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Santo, el Enmascarado de Plata Translation

"The true luchador wears, on his head, a mask. On his body, a sequined unitard. On his feet... disco boots!"
Rikochet, ¡Mucha Lucha!

In lucha libre, or Mexican Professional Wrestling, it is common for wrestlers to wear masks, never revealing their true identities to the public, much like comic-book superheroes and villains. To be unmasked by a rival wrestler, or indeed anyone at all, is considered an irredeemable dishonor.

The stock characterization for a luchador is a kindly Gentle Giant who loves kids. This is from the story of Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm), a Catholic priest who started wrestling to earn money for his orphanage. Villainous luchadores are pretty rare. Outside Mexico, though, where luchadores attract considerably less reverence, they're much more common — big burly dudes with concealed faces are scary, after all, and it's a good way to give your Malevolent Masked Man some exotic flair.

This trope goes hand-in-hand with the Cool Mask trope.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • The mascot of Koodo Mobile is an Incredible Shrinking Luchador named El Tabador, named such because the company allows you to have a tab instead of a contract.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Lucha Master from Airmaster.
  • Lala's dad in School Rumble is a luchador. Tenma is a bit of a lucha libre fan, and both she and Karen don her mask on occasion, confounding Lala who can't believe the disparity in her power (as Karen is the only girl who has defeated Lala, while Tenma cannot fight at all).
  • In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, a villainous luchador shows up to be trashed by Kenichi's masters a few times. Later the Manga introduces the much more dangerous Smiling Fist Diego Carlos and his student Rachel Stanley.
  • Jesus Burgess from One Piece is a masked luchador pirate, introduced standing on a building and challenging an entire city to fight. Later on, he shows his strength by hurling a hotel at an opponent. He's actually one of those rare luchadores who are evil.
  • In an episode of Cat's Eye, Hitomi and Ai tie up and gag a pair of female luchadoras and steal their costumes.
  • In Is This A Zombie?, Ayumu goes to eat at "MaskDonald", a burger joint where the staff are all dressed as luchadores, complete with masks. Masks are also included in the meal, and during a conversation scene, a high school girl can be seen in the background putting on her mask and doing wrestling poses.
  • Kaoru's father from Powerpuff Girls Z.
  • While strictly speaking much of the cast of Kinnikuman is made up of wrestlers who wear masks, the only actual luchadores are Skyman and Kinnikuman Mariposa. Mariposa is the only one with any story significance — surprisingly enough, he's a dishonest thief and cheater.
  • In Bleach, one of the Vandenreich members is Sternritter "S", Mask de Masculine, a luchador. He manages to invert the character archetype and play it straight at the same time. First of all he's a villain, but also by far the most jovial of the Sternritters. Then it's revealed that the letter "S" stands for "Superstar" and he gets power from the audience's cheers. He's always followed by James, his loyal fan, who keeps cheering for him and whom he protects from harm.
  • Saga Mask in Tenjho Tenge uses his lucha skill to beat a flame wielding boxer who beat the series protagonists early on.
  • The Voynich Hotel is owned by a retired wrestler. He still wears his mask.
  • Bunny Kisaragi from Welcome to the El-Paracio specifically evokes this image, being El-Paracio's resident Babyface and extremely popular with the neighborhood kids. The mask is actually an important part of her backstory, as she was Driven to Suicide for yet-unspecified reasons, only to be interrupted by Ouka, who put a luchador mask on her head and convinced her to "start over from a clean slate", resulting in Bunny refusing to acknowledge her former identity. As a result she practically never takes off her mask, even in the bath (the one time she did, Tadasuke saw her stepping out of the shower, making him the only person other than Ouka who's seen her real face).
  • Tiger Mask, being a manga on wrestling, has a few:
    • Tiger's Cave wrestlers, while villainous and from all around the world, are expected to never take off their masks in public, something Tiger Mask takes very seriously even after his Heel–Face Turn. They also follow a strict code, in that a masked wrestler can only reveal their face in public only when defeated, and that is only if their opponent takes off the mask (or demands they take it off themselves).
      • Tiger Mask shows traits of the good luchador even before his Heel–Face Turn, and in particular he's a Friend to All Children: when the son of a wrestler he mauled attacks him, Tiger Mask just takes his attack and tells him to come back when he's stronger than his father (immediately after an adult tries to kill Tiger Mask with a knife, and the wrestler promptly slaps him into submission and declares that if any adult tries to emulate the child this is what will happen); he breaks Tiger's Cave mandate to give them half of his money because he needs the money to pay the debt of the orphanage he grew up into before joining Tiger's Cave, and when given one last chance to pay Tiger's Cave he wastes it because the orphanage's debts happened to be higher than they thought; and he pulls his Heel–Face Turn because his childhood friend Ruriko, who is now running the orphanage and has guessed his real identity, asks him to show to one of the orphanage's children a better way than his current one — and he does this in a fight with a Tiger's Cave wrestler who is trying to kill him. He would later do anything in his power to help children, and orphans in particular, even temporarily returning a heel and walking into a tournament held by Tiger's Cave where all other competitors would try and murder him on the ring because otherwise he wouldn't be able to pay for the surgery to restore the eyes of a blind girl.
    • Great Zebra isn't Mexican (and says he's from Africa), but he's the portrait of the good luchador, being a Gentle Giant who enters Tiger's Cave tournament specifically to help Tiger Mask. He's actually Giant Baba, who had figured out Tiger Mask had insulted everyone in the JWA and entered Tiger's Cave tournament to help some orphan and so decided to help his friend and save his life.
    • Mister Question is Indian, but he's a luchador in everything else, wearing a strange mask (and a costume that covers his entire body), using spectacular (and highly efficient) techniques, and championing the cause of good by going around the world to crush villainous wrestlers with his superior skills. He targets Tiger Mask for his past as a heel, but comes to respect him and, when (barely) defeated, asks to unmask himself, with Tiger Mask agreeing.
    • A few Real Life luchadors have appeared. In particular, Tiger Mask managed to score a draw against Mil Mascaras by surprising him with the Fujiyama Tiger Breaker, and, in the manga, later faced and defeated his brother Dos Caras. Both are shown as the quintessential good guys, with Mil Mascaras never using a foul and Dos Caras, to try and face the American champions that mix legal moves and fouls, trying to learn them but being too much of a good guy to become proficient.
    • Tiger Mask W has its own share of masked wrestlers, including an actual luchador.

