‘Where was the defibrillator and the trained medical staff ?’
I WENT to Camden with three friends, unsure of what to expect of lucha libre in London, thousands of miles from the home in which its excesses made some sort of sense.
Yet for two hours we were all highly entertained. The choreographed conflicts were gymnastic and hilarious. There was a tag-team match featuring a villain announced as “king of the vegans”, a chaotic melee match with bodies flying in and out of the ring and a women’s match up that ended with joyous Mexican flag waving.
It made the tragedy we witnessed all the more head-spinning. The final match was clearly a draw for the true fans. Both wrestlers were part of great lucha libre dynasties and Cesar Barron, the Silver King, was a film star and bona fide legend of the industry.
In the match his speed and energy belied his size and 51 years. There were no signs of trouble until he was turned over and pinned to end the match early, but still there was no sign anything serious was happening. As celebrations began we wondered what had happened to bring the match to such an abrupt ending. Perhaps the Silver King had been knocked out?
It was minutes before the members of the production gathered around him. In the audience many believed their increasingly frantic looks to each other were part of the show and that the Silver King’s resurrection and revenge was imminent. It was only as his mask was removed and a woman began trying to pump his heart by compressing his massive chest that reality entered the arena.
There was a low, shocked hubbub and already people were asking each other why it took so long for help to enter the ring. Were those working on his body, who included other wrestlers, before parameics arrived, medically trained? Where was the defibrillator? Heart problems among wrestlers are not uncommon given the industry’s well-documented culture of steroid abuse so why did they seem so ill-prepared? These are questions only an inquest can address.
‘There were no signs of trouble until he was turned over and pinned to end the match early’