Mexico, it can be said, is a socially conservative country. While its wrestling can be both outlandish in presentation and execution, the strongly acknowledged Rudos/Tecnicos divide can make it predictable, but also enable some intriguing duality. Take, for instance, the humble Exótico. A style of wrestling that has been popular in Mexico since the 1940s and therefore really since the start of mainstream Lucha Libre. While the history of those characters is steeped in issues, only now are they beginning to be seen in a different light some 80 years into their existence. They are also showing more influence as the branches of the LGBTQI community explore and embrace different elements of wrestling and how to present it.
The big issue with writing about any story like this is that a lot of the early history of exóticos is not pleasant. In a macho world where the presentation of your manliness is everything. Denying that manliness and embracing a different presentation will undoubtedly get you noticed and not necessarily in a positive light. The first exótico of note was Sterling Davies, more widely known as Gardenia Davis. Working for CMLL in the 1940s but coming out of Houston, Texas, he would hand out Gardenia’s on the way to the ring and rely on more suggestive actions than his obvious influence Gorgeous George. He would go on to influence the next generation of exóticos like Adorable Rubi who in turn was the inspiration for current CMLL star Gardenia Dulce.
Rubi, born Rubi Rubalcaba, would become a breakout star. While working in Monterrey for Gory Guerrero, it was suggested that he would work better as an exótico character. Fellow wrestler Chamaco Naturalista offered to teach him ballet to bring a more graceful feminine touch to his work, in return he taught Naturalista Spanish. Upon a return to CMLL in the early 70s he would be a massive hit, as a self-obsessed preening effeminate Luchador who was obsessed with his looks. He would win title after title and along with his partners El Bello Greco and Sergio el Hermoso, would be known as the Lilac Wave, a faction of exóticos who would be a rolling attraction for promoters all across Mexico.
However, while all of this is going on, you have to remember that all of these wrestlers were cishet men who were adopting perceived stereotypical homosexual traits. While there were no doubts that they were money earners, they came with their own baggage when it came to public perception. It was incredibly homophobic and pushed the same buttons that Gorgeous George was pushing in California and Chicago and as Adrian Street was pushing in British rings. The feminine was suspect. This was not an enlightened attempt to bring representative characters as you see in today’s major companies. It was the exploitation of the conservative views of the audience.
Come the 80s a new generation of stars who were influenced by the previous generation but who were actually gay, began to evolve the exótico character. The most famous of which was Mario González Lozano, who would become internationally famous as Pimpinela Escarlata. Starting out as Pantera Rosa, The Pink Panther, Lozano began life as an up-and-comer in EMLL (the then promotional name for CMLL), he would then build up the character of Pimpinela. While the character wasn’t a hit in EMLL, the fans and the organisation as a whole were far too conservative to adopt a hugely flamboyant character to their collective bosom, promoter Antonio Peña, who himself was gay, was about to start a new promotion with more liberal ideas of promotion that would be AAA. After a short excursion in UWA, in AAA Escarlata would find a home. Sliding back and forth between the men’s and women’s divisions over the next 30 years. Once again, forming an all-Exóticos stable in 2000 alongside Sexy Francis, May Flowers, and Polvo de Estrellas. Escarlata would chase a spot in the Wagnermaniacs stable of Dr Wagner Jnr, the company’s top star. After a long feud, Pimpinela finally won a spot in the group only for the rest of the faction to turn on Wagner. Wagner would rebuild the group with Pimpinela, showing the level of professional respect from one of AAA’s biggest stars for the character and the wrestler. Pimpinela Escarlata would go on to be a big part of Lucha Underground and continue to work as a major star for AAA.
