El Boricua

In Puerto Rico, wrestling got its start in the 50’s and 60’s, with influence coming in part from the U.S. and also from the movies starring Mexican luchadores that were prevalent across Latin America as part of the cinematic offerings that would be shown. For a brief synopsis of how wrestling in Puerto Rico started and developed, you can read the following article for some background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_in_Puerto_Rico For now, our focus will be on Capitol Sports Promotions since this is the company from which the selections on the Puerto Rico 80’s set originate. Founded in September of 1973, CSP would become the leading wrestling company on the island. Its founders were Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica, with Gorilla Monsoon joining them as part of the shareholder ownership group. The company would start on TV in the last months of 1973, promoting its first show for Jan. 6, 1974 (Three Kings Day). Its initial titles were as follows: North American Title – Initial champion was Gil Hayes. Carlos Colon would win the title in June of 74, and would proceed to wrestle a variety of challengers (Dr. Jerry Graham, Crazy Luke Graham, Ox Baker, Ernie Ladd, Shaft Thomas) as part of establishing him. For the next few years the NA singles title would revolve around Colon losing it and regaining it from different rudo challengers. North American Tag Titles – Initial champions were the Castillo brothers (Huracan and Maravilla). Carlos Colon would team first with Gino Caruso, then with Jose Miguel Perez in trading the titles back and forth with the Castillo brothers. Carlos would move on from the NA tag title scene when he won the NA singles title. The NA titles would then revolve around Jose Luis Rivera and different partners, before having more ‘permanent’ teams fight over it. Puerto Rico title – Jose Miguel Perez was billed as the first champion and was the main star initially while they went about establishing Carlos Colon. Perez would hold the title for most of the first two years, then the title would be used to highlight other top tecnicos. The first months of 1974 did not go well for the company. L&G Promotions was still holding monthly shows on the island with many of their crew from Florida. The first sign of turnaround for CSP happened when they promoted Gil Hayes against a wrestling bear. The novelty of this helped the company stand out and start getting notice from the local fans. The second big lift came when in early 1975, CSP booked El Santo to come in for a tour. El Santo not only wrestled, but filmed a movie during his stay which featured local talent. From then onwards, CSP started growing even with competition from L&G Promotions, and then later in 1975 after L&G stopped running shows, from promoter Arturo Mendoza’s rival promotion based on the island’s west coast. As the 70’s progressed, additional titles would start to pop up in Capitol Sports, as well as various wrestlers that will be seen to different extents on the set. Competition wise, after Mendoza’s promotion closed there would usually be an opposition group running to some degree. As 1980 dawns it is the All Star Wrestling promotion that is running opposition. This group featured such talent as Hercules Ayala, Barrabas and a tag team that had initially begun wrestling as Los Hermanos Peron. This group had an alliance of sorts with Poffo’s ICW and had closed out 1979 by running a joint card with them featuring Randy Savage, Bob Orton Jr., Ronnie Garvin, Bob Roop and Boris Malenko among others. Still, it was CSP that grew in prominence of the local companies. We will talk more about certain wrestlers and their history when we reach them on our journey. As for the titles, here is a summary of the titles as 1980 dawned: NWA World – Capitol Sports Promotions joined around August of 79 and would recognize the NWA world champion. Harley Race is champion at the beginning of 1980. World Junior – Title had first been contested at the end of 1974 when Dick Steinborn arrived and was billed as champion. Carlos Colon would almost immediately win the title from Steinborn (there is some dispute as to whether Colon did win the title though), but Steinborn would regain it at the beginning of 1975. Title would eventually be vacant and inactive until mid-1980. World Tag – Title created in February of 77 when The Fabulous Kangaroos (Don Kent and Al Costello) arrive to Puerto Rico and are billed as the world tag champs. Carlos Colon and Jose Luis Rivera (the top tecnico team at that time known as La Pareja Dinamica) would defeat them for the titles. As 1980 begins, the World tag champions are Terry and Dory Funk, having just recently defeated the Invaders I & II for the titles in late December 1979. These are the top tag titles in the promotion, although they would rarely be defended in the first few years of the decade. North American – At the start of 1980, the champion is Invader I. The top singles title for the company, although it’s importance would start waning in the next couple of years. North American Tag – At the start of 1980, the champions are Roger Kirby and Dick Steinborn (both are rudos). They had just won the titles days earlier from Huracan Castillo and Ciclon Negro. Caribbean – This title is actually the one created by L&G Promotions back in 1968. Jose Lothario was the first champion. When L&G Promotions ceased running shows in Puerto Rico, Lothario (who happened to be the champion at that point in time) would start making appearances as the Caribbean champion for Arturo Mendoza’s promotion. Eventually, when Mendoza closed up shop, the then current tile holder was Huracan Castillo. He started appearing for CSP with the title in May of 77 and the title remained in CSP since. Current champion at the start of 1980 is Ciclon Negro, having recently won it from Dick Steinborn. At this point in time, the least important of the local singles titles. Caribbean Tag – Title history is a mess. The first billed champions appear to be the Castillo brothers, but initial recognition is unknown (probably late 1977). This is the title Bret Hart won with his brother Smith during his tour in 1978. Not sure if the title was actively recognized in 1980 or not. My suspicion is that the title was only recognized to counter Los Hermanos Peron billing themselves as the Caribbean tag champion on the opposition cards they wrestled on. Puerto Rico – The current champion is Abdullah the Butcher who recently won it in December of 1979 from Carlos Colon. Second most important singles title locally, but more focus is put on it going into the first few years of the decade. Some other titles would be local to the other markets that CSP would occasionally run (such as the West Indies title for Trinidad & Tobago) and only really used in those countries.

