World Wrestling Council

World Wrestling Council

Founded	September 13, 1973 (1973-09-13)
Headquarters	Puerto Rico
Founder(s)	Carlos Colón, Sr. Victor Jovica Gorilla Monsoon
Owner(s)	Victor Jovica Carlos Colón, Sr.
Formerly	Capitol Sports Promotions
Website	wwcppv.com

The World Wrestling Council (WWC) is Puerto Rico's main professional wrestling promotion.

History

Capitol Sports Promotions

The two versions of the Capitol Sports Promotions logo.

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 (NWA) until late 1988, when Gorilla Monsoon left. The company then went bankrupt (as confirmed by Victor Quiñones in an interview with prwrestling.com). Following this, Thomas Collado became the owner in 1976, before Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica.

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 it was reduced to one hour on both Saturdays and Sundays due to declining ratings). From 1973 to 1980 it aired on channel 11 ( "Telecadena Perez Perry", then on "Teleonce" after the before mentioned went off the air), on channel 7 on Sunday evenings at 6pm and on "Telemundo" 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., Dutch Mantell 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 after these events Hugo Savinovich became the main host of the programs.

World Wrestling Council

By the mid 1990s, the organization changed its official name to World Wrestling Council. Women also began to have an ever increasing presence in the organization during that decade.

With the turn of the century came some changes that almost destroyed the franchise. A small promotion called International Wrestling Association, promoted by Victor Quinones, became WWC's biggest competitor when it made an alliance with wrestling giant WWF which in turn brought American superstars to IWA.Ray Gonzales resigned because he hadn't been paid for 6 months which resulted in him joining rival IWA.

Since then Puerto Rican wrestling talent has jumped from the WWC to the IWA and vice versa. During the summer of 2003, Carly Colón ("Carlito") signed with WWE.

In an interview, Quiñones said that from 2002-2005 the almost bankrupt WWC borrowed money from him to help pay debts.

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 (Menace 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 said 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 once again becoming a WWE developmental territory.

2008

During the holiday recess a group of personnel were either released or renounced, among them several wrestlers that were holding championships. Among them are Biggie Size, Television Champion "Superstar" Ash Rubinsky, booker and announcer Moody Melendez (he quit, and after February 17, 2008 will work for AAA), Jumpin' Jeff Jeffrey and Xtefy, La Morena, Amazona and heel group " Los Templarios", on January 6, 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 at IWA's event, seeing the Universal Champion come out to challenge IWA's Champion at the time, Blitz, for a "unification bout" (this "unification bout" was not recognized by WWC, But the NWA recognized the unification). 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. 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 tournament, eventually receiving permission.

On July 19, at Aniversario 2008, the final of the tournament to determine a new Universal champion was won by Noriega. After 36 days with the title, he left the company while still the champion, signing a contract with a promotion named EWO.^[1]

On September 20, in the event Septiembre Negro, Ray Gonzalez beat Shane Sewell to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.

2009

On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become the new Universal Champion in Naguabo, Puerto Rico.

On March 7 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico WWC make the event "La Hora de la Verdad" (The Hour of the Truth) and in that event 3 championships change hands. One of the championships was the reinstated WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship and it was wrestled in a X natch where the competitors were Ricky Reyes, Los aerios Carlitos and Hiram Tua, Johnny Styles, Angel and Tommy Diablo. Ricky Reyes won the match in a controversial way when the referee was knocked out and Hiram Tua took the belt to become champion. Reyes knocked Tua out and he go with the belt to the referee and he declared him the winner and New Champion.^[2]

Currently The Universal Heavyweight Championship was declared vacant because in the event summer madness in the match of BJ and Noriega in a match that would unified both old and new WWC Universal Championships because of many confrontations in the match, they striped both belts from Noriega and BJ. On September 26, in Bayamón, Puerto Rico Noriega Beat BJ to become the first ever WWC Unified Universal Heavyweight Champion. His championship reign lasted 1 day because on September 27, in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Noriega lost the belt in a four way dance to Shane Sewell. In the four way match the participants where: BJ, Noriega, Shane Sewell and Orlando Colon.

2010

On January 16, Ray Gonzalez Defeated Ricky Banderas and Carlito in a triple threat match to win the cup of the decade in a controversial way. Banderas challenges Gonzalez for a match for the cup the week after and Ricky Banderas defeated Ray Gonzalez to officially win the cup of the decade.^[3][4]

On April 3, Hugo Savinovich announce the first match for this year's Anniversary and it's Ricky Banderas vs Carlito.^[5]

Several weeks later, this match was suspended due to Carlito's release from WWE and an injury suffered by Ricky Banderas in Mexico. WWC Anniversary Main Event was a "Three Faces of Death Match" in which Carlito would fight three unknown wrestlers in the same night. Those wrestlers were Orlando Colon (defeated by DQ), then Booker T lost to Carlito due to Ricky Banderas appearance betraying Carlito and becoming the "mysterious third man". Hugo Savinovich was booked to be part of this match supporting Carlito, receiving an impact by chair from Ricky Banderas.

2011

On January 8, 2011, Ricky Banderas defeated Carlito for the Universal Heavyweight Championship.^[6] Later that same month Thunder and Lightning jumped back to IWA.^[7]

Roster

Heavyweight wrestlers

Junior Heavyweight wrestlers

Females

Others

Referees

Annual events

Championships

The following is correct as of December 5, 2016.

Current

Defunct and inactive

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans-Sports
• Sports in Puerto Rico

References

Interview in Spanish http://www.prwrestling.com/entrevistas/vq.html

External links

• / WWC Facebook
• WCW PPV Homepage
• WWC Title Histories