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WWL INSURRECTION LIVE REPORT: SABU, MONSTER PAIN, SAVIO VEGA, SHANE THE GLAMOUR BOY, MR 450, SENSATIONAL CARLITOS & MORE TOP ONE OF BEST SHOWS IN PUERTO RICO IN YEARS

By Jose Perez on 2014-10-19 22:00:00

Last night, the World Wrestling League held their first event in over a year here in Puerto Rico, in front of a very lively crowd of close to 3,000 fans.  The “Pepín Cestero Arena” in Bayamón, PR was rocking all night long. WWL: INSURRECTION had been built throughout the last several months with their weekly TV show.  They had been able to create different storylines and simple angles that were easy to follow as well as intriguing.  All this time they guaranteed that they would deliver a product that was worthy of rekindling the passion in the wrestling fans here in Puerto Rico.  After attending the show live last night I will say that I had not felt the energy and excitement that was displayed by fans and talent alike since the days of the old IWA-PR.  There was an aura of “anything can happen” that was unparalleled with anything else I have seen in any wrestling event locally in years; including their own debut event last year (Idols of Wrestling) which was a really good show.

The following is an account of the show as it happened.

The show began with introduction and a welcome message at the hands of the official voice of WWL on their TV shows, “El Rudo de los Rudos” Axel Cruz.  He then presented the first match of the evening:

1.    Stefano defeated Paparazzi with a little bit of help from referee Joe Don Smith. This was a fun opening match that achieved its goal of warming up the crowd with a little comedy. Paparazzi and Stefano are two veterans that know how to play to the crowd and do what is needed in order to get reactions.

Out comes the Director of Operations, Savio Vega, and WWL’s President, Richard Negrin to a standing ovation.  Negrin welcomes everyone in attendance and states that for those pundits that had been telling him that he was crazy to have the dream to build this company and go forward with it; it looks like his dream is taking shape now. He thanks all for coming and hands the mic off to Vega. Savio addressed everyone by saying that he was there to do a job and he would do it with a firm hand; but he was also there to say something to the crowd: “Bienvenidos a la casa de Tio Savio!!!” (Welcome to Uncle Savio’s house).  This sent the crowd into the first loud reaction. Out came D-Nniss Rivera, sporting a nice 3-piece suit and a briefcase. He gets a mic and tells Savio and Richard that he had been thinking all week and he understands that he made a mistake and wants to do things the corporate way as they have requested. He apologizes to Savio and Richard, shakes their hands and hugs each one. Savio and Richard like what they see and they start to leave the ring. D-Nniss helps them by opening up the ropes for them as a sign of respect. Once on the floor, D-Nniss returns to the middle of the ring and says: “A la verdad que ustedes dos son bien pende&%^!!” (I can’t believe how stupid you two are!) He starts to take his suit off revealing that he has his “revolutionary gear underneath. He states that he will never give in on his quest to give the fans what they want and to get the respect that the talent deserves to get from promoters like Negrin that look at the wrestlers and think of making money but don’t share those earnings with the workers that produce the profit for them. Savio calls out his “new company” (Mr. 450, Joe Bravo & Los Rodriguez) and they come to the ring and leave D-Nniss in really bad shape after putting a beating on him. All this ordered by his own older brother, Savio Vega.

2.    Ivelisse Velez defeated La Rosa Negra in a really good match from these 2 ladies. They both demonstrated how much they have developed in the ring since leaving the island to grow their careers in the mainland. After the match, Ivelisse shook hands with Rosa Negra and they both posed for the crowd.

3.    Battle Royale to find the next WWL star: Prince Xander was the winner of this match.  Participants included: Aquiles, Dymes, Erik Scorpion, Joseph RPM, Barbie Boy, “Los Arabes” and Prince Xander. When everyone thought that all participants were in the ring, out comes “Mostro”-JR Jr.  This character, which is a spoof of JR Rodriguez from WWC, came to the ring, and as soon as he stepped inside, he was thrown out by all the wrestlers.  The last two standing were Erik Scorpion and Xander, who fought to one fall to determine the winner. Scorpion looked really good here, as he was the veteran of the duo, but Xander pulled off the win.

