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Carlos Colon


Dylan Waco

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I'm probably not going to post reviews of his matches here, because I have the PR thread for that, but if others want to do that in here I am all for it.

 

Instead I'm going to cross post this from the WON HoF thread where it was no sold by everyone other than Johnny. I'd be interested in hearing from critics of his candidacy on the point I talk about below and I do believe there are critics on this board.

 

I realize it's not WON HoF season and this is sort of an odd time to be bringing it up, but I am watching all this Puerto Rico so I've been thinking a lot about Colon as a candidate. I have no clue how complete the attendance data is from Puerto Rico, but I do know that PR did pretty massive business on the regular throughout the 80's. Even in 89 the attendance on the shows has been strong and the Colon headlined matches in the 90's have been far from bad (actually relative to what U.S. feds were drawing during same rough period you could argue they were impressive on some level). Of course you can't tell what paid attendance is from looking at a crowd, but you can tell that the crowds are still hot.

 

But I'm not interested in arguing for Colon on the relative strength of post-89 drawing power. I think his resume during his peak as a draw (seems to be late 70's-late 80's) is enough to get him in. I am more interested in getting those not sold and/or critics of Colon as a candidate to compare him with somebody who is in and who I think most of us believe should be in. I mentioned the comparison to Backlund earlier almost flippantlly because one of the big knocks on Colon was that he was only a star/draw one place and meant little to nothing elsewhere. It's fair to say I sold Bob in St. Louis and perhaps other places (Toronto for one) short, but it was a more general criticism of the "have to be a major draw more than one place" viewpoint that I think is a generally good idea, but has clear exceptions.

 

The person who I would like to see critics of Colon compare him to is Onita.

 

First things first - I really like Onita. I think his act is very expressive, I think he was a great promoter, I think he was a perfect wrestler and figurehead for what he was pushing. I think what he did in managing to turn an indy with far fewer resources into a promotion that could consistently draw well and draw huge a few times a year (for matches with him in the main event more often than not) is really incredible and I don't know if it will ever be replicated. I think you can make an argument that Onita had a big influence on broader wrestling landscape going forward. I think Onita should be in WON HoF.

 

What I am not sure about is why Onita should be in but not Colon. I understand the promotional dynamics are different - Colon had an island to himself and FMW was one of many promotions in Japan. On the other hand the peak of FMW as a major promotion seems to have coincided with the hottest point for wrestling in Japanese history. At Onita's peak FMW shows did better than just about any shows on earth and larger numbers than Colon's biggest shows. Having said that at Colon's peak his shows did better than just about any shows on earth and he appears to have had more big shows a year on average than FMW ever did. WWC also had a longer peak period as a company with Colon on top.

 

Colon was not as influential as Onita, but in watching WWC it's impossible to ignore the fact that in many respects the FMW formula was established in WWC first. I think it would be wrong to argue that Colon and WWC weren't influential - they were. It's just that there influence wasn't nearly as broad as Onita/FMW's. As workers I enjoy both guys, but don't think either is an HoF level in ring performer. Having said that - and perhaps this is just because it's fresher in my mind - I think Colon was the better worker. I don't think Onita has anything like the Hansen feud, and I think in many ways Onita was a second generation copy of Colon.

 

I'm interested if I am misreading this when I say that I think Colon is at least lateral to Onita as a candidate. This is not meant as a "gotcha" comparison, but a serious one that I would like to see people add to. If there are flaws in my thinking I'd be more than willing to have them pointed out to me as I haven't read Bahu's big FMW write up in some time and unfortunately I only have attendance/results listings for the biggest of the WWC cards. I just hope the arguments can stay away from "Death of Brody" and I hope they don't consist entirely of "Puerto Rico is Puerto Rico."

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On the particulars of Colon as a worker....

 

I actually think he was very good and at times great. I have actually been fairly shocked by how much I've enjoyed him so far. Even in matches that don't quite work, he does interesting things and the fact that he would go the route of trying to work psychology against someone as unimpressive as Steve Strong really interests me. For guys known for their charisma, gimmick match work and comebacks, Colon really does come across a ton better than Shawn Michaels or Edge.

