But not 50% of Brock Lesnar. That’s still like 2000% beast. I’m pretty sure that dude could kill me by blinking.
I remember being really confused the first time I watched lucha libre and somebody got DQ’d for tearing his opponent’s mask off. It was the CMLL show that used to air on the Fight Network in Canada, where the commentary was done by British guys and all of the matches were several years old. Actually MOST of lucha libre was confusing the first time I watched it. “Why doesn’t the pin end the match? Why are those guys just standing there waiting to get jumped on? Why did he start running the ropes because he was gently nudged at them? Who’s blowing that airhorn and how can I have him killed?” It’s really only in the last year or so that I’ve been able to get a grasp on lucha, which has been good timing, because I got to watch a LOT of excellent Barbaro Cavernario matches. Oh, and that whole Ultimo Guerrero vs. Atlantis mask match thing. That was preeeeetty good.
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Lucha was confusing for me as well and I grew up in Mexico. The weirdest thing has always been the bumps into the rope and the faces standing on the apron while the three heels beat up one guy. Then that guy gets beat up, another face comes in, gets beat up and repeat. Never understood while they wouldn’t just have two faces down on the outside while a heel keeps them down and the other two beat up the legal man in the ring. Kind of like the Shield in 6man matches.
Lucha Libre requires a lot of suspension of disbelief.
That’s interesting that the suspension of disbelief in lucha is an issue in Mexico as well. I was operating under the assumption that, for whatever reason, the Mexican audience just sort of knew how to roll with it.
You get used to it but even as a kid (9+) you can tell what requires both people to work and what doesn’t. The fact that Lucha Libre is basically a superhero show while American Wrestling is an athletic competition requires the larger suspension of disbelief but it is easier to get into the disbelief than with american wrestling since heroes are heroes and villains are villains or many weird booking decisions. No Roman Reigns Royal Fumble or Daniel Bryan being called a turd by fellow babyfaces.
At least from my experience.
Oh that’s interesting, I wasn’t aware that lucha didn’t have the “we’re pretending this is a legitimate sport” aspect to it.
I’ve heard AAA is more Americanized than CMLL, is that accurate?
I’ve believe so. I know AAA would be considered the closer one to style to WWE but it’s similar to NJPW that’s it looks WWE with the flash but works traditionally with simple beloved heroes vs hated villains.
Lucha is treated like a real sport to a certain degree but overall its more about pride and tradition between heroes and villains than say NWA or AWA but not a much as say Japan. However there’s a sense of stability that WWE or TNA lack. You got heroes, villains, luchadoras, minis, exoticos but at the end of the day its still the traditional Lucha Libre that’s been in Mexico for decades. Everyone is prideful of their craft thanks to the dozen of masked legacies and heroes act like heroes while villains are villains.
That’s really interesting! I also find it fascinating how little information about lucha libre is entering the mainstream of internet wrestling nerdery, even though CMLL has some really fantastic stuff going on right now, and Lucha Underground is creating interest in AAA. When New Japan started to blow up, information about the history of Japanese wrestling was readily available.