1980s Lucha Wrestling Party #4

[pantherwagner]

Glad that you guys liked the post. I was pretty inspired I guess.

 

Was it just EMLL and the UWA that used to run the big arenas in the 80's?

Correct. Those two were the two major promotions.

Mexico and Coliseo are owned by the Lutteroth family so LLI (Lucha Libre Internacional) ---- also known as Los Independientes, or simply "El Toreo", and on the internet and Wrestling Observer also as UWA because that's what the title belts' sanctioning body ----- had to find other arenas so they ran weekly shows at El Toreo in Naucalpan, just outside of Mexico City, and bigger "must see" supershows at the newer and more expensive to rent Palacio de los Deportes.

There was a short time third contender "kiddies promotion" called AWWA at some point in 1985 that had the benefit of TV but they didn't last long and they only ran small arenas in Mexico City. They were as much of a threat as Slaughter's AWF or Abrams' UWF were to the top two...

 

Was WWA in the Monterrey area the 3rd biggest promotion?

Yes and no. Let me explain.

 

Monterrey was a very successful territory that had its own loosely affiliated loop of promoters. You could work the big arenas and also some nearby smaller towns and make a decent living, and at some point they also unofficially incorporated Nuevo Laredo into the loop, which is in the state of Tamaulipas and is a border town with Laredo, TX. The promoter in the 80s and 90s was Carlos Elizondo, who in many ways was a lot like Antonio Pena. He was very good at capturing the imagination of the "casual fan" crowd as he had a great eye to know which national main event "draws" drew on their own and which ones were supporting players, actively pushed "blowjob babyfaces" as he was very gay and gave the first break to handsome nuthugger-wearing young men like Latin Lover or Chris Jericho, knew the value of children's cartoon gimmicks and comedy exoticos, and was one of the first to use US style stip matches (chain match, cage match, etc.). Money wise and crowds wise they probably were the most successful territory from early 70s to late 90s running weekly shows at the Monumental bullring and Coliseo de Monterrey. The talent mostly was local, some truly independent wrestlers (like Mil Mascaras or Hijo del Santo), and Independiente (LLI/UWA affiliated) wrestlers until they changed alliances to CMLL in 1991. At some point in the mid 00's they stopped running the bullring and later changed promoters when a TV channel called Multimedios bought the Coliseo which is where they run now. I'd personally not consider them a separate promotion but rather a territory. They didn't even have a promotional name even though they used the name FILL as their CMLL/NWA/UWA type sanctioning body for their championships. Historically they can be classified as the number three territory in the country for many years. If you look at historical mask and hair matches they have the highest number of fallen trophies outside of the State of Mexico. Same thing applies to title changes.

 

The WWA was actually in Tijuana, not Monterrey, and I'd consider them a promotion. It was ran by Benjamin Mora Jr. who took over from his dad, and even though the guy was a whackjob he had some brilliant ideas. He was one of the first to tape TV at several points in 1987, 1990-91 and 1996. These shows would be shown in Tijuana and California. As far as I know he was the first Mexican promoter to regularly run Los Angeles at the Olympic, most famously the first Santo vs Casas match. They bought the dying Lucha Libre magazine and used it as a promotional vehicle for their own wrestlers. They had a very strong staple of local workers including Rey Misterio Sr. who is the Jerry Lawler of Tijuana. It was a very workrate oriented territory also based around Negro Casas, Hijo del Santo and Super Astro with appearances by Solar, Fishman, Villano III and a few other major stars. And they were the first to give a break to Konnan and Colibri (Rey Jr.). Due to the good economy in Tijuana back then due to its proximity to the US this was the top paying promoter in the entire country for many years, so for a wrestler they'd be a definite number three. But as I said Mora was insane and held really ugly personal grudges so he was out of the game in the early 90s even though he supposedly was making very good money. He made a few short comebacks here and there but the competition (and corruption) in Tijuana would make the Georgia territorial wars look like children's play.

 

Guadalajara and Puebla aren't really territories or promotions or anything like that. These are Lutteroth owned arenas so you'd work weekday shots there if you were with EMLL.

 

The Laguna (which geographically it's like the Twin Cities in MN, with the difference that the river also marks the limit between two states) is another different territory where you could make a decent living. They don't run any big arenas or stadiums so there's no major money there. But it's also one of the few places where local mid-card wrestlers can get up to 20 shots a month and live, albeit a basic and simple lifestyle, only off their wages as a wrestler. But spending a lot of time here would make people wonder whatever happened to you.

 

How dominant were the top promotions in comparison with later years?

Not sure if this the answer you are looking for but as I mentioned before the two top promotions were really the only real players and controlled the flow of major stars in the market. Nobody else was competition in any way, shape or form.

[KrisZ]

Jose is our maestro

[Matt D]

If we're turning this into a Q+A thread, how did people follow things in mexico in the 80s? There are definitely storylines where one match leads to the other and what not. Did big newspapers report on things? What were the lucha mags like? The Apter mags is our general point of reference. What was the format of weekly TV like? Do we have any idea of how big ratings were? Etc.

[ohtani's jacket]

You can read about the television situation in Steve Sims' Konnan HOF bio:

 

http://wrestlingobserverhof.wordpress.com/konnan/

 

But basically television was not a factor until EMLL's 1989 deal with Televisa.

[pantherwagner]

Mexico had its own magazines so you could follow the storylines there. During their heyday they were something in between the Japanese ones (where the main features would be the big cards of the week with photos of the action) and the American ones with interviews and personality profiles. There was also newspaper coverage but it usually amounted to a paragraph with some results on the sports papers.

 

No idea on exact ratings other than when TV started in 89 they were gigantic.

[Matt D]

You can read about the television situation in Steve Sims' Konnan HOF bio:

 

http://wrestlingobserverhof.wordpress.com/konnan/

 

But basically television was not a factor until EMLL's 1989 deal with Televisa.

Thanks for sending this. I read through about the first half on my commute in and it was pretty interesting. you can really see how the regulations (like wrestling not be allowed on TV in Mexico City) shaped the industry. I'd really love to hear more about the wrestlers' union.