Segunda Caida: El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Enter: The Sadistic Beast

Week 3: Enter: The Sadistic Beast

EB: Last time we had an introduction to many of the wrestlers we’ll be seeing on this journey. As we go forward, we’ll discuss some of the key players a little more in-depth. But there is one person that we did not see in the Bronca Boricua that is very relevant to what is happening in August 1989 in Puerto Rico. Someone who is the reigning Universal champion and the reason why Carlos Colon was making his return from injury. Someone who was different from the typical monsters the rudo managers would bring to Puerto Rico in their continued attempts to get rid of the members of El Ejercito de la Justicia. A sadistic beast named Steve Strong.

To fully understand who Steve Strong is, we need to go back to early 1989. As 1989 started, Carlos Colon had finally vanquished his rival Hercules Ayala (the top thorn in Colon’s side for most of the past two years) in a loser leaves Puerto Rico match. Ayala was Chicky Starr’s top talent in Club Deportivo and left a void in Chicky’s stable. And although Chicky had Jason the Terrible (having come in for a second run on the island in late 88) and Abdullah the Butcher (when would make his semi-regular appearances) to battle his enemies, his stable was not as successful as hoped in their quest to regain the Universal title and get rid of Colon. To make matters worse for Chicky, the man whom he had turned on three years prior and who was his hated enemy, was making his return to CSP. The Invader was coming back and straight for Chicky Starr.

As March started, there was a big card set for March 4 deemed ‘El regreso de los grandes’ (‘The return of the greats’) at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. It would feature the grudge match everyone had been waiting for, Invader #1 vs. Chicky Starr. But that same day on tv, Chicky had a surprise for the viewers in the form of his latest talent acquisition. We go the Sports Shop segment from March 4th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--DB2CnxquE

Chicky introduces Sadistic Steve Strong by saying he is the man that will finish every single member of El Ejercito de la Justicia. This is the surprise he had been promising, a diabolical and savage person who loves evil and ending his opponents. Strong is facing Rufus R. Jones tonight and, as you’ll see, Strong is basically a devil worshiper. Again, a bit of a departure in presentation compared to some of the other monsters brought in by the rudo managers. Strong calls himself the beast and explains what he’s going to do to Rufus tonight. That same episode, the local fans got their first glimpse of Sadistic Steve strong in action against Gino Rodriguez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAqFJpxLtXQ

With this intro, Sadistic Steve Strong has arrived and he’s facing ‘El Rey’ Rufus R. Jones tonight. As a reference, here’s the announced card for March 4:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_rrwZlpZ9Q

For the Universal title: Carlos Colon defends against Abudda Dein;

The grudge match Puerto Rico has been waiting for: Invader #1 vs Chicky Starr;

For the Caribbean title: TNT challenges Jason the Terrible;

For the World tag titles: The Batten Twins defend against Tama and Dandy Dan Kroffat;

For the Caribbean tag titles: The Youngbloods challenge The Ninja Express comprised of Mr. Pogo and Sasaki San (yes, this is Kensuke Sasaki);

‘El Rey’ Rufus R Jones vs Sadistic Steve Strong;

Rematch for the World Junior title: Ricky Santana defends against El Profe;

Jumping Joe Savoldi vs the White Angel;

and other great stars.

Also, TNT will be taking his test to become a 2nd Dan black belt in taekwondo.

We actually do have video of Strong’s match vs. Rufus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ84YTrMJIs

If you’re wondering why Rufus is the king and wears the cape and crown, it’s because he had been voted by the school children of Puerto Rico as the king of wrestling and had been given the crown and cape by a group of kids on tv. If you remember our previous post about the Bronca Boricua, you will recall that Chicky was wearing the crown and cape and calling himself the inarguable king of wrestling on the Sports Shop segment we discussed. This is where Chicky got it from, there was a point where Rufus was attacked, and Chicky basically ran off with the crown and cape (and eventually wound up keeping them). Strong is facing someone who has been a regular presence in Puerto Rico since the summer of 88 and shows off what he can do.