Coming up along side Escarlata, Cassandro born Saúl Armendáriz was a native of El Paso Texas, in fact Cassandro and Pimpinela would become close friends. He began his career by migrating back and forth to his family’s home town of Juarez in Mexico and had a false start working under a mask as Mister Romano. He was then encouraged to move to an exótico character by Babe Sharon. While most exóticos were straight Armendáriz is gay, as was Sharon for the matter, and this put an interesting twist on where exóticos could go in the future. For Cassandro it would turn out to be a riveting success. Starting off in the UWA, alongside Escarlata with whom he would build a strong tag team, he became a hit. To the point he would challenge for El Hijo Del Santo’s UWA Welterweight Championship, but a gay wrestler challenging for one of the biggest companies on earth’s top prizes did not sit well with everyone. Cassandro was blistered in the press to the point that it drove him to a suicide attempt.” he was saved by Pimpinela. A week later he challenged El Santo’s son for the belt and came up short, but found acceptance in the Lucha community. He would be the only exótico to hold titles in UWA before the company closed its doors in 1995 and AAA took over as the other major promotion in Mexico.
What makes Cassandro a star with perhaps more of a dent in the culture outside of Mexico is that he is truly magnetic and speaks fluent English. This has helped him become a wider star in North American mainstream TV appearing on Conan O’Brien as well as in the UK where he has appeared on WrestleTalk TV and BBC Breakfast. His life is fascinating and there is no doubt that he is an inspiration to many aspiring wrestlers. His legacy in North America was felt heavily too, he was invited to wrestle Sonny Kiss in the main event of GCW’s Big Gay Brunch in 2020 and the Vibe wrestling’s Cassandro Cup, named in his honour and held every Pride month and open to only LGBTQI Wrestlers began in 2021.
Looking at today’s scene the exótico influence is everywhere, and the major exótico stars in Mexico embrace the LGBTQI community, appearing at Pride events, and generally speaking out on those issues, even if they quite often are not gay or bi themselves. Dulce Gardenia, inspired by Gardenia Davis is a single father of three who works for CMLL and is currently one of their big stars. Who may also be responsible for NJPW’s Master Wato’s ridiculous fringe when Dulce beat him in a Luchas de Apuestas hair vs hair match in 2020.
Máximo, who has had a spectacular career, even if it wasn’t always for the right reasons, is another exótico who has become a massive star for CMLL and for AAA. A member of the Alvarado wrestling family, he began to strike out on his own when he started working for CMLL in 2003 and started using an exótico style for his Roman Legionnaire-inspired character. He would find great success for CMLL. Winning the CMLL World’s Heavyweight Championship in 2015. After being fired in 2017 he would move on to The Crash and AAA. And despite the overly suggestive line his character takes, at home he is married with kids. However, maybe one tale will tell you how far the wider wrestling world has come. In 2011 Máximo was put into a programme with the visiting Taichi of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Suzuki Gun. Taichi, ever the heel, was of course not enamoured with Máximo’s suggestive overtones and they had a violent ongoing feud that ended with a hair vs hair match which Máximo won. In 2021 Taichi and his Dangerous Tekkers tag partner Zack Sabre Jr. released Pride towels.
We live, thankfully, in a more accepting world these days and the exótico character has broadened itself out of the narrow minds that grew it in the first place. You find exóticos not just in Mexico but in Japan too. Yosuke♡Santa Maria has been a star attraction for Dragon Gate, the hybrid Japanese-Lucha promotion that has adopted so much of Mexican culture into a Japanese presentation. Santa Maria identifies as female and is one of the most popular wrestlers in the company. Sonny Kiss has also built an incredibly strong following initially on Lucha Underground as XO Lishus and through AEW. While her character identifies as gender fluid, Sonny herself identifies as transfeminine.
This article is by no means exhaustive, I’ve stuck with the big names to give you an overview of their story largely because it is a complicated legacy, and I doubt the original purveyors of these characters would approve of the current crop of LGBTQI positive men and women who are largely babyfaces and incredibly popular because of their characters. As always in wrestling, the older generations are far too fond of the “In my day” attitude to what comes next and as these wrestlers have proven exóticos continue to evolve from the derisory to the representative and beyond.
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