Lucha Libre

Last night, in the spirit of embracing Mexican culture totally and completely, I went to a professional wrestling event. When my friend asked me if I wanted to go see "Lucha Libre", I honestly thought it was the Spanish translation of the Jack Black film "Nacho Libre". Little did I know that I was in for the experience of a lifetime.

I've seen the signs that wrestling is a big deal in Mexican culture. When you browse the merchandise being peddled on the street, there's always at least one kiosk of wrestler's masks in a myriad of colors and patterns. I almost bought one once, just for fun. To be clear, when I say wrestling, I mean WWF/WCW/WWE/WTF? style, television driven, redneck fan base, sweaty, fake, man on man action inside a boxing ring with a softer floor and microphones to amplify the sound of man hitting mat. Not to be sexist, I also mean the kind with the occasional testosterone-saturated woman with fighting under a name like Rain or Luscious Lisa Fury.

We took a taxi to the Monterrey Arena, a large structure not unlike Phillips Arena in Atlanta, slightly smaller, but with events that are just as important (e.g. the upcoming Rhianna concert). We stopped and when I was halfway out the door, Andrea chimed in from the back seat, "oh no, I'm sorry, not the Arena de Monterrey, the Colisuem de Monterrey. " I got back in the cab and five minutes later we rolled up to a shabby looking building in quite the un-inviting neighborhood where the Lucha Libre was to take place.

I paid about five bucks (worth every peso) for a ticket and nervously waited for the rest of the group to enter. We arrived late (as everyone does for everything in Mexico) so when I walked in the lucha was in full force. I imagine that it was the exact same as being ringside at an HBO featured world title boxing match, only that the HBO was the live feed to the in house not-quite-so-jumbotron, the world class boxers were pretty normal looking Mexican dudes aging from 20-45, and ringside was more or less the only seating option. These warriors adorned garments ranging from almost semi-professional grade to blatantly homemade. Some examples include sparkly white body suit, red man-capris with skin tight red shirt (almost the same shade, but not quite), black body suit with flames and matching mask, Mexican flag themed sparkly suit, dude dressed like Jason - mask included, and black body suit complete with neon accessories such as hearts, skulls, and letters that read "Sex Machine" on the rear. Obviously the last one was my favorite.

We had an extremely good time yelling all kinds of things from the close proximity of the stands and the wrestlers were surprisingly interactive. Once I ran out of Spanish trash to talk (about 2 sayings into things...) I switched to English language insults like "The red guy failed kindergarten! TWICE." (Credit: Austing Grieb). Somehow, our antics garnered the attention of some people making a short video to air on Mexican cable TV this coming saturday, and they deemed it a good idea to interview us. In response to the question "how is lucha libre different from wrestling in America?" I rambled, in broken Spanish, something along the lines of "In America its just for television, but here it seems to be more a way of life." And I meant it.

In conclusion, taking into account all the sporting events I've been to in my life - the Georgia Blackout, the Thrashers, the Atlanta Knights, The 1996 Paralympic track and field finals - I must say that this was easily the best night of sport I have ever experienced.