It wasn’t enough that the gringos were driving up the prices of real estate and basic necessities in Mexico City, now they were taking over lucha libre too . . . or at least that’s what some folks were bemoaning last year.
Weeks after people took to the streets to protest the gentrification of various neighborhoods in CDMX, the topic became the go-to argument to explain the many changes occurring in the city, including within lucha libre.
“Wrestling, along with the neighborhoods themselves, is being gentrified and the fight against it is on,” wrote Verónica M. Garrido in El País last year.
Ticket prices were rising, tourists and the wealthy were seemingly being catered to over locals, and influencers took up the best seats to promote lucha libre when World Wrestling Entertainment, the global titan of wrestling, announced their purchase of a controlling stake in Mexican wrestling company AAA Lucha Libre Worldwide.
It’s easy to understand the cries of gentrification under these circumstances . . . but was it actually the case?
“When it comes to gentrification, I think a lot of those comments come from seeing a lot of tourists sitting in the chairs,” says Miguel Castro, business development consultant with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). “Well, I think gentrification is when somebody goes into a bar every day and leaves $50 tips on a $50 check, and then the guy at the bar says, ‘Oh, I can start charging three times if this guy is willing to give me this tip.’ That's how you gentrify a neighborhood or a shop or a bar.”