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I'm not in a position to argue about HOF candidacy, but I do have to say that having watched the Hansen/Colon feud, I also came away mightily impressed with him as a worker. He's a great babyface. I know nothing about how he is perceived by people as a wrestler, but I've certainly never heard anyone else talking about him in that way, and he really should be more appreciated as a babyface worker.

 

Assuming, of course, that the Hansen feud isnt some sort of anomaly, but from your PR reviews that doesnt seem to be the case.

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I was always under the impression that he wasn't in the HOF because of Bruiser Brody. Being that the WO is a very Brody friendly environment, the guy who helped cover up his murder isn't going to get lots of votes. There have been podcasts where Colon was mentioned and people have indicated they would not vote for him because of the Brody murder. Am I wrong?

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I think the Brody murder is a major factor. But I do not think it is the only factor. I think there are some that just say "eh, he was a star in PR and PR wasn't all that big a deal." I think that's bullshit because WWC was a territory that drew a fuck ton of people for a long period of time. There are also people who say "Colon was never a star anywhere else and thus he shouldn't be in." I've heard several people say that in the last year. That's a large part of the reason I find the Onita comparison interesting.

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On the particulars of Colon as a worker....

 

I actually think he was very good and at times great. I have actually been fairly shocked by how much I've enjoyed him so far. Even in matches that don't quite work, he does interesting things and the fact that he would go the route of trying to work psychology against someone as unimpressive as Steve Strong really interests me. For guys known for their charisma, gimmick match work and comebacks, Colon really does come across a ton better than Shawn Michaels or Edge.

 

Watching more and more, at this point it feels safe to call Colon great, one of the most unappreciated in ring talents of all time, and an absolute top tier brawler of all time. Not sure I've ever seen a better babyface at working gimmick matches either. Comparing him to Michaels/Edge really doesn't do him justice. In many ways he's more comparable to Cena and dare I say it Lawler (it's WAY too premature to put him at Lawler's level, but I think he's closer to Lawler than Michaels). Really its a shame Puerto Rico wrestling isn't talked about more as it was a vibrant territory and I've watched a ton of good matches over the last week or two, with several easily falling into "great" category. If I were doing a top hundred again Colon would easily make my ballot at this point and would probably do very well on it.

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Well Puerto Rican wrestling really didn't have too much footage until during the last few years when the big 80+ disc set got released on C-MAX. Before that there was only the WWC commercial tapes, WWC's WAPA show(I don't think many people recorded those) and the IWA-PR show that used to air during the Attitude Era.

 

Puerto Rican wrestling's availability was probably comparable with Stampede until alot of stuff from both got released recently.

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He's a guy who I haven't seen a lot of. Just some matches with Flair, Hansen, Brody, Funk, Leo Burke, Abby, and a few others. So color me excited about the DVDVR set of the 80's that will be released at some point. Their seems to be a lot online so If I was really motivated I could check it out .

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Colon was pretty great through at least 92 from what I can tell. I had always heard he was a pretty crappy and/or boring wrestler. I've watched some Colon matches before but not much until recently. It's pretty crazy how good he is. I'm trying not to overrate him because he's "new" to me, but the guy really has blown me away.

 

Also would love for someone to chime in on the Onita comp.

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Well Puerto Rican wrestling really didn't have too much footage until during the last few years when the big 80+ disc set got released on C-MAX. Before that there was only the WWC commercial tapes, WWC's WAPA show(I don't think many people recorded those) and the IWA-PR show that used to air during the Attitude Era.

 

Puerto Rican wrestling's availability was probably comparable with Stampede until alot of stuff from both got released recently.

 

The big earlier source of 80s Puerto Rican wrestling was Eddie Gries of Relic Records. He put out doo wop comps and Pr wrestling tapes, guy who was always talked about in interviews with Cramps and Psychobilly guys as "Yeah man this guy has the craziest doo-wop singles and is friends with Abdullah the butcher". He may have been a friend of Brody's and got out of the tapes post murder. He would be an interesting guy to get on a podcast.

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