El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: The Road to Aniversario 91

Week 58: The Road to Aniversario 91

EB: We are getting into the final stretches of the road to Aniversario 91. The June 15 show saw Dino Bravo get a win over TNT. Bravo has been facing different tecnicos during the month of June to set him up for Aniversario and we’ll see some more of these encounters shortly. The biggest development from that June 15 card in Carolina was Carlos Colon taking on a hired gun, Great Kokina. El Profe and Gen Akbar had failed with the Polynesian Prince, but were hoping Kokina would be successful in derailing Carlos Colon and stop him from making it to the Universal title match at Aniversario 91. That June 15 match ended in a disqualification (unclear on the winner since some results have Colon winning by dq while others list Kokina winning by dq). There will be a rematch between them before Aniversario.

Speaking of Aniversario, the card is being finalized in the final weeks before the event, so let’s go to the west coast version of Super Estrellas for a pair of episodes that will help make clear what the final Aniversario card will look like. Up first is an episode from what we believe is June 15.

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

This is another edited down version of the west coast version of Super Estrella and we go right into the June 1 match between Dino Brav and Giant Warrior, which we join in progress.This would have been Bravo’s first match in Puerto Rico, so let’s see how he fares on his way to challenge Carlos Colon for the Universal title at Aniversario.

Dino Bravo vs. Giant Warrior

Bravo has Warrior down on the mat with a chinlock. Warrior fights to his feet, breaks the hold and starts backing Bravo into a corner with some punches. A quick eye rake from Bravo cuts that off and Bravo follows up with a back suplex for a two count. Back to the chinlock. Bravo then switches to chokes and then a bearhug. Hugo and Eliud on commentary mention that this is a strategy on the part of Bravo to try to keep Warrior close and neutralized. Warrior fades, the ref does the arm drop check, and Warrior keeps his arm up on the third check. Warrior starts coming back and punches his way out of the bearhug. Warrior whips Bravo into the corner a few times and then sends him into the ropes. Bravo counters and gets Warrior up on his shoulders. In an impressive feat, Bravo airplane spins Warrior and follows up with a clothesline. This sets up the full nelson and Bravo wins via submission. A notable win for Bravo in his first major match in Puerto Rico.

MD: This is the sort of weird stuff we’re looking for. Honestly, this whole episode of TV is. We get the last few minutes of this and it’s good stuff, save for the ill-conceived idea to put a bearhug on Giant Warrior. Bravo hits a really nice belly to back as we come in, and after Warrior fights out of the bearhug, he whips Bravo back and forth effectively until Bravo gets him into an airplane spin(!) and then hits a really nice clothesline out of it. He then finished Warrior off with the full nelson in the sort of definitive win you need to give the challenger for Aniversario. Now I kind of want to see Bravo vs Castillo, Perez, TNT, and Invader too.

Ronnie Garvin vs. Mr. Ito

EB: We cut from the start of a Profe promo and what looked to be a control center segment and go to the next match, Ron Garvin taking on Mr. Ito. This match is from Manati and Hugo mentions this is one of Ito’s first matches competing for the World Wrestling Council. The match is short but Ito is competitive with Garvin for most of it. Garvin gets the better of Ito in an exchange and sets up his knockout punch to get the pin. They are clearly putting over how dangerous and potent Garvin’s punching prowess is on the way to his match against Invader at Aniversario.

After the match we get an updated card ad for the Friday night Aniversario show in San German. This rundown reveals what we missed out during the previous week’s control center segment that was cut off. It’s official, Giant Warrior will be teaming with TNT to take on none other than Demolition (Smash & Crush). That’s 8 of the 10 matches confirmed with a couple of weeks to go. 

MD: Because of course we got Ronnie Garvin vs Akira Nogami in Puerto Rico in 1991. Sure, why not? Unfortunately, we just get a couple of minutes of this. A headscissors by Garvin, a comeback of chops by Ito. He’s not able to open things up though and Garvin cuts him off with a kick and a back body drop before finishing him with the Hand of Stone.

Samoan Swat Team vs. Ricky Santana & Kim Duk

EB: We go to another match already in progress as we head back to May when the Samoan Swat Team took on Ricky Santana & Kim Duk. The SST are challenging the Caribbean Express for the Caribbean tag titles at Aniversario, so here's a showcase rematch to remind the fans of how strong of a team they are. 

MD: The weird matches keep coming. I don’t think we’ve seen this one, though some of it is very familiar to me. That might have just been the SST’s act. I’ll move quick. We come come in on a nerve-hold. Santana gets a hope spot of slamming a Samoan’s head into the mat. Obviously that doesn’t work. The hot tag comes after one falls off the top rope for seemingly no reason but Duk tries the double nogging knocker which doesn’t work. Pile-driver. Top rope splash (great camera angle). And that’s that. It did feel very familiar.

EB: After we get an interview with Rod Price, who is challenging for the Caribbean title at Aniversario. Price asks Super Medico #3 if he's willing to pay the price. 

MD: We don’t get to hear Akbar talk. Price is going for the Caribbean Championship. Both he and Hugo call Medico 3 “Super Medic 3” which is one of those things I just pretend not to have to deal with. Price ends by saying “You better think about it once. You better think about it twice. Are you willing to pay the price?” which is definitely a catch phrase.

EB: Ron Garvin follows with a promo about his match against Invader #1 at Aniversario. Hugo reminds Garvin that Invader will be allowed to have his fist taped and Garvin says that when he steps in the ring with such a weapon, then Garvin has no choice but to beat his opponent nearly to death. 

MD: Another good Garvin interview. He’s goes on about how Invader’s taped fist means he can’t hold back and that he should be an honest man. Unfortunately we don’t get to see Hugo’s translation because he was great shadowboxing last time with that.

Invader I vs. Chicky Starr - April 90 

EB: The next match takes us back to mid April 1990, when the Invaders were feuding with Leo Burke and Chicky Starr (which segued into the Invader #1 vs. Leo Burke singles feud).Here Invader is facing Burke and Chicky in a handicap match challenge. Invader #4 had been taken out by the rudos the week before and Invader was facing both of them in a match where he had to wrestle both opponents. According to Hugo on commentary, we join this match after Burke had been eliminated (which is why Burke is sitting n a chair at ringside). Invader is in control and Chicky is already bleeding. However, Invader misses a charge in the corner and goes shoulder first into the post, giving Chicky an opening to go on the attack. Chicky controls most of the match that is shown ,with some invader hope spots mixed in. The match ends when Invader ducks a clothesline and comes off the ropes with a heart punch to win as the crowd cheers on. Another match that puts over the heart punch as we head to Aniversario. Seeing him here, I wonder what Chicky has been up to since leaving CSP? Hmm. Well, let’s move on.

MD: I guess we get an old Invader I match to heat him up (since he’s recovering from whatever Garvin did we didn’t get to see) and I’m not going to say no to that. It’s just not fair how good Invader is at selling. It’s not. This is such a great example. When we come in, Chicky seems to already be bloody but Invader misses a corner charge. Chicky hammers on the shoulder again and again and again and slowly Invader starts absorbing it, seemingly daring Chicky to continue his onslaught, and he stands and frames and fires back. Chicky keeps on him with stomps and kicks and this neat falling over pile driver and again Invader slowly makes it back to his feet, ducks a clothesline and hits the Heart Punch out of nowhere and it’s as close to perfect pro wrestling as I can imagine. Just not fair.

EB: The next math is a repeat airing of the Colon vs. Strong barbed wire mach from Aniversario 89. Afterwards, we get another Hugo training video, this time with Giant Warrior. Hugo gets put through his paces and then finishes with a promo on Billy Joe Travis,  promising that the effort will be worth it when he makes Travis pay at Aniversario. 

We then get the show close with Hugo again hyping up Aniversario 91.

MD: It’s the Giant Warrior training video! More doing stuff with weights at least. This goes way too long again and isn’t broken up enough like a proper montage. The best part is him pushing against Warrior, trying to move him. At the end Warrior says it’s time to train a monster and get him in the ring.

EB: We also have a west coast episode of Super Estrellas that may be from June 22 or June 29. This seems to be the go home show of sorts for the Aniversario card on Friday July 5 in San German. We’ll see some of the major feuds recapped and also see the final announcements for Aniversario, so let’s go to the episode.

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

Hugo opens the show but gets interrupted by a long station ID message. Hugo mentioned we’ll see what has happened in the top feuds heading into Aniversario plus the matches and music videos we’ll see on today’s program. One other segment we’ll have is a segment where Dino Bravo will be showing off his power, Bravo is claiming that the figure four will not affect him and wants to prove it with a demonstration. Hugo promotes the locations where you can buy tickets for Aniversario and the related promotions they are doing with radio station Cosmos 94.

Our first feud recap is Carlos Colon vs Dino Bravo starting with the attack at Noche de Campeones. We cut from the Bravo attack to the Ron Garvin vs Invader #1 recap, with Garvin and Invader doing the contract signing for their match at Aniversario. Garvin is laughing and saying he already knocked Invader out before, referencing their match from June 1. They show the clip of when Garvin knocked out Invader with a punch during the match and made the cover, only for the time limit to expire before the count of three. Back to the contract signing and Invader responds that when he hit the heart punch (which was not taped up), he had Garvin out. Only the ropes and El Profe helped save him. They show a clip of that part of the match and then we go back to the contract signing. Garvin is standing and angrily shouting that Invader is gutless, causing Invader to start standing up. Almost immediately, Garvin punches Invader in the face and knocks him out.

MD: This was set up well as they show a clip of Garvin hitting the hands of stone punch on invader, using the ref as a distraction first, and Invader hitting the heart punch, with Garvin getting a foot on the rope and Profe getting his heart going again on the outside. Then, out of nowhere, Garvin clocked Invader during the contract signing and Invader dropped like a pile of bricks. 

Polynesian Prince vs. Invader I

EB: We continue with the feud recaps, going over the incidents that have led to Bronco vs. Skandor Akbar, Monster Ripper vs. El Profe, and Hugo Savinovich vs. Billy Joe Travis.  Then we immediately go to our first match, which is Invader #1 vs. Polynesian Prince from June 15. The match is joined in progress with Prince doing a stunner or jawbreaker like move and making a cover for two. Some headbutts and a nerve hold follow, but Invader fights out by stomping Prince’s bare feet and then biting him. An eye rake by Prince cuts off Invader, and Invader is tossed to the outside. Akbar tries to get a shot in on Invader but instead hits Prince when Invader gets out of the way, Invader attacks Akbar, Prince attacks Invader from behind, but an attempted Irish whip into the post is reversed by Invader. The match heads back into the ring and they exchange missed moves until Prince misses a diving headbutt. This allows Invader to hit two heart punches and get the win. 

MD: We come in with Prince using a jawbreaker to take over. He has headbutts and a nerve hold, opening and closing his mouth again and again. Invader comes back beautifully, stomping on the feet, raking the eyes, and biting the face all in one flurry. Prince cuts him off with an eyerake. The rest of the match is a great bit of sputtering comebacks and cutoffs. First Akbar misses a shot on the outside and hits Prince. Then when Invader goes after Akbar, Prince ambushes, only to get reversed into the post. Back in the ring, he takes over, no-sells a reversed whip into the corner (hard head), but takes too long to leap off the top and misses. That lets Invader finally hit two heart punches for the win. A well done piece of business here. It really got over the heart punch since Prince was surviving everything else.

EB: Hugo Savinovich is in a gym somewhere, with Dino Bravo, El Profe, Skandor Akbar and Polynesian Prince there as well. They are all in a ring and Bravo wants to show off how he will deal with the figure four leglock come Aniversario. Prince is there since he is a bigger and stronger man than Carlos Colon, so if Bravo can successfully show off his power against Prince, what hope does Colon have against him at Aniversario? Prince puts a figure four leglock on Bravo, who reverses the maneuver. Bravo keeps the reversal applied and Prince is struggling but not making any noise. After a few moments, Akbar starts getting worried based on how Prince is acting and tries to break the hold. It looks like Bravo’s power ended up breaking Prince’s leg. Ouch! Dino is exasperated, asking Prince why he didn't say anything or complain.

MD: Legitimately funny to me. They have Polynesian Prince be the one to put the figure four on. “Well over 300 pounds.” And then Bravo just turns it over. This would have been way better if they got some enhancement guy to do it and Bravo just powered out of it. I get what they were trying in theory but this didn’t hit the mark. Everyone knows you just turn over the figure four!

EB: Skandor Akbar is in the studio to talk about his match against Bronco (which to be upfront, we don’t have footage for). Akbar talks about the pain of being burned in the face and that he knows Bronco is disfigured for life. The biggest mistake Bronco made is coming back because this time Akbar has a plan and Bronco will  be finished for good.

MD: I’ve been informed this is the match we don’t have from the show and I am not convinced we will ever find out what Akbar’s big plan for Bronco was.

EB: We get a replay of Bronco's interview from the Dominican Republic (conducted by Mario Medina), followed by an in studio promo from TNT. He is teaming with Giant Warrior at Aniversario to face Demolition. TNT says that everyone in Puerto Rico has seen these two animals on TV before, and he calls them animals because of their size. TNT promises that Demolition will not have it easy because they are facing two Puerto Ricans because TNT says that Giant Warrior had told him that he considers himself Puerto Rican.

