EMLL 54th Anniversary Show

The EMLL 54th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 18, 1987 in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 54th 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 show was promoted as Gory Guerrero’s retirement show and featured all four of his sons (Chavo, Mando and Hector and Eddy) wrestling on the show. The main event of the show was a Lucha de Apuestas ("Bet match) where both As Charro 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. The show featured an additional Lucha de Apuestas match as Pirata Morgan and Tony Salazar wagered their hair (Both were already unmasked) on the outcome of their match, with the loser being shaved bald after the match was over).

EMLL 54th Anniversary Show
Hector Guerrero, worked his only CMLL Anniversary show in 1987
Promotion	Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
Date	September 18, 1987[1]
City	Mexico City, Mexico[1]
Venue	Arena México[1]
Attendance	15,000[1]
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Production

Background

The 1987 Anniversary show commemorated the 54th 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 six 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

The EMLL 54th Anniversary Show served the dual purpose of not only celebrating Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) 5th anniversary but also to commemorate the retirement of Gory Guerrero, one of the pioneers in Mexican wrestling.[4][5][6] Guerrero had made his professional wrestling debut in 1937 and over the years been involved in a large number of memorable matches and story lines and innovated a number of wrestling moves, including two named after him: the Gory Special, a type of backbreaker and the Gory Bomb as well as being one of the first to use the La de a Caballo or Camel Clutch.[7] To celebrate the event EMLL had all four of Gory Guerrero's children appear on the show, at the time only Gory's youngest son Eddy worked for EMLL full-time while Chavo, Mando and Hector worked primarily in the United States but were contracted for this show specifically. In the second match of the evening the young Eddy Guerrero teamed up with his regular partner El Hijo del Santo, a second generation wrestler like Eddy as he was the son of one of Lucha Libre most famous names El Santo. The two had formed a very successful tag team called La Pareja Atomica ("The Atomic Pair"). The team took on and defeated the rudo team of Hijo del Gladiador and El Dandy.[1] The rest of the Guerrero sons wrestled in the semi-main event, the second to last match of the evening as they defeated the team of Sangre Chicana, Gran Markus Jr. and Gran Markus, Sr., whose family relationship was a storyline relationship only, not father and son as their ring names would otherwise indicate.[1]

The 54th Anniversary show featured two Luchas de Apuestas, or "Bet Matches", which was rare even for EMLL's biggest show of the year. In the main event the tecnico Mogur and the rudo As Charro both put their masks on the line as they faced off in a best of three falls match. The show ended with Mogur being victorious and As Charro being forced to unmask and reveal his real name in front of the Arena México crowd.[1][4][5][6] The second Luchas de Apuestas match saw Pirata Morgan defeated Tony Salazar not bet their masks since neither actually wore one, instead they put their hair on the line. The Rudo Pirata Morgan defeated the veteran Tony Salazar, forcing Salazar to have his head shaved bald in the middle of the ring.[1][4][5][6] The show was rounded out by the 'father/son team of Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Rayo de Jalisco, Sr. teaming up with Lizmark to defeat the team of Herodes, Blue Panther and Manuel Escobedo in the third match of the night.[1] In the first match of the night Los Infernales, one of the most successful Trios of the time, represented by MS-1 and El Satánico, defeating the team of Kung Fu and Ray Mendoza, who is the father of the five Villanos, I, II, III, IV and V.[1]

Results

No.	Results[1]	Stipulations
1	Los Infernales (MS-1 and El Satánico) defeated Kung Fu and Ray Mendoza	Best two-out-of-three falls tag team match
2	La Pareja Atomica (Eddy Guerrero and El Hijo del Santo) defeated El Hijo del Gladiador and El Dandy	Best two-out-of-three falls tag team match
3	Lizmark, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., and Rayo de Jalisco Sr. defeated Herodes, Blue Panther, and Manuel Escobedo	Best two-out-of-three falls six-man "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match
4	Pirata Morgan defeated Tony Salazar	Best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas hair vs. hair match[4][5][6][8]
5	Chavo, Mando, and Hector Guerrero defeated Sangre Chicana, Gran Markus Jr., and Gran Markus Sr.	Best two-out-of-three falls six-man "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match
6	Mogur defeated As Charro	Best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas mask vs. mask match[4][5][6]

References

1. "54th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 18, 1987. Retrieved November 1, 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). "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. "Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL". The Gladiatores Magazine (in Spanish). September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
5. "Historia de Los Aniversarios" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
6. Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
7. Guerrero, Eddie (October 10, 2006). Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story. Somon and Shuster. p. 5.
8. Flores, Manuel (February 16, 2009). "Pirata Morgan: 30 Años de Lucha Libre". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Mexico City, D.F. pp. 26–28. 302.