Lucha libre

Lucha libre is the term for the style of professional wrestling originating in Mexico. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form of the genre, characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, and high-flying aerial techniques, some of which have been adopted by wrestlers in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. The wearing of masks has developed special significance, and matches are sometimes contested in which the loser must permanently remove his mask, which is a wager with a high degree of weight attached. Tag team wrestling is especially prevalent in lucha libre, particularly matches with three-member teams, called trios.
Although in English the term specifically refers to the Mexican style of theatrical professional wrestling, in Mexico it can refer to other kinds of wrestling, including competitive amateur wrestling and professional wrestling in general in addition to Mexican professional wrestling in particular. However, in Spain professional wrestling is known as "catch".
Male lucha libre wrestlers are known as luchadores while female lucha libre wrestlers are known as luchadoras. Mexican wrestlers often come from extended wrestling families, who often form their own stables. One such familial line integrated to the United States professional wrestling scene is the Guerreros.
In 2018, Mexican lucha libre was declared an intangible cultural heritage of Mexico City by the head of the Government of Mexico City.

Distinguishing characteristics

Mexican luchadores are traditionally more agile and perform more aerial maneuvers than American professional wrestlers, who more often rely on power and hard strikes to subdue their opponents. The difference in styles is due to the independent evolution of professional wrestling in Mexico beginning in the 1930s and the fact that luchadores in cruiserweight divisions and other lower weight divisions are often more popular in Mexican lucha libre than heavyweights. Luchadores execute characteristic high-flying attacks by using the wrestling ring's ropes to catapult themselves towards their opponents, using intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession, and applying complex submission holds known as llaves. Rings used in lucha libre generally lack the spring supports added to U.S. and Japanese rings; as a result, lucha libre does not emphasize "flat back bumps" like in other professional wrestling styles. For this same reason, aerial maneuvers are almost always performed on opponents outside the ring, allowing the luchador to break his fall with an acrobatic tumble.
Lucha libre has several different weight classes, many catered to smaller agile wrestlers, who often make their debuts in their mid-teens. This enabled dynamic high-flying luchadores such as Rey Misterio Jr., Juventud Guerrera, Super Crazy, and Místico among others, to develop years of experience by their mid-twenties. A number of prominent Japanese wrestlers also started their careers training in Mexico and competing in lucha libres lighter weight classes before becoming stars in Japan. These wrestlers included Gran Hamada, Satoru Sayama, Jushin Thunder Liger, Último Dragón, and Kazuchika Okada among others.
Lucha libre is also known for its tag team wrestling matches. The teams are often made up of three or four members, instead of two as is common in the United States. Three-man teams participate in what are called trios matches while four-man teams participate in Atómicos matches. Of the team members, one member is often designated the captain. A successful fall in a multi-person tag team match can be achieved by either pinning the captain of the opposing team or by pinning both of the other members. A referee can also stop the match because of "excessive punishment" and he can then award the match to the victim of the "excessive punishment". Falls often occur simultaneously, which adds to the extremely stylized nature of the action. In addition, a wrestler can opt to roll out of the ring in lieu of tagging a partner or simply be knocked out of the ring, at which point one of his partners may enter. As a result, the tag team formula and pacing which has developed in U.S. tag matches is different from lucha libre because the race to tag is not a priority. There are also traditional two-man tag matches and other types of team matches.

Masks

have been used dating back to the beginnings of lucha libre in the early part of the 20th century, and have a historical significance to Mexico in general, dating to the days of the Aztecs. Early masks were very simple with basic colors to distinguish the wrestler. In modern lucha libre, masks are colorfully designed to evoke the images of animals, gods, ancient heroes and other archetypes, whose identity the luchador takes on during a performance. Virtually all wrestlers in Mexico will start their careers wearing masks, but over the span of their careers, a large number of them will be unmasked. Sometimes, a wrestler slated for retirement will be unmasked in his final bout or at the beginning of a final tour, signifying a loss of identity as that character. Sometimes, losing the mask signifies the end of a gimmick with the wrestler moving on to a new gimmick and mask. The mask is considered sacred to a degree, so much so that fully removing an opponent's mask during a match is grounds for disqualification.
Masked luchadores will go to great lengths to conceal their true identities; in effect, the mask is synonymous with the luchador. El Santo continued wearing his mask after retirement, revealing his face only briefly in old age, and was eventually buried wearing his silver mask.
More recently, the masks luchadores wear have become iconic symbols of Mexican culture. Contemporary artists like Francisco Delgado and Xavier Garza incorporate wrestler masks in their paintings.
Although masks are a prominent feature of lucha libre, it is a misconception that every Mexican wrestler uses one. There have been several maskless wrestlers who have been successful, particularly Tarzán López, Gory Guerrero, Perro Aguayo, and Negro Casas. Formerly masked wrestlers who lost their masks, such as El Satánico, Cien Caras, Cibernético and others, have had continued success despite losing their masks.

