Savio Vega is a ring name of Juan Rivera, 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 the masked, villainous and venom-spewing Kwang gimmick. 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. 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.
John Jesús Yurnet, better known by his ring name Mecha Wolf, 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.
The IWA Intercontinental Championship is a secondary professional wrestling title defended in Puerto Rico. It was originally defended in the original International Wrestling Association, later being reintroduced in the World Wrestling League (WWL). The title was used since 2002, when Super Crazy became the first champion, defeating Eddie Guerrero at the very first Ring of Honor event, The Era of Honor Begins, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The championship was modified in 2009, changing the original black belt to another colored red.
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.
Wilkyns Nuñez, better known by his ring name Joe Bravo, is a Dominican professional wrestler best known for performing with the International Wrestling Association and World Wrestling Council.
The IWA (Undisputed) World Championship is a professional wrestling world 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).
The IWA Television Championship, previously known as the IWA Extreme Cruiserweight Championship, was a title defended in the International Wrestling Association (IWA) 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.
Dennis Alexis Rivera Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is part of a tag team known as La Malicia along Noel Rodríguez, which after holding the International Wrestling Association's World Tag Team Championship on several occasions participated in the only unificatory tag team contest co-sanctioned by the two major Puerto Rican promotions of the 2000s, when they challenged for the World Wrestling Council's titles on September 24, 2011. The result of the match remains controversial, Rivera and Rodríguez were originally declared winners and left the building with both sets of belts, but WWC revoked the original result to a "no contest" minutes later. However, the IWA still recognized the coronation of the first Undisputed Tag Team Champions in Puerto Rico. Rivera also worked in the World Wrestling League, where he held the WWL Trios Championship.
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 umpire. He debuted in the International Wrestling Association (IWA), 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.
Jonathan Ayala Quiñones is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler, best known by his ring names Diego de Jesús, Sebastián Guerra and ATLAS. He is a graduate of the Savio Vega Wrestling Academy and began his career working for the International Wrestling Association, where he won the IWA World Tag Team Championship in his debut. Ayala later migrated to the World Wrestling Council, where he appeared as a part-time performer.
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.
Peter Concepción Arbelo is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler better known by his ringname El Nazareno. He has performed under several personas during his career including Ash Rubinsky, Bull Bronski, Face of Fear Ash, Damián and Superstar Ash. Concepción has wrestled in all of the major local promotions winning the IWA Caribbean Heavyweight Championship, IWA Junior Heavyweight Championship and IWA World Tag Team Championship in the International Wrestling Association (IWA), the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship, WWC World Tag Team Championship and WWC Television Championship in the World Wrestling Council (WWC) and the WWL World Heavyweight Championship in the World Wrestling League (WWL). He has also been regularly active in the independent circuit, making appearances in New Wrestling Stars (NWS), where he held the NWS Tag Team Championship and NWS Television Championship, CWS, NWG and 100% Lucha where he won the tag team titles. Currently, the leader of the interpromotional West Side Mafia stable, he has been involved with several stables during his run, including Los HPs, Faces of Fear, Los Templarios and El Consejo.
Víctor Ortiz Jr., better known by the ring name Mike Mendoza, is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler.
