El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Almost Midnight For 1989

Week 15: Almost Midnight For 1989

EB: La Batalla Final has come and gone as Carlos Colon is once again the Universal champion. The terror of Sadistic Steve Strong has ended, due to the match stipulations Strong was forced to leave Puerto Rico. However, the person responsible for bringing in Steve Strong still remains. And if we have learned anything by now it is that Chicky Starr sooner or later will bounce back with another scheme. So let’s see what the end of 1989 brings to CSP.

Let’s start by picking up a thread we touched upon in our last installment. As we’ve seen, Chicky Starr had reinforcements come in for El Club Deportivo post-Aniversario, with Leo Burke being one of the key wrestlers brought in. Since his debut in CSP, Burke has been billed as the master of the figure-four leglock and has shown off his mastery of the hold throughout his matches so far. At the Thanksgiving Day show, Burke had defeated Miguelito Perez with the figure four and appeared to have won the Caribbean title in the process. However, Burke’s refusal to break the hold resulted in the referee reversing the decision and declaring Perez the winner by disqualification. The two wrestlers had another match on tv, although this one was non-title.

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

Perez is in the ring waiting for Leo Burke as Hugo mentions that the match is non-title. Chicky and Leo exchange their now customary pre-match hug on the outside as the crowd continues to get on their case every time they do it. Burke tries to set the pace early by taking his time in locking up. Burke backs Miguelito into a corner but his punches are blocked and Miguelito gets the better of that exchange. Hugo on commentary is talking up how Burke has done well in establishing himself in CSP but Perez is a tough opponent. Hugo mentions that it looks like Perez has been doing some conditioning and strength training and it looks like the results are paying off. Meanwhile, Burke complains to the referee about being hit with closed fists and again takes his time before locking up with Perez once more. It’s a psychological strategy that Burke is doing, continuing with complaints to the referee about being pulled by the hair. Perez gets the crowd involved as Burke continues to stall. Burke gets a headlock but Perez sends Leo into the ropes. Leo takes down Perez with a shoulder tackle, but Perez kips up and leap frogs the incoming Burke, eventually taking him down with a hiptoss. Burke again complains to the ref, this time that his tights were pulled. Hugo mentions that Burke is a ring general with great psychology and conditioning. The match continues with both men jockeying for the advantage, with Burke taking advantage of small mistakes Perez would make (like putting his head down too early when Burke was coming off the ropes). It’s a case of experience vs youth. Burke maintains control with a focused attack on Miguelito’s neck and throat area, dropping knees and choking Miguelito on the bottom rope (and even Chicky gets involved with some choking behind the ref’s back). Burke puts Perez in an abdominal stretch and pulls the tights when the ref isn’t looking for more leverage. Hugo mentions that, except for the illegal pulling of the tights, this is a textbook example of how to correctly apply the hold. Hugo also mentions that this is why you work on your conditioning, as these improvements are allowing Miguelito to withstand the hold. Perez eventually breaks the hold and hiptosses Burke to the mat. Perez gets a sunset flip but Burke gets out of it by kicking Perez in the head. This stuns Perez and allows Burke to get the advantage and hit a neckbreaker. Burke covers Perez but only gets two as Perez gets his foot on the rope. Burke tries to jump on Perez's leg but Miguelito pulls it away and Burke crashes to the mat. This gives Perez the opening to start a comeback as the crowd cheers on. However, as Perez goes to the top rope, it appears that he sees Chicky Starr making a move towards the ring. Perez gets off the top rope and goes over to chase Chicky off the apron. As Perez is standing there yelling at Chicky, Burke comes from behind and gets Perez in a small package for a three count. Burke has won the match and seems very pleased with himself.

MD: Both guys looked good here and they matched up well. For Perez, that was getting frustrated by Burke’s antics (like claiming hair-pulling), firing up the crowd, and then having a hot comeback. For Burke, it was going over with a snap on a hiptoss or adjusting on the fly by stopping his first elbow drop attempt as Perez moved only to miss the second, that sort of presence in the moment. Finish seemed a bit weird for me as Perez got distracted by Chicky only to get rolled up by Burke, but we couldn’t quite see what Chicky was up to because he was off camera.

EB: Burke has been presented as a ring general and technical master. A clear example of how this was shown can be seen in the following tv match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-Sj-POgf4

Here Burke is facing Armandito Salgado and Burke just shows off his technical skills. Armandito tries but this is an easy match for Burke. On commentary, Hector Moyano and Eliud Gonzalez are putting over Burke’s skills in the ring and particularly that he is the master of the figure four. Burke wins easily with the figure four.   

MD: It’s good to spend time with a guy as skilled at what he did as Burke. This was as straightforward an enhancement match as you can get. Burke stooged and bumped a bit early. He then pried off a leg and just dismantled it over the span of a minute or two with varied offense before locking in the figure four. A professional’s professional.

EB: Burke has been on a dominant roll so far in Puerto Rico and whatever plans he and Chicky had would soon become clear. Chicky and Burke would throw out a challenge to Carlos Colon to face the true master of the figure four leglock. Carlos would accept and the two would battle in a couple of matches around the end of November. Let’s go to one of those matches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHNooeCaZ8g

The date listed for the match in the link is incorrect, this is not the December 17 match the two had (we’ll talk about that match soon).  This match may be from November 25.  This is from a Campeones episode that (based on the commentary) seems to be from December 2. We have Hugo, Carlos and Chicky on commentary and it seems that the conversation as we start is about how Burke is a skilled wrestler but insists on playing psychological games. As the commentators are talking about this, Burke steps out of the ring to stall and Carlos points that out as an example of what they’re talking about. Colon thinks Burke is a great wrestler but does not have the quality to be a super champion because he lacks guts. Chicky disagrees, saying that what Burke is showing is intelligence and what he is doing is studying his opponent. They mention that Carlos and Burke are facing each other that night in Caguas and the Universal title will be on the line. Burke bails two times out of the ring to start but Carlos is able to grab Burke on his third attempt at leaving the ring. Carlos goes on offense hitting a hitposs, dropkick and several punches before Burke is able to roll away to the outside. Hugo on commentary mentions that Burke has been showing up at the tv studio all week to watch Carlos Colon matches in order to study and prepare for his opponent. Chicky protests that this information should be kept private and not divulged publicly, but Carlos says it does not matter how much footage Burke studies this week, the match is tonight and Carlos adjusts his approach depending on the opponent. While this commentary exchange is happening, Burke has been stalling on the outside and makes a dismissive wave with his arms. He starts heading to the locker room and gets as far as the gate before deciding to go back to the ring. Hugo starts getting on Chicky’s case about this but Chicky says that this is part of their strategy. Chicky also says that Carlos forgets that Chicky has been around here for years and is well aware of Colon’s tactics, he’ll be advising Burke at ringside tonight. Carlos says Burke is a wily wrestler and you have to keep your eyes on him as Burke finally reenters the ring and begs off, asking for a handshake. Carlos says these tactics are not going to confuse him.

They exchange holds with Burke taking Carlos down with a hairpull. Carlos fights out but is taken back down via another hairpull. Carlos mentions how he was cheated last Saturday in Arecibo and that the fans will see what happened here. Chicky says that they’ll see how Carlos was defeated. The match continues with Burke using his wily tactics to maintain control with Chicky on commentary saying he doesn't see anything illegal going on when questioned (“why is your monitor showing you guys something that’s not happening on my monitor?”). Carlos is able to shake Burke off and hits a flurry of offense off the ropes, but Burke eventually cuts it off with yet another hairpull. The hairpull pattern continues throughout the middle of the match. Carlos is hopeful that tonight Burke won’t be able to use as many tactics since he hopes to have either Invader or TNT in his corner to counter Chicky. A punch exchange in the corner is won by Carlos and Colon goes on the attack .A backdrop by Colon is followed by a cartwheel as Carlos is starting to dictate the flow of the action. Carlos sends Burke into a corner and follows up with a high knee. This allows Carlos to work on Burke’s leg as a setup for the figure four. Burke is able to kick Calros away when he tries the figure four, but Carlos goes after Burke and attacks him in the corner. Carlos on commentary says that he made a mistake because he tried to put on the figure four before he had weakened Burke enough. Another high knee is attempted by Carlos but Burke manages to get out of the way, causing Colon’s knee to hit the top turnbuckle pad instead. Burke takes advantage and starts attacking Colon’s leg to set up his figure four. Carlos is able to avoid a couple of Burke’s attempts at putting on the figure four, but Burke continues to attack Colon’s leg and knocks him back down. Carlos avoids the third figure four attempt by yanking Burke’s tights (which Chicky complains about being an illegal maneuver on commentary), but Burke continues to attack Colon’s leg in the corner. Carlos fights Burke off and slams him to the mat, but Burke (as we saw in the match vs  Miguelito on Thanksgiving) grabs a hold of Colon’s leg and trips him to the mat. Burke immediately goes for the figure four but Colon blocks Burke’s leg to keep him from completing the hold. After struggling for several moments,  Burke is able to complete the figure four and Colon tries to fight the hold. Carlos is in pain and narrowly avoids having his shoulders counted down as Burke continues to apply pressure. Carlos tries to grab the ropes and just as he reaches them, Chicky yanks them back so he can’t quite get a hold of the rope. Carlos on commentary starts saying that’s how Chicky helped Burke and that was illegal, he would’ve broken the hold if not for that. Carlos tries to reverse the hold but is not able to and eventually submits. Burke has defeated Carlos with his version of the figure four. As a result, they will face each other again for the Universal title that night in Caguas. Burke refuses to break the hold as Chicky runs interference with the referee but eventually releases the figure four on Colon. Carlos holds his knee in pain as Burke has his arm raised as the winner. Carlos on commentary confronts Chicky one more time about yanking the rope away, which Chicky denies doing once more, and Carlos says they’ll settle things tonight in Caguas.

MD: And this was what Burke was built up for. That said, he wrestled this match exactly as you’d expect. There was a lot of entertaining stalling early, only to make it back into the ring to get clowned by Colon, who couldn’t hang on to him long enough to keep him from escaping to the floor once again. He’d come back in, try for something, get blocked, and finally pull hair to get Colon down only to get reversed anyway in quick order. When he took over through the middle section, it was trying to hang on to Colon’s arm, never with much luck. Colon doing the cartwheel felt almost anti-climactic since Burke hadn’t put him in nearly enough danger up until that point. It was to set up the last third, however, when Colon missed a flying knee into the corner. It took multiple tries, but Burke eventually did lock in the figure four and score the win. I’m a little surprised there wasn’t more Chicky involvement towards the end, but Burke was established enough, Colon fought back enough, and they had great success months before by having Colon more or less legitimately swept under by Strong, so you can see why they might have taken this path again.

EB: Leo Burke is now the next challenger for the Universal title. The match in Caguas that took place on December 2 went to a 60 minute time limit draw (which Carlos would say was due to Chicky not being able to interfere and cheat like he had done before). With the match going to a 60 minute draw, another match was set between the two men for the year end show scheduled for the weekend of December 16 and 17. We’lll discuss what happened there next time. But in between that 60 minute draw and the season ending shows, a card was held on December 9 in  Guaynabo. The lineup included the following matches:

• Carlos Colon & TNT double DQ with Chicky Starr & Leo Burke
• Invader #1 defeated Gary Albright
• Huracan Castillo Jr. & Miguel Perez Jr. defeated Los Mercenarios by DQ
• Super Medico defeated Abudda Dein
• Gran Mendoza defeated Victor Jovica

This gives us a good idea of who was in the territory working full time (like Leo Burke and Gary Albright) versus those coming in once a month or so for the big monthly shows (such as the Youngbloods, Manny Fernandez and others). Let’s talk about where these wrestlers are going into the end of 1989.

Gran Mendoza and Victor Jovica are still going to be around mainly in the undercard but not heavily featured in any feuds into the new year. Super Medico remains the World Junior champion and has had Brett Sawyer as his main challenger for the title post-Aniversario. That said, Medico has also been showcased against other top talent on television and despite always having a good showing, has not had much success in the win column. Most recently Medico earned a disqualification victory against Abudda Dein when he was kicked by the loaded boot. It looks like Medico got some payback on the December 9 card with a victory over Dein.

Los Mercenarios wrestled against the Youngbloods for the World tag titles at the Thanksgiving Day show. Although we do not know how the match ended, we do know that the Youngbloods are still the champions heading into December. Meanwhile, Los Mercenarios continue with their rivalry against the team they had defeated for the Caribbean tag titles, the duo of Miguel Perez Jr and Huracan Castillo Jr. While the rivalry continued when possible on the house shows, Castillo and Perez could not always team up due to the latter’s commitments as the Caribbean singles champion. This would lead Castillo to challenge Los Mercenarios with a different partner on tv.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcH3DiXqGbU

We are in Aibonito and Castillo is teaming up with Maelo Huertas, who we have seen perform well with different partners in losing efforts against Los Mercenarios. Maybe teaming up with Castillo will result in a more favorable outcome for the tecnicos. Castillo and Mercenario #2 start off ,with Casitllo quickly getting the better of Morrow. Morrow quickly tags out to Mercenario #1 as Hugo talks about the heated rivalry Castillo has been having with Los Mercenarios. Castillo does an overhead armdrag on Mercenario #1 as Hugo talks about how in all of the years he’s known Mercenario #1 (14 years) he’s  always seen him with that beard, hairdo and attire. Mercenario complains about a hairpull and argues with the crowd. Another armdrag by Catillo leads to Mercenario #2 being tagged back in. Morrow gets caught in the tecnicos corner and is the victim of a monkey flip and dropkick by the just tagged in Maelo. Morrow goes for Maelo’s leg but is kicked off and decides to tag Mercenario #1 back in. This has been all Castillo and Huertas so far. Mercenario #1 ends up back in the tecnicos corner and Maelo grabs onto Acevedo’s beard as he tags in Castillo. Castillo sends Mercenario #1 into the ropes but is countered by a kick to the head. This gives Los Mercenarios an opening to do some quick tags and double teams and get the advantage on Castillo. Los Mercenarios keep working Castillo over on their side of the ring but eventually Castillo manages to counter off the ropes with a clothesline on Mercenario #1. This allows Castillo the chance to tag in Maelo who tees off on both Mercenarios. Castillo quickly comes back in and the tecnicos hit stereo backdrops on Los Mercenarios. Castillo dropkicks Morrow and the referee tries to get him out of the ring. While the referee has his back turned, Maelo is able to hit a sunset flip on Mercenario #1 but Morrow comes off the top turnbuckle and hits Maelo. Morrow rolls out of the ring and Acevedo covers for the win. Another win for Los Mercenarios due to some well timed illegal double teaming.