We then get a final card rundown for Aniversario 91 in San German with the previously confirmed matches plus two additional ones. We have Ricky Santana vs. Action Jackson (the Saturday match has the stipulation where the loser must leave Puerto Rico, not sure what set this up) and Koko B Ware taking on Galan Mendoza. 

MD: And lo, we lose Murdoch to WCW. A shame. Instead we have Giant Warrior and TNT vs Demolition. I can imagine 1988 or even 1989 Demolition in Puerto Rico and that would have been amazing. No Bill Eadie now. Still a pretty fun sounding clash of the Titans though. Ok, get this, there’s a match in New Haven from early 1984 where Masked Superstar teamed with Sgt. Slaughter against the Invaders. Wild. Anyway, that’s our match. 

EB: We get a repeat of the Bronco music video. This is followed by a Monster Ripper promo for her match against El Profe. Ripper promises that all the bad stuff Prof likes to talk about everyone is going to stop and she will be the one to put Profe down. She wants all of the women to come out and watch what she’ll do to Profe, she’ll be his worst nightmare.

MD: Very weird to me that Ripper is now cutting a promo in English with Hugo translating. Maybe they trusted her with cackling heel promos or to translate but not with her own babyface promos? She wants all the women (and men if they can handle it) to come see her beat up Profe.

EB: Galan Mendoza is next to talk about Koko B Ware. Mendoza says that they know each other from before in the UWF, but this time it’ll be Mendoza who will put a stop to Koko. Next are the DJs from Cosmos 94 to promote their involvement with Aniversario, followed by another Aniversario card ad. Then we get a Koko B Ware music video set to ‘Piledriver’.

MD: And here’s our bonus match for Aniversario, Koko vs Mendoza. Interesting that they’ve brought Koko in at the bottom of the card again. He’s a guy who could definitely have a run but they just use him as an attraction like this. The music video is basically just taken from the Profe match.

EB: Billy Joe Travis has a message for Hugo, he wants Hugo’s family (and ‘my kids’)  to be at the event, because he’s going to embarrass Hugo.

MD: Travis cuts a good promo talking about Hugo’s family and how everyone should come see him beat up Hugo. He’s not allowed to touch him until the match, which is a good stip. I see this and see no reason why he couldn’t have a long run on the island too.

EB: Ron Garvin is next, saying he has built quite the reputation and Invader has gotten him mad with what Garvin believes was an attempt to put Garvin out of wrestling. Garvin promises to end Invader's career and knock him out. Invader responds by putting over Garvin's quality but reminds everyone that he will have his fist taped, so let;s see if Garvin is able to get up from that when the heart punch is hit.We close this segment with another card rundown prefaced by another Cosmos DJ.

MD: Garvin invokes the fact he’s a big name in wrestling, a former world champion, something he couldn’t tout for most of his major post-NWA run. This feels like good closure for him honestly, as this run lasted a bit longer than I had expected. Invader’s with Hugo for his response and it looks like he’d been training Hugo maybe from the locale and the garb. 

Samoan Swat Team vs. Ricky Santana & Invader IV

EB: The SST are challenging for the Caribbean tag titles at Aniversario, so we get another showcase match for them against the team of Ricky Santana and Invader #4. The match is a bit more competitive with Santana in there, but the SST steamroll Invader #4 and get the pin. 

MD: Not a ton here. Santana and Invader (especially Santana) control Savage's arm. Fatu gets in and destroys Invader with backbreakers. They knock Santana off the apron and hit a Samoan Drop followed by a top rope splash for the win.

EB: We then get some followup of the Dino Bravo power showcase from earlier where Polynesian Prince got his leg broken. Prince has his leg in a cast and Profe is mentioning how Colon won’t be able to withstand Bravo's power if Prince couldn't . We also get words from an exasperated Dino Bravo, saying that he’s been apologizing to the Prince and General because he did not know how much pain the Prince was in. Bravo warns Carlos that if he’s not careful, Bravo might end up breaking both of Colon’s legs at Aniversario.

We cut to Hugo and Carlos Colon, they are on a break from training and look to be relaxing on someone’s balcony. Hugo says that Bravo is a scary challenger because he combines power with wrestling knowledge and is highly ranked in the WWF (uh, sure Hugo). Carlos says it’s the biggest challenge of his life since Bravo is like a war tank. No one has been able to break Bravo’s full nelson yet but he is ready for the challenge. As to Bravo saying he is not afraid of the figure four, Carlos says he has other holds and moves besides the figure four if it comes to that. Hugo promotes a party they’ll have Thursday on the beach in Aguada for July 4 with Carlos, TNT and Hugo there. Carlos invites the fans to the July 4 beach party and to Aniversario on July 5. 

MD: Ok the previous skit redeemed itself. Prince and Akbar are sitting on a couch. Prince has a cast on his leg. He’s beside himself. Akbar is reassuring him. Bravo’s there with a gym logo tank top apologizing to Prince and Akbar for breaking Prince’s leg. He had turned the hold over for like four seconds and this is all very funny. He said he didn’t even use half his strength either. This would be great but maybe not for the main event build?

EB: Another Hugo training video and they are in the countryside. Hugo is chopping down trees, pickaxing the ground, running with logs on his shoulders, and chasing a horse as part of his training. Hugo thanks the fans for their support and Carlos and Giant Warrior for their help. He’s not going to wrestle Travis, he’s going there to fight. We then get a message from the manager of Cosmos 94 inviting the fans to Aniversario.

MD: They end up on the farm? Hugo’s family farm? I have no idea. But we’ve got Hugo chopping trees, pickaxing the ground, chasing a little horse around! Thankfully this one only lasts a few minutes. 

Miguelito Perez vs. Dino Bravo

EB: Another match to put over Dino Bravo before Aniversario, this time against Miguelito Perez. We join the match in progress, with Miguelito in the middle of an offensive flurry that sends Bravo to regroup on the outside. Bravo takes a while to come back in and Miguelito is able to counter some Bravo punches. A whip into the corner backfires as Bravo grabs Perez and atomic drops him. Bravo does a chinlock and then a bearhug.  Bravo gets a near fall off the bearhug, but Perez fights out of it. Bravo cuts Perez off and hits a piledriver to set up the full nelson but Miguelito counters with a roll up. An offensive flurry is stopped by Bravo with an airplane spin and this time he is able to put Perez in the full nelsons.  Miguelito can’t break the hold and submits.

Hugo closes the show by reminding fans about the beach party on July 4 and Aniversario on Friday July 5.

MD: Ah here’s the Dino Bravo we know and (don’t) love. After feeding a bit for dropkicks, he came back in with a chinlock and a long, long bearhug. Very long. Not much there even if Perez worked well from underneath. Finishing stretch was good though. Perez went behind on the full nelson attempt and they went back and forth a bit after that until Bravo got the airplane spin on him, softening him up for the nelson. Bravo is still Bravo deep down, that’s for sure.

EB: We have a couple of matches from June that we would like to cover before heading into Aniversario 91. The first match is a tag match where Invader #1 (during the period where Invader had the bandage on his nose) and Mr. Ito are facing Action Jackson and Rod Price. This match may be from June 8.

Invader #1 & Mr. Itoi vs. Action Jackson & Rod Price 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiphTT8snjw

This video is from a VHS release early in 1992, so the commentary is not really focused on what was happening at the time. Invader and Mr. Ito are an interesting tag team though, so let’s see how they fare against Rod Price and Action Jackson. Invader and Action start for their teams and we get a bit of stalling tactics from Actin to start the match. They square up for a punch exchange and that goes badly for Action, who ends up on the outside again. Ito is tagged in and works over Jackson’s arm. He hits a jumping elbow and tags Invader back in. Action quickly tags out to Price but Invader and Ito continue with their strategy of working over their opponent’s arm. Price turns the tide with a hair pull on Ito and the rudos work over Ito for a few minutes. They build to a hot tag to Invader, who cleans house on both rudos. Eventually all four men end up in the ring and it is Invader and Ito who are in control. However, Profe hands a foreign object to Action while the ref is busy with Invader and Price, and Action hits Ito with it to get the pin. But wait… Ricky Santana comes out of the locker room and grabs the foreign object out of Action Jackson’s tights. He shows the ref, who restarts the match. This may be the beginning of what sets up the Santana vs. Jackson match at Aniversario. With the match restarted, Action misses a flying kneedrop on Ito, who then tags in Invader. A quick offensive burst leads to a heart punch and win for the tecnicos.

MD: This was aired years later on a video tape. The commentary is very funny but that’s beside the point. Jackson and Price have matching tights. Ito has his beard and wig to come out but then takes it off. Invader has the bandaging we’ve seen him wear in promos lately. And hey, this was a good one. Standard very good PR tag. Invader and Jackson were just great to start. Lots of shadow boxing, dodging Jackson’s big shots and hitting jab after jab as he stooged away. Nogami hit a spin wheel kick but the heels took over fairly quickly by working over the arm and double teaming. Good FIP with a lot of varied offense (Price with a press slam and Russian leg sweep, Jackson with a power slam) and double teams after they drew Invader in. Invader went nuts on the hot tag as you’d expect. They did a false finish where Profe slipped knucks on Jackson and he pinned Nogami but Santana ran out to tell the ref. I’m proud of myself because I had the sense that was going to happen. I’ve seen enough of these to know when it will and when it won’t. The match restarted and they did a second hot tag with Invader coming back in and getting that heart punch out of nowhere which always pops everyone. Good stuff.

EB: We also have one match from Great Kokina’s brief excursion to Puerto Rico during the month of June. As stated before, Carlos Colon and Great Kokina faced off on June 15 in a match that ended in a disqualification. They had a subsequent rematch (likely June 22 or 29) inside a steel cage. Let’s see if Kokina is able to take out Carlos Colon before Aniversario.

Carlos Colón vs. Great Kokina - Cage Match  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWIAo8oxquM

Another monster for Carlos to overcome and it’s inside a cage. Profe is with Kokina and it is Kokiha who controls early on with a lot of headbutt based offense and some biting. Kokina continues focusing on Colon’s head with a claw and then ramming Colon into the cage. Another ram attempt is countered by Carlos and it is Kokina who gets rammed instead. After several rams, Carlos bites Kokina in the forehead. Carlos keeps punching and biting Kokina’s head as Kokian tries to escape through the door. The escape attempts are unsuccessful. Kokina begs off and Carlos continues punching, but a Kokina headbutt to the stomach stops the attack. Carlos stops another Kokian escape attempt and the match continues with some back and forth momentum swings. Carlos stops another forehead claw by stomping on Kokina’s bare feet and then hitting a foul kick. A bearhug by Carlos leads to Kokina regaining control. Another escape attempt by Kokina and Carlos stops him by ramming Kokina’s head into the steel frame of the door. Some more momentum shifts lead to Carlos slamming Kokina. Carlos tries to go for the door but is stopped, and the two wrestlers fight right by the cage wall. Carlos is able to ram Kokina’s head a few times into the cage, allowing Colon enough time to go out the door and win the match. Looks like another failure for Profe in taking out Colon before Aniversario. 

MD: We think that Kokina had a tour here in between a UWA tour that ended at the start of June and his July NJPW tour. Obviously, they’d already gotten to a cage match at this point. Speaking of cagematch, it has Kokina beating Carlos by DQ on July 15. And this is a good one! We get nine minutes of it but they do the job here in a bit way. Kokina takes over almost immediately and they don’t hesitate to use the cage. He’s happy to toss Carlos right into it. But he looks to the crowd once too often and Carlos comes back, using it as a great equalizer. There’s a great shot here of Kokina lodged in between the post and the cage, his head draped over the top turnbuckle, with Carlos working the wound. Carlos goes for the door and Kokina cuts him off. Things get pretty dire for Carlos, who bleeds heavily, but Kokina misses an elbow drop and Carlos finally gets a huge slam on him. Kokina still cuts him off one more time from making it to the door, but Carlos slams his head into the cage repeatedly until he can just barely make it out. It’s a good use of ten minutes if you’ve got them.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, it is time for Aniversario 91! We review 7 of the 10 matches (plus a clip of an eighth match) as Carlos Colon defends the Universal title against Dino Bravo, Invader #1 has his fist taped against Ron Garvin, for the first time in Puerto Rico a man faces a woman as El Profe faces the wrath of Monster Ripper, Demolition takes on TNT and Giant Warrior, and Hugo Savinovich brings his walking hardware store out of mothballs to get revenge on Billy Joe Travis. 

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El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Strong Punch

Week 57: Strong Punch

We saw Carlos Colon get the win against the savage Polynesian Prince in a barbed wire match and TNT regain the TV title against the man who put him on the shelf, one King Kong. We do have one other match we need to mention from the June 1 house show in Bayamon. Invader #1 faced Ron Garvin in a special challenge match and the match ended up going to a draw. Throughout the match there were a couple of instances where both Invader and Garvin looked to have the match won but circumstances caused the match to restart and then the time limit ended without a winner. As a result of this challenge match having no winner, the two wrestlers agreed to a rematch at Aniversario 91. To make it official, a contract signing aired on TV and things got heated when each man brought up the moment they had the match in hand.. The back and forth got a bit heated and then talk turned to who had the better and stronger punch. Again, the back and forth got a bit heated, leading to both men standing up. At that moment, Garvin surprised Invader with a punch right to the face. Invader went down and his nose was injured from the blow. As a result, Invader will have a bandage around his nose as he recovers from the damage Garvin's punch did. This has only added more fuel to the newly signed match for Anviersari 91. And there’s one more stipulation that will be added as a result of all the arguing over who has the better punch. In order to prove who has the best punch, Invader will be allowed to show up with his fist taped for the Aniversario match. The taped fist heart punch is the most dangerous move in Puerto Rico wrestling, so the stakes are high for that encounter.

