Juicio Final (1998)

Juicio Final (1998) (Spanish for "Final Judgement" 1993) was a professional wrestling supercard show, scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), which took place on December 18, 1998, in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The show served as the year-end finale for CMLL before Arena México, CMLL's main venue, closed down for the winter for renovations and to host Circo Atayde . The shows replaced the regular Super Viernes ("Super Friday") shows held by CMLL since the mid-1930s.

Juicio Final (1998)
Promotion	Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
Date	December 18, 1998
City	Mexico City, Mexico
Venue	Arena México
Event chronology
← Previous CMLL 65th Anniversary Show Next → Homenaje a Dos Leyendas
Juicio Final chronology
← Previous 1997 Next → 1999

The main event of the show was the finals of a three week long tournament for the vacant CMLL World Trios Championship. In the end the team of Black Warrior, Blue Panther and Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Los Guapos (Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr. and Zumbido to win the championship. The show featured five additional matches.

Production

Background

For decades Arena México, the main venue of the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), would close down in early December and remain closed into either January or February to allow for renovations as well as letting Circo Atayde occupy the space over the holidays. As a result CMLL usually held a "end of the year" supercard show on the first or second Friday of December in lieu of their normal Super Viernes show. 1955 was the first year where CMLL used the name "El Juicio Final" ("The Final Judgement") for their year-end supershow.[1][2] Until 2000 the Jucio Final name was always used for the year end show, but since 2000 has at times been used for shows outside of December.[3][4] It is no longer an annually recurring show, but instead held intermittently sometimes several years apart and not always in the same month of the year either. All Juicio Final shows have been held in Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico which is CMLL's main venue, its "home".[5]

Storylines

See also: professional wrestling

The 1998 Juicio Final show featured five professional wrestling matches scripted by CMLL with some wrestlers involved in scripted feuds. The wrestlers portray either heels (referred to as rudos in Mexico, those that play the part of the "bad guys") or faces (técnicos in Mexico, the "good guy" characters) as they perform.[6]

In October 1998, Mr. Niebla suffered an injury, which forced CMLL to vacate the CMLL World Trios Championship as it was not clear when Mr. Niebla would be able to wrestle again.[7] They held a three-show, eight-team tournament from December 4 to December 12, 1998. Former champions Atlantis and Lizmark teamed up with Emilio Charles Jr. for the tournament, while Mr. Niebla actually returned to action in time to be in the tournament as well, teaming up with Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Shocker. In the finals the trio of Dr. Wagner Jr., Blue Panther and Black Warrior defeated Los Guapos (Scorpio Jr., Bestia Salvaje and Zumbido) to lay claim to the championship.[7]

Tournament brackets[7]

Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Final
Gran Markus Jr., Fuerza Guerrera and Apolo Dantés
El Dandy, Vampiro and Héctor Garza	W			El Dandy, Vampiro and Héctor Garza
Los Guapos (Scorpio Jr., Bestia Salvaje and Zumbido)	W			Los Guapos	W
Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Mr. Niebla and Shocker								Los Guapos
Dr. Wagner Jr., Blue Panther and Black Warrior	W							Dr. Wagner Jr., Blue Panther and Black Warrior	W
Atlantis, Lizmark and Emilio Charles Jr.				Dr. Wagner Jr., Blue Panther and Black Warrior	W
El Felino, Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo	W			El Felino, Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo
Silver King and Los Villanos (Villano III and Villano V)

Results

No.	Results[8][9][10]	Stipulations
1	Bracito de Oro and Cicloncito Ramirez defeated Espectrito and Tritoncito	tag team match
2	Máscara Mágica, El Solar, and Super Kendo defeated Karloff Lagarde Jr., Mano Negra, and Shu El Guerrero	Best two-out-of-three falls six-man tag team match
3	Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Solomon Grundy, and Tinieblas Jr. defeated Los Hermanos Dinamita (Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000, and Universo 2000) by disqualification	Best two-out-of-three falls six-man tag team match
4	El Hijo del Santo, El Felino, and Negro Casas defeated Silver King and Los Villanos (Villano III, and Villano V)	Best two-out-of-three falls six-man tag team match
5	Black Warrior, Blue Panther and Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Los Guapos (Bestia Salvaje, Scorpio Jr. and Zumbido	Tournament final for the vacant CMLL World Trios Championship
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References

1. "EMLL Super Viernes". Wrestling Data. December 2, 1955. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
2. Salazar, Fernando (May 31, 2019). "Juicio Final nos ha regalado Luchas de Apuestas emblematicas" [Juicio Final has provided some emblematic bet matches]. Record (in Spanish). Retrieved June 1, 2019.
3. "March 2000 PPV". ProWrestlingHistory. March 17, 2000. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
4. Zulbaran, Carlos (May 31, 2019). "'El Último de su estirpe' salió con la cabellera del Macho de Lagos de Moreno de la Arena México" ['The last of his lineage' leaves with hair of the Macho Man of the Moreno Lagoon]. Record (in Spanish). Retrieved June 1, 2019.
5. Madigan, Dan (2007). "El nacimient de un sueño (the birth of a dream)". Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperColins Publisher. pp. 41–50. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
6. 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: HarperColins Publisher. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
7. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "MEXICO: EMLL CMLL Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Pennsylvania, USA: Archeus Communications. p. 396. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
8. "CMLL Super Viernes – Juicio Final 1998". Wrestling Data. December 18, 1998. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
9. "1998 Especial!". Box y Lucha Magazine (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Impresora y Encuaderanadora Glem S.A. de C.V. January 9, 1999. pp. 2–28. ISSN 2007-0896. 2348.
10. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: EMLL CMLL Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 396. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.