Mexican professional wrestling supercard show
"Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" (2013) (Spanish for "Homage to Two Legends") was a professional wrestling supercard show event, scripted and produced by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL; "World Wrestling Council"). The "Dos Leyendas" show took place on March 15, 2013 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. Starting in 1999 CMLL honored not just their founder during the show, but also a second "lucha libre" legend, making it their version of a Hall of Fame event. For the 2013 show CMLL commemorated the life and career of wrestler and lucha film star Rayo de Jalisco Sr. This was the 15th March show held under the "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" name, having previously been known as "Homenaje a Salvador Lutteroth" from 1996 to 1998.
The main event was a tag team "Lucha de Apuestas", or bet match, where each team "bet" their mask or hair on the outcome of the match. The team of Stuka Jr. (betting his mask) and Rey Cometa (betting his hair) defeated "La Fiebre Amarilla" ("The Yellow Fever"), forcing Okumura to have his hair cut off, and Namajague to unmask and reveal his real name, Kyosuke Mikami. One of the featured matches of the undercard was a second "lucha de apuestas" matchwhere the Mexican National Women's Champion Estrellita defeated La Amapola, forcing Amapola to be shaved bald as a result. In the finals of the 2013 "CMLL Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles" La Sombra and Volador Jr. defeated Atlantis and Último Guerrero to win the tournament. The show also included a match with longtime rivals Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Universo 2000 in addition to two further matches.
Production.
Background.
Since 1996 the Mexican wrestling company "Consejo 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. 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". Traditionally CMLL holds their major events on Friday Nights, which means the "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" shows replace their regularly scheduled "Super Viernes" show. The 2013 show was the 18th overall "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" show.
Storylines.
The "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" show featured six 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.
The main event for the 2013 "Dos Leyenda" show was a direct result of a long-running slowly building storyline between the Japanese duo of Namajague and Okumura, collectively known as "La Fiebre Amarilla" ("The Yellow Fever") and Mexican high-fliers Stuka Jr. and Rey Cometa. Namajague, the masked identity of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) rookie Kyosuke Mikami, made his debut in CMLL a few weeks prior to the 2012 "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" show as part of CMLL's working arrangement with NJPW. He was immediately teamed up with Okumura, CMLL's resident Japanese wrestler who often acts both as a tag team partner, mentor, and translator for Japanese wrestlers touring with CMLL. In the year since Namajague's debut "La Fievre Amarilla" had several unsuccessful title matches against Stuka Jr. and Fuego for the latter's CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship. Through the series of Arena Coliseo Tag Team matches Namajague began targeting Stuka Jr. specifically, more intent on hurting and humiliating him including tearing Stuka Jr.'s mask open during the match. In late 2012 the two began facing off on opposite sides of Six-man tag team matches on various weekly "Super Viernes" shows, CMLL's main weekly show. In November Stuka Jr. often teamed with Rey Cometa to take on the Japanese team and Puma King, initially as a continuation of the storyline between Rey Cometa and Puma King, who had unmasked Rey Cometa at the CMLL 79th Anniversary Show, but began to morph into focusing on the escalating issues between Stuka Jr./Rey Cometa and "Fiebre Amarilla". On the November 2, 2012 Super Viernes the match started out with Rey Cometa and Puma King being the focal point of the match, but Okumura won the third and deciding fall for his team when he took advantage of a distracted referee to land an illegal low blow on Stuka Jr. A few weeks later, on the November 23 Super Viernes "La Fiebre" was on the opposite side of Rey Cometa once again and Namajague tried once again to win the match by illegal means, only to be caught by the referee and disqualified as a result of his actions. On the last Super Viernes of 2012 "La Fiebre" teamed up with Vangelis to defeat the team of Fuego, Rey Cometa and Stuka Jr. The victory earned "La Fiebre" another match against the CMLL Arena Coloseo Tag Team Champions. During the title match Namajague, Namajague tried to trick Stuka Jr. into getting disqualified by pulling his own mask off and throwing it to Stuka Jr. to make it look like it was pulled off, which is a disqualification offense in Lucha Libre. Stuka Jr. reacted quickly before the referee noticed and put the mask back on Namajague and then pinned his surprised opponent. The January 4, 2013 "Super Viernes" saw the rivalry continue as Stuka Jr. and Okumura was on opposite sides of a six-man tag team match, won by Stuka Jr.'s team, while Rey Cometa defeated Namajague by disqualification when Namajague tried to use a low blow on his opponent. Over the next several of weeks Stuka Jr. and Namajague found themselves on opposite sides of six-man tag team matches, teaming with a number of different partners which did not always include Rey Cometa or Okumura. Both Rey Cometa and Namajague took part