    Comic Books 
  • Examples from Hellboy and related series:
    • In Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus, it's mentioned that, in the '50s, Mexican director Eduardo Fernandez created somewhere between nine and twelve low-budget films about Lobster Johnson, portraying him as a luchador hero. In fact, these were the source of the name "Lobster Johnson". Previously, all the fictional portrayals just referred to him as "the Lobster", with the secret identity Walter Johnson.
    • In the Hellboy in Mexico one-shot, released on Cinco de Mayo, Hellboy teams up with three luchador brothers in 1950s Mexico to fight vampires. It's exactly as awesome as (and in the end, far more touching than) it sounds.
  • Titan from La Cucaracha.
  • Jaime Reyes, the third Blue Beetle, wears an armor with a faceplate that just happens to look like a luchador mask to go with his Mexican heritage. Done intentionally and explained as the mask being modeled after its creators' faces.
  • In the Swedish comic De Äventyrslystna Karlakarlarna — "The Adventuresome He-men" — one of the eponymous Bash Brothers is the (appearently Swedish) luchador El Fjongo.note 
  • Examples from Batman:
  • Spider-Man was partially inspired by a famous luchador known as the Blue Demon, and he first reveals his powers to the public in a wrestling match against Crusher Hogan.
  • Sonic X has a mysterious masked wrestler called "El Gran Gordo", who looks a bit like Dr. Eggman. Eventually, Eggman starts to enjoy the genuine admiration he gets as a wrestler.
  • The heroine of La Perdida by Jessica Abel attends an art exhibition in Mexico City on the theme of masked luchadores and debates their place in culture with her Mexican friends.
  • El Marvo is a cryogenically-frozen masked Luchador who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic Earth, which is now known as "Muck", and becomes a hero intent on freeing the people from the reign of Sokrates.

    Fan Works 
  • Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod: Tetsuo Garcia is the Ultimate Luchador, and thus has many of the traits associated with luchadores. He has a strong sense of justice, crediting El Santo as an inspiration, Hispanic heritage (he is half-Spanish, and popularized lucha libre in Spain after beginning his career in Mexico), and is almost never seen without a white and blue mask.