''Luchas de Apuestas''

With the importance placed on masks in lucha libre, losing the mask to an opponent is seen as the ultimate insult, and can at times seriously hurt the career of the unmasked wrestler. Putting one's mask on the line against a hated opponent is a tradition in lucha libre as a means to settle a heated feud between two or more wrestlers. In these matches, called luchas de apuestas, the wrestlers "wager" either their mask, their hair, or another valuable like money or their career.
In a lucha de apuesta, wrestlers make a public bet on the outcome of the match. The most common forms are the mask-against-mask, hair-against-hair, or mask-against-hair matches. A wrestler who loses his or her mask has to remove the mask after the match. A wrestler who loses their hair is shaved immediately afterward. Usually the true identity of a masked wrestler is previously unknown, thus, it is customary for that person to reveal their real name, hometown, and years as a professional wrestler upon unmasking.
Masked wrestlers first appeared in Mexico somewhere around the 1920s, in imitation of the covered roosters in cockfighting, and became widespread in the country in the 1930s after the arrival of popular masked American wrestler La Maravilla Enmascarada. During the early years of lucha libre, people could bet on the known wrestler or on the covered one; at the end of the match, the covered one would be revealed and people could see which luchador it was. Promoters soon discovered that mystery was very attractive for the audience, and opted to keep the secret or to sell that the masked wrestler would reveal himself only if he was defeated. These weren't luchas de apuestas in the proper sense, since there weren't any bets on the line among the luchadores. These were generally covered wrestlers that usually revealed themselves at the end of the night or after a few shows. However, luchadores increasingly became conscious of the expectation their secret identity set for the audiences, and gradually chose to keep their identities secret for longer. They also began to adopt masked gimmicks to differentiate themselves among the growing number of wrestlers.
One of the first lucha de apuestas was presented on July 14, 1940, at Arena México. A masked middleweight wrestler, El Murciélago Enmascarado, was so much lighter than his opponent Octavio Gaona, he requested a further condition before he would sign a contract to face him: Octavio Gaona would have to put his hair on the line in exchange for his mask. Gaona won the match and Murciélago was forced to unmask, helping to give birth to the tradition.
The following match types are variants of luchas de apuestas with different types of wagers:

