A stocky El Salvadorian stands in front of this doorway trying to tell everyone who walks by to check their balls and walk by 2 guys in skeleton outfits holding machine guns into where the loud reggaeton was piping. The first thing you see is the wrestling ring. Then the crowd of people that make up the audience you may want to avoid in daylight. The pupusa* filled ladies are in skin tight synthetic sheer material, their eyes smeared in baby blue and lips painted bright red. The men are in jeans and a button up shirt. When either sex smiles, you will see either a tooth missing or a gold one in its place.
The gringo group goes to the back and gets prime seats by the ring. As we're juicing up on bad beer, waitng for the wrestling to start, a bunch of guys in various sizes in drag take the stage, er ring. A whole bunch of lip synching a goes on. The crowd is yelling lewd comments to the guys, um girls?, and they play right back. Those who understand are laughing and having a jolly time.
The next group to go up is a group of teenagers and they do a modern hip hop style dance number. The little I saw of it, I thought was good. Most of my time was spent trying to ward away a chubby guy with his hand missing - he had like 1/2 a finger. I think he said he lost it in the war. The thing with this guy was that he would just sit there, next to me, and stare without saying much at all. He ended up buying me a beer, which I felt guilty taking because I think he was barely able to afford it. I drank it anyways.
He finally went away and I was able to watch this little girl do a gymnastic / ballet number. The splits are one thing but being able to contort them to go full circle is kinda freaky and fascinating at the same time.
OK, enough pre-game show talk. Well, ok, one more. They had this "gay" guy come out and lipsynch. While he was, he was grinding the macho latinos. Of course the gringo group got hit and the blonde with blue eyes got his first male lap dance. I laughed so hard I cried.
The lights dim, music from Rocky comes on. The deep-voiced announcer rumbles on about the credential of the wrestler that was about to go on. From one corner, a big, and I mean big, woman in black tights and a mask steps into the ring and roars at the crowd. Boos and cheers are railed back. And so it begins. In each round, people in colourful tights and masks are jumping off ropes, doing summersaults in the air, screaming obscenities at each other all the while keeping their "I'm gonna F you up" face on.
The final round was between two veteren wrestlers. These guys had graying hair and mean faces. The got into the ring and started tossing each other about. I suddenly smelt a strong wiff of gasoline and before I could look to see where the smell was coming from, a circle of fire burst up around the ring. There were guys with 2 litre pop bottles filled with gasoline running around the ring, keeping the flames going while the old fogies went at it.
After, the gringo group had a few beers with Scotty Astro, an American who wrestled that evening. Apparently, his first public round awarded him with a split skull as a result of a gringo-free-for-all. One of the wrestlers came up behind him and smashed his head with a metal fold-up chair. He had blood dripping out of the mask sockets and there's a wall outside on the street smeared with his blood. He showed up for practice 2 days later.
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* Pupusa (noun) - a tortilla stuffed with grease, beans, mystery meat, cheese or ground pork rinds that is pan-fried or grilled. Served with a vineragry cole-slaw.
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