page_title: Savio Vega
section_title: Los Boricuas (1997–1999)
hierarchical_section_title: Savio Vega / Career / World Wrestling Federation / Los Boricuas (1997–1999)
caption_attribution_description: Savio Vega at a professional wrestling event in Lawrence, MA in June 2013, with a "Los Boricuas" flag. Cropped from original.
context_page_description: Juan Rivera is a Puerto Rican professional wrestler and is currently signed to Major League Wrestling. 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, initially under a mask as Kwang. He later portrayed Savio Vega, the eventual leader of a Puerto Rican stable, Los Boricuas.
  After leaving the WWF, Rivera returned to Puerto Rico and joined Víctor Quiñones' promotion, the International Wrestling Association, where he was a long-time General Manager and won five titles, including the IWA Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship. In 2011, he was featured in the first interpromotional angle between IWA and WWC.
context_section_description: Following his departure from The Nation of Domination, Vega formed his own stable, Los Boricuas, composed of Puerto Rican wrestlers, brought in from Puerto Rican promotions, all members of notable wrestling families. Miguel Pérez, Jr., a former Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling wrestler, is the son of Miguel Pérez, Sr., Jesús Castillo, Jr. is the son of Pedro "Huracán" Castillo, and Jose Estrada, Jr. is the son of José Estrada, Sr.. Meanwhile, Faarooq had organized The Nation into a black-only group, while Crush had formed The Disciples of Apocalypse, a white biker stable, launching an angle which became known as "The Gang Wars", based on ethnic stereotypes and loosely mirroring some actual gang wars. The three four-member teams wrestled against one another, with none gaining a clear advantage early on. At SummerSlam, Los Boricuas defeated The Disciples of Apocalypse. In the first singles match between former Nation members, Vega fought Crush to a no contest. At Ground Zero: In Your House on September 7, he defeated Faarooq and Crush in triple threat match. At the UK-exclusive pay-per-view, One Night Only, Vega and Pérez unsuccessfully challenged The Headbangers for the WWF World Tag Team Championship. At Badd Blood: In Your House, The Disciples defeated Los Boricuas. Between October and November, Vega also had singles matches, losing to Goldust, Mero and Ken Shamrock.
  On the October 27 RAW, Vega and Pérez unsuccessfully challenged The Legion of Doom for the Tag Team Championship. In their next match, they lost to The New Age Outlaws. In December 1997, Los Boricuas and The Disciples exchanged victories.
  His first singles contest of 1998 was a lost to Owen Hart. The next week, Vega and Pérez defeated Taka Michinoku and Scott Taylor. He was the 26th entrant in the 1998 Royal Rumble, and, like the year before, was eliminated by Steve Austin. In the Royal Rumble's main event, Vega and Los Boricuas attacked the Undertaker alongside the New Age Outlaws to aid Shawn Michaels in defeating him in a casket match. Vega headlined No Way Out of Texas: In Your House on February, when he replaced the injured Shawn Michaels in the eight-man tag main event, teaming with Triple H and the New Age Outlaws in a losing effort. On the March 9 Raw, he wrestled Triple H to a no contest.
  At WrestleMania 14, Vega wrestled in a battle royal, won by Legion of Doom 2000. A week later, Los Boricuas lost to LOD 2000. The Gang Wars continued with matches against The Disciples in April. On May 4, Rivera lost to the NWA World Champion, Dan Severn.
  The Gang Wars came to an end when the leaders of the three stables faced off in a triple threat match, which Vega won. After the angle, Los Boricuas splintered into two tag teams. On July 6, Vega defeated Brakkus in a Brawl for All tournament boxing match. On August 10, he lost a quarterfinal match to Darren Drozdov. As a result of a severe arm injury, he wouldn't appear on WWF television until July 1999. He would make a number of appearances on WWF Super Astros, and would participate in WWF Shotgun and WWF Jakked/Metal dark matches (sometimes with other Boricua members). He was soon released from his WWF contract in September 1999.
  On December 15, 1999, Rivera defeated Prince Albert at an International Wrestling Association house show in Puerto Rico. The IWA was a new promotion founded by Víctor Quiñones, which was one of WWF's developmental territories.
caption: Vega with a Los Boricuas flag in June 2013
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T2i", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2013:07:06 11:20:35", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "2294", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5990", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/4000", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "6400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:06:23 19:03:18", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:06:23 19:03:18", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "12", "EXIF ApertureValue": "35/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "25", "EXIF SubSecTime": "93", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "93", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "93", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1962", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1310", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3456", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5158", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "691200/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "460800/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "14513ac6b4179cddd6b9261d652a2621", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4016"}