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EMLL 55th Anniversary Show

EMLL 55th Anniversary Show
El Hijo del Santo, challenged for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship
PromotionEmpresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
DateSeptember 30, 1988[1]
CityMexico City, Mexico[1]
VenueArena México[1]
Attendance17,000[1]
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The EMLL 55th Anniversary Show (Spanish: 55. Aniversario de EMLL) was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 30, 1988, in Arena Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 55th anniversary of CMLL, which would become the oldest professional wrestling promotion in the world. The Anniversary show is EMLL's biggest show of the year, their Super Bowl event. The EMLL Anniversary Show series is the longest-running annual professional wrestling show, starting in 1934.

The main event of the show was a Lucha de Apuestas ("Bet match) where both Máscara Año 2000 and Mogur wagered their masks on the outcome of the match, with the loser being forced to take off his mask at the end of the show. Mogur had unmasked As Charro at the previous year's anniversary show and put his mask on the line once again. The show also featured a match for the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and a match for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship as well as an undetermined number of other matches.

Production

Background

Arena México, CMLL's main venue and location of the Anniversary Show

The Mexican Lucha libre (professional wrestling) company Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) started out under the name Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ("Mexican Wrestling Company"; EMLL), founded by Salvador Lutteroth in 1933. Lutteroth, inspired by professional wrestling shows he had attended in Texas, decided to become a wrestling promoter and held his first show on September 21, 1933, marking what would be the beginning of organized professional wrestling in Mexico.[2] Lutteroth would later become known as "the father of Lucha Libre" .[3] A year later EMLL held the EMLL 1st Anniversary Show, starting the annual tradition of the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Anniversary Shows that have been held each year ever since, most commonly in September.[4]

Over the years the anniversary show would become the biggest show of the year for CMLL, akin to the Super Bowl for the National Football League (NFL) or WWE's WrestleMania event.[2][5] The first anniversary show was held in Arena Modelo, which Lutteroth had bought after starting EMLL. In 1942–43 Lutteroth financed the construction of Arena Coliseo, which opened in April 1943. The EMLL 10th Anniversary Show was the first of the anniversary shows to be held in Arena Coliseo.[4] In 1956 Lutteroth had Arena México built in the location of the original Arena Modelo, making Arena México the main venue of EMLL from that point on.[4] Starting with the EMLL 23rd Anniversary Show, all anniversary shows except for the EMLL 46th Anniversary Show have been held in the arena that would become known as "The Cathedral of Lucha Libre".[4] On occasion EMLL held more than one show labelled as their "Anniversary" show, such as two 33rd Anniversary Shows in 1966.[4] Over time the anniversary show series became the oldest, longest-running annual professional wrestling show. In comparison, WWE's WrestleMania is only the fourth oldest still promoted show (CMLL's Arena Coliseo Anniversary Show and Arena México anniversary shows being second and third).[2][4][6] EMLL was supposed to hold the EMLL 52nd Anniversary Show on September 20, 1985 but Mexico City was hit by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. EMLL canceled the event both because of the general devastation but also over fears that Arena México might not be structurally sound after the earthquake.[4][7]

When Jim Crockett Promotions was bought by Ted Turner in 1988 EMLL became the oldest still active promotion in the world.[5] Traditionally CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.[6]

Storylines

The event featured at least three professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels (referred to as rudos in Mexico, those that portray the "bad guys") or faces (técnicos in Mexico, the "good guy" characters) as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[6] Due to the nature of keeping mainly paper records of wrestling at the time no documentation has been found for the rest of the show.

The main event storyline saw Mogur attacked repeatedly by rudo Máscara Año 2000 in the months following Mogur's Lucha de Apuesta, Mask vs. Mask match victory over As Charro at the previous year at the EMLL 54th Anniversary Show. EMLL built up the storyline tension between the two in a number of main event matches, often with Máscara Año 2000 teaming with his brothers Cien Caras and Universo 2000 (Collectively known as Los Hermanos Dinamita; "The Dynamite Brothers") while Mogur would team with various EMLL tecnicos. Bestia Salvaje won the Mexican National Welterweight Championship from Águila Solitaria on September 3, 1988, only four weeks before the Anniversary show.[8] EMLL deemed El Hijo del Santo as the next challenger for the title, who at the time was six years into a career that would see him become one of the top names in Lucha Libre only a few years later. The American Ken Timbs, better known as Fabuloso Blondy when he worked in Mexico put his NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship on the line against one of EMLL's top names, Lizmark. Fabuloso Blondy had actually won the NWA Championship from Lizmark on March 20, 1988 and was embroiled in a long running feud with him at this point in time, where this championship match was simply the next stage of the storyline.

Results

No.Results[1][13]Stipulations
1Bestia Salvaje (c) defeated El Hijo del SantoBest two-out-of three falls match for the Mexican National Welterweight Championship[8]
2Fabuloso Blondy (c) defeated LizmarkBest two-out-of three falls match for the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship[9]
3Máscara Año 2000 defeated MogurBest two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas mask vs. mask match[10][11][4][12]
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "55th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 30, 1988. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c "Los Lutteroth / the Lutteroths". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2005. pp. 20–27. ISBN 968-6842-48-9.
  3. ^ "Wed. Update: Flair in Boston, ratings, Anniversary, White on HHH, DGUSA star on Smackdown, Orton". Figure Four Online /Wrestling Observer. September 21, 2011. Archived from the original on November 27, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL". The Gladiatores Magazine (in Spanish). September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  5. ^ a b Madigan, Dan (2007). "A family affair". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 128–132. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
  6. ^ a b c Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
  7. ^ "52nd Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. September 19, 1986. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  8. ^ a b Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: National Welterweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 392. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  9. ^ Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 389. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  10. ^ "Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre". Máscara Año 2000 (in Spanish). Portales, Mexico. November 2008. p. 36. 17.
  11. ^ "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Máscara Año 2000 (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. September 2007. pp. 24–25. Tomo III.
  12. ^ Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  13. ^ "1988 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). January 10, 1989. pp. 2–28. issue 1864.
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