Guerra de Titanes (Spanish for "War of the Titans") is a major annual professional wrestling event in Mexico promoted by the Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA) promotion. The show is the "End of year" show and is traditionally held in December with a few exceptions. The first show was held in 1997 and since then twenty three events have been held, the more recent ones presented on pay-per-view while the early shows were shown as television specials on the Televisa channel.
History
The first Guerra de Titanes was held on December 13, 1997, and was shown on pay-per-view (PPV). It was later shown as a television special. Since 1997 Guerra de Titanes has been the "end of the year" show for AAA. All Guerra de Titanes shows have been held in Mexico, with most events (six) being held in Madero, Tamaulipas. The 2004 Guerra de Titanes event holds the record for the largest crowd, with 18,500 spectators.[1] As is tradition with AAA major events the wrestlers compete inside a hexagonalwrestling ring and not the four-sided ring the promotion uses for television events and house shows.
As of 2014 Guerra de Titanes has seen twelve Lucha de Apuestas matches, with eleven people having their hair shaved as a result of losing (El Picudo, Heavy Metal, May Flowers, Polvo de Estrellas, Sangre Chicana, Brazo de Plata, Scorpio Jr., El Brazo, Faby Apache, Vampiro and Pimpinela Escarlata) and two wrestlers being unmasked (Jaque Mate and Super Fly). Guerra de Titanes has seen ten successful title defenses and nineteen title changes over the years. In 2003 the event hosted the "Televisa tag team tournament", the only year it was ever held. In 2015, Guerra de Titanes was scheduled to take place on December 4, but was canceled by AAA a week earlier with no explanation given.[2] It was later announced that it would take place on January 22, 2016.[3]
Starting in 1997 the Mexican professional wrestling, companyAAA has held a major wrestling show late in the year, either November or December, called Guerra de Titanes ("War of the Titans"). The show often features championship matches or Lucha de Apuestas or bet matches where the competitors risked their wrestling mask or hair on the outcome of the match. In Lucha Libre, the Lucha de Apuetas match is considered more prestigious than a championship match and many major shows feature one or more Apuesta matches. The Guerra de Titanes show is hosted in a new location each year, emanating from cities such as Madero, Chihuahua City, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Jalisco and others.[22] In 2016, AAA moved the Guerra de Titanes show to January but in 2018 the show was held in December which continued with the 2019 event.[23]
Storylines
Guerra de Titanes feature several professional wrestling matches, with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed 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 wrestling matches.[24][25]
^Madigan, Dan (2007). "El nacimient de un sueño (the birth of a dream)". Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 41–50. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.