Puerto Rico Report #11

Welcome to the 11th Puerto Rico Wrestling report from Last Word on Pro Wrestling. A lot has been happening on the island. Let’s get right to it.

An insane SIX shows took place on March 25th. With four of them being in or near the island’s metropolitan area. While having so much wrestling running at once would point to a healthy wrestling scene, attendance for these events tend to be quite low. As it’s a rather low fanbase still and most fans tend to be your more hardcore fan, willing to see a show every week. But if you’re forcing them to choose, you lower your potential mostly.

International Wrestling Association (IWA) and World Wrestling Council (WWC) don’t really show major dips in attendance. WWC tends to draw over 300 fans these days and IWA over 450. But it becomes a massive issue for secondary companies that run the same day. The alleged reason for all these shows running so close together is that they are coordinated with bi-weekly work payments in mind. So, more often than not, they happen to be coordinated for the same week. That, in addition, most promotions prefer to run Saturdays for convenience, and here’s the result. Once a month, we get a night cluttered with WrestleMania week level of events. And nowhere near the number of available fans.

Puerto Rico Wrestling Report #11

WWC – WWC ran its Honor vs Traicion (Honor vs Treason) with a full house at the Pedrin Zorrilla Coliseum in San Juan. It’s a small venue next to the far bigger Hiram Bithorn Stadium and can house about 400 fans. The biggest bit of news coming off the show is the return of Chicano and Lightning as the Artilleria Illegal Team (Illegal Artillery). Mike Nice called them in and they arrived in spectacular fashion by driving in a Can-Am.

JC Jexx is the new TV Champion, defeating El Informante (The Informant), while Los Inmortales (The Immortals) dethroned Makabro and Androide 787 as Tag Team Champions. Intelecto 5 Estrellas (5 Star Intelect) retained the Universal title against Xavant but this was followed up by a setup for Carlito to be the next challenger. The match seems likely set for their next major show, Camino A La Gloria (Road To Glory). It’s scheduled for Abril 8th, on Easter Eve. Which is the traditional slot of the event. However, they’ve also scheduled another event for April 11th in the town of Cidra. A rare double announcement and it will be the first time in years that WWC runs three weekends straight. It’s truly a mark of their improvement.

Though, their weekly TV rarely reflects that quality. As it’s more and more drowned in redundant promos.

IWA – IWA comes off a rather successful Cobra x Cobra event. However, there’s a feeling of stagnation that the company seems incapable of shaking off. While everything surrounding them is clearly successful, their weekly YouTube viewership has dipped from numbers ranging from 23,000 to 32,000 on just one day of publishing their show, to now being seemingly stuck at 12,000 for a full month. Nothing seems to help them escape that number. Not their masked wrestler angle with Pedro Portillo III, the final LAWE Champion, constantly attacking Manny Ferno in a mask. Nor the re-debut of one of the island’s top wrestlers, Mike Mendoza.

It’s pretty clear even IWA has realized this issue. As they had their top heel Romeo attacks none other than Invader #1. So now we have to wait if this is to set up the return (again) of the controversial figure. Or if it’s just an angle for heat.

Their next show is Juicio Final (Final Judgment). Last year was the show where Invader #1 won the World title. It created massive momentum for the company which did indeed carry them successfully until this very rut we’re discussing now.

Espiritu Dojo – The school ran its latest event last week where Mecha Wolf, one-half of the NWA World Tag Team Champions, defeated Androide 787 to win the Dojo Championship. This was followed up by Mecha Wolf disrespecting the title a la Shane Douglas and Mike Mendoza approaching, promising to defend the honor of his dojo. It was also the last match for Chris Mendoza as El Gentil (The Gentleman) in a spectacular match against Hijo Del Enigma (Son Of The Enigma). El Gentil would then ritualistically remove his mask to reveal his face for the first time.

Other Notes – To wrap up this edition of the Puerto Rico wrestling report, CWA made its return with its Saturacion (Saturation) event. Currently, there don’t seem to be any plans for these tapings. While GZW was another of the companies that ran Saturday. Its main event saw former LAWE Tag Team Champion Riviero Rivas vs Bryan Idol, also known as Mercurio on NWA.