World Wrestling Council
The World Wrestling Council is a professional wrestling promotion based in Puerto Rico. It was originally established as Capitol Sports Promotions in 1973 by Carlos Colón, Victor Jovica, and Gorilla Monsoon. By the mid-1990s, the promotion had changed its name to the World Wrestling Council. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance until 1988. WWC is among the oldest professional wrestling promotions in the world and one of only eight in the entire world to reach its 50th anniversary in continuous operation.
History
Beginnings (1970s)
Capitol Sports Promotions, with Carlos Colón, Victor Jovica and Gorilla Monsoon as promoters/co-owners of the organization, was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance until late 1988, when Gorilla Monsoon left. The company then went bankrupt. Thomas Collado was the owner in 1976, before Carlos Colón and Victor Jovica. The promotion operated from its headquarters, located in Santurce, San Juan.Capitol Sports Promotions gained fame in Puerto Rican homes soon after their TV show, Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre, went on-air every weekend on channel 4, WAPA-TV. The taped show is still aired on weekends. From 1973 to 1980 it aired on channel 11, on channel 7 on Sunday evenings at 6pm and on Telemundo on Saturday mornings at 10am.
Pinnacle (1980s)
Capitol Sports Promotions began touring all over the island, and with the golden era of boxing in Puerto Rico limited only to Ponce and the metropolitan area of Puerto Rico, Capitol Sports Promotions took their shows to many, inner country towns where people were not used to seeing live in-ring sports events. As a result, Capitol's shows usually filled the smaller town arenas.CSP also benefited from collaborations, including a talent exchange agreement with Mario Savoldi's International Championship Wrestling.
During one specific stretch, CSP sold out a 30,000 venue at Bayamón during 13 consecutive shows. High-profile wrestlers were winning in the range of $3,000–5,000 per weekend.
In 1983, Rickin Sánchez had taken over as Capitol's main promoter, as well as becoming one of the organization's broadcasters on the television shows. He was joined by the already retired Savinovich. Some time later, Sánchez left the production of Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre due to some disagreements with the ownership of WWC. After these events, Savinovich became the main host of the programs.
The World Wrestling Council was a member National Wrestling Alliance from 1979 until 1987.
As the market remained a lucrative and "hot territory" within the organization, the presence of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship became ubiquitous in large events, predominantly represented by perennial headliner Ric Flair. On January 6, 1983, Colón defeated the latter to complete an unofficial run with the belt, retaining momentum afterwards and being ranked in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's "Top 10" throughout 1984.
Death of Bruiser Brody (1988)
On July 16, 1988, American star Bruiser Brody was stabbed at the locker room of the Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamón, prior to a show. Brody died from the stab wounds later on that night. The man who stabbed him was fellow wrestler and booker José Huertas-González, known as Invader I. The two men had a real-life feud that led to a confrontation in the locker room that concluded with Brody receiving stab wounds to his chest and stomach. The only one to witness the series of events that ended in the death was WWC wrestler Tony Atlas. Atlas said he saw both men enter the shower area of the locker room. Atlas claims he looked over to Carlos Colón, and then heard sounds and saw Brody hunched over with González brandishing a bloody knife about to finish Brody off. Atlas and Colón rushed to keep them apart along with several angry wrestlers.After Brody's death, and the negative publicity that followed, WWC went through some difficult years. Mr. Jose Huertas-Gonzalez was acquitted by a jury after he testified in his own defense, and claimed self-defense. The witnesses who were supposed to testify about the murder claimed that they did not get their summons until after the trial was over.
Rebrand (1990s)
By the mid-1990s, with the NWA territorial system largely dismantled, the organization changed its official name to World Wrestling Council in order to proclaim its regional titles as world titles. Women also began to have an ever-increasing presence in the organization during that decade. WWC also experienced other problems, issues with immigration concerning the visas of Mexican wrestlers Villano III, Pierroth Jr., El Texano and Jerry Estrada while working an invasion angle with Asistencia Asesoría y Administración. On March 9, 1999, Jovica and Colón registered World Wrestling Council, Inc. at the Puerto Rico Department of State as president/agent and vice-president respectively.WWC vs. IWA-PR
With the turn of the century came some changes that troubled the franchise. A promotion called International Wrestling Association, promoted by Víctor Quiñones, became WWC's biggest competitor when it made an alliance with wrestling giant the World Wrestling Federation which in turn brought American superstars to IWA-PR.WWC adopted a strict protocol of expelling problematic fans, such as those that threw objects to the ring, mimicking rival IWA. The promotion also used strategies outside the ring to undermine its competition, including tipping the Treasury Department when other promotions held events.
