90 Years of CMLL: 1940's
The rise of El Santo, the success of Gori Guerrero, and the emergence of Cavernario Galindo shape an icon-building decade.
It’s 1933 in Mexico City and the promotion that would come to be known as CMLL begins as EMLL (Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre). Fast forward to 2023 and the company produces a series of videos commemorating their 90th anniversary. These are their highlighted moments and images celebrated throughout the series along with a few extra notes that I found interesting.
Watch the full CMLL produced series with this YouTube Playlist. I’ve linked to Luchawiki profiles as well as LuchaDB throughout to help people learn more about these important figures in lucha libre history.
(Note: I’d recommend opening this in a web browser so you can see all the images. There are a lot of really interesting ones.)
1940’s
1940: EMLL founder Salvador Lutteroth cofounds the Los Diablos Rojos del México baseball team which still plays to this day. Legendary rivals Merced Gómez and El Murciélago Enmascarado clash. Tarzán López solidifies his legacy defending the NWA World Middleweight Title against the likes of Black Guzmán, Octavio Gaona, Mike Durán, Don Hill, Firpo Segura, and Ray Durán. Lopez remains one of the top stars in the 40’s.
1941: Dizzy Gardenia Davis is Mexico’s first exotico wrestler, introducing that flamboyant style of wrestling. Dizzy has electrifying matches against Charro Aguayo and Indio Cacama.
1942: El Santo makes his debut at Arena México (Jul. 26). He will become lucha libre’s greatest idol.
1943: Arena Coliseo opens (Apr. 2) and is now recognized as the oldest wrestling venue in the world. The main event is El Santo challenging Tarzan López for his NWA World Middleweight Championship. Arena Coliseo hosts Mexico City’s first mask versus mask match (Nov. 22) where La Bestia Roja unmasks El Chimpancé.
1944: Rudy Galindo, the future icon Cavernario (“Caveman”) Galindo, debuts.
1945: A new match format “relevos sencillos (or tag team rules)” debuts. The legendary duo of El Santo and Gori Guerrero rise as “La Pareja Atómico (“The Atomic Pair”).” Women’s wrestlers debut at Arena Coliseo including Mildred Burke, Mae Young, Nelly Stewart, and Rose Evans.
1946: Firpo Segura unmasks The Gray Shadow (Feb. 22). Santo becomes the NWA World Welterweight Champion defeating Bulgarian Pete Pancoff in the finals of a tournament (Mar. 15).
1947: Rito Romero challenges NWA World Middleweight Champion Gori Guerrero, trying use his new move, La Tapatía, to secure the victory. Guerrero retains his title, cementing him as the top technicial wrestler of the time.
1948: The birth La Leyenda Azul (The Blue Legend). The sensational Blue Demon, another future lucha libre icon, makes his wrestling debut in El Paso, Texas in March and first appears in EMLL in November alongside Juventino Romero.
1949: La Pareja Atómico (Santo & Gori Guerrero) thrill fans in main event matches with big clashes against Cavernario Galindo & Wolf Rubinski and Bobby Bonales & Enrique Llanes.
Up next, lucha libre enters the television era in the 1950’s.
Bonus Notes
At the time, Santo is known as a “wild rudo brawler” but his popularity quickly rose. When he submits Pancoff with his boston crab in 1946, the crowd erupts in Santo chants.
Black Shadow emerges as a star in the later 1940’s. An early high flyer, Shadow is dubbed "El Hombre de Goma" or “The Elastic Man.” Shadow finds himself regularly opposite the likes of Santo and Guerrero. In fact, he even defeats Santo in his debut. The various “Shadow” gimmicks are common at this time.
Galindo’s “caveman” gimmick is still used to this day by Barbaro Cavernario.
Santo and Guerrero’s sons, El Hijo Del Santo and Eddy Guerrero, team up in the late 80’s and early 1990’s, first in EMLL and then in AAA. Guerrero turns rudo on Santo and their feud peaks at the AAA When Worlds Collide show in a famous match.
Enrique Llanes is the brother-in-law of Gori Guerrero and the uncle of Chavo, Mando, Hector, and Eddy. His own son, Javier, competed in CMLL throughout the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.
Bobby Bonales is a frequent Santo opponent and top wrestler. His son, Daniel, wins a silver medal in Greco-Roman Wrestling for Mexico at the 1984 Olympics. The Copa Bobby Bonales is regularly competed for in CMLL in his honor.
Wolf Rubinski or Wolf Ruvinskis was born in Latvia but relocated to Argentina with his family. He becomes a professional wrestler and then a very successful actor, starring in many lucha films.