MD: You pretty quickly get a great sense of what Strong brings to the table and what he might be lacking. From a promo perspective, having a buzzword-heavy introduction that was then covered and smoothed over in the promotion’s core language by Chicky was very effective. It’d probably be less so if he had Jimmy Hart or Slick next to him though. The squash was really top notch stuff. He kept it moving with one power move after another, mixing things up and keeping them interesting, everything looking mean and impactful. I’m not sure I agreed with how he came into the Rufus match though. Rufus took a lot early, which made sense because he was established and he was over, but Strong had this way of lurching forward in his selling, drawing in to Rufus after the shots. While Rufus wasn’t able to get him down through any of it, it still made him seem sort of smaller than if he recoiled backwards and stood tall. Much of the heat in that was a bearhug and that played to Rufus’ emotive strengths but it wasn’t nearly as dynamic as what we saw in the Rodriguez match and then after a banana peel miss in the corner, Strong just dropped an elbow and got the pin. I might have liked him hitting that snug side slam first after the missed charge instead.

EB: Steve Strong was presented to the fans as this diabolical and evil being, who worshiped the darkness, who was tough to knock down and had a high tolerance for taking blows and shrugging them off. Similar to the Sports Shop segment where Chicky presented Strong to the viewers, there was a segment of Profe’s Wrestling Class (yes, El Profe also had his own talk segment that would air on the other TV show that aired that week) where a visibly nervous and uneasy El Profe had Strong on and Profe basically said that you could just feel the evil radiate off him and that it felt almost unholy (although Profe took solace in that Strong was there to take care of El Ejercito de la Justicia).

Almost immediately after debuting, Strong teamed up with Jason the Terrible to defeat the Batten Twins for the World tag titles. However, this reign would be short lived, as Jason suffered an injury which put him out of action and caused the team to lose the titles via forfeit to Carlos Colon and Invader #1. On screen it was explained that Chicky had fired Jason for signing a Caribbean title match vs TNT without Chicky’s consent, a match where Jason lost the title to TNT. Due to this, Jason did not appear for the scheduled tag title defense against Carlos and Invader, and they won the titles via forfeit. However, that doesn’t mean that match didn’t take place that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiszI4gpJY0

We go to the following recap video recounting some of the events that have happened between Steve Strong and El Ejercito de la Justicia. We begin with an interview where we see an unholy alliance of sorts, as we have Chicky and El Profe talking about the upcoming singles matches their charges Steve Strong and Abudda Dein will have against Carlos Colon (for Strong) and Invader (for Abudda) this Thursday in Yabucoa. They also talk about Strong and Dein teaming up to challenge for the World tag titles on Friday in Ponce. Chicky refers to something that happened the previous week, where Steve Strong and Abudda Dein basically laid waste to the tecnicos. Profe chimes in to talk about how Dein will take care of Invader for sticking his nose in the matches Dein was having vs TNT.

We then go to Hugo who takes us to footage of the incident that Chicky was referring to. Last week Carlos and Invader had defeated Strong and Chicky in a tag match and, due to the stipulations for the match, the loser of the fall now had to face the opposing team 2 on 1. Chicky had lost the fall and was trying to go to the locker room to avoid honoring the stipulation. Carlos chases after Chicky and tosses him back into the ring, where Invader starts attacking Chicky. But almost immediately Carlos is blindsided by Abudda Dein and El Profe. While Invader is busy with Chicky in the ring, Dein attacks Carlos from behind while Profe goes to open a small cage near the ring (I’m assuming it was there due to a stipulation from another match earlier on the card). Dein throws Carlos inside the cage and, together with Profe, they lock Carlos inside. We then skip ahead a few moments later, with Invader attacking Abudda at ringside with El Profe near the small cage watching. Chicky by this point had escaped to the locker room. As Invader attacks Abudda, out comes Steve Strong from the locker room area and ambushes Invader. Now Abudda and Strong double team Invader while Carlos remains locked inside the small cage. The other tecnicos come out to help (among them are Ricky Santana, Super Medico and TNT in the black ski mask). Strong and Abudda fight them off, including a blatant knee to the groin by Strong to TNT. Strong then rams Invader into the small cage at ringside as Carlos shakes the cage trying to get it open to no avail. Strong and Abudda then throw Invader into the ring and proceed to beat him down further, while managing to thwart the attempts to save him. The clip ends just after Strong hits a chair shot right on Invader's head.

