London has an underground Mexican wrestling scene — and it's spectacular

Now it's in Britain, and the entertainment sport is taking London by storm.

Wrestlers in c

"Lucha Libre" — Mexican wrestling — is the second-most-popular sport in Mexico after football and is now becoming massive in the UK.

Lucha Libre ("free wrestling" in Spanish) is characterised by colourful costumes and mysterious fighters famous for their masks.

In the UK, Lucha Britannia is a mix of Mexican wrestling and US, British, and Japanese martial disciplines.

Housed underneath the railway arches in a grotty end of Bethnal Green, Lucha Britannia trains would-be wrestlers and hosts events that attract hundreds each night.

The sport has a strong link with the burlesque and fetish scenes. Even the door staff wears masks.

It's amazing how up close to the action you can get. You can literally rest yourself against the ring.

However, if you don't watch out, you could get in the way of some aerial body slams.

The compère is just as important as the wrestlers in keeping the magic of the characters alive and in getting the audience excited about the storylines.

It's not just about throwing each other round, the "heroes" and "villains" stay in character throughout the whole performance and even on social media.

There is a lot of humour during the show too.

You wouldn't dare tell these guys that what they're doing is "fake."

Effectively, they're stunt men and women who spend hours each week to doing a combination of cardio, strength, weights, wrestling, and martial arts.

They interact a lot with the audience. But sometimes there are inadvertent injuries. We saw a man get his tooth knocked out!

As an audience member, most of the time you're amazed that they don't shatter their spines.

The biggest payoff is seeing the ultimate "luchador" defend his title. In this case, it's El Mercurio.

The battle is always epic.

Usually the last match becomes a crazy melee involving a number of the other wrestlers.

In the end, you always hope the good guy will win.

And when he does, the crowd goes ballistic.

When it all ends, you just want more ...

... which is why I have signed up to train as a Mexican wrestler myself. I now wrestle two to three times a week.

The community is pretty incredible and is made up from all walks of life.

I first started in their beginners training class, but I have now moved to intermediate training. Now I can do this. This is an "atomic drop."

I've learned a range of moves that will enable me to put together a sequence and instinctively know how to wrestle without necessarily agreeing on a chain of events before hand. This is the "wheelbarrow."

And this is my favourite, the "German suplex."

The idea is to one day be as amazing as these guys here.

London has an underground Mexican wrestling scene — and it's spectacular

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