Lucha Libre is Super Crazy

By Ron Kantowski

Monday, April 20, 2009 | 5:10 p.m.

NOW

I went to Lucha Libre II at the Star of the Desert Arena in Primm Sunday afternoon. If there is a Lucha Libre III, IV or V, I will go to those, too. If there's a Lucha Libre XLIII it would surprise me. But if there is one, I'll be there.

I will be there because most of the wrestlers wear masks. And because at a Mexican pro wrestling match, there's always the chance the guy sitting behind you will bring his entire family and a rubber chicken.

And this guy will yell stuff in Spanish at the Mexican wrestlers and the Mexican wrestlers will yell back -- until one of them spots the rubber chicken. And then he will laugh, because even if you are a "rudo" (the Lucha Libre word for "bad guy") it's hard to stay in character when somebody waves a rubber chicken in front of you and it makes this lame squawking noise.

That's what the rudo who calls himself "Super Crazy" did Sunday afternoon. He tried not to laugh but he did.

Even the bad guys have fun at Lucha Libre. Then after the match, they hang around with the "tecnicos" (good guys) to make sure everybody who wants an autograph gets one.

Including the guy sitting behind me with the rubber chicken.

THEN

A lot of people believe "Land of a Thousand Dances" by The Wrestlers was the best record ever put out by one.

But I'm still partial to "The Crusher" by The Novas, a Minneapolis garage rock band that wrote a song dedicated to "The Crusher," once a popular pro wrestler in Chicago and on the frozen tundra of the upper Midwest. The Crusher was the lead singer on the song that featured his trademark yell at the beginning and the lyric "Do the hammer lock, you turkeynecks!"

David Letterman often plays the song as part of a bit.

The Crusher's real name was Reggie Lisowski and he died in 2005 but I still smile every time I hear that song.