    Films — Animation 
  • Another villainous luchador is El Macho from Despicable Me 2.
  • In Mutafukaz, professional wrestlers are actually Earth's protectors, have lived for centuries and used to be Aztec warriors. All that choreographed wrestling? Training. And to stave off existential boredom.
  • El Chupacabra from Planes is dressed as one.
  • La Liga De Los 5:
    • Tuna is a masked wrestler whose body can produce spines and cactus sap.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • There's an entire luchador genre in Mexico where the hero is a real luchador playing himself. The most popular series (52 films!) starred El Santo, El Enmascarado de Plata (Saint, The Silver-Masked Man). In these, El Santo has to rescue his love interest du jour from some fantastic threat, such as zombies, vampires, or mad scientists. While the movies are pretty crude, many Mexicans from the time, to current college students to even a few children still consider these movies an important part of Mexico's film history and actually pretty entertaining.
  • El Santo wasn't the only prominent luchador film star. Other prominent series stars (some of whom would team up with each other and El Santo on occasion) included:
    • Blue Demon, who starred in 25 films.
    • Mil Máscaras ("A Thousand Masks"), who was specifically created for the movies during a contract dispute between El Santo and producer Enrique Vergara. He starred in 20 films.
    • Las Luchadoras were a female tag team (Lorena Velázquez and gringa actress Elizabeth Campbell) who starred in six films, some of which made it into the English-language market (e.g., Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy). The stars were actresses, not professional wrestlers. Lady luchadoras did exist at the time, but few had movie-star good looks and most wouldn't be recognized by the Mexican Comision de Box y Lucha Libre until the 1980s.
    • Neutron, a black-masked hero who resembled Strong Bad, starred in dozens of films, but only three had an English dub. One, Neutron the Atomic Superman vs. the Death Robots (AKA Losautómatas de la muerte) was a RiffTrax VOD.
  • El Santo is a character in 3 Dev Adam ("Three Big Men"), a.k.a. Turkish Spider-Man or Turkish Captain America (Spider-Man is actually the villain of the movie).
  • The fun Captain Ersatz of El Santo in Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter is named El Santos to avoid lawsuits. Barely. Except there's a Mexican comic book character with that name.
  • Jack Black's character in Nacho Libre, whom is loosely based on Fray Tormenta.
  • Wrestlemaniac had a homicidal mutant luchador, whose MO was to Tear Off Your Face.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter gets the initial idea for the Spider-Man mask upon seeing a poster of a luchador mask with a similar red-and-blue coloring.
  • The villain in OSS 117: Lost in Rio is also a South American wrestling promoter, and has two masked luchadores as henchmen... Nazi masked luchadores!
  • In Machete, during the invasion of Sartana's apartment, one of the mooks wears a luchador mask.
  • In Machete Kills, Sartana gets murdered by a man in a luchador mask, and Machete gets attacked by a squad of gun-toting luchadores. Later, Machete finds the mask of the murderer in Luther Voz's lair, and Voz admits it was him.
  • In Hellboy, Hellboy's first mission that the audience sees in the film is him going into a Lucha Libre arena to locate a BRPD agent who was supposed to take out a vampire cult. Unsurprisingly, the agent has been turned into a vampire himself, which is revealed when Hellboy rips off his mask, and ends up Impaled with Extreme Prejudice in short order.
  • Signature Move: Alma's mother was once a luchadora, as shown in a photo of her with a mask from those days. She used the name Luna Peligrosa. Zaynab starts getting into wrestling herself, wearing masks like this with Alma while they watch a bout and afterward too. Later on Zaynab becomes a luchadora and uses one while wrestling too.

    Live-Action TV 
  • One of these works for Wolfram and Hart in Angel, and is the focus of one of the more interesting Season 5 episodes. Specifically, he is a disgraced hero whose four brothers died to save the world. Also, before his brothers died they were famous for defeating "El Diablo Robotico!" a robot built by the devil.
  • In Los Luchadores, watch Lobo Fuerte and his plucky sidekicks Turbine and Maria Valentine fight evil in Union City.
  • An episode of The Middleman featured a gang of luchadores obsessed with killing The Middleman's martial arts trainer and mentor, Sensei Ping (who also, incidentally, wore the mask of a luchador).
  • In one episode of Top Gear (US) that took place mostly in Mexico, Adam had to transport a gaggle of unruly luchadores to a charity event as part of a challenge.
  • In the Supernatural episode "Devil May Care" (S09, Ep02), Kevin uncovers a photo of Sergeant Bates doing jello shots off a naked guy in a Luchador mask.
  • An episode of Top Chef Masters has the chefs cooking for the crowd of a Lucha Vavoom show, a combination lucha libre/burlesque show whose tagline is "sexo y violencia."
  • A big influence in the evolution of the SHOCKER Mooks in the original Kamen Rider: Initially the henchmen were guys in berets with creepy facepaint. In episode 14, SHOCKER brings in their top agent from Mexico, a cactus-themed luchador-esque monster named Sabetregon. He had his own personal minions, who dressed in black tights and wore lucha masks with a cactus on them. Apparently, someone liked the look, because afterwards, the main SHOCKER forces began wearing similar costumes, only with a skeleton motif replacing the cactus one.
  • In Snowfall, El Oso gets his nickname from his career as a masked luchador.
  • A bull themed android wearing a luchador mask appeared late into the story of Uchu Sentai Kyuranger. He called himself Jubeef, a clue to his real identity as Champ/Ouishi Black, Kyuranger's missing member. Noone was any particularly surprised.
  • CSI: In "Mascara", one of Langston's former grad assistants is murdered. He discovers that she was investigating Mexican wrestlers to solve a series of unsolved murders.
  • The Pro Wrestling Episode of Legends of Tomorrow, "Lucha de Apuestas", features El Cura, a No Celebrities Were Harmed vesion of El Santo who wears gold instead of silver, and who, when the Legends meet him, is a Broken Ace, having seen his fame taken by El Lobo (actually Koanane the Kaupe). Constantine, who is a fan of the El Cura monster movies that will now never exist, is apalled.

