El Boricua

Really enjoyed this one... Boricua was great! Also very interesting stuff on Bobby Heenan, will be interesting how that shakes out but it was a great discussion. Thank you for the kind words JT. For this (and other types of list projects such as last year's GWE), I've always operated on the belief that it's not my job to make an objective list, it's my job to make an honest list. Even now, a month removed from my conversation with Will and Johnny, I'm still struggling with whether or not to include Heenan on my list. There is no question as to Bobby Heenan's quality of work, impact and moments, and the high placement the whole package would deserve if he were to be included on GWWEWE list (as so eloquently was put forth by both Will and Johnny). My hang up continues to be if I can overcome that whole 'loophole-ish' feeling of him being nominated since in-ring wise as a wrestler is not where the bulk of his case is found.

It has been like Christmas seeing this footage pop up. Any new unearthed footage is such a treat. These videos are from August of 84, Hugo mentions on commentary on how he has recently returned from a tour of Japan. A quick check shows he was in Japan through July 31st. Excited to see what else turns up from any decade of Puerto Rico wrestling.

If in the morning you go out and run into a person you classify as a dick, then you've met a dick. If by the end of the day you've met twenty people who you classify as dicks, then... Is Manny still peddling his horse manure of a story regarding the Invader 3 angle? That angle they did on TV where Fernandez beats up one of the Invaders where there was a ton of Blood out that guys mouth. Was that legit? Or was it fake blood? Common belief is that it was an angle devised to allow Invader 3 time off for a shoulder injury (it was shoulder problems that led to his eventual retirement). It's been said that it was a mix of vodka and pig's blood that was ingested by Invader 3 and puked up when needed. There's still some doubt if he did get injured a bit during the angle, but he was back wrestling four months after the angle. The horse manure aspect I was referencing is Manny's claims that the whole thing was him doing a shoot attack as vengeance for what happened with Brody and that he basically ran out and fled the island like a thief in the night after doing it. Never mind that the angle aired on 5/11/88 (two months before Brody got stabbed), that Manny left a few weeks after (with the angle being that Carlos and Invader 1 injured him in retaliation for what happened), and that Manny would return in 1989 to wrestle Invader 3 at Aniversario 89. Heck, he came back in 90 and 91 and had a series of matches with Invader 1 at that time. Yet stil you have people believing his bull crap about his supposed motivations with what went down. But it's par for the course with all claims made surrounding the Brody incident, people will believe what they want to believe and assume what they want to assume.

If in the morning you go out and run into a person you classify as a dick, then you've met a dick. If by the end of the day you've met twenty people who you classify as dicks, then... Is Manny still peddling his horse manure of a story regarding the Invader 3 angle?

In my case, I listen for the banter, doesn't matter if I've seen the show or not. Go with what makes it more fun for you guys.

Would the Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher match from 6/15/86 qualify? That's the match where Colon returns from being blinded by Abby and it's basically twenty minutes of Colon just brutalizing Abdullah.

Just saw the news. Always remembered fondly among the Puerto Rican wrestling fans for his various runs down here as half of the infamous primos Starr. An overlooked talent by most fans since he would work the not so sexy territories during the 80s. Glad to see that the revisiting of territory wrestling has led to others discovering and/or seeing more of Ron Starr's work and be able to appreciate what he brought to the table. Que descanses en paz y gloria Ron Starr.

