Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth (1998)

Since 1996 the Mexican wrestling company Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (Spanish for "World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) has held a show in March each year to commemorate the passing of CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth who died in March 1987.[1] For the first three years the show paid homage to Lutteroth himself, from 1999 through 2004 the show paid homage to Lutteroth and El Santo, Mexico's most famous wrestler ever and from 2005 forward the show has paid homage to Lutteroth and a different leyenda ("Legend") each year, celebrating the career and accomplishments of past CMLL stars. Originally billed as Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth, it has been held under the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to two legends") since 1999 and is the only show outside of CMLL's Anniversary shows that CMLL has presented every year since its inception. All Homenaje a Dos Leyendas shows have been held in Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico which is CMLL's main venue, its "home".[2] Traditionally CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, which means the Homenaje a Dos Leyendas shows replace their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.[3] The 1998 show was the third overall show officially billed in honor of Salvador Lutteroth and the last dedicated exclusively to Lutteroth's memory

The Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth show featured nine 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]

In early 1998 Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) announced that they were planning on holding a one night, single elimination tournament on a special show on March 20, 1999, dedicated to the memory of Salvador Lutteroth, the founder of CMLL.[5] The tournament gathered eight of the top competitors in the promotion at the time including the then reigning CMLL World Heavyweight Champion Universo 2000 as well as Atlantis, Black Warrior, El Felino, Karloff Lagarde Jr., Mr. Niebla, Shocker and Último Dragón.[1] The main event was the planned culmination of a storyline feud between wrestlers Emilio Charles Jr. and El Satánico, who up until a point had teamed on a regular basis including a stint holding the CMLL World Trios Championship (along with Rey Bucanero).[6] Following their championship loss the two had a falling out that led to the two of them fighting each other over the proceeding months in a variety of matches as the storyline hatred between the two escalated to the point where both men agreed to bet their hair on the outcome of their Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth match.[7]