World Wrestling Council

The World Wrestling Council is one of Puerto Rico's two main professional Wrestling organizations, the other one being the International Wrestling Association. The organization is also known as "WWC".

History

The World Wrestling Council was founded in 1973 as Capitol Sports Promotions, with Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica as promoters of the organization.

Capitol Sports Promotions gained fame in Puertorican houses soon after their TV show "Superestrellas de la Lucha Libre" went on-air in the PR channerl 4, WAPA-TV. The taped show is still aired on weekends (both Saturday and Sunday for two hours).

Capitol Sports Promotions began touring all over the island, and, with the golden era of boxing in Puerto Rico limited only to Ponce and the metropolitan area of Puerto Rico, Capitol Sports Promotions took their shows to many, inner country towns where people were not used to seeing live in-ring sports events. As a result, Capitol's shows usually filled the smaller town arenas.

Early stars, apart from Colon, included Barrabas, El Tigre Perez, Hugo Savinovich, Huracan Castillo and others. Famous wrestling tag-teams included Los Super Medicos, Los Invaders and others.

Many American stars came to Puerto Rico to fight for Capitol Sports Promotions during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Such were the cases of Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody, Dory Funk and others.

In 1983, Rickin Sanchez had taken over as Capitol's main promoter, as well as becoming one of the organization's broadcasters on the television shows. He was joined by the already retired Savinovich, to form one of Puerto Rico's most famous broadcasting duos in history.

In 1987, American star, Bruiser Brody, was murdered in a WWC event in Caguas. The alleged murderer was fellow wrestler Jose Huertas Gonzalez, know as El Invader. Apparently, the two men had a real-life feud that led to a confrontation in the locker room, that concluded with Brody receiving various stabs to his chest. It is said that a "witness" to the series of events that ended in the murder was Tony Atlas (even though he was not an eye-witness of the murder itself, it is said he saw both men enter an area of the locker room, and then Invader leaving alone... moments later Brody was found).

After Brody's death, and the failed conviction of the suspected murderer, WWC went through some difficult years, due to the fact that the flow of wrestlers that came from the United States suddenly ended. A crisis that the WWC never overcame, many wrestlers thought that the administration of WWC actually helped Brody's murderer go free and actually allowed him to continue to wrestle after the events.

By the middle 1990s, the organization changed it's name to World Wrestling Council. Women also began to have an ever increasing presence in the organization during that decade, with La Tigresa leading the way.

With the turn of the century came a turn of events for the WWC that almost destroyed the franchise. A small promotion, called Internation Wrestling Association, promoted by Victor Quinonez, became a big competitor when it made an alliance with giant WWF and started featuring American superstars. Suddenly, WWC had to change its ways and realize that they were not the only game in town.

Since then, Puertorican wrestling talent has jumped from WWC to IWA, and vice-versa. The wrestling war is still going on, with both companies standing strong. But, in the last months of 2004, Carly Colon was signed to WWE. This led to both companies making an alliance that, as rumors keep saying, will end up with WWC becoming a development territory for WWE (just like OVW).

Current Champions

Universal Heavyweight Champion – Eddie Colon

Tag Team World Heavyweight Champions – Delta Force

Jr. Heavyweight Championg – Jumpin' Jeff Jeffrey

Puerto Rico Champion – Bryan

Titles

The WWC has different titles. This is the list of titles the WWC recognizes:

• "Universal Heavyweight title"
• "Women's world title" — Abandoned 1999
• "WWC hardcore title" — Inactive Since 2001
• "Puerto Rican Heavyweight title"
• "World tag team title"
• "Caribbean tag team title" — Abandoned 1991
• "Dominican Republic Heavyweight title" — Inactive Since 2001
• "World Jr. Heavyweight title"
• "WWC television title" — Inactive since 2003
• "North AmericanHeavyweight title" — Abandoned 19991
• "Caribbean Heavyweight title" — Inactive Since 2002
• "North American Team title" — Abandoned 1987
• "Intercontinental Heavyweight title"

(Note: There are many national wrestling associations around the world, and most of them recognize their own "world champions").

External links

• http://www.superestrellaswwc.com