El Deporte de las Mil Emociones: Almost Midnight For 1989

Week 15: Almost Midnight For 1989

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are now set for the end of 1989.

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