November 7 CaraLucha

BTJr. likes it when I do these write-ups of my weekend trips. Hopefully some others of you do too.

I made an overnight trip to see CaraLucha's November 7 show in Arena San Juan Pantitlán. The show started and ended strong and was overall pretty solid throughout. You can't ask for much more.

Nominal start time was 6pm. Doors opened a little bit after that, and I have the first match entrances starting at about 6:33pm.

July 19 Chilanga Mask

Finishing up my series about the July 18-19 trip to Mexico, this post will cover the last of three shows that we attended, the Chilanga Mask show.

Chilanga Mask
July 19, 2015, 2pm, Coliseo Coacalco, Coacalco, Estado de México

The nominal start time was 2pm, but as BTJr. mentioned to me for planning purposes, the show always starts a about half-hour later, and this was indeed the case here; I have the first match starting at 2:37pm local time.

July 18-19 non-show trip notes

Continuing my series about the July 18-19 weekend trip to Mexico City, for which I've already written posts about the shows that we attended on Saturday (Lucha Mutante and Arena Coliseo), this post will cover our activities outside of the shows themselves. This is mostly a bunch of scattered notes that jump around in time.

July 18 Saturday Arena Coliseo

This is the second in a series of posts covering my last trip to Mexico City, on July 18-19. After the Lucha Mutante show, which I wrote about previously, one of Black Terry Jr.'s cousins very kindly gave us a ride to Arena Coliseo. We arrived in time for the fifth match (Tritón vs. Okumura), the last of the one-fall singles matches on the card.

July 18 Lucha Mutante show

So, as most of you reading this are likely aware, I did another of my crazy weekend trips to Mexico last weekend (July 18-19), to watch the Lucha Mutante (Saturday, 4pm), Arena Coliseo  (Saturday, 7:30pm), and Chilanga Mask (Sunday 2:30pm) shows with my fiancée, Cecilia. Black Terry Jr. (BTJr.) kindly asked if I could write up something about the trip, so here goes.

This post will be the first in a series of three or four, depending on how verbose I end up being.

Lucha Mutante Experimento I
July 18, 2015, 4pm, Deportivo 18 de Marzo, Mexico City

The first show that we attended was Lucha Mutante. Deportivo 18 de Marzo is essentially a park in the northern part of Mexico City. The show itself took place inside a large tent. The nominal start time of 4pm was, in reality, when they started letting people in; the first match didn't start until around 5:25pm local time.

Some notes about my March 20-23 Mexico trip

As some of you may already know, my fiancée Cecilia and I went to Mexico City for a long weekend of lucha. We were originally going for the Chilanga Mask 2nd Anniversary show, but CMLL's Homenaje a Dos Leyendas ended up being the Friday before, and XMW put up an attractive card on Saturday, so it ended up being a weekend of three different shows.

If you're expecting full-on match reviews, you can stop reading here; I'm going to point out various things that impressed (or annoyed, etc.) me most, and other random notes.

CMLL Homenaje a Dos Leyendas, 2015-03-20
Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi was easily the best match on this show, but the hairs match exceeded my expectations, with Máximo doing way more than you would expect from him. (Volador Jr. did too, for that matter. A plancha into the crowd is always insane.) The straight-fall matches (1 and 5) were skippable, but 2 and 3 had their moments of fun. Hearing the "thwack" and seeing the shaking of the barricade up close from a The Panther tope was something, and Titán/Caveranario bits are always fun. Overall, this was the worst show of the three that I attended, but it was also by far the shortest, and still fun.

One thing to note is that security was strict about not loitering in the parking garage, both before and after the match. They did allow fans to enter through the garage, but you couldn't just wait around and watch luchadores come in. We weren't there to do that, but we had agreed to pick up our tickets there, so that was slightly worrisome as the security guards kept bugging us to leave. (We did end up getting to stay long enough for the tickets, obviously.) I'm not sure whether this protocol was followed because H2L was a big show, or whether it's standard for all Arena México shows now.

XMW, Gimnasio Gloria, 2015-03-21
Black Terry Jr. called Gym Gloria "the real lucha underground", and with due respect to the American version, he's right. Gym Gloria is in Tepito, famous for being a rough neighborhood. The gym holds about 500 people, I'd say, and there are enough seats for maybe 50, which means that if you don't arrive super-early (we didn't), you were going to be standing for four hours, or at least until people shuffled around enough such that you could get a temporary seat. It's a great atmosphere for watching lucha, but a horrible one for trying to take pictures, with the people standing all around and large pillars partially obstructing view in a lot of places.

The best match of the show (and of the trip) was the four-way tag match. Definitely seek that out when Black Terry Jr. has it available. I didn't really watch the main event too closely, because lucha extrema generally bores me, and it was disappointing that Virus wasn't there, but the card was otherwise strong. Overall, this was the best show of the three.

Speaking of Virus... Cecilia picked up on the fact that, before the match, XMW blamed Virus publicly for not accepting the match he was booked for. Really poor taste. The XMW/CMLL booking situation seems terribly fragile at best. The four-way tag match was great, and I would like to see matches like that happen again, whether in XMW or elsewhere, so it makes me sad that people seemingly want to burn bridges.

