As shown in the excellent new one-hour documentary DVD Lucha Libre: Life Behind The Mask, lucha libre isn't just taken seriously by both practitioners and fans in Mexico, it is in fact a way of life.
Although American wrestling fans will tell you that they know lucha libre, the fact is that its exposure here has been quite limited. The masked wrestler who is currently its best known star in America — WWE's Rey Mysterio — in fact once allowed himself to be unmasked on an American TV wrestling show (in the now defunct WCW). As this DVD shows, this would be unthinkable in Mexican wrestling because the wrestler's honor would have been sacrificed.
As we discover quickly in Lucha Libre: Life Behind The Mask, Mexican wrestling is, in fact, all about the honor. In this film, the stories of several luchadors are followed both behind the scenes, and in the ring. None of the luchadors profiled here break character once the whole time we are allowed this rare behind the scenes access.
When the masked tag team Los Chivos practice their moves in a gym (that really looks more like a basement), they never remove their masks in front of the cameras, and during private moments with their families their faces are always blurred "to protect the image."
Lucha Libre is all about the honor.
When Los Chivos wrestle their match, they do so as "Rudos" (the lucha libre equivalent of American wrestling "heels"). In a storyline turnabout (at least to American fans), they come to a Mexican ring waving American flags and shouting "USA" from the ring, drawing boos from the Mexican fans. One of the Chivos is earlier shown in his day job, teaching English in Mexico. When his students see him come to class with bruises on his face, maintaining his secret wrestling identity "becomes problematic," he explains.
In another story, we meet Dinamic, an aging wrestler about to face his final match. Dinamic, who wrestles without a mask, does so because as a youngster he made the mistake of once coming to the ring forgetting to put it on, and he was never able to wear it again as a result of that youthful error. He had dishonored the mystery of the mask.
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