    Music 
  • The Masked Luchador is a particularly popular character in modern surf music. There are several bands that wear Mexican wrestling masks and adopt mexican-sounding names as part of their stage shows, or even write songs about lucha films and luchadores (the song Los Campiones Del Justicio by The Ghastly Ones). It is believed that the American surf band Los Straitjackets is responsible for this, as they adopted the masks early in their career and subsequently made the genre popular through Mexico because of this, spanning bands like Sr. Bikini or The Blue Demons, all adopting the masks and hiding identity. There's even a FRENCH surf band adopting the masks, called The Bikini Men.
  • Strangely enough, the Mexican wrestling masks have been also adopted by several goregrind and grindcore bands, most notably Gut from Germany. Even more strange, the porno-grind bands seem to have an affinity for the masked luchador : Gut of course, but check guys like Ultimo Mondo Cannibale or Spasm.
  • One member of the superhero-rock band The Justice Force 5 is a vampire luchador. Well, not really, but that's his gimmick.
  • The cover of the Jesus Jones album, Perverse shows a big, masked Luchador face.
  • Jill Sobule's "Mexican Wrestler":
    "Sometimes I wish I was a wrestler
    A Mexican wrestler in a red vinyl mask
    I would pick you up and body slam you
    And possibly cause you physical harm"

