The eight Micro Stars debuted in April 2017 as the third weight category in the CMLL. "But now they are seen as idols, not mascots or buffoons."īut Gaspar, who is herself just over one meter tall, said there is still a long way to go: social security benefits, pension plans and other support for "life after wrestling." Kemonito's generation had no health insurance or benefits, but put up with the job for lack of other options, she said. Twenty years ago, they threw them in the ring with wrestlers who were two meters (more than 6'6") tall, and they got injured a lot," Gaspar told AFP.
Microman y kemonito professional#
Working conditions and the level of respect have improved dramatically since then in the Mexican professional wrestling league, the World Lucha Libre Council (CMLL), says Catalina Gaspar, an activist for little people's rights. Microman is the son of Kemonito, who was also a midget wrestler but had a very different career.įor 30 years, Kemonito was a "mascota" for full-size wrestlers, a laughable sidekick who provided comic relief until the real action started. Microman was fighting in the second match of the night - four bouts down from the top of the fight card.īut just having his name on the billing shows the progress he and other little wrestlers have made since his father's time. "Microman is a wrestler who gives everything he's got for the crowd," he said, referring to himself in the third person. Microman, 19, takes it all in with an attitude befitting lucha libre's biggest little star. "He's really tiny, but look how he fights!" said another, 30-year-old Felipe Escorza. "Did you see how he held that headstand on top of the ropes? He does it really well," said one impressed fan, 28-year-old construction worker Juan Carlos Elizalde. The audience went wild in Arena Mexico, the high cathedral of lucha libre. He then flattened another with an acrobatic headstand kick known as the "Zero Gravity" move. He and his fellow "Micro Stars" were met with a smattering of jeers when they got in the ring.īut Microman silenced them when he climbed onto the top rope - more than three times his height - to execute a high-flying leap straight into the neck of his also small, but larger, rival. Microman wowed a skeptical crowd at one recent bout in Mexico City, where he and two co-stars, El Gallito and Guapito, took on another team of small-sized wrestlers. Mexico's "lucha libre," a wildly popular mix of sport and entertainment, long featured midgets and dwarves in a deeply demeaning role: they were "mascotas" - a word that can mean both "mascot" and "pet" - for full-size wrestlers.īut a new generation of little people are now rising lucha libre stars in their own right, and dream of one day headlining the main events on their fight cards.
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