TWoLL: The Ban On Women’s Wrestling

As mention in the review, one of the strengths of The World Of Lucha Libre is the length and breath of the research. Today, we’ll take a look at what that research found about the ban of women’s wrestling in Mexico City and what it says about the powers of the DF lucha libre commissions, the most powerful commission in the country.

The usual story is women were banned from wrestling in Mexico City starting in the early 50s, and then unbanned in the late 80s/early 90s because times had changed.

In The World of Lucha Libre, the author could not find anyone who took responsibility from putting a women wrestler ban in place. Everyone else seems to point at the secretary of the lucha libre commission (a position above the president, which is Fantasma’s current job) as being responsible, but the man in the position at the start of the ban (and for many decades after) Rafael Barradas says it was beyond his control. The wrestlers union, which represented luchadoras, had long wanted the ban lifted and made a push after Barradas retired in 1985.

The association organized a series of closed-door matches between women in the State of Mexico using a referee with a Federal District license to demonstrate that the women were qualified wrestlers. They then went to seek out the government office that had jurisdiction over the prohibition, but in the course of the process they discovered that officially there was no ban. It did not exist in written form. They discovered, moreover, that the commission instead had no legal authority over the spectacle.

(p 186)

Not just over the spectacle of women’s wrestling – the lucha libre commission was never actually given legal power over lucha libre events. To use the lingo, it was all a work. People believed the commission had authority and honored it, but it was never there all along. Neither was the women’s wrestling ban – the best guess suggested by the union leader of this movement was there an unstated arrangement between the lucha promotions and the Uruchurtu administration not to promote women’s wrestling. The union leader actually uses Dr. Wagner Jr. and Hijo del Santo’s favorite word to describe it: a veto.

As far as the book knows, the DF commission has not since been given legal power over lucha libre events. There’s a bit about a movement to give them this power in the late 90s, but the movement failed (and Rafael Barradas ended up back in charge.) As best I can tell, from what I read here and what I’ve seen happen, the local government/political groups can block/disallow shows, but the commission is limited to after-the-fact (and nuisance) reactions, if even that.

And as for the women: the book talks to older luchadoras after women have started working Mexico City again, and they note women were main eventing in the previous television era (of the 50s) but are relegated to the opening matches in this one. Those interviews were done in the mid to late 90s, so I think the women might be heartened by the bigger luchadora matches now reaching semifinal level and happening more frequently. Still, their dreams and goals of equality haven’t been reached – even on AAA’s Reina de Reinas tournament is not the main event of it’s show, and it certainly isn’t given the same importance as the male tournament.