The original Los Conquistadors were a masked foreign heel team consisting of José Estrada, Sr. and José Luis Rivera, billed as being "from somewhere in Latin America," who were used mainly as enhancement talent.
They had one pay-per-view appearance, as part of the 10-team elimination match at the Survivor Series 1988, where The Conquistadors and The Powers of Pain were the last two teams left in the ring. After shocking the wrestling world by outlasting several formidable tandems, The Conquistadors eventually lost when Mr. Fuji tripped up Uno and The Barbarian hit him with a headbutt to win the match for The Powers of Pain. The Conquistadors spent the rest of 1988 and 1989 jobbing to established teams, except some rare victories including a win over the Young Stallions, two wins over the Rockers, a win over the Killer Bees, wins over the teams of Terry Taylor and Sam Houston, jobber tag teams Brady Boone and Omar Atlas, John Latu and Bob Emory, and a victory over The Fabulous Rougeaus in Canada in a heel versus heel match.
In 1989, Estrada started to appear on his own as “The Conquistador” while Rivera appeared only sporadically before both men left the WWF.
In the year 2000, Edge and Christian engaged in a lengthy feud with The Hardy Boyz, who captured the WWF Tag Team Championship from Edge and Christian in a steel cage match at Unforgiven. The following day, the Hardys won a ladder match that included a stipulation barring Edge and Christian from receiving another title shot for the duration of the Hardy Boyz' championship reign.
Weeks later, Los Conquistadors made their return, though they didn't physically resemble Rivera and Estrada; rather, the team looked and acted more like Edge and Christian, a suspicion that was boosted by Los Conquistadors immediately targeting the Hardy Boyz in the hopes of getting a shot at the titles. They later won a tag team battle royal on SmackDown! to earn a title shot. After the match, a vignette showed Los Conquistadors being congratulated backstage by Edge and Christian. Since they were seen with Los Conquistadors, Edge and Christian claimed there was no way they could be Los Conquistadors. Their title shot came at No Mercy, where they defeated the Hardys using tactics similar to those employed by Edge and Christian, including Conquistador Dos using Christian's finisher the Unprettier to win the match. Backstage, Edge and Christian, looking like they had just come out of the showers, politely challenged Los Conquistadors for a title shot the next night. On Raw the following night, Edge looked confident as he made his way through the backstage area toward the ring, until he found Christian seemingly put through a table. Edge was left to fight Los Conquistadors by himself, and was shocked when they quickly defeated him. When Christian showed up at ringside, Los Conquistadors unmasked themselves, revealing themselves to be Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy. They explained that they had attacked Edge and Christian's hired goons backstage and stole the costumes.
As Edge and Christian complained, it was declared that Edge and Christian's title victory the previous night was official. At the same time, because the Hardy Boyz had just defeated the champions, commissioner Mick Foley ruled they were now the tag team champions. After being outsmarted by the Hardy Boyz, Edge and Christian gave up the golden costumes of Los Conquistadors. In line with the stipulations of the prior ladder match, the ban on Edge and Christian challenging for the championships had ended when "Los Conquistadors" defeated the Hardy Boyz' for the titles, so Edge and Christian could wrestle for the titles again without disguises.
On the July 17, 2003 edition of SmackDown!, Rob Conway and Nick Dinsmore assumed the roles of Los Conquistadors in a match in which they were defeated by Rey Mysterio and Billy Kidman. Unlike previous versions of Los Conquistadors, Conway and Dinsmore wore black and gold masks with exposed mouths along with blue shoulder pads. On July 27, 2003, another set of Conquistadors participated in the APA Invitational Barroom Brawl at Vengeance, where they were beaten up by the APA. In this case, the men under the masks were Rob Conway and Johnny Jeter.