TARTAN Army travellers keen to make a sporting weekend of it with a difference have an adventurous option open to them tonight.
For before the big one between Scotland and Mexico in the Azteca Stadium on Saturday (the early hours of Sunday morning back home) there is a chance to take in the country’s second most popular spectator sport – and it is liable to be an experience unlike anything they have had before.
Lucha Libre, literally free-style wrestling, is a million miles from the Olympic version.
With its colourful masks, larger-than-life characters and raucous atmosphere, it gets likened to America’s WWE but has a distinctive culture of all of its own.
Think pantomime – there are dames and villains aplenty – think gymnastics, think a violent, albeit not much less choreographed, version of Strictly Come Dancing.
Events are held throughout the week and in different venues through the capital. The biggest and best of them all is Friday night fight night at the Arena México.
Built in the ‘50s specially to host the sport, it boasts a capacity of 17, 000.
And crucially for the increasing number of tourists who view it with the kind of fascination
Mexican visitors to England might have for cricket and its five-day Test matches – during which players regularly stop for tea or to stick on a jumper and a draw is more than possible – tickets are almost always available on the doors.
Scots of a certain age brought up in the 1970s on the exploits of the likes of Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and, most appropriately here, the sinister Samurai Kendo Nagasaki on the Saturday afternoon wrestling on the ITV’s World of Sport are likely to find plenty of familiar themes.
Typical bouts will feature two bad guys battling it out against two good guys. To the victors goes the right to ‘unmask’ the losers.
In grudge matches it can go even further with a challenge struck in which the loser has to shave their hair.
And like WWE, lucha libre offers no shortage of variety with women, dwarves and male wrestlers in drag all getting in on the action.
With souvenir shops around the Arena for those after a mask to take home or a selfie shot with pictures of the sports greats, such as El Santo (The Man with the Silver Mask) who shot to fame after winning an eight-man battle royal, it promises a night out with a difference.
They might not know it but the Costa Rican officials who will take charge of Mexico v Scotland on Saturday night have been walking in the footsteps of Rangers midfielder Carlos Pena this week.
They are staying at the Royal Pedregal Hotel and Conference Centre, not far from the Azteca Stadium.
And it was here that the 28-year-old, on loan with Pedro Caixinha’s Cruz Azul, went on the infamous beer-buying walkabout which ended in a row with staff.
He has since checked into a rehab for treatment for alcohol problems.
Enjoy the convenience of having The Sunday Post delivered as a digital ePaper straight to your smartphone, tablet or computer.
Subscribe for only £5.49 a month and enjoy all the benefits of the printed paper as a digital replica.
Subscribe