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Victor Quinones dead at age 46
By Zach Arnold | April 3, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Long-time pro-wrestling businessman Victor Quinones died at the age of 46 in Puerto Rico over the weekend. Quinones was a mainstay in the Japanese independent scene in the early 90s (first with Atsushi Onita in the reincarnation of the Bruiser Brody murder angle in Puerto Rico, second as a booker with Kiyoshi “Mickey” Ibaragi in W*ING, third as a booker for IWA-Japan including booking talent such as Yoshihiro Tajiri & Terry Funk, fourth as a booker with Go Ito for FMW).
PRWrestling.com reports that the suspected cause of death for Victor Quinones was a mixture of somas with alcohol or combined with a cardiac arrest. The burial site is expected to be in Buxeda (near San Juan).
Quinones had an extremely famous reputation in the business, both good and bad. There is one thing that will likely get lost in the shuffle, which is how much money he made. Easily one of the most cutthroat businessmen and survivors in pro-wrestling. He was not a man to be messed with.
Black Eye (Japanese) has a round-up of links from various Japanese wrestlers talking about Quinones’ death. Names include Yukihiro (Kintaro) Kanemura, Ikuto Hidaka, TAKA Michinoku, & Dick Togo.
Kanemura is the most interesting name, as he was booked (by Quinones) in Jim Cornette’s SMW group to work the famous spike match with Kevin Sullivan that was a massive bloodbath. Kanemura also worked in the Dominician Republic & Puerto Rico as WWC Jr. Heavyweight champion. He was thankful to Quinones for what he had done for him in the business.
TAKA Michinoku had a especially close business relationship with Quinones. Quinones was working with Vince McMahon in WWF/WWE as an international boss and was sent by McMahon to take care of problems created by The Great Sasuke. It got to the point where Quinones ended up managing TAKA Michinoku at Michinoku Pro’s October 1997 Ryogoku Kokugikan show in Tokyo. To set-up the program between TAKA & Sasuke, Quinones was involved in a car-crash angle (a take-off of the Princess Diana killing in France) in which he ran into Sasuke with a car. After that program, TAKA and K-DOJO had a working relationship with Quinones & IWA Puerto Rico. TAKA finishes off his online posting by saying, “Bye Bye my otosan (old man) Victor.”
Kiku-taro talked about Quinones being one of the best wrestling promoters in the world. He talked about hearing of Quinones’ death on 4/1 and thought initially that it was an April Fool’s joke, but it wasn’t. Kiku-taro talked about Quinones’ career in Japan (what’s not stated is that Quinones was fluent in Japanese).
Dick Togo talked about Quinones helping out his career in WWF/WWE and in Puerto Rico, including a famous story about Togo running into Quinones’ house when a hurricane hit the island.
Quinones also booked workers for AAA in Mexico and ECW.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Victors hand prints are all over the wrestling industry worldwide. In this age of young wrestlers dropping dead, its strange to see a promoter following suit.
Victor helped me along with many others at at the time, and sure alot of bad things have been said but he did a lot for this business in the international scene.
i can only say thanks for everything Victor
HE WAS A GOOD MAN AND ALSO HE WAS MY UNCLES MANAGER THE HEAD HUNTERS 1 AND 2 HE WAS A ROLE MODEL TO ME I WANTED TO BE A HEAD HUNTER ALSO HE WILL BE MISSED FOREVER
He was a no good faggot lowlife
His promos were hilarious but god, I think the world is a better place with him gone.
Victor took second rate American talent to his promotions in Japan and Puerto Rico and made them hardcore wrestling icons. The King of the Death match tournament from 1995 will often be imitated but will never be duplicated. May God have mercy on your soul my good friend.
bob, u clearly have no idea what you are talking about and should take into consideration who reads things on the net….u dont have to like the man but those comments are disgusting and hateful….u should think before u do things!!