Much has been made about the wrestling/sci-fi promotion Lucha Underground. With their wide variety of innovative matches, like “Cero Miedo”, “Grave Consequences” and “Aztec Warfare” (think a Royal Rumble-style match, instead of having to get thrown over the top rope to be eliminated, you have to be pinned or submitted), love of violence in the Temple, and stacked roster (Prince Puma, Fenix, and Pentagon Jr. are some of the hottest acts going in the business today) it reminds me of a modern-day ECW. Very few times do they not hit a home run. I can watch their violent matches and their inter-gender matches and not even blink an eye or think of some of the controversy that has surrounded them and Lucha Underground. However, what happened during the May 4th edition of the show made me more uncomfortable than I have been watching a wrestling match in a long time.
I am referring to the “No Mas” match between Sexy Star and Mariposa. The story behind this match was amazing and we should all be talking about the life lesson that it provided regarding female empowerment and standing up to bullying. You see, Sexy Star was abducted at the end of Season 1 of Lucha Underground by Marty “The Moth” Martinez and his sister Mariposa. Alledgedly, they tortured her by tying her up to a chair and flicking the lights on and off in a room, get it…because they are “moths”. Once she was released, Sexy Star went through what normally victims of this type of thing go through, anxiety, mainly being scared. She was awarded a “No Mas” match with Mariposa by Dario Cueto. The match was one of the best I have ever seen, but yet that’s not what many people were talking about after it.
You might be wondering by now what exactly did I have a huge problem with. Well, during the match Sexy Star bled a gusher. In wrestling I have seen some of the most gruesome things you could witness. I’ve seen people get their necks broken, bones popping through legs, tendons out of arms and I’ve never blinked or thought twice about it. These were strong athletes and that is an unfortunate part of the game. But to see a female (Sexy Star) start bleeding all over her face, to where it was dripping down all over her body, to the point where when her and Mariposa were on the balcony it was almost raining down on the fans below, and then to have a male (Marty the Moth) come out and help his larger than Sexy Star sister Mariposa, attack Sexy Star while she was disoriented and bleeding became a lit bit too much for me.
I know I’ll get the defenders of this match coming out and saying “They all work together, they’d never hurt each other” or “This was a great story of female empowerment”, but did it need all those gimmicks and blood? Could we not just have a great technical match between 2 of the best female technicians in the world? I know they have solid inter-gender matches, but did Marty the Moth have to come out to make it a handicap match on a much smaller woman? I think Lucha Underground has done a terrific job with what they have. It’s not just a great wrestling show, but a great television show. Very few wrestling promotions can do that. However, in this situation, their preference for being over-the-top and need for shock value was a little too much for me.
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