Weekly Mexican wrestling event in East Houston brings together families and tradition

Wrestlers face off in a tag team match. — Wrestlers face off in a tag team match during the weekly lucha libre matches at Coliseo Houston in the city’s Magnolia Park neighborhood.

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Houston is now decades removed from the wild nights of professional wrestling at the old Sam Houston Coliseum. These days, though, another kind of wrestling is thriving on Sunday nights in the Magnolia Park neighborhood at a different sort of “coliseum.”

On Sunday nights for about five years now, fans have been flocking to a building located off an alley in the historically Latino neighborhood to watch lucha libre — Mexican-style wrestling events — in what’s been dubbed Coliseo Houston.

The view from ringside at the weekly lucha libre matches at Coliseo Houston.

To enter, you walk past vendors grilling up street tacos and through a single door into the back of what looks like it used to be a large garage or small warehouse.

But instead, rows of folding chairs are lined up along three of the four walls facing a wrestling ring in the center. Vendors are selling food, drinks, and wrestling masks while workers pull ropes to hoist a rack of lights to the ceiling.

Vendors make street tacos outside Coliseo Houston during one of its Sunday night Mexican wrestling matches.

It's a rowdy scene as wrestlers are introduced, bursting through a black curtain as sparks shoot in the air around them. Fans bring noisemakers, horns, and, of course, their voices because they're close enough for the wrestlers to hear nearly every word they're yelling.

The occasional wrestler will even stumble out of the ring (probably on purpose) and land in someone's lap.

Masked wrestlers pose before a lucha libre match in Houston.

Tonight, there are a handful of matches. Some are one-on-one. Others are tag team matches. Men and women are all in the ring for different bouts, taking turns body slamming each other, flinging themselves off the ropes, and engaging the fans.

One performer who seems to have a pretty strong contingent of fans on a particular Sunday night in November is Mar Gonzalez, a Houston wrestler who performs under the name L.A. Spooky.

That enthusiastic following is especially remarkable surprising considering she's only been at this about a year. Growing up, she watched lucha libre with her parents and decided to try wrestling after having competed in boxing tournaments.

A Houston wrestler who performs under the name L.A. Spooky poses outside Coliseo Houston.

She describes her costume as “a badass Chicana” and, when she takes the ring often thinks of her grandmother, who originally grimaced as she came home with bruises from training.

“She always said, ‘Never let anyone tell you you can’t do it,’ because I can,” she said. “And so before I go out I have a feeling like she’s with me. And when the music hits, it’s time for me to show everyone what I’m capable of.”

One of Spooky's biggest fans – a particularly gregarious one on the front row – is a woman named Norma. She's been coming to these Sunday night matches for five years. She says the reason she loves Spooky so much is simple – she's a woman, and she’s great with the fans.

L.A. Spooky catches her breath after falling out of the ring.

“She fights men, and she doesn’t care,” Norma said through the help of translator Carlos Barrera. “She just goes and goes and goes. She’s not afraid…she is great with people the crowd loves her.”

There is plenty for the crowd to enjoy tonight – and that includes a lot of kids, who get to play in the ring in between matches, which stretch on past 11 p.m. And, before the night is over, nearly everyone leaves with a giant slice of sheet cake emblazoned with pictures of wrestlers.

In addition to all the kids in attendance, it's clear that family is a big part of an event like this. Numerous fans say they watched lucha libre matches with their parents, and now they're exposing their kids to it.

Some of the fighters tonight followed a parent into the sport. That’s true for one of the big names on tonight’s card, Fantasma, who’s a bit of a legend of lucha libre in Mexico. His son fights in the WWE under the name Santos Escobar.

Famed Mexican wrestler Fantasma poses with Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty — Mexican wrestler Fantasma poses with Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty.

Camilo Hannibal Smith is a Houston journalist who's written about lucha libre and even wrote his Master's thesis on the subject. He says there are other events like this held around Greater Houston more sporadically. But this one is unique in that it's every week and brings known names from the wrestling scene in Mexico, in addition to featuring local wrestlers.

The weekly event is a vibrant part of the culture in a historically Latino Houston neighborhood.

“This is a way to release…you’re working all week, and this is a way to forget about that for three, four hours,” Smith said. “This is a really cool Sunday way to be with family, connect to your culture. They love it, the people who come here.”