    Music Videos 
  • In the video for "Warrior" by Kimbra, Mark Foster, and A-Trak, Mark and A-Trak are forced to don luchador's masks and fight other people in masks. It later turns out their opponents are forced to fight as well.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • Mexican wrestling, of course. Removing an opponent's mask is cause for disqualification and one of the worst things a "Rudo" (Heel) can do. That is unless the mask was removed after losing a "Mask vs. Mask" or "Mask vs. Hair" match, making humiliating wager matches more important in Mexican Lucha Libre than title matches!
  • Masked Luchadores did not actually start in Mexico, believe it or not, though no one is sure exactly where that was for certain; the first man on record to wrestle professionally with a mask was the French "Masked Wrestler" and the first to bring it into the country of Mexico was known as "The Masked Marvel", and his secret identity gimmick had been going on long enough in the USA already for him to be a Legacy Character. Still, "Maravilla Enmascarada" caught on in Mexico like nowhere else before, so EMLL booker Salvador Lutteroth tried to duplicate this success with El Santo. In the end, Maravilla's success wasn't duplicated but dwarfed, as El Santo became Mexico's most famous luchador.
  • Did not stop after Masked Marvel went to Mexico either, continuing to occasionally appear in USA wrestling with names like "The Destroyer" and, after death of the territories, in the "cruiserweight" divisions. WCW and WWF/WWE each had a few wrestlers take on the style, Rey Mysterio(Jr) being a prominent name in both and WWE promoting Sin Cara heavily, although they insisted Dos Caras Jr unmask, despite him wearing it to a 9-5 record in MMA.
  • After El Santo retired, the most popular masked luchadores in Mexico were Black Man and Kung Fu, collectively known as Los Tres Fantasticos alongside Kato Kung Lee(who was Panamanian, and did not wear a mask). Black Man had in fact been El Santo's Stunt Double in movies before finally catching on in the ring, and the three are responsible for putting Lucha Libre Internacional on the map, making its governing body UWA respected around the world and making three on three Tag Team matches the most popular gimmick match in Mexico, as they succeeded the retiring Santo's feud with Los Misonaries de la Muerte.
  • Masked Luchadoras are not as ingrained in popular culture, in spite of El Santo giving Irma González his blessing to wrestle as Novia del Santo, due to Mexico City's commision banning luchadoras for decades and most smaller bodies following suit. A few others such as Original!La Diabólica, El Galactico's Distaff Counterpart La Galactica, Pantera's counterpart Pantera Sureña and Flor De Loto managed to become local legends even with the limited booking. With the ban's lifting Princesa Sugehit was booked and imitated around the world with (The second)La Diabólica, Star Fire and Ludark Shaitan also gaining international attention.
  • It's also not uncommon for non-luchadores to pretend to be one as a trick. If a heel does it, like when Kurt Angle became "El Gran Luchador" during his feud with Eddie Guerrero, it's a sign of them being a devious wang, whereas if it's a face that pulls it off, like when Kaz Hayashi became "El Gringo" for a night, it's usually so they can get their hands on a cowardly heel who has been ducking them in straight-up fights.
  • Del Wilkes isn't Mexican, but as "the Patriot" he has sported a mask, making him an interesting example. Before this he was part of a Tag Team known as the Wrestling Machines in USWA as Wrestling Machine #2.
  • WWE Hall of Famer Mil Máscaras is arguably the one to pave the way for some of the most prominent Mexican superstars like Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero in the US(though they were both US nationals. Mexican nationals haven't done so well outside the indies in post territory US) or Silver King, Bengala, Dr Wagner Jr, Místico, Mascara Dorada, Dragon Lee and La Sombra in Japan's 'Puroresu' promotions.
  • Masks are not as common on the Caribbean scene as Mexico but still are very common. The Broncos of The Dominican Republic and La Atilleria Pesada (Thunder Y Lightning) of Puerto Rico being some of the regional icons. Outside of the Caribbean, Zeuxis is Puerto Rico's most famous masked luchadora.
  • The Invaders used to be "THE" masked Tag Team\Power Trio of the Caribbean but Invader #1 went and tarnished their legacy by killing Bruiser Brody, causing Los Broncos to overtake them in popularity.
  • Not uncommon in Japanese wrestling either, with famous wrestlers like Tiger Mask, Jushin Thunder Liger, Último Dragón and The Great Sasuke. The aforementioned Eddie Guerrero was also the second Black Tiger, nemesis of Tiger Mask. There in fact exists an entire sub brand of Japanese "Puroresu", "Lucharesu". FULL, Michinoku Pro Wrestling and Toryumon\Dragon Gate(FULL and Toryumon coincidentally growing directly out of Mexican based EMLL and IWRG respectively) being among those most widely known, Pantera, Atlantis and La Flamita being the first Mexican enmascarados to build lucharesu legacies.
  • Many of Bolivia's most popular wrestlers are tributes to famous Mexican luchadores, such as Super Payaso for Super Muñeco and La Super Muerte for La Parka. Less derivative South American luchadores include Panama's Chacho Medina and his son Veneno, who became big in Mexico. La Momia is a common one throughout Central and South America, with "Ramses" being a particularly memorable one in Bolivia.
  • ECW helped to popularize the style in the United States, with alumni including the aforementioned Rey Mysterio Jr., Psicosis, La Parka, and Juventud Guerrera. Most of ECW's luchadores came form AAA and ended up getting poached by WCW for their cruiserweight division.
    • Psicosis lost his mask in WCW in 1999, and has wrestled without it since then. When he appeared on the first ECW One Night Stand, he wore the mask to the ring and took it off before the match. The fans then proceeded to chant "Put the mask on!"
  • American Dragon(teamed alongside Curryman) and American Angel became masked luchadores in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and LLF, respectively. Similarly, El Ilegal Chicano(Actually Puerto Rican Carlos of boxing's famous Cotto family) was initially given a mask in AAA.
  • Ring of Honor had El Generico, The Generic Luchador. The twist is that he's Canadian. While he's billed as being from Tijuana, and speaks very little English when in character, what makes it funnier is that even if you don't know anything about the man under the mask, you can tell at first glance that he's really a white guy; he's kind of pale, and he also sports a red goatee. Jossed further in NXT: he's Syrian-Canadian.
  • ROH also had some straighter examples, bringing Stuka Jr, Hechicero, El Soberano Jr and Bandido to the US as well as booking the aforementioned Dragon Lee and Caristico.
  • TNA has an interesting example in Sangriento, a luchador played by established X-Division wrestler The Amazing Red, who continued to appear unmasked in different parts of the show treated as a separate individual(this same stunt in WCW may have lead to Reina Jubuki being stripped of he CMLL World Woman's title belt (if it wasn't them being horrified by her being on a roster that was suddenly overflowing with Triple A luchadores) and was fodder for the Suicide vs Motor City Machine Guns feud in TNA itself)
  • World Wonder Ring STARDOM's annual Mask Fiesta turns everyone who is not already a masked luchador/a one for the night.
  • Revolution British Wrestling and later, Progress Wrestling, have El Ligero.
  • The SMS Power Stable of the Australia based PWA have the InstaGraham, SnapChad, FaceBrooke trio. Hipster luchadores.
  • Lucha Underground's buzz saw another influx of luchadores into the US. In addition to masking non luchadores like Matt Cross(Son Of Havoc), Ricochet(Prince Puma), Cheerleader Melissa(Mariposa) and El Mesías(Mil Muertes) it also opened up new bookings for Mexican enmascarados Fénix, Drago, Pentagón Jr. and Sexy Star.
  • All Elite Wrestling features several masked wrestlers on its roster: The Lucha Brothers, Luchasaurus, Evil Uno and Preston Vance, and Breakout Character Fuego Del Sol. AEW puts a twist on the luchador tradition by not making in-ring unmaskings illegal, and not enforcing permanent unmaskings. On a few rare occasions, this has allowed heels to score a dirty win by unmasking an opponent and pinning them while they are shocked.

    Tabletop Games 
  • All Flesh Must Be Eaten supplement Zombie Smackdown has an entire chapter based on lucha libre, with sample characters including El Hijo del Abejarro (Son of the Bumblebee). The main story in the chapter, of coruse, features a villainous rudo named Muerte.
  • Lucha Libre Hero from Hero Games is based off the lucha films mentioned above.
  • One of the sample characters in the Martial Arts supplement for GURPS is "Del Duque", a heroic crimefighter in a Luchador-style mask hailing from a world that seems to operate on low-budget-TV-series logic. He is also by far the most powerful of the sample characters (at 350 character points, he's in the lower-end superhero range).
  • In Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, Laodemus Schwan is an itinerant masked wrestler and adventurer.

