Date September 22, 1978 Venue Arena México | Attendance Unknown City Mexico City, Mexico | |
Promotion Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre EMLL 45th Anniversary Show 23. Aniversario de Arena México | ||
The EMLL 45th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 22, 1978 in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 45th anniversary of EMLL, 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.
Contents
Background
The 1978 Anniversary show commemorated the 45th 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. 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. With the sales of the Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988 EMLL became the oldest, still-operating wrestling promotion in the world. 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. Traditionally EMLL/CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.
Storylines
The event featured at least two 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 some of the matches of the show.
Event
In one of the few confirmed matches of the show Tony Salazar put the NWA World Middleweight Championship on the line against the Japanese born Satoru Sayama. Sayama had come to work in Mexico after having a hard time finding work in Japan due to his small stature, which made him better suited for the high flying, Lucha Libre style. Salazar was able to wart off the challenger, defeating Sayama two falls to one. The main event of the show was a double Lucha de Apuestas, or bet match between the team of Sangre Chicana and Rubí Rubalcava and the team of El Cobarde and Dragon Rojo. Dragón Rojo was the only enmascarado, or masked wrestler, in the match so he risked his match while the rest risked their hair on the outcome of the match. Chicana and Rubalcava won the match, two falls to one and thus El Cobarde was shaved bald while Dragón Rojo was forced to remove his mask and reveal his birth name as per Lucha Libre traditions.
Aftermath
The name Dragón Rojo would be used again decades later when Dragón Rojo Jr. was introduced, a storyline grandson of the original Dragón Rojo even though no blood relation exists between the two.