name that would help raise his image.

At age twenty four while watching Television he heard the name the Eliminador and immediately liked the name and changed it. It seems that the name change really helped his carrier. He began wrestling in bigger stadiums. He met Eddie Guerrero in a match in El Paso Texas. They became good friends and began going to events together. He worked hard and won the heavy weight champion ship belt at age twenty six. Years later Jesus began feeling week and losing strength and falling while walking. He began losing his eye sight on his right side. While wrestling he notice he was unable to push himself far enough to fly off the third rope. In 1991 Jesus was diagnosed with MS. Jesus disappeared from the wrestling scene without telling anyone. Everyone speculated different reasons including the death of one of his good friends.

At age thirty nine Jesus got married to Ana Garcia and had a daughter Nadia. Jesus’s last match was the day his daughter Nadia was born. When his daughter was five she began acting but was not getting many speaking roles. Jesus and his wife talked about writing a script and making a film for their daughter. This inspired Jesus to write about parts of his life and wanted his daughter to know what he went through to become a wrestler. He incorporated memorable places such as Foster and White where Jesus lived as a young boy and special people in his life like his mom Juanita, mom’s best friend Yolanda, and his aunt Tia Chencha. Writing about his life brought back memories of running away and helping out a neighbor who was in need. When the script was completed they reversed the role since she is a girl and named her Sofia after Jesus' sister with whom he is very close. He wanted to use his original wrestling outfit that was designed and worn by him. Jesus along with his wife produced this short film to promote their daughter. Jesus is now writing his second script that will incorporate both his and his daughter’s life experiences.