EMLL 35th Anniversary Show

The EMLL 35th Anniversary Show (Spanish: 35. Aniversario de EMLL) was a professional wrestling major show event produced by Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) that took place on September 20, 1968, in Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorated the 35th 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.

EMLL 35th Anniversary Show
PromotionEmpresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre
DateSeptember 20, 1968[1]
CityMexico City, Mexico[1]
VenueArena México[1]
Attendance15,000[1]
Event chronology
← Previous
12. Aniversario de Arena México		 Next →
13. Aniversario de Arena México
EMLL Anniversary Show chronology
← Previous
34th Anniversary		 Next →
36th Anniversary

Production

Background

The 1968 Anniversary show commemorated the 35th 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 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 35th 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. This was the first EMLL wrestling event back in Arena México after it was used as part of the 1968 Summer Olympics, hosting the boxing events. In one of three verified matches the team of El Santo and Ray Mendoza defeated La Ola Blanca ("the White Wave"; Ángel Blanco and Dr. Wagner) to win the Arena Mexico Tag Team championship, a secondary title ranked lower than the Mexican National Tag Team Championship.[1][5][6][7] NWA World Middleweight Champion Rene Guajardo was successful in his title defense against British born Tony Oxford.[1][5][6][7][8] In the main event Blue Demon challenged Karloff Lagarde for the NWA World Welterweight Championship, but ended up losing to Lagarde two falls to one.[1][5][6][7][9]

Results
No.Results[1][5][6][7]Stipulations
1El Santo and Ray Mendoza (c) defeated La Ola Blanca (Ángel Blanco and Dr. Wagner)Best two-out-of-three falls Tag team match for the Arena Mexico Tag Team Championship
2Rene Guajardo (c) defeated Tony OxfordBest two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship[8]
3Karloff Lagarde (c) defeated Blue DemonBest two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Welterweight Championship[9]
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match

References
  1. "35th Anniversary Show". Pro Wrestling History. September 20, 1968. Retrieved September 27, 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. HarperCollins Publishers. 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 & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
  5. "Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL". The Gladiatores Magazine (in Spanish). September 2, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  6. "Historia de Los Aniversarios" (in Spanish). Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Archived from the original on October 16, 2012. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
  7. Ruiz Glez, Alex (September 7, 2010). "CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares". SuperLuchas (in Spanish). Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  8. Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 389–390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  9. Royal Duncan and Gary Will (2006). "Mexico: EMLL NWA Welterweight Heavyweight Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 390. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
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