EMLL 53rd Anniversary Show

The EMLL 53rd Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 19, 1986 in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 53rd 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. he main event of the show was a Lucha de Apuestas ("Bet match) where the trio team of Américo Rocca, Tony Salazar and Ringo Mendoza faced Los Misioneros de la Muerte ("The Missionaries of death"; El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano) where all three members of the losing team would be forced to have all their hair shaved off after the match. The show also had Los Brazos (El Brazo, Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata) defend the Mexican National Trios Championship against Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Atlantis and Ultraman. Additionally Fishman faced Pirata Morgan as a challenger for his UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship, a title not promoted by EMLL themselves but by the Mexican wrestling promotion Universal Wrestling Association (UWA)

EMLL 53rd Anniversary Show
Atlantis, challenged for the Mexican National Trios Championship
Promotion	Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
Date	September 19, 1986[1]
City	Mexico City, Mexico[1]
Venue	Arena México[1]
Attendance	15,000[1]
Event chronology
← Previous 31. Aniversario de Arena México Next → Juicio Final
EMLL Anniversary Show chronology
← Previous 52nd Anniversary Next → 54th Anniversary

Production

Background

The 1986 Anniversary show commemorated the 53rd anniversary of the Mexican professional wrestling company Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (Spanish for "Mexican Wrestling Promotion"; EMLL) holding their first show on September 22, 1933 by promoter and founder Salvador Lutteroth.[2] EMLL was rebranded early in 1992 to become Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre ("World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) signal their departure from the National Wrestling Alliance.[3] With the sales of the Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988 EMLL became the oldest, still-operating wrestling promotion in the world.[3] Over the years EMLL/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 EMLL/CMLL's major events since the building was completed.[3] Traditionally EMLL/CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.[3]

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. 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 53rd Anniversary Show featured a number of inter-promotional matches between wrestlers from Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) and from Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). The UWA started out as a break off from EMLL in the 1970s but by 1986 the two promotions were able to cooperate on a series of shows throughout Mexico.

Event

While the Lucha de Apuestas or "Bet match" is not rare in Lucha Libre there are very few instances of a Trios Apuestas match where all three members of each team puts their masks or hair on the line, the main event of the 53rd Anniversary show was the only anniversary show to ever feature two Trios teams in a Lucha de Apuestas match. In this case Los Misioneros del Muerte ("The Missionaries of Death"; El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano) faced off against the tecnico team of Américo Rocca, Tony Salazar and Ringo Mendoza. Los Misioneros were credited with popularizing the Trios match concept in Mexico to the point where in EMLL/CMLL today it is the most used match format.[3] Since neither team was masked all six men bet their hair on the outcome of the match, with all three members of the losing team being forced to have their hair shaved off after the match. The storyline between the two teams that lead to the Luchas de Apuestas match played off the rivalry between professional wrestling promotions EMLL and UWA where Los Misioneros first became famous. The match ended with "Team EMLL" defeating Los Misioneros and thus all three rudos had to be shaved completely bald while still in the ring.[1][4][5][6][7]

In one of the few confirmed matches the brothers known collectively as Los Brazos ("The Arms"), El Brazo ("The Arm"), Brazo de Oro ("Golden Arm") and Brazo de Plata ("Silver Arm") defended the Mexican National Trios Championship against the young tecnico team of Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Atlantis and Ultraman. Los Brazos was only the second team to hold the championship, having defeated the inaugural champions Los Infernales("The Infernals"; MS-1, Pirata Morgan and El Satánico) nine months prior. The experienced rudo team successfully defended their championship, winning the match two falls to one by cheating their way to victory.[1][8] Another match saw UWA representative Fishman put his UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship on the line against CMLL representative Pirata Morgan, successfully retaining the championship with a two-falls to one victory.[1][9]

Results

No.	Results[1]	Stipulations
1	Los Brazos (El Brazo, Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata) (c) defeated Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Atlantis and Ultraman	Two out of three falls match for the Mexican National Trios Championship[8]
2	Fishman (c) defeated Pirata Morgan	Best two-out-of-three falls for the UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship[9]
3	Américo Rocca, Tony Salazar and Ringo Mendoza defeated Los Misioneros de la Muerte (El Signo, Negro Navarro and El Texano)	Best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas triple hair vs. triple hair match[4][5][6][7]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References

1. "53rd Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 19, 1986. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
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). "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre and honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
4. "Grandes Figuras de la Lucha Libre". Américo Rocca (in Spanish). Portales, Mexico. November 2008. p. 33. 17.
5. "Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL". The Gladiatores Magazine (in Spanish). September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
6. "Historia de Los Aniversarios" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
7. Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
8. "Los Reyes de Mexico: La Historia de Los Campeonatos Nacionales". Lucha 2000 (in Spanish). December 20, 2004. Especial 21.
9. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: Universal Wrestling Federation Light Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 397. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.