in the 2013 "CMLL Reyes del Aire" ("Kings of the Air") tournament on February 2, 2013 but due to their interaction and a mistimed move Namajague ended up landing wrong during a dive to the floor and had to be taken to the hospital, while moments later Rey Cometa also ended up hurt. Both accidents looked so bad that it put their participation in the follow week's "Super Viernes" in question, but in the end Rey Cometa teamed with Stuka Jr. and El Hijo del Fantasma to take on and defeat Namajague, Okumura and Misterioso Jr. Following the February 8 match Stuka Jr. challenged Namajague to put his mask on the line in a "Lucha de Apuesta", or bet match, an offer that Okumura "in his role as leader of "Fiebre Amarilla"" declined the challenge, wanting to face Stuka Jr. himself. Rey Cometa responded to that challenge by issuing a team challenge, with himself and Stuka Jr. against "La Fiebre Amarilla" for the team's mask and hair to be on the line. During the introductions to a six-man tag team match on February 15, 2013 Stuka Jr. and Namajague started to argue while still in the aisle to the ring, only for Stuka Jr. to be attacked from behind by another Namajague. The first Namajague was revealed as Okumura as the two beat Stuka Jr. down. The Japanese team lost the match by disqualification after unmasking Stuka Jr. in the second fall. Following the match Okumura said they accepted the tag team challenge. On Thursday February 21, 2013, CMLL held a press conference announcing, among other things, that the match between the two teams would officially take place at the 2013 "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" as the main event of the show. On March 3, 2013 "La Ola Amarilla" defeated Stuka Jr. and Fuego to win the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship in a match that ended in controversy as Stuka Jr.'s shoulder was not on the mat during the count of three, something the referee did not see.
Another featured match on the 2013 "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas" would be the finals of the 4th annual "Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles" ("National Incredible Pairs Tournament") that started with a qualifying block on the March 1st "Super Viernes", followed by a second qualifying block on the March 8th "Super Viernes" show. The tournament is based on the Lucha Libre "Parejas Increibles" match type where two wrestlers of opposite allegiance, portraying either villains, referred to as ""Rudos" in Lucha Libre wrestling terminology or fan favorites, or "tecnicos"". At times some of the team members were part of a pre-existing scripted feuds or storylines with each other. In previous years the winning team has been given a trophy and general recognition while the storyline tension between one or more of the other teams has led to main event matches on major CMLL shows later in the year. The team of La Sombra and Volador Jr., former teammates and holders of the CMLL World Tag Team Championship, turned enemies defeated the team of Mr. Niebla and Shocker in the Block A semi-finals to earn a spot in the finals of the tournament. Block B saw the odds on favorite team of rivals Atlantis and Último Guerrero qualify for the finals by defeating the teams of Valiente and Pólvora, and Diamante Azul and Euforia in the preliminary rounds and then defeated the team of Dragón Rojo Jr. and Niebla Roja to earn a spot in the finals. Despite being involved in a long running storyline between the two they worked together without problems, harking back to the time where both wrestlers were part of "Los Guerreros de la Atlantida" ("The Warriors of Atlantis") The 2013 "Torneo Nacional de Parejas Increibles" would feature two teams that used to team up on a regular basis but had since then developed long running, heated rivalries.
On February 21, 2013, CMLL held a press conference to officially announce that the "Homena a Dos Leyendas" would pay tribute to Rayo de Jalisco ("The Lighting from Jalisco") and brought out Rayo's son, Rayo de Jalisco Jr., as part of the announcement. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. had not worked for CMLL since 2010 but made a special appearance due to the company honoring his father. During the press conference Rayo de Jalisco Jr.'s long time rival Universo 2000 interrupted Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and the two ended up challenging each other to a match that would take place at the 2013 "Homenaje a Dos Leyendas", although the exact nature of the match was not announced at the time. The rivalry between the two wrestlers hailed back to at least 1997 where Universo 2000 defeated both Cien Caras and Rayo de Jalisco Jr. to win the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship. Universo 2000 defended the title three times during his reign: against Brazo de Plata, Máscara Sagrada, and Rayo de Jalisco Jr., before losing the championship to Rayo de Jalisco Jr. on September 13, 1998. Universo 2000 regained the title on December 10, 1999 Universo 2000's second reign became a recordbreaking reign in several areas, it was the longest to date as it lasted 1,225 days. He also became the champion with most successful title defenses in one reign including eight defenses against Rayo de Jalisco Jr. during their long running rivalry. After being masked since his debut in 1985 Universo 2000 lost a "Lucha de Apuesta" match to El Canek in the main event of the 71st Anniversary Show, on September 17, 2004, the match also included Rayo de Jalisco Jr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. and originally came about due to the Universo 2000/Rayo de Jalisco Jr. rivalry.