I don't know when Carly Colon started training, but by this point in time it hasn't even been 6 months since he made his in-ring debut for the promotion (and probably less since I'm not sure when he had his first match during the latter third of 99). This match is the first ever meeting between Ray Gonzalez and Carly Colon. Ray has been feuding for the past two years with his former mentor Carlos Colon. In the lead-up to Aniversario 99, Ray started picking on a cameraman working the shows, who it turned out was Carly Colon. Ray was basically calling out Carly as a way to get at Carlos. Carly would go into the ring after Ray called him down there and Ray proceeded to insult him and his dad. Eventually, Ray asked Carly to give his dad a message and proceeded to attack Carly. This would lead to the main event of Aniversario 99 with Ray Gonzalez putting up the Universal title against Carlos Colon. Carlos had been reluctant to sign the contract for that match, since Ray had added that if h won he would get five minutes with Carly (who up to that point had never been in the ring before). Carly convinced his dad that it was alright and to go ahead and sign for the match. In interviews leading up to the match, ray promised that he would win and have his way with Carly, while Carlos was focused on winning and making sure nothing happened to his son. Carly, for his part, was optimistic his dad would win, but stated that if it came down to it, he would step in against Ray with his friend (a shovel he was carrying with him as a weapon). Near the end of the match, shenanigans happened that led to the ref being knocked out and Ray going for a pinfall on Carlos. However, with the ref out, Carly came into the ring and hit Ray with the shovel. He then proceeded to place his dad on top of ray. the ref revived and counted the pinfall, thus giving Carlos the universal title for the 26th and final time of his career. Carly afterwards would make his in ring debut vs. el Exotico (one of Ray's henchman) and eventually would face Ray for the first time here. Ray would go on to regain the Universal title from Carlos Colon a few days after this match, but Carly's pinfall victory put him in lien as the first challenger. The feud would continue throughout the year. As for the cartwheel, all of the Colon kids would use the cartwheel as their comeback./fire up the crowd spot (even Stacy). It leads to a neat moment a few years later when Carly and Eddie faced each other for the first time at the Aniversario 2004 main event. There's a point in the match where they both get knocked down when they both go for a cross-body at the same time. The ref starts counting them out and they both start to get up. As they reach their feet, they both go for the cartwheel and end up facing each other doing the fist shaking thing their dad did. They then proceed to trade punches. All this with their family looking on from the dugout. As for the crowd, IWA hadn't yet been operating for a full year at this point, so it was still establishing itself. They were still running cards reinforced by WWF talent coming in (and doing well), but we're almost at the point where some of the WWC wrestlers would start to jump over (Shane, Chicky and Victor) and things went from there.

It's been really fun following you guys as you journey through 85. I'll go ahead ask the following to you: After watching what you have for 85 this go around (and even what you've watched for the network adventure write-ups), which wrestlers/performers/things have you gained or increased appreciation for, and which have just gone down? Look forward to following along into 86.

Really enjoyed the first show and looking forward to future installments.

Well, there's always this duo (hey, it could happen ): Also, great to see Rusev and Lana on Smackdown, glad they are keeping Sasha and Charlotte separate, too bad that Raw didn't take Ziggler with them.

It's probably gonna be Dana. Yeah, it's likely Dana, with either Emma or an NXT call up also being possibilities.

So AJ stays on Smackdown. Guessing SD's getting New Day, the Club, Charlotte, Owens, maybe Zayn. Who else?

It could be worse, they could have said he had anal bleeding, although if ever an attack warranted that as an injury...

Any word on who the two former tag champs going to Raw were, or was it Slater and Rhyno? Kalisto is a good switch.

At this rate, there may be a possibility AJ stays on Smackdown. If not, at the rate they are switching people you'll get the almost the same rosters just on a different show.

I don't think this is accurate. True, there were a bunch of people they liked a whole lot more - Kota Ibushi, Brian Kendrick, etc. - but Perkins was far from hated. It truly was a special time, wasn't it? Now Mauro is gone, the entire division is meaningless, and its first several champions have no momentum whatsoever. Hey, it still accomplished the goal of giving HHH more smark savior cred, which is all that matters right?

I'm hoping for Rusev and Sami Zayn to Smackdown.

Sent you some suggestions, let me know if you need any more.

Sure, I'll try to narrow some stuff down. Do you have 1-3 matches you definitely want to include? I may suggest some complementary stuff based on that (so as not to go too gimmick match heavy if you already have some that are definites).

