Journey to Panama City: Day 45

I had learnt a lot from my time in Mexico City. It was a bit slow at first as the language barrier was more of a problem than I thought it would be but after a week I felt like I was getting to know the city. The organ grinders had a certain charm to them but I still didn’t like the class difference I saw between the shoe shiners and their customers. The highlight of my time in Mexico City was definitely the Mariachi bands and the floating gardens. I felt like I wanted to stay here longer however now was a good time to leave as the pollution in the city was beginning to have a detrimental effect on my health. I had developed a persistent cough which I dubbed the “Mexico City cough”

Our next destination was the city of Puebla. Although not far from the busy polluted streets of Mexico City Puebla was high up in the mountains that surrounded the east side of Mexico City. Maybe here I could get some much needed fresh air. We arrived into the city at dusk so there wasn’t much to see from the bus window. We eventually arrived at a relatively nice and very quiet hotel where we would be staying for the next few nights. A large square atrium dominated the centre of the hotel surrounded by 3 stories of rooms. At the centre of the atrium on the ground floor was the hotel restaurant. It was one of those awkwardly quiet restaurants with only one couple dining there looking a bit out of place. We didn’t spend long in the hotel that night as tonight’s event was Mexican Wrestling.

A short rant on role models

I had been told that if I ever go visit Mexico I had to go see the wrestling. I did want to go see the wrestling anyway before it was recommended to me, not only because of the cultural experience but also because it is something I enjoyed watching when I was young. Watching the late night wresting with my dad was one of my earlier childhood memories and one of my most important ones as well.

The most memorable part I remember was when a wrestler called Perry Saturn had to fight one match wearing a dress, seeing this bald muscular heavily tattooed man walk into the ring in this tight black dress made me laugh. I thought “what a silly man to wear a dress” and I was expecting my dad’s reaction to be the same, but it wasn’t. “Good on him” my dad said, I was a bit confused so my dad explain that Perry had to wear the dress (either through a lost bet or management forcing him) but the fact he did it meant he was a man of his word and he had integrity. Perry didn’t look shy or embarrassed at all either; he went out there without giving a fuck and owned it.

I guess you could say this bald muscular heavily tattooed man wearing a tight black dress was a bit of a childhood role model for me and I think it is important when you are a boy to have a good male role model. There is a distinct lack of good male role models for boys growing up, mainly because of the lack of male teachers in primary education, because of this boys turn to the media and dreadful dickheads such as Eminem as their role model. I remember having to share some of my school classes with this Eminem wannabe called Phil and he was a nasty and spiteful little shit. Anyway, we need more male teachers in primary education and better male role models in the media, rant over.

We want blood

We arrived at the stadium by taxi, outside were lots of people queuing up to get inside and vendors selling various wrestling memorabilia and toys. One of the more popular items for sale were Mexican wrestling masks. The prices of these masks varied from cheap to surprisingly expensive. I learnt that the expensive masks were made from expensive sweat absorbing materials and were designed for maximum comfort and performance, basically masks you would wear if you were actually a professional wrestler. The wrestling had already started and we could hear the crowd from outside. We could hear a distant “ooowwwwwww” followed by “yyyyeaaaaahhh!” obviously some bloke just got knocked down. The atmosphere was intense and we weren’t even in the stadium yet.

The stadium was a bit smaller inside than I had expected. Basic seating surrounded a large well lit wrestling ring. A large steel ramp led from the far side of the stadium to the ring. It was an excessively large ramp that dominated the far side of the arena. I suppose they wanted the wrestlers to have an entrance where everyone could see them. We sat down on the far side near this ramp and began to watch various matches take place. Each wrestler was unique and had their own strong character. Each match would have a fan favourite and a most hated, an honourable fighter and a rule breaker; essentially every match had a good guy and a bad guy and they played their roles very well. The fan favourites turned to the crowd and lived off their energy whilst the rule breakers antagonised the crowd to get their energy. Match sizes varied from 1 vs 1 all the way to 3 vs 3 tag team. Each match would last 3 rounds as appose to only one round in American wrestling and it always went to the final round.

Mexican’s take their wrestling very seriously and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric with everyone screaming for blood. I felt like this was the modern equivalent of the ancient Roman Colosseum, just without the swords and the death. It was easy to get caught up in the atmosphere especially after a few beers which the vendors inside the stadium were selling. I even found myself occasionally shouting at the wrestlers in the ring, something a bit out of character for me. The wrestling lasted for about 2 hours and it was awesome. I had been looking forward to seeing Mexican wrestling and it surpassed my expectations. I know for sceptics it may sound stupid going and watching dressed up men and women pretend fight. But it is so much more than that. It is physical, intense and the atmosphere is addictive. It is like a fighting pantomime performed for adults. Overall I loved it. Sorry you weren’t in Mexico to see it dad, you would have loved it.