In Lucha libre, the Mexican version of professional wrestling, the Ruleta de la Muerte ("Roulette of Death") is a type of professional wrestling tournament where the loser or losers of a match would advance in the tournament instead of the winners. The finals of a Ruleta de la Muerte tournament featured the losing teams wrestle each other under Lucha de Apuestas, or "bet match" rules, where the loser would be forced to either unmask or have all their hair shaved off as a result. Various Mexican promotions have held Ruleta de la Muerte tournaments; some like International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG - sometimes referred to as Grupo Internacional Revolución in Mexico) have held these tournaments on a regular basis.
The first documented IWRG-promoted Ruleta de la Muerte tournament was held in 1998 with Mega defeating Judo Suwa, forcing Suwa to be shaved bald as a result. Since the first tournament, IWRG has held at least six additional Ruleta de la Muerte tournaments with a total of eight wrestlers being shaved bald as a result: Suwa, Dr. Cerebro, Chico Che, Temerario Infernal, Oficial AK-47, Bugambiglia, Eterno and X-Fly. While masked wrestlers have participated in the tournaments, none have lost their mask as a result. In 2009 IWRG began using the Ruleta de la Muerte as the name of the entire event as well and not just the tournament. Since 2009 IWRG has been held a total of six times, with the most recent being the 2019 Ruleta de la Muerte show.