I'm in the process of listening through the show but jumped ahead to the PR section and wanted to share some tidbits related to the card mentioned. The fun thing is that you're able to place this card/these events in the promotion's history in reference with what is happening in other parts of the wrestling world at this time (always a great aspect of these shows since the custom is to go over a promotion's history in a vacuum while on BTS you get everything relevant to that specific time period across the board). The first thing is that you'll notice that Carlos Colon was not on the card. This was because this was the week in between the last two Colon vs. Hansen matches. Carlos was on TV that weekend to discuss what had happened the previous weekend and to hype the following week's cage match and was not on the card for two reasons: he was preparing for the next week's cage match with Hansen (which was deemed as the final encounter between them) and the card was changed from the initially scheduled one due to something that happened on that Saturday's morning show. The second thing is that this is the first Invader 1 vs. TNT match. It was not the originally scheduled match for the card but came about due to something that happened on that morning's TV. What happened? Well... TNT was facing a masked wrestler named Halcon Rojo, who surprisingly gave TNT a hard time. TNT managed to take control and won the match with the cobra. However, he was miffed over Halcon Rojo's showing and refused to wake him up from the cobra hold (same as he had done with Carlos Colon a few months prior). El Profe initially covered Halcon Rojo with the towel in advance of TNT waking the guy up, but TNT refused. Both referees asked him to wake the guy up, but TNT got aggressive and left the ring with El Profe following. As a result, the decision was overturned and Halcon Rojo given the match by DQ. Almost immediately someone hits the ring in a hurry. It's Invader 1. He starts slapping Halcon Rojo's chest in an effort to revive him, then sits him up and starts slapping the back of the neck and head in an effort to wake him up. It doesn't work, so invader starts undoing the mask laces in order to get Halcon Rojo's mask off. the announcers are puzzled at this and are even questioning why is he doing that (since unmasking someone is a big no no). Invader manages to roll the mask off from the face and proceeds to slap Halcon Rojo furiously across the chest and back in order to revive him. Halcon is still out and Invader 1 is getting more frantic in his attempt to revive him. The announcers note that it appears that Halcon Rojo is bleeding from the mouth. Invader, seeing this, starts giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to Halcon Rojo, who seems to respond a bit. However, as Invader is doing this, TNT returns and blindsides Invader. After a couple of blows, Invader manages to fight off TNT and knock him out of the ring. Invader returns to tending to the still down Halcon Rojo, but an irate TNT jumps back him and attacks Invader again. He locks the cobra on Invader and it looks like he's going to do the same thing he just did to Halcon Rojo. At that point, the entire tecnico locker room runs out and chases TNT off. As the tecnicos gather around the still out Halcon Rojo, Invader again starts furiously trying to revive him. Super Medico and Invader 3 try to help Invader 1 with Halcon Rojo, but he still does not respond. As the camera zooms in, you can see that Halcon Rojo has been completely unmasked and that there is a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth, which the announcers speculate must be from having the oxygen flow to the head cut off. As the tecnicos keep trying in vain to revive Halcon Rojo, the paramedics finally show up. Halcon Rojo is loaded onto the stretcher and is accompanied by the tecnicos as he's take to a waiting ambulance. So why was Invader furiously trying to revive Halcon Rojo? Joaquin Padin caught up to Invader after the fracas because his fellow commentator Hector Moyano had heard heard comments while the whole thing was going down that Halcon Rojo was Invader's brother. Padin mentions that he was too caught up in the seriousness of what was happening to pick up on that. So Padin has made his way to the locker room in order to ask Invader in order to clear up that rumor. A distracted and worried Invader confirms that, yes, it's his brother. Invader starts crying and is barely able to say that his brother just wanted to follow in his footsteps and was wearing a mask so that he wouldn't have either the pressure of being his brother in the ring and also to avoid being the target of any vendettas due to being his brother.The video then cuts to a meeting room where Invader 1 is with Huracan Castillo Sr. and El Profe. Invader is demanding that his contract for that night's match in Caguas be cancelled and he wants a match with TNT. El Profe just laughs baout thwe whole thing and says that if eh wants the match all he has to do is sign. As a result, the new main event for that card was Invader 1 vs. TNT. As a result of this change, the Saturday afternoon show was basically focused on announcing to the fans that the card had changed and what the new line-up was. In addition, all of the tecnico interviews made reference to that morning's incident and commented on how they were looking forward to Invader getting his hands on TNT (including one interview where Carlos Colon appeared with Invader 1 to lend his support and denounce TNT's actions). The final tidbit is expanding a bit on what Kris mentioned about Hercules Ayala. He was still a tecnico at this time, and in fact had only just recently returned a few weeks before. It would still be a month before he turned heel, but already there were some very subtle seeds being planted with Hugo alluding to Hercules learning a new move and akin when it would be unveiled. Hercules would say it's not ready yet and he would show it when the time was right. Also, in the following weeks, Hercules would be slow in joining his comrades when making saves, a situation that led to a tecnico summit to clear the air. the heel turn would soon follow. Looking forward to listening to the rest of the show.

