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Dylan Waco

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Boricua,

 

Could you do a write-up on Eric Embry's time and feuds / angles in Puerto Rico?

 

LOVED the podcast with Kris Z and Dylan by the way...AMAZING.....you stopped my AWA / AJPW watching dead in its tracks and turned me back to WWC watching!!!

 

Thanks! Embry is one of the guys I had thought of doing a write-up for and actually did some prep work for it when I was putting out the feud write-ups in this thread. If I can get some time in the coming weeks I'll see if i can do it.

 

 

Great to hear...really looking forward to it...

 

Watched the Colon / Valentine 1991 Cage Match last night and holy shit did I love it...just a fight...no frills, no holds, just a blood bath in a cage. Valentine still had the goods for a dog fight in 91 that's for sure and LOTS of blood made it even better. Ending was bad, but that ending happens a lot in cage matches...Still getting more and more into WWC, but its different (at least in this match, not sure if they all are) how the cage isnt right up against the ropes like you'd see in Crockett / AWA / WWF / etc. There looks to be a good foot and a half between the ropes and the cage. Is that standard?

 

Did those two have an extended feud and are there any of their earlier matches pre cage worth tracking down?

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Here are a few answers or comments to the questions above in no particular order.

 

They switched from calling it the World Title to the Universal Title in 1982. Colon pinned Flair in a match that was billed as for the WWC "World" Title in October (16th) of 1982, Flair's NWA World Title was not on the line.

 

Perro Aguayo was the WWC Junior Heavyweight Champion taking the title from Jerry Brisco some time in January of 1983. He did defend the championship a few times on the Island. I know of one match where he defeated Ron Starr at least once (May 14th 1983). Anibal was also WWC Junior Heavyweight Champion losing it to Invader III on the Island.

 

Carlos Colon made a few appearances in Mexico for Franicisco Flores. The photo above was from August 22, 1982. As you can tell from the photos above it drew a decent crowd, but some may question why it wasn't full. This card at El Toreo ran head to head with another card promoted by Francisco Flores, which so happened to be the second leg of a three show tour celebrating the retirement of EL SANTO (which sold out and set a gate record at the Sports Palace)! That card at Palacio de los Deportes which was about 15 to 20 minutes away from El Toreo, plus EMLL was running cards that day at nearby Arena Mexico AND Arena Coliseo.

 

Colon appeared a week before that this time teaming with Ray Mendoza losing to Perro Aguayo and Abdullah the Butcher. This card either sold out or nearly sold out El Toreo going head to head with a card at Palacio headlined with a mask versus hair match where Villano III took El Texano's hair and Scorpio beat Abdullah Tamba (or el Volador Elefante) in a hair versus hair match. (which also drew a huge crowd!)

 

Speaking of Santo, way back during the infancy of WWC El Santo made a couple appearances while filming a movie in Puerto Rico that drew tremendous crowds including WWC first card at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon. Santo teamed with Carlos Colon and wrestled Barrabas and Rebelde Rojo. This was during a time when WWC's was hot and cold, but this match drew a huge crowd!

 

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I think there was an informal working agreement with LLI in the early 80's since the Mexican wrestlers that would come over for short stints or semi regular appearances all worked for LLI. Others that came over for notable stints were Scorpio, Mr. Tempest (have no clue who he is, may have been someone known under identity) and Tamba. If one could find results it might give a clearer picture of who came over. It might have been a case that not all of them were interested in appearing in Puerto Rico (although without results it is tough to gauge if any of them actually made a weekend shot appearance at some point)

 

In the case of Aguayo, he was billed as the Junior heavyweight champion, so it's very likely his appearances would not be opposite Carlos Colon or invader 1. I know there's a picture of a card lineup from I think fall of 83 that features Aguayo vs. Gama Singh in the ad.

 

otras%20luchas.jpg

 

 

 

 

El Boricua do you recall what Month and Year the above clippings are from?

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I think there was an informal working agreement with LLI in the early 80's since the Mexican wrestlers that would come over for short stints or semi regular appearances all worked for LLI. Others that came over for notable stints were Scorpio, Mr. Tempest (have no clue who he is, may have been someone known under identity) and Tamba. If one could find results it might give a clearer picture of who came over. It might have been a case that not all of them were interested in appearing in Puerto Rico (although without results it is tough to gauge if any of them actually made a weekend shot appearance at some point)

 

In the case of Aguayo, he was billed as the Junior heavyweight champion, so it's very likely his appearances would not be opposite Carlos Colon or invader 1. I know there's a picture of a card lineup from I think fall of 83 that features Aguayo vs. Gama Singh in the ad.