MD: A sign of how well a heel team is jelling is how much they can accomplish in just a couple of minutes on top. I’ve seen Midnight Express matches where the shine is three times as long as the heat, but because they’re able to fire off three or four devastating things in a row, it almost makes up for that. Here they did the whole thing in around five minutes, including Morrow bouncing around more than you’d expect and Assassin getting his beard pulled in the shine. When they took over it was with quick tags and thudding double teams, though, and it felt substantial even though it wasn’t long. I don’t think Morrow had a lot in the tank for fifteen minutes, but in five, he could bump big two or three times and still come off the top for the finish, which he did here to break up a Huertas pin. This was not the guy Castillo was going to win with.

EB: With Los Mercenario successfully keeping the Caribbean tag titles, it was announced they would get a rematch against the Youngbloods for the World tag titles on December 16.

Let’s talk about Gary Albright. When we last saw Albright and El Profe, they were in the midst of having a $5,000 challenge for anyone who dared to step into the ring and try to break the Albright Lock. We’re missing footage of the rest of Albright’s November but we’ll try to fill in the gap as well as possible based on the context information we have been able to find. On the December 9 card, Albright faced Invader #1. This stems from Profe’s continued efforts in getting back the Puerto rico title Invader had won from Ivan Koloff at Aniversario. Abudda Dein had not been successful, but El Profe had Albright ready to go as his next weapon. Albright was not successful in his challenge and fell victim to the heart punch.

As for the Albright Lock challenge, it appears it ended around Thanksgiving Day. While we haven't been able to confirm exactly what happened, it appears that Albright and Profe did the challenge at the Thanksgiving Day show and apparently the fan who took on the challenge was a black belt in judo and taekwondo. And apparently the fan was able to get loose. So, while we are unsure if this was how things happened, it is clear that any Albright matches from this point forward make no mention of the Albright Lock challenge. Despite these apparent setbacks, Albright is still in the territory and competing on tv, so let’s go to a match joined in progress versus Huracan Castillo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYTE6GwonE

We join the match with Castillo having Albright on the mat and working a headlock. Hector Moyano talks about how Albright is technically proficient and talks up his medals and amateur credentials. Albright manages to work out of the headlock, but Castillo is able to counter back into the headlock on the mat. Albright manages to power out and absorbs a tackle from Castillo. An attempt to stop Castillo from doing a headscissors takedown fails and Castillo once again has Albright on the mat. It seems Castillo’s strategy is to keep Albright grounded in order to avoid his power. Albright powers out fro, the headscissors but misses a lunging clothesline and Castillo quickly puts Albright back in a headlock. An inside cradle gets two and Albright is back on his feet. Albright takes the advantage with some clubbing blows. A slam and elbow drop gets two for Albright. A fisherman suplex gets two but Albright remains in control. Castillo tries a sunset flip for two. Albright goes right back on the offensive and maintains the advantage momentarily until Casitllo counters a throw into the corner. Castillo hiptosses Albright but seems a bit shook by the blows he’s taken so far. Castillo manages to keep Albright at bay by kicking him away in the corner. Castillo hits a clothesline into the corner followed by a high knee. A second attempt for the high knee is dodged by Albright. As Castillo stumbles out of the corner, Albright quickly hits him with a belly to belly suplex and gets the pinfall. It looks like Albright now is using the bell to belly suplex as his finishing maneuver.

MD: I’m not sure this was the best way to protect Albright. He was doing drop down/hip toss spots, being held down on the mat by Castillo’s headlock, was feeding for him on a comeback. He even fell to a phantom pin where Profe had the ref distracted after a sunset flip. The finish was definitive with a belly to belly out of nowhere and he came off as a guy who could really heft anyone over with ease, but this seemed to chip away at his aura a bit. It was tough. He had legitimate credentials, a great massive look, and obvious power and skill, but he was super green in what he was doing in there. Granted, a territory like this lived and died on getting the most out of guys like that. On the other hand, I can see keeping Castillo strong because the heel side at this point felt a lot deeper than the babyface side. You could bring in people from elsewhere to supplement the heel side at any point but you had to keep the local faces strong to a degree. Still, maybe this wasn't the way to build this one.

EB: Although Albright was unsuccessful in challenging Invader #1, his record so far has put him into position to get a Caribbean title shot against Miguelito Perez on December 16.

This leaves TNT and Invader #1 left to discuss. Earlier it was mentioned by Carlos Colon that he hoped one of the two men would be in his corner for his December 2 Universal title defense against Leo Burke, so it seems one or both of them are being pulled into the issues with El Club Deportivo. Invader has been dealing with the challenge of El Profe’s guys while TNT has been dealing with opponents Chicky has been sending against him ever since the hair match at Aniversario. TNT teamed up with Carlos Colon on the December 9 show to take on Burek and Chicky, so he’s already more directly involved.

For the December 16 season ender, both Invader and TNT are set to defend their respective titles against opponents Chicky is bringing in for them. Invader will defend the Puerto Rico title against Manny Fernandez (who has been on quite the hot streak on tv), while TNT will defend the TV title against Sika. But before then, TNT is making defense of the TV title against Abudda Dein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOz_JyFVVH8

This match may be from December 2 in Caguas. Dein has been mainly a singles wrestler since Aniversario and it hasn’t gone well for him. The secret of his loaded boot has become common knowledge and he was not successful in winning the Puerto Rico title from Invader #1. Dein is looking for championship gold by challenging TNT for the TV title. Referee El Vikingo shows off the title belt before the match starts. Dein starts off aggressively but TNT counters off the ropes with a flying back elbow that sends Dein to the outside. Dein hits the ground outside in frustration before making his way back into the ring. Dein once again goes on the attack and is successful in driving TNT into the corner with his strikes. Dein proceeds to rake TNT’s eyes while on the ropes and hits a clothesline. Dein avoids a standing switch counter from TNT and sends him down with another clothesline. Dein continues to be in control for the next few minutes as he works on TNT’s neck with a chinlock (to possibly set up his camel clutch).TNT fights out of the hold and slams Dein, but a splash off the ropes is met by Dein’s knees. Dein goes to the top rope but misses a kneedrop. TNT takes advantage and hits a couple of karate strikes and a knife edge chop on Dein. TNT hits a dynamite kick and looks to have the match won, but Profe places Dein’s leg on the rope and calls the ref’s attention to it in order to stop the count. TNT tries a reverse crossbody from the turnbuckle, but Dein dodges it. Dein pins TNT but TNTgets his leg on the rope. El Profe knocks TNT’s leg off the rope but the referee sees this and stops the count. The ref warns Profe while Dein tries to send TNT into the ropes. TNT hits a dropkick on Dein and starts yelling at Profe at ringside. With both TNT and the ref yelling at Profe, Abudda takes the opening to start loading his boot up by tapping it against the mat. Dein charges when TNT turns around, but TNT blocks Dein’s kick and counters with a dynamite spin kick to get the three count. TNT retains the TV title. This is pretty much it for Abudda Dein in Puerto Rico. He will lose against Super Medico on December 9 and from there leave the territory by year’s end. Dein had quite the run in 1989 though.   

MD: I liked how this played with the crowd expectations, just a smart finishing stretch. After TNT worked out of a chinlock, they had Dein cut him off by getting the knees up. They then had Dein miss a top rope splash to lead into the stretch. TNT hit a superkick but Profe put Dein’s boot on the rope. Dein got TNT down and Profe pushed his boot off the rope but the ref caught it. During the arguing, Dein loaded the boot, making everyone think that the finish was coming but TNT caught the kick and hit the spin wheel kick for the win. Just nicely put together. The first half was the two matching up how you’d expect with karate chops and crashing into one another like two brick walls. This was a nice TV match given that it only went six minutes or so.

EB: Before talking about the December 16 card, let’s take a breather and watch an El Exotico match. I'm including this since Matt has been getting a kick out of Exotico so far and he asked me a question about Exotico. Does he ever win a match? Let’s see if he has any luck against Tito Carrion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfYikepVKl8

We join this match in progress as two preliminary guys get a chance to showcase themselves in singles action. Exotico sends Carrion into the ropes but misses a right hand and Carrion counters with a clothesline. Carrion hits some kicks in the corner but is cut off by an eye poke from Exotico. Carrion's head is rammed into the top turnbuckle and Exotico sets him up for a successful whirlybird. Exotico covers and counts along to the pinfall but Carrion kicks out at two. Exotico continues his attack and cuts off any attempts at turning the tide with eye rakes. A clothesline leads to an unsuccessful pin attempt by Exotico. Exotico puts Carrion in a chinlock but Carrion eventually gets out of it by sending Exotico into the ropes. Carrion hits a hiptoss and looks to take control as Exotico begs off. Carrion goes to attack Exotico but is hit with a back kick and then an elbow to the head. Exotico sends Carrion into the ropes and hits the butt butt. This leads to Exotico sitting on Carrion for the pin.

MD: This is a side trip, even for us, but it’s also the level of detail that we’re poking into sometimes. In the span of a Best of the 80s set, which is how a lot of people encounter a territory like PR, you’re never even going to cross paths with Exotico. Even with what we’re doing, he’s mainly there as a JTTS to make other guys look good. One thing that puts a guy on that level is that the fans need to see him occasionally win. Not often. Just occasionally. Here he got to assert himself with a whirlybird as if he was Sid Vicious, and a pretty fitting finisher in Koshinaka’s Butt Butt. It’s just a reminder we’re not just cherrypicking matches from the void. There was a whole ecosystem set up for this promotion to succeed and make sense to the viewer.

EB: As is customary in Puerto Rico, we have a season ending show before Christmas to close out the year. This year the season ending falls on the December 16th weekend. Besides the matches that have been mentioned so far, the last show of the year will be headlined by another La Gran Guerra match pitting El Ejercito de la Justicia against El Club Deportivo. This will be the fifth time this match will be held and both sides have won two apiece. If you're wondering what La Gran Guerra is, it’s basically Puerto Rico’s version of War Games. It’s two rings in an enclosed steel cage structure with an enclosed roof. All team members start in the ring at the same time and the objective is to handcuff the opposing team to the side of the cage (there are several handcuffs around the steel cage walls for this purpose). The first team that is able to handcuff all of the opposing team’s members wins the match and the prize that goes along with winning. The winning team members get to free any handcuffed teammates and then they get 5 minutes to attack the handcuffed losing team as they please.  

The week before the event, the Wrestling Observer published what was to be the expected card for the event. Here was the expected lineup:

• Carlos Colon & Abdullah the Butcher & TNT & Invader I & Mark Youngblood vs Chicky Starr & Harley Race & Leo Burke & Manny Fernandez & Kamala- La Gran Guerra match
• Carlos Colon vs Leo Burke - WWC Universal Title 90 Minute Time Limit
• Invader I vs Manny Fernandez - WWC Puerto Rico Title
• TNT vs Sika - WWC World TV Title
• Mark & Chris Youngblood vs Cuban Assassin & Jerry Morrow - WWC World Tag Titles
• Miguel Perez Jr vs Gary Albright  - WWC Caribbean Title
• Super Medico vs Brett Sawyer - WWC Junior Heavyweight Title
• Harley Race vs Ricky Santana

Now, this card didn’t happen as listed. As far as we have been able to confirm, neither Abdullah or Kamala appeared on the card. In addition, we’re not sure if Harley Race made the show either, but we do know that Harley did not face Ricky Santana and that he likely was not in La Gran Guerra (we know four of the five team members for sure and the fifth person was likely Chicky Starr). The tecnico team consisted of all champions with Carlos Colon, Invader #1, TNT and Mark & Chris Youngblood representing El Ejercito de la Justicia. For El Club Deportivo it would be Leo Burke, Manny Fernandez, Sika, the Great Kokina (making his debut in Puerto Rico) and likely Chicky Starr. Kokina would also end up facing Ricky Santana on the undercard.

We are now set for the end of 1989.

Next time on el Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we will run down what happened at the season ending weekend and finish up our journey through 1989.

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: La Batalla Final

Week 14: La Batalla Final

It has been nine months since Sadistic Steve Strong's arrival in CSP. We have followed his path of destruction and chaos throughout 1989, which included him winning the Universal title, injuring Carlos Colon’s shoulder, facing off against nearly every top tecnico in the territory, and main eventing Aniversario. The fallout from Aniversario has resulted in the Universal title being held up and now we have arrived at what has been named ‘La Batalla Final’ (The Final Battle). This encounter between Colon and Strong will decide the Universal champion. It will also result in one of the two men leaving the territory. The stakes are high for Thanksgiving Day.

This late 1989 period is one where results are more spotty compared to earlier in the year. As such, we don’t really have the full lineup for the Thanksgiving Day card but we do have some results and matches which we’ll talk about shortly. But before then, let’s check in on some of the wrestlers and how things are going as we head towards the end of November.

