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History/Context Thread


El Boricua

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I think I can add something to this topic. My uncle used to wrestle a lot in WWC, Hercules Ayala. I only met him as a kid, so I don't have many memories from back then, but my dad still keeps in touch with him and told me he caught up with him in his last visit to Puerto Rico last year. There's some awesome stories my dad has about driving Hercules around the different territories in the North East in the 80's such as having Kamala freak him out, anyway...

 

What other wrestling shows were available in Puerto Rico, if any? Just curious what other styles the fans might have been seeing.

If you go outside the 80's, into the 90's and onwards there was quite a bit available. Let's add some stuff to what El Boricua already mentioned first.

 

pretty sure that WWf was available (definitely mid-80's onward with Rickin Sanchez hosting the wraparounds locally, before that very likely due to the PR connection of sorts there)

In the 90's, WWF aired Metal on Saturday afternoon at 6:00 PM on Telemundo.

 

In this time frame it was thanks to Victor Quiñones. Yes, the same one from IWA JAPAN.

 

if you had cable TV, you had access to whatever wrestling was available on those stations (TBS, WWOR, USA, WGN, later on ESPN).

Correct. However not a lot of people had cable down there back then. Now almost everyone does.

 

Also airing locally was Titanes en el Ring (the Martin Karadagian fed), which is actually what hooked TNT/Savio Vega into becoming a fan. Also there were local indies that would air, among them PRALL (Puerto Rico Ases de la Lucha Libre). Not sure what else would air from that time period.

I had no idea Titanes en el Ring aired in PR.

 

PRALL? I don't remember them... Do you have anymore info on them?

 

 

Also, never forget the presence and influence of lucha libre from Mexico, the films would air here in movie theaters and TV creating interest in that style and influencing others into becoming fans (Hugo Savinovich and Jack Veneno are two examples of people that got hooked by watching luchador movies).

There would also be some random lucha, since i recall seeing a match with the Cocos and also an eight man tag featuring four exoticos taking on four ninja turtles.

In the 90's, they aired Promo Azteca on WAPA TV at 10:00 AM I believe it was before WWC Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre aired.

 

WWC had a working relationship with Promo Azteca which is where the Invasión Azteca came into to play. WWC sold it as a AAA invasion, but it was truthful a Promo Azteca invasion. They just used AAA as it was a more common organization name with local fans.

 

Let's also not forget to mention that XWF which was taped in Universal Studios also aired on WAPA TV at 1:00 PM after WWC aired.

 

WWC also had a working relationship with them and several XWF guys wrestled in WWC for a while.

 

By late 91 you had AWF on channel 2.

Correct.

 

Later on in the 90's, there was AWA on channel 7 which was run by Barrabas. They built some big shows with some big WWF names like Savio Vega and the Undertaker.

 

Savio Vega was a member of the Nation of Domination and he was portrayed as such. He was in a feud with el Bronco over the top title. Bronco was a heel, but he turned face when Savio attacked him.

 

The Undertaker was in a feud with Fidel Sierra. They ran an angle where Fidel went crazy after the Undertaker put in a casket.

 

They were scheduled to have a big casket match on one of the shows and Savio was supposed to face Bronco in the main event, but the show eventually got cancelled as they had lost a ton of money and the company went downhill.

 

They went from having a spot on TV on channel 7 and running in big arenas with big name WWF starts to wrestling in someone garage in front of 25 people in a couple of weeks time.

 

Savio and Bronco eventually fought in someones garage in their last couple of shows and the company eventually closed.

 

IWA was around then in the late 90's, early 00's and was run by Victor Quiñones. This was WWC's true competition in Puerto Rico and the company that came the closest to having WWC close up shop. Quiñones had a ton of connections in the WWF as he was in charge of many of the foreign talent and Super Astros I believe. Quiñones even managed to get the Rock for an IWA show. The show was huge and was called One Night Only. He also got Hardcore Holly to wrestle a weekend along with Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho who had a tag match opposing each other with Huracan Castillo tagging with Benoit and Miguel Perez Jr. tagging with Jericho. Gangrel, Edge, Kane, the Hardy Boyz and Kurt Angle are the other WWF names I can think of that worked for IWA in the beginning. In the later years IWA worked with TNA for a bit and they got Samoa Joe to wrestle for them a couple of times and they also booked Savio Vega vs. Necro Butcher which was wild. I don't think this match ever made tape though. It might have, but I never saw it. They also managed to book Bryan Danielson when he was released for the first time from WWE.

 

IWA later on built their own stars and began signing the big names from WWC including Ray Gonzales and Invader #1.

 

After Quiñones died, IWA feel apart quickly as he was the one with the big bucks and who knew a ton of wrestlers and promotors.

 

During IWA's strongest moment, WWC also had a relationship with a smaller indy organization in Puerto Rico called NWS which was run by a doctor who was a money mark. They even had a 6 sided ring like TNA. They ran the WWC vs. NWS angle, but that didn't do good and NWS ran a couple of events before they eventually closed.

 

IWA also worked with other smaller indy organizations such as EWO, but they didn't have the money NWS had and they didn't get much out of IWA.

There's always been a ton of smaller indys in Puerto Rico, but they've never made TV. It's not very good either.

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