IF THE GOAL OF a multidecade scoreboard mission was to work as many different sporting events as possible, then I was able to scratch a bunch off the list after the FutboLucha Festival on Sunday, May 4, 2008, at Dicks Sporting Good Park.
Honestly, in the Almanac of Sporting Events I Have Worked, I didn’t even have “Masked Mexican Midget Wrestling” listed. Had to log that one as “Other.”
:--= =- == -= --- =-= =-== === --= -=- --- - -=-- --=-:
Yes, DC United came to Dicks and lost to the Colorado Rapids 2-0 in a soccer match in front of 12,000 fans. Soccer fans? I guess, but there were wrestling fans there too.
Dicks Park was a little more than a year old, and the Rapids were expanding the scope of their shows. Why just have a soccer match when you can have a Mexican wrestling show too? All in the same day! What a show.
There was a wrestling ring on the field after the soccer game was over. The Main Event was El Hijo del Santo vs. Hijo del Solitario. But before that, there were a few undercard matches. There were also the Mini-Estrellas. These are masked, Spanish-speaking, little people wrestlers. Midgets, dwarfs, or just short: basically, anyone under five feet tall wrestles as a “Mini.”
And so, in the days leading up to the FutboLucha Festival, in addition to cranking out all the regular production for Rapids game, we also made headshots for all of the wrestlers. It was a full show of athleticism and comedy, all in Spanish.
We checked a lot of boxes that night.
:= ---- -- --- === =- - -- --- --- ---- === -=- =:
It’s nice to know that in this world, if you are a short person who speaks Spanish and loves to wrestle, a showman who doesn’t mind working with a mask, there’s a place for you.
And there’s also a place for a person who makes and displays their graphics.
THE END_
