Lucha Libre

The crowd goes insane with the whipping of costumed wrestlers getting thrown around the arena like rag dolls. The more silly and painful the spectacle, the more the audience seems to eat it up. And so the only way to satisfy the seething crowd is to cause as much mayhem as possible, bending and bruising every area of your opponent's body while trying to avoid breaking your own. Lucha libre is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Although the term nowadays refers exclusively to professional wrestling, it was originally used in the same style as the English term "freestyle wrestling", referring to an amateur wrestling style without the restrictions of Greco-Roman wrestling. Mexican wrestling is characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvers, as well as "high-flying" maneuvers, some of which have been adopted in the United States. 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. Lucha libre wrestlers are known as luchadores. They usually come from extended wrestling families who form their proper stables. One such line integrated to the United States professional wrestling scene is Los Guerreros.