Juan Rivera is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is known for his work in the World Wrestling Council, where he won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship three times and the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship three times. During the 1990s, he worked for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), initially under a mask as Kwang. He later portrayed Savio Vega, the eventual leader of a Puerto Rican stable, Los Boricuas.
The International Wrestling Association is a conglomerate of professional wrestling promotions that originated in Puerto Rico and currently operates there and in the state of Florida. Founded in 1999 by promoter Víctor Quiñones as a novel promotion, it quickly entered an agreement to serve as a development territory for the World Wrestling Federation that lasted until 2001. During its first decade, IWA grew to rival the long-standing World Wrestling Council (WWC). Its business model relies on pushing younger talents, using veterans and foreign wrestlers to get them over with the public.
Germán Figueroa Sullivan is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, actor and mixed martial artist better known as "El León" Apollo and El León.
Ricardo Santana Ortiz, better known as Ricky Santana, is a professional wrestler of Cuban descent who has worked for World Championship Wrestling, World Wrestling Federation, World Wrestling Council and the National Wrestling Alliance, All Japan, IWA Japan, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, AAA.
Carlos Edwin Colón Jr. is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and actor. He is best known for his time with WWE under the ring name Carlito Caribbean Cool or simply Carlito.
Miguel Pérez Jr. is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. The son of fellow professional wrestler Miguel Pérez, he began his career in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council, winning several championships including the Puerto Rico and Caribbean Heavyweight championships.
Jesús Daniel Castillo Ortiz Jr. is a professional wrestler, and son of a professional wrestler, best known in his native Puerto Rico as Huracan Castillo. He competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a member of the Hispanic stable Los Boricuas in the late 1990s.
Eric Alexander Pérez is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler who currently performs under the ring name "Escobar". In 2005, Pérez signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he worked for developmental territories Deep South Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling, winning the tag team championship in both and the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. In the fall of 2009, he was promoted to WWE's main roster as "Eric Escobar", appearing on the SmackDown brand. On January 17, 2010, he was released from his WWE contract. Pérez subsequently returned to Puerto Rico, performing in the IWA and Puerto Rico Wrestling Association, winning the heavyweight titles of both promotions.
Shane Sewell is a Canadian professional wrestler and referee. He has worked for the World Wrestling Council, the International Wrestling Association and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as both a referee and wrestler. Shane Sewell is a fourteen-time World Heavyweight Champion, having won the IWA Undisputed World Unified Heavyweight Championship ten times, the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship three times, and the WWL World Heavyweight Championship one time. By winning the IWA, WWC, and WWL World Heavyweight Championships, Sewell won the three world titles from three top promotions in Puerto Rico.
John Jesús Yurnet, better known by his ring name Mecha Wolf 450, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and professional wrestling trainer. He is best known for his work in World Wrestling Council (WWC), where he is a former two-time holder of the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.
Wilkyns Nuñez, better known by his ring name Joe Bravo, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler best known for performing with the International Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Council.
Thunder and Lightning is a Puerto Rican professional wrestling tag team consisting of Reynaldo Rodriguez and Alex Cruz under the ring names Thunder and Lightning respectively. They currently work for World Wrestling Council.
Daniel García Soto is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler best known by his ring name Stefano.
The IWA World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship that is contested in the International Wrestling Association's main branch at Puerto Rico. Besides its base jurisdiction, the title has also been defended within the international circuit and interpromotially at Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (Japan) and Revolution X-treme Wrestling (Panama).
Mark Smith was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Bison Smith. He best known for his appearances with Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan; and World Wrestling Council and International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico. In January 2009, he joined the American promotion Ring of Honor.
Carlos Omar Cotto Cruz is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and boxer. As a wrestler, he perform under the alias of El Chicano and has performed mostly for the International Wrestling Association and the World Wrestling Council. While performing for the first, Cotto became the only person to win all eligible championships, later becoming a Universal Heavyweight Champion in the second. Locally, he has held the main title of a promotion nine times. Abroad, Cotto has worked for AAA in 2010 and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 2016.
Chris Angel is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. In 2010, he joined the International Wrestling Association, becoming the only local wrestler to win the IWA Intercontinental Championship in his debut and first to win the IWA Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship undefeated. With this victory, he became the first man to win a world heavyweight championship unpinned within the major local promotions. His fifteen-month winning streak is the longest in the history of the IWA, surpassing the previous record held by "The Cyber Viking" Al Barone, which was stopped at nine months.
Gilberto Cruz, better known as Gilbert, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and former baseball player. He debuted in the International Wrestling Association, where he won the first two championships of his career. In August 2010, he joined the World Wrestling Council, entering an angle with Ray González, which evolved in a general feud against all those that are considered cornerstone wrestlers in Puerto Rico. This advanced to a highly publicized contest against José Huertas González at Aniversario 2011. Gilbert later led Team WWC in an invasion against the IWA in July 2011. On October 10, 2014, he defeated Carlito to win his fourth WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship.
Professional wrestling in Puerto Rico has been considered one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Puerto Rico for more than fifty years. It is considered the highest source of income in the sports entertainment industry on the island; a minor industry within its tertiary sector in its overall economy. After sports commentator José Antonio Géigel and a group of wrestlers founded the first promotion based in Puerto Rico, the discipline has consistently remained being broadcast in local television. Originally a mixture of foreign wrestling styles, the Puerto Rican wrestling style developed into a unique form of performing. Most notably, local promotions relied on unusual matches, often involving foreign objects or odd arenas. Local wrestling is considered to be one of the pillars that contributed to modern hardcore wrestling, being the territory where the first "fire" and "death" matches took place. Local promotions exploited the innovation and held their cards in large stadiums, eventually becoming an element of popular culture. During the course of six decades, Carlos Colón, Sr. has developed over 70 scars in his forehead that are product of this method of performing, becoming the main symbol of the style's nature. The storylines in Puerto Rico have historically revolved around the "foreign heel" formula, with local wrestlers obtaining victories over notable figures that include Ric Flair, Harley Race, Hulk Hogan, Terry Funk, Diamond Dallas Page, Scott Hall, Booker T, Samoa Joe and Curt Hennig among several others.
