CMLL 101 : #5 Events
Note : These events do not include the tournaments, which I covered in #3 of this series. Which for the most part take up the role of what you’d consider PPV’s, but CMLL had other non-tournament events that I felt I should cover.
CMLL Anniversary show
Obviously the granddaddy of all CMLL shows. This is the yearly show they run to celebrate all the years CMLL has been running. EMLL held it’s first show on September 21, 1933. Then in all years after they have held an anniversary show. It always happens in September, with one exception at the 60th anniversary which was on October 1st. Rain, Sleet or Snow, Sun rises and sun falls, and in September CMLL holds the biggest show they hold all year. These are the constants of life, and Lucha Libre. The show is most often headlined by betting matches, sometimes a card will have 2. One more in the middle of the card and one being the marquee main event. Since this show is very important and THE card of the year for CMLL I will go more in depth into it’s recent history in another CMLL 101 post coming at a later time.
Homenaje a Dos Leyendas(Homage to Two Legends)
What started as a homage to just Salvador Lutteroth, the man who founded EMLL way back in the 30′s then grew to a homage of two legends adding in El Santo to the mix of tribute for a few years. It would then shift further to cycle out El Santo and instead have a unique luchador for each iteration. March 17, 2017 was the most recent event in honor of Lutteroth and Villano III featured a main event of Diamante Azul vs Pierroth(Not the original), in a mask vs mask match.
Unlike many of the tournaments this event is pretty well cemented in March and has happened in March every year since 1998 when it began. Including Santo, the event has paid homage to 13 different luchadors and surprisingly one of them was even in the main event of the show paying tribute to him : 2005′s show dedicated to Perro Aguayo featured him and his son Perro Aguayo Jr vs Cien Caras and Máscara Año 2000 in a tag team hair vs hair match.
Infierno en el Ring(Hell on the Ring)
Covered in my Match types, Infierno has become it’s own PPV which for the last 3 years have all fallen in December which seems like where it will stay barring any sudden change by CMLL’s booking team.
Since I covered it in match types I’ll borrow some relevant text from that write up : In CMLL it starts with many men in a cage at least 4, though in recent years it’s normally like 8-12 and sometimes even more. The match starts and people try to escape, the last 2 in the match then are in a bet match. The loser by pin/submission/escape has to shave their head or unmask.
The most recent edition of this featured all women and took place on December 25, 2016, with 10 competitors the last 2 of which were in a bet match. Someone lost their mask and had to reveal their real name, as is custom when losing one’s mask.
Sin Piedad(No Mercy)
An on again off again event that seems to have been picked back up by CMLL and will likely happen again in the next year. It’s the year end show for CMLL normally happening in December, but with the last two taking place on January 1st New Year's Day. It happened from 2000-2012, before disappearing for 4 years and becoming a New Year’s Day event for both 2016 and 2017.
All, but one have featured a betting match which is pretty common for all these events. If CMLL is booking something as a PPV level event and giving the card a name... it’ll likely have a betting match as all the iterations of Homage to 2 Legends have and most CMLL anniversary shows(There are 80+ of those and early records are iffy + Masked wrestling wasn’t as big earlier in Mexico)
Fantastica Mania
Despite being a cross promotional event, or perhaps because it’s a cross promotional event Fantastica Mania is one of the events that’s consistently the same time every year since 2011. CMLL and NJPW have held this event in Japan in late January. There have been 31 days of this event since it’s inception. Having matches of NJPW vs CMLL, CMLL vs CMLL, and NJPW vs NJPW and even mixes of both fighting mixes of both.
Nothing is safe as IWGP, CMLL and Mexican National titles have all been defended at the show over the years.
Despite betting matches being a huge deal in CMLL/Mexico only one has taken place at these events in Japan. It’s not who you’d think : Tiger Mask fought Ishii, in a mask vs hair match, which happened on night 2 of the 2011 edition of this event.
Also worth noting, the first 3 events had a “Black Cat” Memorial match for the perhaps the Mexican talent who worked longest in NJPW.
Born in Mexico Black Cat worked in NJPW from 1981–2003 and died of a heart attack in 2006. While most of the 2nd half for his career in NJPW he was an undercard talent he was well liked. Some of his big career moments in : Winning a puroresu vs. lucha libre match vs Tiger Mask(I) in the early 80′s, Black Cat vs. Mascara Sagrada(Mask vs Mask Triplemania II in Mexico when he briefly came back to AAA in 1994), and 1994 also saw him teaming with Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero in both AAA and NJPW.
Juicio Final(Final Justice)
This one isn’t yearly, but I’m making note of it because of how historical it has been and the fact that it’s not meant to be yearly. There have been 7 since it’s inception ; 1990, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2011, 2014. It seems CMLL wants this to happen every few years as a gap filler, but also to generate buzz.
No special format for this despite Final in the name, it’s only held tournament matches once and that was 2011′s Forjando un Ídolo(Forging an Idol), which is an undercard tournament meant to elevate a lowcard/rookie talent into the midcard scene.
All 7 editions of this event have had a Betting match Main Event and one of them featured what many consider to be one of the best Mask vs Mask matches of all time : Atlantis vs. Villano III.
Who knows if we'll get one this year. I’d hazard a guess of no, because I think this is more once every 5 years. Since the last one was 2014, I’d assume 2018/19 is a better bet.
CMLL Sin Salida(No Escape)
The last one I’ll cover here is like the last sporadic. It debut in 2009 and has happened 3 times since. 2010, 2013,2015, and despite what the name might suggest, this isn’t about a cage/escape match stipulation. The only Sin Salida to have a cage match was 2013 where they had a steel cage betting match.
Same format as the match type they use for Infierno en el Ring, but the 2013 main event for Sin Salida had a twist... as it was a 10 Mini-Estrella match.
We likely might not get one of these this year because... this is pretty much filler. If we get one, I’m sure it will be a good event.
I wouldn’t be surprised if CMLL just drop this name though and go with something more unique. This could be left behind in favor of Infierno en el Ring, which would seem more fitting for the name of Sin Salida. CMLL might even fuse these two names together as Infierno en el Ring : Sin Salida(Hell on the Ring : No Escape) doesn’t sound half bad.
Did I miss something? If so feel free to fill me in, I left out some CMLL events that don’t seem like they will be back : La Hora Cero(Zero Hour) which only happened once and Entre el Cielo y el Infierno("Between heaven and hell") used for various shows in the very early 2000′s not used lately.