Professional wrestling has been considered one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Puerto Rico for more than fifty years. It is considered the highest source of income in the sports entertainment industry on the island; a minor industry within its tertiary sector in its overall economy. After sports commentator José Antonio Géigel and a group of wrestlers founded the first promotion based in Puerto Rico, the discipline has consistently remained being broadcast in local television. Originally a mixture of foreign wrestling styles, the Puerto Rican wrestling style developed into a unique form of performing. Most notably, local promotions relied on unusual matches, often involving foreign objects or odd arenas. Local wrestling is considered to be one of the pillars that contributed to modern hardcore wrestling, being the territory where the first "fire" and "death" matches took place. Local promotions exploited the innovation and held their cards in large stadiums, eventually becoming an element of popular culture. During the course of six decades, Carlos Colón Sr. has developed over 70 scars in his forehead that are product of this method of performing, becoming the main symbol of the style's nature. The storylines in Puerto Rico have historically revolved around the "foreign heel" formula, with local wrestlers obtaining victories over notable figures that include Ric Flair, Harley Race, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, Booker T, Samoa Joe and Curt Hennig among several others.
Women's wrestling has been historically inconsistent due to the lack of participants, with the division's championships being activated and inactivated depending on the quorum available. Despite this, some performers have achieved local success, such as Soldelina "La Tigresa" Vargas and "La Rosa Negra" Nilka García. Internationally, there is a stark contrast to this situation, with Puerto Rican women successfully establishing a presence in the major promotions in both the United States and Mexico. Sparse attempts have been made to popularize women's wrestling, including the foundation of women-only promotions. As a popular form of entertainment, professional wrestling has impacted several aspects of Puerto Rican popular culture, including sports, politics and television. Due to its ambiguous status as a form of "sports entertainment", local professional wrestling has been monitored by government commissions that regulate both legitimate sports and spectacles such as cockfighting throughout the years. Led by Carlos Colón Sr. and Victor Jovica, the World Wrestling Council is the oldest active promotion in Puerto Rico. Historically, counter-promotions emerged to challenge WWC's monopoly, with the most successful attempt being made by Víctor Quiñones's International Wrestling Association. The World Wrestling League is the only company that began with an international scope instead of first attempting to establish a local presence. An unorganized independent circuit also operates on a lower tier, confronting problems with clandestine wrestling promotions.
Puerto Rican professional wrestling style
Technical approach and elements The Puerto Rican professional wrestling style has been influenced by several countries, beginning with the settlement of local wrestlers in New York during the 1950s Great Migration. Among the first performers to adopt the American style was José Miguel Pérez Sr., who added an aerial element to it during an age where aerial maneuvers were uncommon. This hybrid version became common among Puerto Rican wrestlers that permanently settled in the United States, with Pedro Morales using a cannonball dive and Gilberto "Gypsy Joe" Meléndez being the first to jump successfully from the top of a steel cage onto an opponent, a move that later became associated with Jimmy Snuka. Morales' style was also influenced by his gimmick of "Latin brawler", heavily relying on stiff kicks and punches as well. These performers were among the first to introduce this way of performing to Puerto Rico during the early years of local professional wrestling. During the following years, more variations were introduced, particularly due to freelancers traveling abroad and learning different practices. The introduction of Mexican wrestlers in the 1960s slightly promoted the use of more aerial maneuvers, but the style did not become widespread. Similarly, Cuban wrestlers brought in after the Cuban Revolution brought their own style. However, Carlos Colón Sr. was among the most influential in shaping a local idiosyncrasy. He originally intended to work in the Mexican style that he learned early in his career, but being unable to fully adapt to it, decided to mix it with the traditional American variant. Later, after spending several years wrestling in Canada, he learned a more aggressive or "stiffer" approach than the one seen in American wrestling, while also learning the grappling practices used there. Colón ultimately decided to further elevate the aggression of the "stiff" variant and combined it with the other styles, a practice that was quickly adopted by most of the Puerto Rican performers during the 1970s and 1980s. This version, which became the early forerunner to the modern Puerto Rican style, relied on heavy hits in a manner similar to its Japanese counterpart, but was more dependent on blading (the use of a blade to simulate an open injury) and the use of foreign objects to maximize the spectacle. The local circuit became notorious for its gimmick matches, and is credited with the introduction of fire as an element in professional wrestling. In subsequent years, the highly publicized feud between Colón and Abdullah the Butcher became recognized as one of the cornerstones in the creation of hardcore wrestling, having toured several of the National Wrestling Alliances territories and placing bloody performances. Their rivalry gained such momentum that it was commercialized with the release of a set of action figures in a series known as "Greatest Grudge Matches". A second aspect of the Puerto Rican style was subsequently introduced when locals became mainstream visitors in Mexican lucha libre promotions during the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s.
