Travicity
01-05-2011, 07:58 AM
Fightin’ Words
By Mike Greenblatt
As Publisher/Photographer Cary Silkin and I put to bed what we suspected might be the last issue of Lucha Libre De Puerto Rico, we vowed we would at least go down fightin’. IWA Champion Ricky Banderas had just turned heel so we put him on the cover with the headline “Porque? Porque? Porque?” (“Why? Why? Why?”). Sharing this last cover with Banderas was a hardcore grappler we had grown to truly like as a kindred spirit, Victor The Bodyguard. He was a rock’n’roll fan like we were. We had met his family, and he had proven to be not only a gentleman of the highest order, but one whose sense of competition and combat was laced with an in-ring brutality, drama and theatrical flair unmatched by his competitors. An innately intelligent man, he knew our hearts were in the right place in attempting this magazine and he graciously helped us immeasurably with his knowledge of the game and his overwhelming generosity of spirit. We were proud to call him a friend. That’s why when he suffered a fatal heart attack less than a year later in a Yauco venue, we were shocked and saddened. He was 38. Complaining of chest pain, he retired to the dressing room instead of a planned run-in on a Ray Gonzalez match. By the time the ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, he was already dead, after having lit a cigarette and collapsing to the ground.
We had been going to Puerto Rico so many times, that our presence at shows was starting to draw attention. For my Editor’s Page, I ran two shots of an incident I had with Chicano and Stefano, two grapplers who obviously had it in for me. In one shot, I’m desperately trying to get out from under their clutches as the two team up on me to the delight of the crowd. I’m wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, beige shorts, white socks and sneakers and must have looked like quite the gringo. In the other shot, I’m on my ass on the floor holding my head and grimacing in pain.
Hope came in the form of a few paid ads. The magazine’s Vice President Mike Palermo brought in from Atlanta Advertising Guru Dustin Novak and it worked as they brought in three tattoo parlors; a health food store; a cassette company, Warrior Sport, specializing in kung-fu and wrestling videos; The Key Lime Café; a strip bar called Buttman; an ambulance-chasing lawyer; a refrigerator repairman and something called The Wrestling Store. We gave away the back page to the IWA for letting us run rampant at their shows.
Exclusive interviews were published in Spanish of course after I conducted them in English and they had to be translated by our man Francisco Gatzambide of The San Juan Star. These included Slash Venom, Eric Alexander, El Lobo, Luke Williams, Eddie Colon, Mr. Casanova, Chicky Star, Apolo and Paparazzi. Our fold-out double-page poster had the sexy ladies Abvriela and Habana on each side.
The magazine sold well. But, alas, not well enough. In a last ditch effort to drum up business, Publisher Silkin sent me to San Juan solo. It didn’t work. Our chapter in the wrestling magazine wars was over. Back stateside, Silkin grew restless and looked for another wrestling opportunity.
The rest is history.
ROH
By Mike Greenblatt
As Publisher/Photographer Cary Silkin and I put to bed what we suspected might be the last issue of Lucha Libre De Puerto Rico, we vowed we would at least go down fightin’. IWA Champion Ricky Banderas had just turned heel so we put him on the cover with the headline “Porque? Porque? Porque?” (“Why? Why? Why?”). Sharing this last cover with Banderas was a hardcore grappler we had grown to truly like as a kindred spirit, Victor The Bodyguard. He was a rock’n’roll fan like we were. We had met his family, and he had proven to be not only a gentleman of the highest order, but one whose sense of competition and combat was laced with an in-ring brutality, drama and theatrical flair unmatched by his competitors. An innately intelligent man, he knew our hearts were in the right place in attempting this magazine and he graciously helped us immeasurably with his knowledge of the game and his overwhelming generosity of spirit. We were proud to call him a friend. That’s why when he suffered a fatal heart attack less than a year later in a Yauco venue, we were shocked and saddened. He was 38. Complaining of chest pain, he retired to the dressing room instead of a planned run-in on a Ray Gonzalez match. By the time the ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, he was already dead, after having lit a cigarette and collapsing to the ground.
We had been going to Puerto Rico so many times, that our presence at shows was starting to draw attention. For my Editor’s Page, I ran two shots of an incident I had with Chicano and Stefano, two grapplers who obviously had it in for me. In one shot, I’m desperately trying to get out from under their clutches as the two team up on me to the delight of the crowd. I’m wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, beige shorts, white socks and sneakers and must have looked like quite the gringo. In the other shot, I’m on my ass on the floor holding my head and grimacing in pain.
Hope came in the form of a few paid ads. The magazine’s Vice President Mike Palermo brought in from Atlanta Advertising Guru Dustin Novak and it worked as they brought in three tattoo parlors; a health food store; a cassette company, Warrior Sport, specializing in kung-fu and wrestling videos; The Key Lime Café; a strip bar called Buttman; an ambulance-chasing lawyer; a refrigerator repairman and something called The Wrestling Store. We gave away the back page to the IWA for letting us run rampant at their shows.
Exclusive interviews were published in Spanish of course after I conducted them in English and they had to be translated by our man Francisco Gatzambide of The San Juan Star. These included Slash Venom, Eric Alexander, El Lobo, Luke Williams, Eddie Colon, Mr. Casanova, Chicky Star, Apolo and Paparazzi. Our fold-out double-page poster had the sexy ladies Abvriela and Habana on each side.
The magazine sold well. But, alas, not well enough. In a last ditch effort to drum up business, Publisher Silkin sent me to San Juan solo. It didn’t work. Our chapter in the wrestling magazine wars was over. Back stateside, Silkin grew restless and looked for another wrestling opportunity.
The rest is history.
ROH