First, we’ll catch up feud wise with what’s been happening with Invader #1, TNT, Super Medico. Gary Albright and some others next time, but do know that they’ve been active and all of them were likely on the Thanksgiving Day card (I suspect Invader against either Abudda Dein or Gary Albright, Medico likely defended the World Junior title, and TNT likely faced off against one of Chicky’s guys). For some of these wrestlers whose roles on the Thanksgiving Day card aren’t clear, let’s check on how they’re performing on TV.

As we’ve seen previously, besides being the reigning World Junior champion, Super Medico has been taking on a few of the rudos in matches taped for tv. While he has made a good showing of himself, Medico ended up on the losing end vs Manny Fernandez and Leo Burke. Let’s see him in action once more, this time against Abudda Dein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD1mgsQXi6I

As we saw earlier, Abudda has been back in singles competition since losing the World tag titles at Aniversario. He is coming off a series of matches with Invader #1 where he was unsuccessful in bringing back the Puerto Rico title to El Profe’s Real Academia stable. Also,  by this point the chatter around his suspected to be loaded boot has increased during his most recent series with Invader #1. Here Abudda is taking on Super Medico. They start with an exchange of various arm wringers, leading to Abudda going to the ropes to break the hold and going outside to regroup. Profe comes over to give Dein some advice and Dein takes control with a knee to the stomach once he gets back in the ring, Medico manages to regain control by countering out of a side headlock and works Dein’s arm. The commentators (Hector Moyano and Eliud Gonzalez) mention that Medico has the quickness advantage and can nearly match Dein in strength. Medico continues to maintain the upper hand in the hold exchanges and settles into a side headlock, one that Dein tries to get out of by grabbing onto Medico’s mask. The referee stops Dein each time he tries to grab the mask. Dein manages to send Medico into the ropes but Medico keeps countering Dein’s attempts at getting offense in. Back to the side headlock, which Dein once again counters by sending Medico into the ropes. A bodypress attempt by Medico is countered into a backbreaker, allowing Dein to grab control of the match. Dein drops Medico throat first on the top rope and continues to work Medico’s throat area with foot chokes. Eliud mentions that they have to work fast because there's only a 10 minute time limit for this match (it seems this is the standard tv match time limit in CSP). Medico manages to regain control by kicking Dein in the head coming off the ropes. Medico hits a flurry of punches and a sunset flip gets two. A dropkick sends Dein outside and the referee stops Medico from going after Dein. With the ref’s back turned, Dein takes the opportunity to load up his boot by stomping it against the mat three times. He kicks Medico in the gut and goes for a pin attempt, but referee El Vikingo has turned around earlier just as Dein was finishing ‘loading’ his boot by stomping it on the mat. It looks like the secret’s out regarding Abudda’s boot  as El Vikingo shakes his finger at Dein and calls for the bell. Dein is disqualified for using a loaded boot. The referee raises the downed Medico’s arm declaring him the winner while Dein leaves the ring celebrating like he had won the match.

MD: A little less than five minutes here. I was expecting Dein to win with the boot but the ref caught him. Before that, Medico had the advantage wrestling wise, but Dein was able to assert himself through his power and cheating, primarily targeting the throat. Medico looked good fighting from underneath here and Dein look sufficiently cruel and unyielding. For a guy who didn’t have too many big runs elsewhere, Dein was credible in this role.

EB: Somebody we need to keep our eyes on is Manny Fernandez. After Aniversario, Manny helped Chicky attack Carlos Colon as a result of Chicky feeling that Steve Strong had been robbed of the Universal title. Manny’s been on a bit of a winning streak on tv and he looks to continue his winning ways against Huracan Castillo Jr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F65sWRi4tZU

Huracan has been recently immersed in a tag feud with Los Mercenarios since losing the Caribbean tag titles at Aniversario. But with Miguelito Perez having won the Puerto Rico title, both Castillo and Perez have also taken a few more singles matches recently. Here is one such case as Castillo tries his luck against Manny Fernandez. As both men face off to start, Hector Moyano mentions that hurricanes in Puerto Rico bring bad memories but this one here (Castillo) is loved by the fans. A few lockups are exchanged and it becomes clear that Castillo is not backing down, shoving Manny when they broke one of the lock ups. A few exchanges early on see Castillo get the better of Manny, but Manny gets some words from Chicky and decides to go for Castillo’s leg when they lock up again. Chicky talks smack to the camera which is drowned out by some chanting fans. Manny continues to work on the leg while on the mat as Castillo tries to fight out of it. This is pretty much the middle portion of the match, with Manny working the leg in different holds on the mat. Castillo tries maneuvering Manny into a couple of pin attempts but Manny manages to kick out and continue with the hold. The end of the match comes when they take it off the mat. Castillo manages to come back on Manny after a kick of the ropes. Castillo hits a series of moves including a slam and an elbow drop, but Manny cuts him off with a punch to the stomach. Manny knocks Castillo down coming off the ropes and, when doing a criss cross, catches Castillo with a DDT for two.  Castillo tries to counter with a standing switch into a cradle, but Manny holds onto the rope and sends Castillo tumbling backwards on the mat. This sets up Manny’s standing elbow smash and Manny gets the win. We’ll have to see if this winning streak catapults Manny into a title opportunity against one of the territory's champions.

MD: There was a cute bit at the start as the commentary carefully links Castillo to the recent hurricane due to his nickname. Between some of the new footage and just delving into what’s out there, we have a bit more of this Manny/Chicky run than we initially thought, which is good as he fit in so well here. He was only 35 or so here, really a prime age to anchor a territory even if he probably had a lot of wear and tear on the wheels. They worked a chunk of this on the mat with Castillo going for a cross armbreaker and Manny trying to keep a leglock. It opened up after that with Manny beating Castillo down and Castillo trying to fire up before they went into the finish, with Manny catching Castillo out of nowhere with a DDT and then hitting a twisting back elbow off the ropes. This made me want to see Chicky and Manny go up against Castillo and Perez.

EB: Let’s talk about what we do know about the Thanksgiving Day show. On tv it was announced that the Youngbloods would be defending the World tag titles against Los Mercenarios. While we’ll talk a bit more about these two teams and any potential result from Thanksgiving Day next time, let's take this opportunity to further showcase both teams in action  (and take advantage that we have some rarely seen matches available).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbTP_yQhPz0

Once again Los Mercenarios are facing Maelo Huertas and a tag partner on tv, with Herbert Gonzalez being Maelo’s partner this time. The tecnicos in these matches against Los Mercenarios have made a good showing of themselves, although Los Mercenarios have proven too wily and managed to remain victorious. This match is not that different from what we’ve previously seen. Maelo gets some shine when he’s in the ring to start, getting the better of Mercenario #1 (Acevedo) and then Mercenario #2 (Morrow) to start before tagging Herbert in. To his credit Herbert maintains control with a side headlock for  a few moments, before Mercenario #2 works out of the hold and tags in Mercenario #1. Herbert manages to reverse an armlock but gets trapped in the corner. An attempted double team fails when Herbert ducks out of the way. Herbert keeps up the pressure and tags Maelo in, who continues on the offensive attack. The tecnicos are giving a good fight to Los Mercenarios.  Mercenario #2 is tagged back in and the tide turns after a knee to the back of Maelo when he was coming off the ropes. Los Mercenarios continue to show that they'll rely on wily shortcuts to get and maintain their advantage. Los Mercenarios work over Maelo for a while but Maelo is able to counter with a clothesline and tags in Herbert. All four men end up in the ring and it looks like the tecnicos may be getting control of the match. However, as the referee is escorting Maelo out of the ring, Los Mercenarios sneak in and hit a double DDT on Herbert and steal the win. It’s very clear how Los Mercenarios are operating as Caribbean tag champions.

MD: Pretty complete for a five minute match, maybe too much so as I’m not sure the Mercenarios should be giving up so much, even if Cuban Assassin is a great bumping stooge. Morrow has a couple of bumps in him each match too. The more I see of Maelo the more sense I get that he excelled in his role at the top of the enhancement guys. He was always on, always fighting, had some dynamic, explosive offense, and bumped big. He took a great butterfly suplex from Morrow here. He rolled into a nice hot tag too. Morrow and the Assassin were just too good at working behind the ref’s back though and they hit a double DDT out of nowhere for the pin.

EB: Let’s also check in on the Youngbloods, who are taking on an odd couple team in Abudda Dein and El Exotico (although maybe not that odd if you remember that Dein has just teamed for a couple of months with Rip Rogers).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAxdeFch7ko

We have some interesting looks here as the combatants are arriving to the ring. Exotico has heart frame shades and a spray can that he is using to spray the ring. We heard Hector Moyano mention that Exotico did this in a previous match but here we get to see his pre-match method of dealing with stinky opponents. The Youngbloods arrive and we see that Chris is wearing his ceremonial skull mask. Moyano mentions that the ring is very fragrant after Exotico did his thing with the spray can. Everyone starts getting on Exotico’s case, with the crowd catcalling him ,the Youngbloods making gestures at him and even the commentators making a comment or two about how he goes about things (it’s 1989 after all). Exotico and Chris start off and Exotico has no luck in there against Chris. Dein tries to help by grabbing Chris at one point but the double team gets botched when Chris gets out of the way. Chris tags Mark in, who then dropkicks Exotico. After fleeing to his corner and hugging Dein for protection, Exotico complains about having his hair pulled. Dein starts complaining about that happening as well and, for some reason, grabs Exotico by the hair and starts shaking him around to show the referee what had supposedly happened. As Dein finishes doing this, Mark sneaks up behind Exotico and basically pinches his butt. Exotico is not happy about that but Mark continues with the advantage once they lock up again. El Profe goes over to the commentary table and defends Exotico by saying ‘he’s just a delicate young man, don’t be thinking what it’s not, he’s just delicate’. Over three minutes in Dein finally gets tagged in but doesn’t fare much better than Exotico. This match has been all Youngbloods so far. Dein makes the tag to Exotico and, surprisingly, Exotico goes on a successful offensive flurry (including an eye poke). It doesn’t last long as Mark counters a suplex attempt and tags Chris back in. After a brief moment where all four men end up in the ring, Exotico gets isolated and falls victim to a slingshot splash. The Youngbloods get a dominant win.

MD: I went back to isolate a version of this with the entrances too. Exotico had the glasses, was spraying Arrogance all over the place, and put his arm on Profe’s shoulder only for Profe to shrug him off. Thankfully, Dein helped him take off his robe so he could pose, though. Chris had the cool skull mask too so all was right with the wrestling world. Profe, to his infinite credit, expressed some concern for Exoitco as the Youngbloods were tossing him around. Very little heat here. Lots of begging off and stooging. Dein was sort of dragged down by his partner and felt more on his level than as the name guy teamed with the enhancement guy. The Youngbloods were pretty good at asserting themselves too, which maybe didn’t help. Still, it’s fun to see Exotico do his thing.

EB: With his winning record so far in CSP, Leo Burke is challenging for the Caribbean title on Thanksgiving. This will be a tough opponent for the reigning champion Miguel Perez Jr. Let’s go to that match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5IxwGKYK14

This match video is from a Campeones airing about two weeks after the Thanksgiving Day show, so the commentary does provide a bit of context about certain happenings. In this case, Carlos Colon is talking about a match he had with Leo Burke the previous week that went to a draw.  I mention this because this is a thread we’ll pick back up next time. As for this match, we are at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon. Burke has been presented as the master of the figure-four in his run so far and is looking to bring the Caribbean title to El Club Deportivo. Miguel tries to charge at Leo right at the bell but both Leo and Chicky are in the corner complaining to the ref that Burke has not taken his jacket off. The ref tells Chicky to get out of the ring as Burke goes to the apron and then to the floor. Chicky comes over to help Leo take off the jacket and the two share a hug as the crowd gives them static. Hugo on commentary starts asking Chicky about the nature of the hug,  which Chicky answers by saying that the hug means something that’s not Hugo’s or anyone else’s business. Carlos mentions that all of Leo’s complaining about the jacket is mind games by Burke and that an inexperienced wrestler might be taken in by these mind games if not careful. Carlos also credits Burke with being a great wrestler. Burke slows the pace of the match down by exiting the ring when Miguel tries to lock up. Eventually, Leo gets caught by Miguel and falls victim to an offensive flurry. Burke escapes to the outside and complains to Chicky about a blow to the eyes. Burke gets back in and Miguel takes control again on offense. Hugo mentions that Miguel is in control but Carlos responds that he seems to be anxious and aggressive and that you have to be careful against someone like Leo Burke. You have to be more calculated in your approach. Burkle continues stalling outside of the ring after once more escaping Miguelito’s attack. Leo finally gains control with a hairpull (something Chicky denies on commentary). We go to and come back from a commercial break with Burke working on Miguelito's arm. Hugo mentions that Burke is a very smart wrestler as he broke the hold when the ref caught him but quickly slapped it back on (so the break was no longer forced). Burke continues working on the arm. Miguelito gets some blows in but another hairpull allows Burke to continue in control and work the arm. The crowd tries to rally behind Miguelito, who after a while of being worked over, manages to rally and fire off some punches to knock Burke off him. Miguelito goes on the attack and gets a few pinfall attempts (including one off a bodyslam into a legdrop). But on another slam attempt, Burke grabs Miguelito’s leg and doesn’t let go, allowing Burke to trip Perez to the mat. Burke quickly puts Miguelito in the figure four, and although Perez tries to hold out, the referee calls for the bell .We have a new Caribbean champion! As Isaac Rosario motions for the title belt, Burke continues to keep the figure four locked in (something we’ve seen him do in his previous matches). But unlike those other instances where Burke broke the hold when the ref warned him, Burke refuses to break the hold despite several attempts by the ref to get Burke to break the hold. As a result, the referee reverses the decision and disqualifies Burke. Miguel remains the Caribbean champion but Burke has shown that he knows how to do damage with that figure four leglock of his. Burke finally breaks the hold when TNT and Super Medico run in to help Miguelito.

