On Monday the 12th we went to see Lucha Libre. It doesn’t come to GTO very often so we were very excited to get a chance to go so early in our stay.
It was a spectacular night complete minis (little people lucha wrestlers,) luchadoras (the women lucha wrestlers,) a bunch of goofball wresters and the superstars. The crowd was big and very lively. And of course there were plenty of snacks and merch to buy as well.
We were so excited about Lucha coming to Guanajuato and have been trying to stir up the excitement with the people we regularly see, (mostly baristas and my teachers.) I was beginning to think that no Mexicans were into Lucha. Everyone we tried to impress with our excitement would just shake their head and say, “A mi no me gusta.” One of my teachers actually forbade me from talking about it anymore in my conversation class.
The match was in the baseball stadium and started at 8:30. We sat in the stands. We weren’t super close, but we could see well enough. The wind was blowing hard and by the end, 11pm or so we were quite cold. The wind blew dust storms and a slight aroma of sewage our way, but the excitement and spectacle of each match was enough that we all had a fabulous time.
My poor friend, Satako had to wear her own mask to protect her eyes from the dust.
I have to say there were no big surprises. Mikko and I have done fairly extensive research, which has consisted mainly of watching bootleg DVDs of matches and buying Lucha Libre magazines. We have learned that there are two types of luchadors in each match. There are the RUDOS who are the bad boys, (or girls,) who don’t fight fair and are generally a pretty testy lot. Then there are the TECNICOS, they supposedly follow the rules and try to be the crowd pleasers. We have noticed that almost without fail, the rudos win the first round, of three, and the tecnicos win the next two. The pattern continued on Monday. Some matches were longer, some shorter, some rudos got into arguments with audience members. There was slapstick and impressive acrobatics as well as a lot of rope jumping and bodyslamming. The rudos won each first round and the tecnicos won every match. It is good to have some predictability in life, I suppose.
Los Brazos were the goof balls. They provided the comic relief in the intense night of lucha. (I’m not sure why the picture isn’t there, but play the video, it’s well worth it:
Las mujeres fueron muy buenas y divertidas tambien:
The one disappointment was that the final match, with Misticooooooooo, only lasted about 15 minutes. I was happy to get to see him though, and at that point it was getting so late and cold, I was OK with it.
This is the superstar Mistico. He is wearing a tee shirt because I guess he got a little chilly:
Oh My god!! Who are you people?? I can’t believe that my lucha reports have gotten NO comments.
Come on! Comment on the glory as well as the beauty for god’s sake.
Love, linea
I had often heard of Lucha Libre - but now wish I was there in person to experience this awesome event myself! It’s so cool - the costumes, the characters, crowds, energy and snack food. Was there fried grasshoppers w/chili powder - superheroes love munching on those! What could be better? Nothing, except creating your own Lucha Libre superheros - to take over with their strongness - cleaning up the flood waters of Oregon and pushing all the scary people out of the power - and eating fried grasshoppers.
Thanks Debbe! You’ve got good sense!
I love that you were forbidden to speak of it anymore in class. So funny.
The masks are hella cool.