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Inside Mexico City\u2019s Arena Mexico, everything was noise and mayhem. The crashing sound of bodies hitting the floor. The loud crack when one wrestler\u2019s ankle impacted another wrestler\u2019s neck. Ear-piercing, guttural shouts from spectators around the room. Bikini girls dancing. The announcer booming. Vendors chanting. Lights flashing. Music blaring.<\/p>\n
During the Lucha Libre, there was so much to see and yet nowhere to look because everything demanded my attention at once. Everything was mayhem.<\/p>\n
Attending my first Mexican wrestling match, I fought to stay focused on the wrestlers and understand the game, but my eyes darted around the room, distracted by people jumping up from their chairs to shout and vendors coaxing me to buy cotton candy.<\/p>\n
My friend Daniel sat next to me, fixated on the ring.<\/p>\n
Between matches, he broke focus to explain that he and his brother had been wearing Speedos to bed since they were children because they idolized Mexico\u2019s infamous wrestling scene so much, as many children in Mexico do. I asked him whether or not he still sleeps in Speedos; there was a long pause before he shook his head and looked away with a coy smile. Daniel is over 30 years old and a pretty bad liar.<\/p>\n
As he spoke, I looked around the arena and spotted fathers with their mask-and-cape wearing children hoisted up on their shoulders. The children also waved miniature Lucha Libre dolls in the air and cheered as loudly as anyone else in the stands, if not louder. It\u2019s pretty surprising when you hear a three year-old scream, \u201ckill him!\u201d Not in this realm, though.<\/p>\n
To those foreign to the game, the rules and antics of Lucha Libre make very little sense if you don\u2019t at least know the basics before you attend.<\/p>\n
As I watched, one wrestler sprinted at full-speed across the ring then dove into the ropes, rebounded, tucked and rolled, rebounded again off the ropes on the other side of the ring, front flipped, then from the air managed to lock his ankles around another wrestler\u2019s neck who then spun him around in a circle before throwing him to the floor. At another moment, someone climbed up on the ropes in the corner of the ring, back flipped off the edge of the platform, and landed on the shoulder of another wrestler below. This is why my friend told me as a spectator not to sit in the first couple of rows: bodies sometimes come flying over the rails, smacking audience members in the face, or worse.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all the tumbling, a duo of costumed midgets entered the ring, one of them dressed as a white toga-wearing fuzzy blue monkey and the other as an eagle. Suddenly, when a wrestler fell off the side of the ring, the blue ape midget did a flying squirrel off the edge to belly flop on top of him. The crowd went insane. Then, the midget climbed back into the ring, ran up to the other midget, and pushed him down. When he turned around to cheer with his hands raised in the air, the other midget got up and kicked him full-force in the back, sending him flying across the ring where he landed face down at the feet of a wrestler who body slammed on top of him.<\/p>\n
Reminder: none of the midget tomfoolery has anything to do with anyone winning the match, which is exactly why I felt lost.<\/p>\n
![\"lucha-libre-3\"](\"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Lucha-Libre-3.jpg\")
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I turned to Lucha Libre commentator Julio Rivera to try to understand the game.<\/p>\n
Basically, he explained, there are two teams: the good guys versus the bad guys. Los t\u00e9cnicos are the good guys and they play according to the rules versus los rudos are the bad guys and they play dirty. People cheer equally for both sides.<\/p>\n
Typically, the match is comprised of around six fighters (three from each team), but that\u2019s where things get confusing. Unlike American wrestling, a fighter doesn\u2019t have to tag their partner into the ring to fight one at a time, instead they just come and go as they please. So, there might be multiple people fighting each other at the same time inside and outside of the ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a cathartic performance,\u201d Rivera explained. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just fandom. When someone sees Caristico [one of the most famous Lucha Libre wrestlers] attack an evildoer, you feel as if you were attacking your boss, or a friend that\u2019s been bothering you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like wrestling in the United States, a match is won by pinning someone down for a count of three. In Lucha Libre, though, there are also a number of automatic disqualifications that can end the game, like ripping someone\u2019s mask off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so important for a luchador to keep his identity disguised, there are rumors that some famous wrestlers even wear their masks in public during casual jaunts to the movies or to the grocery store.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople often say they like a certain wrestler because they are cool or because they like their mask, but I believe that it\u2019s more than that,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cWhen \u2018your wrestler\u2019 appears, there\u2019s something about them that represents something you\u2019d like to be. When they are in the streets, they are just any other person, but when they are in the ring with their masks on they become something more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest: when you\u2019re there for catharsis and are yelling for both teams, who wins doesn\u2019t matter so much, especially since sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell who wins and why at all.<\/p>\n
At the very end of my match, all of the wrestlers were in the ring throwing each other around when suddenly I heard the referee call it. Just like that, the match ended, a team got booed off stage, and everyone inside the stadium started to quickly file out of their seats at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait, what happened? Who won?\u201d I asked Daniel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, someone ripped another person\u2019s mask off, which disqualified them. So the match is over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d I shrugged. It was a very anticlimactic ending to it all.<\/p>\n
So I joined the line of masked revelers from the audience filing out the door, looked around at all the people still cheering, and felt very happy to be leaving in one piece because I did not sit in the front row.<\/p>\n
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Want to master a couple self-defense moves from some of Mexico\u2019s city most famous Lucha Libre fighters? Watch this video<\/a> of writer Megan Snedden hopping into the ring with Luchadores M\u00edstico and Caristico.<\/p>\n [Lucha Libre by antifluor\/Flickr<\/a>; Lucha Libre 2 by Megan Snedden<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n By Megan Snedden<\/span> \/ <\/div>\n![\"Megan](\"http:\/\/theexpeditioner.com\/Images\/Twittersmallround.png\")
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![\"Megan](\"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Megan-Snedden-Bio-Picture.jpg\" "\\"Darrin")
Travel writer and photographer Megan Snedden once wore a mask through a Taco Bell drive-thru, which fueled her cultural fascination with costumed performers. Follow her on Instagram at @MeganSnedden, or read her stories at