MD: Carlos is on commentary here and they’re talking about an hour long match he had with Burke the previous week that went to a draw and that sounds amazing. We obviously do not have it. Burke was excellent here, spending the first five minutes stooging and having his arm worked over and stalling again and again. He took over with hairpulls and they ratcheted up the heat with hope spots and perfectly timed cutoffs. When Perez finally came back, the place came unglued. Then out of nowhere after a slam, Burke snuck in a trip and locked in the figure four. Perez tried to fight but had to give up and the crowd was visibly upset. Burke kept the hold on, however, and the decision got reversed. It didn’t necessarily make anyone happy (maybe relieved) but it kept Burke elevated while keeping the belt on Perez and giving Chicky something to complain about.

EB: According to the Wrestling Observer both Koko B Ware and Harley Race worked the Thanksgiving Day show for CSP. And we actually have Koko’s match from this show, as he takes on El Profe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iYI05GxgvI

We get an interesting comment early on from Hugo where he mentions that Koko has been sent as a replacement for an injured Hillbilly Jim. So it looks like Hillbilly Jim may have been initially announced for this show. The crowd is hot for this as we start and it's definitely a treat to see Koko in this environment. El Profe jumps Koko at the bell but Koko counters with a backdrop and a couple of dropkicks that send Profe to the outside. The crowd goes wild as Koko flaps his arms and claps his hands in the ring. El Profe regains his composure on the outside and you can see that Frankie is with Koko, sitting on his perch on the left side of the ring. Profe is not happy with the corwd’s cheers for Koko and raises his arms to ask for the crowd to applaud him (which doesn’t happen). Profe gets back in the ring but immediately runs into a couple of armdrags and a dropkick that sends him flying through the ropes and back outside. El Profe is visibly annoyed and starts jawing with some fans on the outside. Profe gets near Frankie while pacing around the ring, which prompts Koko to head to the ring apron and back Profe off from getting close to Frankie. El Profe gets back in the ring as Koko again fires up the crowd. Profe then decides to get on the middle turnbuckle looking at the crowd and starts hitting some muscle poses (Hugo: El Profe showing off his muscles, unfortunately we don’t see it this way). Koko then starts motioning to the crowd if he should take Profe’s mask off, which gets loud cheers from the crowd. El Profe is not amused with this development. Profe jumps onto the middle turnbuckle to get away from Koko, but Koko catches Profe and slams him off. Koko immediately goes for the laces on Profe’s mask but Profe manages to slide out of the ring. Profe complains to the ref about Koko going after his mask. He gets back in the ring and tries to shake hands with Koko. The crowd yells no at Koko, who looks to consider it. However, when Profe gets closer Koko mocks Profe to the crowd’s delight. El Profe kicks the bottom rope in anger and gets into a boxing stance, which prompts someone from the crowd to yell their approval. El Profe, bewildered by this reaction, turns back to the crowd and starts making calm down gestures, stalling once again. Koko sneaks up behind Profe again and starts undoing the laces of Profe’s mask, but referee El Vikingo pulls Koko off Profe, allowing Profe to bail to the outside. El Profe complains again to the referee about Koko going after his mask and takes his time relacing it. Back in the ring, Koko sends Profe into the turnbuckle but misses a charge into the corner. El Profe finally is in control and proceeds to hit an illegal thrust to the throat. Profe chokes Koko on the bottom rope and starts shouting to the crowd that he is the master here. Koko struggles to get up but Profe is on him with several kicks. Profe places Koko on the middle rope and chokes Koko while taunting Frankie at ringside. Profe breaks and proceeds to choke Koko again while taunting Frankie once more. Profe raises his arms in victory, but Koko starts slapping the mat to get the crowd behind him. Koko lands a headbutt which seems to hurt him a bit (I’m guessing Profe may have his mask loaded) and Profe hits a knee that sends Koko outside. El Profe hits a few blows to keep Koko outside when Koko tries to get in the ring. Hugo on commentary mentions that although Profe is mainly a manager he is someone that is capable in the ring and to not forget that he was World Junior champion at one point as well. Koko finally gets back in the ring by stunning Profe and hitting a sunset flip into the ring. Profe kicks out and immediately drops an elbow on Koko to cut him off. El Profe maintains control but makes the mistake of missing a diving headbutt of the middle rope. Koko ’birds up’ (I mean, what else do you call it?) and proceeds to go on the attack. Koko rams Profe’s head ten times into the turnbuckle and fakes Profe out with a reverse crossbody attempt. This leads to a great dropkick off the top rope and a sunset flip to give Koko the win to the crowd’s delight. A fun match with a hot crowd and two wrestlers just masterfully playing to the crowd.

MD: This was during the period where Koko was fired after the Jim Troy altercation. Profe was in full stooging, stalling, and feeding mode too, but then that’s part of what makes Puerto Rico so great. Great spot early on where Koko teased taking off the mask and Profe hefted himself back to sit on the top turnbuckle in retreat only for Koko to toss him right off. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that done out quite like that. The fans loved the idea of Koko maybe getting Profe’s mask off, but he ended up taking out his own throat on a missed corner splash. That let Profe take over, first targeting the throat and then with a king of the mountain segment. Koko hulked up big with his birdman arm waves and absolutely took Profe’s head off with a missile dropkick. This was very fun for what it was.

EB: The big match for this Thanksgiving card is La Batalla Final for the held up Universal title. No time limit, no disqualification, there must be a winner, Chicky is banned from ringside and the loser must honor their required stipulation (Colon must retire, Strong must leave Puerto Rico).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsXaBb4DgA0

It’s definitely been quite the run for Steve Strong in Puerto Rico and he looks to keep it going by finally getting rid of Carlos Colon. Hugo is doing the ring announcing and runs down the stipulations for the crowd and presents the combatants (with a loud roar for Carlos Colon). This match video is from a 2000’s Carlos Colon dvd release, so we’re getting a years later commentary team that includes El Profe. Strong has cut his hair since the last time we saw him and it does change the vibe a bit on his look. The crowd is hot as the bell rings and Colon and Strong proceed to switch back and forth on being the aggressor, Strong with clubbing blows to Colon’s back and Carlos with focused kicks to Strong’s legs. It’s clear what each man’s strategy for victory is early on, but it is Carlos that in the first few minutes is able to execute his plan of attack more effectively by working on Strong’s leg.  Strong bails to the outside to regroup but is immediately caught in a small package attempt when he gets back in the ring. Carlos is focused and has been able to be ahead of Strong so far in this match. Strong hasn’t really been able to get an advantage so far, so he tries the approach of goading Carlos into a test of strength. Carlos doesn’t go for it, kicking Strong in the stomach and continuing on the offensive. A frustrated Strong once again goes outside and grabs one of the ringside crowd barriers in an attempt to threaten Carlos with it. Security runs over to get the barricade away from Strong. This is a different dynamic from previous encounters between Carlos and Strong, it almost seems like Strong has been thrown off by Carlos having an answer for Strong so far and Carlos is not afraid of Strong at all.

It looks like Strong may have finally found an opening by catching Carlos with some blows in the corner, but an irish whip results in Strong missing a high knee into the turnbuckle and Colon starts working the leg once more. Strong throws Colon off on the first figure four attempt of the match but Carlos goes right back to attacking Strong. We see a quick shot of some of Carlos’ family in the crowd, as it’s his wife Nancy and two of his children (Stacy and Carly). They’re there supporting Carlos. In the ring, Strong is not able to stay standing due to the attack on his leg and tries to roll outside. Carlos gives chase though, and continues to focus his attack on Strong’s leg. Carlos gets back in the ring as Strong just looks perplexed and lost outside as to how the match is going. Maybe not having Chicky out there is affecting his ability to find an answer to the dominant Colon so far. It looks like Strong has lost one of his most powerful weapons, the ability to inspire fear.

Carlos eventually gets the figure four on Strong but he is able to hold out and fight the hold. A reversal sees Colon suffer the effects of the hold but Carlos manages to reach the ropes to break. Both men struggle to stand but Strong collapses from the damage to his leg. Carlos is hobbling as well, which allows Strong to land a clothesline and a tackle. But Strong’s attacks are coming off as desperate and Carlos starts dodging several of Strong's tackle attempts. Strong is not used to being in this position against an opponent and it’s affecting his strategy. Colon goes back on the attack but Strong hits a DDT to cut Carlos off. This finally gives Strong a clear opening and he hits Colon with a few legdrops. Strong looks to the crowd and it seems he’s starting to regain some of his confidence now that he is in control. Strong adjusts ‘Damian’ on his arm but Carlos counters with a small package attempt for two. Strong goes back on the attack. He sends Carlos to the outside and goes out to attack Colon. It looks like Strong is thinking about trying to injure Carlos by ramming him into the ring apron and then the post. However, Carlos counters and Strong’s the one that gets rammed into the post. Carlos tosses Strong back in the ring, leaps over the top rope and does a cartwheel. Carlos is feeling it and proceeds to do a kick Strong low (the match is no dq after all) and even bites Strong in the face. Crowd starts amping up as it looks like Carlos has the match in hand.  However, Strong counters with a clothesline and covers Colon after a brief offensive flurry for two. Strong hits a piledriver but it gets two. A powerslam attempt gets two. Strong decides to set up his loaded forearm and is able to hit Carlos with it. For the first time all match, Strong starts doing his hand symbols calling upon the powers of his dark gods. Strong pins Carlos but they are too close to the ropes and Colon gets a leg on the rope to stop the pinfall count. Strong is not happy about this and picks Carlos back up. After a few blows Strong puts Carlos up in a back body vice.  Carlos shifts his weight and is able to counter into a bridge for the three count! Strong now has to leave Puerto Rico and Carlos has regained the Universal title once more.
The crowd rushes to celebrate with an exhausted Carlos outside of the ring as an upset Strong goes to grab a piece of the barricade. The crowd is mobbing Carlos and security has to intervene to get them away to allow Carlos to be presented with the title belt. The wave of fans is moving around the ring and headed in Strong’s direction, who wisely backs up and gets inside of the ring. Carlos, who is being helped by a security guard on the outside, decides to get in the ring and attacks Strong before he can get a hit in with the barricade. Strong is chased out of the ring as the crowd once again surrounds Colon to celebrate on the outside. The sadistic one has been vanquished.

MD: For much of this match, it seemed like Strong had lost his magic. He looked bloated, his hair floppy, almost resembling late Wahoo, his gimmicked armguard replaced for tape. He moved a half-step slow. He spent the first seventeen minutes backpeddling, trying to avoid Colon’s shots at his legs, diving and missing attacks, absolutely laden with desperation. This was not the same Steve Strong of a few months earlier. Colon had his number. He survived the figure four, even took over, but something remained missing. The crowd was electric at the start of this, but they only went up so much for Colon’s cartwheel and low blow driven comeback. Then something shifted. Strong took back over. He hit the pile driver. He adjusted something under his arm tape and laid Colon out. He made his devil symbol to the crowd. He was finding himself once again and that fear and dread from his imposing presence permeated through the arena. It was too little and too late, however. He went for the over the shoulder backbreaker and Colon turned it into a pin. It became, once again, a celebratory scene with people rushing Carlos and with Carlos fighting Strong (who had grabbed part of the guardrail) off to vanquish him one last time. I wouldn’t say it was an auspicious ending to Strong’s year of terror, but just enough of that magic came back at the very end to make Colon’s win feel special.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the clock is almost at midnight for 1989 as we head into December.

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Aniversario Fallout

Week 12: Aniversario Fallout

EB: Aniversario from Bayamon is over but we still have one final piece from Mayaguez to look at. It’s the Universal title match between Carlos Colon and Sadistic Steve Strong. Due to the result of the title match the previous night in Bayamon, the roles are reversed and it is Colon that is the defending champion going into the match. And as was the case in Bayamon where a stipulation (barbed wire) was added to the match in the final lead up, this match also has an added stipulation. In this case, Colon vs Strong in Mayaguez is now a cage match.

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

We join the match in progress as Carlos appears to be applying the same strategy of trying to take out one of Strong’s legs in order to set up the figure four leglock. There’s no barbed wire to punish your opponent with, but the cage still makes sure that there is no escape and (more importantly) no easy interference. The crowd cheers on Carlos as he keeps working on Strong’s leg and, after keeping the attack focused on the leg, eventually Carlos manages to get the figure four leglock on after hitting a body slam on Strong. The crowd amps up as Colon keeps the pressure on. Strong continues to fight and resist the hold as a close-up on Carlos reveals he is bleeding from his forehead. Strong manages to reverse the hold, with the pressure now being applied to Carlos. In  pain, Carlos manages to reach the ropes in order to get the hold broken. Carlos tries to get up but Steve Strong quickly hits a succession of three elbow drops to the back of Colon’s head and neck to keep him down. Strong sends Colon into the ropes and hits him with a clothesline (which happens to be the arm he has ‘Damian’ on). Strong hits another elbow drop and goes for the over, but decides to pull up Colon at two. Strong wants to deliver more punishment and finish off Carlitos. After keeping Carlos down with a headbutt, Strong backs off and repositions ‘Damian’ on his arm. His intent is clear, Strong wants to hit Carlos with the loaded clothesline. Strong sends Carlos into the ropes, but Carlos blocks the clothesline and hits a crucifix on Strong for the three count. The crowd goes wild in celebration at Carlos getting the win.

