Also he won the Puerto Rican Title again in June 18, 1977, defeating one of the local legends and his childhood hero, Huracán Castillo (better known to US fans as Fidel Castillo, real name Pedro Castillo), only to lost it to Invader 1, then a newcomer heel in WWC, on September 24, 1977. But in November 26, 1977, he defeated Huracán Castillo once again, only that this time was for the Caribbean Title, a title that Castillo began to hold on July 31, 1976 while he was wrestling on the L&G Promotion. Ayala lost it to Joe Novak on December 17, 1977.

Also in the 80's Ayala won the World Tag team title, with King Tonga (WWF's Haku, WCW's Meng) defeating Super Médicos on January 6, 1984, but lost it back to Super Médicos on January 28. Ayala won the Puerto Rican Title for a third time in June 14, 1984, defeating Terry Gibbs and losing on July 7 to Konga The Barbarian (WWF's The Barbarian). Later Ayala won the North American Title from former WWF Champion, Randy Savage on March 2, 1985 and was champion for 10 months (holding the record for longest reign as North American champion). He lost it to Jos Le Duc in San Juan on January 6, 1986. Ayala defeated Abdullah The Butcher on September 25, 1987 to win the Caribbean Title, and lost it to TNT (WWF's Savio Vega) on June 18, 1988. He won the Puerto Rican Title in December 17, 1988 from Ricky Santana, only to vacate it as a result of a prematch stipulation against Carlos Colón, in a loser leaves town match match a few weks later.

Ayala also received some NWA Title shots in WWC. He wrestled Ric Flair twice. One was on September 21, 1985 and the other was October 13, 1986. Ayala was unable to win the title from Flair but did a good work and Flair was also unable to pin the Puerto Rican wrestler to score a decisive win.

Ayala's career turned around in 1986. After he was unable to get a Universal Title shot, he suggested the WWC booking committee to turn heel. The idea sounded rare at first, but being a local wrestler, big and strong (he always rounded about 250-280), it was an instant success. He turned again Carlos Colón in a match where Carlos was defending the WWC title, entering the ring and attacking Carlos Colón, a feud that is still unresolved.

This feud shocked everybody in Puerto Rico, because Ayala has worked his entire life as a babyface and nobody expected it. They wrestled all kinds of strange matches. Ayala defeated Colón to win his first Universal Title on July 18, 1987. It was a surprise as Ayala was saying that he has a surprise for Colón. He has learned to do the figure four, the same move that Carlos used as his finisher, but only that Ayala did it reversed. Colón won it back on September 20. Ayala won it again on February 13, 1988 and lost it back on April 9, 1988. Ayala won it back on July 23, 1988 (a week later after the death of Bruiser Brody) and then he was stripped of the title because he attacked Nancy Coates, Carlos wife, in a WWC banquet (they were in the WWC 1987-1988 awards). Ayala then lost a loser leaves town match to Colón on January 6, 1989 and disappeared from WWC for a while, in a match in which the ring was surrounded by fire. They wrestled death matches, barbed-wired matches, everything imaginable in Puerto Rico, but this feud is still open and unresolved.

Ayala returned to Puerto Rico, only to work for the AWF in 1991. Along with Hugo Savinovich and Chicky Starr, with the economical help of Mrs. Gloria Uribe, they played an important key in the almost success of AWF. Ayala helped them in the booking and was their champion in June 6, 1992, losing the title to Huracán Castillo Jr. (avenging Ayala's wins over his father a few years back). He was also Tag Team Champion of the promotion with Invader 4 (Ismael Huertas, who is real life brother of Invader 1) and returned briefly to WWC in 1994 only to disappear.

Actually Ayala is living in Canada and is almost retired from wrestling. I interviewed him in December 1989 and mentioned he would like to return to Puerto Rico to end his feud against Carlos Colón. He stated that he liked to wrestle for two promotions because there was where he competed the best, the Stampede promotion and the WWC in Puerto Rico.

This is the life of Hercules Ayala, one of the Puerto Rico's greatest wrestlers ever.

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Carlos Colon