The EMLL 40th Anniversary Show (
Spanish: 40. Aniversario de EMLL) was a
professional wrestling major show event produced by
Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 21, 1973, in
Arena México,
Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 40th 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. The EMLL Anniversary Show series is the longest-running annual professional wrestling show, starting in 1934.
Production
Background
The 1973
Anniversary show commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Mexican
professional wrestlingcompanyEmpresa 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 an undetermined number of
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.[4] 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
The 40th EMLL anniversary show featured an unknown number of matches, traditionally EMLL has five to six matches per show, but at times have had more or less and the total number has not been verified. In one of the few confirmed matches
NWA World Middleweight ChampionRene Guajardo successfully defended the title against
El Halcón in a
best two-out-of three falls match.[1][5][6][7][8] The main event was a double Lucha de Apuesta hair vs. hair match with both members of each
tag team putting their hair on the line against the outcome of the match. The storyline brothers of
Ray and
Ringo Mendoza took on and defeated the team of
Ángel Blanco and Kim Chul Won to have both of them shaved bald.[1][5][6][7]
^"Los Lutteroth / the Lutteroths". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2005. pp. 20–27.
ISBN968-6842-48-9.
^
abcdMadigan, Dan (2007). "A family affair". Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 128–132.
ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
^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: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 31.
ISBN978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
^
abRoyal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middleweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390.
ISBN0-9698161-5-4.