Lucha Libre is one of Mexico’s most popular sports.
It dates back to 1860 and is known for its masked wrestlers,
over-the-top moves, and rowdy audiences.
It’s also known for gringo bad guys.
Jay Caspian Kang traveled to Mexico City
to meet a 27-year-old wrestler from Pittsburgh
who’s found a distinctive, if inevitable, way
to get Mexican crowds to turn against him.
— There's actually no tanning beds anywhere in Mexico.
So, generally, before a week of good luchas, I need a spray tan.
So right now, I appear to be orange, but
I will look good by the time the show starts tonight at 5 o’clock.
— I think you might be darker than a lot of people
that you’re going to be in the ring with tonight.
Or certainly more orange.
— Donald Trump is orange, so maybe I'll look exactly like him tonight.
— Sam Polinski moved to Mexico for the same reason most immigrants move to new countries:
Work.
Polinsky, who goes by the wrestling name Sam Adonis,
has been a journeyman for most of his career,
with stops all over the United States and Europe.
— These are my favorite thing about Mexico, is they make fancy boots.
— But his wandering days may be over.
Sam moved to Mexico about a year ago to play a lady’s man,
the sort of alpha-bro who would try to steal your girl.
It was going okay, but he wasn't seeing much traction.
— The first event I had here in Mexico City,
I was the sole representative of the United States for a tournament.
And I was just thinking of ideas,
how do I represent the United States and wind people up at the same time?
— Then, he had an idea on how to become Mexico’s ultimate villain.
— Before, I had one photo of Donald Trump on my tights, just to wind people up.
And it got such an awesome response from everybody that I was thinking,
how can I do something bigger and better with Donald Trump?
— So, the idea that I had was to put the picture of Donald Trump on the American flag.
So I waited for the election and, the following Saturday,
I had my first match.
And the reaction was just outrageous.
It took about 10 or 15 seconds for them to realize
what the giant orange spot on the flag was.
And then, everybody in the building absolutely lost it.
It was the first time in my wrestling career
that I’ve ever heard an entire audience scream,
“F-U, F-U, F-U!”
So I'm sitting there as the bad guy in the ring,
with bad faces and the snarling.
But inside, I'm giggling like a little kid saying,
“Wow, this is great."
"Look at what we just created here.”
— Lucha Libre will always be a reflection of Mexico’s id.
Sam’s in-your-face American patriotism works best in times of strained relations across the border.
That means Sam Adonis, Mexico’s number one Trump supporter, was almost inevitable.
— When you see him with a Donald Trump flag, how do you feel?
— The Trump character shouldn't have been too much of a stretch:
the real Donald Trump used to play a heel on WWE
and even appeared on Wrestlemania in 2007.
— As someone who’s playing a heel right now,
and as somebody who watched Trump throughout his campaign, do you see similarities?
— I feel like Donald Trump is one of the best heels of all time.
I feel like he knows how to captivate an audience,
and knows how to say the right thing at the right time.
I don't know if he's necessarily played the heel because he wanted negative attention,
but I think, in today’s society, people like the anti-hero,
people like the people that are anti-establishment,
and that's what Donald Trump is known for.
— After the match, Sam met with some of the fans
who had just been screaming at him to go back to America.
— The best part about it is these people vicariously scream through me.
When they come to the luchas and scream the way they feel about the United States,
or me, or whatever, it's a release.
They feel good.