Introducing The Masked Hunt
By José Luis García
As I began to write the next instalment in the life and times of the Mexican Luchador - The Masked Hunt, I received a somewhat bizarre phone call asking me if I would like to know more about the man on a personal level. At first I took this to be a prank call from someone who had read my articles and decided to have a little fun. It was only upon asking for some historical evidence that the call appeared to be genuine.
I started to ask the caller a few questions about The Hunt’s career, which is readily available online, but I felt I needed to tread a little softly as something in the callers manner struck me as legitimate.
The caller recounted seeing The Hunt many times in person at various matches across Mexico and also on a trip he, alongside some other luchadores had made to Canada in 1977.
After maybe 10 minutes of back and forth chat I was convinced whomever I was speaking to, had actually known or was in someway connected to The Masked Hunt. I asked if I could record the rest of our conversation but the caller became wary and declined to speak on the telephone any further. He did however agree to a face-to-face sit down.
The below is a part one of a direct transcript of that meeting. The person I’d been speaking to was none other than The Masked Hunt’s closest ally, Paco Hernandez.
JLG – Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.
PH – After I began to read your newspaper articles I could tell you were pure of heart and M.H would have liked you.
JLG – That is very kind of you to say Paco, I appreciate the compliment.
If I may, could you begin by giving us the backstory on how you entered into a friendship with The Masked Hunt?
PH – Of course; your article had some of the information correct but not all of it. I was and still am a huge fan of Lucha Libre and my dream as a kid was like that of many children, to become a Luchador. Sadly my athletic abilities would prevent this from happening. I tried so hard for so long but my dream would never really happen, at least not in the way I had imagined as a child. As a part of the training camp to be a wrestler you would be tasked with various jobs like setting up the ring, selling merchandise, taking tickets, being a referee, that kind of thing. This was a real full time pursuit that the promoters would exploit as much as possible to get cheap labour. At the time I never had a problem with it. As far as I was concerned I was now a part of a world I grew up loving. The only time I would ever question my choice was when I had to deal with the established Luchadores.
Wrestlers are often known to play tricks on each other, nothing malicious, just harmless fun. Or it was supposed to be. At first I experienced the ‘ribbing’ and took it to mean I had been accepted into a new family but very quickly the jokes turned nasty and I still do not know why. Things like moving my bag or making me run behind the bus, to see if I could keep up, were fine. Like I said, it was harmless fun, within weeks though it became very mean. The wrestlers would ban me from entering the locker room, meaning I could not speak to them if I were referring their matches. The communication between a referee and a wrestler is so important but if I am not allowed to communicate with them how am I supposed to help them. This would usually end up in a miscommunication in the ring and I would get the blame, often times invoking physical violence. That was one side of my problems; the other would be a thing like finding someone had urinated in my bag, replacing my lunch with dog food, stealing the money from my wallet. All of this changed when M.H came into town.
JLG – What exactly happened when The Masked Hunt joined the organisation?
PH – From day 1 he took no crap from no one. Not that he was a mean person, he was far from it. He always told me to believe in myself the same way he believed in himself. He said once I could believe in who I was the bullying would stop. And he was right. At first nothing really changed, I was still treated badly by the other wrestlers and had come very close to quitting. My mind was made up; I just could not take it anymore. I arrived at the arena and hoped I’d be doing something other than refereeing but fate had other plans. I was booked to referee the main event, a prized position to some, for me it felt like a death sentence. As usual I was not allowed to enter the locker room and did the best I could during the match. After 30 minutes the match was over and I hurried backstage to make my exit straight away. I had just changed out of my referee clothes when out of nowhere I heard a loud pop and then complete silence.
Maybe 20 seconds later I opened my eyes to see the luchador ‘Rey Toro’ standing over me screaming so hard his eyes looked as though they would pop from the sockets. I couldn’t understand what was happening and I couldn’t really hear anything either. All I could hear was this whooshing noise, kind of like the sound of the ocean.
Later on I discovered Toro had burst one of my eardrums from slapping me so hard in the head.
By now almost everyone in the backstage area is surrounding us. Toro is still screaming and I can barely stand. It seems that during the match I had missed a cue but given that I am not allowed in the dressing room, how am I to know. I try explaining this to Toro and he just keeps getting madder and madder. I pled with him, to try and reason with him but it is just not working. Some of the other Luchadores are even egging him on to punish me.
It was at that point that I saw the great ‘Rey Toro’ fall straight to the ground. It seemed like it happened in slow motion hahaha.
M.H had come in at the tail end of what was happening and saw what Toro had done. He heard my explanation and when Toro reared back to hit me again he grabbed his arm, spun him around and knocked him out with just one punch! Bang – that was it, one punch and he was down. It was the most incredible thing I ever saw.
JLG – What happened after the punch?
PH – Toro’s cronies picked him up and he stumbled off, aided by a man on either side haha. M.H came over to me, grabbed my hand and pulled me up. Took a look at me and marched me straight to the Dr. He did not say a word.
As far as I was concerned he was my saviour and I would do anything to repay the favour. I told this to him and he said he did what was right. He explained that violence never solves a problem but sometimes it is the only thing a bully will respond to.
From that day on no one ever said another crossed word to me. I dressed in the locker room like everyone else and MH and I became a team, wherever he went I went with him. He always looked out for me and in return I always looked out for him. He was a true friend and I miss him very much.
Join me next time as I continue to chat with Paco Hernandez about The Masked Hunt’s rise to stardom and his untimely fall from grace.
JLG.
The music accompanying this article was supplied by Paco Hernandez.