See Perez Hilton In A Dress... (Mexican Wrestling (Luche Libre))

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Mexican Wrestling (Luche Libre)
Date:	03/12/08 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Entertaining, and skillfull

Disadvantages: No cameras allowed in (technically)

If a friend in the UK invited me to go to a live wrestling match, I might suddenly find myself unavailable. I might have a prior engagement. I might unfortunately have to work. I might even be washing my hair. However, things are different here (Lucha Libre is the second biggest sport in Mexico, only beaten by football), and when one is in Mexico, one must do as the Mexicans do and take in the odd Lucha Libre fight or two. Actually, that's not true. I told some of my (Mexican) students I'd gone to LL, and they were horrified. Many of them had never been themselves, would never dream of going, and were surprised I survived being surrounded by 'nacos' for several hours. So let's just say, when one is in Mexico, one must do as the other foreign tourists and slightly dubious locals do, and take in the odd LL fight. Wrestling itself, does not interest me. Gymnastic wrestling in pretty sequinned masks, on the other hand, is worth a look.

There are a few venues in the city where you can take in a LL fight but the most popular is Arena Mexico which seats over 16,000 people. It is close to the centre, and the nearest Metro is Cuauhtémoc. Fights start at 8.30pm but many people are there earlier, and the streets are packed with stands where you can buy souvenirs. I am supremely tempted to return to buy one of the masks since it will solve any fancy-dress-party-crisis for the foreseeable future. Some people clearly did not even need such a party as an excuse, and were wearing their masks proudly in the street and inside the arena.

We went on a Friday night, arrived 20 mins before the start and had no trouble getting tickets even though an important fighter person was making an appearance that night. There are scalpers selling tickets on the streets as you approach, but the box office almost always has seats available right up until show time, or you can buy in advance through Mexican Ticketmaster, though the usual horrendously high booking fees apply. Tickets range from 30 pesos (£1.50) to 300 pesos (£15) and we opted for the 100 pesos ones. We ended up sitting upstairs (but not right up in the Gods) and had a great view). As we settled into our seats, and for most of the night, people came round selling food and drinks. As well as the usual suspects (beer, soft drinks, popcorn, ice cream) you could also get individual Dominos's Pizzas which was rather random.

Fights generally run twice a week, and the set-up is usually the same. There will be 4 or 5 individual fights which each have a few rounds. They start with some warmer-upers and with each round, the fighters get better, and/or more popular. The fighters, or "Luchadores" work in teams of 2 or 3 though sometimes it looks like they're all just fighting each other. The team set-up does however allow them to catch a breath in between (or peel themselves off the floor, as the case may be). The fights trade on the age-old idea of good vs evil. The good guys, or Técnicos, are 'good' because they play by the rules while the Rudos do exactly the opposite though it was hard to tell who was who.

There were 5 "fights" the night we went, featuring pairs and trios. I say "fights" because some of the rounds were so obviously choreographed. They were entertaining, but you did feel as if you were watching some sort of acrobatic show rather than a no holds barred fighting match. "Lucha Libre" technically means "Free fight" but it was far from this, and as one commentator puts it, the set-up is really "Part sport, part acrobatic act, part soap opera". . I haven't seen much if any proper wrestling before, but I have seen a great deal of acrobatics, and I was really impressed with theses guys. Think of it as a trip to see some quasi-Olympic gymnasts / Cirque de Soleil acrobats flying through the air instead of a wrestling match or 5, and you might find it more appealing. The fighting may be staged, but the twists, turns and tumbles are all real. Of course, the sequined head-gear only adds to the impression that you're watching a theatrical spectacular rather than a grubby sports match.

Audience participation is a big part of the experience. A lot of the action takes place outside the boxing ring, with opponents throwing each other over, onto the floor, and chasing each other up and down stairs and into and out of the crowd. Even though you began to understand that this was part of the act after it happened a few times, the audience still went "Ooooh" every time one of the fighters went thump onto the arena floor. I taught a class on swearing the week before going, and set my students a (not-very-English related) homework of bringing me a list of Spanish swear words to learn, since I am keen to, ahem, expand my vocabulary. Let's just say that I heard an awful lot of those words during my time in the Arena, where groups of friends, and families with children, would be cursing the fighters loudly and joyfully. It's not a place to go if you're easily upset by bad language (unless your Spanish is totally non-existent) but it was fun rather than offensive, and certainly gave the place an atmosphere.

We were very excited on arrival to discover that Máximo would be fighting that night. Looking a bit like Perez Hilton in a Gladiator dress, he is a hilariously camp character who bitch slaps his opponents during the fight, and kisses them smack on the lips at the end. We also saw Místico, who was headlining the event, though from my virgin eyes he didn't seem all that much more impressive than those who fought before him, though he did demand a more impressive cheer on entering the arena.

One of the biggest annoyances for me was that you cannot take cameras into the Arena. You are searched on the way in, and if they find one, they make you surrender it to the camera lockers in the entrance. What annoyed me was that dozens of people had taken cameras in with them, finding some way to sneak them past security, and once inside no one cared. One of our group suspended his camera down the front of this jeans and managed to get away with it, but not wanting to look too much like a pre-op transsexual I decided the bulging crotch look was not for me, so handed mine in.

Despite this, we had an ace time. The fights were entertaining, not gory or violent. The atmosphere was friendly. The seats were great (and cheap). The popcorn flowed freely. It made a change from hitting a bar or yet another ex-pat party. I know that fighting doesn't appeal to a lot of people, but Lucha Libre is different. It is as much an acrobatic show as anything else, and a trip is definitely recommended.


To get a taste of LL from a distance, you could try:

- The Jack Black film Nacho Libre
- Episode 6 / Season 5 of Angel (the Buffy spin off)
- The cartoon ¡Mucha Lucha! which airs / aired in the UK on CITV
- The Cartoon Network show El Santo
- Any of dozens of videos of live matches currently available on YouTube (including some of our ol' Perez lookalike)

Summary: Acrobatics in pretty sequinned masks...don't be fooled by the wrestling name