Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth (1996) (Spanish for "Homage to Salvador Lutteroth") was a professional wrestlingsupercard show event, scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council"). The Homenaje show took place on March 22, 1996 in CMLL's main venue, Arena México, Mexico City, Mexico. The event was to honor and remember CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth, who died in March 1987. The annual March event would later be renamed Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to two legends") as CMLL honored both Lutteroth and another retired or deceased wrestler. With the show, CMLL introduced an annual supercard show in March to their show schedule.
Since 1996 the Mexican wrestling companyConsejo 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.[2] 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".[3] 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 show was the first show to officially be labeled as honoring CMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth although CMLL had regularly held shows in the month of March prior to 1996, dedicated to Lutteroth or other wrestlers who had died.
Storylines
The Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth show 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.[4]
El Brazo and Rambo initially faced off against each other for the first time in CMLL on March 8, 1996 as Rambo, Bestia Salvaje and Máscara Año 2000 defeated Los Brazos (El Brazo, Brazo de Oro, and Brazo de Plata) in the main event of the night.[5] The following week, Los Brazos defeated Rambo, Dr. Wagner Jr. and Negro Casas by disqualification as El Brazo goaded Rambo into breaking the rules and getting caught. Afterward Rambo made a Lucha de Apuestas challenge, that led to the main event of the Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth show.[6]
The then bald El Brazo, along with Brazo de Oro and Brazo de Plata, defeated Rambo, Blue Panther, and Kahoz by disqualification the following week.[10] They also found themselves on opposite sides once more during the 1996 Torneo Gran Alternativa as Rambo and Guerrero de la Muerte defeated El Brazo and Olimpus in the quarter-finals.[11]
The new CMLL World Trios Champions would hold on to the titles until early 1997 when Héctor Garza and the Championship had to be vacated.[7] A tournament to determine the new Trios champions took place on the following year's Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth show.[7]
^ abcVarious (2005). "Los Brazos Familia Ejemplar / the Brazos a model Family". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. pp. 184–190. ISBN968-6842-48-9.
^"Los Lutteroth / the Lutteroths". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2005. pp. 20–27. ISBN968-6842-48-9.
^ abMadigan, Dan (2007). "El nacimient de un sueño (the birth of a dream)". Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 41–50. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
^Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 31. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
^ abcdRoyal Duncan and Gary Will (2000). "Mexico: EMLL CMLL Trios Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 396. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.