4.    Sabu became the first ever WWL Extreme champion after defeating Balls Mahoney what was a short match with a lot of stalling in between high spots. Slower than usual match, but given the fact that unfortunately Balls was in bad shape and could hardly move, it was ok for what its intended purpose.  Sabu still is an insane badass when it comes to delivering with his highspots.

5.    Laredo Kid was crowned the first ever WWL Americas champion after he defeated “El Latino Dorado” Joe Bravo and “El Fenomeno” BJ in what was a really entertaining match with some cool high flying spots from BJ and Laredo Kid. Bravo and BJ concentrated on their personal feud during the match Laredo Kid kept trying to insert himself in the match with some cool aerial moves.  The crowd was really into the match and enjoyed from start to finish.  Jose Chaparro interfered at the end of the match, passing an object to Bravo, which he used to knockout BJ. Bravo then went after Laredo Kid. There was a ref bump and Chaparro came into the ring and fouled Bravo, which gave the opening for Laredo Kid to hit his 450 splash on Bravo for the win.  Laredo Kid, Chaparro and his bodyguard celebrated after the match.

6.    “Los Dioses del Olympo” Atlas and Apolo, with “La Reina” Habanna in the corner, defeated Mr. Big and Noel Rodriguez, who substituted for D-Nniss Rivera since Rivera had been beaten up earlier in the show. Very stiff match with some shots that were felt all over the arena. There was a spot where Atlas was sent to the outside and the referee was distracted by Noel in the ring. Mr. Big grabbed a chair and literally crushed Atlas across the back with it. You could see Atlas with a huge red welt that covered his entire back.  The end came when all four were in the ring with Mr. Big and Noel getting the better of Atlas and Apolo. While Apolo and Atlas were lying on the canvas, Mr. Big turned on Noel and hit him with a choke-slam.  This gave Apolo the opportunity to cover Noel for the win. Apolo and Atlas leave the ring with Habanna. In the ring, Mr. Big starts beating on Noel, when D-Nniss Rivera’s music hits and he comes to the ring to make the save of his best friend. Savio’s company came in and started to beat on D-Nniss and Noel. Apolo who had stayed behind shaking hands with fans while all this was happening, decided to run in to make the save but was soon dominated too. Out of the crowd 3 men came in to make the save: Niche, BJ and Stefano. They cleared the ring as Savio’s Company leaves to head back to the locker-rooms. D-Nniss and Noel thanked Apolo for his help, and Apolo leaves the ring. At this point the crowd is just going into frenzy. D-Nniss, Noel, Niche, BJ and Stefano unite and form the new version of “La Rabia”, who will fight the corporation to gain the respect of the promoters and give wrestling fans what they have been asking for a long time. Really well done angle that had everyone in the crowd immersed in it. The crowd did not sit down from the moment that Mr. Big turned on Noel until the end of the segment where “La Rabia” members left the ringside area through the crowd.

7.    Mr. 450 defeated “Sensacional” Carlitos, in what had to be without a doubt the match of the night and a certain top rated candidate for match of the year here in Puerto Rico. These two gentlemen put on a spectacle of fast paced chain wrestling in the beginning of the match. They then switched gears and brought some nice mat based slower wrestling style that provided them an opportunity to get their second wind back and just finish the match with a series of incredible dives to the outside, well executed high-flying spots and several false finishes that had the crowd on their feet and chanting “esto es lucha” (this is lucha) and “this is awesome” all throughout the match.  The end came when Mr. 450 was able to take the advantage and hit two 450 splashes in order to be able to beat Carlitos. Both talents received a nice ovation from the crowd on their way to the back.

8.    “La Artilleria Pesada” Thunder & Lightning captured the WWL World Tag Team titles after they defeated the team of Escobar and “El Hombre de los Kilates” Abbad, who was substituting for the injured Sexy B. Really good match that saw T&L come out to the ring by themselves without their masks, as they have been wrestling since they lost them in a Hair vs Masks match a couple of years ago. During the match, Escobar and Abbad had a lot of offense and had the upper hand, until out came “El Profe” with something in his hands. T&L were on the canvas, the lights went out and Profe passed what he had in his hands to them. When the lights came back on Profe was on the other side of the ring distracting Escobar and Abbad. When they turned, they saw that Thunder and Lightning were standing with their masks on now. The crowd just went crazy at this point as T&L mounted an offense that helped them set up Abbad for their version of the 3-D to give them the win and the titles. The crowd emotion at this point was surreal.