We go back to Hugo who is in the midst of explaining the World tag title situation. Jason did not show up and Carlos and Invader won the tag belts by forfeit. Hugo mentions that it was later found out that Chicky had fired Jason for taking on the Caribbean title defense (and subsequent loss to TNT) without Chicky’s consent. We then go to a clip of that night (which would be prior to the events in the first clip shown), where Carlos and Invader flipped a coin to see who would face Strong in singles competition since Jason was not there. Invader won the toss and faced Strong. We skip forward to a moment where Carlos and Chicky are fighting at ringside while Strong manages to put Invader in a bearhug. Carlos ends up ramming Chicky into the ringpost, and upon seeing Invader almost completely out due to the bearhug, decides to jump into the ring with a chair and hit Steve Strong from behind with it. The ref calls for the DQ (Strong wins), but Carlos hits a few chair shots to the back without much effect. Strong decides to leave the ring as Carlos continues with the chair shots.

Later that same night, Chicky had faced the White Knight in a cage match. Chicky had managed to escape the cage and get the win. As Chicky is outside the ring celebrating, Invader comes out to get at Chicky. Chicky sees him coming and decides to get back in the ring and try to climb out the other side to escape from the Invader, but Invader catches up with him and starts attacking Chicky. After a few moments, Strong arrives to save Chicky and attack Invader. This brings out Carlos to even the odds and a fight breaks out in the cage between the two pairs. Strong and Chicky get the upper hand, allowing Chicky to close the cage door and leave Carlos and Invader at the mercy of Strong. The tecnicos try to make the save but Chicky holds them off at the cage door as Strong continues his assault on Carlos and Invader. The faces finally manage to get inside but Chicky and Strong escape. We end the clip with Invader and Carlos left laid out, beaten and bloodied. We finish this part with an interview with Steve Strong and Chicky Starr talking about the upcoming revenge match vs Invader and Carlos as a result of the attack in the cage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxo35fKfMgA

After these events, Steve Strong started a series of singles matches vs Carlos Colon where he challenged for the Universal title. We go to a highlight video that features several scenes of his matches vs Carlos Colon during this April to May stretch. You’ll notice that Strong appears to have a strategy in terms of what body part of Colon’s he is attacking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THIdYkWv8JY

These matches eventually led to a street fight that occurred on April 15 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. The following clip is the finishing stretch, where it appears Carlos has figured out that instead of going toe to toe with Strong you have to find a way to wear him down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsZl2w8QQDo

However, just when it looks like Carlos may have solved how to handle Steve Strong, Abdullah the Butcher makes an appearance. He takes out his trusty fork and begins to attack Carlos. Chicky comes out and signals for Mr. Pogo, who came out to help wake up Strong from the sleeperhold Carlos had put on Strong. The clip ends with Abdullah continually stabbing Carlos in the head with the fork as Invader is seen running to the ring to help Carlos out.

MD: The deeper we get into the project, the more of a sense I’m getting of how it might shape up based on the footage we do have. For instance, our best look at the start of the Colon vs Strong feud seems to be in the music video. Strong is a natural for music videos, just like he’s a natural for enhancement matches. He also seems like exactly the guy you want to come in to interfere and destroy people at the end of a match. He’s a perfect associate for Chicky in that regard. Likewise, we only have a few minutes of this (bloody) street fight, but you get the general idea with Colon working from underneath, hitting a low blow to turn the tide, and getting some real revenge on Strong, first outside the ring and then with a long, fairly definitive sleeper until Abby comes in to disrupt the proceedings. I’ll leave it to Esteban to discuss the booking overall, but this does have that territory feel of always thinking towards the next show and drawing the next house. I know he’d been active for at least a few years before this, but rarely at this level and Strong already seems more confident against an actual opponent than he had in the Rufus match.

EB: Abudllah’s interference in the street fight led to a tag match between Carlos and Invader vs Strong and Abdullah (on April 22), which was followed by Carlos and Invader vs Strong and Chicky (on April 29), and then a six man tag (on May 6) with TNT joining the tecnicos and Rip Rogers teaming up with Chicky and Strong (so Matt’s pretty spot on with regards to the booking of the feud). Still, the series between Carlos and Strong has not yet definitively been settled, so on May 14 (Mother’s Day) at Roberto Clemente Coliseum, a chain match for the Universal title occurred. We go to a clip of that match in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rvHQhwaouY

