¡Lucharán... a dos de tres caídas sin límite de tiempo!

April 15, 2010 6:58 PM

English-speaking fans of lucha libre may have gotten hooked through MST3K's take on "Samson" versus the Vampire Women (prev), or seen the Incredibly Strange Film Show's el Santo episode.

Beyond some readily-available titles featuring Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras, lucha films (and lucha in general) can be hard to learn about, let alone track down.

Luckily, lucha blogger DJ Spectro decided to post links to a handful of older films less known outside of Mexico:

LA LLAVE MORTAL
EL SENOR TORMENTA
LOS TIGRES DEL RING
LAS LOBAS DEL RING
EL ENMASCARADO DE PLATA - the one that started it all

plus whatever LA VERDAD DE LA LUCHA is...

posted by jtron (8 comments total)

CAUTION: SPINNY CUBE
posted by jtron at 6:58 PM on April 15, 2010

I was hoping this was going to be a MST3K post :/
posted by DoublePlus at 7:04 PM on April 15, 2010

Or possibly the episode of Angel where the five luchadore brothers defend their community against monsters.

goddamn I love season 5
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:04 PM on April 15, 2010

Only tangentially relevant: Amigurumi luchador bananas. Yes.
posted by rivenwanderer at 7:06 PM on April 15, 2010

Or possibly the episode of Angel where the five luchadore brothers defend their community against monsters.

goddamn I love season 5

"The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"! A great ep in a great season.

And there's also episode 3 of The Middleman, "The Sino-Mexican Revelation". Part of the rapid ascent to greatness for that sadly short-lived show.
posted by kmz at 8:16 PM on April 15, 2010

I was just going to drop in here to mention that Angel episode.
posted by The Confessor at 8:44 PM on April 15, 2010

Awesome news for US fans: MTV2 and Mexican promotion AAA are going to start airing an English-language Lucha Libre show!

More excitement: Konami's making a Lucha Libre video game! The Cubs Fan has most of the roster. La Parka! Dr. Wagner, Jr.! GRONDA!!!

Oh, man, exciting times!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 8:50 PM on April 15, 2010

Of course, we can't mention the Angel luchador episode without quoting the best line of dialogue in the entire series, and all of television for that matter: "Hermanos! The devil has built a robot!"

I'm also reminded of the lucha libre-style masked superheroes/social activists who have been appearing at progressive rallies and protests in Mexico City. More than mere mascots, they actually confront corrupt politicians, greedy landlords, and other wrongdoers to lobby for better laws and fairer treatment for the oppressed. For instance "Super Barrio" fights for tenants' rights, "Ecologista Universal" against environmental abuses, and "Super Gay" against homophobia. There's a documentary called Super Amigos that came out a couple of years ago and goes into a bit more detail about these heroes and their mission.

While everybody is all up in arms about the violence and nihilism at the heart of Kick Ass, I think it's useful to see what kinds of positive things our southern neighbors have managed to do with the idea of the superhero. Could it work here, or would we just end up with Captain Teabagger screaming racial epithets at elected officials?
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:53 PM on April 15, 2010 [3 favorites]