Carlos Edwin Colón González Sr. is a Puerto Rican wrestling promoter and retired professional wrestler, better known as Carlitos Colón or simply Carlos Colón. He is, along with Victor Jovica, an owner of the Puerto Rican wrestling promotion World Wrestling Council (WWC), where he has held the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship a record 26 times. He is the patriarch of the Colón wrestling family, composed of his sons Carlos and Eddie, daughter Stacy and nephew Orlando. In 2014, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and the following year into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
The World Wrestling Council (WWC), is a professional wrestling promotion based in Puerto Rico. It was originally established as Capitol Sports Promotions in 1973 by Carlos Colón, Victor Jovica, and Gorilla Monsoon. By the mid-1990s, the promotion had changed its name to the World Wrestling Council. It was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance until 1988. WWC is among the oldest professional wrestling promotions in the world and one of only six in the entire world to reach its 50th anniversary in continuous operation.
The International Wrestling Association is a conglomerate of professional wrestling promotions that originated in Puerto Rico and currently operates there. Founded in 1994 by wrestler promoter Víctor Quiñones and wrestler Miguel Perez Jr. 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.
Ramón González Rivera, better known by his ring name Ray González, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and businessman. He has performed in the World Wrestling Council (WWC) and International Wrestling Association (IWA) in Puerto Rico, Wrestling International New Generation (W*ING) in Japan, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico, and the X Wrestling Federation (XWF) in the United States.
Jesús Daniel Castillo Ortiz Jr. is a semi-retired professional wrestler, better known in his native country of Puerto Rico as Huracan Castillo Jr.. He competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a member of the Hispanic stable Los Boricuas in the late 1990s as Jesus.
Julio Domingo Estrada Caceres is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and manager, better known as Rico Suave. He is best known for his 18-year run in the World Wrestling Council promotion.
Christmas in PR is an annual wrestling event promoted in Puerto Rico by the International Wrestling Association (IWA-PR). It was also briefly held by the World Wrestling League (WWL) during the former's period of inactivity.
The WWC Puerto Rico Championship is the secondary professional wrestling championship that is defended by the World Wrestling Council based in Puerto Rico. The title was created in January 1974 and, as its name suggests, is defended exclusively within Puerto Rico. Overall, the title has been possessed by seventy-five different wrestlers throughout the title's existence. The first champion was José Miguel Pérez, who was billed as champion upon the title's creation. He also holds the longest reign, at 426 days. Invader I holds the record for most reigns at 12.
Armando Gorbea Pontón, better known as Tommy Diablo, is a professional wrestler better known for wrestling in both the International Wrestling Association in Puerto Rico and the World Wrestling Council, where he is a fifteen-time WWC World Junior Heavyweight Champion.
IWA Histeria Boricua is an annual event that has been produced by the International Wrestling Association (IWA-PR) and other members of its conglomerate as a season opening event. It has been historically held during the first weeks of January, regularly coinciding with the celebration of Epiphany.
Ruben Cruz was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Hercules Ayala. He competed in Canadian and international wrestling promotions including the eastern Canadian Grand Prix Wrestling, the Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling in Japan and World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico.
José Anibal Laureano Colón is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and manager. He is better known by his ring name, Chicky Starr. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Council (WWC) and International Wrestling Association (IWA) of Puerto Rico. Starr won the WWC Universal Championship when he defeated Carlito in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico in early 2003. Laureano has led stables including The Chicky Starr Sports Club and the Starr Corporation.
Timothy R. Calkins Jr. was an American professional wrestler, known by his ring name Tim Arson, who worked in the Puerto Rican-based New Wrestling Stars and World Wrestling Council, as well as American independent promotions. In 2006, he appeared as The Zombie on the debut episode of World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW on Sci Fi television show.
WWC Euphoria is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico since 2007. This event is always celebrated as the first show of the year.
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.
The Bruiser Brody Memorial Cup was an annual professional wrestling memorial event produced by the World Wrestling Council (WWC) promotion, which was held from 2005 to 2006. The show was held in honor of Bruiser Brody who had been stabbed to death by Invader I backstage at a WWC show in Bayamón on July 16, 1988. It was the second memorial event held for Brody in Puerto Rico since the IWA Puerto Rico's Bruiser Brody Memorial Show in 2000, and the first time a Brody memorial show was held by the WWC.
Gilberto Cruz, better known as Gilbert, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and former baseball umpire. 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 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.