MD: We get about seven minutes of this, joined in progress, with a few minutes of violence after the fact. There are some gimmick matches that have the means of victory being the appeal. A last man standing match has the drama of the wrestler trying to get up, for instance. With a chain match, if it’s about touching the corners, you can get a lot of guys pulling at each other or breaking the count instead of whacking each other with the chain. There’s a minute or two of that in the middle here (which means we’re robbed of the initial bloodletting to start the match) but they go back to using the chain as a weapon, or in Colon’s case as an equalizer in short order. Strong is named as such for a reason though, and he’s able to smash Colon’s shoulder against the post on the outside and carry him around all four corners; what he didn’t realize was that Colon touched one of the corners first and he loses but with a hee’s grudge to protect him and a beatdown after the fact. I wish we had the first few minutes of this instead of some of the corner touching and no one’s ever happy with a chain match finish but this one was executed fairly cleverly and the match looked solid overall.

EB: You’ll notice that Strong continued to focus on Colon’s shoulder throughout the match. Due to the way the chain match ended, one final match was to be had in order to settle any complaints from Chicky and Strong. This time, Colon and Strong would face off in a Death match on May 20. For this Death match, the rules are anything goes, no disqualification, the wrestler after losing a fall has to be able to answer a 30 count, and the match could not be stopped for any reason. Last man standing wins the match and the Universal title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmc_DgjCeOg

Carlos takes it early on to Strong and has the upper hand for the first few minutes. Strong manages to get in a flurry of hits to Colon’s shoulder, but Carlos manages to get the advantage again and gets the first pin after a senton from the top. Strong answers the count though, and the match continues. Strong manages to get the upper hand and focuses all of his attack on Colon’s left shoulder. After tossing Colon to the outside, Strong once gain lifts Colon up on his shoulder and proceeds to ram Colon’s shoulder into the ringpost, a tactic that Strong had used time and time again against Carlos throughout their matches. This time however, Colon’s shoulder gives out under the attack and he has a bum arm. Carlos is rolled into the ring and he lays on the mat holding his shoulder in pain. However, Carlos is unwilling to give up and since the match can’t be stopped for any reason, Strong continues his attack. Strong gets the pinfall but Colon manages to answer the 30 count. Strong loads up ‘Damien’ (what he called the loaded kneepad he has on) and continues to attack Carlos on the shoulder. Carlos manages to get out of the ring but is in a lot of pain. Chicky starts taunting and yelling at Colon, while motioning to Strong to go outside and continue the attack. At this point, Invader and TNT come out to check on Carlos. Again, the match can’t be stopped for any reason. Invader motions to TNT to go get something and TNT runs off to get the object. It’s some sort of sling or brace to try to give Carlos some support for the injured shoulder. Strong eventually goes out to attack Carlos, and though Carlos tries to fend him off, Strong continues to attack Carlos at his leisure. Strong removes the sling and continues to attack Colon, who still refuses to allow the ref to call the match. Strong continues to punish Colon’s shoulder,and finally gets Colon in the ring and gets a pinfall. The ref tells Strong to head to a corner so the 30 count for Carlos can start. However, Invader and TNT jump into the ring and tell the ref to call it, worried that Carlos was seriously injured and would not be able to defend himself. The ref calls the match and the rest of El Ejercito de la Justicia comes out to check on Carlos and also make sure that Strong does not try to continue his attack. A bloodied Strong is handed the Universal title and celebrates with Chicky in the ring as the tecnicos help Carlos out of the ring, continuing to check on him. The Sadistic Beast is the new champion.

MD: Speaking of gimmicks, you can see the advantages of the Texas Death Match rules here. They used the pinfalls almost as transitions. Colon was able to come in strong and really have Strong’s number. You got the sense that by this point of the feud, he cracked the code and knew exactly how to take him out. The count after the pin meant that he could recover, though, and he rose up from the depths, a bloody, deadly mess to take over on Colon and pin him as well. Of course Carlos beat the count, but the tide had turned and Strong went back to that shoulder, damaging it again and again; they tried to put a sling on Colon but Strong tore it off and stayed focused on demolishing it. It created a tangible sense of inevitability that powered the title change here so that when Colon couldn’t answer the count, it felt warranted and inevitable.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we continue to follow Steve Strong’s run in Puerto Rico as Invader steps up as the first challenger in the wake of Carlos Colon being put on the shelf. Learn the history behind Invader’s heart punch, why it is considered dangerous to face Invader with his fist taped, and just why he sometimes wrestles with a mask and other times he does not.