Do we have any other updates for Aniversario? Let’s go to what's either the June 8 or June 15 west coast version of Super Estrellas to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRMBHXeS91w

We join this episode in progress, as Eliud Gonzalez is in the Road to Aniversario control center. He’s just finished talking about Invader #1 (looks like he has a match for Aniversario) and then talks about the revenge match between Bronco and Skandor Akbar. They replay the fireball incident and aftermath. There’s also the match between Monster Ripper and El Profe, and we go to a recap of how this all started at Noche de Campeones. And if that’s not enough, we also have the feud between Billy Joe Travis and Hugo Savinovich, where we get the recap of the brief altercation and then Hugo getting Carlos Colon and Giant Warrior to agree to help him train for the match. Back in the control center, Eliud tells us that more matches will be announced soon and remember that you can get your tickets at Thom McAn (a shoe store chain) in the western region starting this Thursday. If you pay attention to the clips shown in the segment outro, you’ll see Ron Garvin decking Invader during the contract signing for their Aniversario match, which is what leads to Invader wearing a bandage around his nose for the next couple of weeks.

The control center is followed by an El Profe promo, where he again runs down Monster Ripper by saying that here in Latin America women are objects for men. We cut to a card rundown for the Aniversario show in San German and we can confirm that Invader #1 with his taped fist will face Ron Garvin. Also added to the card are the Caribbean Express defending the Caribbean tag titles against the Samoan Swat Team and Super Medico #3 defending the Caribbean title against Rod Price. Tomorrow (either June 9 or 16) they will be in Guanica with the following lineup: Invader #1 & TNT vs Polynesian Prince & Dick Murdoch; Giant Warrior vs. King Kong; Ricky Santana vs Rod Price; Miguelito Perez vs Action Jackson; minis in action; Huracan Castillo vs Billy Joe Travis; and Mr. Ito vs. Galan Mendoza.

Since this is the last we’ll hear of King Kong, I want to mention a memory I have that has to be from around this time period. It was a TV match taped in Miramar where Invader #1 faced King Kong. In a rarity, Invader #1 was wearing his mask in a singles match, so it's likely he was protecting his injured nose from further damage. The reason I remember this match is for the finishing stretch. Invader hit Kong with the heart punch, leaving him staggered but still on his feet. Invader then went to the middle turnbuckle and jumped off with another heart punch, knocking Kong down. Invader gets the pin and leaves the ring, but Kong remains down on the mat and you have the ref  and Akbar checking on Kong. The ref starts panicking and they have to revive Kong with chest compressions since he had sustained two heart punches. Kong is successfully revived and then leaves the ring normally under his own power, likely on his way out of the territory.  

MD: They start this episode recapping Akbar vs Bronco, Profe vs Ripper, and Hugo vs Travis. It’s wild that this is how they’re doing Aniversario this year. As we get there, I’m hoping Esteban can dig up some details about just how successful it was, because it is a bold strategy. It looks like, a month out, they’ve added Invader 1 vs Ron Garvin, Caribbean Express vs SST, Medico IV vs Rod Price, and Giant Warrior vs Murdoch. With Colon vs Bravo on top. It’s an interesting card to say the least. 

Meanwhile, the house show for the week had Invader/TNT vs Polynesian Prince/Murdoch, Warrior vs King Kong, Santana vs Price, Perez vs Jackson, Midgets, Castillo vs Travis, and Ito vs Mendoza, so that’s not really a bad card either all things considered. 

Invader IV vs. Ronnie Garvin

EB: We go to a JIP Ron Garvin vs. Invader #4 arena match and it wouldn't surprise me that this was signed after Garvin punched out Invader #1. If you'll recall, Invader #4 is the younger brother of Invader #1, so it stands to reason he is looking to get some revenge on Garvin. Hugo and Eliud on commentary say that you have to be very careful of Garvin’s punches. Invader #4 is the one in control when we join the match, having backed Garvin into a corner and getting some punches on him. It doesn’t last long and Garvin takes over with some punches of his own. A Garvin hip toss gets a two count, but Invader #4 quickly gets up and hits Garvin with some punches. Garvin is whipped into the ropes and is able to hold on to them, causing Invader #4 to miss a dropkick. Garvin immediately goes for the Garvin Stomp and then knocks Invader #4 out with a right hook to the face. Garvin gets the win and shows off his punching prowess in the process.

After the match, we go to taped promos from Garvin and Invader #1. Garvin wants it to be known that all he needs are his bare hands, he could probably kill a bear with his bare hands. Garvin promises that he will dismantle Invader in front of all the fans at Aniversario. Invader (with the bandage on his face) follows by saying that Garvin should be embarrassed for what he did at the contract signing. Invader understands why Garvin did it, Garvin was angry about the time limit draw and not being able to defeat Invader. Garvin asked for 5 more minutes, Invader gave it to him, and still Garvin could not beat Invader. When we signed the contract for Aniversario, you punched me and hurt my nose,but come Aniversario you'll have to show that you have the strongest punch. Remember, I'll have my fist taped and when I hit the heart punch on you Garvin, you will not get up.

MD: Despite being greyscale, I think this is new footage. Garvin doesn’t have a manager and Invader IV only showed up during the run of our footage, I think. At least with the gimmick. He pummels Garvin in the corner, really taking it to him. Garvin comes back with a headbutt but he can’t keep Invader IV from firing back on him. But Invader misses a dropkick, and it’s Garvin Stomp followed by Hand of Steel for the definitive and anti-climactic win.

Garvin cut a great promo about how while Invader will be coming for revenge (I have no idea what for but his nose is sure bandaged) and will have taped fists, Garvin will have bare knuckles and he could punch out a bear with his bare knuckles. Then Hugo translates while he shadow boxes and I am excited for this match already. 

EB: Hugo Savinovich is in training for his Aniversario match against Billy Joe Travis and here we have video of him being trained by Carlos Colon. At the end we get some words from an out of  breath Hugo where he thanks Carlos and promises to continue getting ready for Travis in order to teach him a lesson

MD: There are more than five minutes of this! Why is this so long! There’s a whole minute of just Hugo stretching. On the other hand, I can’t wait for part two of this if he’s being trained by Giant Warrior next.

Dino Bravo vs. Armandito Salgado

EB: Dino Bravo is taking on Armandito Salgado in Manati. Hugo apologizes for the black and white picture, this is how the match was filmed apparently. This goes as well as you would expect for Salgado, with Bravo making quick work of him and winning with the full nelson.

MD: Pretty effective squash here. He charged right in, punching him in the corner, pile driving him, hitting elbow drops. He was using the full nelson instead of the side slam so he couldn’t just finish him off. He instead tossed him out and had a nice entry point to the full nelson where he starts to whip Salgado out of the corner and put him right in it after a few steps. As effective as I can imagine from Bravo.

EB: Next is Billy Joe Travis with El Profe, and they just spend the time making fun of Hugo. It cuts to Profe’s closing remarks about how Dino Bravo will be the new Universal champion at Aniversario. Then Carlos Colon (from the track where he is training Hugo and with one of the Colon kids) has some comments, saying that his goal is having a convincing win against Bravo at Aniversario.

MD: Travis was sure having fun and Profe seemed to be having fun with him. He mocked Hugo, his training, his wife, all within the span of less than a minute. 

Rod Price & Action Jackson vs. Tito Carrion & El Corsario

EB: We go to another JIP match as Rod Price and Action Jackson are in the middle of facing Tito Carrion and El Corsario. Price and Jacksna are getting the better of Carrion and refusing to cover him for the pin, even after hitting a Doomsday Device. Price finally gets the merciful pin after a shoulder tackle. 

MD: I made the mistake of looking up Price and Jackson’s association because they were both GWF guys and they had this wild looking SPWF tour in 1996 against Yatsu, Teranishi and Poison Sawada. ANYWAY, this was brutal. A Price belly to belly (lifts up the opponent). A doomsday device (lifts up the opponent). A Price flying lariat (doesn’t lift up the opponent). 

EB: SkandorAkbar has some comments where he is incredulous that Bronco is daring to come back here after having been burned. Akbar warns Bronco to stay in Santo Domingo, because he has a plan to finish him off. We then get an interview from Bronco sent in from Santo Domingo, where he says he is recovering nicely although some burn marks still linger. Bronco urges the fans in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico to see some of the burns still on his face, so he covers up with a towel to remove his mask. We then get a still shot of the burn marks Bronco wanted to show. Bronco says he is returning at Aniversario, even if he is not fully healed by them. And he warns the president of CSP to make sure he has medics and emergency services on hand, because they are going to need them for Akbar once he is done with him.

MD: Akbar tells Bronco not to come back to Puerto Rico and that he has a back up plan, as always. Bronco looks cool as always (whether he’s lounging here or running in from the back in a suit). They do a deal where he takes off his mask but shields his face with a towel so they can zoom in on the burn. 

EB: The Caribbean Express have some words about defending the Caribbean tag tiles at Aniversario against the Samoan Swat Team. Pretty standard comments where they say they are training hard and promise to keep the belts. They also have some comments about their singles matches for tomorrow in Guanica.Hugo says he cannot be unbiased and he hopes Castillo teaches Travis a lesson tomorrow. 

MD: They were theoretically able to get over both the Profe and the SST matches here but they seemed to focus on the SST match more as Ripper didn’t talk.

EB: The episode closes with video of the barbed wire match between Carlos Colon and the Polynesian Prince. Hugo closes the show by hyping up the Friday Aniversario card in San Germana and tomorrow’s house show in Guanica. 

Now let’s go to the June 15  episode of Campeones, it's a cut down version of the episode with some repeat matches but let's see if there is any new news about Aniversario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfCgFiiu8p8

Hugo and Profe welcome us to another edition of Campeones. Hugo immediately starts getting on Profe’s case about Anciersari saying Profe is going to lose against Monster Ripper. Profe plays it off saying that he will be the one doing the beating. Hugo says that women are to be respected, Profe responds with ‘What lady?’ Hugo mentions what we'll see on today's program, while also reminding viewers about the upcoming Aniversario 91 on July 6 in Bayamon. Tonight they will be in Carolina with a main event of Carlos Colon vs the Great Kokina (looks like they’ve brought in another monster to try to derail Carlos before Aniversario). Profe reinforces that point, saying he doesn't care if Kokina wins tonight, Kokina is here to destroy Carlos Colon. Profe warns Carlos to not show up tonight and laughs when Hugo says they better be careful, because El Ejercito de la Justicia is ready and may decide to send them to the hospital instead. Also tonight we have Dino Bravo vs. TNT and Invader #1 vs. Polynesian Prince. With that let’s get to our first match (courtesy of El Profe’s magic finger).

Rod Price vs. Mr. Ito

Rod Price is taking on the newcomer known as Mr. Ito, who you may better know as Akira Nogami. Mr. It looks good in the early going, hitting some nice dropkicks that send Price to the outside of the ring. Price tries an armbar and Ito works out of it. Price turns the tide by hotshotting Ito on the top rope, allowing Rod to control the next portion of the match. Ito is not easy to put away, and a missed change in the corner gives Ito an opening to come back with some nice kicks. Some mounted punches and a spin kick follow and it looks like Ito has momentum on his side. Akbar gets involved however by grabbing Ito’s leg when he’s coming off the ropes. The distraction is enough for Price to attack Ito from behind. One shoulder tackle later and Rod Price gets the win.

We then go to the Aniversario 91 control center, but it unfortunately is edited off the version we have video for.

MD: Ito is Akira Nogami of all people and this was a solid TV match. He’s babyface here and controlled early with dropkicks. Price stalled until he was able to take over with a cheapshot and as always has a lot of “stuff.” Belly to belly suplex, press slam, vertical suplex, with punches and occasionally cutting off hope chopping from underneath. Ito kept kicking out and was able to get out of the way of a corner charge to take over with kicks in the corner. Akbar caught his leg off the ropes though, letting Price hit a flying shoulder tackle for the win. A good way to spend five minutes or so.

EB: The rest of the episode’s matches are ones we do not need to cover since they are the Garvin vs. Flair cage match from JCP…

MD: I guess it’s nice we now have a version of this match commentated on by Hugo?

EB: And the Colon vs. Murdoch barbed wire match from early April. We also have a promo from Skandor Akbar with the Polynesian Prince, whose opponent tonight is Invader #1.

MD: Prince is definitely committed to the gimmick. You can’t say he’s not. He’s biting at the air and making faces as Akbar talks and it’s quite the scene. 

EB: We also get a brief clip of Eliud Gonzalez in the control center that is in between segments of the Colon vs. Murdoch match. Eliud runs down the matches signed for Aniversario 91 and mentions there is a change to one of the matches. The match in question is Giant Warrior vs. Dick Murdoch, it seems that TNT has asked Warrior if he would team up with him to face… and the clip cuts off there. Guess we’ll have to wait until next week to find out what the match is instead. The real reason the Warrior vs. Murdoch match was changed is due to Dick Murdoch having signed with WCW. Hugo and Profe close the show by hyping tonight's card in Carolina with a main event of Carlos Colon vs. Great Kokina.

We'll finish off this week’s post with footage of the Dino Bravo vs. TNT match from June 15.

