For years, Las Vegas has chased professional sports. We’ve hosted heavyweight boxing, rugby, minor league baseball, jai alai, the NBA, the UFL, the WWE and G.L.O.W. We’ve built a potential NHL dynasty from scratch and contorted ourselves into a shape that appeals to the erstwhile Oakland Raiders. And yet, for all that effort, I haven’t been able to watch a lucha libre masked wresting bout on the Strip. I haven’t been this disappointed with Vegas since flat-track roller derby cleared out of the Riviera, and then the Riv was torn down.
Enter, thank God, Lucha VaVoom, coming to Brooklyn Bowl for one night only, September 13.
Described by show co-founder Rita D’Albert as “crazy Mexican masked wrestling with the best of burlesque,” this sports and entertainment extravaganza—which has been playing to giant crowds at LA’s Mayan Theater and in other venues around the world for some 17 years—is exactly what Vegas needs now: an irresistible combination of the lusty Wild West town Vegas once was and the go-team player we’d like to be, peppered with generous amounts of acrobatics, comedy, tease and swagger.
“It sounds like one thing, but it’s actually more than the sum of its parts,” D’Albert says. “It defies description; it kinda becomes its own animal. Just a wild night.”
Vegas’ promised wild night is packed with talent. A dazzling, superpowered assembly of star luchadors—including Lil’ Cholo, Dama Fina, Rey Horus , Mariachi Loco , Dr. Maldad and Puma King—will vie for supremacy in the ring. A murderer’s row of striptease notables, including Natasha Estrada, Moana Santana, Karis Wilde and no less than two former Miss Exotic World titleholders (Kalani Kokonuts and Trixie Little), will provide ample vavoom. A soundtrack of mariachi horns and twangy rockabilly—courtesy of The Delta Bombers—should keep the energy high. And ringside commentary will be provided by comic Jeff Davis and The Price Is Right host Drew Carey, because why the hell not?
So, we’ve got sexo y violencia y comedia, all bedrock forms of Vegas entertainment. What took Lucha VaVoom so long to come to the Strip, where it so plainly freaking belongs?
“I totally agree!” D’Albert says. “I come to Las Vegas a lot and I check out shows all the time, and there’s a lot of fun stuff. But there’s nothing like this. You leave [Lucha VaVoom] on such a high note, feeling like, ‘What are we going to do now?’ I feel like we’re so perfect for Las Vegas, and we’re dying to have a forever home there.”
Still, one night is better than none. So if you care at all about the quality of sports in this town, go to Lucha VaVoom. Drink beer, cheer for your luchador, thrill to the spectacle. Then go out and convince a Strip property to give the show a permanent room. Use a Chicali Backcracker, if necessary.
LUCHA VAVOOM September 13, 9 p.m., $40-$50. Brooklyn Bowl, 702-862-2695.
