El Castillo del Terror (2003)

The Mexican wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG; Sometimes referred to as Grupo Internacional Revolución in Spanish) has a long-standing history of holding major event focused on a multi-man steel cage match where the last wrestler left in the cage would be forced to either remove their wrestling mask or have their hair shaved off under Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match", rules. Starting in the year 2000 IWRG has promoted a fall show, around the Mexican Day of the Death, under the name El Castillo del Terror ("The Tower of Terror"), creating an annual event on their major show calendar that has been held almost every year since 2000. The 2003 El Castillo del Terror show was the third overall show under that name, with IWRG not holding a Castillo del Terror in 2001.[2]

The El Castillo del Terror event is one of several annual steel cage match shows that IWRG holds throughout the year such as the IWRG Guerra del Golfo ("Gulf War"),[3] IWRG Guerra de Sexos ("War of the Sexes"),[4] or IWRG Prison Fatal ("Deadly Prison") shows.[5] The Castillo del Terror shows, as well as the majority of the IWRG shows in general, are held in Arena Naucalpan, owned by the promoters of IWRG and their main arena. In the El Castillo del Terror match a varying number of wrestlers start out in the cage and have to remain inside the cage, fighting each other for ten minutes before they are allowed to try to escape the match. Wrestlers who climb over the top of the steel cage and touch the floor with both feet are deemed to have escaped the cage and thus escaped the Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match", stipulation. The last wrestler in the cage is forced to either unmask (if masked) and state his given name, or (if unmasked) is forced to have all his hair shaved off as per lucha libre traditions.[6]

The event featured an unknown 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.[6]

In 1999 IWRG introduced Mega and Super Mega, a team called Los Megas, a group of masked, brightly colored kid-friendly tecnico characters. They later added Ultra Mega to the group, making them a regular trio.[7][8] At the very first El Castillo del Terror event Super Mega lost his mask, but the trio remained together. Los Megas defeated Los Oficiales (Guardia, Oficial and Vigilante) on August 2, 2001 to win the Distrito Federal Trios Championship, starting off a 161-day-long title reign.[9][10] The trio was defeated for the title by Dr. Cerebro, Cirujano and Paramedico on January 10, 2002. Only a month later Mega and Ultra Mega defeated Fantasy and Star Boy to win the IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Championship. They team held the title for 73 days until losing to MAZADA and NOZAWA.[10] Around that time Super Mega left IWRG to work for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, which caused IWRG to bring in Omega to keep Los Megas a trio.

In 2003 IWRG introduced a group designed to be the "archenemy" of Los Megas in the form of Los Comandos (Comando Alfa, Comando Mega and Comando Gama), who were dark and destructive to counter Los Megas' bright, kid-friendly personas.[11] The groups developed their rivalry for the better part of a year, escalating the tension between the two groups.