The Caribbean Report is a regular feature exclusive to Last Word on Pro Wrestling, as Emmanuel Rosado reports from Puerto Rico on the current events from the wrestling circuit of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands, as well as South America.
WWL To Return in April
Finally, after almost 8 months of absence, World Wrestling League is returning. The show will be 4/20 in Dorado, Puerto Rico, which is a weird place, since now everybody is running that building, when before, it was a territory for Championship Wrestling Association (CWA).
The big match-up for WWL is the rivalry for the WWL championship between the champion, BIG and the man who had stole the belt since the summer, Mecha Wolf 450.
They are also pushing their big heel authority figure Manny Ferno and the stable Puro Macho, that consists of promising talent JC Navarro, Electro, PMS and Khris Diaz. The big babyfaces that they’ll be pushing are Mike Mendoza, Vanilla Vargas, Mark Davidson, Roxxy and Westside Mafia. Boris Bilbraut (the real-life owner of WWL) and Moody Melendez (Booker) are more present in their vignettes, with them keeping a story about the moment Konnan had taken control of WWL and the repercussions that it brought to the promotion.
WWC’s Road to Camino A La Gloria
World Wrestling Council has started firing on all cylinders in road to their Easter weekend two-night event Camino a la Gloria.
The promotion announced that only WWE Superstar Primo Colon and former WWE Intercontinental and United States champion Carlito will be on the island wrestling for those shows, with Orlando Colon (Epico) out with an injury. Former Universal Champion and IWA World Champion “El León” Apolo will also return to WWC.
The big matchups for Saturday in the 3,000-seat building in Manati will be the battle royal for the returning WWC Television title between OT Fernandez, Bellito, Peter the Bad Romance, “Man Beast” Enyel, Anthony Roberts, El Comandante (Zcion) and Rikochet. The main event will be “Primo” Colon challenging champion Ray Gonzalez for the WWC Universal Champion. Other matches are Carlito vs. Apolo, Lightning vs. Gilbert, Chicano defending the WWC Puerto Rican title against Mighty Ursus, plus Thunder and Khaos & Abbadon vs. La Revolucion in extreme rules match for the WWC World Tag Team titles.
The second night will be on Mayaguez on 4/1 with the main event being Ray Gonzalez vs Carlito (Carly Colon) for the WWC Universal Champion (if Ray wins on Saturday), Apolo vs Eddie “Primo” Colon, La Revolucion (with Orlando Toledo) vs Khaos & Abbadon (Juan Manuel Ortega) Thunder & Lightning vs Chicano & Gilbert, Xix Xavant vs Peter The Bad Romance, Mighty Ursus vs El Comandante and Enyel vs Ray Gonzalez Jr.
Huge changes in CWA
CWA had their big show in Santurce after last week’s press conference. The main event was the continuation of Mecha Wolf 450 vs. Star Roger series, this time around, with the help of WWL champion BIG, Roger getting de win.
The biggest thing that we got out of the show was Justin Dynamite finally winning the “Batalla por el Oro” which guarantees him a CWA championship shot. Justin, who recently had lost his CWA Puerto Rican title to Rodrigo Garcia, went with the logical decision to go for the biggest champion right now in Puerto Rico. Star Roger, threaten by the notion of the most popular wrestler in the promotion, betray Justin Dynamite and left him al bloody up in the ring with the help of General Manager David Estilo.
Now with Roger heel, the fans will have a motive to cheer for Justin Dyanmite and to end Star Roger’s 400-plus days reign. This is something that CWA had planned since autumn, when Roger was building his great championship record and Justin was gaining traction as the best talent in CWA.
Florida’s proliferation of Puerto Rican wrestling
The proliferation of wrestling promotions with Puerto Rican influence keep adding up this spring. Now, there are three wrestling promotion of that thematic (NGCW, XWE and ICWA), and if you count Pro Wrestling 2.0, there are four wrestling promotions in the whole state of Florida with big Puerto Rican influence.
This is good news for Caribbean stars looking to breakout in the states. Examples like Mecha Wolf 450 and now Angel Fashion have push the idea that wrestlers in the island can’t just wrestle there, they need to expand their horizon.
The new promotions are Xtreme Wrestling Entertainment (XWE) and International Championship Wrestling Association. ICWA which will provide different type of products independently. XWE was a promotion on the west side of Puerto Rico. Mainly represented by indie talents and the first stomping ground of wrestlers like Mecha Wolf 450, XWE wants to provide that same climate in the state Florida. Wrestlers confirmed for the show are former WWC Puerto Rican champion and legend, Rico Suave (Jose Estrada Jr. in the WWF), Holy Fashion’s Sr. C, Super Gladiator, among others.
ICWA another idea, in which, they want to mix well renown wrestling Superstars from around the world like Alberto el Patron, Chris Adonis and Carlito with Puerto Rican talents like El Nazareno, Roxxy and Apolo Jr.
It’s unclear how this will play out in the long run, but, it seems that this is an opportunity to build bridges that can help grow talents from around the Caribbean.
Other news from the Caribbean
– Ricky Banderas aka Mesias, will not wrestle for the Lucha Underground vs. Impact Wrestling show. He will be at the Wrestlecon table of the wrestling site Contralona PR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBva3WJvPhA&list=PLG62QK-0GF4yrL-x_jY4jCQ3m0sa7dOQr
– You can now watch Campeonato Nacional de Lucha, Chile’s premier promotion now has their show Ignición (Ignition) available in YouTube for free. The main event was Rocket © vs. Ariel Levy in a match that saw Levy do a complete 180 in his character.
– Remember FWR? Florida Wrestling Revolution is completely out of the map and with a big legal threat from AAA. The promotion is facing $4,000 in debt to Mexican promotion AAA, because they never paid the assurance money to book Psycho Clown, Pagano, Hijo del Fantasma, Drago and Texano Jr. A weird note about this is that ICWA is running the same date and building that FWR was running when they had re-scheduled their show in January.
https://twitter.com/CKCW2016/status/977305657228582913
– Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling will return on iPPV in May 20th in Parma, Ohio. Before they had rescheduled (probably because their main event stars are going to wrestle in Puerto Rico in April for WWL), the plan was to have the legendary tag team and the CKCW Tag Team Champions, Thunder & Lightning vs. Mike Mendoza & Angel Fashion with Vanilla Vargas.
