Emmanuel Rosado reports in from Puerto Rico with all the latest news and stories out of the Caribbean professional wrestling scene!
THE CARIBBEAN REPORT
WWL Keeps Racking Up Wins
The World Wrestling League (WWL) in Puerto Rico had another great show in 6/24 in Juncos. The promotion, owned partially by former WWE Superstar Savio Vega, is the hottest wrestling company in the summer, ever since WWL put out their show in 5/14 WWL: Golpe de Estado.
The numbers weren’t as good as the ones in 5/14, but WWL since May is averaging at least 650 fans per show. It sounds small, but when you consider that rival World Wrestling Council (WWC) is barely averaging 350 fans, the numbers seem big.
The standout of the night was Mike Mendoza vs. JC Navarro. They tore the house down, with both exchanging heavy hits and great moves. The chants of “This is Wrestling” were loud and clear since the start till the finish. This comes at little surprise from the fans who had high hopes for both wrestlers, especially Mike Mendoza, who is the grandson of Salvadorian and Puerto Rican legend, El Vikingo (The Viking). Mendoza was a sure Universal Champion for the next year in WWC, but disagreements with direction that the promotion took, made him try new waters in the island.
As for Navarro, the man is like the Puerto Rican version of Davey Richards. He is small but mean, mix well with different styles and hits hard, very hard. Navarro is a great student of the art, with him even training in CMLL with Arkangel de la Muerte and participating in some shows in Arena Mexico. The match could be in contention for match of the year and give a good case for both men going up in the card.
The show was virtually made for the debuts of former WWC standouts, Mike Mendoza and Angel Fashion. The latter one had a quick match against former Americas champion Big Daddy Montes, now known as P.M.S. Other wrestlers that had a great show was Payatronic, who won the Super Cruiserweight championship. Also, Manny Ferno, WWL’s main heel, is still creating chaos among fans, this time destroying Chris Mendoza’s arm (Mike Mendoza’s brother).
The West Side of Puerto Rico Welcomes the LAX
After a huge controversy regarding Konnan and Puerto Rico’s Championship Wrestling Association (CWA) over the booking of LAX’s Diamante (formerly American indie star Angel Rose), WWL takes advantage of the controversy and will bring the whole LAX gang to Puerto Rico.
WWL already announced the they will be having their next show in 7/15 at Mayaguez (West of Puerto Rico). Their first big announcement was bringing back WWL regular and indy workaholic Mr. 450 (John Yurnet in WWE). After the announcement of 450’s return, the WWL Facebook page started presenting images regarding LAX and in the same way mocking the CWA, who had done the same, but were only bringing Diamante for 6/24 show.
Later that same day, WWL made it official, the General Konnan, was bringing with him his creation, LAX! While not official, the stable of Santana, Homicide, Ortiz and Diamante will be wrestling the hometown boys at the show West Side Mafia, which is Mr. 450’s faction and has the Tag Team Champs, Morgan and Tabu, with them.
WWC Continues To Survive Despite Bad Booking
For a company that is a year younger that New Japan, they sure are making a lot of mistakes lately. WWC had a show also for 6/24, but this one came with a week of promotion. WWC saw that their other two main rival promotions (CWA and WWL) were doing shows at 6/24 and they decided to jump in. The show drew at least 280 fans.
The show in Manati (yes, like the aquatic mammal) was headlined by WWC Universal Champion and 25+ year veteran Ray Gonzalez against one of the best wrestlers in the island and former IWA World Champion, Chicano. The match wasn’t big, especially when you consider that WWC’s primary heel can’t even take a bump. The other big matchup was Lightning retaining his WWC Puerto Rican Championship against Gilbert. Again, nothing special.
WWC have depended on their veterans, instead of their young blood. The company in January had a good angle with promising stars like Mr. 450, Mike Mendoza, Angel Fashion and Cuervo looking like wrestlers that they could build towards the future. Even a hot angle was working, with Ray Gonzalez playing as the rebel to the dictatorship of Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica. The faction of Gonzalez, El Sindicato (The Syndicate), had a pretty good heel in Mendoza and a good antagonist in Fashion or Cuervo. Mr. 450 was supposed to hold down the Universal Championship for a good time. But once again, WWC doubled down. They went with their veterans, with the excuse that Mr. 450 had too many indie dates and could be signing with WWE. As for the others young blood, WWC sensed that they weren’t ready.
WWC is paying for the decision of not giving Mr. 450 the Universal title and relegating their young talent to job to the over the hill veterans. The crowds show that they made the wrong decision. If you’re asking yourself if there a new talent that at least is getting a push in the old guard of WWC, Ray Jr. (Ray Gonzalez’s son) is getting a huge push as top heel, but just because he is the son of the head booker.
Star Roger Continues His Historic Reign
Previously known as Carlitos, Star Roger is building toward a new future and tracing his own path. In 6/24, Caribbean Championship Wrestling had their show Supremacia (Supremacy). The main event saw Star Roger beating Maxx Stardom to retain his CWA Championship. The Star Roger reign is historic because is in the process of being the longest reign in this decade (Carlito holds the record with the Universal Championship) and if in fact gest to 365 days, it will be the longest reign of a big championship in Puerto Rico since Carlos Colon in 1994. For now, Roger has a 195 days reign, the plans are for him defend it at Summer Mayhem in July and keep going till the year.
Other things that happened was Rodrigo Garcia revealing his cousin and creating havoc against the Bullying crew. The promising Justin Dynamite had to be taken out due to severe injuries caused by Black Bullet and Bane. Also, Los Apostadores retained their Tag Team Titles.
Other Puerto Rican Notes
Just when Puerto Ricans where making peace with the death of Ron Starr, there came the news of Mr. Pogo‘s death. Pogo worked in the late 80s in Puerto Rico, alongside Kendo Nagasaki and later with Sasaki – together they did a great deal with the revolution of deathmatches and molding the Puerto Rican scene in those years. His feuds with Bruiser Brody and T.N.T. (Savio Vega) were infamous and truly violent. In Puerto Rico, Mr. Pogo is a 5x WWC World Tag Team Champion, a 2x WWC Caribbean Tag Champion and a 1x Time Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Mr. 450 was absent from the 6/24 show in Juncos for WWL because of his big agenda this weekend. He was in Tijuana wrestling for Konnan’s The Crash on Friday, later on Saturday he would wrestle for WrestleCircus in Austin, Texas and on Sunday in Mucha Lucha Atlanta. He now has his August agenda open for bookings.
Hugo Savinovich will be having a show at 9/23 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico in honor of Ricky Banderas (Mil Muertes in Lucha Underground). The main event will be Banderas vs. Rey Mysterio. Also on the show, Johnny Mundo, Taya and Mr. 450.
Panama crowned their new World Champion, when Valeck Cuervo beat Star Roger in the main event for Global Wrestling Evolution (GWE).