 

otras%20luchas.jpg

 

 

 

 

El Boricua do you recall what Month and Year the above clippings are from?

 

Don't have dates for them, but my best guess is that the top left and bottom two ones are from Fall of 1983 (likely October or November).

 

The top right one is from the latter half of 1984, definitely from some point after early August but not sure when.

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Perro Aguayo was the WWC Junior Heavyweight Champion taking the title from Jerry Brisco some time in January of 1983.

 

Damn. How come I never knew that? (well... I'm sure that at some point I have known and then completely forgotten)

 

That card at Palacio de los Deportes which was about 15 to 20 minutes away from El Toreo

 

Not in Mexico City traffic. :) It's about 50 mins by metro and a bit more or a bit less depending on traffic.

 

Your point stands though. It was common back then that superfans would watch whichever card started first and then rush to the second building to watch the main events.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Oh my god! This thread is just plain awesome! It is a great read and it really puts over WWC, IMO. After going through this thread and listening to the Carlos Colon HOF podcast at The Place to be Nation, I really hope the DVDVR Puerto Rico set will NOT be a mini set, but a normal set. This promotion needs its place in history, and I sure hope all involved in the making of this set are putting this in consideration. Thanx Dylan and El Boricua for the history lessons. I hope your contributions to this thread will go an and keep this alive. And we need another podcast on Puerto Rico for sure! Keep up the good work!

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Colon is one of those names that forever I couldn't figure out why other voters could not see how Hall of Fame worthy he is. Of course I understand and accept all of his the downsides associated with him. With that said the numbers he produced are just remarkable. I also dismiss those that think of him as a "bad worker." The guy had many great matches and was involved so many cool angels, he definetly deserves it.

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I figure it comes down to one of three things:

 

 

1. The Brody situation, Not only the murder but how Invader was turned babyface after, left a bad taste in pretty much everyone's mouth of that era. I think time and worse situations like Benoit have tempered things.

 

2. Carlos kept wrestling way long after his prime, and younger voters may not have any other frame of reference for him other than washed up old guy trying to turn back the clock.

 

3. A lot of voters seemed really dead set on the "he didn't draw outside of PR" argument, which seems odd since you could say that about a lot of stars in the territory era.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to change directions here, but have a question for Boricua / Dylan / anyone else with good Puerto Rico knowledge:

 

What is the storyline behind the "Original TNT (Action Jackson)" and TNT (Savio Vega)? Was Jackson TNT, then maybe left, and then Vega took the character, followed by Jackson returning and claiming it?

 

Curious how this feud worked...

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  • 2 months later...

Again if people are reading this thread, check out the facebook link I posted. There's some great discussions about Puerto Rico going on there. We even have some former wrestlers who worked often in Puerto Rico posting including Chris Youngblood, Gino Dellaserra, Bart Batten, and Ron Starr.

 

I know I've had some questions cleared up for me already.

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I posted this clipping on my History of Puerto Rico wrestling Facebook page.

 

This card went head to head with the WWF card we've seen where Hulk Hogan wrestles Big John Studd in a rainstorm. Also Vince brought in Cyndi Lauper to manage Wendi Richter. So they brought in all the top draws.

 

WWC_October_19_1985_Bayamon.jpg

 

One of the contributors to the site is Chris Romero aka Chris Youngblood. This took place about a month after the death of his brother Jay Youngblood. He wrote this about memories of this night.

 

"Wow, very dearest and special to me, at the ripe old age of 18 and right after Jay past, Mark handing Jays Halliburton suitcase and booking sheet, "you have to fill these Moccasins, he would have wanted you to", a month and a half after Jay passed, my first major match top spot in WWC against the Pastores/the Sheepherders, where we drew more fans than the WWF and Hulk Hogan with a loaded card, can't believe my name was in the upper echelon!!! Great piece of fact to think we out drew The WWF, WWC was one of the last strongholds to last against WWF until the death of Bruiser Brody!"

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