It's a battle royale, but it's come as you are and you can bring one weapon with you.

Before we start on our chronological journey of sorts, I’d like to give a little background about Puerto Rico just to give some context for our setting. Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean located approximately 1,000 miles southeast of Miami. The original inhabitants of the island were the Taínos, who called the island Boriken or Borinquen. The name means "the great land of the valiant and noble Lord" or "land of the great lords". If you ever wondered where the term Boricua comes from now you know. In 1493 Christopher Columbus discovered the island on his second voyage to the New World. When originally colonized the island was named San Juan Bautista and the city was called Puerto Rico. Eventually, the two names were switched and the island was named Puerto Rico and its capital city was named San Juan. Puerto Rico remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish American War when, due to the Treaty of Paris, control of Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States. It remains part of the U.S. to this day, currently as a commonwealth. The island itself is approximately 106 miles long and 37 miles wide, meaning you could travel by car from one end of the island to the other in about two and a half to three hours’ time. The official languages are Spanish and English, although Spanish is the dominant language for the majority of the population (and English fluency varies depending on location). The island is mostly mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south regions of the island, as well as some adjacent islets. The island’s population represents a cultural and racial mix stemming from the initial mix of Tainos and Spanish, followed by the incorporation of African slave labor immigrants. This is the base of where Puerto Rican culture evolved from, but add to that other immigrants from places such as China, Italy, France, Ireland, Germany and Lebanon and you get quite the mix of influences. Since 1898 the U.S influence has been very notable, and in recent times Puerto Rico has had an influx of Cubans (exiles from when Castro took over) and Dominicans. Some final facts about Puerto Rico. There is no such thing as Puerto Rican citizenship. In 1917, the United States granted Puerto Ricans U.S. statutory citizenship. This means that all native born Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens (my passport is a U.S. passport). Our currency is the U.S dollar, and our economic system is the same as in the U.S. (meaning we follow all U.S. labor laws, pay social security and medicare, etc.). Our military is the U.S. military, our mail service is the U.S. Post Office, and we observe the U.S. federal holidays (as well as our own national holidays). Granted, there are some notable differences as well (Spanish language, no right to vote for president, in international sporting events we compete as a separate country, among other examples), and we still retain several customs from the near 400-year Spanish influence (such as celebrating both Christmas and Three Kings Day, influences on government and judicial systems, etc.). Still, even though it is the differences between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland that are usually noticed, in other aspects things are not that different. If I had to summarize Puerto Rico, it would be one foot in the U.S. and one foot in Latin America, belonging to both and to neither. Too U.S. for the rest of Latin America, too Latin American for the U.S., but here we are just the same. Good place for wrestling to pop up though.

