CMLL 77th Anniversary Show


The CMLL 77th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling major show produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre that took place on September 3, 2010 in CMLL's home arena Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico. The event commemorates the 77th anniversary of CMLL, the oldest professional wrestling promotion. in the world. The Anniversary show is CMLL's biggest show of the year, their Super Bowl event. The event is also billed as Juicio Final, or "Final Justice", an event that CMLL has held previously in 1990, 1991, 2000, 2001 and 2005.
The main event of the show was a 14-man Lucha de Apuestas mask vs. mask, steel cage match contested under CMLL's Infierno en el Ring rules which meant that one man would be unmasked as a result of the match. The 14 competitors in the match were: Místico, La Sombra, Volador Jr., Averno, Mephisto, Ephesto, Jushin Thunder Liger, Último Guerrero, Atlantis, Mr. Niebla, El Alebrije, Histeria, Olímpico and Psicosis II. The match came down to La Sombra defeating Olímpico to unmask him. The show also featured five additional matches, all Best two out of three falls Six-man tag team matches.

Production

Background

The 2010 CMLL Anniversary Shows commemorated the 77th anniversary of the Mexican professional wrestling company Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre holding their first show on September 22, 1933 by promoter and founder Salvador Lutteroth. CMLL, originally known as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre it would change its name to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in 1992 to signal their departure from the National Wrestling Alliance. With the sales of the Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988 CMLL became the oldest, still-operating wrestling promotion in the world. Over the years 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 CMLL's major events since the building was completed. Traditionally CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.

Storylines

The event featured five professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either heels or faces as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The main event match of the 77th Anniversary Show came about as a result of several concurrent, and in some cases unrelated storylines, that amalgamated into one multi-man match on September 4, 2010. The oldest and longest running storyline leading into the main event began on January 22, 2010 when Místico teamed up with Averno to participate in CMLL's "Torneo Nacional de Pareja Increíbles", a tournament where CMLL teams up a tecnico and a Rudo for a tournament. On the night of the tournament Místico and Averno showed a surprising team unity by wearing outfits that mixed the style of each wrestler. In the second round of the tournament Místico's attitude seemingly changed as he began attacking his opponent Volador Jr., someone he usually teams with. Místico even went so far as to ripping up Volador's mask, a rudo move, and won the match after an illegal low blow to Volador Jr. After the match Místico took the microphone and claimed that "all was fair in war and defending Mexico City", a comment that drew a lot of boos from the crowd. Subsequently Volador Jr. defeated Místico to win the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship as Místico continued to skirt the tecnico/rudo divide. Later a few months later Místico returned to the tecnico side, with the storyline between Místico and Volador Jr. downplayed for the time being. At the 2010 Sin Salida, it looked like the feud was reignited as Volador Jr. began showing rudo traits, especially when wrestling against Místico, but once again the storyline was subsequently downplayed. After teasing a rudo turn for over a month Volador Jr. and La Sombra lost the CMLL World Tag Team Championship to Los Invasores without any obvious signs of dissention between the two. During a later show Volador Jr. finally turned rudo when he attacked La Sombra, tore his former partner's mask off and beat him up. Volador Jr. sided with Los Hijos del Averno, especially Averno, Mephisto and Ephesto who were all included in the cage match along with Volador Jr., La Sombra and Místico
Over the summer of 2010 La Sombra travelled to Japan to participate in New Japan Pro Wrestling's 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. During the tournament La Sombra defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, scoring an upset over the veteran. In July, 2010 Liger came to Mexico to tour with CMLL, teasing a rematch with La Sombra. In August, 2010 both Liger and La Sombra qualified for the finals of the 2010 Universal Championship tournament, marking the first time the two had faced off in singls competition since the BOSJ. Liger got revenge for his BOSJ loss against La Sombra when he, with help from Okumura at ringside, defeated La Sombra to claim the tournament trophy. In the week following his Universal Championship victory Liger was added to the steel cage match.
Another major storyline that led up to the cage match was the Los Invasores, a group of former AAA wrestlers "invading" CMLL. It began on April 12, 2010 when a contingent of former AAA wrestlers including Psicosis II, Histeria, Maniaco, El Alebrije and Cuije appeared during a CMLL show in Puebla, Puebla. The group drown into the arena in a black SUV and attacked La Sombra, El Hijo del Fantasma and La Máscara after they just finished a match. In subsequent weeks Los Invasores struck again and again, expanding the group with Universo 2000 and Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Águila, Olímpico, Monster, El Oriental and Héctor Garza. During the Promociones Gutiérrez 1st Anniversary Show Místico defeated El Oriental in a match under Lucha de Apuestas, mask vs. mask, rules and forced him to unmask. At the following week's Super Viernes show Místico held El Oriental's mask as a trophy, something which Invasor Psicosis II did not take too kindly to, setting off a feud between the two wrestlers. The Místico vs. Psicosis II storyline was rumored to be the main event of the 77th Anniversary show, but instead they ended up as two of the 14 men in the cage.
Olímpico returned to CMLL in June, 2010 as part of Los Invasores, even though he never worked for AAA. On June 7, during the Promociones Gutiérrez 1st Anniversary Show Olímpico teamed up with his former Los Guerreros del Atlantida partner Atlantis for the main event. Subsequently Olímpico began teaming with both Atlantis and Último Guerrero again for a number of matches. During a trios tournament on the August 13, 2010 Super Viernes Olímpico caused his team to be disqualified and then attacked his former team mates, ending their tenetative relationship. As a result of his actions after the match Olímpico, Último Guerrero and Atlantis were all added to the main event of the 77th Anniversary Show.

Results