TNT vs. Dino Bravo - June 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY8RsFYAYgE

It's only a short clip of the match since this is taken from a  TV episode that aired some months later. They show TNT hitting his shoulder on the post when missing a corner charge and Bravo takes advantage by working over TNT’s shoulder. TNT gets a hope spot with a sunset flip, but Bravo knocks TNT down with a clothesline and continues attacking the arm. TNT gets another comeback, but a missed spin kick allows Bravo to lock in the full nelson. TNT submitted due to the hurt shoulder and a big win for Bravo on his way to Aniversario 91. . 

MD: We get the last four minutes of this. TNT misses a corner charge and Bravo works over the arm. It’s not exactly impressive armwork but it’s fine. Varied even if none of the holds look great. TNT comes back and Bravo feeds well for it. He misses an elbow drop as well. But TNT misses the spin wheel kick and he gets a clean win with the full nelson. I get putting him over so strong going into Anversario but usually this would have a distraction or interference. That made me realize I don’t know who TNT is actually facing at Anversario.

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emciones, we are in the final stretch of the road to Aniversario 91. Giant Warrior helps train Hugo, we’ll cover some matches that happened during the latter half of June such as Invader #1 teaming up with Mr. Ito and Carlos Colon vs Great Kokina in a steel cage, and the final hype for Aniversario 91 as we get some feud recaps to make sure we know how we got there.

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Who Will Challenge at Aniversario 91?

Week 55: Who Will Challenge at Aniversario 91?

EB: We certainly had quite the special event to celebrate all of the mothers in Puerto Rico. Championships were defended and we had quite the few incidents occur as well. Before proceeding, let’s recap some of the key events. For that, let’s go to Hugo Savinovich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH5hP_bip_s

Hugo is narrating the highlights from Noche de Campeones, starting with the controversial ending to the World Junior title match. What do you think, was it a three count? Regardless, Brad Anderson is now the World Junior champion.

We then go to the finish of the Women’s World title match as we see Profe get involved and the miscommunication leading to Monster Ripper losing her title to new champion Candi Divine. We also see the post match argument where El Profe started shoving Monster Ripper and then Ripper having enough and fighting back. Profe ends up laid out on the floor. After the highlights we get comments from Monster Ripper where she says that it’s Profe’s fault she lost her title,  and then Profe dared to put his hands on her. Ripper says that Profe will pay dearly for that and she wants a match with him. We go to Hugo who confirms that it’s official, Monster Ripper has laid down a challenge to El Profe, let’s see what Profe has to say about that. Profe: “Listen Miss Piggy, I can’t accept that challenge because I can’t touch a woman, I’m a total gentleman and would be completely incapable of…” Hugo interrupts Profe to say that she beat up Profe at Noche de Campeones, could it be that he’s afraid of her? "I'm not afraid, I’m a gentleman and even if she doesn’t look like a…” Hugo again interrupts to say that Ripper knocked Profe through the ropes to the floor. “Even if she doesn't look like a woman, she is a woman, and I respect her, I respect women…” Hugo interrupts to ask why Profe doesn't accept the challenge. An exasperated Profe says that he can’t accept that before just walking off. 

Now Hugo presents the highlights to the main event of Noche de Campeones, the Universal title match between Carlos Colon and Ron Garvin. We go to the highlights and see the back suplex into a bridge finish. Hugo makes note that both men's shoulders were down and they had to wait for the official announcement to know who won, which turned out to be Carlos Colon.

Finally, we have the World tag title match highlights which include Akbar being locked in the cage, the finish of the match where Invader uses the foreign object dropped by Savage, and then Bronco getting a fireball to the face when he went to open the cage Akbar was locked in. We get a bit more of the aftermath of the fireball as we see the ringside doctor come in to check on Bronco while he is in pain on the floor. The segment finishes with a phone conversation with Bronco (over a still image of him on the ground in pain), where Bronco thanks the fans for their well wishes and also God for no major damage occurring. He has second degree burns around his eye, he can’t open it too much at the moment, and he also has blisters and burn marks on his face. Hugo brings up that Bronco’s mask likely mitigated some of the damage and Bronco says to an extent, but his eye took the brunt of it. Thankfully he didn’t lose the eye or have any permanent damage. Bronco also wonders how someone with such dark and macabre intentions as Akbar can be allowed to participate in professional wrestling.Hugo thanks Bronco for his time, reminds him that everyone in Puerto Rico is rooting for him to get better and they will keep in touch to get updates.

MD: Ripper vs Profe as a program feels ahead of its time. We’ve seen a lot of things follow what happened in the states in one way or another (Zeus, Robocop, Giant Warrior as an El Gigante sort of pastiche, etc.) but I can’t think of too many places that were doing a match like this in 1991. Maybe there’s a USWA thing I’m not thinking of. 

The Bronco phone interview was particularly effective as he said he was going to real dark places and you believed it after you saw the fireball.

EB: While we don’t have the results for the rest of the matches from Noche de Camepoens, we can ascertain who retained and who did not based on the future TV episodes and lineups. King Kong and Super Medico #3 remain as the TV and Caribbean champs respectively, while it looks like Butch Cassady defeated Little Louis to win the Midget World title.  As for the Caribbean tag titles, we are not sure of when it exactly occurred, either during Mother's Day weekend or during the following week (possibly the TV taping?) but we also have new champions in Galan Mendoza and Billy Joe Travis.  Furthermore, after Monster Ripper’s falling out with El Profe, it appears that Mendoza and Travis no longer have Monster Ripper as their manager.  In fact, they appear to have new representation and it is El Profe. The Caribbean Express are not standing idly by though, as they have decided to hire a manager to help counter El Profe and it is none other than Monster Ripper.  

That is all with regards to the current championship situation but we still have one notable occurrence to discuss from Noche de Campeones. The head of the Puerto Rico Boxing and Wrestling Commission was on hand to announce who will challenge for the Universal title at Aniversario 91. Carlos Colon retained so as of now he will be one half of the match, but who will be the challenger? There are five names under consideration and let’s go to the recap video to find out who it is.

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

Hugo Savinovich narrates the recap video and opens with the following question: Which of these wrestlers will challenge Carlos Colon for the Universal title at Aniversario 91? Will it be Dino Bravo, Tatsumi Fujinami, Ron Garvin, Stan Hansen or Abdullah the Butcher? Commissioner Feliz Suarez announces that the commission has decided that the challenger will be… Ron Garvin! He has been selected based on tonight’s performance in a very close match and the commission feels this earns Garvin another shot at the Universal title. We cut to later where we have Carlos Colon (in a suit) and El Profe in the ring. Carlos is there because he was asked to come out to formally accept the match. However, Profe entered the ring uninvited and angrily started arguing with Colon. Profe is not happy about the decision of Garvin being the challenger and it is because he has a new client who he feels Colon is ducking. Profe calls Carlos a coward for ducking his client, the man who would easily defeat Carlos if they wrestled and who happens to be the strongest man in the world.”Do you want me to tell you his name! Do you want me to say his name! It is Dino Bravo! Do you accept his challenge?” Carlos responds by saying that the commission has decided the challenger is Ron Garvin, once he wrestles Garvin then he’ll gladly face Profe’s guy. Profe continues ranting "Accept reality, you are a coward!” Carlos taps Profe at that and starts saying don’t you say that about me, but Profe starts yelling “Don’t put your hands on me!” Colon and Profe continue arguing, with Profe still calling Carlos a coward and Carlos getting more heated and pushing Profe. Hugo starts asking for them to calm down when the camera cuts to show someone running to the ring, it’s Dino Bravo! Bravo gets in the ring and attacks Carlos from behind with a knee to the back. Hugo gets out of the ring as Bravo continues attacking Carlos with Profe approvingly watching. Bravo eventually gets Carlos in a full nelson and, even though three tecnicos come out to try to get Bravo off Carlos, their blows have no effect and Bravo still keeps the hold on. Reinforcements arrive, causing Bravo to release the hold and escape.

Now we get comments from Dino Bravo at the TV studio. This could have been anywhere in the world as Bravo lists off different locations, but Bravo has tracked Carlos Colon to his own backyard. Bravo wants to take that Universal title from Colon and whether Colon likes it or not, it will be at Aniversario 91. Hugo follows, saying they have gotten in touch with Carlos Colon about Dino Bravo’s challenge and Carlos is willing to face Bravo. In fact, Carlos has already gotten in touch with WWC commissioner Hayden T. Joseph to request for the necessary adjustments to be made so that the challenger is Dino Bravo. We will have to await the commissioner's decision in the coming days of whether the challenger will be Ron Garvin or if they will make the change to Dino Bravo.

MD: I know none of us want to see Dino Bravo in this spot, BUT 1.) It was an interesting angle as it looked like it was going to be Garvin again, 2.) Profe was supercharged and energetic and this is really the first time he looked like the proper successor of Chicky to me. And 3.) Bravo did come in with a ton of energy both in his beat down and in the subsequent promo, so we shall give this a shot. If we could change what happened decades ago, I’d come up with a better conclusion to the Black Scorpion angle after all.

EB: The next show is scheduled for May 19 at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel and Carlos Colon is not getting any respite from the rudo brain trust of El Profe and Gen. Skandor Akbar. While there is yet to be a decision made as to who the Universal title challenger will ultimately be, that isn’t stopping Gen.Akbar’s latest acquisition from targeting Colon. The wrestler’s name is the Polynesian Prince and his match with Colon on May 19 devolved into a brawl where both men bled. Profe and Akbar are hyping Prince up as one crazy and dangerous individual, who will not hesitate to injure Carlos. In addition to their match on May 19, Colon and Prince had another altercation at the May 22 tv taping in Miramar. Polynesian Prince is scheduled to face Ricky Santana as we join the action.

Ricky Santana vs. Polynesian Prince

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

Polynesian Prince immediately jumps Santana and kicks him down. Prince does not let up on the attack, as Hugo makes note that you can still see the fresh wounds Prince has on his forehead from his match with Carlos Colon in Bayamon. Hugo puts over how crazy Prince is as Santana is stomped out of the ring. Prince grabs Ricky and runs him headfirst into the wall! Ricky is busted open and out of it. Prince sits on Santana and for some reason bites Santana’s boots as the ref calls for the bell. The match has been thrown out but that is not stopping  Prince, who continues attacking Santana’s bleeding forehead. Referee Victor Quiñonez tries to call off Prince, but instead Prince grabs Santana and rolls him back into the ring. Prince sets Ricky up in an electric chair and drops him face first across the top turnbuckle. The bell keeps ringing as Prince comes off the top with a diving headbutt from halfway across the ring. Prince goes up top for another attempt, but Carlos Colon has arrived and pushes Prince off the turnbuckle. Carlos starts ramming Prince’s head into several objects, including the ringpost, the first aid kit on the wall, the commentators' table and a chair. Prince is bleeding but starts fighting back, leading to Carlos getting rammed headfirst into the post. The referee tries to stop them but gets pushed away. Colon and Prince start exchanging headbutts and then start fighting in the crowd. Ricky Santana is out cold in the ring as the fighting continues, with several tecnicos coming out to stop the fight between the bloody Colon and Prince. The situation gets more hectic as the rudos make their way out to try to stop Polynesian Prince and break the fight up. The two men are separated but then get loose and start fighting again. Carlos jumps back towards the ring area with a large piece of wood and goes after Prince, hitting him with the piece of wood. The wrestlers again try to separate Colon and Prince as the commentators start worrying about how close the fight is to them now.  

MD: Very effective stuff. I’ll be honest that I’m not 100% sure yet who the Prince is here. Fatu? Samu? Someone else. Probably someone else. The footage is very blurry. But he moves in a stylized sort of way we haven’t seen in a bit, really portraying a savage and getting into character. The SST basically walked and talked like everyday people at this point. But he wrestled like he knew what he was doing. This quickly spilled to the outside and he ate the countout just for the joy of ramming Santana’s head into the wall. Santana ended up opened up and Prince hit a very cool electric chair snake eyes sort of move before the top rope splash. Colon ran out to save Santana and things got super heated as they brawled all over the place before the wrestlers broke it up. Like I said, very effective way to heat someone up instantly.

EB: Besides the developing rivalry between Carlos Colon and the Polynesian Prince, let’s get to the May 25 episode of Campeones to see what other developments we have in CSP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX_l0C_edMg

Hugo and El Profe welcome us to another episode of Camepones. Profe mentions what we’ll have on today’s program Hugo adds that they'll also have footage of what’s happened between Carlos Colon and Polyneasin Prince, including what happened this past Wednesday in Miramar (Profe: ‘It was a war.’). Unfortunately, this footage is not included in the edited version of the tv episode we are reviewing, but it’s the footage we covered just now of the fight that happened between Colon and Prince during the latter's match with Ricky Santana. Tonight they will be in Caguas, as there will be a rematch between Carlos and the Prince with Skandor Akbar barred from ringside. Profe says that there will be no one to control Polynesian Prince tonight and that not since Abdulla the Butcher has Colon had an opponent as bloodthirsty and savage as Prince. Hugo comments that it seems that Profe and Akbar do not want Carlos to make it to Aniversario (which Profe denies) and that it seems that they want Prince to hurt Carlos before then. Also scheduled for tonight is Invader #1 & Giant Warrior vs King Kong & Rod Price, a no time limit and no DQ rematch for the Caribbean title between Super Medico #3 and Action Jackson, Ricky Santana tries to regain the World Jr title from Brad Adnerson, Huracan Castillo vs Billy Joe Travis, and Little Louis challenges new champion Butch Cassady. 

