by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
Thumbs up to you for featuring the always-amazing world of Mexican wrestling. But a couple of quibbles …
1) First off, the WWF hasn’t been called the WWF for years. They lost a lawsuit to the World Wildlife Fund and had to change their name. They’re WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) now.
2) Second, WWE has a decent number of wrestlers on its rosters who are trained in the high-flying tradition of Mexican Lucha Libre. See Rey Mysterio for one. Plus, tons of current and recent WWE "superstars" have worked a Mexican-influenced style: Chavo Guerrero, the late great and sorely missed Eddie Guerrero, Matt and Jeff Hardy, Matt Bourne, Brian Kendrick, Paul London, The Hurricane, etc. etc. And the now-retired-but-sorely-missed female superstar Lita made a name for herself hitting Mexican-style moves like the Moonsault and the Hurricanrana.
3) And Total Non-Stop Action Wrestling (yes, the company is called TNA)’s entire "X-Division" wouldn’t be possible without Mexican influence. For examples, see the in-ring work of Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels and especially "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles.
God, I can’t believe I just wrote this.
I actually knew, in the back of my head, about the WWF suit, but wrote what I did in colloquial haste (a recent prospective roommate of ours was a lawyer involved in ongoing copyright litigation over the case, and he spent a good 10 minutes talking it). Also, I haven’t followed pro-wrestling since I was 9, so WWF still rings true.
On that note, here’s one of my favorite T-shirts offered by my college roommate’s webstore:
The Dish 