Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Lucha Libre, at last!

It has been way too long since I have sat down and updated everyone on what the heck we have been up to. The days just fly by and by the time I realize it, we've been out all day and it's time for bed.

Lucha Libre - "Free" Wrestling is an embedded cultural event all over Mexico. Good versus evil is a worldwide theme with great appeal, and Lucha delivers!

We had seen posters up before for the Lucha Libre, and we had been once in Mexico City but had not yet been in Oaxaca. A friend of ours had been and said it had been good fun, so off we went to buy tickets.
See that little black square? Cut out of the poster? 
In such typical fashion, the place where the ticket booth used to be was bricked up, and you had to bang on the large metal door and then a young woman opened the little peep window shown in the pic above, asking what we wanted. After she established what we were after, the large door swung wide and we were ushered into a large office and bought 8 tickets for the third row. Third row is important as the wrestlers literally come over the barriers into the crowd, so unless you are looking for a wrestler in your lap, third row is recommended.

The show was incredible We were early (in typical foreigner fashion) and took the opportunity to get a few fashion shots in while the lighting was good.

Jordan, Tanya & Ralph
Once the show started it was nothing short of close to 4 hours of men in tights being tossed around the ring. Although hard to really pick a favorite, these two guys will be near to my heart forever. I think they were brothers. They arrived in shiny white tights with their granny panty lines showing, man boobs and awesome beer bellies. They were fantastic! Energetic, great use of space and audience, and the love from the crowd was the same love one has for the favorite family uncle. I guess their "shtick" is to accidentally hit each other, which then causes them to argue and then the crowd shouts, "¡BESO!" (KISS!) and the boys give each other a kiss, a little hug, and then continue beating up on the other team.
Before the disrobing...

Do you see what I see? A star, a star...

The Leap. This is where I fell in love.
What more can I say. For 200 pesos per ticket (CDN $15) it was one of the most entertaining, exciting, raw, hysterically funny evenings I have had in a long time. If you have the chance to check one out somewhere in Mexico, go!