Kayfabe! – Back to the Territories with Jim Cornette: Puerto Rico

Kayfabe!
Back to the Territories with Jim Cornette – Puerto Rico

Offhand, I can’t think of too many others that would make a better subject for this interview than Savio Vega. A native Puerto Rican, who grew up as a fan, later wrestled for both the WWC and IWA, and now runs his own company. The only people that spring to mind as other good guests would be Dutch Mantel, Carlos Colon, or Abdullah the Butcher. They tend to jump around a bit, which is an effect of more or less talking about an entire area rather than simply one specific promotion.

As usual, the cold open, with Jim’s voice over, is a big highlight. And, the beginning of the interview proper with the background of wrestling in Puerto Rico is also quite interesting. Being a U.S. Territory, wrestling from the states, like Eddie Graham’s Florida, was featured on TV. Several people tried to start promotions on the island, but, nothing lasted too long, since the promoters were all foreign, and they had other priorities. Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica started the World Wrestling Council in 1974, and had great business for close to fifteen years. While most other territories were having trouble, WWC was running baseball stadiums on a weekly basis, and had a boom period of nearly fifteen years.

Savio explains the mentality of the fans, in that Puerto Ricans are a very proud people, and that especially spilled over into sports. It’s actually very similar to how wrestling became popular in Japan, with the native heroes defending the honor of Puerto Rico against Americans like Ox Baker, Ernie Ladd, Abdullah the Butcher, etc. Miguel Perez (the father of the member of Los Boricuas) was the first big Puerto Rican star, due to his success teaming with Argentina Rocca in the WWWF, and he later passed the torch to Carlos Colon. The fans on the island also have a well-deserved reputation for the lengths they’ll go to try to get their hands on someone they don’t like. Cornette recalls Jonathan Boyd getting so much heat, that the fans and they boys in the locker room were playing tug of war with his arms and legs. Savio recalls a heel named Bronco who cut a promo on TV that said that the fans were from Haiti, and at the arena that night, they tried to kill him and set his car on fire. Dutch Mantel once compared the fans in PR to the fans in Mid-South by saying the fans in Watts’ territory were crazy, in PR they’re dangerous.

They spend a significant amount of time talking about the fateful night in July of 1988, where Bruiser Brody was murdered by Invader 1. Savio says that Invader and Brody were actually riding together all week, so Invader had plenty of time and opportunity to do it. Invader called him into the shower to talk, which was how he always went over finishes, so nobody thought anything of it. There was ambulance right next door to the arena, but it took nearly forty-five minutes to get it over to help Brody, because 911 wasn’t available yet, and by then Brody seemed to know that he wasn’t going to make it, he was telling Carlos Colon to tell his family he loved them. Savio then goes into detail about how truly messed up everything was in the aftermath, with Invader going home to change his clothes, and then coming back and acting like nothing happened. Invader’s brother, of all people, was translating the witness statements to the police. It’s already been said that the boys got their court subpoenas after the trial had ended. Cornette asks if any motive or reason has ever come to light, there’s nothing that Savio knows for sure, but he’s heard rumors that it stemmed from heat when they were both working for the WWWF in the mid 1970’s, as well as Colon and Jovica pulling the strings by telling Invader that Brody didn’t respect him, and he had to do something to prove himself. Business took a huge hit, between the fan outrage and the Americans refusing to work there afterwards.

Savio and Jim also talk about the formation of the IWA, which was due to Carlos Colon being unwilling to pass the torch, after being on top for twenty years. It came to a head when he refused to drop the title to Savio, and then take some time off. So, Savio and several of the other young talents, jumped ship to IWA with Victor Quinones. Cornette tells the story of Eddie Gilbert running out on Smoky Mountain to book in Puerto Rico, and him dying of a heart attack down there, and asks if it had the same effect on the fans and the business as Brody, which it didn’t since it was two totally different circumstances.

The end things on a happier note, with Savio talking about the promotion he’s running now, WLW, and an ongoing storyline with Konnan. They close with a story about Savio borrowing Jake Roberts’ snake to have some fun with Cornette at the convention they were both at earlier in the day.

8.5

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

The 'main event' here is definitely Savio's account of the Brody incident. But, this is another good installment of this series, with some fascinating history, and some great stories from both Jim and Savio.