For a time, the title was defended in the W*ING promotion in Japan as the W*ING World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Originally, the title was used to push a wrestler that the promotion was interested in, becoming a stepping stone on the route to the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship.[1] A pattern was followed where these talents would win the Junior Heavyweight Championship first, followed by tertiary and secondary titles, before progressing to the main event.[1]
By the 2010s, promoting up-and-comers became a secondary function, with the title now being used to appease journeymen and occasionally punish wrestlers that failed to draw.[1] Independent wrestlers and veterans such as Tommy Diablo (Armando Gorbea) would exchange the title, which served as a perpetual card opener.[1]
2017 international tours
After defeating Ángel Pérez to win the title for the first time and aware that it was no longer being used to push new or young talents, O.T. Fernández requested permission to take it abroad, citing interest in returning it to its original format and reputation by stating that he was "going to keep representing and showcasing the title with the best of [his] abilities [and that he wanted] to keep elevating this championship back to its old roots."[1] In May 2017, he took the title on the Dragonmanía XII tour held at the Arena México, marking the first time in years that the title was exposed internationally, though it was not officially defended.[2][3] On July 8, 2017, Fernández successfully retained the title over Aero Boy in a Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling (CKCW) card held at Ohio.[4]
His reign continued gathering outside exposition by making an appearance in a WAPA-TV comedy named "Such is Life". Fernández's successor, Ángel Cotto, continued the trend by defending the title at Chicago as part of IWC's Halloween In Your Face event, retaining against Julio "Vértigo" Rivera by getting himself disqualified.[5]
Inactivity, IWA Florida (2018–2020)
After the title was quietly retired, the incumbent left WWC with the belt in his possession. On October 17, 2018, Cotto debuted in the rival World Wrestling League, where the fact that he never lost the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship was worked into a storyline that saw him challenge WWL Super Cruiserweight Champion Mark Davidson.[6] On November 12, 2018, the actual belt made an appearance (as the "Puerto Rico Middleweight Championship") in a video announcing his arrival to IWA Florida, itself a spinoff of WWC's longstanding competition, the International Wrestling Association (IWA-PR). On December 7, 2018, the WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship made its first physical appearance (though it was partially obscured) in WWL as part of Cotto's promotional skit for Black Xmas, where he felt short in his attempt to accomplish an extra-official unification.[7]
On December 17, 2018, IWA Florida announced that he would be exposing the title in an open challenge at Histeria Boricua 2019.[8] As part of that event, Papi Nieves won the belt and was attacked backstage. This led to a formal feud against Cotto. Nieves’ reign ended on March 16, 2019, when he dropped the belt back to its former owner at the IWA Arena. Cotto would then take it to Chicago, appearing in Global Wrestling Stars’ Noche Xtrema event.[9] Even when entering a tournament for the IWA Florida Tag Team Championship, his incumbency as champion was emphasized.[10]
When queried about carrying and defending the belt, Cotto said that he would return it to WWC if an “economic agreement is reached with Carlos Colón”.[11] He continued being billed as the “incumbent champion” afterwards, making appearances in this role in August 2019.[10]
Reintroduction (2021–present)
Following a nine-month hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, WWC announced that among the changes that would take place when cards resumed was a tournament for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. This included the introduction of a new belt, to be awarded to the winner on January 31, 2021.
Defeated Rey Mysterio and Justin Sane in a 3-way match and also defeat Ricky Santana for the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship on September 2, 2002 in Comerío, Puerto Rico.
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.
Los Boricuas were a professional wrestling stable that originated in the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1990s. The name was derived from a popular nickname for Puerto Rican people, since all the stable's members were from Puerto Rico. Different variants of the team have since performed in the International Wrestling Association, Dominican Wrestling Entertainment, World Wrestling League and the World Wrestling Council.
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 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.
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 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).
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, 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.
The WWL World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship promoted by the World Wrestling League (WWL) promotion in Puerto Rico. The first champion was crowned on April 21, 2013, when Monster Pain won a battle royal for the title.
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.
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