Mexican pro wrestling gains fans in Australia
The dashing color and festive spirit of Mexican professional wrestling is becoming all the rage in Australia, where hundreds of fans gather around the ring to shout their support for characters like "Capo Diablo" and "Chupa Cabra."
In Australia the sport sticks to the rules and regulations of Mexican "lucha libre," as this style of professional freestyle wrestling is known that includes showy masks, music, folklore and "above all a lot of fun and partying," organizer Victor Gil Diaz told Efe.
"But what obviously attracts Australians are the masks," Gil Diaz said, adding that when he started selling handicrafts in Melbourne, his customers thought they were related to some kind of Mexican sex fetish.
"And that's how Australians started asking me about Mexican pro wrestling, through the masks," the 38-year-old Mexican said.
Grappling in Mexican wrestling events in Melbourne are a dozen masked wrestlers wearing capes, tights, and sometimes metallic-colored SHORTS, who fight each other with blows and punches, kicks, chokeholds and spectacular aerial maneuvers.
The audience, previously revved up by Mexican music, goes wild over the sport that began in 2013 in this city, and now includes that typically rough crowd that roots for the villains.
The wrestlers in Melbourne are young men ages 20-35, with muscular bodies and acrobatic skills, with mostly Anglo ancestors but also of Philippine, Greek, Italian and Lebanese descent, and even some from isles of the Pacific.
One of them is Josh, who has adopted the character of the mythical monster Chupa Cabra, which he interprets as a kind of green reptile with enormous eyes and green hair on his chest, capable of taking on one of his most fearful enemies, the devilish Capo Diablo.
"It all began four years ago when I was 17. I realized I wasn't who I wanted to be. I liked the atmosphere - the acrobatics, the storytelling, the mythical creatures," the Australian wrestler, who speaks not a word of Spanish, told Efe.
Mexican pro wrestling shows began here two years ago "to celebrate the battle of May 5, 1862, when the troops of Napoleon III came to Mexico to conquer us and we Mexicans kicked them out in just 24 hours," Gil Diaz said.
"But what obviously attracts Australians are the masks," Gil Diaz said, adding that when he started selling handicrafts in Melbourne, his customers thought they were related to some kind of Mexican sex fetish." LOL I had to check and make sure this wasnt written by Kayfabe news . - Slayer_x
