Athleticism, Theatrics, and Storytelling

Written and Photographed by Mitch Epeneter, @lookinforbread

Los Angeles, California, United States

Wrestling often gets a bad wrap for being fake or scripted but if you dig a little deeper, there’s a beautiful mix of impressive athleticism, theatrics and storytelling. It is a sport that’s held up by it’s incredible community. As an early teen, I occasionally watched pro wrestling on TV, but it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I found it again and saw it through a new lens.

My buddy Joe was visiting from out of town and suggested we hit a local show. Unlike me, Joe is a wrestling fanatic. Big brain encyclopedic knowledge - a great companion to show me the ropes. I’d never seen live wrestling but this seemed like as good a time as any to dip my toes.

The event, “Lucha de los Muertos”, was a proper local show in South LA. Taking place in what seems like an old community center, we were quickly noticed when we walk in. Everyone was friendly but we certainly were objects of interest and it was obvious that most people there are either friends/family of a wrestler performing, or a wrestler themselves. It’s a wide range - kids as young as 5 all the way up to grandparents and everyone in between. Love it.

Along the back wall are folding tables with various merch: homemade t-shirts, luchador masks, noise makers, wrestling figurines and a variety of other trinkets. There’s also a ceviche station that will either be the best you’ve ever had, or kill you. Tempting.

We settle on some seats in the second row, right behind two dudes: one with a snare drum and the other has a giant noise maker. Perfect. This crowd isn’t here to sleep. We notice there’s an older gentleman in the ‘kitchen’ area, unicorn white hair and big aviators. We snag a couple $3 Modelos and are ready for showtime.

I won’t say what happens, because what happens at lucha libre stays at lucha libre, but you need to experience it for yourself. Some highlights of the night include:

High flying luchadores doing back flips and body slams off the top ropes, incredible headdresses and masks, and lots of ringside shenanigans.

I particularly enjoyed getting a hearty middle finger right to the face from one of the wrestlers, Andy Brown, who I (unknowingly) snubbed earlier at a merch table, as he entered the ring. Jokes on him though, since he got tossed through a steel chair in the audience.

Let’s not forget that between matches, kids in the audience ages 5 - 15, have free reign to practice their falls and rope skills in the ring. Combined with a free style rapping luchador, it’s a perfect blend of just what the neighborhood ordered.

The final match was a no disqualification match (see: no rules), with both wrestlers linked together by a massive chain and dog collars. It was truly brutal. 90% of the match was outside the ring, a dude got body slammed through a merch table (the vendors were neither prepared for this nor happy about it) and blood. To top it off, the match ended with a trashcan to the head, littering the community center turned warzone with garbage-confetti.

I know I’ll be back. I’m still not sure about the ceviche.