In the ring, they were gods. Now the coronavirus is forcing lucha libre stars to sell street food
MEXICO CITY - Ultimo Guerrero is one of the biggest names in Mexican wrestling - a world-famous star known for his punishing moves, long black mullet and silver-capped front tooth.
He has toured Asia, South America and Europe, won dozens of championship belts and can't walk down the street here without fans pestering him for autographs.
But in the months since the coronavirus struck and wrestling arenas were closed, the 48-year-old icon has been flipping burgers at a food truck.
"Everything stopped," he said on a recent afternoon, a chef's apron pulled tight over his bulging pectoral muscles, the smell of sizzling beef and onions wafting down the street outside his house in Mexico City. "Like everybody else, I had to do something to survive."
Lucha libre - literally "free fight" - is its own religion in Mexico, and wrestlers are gods.
The pandemic has brought them down to earth.
Even the best-known wrestlers were never paid very well, earning about $1,000 a week, most of it from a cut of ticket sales.
