manny aka kalisto

Mexican American professional wrestler Kalisto is currently signed to WWE, and performs under the SmackDown brand.

Kalisto was always a sporty child, enjoying gymnastics, taekwondo, jujutsu and American football when he was young. He also loved to watch wrestling on TV, becoming a fan of Mexican professional wrestling and later WWF when he moved to the United States. He continued to follow American, Mexican and Japanese promotions and in 2006 he started training at Windy City Pro Wrestling where he learnt both American and Mexican techniques. Kalisto then began to perform and wrestle on the independent circuit, gaining a reputation as one of the best local wrestlers and eventually being signed to Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in 2011. He wrestled under the name Octagon Jr, and also worked for Combat Zone Wrestling, National Wrestling Alliance and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. In 2013 he was spotted and signed to WWE, who brought him to their developmental facility and recruited him to their NXT team. The following year he won the NXT Tag Team Championship and in 2016 took home his first singles title in WWE when he won the WWE United States Championship.

Kalisto’s run of wins continued with first place at the WWE Cruiserweight Championship in 2017, and he then teamed up with two of his teammates to become the Lucha House Party. They were drafted to SmackDown as part of the 2019 WWE draft and competed in the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.