While wrestlers such as Johnny Rivera had continued the aerial maneuvers of Pérez and his contemporaries, the re-introduction of Mexican elements also brought in the serial chaining of grappling moves and some of its typical maneuvers such as the hurricanrana. These were subsequently blended into the prevalent style imposed by Colón and his predecessors, with also the inclusion of some high-risk aerial moves innovated locally, such as Miguel Pérez Jr.'s back flip senton over the top rope towards an opponent outside the ring. Among the first wrestlers to perform in the contemporary style were Ray González, Jesús Castillo and Juan Rivera, known professionally as Savio Vega, who also added some elements from Japanese wrestling following the creation of Víctor Quiñones's W*ING promotion and his previous work at Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), which featured Puerto Rican factions and was responsible for introducing the local style to a new public. Prior to this, Atsushi Onita had imported the concept of the "death match" from Puerto Rico to Japan, becoming successful in FMW. With the creation of the International Wrestling Association and its developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), some of the blading was reduced, generally reserved as a shock factor for bigger events and eventually being dropped altogether. However, the other elements of the Puerto Rican style have remained unchanged, except for the occasional influence of the "sports entertainment" formula during storylines, being passed down to the current generations of wrestlers developed by the IWA and WWC. However, the World Wrestling League has chosen to exclude blading from its events, only conserving the stiff approach and aerial maneuvers.
Storyline structure The most common storyline format used in Puerto Rico involves the "foreign heel" formula. This began during the early years of local professional wrestling, when there was direct competition between the emergent local promotions and more established foreign competition that imported its product. In the 1970s, the World Wrestling Council adopted it as its main creative tendency. The promotion began to fully exploit this by introducing Lawrence Shreve, a Canadian performer more commonly known as "Abdullah the Butcher", as the first WWC World Heavyweight Champion. Portrayed as a wild and violent foreigner, he was billed as having won the belt in a fictional tournament held in Japan. However, this was part of an angle to elevate Colón to main event status by winning the title three days after its introduction. From that point onwards, he was consistently portrayed as a "Puerto Rican patriot" and a "sports hero". Colón sold this gimmick by adopting "Soy Boricua" by Bobby Valentín as his theme song. WWC brought in established wrestlers from the United States, Canada and Japan, adopting a formula where they would win the championship by employing illegal tactics, only to lose it back to him in a bloody match to conclude the feud. In order to further sell, they employed a second tactic which consisted of bringing performers that were considerably muscular and tall, promoting "David vs. Goliath" feuds. After establishing Colón as a top seller, WWC decided to focus on improving the credibility of the young WWC World Heavyweight Championship. The promotion did so by bringing in the holder of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to wrestle in several cards, where it was booked as an "undefeated" adversary, always retaining against a local performer or wrestling to a time limit draw. After building this reputation, WWC brought in Ric Flair and placed him in a feud for the WWC World Heavyweight Championship. Flair was a major main event performer in the United States and was brought in as a foreigner that only wanted to win the title in order to dispose of it afterwards. During promotional videos, he claimed that it was "unworthy of being called a World Heavyweight Championship", a distinction that "only the NWA World Heavyweight Championship [deserved]". The ensuing match was promoted as being "larger than the World" and to crown the "Undisputed Champion of the Universe", with a steel cage being added as a stipulation. The result marked the first time that a NWA Champion lost in Puerto Rico, exponentially raising Colón's popularity. Afterwards, WWC continued to exploit the foreign heel formula, but added the element of storyline injuries that resulted in the title being held up, resulting in a final match for the vacant belt.