Super Medico III vs. Action Jackson - May 19

Now let's get to what happened this past Sunday in Bayamon as Super Medico #3 defended the Caribbean title against Action Jackson with most of this match taking up the runtime of the version of the Campeones episode we have. Profe is optimistic that Jacksn will regain the Caribbean title for his stable, maybe as soon as tonight. Hugo mentions that these two have been feuding for a while and it seems that Action has needed to cheat to get the wins he has over Medico. Action keeps bailing during the first few minutes every time Medico #3 gets the advantage, with Profe on commentary saying that it is a 30 minute time limit so they have the time to slow it down and strategize. The match continues in thai pattern until the first commercial break, and when we come back it looks like Action Jackson has been playing hide the foreign object from the ref. The ref is checking Jacksn but cannot find anything since Action had just passed it off to Profe. Medico #3 comes in to attack but Action soon cuts him off and we get the middle portion of the match with Jackson in control using punches, biting and the foreign object throughout. Medico makes a comeback that leads to Jackson getting knocked outside, and it becomes apparent that it had been raining as Jacksn’s tights are covered in mud. Hugo and Profe have an exchange on commentary about Profe apparently not wanting to get close due to the mud and Profe says that’s not true.

Jackson drags Medico out of the ring but ends up getting backdropped by Medico right into the mud. Jackson argues a bit with Profe over him staying away due to the mud and actually rubs mud on Profe’s clothes out of frustration. Back in, Action regains control and works over Medico #3 with a neck wrench. Medico’s white tights start getting dirty from the mud Action has indirectly smeared in the ring as they’ve fought. A test of strength leads to Medico #3 flinging Jackson through the ropes and into the mud once more as we go to another commercial break Back from commercial and Jackson is kicked into the mud by Medico #3. Medico then decides to go after Profe, but Profe backs away. Back in the ring Medico continues on offense and tries a small package for a near fall. Action counters and controls with a nerve hold. Medico’s white tights and mask are starting to take on a brownish tint due to the mud. The match continues back and forth but Action cheats by hitting Medico #3 with the foreign object and gets a three count. Profe is celebrating the win on commentary, but referee Victor Quiñonez runs out to tell in ring ref El Vikingo about the use of the foreign object. Vikingo orders the match to be restarted. 

Jackson quickly goes on the attack and gets some nearfalls but is unable to put Medico away. We get yet another commercial break as Action starts working a nerve hole again. Back from commercial, both men are visibly tired and exchanging near fall attempts. Medico gets a two count of a reverse body press and Jacksn takes the opening to put on the cobra clutch. Medico tries to fight out of it and in the background you can hear the time calls as we are nearing the end of the match. Medico manages to keep his arm up on the third ref check and is able to break the cobra clutch by ramming Jackson’s head into the corner. Twenty seconds are left in the match as Medico #3 gets a sleeper hold on Jackson, and the time runs out before Jackson can submit. It’s a 30 minute time limit draw. Post match we get comments from Action Jackson and Super Medico #3 about tonight’s no time limit and no DQ rematch

MD: This one went really long, multiple commercial breaks. We don’t know what happened with Kim Duk as ref but obviously Medico retained the title. Vikingo is reffing this and Profe got to make fun of him at least. This was a play in four parts. Act 1 had Medico outwrestling Jackson who’d go to the outside and regroup with Profe. Profe, on commentary claimed that they were messing with Medico’s nerves. Act II had Jackson take over for a bit using an object but ultimately getting routed on the outside again and again (which would be Act III). He’d get tossed onto the baseball diamond and end up covered with mud and get upset and then doubly so as Profe wouldn’t help clean him off. Finally (Act IV), he got Medico with the object but a second ref restarted the match after the pin and they went into the finishing stretch. He got the Cobra on Medico, even through a great escape attempt where he bounded up the ropes in the corner and tried for a toss off, but couldn’t put him away with it and Medico had a sleeper on when the bell rang for a time limit draw.

This set up two stips at once, as they could justify it being both no DQ and no time limit. So that’s what they did with the promos. Jackson said he had beaten him already (though it was overturned) and Medico said that he too could cheat.

EB: We have two other segments in this episode of Campeones. One is Hugo Savinovich with the Medalla girls who are there promoting a test of strength machine that Medalla is using as a promotion in different establishments. We then get two card rundowns for tonight in Cagaus and tomorrow in Dorado (with Colon & Giant Warrior vs King Kong & Polynesian Prince; Invader #1 vs. Action Jackson; Ricky Santana vs Rod Price; Super Medico #3 vs Brad Anderson; Huracan Castillo vs Billy Joe Travis, and Little Louis vs Butch Cassady).

We also get a music video for the Polynesian Prince where we see highlights of him in action  against Kim Duk, Ricky Santana and Carlos Colon (including Prince rubbing Colon’s blood over his mouth) and of Prince biting into some raw poultry during an interview segment. Hugo and Profe close out the show by hyping up tonight’s card in Caguas. 

MD: I’m not even going to pretend we know who this guy is, but it felt like they already had a decent amount of footage on him, coming to the ring with his plant headdress, thrashing both names and enhancement guys with biting, clawing, his electric chair snake eyes, and the top rope headbutt, and even a shot of him tearing a chicken apart in a promo.

EB: We have one more TV episode that is from May 1991, it may be from May 18 or May 25. It is a west coast version of Super Estrellas episode that is devoted entirely to hyping up the west coast date of Aniversario 91 that is still about a month away, so all of the focus here is on talking about what has happened so far and what matches at this point are signed for Aniversario 91. Let’s see what is official so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nHCHby9AwQ

Hugo welcomes the west coast viewers to this episode of Super Estrellas by running down what’s scheduled for today's episode. Also, on Friday July 5 we have Aniversario 91 scheduled for Mayaguez. However, since the air conditioning in San German has been installed, they are changing the Aniersario July 5th location to San German (likely a make good for changing if for Mother’s Day weekend). Hugo mentions the officially signed matches and it seems the Universal title match is still officially Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin, although Hugo makes note that both Colon and Dino Bravo are interested in facing off against each other if possible. Also officially signed so far are Giant Warrior vs Dick Murdoch, Bronco #1 looks to get revenge against Sakndr Akbar for the fireball in the face, and for the first time ever in Puerto Rico it will be man vs woman as Monster Ripper and El Profe face off. Hugo wonders who will have the advantage here, since the last time they tussled it was Profe who was sent flying from the ring. Stay tuned as more matches are signed in the coming weeks, there will be six more matches in addition to the already announced four. Hugo mentions the ticket prices for the event and then segues into talking again about Dino Bravo and Carlos Colon. Bravo is claiming that Carlos is ducking him while Carlos is saying that he is not afraid of Bravo, it’s just that Garvin has been designated as the number one contender for Aniversario. That said Colon, Bravo and Profe are all going through the channels to have the currently scheduled match changed. Final confirmation is still pending. Hugo mentions that the people at Capitol Sports are aware of the great support west coast fans have given them and that is why they have decided to hold the Aniversario date for them on a Friday so they can comfortably attend the event. Hugo provides an update of Bronco, who is still recovering in the Dominican Republic. With that, let’s go to our first match.

Gran Mendoza vs. Huracan Castillo Jr.

This match is an offshoot of the current Caribbean tag title feud between the Caribbean Express and Mendoza & Travis, as well as the Profe vs Ripper rivalry. Ripper has now become a  fan favorite and is seconding Castillo, while Profe is seconding Mendoza. Castillo and Mendoza have faced each other many times before and this one starts off with Mendoza getting the early advantage. However, Mendoza decides to slide out of the ring and confront Monster Ripper which allows Castillo to intercept Mendoza. Castillo controls most of the match, with the commentators mentioning that Profe seems to be more well behaved than usual, which they attribute to Profe being wary of Monster Ripper. Mendoza makes a second attempt to go after Ripper but is once again foiled by Castillo. Mendoza gains control after a hammerlock and the crowd chants for Castillo.  Mendoza sends Castillo to the outside where Profe makes a move to interfere but Ripper comes over to ward him off. Mendoza suplexes Castillo into the ring for a  two count. Castillo makes a comeback after Mendoza misses an elbow from the middle turnbuckle and Castillo dropkicks Mendoza out of the ring. Profe puts an object in Mendoza’s glove but the plan backfires when Ripper trips Mendoza up. Castillo gets the three count and the win. Profe starts complaining about what happens as Castillo and Ripper celebrate. 

After, we get an interview from Monster Ripper where she talks about the upcoming match against Profe at Aniversario. She says Profe can say whatever he wants, but she will beat him up at Aniversario since she blames Profe for her World title loss.

MD: Our first look in practice at babyface Monster Ripper. A program with Profe for Aniversario (as we hear in the promo after the match) feels like a workable idea. It’s something different at least. Here she’s seconding Castillo with Profe out there with Mendoza. It gave us some fun bits of Ripper doing chicken arms to taunt Mendoza. Mendoza had a clear size advantage and controlled in the middle but he missed an elbow drop and Castillo started to rout him. Finish had Profe load the glove but Ripper snatched Mendoza’s foot off the ropes, allowing Castillo to pin him.

EB: We get the Ron Garvin music video we saw a few weeks ago (he's still officially scheduled for the Universal title match). After we get some words from Joe Don Smith who is representing Dick Murdoch. Joe Don refuses to speak Spanish and says that they will find out who the real giant of WWC is when Dick Murdoch gets his hands on Giant Warrior. 

MD: Joe Don’s back (from Texas of course), and he claims that not only won’t he speak Spanish, but by now he’s actively forgotten it. He’s there to hype up Dick Murdoch returning to face Giant Warrior and he does a pretty good job of it overall.

Brad Anderson vs. Herbert Gonzalez

EB: World Junior champion Brad Anderson is taking on Herbert Gonzalez. Anderson makes easy work of Herbert as Hugo talks about all the people that Brad has learned from including the older Andersons and Ric Flair. Herbert gets a brief flurry of offense after Anderson misses a diving elbow, but runs into the spinebuster slam and Anderson gets the pin. 

MD: Sticking to my guns. Anderson is pretty good at these squashes, but you see the cracks occasionally, and they really showed up in the long match against Santana. Overall, this was good though. He preened a bit which let Gonzalez get in it but then he cut him off and hit a bunch of stuff including the gourdbuster and a nice neckbreaker where he stepped a couple of feet before dropping him. He hit one elbow drop off the second rope but missed the second, but then he caught Gonzalez on a leapfrog and drove him forward for his spinebuster slam. I can’t say it looked amazing though. Good idea at least. Profe was there to take off his shades at the start.

EB: Profe is with Dino Bravo and Bravo talks about how at Aniversario 91 he will be the new Universal champion. Colon has already felt Bravo's power once and he knows that Colon won’t be able to overcome it. This is followed by a Bravo squash match against Louis Spicolli courtesy of WWF Superstars.

MD: This wasn’t a bad squash, not really. Some of Bravo’s strikes feel sort of dubious but his pile driver was nice and the side slam always looks good. Plus he played to the crowd and to Jimmy Hart ok. I sort of wonder what Spicoli from a couple of years later would have been like in Puerto Rico. The promo was pretty tame, the usual stuff. “Colon, you’ve faced great wrestlers before but..” that kind of deal. But we’ll see what he can do in practice.

Kim Duk vs. Polynesian Prince

EB: Our next match is a recently arrived Polynesian Prince against Kim Duk. This will be our last look at Kim Duk and it has been quite the run for him since arriving in September 1990. Prince jumps Duk while the latter is doing the salt ceremony, and this match is basically to show how dangerous Prince is. Duk’s offense doesn't have much of an effect and Prince shows off his rough tactics and unorthodox style. Duk gets rammed into the ringposts and is busted open. Hugo mentions that he thinks the ref should call the match to protect Duk from injury, but the match continues on. Duk is rolled back and Prince continues on the attack, finishing Duk off with a flying headbutt from halfway across the ring. Prince attacks Duk a bit more after the bell before getting called off by Akbar. 

MD: Very weird match. Prince ambushed Duk during the salt ceremony but then he’d just eat a Duk superkick and not sell at all. Then he’d stop moving and crouch down for no reason so Duk could come back and hit a nice belly to back. Then he wouldn’t sell that either. Ultimately, he crushed Duk with a body slam and diving headbutt for the win but it was more weird than decisive, though it was fairly decisive too. Post match, he launched another headbutt or two.

EB: Carlos Colon joins us with some words about the scheduled Universal title match on July 5 vs Ron Garvin. Carlos says that he’s signed to face Garvin, but with the humiliation Bravo did to him with the full nelson attack he is doing what he can to have the match changed to Bravo. Carlos wants to get payback and beat some respect into Bravo. Carlos says that he is not afraid of anyone and that a match will happen if he has anything to do with it. Carlos does mention that he wants a decision made soon about the match, because he is training right now for Ron Garvin but if it is Bravo that requires a different style of training and focus. 

