Wrestling is a sport that has stood the test of time and is a part of Mexico’s popular culture. Wrestling is a combination of sport and dramatic elements that is the most popular sport-show in Mexico, second only to soccer.
Although the history of Lucha libre originated with the Greeks and was included in the Olympic Games, it was also practiced by Mesoamerican people. As evidenced by sculptures of Olmec warriors, the warriors exercised through battles, primarily body to body.
Mexican wrestling is distinguished by its swift submissions and high acrobatics, as well as perilous jumps out of the ring; several of these skills have spread outside Mexico. Many of its wrestlers are masked, which means they wear a mask to conceal their true identity and project an image that gives them a distinct personality. The world and history of Lucha libre are vast, and we’re so happy to share some of it with you.
The Origin of Mexican Wrestling
The first wrestling matches in Mexico were held as foreign exhibits in the middle of the nineteenth century, under the French incursion. Later, in 1863, Enrique Ugartechea established himself as the first Mexican wrestler and laid the groundwork for what would become Mexican wrestling, but it wasn’t until 1922, when Salvador Lutteroth, a former Revolutionary War lieutenant and now regarded the father of wrestling, founded the Mexican Wrestling Company, which is now known as the World Wrestling Council.
The Arena Mexico, the major house of wrestling in Mexico was inaugurated by this business in September 1933, featuring as the first event the legendary match between the mighty Irish wrestler Ciclón McKay and Yaqui Joe, who was touted as Mexico’s lone world champion wrestler.
Mexican wrestling began to develop its own methods, acrobatics, regulations, and culture from this point forward, steadily gaining popularity. Jumps out of the ring, keys at ground level, and the use of ropes to catapult themselves are all part of Mexican wrestling’s distinct style, which has been imitated by other countries through time, and you can be part of it on our very Mexican Lucha libre night.
However, it was not until the 1950s that Mexican Lucha libre became truly famous, thanks to the rise of the first professional wrestling legends, like El Santo, Blue Demon, and El Rayo de Jalisco, were born. Their celebrity allowed them to break into the national film industry. El Santo’s story stands out since he directed several films that are now considered jewels of Mexican popular cinematography.
The Meaning Behind The Mexican Wrestlingmasks
Mexican wrestling is mostly distinguished by the usage of masks. Wrestlers typically use masks to characterize themselves and take on personas that aid in the creation of a character. The wrestlers’ masks are thought to have originated in a pre-Columbian tale. Historians claim that Toltec and Mayan soldiers wore animal masks like jaguars, eagles, or coyotes when fighting against other tribes in order to scare the opponent. Wrestlers took up the notion of resurrecting the pre-Columbian past by designing identities that would allow them to fight anonymously and terrify the opponent during the bout.
In a more contemporary context in 1933, when Salvador Lutteroth, the founder of Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libra, saw a young man called Corbin James Massey wrestling in Texas, which caught his attention and brought him to Mexico under the alias Cyclone MacKey. When the young American returned to the United States in 1934, he did not want to be recognized, so he asked Don Antonio Torres a man who was dedicated to making wrestling shoes to construct a mask to keep his identity secret.
The mask was quite uncomfortable, so he returned to Don Antonio Torres to make a new and improved mask. The Mexican took 17 measurements of Massey’s head, which are still the standard for today’s masks. While fighting masked in the national ring under the moniker “La Maravilla Enmascarada” (The Masked Wonder), the young American wrestler began to write a very important part of the history of Lucha libre that would become a tradition in Mexico.
After MacKey, the first Mexican wrestler to wear a mask was Murciélago Velázquez, who began using a mask that was entirely black; however, it was not until the 1950s that Mexican wrestlers began to popularize the use of the mask, giving rise to legends such as El Santo, Blue Demon, and Huracan Ramirez.
El Santo wrestler-A Mexican Legend
It’s been 100 years since the birth of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, El Santo, a man who became an icon of Mexican popular culture. El Santo belongs to popular Mexican mythology, on one hand as a pancratium artist of the ring with 40 years battling battles, but above all, El Santo stepped out of the ring to become a Mexican superhero and maybe the only film genre that Mexico has developed, wrestling cinema.
It’s been 100 years since the birth of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, El Santo, a man who became an icon of Mexican popular culture. El Santo belongs to popular Mexican mythology, as a pancratium artist of the ring with 40 years battling battles, but above all, El Santo stepped out of the ring to become a Mexican superhero and maybe the only film genre that Mexico has developed, wrestling cinema.
The wrestler genre, which coincided with the rise of Mexican cinema, was born in 1952, and although El Santo was not the first wrestler to act in a film, he was the one who popularized this subcategory.
El Santo is described as the rite of poverty, of brawling consolations within the great disconsolation in a country lacking real heroes, something he was on the two screens, the small and the big one, behind the radio, above the ring and in real life.
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