EMLL 35th Anniversary Show

The 1968 Anniversary show commemorated the 35th anniversary of the Mexican professional wrestling company Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (Spanish for "Mexican Wrestling Promotion"; EMLL) holding their first show on September 22, 1933 by promoter and founder Salvador Lutteroth.{{cite book|title=Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling|publisher=Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.|year=2005|chapter=Los Lutteroth / the Lutteroths|pages=20–27|isbn=968-6842-48-9}} EMLL was rebranded early in 1992 to become Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre ("World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) signal their departure from the National Wrestling Alliance.{{cite book|author=Madigan, Dan|title=Mondo Lucha Libre: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|year=2007|chapter=A family affair|pages=128–132|isbn=978-0-06-085583-3}} With the sales of the Jim Crockett Promotions to Ted Turner in 1988 EMLL became the oldest, still-operating wrestling promotion in the world. Over the years EMLL/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 EMLL/CMLL's major events since the building was completed. Traditionally EMLL/CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, replacing their regularly scheduled Super Viernes show.

The event featured an undetermined number of 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.{{cite book | author= Madigan, Dan | title= Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling | publisher= HarperCollins Publishers | year= 2007 | chapter = "Okay... what is Lucha Libre?" | page = 31 | quote=featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos | isbn=978-0-06-085583-3|location=New York, New York}} Due to the nature of keeping mainly paper records of wrestling at the time no documentation has been found for some of the matches of the show.

The 35th EMLL anniversary show featured an unknown number of matches, traditionally EMLL has five to six matches per show, but at times have had more or less and the total number has not been verified. This was the first EMLL wrestling event back in Arena México after it was used as part of the 1968 Summer Olympics, hosting the boxing events. In one of three verified matches the team of El Santo and Ray Mendoza defeated La Ola Blanca ("the White Wave"; Ángel Blanco and Dr. Wagner) to win the Arena Mexico Tag Team championship, a secondary title ranked lower than the Mexican National Tag Team Championship. NWA World Middleweight Champion Rene Guajardo was successful in his title defense against British born Tony Oxford. In the main event Blue Demon challenged Karloff Lagarde for the NWA World Welterweight Championship, but ended up losing to Lagarde two falls to one.

{{Pro Wrestling results table

|results={{cite web|url=http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/mexico/emll/anniversary50.html#35|title=35th Anniversary Show|date=September 20, 1968|access-date=September 27, 2012|publisher=Pro Wrestling History}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thegladiatores.com/?p=3072|title=Historia de Los Aniversarios del CMLL|date=September 2, 2010|access-date=September 28, 2012|work=The Gladiatores Magazine|language=es}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cmll.com/aniversario_cmll.htm |title=Historia de Los Aniversarios |access-date=September 28, 2012 |publisher=Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre |language=es |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016082143/http://cmll.com/aniversario_cmll.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2012 }}{{cite web|url=http://superluchas.net/2010/09/07/cmll-77-historias-77-aniversario-las-77-luchas-estelares/|title=CMLL: 79 historias, 79 Aniversario, las 79 luchas estelares|first=Alex|last=Ruiz Glez|date=September 7, 2010|access-date=October 20, 2012|work=SuperLuchas|language=es}}

|match1=El Santo and Ray Mendoza (c) defeated La Ola Blanca (Ángel Blanco and Dr. Wagner)

|stip1=Best two-out-of-three falls Tag team match for the Arena Mexico Tag Team Championship

|time1=

|match2=René Guajardo (c) defeated Tony Oxford

|stip2=Best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Middleweight Championship{{cite book|author=Royal Duncan & Gary Will|title=Wrestling Title Histories|publisher=Archeus Communications|year=2006|edition=4th|chapter=Mexico: EMLL NWA World Middlweight Title|pages=389–390|isbn=0-9698161-5-4}}

|time2=

|match3=Karloff Lagarde (c) defeated Blue Demon

|stip3=Best two-out-of-three falls match for the NWA World Welterweight Championship{{cite book|author=Royal Duncan and Gary Will|title=Wrestling Title Histories|chapter=Mexico: EMLL NWA Welterweight Heavyweight Title|page=390|publisher=Archeus Communications|year=2006|edition=4th|isbn=0-9698161-5-4}}

|time3=

}}

{{Reflist}}

{{CMLLShows|Anniversary}}

Category:1968 in professional wrestling

35

Category:September 1968 in Mexico