WWL is the second major wrestling promotion based in the island of Puerto Rico. While WWC, the first, is strict with its old-school mentality, WWL is much more of a modern style with the wrestlers being much more physical and creative in the ring. Its also filmed in full on 1080HD which is, in fact, a major deal when you consider that the supposed top promotion WWC still insists on recording onto Betamax tapes.
It’s a good week to ease into watching WWL as they’re coming off their latest TV Taping. This show begins to show what happened at said taping entitled “Juegos Mentales” (Mind Games).
The show, like many this week, opens with a graphic in honor of Pedro Morales.
We open straight into the first match of the night which is Super Cruisers Champion Mark Davidson (a fancy name for their Cruiserweight title) facing Fast Forward in a non-title match. Mark has been a solid heel Champion since last summer claiming he’s better than everyone because of his physical condition. He is in great shape. His opponent here is the very skinny masked wrestler Fast Forward who is coming back to the promotion after years out and looks to beat the Champion to earn a title shot.
The match starts out very basic with Forward using Snapmares while Davidson responds with Waistlock Takedowns, spinning on top of his opponent and slapping them over and over like Kurt Angle would do. Fast Forward replies with the same and sends him outside where Mark drops him on the edge of the apron to go to break.
We see a promo for WWL’s next major show titled “Todo O Nada” (All Or Nothing).
Before returning to the match though we see a vignette for “El Gentil” (The Gentle One). A masked wrestler that would not look out of place in CHIKARA. The vignette is three wrestlers backstage. An attractive woman comes in and the men lose their minds with her hotness. She drops her fan and they get more and more absurd as they see she’s about to lean over. But El Gentil appears, picks up the fan and gives it to her, spoiling their “fun”. This is all done to the sound of Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” with a record scratch when he comes in to pick up the fan. Short. Sweet. Hilarious.
Returning to the match, the two wrestlers exchange blows. We get tons of high-flying with Suicide Dives, Top Rope Dives, and Springboards mainly from Fast Forward as well as the Tarantula and a Roman Reigns-esque Drive By. Mark Davidson powers back by catching him off a huracanrana with a Powerbomb and a Swinging Flatliner but he’s launched into the post forward setting him up for a final blow but just then the music starts to sound.
A masked wrestler called Rodrigo Garcia appears and curses out Fast Forward letting Mark Davidson win with a Super Belly To Belly in what was a pretty solid match. As for Rodrigo Garcia he’s a ‘Cuban’ wrestler with his own talk show but after mocking masked wrestlers, he lost a Hair vs Mask match against Fast Forward in another promotion called CWA. They’ve both moved here and as such, that rivalry is being imported. Rodrigo’s arrival adds a second layer to this “Super Cruisers” division as Mark Davidson was beating monthly challengers up to this point with no one else in the division. Rodrigo would claim that he’s here for revenge as Fast Forward chases after him.
After seeing the 4 headliners of the show warm-up and another promo for the Todo O Nada show, it’s time for the main event: The team of Angel Fashion and Mike Mendoza vs Mighty Ursus and WWL Champion BJ. Angel Fashion is a notable Edge fan. While Mike Mendoza is the grandson of Salvadorean wrestler “El Vikingo” (The Viking) who was a notable trainer. His grandson has now become a trainer too. Both Fashion and Mendoza have had WWE try-outs in the past. Mighty Ursus is a giant burly guy that has a similar look to Vader. He’s jumped ship from WWC recently with this being his debut. BJ is the Champion. An extremely cocky but athletic fellow with great mic skills but also a bad tendency to go for cheap heel heat rather than use his great skill.
The theme of this main event, where the taping got the name “Mind Games” is that Angel Fashion and Mike Mendoza are a regular team but Fashion was #1 Contender to the World title but was screwed over. He sees Mendoza as trying to take his spot with Mendoza admitting as such but also saying he wants to have his friends back. On the other side, BJ is trying to manipulate the big guy Ursus into helping him, claiming it’ll be the only way to get the two prospects out of the way so they can face for the Championship. You got all that? And this is the easy week to slip in.
The tag team match itself is actually quite good, with it going around 20 minutes. They let the match play out a good while with some teamwork from both sides, but as the match goes on, the agendas would start to play out for everyone. Ursus being apprehensive of BJ who in turn would use him as a barrier. Fashion and Mendoza would work great as a team but communication would break down when someone would go for the win. BJ at one point shows an absolutely gorgeous Top Rope Huracanrana, throwing Mike Mendoza off the corner by seamlessly leaping high into the air before hitting the maneuver but that gets undercut a bit when he distracts the ref to let his valet, the girl from the earlier vignette, try to choke Mendoza on the ropes.
It comes off as extremely silly given he has a 500lbs partner with him but in the name of heel heat, they go for the illegal interference instead. After communication breaks down and all 4 guys start attacking each other, Angel Fashion finds an opening to hit a Spear on BJ and secure the win.
As I said, it was a pretty good match with a solid premise which was told very well over the course of 20+ minutes. Normally, in Puerto Rico, when trying to book this kind of thing, wrestlers and bookers would tend to panic and cram as much as they could in a far shorter match. So what we got were was quite the experiment that worked out well.
Following the match, Angel Fashion and Mike Mendoza try to patch things up but the big guy Mighty Ursus attacks. Fashion bails to the floor, clutching the WWL title as Ursus and BJ pick up chairs. Fashion drops the title to rescue his friend.
The show ends with a video highlighting the match with BJ saying he wants to correct his mistake and challenges Angel Fashion to a rematch with the title on the line. But if Fashion loses, he can never challenge as long as BJ is Champion. It would be “All Or Nothing”. Clever.
This weeks show was a solid one as matches were given time to break and tell their stories properly as said previously. The setup for this tag team main event involved one sole match between BJ and Fashion that involved interference from Ursus, Mendoza, the valet girl, a Dusty Finish, weapons and any other crazy idea you could think in what was a clear case of the company wanting to “Go Big” as said taping would be their first for television. At least for now, they cooled off and next week is a promising one with a tag team match between Champions from different promotions will take place and none other than LAX are also involved in the tag team scene.
If you’re interested, the show is available here.
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Originally written by AB Morales
