CMLL 78th Anniversary Show

The CMLL 78th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) that took place on September 30, 2011 in CMLL's home arena Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 78th anniversary of CMLL, the oldest professional wrestling promotion in the world. CMLL's anniversary show is their biggest, most important show of the year, comparable to the Super Bowl for the National Football League or WrestleMania for WWE.

CMLL 78h Anniversary show
The official poster for the 78th Anniversary show
Promotion	Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL)
Date	September 30, 2011
City	Mexico City, Mexico
Venue	Arena México
Attendance	8,400[1]
Event chronology
← Previous Leyenda de Plata Next → Sin Piedad
CMLL Anniversary Shows chronology
← Previous 77th Anniversary Next → 79th Anniversary

The main event of the show was a steel cage where all ten competitors put their hair on the line, with the stipulation that the last man in the cage would be shaved bald as a result. The match came down to El Felino and Rey Bucanero after Rush, Mr. Águila, El Terrible vs. El Texano Jr., Héctor Garza, Máximo, Blue Panther and Negro Casas had left the cage. El Felino pinned Rey Bucanero, forcing Rey Bucanero to stand in the middle of the ring as his hair was shaved off. The show featured three additional matches, including the first round of 2011 Leyenda de Plata tournament.

Production

Background

The 2011 CMLL Anniversary Shows commemorated the 78th anniversary of the Mexican professional wrestling company Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (Spanish for "World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) holding their first show on September 22, 1933 by promoter and founder Salvador Lutteroth.[2] CMLL, originally known as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ("Mexican Wrestling Company"; EMLL) it would change its name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 1992 to signal their departure from the National Wrestling Alliance.[3] With the sales of the Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988 CMLL became the oldest, still-operating wrestling promotion in the world.[3] Over the years CMLL has on occasion held multiple shows to celebrate their anniversary but since 1977 the company has only held one annual show, which is considered the biggest show of the year, CMLL's equivalent of WWE's WrestleMania or their Super Bowl event. CMLL has held their Anniversary show at Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico since 1956, the year the building was completed, over time Arena México earned the nickname "The Cathedral of Lucha Libre" due to it hosting most of CMLL's major events since the building was completed.[3] Traditionally CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.[3] The 78th Anniversary Show would be the fourth time CMLL held a steel cage match as the main event of their Anniversary Shows, previously holding them on their 68th, 74th and 77th Anniversary Shows.[4][5][6]

Storylines

The event featured four 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.

Event

For the Leyenda de Plata (Spanish for "The Silver Legend") tournament the 12 men were split into two teams for a torneo cibernetico elimination match. One side consisted of Mephisto, Máscara Dorada, Diamante, Virus, Fuego and Olímpico facing off against the team of Jushin Liger, Hijo del Signo, Dragón Rojo Jr., Metro, Rey Escorpión and Sangre Azteca.[7] The first wrestler was eliminated about seven minutes into the match when Fuego pinned Hijo del Signo. He was soon followed by Diamante, Fuego and Rey Escorpión who were all eliminated in quick succession. For the next elimination Metro had help from Sangre Azteca to pin Virus, giving their team the numbers advantage. Moments later Máscara Dorada pinned Sangre Azteca, evening the sides. Next followed the eliminations of Olímpico, Metro and Máscara Dorada. Facing off against both Dragón Rojo Jr. and Jushin Liger, Mephisto cheated to eliminate Dragón Rojo Jr. but could not overcome the veteran Jushin Linger who pinned Mephisto after he performed a Brainbuster on Mephisto, winning the match.[7]

