WWC 14th Aniversario 1987 (9.20.87) 

 

September 20, 1987  

 

Capitol Sports Promotions was 14 years old and to celebrate they threw themselves a party, a supershow in Puerto Rico. The original card was enormous, but the tape version starts when the imports arrive in the second half.  

Your host is Hugo Savinovich, looking very stylish. Hugo was born in Ecuador before moving to New York City. He was running with gangs in New York and claims that pro wrestling saved his life. He’s partners with Carlos Colon in running WWC at this point. He took over on commentary for WWC after their existing PBP guy quit. He’s still some way off working for the WWF, where he went to be their Spanish commentator in 1994.  

 

Tony Atlas vs. Iron Sheik 

Sheik is on loan from the WWF. Sheik brings the ‘singing the anthem’ bit from the WWF. Atlas is very over but also does very big, overblown gestures in his work. I don’t remember him working this ‘big’ in the WWF. Sheik is way past his best here. His mid-80s deterioration is quite sad to watch. He just rapidly goes downhill from the 1984 Bootcamp match with Sgt Slaughter to looking good at WrestleMania I to this. They brawl into the crowd and it’s a DCO. This was BAD.  

 

TNT vs. Mr Pogo 

TNT is Savio Vega. Mr Pogo is a hardcore journeyman. I used to watch Pogo tapes from the 1990s when he was setting Mr. Matsunaga on fire. He is significantly better here. He’s limber and versatile. His spin kicks are really quite good. It’s hard to adjust to someone who has always sucked in my eyes. Savio, as TNT, is fairly similar to Savio Vega in WWF but he has face paint. Same dress and style otherwise.  

Pogo, while drawing me with his kicks, doesn’t keep me there with his throat thrusts and nerve holds. There’s the shitty Pogo I know and hate. Vega’s kicks are on point too. If they’d just tried to kick each other’s heads off the match might have been good. Also, if they hadn’t worked in a ref bump. Savio has the match won clean twice. Once with a sunset flip, then again with a Cobra clutch. The ref gets bumped AGAIN. Savio gets another visual pin, this time after waffling Pogo with his manager’s briefcase. Eventually the ref recovers and TNT gets the ‘explosive’ win. This was dumb as shit. I hated it.  

 

Stan Hansen vs. Missing Link 

Missing Link just sort of disappeared after this. His failed WWF run was followed by a few years in Mid-South/UWF and eventually a stint in World Class when it was already on its ass. He retired in mid-1988. Link plays up his monster gimmick. He’s no selling, bouncing his head off the buckles, biting etc. Stan looks unimpressed. I don’t remember too many instances of Stan Hansen being the butt of the joke in a comedy match before. I’m not convinced it’s a good idea, although Hansen was a big serious man so maybe he was ripe for exploitation. Stan ends up getting pissed off and hitting Link with a chair for the DQ. Wow, this was shit.  

 

Road Warriors vs. Terry & Dory Funk Jr 

Los Hermanos Funk! Are they wrestling Guerreros de la carretera? Terry endears himself to the locals by spitting at them and hitting them with his towel. The crowd are pelting the ring with crap before we even start. Dory takes one press slam off Hawk and is all “fuck this, I’m out of here”. To say Dory seems ‘less than enthused’ at the idea of taking a bunch of Roadies spots would be an understatement. He takes the safest possible bumps and does not give a shit how it looks. I love Dory, but he clearly doesn’t want to be here. Dory takes the Doomday Device but Terry hits Animal with a chair for the DQ.  

 

Kareem Muhammad vs. The Mighty Igor 

Mighty Igor was a strongman/bodybuilder, turned wrestler in the 1950s. He’s a former AWA world champion, having beaten Mad Dog Vachon back in the 1960s. He’s a big muscular guy, but he’s in there with Ray Candy, who was huge. 6’5”, 340lbs. This is a sluggish contest.  

Igor blades and then ‘bites’ Candy until he bleeds. However, he’s very tender about it and it looks like they’re making out in the corner. The crowd sits on its hands, looking confused. Never have I seen such interracial passion on the island of Puerto Rico. This is absolute dogshit awful. Just two bladejobs and lots of hugging. I’ve seen more animated morgues. Candy wins by just leaving the cage. -** 

 

Hair vs. Career  

Chicky Starr vs. Invader #1 

Chicky is putting this gorgeous mane up. Sadly, he’s wrestling Invader #1, who’s putting his career on the line. One can only hope he’ll lose. The irritating thing is Invader #1 still has a mask. You should surely put that on the line before your career? No? There’s an order to these things. Mask, hair, career. Both guys real names are Jose. Invader is a terrible, terrible wrestler. His movements around the ring are slow and mechanical. He looks like he’s being remote controlled by a baby. Chicky takes over…and puts on a chinlock. Good lord, this match is dogshit. It fucking stinks. They can’t get basic stuff like clotheslines right. It’s day one training bad. Invader goes for a sleeper, Chicky thinks it’s a clothesline and bumps it. I am HOWLING.  

 

My laughter soon turns to disgust as I realise this guy killed Bruiser Brody and got away with it. He’s one of the worst professional wrestlers to ever set foot in a wrestling ring. Why couldn’t he fall on his head and break his neck?  

 

They’ve been going 15 minutes at this point, which I assume is the longest match either of them have ever worked because they’re horrifically blown up. Invader loads up his mask and headbutts Chicky for the pin. He then celebrates like a child. Jumping around like an idiot. Perhaps predictably, the headbutt looked shite. -****. Also, predictably, Invader makes hard work out of the haircut.  

 

Campeonato Universal 

Hercules Ayala (c) vs. Carlos Colon  

Hercules Ayala is a cartoon villain. A giant of a man with an evil looking beard and a streak of grey hair. He looks like he’s one maniacal plan away from world domination but is about to be stopped by Roger Moore as 007.  

This is so long ago Carlos Colon is only a five-time champion (he’s held this belt 26 times). We have barblydee wire but the only way you can win is via submission…in the Figure Four. Considering this is a Figure Four match, Ayala isn’t certain how to apply one. The cogs are whirring as he picks Colon up by the legs. The barb wire plays into the match far more. They take turns to prong each other in the scar tissue. If this was over and getting popped, it might get a pass from me, but the fans look bored, and nothing is happening. Ayala is clearly nervous around the barb wire. Colon gets the biggest pop of the entire match by doing a cartwheel. Ayala goes for a pin and the ref has to remind him you can only win with a Figure Four. Hey, he requested that stip! That’s like requesting a no DQ match then screaming “ref” when you get your pretty little face stomped in. Colon gets the Figure Four and Ayala gives up when he discovers rope breaks aren’t a thing in this. A tiresome main event, dragged down by the barb wire and lacking any real meat to the story, nor even build to a big finish.  

 

The 411: 

What a stinker of a show this was. Atlas-Sheik was bad. TNT-Pogo had a dreadful finish. Hansen-Link was bad. Road Warriors-Funks was probably the best match on the show and only Terry gave enough of a shit to actually ‘turn up’ for it. Candy-Igor was offensive. Starr-Invader was abysmal. Colon-Ayala was at least an event but 90% of it was boring. A real shit show, which makes AWA look fun by comparison. Yeah, how about them apples, Verne? I found something worse!