Arena Naucalpan 37th Anniversary Show explained

Arena Naucalpan 37th Anniversary Show
Promotion:International Wrestling Revolution Group
Date:December 21, 2014
Venue:Arena Naucalpan
City:Naucalpan, State of Mexico
Liveevent:Y
Lastevent:Caravana de Campeones
Nextevent:IWRG 19th Anniversary Show
Event:Arena Naucalpan Anniversary Show
Lastevent2:36th Anniversary
Nextevent2:38th Anniversary

The Arena Naucalpan 37th Anniversary Show was a major annual professional wrestling event produced and scripted by the Mexican professional wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG), which took place on December 21, 2014, in Arena Naucalpan, Naucalpan, State of Mexico, Mexico. As the name implies the show celebrated the 37th Anniversary of the construction of Arena Naucalpan, IWRG's main venue in 1977. The show is IWRG's longest-running show, predating IWRG being founded in 1996 and is the fourth oldest, still held, annual show in professional wrestling.

The main event of the anniversary show was a 10-man steel cage match contested under Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match" rules, where the last man in the ring would be forced to either unmask or have their hair shaved off as a result. Canis Lupus, El Hijo del Máscara Año 2000, El Hijo del Pirata Morgan, Máscara Año 2000, Máscara Sagrada, Pirata Morgan, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Súper Nova all climbed out of the cage, leaving Oficial AK-47 to defeat X-Fly, thanks to help from his regular tag team partner Oficial 911. Afterwards X-Fly was forced to be shaved bald as a result of his loss.

Production

Background

The location at Calle Jardín 19, Naucalpan Centro, 53000 Naucalpan de Juárez, México, Mexico was originally an indoor roller rink for the locals in the late part of the 1950s known as "Cafe Algusto". By the early-1960s, the building was sold and turned into "Arena KO Al Gusto" and became a local lucha libre or professional wrestling arena, with a ring permanently set up in the center of the building.[1] Promoter Adolfo Moreno began holding shows on a regular basis from the late 1960s, working with various Mexican promotions such as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) to bring lucha libre to Naucalpan.[1] By the mid-1970s the existing building was so run down that it was no longer suitable for hosting any events. Moreno bought the old build and had it demolished, building Arena Naucalpan on the same location, becoming the permanent home of Promociones Moreno.[1] Arena Naucalpan opened its doors for the first lucha libre show on December 17, 1977.[1] From that point on the arena hosted regular weekly shows for Promociones Moreno and also hosted EMLL and later Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) on a regular basis.[2] [3] [4] In the 1990s the UWA folded and Promociones Moreno worked primarily with EMLL, now rebranded as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).[5]

In late 1995 Adolfo Moreno decided to create his own promotion, creating a regular roster instead of relying totally on wrestlers from other promotions, creating the International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG; sometimes referred to as Grupo Internacional Revolución in Spanish) on January 1, 1996.[6] From that point on Arena Naucalpan became the main venue for IWRG, hosting the majority of their weekly shows and all of their major shows as well.[7] [8] While IWRG was a fresh start for the Moreno promotion they kept the annual Arena Naucalpan Anniversary Show tradition alive, making it the only IWRG show series that actually preceded their foundation.[8] The Arena Naucalpan Anniversary Show is the fourth oldest still ongoing annual show in professional wrestling, the only annual shows that older are the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Anniversary Shows (started in 1934),[9] the Arena Coliseo Anniversary Show (first held in 1943),[10] and the Aniversario de Arena México (first held in 1957).[11]

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 (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.[12]

Event

In the second match of the night El Hijo del Diablo gained a tainted victory for his team (Apolo Estrada Jr., Electro Boy and Imposible) over Los Tortugas Ninjas (Leo, Mike, Rafy and Teelo) when he tricked one of Los Tortugas into hitting a referee with one of his moves as El Hijo del Diablo ducked out of the way. Los Tortugas were subsequently disqualified for hitting the referee.

The fourth match of the night saw Negro Navarro team up with Black Terry to take on his sons, the masked wrestlers known as Los Traumas (Trauma I and Trauma II). Prior to the match Navarro tooj the microphone and managed to convince Los Traumas to wrestle a clean, technical match. Navarro and Black Terry defeated Navarro's sons in two straight falls. Afterwards Los Traumas praised both of the much older wrestlers, with Trauma II handing Black Terry as a sign of respect.

All ten competitors in the main event steel cage match were supposed to fight for 10-minutes before they would be allowed to leave the ring, but Pirata Morgan and El Hijo de Pirata Morgan started the match off early by attacking Máscara Sagrada outside the ring as he was being introduced to the crowd. Once the remaining competitors; Canis Lupus, El Hijo del Máscara Año 2000, Máscara Año 2000, Oficial AK-47, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., Súper Nova and X-Fly were inside the cage the match itself could start. The match came down to Oficial AK-47 and X-Fly as the last two men in the cage. Moments later Oficial 911 came to ringside and helped his regular tag team partner defeat X-Fly. As a result, X-Fly had all his hair shaved off.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Arena Naucalpan. Súper Luchas. Issue 466. June 11, 2012. 18. Spanish.
  2. News: 1980 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 1448. January 10, 1981. Spanish.
  3. News: 1982 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 1553. January 8, 1983. Spanish.
  4. News: 1984 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 1656. January 10, 1985. Spanish.
  5. News: 1993 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 2214. January 7, 1994. Spanish.
  6. News: 1996 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 2280. January 10, 1997. Spanish.
  7. News: 1997 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 2332. January 7, 1998. Spanish.
  8. News: 1998 Especial!. Box y Lucha Magazine. 2–28. issue 2348. January 9, 1999. Spanish.
  9. Web site: CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares. Alex. Ruiz Glez. September 7, 2010. October 20, 2012. Súper Luchas. Spanish.
  10. Book: Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.. 2005. Los Lutteroth / the Lutteroth. 20–27. 968-6842-48-9.
  11. News: Lucha 2000 Staff . Arena México: 50 anos de Lucha Libre . Lucha 2000 . Especial 28 . April 2006 . Spanish.
  12. Book: Madigan, Dan . Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling . HarperCollins Publishers . 2007 . "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?" . 31 . featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos . 978-0-06-085583-3. New York, New York.