La Copa Junior (2006) (Spanish for "The Junior Cup") was a professional wrestling tournament produced and scripted by the Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLLl; Spanish "World Wrestling Council"). The tournament took place on March 21, 2006 in Arena México in Mexico City, Mexico. CMLL's recurring La Copa Junior tournament featured second, third or fourth generation wrestlers completing against each other. The 2006 version of the La Copa Junior was the third tournament held by CMLL. Due to the fact that all 15 matches took place in one night all matches were under 10 minutes in length. The finals had Dos Caras Jr. defeat Héctor Garza in what was Garza's second La Copa Junior finale defeat.[1]
Starting in 1996 the Mexican professional wrestling promotionConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre ("World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) held their first ever La Copa Junior tournament. CMLL held the tournament to celebrate the fact that lucha libre in Mexico is often a family tradition, with a large number of second, third, or even fourth generation wrestlers following the footsteps of their relatives.[2] The premise of the tournament is that all participants are second-generation or more, although at times the family relationship is a storylines family relationship and not an actual one. One example of this is Dragón Rojo Jr. being billed as the grandson of Dragón Rojo, when in reality that is simply a storyline created by CMLL.[3] The original La Copa Junior was won by Héctor Garza.[4]
CMLL would not hold another La Copa Junior until the 2005 tournament (won by Shocker),[5] followed by a 2006 tournament won by Dos Caras Jr.[1] The tournament did not return until 2010 where Dragón Rojo Jr. won the 2010 version.[6] In 2012 third-generation luchadorLa Sombra won the Junior cup[7]
In 2014, CMLL held two La Copa Junior tournaments, first a tournament on January 1, won by Super Halcón Jr.,[8] followed by a VIP tournament, featuring higher card wrestlers than the usual tournaments, which was won by Máximo[9] The semi-regular tournament returned in 2016, won by Esfinge[10] In 2017, Soberano Jr. won the La Copa Junior Nuevos Valores[11][12]
Storylines
The tournament featured a number of 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]
↑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. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3. featuring clearly distinguished good guys and bad guys, or técnicos and rudos
↑"Statistics for Professional wrestlers". PWI Presents: 2008 Wrestling Almanac and Book of Facts. Kappa Publications. pp. 66–79. 2008 Edition.
↑ 15.015.1"Los Brazo Familia Ejemplar / The Brazo a Model Family". Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling. Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. 2005. pp. 187–190. ISBN968-6842-48-9.
↑"Luchas 2000". La Dinastia Wagner (in Spanish). Juárez, Mexico: Publicaciones citem, S.A. de C.V. pp. 1–35. Especial 23.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)