With a full season already taped, Lucha Libre America looks to showcase not just the various Puertorrican wrestlers it’s founders are familiar with, but also a variety of slowly growing wrestlers from Latinamerica.
This new project was first announced two months ago in conjunction with a full set of tapings for it. Brainstormed by the likes of Hector Frodo Caban, Danny Nieves, Hector Melendez & others, the company is actually something of a spiritual successor to Puerto Rico’s World Wrestling League by virtue of the new project being handled by a lot of its staff, and most of its roster coming from WWL, the company that has sadly seized operations as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lucha Libre America is different from your typical wrestling promotion. It is primarily a tournament. Announced via a press release, Lucha Libre America will be a 13 person tournament that will be presented over the course of ten weeks. The tournament is being billed as “similar to the NBA season”. All 13 wrestlers will face each other in matches before the top 8 move on to play-offs. In total, 30 matches will take place to determine the tournament winner.
The company tournament will be broadcasting independently through Vimeo. $20 buys you the entire 10 week season. You can access it via www.LuchaLibreAmerica.com A special free show dubbed “Hora:Cero” (translates as Zero:Hour) will be available in the Lucha Libre America social media accounts to preview the overall tournament as well as present several exhibition matches before the first episode of the actual tournament debuting right after.
Lucha Libre America’s season 1 trailer
The Lucha Libre America roster is composed of the following wrestlers:
- Mike Mendoza – The only 2 time WWL Champion as well as one of the top trainers of Puerto Rico.
- Angel Fashion – Former WWL Champion, WWC Puerto Rico & Jr Heavyweight Champion, has worked on AEW Dark several times.
- OT Fernandez – Former WWC Jr Heavyweight & Television Champion, trainee at Arena Mexico.
- Star Roger – The final WWL Champion, longest reigning CWA Champion, and many other titles in WWC.
- Romeo Quevedo – One of the various new faces, a wrestler of Cuban origins.
- Mark Davidson – Former WWL Trios, Cruiserweight & Americas Champion.
- D3 – Wrestler of Italian descent & has competed for AEW Dark.
- Vertigo – Northeast independent Puertorrican wrestler.
- Azriel – Another newcomer of Argentinian and Peruvian descent.
- Alex Todd – A Puertorrican wrestler with a previous stint in CWA, works the Florida indies.
- JC Navarro – Former WWL Americas Champion, former Arena Mexico trainee.
- Hermano – A wrestler of Mexican descent.
- ??? – One wrestler remains unannounced yet.
The promotion is an interesting concept, being much more of a tournament than a full promotion and unlike many companies based in Puerto Rico, it focuses far more on the wrestling. It brings to mind Ring Of Honor’s recent presentation with stories being much more based on the wrestler’s styles and philosophies rather than some grand conflict that tries to transcend being a basic sporting contest.
One of its founders, Hector Frodo Caban, has expressed interest in this concept for many years. It was attempted in WWL just before the pandemic halted the promotion entirely. As companies halted in Puerto Rico completely, many wrestlers opted to fly off to Florida for work much like had happened after Hurricane Maria in 2017. This time, however, with the advances of streaming services and the growth of various Latino-based promotions due to the prior mentioned emigration after Maria, a lot of resources were available for the production team to use in Florida including a location to tape the entire tournament.
The idea of selling the overall season may prove challenging for the home Puerto Rico-based market. As Pay-Per-Views were never a hallmark of wrestling as they would be in the United States. Even with the advent of iPPV streaming, FITE TV, and such, it’s always been an issue. Especially when WWC recently fumbled the concept of establishing Pay-Per-Views out of an unfounded fear of competing with WWE & AEW’s own PPV dates.
Overall, the concept is a very interesting one. If it’s able to connect and be successful, it will be able to finally bridge that PPV gap plaguing the island. But also, it will be a new way to promote overall Latinamerican talent as well as a different way to present wrestling to the market.
Follow the new promotion on it’s social medias:
