Dennis Rivera (wrestler)
Dennis Rivera | |
---|---|
Birth name | Dennis Alexis Rivera Rodríguez |
Born | Vega Alta, Puerto Rico |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | D-nnis Dennis Rivera Dennis Rodríguez |
Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
Billed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
Trained by | Alex "Lighting" Cruz Savio Vega |
Debut | 2007 |
Dennis Alexis Rivera Rodríguez (born September 27, 1979) is a
Biography
Rivera's brother, Juan Rivera is a professional wrestler who has wrestled in the
Early career (2007–2011)
International Wrestling Association (2007-2010)
Rivera's first work in the company was helping with the scenario's preparation before a card and doing promotions.
Rivera sold his heel character by dropping his first last name, referring to himself as "Dennis Rodríguez", during this time him and Noel Rodríguez were referred to as "Los Rodríguez", eventually becoming "Los Dueños de la Malicia". The team turned on Laureano joining Savio Vega, signifying the end of the "Starr Corporation". The new stable was included in an angle, where they would ambush anyone with ties to the
CWA, Bronco and Daniel Bryan
On April 10, 2010, Rivera debuted in the Champion Wrestling Association as a face, turning on his tag team partner during the match. His participation with the promotion was brief, returning to the IWA months after his debut. On September 10, 2010, he was involved in two matches, winning the first involving El Bronco by disqualification. Later, Rivera was booked to defeat active World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) employee and first contender for the WWE United States Championship, Daniel Bryan, by pinfall to win the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship.[6][nb 1] After winning this match, he entered a feud with Rick Stanley for the IWA Undisputed Heavyweight Championship, which was interrupted when a stipulation match was ordered and they were forced to team, winning the IWA World Tag Team Championship. Rivera went on to defeat his partner and became a triple-champion. He held the three belts until November 20, 2010, when he was stripped of the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship for failing to defend it in over 55 days and let Stanley be pinned to drop the tag team titles. In the first half of 2011, he feuded with Chris Angel who had "retired" his brother in a previous storyline. Rivera attempted to break Angel's undefeated streak twice, but failed on both occasions. Subsequently, La Malicia reunited and began an angle with Carlos Cotto, who led several teams composed of former Lucha Libre 101 members. From which Rivera and Rodríguez emerged as World Tag Team Champions.
Interpromotional angles; Undisputed Tag Team Championship
El Bombazo and Golpe de Estado en Septiembre Negro
In July 2011, Savio Vega appeared in WWC programming, beginning the first interpromotional angle between both promotions. Rivera and Rodríguez were among the first to participate in a WWC event as an active IWA wrestler, joining several wrestlers in an appearance at Aniversario 2011. There they were booked to ambush the WWC World Tag Team Champions, Wilfredo "Lynx" Rivera and "Niche" Marrero following a match against Thunder and Lighting, who were being booked as IWA employees despite working for WWC. Between major events, they dropped the belts to a tag team which featured Vega's debuting student,
WWC attempted to nullify the match and lists the result as a "no contest", but Rivera and Rodríguez kept physical possession of the belts, issuing a challenge for the IWA championship in an attempt to revive the interpromotional angle despite being unfavored by the promoters of both companies. They began a tour throughout Puerto Rico's independent scene, in which they appeared with both belt sets and continuously repeated the challenge, expanding it to independent tag team champions as well. One of the accepted challenges took place on November 5, 2011, when they challenged Guevara and Zapata to an unification for the IWA, WWC and Extreme Wrestling Organization (EWO) World Tag Team Championships, which concluded in a no contest. Following this event, Marrero and "Lynx" Rivera, accompanied by two independent wrestlers, ambushed Noel and his girlfriend, gaining illegal possession of one of the IWA belts and recovering of WWC's. The other half was still owned by Dennis Rivera, who was not present in the scene. Despite this event, La Malicia continued the tour appearing at New Pro Wrestling on November 19, 2011, confronting NPW World Tag Team Champions and WWC employees, Thunder and Lighting, for the belts. The challenge was accepted for NPW's last event of the year, Cierre de Temporada ending in a no contest. La Malicia was selected 2011's Tag Team of the Year in both Puerto Rico Wrestling and Lucha Libre Online's open vote.
