Lucha en Jaula

Lucha en Juala means a fight inside a cage. Juala means cage.

Cage matches in lucha libre are usually group events. All the members of feuding teams may be fighting against each other at once in a cage match. There are occasional mano a mano cage matches, but the concept is less about keep people out and more about letting everyone involved fight it out in a contained area.

Lucha Libre cage matches mostly use the same basic style of cage seen in other styles of lucha libre. The rules are a bit different.

• No one in allowed to escape from the cage until a set minimum time passes
  • The length of time is set per match, but five minutes is the standard
  • Anyone leaving the cage early is required (and forced) to return to the cage
• Luchadors escape the match by climbing the cage
  • Luchadors are considered out of the cage as soon as their body is over the top of the cage wall. There's no requirement to touch the floor.
  • If there's a door on the cage, it's closed and not allowed for escape
• The method of determining the winner varies between promotions
  • In AAA (and most indy groups), the match continues until there is only one person remaining in the cage. That requirement is not limited to people originally involved in the match; other luchadors may climb into the cage and join in the match at any time, and can end up the loser just the same as those scheduled in participants.
    • This is just as true for referees, who normally stand on the outside of cage matches. If one joins the match, they're treated like any other wrestler. One of the well-known cliches/cheats of AAA is a cage match between many wrestlers ending up with a referee as a loser, after he had climbed in the cage to help the rudos and been left behind.
  • CMLL, relatively new to cage matches, has the last two remaining luchadors fight in a mano a mano single fall match inside the cage. These singles matches are usually brief.
• The winner of a normal cage match is the second to last escapee.

Cage matches do not necessarily have anything on the line. However, they're so often done as hair or mask matches - the last person remaining in the cage loses their hair or their mask - that most cage matches are presumed to have that stipulation. These matches are sometimes called La Jaula de la Muerte (Cage of Death). CMLL has recently run one major cage of death per year, and AAA runs them more frequently.

AAA debuted a domed cage in 2007, with the same cage rules. Even though there are many gaps where a luchador (or a table) can slip thru on the side and bottom of the cage, they're still required to climb out near the top to leave.