King Tonga vs. Joe Lightfoot (November 1982) Lightfoot puts up a fight but loses in the end.

 

Johnny Rivera vs. Gene Lewis (November 1982) Competitive match with Rivera getting the big win.

 

Enrique Vera vs. Bill Martinez (November 1982) Easy win for Vera.

 

Pierre LeFebvre vs. Angel Diaz (November 1982) Squash.

 

Enrique Vera vs. Johnny Rivera (November 1982) Decent little match.

 

Pierre LeFebvre vs. Joe Lightfoot (November 1982 Again Lightfoot puts up a strong effort but Pierre was too strong. King Tonga vs. Rocky Tamayo (November 1982) Squash.

 

King Tonga vs. Johnny Rivera (December 1982) Tonga wins easily.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Keith Larsen & Jose Miguel Perez (December 1982) Competitive match but the Mexicans coem out on top.

 

Roberto Huertas Gonzalez vs. Mr. X (December 1982) Invader's brother wins easily.

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Iranian Assassin (December 1982) Apollo gets the win here.

 

King Tonga & Wendi Richter vs. Gino Dellaserra & Princess Victoria (December 1982) This was fine for what it was.

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Keith Larsen (December 1982) Scientific match with Apollo coming out on top.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Victor Jovica & Johnny Rivera (December 1982) Tough test for the rudos but they win.

 

Pierre Martel vs. Cuban Assassin (December 1982) Okay match.

 

King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra (December 1982) Gino gives it his all but Tonga was too strong.

 

Dick Steinborn vs. John Bonello (December 1982) Steinborn looked good here.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Keith Larsen & Johnny Rivera (December 1982) Another strong win for the rudos.

I'm guessing Roberto Huertas Gonzalez is the brother of Invader that got attacked by Abdullah and caused Carlos to interrupt his match with Keith Larson.

King Tonga vs. Joe Lightfoot VQ on this is not good. Fun match here. This sort of seemed like an early version of the Meng WCW Nitro match, but with Tonga having a lot more speed back then, there were more big spots. This went a little less than five minutes, but it was pretty much everything you would want out of a match of this type.

 

Johnny Rivera vs. Gene Lewis Decent, short, tv match. Rivera won with a nice crossbody. Enrique Vera vs. Bill Martinez This was really back and fourth, but it was also really fun. The opening of this was a bunch of fun matwork, done with speed and precision. That built to an Anaconda Vice of all things. Then they came up for some good looking highspots before the finish. Pierre LeFebvre vs. Angel Diaz Bulldozing squash for the Mad Dog.

 

Enrique Vera vs. Johnny Rivera This was like the previous Vera match, with some really fun grappling exchanges leading the way. I thought the work on the first match was better on that end, but there was some nice stuff here, including some quick throws and cool shit like Rivera doing a really sneaky take down. Vera kept trying to work spots around hyper extending the leg or arm too which I really liked. They came up for some simple spots, which was worked as a sort of mirror exchange. The finishing jack knife pin looked really good too. This was like a sped up, less impressive, maestros match. Needed more time for a nomination, but I enjoyed it.

 

Ric Flair promo here. Not bad.

 

Pierre LeFebvre vs. Joe Lightfoot This wasn't much, though the last minute was pretty good and the post match with Mad Dog snapping on Lightfoot and pummeling him was pretty cool. Tonga squash was very squashy.

 

King Tonga vs. Johnny Rivera I wish we had one definitive Tonga match from PR, because he was very exciting to watch even in these little tv matches. This was basically a steamrolling, but it was still fun to watch because Tonga was good at switching speeds and mixing up his attack and showing enough vulnerability to make you believe Rivera had a real chance. This got a lot of time for a match like this, maybe too much, but it was good for what it was.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Keith Larsen & Jose Miguel Perez This was pretty tedious. It had a cool finish, but getting there was not fun.

 

Roberto Huertas Gonzalez vs. Mr. X What Kris said.

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Iranian Assassin This has maybe the strangest criss cross spot I've ever seen, as the Assassin moves through the exchange in this really bizarre way. I think he may have actually been doing it backwards or something as he was always about a half second away from colliding with Apollo. That's about as notable as this gets.

 

King Tonga & Wendi Richter vs. Gino Dellaserra & Princess Victoria Fun match. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this, because the first part of it was nothing really, but once Tonga and Gino got in they did some interesting stuff. I love the way Tonga sells and the finish to this with Tonga slamming Victoria and Richter stealing the pin was pretty genius. With more time I would have considered this.

