World Wrestling Council
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The World Wrestling Council (WWC) is one of Puerto Rico's two main professional wrestling promotions, the other one being the International Wrestling Association. The organization is also known as "WWC".
WWC produces WWC Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre weekly wrestling TV show, which airs every Saturday & Sunday at 12:00pm-1:00pm AST on WAPA-TV and WAPA America, Saturday & Sunday 12:00-2:00pm EST on SuperCanal 33 in the Dominican Republic (until May, 2007)
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[edit] History
[edit] Capitol Sports Promotions
The World Wrestling Council was founded on September 13, 1973, as Capitol Sports Promotions, with Carlos Colon, Victor Jovica and Gorilla Monsoon as promoters/co-owners of the organization. WWC/Capitol Sports Promotions was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) until late 1988.
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 (both Saturday and Sunday for two hours until March 2008 when the TV show was reduced to 1 hour on both Saturdays & Sundays due to declining ratings). From 1973 to 1980 it also had shows on Channel 11 (for "Telecadena Perez Perry" before the channel went off the air, and after the return of the same channel as "Teleonce"), on channel 7 on Sunday evenings at 6pm (after horse racing), and even had a show at one time on Telemundo channel 2 on Saturday mornings at 10am
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.
Early stars, apart from Colon, included Barrabas, El Tigre Perez, Hugo Savinovich, Gorilla Monsoon, Huracan Castillo and others. Famous wrestling tag-teams included Los Super Medicos, Los Invaders and others.
Many American stars came to Puerto Rico to wrestle for Capitol Sports Promotions during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Such were the cases of Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody, Dory Funk, Jr. and others.
In 1983, Rickin Sanchez 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, to form one of Puerto Rico's most famous broadcasting duos in history, which complemented the narrations of the matches by Joaquin Padin JR. Some time later, Rickin Sanchez (and his production company R & F Television) left the production of "Super Estrellas.." due to some disagreements with the ownership of WWC, and then Hugo Savinovich became the main host of the programs.
[edit] World Wrestling Council
By the middle 1990s, the organization changed its official name to the World Wrestling Council. Women also began to have an ever increasing presence in the organization during that decade, with La Tigresa leading the way.
With the turn of the century came a turn of events for the WWC that almost destroyed the franchise. A small promotion, called International Wrestling Association, promoted by Victor Quinones, became a big competitor when it made an alliance with giant WWF and started featuring American superstars. Suddenly, WWC had to change its ways and realize that they were not the only game in town.
Since then, Puerto Rican wrestling talent has jumped from the WWC to the IWA, and vice-versa. But, in the last months of 2004, Carly Colon ("Carlito") was signed to WWE.
[edit] 2007
On June 24, WWC held an event called Noche de Campeones (Night of Champions) on which WWC former Tag Team Champions Thunder and Lightning made a comeback. They feuded La Amenaza de la Destrucción (Madness of Destruction), formed by La Amenaza Bryan and Black Pain, both of them former Universal Heavyweight Champions. IWA official booker and TNA Spanish commentator Hector Melendez signed a contract with WWC to perform similar tasks.
On July 13 the company celebrated their 34th Anniversary, taking place in Coliseo de Puerto Rico. The main event was Carlito Caribbean Cool vs Scott Hall, because Scott Hall had been said a lot of times in interviews that Carlito is just a “Mini Razor”. This event also included the Bruiser Brody Cup, whose winner would win the cup and get a shot for any title. The winners were Cuban Connection Ricky Santana and Fidel Sierra but a new tag team called Legion of Armageddon appeared and won the match and a shot for the Tag Team Championships. El Profe made his comeback to WWC and became the manager of this tag team.
Following Aniversario, several wrestlers debuted in WWC and formed a stable of masked wrestlers called Encapuchados, formed by Biggie, Jeffrey and later joined by Stefano and Niche. Joe Bravo also signed with WWC and appeared on an event called Guerra en el Norte (War in North) celebrated at Vega Baja. At this moment, WWC has good relationships with wrestling companies in Japan and the United States. Carlos Colon was in conversations with WWE executives in order to evaluate the possibility of WWC becoming once again in a WWE development territory.
[edit] 2008
During the holiday recess a group of personnel were either released or renounced, among them several wrestlers that were holding championships. These include, then Biggie Size (with de Universal Heavyweight Championship, but not the champion, jump to IWA), Television Champion "Superstar" Ash Rubinsky (now Damian, jumped to IWA), booker and announcer Moody Melendez (he quit, and after February 17, 2008 will work to AAA), Jumpin' Jeff Jeffrey and Xtefy (they quit), La Morena (she quit), Amazona (jumped to Puerto Rico Wrestling Association) and heel group " Los Templarios" (jumped to IWA), on January 6th, 2008. WWC also held an event called Euphoria on the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum on the same date. None of the wrestlers showed up on the WWC event, but later some of them showed up in IWA's event, seeing Universal Champion come out to challenge IWA's Champion at the time Blitz, for an "unification bout" (this "inification bout" not it's recognize by WWC).On one instance during the show, the now former Universal Champion, came out to the public with the belt until representatives from WWC came out to retrieve the belt in the middle of the show, under the criticism of IWA officials.
The day after, Carlos Colon spoke in an interview with local newspaper Primera Hora about the situation with the Universal Championship belt. He challenged IWA officials to surrender the belt or face legal action. This threat vanished as IWA surrendered the belt the following day.
In February, on an event called "La Hora De La Verdad", a tournament to choose two new contenders began, that would wrestle in Aniversario 2008 to crown a new Universal Heavyweight Champion. At the moment leaving the World Tag Team Championships as the promotion's main titles. In April 2008, Ray Gonzalez, who was wrestling in IWA returned to WWC under a mask, naming himself "El Cóndor". Gonzalez asked for a chance to compete in the tounament, eventually receiving permison.
[edit] Roster
[edit] Current
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[edit] Alumni
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[edit] Legends
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[edit] Championships
[edit] Current
| Championship: | Current champion(s): | Held since: |
|---|---|---|
| WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship | Vacant | January 5, 2008 |
| WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship | Vacant | December 15, 2007 |
| WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship | Vacant | January 5, 2008 |
| WWC World Television Championship | Chris Joel | May 10, 2008 |
| WWC World Tag Team Championship | The Texas Outlaws | February 16, 2008 |
| WWC Women's Championship | Killer Kat | May 3, 2008 |
[edit] Defunct and inactive
| Championship: | Final champion(s): | Date won: | Notes: |
|---|---|---|---|
| WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship | Ricky Santana | August 24, 2002 | Inactive since 2002 |
| WWC Caribbean Tag Team Championship | The Latin Connection (Ray Gonzalez and Ricky Santana) |
September 28, 1991 | Abandoned December 2, 1991 |
| WWC Dominican Republic Heavyweight Championship | El Bronco | September 22, 2001 | Inactive since 2001 |
| WWC Hardcore Championship | Sabu | December 2003 | Inactive since 2003 |
| WWC Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship | Pierroth, Jr. | April 3, 1999 | Abandoned December 13, 1999 |
| WWC North American Heavyweight Championship | Manny Fernandez | September 1991 | Abandoned 1991 |
| WWC North American Tag Team Championship | The Hunters (Bob Brown and Dale Veasey) |
June 20, 1987 | Abandoned November 1987 |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Site (in Spanish)
- WWC Title Histories
