El Canek to win the championship, once again putting El Canek in the position of both defending Mexico's honor as well as chasing the championship. During his time between championship reigns El Canek teamed up with Perro Aguayo to face the mismatched team of the tall Japanese Gran Hamada with the tall American Hulk Hogan, in one of Hogan's tours of Mexico before he became a house hold name. On September 26 El Canek regained the title, which led to the next challenger in early 1983, Fujinami, UWA repeats the pattern by having Fujinami win the championship in May, 1983 and has El Canek win it back in June of that year. On January 29, 1984 El Canek defended the championship against André the Giant, who was billed as being tall and weighing . The match was the main event of the UWA 9th Anniversary Show, during which El Canek was able to pick up André and slam him winning the match. This made El Canek one of only a few wrestlers to ever be allowed to bodyslam André the Giant. He would later vacate the championship as he began to work regularly in the United States, especially in and around Texas. Not liking working in the US he returned to the UWA only a few months later. Over the summer of 1982 the UWA made Dos Caras the next UWA World Heavyweight Champion, using the opportunity to revive the feud between Dos Caras and El Canek. In between fighting Dos Caras El Canek had many opportunities to defend Mexico, including a match on September 2, 1984 where the then WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan actually defended the championship against El Canek in Mexico. The match ended in a draw with both wrestlers winning one fall before the time limit expired. Canek would also have a successful title defense against Stan Hansen only a few weeks later. Dos Caras would win the UWA World Heavyweight Championship twice more from El Canek during their feud, but the storyline never results in a Luchas de Apuestas match between El Canek and Dos Caras. While the UWA kept using the appeal of El Canek fighting against foreigners it was not until November 22, 1989 that they had another foreigner win the championship as Big Van Vader pinned El Canek. As time went on the UWA struggled to draw the crowds they were