Not sure if Embry is working us on that phone call he received, but the story he told about the tax on the wrestlers was pretty interesting. His stuff on the Brody story was also some stuff I had not heard before (but I also haven't sought out the details). I found his breakdown of how the box office was paid out in Dallas the most interesting. As for the part where Embry talks about Puerto Rico, to be honest, it wouldn't shock me if Jovica did have some sort of racket based on the taxes to get more of a cut from the imported wrestlers. Here you pay your taxes to Hacienda not the IRS, so it wouldn't surprise me if there was a racket in place to get more of a cut (have a guy play the role of taxman, pay him a cut of what you get extra and keep everything else over the taxes you had to pay). I'm not saying this is true, I really have no idea if this happened, but it's not something that I would be surprised by if it did. As for the part about Brody's death, my number one rule about any Brody explanations is to never take anything said at full face value. I'm pretty sure he's working about the phone call, anyone who thinks it over for a few moments would come to the same conclusion (I could list of a few questions/conditions that would have to be met for me to believe that the phone call happened and it was who he insinuates it was). i usually shy away from talking about the whole Brody thing, because usually nothing good comes from engaging in that conversation and you really can't condone what happened since it's something that should have been a preventable situation that led to man's death. But still, (and to be clear I'm not aiming this at anyone in particular, but especially anyone here at PWO) it angers me that to this day, the moment any U.S. wrestler opens his mouth on the subject it is taken by some as this definitive 'the truth has been set free' moment when in fact you are being worked. By comparison, anytime a local wrestler talks about it, they are lying through their teeth and must be covering things up. Newsflash to those people, any account given from any source should not be taken at 100% face value. I truly believe that we will never get a 100% unbiased objective account of what happened and anyone believing that such and such's account is completely true is fooling themselves. Even more so when the people who spout of that this such account is the definitive and truthful version of events should see that there are things that do not add up in those accounts if you think about it logically for more than a few minutes and if you actually bothered to learn about certain details about Puerto Rico other than the island is a hellhole run by the powerful overlords of Colon and Jovica. For crying out loud, what kind of a powerful mob/crime overlord has their second biggest star wrestler and draw do a premeditated hit in an enclosed locker room with a whole bunch of potential witnesses in there when they supposedly have all this power and control, and could have easily had some hired street thug do this some other time on the streets. Anyone who can honestly or logically explain this would probably be the first to do so. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but if you take anything from this remember to take any account with grains of salt. There may be truth in there, but there will also probably be lies and/or misinformation.

FYI for those interested, the second Eric Embry interview is out now.

