WWC's Aniversario '97, August 17th, 1997, Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium, Bayamon, Puerto Rico

I get to the stadium at about 6:30 PM. I get out of my car and I see someone familiar standing in the parking lot talking to two guys. It was Carlos Colon! I totally marked out. I went to him and then I realize one of the other men is legendary wrestler Victor Jovica. I ask them for their autographs and wish Carlos good luck (Jovica wouldn't be wrestling). They were very nice.

I bought a ringside ticket and sat three rows from the ring. There were no safety rails or ropes or anything. You could just go over to the ring and get in if you wanted. The show starts with a musical opening by a salsa girl-band at 7:20 PM. At 9:00 the wrestling starts. Here's how it went, match by match (a few of the crappier matches are omitted):

• Vampire Warrior w/Luna Vachon vs Herbert Gonzalez: Vampire Warrior wins thanks in part to interference from Vachon. It turns out Jobber Gonzalez works at a local department store called "Pitusa" during the day. The crowd chants "Pitusa, Pitusa" throughout the entire match.
• Tigresa vs Luna Vachon: Vachon wins. After the match, the two ladies brawl in the grass outised the ring (the arena's an open air baseball field). A lady behind me yells: "Watch out, Tigresa, that Luna's a dyke!"
• Ricky Santana vs Mohammed Hussein: This one was a flag match (Puerto Rico vs Iraq). I find that odd, because Santana isn't Puerto Rican. Ricky Santana gets busted open. Ricky wins after hitting Hussein in the back with the PR flag. The crowd's throwing of ice cubes from their soft drinks into the ring starts to increase.
• Youngbloods vs Islanders: The Islanders don't show up. Youngbloods win by DQ. The Islanders' manager, Rico Suave (yep, that's his name) gets pelted with garbage. People yell things at him like: "Your wife's sleeping with Huracan Castillo (from the WWF's Los Boricuas)", "I'll kick your ass, you fat bastard", and so on. I was laughing like never before.
• The Invaders vs The Sheepherders (Barbed wire match): The Bushwhack-- er, the Sheepherders enter the ring first, then Bruiser-Brody-killer Invader I with the Invader II come in. The match is pretty bloody. The Sheepherders were juicing like crazy. I was about 30 ft. from the ring and I damn near puked. Then all of a sudden --wham!-- the Invader II turns on his partner, when he hits the Invader I with the New Zealand flag the Sheepherders brought to the ring. The crowd gets angry...really, really angry. A female fan runs to the ring with a folding chair and unsuccesfully throws it at the Invader II. The Sheepherder's manager, legendary Puerto Rican heel Chicky Starr, comes to the ring and hands the Invader II what seems to be money. The fans are throwing lots of garbage into the ring by now. Then, chairs start to fly. The Invader II is escorted out of the ring by security. A riot nearly breaks out when fans start chasing the Invader II, chairs in hand. Some people throw chairs at him. I couldn't see if he got nailed by one, though. After the Invader II disappears into the locker room area, fans run to the ring to support the Invader I.
• Golden Boy vs La Ley de Puerto Rico: Most wrestling fans outside Puerto Rico don't know who this two are, but I include this match because this was the turning point of the night. If the Golden Boy lost he'd have to take off his mask, thereby revealing that he's really Chicky Starr. If La Ley loses, he gets his hair cut. The match begins. Golden Boy uses a foreign object throughout the whole match. Then, it starts to rain in mid-match. Everybody in the ringside area gets soaked, as well as the wrestlers, who stay in the ring doing their job under the rain. Fortunately the rain doesn't last long. La Ley gets in a few moves and blows, but finally succumbs to whatever it was Golden Boy was using to hit him and gets pinned. 1-2-3. Now things get ugly. The crowd flies into a rage. People run to the ring and try to get in. Then a rain of folding chairs pelts the ring. Rico Suave and Golden Boy's bodyguard run in to protect him. They all get hit by flying chairs. Then a stray chair hits La Ley in the back. La Ley writhes in pain on the mat. Golden Boy and Co. flee the ring, and are hit with chairs all the way to the locker rooms. At least the chairs were plastic. After the commotion has died down a little, some security guys run in to help La Ley get up. Thing is, it seems he's not able to stand up. The security guards carry him to the locker rooms. He obviously didn't get his hair cut.
• One of the WWC officials gets on the microphone and says that the event is out of control and that he's going to have to bring in the cops. He says he'll cancel the remanining matches if he has to. Sensing that this would spark a bigger riot, he lets the show go on, but now there are about 6 or 7 cops (brought in off the street, I guess) surrounding the ring.
• Carlos Colon vs Abdullah the Butcher (Retirement match): Whoever loses retires from wrestling. Since these two have been wrestling for decades and feuding with each other since 1969 (no kidding), I genuinely couldn't predict who would win. The match is a juice-fest. Both wrestlers get busted open immediately. The match wasn't as good as it could've been since the police presence didn't allow the two to brawl outside the ring. A fork is used by both wrestlers constantly, until Abdullah falls to the mat and Colon pins him for the win. Dozens of fans run to the ring to celebrate, some of them embracing the bleeding Colon (yuck).
• Ray Gonzalez vs Salvatore Sincere (WWC Universal Title match): The Universal (!) champion, 24-year-old Gonzalez is really over with the crowd. Sincere is booed and insulted by the fans. Many call him "pato" (Puerto Rican slang term for "fag"). At one point, Ray pulls down the rear of Sincere's trunks to reveal all of his ass. Sincere apparently doesn't notice and walks around the ring bare-assed for about an entire minute until the referee points it out to him. He pulls up his trunks in embarrasment as he tells the crowd to shut up. If I were him, I wouldn't tell this crowd to shut up. A steady chant of "pato" from the crowd starts. Then the chant switches to English: "gay" and then "faggot". I wasn't even paying attetion to the match at this point, I was too busy laughing. The fans yell tons of other obscenities, among them: "Watch out, Ray, he wants to rape you", and "I'll kick your shaved faggot ass, you queer!". I'm not making this up. Eventually, Gonzalez gets Sincere in the figure-four leglock. Sincere submits and the event is over. The fans promptly get off their seats and leave, and so do the cops.
• Comments: Quite possibly the most violent wrestling event in Puerto Rico in years, crowd-wise. Next time, WWC should put guard rails or something similar around the ring to prevent fan interference. Oh, and no plastic folding chairs next time. La Ley looked like he got badly injured when he got hit by a flying chair, and the fans had pretty good aim when it came to throwing chairs at The Golden Boy. The Inavader II probably got hit, too. Also, the referee got showered with soda a few times. Oh, and there was also the flying ice, plastic cups and food.
  Despite all this, it was a great show with many exciting matches.

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