I’ve talked before about the beauty of Mexican wrestling masks and the symbolism of forcibly and violently tearing off an opponent’s mask to expose and destroy him.
Here are a few red hot images of a recent grudge match between two enemies determined to ruin one another — El Santo (the Saint) and Solitario (the Loner.)
Pro wrestlers love to toy with our libidos by creating boundaries, getting us to buy into the sanctity of those boundaries, then blatantly violating them. We’re taught that wrestlers must never bring weapons to the ring, or must obey the instructions of the ref, or in this case, must not damage the other man’s mask. Then the Heel wrestler can easily generate “heat” by simply disobeying these arbitrary rules.
Fans go wild for rule violations because taboos are a turn-on. If anyone ever taught you that it is naughty to spy on other people, or to call someone by a dirty name, or to pull hair, chances are you are aroused by these exact actions. It’s exciting to either commit a sin yourself, or to watch some other Bad Boy in the act of breaking rules.
It’s rebellious, risky, degrading, and empowering (and therefore very arousing) to blatantly cross a line. I believe this is why ripping off a mask has such power for the fans of Lucha Libre: it violates the most sacred rule in the sport, plus it looks so brutal, so violent, and so wrong. It’s taboo.
It’s also taboo to harm a hero — to soil or deflower the purity of an innocent victim.
To see El Santo (the “Saint”), who is an icon of Goodness and Honesty, being degraded in this way just feels so dirty. He’s been bloodied, unmasked, and left face-down in agony. The saint has been martyred!
Violating this boundary — maiming the untouchable perfection of goodness — is at the very heart of pro wrestling’s lasting appeal.