When we last looked at the year 1987, Carlos Colon had just defeated the person who had been his toughest opponent for the Universal Championship, Stan Hansen. But what was in-store will probably go down in WWC history as the greatest feud between two local...  when Colon was betrayed by none other than Mr. Hercules Ayala who was one of the most popular wrestlers in the island and also  a very popular wrestler in Canada. 

The feud started simply enough with a little disagreement when one night, the babyfaces were victims of a beating at the hands of the Chicky Starr Army and Hercules came in late for the save.  That lead to both Invader and Carlos asking Hercules where he was.  Hercules said that he was training in the locker room and had no idea what was happening. This continued on for a couple of weeks until finally the babyfaces had a meeting to clear the air.  In the meeting, Invader #1 told Hercules that he needed to be there for them as the rulebreakers were taking advantage of their division.  Hercules promised that he would be more alert and that instead of fighting between themselves, they should show how strong they were as a team.  That same night the rulebreakers again attacked the babyfaces and once again Hercules came late to the ring.  When Invader went up to him to ask him what was going on, Hercules picked up a chair and just destroyed Invader with it to the surprise of the fans.  What made it worse was when he climbed the ring and destroyed Carlos Colon and then left with Chicky Starr. 

This lead to a series of fights between Carlos Colon and Hercules across the island that were really bloody and the hatred of the fans for Hercules was something I had never experienced before or ever since.  Finally on the TV Show Hercules promised Carlos Colon a surprise for their match that night and promise that after releasing that surprise he would walk out with the Universal Title belt.  He kept his promise as he surprised Carlos Colon with an Inverted Figure-4 Leg lock and made Colon quit for the first time in his career to the shock of everyone in attendance including myself.  Ayala become the Second Puerto Rican to ever win the Universal heavyweight Title.  For the next couple of months they fought everywhere with Hercules retaining the Title by disqualification, pinning Colon  and if he lost the match it was only because of a countout.  This feud made a lot of money in Puerto Rico and to this day is one of the most talked about feuds in Puerto Rico .  Finally the Commission stepped up and ordered a match between Hercules and Colon for the Anniversary 87 show which we are going to talk about in the next column. 

Other feuds going on over the island during this time include the second most important one between Chicky Starr and The Invader #1 that started because Chicky wanted to retired the Invader from the sport so he started bringing one wrestler after another to accomplish that goal while the Invader just wanted one match with Chicky but he could never get it.  Finally in a cage match the feud reach its highest Point when Chicky cut off the Invader's hair and left him bald headed. This drove the Invader crazy as he had never been humiliated that way before and he start claiming that he wanted a hair match with Chicky.  But the rulebreaker would not accept until the Invader agreed to a special stipulation of his choosing.  Invader asked which one it was and Chicky said "your career."   For the next couple of weeks they showed Invader #1 debating if he should do it until finally he accepted the stipulation and the match was signed for Anniversary 87. 

The final big feud on The Island had to deal with Savio Vega better Known during that time as TNT.  He started the year as a rulebreaker winning the Gillette Cup  which was a one night tournament that had Adullah, Tony Atlas, Bruiser Brody, Dory Funk Jr. ,Mighty Igor ,Jason The Terrible and other big names. TNT was also the tag team champion alongside Mr. Pogo and they dominated the Tag team ranks on the island in part thanks to their manger Mr. Profe who always made sure his team came out victorious.  One night, however, against the Youngbloods it backfired and instead of accepting responsibility Profe started blaming TNT for the loss and in the next couple of rematches something would happen that the Ninja Express as they where called would end up losing the belts.  After one Match Profe and Mr..Pogo betrayed TNT and left him laying in blood in the ring. This brought a babyface turn and a new hero for the fans that were really needing someone. For the next several months TNT fought Profe and his gang leading to a fight in Anniversary between Mr. Pogo and TNT in Anniversary 87 and with that we leave you today. 

f you have any questions about Puerto Rico Wrestling, send me an e-mail at cuevas@mcclier.com and I would be more than happy to answer. 

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