EMLL 51st Anniversary Show

The EMLL 51st Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 21, 1984 in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 51st 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 main event of the show was a Lucha de Apuestas ("Bet Match") contested under best two-out-of-three falls rules between Atlantis and Talisman where the loser would be forced to unmask after the match in front of everyone in the arena.

EMLL 51st Anniversary Show
Poster for the event showing all scheduled matches
PromotionEmpresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
DateSeptember 21, 1984[1]
CityMexico City, Mexico[1]
VenueArena México[1]
Attendance18,000[1]
Event chronology
← Previous
28. Aniversario de Arena México		 Next →
Juicio Final
EMLL Anniversary Show chronology
← Previous
50th Anniversary		 Next →
52nd Anniversary

Production

Background

The 1984 Anniversary show commemorated the 51st 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.[4] 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.[4] Traditionally EMLL/CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.[4]

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. Due to the nature of keeping mainly paper records of wrestling at the time no documentation has been found for the undercard of the show.

Event

In the semi-main event of the night, Sangre Chicana faced and defeated Los Infernales team member MS-1 in a hair vs. hair, Lucha de Apuestas match, forcing MS-1 to be shaved bald as a result.[1] The main event was the culmination of a long running storyline between the two enmascarados ("Masked Wrestlers") Atlantis and Talisman that started not long after Atlantis joined EMLL in 1984. Atlantis, only in his second year of wrestling at this point in time was targeted by the veteran rudo Talisman who wanted to show Atlantis his "proper place" in the hierarchy of EMLL. The two wrestlers agreed to both put their masks on the line for the 51st Anniversary show, in what was Atlantis first ever Lucha de Apuesta or "Bet Match".[5] In Lucha Libre the Luchas de Apuestas matches are more significant than championship matches and winning the mask of an opponent usually indicates that the promotion is planning on "pushing" that wrestler up to a higher profiled position in the company.[4] The rudo Talisman cheated his way to victory in the first fall, putting Atlantis in a position where he would have to win two straight falls to win the match. With a performance that had the crowd at Arena México solidly behind him Atlantis managed to pin Talisman in both the second and third fall.[5] After the match Talisman was forced to unmask and reveal that his real name was Arturo Beristain.[1][5][6][7][8][9]

Aftermath

A few years after losing the Talisman mask Arturo Beristain would adopt a new enmascarado ("Masked") ring character, using the name El Hijo del Gladiador ("Son of El Gladiador"), a storyline relationship as he was not a blood relative of the deceased wrestler El Gladiador.[9]

Event
No. Results Stipulations
1 Estrella Blanca Jr., El Solar, and Águila Solitaria vs. El Dandy, Negro Casas and Ari Gato Romero Six-man "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match[10]
2 Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Máscara Año 2000, and Tony Salazar vs. El Satanico, Coloso Colisetti, and Pirata Morgan Six-man "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match[10]
3 El Hijo del Santo, Samuray Shiro, and El Acertijo vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Lemus II, and El Enfermero Jr. Six-man "Lucha Libre rules" tag team match[10]
4 El Canek (c) defeated Cien Caras Best two-out-of-three falls match for the World Heavyweight Championship[10][11]
5 Sangre Chicana defeated MS-1 by count out Best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas hair vs. hair match[1][6][7][8]
6 Atlantis defeated Talisman Best two-out-of-three falls Lucha de Apuestas mask vs. mask match[1][6][7][8][5][12]
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References
  1. "51st Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 21, 1984. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  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. 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.
  5. "Luchas 2000". Atlantis y sus Victimas (in Spanish). Juárez, Mexico: Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V. pp. 32–36. Especial 30.
  6. "Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL". The Gladiatores Magazine (in Spanish). September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  7. "Historia de Los Aniversarios" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  8. Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  9. "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Hijo del Gladiador (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. September 2007. p. 22. Tomo III.
  10. Atlantis CMLL (September 21, 2019). "Mi primera lucha de máscara vs máscara en el año 1984" (in Spanish). Retrieved September 21, 2019.
  11. "EMLL 51. Anniversario". CageMatch. September 21, 1984. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
  12. "Enciclopedia de las Mascaras". Talismán (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico. November 2007. p. 12. Tomo V.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.