Action Jackson vs. Giant Warrior

Our next match is Giant Warrior vs Action Jackson, who had a brief feud of sorts before Jackson moved into chasing the Caribbean title. The announcers (Hugo and Eliud) spend most of the first minutes of the match just ragging on El Profe, just lambasting Profe for his actions and about how well they think he will fare against Monster Ripper. The match itself has both Jackson and Warrior being tentative to start. Jackson resorts to an eye rake and biting to gain control. As Jackson continues in control, Profe wanders over to the commentary desk and complains that Ripper had been in love with him and that is why she lashed out at him. He is a sensual beautiful man and she is ugly. Hugo calls out Profe as a liar with a capital L. Jackson has Warrior in a bearhug but Warrior breaks out of it. A slam and legdrop gets two for Warrior. Action rakes the eyes and goes back on offense but Warrior surprises Jackson with a small package that gets the three count. A win for Giant tWarrior. 

Hugo closes the show by reminding viewers about Aniversario 91 on July 5 in San German.

MD: I liked this a lot when Jackson was stooging about for Warrior. I didn’t buy it when he was in control. Warrior worked way too small then. Flimsy kicks when he was trying to fight back, being in a bearhug that just didn’t make sense, ducking low under things before hitting a comeback big boot. I’m just not sure that was the right dynamic here and there were other ways to have Jackson be on top. More biting and grinding and less of all of that. Warrior won it out of nowhere with a small package too. 

EB: Next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones, the feud between Carlos Colon and Polynesian Prince escalates with a gimmick match, TNT makes his return, and more matches are signed for Aniversario 91 as a decision is made as to who will challenge for the Universal title.

Read more!

El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Champions Celebrate Mothers

Week 54: Champions Celebrate Mothers

EB: It’s Mother’s Day weekend and that means we are celebrating the mothers of Puerto Rico in style, with a big wrestling card dedicated to them. Champions will be defending their titles on Saturday and Sunday, with the Saturday Noche de Campeones having a portion of it airing live on Channel 4. Carlos Colon and Ron Garvin are scheduled to have the rubber match in their series, they are 1-1 in Universal title matches so far. There are some other updates to the big card that we’ll cover shortly, so let’s go to the May 11 west coast version episode of Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre.  

WWC Super Estrellas 5/11/91

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2YHP5Indpw

Hugo welcomes us to the program and (since this is the west coast version of the program) tomorrow is the day for the big Mother’s Day card, Tarde de Capeones (general admission is $5). Hugo runs down what we’ll see on today's program and then talks about tomorrow’s card: Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title; Invader #1 & Bronco #1 vs the SST for the WWC World tag titles; King Kong vs Giant Warrior for the TV title; Monster Ripper vs Candi Divine for the Women’s World title; and added to the card due to the Mexican minis having visa troubles in getting into the country to work the show is new Midget World champion Little Louie (who recently defeated Little Tokyo for the title) will be defending his title against Butch Cassady. Tomorrow they will also have merchandise and videos for sale.  

El Bronco #1 & Invader #1 vs. The Samoan Swat Team

Our first match is joined in progress from Lares (suggesting this is from the most recent Thursday or Friday house show) and here we have our first look at recent arrivals and Gen. Akbar’s latest tag team, the Samoan Swat Team. This version of the team is Samoan Savage and Fatu and they are billed as the UWA World tag team champions. Hugo mentions how this team inherited the name from their family, the original Wild Samoans of Afa and Sika, and that this current combination may be the best one yet. Savage is in the ring with Bronco when we join the match, with Invader being tagged in. Savage gains control, tags in Fatu and the SST control the next minutes of the encounter. Fatu tosses Invader outside and distracts the ref,allowing Savage to ram Invader into the fence and hit him with one of the signs. Bronco has enough and gets to check on Invader but then starts exchanging blows with Fatu outside the ring, sending Fatu into the ringpost. Hugo says that the SST are definitely showing they have the quality, energy and viciousness to compete. The SST continue working over Invader with nerve holds, headbutts and switching out behind the ref’s back. Invader makes a brief comeback but misses a corner charge. However, Savage goes to the top and for some reason slips and falls off, allowing Invader the opening to tag in Bronco. Both SST members are handled by Bronco and then Invader joins the fray. The Samoans are whipped into each other and Invader knocks one of them out of the ring. Bronco gets his Bronco DDT on the other, but in the confusion Akbar gets in the ring and clobbers Bronco with an object. The SST are able to score the pin and get a win over the reigning WWC World tag champions. 

MD: Pretty fun one here. Either we come in JIP past most of the shine or there was no shine as they take over on Invader fairly quickly. It definitely had an effect in making the SST seem more formidable than a lot of other teams so I imagine the cutting (whether in the match or the tape) was on purpose. Good heat on Invader including Bronco and the ref getting distracted so they could dump part of the local signage on him and Bronco getting fed up and posting one even if it didn’t do them much good overall. SST can be a little silly at times here and one basically crotched himself on the top after a perfectly good cutoff on Invader’s hope spot, allowing for the hot tag. Bronco came in fiery and pretty quickly got his face first DDT finish on, but the ref was distracted with the brawling on the outside and Akbar was able to intervene, clock Bronco, and turn things around to heat things up for the bigger match.

EB: Next is a recap of the feud Super Medico #3 and Action Jackson are having over the Caribbean title. We see clips of the finish of their match from April 27 and their subsequent match from Cataño where Kim Duk got involved and explained to the ref the cheating that went down. As mentioned before, these two men will face off once more for the Caribbean title with Kim Duk as the special referee. After the feud recap, Profe and Action Jackson cut a promo where they are not worried about Medico #3 or about Kim Duk being partial to Medico, Action will win the Caribbean title and they will party with the ladies all night long. 

MD: We saw the recaps last time. That first ref bump was really good. Most important thing to know about the promo is that Jackson isn’t worried about Duk as the special ref and promises that after he wins 1-2-3 in the center of the ring, he and Profe will party with all the ladies.

EB: Brad Anderson gets a music video, with highlights from some of his matches against Kim Duk and Ricky Santana. He is challenging for the World Junior title this weekend.

MD: Maybe the only Brad Anderson video ever? But they made him look pretty good with footage against Duk and Santana and others set to I Want It All by Queen. A few shots of his spinebuster slam, which was a pretty interesting creative choice given how cool the normal spinebuster is. Not much of his weird gourdbuster though.

EB: A King Kong interview gets cut, but we do get Akbar with the SST (who have their UWA Tag title belts with them). Akbar says this is the team and we get comments from Savage as well. Fatu just mugs for the camera as Hugo translates. Bronco and Invader cut their usual promo about how it won't be easy to get the titles from them, with Invader putting over the quality of the SST and that they’ll be ready for them.

MD: They just flawlessly move to the next feud with these tags. Akbar set it up well with “You thought the California Studs were tough…?” and mentioned how the SST had done a bunch of favors for Devastation, Inc. and now signed big contracts. They already had one set of belts (thanks to Estevban for identifying them) and were going for another. Bronco and Invader were as spirited as ever though and this felt like a big deal to me.

Billy Joe Travis & Gran Mendoza vs. Herbert Gonzalez & Invader #4

EB: Galan Mendoza gets another tag partner and it is the returning Billy Joe Travis (who had a feud with Huracan Castillo over the World Junior title back in the late fall of 1990). Travis and Mendoza work over Invader #4 for a couple of minutes util Herbert Gonzalez gets the tag. Surprisingly, Herbert gets a  few seconds of shine before all four men end up in the ring. As the ref clears the ring of the illegal men,Monster Ripper goes over to Mendoza and slips him an object that he loads into his glove. One loaded punch later and Herbert is pinned. It looks like Mendoza and Travis will continue the rivalry with the Caribbean Express over the Caribbean tag titles. 

MD: And lo, Billy Joe replaces Doug Gilbert as Mendoza’s partner continuing the stooging chain. He and Mendoza are a good match with the blonde mullets. They have Ripper with them still. Invader IV starts out in peril here and he has a nice little flip to his feet for a hope spot but gets cut off. When Gonzalez does make it there’s a ton of stooging before Ripper slips Mendoza the glove. They didn’t exactly look super strong here but maybe that was the point.

EB: It’s clear from Anderson’s interview that he’s faced and defeated Ricky Santana twice already and he says the third time will be the same, only this time the World Junior title will be around his waist. Ricky follows with a rebuttal, saying Profe is talking too much. Ricky is dedicating this match to all the mothers and he will not disappoint them. Anderson needs to remember two things, that Ricky is the champion and that Rivky will be walking out the champion.

MD: They’ve been through a couple of matches but Anderson was ready to get the light heavyweight title. This feels like a perfectly fine undercard feud even with no real heat behind it.

EB: TNT joins us in full garb, he is not competing this weekend due to being sidelined due to King Kong’s top rope splashes. TNT wishes all of the mothers a happy Mother’s Day and also lets us know he has started rating and is feeling better already. He soon should be ready for action. TNT talks about tomorrow’s TV title match where Giant Warrior is challenging King Kong. TNT spoke with Warrior and warned him to watch out for those splashes. He will be rooting 100% for Giant Warrior.

MD: TNT is back from being laid out and in his full ceremonial gear looking ready to get revenge.

EB: We get a Ron Garvin music video where it looks like he is running and working out around the Condado area of San Juan. The video includes clips from some of his late 88 matches, including his win over Carlos Colon in the Universal title tournament finals. Hugo follows by saying that the third time is the charm as we get highlights of the previous two matches between Garvin and Colon. They are tied 1-1. We cut off the Ron Garvin telephone interview (I’m guessing it’s the same one from last week) and then go to Carlos Colon in the studio. Carlos reiterates that he wants everyone supporting him tomorrow against a very dangerous opponent, with the fans’ support he is sure that the Universal title will stay here in Puerto Rico.

MD: Again, not much in the way of new Garvin footage. This is older stuff. The music video is funny as it has him running and punching and on the beach, etc. The very best part is when they intersperse clips of his fist with a giant rock at high speed. The clips are interesting in context. At the end of 87 he was anchoring things in JCP and at the end of 88 he looked to be anchoring things for Puerto Rico. Then at the end of 89 into 90, he had the Valentine story in the WWF and now he’s back to headline a big show. It makes me wonder if people don’t give him quite enough credit. 

Kim Duk & Giant Warrior vs. Action Jackson & King Kong

EB: Our TV main event is Kim Duk & Giant Warrior taking on Action Jackson & King Kong. We have both El Profe and Skandor Akbar seconding the rudo team for this encounter. Duk and Jackson start and Duk gets the better of that exchange, hitting a backdrop and causing Action to roll outside. Back in, Action gets backed into the tecnico corner and Giant Warrior is tagged in. Action manages to back Warrior up to the rudo corner, but a double team attempt is avoided by Warrior, and Action almost crashes into Kong (causing an angry exchange from Action to Kong). Kong is tagged in. Another double team attempt fails,with Kong hitting Action and sending him to the floor.   This rudo team is not gelling well. Duk is in and the rudo team briefly gets some offense in, but Warrior comes in again for his team. Warrior misses a charge and seems to hit his head on the post (due to his size), allowing Action and Kong to work over Warrior. The match breaks down a bit with Warrior rammed into the post outside and Duk coming in. The rudos double team Duk and he falls victim to the Kong splash for the p in. Warrior comes back in the ring. Tosses Action out of the ring, and then hits the big boot on Kong. Warrior and Kong fight on the outside and continue fighting towards the locker room as we go back to Hugo in the studio for the show closing. 

MD: They teased Jackson and Kong having dissension early by each crashing into the other as Duk got out of the way and the fans were very excited at that idea. Jackson was just a naturally volatile figure in the best of ways. Warrior played face in peril well and it was believable enough with these two. Jackson leaped to nowhere and landed on Warrior’s upstretched boot but it was notable because he flopped forward in a really nice twist on the flying nothing. When Duk got in, he immediately got swept under and splashed though. Post-match they paid off Warrior vs Kong with a nice brawl on the outside and the fans wanted to see more of that too.

EB: While we’ve been reviewing mostly west coast versions of the TV that are hyping up the May 12 Mother’s Day show, we do have a counterpart Noche de Campeones card occurring on Saturday May 11. It is happening in Guaynabo and there is a very important development for this show. WAPA, the station that airs Super Estrellas de la Lucha Libre, will be airing part of the card live on TV. And we actually have a good portion of this airing available. First, let’s go to the May 11 episode of Campeones for the final hype for Noche de Campeones. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgGPKj7yoiE

Hugo and Profe are here to start the program, with Hugo welcoming the viewers to Campeones on TeleOnce. Profe sounds happy and Hugo makes note that not only is it because of the wrestlers he has competing tonight for titles, but it turns out Profe has been helping to train Monster Ripper for her title defense as well. It’s a partnership that has developed recently and Profe has been taking this responsibility seriously. In fact, we’ll see highlights of this training later in the program. Hugo reminds viewers that tickets are already on sale with special prices in honor of the mothers they are celebrating (ringside $8, general admission $5, and children under 11 years old are $2). Hugo makes sure to emphasize the first match starts at 8pm, since Campeones airs on Teleonce (Channel 11) they can’t promote the live airing of the card on WAPA (channel 4), so this is an indirect way to make sure people are there on time for the start of the live airing. Profe runs down what’s in store and makes sure to run down the tecnicos (calls the Caribbean Express the Chicken Express, calls Invader and Bronco stupid, and declares Garvin the Universal champion since it’s a lock that he will win). Hugo continues running down the rest of what’s in store before again giving another reminder of tonight’s Noche de Campeones card dedicated to all of the mothers in Puerto Rico and then drops some big news. All who attend tonight in person will find out who will compete in the main event of Aniversario 91, as they will announce the challenger for the Universal title (who will face whoever is champion after tonight’s match). With that, let’s go the first match,

Gran Mendoza & El Condor vs. Caribbean Express (Miguelito Perez & Huracan Castillo Jr.)