MD: Between the blood running down Colon’s face, the chip on Strong’s shoulder, and the fact the two of them were trapped in the cage, there was almost certainly a great match here. We just get a few minutes of the finish. Where we come in, Colon had turned the corner towards the comeback after what was almost certainly a grisly beating and both wrestlers were throwing kicks. Colon got the advantage, targeted the leg, and put on what felt like it would be an absolutely definitive and inescapable figure four. There was nowhere to go and no one to help Strong. However, he may no longer be champion, but he was still an absolute beast and he was able to turn it around and then retake the advantage, including a massive lariat. When he went for it again, however, Colon climbed up into a crucifix pin to steal a win. A good couple of minutes but the real transcendent serenity to be found in a match like this is always in the beatdown and that glorious moment of comeback and those things we don’t have.

EB: With Aniversario weekend complete, let’s review how things stand and how they would develop in CSP throughout the month of October.
With their Caribbean tag title win, the team of Los Mercenarios will become a regular presence in the territory. The team of Angel Acevedo and Jerry Morrow would eventually face the former champions of Miguelito Perez and Huracan Castillo Jr but would be successful in holding on to their newly won Caribbean tag titles.

Super Medico retained his World Junior title against Gran Mendoza (who was a replacement for Jeff Jarrett). A couple of weeks after the event, Super Medico faced a new challenger in Brett Sawyer. This was a tecnico vs tecnico match which we join in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OfmqTJCBIk

Medico and Sawyer are circling each other in a face-off as Hugo on commentary mentions how this match has been quite the showcase of technical wrestling and it’s been a tremendous back and forth between the two tecnicos. Sawyer gets a small package off a lock up for a two count. They lock up again and this time Medico gets a two count of an inside cradle. Medico tries to grab Sawyer's leg, but it is countered into a back slide. However, Medico’s legs land in the ropes and the ref signals at Sawyer to break the pin attempt (which Sawyer does after a delay). Medico seems a bit annoyed at the delay in releasing the back slide, as Sawyer circles the ring a bit and seems to make a comment to someone in the crowd. Sawyer hits a side headlock which Medico breaks by sending Sawyer into the ropes. A series of criss-crosses leads to Medico getting a sunset flip on Sawyer but Sawyer manages to keep his balance and does not fall down. Instead, Sawyer maneuvers both he and Medico (who is still trying to turn him over into the sunset flip pin attempt) near the ropes. Sawyer sits down on Medico’s chest for a pinfall attempt. As the referee starts counting, Sawyer grabs onto the top rope with both hands in order to gain more leverage and prevent Medico from kicking out. The ref counts three and we have a new World Junior champion.

Post-match we get an unexpected development. As the ref raises Sawyer's hand indicating he is the winner, Medico comes over visibly upset and complains to the ref that Sawyer was grabbing the ropes. You can also see some of the crowd also visibly pointing at the ref and trying to signal what had happened (and we even see a few things get thrown into the ring). Medico starts arguing with Sawyer about him holding the top rope while Sawyer signals that the three count was made. Sawyer lifts the belt and Medico continues arguing with Sawyer about what he did (as the crowd also seems to be complaining as well). Both wrestlers leave the ring and, since it just so happens both are tecnicos, they are heading to the same locker room. Medico continues arguing and shoving Sawyer about what happened as the crowd starts throwing things at Sawyer. The argument and shoving by Medico continues all the way into the dugout, up the stairs and into the locker room. Sawyer sits in a chair and ignores Medico who continues asking him why did he hold onto the ropes. Medico gets more angry as Sawyer just ignores Medico and tries to untie his boots. Eventually, Sawyer stands up and asks if Medico has a f###ing problem and Medico shoves Sawyer down. Sawyer gets up and the two start fighting in the locker room. After a while, the tecnicos rush in to break it up and you can see both Sawyer and Medico are bleeding from their foreheads. This situation has gotten out of hand.

MD: Interesting stuff. Sawyer, Buzz’s brother who we know from Georgia and Portland primarily, is another guy who was past his last big run but still had something left to add. Despite this being for the Junior title, there was a real Buddy Rose vibe to Brett here. He had extra girth and looked like the heat was getting to him, but could still go on fast exchanges. The post match angle in the locker room was intense. I’m sure they weren’t playing off of it specifically, but I can imagine how the backstage area would feel just a bit more out of control during this period, right? It certainly felt novel and like things were getting very much out of hand.

EB: As result of the ending of this match and resulting altercation in the locker room, a rematch was scheduled between the new champion Brett Sawyer and the former champion Super Medico.

Mark and Chris Youngblood made a triumphant return to Puerto Rico at Aniversario by capturing the World tag team titles from the team of Rip Rogers and Abudda Dein. The former champs would split up after Aniversario, with Abudda Dein returning to singles competition. Rip Rogers would attempt to regain the World tag titles from the Youngbloods but with a new partner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yE9pqYKsfA

Rip’s partner is none other than Chicky Starr, sporting a new haircut thanks to his loss to TNT at Aniversario. The match is joined in progress as we see Rip and Chicky use an object that they picked up from the ground and attack Mark Youngblood. Hugo on commentary is saying that the blame for this goes to whoever was the irresponsible fan (and he stresses irresponsible a couple of times) that threw the object near the ring. Chickly and Rip maintain the advantage thanks to their cheating, with Rip putting Mark into a sleeperhold (as Hugo on commentary exhorts young viewers to not play around and use these holds which can really mess you up). Mark manages to break the hold and tags in Chris, who tees off on Rip and Chicky. All four men end up in the ring. An attempt to smash the rudos together leads to Chicky and Chris crashing into each other instead.  Chris ends up loopy outside the ring as Mark is double teamed by Rip and Chicky. Mark is held by Chicky and Rip goes for a clothesline, but Mark dodges and Chicky is hit instead. In the confusion after the hit, Chris comes off the top rope with a crossbody onto Rip. Chicky breaks it up at two. However, as the ref takes Chicky out of the ring, the Youngbloods are able to hit a slingshot splash onto Rip for the pinfall win. The Youngbloods retain the World tag team titles.

MD: We just get the last few minutes including a hot tag from Mark to Chris and the finish. The bit of beatdown we see looked good; Chicky was in rare form, his hair cut, looking from afar like the slimiest Bob Backlund imaginable. He had some great strikes and stooged like a champ too. Rip was Rip, so he partnered with him well, but Chicky made him look almost mundane. Anyway, the Youngbloods kept pressing post-hot tag with Chicky saving Rip until he tripped on the ropes and couldn’t anymore.

EB: However, Rip’s time in CSP would soon wrap up, with Rogers losing the Caribbean singles title he held to Miguelito Perez in early November. As for Rip’s former tag partner, Abudda Dein would find himself back in singles competition but with a heavier scrutiny around his suspicious boot. The controversy surrounding Abudda’s boot would come to a head when during a match an attempt was made to uncover if the boot was loaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4nj_FF7S64

Dein’s opponent is prelim wrestler Tito Carrion, who doesn't have much luck in this match. Dein dominates throughout, at one point tossing Carrion to the floor and taking advantage of the ref making the count on Tito to load up his boot. Dein hits a boot to the head on Tito when he tries to get in the ring and proceeds to hit him with another after Tito gets thrown back in. Dein wins the match as Tito is busted open. Dein continues to attack the worse for wear Carrion post match, leading to Invader coming out to try to make the save. His first attempt is foiled by Profe grabbing onto Invader’s leg and allowing Dein to hit Invader with a  boot to the head. Invader is stunned outside as Dein continues to attack Tito, but eventually manages to get to his feet. Invader punches Profe and bodyslams him on the floor, and then gets in the ring to go right after Dein. Invader knocks Dein down and immediately grabs him by the leg to try to get Dein’s boot off. Will we finally discover if that boot is loaded? Dein fights Invader off but Invader manages to knock Dein back down and once again tries to unlace Dein’s boot. The boot is off! And Invader immediately hits Dein with it on the head, which busts Dein open. Invader tries to hit Dein again but a kick to the groin by Dein stops Invader. Dein grabs his boot and hightails it out of the ring before the boot can be checked. Dein helps Profe to his feet and they both amble back to the locker room as Invader is left laying in the ring from the kick to the groin and bleeding from his head.

MD: Look, Tito wasn’t a world beater, but he at least put up a fight in there, and that boot had to be loaded from a kayfabe perspective, because the stomp that Dein won with didn’t look like much of anything at all. There wasn’t any tricky loading or big wind up or anything. Just a sort of casual stomp and the pin. The post match was spirited though, with Dein bleeding in a moment where you wouldn’t think that he would (as the visual focus would have been on the boot instead). Things definitely feel chaotic this week as they heat things up again post Aniversario.

EB: This incident would lead to a short feud between Abudda Dein and Invader, one where Abudda was unsuccessful in capturing the Puerto Rico title.

TNT had been successful in retaining his name and paint, while also remaining the TV champion. However, will Chicky Starr drop the enmity with TNT after what happened at Aniversario? We’ll find out shortly.

Speaking of Chicky Starr, his Club Deportivo had been operating basically with only Chicky and Steve Strong as active members for most of the summer and fall. But after experiencing a less than stellar Aniversario with the loss of the Universal title and failing to strip TNT of his name and paint, it was time to bring in reinforcements. The first such reinforcement is someone we saw return at Aniversario, one Manny Fernandez. Manny would not waste time in terms of making an impression on TV.

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

Chicky is with Manny and wearing a cap to hide his haircut. This is a nice back and forth match where Manny manages to get the win after Super Medico misses a crossbody attempt and gets hit with Manny’s elbow to the face. Manny Fernandez is back in Puerto Rico and who knows what he and Chicky will get up to.

MD: They covered a lot of ground in around 6 minutes here making for a very complete TV match. Of note, Manny and Chicky continue to have natural chemistry; Chicky was out there with a hat. Super Medico outwrestled Manny early. Manny took over with a kick to the gut and leaned hard on him with a headbutt and knee drop. Super Medico fought out of a chinlock and kept pressing, but Manny finally shut him down. Just a nice example of a compact star vs star TV match that would have worked on WWF or WCW TV in 89.

EB: Chicky would also bring in Leo Burke as the newest member of his Club Deportivo. Leo was billed as the true master of the figure four leglock and he would put his mastery of the hold on display in his matches. One such display was against a returning Ron Starr (Chicky’s ‘cousin’ who had a falling out with Chicky the previous year).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESAigD-MjtU&t=23s

We’ll talk more about Ron Starr and his history in CSP in a future installment. Here he is making his return to Puerto Rico as a tecnico and is taking on his ‘cousin's’ newest client in Leo Burke. We join the match in progress as Burke launches Ron into the ropes, leading to both men colliding and falling down. Ron makes it to his feet first and hits a couple of headbutts to knock Leo Burke down. A pinfall attempt gets two. Hugo on commentary calls Burke the master of the figure four. Burke gets an abdominal stretch on Ron, but Ron counters it into a side legsweep for a two count. After exchanging a few blows, Burke launches Ron into the ropes but Ron counters with a knee to the face which sends Burke to the outside of the ring. Ron gives chase and hits a series of chops on Burke, However, Ron misses a charge on Leo (who is standing in front of the ringpost), which leads to Ron hitting his knee on the post. Back in the ring, Burke capitalizes on the injured leg and puts Ron in the figure four. Ron gives up but Burke refuses to break the hold as Ron continues to yell in pain. Eventually the ref is able to get Burke to break the hold. Chicky gets in the ring and calls off Burke as the ref warns Chicky about Burke not breaking the hold. An impressive win for the master of the figure four.

MD: We have the last almost three minutes of this and, look, when I think of Ron Starr, I think of Leo Burke and when I think of Leo Burke, I think of Ron Starr. Just the definition of journeymen who didn’t get major runs in the 80s in the most traditionally watched territories but always delivered in some of the smaller ones. Starr missed a knee on the outside and crashed into the post and Burke got over that figure four by making him give up to it. Chicky with the hat was giving me Paul E vibes a bit.

EB: Chicky wasn’t the only manager bringing in new reinforcements. El Profe had lost the services of Ivan Koloff after Aniversario but had decided to refocus Abudda Dein in the singles ranks. In addition, Profe also brought in a new wrestler to the territory by the name of Gary Albright.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkITdkl9Y0

The video opens with Profe offering the fans or anyone who dares $5,000 if they are able to break Gary Albright’s hold. It appears no one takes up the challenge, so the match against Armando Fernandez  begins. Hector Moyano puts over the physical size advantage Albright has on his opponent. Eliud Gonzalez also mentions that Albright’s hold must be a very good one if Profe is willing to offer $5,000 to anyone who can break the hold. This match is a showcase for the new arrival, with Albright showing off his size and strength. The commentators do not know what the mystery hold is but catch on when Albright slaps it on (it seems to be some sort of half nelson hold). A quick and impressive submission win for El Profe’s newest stable member.

MD: Man did Albright ever make Armando look like a child in there. He was just huge and imposing. I can’t imagine anyone challenging him for that $5000. Not all of his offense hit with the oomph you’d want (the back elbow and the shoulder thrusts in the corner especially) but he was so big it almost didn’t matter. Armando got one (1) punch in for the entire match and that felt about right to me.