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Keith Larsen Decent tv match. Some of the early mat work was pretty good and I actually really liked the finish with Apollo hitting a great looking dropkick and then cradling Larsen up in a ball for the pin.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Victor Jovica & Johnny Rivera One thing I really like about these PR matches is that just about everyone on the roster is a decent mat worker, and most of them have really realistic, amateur style take downs that I mark out for every time. This match had a few of them early that I really liked a lot. On the other hand the biggest flaw with these matches is that they really don't have a ton of structure, so what you see are a string of exchanges, of varying quality, that don't really go anywhere. So while there are fun spots in a lot of this - this match included - they feel worthless a lot of the time.

 

Pierre Martel vs. Cuban Assassin This was okay. Martel has not been super impressive in these tv bouts as a whole and while I dig the Assassin, this wasn't the sort of match that plays to his strengths. The highlight of this was Assassin coming off the ropes and getting kicked in the balls, which was actually better than it sounds, but you don't want it to be a match highlight either.

 

King Tonga vs. Gino Dellaserra Watching Tonga tie a guy up in a pretzel was not something I expected to see combing through footage for this set, but here you go. I loved the way he would use his feet to try and "check" Gino away when he was caught in a hammerlock. This got a lot of time, relative to other PR tv matches, it's just a shame that Gino's offense was so middling. This was another in a long line of fairly entertaining Tonga matches, that don't really fit on a set like this. It's a shame because he has been fun in all of these, they just don't lend themselves to a project of this nature.

 

Dick Steinborn vs. John Bonello This was a borderline nomination, but the finish was so stupid, I can't do it. Steinborn was awesome in this carrying a green as grass guy, with a bunch of fun mat exchanges. Steinborn is really good about working heeling spots into flashy and gritty mat exchanges in ways that are not obvious, but are awesome. But the fucking finish was stupid as fuck.

 

Scorpio & Mr. Tempest vs. Keith Larsen & Johnny Rivera Man the rudos spot where they heave a guy into the knee of another is psychotic. Easily one of the most insane double team spots I've seen from this era of wrestling. The rest of this wasn't much, but god bless them

This disc starts off with a scene of a huge crowd at Hiram Bithorn Stadium cheering someone. The announcer is saying that if Ric Flair had won, he would have been decalred the Unviersal champion since he would have held both the NWA world title as well as the WWC World title. It cuts off as the announcer is talking, flashes to Rickin welcoming viewers to the show and then sends it to the first match. This means that the show opened with an announcement of what happened on the Oct. 16, 1982 match between Colon and Flair where Flair was challenging Carlos for the WWC World title. Apparently they were already working the Universal title angle since at least that time. That means that this show is likely from late October or early November. The earliest possibility is Oct. 23.

 

King Tonga over Joe Lightfoot. Very fun match. It looks like Dick Steinborn was the one accompanying Tonga at ringside.

 

Tomorrow in Aguada:

 

Carlos Colon vs. Abdullah the Butcher

World tag title match - Pierre MArtel & Gino Della Serra defend against The Mercenaries

Return match - Enrique Vera vs. King Tonga

Johnny Rivera vs. Dick Steinborn

Joe Lightfoot vs. Kareem Muhammad

and other bouts.

 

Johnny Rivera vs. Gene Lewis - Nice win for Rivera in a short but fun match.

 

Enrique Vera interview about his match vs. King Tonga. Hugo Savinovich had mentioned earlier in the show that he was now Tonga's manager and that he was going to end the tecnicos. So Tonga has only just recently arrived to Puerto Rico at this point.

 

Enrique Vera defeats Bill Martinez. Another fun match. If these were longer I'd have nominated maybe three of these matches so far.

 

Interview with Barrabas about his charge Kareem Muhammad facing Joe Lightfoot tomorrow. He throws out a challenge to Invader for a super libre match next Sunday in Aguadilla.

 

Interview with the World tag champs Pierre Martel and Gino Della Serra about their title defense against the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries had already won the NA tag titles from them, but they are not going to win the World tag titles.

 

Mad Dog Lafaib (with Barrabas) win over Angel Diaz. Lafaib is the North American champion. Now I'm confused, supposedly Lafaib wins the title in December, but the Mercenaries won the World tag titles in November and the NA tag titles in October (they have the NA tag belts but not the World tag belts).

 

New episode. Rickin is talking about the super libre match that is going to take place but the segment is cut off.

 

Enrique Vera vs. Johnny Rivera - This is a tecnico vs. tecnico match. Another really good match where I wish it had been longer.

 

Ric Flair promo. Due to Carlos Colon pinning him in the match where Flair was challenging for the WWC title, Flair now has to defend the NWA World title on Dec. 18th vs. Carlos Colon in San Juan. This is extra material.

