The International Wrestling Association is a conglomerate of professional wrestling promotions that originated in Puerto Rico and currently operates there. Founded in 1994 by wrestler promoter Víctor Quiñones and wrestler Miguel Perez Jr. it quickly entered an agreement to serve as a development territory for the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE) that lasted until 2001. During its first decade, IWA grew to rival the long-standing World Wrestling Council (WWC). Its business model relies on pushing younger talents, using veterans and foreign wrestlers to get them over with the public.
Besides a number of alliances with foreign promotions that included Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, International Wrestling Association of Japan (which Quiñones also co-founded in 1994), IWA Mid-South, and Ring of Honor (ROH), the company was also a member of the National Wrestling Alliance between 2007 and 2008. The original incarnation ceased operations in 2012. On October 24, 2018, the reopening of IWA-PR was also announced.
History
IWA (1994) Víctor Quiñones, Miguel Perez Jr and Perez wife made an attempt to start the promotion by doing TV tapings in February 1994 with local and international wrestlers. With no success Víctor Quiñones went to Japan to work on International Wrestling Association of Japan.
IWA-WWF (1999–2000) The International Wrestling Association (IWA) had a working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the first year of operations from 1999 to 2000, with IWA serving as the WWF's developmental territory. During that time some developmental and regular WWF talent often appeared on IWA Puerto Rico shows. That included The Rock's first and only wrestling match in Puerto Rico on April 28, 2000, at Paquito Montaner Stadium in Ponce, Puerto Rico when he teamed with Kane against the Dudley Boyz. During that year IWA began promoting two of their most popular annual events, IWA Christmas in PR and Histeria Boricua. On the second night IWA Christmas in PR Histeria Boricua on January 6, 1999 at "Juan Pachin Vicens Auditorium" on Ponce, Puerto Rico with Kane vs. The Undertaker on the main event drew 15.000 fans, the largest crowd for a wrestling event in Ponce.
IWA-PR vs. WWC IWA adopted a strict protocol of expelling problematic fans, such as those that threw objects to the ring. On April 1, 2001, the IWA parodied Jovica's accent and referred to WWC as an independent company with mediocre performers in a segment of El Tocotón. In June 2001, the IWA held a joint show along independent promotion Puerto Rico Wrestling Association. On July 28, 2001, it was published that the promotion had extended the contract of their top stars Ricky Banderas and Apolo for five years plus another additional year of no competing in case of abandoning the promotion. In August 2001, the IWA made efforts to exploit The Invasion angle being featured in WWF by bringing members of the regular roster and The Alliance such as Mike Awesome, Billy Gunn, Justin Credible, Tajiri, Tommy Dreamer, Hugh Morris, Steve Blackman, Hakú, Scotty 2 Hotty or Shawn Stasiak. This was combined with a move to bring Balls Mahoney, another ex-ECW figure to the company. On October 10, 2002, an extension of the contract between IWA and Telemundo was made public. On October 13, 2002, both promotions announced a card to be held on the same date and venue for October 18. Ultimately, IWA presented its event, while WWC did not hold one on that day. In 2003, Savio Vega tried to bring Randy Savage to IWA-PR. In May 2003, the Wrestling Observer reported that Dutch Mantel, the IWA's creative head, had applied for work at WWE and been declined. He responded by expressing that Meltzer was “100% wrong” and that he only had informal conversations with the promotion in the past. In May 2003, 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. In June 2003, the IWA began an onscreen storyline where Víctor Quiñones would sell the company to an unnamed buyer in order to expand and begin an internationalization of the brand. This was a tie in to a legitimate expansion, in which the promotion reached an agreement with Sunshine TV, a network based in Florida, to begin the transmission of an English version of their programming. The taped show was named IWA: Total Impact, and was narrated by Dutch Mantell and Mario Savoldi. The program was produced by the latter's filming studios. Prior to Summer Attitude 2003, the promotion contacted several small businesses to sell the tickets from the event, avoiding its regular distributor, Ticket Center. After contracting José Huertas González, the IWA used him to promote their Summer Attitude card in Telemundo's programming, including a variety show named Atrevete.
