By 1960 Vargas was ready to make his professional wrestling debut, choosing the name "Ranchero" Vargas as his ring name. In 1962 Vargas became an enmascarado, or masked wrestler, when he adopted the ring persona "Gato Negro" (Spanish for "Black Cat"). His run as a masked wrestler came to an end after less than a year when Vargas lost a Luchas de Apuesta (bet match) to José Gómez and was forced to unmask afterwards. Following his stint as Gato Negro he began working as "Cruz Diablo", teaming with Black Gordman to form Los Hermanos Diablo ("The Devil Brothers").