    Video Games 
  • La Mariposa and Mr. Strong from the Dead or Alive games. La Mariposa (a.k.a. Lisa) from Dead or Alive 4 is a Fragile Speedster variant. Her name is meaningful because it means "butterfly" in Spanish, and she wears a butterfly shaped mask.
  • Jugglernort from the DJ Hero series is one of the more subverted examples, being an ex-wrestler who did time in the clink, then became an underground DJ after he was released. True to form though, he is never seen without his Luchador mask, however he is anything but a gentle giant.
  • EXTRAPOWER features Sharkungo, a Star Lore Superstar always seen in his star-faced red mask.
  • Guacamelee! is the videogame Trope Codifier. The player character, Juan Aguacate, dons a magical luchador mask to empower himself in his pursuit of the villainous Carlos Calaca, and to rescue his childhood sweetheart Lupita from Calaca's clutches. Over the course of the game, he obtains lucha libre moves such as body slams and grappling techniques to aid him in his quest.
  • Suda51 has a thing for Masked Wrestling, and includes it in his games:
    • Flower, Sun and Rain has Mr. Pirate and his protege, El Crasher who are training for Crasher's next fight.
    • MASK de Smith, a character in Killer7. Easily the most powerful character in the game. While he doesn't actually use his wrestling techniques to fight the game's enemies (preferring a pair of grenade launchers for combat, probably because the enemies would just blow up when he got close), his special skills make good use of his strength, being able to smash through solid barriers bare-handedly.
    • You can also collect luchador trading cards in No More Heroes, Killer7's Spiritual Successor.
    • It's quite possible that the tiger motif that appears throughout the game associated with Travis Touchdown, is a subtle homage to the Japanese wrestler Tiger Mask. Interestingly enough, Tiger Mask appeared in Fire Pro Wrestling D. Suda51 began working on videogames with the Fire Pro Wrestling series.
  • Total Overdose has a super move that summons a luchador named Mysterioso.
  • Freaky Flyers had a character named Cactus Rose. Her backstory included a brief stint as a masked wrestler.
  • El Fuerte from Street Fighter IV is one of these.
    • Despite the mask and attitude, Japanese wrestler Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter Alpha is a subversion. Her and her fighting style are actually based off joshipuro, a type of women's pro wrestling that originated in Japan. She's often mistaken as a straight example of a Masked Luchador thanks to joshipuro being relatively unknown outside of Japan (with the likes of the Jumping Bomb Angels and Bull Nakano having very brief runs in WWE in the 1980s and 1990s), and the fact that El Fuerte happens to be a huge fan of hers doesn't help matters.
  • Pretty much every Mexican character from SNK is a wrestler of some description. The King of Fighters' Ramon fits the Fragile Speedster archetype, while Tizoc/Griffon Mask from Fatal Fury is very much the Fray Tormenta type (minus the priest part). Angel actually fights more like an American wrestler (complete with The Peoples' Elbow). King of Fighers XIV puts all three of them together as the Mexico Team, though Tizoc has undergone a Face–Heel Turn and rebranded himself as the King of Dinosaurs.
  • Psychonauts has a quartet of minibosses who are all gimmicky luchadores based on both animals and card suits. This despite the fact that the level they're found in is based on Spain.
  • Pokémon:
  • King and Armor King from the Tekken series.
    • King (and King II) even follow in the Fray Tormenta mould (King was listed as an actual priest; King II was one of the original orphans).
    • However, King I, King II and Armor King I follow the more conventional wrestling style. Armor King II has some luchador-based moves, but not all. Then in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, there's a female luchador named 'Jaycee' (who's actually Julia Chang).
  • El Blaze, a newcomer to the Virtua Fighter series who is a blatant expy of Rey Mysterio.
  • The NES game Tag Team Wrestling featured a pair of masked wrestlers called the Strong Bads. Yes, they were the inspiration for that other Strong Bad.
  • Animal Crossing
    • There's a luchador costume available as one of the many "costume themes."
    • New Leaf introduces a villager actually named "Lucha". He's a bird with a face that's stylized to look like a lucha mask. Another villager with a luchador theme is Stinky, a jock cat.
  • Masked Wrestlers and Under Ground Monkey variants called ___ Gigas are common foes in Persona 3 and Persona 4.
  • The Soccer game Sega Soccer Slam featured the character El Diablo, a massive powerhouse who only refers to himself in the third person.
  • Shadow Hearts: Covenant features this in Joachim Valentine, who first appears as the masked Grand Papillion. One of his special abilities is that every now and then he'll don the mask in a fight and receive a massive stat boost.
  • We Heart Katamari includes a cousin named Lucha, who appropriately enough has the appearance of a luchador.
  • El Pianca, one of the three default heroes from Knuckle Bash, is a luchador who's never seen without his mask. There's also a trio of luchador boss enemies you fight on a ring in a later stage.
  • Tiger Mask, the Japanese wrestler, appears in Fire Pro Wrestling D.
  • Saturday Night Slammasters has El Stinger/Stingray and Astro/Scorpio, whose designs are a nod/ripoff to real wrestlers Lizmark and Tinieblas respectively.
  • Greco from Chrono Cross (meaningful since his ward's name is 'Romana'-wrestling pun). He's also both a psychic and a priest. Did we mention Chrono Cross is kind of weird?
  • What Could Have Been example: Hideo Kojima's first draft for the war-based game he was told to design was a game called Lost Warld, starring a masked luchadora (a female luchador). However, the draft got canned, and thus Metal Gear was born.
  • Evil Rose should fit the bill pretty well.
