Lucha in the USA?

September 1, 2016 6:21 PM

I am trying to find out if there are television channels in the United States that show Lucha Libre wrestling?

Difficulty factor: I am specifically wanting to see wrestling from Arena Mexico in Mexico City. I've been to a match there, and I know that the matches there are filmed for broadcast in Mexico. I am not familiar with the programming on any of the Spanish language channels that broadcast in the U.S.

Would prefer a legal source.

posted by ericthegardener to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

Best answer: Look for Lucha Azteca on the Azteca network. That's the most readily available U.S. outlet for CMLL (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre), which is the promotion that owns Arena México (the other major Mexican lucha promotion is AAA, which is... goofier). CMLL's official YouTube channel is here.
posted by Etrigan at 6:34 PM on September 1, 2016

I think El Rey may be airing this? Not sure if you get that network or if it's easy to add to your cable package, or if they stream online. But a friend of mine who does entertainment journalism gets sent to cover these for the US market every few months, so I know it's a thing that is on the American media landscape in some capacity.

My friend has covered matches shot in Los Angeles for Lucha Underground. I don't know enough about Lucha Libre or wrestling in general to know which venues are part of which circuits, how it's branded in Mexico, and what Lucha Underground specifically covers. But, yep, more and more Mexican wrestling is being shown on American TV with commentary in English.
posted by Sara C. at 7:00 PM on September 1, 2016

Response by poster: Searching for Lucha Azteca, I was able to find the station that broadcasts the show in my area. I also found some of the matches on YouTube. I just needed to know what to search for. Thanks Etrigan!

Here's one of the YouTube links: https://youtu.be/pAWus1Z46II

Sara, I have El Rey so I'll check them out as well. Thanks!
posted by ericthegardener at 7:26 PM on September 1, 2016

El Rey airs Lucha Underground, which is an American promotion that has an agreement with AAA to use some of its people. If you like lucha libre but wish it were written by Robert Rodriguez with Quentin Tarantino looking over his shoulder after a three-day binge, you'll like LU (and Season 3 starts next Wednesday).
posted by Etrigan at 7:40 PM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

Or as I like to think of Lucha Underground: "Come for the death-defying feats of athleticism, stay for the storylines involving personifications of deities battling the god of death!"
posted by Ghidorah at 8:38 PM on September 4, 2016