EB: As we saw after the Universal title match in Bayamon, Steve Strong was interviewed wanting another match against Carlos Colon. A rematch was signed between Carlos Colon and Steve Strong for October 28. Let’s go to that match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_MhXGNmh8Q

This footage of the match is from a Clasicos airing many years later, so the commentary doesn’t really add much in terms of at the time context. We join the match with Strong and Colon fighting outside of the ring. Strong has the better of Colon and lifts him up on his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Strong proceeds to go towards one of the ring posts and proceeds to ram Colon’s left shoulder into it. It’s the shoulder that had been previously injured and it seems Strong’s gameplan is to try to take it out again. Strong shoves Colon into the ring. A bleeding Carlos is trying to gather himself on the mat as Strong gets up on the middle turnbuckle and taunts the crowds with his hand pose. Colon gets to his feet but Strong charges him with a tackle and hits a ddt to put Colon down. Strong hits an elbow drop and covers but only gets two. Strong hits a shoulder tackle and a legdrop, but again only gets two. Strong staggers Colon with some clubbing blows to the head and proceeds to bite the cut on Colon’s forehead. Strong misses an elbow drop and Colon starts getting fired up as the shoulder strap comes down. A series of punches and headbutts leads to Carlos hitting a cartwheel to fire up the crowd. Carlos continues on the offensive attack but Strong manages to counter with a clothesline to knock Colon down for a two count. Strong hits a nice piledriver on Carlos and slowly makes the pin.  It only gets two which frustrates Strong, who decides to go to the corner and adjust ‘Damian’ on his forearm. Another clothesline and elbow drop only get two and Strong is really starting to get frustrated with the ref. Strong hits a back bodydrop on Carlos and sends him into the ropes for another one. This second one ends up with Carlos being backdropped onto the referee Isaac Rosario and knocking him out.of the ring. A clothesline attempt from Strong is ducked by Carlos, who hits a back suplex on Strong (the same maneuver he used to win at Aniversario in Bayamon). Both men are down in the ring. Chicky, who has been outside seconding Strong, gets close to the ring and the camera catches him loading something into Strong's arm protector. Chicky then casually walks away, passing behind Isaac Rosario on the outside. El Vikingo runs into the ring to take over referee duties as both Colon and Strong have gotten to their feet. Strong hits a loaded clothesline on Carlos and gets the pin! It looks like Strong has regained the Universal title. Vikingo goes to hand the title belt to Strong but Isaac Rosario makes his way back into the ring and stops Vikingo. Isaac tries to get at Strong’s arm protector to find the foreign object in it but Strong yanks his arm away. Vikingo starts pointing at Strong’s arm and also asks to check it but Strong refuses. Rain starts falling as Vikingo calls for the bell to ring and it seems both Rosario and Vikingo are conferring. Strong refuses to have his arm checked and leaves the ring, as El Vikingo checks on Carlos and goes to consult with the commission members at ringside. While this is going on, the camera catches Chicky putting something away in his pocket. Strong makes a motion for them to check his arm protector as Chicky tries to shoo the camera away. The ringside doctor tries to check on the bleeding Carlos. However, Carlos rolls out of the ring and makes an immediate charge at Strong. Strong kicks Colon in the gut and walks away with Chicky and security to the locker room as the rain keeps falling. Carlos is then helped by the ringside doctor as he makes his way in the opposite direction of Strong.

MD: This was all pretty iconic. It is the best Strong has looked to me so far, as he’d really grown into his role. Looks wise, when he smirks, he comes off exactly like a slimy jock 80s movie villain should. We come in with them brawling on the outside, but Strong soon takes over and hits all of his big stuff. Carlos comes back including the cartwheel but Strong actually cuts him off and scores the pile driver only for Colon to kick out. Definitely rousing stuff here. They kind of goof the ref bump, which was a good idea (Colon crashing into the ref during a back body drop) and have to run the spot twice, but the end effect is Chicky loading up the arm guard for a loaded clothesline, the win, and then the contested finish. These two could work together extremely well by this point.

EB: So after that ending, who is the Universal champion? Well, due to the way the match ended the decision was made by the commission to hold up the Universal title. Neither Carlos Colon nor Steve Strong is the champion. With the title held up and the status of what will be done unclear, tempers would flare during a taping of Campeones de la Lucha Libre, a show where Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr served as co-hosts with Hugo Savinovich. The two would start arguing over who tried to steal the win in the Universal title match (Colon angry at Chicky’s interference by loading Strong’s arm protector and Chicky claiming that they stole the title from Strong who had won fair and square). The argument got heated and..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhUiWoChU2s

Hugo explains that they will show us an incident that happened between Carlitos and Chicky Starr in Salinas. We cut to Chciky Starr (wearing his crown) saying that he didn’t try to steal anything, you’re the only thief here (referring to Carlos), all the public knows this. Carlos reaches over arguing with Chicky, leading to Chicky yelling ‘Don't touch me! You don’t have to touch me! Simply this, you stole that title from Steve Strong and you know this well! You know what I think of you? (slaps Carlos in the face) This is what I think of you!’ Carlos grabs Chicky and hits him with a headbutt as Chicky’s crown flies off his head. Carlos goes after Chicky by tearing at his tuxedo jacket, but Chicky surprises Carlos with either powder or a spray blast in the face. Carlos is blinded and down. Chicky starts motioning to someone off camera and we see Manny Fernandez run in. Both Manny and Chicky attack Carlos, with Manny hitting piledriver and both men tearing away at Colon’s clothes. Manny continues attacking the bleeding Colon as it becomes clear that Chicky has a spray can as he starts spraying Carlos with it. They continue attacking and tearing away at Colon’s clothing but help finally arrives in the form of Carlos Colon Sr (or Don Carlos if you prefer) and a few of the tecnicos. Chicky and Manny make a run to the dugout with Don Carlos giving chase. Don Carlos tries to take a swing at Manny’s back but is unable to stop his running momentum and just completely eats a fall into the dugout (Hugo on commentary: ‘Wow, Carlitos’ dad fell down’). Carlitos is left in a pretty bad way as JYD and Invader are shown helping Don Carlos back from the dugout and over to where Carlitos is. TNT checks on Carlos and is joined by Invader (you can see Chicky’s crown is still lying on the ground near Carlitos). JYD is making sure Don Carlos is okay, but Don Carlos waves him off and motions to JYD that he should check on Carlitos. Invader and TNT place Carlitos on a stretcher to carry him back to the locker room so he can receive medical attention.

MD: Just a great, bloody angle with an explosive pile driver, a torn suit, and real concern as they brought in Colon’s dad. One thing to note here is that even before Manny attacked, Chicky had already thrown the powder in Carlos’ face. His minions and cronies would come and go but Chicky was the constant and they had to keep him strong, even if it was just in an underhanded sort of way.

EB: As November began, the situation regarding the held up title would soon begin to clear up. So let’s go to Hugo welcoming us to what is either the Nov 4 or Nov 11 tv show and learn what the latest updates and goings on are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w0gB_23wk8

Hugo gives a few updates. First he talks about the World Junior title situation, where he mentions that Brett Sawyer did not appear for the rematch with Super Medico scheduled for the previous week. Therefore, it was ruled that Super Medico regained the title via forfeit. Hugo also runs down the card they have tonight that will inaugurate the new arena in Yabucoa (we’ll look at the card lineup shortly). The big news is an update regarding the Universal title situation.Chicky Starr has thrown out a challenge on behalf of Steve Strong for a match to decide who the Universal champion will be. The catch? If Carlos loses he must retire but if Steve Strong loses then Strong will leave Puerto Rico. There must be no time limit, no disqualification and there must be a winner. Both Colon’s and Chicky’s lawyers are going over the contract for this proposed match and we just have to see if Carlos will accept this challenge.

Strong and Chicky would express their discontent at the title being held up in a promo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ48_u8W2XQ

After the first promo we see a brief clip of Hugo announcing that the title has been held up and also see the version of the show opening around this time. It includes a few second clips of the chain match between Invader and Ivan Koloff and the Caribbean tag title match between Perez and Castillo and Los Mercenarios from Aniversario. There is also a second bonus promo from a few months before when Strong was still Universal champion and he and Chicky were going to face Invader and JYD in a tag team match.

For those curious, this is the card scheduled that night for Yabucoa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76LfVJOUMg

The main event is a cage match between Carlos Colon and Chicky Starr (not surprised after the attack we saw). We are getting a rematch between Sawyer and new champion Super Medico for the World Junior title and it also looks like Chicky has not forgotten about what happened with TNT at Aniversario, as his stable member Leo Burke is facing TNT tonight. Here we have Leo Burke talking about his upcoming match with TNT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDf2ZwBhII

And if you’re wondering, the Angel of Death did appear that weekend as Chicky’s newest acquisition, but it’s a case of grand opening and grand closing with this tenure. Still, we at least get a Sports Shop segment out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WgElsTjzVA

Before this specific tv episode ended, we got our answer regarding Carlos Colon accepting Chicky Starr’s challenge. The answer is yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vQs7cQAQpM

Hugo is with Carlos and Chicky as they have the contract for the proposed Universal title match with them on a table. Both men have agreed with the contract stipulations and now it is just a matter of making it official by signing the copies of the contract. Hugo tells Chicky to behave while he explains to the viewers what is going on and goes over the conditions. No time limit, no disqualification and there must be a winner. The winner gets the Universal title and the loser must hold to their specific stipulation. If Carlos loses he must retire. If Strong loses he must leave Puerto Rico. Carlos and Chicky make some final comments before making the match official. What will be known as La Batalla Final (The Final Battle) is now official for Thanksgiving Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDf2ZwBhII

As part of the hype for the cage match that night, we get a Chicky Starr music video and promos from Chicky and Carlos talking about the cage match.

First the music video.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajQ9Zj8Mt58

Chicky starts by saying that if Carlos thinks he is going to finish Chicky Starr, he’s not going to get it since he and El Club Deportivo will finish with Colon first. After the music video, we get Chicky reading a proclamation where he says “The king proclaims for the year 1989, the king of wrestling Chicky Starr proclaims that the year 1989 will be the final year of Carlos colon as a professional wrestler. The king has spoken.”
We also get promos from Carlos and Chicky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og2TY1q7up4

Chciky wants Carlos to understand that he has a lot of experience in cage matches. So does Carlos, but he will immediately be on Carlos as soon as the door closes. He promises that any trick could come from his sleeve and he will walk out of the winner. Carlos will have to be taken out on a stretcher and to the hospital ‘you damned filthy black’. (Like I’ve mentioned before, Chicky would sometimes go over the line insulting his opponents).  

Carlos says that he doesn’t care if Chicky brings objects to the ring, inside the cage Chicky can’t run, Carlos wants to give Chicky what he deserves and he’ll give Chicky a beating like never before to avenge what Chicky’s done to him. Hugo also asks Carlos about the upcoming match on Thanksgiving Day and whether he feels he has made a mistake agreeing to the stipulations. Carlos does not think he made a mistake but he's aware it’s a serious match and of the gravity of the stipulations if he loses. He’s not ready to retire and even if he were, he’s not going to let people like Steve Strong and Chicky Starr dictate when that will be. He studied the contract and talked it over with his wife and family, and he feels this is the only way he will be able to banish this beast from Puerto Rico. He’s confident, and with the crowd’s and the supreme being’s help, he will walk out the winner.

MD: Some scattered thoughts on these last clips. It’s a shame Sawyer wasn’t there for the match because that was such a hot angle in my mind. It’s just the risk one takes with this stuff. Card is Subject to Change nowhere more than Puerto Rico it seems. They were amazing at increasing the stakes in that Memphis sort of way, though. The gimmick going from Colon just surviving Strong and getting the title to him potentially having to leave Puerto Rico and retire if he loses would definitely inspire attention. And Chicky coming to a formal contract signing in the crown and robe is pure Chicky. I haven’t actually seen an Angel of Death match in ages, but the gimmick of the bionic hand should have worked well in PR and he was definitely looking like a giant Gary Hart at this point.

Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the clock is winding down on 1989 as we head towards The Final Battle. Who will finally triumph between Carlos Colon and Steve Strong?

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: It’s Aniversa… Please Stand By

Week 10: It’s Aniversa… Please Stand By

EB: It is September 16, 1989 in Puerto Rico, it is the day of Aniversario 89. We’ve seen Sadistic Steve Strong’s run as Universal champion and the havoc he has caused. Carlos Colon, the man Strong dethroned and injured is getting his first chance to regain the Universal title since coming back from the shoulder injury. We also have a chain match between Invader #1 and Ivan Koloff, a match between TNT and Original TNT for the rights to the TNT identity, and Manny Fernandez and Invader #3 will finally face off a year and half after the infamous blood geyser incident. So let’s head on to Estadio Juan Ramon Loubirel to enjoy the show…

The show isn't happening. Due to the incoming threat of Hurricane Hugo, the governor of Puerto Rico issued a curfew order so that the residents of the island could prepare themselves for the hurricane’s expected arrival around the early morning of September 18. Due to the curfew order, Aniversario 89 cannot take place. The decision was made to postpone Aniversario until the following Saturday.

We go to the Sunday September 17 TV episode, where the news about Aniversario being postponed one week due to the curfew was confirmed and several interviews aired regarding the show now being the next Saturday.

The first block of interviews features Abudda Dein and Rip Rogers, the Youngbloods and Manny Fernandez (with Manny saying in Spanish “The bull has arrived, and this bull arrives like a hurricane”).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phhGSPp_Yq4

Our second block of interviews features Jeff Jarrett, Super Medico, Ivan Koloff, Vitin Alicea (told you he’d pop every now and then), Kevin Von Erich, and reporter Lysette Santiago (who will be serving as the backstage interviewer for the PPV broadcast).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S3PbwCoFRA

Super Medico mentions that while Jarrett has one more week to get ready, so does he. Medico knows that Jarrett already is a double champion (having two World Junior titles) and he wants to become a triple champion, but that’s not going to happen on the isle of enchantment. He is the WWC World Junior champion and, when that bell rings, he expects to walk out still the champ.
Vitin does an in character promo talking about the postponement, saying that Steve Strong better watch out because Carlitos Colon will ‘fill his face full of fingers’ and end this once and for all. Vitin will even bring his protege along to watch it all unfold, just in case if Carlitos can't do it then his protege will. So he expects everyone there next Saturday and does a pose to end the promo.

Lysette Santiago will serve as the backstage interviewer at the PPV. Hugo says they are very proud to have Lysette with them for the broadcast and Lysette takes the opportunity to invite the fans to be there with them next week for Aniversario. She'll be there to provide all of the important information. Hugo mentions it’ll be interesting because we will have a woman going backstage into the locker room. Lysette says it's not just because of being in the locker room but also because she’ll bring information just a bit beyond what your eyes can see. The fans will see things a bit more up close and get to know their favorite wrestlers better.  