Mendoza has been feuding with the Caribbean Express since losing the Caribbean tag titles to them, but has had a bit of a revolving door of partners (from Rick Valentine to Doug Gilbert and now Billy Joe Travis). Here Mendoza is teaming with El Condor, which suggests this may have been taped in between the switch from Gilbert to Travis. Hugo mentions that Castillo and Perez are the champions of Puerto Rico, wearing flag t-shirts to show off how proud they are of their country and heritage (which they wore during their tour of Central America). Profe complains that those are cheap t-shirts but Hugo says that where the shirt comes from doesn't matter, it’s the pride in representing their homeland that matters. Perez and Condor start and condor actually gets a bit of shine by knocking down Perez with a clothesline before tagging out. Profe talks up Condor by saying that he’s talented, has a future  and we’ll see him in a few years in main event matches, he just needs experience. This continues the recent trend of the commentators talking up Condor (it looks like they may have plans for him soon). The Caribbean Express maintain control of most of the match, regardless of whether it is Mendoza or Condor in there. Profe insults Miguelito by saying that it looks like Miguelito owes money to his barber judging by that haircut, he looks like a Dick Tracy villain. Hugo complains that it looks like Mendoza is purposefully avoiding being in there too long against the Express and is letting Condor handle the bulk of the match. Profe justifies it by saying that Mendoza is letting Condor gain experience. Condor makes a good showing but ends up getting hit by a Perez handspring elbow and powerslam,and Castillo finishes it off with a Northern Lights suplex (with Mendoza just jumping off the apron and not bothering to make any effort at a save). 

MD: A showcase for the Express. I’m not sure if this was between partners for Mendoza or what. I’d have been all for Condor being the third guy with Mendoza and Travis with Ripper managing all three though. He had just enough clever little mannerisms and stalling that made me think he was getting it. They’d get little bits of offense but the Express were quick to comeback. I love Castillo’s jumping knee and Perez had a handspring elbow in the corner, with Castillo winning it with a Northern Lights Suplex. I wonder if he learned that from being around Hase in New Japan.

EB: Hugo presents the finish of the match the Samoan Swat Team had this past Thursday in Lares in their debut in CSP. It’s the match against Invader #1 and Bronco #1 we saw on Super Estrellas. Tonight there is a rematch with the WWC World tag titles on the line and there is  special stipulation for that match, Skandor Akbar will be locked in a cage. Also, if Invader and Bronco win, they’ll get 5 minutes with Akbar. Obviously,Akbar is not happy about being put in a cage but is focus do more important things and that is the World tag team titles. And they can forget about getting those 5 minutes. Bronco and Invader are ready and Bronco is looking forward to getting those 5 minutes with Akbar. Invader mention they don’t run from anyone and they’ll gladly defend the belts tonight. Invader also wants those 5 minutes so they can beat respect into Akbar.

MD: Akbar claims he’s not an animal. The gimmick here was that he’d be locked in a cage at ringside and if Bronco and Invader won they’d get five minutes with him. Really something that should be done more today. It’s perfect for Stokely for instance.

EB: Some more promos for tonight, as the Caribbean Express (wearing the shirts the announcers were talking about earlier) are defending their titles against Galan Mendoza and Billy Joe Travis. Castillo recognizes that Mendoza and Travis make a nice team but the Express is the better team. Profe introduces the Ron Garvin music video we’ve seen before and then we get some words from Monster Ripper, Galen Mendoza and Billy Joe Travis. Ripper says that she has a surprise while gesturing to Travis, so I’m guessing this may actually be the official launch of this team. Travis praises his manager and partner and reminds the viewers that he is a former World Junior champion as well. Mendoza says that they have the Express right where they wanted, Perez and Castillo made the mistake of signing an open contract and here they have Billy Joe Travis.

MD: They’re up against Perez and Castillo moving forward. All I really have to say here is that Travis looks like he was raiding Chicky Starr’s wardrobe. He calls Ripper the most beautiful woman and himself and Mendoza the most handsome men. Mendoza just seems happy to be there.

EB: They show the finish of the Giant Warrior & Kim Duk vs. King Kong & Action Jackson where Warrior and Kong fought to the locker room as part of the hype for the TV title match tonight. Akbar calls out warrior for thinking he’s some type of savior around here, but Kong will take care of him tonight.

MD: Akbar really had a lot of value still at this point. If I was WCW, I would have brought him in to be with Sullivan and Black Blood and One Man Gang or something. Anyway, here he said that Giant Warrior saw himself as a savior but that he’d end up calling Akbar master. Pretty solid stuff with shots of Kong. It’s amazing not just how long Warrior’s run was but that he was a babyface throughout. 

EB: We get the card rundown for tonight in Guaynabo: Carlos Colon vs Ron Garvin for the Universal title; Invader #1 & Bronco #1 vs the Samoan swat team for the World tag titles, with Skandor Akbar locked in a cage and if Invader and Bronco win they get 5 minutes with Akbar; King Kong vs Giant Warrior for the TV title; Monster Ripper vs Candi Divine for the Women’s World title; Little Louis vs Butch Cassady for the Midget World title; Super Medico #3 vs Action Jackson for the Caribbean title with Kim Duk as guest referee; Ricky Santana vs Brad Anderson for the World Junior title; the Caribbean Express vs Galan Mendoza & Billy Joe Travis for the Caribbean tag titles; and other great stars. 

This is followed by the Super Medico #3 vs Action Jackson feud recap video and promos from Action Jackson and Super Medico #3. Action is tired of Medico #3 and says he is the baddest thing on the island. Medico #3 is happy that Duk is the referee, meaning that there won;t be any cheating from Jackson or Profe.

MD: Action Jackson had a white letters on black Action Jackson backdrop which I don’t remember as a sort of thing used in the promotion. Apparently we don’t have this match, which is sad because I wanted to see ref Kim Duk. 

EB: Profe does a voice over for the Monster Ripper training footage, where he brags about the pace he is putting Ripper through and that Candi has no chance. Loot at her strength, her beauty, her sensuality, her agility, her fortitude. Profe has Ripper training with men (in this case Condor) so it’s tougher, and if Ripper can dominate a man what chance does a woman have against her. Ripper gets her reps on the bench press and does a nice bridging pin on Condor as the video ends. 

MD: As training videos go, this is a pretty good one. It’s played for humor to some degree with her sparring with some masked guys (Condor?) in the ring and working in the gym but I’m glad they did it since they weren’t building much to her match otherwise. Maybe Esteban can identify the song.

EB: Sorry Matt, I can’t identify the song from the bit that plays in the video. If anyone knows what it is do let us know. Let’s go to today’s main event, our first look at the UWA World tag team champions the Samaon Swat Team in Cataño. They take on Kim Duk and Ricky Santana. 

Samoan Swat Team vs. Kim Duk & Ricky Santana

The SST are competing against a pair of credible opponents, and while Duk and Santana do get their moments of shine by controlling the first minutes of the match, this is a showcase for the new arrivals to put over how much of a threat they are. Sanatana is the face in peril and again we see the spot where the Samoan slips off the top rope when going for a top rope splash (are they doing the barefoot is affecting their balance thing?). Duk is tagged in and momentarily cleans house but then makes the mistake of ramming the two Samoans' heads together. This has no effect and instead the SST double headbutt Duk. A few monet later, a piledriver into a flying splash gets the SST the win. 

Hugo and Profe close the show with one more sell of tonight’s card (remember it starts at 8pm sharp) and Profe says his people will win all the titles they are competing for tonight. Remember, we’ll find out the main event of Aniversario 91 tonight as well.

MD: The big takeaway they want to get across here is that you don’t headbutt a samoan. Multiple times here things were done to no effect. When they got driven out early, they ended up doing some sort of haka with Akbar and Duk slammed their heads together to no effect. Then during a hope spot (after he’d been hit by a superkick out of nowhere while distracted as a transition), Santana slammed Fatu’s head on the mat to no effect. And in the comeback after the hot tag Duk tried to slam their heads together again and ate a double headbutt (followed by a pile driver and a top rope splash). These aren’t the same SST of a year or two earlier. They’re still fearsome but more apt to stooge and a little more rounded out. 

EB:  We’re fortunate to have 4 of the 5 matches that aired live on Noche de campeones on WAPA. We also have the first hour of the live broadcast (including commercials), so yo can watch up to the 54 minute mark on the live broadcast video (which takes you to the ring itnros for Colon vs  Garvin). After that, we have the individual match links for the Universal tile and World tag team title matches. The Women’s title match is included in full in the live portions segment we have, although there will be an individual match link for that one as well (although our review will be from the live broadcast portion we have). So let’s celebrate  the mothers of Puerto Rico by watching wrestling. 

Noche  de Campeones from May 11, 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_MQxz1shFw

Our sponsors for this live airing on WAPA are Medalla, Coca-Cola and Bacardi. Hugo Savinovich welcomes us to Noche de Campeones as we get some pyrotechnics from the ringposts. Hugo is joined by El Profe and Eliud Gonzalez, they will be our commentators for most of the proceedings. Everyone's dressed up in tuxedos since we are celebrating Mother’s Day. Hugo gets comments from Eliud and Profe about the matches we'll see on the live broadcast: Ricky Santan vs Brad Anderson for the World Junior title (Eliud: Brad Anderson is going to have to get tough against Ricky Santana, who is in the best physical condition of his life); Monster Ripper vs Candi Divine for the Women’s World title (Profe: The moment is here, finally we’ll see the condition I’ve gotten Monster Ripper in, there is now way anyone can defeat her!); Invader #1 & Bronco #1 vs the Samoan Swat Team for the World tag titles with Gen. Akbar locked in a cage at ringside and if the SST loses the champs get 5 minutes with Akbar (Profe: That will not happen, the SST are too strong and powerful for that to happen); Carlos Colon vs. Ron Garvin for the Universal title (Eliud: Carlos is in his best shape because he already had a very unpleasant experience with Ron Garvin, Garvin is someone who knows everything there is to know about being in the ring); and for the kids a special treat as Little Louis defends his newly won Midget World title against Buthc Cassidy (Profe: Butch Cassidy is simply too strong for any other midget, the champ has no chance). Of the five matches, we do not have footage of the Little Louis vs. Butch Cassidy match. We’ll soon be back with our first match. Ricky Santana vs Brad Anderson.

MD: This felt big. Fireworks to start. Everyone in tuxes. Even the big shows haven’t felt quite like TV productions in the way that this does. It’s a nice change. I don’t get a sense of how big the crowd is but this does feel like a big deal.

EB: Our first batch of commercials features the cast of satirical comedy show ‘Que es loq eu psa aqui,ah?’ promoting a phrase that pays contest in partnership with Burger King, a Medalla commercial featuring former Menudo member Ricky (the first one, not Ricky Martin).a BWAC furniture outlet commercial featuring Cheo Felicianos serenading a mother, and a Mixing Magician commercial. 

Ricky Santana vs Brad Anderson

Back to the arena and Eliud Gonzales does the ring introductions for the World Junior title match. Brad Anderson has defeated Ricky Santana twice in non-title matches and is seeking to beat Santana once more with the title on the line. Victor Quiñonez is the referee for this match. Profe is on commentary so he is not seconding Anderson at ringside, but he is confident that he has prepared Brad well for this matchup. A face off to start leads to slaps being exchanged and then punches. Anderson cuts off the exchange with a knee to the gut,but Santana counters a whip into the corner and proceeds to hit Anderson with a couple of atomic drops. Santana continues in control for the next minute and Anderson bails to the outside after kicking out of a Santana body press. Back in the ring Anderson and Santana engage in a test of strength, which Anderson controls for a couple of minutes. Sanatana eventually breaks it via a flip and then knocks Anderson down with a clothesline. Anderson switches tactics and works over Santana’s arm, but Santana also ends up getting out of the hold and hitting a few armdrag takedowns. This junior heavyweight match is more mat based. The match continues with Anderson getting out maneuvered by Santana. Anderson gets a somewhat sloppy bulldog on Ricky to gain control and is able to make a couple of unsuccessful pin attempts. Anderson continues trying to wear down Santana, but Ricky is able to get a counter here and there. Anderson goes to the top rope and jumps off, but Santana gets his knees up to block. Santana comes back with several punches and gets a two count of a flying forearm. Santana gets a flying splash from the top rope and somehow Anderson kicks out at two. Andersons hits his spinebuster slam and now it’s Santana that kicks out at two. We get a sunset flip by Santana that Anderson kicks out of, followed by Anderson doing a cradle on Santana. It appears that Santana kicked out just before the three count, but referee Victor Quiñonez signals for the bell to be rung as the two wrestlers continue trying to pin each other. The ref waves off an Anderson pina temp and then raises Brad’s arm as the winner. That finished looked very wonky. Santana protests and the crowd isn't happy with the result either but Brad Anderson is the new World Junior champion. 

