page_title: Professional wrestling in Puerto Rico
section_title: Storyline structure
hierarchical_section_title: Professional wrestling in Puerto Rico / Puerto Rican professional wrestling style / Storyline structure
caption_attribution_description: English: 1- Top right, the Flag of Puerto Rico, used by Ricky Banderas during his days wrestling as “El Patriota”. 2- A shadowed version of the flag, adopted by Banderas during his time as a member of Los Intocables. Both of these flags use the outline of the flag of Puerto Rico, which is not copyrighted nor is derrivative work based on it. 3- The Flag of the Starr Corporation. The original design was created by José “Chicky Starr” Laureano’s fan club, Los Chickystarrianos, who donated it to the public domain so that it could be used interpromotionally by fans and Laureano himself without entering copyright conflicts with the International Wrestling Association, since he was a free-contractor working for the company. The original flag was buried along the body of Starr Corporation member, Víctor “The Bodyguard” Rodríguez.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: The most common storyline format used in Puerto Rico involves the "foreign heel" formula. This began during the early years of local professional wrestling, when there was direct competition between the emergent local promotions and more established foreign competition that imported its product. In the 1970s, the World Wrestling Council adopted it as its main creative tendency. The promotion began to fully exploit this by introducing Lawrence Shreve, a Canadian performer more commonly known as "Abdullah the Butcher", as the first WWC World Heavyweight Champion. Portrayed as a wild and violent foreigner, he was billed as having won the belt in a fictional tournament held in Japan. However, this was part of an angle to elevate Colón to main event status by winning the title three days after its introduction. From that point onwards, he was consistently portrayed as a "Puerto Rican patriot" and a "sports hero". Colón sold this gimmick by adopting "Soy Boricua" by Bobby Valentín as his theme song. WWC brought in established wrestlers from the United States, Canada and Japan, adopting a formula where they would win the championship by employing illegal tactics, only to lose it back to him in a bloody match to conclude the feud. In order to further sell, they employed a second tactic which consisted of bringing performers that were considerably muscular and tall, promoting "David vs. Goliath" feuds. After establishing Colón as a top seller, WWC decided to focus on improving the credibility of the young WWC World Heavyweight Championship.
   The promotion did so by bringing in the holder of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to wrestle in several cards, where it was booked as an "undefeated" adversary, always retaining against a local performer or wrestling to a time limit draw. After building this reputation, WWC brought in Ric Flair and placed him in a feud for the WWC World Heavyweight Championship. Flair was a major main event performer in the United States and was brought in as a foreigner that only wanted to win the title in order to dispose of it afterwards. During promotional videos, he claimed that it was "unworthy of being called a World Heavyweight Championship", a distinction that "only the NWA World Heavyweight Championship [deserved]". The ensuing match was promoted as being "larger than the World" and to crown the "Undisputed Champion of the Universe", with a steel cage being added as a stipulation. The result marked the first time that a NWA Champion lost in Puerto Rico, exponentially raising Colón's popularity. Afterwards, WWC continued to exploit the foreign heel formula, but added the element of storyline injuries that resulted in the title being held up, resulting in a final match for the vacant belt.
  This pattern was continued until 1987, when Colón decided to lose cleanly to Hercules Ayala, signaling the beginning of a new format, in which local heel characters would be able to outpace the foreign wrestlers. This was the norm throughout the next decade, until Carly Colón made his in-ring debut.  Subsequently, WWC brought in established foreign talents again, placing him over wrestlers like Ramón Álvarez, Curt Hennig, Horace Hogan, Konnan and Jerry Flynn. Shortly afterwards, the format was also reused to promote Eddie Colón, who was booked in wins over Rey Mysterio, Jr. and Kid Kash. During this timeframe, the International Wrestling Association also used the strategy to further the careers of emerging talents, Germán Figueroa and Gilbert Cosme (also known as "Ricky Banderas"), who bested Super Crazy, Diamond Dallas Page and  Scott Hall among others in their route to becoming main event performers. Since then, the local promotions have continued to employ this tactic, with the latest notable example taking placing at the IWA's Golpe de Estado 2010, where both Dennis and Juan "Savio Vega" Rivera went over Daniel Bryan on the same night. Bryan was brought in as the defending IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Champion, while being contracted to WWE and serving as the first contender to the WWE United States Champi
caption: Even heel characters have patriotic undertones, seen here in the flags hoisted by Ricky Banderas in IWA.
exif: {}