Our last block of interviews features words from our main event match participants, Carlos Colon and Sadistic Steve Strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0lTbCsv9NI

Hugo mentions that Carlos’ title aspirations are on hold for a few days but we'll find out next Saturday who will leave as the Universal champion. Who did this postponement favor, Steve Strong as the champion or Carlitos as the challenger? Carlos responds by saying that Steve Strong was saved by Hurricane Hugo. ‘The agony is long, but death is assured’, Carlos went last night to Loubriel stadium to defeat Steve Strong, and he will go back there next Saturday with the same focus, only that he will be a bit more prepared since he has seven more days to get ready. Carlos guarantees that Steve Strong will fall defeated next Saturday, just as he was supposed to last night. Strong follows with his promo.

MD: A few quick notes on this. One, Steve Strong says “Sadisticism,” which is up there with Destrucity. Second, Chris Youngblood’s mask is amazing. If he wrestled in that thing regularly, he’d have been a much bigger star. Third, it’s absolutely jarring to be watching Puerto Rican wrestling and suddenly have Simply Irresistible Jeff Jarrett lighting up the screen. And finally, certainly not to make light of what would happen, but here, before the fact, I’m kind of annoyed none of the heels, not even Ivan Koloff, conflated the hurricane with Savinovich. All of this was effective hype in my book.

EB: In the early morning of September 18, Hurricane Hugo passed through Puerto Rico. The hurricane caused major damage to the eastern and northeastern areas of the island. Here is a video looking back at what Hurricane Hugo left in its wake taking us through some of the before, during and after of the hurricane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyeLYPd_J6Y

Because of the destruction Hurricane Hugo caused in the east and metro areas, the decision was made to postpone Aniversario once again. We go to the Saturday September 23 tv show which opened with this announcement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXIIXPNkj3Q

Hugo opened the show dressed informally, saying that they share in the pain of all the families that are suffering as a result of this catastrophe of Hurricane Hugo. He and several other people involved in the world of wrestling also experienced part of this tragedy (in Hugo's case several windows went flying in the condominium he lives in), but gives thanks that within the misfortune we are still alive and that things weren’t worse than they were. Thank God we’re alive and we have the desire to overcome and keep moving forward. Hugo provides the updated information about what will happen with Aniversario. They originally canceled Aniversario last week thinking of the safety of the fans and their well-being. In that same spirit, after what has happened, they feel they can’t proceed with Aniversario today in that spirit of celebration, when there is such suffering going on with so many families without a home. It’s a decision that will cost the company thousands of dollars since they have contracts and obligations with the contracted talent, but they feel it is the right thing to do despite the expense. It is not the time to celebrate with music, comedy and all that wrestling talent when there are families suffering. The new date will be October 7 at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel, tickets that have already been purchased will be honored for the new date and those that ordered on PPV are automatically updated for the October 7 date. Hugo closes by once again offering their thoughts, love and support to everyone affected before going over what they will see on today’s program.

A similar announcement was made for the west coast version of Superestrellas, which included announcing the new date for Aniversario 89 for Mayaguez (as mentioned in a prior installment, Aniversario at this point would include additional days for other regions of the island, most notably the west coast). We go now to that tv episode to look at some of the promos talking about the main matches of Aniversario 89 and also see if the card has experienced any changes due to the postponement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbpzj90saKo

The show opened with a similar if shorter announcement of the new date for Aniversario 89 in Mayaguez, the date now being October 8. The matches on this show are all older matches since the hurricane prevented the taping of any new matches for TV that week. It also includes previous video packages and promos for Aniversario (slightly edited to try to hide that they referenced the original date for the show).

At the 5:25 mark we get a TNT promo about his match against Original TNT.  The match in Mayaguez is only for the TV title (since the match for the TNT identity is taking place the day before in Bayamon). TNT says he will be ready for anything inside the ring. The TV title belongs to the people of Puerto Rico, he just represents them inside the ring. Remember one thing, “I am the real TNT, I am Puerto Rican and all of those fans in the west are supporting me." And he hopes Chicky Starr doesn’t stick his nose in because he’ll also get what he deserves. This TV title belongs to Puerto Rico. Chicky and Original TNT offer their rebuttal, with Chicky stating that the people will see TNT’s face since they will have taken his name and paint the night before and that they will also arrive with the TV title (having won it the night before) and they will successfully keep it.

At the 24:15 mark we get part of a promo from Carlos Colon, talking about how the injury Strong inflicted on him was likely the worst thing anyone has done to him in his 16 years wrestling here in Puerto Rico (even worse than being blinded by Abdullah). And just as he has avenged what Abdullah and others have done to him, so too he will avenge what Strong did to him. Steve Strong follows with a promo about their match in Mayaguez, including talking about a memory band Strong will wear for Carlos Colon since in Mayaguez Colon will be dead.

We then get the card rundown for the Mayaguez version of the Aniversario card. It’s similar to what is the expected card in Bayamon for October 7, although there are some differences from when we last saw the rundown. First, Gorilla Monsoon is announced as the special ref for the Universal title match. This is actually a development that happened prior to the original card date, but we had not seen it in our rundowns since they are from a few weeks earlier. The matches that have stipulations outside of title defenses do not have them (such as the match for the TNT identity and the chain match between Koloff and Invader #1) since these stipulations are for the main show in Bayamon the day before. The other notable change is the team challenging for the Caribbean tag titles, instead of the Wild Samoans now Castillo and Perez will face the tag team of Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat. This would be Doug’s debut in Puerto Rico but Kroffat had spent 15 months from the beginning of 1988 all the way through March of 89 wrestling on the island (and had even had a feud with Castillo and Perez the year before teaming with Bobby Jaggers that included a hair vs hair match at Aniversario 88).

Our last promos come at the 32:36 mark, where Ivan Koloff with El Profe and Invader #1 talk about their upcoming match. Invader talks about how Koloff humiliated him in his hometown of San Lorenzo when he gave Invader that beating with the chain while Invader was wrestling Original TNT. It’s very easy to attack someone like that. But we will see who is who when they square off face to face for the Puerto Rican title. Invader says he will do what is necessary to walk out as the Puerto Rican champion.
Hugo at the end of the show once again gives thanks that the western region of the island was not affected by the hurricane.

MD: A couple more takeaways here. Hugo was quick to point out that the company was losing thousands on this but that it was what was best for the island. I don’t remember Gorilla Monsoon being involved (in the main event?) previously. Steve Strong had a “memory band” from funerals for Colon and you have to give him credit for how he kept on tweaking the act every week. The Can-Am Express are up against Castillo and Perez now and they called Kroffat “Dandy Dan Kroffat” I think? That wasn’t on my radar.

EB: The Campeones show from that weekend also opened with the announcement of Aniversario being postponed and the tv episode itself had to drop a couple of segments because the tapes were damaged during the hurricane (water got into the place they were being stored).

So with the Aniversario postponement  I guess we’re going to have to wait out this delay until October 7 and 8. Hmm… while we figure out how to fill in the time please watch these commercials featuring some of our local wrestling stars.

First a commercial from the spring/summer of 1988 for a well known fast food chain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVU74yRxD10

And here is a commercial from 1989 for one of the western region’s car dealers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3SBErqVxLM

Looking back at our previous installments of El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, we’ve looked at some of the history of several of the wrestlers that we will be following. But, outside of the feud with Steve Strong, we haven't really done that for Carlos Colon. Since we’re in a postponement delay for Aniversario, let’s go ahead and learn a bit more about ‘El Acrobata de Puerto Rico’ Carlitos Colon.

Carlos Colon is one of the co-owners of CSP and is the top star of the promotion. He has been wrestling in Puerto Rico for 16 years at this point, and has had several rivalries against a who’s who of wrestling. Names such as Ric Flair, Harley Race, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, Stan Hansen, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr. Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher, the Iron Sheik, Ernie Ladd, and many others have faced and been defeated by Carlos Colon. He is the man who defeated the NWA World champion and created the Universal title. He is the Puerto Rican hero and fan favorite, fighting in all types of matches. And although there are people that now say that Carlos only did it because he was the owner, well… it doesn't work if the people do not buy what you’re selling. And for nearly a decade and a half (so far at this point in time), the Puerto Rican fans have been buying into Carlos Colon. So up to this point, not buying that particular talking point.
   
Here is a highlight video from late 1988 featuring Carlos Colon in action against several different opponents, set to the song ‘Soy Boricua’ typically used for the Carlos Colon video packages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gXwPFLUEY

The year 1989 for Carlos Colon started with a huge match on Three Kings Day where Colon managed to vanquish his big rival of the previous two years, one Hercules Ayala. Afterwards, Carlos would start a feud with another Club Deportivo member in Jason the Terrible. This feud, stretching throughout January and February of 89, saw three titles come into plays at different points in the feud, with the Universal, TV and Caribbean titles all being defended at different points, sometimes with two or (in one instance) all three titles being on the line. The feud would reach a climax on February 25 in Carolina, where the Universal and TV titles were both on the line in a barbed wire match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uos29UMh_FE

Carlos is the Universal champion, Jason is the TV champion. Your commentators for this match are Ricky Santana and Dick Slater (this is from a VHS release a couple of years later). Where in the TNT vs Steve Strong match we saw a lot more hesitancy in getting into the barbed wire early on, in this one they jump right into using the barbed wire as a weapon, particularly on Carlos Colon. Jaso has an advantage due to his mask, which protects him from the barbed wire and also adds more of a punch to his headbutts. After a few minutes, Carlos manages to start a short comeback but a low blow from Jason stops Colon’s momentum. Carlos eventually gets the advantage and proceeds to throw Jason into the barbed wire several times, allowing Carlos to take Jason’s mask off. Carlos, wearing the mask, proceeds to continue his attack on Jason and busts him open. From there, it’s all Colon as Jason bleeds profusely. It looks like Chicky Starr is going to try to interfere but a masked TNT runs him out of the arena. It looks like Carlos has the match well in hand but a knee to the head gives Jason a chance to mount one last offensive flurry. Amissed kneedrop gives Carlos an opening though, as the figure four leglock is applied on Jason. Although Jason tries to reverse it, Carlos reverses it back and Jason finally gives up. Carlos gets the win and both titles. Carlos celebrates outside of the ring with TNT as we get one last look at a blood covered Jason.

MD: It’s nice to have a little more context on Colon’s earlier 89 as he’s been out of the project after Strong took him out; he’s the ace of the promotion, after all. This was a grisly piece of business. Jason stomped him down as he was getting into the ring and used the wire liberally once he had control, grinding Carlos back into it. The hope spots here were things like whip reversals. It was the great equalizer despite the difference in size. Colon was taking extra, bloody punishment because the wire was there, but he could handle it and he’d be taking punishment against Jason one way or the other. Finally, Carlos fought his way out of the corner, and it was all the more impressive that it wasn’t a banana peel transition to comeback (though there would be one to set up the finish). The key moments were Carlos stealing the mask and laying in a bunch of headbutts to a bloodied Jason and then Chicky getting chased from ringside. Jason would come back but miss a knee drop off the turnbuckles. That led to the figure-four and Carlos powered through a reversal attempt for a big, impactful win. And hey, as a bonus, Dick Slater’s on commentary and calls “barbed wire” “bobbed wire” a hundred times.

EB: After the feud with Jason ended, Carlos would face the challenge of Abudda Dein.  They would face each other on the big March 4 Regreso de los Grandes card, with a rematch occurring the following week in Caguas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1qc1s7Pfk

This is the March 11 rematch. El Profe is with Abudda, and as Hugo mentions on commentary, Dein is the Puerto Rican champion at the time of the match. Only the Universal title is on the line however. Abudda dominates early but, when the fight goes to the outside, Carlos is able to regain control. They continue fighting on the outside, with Carlos bodyslamming Dein on top of the stacked wood panels that cover the arena floor when not in use. Carlos rams Dein into the ringpost and finally throws him back into the ring. Dein is busted open but manages to regain control when Carlos gets back in the ring. You’ll notice that Abudda wears the pointed toe boots and he is suspected of potentially having loaded boots as well. Dein uses a foreign object to hit Colon in the throat in order to keep the advantage. The ref checks Abudda but does not find the object. After Carlos tries a crossbody pinfall attempt, Dein goes back to using the foreign object to knock Carlos down. Abudda continues in control but an attempt to splash Colon is countered when Carlos lifts his knees. Carlos gets fired up and we see his famous cartwheel as he gets the crowd into it. Carlos attacks the cut on Abudda’s forehead, including punches and biting. Abudda blocks an incoming charge by Colon and goes for the camel clutch, but Carlos almost immediately maneuvers out of it and does a sitting senton onto Abudda’s back. After a brief back and forth, Carlos manages to surprise Abudda with a backslide and get the pin. Carlos retains the Universal title and is set to start a feud with a recent newcomer by the name of Sadistic Steve Strong.

MD: This was really good too! Dein came in with a ton of intensity; sure, some of those elbow strikes showed air but it was a good effort. Colon took over with the bell immediately once they hit the outside and just mauled Dein around the ring with some great wild brawling. I love that Hugo here called an atomic drop an “electric chair”, which is really just a great name for it when you think about it. Dein would come back with a power move or two back inside the ring and then hid the object with Profe’s help to great heat from the crowd. Carlos got his big punching comeback including the cartwheel and they went to a pretty impactful finishing stretch. Just a really good sub-10 minute match that covered a lot of ground.

