Lucha libre is a traditional form on Mexican wrestling characterized by … well, masked characters.

As a city of rather colorful characters, Richmond has come to have its own thriving underground lucha community. Richmond Lucha Libre is returning to Richmond after an extended break this Friday, June 20, to Have a Nice Day Café.

RLL is headed by Chad Painter, owner of Wonderland in Shockoe Bottom, the home of the RLL hall of fame. Painter is the ring announcer and promoter of record for RLL. During a sit down with Painter and RLL cohorts Jimmy Long and Chris Hoyer, along with Richmond Lucha Heavyweight Champion of the Universe the Kamikaze Kid, we explored the hard-hitting history of lucha in Richmond.

"It's an homage to lucha libre," Long said. "It's an homage to a lot of wrestling. But also, it's not made for kids. It's made for adults who still like that stuff … it's an adult product."

All of the lucha events are held at bars and there's motivation behind that besides the booze.

"A lot of what's happened to wrestling now is you have a lot of kids at the shows," Painter said. "And they're always in the way and a pain in the ass."

Hoyer summed up what makes RLL different from traditional lucha.

"It's really like Mexican wrestling with PBR and tattoos," he said, which is basically to say that it's Richmond.

So who would have thought that Richmond was ripe for a Mexican wrestling scene?

"The truth of the matter is, Richmond is not a good town for Mexican wrestling," Hoyer said. "It's actually a terrible city for wrestling. But for some reason, and I think it's just because there's a lot of people in the city who have the same sense of humor, and artistic ascetic that we do, we're drawing a fan base … and it's grown and thrived despite Richmond being fairly apathetic towards most things that aren't a bar or Avail."

Painter, Long and Hoyer put a lot of hard work into RLL behind the scenes, but it's also a tough job being in the ring.

"It can be best described as an organized chaos," Painter said of the action inside the ring. And the man at the center of it all is Hollywood native the Kamikaze Kid.

"Being the Kamikaze Kid is living the sweet life," said the Kid. "I'm the top of the crop, walk around, I got all the women, all the money, I got my friend [El] Sucio at my side."

Kamikaze Kidd has no love for Richmond, and would rather stay home in Hollywood, but he has no problem answering the challenge of a rival, and when it comes to RLL, it's the Kamikaze Kid against the world.

"I usually dread coming back to Richmond, but this time, I'm on a mission," the Kid said. "I'm going to rid the world of girl pants and rusty bikes."

As the Richmond Lucha Heavyweight Champion of the Universe, the Kamikaze Kid has a reputation to uphold, but it comes easy when you've been at the top you're entire life

"I was just born talented," the Kid said. "I was successful at everything I did anyways, so I figured after I won a tennis championship or two, I might as well just move to wrestling. It was the next logical progression … in my opinion, I was always at the top – I just had to wait to qualify age-wise."

So if you want to see the Kamikaze Kid defend his title, this Friday is the time.

"This is a really exciting time to catch on," Long said. "It's going to be crazy, literally."
Painter wants to stress the fact that, while RLL isn't for kids, it is very much for everyone else, regardless of what you would normally be doing on a Friday night.

"There are a lot of people who are afraid of coming 'downtown'," Painter said. "As a business owner I am kind of tired of hearing that excuse. We are trying to expand our fan base while still maintaining our integrity."

And in closing, a few words of advice from the Kamikaze Kid to aspiring luchadores everywhere:

"I just want to tell everyone out there that it's a great opportunity," said the Kid. "I just hope…don't bother. You won't make it. There are better people around, like me."

Richmond Lucha Libre is Friday, June 20, 2008 at 9 p.m. at Have a Nice Day Café, 11 S. 18th St. The first 250 people in the door are free, it's $5 after. 18 and over.