Máscara contra Máscara : In this match, two masked luchadores engage in a high-stakes confrontation where the wager involves their masks. The outcome dictates that the losing wrestler is ceremoniously unmasked by the winning opponent and must reveal his/her identity. The act of unmasking a wrestler often serves as a significant catalyst for the winner's career advancement and have the opposite effect for the loser. The most notable example is the 1952 match in which El Santo gained the mask of Black Shadow, which cemented Santo as one of the biggest stars in lucha libre and established professional wrestling as a cultural phenomenon in Mexico. Another notable example occurred in 2000, when Villano III lost his mask to Atlantis, which some considered the best lucha libre match in history. Also noteworthy was the family feud between Ray Mendoza's sons and Juan Alvarado Ibarra's sons, which led to a 1988 triple mask bet between Villano I, Villano IV, and Villano V against El Brazo, Brazo de Oro, and Brazo de Plata ; the Villanos won the masks of the Alvarado brothers.
Máscara contra Cabellera : In this variant, a masked wrestler and an unmasked one compete. If the masked luchador wins, the unmasked luchador shaves his head as a sign of humiliation. If the unmasked luchador wins, he keeps his hair and the loser is unmasked. These matches are infrequent because masked wrestlers are usually reluctant to bet their masks against hair, as masks are a more appreciated trophy, unmasking often results in a decrease in popularity for the wrestler, and a masked wrestler usually loses his mask just once, while unmasked wrestlers can be shaved many times. The most common result of these matches is the masked wrestler winning the hair of the unmasked one, but there are notable exceptions. Perro Aguayo never adopted a masked gimmick and was very successful in wager matches, unmasking important wrestlers like Konnan, Máscara Año 2000, and Stuka. Aguayo's hair was a trophy so coveted by legends that El Solitario, El Santo, and Villano III each successfully bet their masks to win it. Another important hair was from Cavernario Galindo, a legendary unmasked wrestler from the golden age of Mexican lucha libre, who, like Aguayo, never wrestled masked. Though Galindo never won a mask, he was respected enough that the two most important wrestlers in Mexican history, El Santo and Blue Demon, risked their identities to win his hair.
Cabellera contra Cabellera : In this match the loser has his head shaved. These matches are very common and do not command the interest and expectation of mask wagers. However, there are wrestlers who gained notice via these matches. Examples are El Satánico, Negro Casas, Perro Aguayo, and Villano III. Noteworthy was the feud between El Dandy and El Satánico which led to a long-run storyline of hair vs. hair matches. A curious example is the 2012 match between Blue Panther and Negro Casas which ended with a draw and both heads were shaved.
Apuestas al Revés : This is a controversial variant of wager matches, where two masked wrestlers bet their hair. The competitors either wear a modified version of their mask which shows their hair, or the loser must remove their mask enough to allow the hair to be shaved. This variation was frequently held in the late 1990s during Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide shows. These matches are considered by many to be disrespectful to the audience since they allow masked wrestlers to avoid risking their identities, or are seen as a convenient way for a masked wrestler with a strong streak of wager matches to lose one without risking anything. The most notorious example of this was Super Muñeco, an extremely successful wrestler in mask versus mask matches who won more than 100 wagers, whose only wager loss in his career was an apuestas al revés match against Halloween. In a variant of apuestas al revés matches, neither the masks nor the hair of the wrestlers are on the line; rather, the luchadores bet the masks or the hair of others.
Título contra Cabello, Máscara o Carrera : In this match, if the title challenger loses, they are unmasked, shaved bald or forced to retire. But if the champion loses, the challenger is crowned the new champion. Since for Mexican luchadores, wagers are much more valuable than championships, there are few known examples in Mexican lucha libre, but some examples can be found in American professional wrestling. This occurred in 2009 in WWE when Rey Mysterio, a masked luchador, bet his mask against the Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho in a title vs. mask match at The Bash, with Mysterio retaining his mask and winning the title. Different results occurred on WWE Raw in 2003, when Kane failed to defeat Triple H in a title vs. mask match for the World Heavyweight Championship and was unmasked per the stipulation, and on a 2021 episode of WWE SmackDown when Daniel Bryan failed to defeat Roman Reigns in a championship vs. career match for the WWE Universal Championship and became banished from the SmackDown brand per the stipulation.
Máscara o Cabellera contra Efectivo : If the masked or haired luchador loses this match, his opponent wins the mask or hair. But if he wins, his opponent must pay a monetary amount. The most well known example is the 1981 match where Anibal defeated El Solitario and got paid 500,000 pesos.
Carrera contra Carrera : In this very uncommon match, the loser must retire. Since losing a mask match can severely impact the loser's career and may lead to retirement shortly after, luchadores who had been masked for decades lose their masks in their final wrestling years against younger talents who need a boost in their rising careers, thus there's little need to bet a career since losing a wager is enough justification to retire immediately or shortly after losing it. The most notable example of a carrera contra carrera match occurred at the 1993 Triplemanía, where Cien Caras defeated Konnan to force Konnan into retirement. Konnan did not stay retired and returned to wrestling after a few months.
Máscara o Cabellera contra Retiro : If the masked or haired luchador loses this match, his opponent wins the mask or hair. If he wins, his opponent must retire. This is a very uncommon match type, so few examples exist, with a notable example being the 2022 match between Rey Milán and Rey Pantera in which Pantera saved his career and hair and won the mask of Rey Milan.
Apuesta por el Nombre : This is a rare type of match in which two luchadores with the same or a similar name battle for the right to use the name or identity. This typically occurs when the original luchador leaves a wrestling promotion but the promotion retains the name and character and gives the gimmick to another luchador. If the original name owner returns to the promotion, they may claim to be the rightful owner of the character and adopt a similar name. If conditions allow, this can be solved in a lucha de apuesta where the winner is considered the rightful owner of the character. Sometimes, but not necessarily, it may also result in the loss of the loser's mask. In 2010, Adolfo Tapia and Jesús Alfonso Huerta competed in an apuesta por el nombre; Tapia won the match but failed to recover the "La Parka" name as the Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission reversed the decision, and Huerta retained the identity until his death in 2020. Another example is Mr. Niebla from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre who won a name and mask bet against Mr. Niebla from the International Wrestling Revolution Group.