Hugo Savinovich

Hugo Savinovich (born February 15, 1959) is an Ecuadorian sports commentator and retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager. He is currently signed to Lucha Libre AAA as a Spanish commentator. He is best known as part of the Spanish language commentary team for the professional wrestling promotion WWE from 1994 to 2011.[1] His great-great grandfather “Esteban” Savinovic Kobacisa emigrated from Dubrovnik, Croatia in the 1880s.

Hugo Savinovich
Born (1959-02-15) February 15, 1959
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Spouse(s)Wendi Richter (div.)
Diana Mendéz de Savinovich {1990-2019)
Children2
Ring name(s)El Muñecazo
El Hombre Simio
Babyface Savinovich
Hugo Savinovich
La Pantera Asesina
La Ferretería Ambulante
El Hijo de Doña Mélida
El Deforme
Billed height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Billed weight105 kg (231 lb)[1]
Debut1978[1]
Retired1984[1]

Early life

Savinovich was a wrestler for many years, performing in many Caribbean countries like Puerto Rico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. He claims that becoming a professional wrestler literally saved his life, as he was originally a gang member in the streets of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He joined the sport under the guidance of Angel "El Toro" Maldonado. Mexican wrestling promoter Arturo Mendoza took him to Puerto Rico, where he lived for close to 14 years.

Professional wrestling career

Savinovich began his wrestling career in working for promoter Arturo Mendoza who ran wrestling shows in the west area of Puerto Rico. Arturo Mendoza noticed that Savinovich had very good skills to be a wrestling announcer. Moved on to the World Wrestling Council in 1978. He was originally a "tecnico" (the Spanish wrestling term for a "face", or "good guy"); after breaking up with Mendoza and his original wrestling partner, Little Chief Cherokee, he joined the local World Wrestling Council franchise in Puerto Rico, Capitol Sport Promotions (owned partially by Carlos Colón), where he gained notoriety for being one of the "rudo" wrestlers (i.e., "heels", or wrestling villains), with a penchant for flamboyancy and self-promotion that gained him his most famous ring name, "El Muñecazo" ("The Big Baby Doll"). Savinovich is on record as stating that he modeled his role after Gorgeous George, although his looks were particular to him and him alone (long hair with a mullet and David Letterman-like gaped teeth). He did promote his wrestlers using a high-pitched voice and fast delivery resembling that of drag racing radio advertisements in the United States. This also gave him the chance to develop his skills as a color commentator for wrestling matches, using a loud and fast narrative style -which he pioneered, since called "estilo lucha libre" ("wrestling style") in Puerto Rico.

He would tour the United States for Western States Sports and Mid-South Wrestling in 1980 and Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1984.

Hugo managed some the most notorious heels in professional wrestling such as Abdullah the Butcher, Ox Baker, The Sheik and Buddy Landell until he had a fallout with Barrabas Sr becoming a face in 1984.

Savinovich eventually became a partner at World Wrestling Council, only to split with Colón a few years after in a rather acrimonious business disputes with the company management forced him to leave and joined the rival American Wrestling Federation.

In 1991, Savinovich would come out of retirement after seven years and feud with Billy Joe Travis, which would last a couple years in WWC and AWF.

During his wrestler run, he wrestled names like Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Eric Embry and his biggest rival, El Profe. He even made team with Kane on IWA-Puerto Rico.

Sports Commentary and Reporter

Savinovich later became an announcer in the World Wrestling Council when he replaced Rickyn Sánchez when Sánchez left WWC in the fall of 1984. He remained there until November 1991 when he joined the American Wrestling Federation who ran opposition against the World Wrestling Council.

In 1994, Savinovich accepted an offer from the World Wrestling Federation to work as a Spanish announcer. He was paired with Carlos Cabrera to host the Spanish language versions of Raw, SmackDown, Superstars, NXT, and pay-per-view (PPV) events. Savinovich and Cabrera had a show at WWE.com called WWE En Español (WWE in Spanish), which lasts about 30 minutes; it is a recap of Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and pay-per-view events. The show celebrated its 100th episode in April 2006. Currently, WWE launched a mini show starring Hugo and Carlos called 28 Segundos, which consists of the announcers making fun of life. The show is in Spanish and can be found on WWE.com.

In previous years, while working for WWE on their pay per views, the area in which he works with Cabrera, commonly known as the Spanish announcers' table, has become a staple in professional wrestling. It is a convenient device for wrestlers to execute dramatic moves on, such as the Piledriver or the Pedigree. The moves almost always result in the destruction of the table.