 

Hugo Savinovich interview. It's about his client King Tonga. The back of Hugo's jacket says Soy Amor (I Am Love). Hugo has just returned to Puerto Rico and has purchased the contract of King Tonga, a wrestler he describes as a gold mine for a manager. The interview gets cut off or I might have suggested it as an extra to at least get an evil manager Hugo promo on the set (to show that side of his career).

 

Tomorrow in Aguadilla:

 

Super libre rematch - Invader vs. Mad dog Lafaib

Rematch with 2 referees - Enrique Vera vs. King Tonga

Pierre Martel vs. Kareem Mohammad

Gino Della Serra & Johnny Rivera vs. The Mercenaries

Joe Lightfoot vs. Dick Steinborn

and other bouts.

 

Joe Lightfoot vs. Mad dog Lafaib with Barrabas - Lafaib is still the NA champ. Lafaib chucks Lightfoot out of the ring at one point and rams him into a zinc wall. Superplex finishes off and Lafaib attacks Lightfoot post match.

 

King Tonga squash win over Rocky Tamayo (with Dick Steinborn has his manager here). I'm guessing Hugo returned and purchased Tonga's contract from Steinborn.

 

Clips of Ric Flair vs. Jumbo Tsuruta for the NWA World title in Japan.

 

I think we go to a new show. Brief clip of Rickin talking about Carlos Colon's tough task at Hiram Bithorn Stadium but it is cut off.

 

King Tonga vs. Johnny Rivera - Tonga is now seconded by Hugo Savinovich in this match. Rivera gets some offense but Tonga wins convincingly.

 

Mr. Tempest & Scorpio (with Barrabas) vs. Miguel Perez Sr. & Keith Larson - Heels win in a fine if unmemorable match.

 

Roberto Huertas Gonzalez vs. Mr. X - Invader is on commentary. Says this his brother's first match on TV although he has five years of experience. This is basically an introductory showcase for Invader's brother. I'm guessing this is to introduce him so as to set up the angle later where Abdullah attacks him. Invader on commentary is highlighting some of the things he is noticing his brother needs to improve on based on his match in the ring. After the win Invader celebrates with his brother,

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Mercenary 2 - Looks like the Mercenary is accompanied by Dick Steinborn. Some clunky spots in this one. Apollo picks up the win with a flying forearm. Steinborn tries to interfere and gets nailed by Apollo.

 

New show.

 

Princess Victoria interview about facing Wendi Richter (the Dallas Cowgirl). She gets out a funny line about Richter hiding behind a reject from a Ric Flair look alike contest (referencing Keith Larson). She doesn't want mixed tag match, she wanted a singles match. Her partner will be Miguel Perez Sr.

 

Princess Victoria and Gino Della Serra vs. King Tonga and The Dallas Cowgirl (with manager Hugo Savinovich) - Solid match.

 

El Gran Apollo vs. Keith Larson - Gran Apollo has recently retuned after touring other areas for the past two years. Apollo picks up the win in a competitive match.

 

Johnny Rivera & Victor Jovica vs. Mr. Tempest & Scorpio - Another good studio match.

 

Interview with Scorpio and Mr. Tempest. They have been demanding a tag title match against Della Serra and Martel. Tonight they face tDella Serra and Johnny Rivera in Arecibo.

 

Invader and Apollo interview about their matches against the Mercenaries Friday in Ponce. They mention that Carlos Colon will be defending the World title in a handicap match against King Tonga and Hugo Savinovich next week. Tonight in Arecibo Invader faces King Tonga and he hopes to soften up Tonga so he is unsuccessful in winning the title Friday in Ponce. Apollo is returning after two years and is facing Mercenary 2 on Friday and Dick Steinborn tonight. invader mentions that he ahs been impressed by Apollo's showings since he has returned.

 

Pierre Martel vs. Mercenary 2 - Pierre gets the win.

 

Rickin starts to run down the upcoming card but is cut off.

 

New show.

 

Gino Della Serra vs. King Tonga - This went longer than most TV matches. More competitive than other Tonga matches but Tonga gets the win.

 

Dick Steinborn vs. John Bonello - Steinborn gets DQ'd for intentionally throwing himself over the top rope. that finish kills any chance of nominating this.

 

Johnny Rivera & Keith Larson vs. Scorpio & Mr. Tempest - The rudos have some nice double team moves. Senton gets the win for the rudos.

 

The editing of the interviews and card lineups doesn't help in terms of figuring out the dates.

 

Clip of ICW opening.

 

End of disc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TO BE CONTINUED