Embedded Files
NWA's influence over the pro-wrestling world extended into Puerto Rico in the 1960s when the country became an American commonwealth. "Cowboy" Luttrell moved in and established himself there with great success. However, a group of Puerto Ricans (Carlos Colón, Victor Jovica, José Miguel Pérez and a few others) along with Northeastern American star Gorilla Monsoon formed Capitol Wrestling Promotions and ran under the banner "World Wrestling Council". They ran regular shows and established their own stars and brought in talent from the United States' Northeast (they eventually aligned themselves with Pedro Martinez's IWA), Tennessee and Florida in addition to Canada and Japan and of course stars from Spanish-speaking countries, namely Mexico and the Dominican Republic. They even brought in El Santo in 1975, which really solidified the WWC as the main promotion in Puerto Rico. The company had some competition over the years, Mexican promoter Arturo Mendoza ran succesfully in the late 1970s and many wrestlers left to form the AWF in the 1990s. The company though remained strong albeit controversial until the end of the century when they were nearly run out of business by Victor Quiñones and his IWA company. Puerto Rico became infamous for its innovative gimmick matches. They had steel cages and street fights, but took things to another level with barbed wire and even fire! These bloody battles in huge stadiums became the trademark of wrestling on the island. However, they were a successful company and as an NWA member in the 1980s, they really boomed, until 1988. There are two infamous deaths in Puerto Rico. First, Michel Martel died in 1978 and Invader #1's heartpunch became the "reason," which led to a feud with the Martel brothers. Despite the ghoulish nature of this angle, it was a key element in building the WWC's peak years in the 1980s. Ten years later however, Invader #1 became known as the man who murdered Bruiser Brody. Everything about the incident turned heads: the premeditation, the violence of the act, the inadequate of medical assistance, the following legal action and the fact that José Huertas (Invader #1) never served time. This horrific event is perhaps what Puerto Rican wrestling is most famous for and it caused a near collapse of the promotion in the years that followed. The WWC has survived though and became one of the hottest promotions in the world when pro-wrestling everywhere else was struggling early in the new millenium. Although they nearly lost the promotion war with the IWA, WWC clung on to their native stars and has rebounded fairly well.
Kengo Arakawa (Don Arakawa)
Hercules Ayala
Ox Baker
Huracan Castillo
Danny Condrey (Honky Tonk Man)
Wendell Cooley
Fabulous Kangaroos (Don Kent & Bruno Bekkar)
Stan Hansen
Invader #2 (Roberto Soto)
Victor Jovica
Tor Kamata
Kangaroos (Don Kent & Al Costello)
King Tonga (Haku/Meng)
Dan Kroffat (Phil Lafon)
Pierre Martel (Frenchy Martin)
Gilberto Melendez (Gypsy Joe)
Moondogs (Rex & Spot)
Ted Oates
Los Pastores (The Sheepherders)
Al Perez
Jose Rivera
Rip Rogers
Sheepherders (Luke Williams & Butch Miller)
Gama Singh
Super Black Ninja (Keiji Muto)
Les Thornton
Jack Veneno
I'd like to thank Manuel Gonzalez and Luis Cuevas from kayfabememories.com for their articles as well as well as Royal Duncun and Gary Will's contributions to wrestling-titles.com
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