One of the most famous on-air incidents that Savinovich was involved in with WWE was at WrestleMania XIX, when he accidentally received a chair shot to the head from Hulk Hogan in the match between Hogan and Vince McMahon after McMahon ducked a chair shot. He was unable to continue with the Spanish broadcast and Cabrera had to finish the show by himself. Savinovich and Cabrera provide live Spanish commentary for all weekly shows from the WWE Television Studios in Stamford, Connecticut and are at ringside for PPV events. This practice temporarily ended in mid-2006. Originally due to the addition of the now-defunct ECW brand, the announce teams of all three brands were present for tri-branded pay-per-views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series). During this time, Savinovich and Cabrera provided commentary for these events from the WWE Television Studios but were still placed at ringside for brand-exclusive PPV events.

When the brand-exclusive pay-per-view concept ended in 2007, the announce teams of all three brands were placed at ringside for all PPV events. Beginning in 2009, a single three-man announce team, composed of announcers from the two current brands, was designated for pay-per-views. Savinovich and Cabrera returned to ringside for PPVs at The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania in 2009. However, they were not reinstated full-time until WrestleMania XXVI in 2010.

Also in 2009 Hugo Savinovich returned to the World Wrestling Council after a 17 years absence and the 2009 WWC Anniversary Card was dedicated to him.

Savinovich was fired from WWE on October 5, 2011, although he only announced his dismissal on October 19 of that year[2]. The details of his dismissal are not entirely clear, but different versions indicate that he did not come out on good terms with WWE.

Savinovich was a guest commentator at the AAA Triplemania XXI. Also at that event, Savinovich was in El Mesias' corner in a match against Blue Demon Jr. for the AAA Latin American Championship. During the inaugural season of Lucha Underground in 2014, there were two versions of the commentary shot, an English version with Matt Stryker and Vampiro, and a Spanish version that was broadcast on Unimas, with Savinivoch doing the play by play. Vampiro did the color commentary for the Spanish version also. In resent years Hugo Savinovich has been announcing for AAA in Mexico and promoting pro wrestling in Florida and throughout South America and Puerto Rico.[3]

In early January 2019, it was reported that Savinovich had signed with All Elite Wrestling as a Spanish commentator. He worked the events Double or Nothing and All Out along with Alex Abranthes and Dasha Gonzalez. On March 16, 2019 at the Rey de Reyes event during a segment, Cody appointed Savinovich as a commentator for All Elite Wrestling (recently allied with AAA) sometime that he accepted. He participated in two PPVs in Spanish, however, due to contractual problems with AAA and other internal issues at AEW, he was not hired again.

Hugo Savinovich currently works for Lucha Libre Triple A in Mexico as a Spanish Commentator. He also works for GWE in Panamá as a commentator and executive producer. Hugo has hired by wrestling promoter Darko Navarro to be the face of the pro wrestling company Wrestling Superstar along with Navarro in Chile. The company was created in 2015 and his last event was in 2018, after Navarro losses money due to low ticket sales. Savinovich also works for WAR in Ecuador, and for NGCW in Florida as a Producer, Commentator and Main Booker. We also worked for Imperio Lucha Libre in Perú, a company that performed shows in Peru in 2018 and that was closed due to its low ticket sales.

Hugo is currently a pro wrestling reporter in the spanish speaking community. He is part of Lucha Libre Online, along with Javier González and Michael Morales Torres. His work of reporting has been quoted by sources like Forbes, New York Post, among others, but not for his good work. He works live reports after WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling and AAA’s events on their Facebook Page.

Hugo acts as an analyst of the latest wrestling events, while giving his point of view. A project that has been quite criticized by the all the wrestling community on the Internet due to its sensationalism in its news reporting and opinions, as well as due to the use of clickbait.

In July 2020, he was involved in a controversy because through Superluchas.com, Jerry McDevitt, WWE's main lawyer, denied his version[4] that the WWE Superstars had been kidnapped in Saudi Arabia in November 2019.

Personal life

He was once married to former female wrestler Wendi Richter until divorcing. In 1990 he married Diana Mendéz and has two sons: Jovannie and Genaro. Diana Mendéz died on November 1, 2019 after a long battle with cancer.

He is a born again Christian and travels most of South and Central America sharing his Christian testimony. Hugo is the author of his own autobiography book, Atángana Ring de Tentaciones. He has announced that will be publishing a second book on 2024.

Championships and accomplishments

References
  1. "Hugo Savinovich". Cagematch.de. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  2. Beltrán, William (October 19, 2011). "Video: Hugo Savinovich anuncia oficialmente que deja WWE". Superluchas.com. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  3. Lucha Underground
  4. Beltrán, William (July 21, 2020). "EXCLUSIVA: WWE vuelve a desmentir a Hugo Savinovich: El abogado de la empresa habla". Superluchas.com. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  5. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tx/w/nwa/ws-t.html
  6. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/dom/dom-t.html
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