Mexican athletes flew through the air, bounced off side ropes, and truly entertained. Lucha Libre London marked the return of Mexican wrestling in the capital as it took over the Roundhouse for a four-night run.
It seems the main space was made for the show, which easily fills it with its larger-than-life characters. Everything down to the music has a distinct personality with an aim to entertain and once MC Gregorio ‘El Caballero Ingles’ step up to the mic it’s non stop entertainment.
Following the classic story of Good v Evil, Lucha Libre’s masked wrestlers battled it out to win – not only the fights, but the affections of the raucous London crowd. It was at once a lot more than I expected (yes the men wear skin-tight masks and even tighter leggings), but that’s just the face of a show that somehow manages to be entertaining, surprising, emotive and also liberating.
I was surprised by how laugh-out-loud funny the show and its many characters proved to be, one of which – the lip-locking, transvestite wrestler Cassandro – was a clear hit with the audience.
The crowd was actually stunned into silence, confused by the muscles, sparkly dress and dancing feet sashaying down the ramp, and within minutes the cheering was as loud as ever as the leader of the exoticos spun through the air, pulling some of the best moves of the night.
“How does he get his hair to sparkle like that?” loudly asked a guy in the crowd as he watched, mesmerised by Cassandro’s stunning theatrics: he literally used his dazed opponent as a balancing beam, gracefully gliding atop the side ropes as if he were on top of a circus tightrope.
However, the biggest surprise of the show was in fact the audience itself: a supposedly orderly and reserved people, the London crowd were dancing, chanting, singing, bonding – free to be as much a part of the evening’s entertainment. Lucha Libre, literally meaning ‘free fight’, creates the perfect combination to make the audience lose all inhibitions and go wild. My personal favourites, screamed over the Mexican rhythms by the crowd, were “Go grandma!” and “He’s short enough to be his son!”.
I have to admit that Lucha Libre had me harking back to my days excitedly sat in front of the TV cheering on the likes of The Rock as he threw his elbow pad into the crowd of screaming fans – yes, I was a wrestling fan. I was twelve, by the way!
Nowadays I’d say I was the last person you’d find screaming like mad at a Mexican wrestling show but the theatrics, sequins, suspense and spectacle of Lucha Libre are all so exciting. Entertainment, theatre and wrestling with flair and flamboyance – there’s nothing like it.
After the show, grown men and women sat at bus stops proudly wearing the famous masks. Self-consciousness and an overwhelming embarrassment most likely kicked in halfway home but who cares? Where else can you catch men dressed in skin-tight leotards, who can dance as well as they can throw a mean right hook? Need I say more?
Lucha Libre London ran at Roundhouse from 6- 9 December.