In 2001, WWC began a collaboration with the XWF, which saw Ray González and Carly Colón wrestle for the nascent promotion. Backstage footage of the tapings Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida were intermingled with an angle involving Barrabás and La Familia del Milenio. The angle would have led to a match between González and Hulk Hogan, with interactions between both being aired on Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre. Carlos Colón negotiated this participation, but it ultimately failed to materialize, the XWF stagnated as it failed to sell television rights for its content. Hogan himself left and returned to WWE.
On July 12, 2002, Colón, Sr. was involved in a discussion with Kobbo Santarrosa, host of Televicentro's SuperXclusivo show. Five days later, there were reports that the incident had been adapted into an angle.
Parallel to this, the promotion faced issues with the regularity of payment of several wrestlers, who failed to attend a card held on July 17, 2002. After three weeks of no-showing his scheduled dates, maineventer Ray González left the company and began negotiations with the IWA. On July 25, 2002, it was reported that WWC responded to González leaving by bringing in wrestlers from abroad, in particular from Florida, and had completed the arrangements to begin the airing of the XWF tapings as a tandem to WWC at Televicentro.
On October 13, 2002, both promotions announced a card to be held on the same date and venue in Cayey venue for October 18. Ultimately, IWA presented its event, while WWC did not hold one on that day. On October 20, 2002, Televicentro aired Invasion 2002: El Especial en Vivo, a special show broadcast live as part of the interpromotional angle between WWC and XWF. WWC Continued promoting its product in Televicentro's programming, this time as part of a multi-program collaboration that began with segments in a show named Zúmbate where a hidden camera prank was played on Laureano. The angle was continued at SuperXclusivo, where Colón and Santarosa reached a truce of sorts, but Laureano interrupted and argued with both. A wrestling special was then aired in Zúmbate, where several members of the roster performed. In the same program, three masked wrestlers that were supposedly randomly recruited were revealed to be Santarrosa, Carly and Eddie Colón, which led to Laureano attacking all three.
On November 14, 2002, Laureano participated in another Televicentro show, this time Club Sunshine where he confronted Sunshine Logrono while the latter was performing under the wrestling-related character of Vitin Alicea. On November 18, 2002, the reintroduction of the Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship was announced. Entering into December, WWC led IWA in rating after the latter experienced a drop. Further expanding into the mainstream programming, Carly and Eddie Colón were also featured in a commercial for the ACE brand.
In April 2003, a lawsuit against González led to the wrestler receiving a subpoena from a Marshall in an IWA show. On April 21, 2003, it was made public that El Nene left the promotion with the Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship in his possession. In May 2003, Santarosa was involved in another angle with WWC, this time with Alvarez. WWC announced this month that as part of an agreement with Memphis Wrestling, a tournament to crown the tag team champions of that promotion would be held in Puerto Rico, though no more details where unveiled.
In May 2003, Juan Rivera and Eddie Colón encountered each other in a restaurant, entering into an argument about the practices and product of their respective promotions. The IWA turned this into an angle, where they belittled Colón as a "fan" of Armando Gorbea. On May 29, 2003, a copy of a letter that WWC sent to Telemundo in response for its use of the name "TNT" was made public. On June 1, 2003, it was revealed that the tournament for the titles announced weeks before was a plot device so that a new set of XWF World Tag Team Champions could be crowned in a phantom change.
During the summer of 2003, the weekly edition of Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre suffered a modification, after Joe Don Smith left due to economic differences and the section that he hosted, Ringside con Joe Don Smith, was removed. A new section with Pantojas, titled Cara a cara con El Profe was soon introduced. On July 17, 2003, Thunder and Lightning appeared in Club Sunshine in order to promote Aniversario 2003. When Jose Huertas González joined the IWA, WWC retaliated by airing matches involving Bruiser Brody. The promotion escalated their attack by airing a match between both.
WWC continued trying to make crossovers by making moves to book Gino "The Punisher" Rochell, who was scheduled to an MMA event titled Tatami Tournament Championship 4 which was ultimately postponed and rescheduled to March 6, 2004. On September 6, 2003, the promotion brought Logrono as a special manager for an event, continuing its long-running collaboration with the WAPA-TV producer.