Sunday, July 27, 2008

Lucha Libre - Fray Tormenta

The kids watched a movie about a wrestling Mexican priest, and I recalled reading about such a real person who had done that to be able to feed the children in his orphanage. I googled him, and here's something about him:

"Strange and wild it certainly is, but this totally implausible story is, in fact, based on the life of one of Mexico's most beloved grapplers - the legendary Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm). A professional luchador, Tormenta fought for 23 years, until 2005, and survived 4,000 bouts while remaining incognito inside his golden cape, yellow leotard and red-and-yellow mask. But in real life, Fray Tormenta is a real priest who, like the fictional Nacho Libre, donned the leotard in order to feed the children he had found abandoned on the streets of Mexico City. "No one would have taken me seriously as a wrestler had they known I was a priest," explained the wrestler, whose real name is Father Sergio Gutierrez Benitez. "The fans, the impresarios, thought my nom de guerre was a joke, like all the other characters we impersonate in the ring."

If he stopped fighting in 2005, I wonder what he's doing now.

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