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sample article - gringo gazette
This article first appeared in a March 2007 issue of The Gringo Gazette, based out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Mexican Wrestling Slams Into Town
Lucha libre event delivers slapstick entertainment amidst the mayhem
Drop kicks, leg locks, and body slams; grown men in masks and leotards flinging insults as they bounce around inside a ring; audience members shouting as if it was the second coming. Welcome to the brainless fun of Mexican wrestling, otherwise known as lucha libre!
Los Cabos is abuzz with a current series of smackdowns in both San Jose and Cabo. Ok, it ain't Wrestlemania, but for this area, it’s the next best thing. And, even if wrestling ain’t your cup of tea, you owe it to yourself to witness this bastion of Mexican sports culture at least once in your life, right?
Lucha libre has been popularized for American audiences in large part due to the recent Hollywood comedy Nacho Libre , starring Jack Black as a cook in a Mexican orphanage who moonlights as a wrestler or luchador to help raise money for the orphans. Lucha libre events are not as heartwarming as this storyline but they are certainly just as hilarious and entertaining.
If you had a sharp eye, you may have noticed the street posters and ads painted on walls and sides of vans heralding the event on February 17 in Cabo at the Plaza de Toros (the bull ring on the way out to San Jose, across from the soccer field). The main event pitted a formidably sounding Super Parka and his partner Winner against Misterioso Jr. and his mate H. de Cien Caras (Man of 100 Faces).
The event, according to the promotional material, was to have started at 7 p.m. but did not commence until well after 8. For a measly 100 pesos, however, fans were treated to four exciting matches; all of them tag team bouts. A couple of the teams even decided to hold bonus rematches.
There was enough seating for perhaps a couple of hundred people in rows of white plastic chairs surrounding the wrestling ring. Outer rows of seats surrounding the bull ring itself provided sufficient additional seating.
Upon arriving, there were swarms of kids tumbling around on the mat, most of them donning the trademark lucha libre masks. They were going to town on some helpless adult in a cowboy hat and a white leather jacket with tassels. The man was visibly intoxicated and stumbling around with a bandaged right thumb, playfully fending off child attackers. The spectacle had most of us in stitches within minutes; women were cackling like hens a few rows back.
It was fantastic to see families and spectators, both young and old, laughing and enjoying the bombastic buffoonery. Lucha libre is typically marked with a lessened emphasis on power moves as in the professional wrestling circuits in the United States or Canada. Instead, it focuses on rapid sequences of holds and moves, as well as spectacular high-flying stunts. It is a ballet of pseudo-force, perhaps a severe form of gymnastics, punctuated by flips through the air and appendages contorting to deliver and escape from mission holds and neck vices.
In spite of the healthy turnout, there was a noticeable absence of gringos at the event. There was, however, a young Australian couple who enjoyed themselves immensely. It is not difficult to quickly sink into the intensity of such an event as audience members go absolutely loco, screaming out catcalls and obscenities. Something about a mother was uttered by one of the wrestlers that sent his opponent chasing off after him into the bull ring stands where he received righteous headbutts into the benches.
Lucha libre is an interactive event. Wrestlers poise on turnbuckles and raise their arms high above them, seeking affirmation from the crowd. “Applauso!” encouragingly bellows the ringside barker. Fans scatter from their seats as men fly through the air, landing in a bedlam of plastic chairs and beer cans of reasonably priced Modelo. Crowds rush around and follow the masked luchadors whenever they spill out of the ring. Even the referees get in on the action. One ref in the headline match actually pinned the fan-favored Misterioso in victory and no one officially appealed the ruling.
The outfits were equally hilarious. Truly, it takes a special man to dress in a bumble bee outfit! The Rasta Men in colorful Jamaican hemp hats and dreadlocks were a lark, and Super Parka in a skeleton outfit pole dancing by the turnbuckles was classic raunch.
Following the matches, the luchadors interacted with the crowd, posing for photos, tussling hair on little heads and signing autographs. The losers of the matches didn’t appear too sore with their losses, back-slapping their opponents and smiling, basking in the pure jocularity of it all. Besides, there’s always next time.
The next lucha libre event in Cabo is scheduled for March 10 at the Bull Ring (Plaza de Toros) where Super Parka and Winner will face off against Perro Aguayo Jr. (son of the legendary luchador Perro Aguayo) and Damian 666. See you there, if you dare!
