DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
TNA Fan World
HTML https://tnafans.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
*****************************************************
#Post#: 28305--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; A little bit different
By: SheriffLonestar Date: July 12, 2014, 5:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Today we go back in time and we head to that most heated of
wrestling Islands, Puerto Rico. This is the World Wrestling
Council's “Hot Night in Bayamon” from 1988. For those of you who
don't know anything about the territory, this video will come as
bit of a shock. If you like brawling and violence this video is
definitely for you. It has English commentary too, WWC being a
bi lingual company. However let us start as we should always do,
at the beginning.
The World Wrestling Council was founded in 1073 by Carlos Colon
(Carlito's Dad) Victor Jovica and Gorilla Monsoon. Yes that
Gorilla Monsoon. For the first three years of its existence it
was a happy member of the NWA, until Gorilla left for a much
higher paying gig in New York and an all time headlining run at
Madison Square Garden. Being an all year round attraction, and
with boxing limited to its heartland in Ponce, the company did
amazingly well in the rural regions of Puerto Rico. It also
gathered a solid, and quite frankly terrifying fan base. JJ
Dillon reported on his first night there, he went out as a heel
and looked up to see that the audience had removed some of the
bleacher seating to throw at the heels on their way to the ring.
That the bleacher seating was made of concrete (they were in an
outdoor stadium) had not deterred them. Puerto Rico was a place
to make big money, but it carried with it equally big risk. If
it wasn't the fans, it was the matches. The main event of this
show is Hercules Ayala vs Carlos Colon in a fire match. As is
usual with these kinds of insanities it isn't the fire that's
important its the drama, and it is a site to behold. The ring
surrounded by torches a at set intervals and set to burn all the
way through the bout. There is also blood in half the matches on
this card and some of the names are worthwhile watching just
because of who they are.
Jimmy Valiant and Rufus R. Jones against The Wild Samoans for
instance, clearly all four were in their fifties but they knew
what they were doing with any crowd. A young Mr. Pogo who was
well on his way to making even this card seem tame in Japan a
few years later with FMW and later IWA. The Sheepherders, more
commonly known to you as The Buchwhackers showed what excellent
brawling heels they were before they got on to the WWF treadmill
to super stardom. To be honest there isn't really a great sense
of pure wrestling aesthetic on this card, its brawling with more
more brawling and some brawling in between. The closest is the
Batten twins who were a pretty damn fine tag team, though their
commentary could have used some cliché restraint. What we do
learn from this card is how back then, it was all so real. The
card is split into two halves. The opening segment of the show
is inside the a a hall and the screens were dropped so they
could see what was going on in the stadium next door. You notice
how in most of the opening match sequences the ring is littered
with trash being thrown at the heels, and outside in the stadium
the camera peers through the netting so the heels could escape
serious injury from anything heavy being thrown. Puerto Rican
crowds were tough to say the least. The mat culture is way
different too. Though the wrestling style works towards a
mainstream American style, non of the wrestling content on this
would have looked out of place on a WWF or NWA card of the same
time, the culture is pure Lucha Libre. Masks abound and of
course the dual commentary which reached out to all viewers on
the island made the company an even mix of styles.
Things went downhill for WWC not long after this. An incident
that killed the long time favourite in Puerto Rico, Bruiser
Brody meant that none of the big mainstream stars wanted to go
there any more. They simply didn't trust WWC with their bodies,
and who can blame them? The advancement of rival groups like IWA
Puerto Rico run by Victor Quinnes also caused them problems.
However thanks to the popularity of Carlito in mainstream
wrestling they are still there and those Annversario nights are
still the hottest tickets of the year, whether anyone gets set
on fire or not.
Enjoy the show.
Card
Jimmy Valiant & Rufus R. Jones vs. The Wild Samoans
Ricky Santana vs. Mr. Pogo
The Sheepherders vs. Brad & Bart Batten
Wahoo McDaniel vs. Danny Spivey
Chicky Starr vs. Invader III
Ronnie Garvin vs. The Iron Sheik
Hurricane Castillo, Jr. & Miguelito Perez vs. Dan Kroffat &
Bobby Jaggers (hair vs. hair match)
Carlos Colon vs. Hercules Ayala (fire match)
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z5ILCgSsmY
*****************************************************