Chilanga Mask 2nd Anniversary, 2015-03-22
This was a weird show for me. It was significantly better than CMLL, but it also disappointed me in that the matches that I was looking forward to most (4-way, Fulgor/Navarro) seemed too short, and a couple others seemed to take too long to get going. I actually was kind of amused by Violento Jack vs. Herodes Jr. for being tamer than normal, but the crowd was not. If you had anyone but Violento Jack there, that might have gone over better. The opener was a nice spotfest though, and Extreme Tiger vs. ACH was very good.

For the mixed feelings that I had about the matches on this show, the atmosphere was excellent, and the best of the three shows that I attended. The packed Coacalco crowd was quite boisterous the entire show and it felt like a classic Yankee Stadium Bleacher Creatures atmosphere, except in Spanish and at no time anywhere close to being PG. The effects of alcohol as the event went on were probably comparable. Putos a quienes se quiten ("Fuck those who get out of the way" [of dives]) might be my new favorite lucha crowd chant.

As I mentioned on Twitter, the crowd was predominantly rooting against the Traumas during their match, and one of the Traumas responded with the middle finger. They seem to care less and less about professionalism as time wears on. It's kind of sad.

Other notes and thoughts

• Perro Aguayo Jr.'s death was, of course, big news everywhere. It was cringeworthy to see how it was treated in the general media in Mexico, but more heartwarming that the lucha world  universally paid tribute in some way at practically every show.
• Everyone we met, as usual, was extremely nice to us, especially Black Terry Jr. and his family. We also spent a disproportionate amount of time with Hechicero (who happened to be working all three shows) and his significant other. At H2L, we also got to meet Guapito, who was hanging out with Titán before the show.
• Indy lucha crowds tend to be vocal in their dislike of anything CMLL, but Hechicero was super-over at both the XMW and Chilanga Mask shows.

A thought about original masks and their value

[Updated August 2015]

Some time ago, my brother visited me, and saw one of the lucha masks that I have. It was a split Guerrero Maya Jr. / Multifacético mask, a design that Guerrero Maya Jr. uses only when facing Black Terry on independent shows. There aren't that many of these in existence: three, as far as I know, as of August 2015. Mine is signed to my real name by "Guerrero Maya Jr. antes Multifacetico". My brother asked me how much it was worth. I told him that I didn't know and that I was planning on never selling it.

Somewhat more recently, I was told by someone in Mexico, "What gives value [to a mask] as a collection item is the use [by] and signature [of the luchador]" (translated from Spanish and context added by me). I replied at the time that I didn't have a strong preference either way for new or used masks -- which, on the surface, was true: about half of the original masks I have are new, and half were used.

For those unfamiliar with the term, an "original" mask is one that was originally made for the luchador in question, or at the very least by the same mask maker (mascarero) using the exact same design and sizing, rather than by a different mascarero imitating the design. (The emphasis is on the "origin" part of original.) This is a matter separate from materials and construction quality, and separate from "official" masks. (A luchador can authorize a non-original mascarero's products by signing or tagging them.)

Non-original masks are often high-quality in and of themselves. The problem is that, if you value accuracy highly, it's very difficult for the mascarero to make things exactly the same with different proportions and such. And, especially with newer designs, it often takes them a few iterations (i.e., delays) to figure things out.

So the primary attraction for me in original masks is that I know that they will be accurate because the luchador in question has at some point looked at the design. That I can get the luchador to sign them is nice, but secondary to the fidelity of the design itself. If I care enough about the design (or the luchador) to care about the mask, I want the design to be exactly that, and I am willing to pay a premium for it, and am willing to make it worth someone's time.

As for whether a mask is used or not, obviously, when a mask has been used in a specific important or memorable match, that's one thing, but if it's an unremarkable weekday match, I would actually prefer an unused mask by default. I also highly prefer that the mask be intact -- ripping of a mask on a random storyline build kind of destroys the point for me; chances are that I'm not going to remember the middle of a long multi-month build. However, I'm not opposed to a lightly used mask in good condition.

Unless the luchador actually offers a specific used mask, I don't expect to be able to acquire one, though. However, this is something that actually varies among luchadors; some simply assume that, if you're buying a mask from them, you want it used and will use it once before selling it.

In my experience, luchadors generally (although not universally) charge for masks based on their own standing and on the cost of the mask itself, not whether the mask has been used. The person who told me that a used mask is worth more is right in that a used mask automatically has some story behind it. But since the value of original masks for me comes from their inherent accuracy of the design, I have to balance a worn mask against that.

And far more interesting than the stories of how the masks were used are the stories of how one actually comes to acquire them, especially if the luchador hasn't offered them publicly. (Although some do, many luchadors don't explicitly let you know that they have merchandise for sale; it's an unwritten rule of lucha libre culture that most luchadors will sell their merchandise if asked seriously, though. This trend appears to be slowly changing, though, with more guys being open about what they have or partnering with sites like Masked Republic.)

I'm especially grateful for the opportunities that I've had to buy original masks, given that this traditionally [again, Masked Republic excepted] involves a conversation not only about the mask itself and price, but also the logistics of actually getting said mask. This is not straightforward when the seller is not supposed to reveal his real name and is some thousands of miles away. I always feel as if they have better things to do, and I don't doubt that there are luchadors who would make this experience unpleasant. However, for me, things have generally gone extremely well, and the luchadors with whom I've interacted have been incredibly nice.

And in the end, there is no way to put a value on those stories.