If you haven’t watched 100% Lucha on TV, chances are you’ll have seen one of their grizzly mugs glaring out at you from one of the thousands of newspaper stands. If you’ve not seen them there, then you’ve probably seen them plastered on the rucksacks, the pencil cases and the lunch boxes of every kid (and most of the parents) in Buenos Aires. And if you haven’t, well, then you should have.
We’re talking about wrestling. A ring scorched by spot lights. Grabbing, throwing, head-locking, leaping, body-slamming, bouncing, elbowing, head-butting and breaking. Muscles, masks, capes and lycra; and one skinny, stripy referee in the middle of it, trying to make sense of it all.
Who could forget Hulk Hogan in WWF, and Rey Misterio in Mexico’s Lucha Libre? I still have stickers of Randy Savage and Giant Gonzales on my bedside cabinet at home. In Argentina, 100% Lucha is a sensation.
The wrestlers and charismatic commentators at 100% Lucha have made quite a name for themselves. After three glorious years in the limelight, they have a weekly spot on Sunday morning television, a monthly magazine (with blow-your-mind pull-out posters of the wrestlers, and a comic strip!), and several unofficial organisations imitating them, looking for a piece of the action.
100% Lucha and 100% Loco
It didn’t appear out of nowhere. People have been donning the lycra and tearing each other to pieces for years. Eduardo Husni, the commentator for 100% Lucha, informed me that there has been a long history of professional wrestling in Argentina. “In the 30s, immigrants from the former Soviet Union brought boxing to Luna Park which became very popular,” he said.
Later, an English-style of wrestling, known as ‘catch-as-catch-can’ took precedence, which had originated from the older Greco-Roman school of wrestling, and the Olympic Games. Martin Karadagian, an Armenian-born Argentine, popularised this sport with his show ‘Titanes en el Ring’ which became the most popular fighting spectacle in all of South America. The point of this style of wrestling is to show strength and art. There is a balance between force and aggression; style and charisma: “The wrestling is a show, a spectacle,” Husni reiterates.
Husni assures me that his ‘Lucha Profesional’ is a mix of these two distinct strands however. Whereas in the Mexican style the fighters scarcely hit each other, and there is a lot of showmanship, the US-style uses a lot of force; the television show plays the fights and nothing more. The Argentine public rejected these shows as they found them ‘too boring’. 100% Lucha finds a medium somewhere between the two; characters wrestling with skill, but with personas and lots of charisma. So we get big hits and big lycra. What more could you want?
Well how about 100% Lucha, the film?
Yes you heard me. A feature-length wrestling extravaganza. The plot twists and turns around the villain, a Mafioso, who wants to make big bucks by betting on illegal fighting; and the ‘good guys’ who try and stop him. So when he kidnaps the 100% Lucha fighters and says (with his thick ‘Goodfellas’ accent): “If you don’t fight, your families will die,” or something to that effect, it is up to a group of friends, fans of 100% Lucha, to join forces with the champion wrestler, Vicente Viloni, to try and find a solution. Tense stuff indeed.
Production is under way so expect the film before the end of the year.