The Caribbean Corner 1.27.08: The Unification of Titles

WWC booker Moody Melendez resigned after he heard rumors that he was set to be fired after the WWC Euphoria event and replaced with Jose Rivera Sr. Also he heard that the wrestlers he brought into WWC, the group that formed La Rabia (Biggie, Jumpin’, Xtefy and Niche) where all set to drop their respective titles at Euphoria and be slowly faced out of the main storylines. Why was Moody set to be fired? Well, according to Carlos Colon, he put too much focus on the wrestlers he brought in from IWA and not on the rest of the roster and his booking was inconsistent. Plus, he was the scapegoat for declining ratings. I have to agree on the booking inconsistencies, specially since it was Moody’s idea to turn La Rabia heel (which was a huge mistake) and he also had a ton of continuity errors (La Rabia turned on Crazy Rudy when they turned heel, then when they where all rushed back into a face turn, it was Rudy who came out to defend Jumpin….why? Did he forget the beating he took at their hands or something?). But the rumor leaked out, Moody decided to quit and the entire La Rabia group left WWC with him, still in possession of the WWC Universal, Puerto Rican and Junior Heavyweight Titles. Although Biggie was not recognized as the Universal Champion, he was allowed to keep the belt because he had “won” it after Scott Hall’s no show. The “Puerto Rican Wrestling Commission” stripped him of the title because of the dubious circumstances in which he won the belt and had ordered Biggie to face the #1 contender, Black Pain, at Euphoria in a match to determine a new champion. Since Biggie was set to win anyway, WWC management told him to keep the belt, which turned out to be a big mistake. With La Rabia gone, WWC has three vacated titles and their big Euphoria event was ruined, forcing a plethora of booking changes and hurting the attendance to the event, which was way lower than expected.

But the ultimate slap in the face was Biggie showing up in IWA with the Universal Title. The angle happened like this: Blitz had just defended the IWA World Title in a match with Tim Arson when Biggie came in from the crowd, with the Universal Title in his hands. He told Blitz that he was back and that he respected Blitz, since they where old friends, but that IWA had room for only one champion. So they agreed to unify the titles later that same night. When the match was set to happen, two employees from WWC showed up to retrieve the belt, which was not a planned event, but IWA was smart enough to keep the cameras rolling and turned this into part of the angle. In order to prevent the employees from retrieving the belt, somebody took it and hid it somewhere else and Biggie came out with the World Title from a company in Panama where Savio Vega is the champion and he was wearing it backwards, like Ric Flair used to do in the WWF when he came in with the NWA Title. The result of the match was that Blitz won and became the “Unified” World Champion. The event reached the global scene and was featured in the online shows from the new NWA, in which Blitz and Invader talked about it and they showed the end of the match. The WWC Universal Title returned to the hands of WWC on Tuesday of that week, the deadline WWC gave IWA to return the belt before they pursued legal action.

Now that is what happened and this is the way I see it. I think IWA got a little benefit from this; they finally got people talking about them again. But I don’t think this is going to be a massive event in the long run, at least not unless IWA starts running shows every week again and use this momentum to reach the top and stay there. If WWC booking is inconsistent, IWA has been much worse and they need to remedy this. Also I think the “Unified” Title is a bad idea. IWA even went out and created a brand new belt to signify this unification. But this is really stupid. Fact of the matter is, WWC is not dead and they already have a tournament scheduled to crown a new champion that will end at the Anniversary Show. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but in order to unify two titles, one of them has to be dead…right? But the Universal Title is far from dead, so….which is the other title unified with the IWA belt? Due to legal reasons, IWA could not outright admit that it is the Universal Title, so on TV they called it the “Capitol Heavyweight Title” and recognized Biggie as “Capitol’s Champion”. This is a reference to WWC’s past, when it was called Capitol Sports Promotions. But here is the thing: Capitol Sports Promotions died in the 80’s when it became WWC. So they unified their title with one of a promotion that has been dead for around 20 years! Also the Heavyweight Title in question died in 1983 when the Universal Title replaced it. So they unified their title with a title that has been dead for 25 years! Or even worse, if they mean the new Capitol, the fake Capitol they created when Abbad and Romeo came from WWC as the “Council Hood men” (in one of the worse angles ever!). Because then they would admit that they unified their title with a fake title. Either way, the angle was stupid and I think IWA could have generated the same buzz if they had only debuted the entire La Rabia group together, have Rey Gonzales or Savio Vega admit to be the “Mysterious Boss” that they talked so much about in WWC and was never revealed and have them admit that everything was a plan to mess with WWC or something. That would have been an amazing angle and it would not have as many obvious holes as this one. Also, Biggie was not the recognized champion of WWC, which means that the angle has even less credibility.