Alright, let's talk about Hugo Savinovich. I actually searched some threads to find some stuff I wrote in 2013 (man how time flies!), revise and add to it, and put it all in one post. Back in 2013, Dylan asked me about who from Puerto Rico I thought could be a viable candidate for the WON Hall of Fame. I answered that after Carlos Colon (and setting aside Invader 1 due to the obvious reason), i actually thought that Hugo Savinovich was next in line as a strong candidate for consideration. Time has not dissuaded me from that opinion at all. Most of you reading this are likely familiar with Hugo from his role as WWE Spanish commentator for a very long stretch of time. But if his lengthy stint as a Spanish Jim Ross is how you know him, you are missing such a huge part of who Hugo Savinovich is and what he's done in his career. A brief intro about Hugo. He is originally from Ecuador and, according to him, wanted to be a wrestler from the age of 5 when he first saw El Santo. He would eventually move to the Bronx and there, at the age of 14, he trained to be a wrestler. He has said wrestling saved his life since he was getting involved in gangs and wrestling pulled him away from that path. Among his teachers were Toro Maldonado and Johnny Rivera (the future Invader 3). He eventually made his way to Puerto Rico and wrestled for Arturo Mendoza's wrestling promotion (a rival promotion to Capitol Sports in the 70's) as a tecnico. Eventually, Mendoza had to close up shop and leave, but not before sending Hugo over to Capitol Sports. From there, Hugo would serve as a wrestler and as the top heel manager due to his mic skills. He had a penchant for flamboyancy and self-promotion that gained him his most famous ring name, "El Muñecazo" ("The Big Baby Doll"). He would dress flamboyantly and even use glitter. He would also be known as "La Ferreteria Ambulante" ("The Walking Hardware Store") because he would have all sorts of foreign objects hidden on his person that he would use in matches and to help out his charges. Before getting further into Hugo's trajectory, there are a few details of how Capitol Sports Promotions (CSP) would present their shows that I should mention so as the importance of Hugo's roles is understood. The dynamic for the promotion was usually faces (for the most part native Puerto Ricans, with some foreign allies sprinkled in) against invading foreigners. That was more or less the basic formula from the start of the promotion. What's interesting is that native Puerto Ricans were usually not heels. Those that were, were almost always under a mask and billed of unspecified origin (ex. Invader when he first appeared, The Medicos, etc.). Rosters would be small, around 10-14 wrestlers who worked the house shows (with some additional jobbers for TV). You're only consistent roster members were those that had established residence in Puerto Rico (be it native or foreigner). With the semi regular churn of foreigners who did not speak Spanish, two roles were very important for the TV shows: Show host/presenter/interviewer and the heel manager. In the case of the show host, the role included: - Be the constant presence, the glue of the TV show broadcast - Inform fans of events and news and hype them (think Event Center or Update with Mean Gene) - Conducted interviews and would translate where needed - Usually doubled as announcer for big shows - Was the voiceover person for the house show card ads Basically, think of Lance Russell in Memphis and you get the idea of the role. The one additional detail is that the show host was also typically the show's producer during this time. For example, Rickin Sanchez's production company was in charge of the show and he served the role of host (he's the man in glasses you see conduct those desk interviews with the wrestlers about upcoming cards in the 82-83 shows). He served in this role from the company's inception until late 1984. The other important role is that of the heel manager. This person would basically serve as the anchor for the heel side, since the heel side usually featured foreigners who would come in for a run and then leave (although a few would come back with some regularity). These heel managers were usually active or semi-active wrestlers, and because of the small roster size they were called upon to get in the ring on a somewhat regular basis to fill out the cards. Basically, the heel manager would: - Provide the promotion with a stable heel anchor and provide a sense of continuity to the heel side - Serve to help introduce the newcomers to the territory by hyping them up when they arrived ('this is my new weapon to take out so and so'), which allowed them to gain instant heat or feuds due to being aligned with said manager. (Ex. Jason arriving as Chicky's new hired gun to take out his hated rival Invader 1) - Serve as the mouthpiece for the heels or translate for those that did their interviews if needed - When the heels are only coming in for a couple of dates per month, the heel manager is the one that has to keep the feud alive either via promos or getting in the ring. (Ex. Chicky when Hansen was not around during the Colon/Hansen feud) - If a heel left abruptly, the heel manager could easily pick up the feud and have the heat put on him (Ex. When Manny Fernandez left soon after Invader 3's injury, credit for masterminding the attack was taken by Chicky to continue the feud). Barrabas was the first to really develop the role of the heel manager for CSP. When Hugo first arrived to CSP in 1978 at 19 years of age, after wrestling for Arturo Mendoza's promotion on the west coast of the island as a tecnico, his mic skills