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THE ISLE OF PUERTO RICO: MARIO SAVOLDI GIVES HIS SIDE OF THE IWA PUERTO RICO ISSUES

In past weeks we have reported on the recent comments made by Savio Vega in several interviews regarding the incident that took place earlier this year between Mario Savoldi and the IWA.  When the incident occurred, there were allegations of all sorts, most of them pointing at Savoldi for taking possession of the company's full inventory of equipment and moving it to an "undisclosed" location in order to hurt their business.  Recently, Vega has again launched attacks towards Savoldi, so in interest of fairness and in order to have both sides of the story, we were able to reach out to Mr. Savoldi via telephone and got him to comment very candidly about this whole situation, amongst other topics.
 
We began the conversation by discussing what he is currently working on.  Savoldi stated that he is still working with NWA alongside David Marquez and is also working on some other projects.  When I touched on the controversy surrounding the IWA-PR incident earlier this year, he mentioned that unfortunately it is far from over.  He went on to say that there are still some legal matters that are pending and that the situation will be unfolded in the appropriate forum when the time comes.  I asked him for a reaction to the recent comments made by Savio Vega in which he refers to him as "thief" as well as other choice words.  Savoldi was not interested in even knowing what the other remarks were and to my surprise stated that he does not hold any grudge against Vega, who he considers a good person, although not a smart business man.  The same comments were said when it came to Miguel Perez.  What he says that he does not understand is why does Vega insists in calling him a thief when everything that was moved from the office to the storage place was recovered by them after the incident.  He went on to say that Vega went to the storage facility accompanied by a police officer and did an inventory of everything that was in the storage unit before taking it all back.  At that time everything seemed to be in order.  Now, almost six (6) months later he is claiming that he only receive 3/4'ths of all the inventory.  The only thing that Savoldi admits he did not leave there was some new TV editing equipment that he had invested in when he first got there, as theirs was outdated.  He cared about the product that was presented on TV and that is why he made the investment.
 
According to Savoldi, the whole situation turned out very poorly and was not handled appropriately from the beginning by both Savio and Miguel.  He stated that before the incident happened, his partners and him tried to meet with Savio and Miguel for three days in a row to discuss the plans for the office to be moved into a less expensive facility.  All Savio and Miguel did was present excuse after excuse as to why they were not going to be able to meet.  Everyday was something different.  He then stated that even after the whole incident had taken place, he contacted them to try and get things straighten out and continue with their business venture, but again all they received were excuses as to why they were not able to talk to them.
 
We talked about the company itself and stated that he had noticed multiple problems when he first got involved in the company business operations.  First and foremost, he saw an issue with the talent not getting paid for their performance.  He recalled a conversation with Savio and Miguel where Miguel was saying that they were making money.  When asked how could they be making money if their talent had not got paid yet, he says Miguel looked at him and said that as long as they were making money, that was all that mattered.  Savoldi went on to say that to this day, there still talent that is owed a lot of money.  That is the main reason for the exodus that they have recently experienced.
 
Another one of the problems that he saw was that Savio always wanted to stay on top.  Every top program or angle, would start with Savio and would end with Savio.  He mentioned that the "hero" psychology that worked in the 80's, where Carlos Colon would face all comers, feud with them and ended up "kicking them out of the island" does not work in the current environment that we are living in pro wrestling.  He says that Colon used to packed all the stadiums, coliseums and arenas all over the island as the "hero", but nowadays, the fans like to see diversity in their main event level performers.  The storylines and angles that we used to see before, are no longer useful, because they do not draw.
 
Lastly, he stated that the other problem that he saw was that their focus was always to put Carlos Colon and Victor Jovica (WWC) out of business.  He did not agree with that business approach.  When he first went into business with IWA, he thought about diong some kind business deal with Carlos Colon, but as long as Miguel and Savio are in IWA, that will be impossible, as they will always look to hurt their competition, put them out if they can.  Savoldi stated that throughout the years, his family and him have always had great respect for Carlos Colon; not only for what he has accomplished in his career, but also as a business man.  They have always maintained a very good professional/business relationship.  He goes on to say that if you "kill" the competition you only end up hurting your business.  Competition is needed in order to be forced to constantly raise the bar for your performers, thus delivering a better product to the audience.
 
I briefly commented with Savoldi in regards to an interview made by another IWA performer recently in which he basically mopped the floor with Carlos Colon for allegedly not wanting to pay him what he deserved when he jumped to WWC last year.  The wresltler stated an amount of money that he asked for and then the amount that was "agreed upon", but since Colon did not keep his end of the deal, he went back to IWA, for even more money than he was making before.  When I related what was said in the interview Savoldi stated that he recalled that story a little different and that he was the one that took him back in IWA after it did not work out with WWC.  According to him, this wrestler came back to the company for a much less money than what he claimed during the interview.  (NOTE:  To protect the confidentiality of the agreements, we will not disclose right now the figures I am making reference too...  But belief me when I say that it is considerably lower than what was originally claimed in the interview.)
 
I also asked Savoldi about the comments made by Savio recently regarding specific talent that left the company when the incident occurred and were allegedly promised to work in the US with him.  We are referring to Carlitos, Hiram Tua and Ray Gonzalez.  Regarding Gonzalez, he stated the he would love to bring him over to work with him, but when he returned to WWC earlier this year he signed an exclusive contract, which would prevent him from working anywhere else with the approval of the WWC offices.  When he talked about Carlitos and Hiram Tua, he stated that they are great performers and has maintained in constant communication with them all this time.  He knows they are currently working with PRWA back in Puerto Rico and things are going good for them.  He stills holds hope that he will be able to help them cross over to the US whenever they feel they're ready to make the move.
 
We also spoke about the announcements that have been made by Wrestlevent Entertainment / EWO regarding the signing of the former IWA announcing team (Axel Cruz & Centeno), the signing of former IWA ref's Pelayo Vazquez and Eliezer Rosado and the major signing of Jose Huertas Gonzalez (Invader 1) to be part of the company's creative team.  he stated that he knew about this company and would suggest to stay close to them.  He went on to say that their executives are taking things slowly, basically crawling before they walk, and he thinks the company will have success in the island.  He also expects NWE-PR to be successful as he knows the people behind the company are very good business people.  He wishes them all the success they can achieve.
 
Finally, I asked him if we had heard the last of him regarding the wrestling business in Puerto Rico.  He responded that we have not, and that you should be hearing his name in the near future.  He holds in high regards the people in the island because, as he said, "they made this gringo feel welcomed all the time".  He thanks all the fans in Puerto Rico for their continuous support and then stated again that we would be hearing from him very soon.