Mexican Wrestling Slams Into Town
Lucha libre event delivers slapstick entertainment amidst the mayhem
Drop kicks, leg locks, and body slams; grown men in masks and leotards flinging insults as they bounce around inside a ring; audience members shouting as if it was the second coming. Welcome to the brainless fun of Mexican wrestling, otherwise known as lucha libre!
Los Cabos is abuzz with a current series of smackdowns in both San Jose and Cabo. Ok, it ain't Wrestlemania, but for this area, it’s the next best thing. And, even if wrestling ain’t your cup of tea, you owe it to yourself to witness this bastion of Mexican sports culture at least once in your life, right?
Lucha libre has been popularized for American audiences in large part due to the recent Hollywood comedy Nacho Libre , starring Jack Black as a cook in a Mexican orphanage who moonlights as a wrestler or luchador to help raise money for the orphans. Lucha libre events are not as heartwarming as this storyline but they are certainly just as hilarious and entertaining.
If you had a sharp eye, you may have noticed the street posters and ads painted on walls and sides of vans heralding the event on February 17 in Cabo at the Plaza de Toros (the bull ring on the way out to San Jose, across from the soccer field). The main event pitted a formidably sounding Super Parka and his partner Winner against Misterioso Jr. and his mate H. de Cien Caras (Man of 100 Faces).
The event, according to the promotional material, was to have started at 7 p.m. but did not commence until well after 8. For a measly 100 pesos, however, fans were treated to four exciting matches; all of them tag team bouts. A couple of the teams even decided to hold bonus rematches.
There was enough seating for perhaps a couple of hundred people in rows of white plastic chairs surrounding the wrestling ring. Outer rows of seats surrounding the bull ring itself provided sufficient additional seating.
Upon arriving, there were swarms of kids tumbling around on the mat, most of them donning the trademark lucha libre masks. They were going to town on some helpless adult in a cowboy hat and a white leather jacket with tassels. The man was visibly intoxicated and stumbling around with a bandaged right thumb, playfully fending off child attackers. The spectacle had most of us in stitches within minutes; women were cackling like hens a few rows back.
It was fantastic to see families and spectators, both young and old, laughing and enjoying the bombastic buffoonery. Lucha libre is typically marked with a lessened emphasis on power moves as in the professional wrestling circuits in the United States or Canada. Instead, it focuses on rapid sequences of holds and moves, as well as spectacular high-flying stunts. It is a ballet of pseudo-force, perhaps a severe form of gymnastics, punctuated by flips through the air and appendages contorting to deliver and escape from mission holds and neck vices.
In spite of the healthy turnout, there was a noticeable absence of gringos at the event. There was, however, a young Australian couple who enjoyed themselves immensely. It is not difficult to quickly sink into the intensity of such an event as audience members go absolutely loco, screaming out catcalls and obscenities. Something about a mother was uttered by one of the wrestlers that sent his opponent chasing off after him into the bull ring stands where he received righteous headbutts into the benches.
Lucha libre is an interactive event. Wrestlers poise on turnbuckles and raise their arms high above them, seeking affirmation from the crowd. “Applauso!” encouragingly bellows the ringside barker. Fans scatter from their seats as men fly through the air, landing in a bedlam of plastic chairs and beer cans of reasonably priced Modelo. Crowds rush around and follow the masked luchadors whenever they spill out of the ring. Even the referees get in on the action. One ref in the headline match actually pinned the fan-favored Misterioso in victory and no one officially appealed the ruling.
The outfits were equally hilarious. Truly, it takes a special man to dress in a bumble bee outfit! The Rasta Men in colorful Jamaican hemp hats and dreadlocks were a lark, and Super Parka in a skeleton outfit pole dancing by the turnbuckles was classic raunch.
Following the matches, the luchadors interacted with the crowd, posing for photos, tussling hair on little heads and signing autographs. The losers of the matches didn’t appear too sore with their losses, back-slapping their opponents and smiling, basking in the pure jocularity of it all. Besides, there’s always next time.
The next lucha libre event in Cabo is scheduled for March 10 at the Bull Ring (Plaza de Toros) where Super Parka and Winner will face off against Perro Aguayo Jr. (son of the legendary luchador Perro Aguayo) and Damian 666. See you there, if you dare!
joceandennie |
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