  • There is a videogame based on the AAA (One of the 2 major Lucha Libre associations in Mexico). The tagline? No es wrestling, es Lucha Libre (It's not wrestling, it's Lucha Libre).
  • Masked Muscle from Super Punch-Out!!. Yes, in a BOXING game.
  • The Heavy from Team Fortress 2 has a luchador mask called the "Large Luchadore", and in Poker Night at the Inventory, he asks Strong Bad if his mask means he wrestles, like Iron Sheik. Strong Bad snubs the idea, saying he's a wrestle man, not a hack wrestler.
  • Saints Row: The Third has The Luchadores, an entire gang made up of luchadores led by one wrestler named Killbane, the Walking Apocalypse. He also prefers going by Killbane over his real name, and will react violently to anyone who calls him by it.
  • "Ringside" from Rhythm Heaven Fever involves a masked wrestler answering interview questions and posing for the cameras after a big match. Notably, he doesn't seem to be actually listening to the questions — both the English and Japanese versions have the questions as gibberish, to which he responses with "Yeah", flexing or posing for the cameras.
  • There's a sequence in Yakuza 3 during which Kazuma Kiryuu and Rikiya Shimabukuro stage a wrestling match for the children at Kazuma's orphanage, posing as masked wrestlers Dragon Mask and Ricky Mask. The costume shows up in later installments as a bonus outfit.
    • Yakuza Kiwami features at least one as a combatant in the arena. Lucha Hawk is a textbook example, with the name, mask and fighting style down to a T. Charon Martinez has a reasonable name and mask for a luchador, but his fighting style is stated to be a very Japanese style of kenpo that has never left Japan.
  • El Plancha (a.k.a. Dice) from the Toaplan Beat 'em Up Knuckle Bash.
  • Star Man from Pro Wrestling.
  • Various Luchadore costume pieces are available for unlock as PvP rewards in Champions Online.
  • The title character (and the game's actual protagonist, Mutt) in The Legend of el Lobodestroyo Vs. la Liga de los Villanos.
  • Rayman Legends has the world "Fiesta De Los Muertos," where many of the enemies resemble masked luchadors, including the boss.
  • Rabbids Rumble has Loco Libre, a Rabbid who happens to be one of the mightiest wrestlers in South America, and also apparently spends 23 hours at the gym according to his official bio card.
  • Dead Rising 2: Off the Record features luchadore zombies.
  • Live A Live has Great Aja, "a Japanese wrestler who has mastered the techniques of the Mexican Lucha Libre champ, El Rudo."
  • LISA has Rage 'El Rage' Ironhead, and energetic luchador party member who attacks with his head.
  • In the second case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, a masked wrestler called "The Amazing Nine-Tails" plays a pretty big part. In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, Mayor Tenma says he has started wrestling under a second, Heel persona... which has ended up putting him in the unfortunate situation of his two personas being scheduled to fight each other, and he has no clue how he's going to pull that off.
  • The sport of Truxican Wrestling is mentioned occasionally in the Borderlands series. Assuming Truxicans are Space Mexicans as their name implies (not to mention one sidequest involving a Truxican Standoff), it probably involves masked luchadores.
    • The character Krieg has an unlockable Truxican wrestler mask under the name DOUBLE SUPLEX TIME!
  • Battleborn now has one of these in one Francesco Drake, "El Dragón". He's got the added benefit of cybernetic arms and the ability to light himself on fireto his enemies' detriment.
  • The Sacred Heart faith in After the End: A Post-Apocalyptic America counts El Santo among its patron deities. Followers of El Santo can become luchadores themselves, and face each other in wrestling matches — unlike in El Santo's day, they fight for real. The Sacred Heart also has a holy order of luchador knights, La Orden de la Mascara (The Order of the Mask).
  • Hitman: Absolution has 47 track down Sanchez to an underground fighting ring where he is scheduled to face off against a masked fighter known as The Patriot. A special way to complete the mission is to disguise 47 as The Patriot and go into the ring to kill him in hand-to-hand combat in front of a cheering crowd who doesn't realize that the two of you are fighting for real, even after 47 takes off his mask halfway through the fight.
  • Hong Kong Ninja has wrestlers in luchador masks as Giant Mook-type enemies in quite a few areas.
  • Burrito Bison stars a buffalo-themed masked wrestler. The third game in the series introduces two partners, El Pollo and Pineapple Spank.
  • God Hand has two boss fights against a gorilla in a luchador outfit, complete with a tiger-themed mask. (Or judging by the zipper on his back, perhaps he's just a human in a gorilla costume.)
  • Renowned Explorers has a luchador named Dolores Garcia as one of the avilable explorers, specializing in Athletics and Quick Wits. Her personal story card involves her encouraging the other two explorers in the party to form a wrestling team which gives you additional income in between expeditions due to them participating in wrestling matches during the downtime.
  • Fate/Grand Order features Ruler Quetzalcoatl Santa/Samba, an Aztec goddess, luchadora, samba dancer, and santa, all at the same time. She has a pair of minor costumes where she dons masks, the Tecnica and Ruda Mascaras, which make her look more heroic or villainous, respectively.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner: Strong Bad's look is based on this, although the mask is apparently his actual face. He actually wrestles in a few toons, although he makes it clear in one of them that "Being an awesome wrestler has nothing to do with awesome wrestling moves." Furthermore, in the same toon he goes through a variety of gimmicks none of which are the straight Masked Luchador gimmick — the final one even involves facepaint over his "mask"! Oh, and for some reason he wears boxing gloves. Which, again, are apparently his actual hands.

