Emmanuel Rosado once again reports in from Puerto Rico with all the latest news out of the Caribbean professional wrestling scene!
WWL Conquers the West Side
It seems that World Wrestling League can’t miss. WWL had their “War in the West” show in Mayaguez with more than 500 fans paying tribute to one of the greatest Jr. Heavyweights in Puerto Rico, Invader III.
The show will be remembered mostly for the infamous heel turn of Mr. 450 in his home town. John Yurnet (Mr. 450), alongside former students of Invader III’s school, paid tribute to his teacher Johnny River (Invader III), saying that if it wasn’t for him, he would have never been able to pay his bills through wrestling. But then, the inexplicable happened.
In front of his home town, with his teacher being honored and him being the most over guy in the building, Mr. 450 betrayed everybody and even took with him the WWL Tittle from BIG. Yurnet gave his back to his own faction The West Side Mafia and did a 180 turn by attacking WWL Champion Mr. BIG that night. He even has photos with the belt in an event at Baja California.
Mr. 450 beat JC Navarro to become the #1 Contender for the WWL Tittle, so even if 450 has the tittle with him, he still needs to win it against BIG. JC Navarro is probably The Most Improve Wrestler in 2017 in Puerto Rico, his alignment with Puro Macho has brought new light to a character that was floating around in WWL at the start of the year.
The main attraction for the show was LAX, who were debuting in Puerto Rico and had a good reception. They went against Mike Mendoza, Angel Fashion and the debuting Vanilla Vargas in a pretty solid match. Also, West Side Mafia retained their WWL Tag Tittles against Puro Macho (Electro & Kris Diaz).
WWL has their next show in Juncos, Puerto Rico on 8/5. The promotion is averaging 600 fans per show, this is the best average in the summer and probably of 2017.
WWC News: WWC Pushes but Nothing Happens
While WWL is doing great numbers, Puerto Rico’s oldest promotion (and one of the oldest in the world) is having one of their worse run in recent years. World Wrestling Council is averaging around 150 people per show and the number is rapidly dropping.
They had their 7/15 show in Bayamon with a couple hundred present. The only big thing that happened was La Revolución (The Revolution) beating Cuervo & Enyel for the Tag Tittles. Cuervo & Enyel were the big hopes for WWC, especially Enyel who is having a resurgence in the card, but WWC seems to not have any other plan that have them fighting in an endless feud against The Revolution for the WWC World Tag Team Tittles.
They are having a show in 7/22, but this time in Manati. Their main event is WWC Universal Champion Ray Gonzalez & Ray Jr. vs. Thunder & Puerto Rican Champion Lightning. Other matches are: Xix Xavant vs. Gilbert, Chicano vs. Comandante, Enyel vs. Revolución #1, Cuervo vs. Revolución #1, OT Fernandez © vs. Peter the Bad Romance for the WWC Jr. Heavyweight Championship and Angel Cotto vs. Rikochet.
CWS Champion debuts in WWC
In an interesting debut, actor and Pro Wrestler Bellito debuted in WWC on 7/17 in Pepin Cestero.
Bellito is having a good run this summer and has come to his own after a rough start this year. He won the CWS Championship from Hiram Tua on 6/10 in Bayamon. He has been one of the figure head of Championship Wrestling School to build for the future. He later that same night turn heel and join the notorious faction #NoALasMomias (No to Mummies), which is commanded by former WWC Universal Champion BJ.
On 7/15 in WWC, Bellito went against one of his mentors and CWS regular Rikochet (not to get confuse with NJPW’s Ricochet). People received the debut with positive responds, with many applauding WWC for letting on of the top indie stars of the island make an impression. Many where asking if this was a onetime thing and apparently it is, because Bellito is nowhere to be found in the 7/22 show.
CWS has a double header the last weekend of July, with them having events on 7/29 in Vega Baja and 7/30 in Santurce.
29 Years after the death of Bruiser Brody
Is probably one of the most notorious crime in Pro Wrestling and a very touchy subject that in the island is almost never talked.
Last Monday was the 29th year anniversary of Frank Goodish aka Bruiser Brody being murder by Jose Huertas Gonzalez (Invader I) in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Brody was one of the most hard-hitting wrestlers of his era, notorious for his size and ability to work in almost any territory, especially in Japan and Puerto Rico. Brody was known to be very intelligent and a very good person, but had the notoriety of being difficult to do business with and bulldozing people.
Brody was invited by Gonzalez to the showers to talk, but later Brody would end up stab. Because of how crowed was Lubriel Stadium, also the difficulty that represented Bayamon itself, paramedics where 45 minutes late. Tony Atlas had to help Brody, but it was too late.
The trial of the murder ended up having Jose Gonzalez acquitted because it was said to be in self-defense. He will remain as a top star in the territory and booker of WWC for a long time. Many point out that Brody’s attitude of not doing jobs and being difficult to do business where catalyst for its murder, but other have mention the time that Gonzalez squash by Brody in the old WWWF or the drowning of Gonzalez daughter 2 days prior.
The Puerto Rican territory would never be the same after the incident. American wrestlers refused to go to the island for a long time, the day after the murder, not a single soul showed up in their event. Capitol Sport Promotion would almost close its doors, but later rebranded into WWC, but they never recovered.
Other Notes from the Caribbean
– Lucha Conquest (NGCW) has announced new matches for their big event on 7/29 in the Fire Frogs Stadium in Kissimmee. In what maybe the show stealer, Mr. 450 vs. Fenix el Rey vs. Mil Muertes, the winner becomes the #1 contender for the Lucha Submission Championship. Also, Son of Samoa & former TNA World Champion EC3 vs. Apolo & Chicano and Thunder & Lightning vs. Black Taurus & Mr. Aguila.
– CWA wants to keep the hype alive for their biggest event in 2017 “Summer Mayhem”. They will have a show on 7/22 in Dorado and their top champion Star Roger will be in action. Also, CWA’s brightest future Justin Dynamite © vs. Bane for the CWA Puerto Rican Championship. Empio is finally getting a push, he will be teaming with David Estilo to go up against Rodrigo Garcia & Victor Manuel Rodriguez (he is the son of Puerto Rican legend Victor “The Bodyguard”).
-This is a little bit far from the Caribbean Sea, but it need to be noted how hot the wrestling scene in Chile is. Their Campeonato Nacional de Lucha had a sold-out show in Club Chocolate, with people left out of the building because of how much people were in the event. The company has WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic participant Alejandro Saez and had a very interesting story around their top champion Perfecto Bundy. CNL had an angle where they had Ariel Levy throwing hot coffee to CNL Champion Perfecto Bundy in a radio interview. CNL would cancel their match for that night, giving it a semi-shoot feel, but later would reinstalled the match, but this time a non-sanction match because of Bundy wanting revenge on Levy. Rocket was the winner of a Battle Royal and the place popped big for him.
– Contralona PR has interviews with Olympic Silver Medalist and WWE hopeful Jaime Espinal