Tiempos de Guerra
La Malicia emulated the event at WWC un an interpromotional angle between IWA and EWO, taking the EWO World Tag Teams Championship belts with them at Tierra de Nadie. However, at Histeria Boricua they both dropped the IWA titles in a defense and lost the EWO belts when a team known as "Los Lights" recovered them during the match.[9] At Kaos and Odissey, Rivera challenged Carlos Cupeles for the IWA Television Championship, only to lose when distracted by an EWO cameraman.[10] At Clash of the Titans, La Malicia regained the status of first contenders, winning a tag team three-way match.[11] In this event, La Milicia also became the IWA World Tag Team Champions. As part of the promotional buildup for IWA's Payback, La Malicia joined a heel-face coalition to drive EWO away, officially dubbed "Team IWA". However, at the event Rivera and Rodríguez lost to La Milicia in a no-disqualification titular contest following outside intervention from a stable of masked wrestlers only known as "El Ejército Positivo". On May 26, 2012, La Malicia challenged for the championship, but the match concluded in a no contest.[12] After Juicio Final was postponed for unspecified reasons, Rivera and Rodríguez began an independent tour, joining the Puerto Rico Wrestling Association.[13]
Post-IWA, international tryouts
WWL, La Nueva Rabia (2014–2015)
After IWA stopped holding regular cards, Rivera and Rodríguez made sporadic appearances in the local independent circuit. After his brother performed with the rest of
WWE tryout; independent circuit (2014–present)
In March 2014, Rivera participated in a tryout for WWE.
On June 8, 2015, New Revolution Wrestling announced that Rivera would be joining their roster. Performing as a heel in his return, he attacked a masked wrestler known as Mariachi and took the latter's NRW Global Championship belt after incapacitating him. On July 31, 2015, Rivera won this title in a match between both as part of the promotion's Summer Revolution card. Parallel to this, he made appearances for CWA, where he won an eliminatory to become the first contender to the promotion's main title at an event named Sunmer Mayhem.[14] On August 8, 2015, Rivera defeated Akiles Falcón to win the CWA World Heavyweight Championship.[14]
2018 to present Dennis Rivera currently host a podcast called La Vuelta produce by Juan Ramírez.
Championships and accomplishments
- Champion Wrestling Association (Puerto Rico)
- CWA World Championship (2 times)
- Victor Rodríguez Memorial Cup (2013)
- International Wrestling Association
- 2 times)
- 1 time)
- IWA World Tag Team Championship (7 times) – with Noel Rodríguez (4), Chicano (2) and Rick Stanley (1) [15]
- IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) [16]
- José Miguel Pérez Memorial Cup (2009)
- Entertainment Wrestling Organization
- EWO World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Noel Rodriguez
- New Revolution Wrestling
- NRW Global Championship (2 times)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- World Wrestling Council
- WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Noel Rodríguez[18]
- World Wrestling League
- Stefano
See also
References
Notes
- ^ After winning the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (from Q.T. Marshall on July 17, 2010) Bryan returned to WWE at SummerSlam and entered into a feud with The Miz, officially becoming the challenger for the WWE United States Championship on the September 6, 2010 edition of Raw, four days before this match.[7] Nine days after losing the IWA Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship to Rivera, Bryan won the WWE United States Championship at Night of Champions.[8]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g Hermes Ayala (2014-03-18). "¡Sí! ¡Sí! ¡Sí! Otro boricua a probar suerte en la WWE" (in Spanish). Metro Puerto Rico. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
- ^ a b c d Juan Rosario (2008-08-12). "Una Entrevista a Otro Nivel" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. Archived from the original on 2010-07-26. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
- ^ [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ Luis Santiago (2007-04-22). Resultados: Toa Baja 04/21/07 (in Spanish). International Wrestling Association.
- ^ Luis Santiago (2007-06-10). Resultados: Levittown 06/09/07 (in Spanish). International Wrestling Association.
- ^ "PRWRESTLING.COM - NOTAS GOLPE DE ESTADO YABUCOA 9/10: Nuevo campeˇn de Puerto Rico; Danielson vs Savio Vega". September 14, 2010. Archived from the original on September 14, 2010.
- ^ Greg Adkins (2010-09-06). "Capital punishment". WWE. Archived from the original on 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
- ^ Ryan Murphy. "Results: For whom LeBell tolls". WWE. Archived from the original on 2010-09-22. Retrieved 2015-08-01.
- ^ "IWA : International Wrestling Association : Lucha Libre : Pagina Oficial". Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
- ^ "IWA : International Wrestling Association : Lucha Libre : Pagina Oficial". Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
- ^ Luis Ernesto (2012-03-19). "IWA Resultados Clash of the Titans" (in Spanish). Noti-Lucha.com. Archived from the original on 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ "Notas Copa José M. Pérez, Padre" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. 2012-05-27. Archived from the original on 2012-06-02. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
- ^ "Notas de la PRWA" (in Spanish). Puerto Rico Wrestling. 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
- ^ a b "Notas de la lucha libre boricua". Puerto Rico Wrestling. 2015-08-09. Retrieved 2015-08-09.
- ^ "IWA World Tag Team Title (Puerto Rico)". Wrestling-Titles.com.
- ^ "IWA Puerto Rican Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles.com.
- ^ ""PWI 500": 301–400". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. 2011-08-04. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- ^ This reign is only recognized by the IWA, since WWC has purged it from its record by changing the outcome of the match.