¡Ring of Terror! Preview of Lucha VaVoom’s Halloween Brawl

Once a month (usually toward the end) the legendary Mayan club in Downtown clears the dance floor to make room for a different kind of Latin flavored entertainment: Lucha Libre, or wrestling South of the Border style. A Lucha Libre match is enough entertainment for an evening, in and of itself. If you haven’t witnessed the majesty, it’s like American wrestling dialed to 11... Make that 15. Fortunately for Angelinos, the Latin influence on city’s culture makes it a natural North American mecca for Lucha action - and it might surprise some to learn that the Los Angeles scene is pretty big. For over nine years now, founders Rita D’Albert and Liz Fairbairn have been mixing a floorshow of some of LA’s finest burlesque dancers and striptease artists with Lucha Libre action in the form of Lucha VaVoom - one of the hottest Lucha events in town. ¡Sexo y violencia! Two great tastes that taste great together! The “VaVoom” is what sets the show at The Mayan apart from the other Lucha Libre action to be found in and around the Los Angeles Area. Between matches, dancers (or buxoticas) like Lucy Fur and Cherchez La Femme take the stage to share their unique and sultry talents, adding some much needed beauty to the parade of “beasts.” The trademark masks tell you a lot about what you need to know about the sport and spectacle. Like American wrestling. The wrestlers (or luchadores) slug it out in a ring, dishing out and taking superhuman amounts of physical punishment. The matches themselves are almost always a “good vs. evil” struggle - with the crowd rooting for the good guys (or tecnicos) and jeering the bad guys (rudos). The only thing that matches the intensity of the battle is the high-flying moves of the luchadores themselves - the emphasis on acrobatics being another major difference from American wrestling. Where American wrestling and Ultimate Fighting rely primarily on throws and submission holds - generally making for a more slowly paced match - a luchadore is like a superhero from a comic book come to life. Jumping from the ropes? Child’s play! Try jumping from a balcony sometime! It’s a show that is always worth the money [$35 for general admission tickets, $55 for ringside]. However, the upcoming Halloween shows - October 26th and 27th - promise to be particularly entertaining with matches featuring Dirty Sanchez, Animaniac, Pirata Morgan, and provocateur extraordinaire, the “Liberace of Lucha Libre,” the great Cassandro. New York City contortion team, Trixie Little and Evil Hate Monkey are literally swinging by the West Coast, adding to an already eye-popping array of buxoticas. So... ¡VIVA SEXO Y VIOLENCIA! Tickets for Lucha VaVoom are available at Wacko, Brat, or through ticketweb.com. The cutoff for online ticket purchases (only) is at noon on the day before the match. In other words, noon on Tuesday for the Wednesday show; and noon Wednesday for the Thursday shows. Even if you miss the online cutoffs, tickets are still available at the aforementioned locations, and the door (if you’re feeling lucky).