The Festival de las Máscaras (2018) (Spanish for "Festival of the Masks") was a major annual lucha libre event produced and scripted by the Mexican International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) professional wrestling promotion held on June 17, 2018. The show was held in Arena Naucalpan, Naucalpan, State of Mexico, which is IWRG's primary venue. For the 2018 event Máscara Año 2000, Cocco Rojo, Olímpico, Mano Negra, Veneno, Star Boy, El Pantera II, Dr. Cerebro, Cerebro Negro, Oficial 911, Oficial AK-47 and Oficial Fierro, Mega and Omega, El Hijo del Diablo and El Golpeador all wore their masks again after having lost Luchas de Apuestas, or "bet matches", in the past and thus lost the rights to wear their mask.
| Festival de las Máscaras (2018) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Official poster for the event, honoring Mano Negra | |||
| Date | June 17, 2018[1] | ||
| City | Naucalpan, State of Mexico[1] | ||
| Venue | Arena Naucalpan[1] | ||
| Event chronology | |||
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| IWRG Festival de las Máscaras chronology | |||
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The main event of the show featured Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) main-stays the Muñoz brothers Rush and Dragon Lee facing off against the father/son team of L.A. Park and El Hijo de L.A. Park as part of a long-running rivalry between the two families, that has played out not only in CMLL but on various independent promotion shows across Mexico. On the night L.A. Park and his son won the match. The show featured six additional matches.
Production
editBackground
editThe wrestling mask has always held a sacred place in lucha libre, carrying with it a mystique and anonymity beyond what it means to wrestlers elsewhere in the world.[2] The ultimate humiliation a luchador can suffer is to lose a Lucha de Apuestas, or bet match. Following a loss in a Lucha de Apuesta match the masked wrestler would be forced to unmask, state their real name and then would be unable to wear that mask while wrestling anywhere in Mexico.[3] Since 2007 the Mexican wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG; Sometimes referred to as Grupo Internacional Revolución in Spanish) has held a special annual show where they received a waiver to the rule from the State of Mexico Wrestling Commission and wrestlers would be allowed to wear the mask they previously lost in a Lucha de Apuestas.[4]
The annual IWRG Festival de las Máscaras ("Festival of the Masks") event is also partly a celebration or homage of lucha libre history with IWRG honoring wrestlers of the past at the events similar to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's (CMLL) Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ("Homage to Two Legends") annual shows. The IWRG's Festival de las Máscaras shows, as well as the majority of their major IWRG shows in general, are held in Arena Naucalpan, owned by the promoters of IWRG and is their main venue. The 2018 Festival de las Máscaras show was the eleventh year in a row IWRG held the show.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
Storylines
editThe 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.[13]
Results
edit| No. | Results[1] | Stipulations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avisman defeated Atomic Star | Best two-out-of-three-falls match |
| 2 | Black Dragon and Zatura defeated Demonio Infernal and X-Fly | Best two-out-of-three-falls tag team match |
| 3 | El Golpeador, El Hijo del Diablo and Eterno defeated El Hijo del Alebrije, Hijo del Olimpico and Mano Negra Jr. | Best two-out-of-three-falls six-man tag team match |
| 4 | Los Oficiales (Oficial 911, Oficial AK-47 and Oficial Fierro) defeated El Hijo de Canis Lupus, Mega and Omega and Guardia, Oficial and Xibalba | Three-way tag team match |
| 5 | Los Terribles Cerebros (Cerebro Negro and Dr. Cerebro) and Maniacop defeated El Pantera II, Star Boy and Veneno | Best two-out-of-three-falls six-man tag team match |
| 6 | El Fantasma, Mano Negra and Olímpico defeated Cocco Rojo, Enterrador 2000 and Máscara Año 2000 | Best two-out-of-three-falls six-man tag team match |
| 7 | El Hijo de L.A. Park and L.A. Park defeated Dragon Lee and Rush | Best two-out-of-three-falls tag team match |
References
edit- ^ a b c d Lizarraga, Alfonso (July 18, 2018). "Naucalpan se rinde ante la familia real en el festival de mascaras". The Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved September 22, 2018.
- ^ Madigan, Dan (2007). ""Okay... what is Lucha Libre?"". Mondo Lucha a Go Go: the bizarre& honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 29–40. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
- ^ "CANOE – SLAM! Sports – Wrestling – Viva la lucha libre!". Slam.canoe.ca. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
- ^ Mejia Eguiluz, Diego (July 3, 2011). "Los Dinamita y el Rayo de Jalisco, una vez mas frente a frente". The Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved April 18, 2013.
- ^ "Festival de Máscaras y la despedida de El Audaz en Zona de Combate". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). August 28, 2008. p. 20. Issue 278.
- ^ "Lo Mejor de la Lucha Libre Mexicana 2008". Súper Luchas (in Spanish). January 6, 2009. 296. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
- ^ La¡zaro Rodriguez, Jose (July 24, 2015). "IWRG Festival de Mascaras Expo Lucha Libre". The Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- ^ "IWRG "Festival de las Máscaras – Homenaje a Fray Tormenta" (Resultados 3 de julio): Konnan traiciona a su equipo – Canek, luchador sorpresa – ¿Rayo de Jalisco Jr. a Triple A? – Fray Tormenta en acción – El Pantera no se despoja de su incógnita – Los Capos presentan al Hijo de Universo 2000". Súper Luchas Magazine (in Spanish). July 4, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
- ^ Redaccion (August 3, 2012). "Festival de Máscaras en Naucalpan". MedioTiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved February 6, 2013.
- ^ Mejía Eguiluz, Diego (August 12, 2013). "Emotivo homenaje a Pierroth en el Festival de las Máscaras". the Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved May 7, 2016.
- ^ Lizárraga, Alfonso (June 16, 2014). "L.A. Park, Mascara Sagrada y Demon Clown acaban con Dr. Wagner". The Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved July 30, 2015.
- ^ Mejía Eguiluz, Diego (May 4, 2015). "Hijo de Dos Caras se echa a los hermanos Wagner encima". The Gladiatores (in Spanish). Retrieved August 5, 2015.
- ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-06-085583-3.
featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