caused the office to make him a heel manager. His first two charges were Kendo Kimura and Hiro Sasaki. This highlights the role the heel manager had of being both the mouthpiece and getting across the storyline points for the heels who didn't speak. His third charge would be none another than a debuting Abdullah the Butcher. It is well known that the Carlos Colon and Abdullah the Butcher feud is what really pushed the promotion forward in the late 70's and from there onwards. What gets forgotten is that Hugo was a key player in this feud, since he was Abdullah's manager. He was the one who antagonized the crowd, cut the interviews and pushed the madness that was Abdullah. From 78 through 83, Hugo was one who would bring in Abdullah, whom he called 'mi monstro, mi maquina' ('my monster, my machine') whenever he was attacked or injured by a face to avenge him. To give an idea of how important Hugo was during those years as a manager, here is a list of wrestlers he managed: Kendo Kimura , Hiro Sasaki, Abdullah the Butcher, The Medics (Jose Estrada , Johnny Rodz & Don Kent), The Fabulous Kangaroos, Mr. Fuji, Toru Tanaka, Mr. Pogo, Mitsu Ishikawa, Haru Sonoda, Tamba, King Tonga, Gorilla Monsoon, Buddy Landell, The Mongolian Stomper, Ox Baker, Bob Sweetan, Dory Funk Jr, Terry Funk, Kendo Nagasaki, The Sheik, Bruiser Brody & los Pastores(The Sheepherders: Luke Williams, Butch Miller & Jonathan Boyd who was billed as Jonny Miller). Many of these names were the top rivals of Carlos Colon, the Invaders, Jose Rivera and their allies during those years. Basically, any heel that was to be positioned at the top of the card was usually paired with Hugo. While still serving as manager during the early 80's, Hugo also served as the English commentator for the shows that were sent to air in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and the Virgin Islands (places where CSP held shows). As has been mentioned previously, CSP was not just based in Puerto Rico. and during the periods were Hugo would take short sabbaticals from Puerto Rico during those years, he would usually wrestle in other markets such as the Dominican Republic, Panama, Japan (if you know where to look you can find a couple of his matches from an AJPW tour he did in July of 84) and even Amarillo (he apparently won their version of the tag titles in 1980 if you believe Wikipedia). From what i can gather, Hugo had a run as a top heel in the Dominican Republic feuding with Jack Veneno, first as the masked El Hombre Simio and then as himself after being unmasked.. As part of the build towards the Universal title cage match between Flair and Colon to end 1983, CSP ran an angle where Hugo was injured by Carlos Colon. By this time, Barrabas had returned to the promotion and was serving as an associate manager with Hugo. While Hugo was out injured, Barrabas staged a coup and took all of Hugo's wrestlers. When Hugo returned,and confronted Barrabas, the fans sided with Hugo and he became a face. He would spend 84 feuding with Barrabas. By late 1984, he became the TV show presenter when a disagreement between Rickin Sanchez and Capitol Sports resulted in Sanchez leaving and his production company no longer producing the TV show. Thus from 84-91, Hugo assumed the roles of TV show host/presenter/interviewer/commentator and also became the behind the scenes producer of the show. Imagine how important each of these roles are individually, now visualize that these roles are all being filled by the same person. Hugo would modify how the TV shows were presented and you can notice how the look and feel of the shows changed simply by viewing the TV matches from 82-83 and how they look from 85 onwards. Also, remember that at its peak in 86-88, CSP was producing three different shows that aired every weekend (Saturday morning show, Saturday evening show and Sunday morning show). In interviews Hugo has mentioned that he is very proud of Aniversario 87, an event he was the producer of and had the complication of occurring at three different locations at the same time. He even donned the tights during this period a couple of times to face off against Eric Embry , El Profe and Billy Joe Travis. Hugo would go to the newly formed AWF in late 91, where he would serve the same roles he had for CSP. A lot of local fans point to Hugo leaving CSP as one of the clear signs of its decline in presentation. The AWF would do well initially, but would eventually collapse due to a bloated payroll and the financial backer dropping out. From there, Hugo would make his way to the WWF and would eventually serve as the Spanish commentator for many years. He would also be involved with the IWA during it's first few years in Puerto Rico, but was not heavily involved after the first couple of years. With Hugo transitioned to the TV host role, other managers were brought in, but none of them lasted too long. Barrabas himself left sometime in 1985. Throughout 85 you had a different dynamic with the top heels. The Sheepherders had a flag bearer, Abdullah was accompanied by someone from JCP (ex. JJ Dillon at Aniversario 85), Eric Embry had Sasha as a valet, but there was no focal heel manager. That would change in 1986 when Chicky Starr stepped into the role. Even now, Hugo remains involved in promoting, working with AAA and also promoting shows in his native Ecuador. If you want to see the original conversation (which also has info on Chicky Starr), you can read it here: http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/20981-won-hof-2013-discussion/page-56&do=findComment&comment=5574027 In summary, I'd say Hugo Savinovich definitely merits being on the ballot.