Alejo Campos, known to the Southern California professional wrestling community as Liger Rivera, passed away on October 22nd, 2024 at the age of 37.
Campos started his professional wrestling career as a student of Jesse Hernandez’s School of Hard Knocks in his hometown of San Bernardino, CA. He made his in-ring debut in 2001 for Jesse Hernandez’s Empire Wrestling Federation under the name Liger Rivera and became a fixture in the promotion throughout the 2000s.
Campos became the promotion’s inaugural Cruiserweight Champion on November 26th, 2004, and was a two-time holder of the championship. In 2008, Campos began to partner with TJ Perkins under the team name Famous For Fearless in the EWF. On June 27th, 2008, Famous For Fearless won the EWF Tag Team Championship with their title reign lasting 196 days.
On May 15th, 2009, he would go on to defeat Ryan Taylor (later known as Tyler/Taylor Rust) to become the EWF American Champion. His first reign lasted for 210 days. Camps would regain the title for a second time on May 21st, 2010, with his second reign lasting 134 days.
Campos also made appearances for Hybrid Pro Wrestling, New Wave Pro Wrestling, and the Alternative Wrestling Show in Southern California during the late 2000s.
In 2014, Campos began appearing regularly at the Northern California-based promotion Hoodslam where he performed as “The Dark Noche” Bat Manuel and “The Plus-Size Model” Thicc Martel.
Following the news of his passing, numerous wrestlers and personalities from the professional wrestling world including Hoodslam’s Dark Sheik and WWE’s Adam Pearce paid tribute to Campos on social media.
A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help pay for Campos’ end-of-life expenses. Click here for more information and to make a donation.
Our thoughts go out to the family and loved ones of Alejo Campos.
