My biggest regret about WRESTLEMANIAC (as the U.S. DVD release is titled) is that the "50-times lobotomized" mass and serial killer (after offing a series of opponents in 1967-1968, authorities apparently allowed him to wipe out the population of a Mexican village, and then an implausible 38 years later he has a van-load of very stupid and highly-drugged American youths for dessert in the desert), is that he didn't pop up in NACHO LIBRE to rip off Jack Black's face--or at least rip 22 minutes from NL's running time (which was a bloated 92 minutes). One of the saving graces of WRESTLEMANIAC is that the closing credits begin after a mere 69 minutes. Another is that none of half dozen folks in the van (who may act as immaturely as some teenagers, but certainly do not LOOK like teens, and are never referred to as such) are at all likable, so the gene pool is better off without them. Regarding the Olympic origins of "El Mascarado," the Mexicans were said to be almost as desperate to win gold medals in their "home" Mexico City Olympics of 1968 as the Chinese were to win with their 12-year-old gymnasts last year. Not thinking to forge birth certificates, the Mexican sport authority (after stealing the Games from Detroit, Michigan) is said in the movie to have killed the country's top three grapplers and combined their body parts to create one super-wrestler. Given how things turned out in real life, this plan would have been more sensible than it sounds. (Japan won the most wrestling gold medals in the 1968 Games--4--while the Soviet Union won the most overall--8--and the U.S. just won 2 silvers. The combined medal count for all sports was U.S. 107 (including 45 golds), U.S.S.R. 91 (29 golds) and Japan 25 (11 golds). Host Mexico won only nine medals (three golds)--none in wrestling. The main flaw in the movie's premise is that even if "El Mascarado" wrestled BOTH Freestyle and Greco Roman, he could have won a maximum of two gold medals. On the other hand, if the country had sacrificed its top three swimmer\divers, the resulting aquatic Frankenstein could gone for the gold--and won--at least a dozen times!
Review of Wrestlemaniac