For the main event steel cage match CMLL imposed a five minute period where no one would be allowed to climb out of the cage, forcing them to fight it out. During the ten minute grace period Mr. Águila leaped off the top of the 20 foot tall cage, diving onto several of the wrestlers in the ring. Once the referee signaled that the time limit was up Rush was the first wrestler to climb up the side of the cage and straddle the top, officially escaping the cage the moment his leg was over the side.[8] Next out were Mr. Águila and then El Terrible and El Texano Jr., tag team partners who helped each other escape the cage. Héctor Garza was the fifth man out of the cage, followed moments later by Máximo. then Blue Panther and finally Negro Casas climbed over the top. This left El Felino and Rey Bucanero as the last two wrestlers in the match. At this point the rules changed so that it was no longer escaping the cage that mattered, but defeating their opponent by pinfall or submission. Near the end of the match Bucanero tried to perform a top rope Huracarrana move, but El Felino managed to reverse it, performing a super power bomb slam on Rey Bucanero instead. Moments later El Felino pinned Rey Bucanero while illegally putting his feet on the bottom rope to increase his leverage.[8] Afterwards Rey Bucanero stood in the middle of the ring. allowing the official CMLL barber to shave all of Rey Bucanero's hair off as the cage was disassembled.[8]

Aftermath

After the main event Rey Bucanero stated that he felt like he was the moral winner of the main event since El Felino had to cheat to defeat him, vowing that it was not over between the two.[9] For his part El Felino stated that after pinning Rey Bucanero he should now get a match for the NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship that Bucanero held at the time.[9] Despite pinning Bucanero, El Felino was never given a match for the NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship.[10]

After winning the torneo cibernetico portion of the 2011 Leyenda de Plata tournament Jushin Liger faced Volador Jr., who had also won a torneo cibernetico, on the following week's Super Viernes. In the end Volador Jr. pinned Jushin Liger to win their match two falls to one and claim the Leyenda de Plata tournament.[11]

The undercard feud between Los Rayos Tapatío and Hombre Bala Jr. and Super Halcón Jr. continued throughout the fall and winter, ending with Los Rayos Tapatío losing a Lucha de Apuestas on January 1, 2012 after which they were forced to unmask.[12]

Results

No.	Results[7][8]	Stipulations
1	Ángel Azteca Jr. and Hombre Bala Jr. defeated Los Rayos Tapatío (Rayo Tapatío I and Rayo Tapatío II)	Best two-out-of-three falls tag team match
2	Euforia and Misterioso Jr. defeated Dragon Lee and Stuka Jr.	Best two-out-of-three falls tag team match
3	Jushin Liger defeated Diamante, Dragón Rojo Jr., Fuego, Hijo del Signo, Olímpico, Máscara Dorada, Mephisto, Metro, Rey Escorpión, Sangre Azteca and Virus	Leyenda de Plata torneo cibernetico elimination match
4	El Felino defeated Rey Bucanero Also in the match: Rush, Mr. Águila, El Terrible vs. El Texano Jr., Héctor Garza, Máximo, Blue Panther, Negro Casas	10-man steel cage elimination match Lucha de Apuestas, "hair vs. hair" match.

Cage match order of escape

#	Name
1	Rush
2	Mr. Águila
3	El Terrible
4	El Texano Jr.
5	Héctor Garza
6	Máximo
7	Blue Panther
8	Negro Casas

References

1. "78th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 30, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
2. "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. Madigan, Dan (2007). "A family affair". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 128–132. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
4. "68th Anniversary Show". ProWrestlingHistory. September 28, 2001. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
5. Yoav (September 29, 2007). "Resultados Arena México (28 September 07) – Lizmark Jr. pierde su Máscara ante Blue Panther en el 74 Anniversario" (in Spanish). Super Luchas. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
6. Ocampo, Ernesto (September 3, 2010). "Cobertura CMLL: El Juicio Final. LXXVII Aniversario de la Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre" (in Spanish). Super Luchas. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
7. González, Fernando (October 1, 2011). "Lyger por la Leyenda de Plata". Récord (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
8. González, Fernando (September 30, 2011). "Rey Bucanero fue rapado". Récord (in Spanish). Retrieved October 1, 2011.
9. "Descalabro para TRT – Bucanero Peleon". CMLL Gaceta (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. October 1, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
10. "NWA World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship". Cagematch.net. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
11. Rodríguez, Édgar (October 8, 2011). "Volador Jr. se llevó la plata". Récord (in Spanish). Archived from the original on October 9, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
12. "Imagen: Hombre Bala Jr y Super Halcon Jr destapan a los Rayos Tapatios I y II". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). January 1, 2012. Retrieved October 23, 2012.