Over 60 years ago in 1934, retired Army Colonel Salvador Lutteroth returned to Mexico after fighting in the revolutionary war. He brought with him a new form of entertainment: Lucha-Libre or "free fighting", the Mexican version of pro wrestling.
Mexico in the 1930's was incredibly poor, and this new and relatively inexpensive form of entertaiment proved to be an extremely popuar diversion for Mexico City's common man. It was a near instant success as young and old flocked to enormous, government owned sports arenas, to watch their favorite luchadors do battle.
Through the thirties and early forties, almost all of these luchadors were American, and the country had very little infuence on the style of the sport. It was pro wrestling, the same in Mexico as it was in the States: one on one matches, showcasing a lot of mat-wrestling and submission holds. But in the mid forties this began to change.
As the smaller, more agile Mexican wrestlers began to take over the sport, it became quicker paced, more acrobatic, and much more "choreographed". They took olympic wrestling and combined it with gymnastics and martial arts to create their own unique product. Instead of the slower paced, traditional one on one matches, (which are very rare) they preferred tag team, trios, and atomicos (4 on 4) matches. A popular favorite was, (and still is), a five on five match with captains, very similar to the WWF's "Survivor Series"! Needless to say, their's was a much faster-paced and exiting variant, and "true" Lucha-Libre was born.
Lucha-Libre is now Mexico's second most popular spectator sport after soccer. On any given night it can be seen in at least ten arenas across Mexico City. It has spawned its own genre of action movies, dozens of magazines, and the most watched weekly TV shows. Legitimate newspapers have entire sections devoted to lucha-libre, and report the outcome of the previous night's fights! And now in the nineties, it's fever is spreading north of the border. After all, with athletes like Juvi, Rey Jr, Psicosis, and even Kidman flinging their bodies all over the ring and defying the laws of gravity, who's gonna mark out for Flair's figure 4, or worse, Hogan's legdrop?....Not me.
For a great intro to lucha libre, Click Here