MD: I came into this thinking that Anderson was a big step up from Eddie Watts or whoever else was going for the Jr. title, but coming out of it, I’m just not sure. Anderson was rough around the edges on fast exchanges, with a couple of rough looking leap frogs, etc. Some of it still worked because it put forth a sense of competition, but overall, this was dodgy at times. Santana hit his marks well though, and the match was structured well too. Anderson would try things early and Santana would get the better of him. Once Anderson took over, he hit his stuff, like the gourdbuster and would grind Santana down. Santana had hope spots that were cut off fairly quickly and they built it to a hot comeback. Santana hit a flying forearm and top rope splash but couldn’t win with them. Anderson caught him off the ropes with his spinebuster but just for two. Finish was weird as Anderson reversed a sunset flip into a pin of his own but they kept on wrestling after the three count for a few seconds before it set in that he’d won with it. Santana complained after the bell. This had good energy but was definitely rough around the edges.

EB: Before the commercial break we get a promo from Monster Ripper and El Profe, Ripper says that Profe and her together are untouchable, while Pofe says Divine has no chance against the Women’s World champion. We also get a brief shot of Little Louis backstage.

Our second commercial break has the Que es…?/BK commercial, a Bacardi rum commercial, an ad for a special Mother’s Day program called Posada Corazon with several well known local actresses, the Medalla commercial, a Coca-cola ad featuring Luis Miguel singing a Coke inspired version of his song Será Que No Me Amas (his Spanish cover of Blame It on the Boogie), and an ad promoting new program Quedaste Retratado!

We go back to the promo area as Hugo is with Candi Divine, and Candi is ready to leave the arena as the champion.

Candi Divine vs. Monster Ripper (if you just want to only watch the match you can click the following link)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5TN-wlwL4I

Monster Ripper comes out first and has El Profe with her. Candi is out next and Ripper and Profe yell at the crowd to be quiet. Ripper dominates the early going as her size is too much for Divine. Hugo mentions that Monster Ripper is the Abdullah the Butcher of the women’s division. Divine gets an opening when Ripper misses a legdrop, but Ripper quickly rolls out to stop Divine’s momentum. Candi tries to get the crowd riled up as Ripper and Profe have a chat at ringside. Back in, Ripper again takes over control of the match but Divine is able to survive. A missed splash from the turnbuckle again gives Candi an opening, and once more Ripper rolls to the outside to stop the momentum. Candi jumps Ripper when she enters the ring and tries several dropkicks. Ripper swats away the first two attempts, but Divine lands the third. Profe jump up on the apron at this point and Candi takes a swing at him. Profe ducks and grabs Divine, holding her for a Ripper charge. However, Candi gets out of the way and Ripper crashes into Profe. Candi uses that opening to get a cradle and surprises Ripper with a three count! There is a new Women's World champion. 

Divine is awarded the title belt and leaves the ring to the cheers of the crowd, Meanwhile, Profe has gotten into the ring and starts arguing animatedly with Monster Ripper. Profe starts shoving Ripper and Hugo calls out Profe for putting his hands on a lady. Ripper shoves Profe back and proceeds to fight back, sending him out of the ring. The crowd starts cheering this turn of events. Ripper is hyped up in the ring and Profe is out on the floor. Profe eventually heads to the back to the jeers and laughs of the crowd and then we get a quick promo from Butch Cassidy before going to a commercial break.

MD: It’s kind of sad that Ripper comes out with Profe instead of Mendoza (but this will make sense by the end). I have no idea the last time I’ve seen a Candi Divine match. So Ripper looks great here obviously. She feeds early and hits the floor and Profe does a nice job getting her hyped back up. She takes over almost instantly and her offense looks great, from the slams and corner avalanches to a really great sit down power bomb. She misses a splash and Divine has her comeback and her offense is about as weak as can be. Profe hits the apron to hold her. He and Ripper collide. Divine gets a roll up (with Ripper very quick to kick out on 2.8) and win the belt. The trash starts to fly and I’m not sure if it’s because of the title change/finish or because of heat Ripper/Profe had, but very quickly Ripper beat the crap out of Profe and raised her hand. No idea if this was a face turn or just heels beefing or if it’ll go anywhere. This would have almost certainly been better with Bronco’s valet if she hadn’t gotten hurt.

EB: Our third commercial break has the ‘Que es…?/BK commercial, ’the Medalla commercial, a Sonia Silvestre album ad, a commercial for a Julio Angel Mother’s Day special, a Bonanza ad,a Coca-Cola commercial featuring dolphins, and an ad for a Mother's Day special of Al Aire Libre featuring comedian Raymond Arrieta doing his Wally character (a spoof of Walter Mercado, how this warranted a Mother’s Day special I have no idea).

Back at the arena, Hugo and Eliud present the recap video of the two previous matches between Carlos Colon and Ron Garvin, this will be billed as the third time is the charm. Ron Garvin has a promo after where he promises to beat the dog heck out of Carlos Colon one more time and win the Universal title. Carlos responds by saying he feels great, the public is here to back him up and although Garvin is a tremendous competitor, he is confident in being the victor.

Our last commercial break rundown includes a special episode of Portada with pianist Raul DiBlasio, the Bacardi, ‘Que es…?’/BK, and Medalla commercials, an ad for several Ednita Naxario concert dates at Bellas Artes, and the Posada Corazon commercial.

Carlos Colón vs. Ronnie Garvin 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2nR8iRrVeo

Eliud Gonzalez presents our guest ring announcer for the Universal title match, local TV personality/producer Luisito Vigoreaux. The competitors enter the ring and referee Victor Quiñonez does the pre match check. As the bell rings to start,Hugo makes note that Profe has returned to the commentary desk, saying ‘Eliud, look who showed his face back here for the main event.’ Profe quickly says that he does not want any jokes or comments about what happened earlier, he is here because he has a commitment to commentate with Hugo an Eliud and that’s all he is doing. Hugo ignores him and starts asking if it hurts and saying that a woman beat him up. Hugo will keep bringing this up every now and then throughout the match with Profe being mad and exasperated. Back to the match, Colon and Garvin jaw a bit to start and then lock up. Both men give a clean break but then tempers flare a bit with some shove. Colon puts on a headlock and they work it for the next few minutes. Garvin would briefly break out of the hold but then Colon would go back to the headlock, leading to several Garvin reversals into pin attempt counters on the mat. Luisito Vigoreaux briefly joins the commentators to offer some words about the action so far. Back on their feet, Colon and Garvin exchange punches and Colon fires off a hard chop that staggers Garvin momentarily. Garvin responds by biting Colon in the corner, does a hard chop of his own and then puts Colon in a neck wrench. Garvin starts cheating by using the ropes for leverage and continues working over Colon’s neck. Garvin puts on a sleeperhold and almost gets a near fall after releasing it. 

Gavin fires off some punches but Colon counters off the ropes with a sleeperhold of his own. Garvin grabs the ropes to break it and then does the old trick knee to foul Carlos. Gavin is slow to follow up, but does get an inside cradle for a near fall. An abdominal stretch is countered by a Colon hiptoss, but then Carlos misses an elbow drop.A rope running sequence leads to both men knocking their heads together and going down. Carlos attacks first and gets a cover, but Garvin manages to get his leg on the rope. Colon attacks Garvin’s leg and sets up for the figure four, but Garvin counters with a small package for a near fall. Carlos goes back to working the leg and this time does get the figure four on. Garvin fights through the hold and eventually manages to reverse it, forcing Carlos to grab the ropes to break the hold. Garvin;s leg is injured though and Carlos goes back on the attack. Garvin is able to kick out of a pin attempt after getting headbutted, but then misses a swinging punch after Colon ducks. Carlos grabs Garvin and hits a back suplex into a bridge, scoring the three count. Carlos Colon has retained the Universal title in a very close encounter. Maybe Garvin’s performance warrants a rematch?

MD: It was one thing for Garvin to have a music video to George Thorogood’s Born to be Bad, but to have him come out in the stadium to it is something else entirely. He was a star that knew how to bask in front of an audience like this. It’s important that everyone knows that Profe was taking a lot of grief for what just happened to him too. I love how straightforward this match was. It almost felt like a Saturday Night’s Main Event sort of blowoff match instead of the way they often did things to build long feuds over shows. 

After the early shoving, Colon controlled with just a great headlock. They were really working it. Garvin took over with cheapshots and was happy to eyepoke and bite before locking in a sleeper. Colon got one of his own but Garvin went low. From there they went into a stretch with Colon firing back (with the cartwheel), honestly outpunching Garvin. He locked on the Figure-Four, and got a headbutt, before winning it with a bridging belly to back. It was very simple, very straightforward, paced well, worked hard, just a good match with almost no real twists to it. The closest was when Garvin tried a small package out of that low blow. But I enjoyed it as an outlier for that. It was just a good, solid title match.

Invader #1 & Bronco #1 vs. Samoan Swat Team with Gen. Akbar locked in a cage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtBl4cS9YLQ

EB: The final match we have for Noche de Campeones is the World tag title match. Remember that if Invader and Bronco win,they get 5 minutes with Skandor Akbar. The SST scored a win over the World tag champs two days ago in Lares and are looking to do it again with the titles on the line. Akbar has already been locked inside the cage as the match starts with Invader and Fatu. Profe puts over the amazing power and speed combination the SST has. Invader gets the better of Fatu early on and it looks like the SST are somewhat rattled. Savage is tagged in but does not fare any better, particularly when Bronco is tagged in. At this rate, it’s looking like Invader and Bronco are getting those 5 minutes with Akbar. Bronco and Invader send the SST from the ring with punches and the SST head over to the locked cage to get some advice from Akbar. Profe and Hugo start arguing on commentary, with Eliud saying that he might have to serve as referee between the two. Hugo says that he’ll just go get Monster Ripper if Profe continues acting up. Savage gets back in the ring and Bronco still maintains the advantage. The SST decide t play hide the foreign object and manage to get control over Invader #1 after a double clothesline. Invader is tossed outside and, while the ref is distracted, Invader gets hit with a chair. Bronco goes over to check on Invader and then gets into a fight with Fatu. While this is going on, Savage wraps an electric cord around Invader's throat and chokes him. 

Back in the ring, Savage puts a never hold on Invader as the crowd tries to cheer Invader on. The SSt tries to double team but Invader counters with a reverse body press on both Samoans. Still, Savage is able to get the nerve hold back on Invader. The SST gets a near fall off a backdrop and then go back to the nerve hold. Invader gets out of it and gets a headlock and headscissor takedown on both Samoans. Bronco comes in and hits a double clothesline but Invader is still not able to make the tag. The tide almost turns when Invaader catches Savage trying to come off the top and slams him to the mat. The SST stops Invader from making the tag, but a Vader bomb is countered with raised knees and this time invader gets the tag. Bronco cleans house but makes the mistake of smashing the SST’s heads together to no effect. The SST counters with a double headbutt on Bronco, but before they can capitalize, Invader joins the action to help his partner out. Invader knocks Savage out of the ring and Fatu and Bronco end up colliding and getting knocked down. As the ref is getting Invader out of the ring, Savage comes in and rolls out Fatu, taking his place in the ring. Savage reaches into his tights and tries to punch Bronco with an object. Bronco backdrops Savage though,and Savage drops the object upon hitting the mat. Bronco gets a dropkick and Invader, having spotted the object, grabs it and decks Savage with it as the ref is distracted by Fatu trying to come in. Bronco covers and gets the three count! The champions retain and now get 5 minutes with Skandor Akbar.

The SST are trying to complain about the foreign object but to no avail and Profe is throwing a fit on commentary about the way the match ended. Profe says that it’s inconceivable that they’ve gotten the 5 minutes. In the ring, Invader and Bronco shake hands and Invader motions for Bronco to go ahead and get Akbar. Bronco makes his way to the ringside cage and just when he gets close, Akbar lights up a huge fireball right into Bronco’s face. Bronco starts flailing about in  pain and Invader quickly grabs him and pulls him down so he can get medical assistance. Profe laughs maniacally and says that is exactly what he deserves as a concerned Invader is checking on Bronco. We don’t know how severely Bronco may have been injured.

MD: Another great tag. Maybe this wasn’t quite as great as some of the ones we’ve seen lately, but it was still very good. The shine was a lot of fun, especially once Bronco got in and the fans seemed to love every second of them running the SST off and dancing in the ring. There was some attempt for SST to hide an object and that would come back to play later. The heat was on Invader and while I wish they did a few more moves maybe, a lot of that motion and action was saved for the hope spots and cutoffs. That felt like a creative decision and if you’re going to have someone in chinlocks and nerveholds, Invader is about the best choice possible. Those hopespots really escalated too, with him doing a back body block out of the corner and then a headlock/headscissors combo (where Bronco came in illegally afterwards to hit a double clothesline which meant no tag could happen) and tossing a SST member off the top, before finally getting his knees up on a Vader Bomb in the corner.

The finish was wild as the SST successfully made a twin confusion switch but lost the object allowing Invader and Bronco to win with it. That meant they got five minutes with Akbar. But Akbar's too smart for this and had the fireball ready the whole time. The angle came off great and left Invader laying (once again).

EB: As mentioned by Hugo on Campeones, the matches weren’t the only things scheduled for Noche de Campeones that night, there also was a special announcement by the commissioner of the Puerto Rico Boxing and Wrestling Commission. This announcement was regarding the challenger for the Universal title at Aniversario 91. Five contenders were being considered: Dino Bravo, Tatsumi Fujinami, Ron Garvin, Stan Hansen,and Abdullah the Butcher. Who will the challenger be? And what is the condition of Bronco after the fireball to the face?  Did any other titles change hands? And just who is Gen. Akbar’s latest recruit? We’ll discuss all this next time on El Deporte de las Mil Emociones as the build to Aniversario 91 has begun.

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