This is the track that I saw at the same time as the Offspring’s Pretty Fly (For a White Guy). I saw the video rather than just heard it. The video (see below features two groups riding through the desert to play rock, paper, scissors. One group is a band of Luchadors.
Lucha Libre is Mexican wrestling. Probably the most famous luchador is Rey Mysterio Jr. In Britain wrestling probably means Big Daddy and Saturday afternoons on World of Sport. Usually from somewhere like Warrington Town Hall with grannies at the front trying to hit the heels (bad guys) with hand bags,
If you are a bit younger you may remember the British Bulldog or Steve Regal, both were successful in America.
Wrestling is most familiar from World Wrestling Entertainment on TV (it was the World Wrestling Federation but the World Wildlife Fund though people might get mixed up between two beats fighting and their organisation, so the wrestling group had to change their name).
The owner of the WWE has a certain vision for wrestling. Huge muscular monsters lumbering around. More reliant on storylines and interviews than physical talent. Typified initially by Hulk Hogan, then it became more violent and Stone-Cold Steve Austin became an international superstar. This was more due to steroid scandals than any change of taste. He was followed by the man who is probably the most famous wrestler in history – Duane Johnson, known as The Rock. He is now the highest grossing film star on the planet.
In America female wrestlers were consigned to being eye candy – performing in matches where the aim was to strip their opponent to their underwear – until recently.
If you want to see real wrestling looks like, then you should watch matches by the best female wrestler in history. Scratch that – the best wrestler in history. She has wrestled more top rated matches with more different people than anyone else in history. Twice she received the accolade of having the best match of the year (1993 and 1995) – once on her own and once in a tag team match with her long-time partner Toshiyo Yamada. This was against two other great performers. Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai.
Her finishing manoeuvre – the Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex – is stunning. Conversely, I have never seen anyone take as many fall on their neck or head as Toyota.
Toyota is always in black, Yamada is in purple with Ozaki in red and Kansai in lime green. The tag match (the second one) runs from 13 to 36 minutes of the link, from 33 minutes out it reaches its climax with a moonsault to the outside, a missile drop kick off the ring post to the floor followed by the Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex, spectacular.
Wrestling is predetermined, but not fake. The athleticism and danger are real. Toyota’s performance in the ring are the best in history it is a shame that most wrestling fans haven’t even heard of her.
It is a dangerous business. Death rates are high. Vice have done a series called The Dark Side of Wrestling. It covers several premature deaths – Bruiser Brody (stabbed), Owen Hart (fell from the top of an arena), Road Warrior Hawk (addiction) and Chris Benoit (suicide after murdering his wife and son due to brain damage). Even if you are not a fan it is a compelling series.
Wrestling was very 1990s for me, as you can imagine finding Japanese stuff was not easy, but there were people who got video tapes. I hadn’t seen these matches, or Manami Toyota, for over 20 years until writing this.
Rendez-Vu
Five Miles Out 