EB: So we’ve seen Carlos Colon in action, but if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about how Carlos got his start and where he comes from, do we have the special for you. In the lead up to the original date for Aniversario 89, a special looking at Carlos Colon was aired. Get ready to learn more about Carlos Colon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XblZ40d8CVk

We begin with Hugo Savinovich asking several people across different towns in Puerto Rico who they think will win the upcoming match at Aniversario between Carlitos Colon and Steve Strong (with the background music being the Lucha Libre rap song they had made for the Aniversario music video). The first person seems to pick Steve Strong because he has seen how Strong injured Carlos by smashing him against the ringpost and thinks that if Strong was able to do it once he possibly can do it again. Most everyone else asked thinks it’ll be Carlitos Colon, except for the last two kids who say Steve Strong and (for some reason) Ivan Koloff  Hugo (on voiceover) then welcomes us to this special look at Carlitos, as we’ll learn his story, how he got his start and who the ‘Acrobata de Puerto Rico’ is.
We cut to a scene of four men playing dominoes, one of them being Carlitos. Hugo explains that we are in Santa Isabel, the birthplace of Carlitos Colon. Specifically, the neighborhood they are in is Barrio Jauca. The man sitting across from Carlitos is his dad, Carlos Colon Sr. Hugo approaches Don Carlos (in case you’re not aware Don is an honorific used for older men, for women it would be Doña) and greets him. Hugo asks Don Carlos, since they’re recording this documentary for the fans to watch in Puerto Rico and parts of the U.S., what are his thoughts on what his son has accomplished as an athlete, family man and citizen. Don Carlos is very proud of his son, but he knows that Carlitos has a tough match coming up where he is going to have to give it his all. He’s hoping his son will emerge once again the victor. Hugo asks Don Carlos how Carlitos behaved as a kid growing up, to which Don Carlos replies (without missing a beat in playing his hand of dominoes) he was well-mannered, loved sports and very studious. Everyone around here considered him very bright up until he decided to get into the world of wrestling. And now, you can see how far Carlitos has come with God’s help and his own effort. Hugo adds ‘And a tremendous father as well’ before thanking Don Carlos for his time and wishes him luck in the game.'

We then cut to a railroad crossing sign and then see Carlos and his brother Jose Colon walking on some old railroad tracks. They’re talking about an incident that happened when they were younger involving Carlos and what the local residents call ‘la maquina’ (‘the machine’), which we later find out is what they call the sugar cane train that passed through there. Jose goes “Remember Junior when the incident happened, I was with Noel (their other brother) and the guys swimming at the lake when someone showed up with the news you had been run over by the machine.” Two things came to Jose’s mind, first the beating they were going to get and second that Carlos was dead. Carlos points and says remember over there was where the accident happened. Tati was the one that took him to the hospital. Jose mentions that they thought he was dead because you hear that the machine ran Carlos over and you can’t think of Carlos not being dead after hearing that. Carlos says it was a miracle from God and he’s thankful that all he ended up with was losing a part of his big right toe. Jose mentions that it was also lucky that Carlos was wearing their uncle’s shoes which were very big on him and that part of the shoes was what was mainly run over by the machine.
 
We then go to Hugo (I’ve got to say that Hugo’s wearing some choice wardrobe throughout this documentary) who is sitting with a woman looking at a photobook. This is Aida Colon, cousin of Carlos Colon. Hugo asks what age Carlos was in the pictures they’re looking at and they flash on screen two pictures, one at 7 years old and another at 12 years old. Hugo asks Aida about the terrible accident Carlos had with the machine. Aida, who was a nursing student at the time of the accident (and at the time of the interview served as a director of nursing services for the southern region), recounts what she remembers. Her parents called her up since she was a nursing student and told her that the train had run over Carlos’ foot. Since she was a nursing student she had some connections and called to give the emergency room warning that they were coming. When she first heard Carlos was run over by the train, she feared the worst based on past experiences they had in the hospital with accidents related to the train (even mentioning that as recently as a year or so ago a kid was killed in an accident). When they got to the hospital they had already passed Junior (as the family calls Carlitos) into the operating room, which scared her even more. As a nursing student she wasn’t able to get in the OR since they had started surgery but she could go and watch from the observation window. They had to remove part of his toe since it was pretty shredded by the machine, but it was a miracle that nothing worse happened. Hugo tries again to find out if there’s any dirt on Carlos misbehaving as a kid (did he do any pranks, throw rocks?) but Aida says he was a normal kid, very intelligent and a good kid. The community and family are very proud of Carlos’ accomplishments in wrestling, which surprises her since Carlos’ mom didn’t like wrestling when they would watch it on TV.

From Santa Isabel we head to New York City for a special interview with Carlos Colon’s mother Rosa Esther. Hugo (still wearing the choice outfits) says that this is someone he has wanted to interview for a long time and asks her about her family. Roda has four children, Carlos is the oldest and they were all good kids. “Carlitos Colon… (looks at someone off camera smiling, I’m guessing Carlos), well what can I say.”  He was always a well-behaved kid and smart. Hugo asks if he liked sports as a kid but Rosa says she only really noticed it more when Carlos first came to her with the news he was getting into professional wrestling. Hugo asks at what age Carlos moved to NYC and she said that he was 13 when she moved them there. Rosa says Carlos quickly adapted to life in NYC, picking up the language and liking life there. Rosa was asked when did she first see Carlos show interest in becoming a wrestler, Rosa says she found out when Carlos told her. She would take him to see wrestling shows but never would have imagined he would get into that. She was against it from the start but Carlos insisted that was what he wanted to do.

Against her wishes (and despite her best efforts to dissuade him) she finally relented but only with the promise that he would finish school first (she was hoping he’d go to university and still has that idea). She first heard from Carlos about wanting to become a wrestler when he was 14 (not even a year after moving to NYC). He would alternate studying and training at the gym, which was the one thing she liked since that training at the gym kept him off the streets. She thought she would be able to chip away and dissuade him, but it didn;t work. He graduated high school and the very next day went off to Boston to start his pro wrestling career (“he kept very quiet about it and didn’t tell me until he was going, it was literally here is my diploma on Monday and I’m leaving for Boston on Tuesday”). Carlos would visit every month up until he went to Canada where he spent a lot of time in his early career.

Hugo asks, as a mother, how has she handled some of the ups and downs Carlos has experienced as a wrestler. Rosa says she is happy for him with the success he’s found since that is what he wanted to do. She doesn't like the injuries and pain he’s had from wrestling, but she doesn’t want to watch him wrestle and does not plan on ever watching the matches at all. She’s told him that while he’s in wrestling to not dream or dare to ask her to go watch him wrestle, she absolutely refuses to do so. Hugo mentions that he’s recently recovered from shoulder surgery and if he’s maybe mentioned retirement. Rosa starts complaining, saying he’s been at this game for years about telling her when he was retiring. First it was when he turned 36, then it was 38, and then it was 40. Does she still see in Carlos the same hunger to win on this trip compared to previous years? Yes, still with the same hunger to win, no matter the hits he takes Carlos always has the same excitement. The only time he disobeyed her was when he got into wrestling. Hugo then throws out a crazy comment considering that Carlos is sitting off camera. Hugo brings up that he’s made her a grandmother and says (and I quote) “he’s a bit ugly but he’s given you some beautiful grandchildren… don’t tell him I called him ugly”. Rosa says Carlos is a good dad, a good son and a good husband. Hugo thanks Rosa for allowing them to interview her since the public always wanted to meet her. Hugo asks about the upcoming match which is considered dangerous, Rosa says she doesn’t want him to do it (as always) but Carlos is going to do it anyway (as always). He’s doing what he loves and one is happy doing what they love.

We then see Carlos and his mother walking to the market, as Carlos on voiceover talks about how hard his mother worked and scrimped and saved in order to provide for him and his siblings. His mom was always a fighter and it’s from her he gets that fighting spirit. The market hasn’t really changed although the prices have gotten more expensive. A Steve Strong promo follows this, as we are after all on the verge of Aniversario.

We remain in the NYC area as we get to meet Barba Roja, Carlos Colon’s trainer and as Carlos calls him like a second father to him (since he got there when he was 13 years old). Hugo says he’s heard a lot about Barba Roja from several wrestlers that had trained with him. Hugo once again tried to get the dirt about Carlos being a mischievous kid, but Barba Roja isn’t biting. He says that the case of Carlitos is a very special one. A week before Carlos first showed up at his gym, one of the young guys from the gym died in an accident in New Jersey, it was Isaac Rosario’s brother. They called the young man ‘Silencioso’ because he was always so quiet. When Carlitos came in through the door a week later, they all were petrified because he was the spitting image (although younger) of the recently deceased Silencioso. Barba Roja had a few kids at the gym and that was when he started working with Carlitos. Hugo talks about the work that goes into training and also mentions that Barba Roja is from Argentina. At that, the background music for some reason changes to Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.

Barba Roja talks about some of the training Carlos did, and how shortly after Carlos started they sent one of the Puerto Rico guys at the gym (not Carlos) to Europe who wrestled as El Indio Vega over there. They were able to save Vega from the streets and get him off drugs, which was a challenge but that was what they did with the kids. Barba Roja says that Carlos had a certain natural ability for wrestling, so he was able to pick things up quickly. You have to make sure the students don’t develop bad habits. Hugo says he heard Barba Roja was very strict but that is why his trainees haven been successful. They talk about his training philosophy and how you have to learn how t- manage each student specifically with regards to training. Barba Roja is very proud of his pupil’s accomplishments and also with himself because he was able to do something with Carlos. “I polished a diamond that maybe someone else wouldn't have been able to polish the way I did”. Hugo talks about the upcoming match with Steve Strong, and considering Carlos is coming off shoulder surgery, what advice would Barba Roja give? Barba says it’s about remembering your training and coordinating mind and body with the plan you want to execute. Barba Roja talks about how he started in lighter weight classes and that the wrestling style in his day was different than now. Hugo finishes the interview by thanking Barba Roja for the work he’s done with Carlos and invites him to come over to Puerto Rico sometime and be at some of the matches (I wonder if Barba Roja will take them up on that offer?). He also asks what did the teacher feel to be reunited with his student? Barba Roja says that he feels both felt the same thing, how do you describe the feeling with someone you in a sense helped raise. They close the interview and show Carlos and Barba Roja hugging. 

After a brief clip of Carlos training in NYC, it’s back to Santa Isabel where they have a ring set up for Carlos to train in. Invader #1 and Isaac Rosario are there and Hugo speaks with Isaac about his relationship with Carlos. Isaac’s known him since Carlos was 13 years old and tells his account of Carlos showing up at the gym. They basically started out at the same time with the same teacher and they’ve been friends since. Isaac says Carlos is a beautiful person who gets along with everybody, and theyré basically like brothers. Hugo again tries to see if Carlos caused problems when younger, but Isaac says that he always listened and behaved. Regarding Steve Strong, Isaac thinks it's a tough nut to crack. Carlos has to find that weak point and exploit it.

We then go to a strategy session between Carlos, Invader and Isaac where they are discussing how to handle Steve Strong. They talk about the elbow protector Strong wears, which they’re sure has to be loaded. Isaac asks if there's any way to get the elbow protector of Strong but Carlos thinks it's very tough to do. He needs to have a strategy in case they can’t get the protector off. He’s going to have to just avoid that clothesline of Strong’s and try to take him down before Strong can follow up. Steve is strong and can take a lot of punishment (Invader agrees that Strong can take a lot of punishment) but does not have technique, he can’t avoid counters. Isaac says that Strong must have a weak point but Invader thinks he doesn’t have one. They then start practicing counter maneuvers to Strong’s clothesline including dropkicks and a back suplex.
 
As training continues, Hugo talks with Jose Colon on how he sees his brother’s attitude after coming back from injury. Jose says Carlos has his usual focus and good attitude with his training. Hugo asks how the family honestly sees Carlos’ chances in the match with Steve Strong. Jose says the family is worried since this quite the diabolical individual, is one of the strongest opponents Carlos has had and they know the damage he can do.
We close with comments from Carlos Colon himself. He mentions the two big highlights of his careers were defeating Ric Flair to become the Universal champion and avenging his wife at the previous year's Aniversario against Hercules Ayala, The two big lowlights are when Abdullah blinded him with ammonia and Strong injuring his shoulder, an injury which he feared at this stage of his career would cause him to retire. Thank God it wasn't the case but he’s looking to avenge this. How does Carlos want the Puerto Rican people to remember him? He wants to be remembered as he is, a man committed with the people and with fighting evil, be it the rudos in the ring, drugs, vices, the bad things, a man willing to help humanity in whatever way is possible. As Carlos smiles looking off to the horizon, we cut to a screen where cursive writing appears. It says “Comprometido con mi gente, Carlitos Colon” (“Committed to my people, Carlitos Colon”). The song Memories plays us out as the credits roll.

MD: Even having seen a lot of his bigger matches from earlier in the decade (or at least what had made the 80s set), I just never had the sense that I knew Carlitos. I knew him in the ring, the selling, the fiery comebacks, the cartwheel, the pride that he carried himself with, but I just don’t have the same sense of him I do Hogan or Flair or Jumbo or Baba or Lawler or any of his peers at the top of other promotions or that had a percentage. This helped in some ways, the stories of him as a serious child, who didn’t cause trouble, no matter how much Hugo might have wanted. Obviously, this was worked to a degree because everything is, but it was believable and provided sort of an underpinning for the man behind the man that I’m happy to accept and carry forward as I continue to watch him. And as much as I loved seeing the dominos and the Don, my favorite bit might have been the strategy session, as such things really put over the seriousness and sport of matches. I love the notion of wrestlers thinking about such things.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, it is time for Aniversario 89! The moment of truth has arrived. Who will walk out as the Universal champion? Who will keep the rights to the TNT name? Will the Invaders best their respective opponents? Will there be any more changes to the card before showtime? We’ll find out next time.

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones Master List

Read more!