10 Worst Things That Can Happen When You Lose A Wrestling Match
3. You Could Lose Your Name, Your Face And Your Sense Of Self
Mexican professional wrestling and, to a lesser extent, Japanese professional wrestling places a serious premium on the mask as a symbol of a wrestlers identity, and in lucha libre, a version of kayfabe is still very much alive. Luchas de apuestas literally, fights with wagers are feud blow-off matches where the two luchadors in question will place something of great value to them on the line. In the vast majority of cases, thats either their mask or, if theyre a luchador wrestling without a mask, their hair. The consequences for losing such a match when youre a masked luchador are frightening and thats in real life, not just in the continuing storylines featuring your character. In lucha libre, the wrestler is their character. They live and breathe the persona theyve chosen, allowing it to inhabit them. As a rule, wrestlers dont remove their masks in public. They try their best to keep their real names a secret, to present their luchador identities as their true identities, like the superheroes that Mexican popular culture declares them to be. Losing a match with a mask stipulation is an indication that your career as you know it is over: if you carry on wrestling, itll be as someone else. You even have to stand there and tell everyone your given name. Its not like US pro wrestling, where a stipulation will be honoured as long as its convenient. It's not Kane taking off his mask, it's Spider-Man unmasking in front of the TV cameras and telling everyone watching that his name is Peter Parker. This is a big deal: itll be enforced, by fans and promotions alike.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
