Disgustingly Clever

An exploration of taste for bad taste's sake through the joyfully slummy genre of Lucha Libre!

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→ 29 Aug 11 at 7 pm

El Bello Greco & El Hermoso, 1990

THE LILAC WAVE

Dizzy Gardenia Davis, the luchador made famous in the forties for handing out flowers to the ladies and stepping onto the mat accompanied by a personal assistant, cut his own school of style.Over the next few decades, without assistants to gussy them up, other wrestlers would bring to the rough sport a more chic and refined touch. Indeed, these dandified gladiators represented an alternative path for those Mexicans entering the ropes free of hang-ups about their sexual preferences and willing to take the homophobic-or, secretely, homophilic-leanings of wrestling fans. They were part of a movement that in the early eighties one wrestling magazine dubbed “la Ola Lila”.

Fond of stuffed animals and worthy of a few championships, both El Hermoso and El Bello Greco understood that their wrestling activity was a weighty crusade against bad odor.

“The lucha is not a profession for insignificant and vulgar people, despite what some may think” El Bello Greco tell us.“Rather it’s for special individuals like Sergio El Hermoso and me, who for 12 years have been perfuming the rings and showing that aristocrats fill the arenas. Our pueblo, noble like us, likes it when its heroes smell good.”

question:“But you’re bad guy, right?”

“Tough, but elegant,” Sergio El Hermoso tell us.“Our ring etiquette has no equal. We put the class in the lucha and condemn these others wrestlers who get in the ring without bathing first or putting on perfume. The lucha is a holy order and, like priests from souls in their cleanest state when we practice.”

question:“So the lucha pays well enough for French cologne?”

“Yes for us”, says El Bello Greco. “Cost is no matter and the people appreciate it wherever we conduct our business, that is to say, wrestle. People like the nice smell ane we, even from afar, smell good, really good. Before climbing in the ring, the fisrt thing we demand is cleanliness. We detest the stench of our fellow wrestlers, they smell like skunks and if they win it’s only because their stench makes us woozy.”

Interview by Juan Cervera. Espectacular el mundo de la lucha libre. no85,nov 4,1988.
El Bello Greco & El Hermoso, 1990 THE LILAC WAVE Dizzy Gardenia Davis, the luchador made famous in the forties for handing out flowers to the ladies and stepping onto the mat accompanied by a personal assistant, cut his own school of style.Over the next few decades, without assistants to gussy them up, other wrestlers would bring to the rough sport a more chic and refined touch. Indeed, these dandified gladiators represented an alternative path for those Mexicans entering the ropes free of hang-ups about their sexual preferences and willing to take the homophobic-or, secretely, homophilic-leanings of wrestling fans. They were part of a movement that in the early eighties one wrestling magazine dubbed “la Ola Lila”. Fond of stuffed animals and worthy of a few championships, both El Hermoso and El Bello Greco understood that their wrestling activity was a weighty crusade against bad odor. “The lucha is not a profession for insignificant and vulgar people, despite what some may think” El Bello Greco tell us.“Rather it’s for special individuals like Sergio El Hermoso and me, who for 12 years have been perfuming the rings and showing that aristocrats fill the arenas. Our pueblo, noble like us, likes it when its heroes smell good.” question:“But you’re bad guy, right?” “Tough, but elegant,” Sergio El Hermoso tell us.“Our ring etiquette has no equal. We put the class in the lucha and condemn these others wrestlers who get in the ring without bathing first or putting on perfume. The lucha is a holy order and, like priests from souls in their cleanest state when we practice.” question:“So the lucha pays well enough for French cologne?” “Yes for us”, says El Bello Greco. “Cost is no matter and the people appreciate it wherever we conduct our business, that is to say, wrestle. People like the nice smell ane we, even from afar, smell good, really good. Before climbing in the ring, the fisrt thing we demand is cleanliness. We detest the stench of our fellow wrestlers, they smell like skunks and if they win it’s only because their stench makes us woozy.” Interview by Juan Cervera. Espectacular el mundo de la lucha libre. no85,nov 4,1988.