La Esquina del Dolor...
1.- INTRODUCTION
What is lucha libre?
Wrestling was introduced in Mexico more than 60 years ago by american wrestlers, soon, mexican wrestlers emerged and the sprot adapted to the county's culture and physical characteristics of its people, and thus, Lucha Libre was born. The Lucha style is more acrobatic and 'choreographed' than the US wrestling, mexican 'luchadores' combine olympic, amateur and greco-roman style wrestling, with acrobatics, martial arts and regular 'wrestling'.
What about the masks?
The masks were also introduced in Mexico by american wrestlers, but unlike in the US, in Mexico the mask became HUGE. I could go to do an anthropologyst impersonation and said they come from the aztecs or something, but I'm not an anthropologyst and I don't think the masks are related in any way to that aspect, or at least not very importantly related.
I think the masks and colorfull outfit was needed before to acomplish some degree of identity, when the comunication media was not as developed as it is today, most information was done 'grapevine' style or through publications such as newspaper or magazine, most of them with bad quality pictures. So imagine you wanted to describe el Santo( with no, what would you said? " He is a guy, this high, this way built, dark skined, black hair, dark eyes...". That description will cover 80% of the mexican people!!!! On the other hand, saying "he is a wrestler who uses a silver mask" and that is unique.
Therefore, losing a mask means losing the persona, something that persisted in 'lucha subculture' util today.
Mask : TAPA, CAPUCHA, ANTIFAZ, or figuratively speaking : IDENTIDAD (as in 'revelo su identidad') or INCOGNITA (as in 'perdio la incognita')
Lucha Rules.-
Many people say that Lucha Rules! But as far as the rules go, they are almost the same as in any other country, that's why mexican wrestlers can go to any fed to work, and many foreign wrestres are contracted as well in mexican promotions.
One of the most recognozible characteristics about lucha is how the match themselves are presented, in the US, most matches are singles action, with tag team sometimes present. In Mexico, Trios (6 men tag) and Cuartetos (8 men tag) are the most used formats, and are now as 'relevos australianos' and 'relevos atomicos'. I guess this is because at some point, there were too many good wrestlers so promoters had to include as many as they could.
The 2 out of 3 fall is also a big difference with respect to US or even Japanese wrestling. The three falls allows the wrestlers to have the rythm and a pace that identifies Lucha, 'squashes' and 'upset pins' are almost avoided with this format, and I think that many mexican wrestlers have trouble adapting to the 'one fall only' when they go to another country.
(other aspects of the rules will be explained later)
Rudos o Tecnicos
It can easily be explained as : Rudos= Heels, bad guys. Tecnicos= babyfaces, good guys. It easy, but it is wrong, well, not wrong, it is unaccurate. More thatn anything, Rudo/Tecnico are wrestling styles, the Tecnico style consits of high-flyier, high-risk, counter moves,[ planchas, topes, dropkicks, hurracaranas] while the Rudo uses power-high-impact moves, summision holds and just plain brawling. [powerbombs, powerslams]
I DO NOT HAVE a book with wrestling rules with me, but it has been aknowledged by 'luchadores' and commentators that the rules accept the differences in the wrestling styles, so the Rudos are not only expected to do what they do, but they HAVE to brawl. They can not break the rules (unless the referee is not watching, of course!), but they can blend them a lot, so triple teaming and more kicking and 'punching' is allowed by them. What do the Tecnicos get from this? Tecnicos break rules as well, for instance, the rulebook says that 'all action must take place inside the ring, or else there will be inmediate DQ' so any plancha or tope that goes over the ropes should be forbidden, but the tecnicos never get DQ with that (and I guess the rules should also say that the rudo has to be there waiting to catch the tecnico)
Therefore, all referees should be heel by default, as they have to apply the rules with more vigor to the tecnicos while forgiving somethings to the rudos. In addition to 'rudos' referees, there are 'rudos' commentators, and are opposed by 'tecnicos' companions.
Lucha moves
Some of the moves wich are most common to lucha:
Huracarrana It can be described as a pin that starts with one wrestler riding on an opponent's shoulders, and they 'flips' down to get the pin. The pin looks like a 'shool-girl/boy" pin but traping the opponent's legs with the arms. That move is done with the wrestler riding and looking the opposite direction that his opponent.There is another move which is called also 'huracarrana', but that one starts with the rider looking in the same direction than the wrestler tahat is about to be pinned, the pin ends diferent, but I'm not eloquent enough to descrive it here.
Plancha is a flying body press.
Tope a headbutt, (suicida) flying tope.
Cuatro or Cruceta A 4 figure leg lock (there are also to the arms)
Tijeras This move consiste of holding the opponent with the legs, swing the body to gain momentum and throw the opponent away.
La de a caballo Camel's clutch, this move is supposed to be created by the legendary Gori Guerrero (Eddy's father) so I guess it shoud be called 'Horse's clutch'.
La tapatia I'm not sure if it is romeo's special or octupus special. This used the be the summision hold of choice.
Quebradora con reguilete Its a backbreaker with spinning.
Desnucadora Many variations of the powerbomb.
Suplex con puente German suplex- usually with pin.
Crunch Bodyslam.
Moves forbidden or rarely seen in Lucha:
Piledrivers are forbidden in lucha, it seems that Death Valley Driver and even Michinoku/Juvi Driver are banned as well.
DDT I don't know if this move is legal in Mexico, but this is almost never done in lucha.
Press Body Slam Is sometimes done, but if the wrestler throws his/her opponent outside of the ring, is a DQ.
Execeso de rudeza Is when wrestler can't respond to attacks, and his/her opponent isntead of pinning him, continues punishing.
Other ways to earn a DQ: Using foreing objects, attacks to the 'family jewels' (low blow, foul), attacking one of the referees, using external help from a wrestler not in the match (run in) and taking opponentīs mask off.
Is this the best wrestling in the world?
Five years ago... maybe, right now, it is not in its best shape, problems between diferent promotions have damaged lucha a lot, and some of the young top talent has emigrated out of Mexico, mainly WCW, where they won't be considered as main eventers.
Still, from a tecnichal point of view, it is very good, I might say that 80% of the wrestler know and can perform 80% of the moves, so 'five moves of doom' type wrestlers are not commonly seen in Lucha (but there are some), the real problem is that many feuds and angles were destroyed with the diferent wrestlers going to diferent promotions.
