Mexico City: Wrestling Night!

When I was in Mexico City recently with a group we had a slight change to our itinerary leaving us with an evening to fill.  The guys in the party really wanted to visit the wrestling but to be fair I wasn't initially charged up with the idea.  However I didn't want to stay behind at the hotel and also didn't want to be seen as a 'party pooper' just because I wasn't initially interested in something.

Well, you never know until you experience something and also if you don't go you can't talk from a point of experience about a topic.

We turned up in a rather dark side street and when we were outside the place, the Coliseo, there was suddenly a lot of people hanging around outside, buying souvenir wrestling masks just like the players would be wearing and other icons of the sport.

While we were waiting in our group a couple of the well known (to the locals) wrestlers turned up, wearing their masks so that no one could identify them.  They were happy to talk to their fans and have their photos taken, especially with the children.

They even stopped for a photo or two with our group members wearing masks they had just bought from a street trader for the occasion.  It was funny seeing these grown up transform back into little boys with wrestling masks on giggling and pretending to be big strong wrestlers!

Once inside the stadium I was surprised how small it was and how close the wrestling ring was! As the start got nearer it started to fill up, what we found unusual was how many families were there with babies and young children, each young boy dreaming of their chance to be in the ring!

Plenty of refreshments on sale and without too long a wait the show was ready to commence.  I kept saying how choreographed each round was, calling it 'Strictly Come Wrestling' but the two guys I was sitting with kept on saying it was not scripted or planned.  I must admit though that when they fell to the floor with a really loud bump it must have hurt!

I was expecting huge crowds and unruly behaviour - the reality was a really intimate arena.  We were sitting about 7 rows from the front easily seeing all of the action as it unfolded.

Round 5 was the big one with the big names competing.  To annoy the boys I kept calling it Act 5!

We had a really good evening for less than £10.00 each with plenty of beer, tension and excitement.  If you find yourself in Mexico City with an evening to spare see if you can get a ticket for Luce Libre!

I was a guest of Mexico City Tourism Board however I was not required to write a positive review.  All photos and opinions are my own.  No photos may be reproduced in any way without my written permission.