9.    The last match of the evening was the WWL World title match between Monster Pain, with Mistress Glenda Lee, and Shane “The Glamour Boy”. Monster Pain and Glenda Lee made their way to the ring and waited for Shane to the same, but out came the Director of Operations Savio Vega to announce that unfortunately Shane had not been able to make it to the arena as he “was still in jail due to his problems with the authorities”. He thanked everyone for coming to the show and asked all to drive home safe. A few seconds after Vega finished his message, Shane’s music played and he appeared in the crowd. He comes to the ring and the match began at that point. Monster Pain had the advantage during most of the match. However, Shane mounted a comeback that had the crowd once again on their feet. Shane was able to position Pain in order for him to drop his “elbow from the heavens” for the win, thus becoming the new WWL World champion. Several wrestlers came out to the ring to celebrate with Shane, including Thunder & Lightning. Shane, Thunder and Lightning posed with their respective title belts to close the show.

As I stated at the beginning of the report, this was undoubtedly one of the best events that has been presented in Puerto Rico in a long time. From top to bottom, the matches in the card delivered and the storylines were advanced in every angle.  There were a few lose ends here and there, such as who was it that sent the envelopes to Shane and Thunder & Lightning. However, the others storylines advancing definitely compensated in some way for it; and the action in the ring was top notch. Everyone worked hard and did their jobs. Really good re-start for the promotion here in the island.

Here are a few things to note from the event:

-       As I stated, there was a really good attendance to the show, with the crowd being close to 3,000 at the arena.

-       The show started on time, right at 8:00PM which was the time that was advertised. That is definitely appreciated by the fans, some of whom drove two and three hours to attend the show.

-       The show had a really nice flow to it and it was easy to follow from one match/angle to the next. The promotion added a nice touch to their production with the big screens at the ramp-way, where they displayed the video packages that preceded each match explaining the storyline that involved the participants.

-       There was a 25 minute intermission. When they announced it, it was scheduled for 20 minutes. However, a 5 minute overlap is still a huge improvement from the hour to an hour and 10 minutes that the fans have been accustomed too with the local promotions.

-       The show went a bit long, ending close to 12:20AM. Still, the flow of it was such that when it was finally over it did not feel that you had been there for a little over 4 hours. I have always been an advocate of shorter shows; maybe 3 to 3 and ½ hours long.  Longer shows just seem to drain the fans and in my opinion it negatively impacts their interaction and involvement in the matches.

-       The fan interaction before the show with the fans that had purchased ‘red carpet’ and ‘ringside’ tickets appeared to be a success with the people in attendance. All the talent was very attentive and sincerely happy to talk and take photos with the fans. Really cool moment took place when after about 35 minutes of the fan interaction starting, Sabu’s music hit on the sound system and he came out. Everyone rushed to get an opportunity for a photo and an autograph with him. Sabu seemed to be thrilled with the attention he was receiving from the fans.

-       “Sensacional” Carlitos suffered an injury to his mouth/jaw during his match with Mr. 450. He was immediately taken to the hospital after the match to take care of it. Last thing we know was that the doctors were considering possible surgery to make some repairs, but no official word has been communicated as of this writing. Our best to one of the most versatile performers in the Puerto Rico wrestling scene today. We hope is not as bad as it seems.

Overall, really fun night to be a wrestling fan in Puerto Rico last night.  Now the company has set their own bar of what an event should look and feel like and they have garnered the attention of the fans. It will be up to them to continue presenting the quality of shows that they presented yesterday. As fans, we can only hope, wait and see.

 

I will be back with my weekly column, “ISLE OF PUERTO RICO”, later this week.

 

 

 

 

Jose Perez can be contacted for comments and/or feedback at josepwinsider@gmail.com

 

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