Pokemon Legends: Z-A's weirdest but best marketing stunt yet sees real wrestlers, cosplaying as Pokemon, duking it out while Pikachu and Eevee cheer on the violence in the background

Pokemon Legends: Z-A launches in less than a month, and you can bet that the marketing is going to ramp up in a big way from here. But no marketing stunt is going to top the game's sponsorship of a historic Mexican wrestling promotion, which delivered cosplaying wrestlers, the delightful sight Pikachu and Eevee cheering from the sidelines, and even a main event far surpassing WWE's latest.

CMLL hosted "Pokémon Leyendas Z-A: Noche de Leyendas" last night at Arena Mexico in Mexico City. The whole two-hour show was streamed for free on YouTube – in fact, you can still watch it all there – and it's one heck of a spectacle. Many of the wrestlers dressed up in Pokemon-inspired ring gear, and the crowd seriously got into the spirit, too.

The highlight was certainly the main event, which saw Team Hawlucha (Mistico, Mascara Dorada, and Titan) take on Team Machamp (Volador Jr., El Barbaro Cavernario, and Hechicero) with leaders donning costumes representing each team's namesake. The best part is arguably the wrestlers coming to the ring while giant Pikachu and Eevee mascots cheer them on from the sidelines, but the match itself was pretty good, too. Prolific wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer gave it a 4-star rating, which was a heck of a lot better than his evaluation of WWE's latest main event.

Pokémon Leyendas Z-A: Noche de Leyendas - YouTube

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Maybe the most notable part of the whole event, however, is just how successful it was. Arena Mexico is a 16,000-seat venue described, so Wikipedia tells me, as the "cathedral of lucha libre," and CMLL is a historic promotion, so you might not expect the old-school wrestling nerds and the Pokemon nerds to crossover especially well. But that's not the case at all.

In fact, as luchablog on Twitter noted back in August, the Pokemon crossover show sold out a full month ahead of time. I can't tell you how that compares to other CMLL events, but selling out a 16,000-seat show on the strength of some popular luchadores donning their best Pokemon looks seems like one heck of a feat.

I've been playing Pokemon for 17 years, but Pokemon Legends: Z-A makes me feel like I'm relearning everything I knew about battles in the best way possible.