GLOBETROTTING
MEXICO CITY
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
DECEMBER
2012
•
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER OUMANSKI
23
There were maybe 15,000 people
in the audience that night, and with
each swiveling scissor kick, each
swan dive onto a foe’s head, every
one of themwent nuts for Místico.
The heightened passion may have
had something to do with a rumor
that was making the rounds. “WWE,
the
gringos
,”
hissed one of the
bikinied ring girls during a break in
the program, “want to sign Místico.”
What happened next, though,
would become a sad coda to
the legend: A fewmonths later,
Místico—the greatest
luchador
since
the fabled El Santo—went to the
States, rebranded himself as Sin Cara
…
and flopped.
About a year after that crazy night
at Arena México, a hundred or so
lucha libre
enthusiasts take their
seats at the decidedly more modest
venue La Loba, a place so small that a
droplet of sweat (or an elbow, if you
don’t watch out) will occasionally hit
you in the face. There’s a rising star
wrestling tonight, Black Terror Jr.
Still, the talk turns to Místico.
“
He never made it out there,” one
fan says, shaking his head. “His star
has faded.” But then Black Terror Jr.
body-slams his opponent with such
force that you can feel it through
your chair, which is enough to get
the crowd’s spirits up. The man they
call Místico isn’t mentioned again.
FRIDAY NIGHTS AT
Arena México
are always lively affairs, but there
was one a while back that stood out.
Headlining that evening was (cue
movie-trailer baritone) the man
they call Místico. His entry into the
wrestling ring, silver mask aglow,
sparked a frenzy of appreciation
that caught even veteran arena-
goers off guard.
Built in 1956, the Mexican capital’s
cathedral to the spectacle known
as
lucha libre
has produced many
folk heroes over the years, but few
have captured the imagination like
Místico. Said to have been raised by
a warrior priest, he was a masked
crusader of mythic proportions.
ZERO
WORSHIP
The superhero who scissor-kicked
his way into oblivion
BY DARREN LOUCAIDES
