In the middle of a Sunday afternoon, the entrance of a warehouse in Hato Rey receives fans who have wanted to witness The End of the WWL and the beginning of La Liga Wrestling. The first thing that captures the attention of anyone present in the warehouse of the controversial establishment, 24 Marketplace, is the high definition screens that surround the arena. Fresh air and conditioning permeate the atmosphere of La Liga. The design of chairs, quadrilateral, and V.I.P. They are similar to those of PROGRESS Wrestling or another UK company.
It’s amazing what a good menu can bring to a show. Instead of the famous “empanadillas”, a variety of pizzas and countless types of beers are the fan’s new options. Willie Urbina can finally put on an evening gown without sweating the consequences of a court without air conditioning. The audio that almost always the fan must endure to hear a “promo” or the name of a wrestler, becomes clear and loud in this new facility. La Liga Wrestling and its new home on Avenida Chardón prove to be a welcoming place, despite the restrictions of the chairs.
Recently, much has been said about wrestling in Puerto Rico. La Liga Wrestling has taken a second plane with the airs of nostalgia that surrounds the WWC and the IWA PR. The Puerto Rican fan, as a good soldier of permanent memory, still believes that a meeting between a failed and poorly managed IWA PR together with a rising WWC is attractive. The latter (WWC), has had a successful 2020, without the need to depend on the past and with curious, but mostly passable experiments (insert Peter John Ramos here). The fan commented that WWL is doing things wrong, because: “Look at WWC and IWA PR, that story is interesting.” But as we all know, this disease is still the same syndrome that affects Puerto Rican wrestling, nostalgia.
Ohhh… nostalgia. What would Savio Vega do without it? It’s amazing how the fan has wagered all of his coins on the IWA PR “invasion” of WWC. It is with this same dignity with which they support this move that they dare to criticize La Liga Wrestling; as if it were not the latter that has truly represented the parameters of change and modernization; while IWA PR continues to swim in the nostalgic river that now drowns such project. Every time I see a fan criticize the new image of La Liga Wrestling, I write his name in my mind, sooner or later, it will contradict itself when he asks for modern arenas and changes in Puerto Rican wrestling.
Liga Wrestling brought what has always been expected in the changes of the Puerto Rican free fight. A place most representative of the state of wrestling in the world, with improvements in image, food, talent, and presentation. However, this is the fight for La Liga Wrestling. They can present a fresh show, with promising talents, but there can be no execution error. For the Puerto Rican fan, who hardly knows what is a PROGRESS Wrestling, an error means that the new generation does not know how to do it like before (e.g. Capitol Sports Promotion or Víctor Quiñónez’s IWA PR).
IWA PR nostalgia and La Liga Wrestling
However, that same profanity tends to turn and admire the walking disaster that is IWA PR when agreeing with WWC. The last one has been successful, there is no doubt about that. But does IWA PR do?
Sit down to think. This is the company that promised “Villas y Castillas” to the talent of WWL; the company that helped finance Savio Vega’s flirtations with the IWA PR. Not only does Savio betray the trust and space that WWL gives him, but incidentally, he takes talents and builds a company whose first purpose is to eliminate WWL and be able to compete with WWC. After that does not work – given that nostalgia has limits – he decides to receive an invitation from Ray González to be able to maintain that nostalgic project that has barely been a year old.
Not only have IWA PR’s ideas been shown to be outdated, but nostalgia has also been shown to slowly destroy companies. WWC was doing it with obvious decisions: Rey Gonzalez as an administrative figure, young but proven wrestlers, and a renewed image. Bringing IWA PR is to take advantage of the disasters of Savio’s company to increase its reach and dominance in the Puerto Rican scene. This move is a master move but from WWC.
The Colon cousins know that the IWA PR effect will fade in months. Having used and abused the haggard image of IWA PR, the WWC is finally seeking the supremacy it lost prior to 2020. However, this will be done at the expense of progress. La Liga Wrestling must not lose faith in these coming months. It will become difficult to combat the nostalgia factor, plus the good administration of WWC.
Nostalgia will fade, but modernization will not. La Liga has in its hands the responsibility of continuing to create new stars, as is the case of Mark Davidson, plus a new vision of how wrestling should be done in Puerto Rico. Only with La Liga Wrestling continuing is that the Puerto Rican fan will understand that filling venues of 5,000 people regularly with the stars of before is no longer possible.
(This essay was first published in the Spanish wrestling magazine, Impacto Estelar)
