AWL 40 Preview Week: Day 3

Lucha vs. Libre:

Ah good old fashioned sibling rivalry, brother vs. brother, beating the hell out of each other in tight pants and face concealing masks.  Perfectly normal, or was that just my family?  Anyway, at AWL 40, it will be the first one on one match ever between Lucha and Libre in the AWL.

The two brothers came to Japan and the AWL from their native Mexico where they are apparently the sons of a famous family in the world of Mexican pro wrestling aka lucha libre.  I say “apparently” because the only person in the AWL who knows who Libre and Lucha really are is the AWL Commissioner and he isn’t telling.  This is not an attempt by the boss to “work the locker room” but an attempt to respect the privacy of the brothers who, when they signed up, wanted to avoid any nepotism that came along with their name.

When they debuted in the AWL it was as a tag team called “The Free Fighters” a play on the English translations of their pseudonyms.  While never a top tag team, they had some success and even feuded with The Technicos for the AWL World Tag Team Titles. 

But even in the early days, observant viewers saw seeds of what was to come between the bothers.  Libre always embraced the high flying offence and the honorable tactics expected of a technico luchador.  However, his elder brother Lucha was always more ruthless and disrespectful in his wrestling and his attitude, the rudo of the family if you will.

In hindsight, it should come as little surprise that Libre’s success (being hailed as the breakout star of AWL Season 2) caused a burst of jealousy in Lucha.  Lucha became obsessed with proving that his little brother needed his help to win matches.  This resulted in Lucha striking his own brother in the head with a steel chair when Libre refused to let his brother cheat to help him.

In recent weeks, Lucha has debuted a brand new look with black accents on his mask and tights, a new theme song that turns out to be Libre’s theme played backwards, and a new, more intense fighting style including a vicious sling shot leg drop to the neck.  A variation on a move that Libre has never quite mastered.

On the other hand, Libre feels that his big brother has stepped all over the family honor by becoming a rudo (Apparently, they come from a long line of technicos) and he hopes to set Lucha straight through the crucible of combat.

It’s brother versus brother with a metric ton of pride on the line as Lucha and Libre go one on one at AWL 40, this weekend!

Tune in tomorrow, when we will have news that will rock the AWL to its very core.