A wrestling legend from Puerto Rico will be the featured guest as Canadian Wrestling’s Elite (CWE) returns to Plaza 88 on Monday, May 6 for the Point to Prove Tour.
Former WWF (now WWE) wrestler Savio Vega will be in Prince Albert for his first tour of the city, but second with the company. He also completed the Point of No Return Tour.
“To be honest, (I’m) excited with the company,” he said. “I love what CWE is doing. I’ve been doing some research on the company too.”
Vega, born Juan Rivera, is currently running International Wrestling Association (IWA)-Puerto Rico. He said he was excited to be back wrestling in Canada. He was also excited to see old friends including the widow of Hercules Ayala in Calgary. He also plans to visit the resting place of Owen Hart.
“I cannot miss this opportunity to go there and pay my respect once again for him,” Vega said.
Vega also hopes to see a few familiar faces from the Puerto Rican wrestling world while in Canada.
“I have few friends, you know, Canadians, and maybe I have some other that hate me, but hey, that’s their problem, not mine,” he said.
Vega got started in the wrestling business because of a television show from Argentina called Titan in The Ring, which he watched a black and white television.
“I fell in love with the ring not with the wrestling or wrestlers,” he explained. “I just fell in love with that ring when I saw the ring.”
He started watching every Sunday at 5 p.m. and then his friends at school told him about other wrestling shows, which he also started watching. This led to him attending shows in his hometown.
“I start watching the wrestling closer, without knowing the life was preparing me to do this in the future because I fell in love right away with wrestling,” he said. “Step by step, step by step, I was getting closer and closer to the ring.”
Vega began creating wrestling cards with his friends based on what he saw on television. Now, 45 years later, he has travelled the world.
His career has seen him work with WWE, All Japan Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling and the top two companies in his home country IWA and the World Wrestling Council (WWC).
“It’s been a great journey in my career,” he said. “A lot of things happened in the past…. A lot of doors are closed and lot of doors open.
“(I had the chance to) Wrestle with marvellous people like Terry Funk, Dory Funk, the Wild Samoans, the Iron Sheik, Abdullah the Butcher. I’ve wrestled with so many superstars in this business that I’m happy be in that crew. I look myself and I can’t even believe that I’m in part of that crew, but that’s life that’s the way I see myself.”
Vega has been performing for 45 years and has no plans to stop. He said owning IWA-Puerto Rico makes him happy and he has a lot of young talent.
“People ask me when you going to retire. I say I am going to retire when I die because I’m happy with what I’m doing,” he said.
“In Puerto Rico I have two hours of television locally in Puerto Rico, channel 11 in Puerto Rico and also on YouTube. I have a channel on YouTube. IWA Puerto Rico on YouTube every Saturday at noon. It’s a new show and people see what we do and it’s good wrestling, to be honest.”
He said that all of his time working in Puerto Rico helped his reputation in running IWA Puerto Rico.
“They know what I’m capable to do in and out of the ring, now as a businessman running the company, they love what we’re doing, so hey, I’m happy with what happened in Puerto Rico right now.”
His former partner in IWA Puerto Rico was Victor Quinones until he passed away in 2006 and the company was closed a few years later. Vega said that after Quinones passed and the company closed he was depressed but he eventually talked to former Los Boricuas member Miguel Perez Jr.
He said that Telemundo, the station that broadcast IWA, was purchased by NBC.
“They took everything out of the local television,” Vega remembered. “They took everybody out of the television. Part of that crew was us too. We lost the television and they want $2,500 a week for television. It was hard brother. I mean, it was hard for that time.”
As a result, Vega and Perez Jr. stepped back, closed the company and had a rest. Perez then opened the company. It was not a success but Vega came back in and relaunched it.
“I said, ‘brother relax.’ He was anxious, so now, 2019, I reopened the company and since then it’s running and growing every day. (We) have new talents and new young boys in the company, and we are very happy with what we’re doing in Puerto Rico right now with IWA.”
One of the most infamous incidents in Puerto Rican wrestling was the stabbing murder of Bruiser Brody. Vega explained that the incident still hangs over the Puerto Rican wrestling community.
“Nobody is trying to erase that because it’s something that you’re not going to erase,” Vega said. “We are not proud of what happened there either.”
Vega said that he knew and loved Brody and worked with him when he was a security guard. He loved Brody’s hard-hitting style.
Vega got to know Brody even better when they both travelled together. He said Brody was a good mentor who gave him pointers on what to do and not do in the ring. Vega said he uses that advice every day.
Brody is one of several wrestlers Vega credits for helping him improve. One of the others is Mr. Fuji.
As a 58-year-old, Vega is still happy working in the wrestling business. He is doing what older wrestlers did for him both with IWA and on this tour.
“If I can help anybody in the road, I do,” he said. “When I see matches of the guys in here at CWE, I cannot be quiet. I have to say something to improve them in where they could look better and better.”
Vega encouraged everyone to come down and see him. Vega also teased an appearance by his former alias, Kwang.
“You don’t know if the character could appear on CWE’s tour, so you need to be wise because everything could be possible and Kwang could come down any night,” Vega said.
The card will feature a special eight man tag team match main event, Vega is facing Canadian legend Vance Nevada, AEW’s “Zombie Princess” Jimmy Jacobs is facing “Hotshot” Danny Duggan, CAM!!ikaze is facing “Lion Warrior” Bobby Sharp, “Leon Lokombo and Chad Daniels face The Cannon Corporation ( Shaun Martens and Kevin O’Doyle) and Travis Cole faces Rusty Blackwell, the Backwoods Butcher. The show will also feature a set by Prince Albert’s Burning Pallets before the show.
The Meet and Greet is at 6 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. and bell time is 7 p.m. at Plaza 88. Advance Tickets Available at: Colette Portamedic Services or purchase tickets online at cwetickets.com.
