lucha underground
When you go to SXSW, you go with an open mind and the expectation that you will come away with some new experiences. When I heard that there was luchador wrestling at SXSW, it was a no brainer for me. I haven’t really followed wrestling lately, but the inner child in me was secretly excited to see live wrestling.
Lucha Underground is a wrestling organization that you can probably consider indie. If WWE was Jay-Z, Lucha Underground is that dude handing out mixtapes on the streets. They are on the rise and, as with most independent things, have a dedicated following. The night at SXSW was a showcase for the organization and as I arrived at the Austin Music Hall (RIP) it appeared their fans were out in full force. The showcase featured a few matches – I saw a 1 on 1 match, a ladies 1 on 1 match and a 3 on 3 tag match. The last match featured Rey Mysterio, the only wrestler I recognized.
Wrestling live is a lot like a hip hop show mixed with theatre. There’s a lot of call and responses – each wrestler has their own catchphrases and also even during a match, there are moves that fans will respond to with specific phrases. I would imagine if you know the wrestler, it would be pretty fun to shout stuff out. The main comparison would be at a concert where everyone is singing out the lyrics to songs they know, only in wrestling you are shouting out catchphrases or something to wrestler moves. My only complaint was that each wrestler had to do a speech before each match and well, let’s just say not all of them are as smooth as The Rock and it provided for some occasionally cringe-worthy moments.
The thing you don’t quite realize until you actually see the show live is how big and athletic these guys are. I think one of the wrestler’s arm was thicker then my torso. Some guy could be 250 pounds and then jump up and do a front flip and land on his feet like it’s nothing. Yes wrestling is scripted, but you cannot deny the athletic ability of these men and women.
I enjoyed the Lucha Underground night, it was action packed and the crowd was insane. I don’t think I saw a louder crowd at SXSW than the one at Lucha Underground. The band El Conjunto Nueva Ola played in between matches and they were quite entertaining. Having donned luchador masks, they played their own tracks as well as modern day covers. I did not expect them to do Maroon 5 covers, but yet, they did.
Live wrestling, it’s something to check out. Because Stone Cold said so.
ps. I couldn’t didn’t know how to end this article, but I wanted to do it with a wrestling catchphrase. Here are some other options
- So watcha gonna do when wrestling at SXSW runs wild on yooooooou
- Wrestling at SXSW. OOOOOOohhhhh Yeeeeaaaaah
- Did I enjoy wrestling at SXSW? Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
That’s about all I got.
