Yuku free message boards

Mil Mascaras wrote:

---

Spoiler II wrote:

---

Mil Mascaras wrote:

---

To top it off, as he fast approaches the age of 70, he still climbs through the ropes and grapples with live wrestlers from time to time, finishing each match with his signature move as he flies from the top rope to pin his opponents. As I have mentioned on another thread, I have had the opportunity to meet and speak with him on two occasions and he was very polite and cordial. A real gentleman - that is, when he's not fighting mummies or vampire dwarves.

I met Mil before and he was a gentleman as well but egads,if there is one wrestler who constantly gets bad mouthed in most wrestling interviews,books and biographies ,it's definitely Mil.

That's very true. He does have another side to him it seems. Such as when a recent lucha pictorial book was produced a couple of years ago, it is claimed that he did not appear in the book due to his demand for payment for use of his photos. Maybe not so strange in US entertainment circles, but in light of the fact that every other luchador that was asked to appear, did so free of charge. I know over the years there had been many wrestlers that had issue with him because of his refusal to sell opponents moves. I'm certainly not going to say the guy's a saint, as he certainly has his detractors, but his style of wrestling and fair play (albeit staged) is what attracted me to him as a kid. Nowadays, I think he can be a bit stand-offish, mainly because of his age, accomplishments, and iconic status as a luchador - for which I find no fault - in the world of lucha libre, the guy deserves the pedestal he's climbed up on.

As a kid,i was always a huge fan of Mascaras,mostly due to his appearance in all the Apter mags where he looked like he stepped out of a Marvel comic and had a physique few had in those days. I also always read about his phenomenal ringwork and high flying attributes. As the years went by and i started seeing more and more footage of him,my appreciation of him started to decline as i saw firsthand how he tried to get as much offense in a match as he could while no selling and trying to make his opponent look weak (which let's face it,is THE cardinal sin of pro wrestling,where you should give and take to make your opponent look strong which is best for business. If you always beat weak people,what does that make you look like?). As an adult,i have read numerous interviews with wrestlers/promoters and managers who i grew up watching and they are almost unanimous in not being fans of Mil's no selling and self centered in ring conduct. It's disappointing because he was always a larger than life figure to me in my childhood and reading all this bad press has made the truth overshadow the legend.


I do recall one match in Japan where his no selling got the better of him where he tried to get all his offense in on Bruiser Brody of all people and it didn't go over so well for our friend Mil as Brody started manhandling him legit and Stan Hansen and Dos Caras had to tag in and restore some order before things got ugly. It's actually infuriating to watch Mil try to look strong and no sell against his much much larger opponents who were huge stars in Japan no less. Comes across as very unprofessional to me. A match where the hero is never in danger has no drama and defeats the purpose of the storytelling.