    Web Comics 
  • Dr. McLuchador from The Adventures Of Dr Mcninja, who was exiled from Cumberland for his extreme, wrestling-based methods. And his extreme methods in general, really. It turns out that the real McLuchador died years ago in obscurity. The one who appears is McNinja himself (who faked his death thanks to the events of the last plot arc), using the persona to infiltrate King Radical's organization.
  • El Lightning Blue from The B-Movie Comic.
  • This is the outfit that Muko wears in the Act 1 cover of Furry Fight Chronicles as her Combagal theme. She finds the Cool Mask of it in Chapter 30 but has yet to buy it.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • The entire cast of ¡Mucha Lucha! consists of young masked luchadores attending "The Foremost World-Renowned International School of Lucha", but not all of them are Mexican.
  • The Angry Beavers had El Grapadura (The Stapler), who had his own TV show and even starred in a movie with the beavers.
  • Ben 10: Omniverse: Skurd eventually fixes the glitch that prevented the Omnitrix from giving Rath clothes, resulting in Rath wearing a masked luchador outfit... and also speaking Spanish, for some reason.
  • El Toro Fuertetranslation, a professional luchador from Jackie Chan Adventures. In his debut episode, "The Mask of El Toro Fuerte", El Toro had attached the Ox Talisman to the forehead of his mask, and considered the notion of being unmasked to be of the highest disgrace.
  • A stock background character in The Fairly OddParents!.
  • White Pantera's costume in El Tigre is highly reminiscent of these.
  • Pantha, a female Brazilian luchadora from Teen Titans (2003).
  • El Superbeasto.
  • Johnny "the Mayor" Bledsoe, the mayor of Hill Valley on the bizarre The Oblongs, wore a luchador mask (and a business suit), although he acted more like an American wrestler—"Macho Man" Randy Savage, specifically.
  • Speaking of the Macho Man, he also voices the superhuman Luchador "Wrass-Lor" in an episode of Dial M for Monkey. The plot: "Fight me or I destroy the earth!"
  • The two dogcatchers working for Doctor Applecheeks in Tom and Jerry: The Movie resemble Mexican wrestlers.
  • One shows up in, of all things, Avatar: The Last Airbender, as one of the professional earthbenders that Toph beats in "The Blind Bandit."
  • Soos dresses up as one in the Summerween episode of Gravity Falls.
    • Soos's dad in Weirdmagedeon seems to be one, but it's revealed to be fake.
  • Legend of the Three Caballeros reveals fairly early on that Panchito is actually the masked luchador El Gallo Locotranslation. It's a Paper-Thin Disguise, but Jose seems generally surprised by the revelation when it first comes up. In Episode 9, El Gallo Loco returns to take on Baron Von Sheldgoose in a wrestling match to try to thwart the villains' evil plan.
  • OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: Mr. Gar is shown to have been a luchador named "El Bow" when he was first recruited for P.O.I.N.T.
  • Maya & Miguel: The titular characters have a retired luchador, Gus "El Guamazo" Lopez, as a downstairs neighbor. He bakes now, and prefers it that way.

 
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Tiger

Tiger is one of the Four Luchadors of Black Velvetopia, representing Edgar's old school mates.

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