IWA Puerto Rico started in 1994 as something separate from IWA Japan despite sharing the same co-founder. Things didn’t get off the ground until 1999 when it had something of a reboot. Founder Victor Quinones was busy between 1994 and 1999 as was one of the foundation stars of IWA Puerto Rico—Savio Vega.
Once both of them got free time, the promotion was started up and would go on to have some incredible TV ratings in the early 2000s with Dutch Mantel booking. All that was just context about IWA Puerto Rico, what we’re getting into is a forgotten-about piece of indy wrestling history: the 1999 IWA Puerto Rico Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament.
The 1999 IWA Puerto Rico Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament
In 1999 and into the early 2000s, IWA Puerto Rico worked with the WWE as something of a developmental stop. It wasn’t a part of their developmental system but it was somewhere that WWE talent could swing by for a show if they weren’t busy. It also helped that the Puerto Rican promotion had an in with Savio Vega.
The tournament would crown the promotion’s first Jr. Heavyweight champion and their first champion in general. Their World Champion hadn’t been crowned yet, actually. I remember getting the tale of this show and seeing the match listing years ago. The local IWA names weren’t familiar but this tournament had a couple of stars who would make a name for themselves within two or three years and a couple who were already getting their shine.
The tournament went down on May 20 and May 21, 1999 and features Tiger Mask IV, The Great Sasuke, Mr. Aguila, Taka Michinoku, Tajiri, Super Crazy, Reckless Youth, Alexander Otsuka, Pepe Prado, Danny Boy, Pablo Marquez, Jeff Hardy, and Black Scorpion.
Off the bat, that’s seven matches which already let the fans know that one match is a no contest and someone’s getting the biggest bye. That match would be Great Sasuke taking on Tiger Mask. The second day is more interesting so just to chop up day one: Aguila advances over Otsuka, Taka beats Reckless Youth, Daniels defeats Prado, Danny Boy spanks Pablo, Tajiri beat Scorpion, and Super Crazy beat Jeff Hardy.
The following night had some exciting matches with all of them being at least decently paced. This was totally the “Mr. Aguila Showcase Night” because he took down WWE rival Taka Michinoku in the first quarter-final bout. Remember this match because it was the better one of night two and better than the main. It makes sense as there are two pairings on night two who had chemistry.
Daniels beating Danny Boy was a solid match. Danny Boy is someone I became familiar with in watching early IWA PR. The Fallen Angel looked impressive here. He also looked impressive against Mr. Aguila who would defeat him and move on to the finals. In his last two matches, Aguila put his opponents away with the 450 Splash—very clean. In that match, we had Tajiri attempt to interfere for Christopher Daniels.
The Finals
Tajiri ended up getting the bye in the tournament and would face rival Super Crazy in the semi-finals. I’d say it was a solid run of what they would do in ECW that year. It was definitely a much faster version of those matches. Tajiri defeats Super Crazy and advances to face Aguila.
I have to say, Tajiri vs. Mr. Aguila wasn’t bad at all. It was an exciting little match that focused on what made lighter-weight divisions more exciting at this point: flying and the pace. This match had both of those and showed that there was a little chemistry between these two.
Or it could have just been that Tajiri works decently with anyone or Aguila was easy to work with in the match. It could’ve been anything but they delivered a solid finals match with Aguila winning following a Shooting Star Press.
I say seek out the matches on YouTube, they’re brief matches—probably edited for TV as well—but they’re enjoyable in an early WWE Light Heavyweight division sense.
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