10 Best Kept Secrets In Wrestling Today
1. Lucha Libre
Getting into lucha is tough. While countless media sources report on puroresu extensively, only a handful go anywhere near the Mexican scene, and even then, coverage rarely extends further than AAA and CMLL. The language barrier is an obvious issue. Stylistically, its almost alien to American, European, and Japanese fans, with its myriad of unclear rules baffling many a newcomer. Promotions book for working-class Mexicans, not star rating fetishists. The list goes on.
This helps us to understand why lucha is nowhere near as revered by foreigners as the modern New Japan product, but it's still nuts. If we're to use numbers as a metric, CMLL is comfortably the second biggest promotion in the world. They run three shows in the 16,500-seater Arena Mexico every single week, yet the product gets next to no attention from the English-speaking world, and that's a shame.
CMLL deliver the big theatre spectacle, AAA splice white-hot undercard action with so-bad-it's-good Russo-esque booking, while indies like The Crash and Lucha Memes, though inaccessible, upload ****+ bouts to YouTube on a weekly basis. The scene is a treasure trove, and those with the balls to dive in will be rewarded handsomely.
Tired of being f*cked around by WWE? Jaded with NJPW's dramatic epics? Check what guys like Volador Jr., Hechicero, Barbaro Cavernario, and New Generation Dynamite are doing on a weekly basis.