Carlos Máynez who took over the Universal Wrestling Association from his uncle Francisco Flores after his death on May 11th, 1987 after he was the force behind the construction of Arena Neza & Arena Queretaro, passed away early Wednesday morning at the age of 71 from a heart attack after being in Lucha Libre for 56 years. Máynez started out promoting small shows in his home of Pachuca as well as Toluca before joining his uncle Francisco where he learned everything he could while also learning accounting which became a regular job for him. Máynez helped his uncle open up the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City where they were promoting big shows featuring Rene Guajardo & Rey Mendoza along with the big stars of EMLL when they decided to break away from them and form the UWA using the Palacio as their home and using independent wrestlers while cultivating their own young talent. Benjamin Mora Sr. who was in charge of Promociones Mora also aligned with them and they decided that they had to find another buiilding to run to keep from going broke running the Palacio all the time so they started promoting shows at the Toreo de Cuatro Caminos de Naucalpan. UWA was now becoming a force in Lucha Libre and created their own titles as well as making promotional agreements with the World Wrestling Federation and New Japan Pro Wrestling to bring in big name talent from around the world to help bolster their big shows as well as their weekly shows. The creation of the WWF Lt. Heavyweight Title as well as creating their yearly convention in Acapulco with Francisco Flores holding the title of Executive Secretary of the WWF was a big deal at the time in the local press. Big name talent like Andre the Giant, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, Pat Patterson as well as all of the top stars from New Japan along with the huge local stars such as Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras, Perro Aguayo, Canek, Fishman, Ray Mendoza, Los Villanos, Los Misioneros de la Muerte, Los Temerarios, Dr. Wagner, El Solitario, Negro Casas, among many others were packing houses for many years without any television at all to promote their product which was amazing at the time. Máynez while his uncle was building an empire in the big cities was taking care of a whole circuit of his own as he was key in the construction of Arena Neza & Arena Queretaro and promoted throughout Pachuca, Toluca, & Puebla bringing in the big stars of the UWA and packing those arenas. Even though Máynez took control of the UWA when his uncle died, he wasn't alone as his cousin and Francisco's daughter Esperanza Flores, Canek, & Karloff Lagarde also held power in the promotion and it was then that without that one dominant figure the promotion started to go on a downslide. EMLL & UWA had been sharing talent for most of the 80's but they had television and it seemed like they were starting to get more and more dates from some of the top UWA talent and then one of the biggest mistakes the UWA could've made happened on October 21st, 1988 when their homegrown family trios teams Los Villanos (I/III/IV) took the masks of Los Brazos (El Brazo/Brazo de Oro/Brazo de Plata) at Plaza de Toros Monumental in Monterrey and not the Palacio de los Deportes or Toreo de Cuatro Caminos. Máynez had been promoting the build for this match for months but when it came time to pay out the money for such a match he wasn't willing to meet the price that Monterrey promoter Carlos Elizondo did and it was a huge blow to the promotion. Another big blow happened when the ties between the WWF & New Japan were cut although Máynez struck new deals with former New Japan President Hisashi Shinma's Universal Pro Wrestling and Victor Quinnones from the World Wrestling Council to keep a flow of international talent coming into the UWA but it was nowhere near what it was 10 years earlier and with the dearth of homegrown talent leaving for EMLL and Antonio Pena's newly formed AAA it was extremely tough for UWA to survive and they became a distant third place in the hierarchy of Lucha Libre promotions. UWA's last big moment actually came in 1992 when they brought back Andre the Giant who was barely able to move around but was still a huge name in Mexico and helped draw some fans to the shows he worked on. Also at this time Máynez bit the bullet and got UWA on television which featured some really fun shows but the writing was on the wall and you could see this was a promotion in decline although he was still trying to create new stars like Cibernetico but it didn't work out in his favor. The times were changing and then you add in the total devaluing of the peso in the mid 90's the UWA was forced to close their doors in 1995. Máynez though wasn't through as a promoter as he kept promoting shows on his circuit and started going after younger guys lke Skayde & Super Crazy which helped make those shows some of the most fun looking shows in the country but Máynez was forced to sell Arena Neza leaving him only with Arena Queretaro which he stayed on as promoter until 2005. Máynez still owned the rights of the UWA but sold them to Ultimo Dragon a couple of years later and made an appearance at the Dragonmania show at Arena Mexico in 2008 where he presented new UWA Tag Title belts to The Hell Raisers (Power Warrior (Kensuke Sasaki) & Road Warrior Animal) which was the last time that Máynez would appear on a major Lucha Libre show although he was still promoting until the day before his death on Tuesday night with a show in Jalpan. QEPD Don Carlos Máynez (Special thanks to my friends at Super Luchas for their assistance on this article)
Nick Roberts also was the promoter in Lubbock