Broadcasting abroad IWA: Total Impact debuted the first week of July, being broadcast by Sunshine Network in Florida and Latin TV in New York. During its initial run, the program was complimented by classic footage from the USWA. The promotion was expected to employ this to create a fan base in the United States, eventually hosting cards in these states. In this show, Rivera was referred to as “The Boss” instead of “Savio Vega” due to copyright claims by WWE. The show was quickly retransmitted in other stations throughout the United States, including WCYB - TV (Bristol, Virginia), KTUD-TV (Las Vegas, Nevada), AIN Cresson (Texas), WBGN-TV (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), XCVS-TV (Shreveport, Louisiana), KBBR-TV (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), KBCB-TV (Bellingham, Washington), WRCX-TV (Dayton, Ohio), WVII-TV (Bangor, Maine), WPXT-TV (Portland, Maine), KLDT-TV (Lewisville, Texas), WBQP-TV (Pensacola, Florida), WBII-TV (Ashland, Mississippi), WBGT-TV (Rochester, New York), WYCS-TV (Louisville, Kentucky), WYLE-TV (Sheffield, Alabama), WCOM-TV (Griffin, Georgia), WLOT-TV (New York) and Comcast (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). At its peak, this internationalization effort grew to include more that 100 channels. On August 27, 2003, it was reported that a series of conversations between the promotion and TNA-NWA were in an advanced stage. The idea was to bring talent from the IWA to perform in the latter's X Division as a promotional stunt to attract Latin American audiences. In September, the promotion created a second show directed to the United States public titled Zona Impactante. Produced by Hector Moyano and Axel Cruz, the show was televised through Telemundo 40 in Orlando and América Azteca in Kissimmee. Several other stations were reportedly interested in the promotion's product. In September, the promotion lost Mantell as booker when he signed with TNA-NWA, despite the loss, both parts parted on good terms. Soon afterwards, these programs were retransmitted locally.
Apolo lawsuit The promotion held its first show abroad for October 7, 2003, in the Kissimmee Civic Center in the city of Kissimmee, Florida. During this event, Kein Kelly joined the promotion. After participating in this card, Figueroa decided to stay in that state, being removed from the promotion's storylines. Weeks later, Figueroa made an appearance in a local promotion, No Name Wrestling (NNW) being also scheduled for a subsequent appearance the following month. Figueroa then revealed that he had left the promotion unsatisfied with a situation involving the health of one of his daughters and expected to relocate to Florida permanently. The promotion retaliated by sending a letter to NNW, TNA and WWE, informing them of the wrestler's ongoing contract and that the ring name “Apolo” was registered.
2004 opened with German Figueroa returning to NWA-TNA as part of a talent exchange, but there soon was a setback in the promotion's agreement, which was precipitated by an exclusivity clause that prevented NWA-TNA talent from appearing in an IWA cable PPV. Nonetheless, IWA continued its plans to do the PPV with its own talent and distribute it through both cable and Dish Network. The event's name was changed to “Total Impact” after being taped and prior to its distribution began on March 5, 2004. The event was sold for $19.95 and was rerun on March 6 and 11. During this month, Mantell approached the promotion and offered his services as a consultant, but the approach was declined. Shortly afterwards, Mantell signed with WWC and the promotion's working agreement with NWA-TNA was cancelled, reportedly because of disagreements regarding IWA's incursion in the PPV market. The rivalry between promotions also resulted in occasional confrontations to ensure the availabilityof a venue. On the other hand, the promotion also held friendly relations, and even some degree of working relationships, with local independent promotions such as CWF. The promotion also benefited from its previous ties with WWE, who allowed Val Venis to make a campaign for it due to not possessing any plans for him at the moment. However, it lost its narrator and producer, Hector Meléndez, to NWA-TNA, when Mantell recruited him for the same purpose. Following the death of close collaborator Miguel Aponte, the promotion held a series of special events in his honor. The IWA responded by contacting NWA-TNA and prohibiting the use of contracted wrestler Apolo, while they had a working relationship with WWC.
Collaborations On May 15, 2004, it was announced that “El Café del Milenio”, a television segment that originally aired in WWC's Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre, was being brought to IWA's programming. The promotion also held a benefic wheelchair basketball game. On June 20, 2004, one of the promotion's talents, Víctor Rodríguez, died of a heart attack. The promotion then changed all of its schedule to hold a number of homages to the wrestler. From this point onwards, the momentum gained during the year was lost and the assistance was irregular. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the promotion was forced to change the horary of its programs to accommodate Telemundo's coverage of the event. During the summer of 2004, IWA collaborated with Ring of Honor (ROH) in a talent exchange, where several of the latter's wrestlers came in representation. On September 11, 2004, two of the promotion's talents, Carlos Cotto and Slash Venom, competed in a ROH card. The passing of tropical storm Jeanne over Puerto Rico affected the organization of cards during this month. Besides its ongoing relationship with ROH and the rekindled agreement with NWA-TNA, the IWA also tried to bring professional boxers into the promotion as special referees, unsuccessfully approaching Félix Trinidad and Miguel Cotto (who is the cousin of Carlos Cotto). During this timeframe, the IWA prevented the participation of some of its talents in a card held by independent promotion NWG, deviating from its previous cooperation with independents.