It's due to where the matches were sourced from. Many of the complete matches with English commentary come from VHS releases the promotion did. These releases typically had two versions: one with Spanish commentary (sometimes with the original aired commentary, sometimes with redone commentary by Hugo and whoever his co-host for the tape was) and one in English with commentary by Hugo and whoever the co-host for the video was. For tape traders in the U.S., the English commentary version was the one they were most likely to find. Also, Capital Sports Promotions did have an English version of their TV program that aired in English speaking markets. The perception tends to be that the promotion only was available in Puerto Rico, which is not correct. CSP had an English version of their show since the early 80's, hosted by Hugo Savinovich. This was what would air in the English speaking countries of the Caribbean that CSP would have house shows in, such as Trinidad, Bahamas, and US Virgin Islands. Later on the show would also air in certain US markets branded as Caribbean Championship Wrestling (also a source for a number of matches from the late 80's). In short, it's due to where the available video was sourced from. As an aside regarding the Spanish version of the show, this version also aired in more markets than you would expect. Hugo Savinovich, at a certain point of the show during one of the matches, would say 'Hello to all of the viewers that are watching us from...' and then list off the countries where the program was airing. An example of this is during a Hercules Ayala vs. Nikita Koloff match that they aired on TV in November of 86 (the match had taken place in December of 85), where Hugo during the match sends a hello to the viewers watching them from the following markets: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, U.S.A in New Mexico, Los Angeles, Texas and Chicago. The program would also eventually air in New Jersey and in New York (on channel 41 I believe). And I think Bottomless Jack mentioned that when he was putting together his set he sourced a bit of the 82-83 material from American Samoa or the Philippines (not completely sure, but he could confirm if I'm remembering incorrectly). So quite a farther reach than what people usually assume.

Context of the stipulations for this match is key. The stipulation was that Invader had to beat Chicky within the 15 minute time limit or else he had to retire. However, Chicky didn't need to win the match, all he had to do was make sure Invader didn't win in the 15 minutes. In the weeks leading up to the show, Chicky had declared on TV that all he wanted was for Invader's career to end and had promised/threatened to run all over the ring, the stadium, the parking lot, get in a car and drive off, whatever it took, to outlast Invader and made sure he retired. Chicky wasn't looking to win or lock up with Invader, he comes into the match with the intention of wanting to run out the clock.

The Starrs were kayfabe cousins.

No reason to jump around, although quite a few of the extras for the 82-85 period are a bit stand alone due to the scarcity of match footage for that time period. I'm behind in starting the tidbits due to the island wide power outage that happened, but I'm hoping to get it started tonight. I'll be going chronological with matches and extras interspersed where they go in the timeline.

This thread is for any general comments about the set, any stock going up/down comments, or for any questions one may have that pop up while watching the set.

Hi everyone. This will be the thread where I will give history and/or context to the matches and extras in the set. I'll be going chronologically and try to give what information I can as to the set-up of the matches and extras, as well as background on the participants as it pertains to Puerto Rico. There are definitely some matches where knowing the lead-up and context is important to getting the most out of watching them. Also, I hope I can help bridge the language barrier for those that are not fluent in Spanish so they can also get more out of the experience. This thread will focus on context and lead-up for the matches and I will try to keep it spoiler free as to the matches themselves whenever possible. I will post comments about the matches in their respective threads. Hopefully my ramblings will enhance and enrich your set viewing experience.

Carlos Colon vs. Steve Strong (Final Battle) (11/23/89)

Carlos Colon vs. Steve Strong (Barbed Wire Match) (10/7/89)

Steve Strong vs. Abdullah the Butcher (August 1989)

Steve Strong vs. TNT (Barbed Wire Match) (August 1989)

Rufus R. Jones & Super Medico vs. Bart & Brad Batten (August 1989)

Chicky Starr vs. Eric Embry (July 1989)

Huracan Castillo Jr. & Miguel Perez Jr. vs. Bart & Brad Batten (July 1989)

TNT vs. Rip Rogers (6/17/89)

Abuddadein vs. Invader I (5/14/89)

Carlos Colon vs. Abuddadein (April 1989)

Ricky Santana vs. Eric Embry (3/25/89)

Carlos Colon vs. Jason the Terrible (Barbed Wire Match) (3/11/89)

Huracan Castillo Jr. & Ricky Santana vs. El Exotico & Dan Kroffat (March 1989)

Ricky Santana vs. Kensuke Sasaki (February 1989)

Carlos Colon vs. Hercules Ayala (Loser Leaves Puerto Rico) (1/6/89)