Sunday night, November 26th, I learned how a luchador (lucha libre wrestler) defends a championship title. A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Prince Astaroth, a local luchador who works with Project Lucha out of Arena Mazatlán/Wrestlers’ Gym in Colonia Juárez. He told me he his proudest moment was winning his championship belt in the ligero or lightweight class.

A week or so later I had the privilege of taking his portrait, and Prince Astaroth proudly brought his championship belt along for the photo session. Astaroth is a demon, and no, we did not actually light Devil’s Cave on fire. Click on any photo to enlarge it or view a slideshow.

Imagine my surprise, then, when the announcement for the following week’s Sunday evening fight was for him to defend that title! His challenger would be Hijo del Relámpago (son of Relámpago), a member of a local familia luchística (luchador family or dynasty). His father is Relámpago (Lightning Bolt), who is his trainer, and his brother is Relámpago Junior.

As with any match, it began with grand entrances (at Arena Mazatlán the wrestlers come downstairs into the ring area). Prince Astaroth of course entered proudly with his championship belt in hand. Once his contender had also entered the ring, the referee was introduced. Tonight’s ref would be the enormously popular rudo (heel or “bad guy”), Shaggy. A first for me, however, was that next Marcelo, the administrator of the local branch of the National Lucha Libre Wrestling Association entered the ring. I had not witnessed that before. His job, he told me, was to supervise that this championship match would be clean, fair, and orderly.

The match then proceeded for the usual three rounds, with the winner of each round pinning the loser for a count of three. The belt would go to the winner of two out of three. It was an enormously physical match, with both fighters flying out of the ring multiple times. There were flying kicks to the head and mat-bound kicks to the groin.

Both Prince Astaroth and Hijo del Relámpago are incredible flyers and fighters. Below is a sequence of three photos showing the defending champion leaping from the turnbuckle or top rope onto his challenger.

The highlight of the fight was Prince Astaroth setting up a wooden door against a chair. Once he’d subdued Hijo del Relámpago, he once again climbed up to the turnbuckle and lept down on top of his opponent. His target was conscious enough to be able to roll out of the line of Astaroth’s landing, and the champ crashed through the door, breaking the chair. Hijo del Relámpago then quickly got up to switch places and pin the champion, as shown in the sequence of seven photos below.

In the end, Prince Astaroth was declared victorious and retained his championship belt. Both fighters were completely exhausted; the defending champ had to be held up to be declared victor. 

The trainers for each of the two wrestlers were ringside, and what was particularly interesting is they appeared to hate one another.  They wrestled each other on the floor several times. Prince Astaroth’s traine, Antrax,r threw punches and attacked both Hijo del Relámpago and his trainer, Relámpago. The ref, Shaggy, in true form, failed to intervene in time to prevent the illegal fights, and he was angry at Astaroth throughout the match. Even after Prince Astaroth won and was declared to retain his championship, he joined forces with his trainer in classic rudo form to kick and roll the losing Hijo del Relámpago out of the ring, much to the consternation of his father (pointing on the left of the third photo below).

Many Sundays at 7:00 p.m. there are lucha libre matches in Arena Mazatlán. Please note that this pin will take you right to the arena, Wrestler’s gym, on José Maria Pino Suarez street. The next fight night will be December 3rd: announcement below. Entrance costs $80 pesos/person. Lucha libre is a Mexican tradition and cultural heritage with a lot of richness and complexity. Originally imported from Mexican-Americans in the USA in the 1930s, Mexico has made professional wrestling its own and even exported it to Japan and beyond.

You will find all ages at the matches; the children play in the ring between matches and have the time of their lives. Everyone shouts and laughs, and only hard-core fans want to sit in the front row (wrestlers frequently fly out of the ring at those seats). Lucha libre is a whole lot of campy fun. You can buy ceviche, snacks, soda and drinks, or bring your own beer. If you love a roaring good, family-friendly time, follow Project Lucha on Facebook. They announce all the matches early in the week. Quite a few times a year there are matches at Cancha German Evers. Those will usually be announced on the Project Lucha page.

I hope to see you at a match soon! Please help us support these wrestlers who work out every single day and practice tirelessly, in the hopes of realizing their dreams and with the commitment to stay in shape and entertain.