Five luchadores, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras (Thousand Masks), El Medico Asesino (The Killer Doctor), Tinieblas el Gigante (Shadows the Giant) and Los Sombra Vengadora (The Avenging Shadow) are members of a team known as The Champions. During the day they are Mexican wrestlers but on their off hours they are Mexican wrestlers that fight for justice.
Three of the luchadores, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras and El Medico Asesino are pitted against the Death Brothers in a match. The Death Brothers are defeated. During the match two midgets sneak down onto the catwalk. When the fight is over they spray the place with machine gun bullets. Mil Mascaras is slightly wounded, otherwise the luchadores are fine.
The midgets are minions of Dr. Marius Zarkoff, alias Black Hand (David Silva). Five years ago the wrestling heroes were responsible for sending Zarkoff to prison. Zarkoff has escaped and now seeks revenge. Helping him are a luchador called Black Shadow (Alejandro Cruz), several minions and a bunch of midget wrestlers.
When the machine gun fire doesn’t work, Zarkoff sabotages Blue Demon’s motor cycle. It blows up his assistant instead. Zarkoff then uses one of his inventions to turn his midget minions into an army of superhuman midgets. He sends his army out to kidnap the Goddaughters of the luchadores. The girls are all competing in the Miss Mexico beauty contest.
In the meantime Zarkoff continues to set traps for the luchadores sending his superhuman little people to battle them. Zarkoff captures the girls and puts them in suspended animation. He also manages to capture Tinieblas and drugs him, turning him into a slave. The remaining heroes must battle superhuman midgets and other minions to try to save their loved ones.
“Los Campeones Justicieros” AKA “The Champions of Justice” AKA “The Avenging Champions” was released in 1971 and was directed by Federico Curiel. It is a Mexican science fiction luchador film.
The movie starts with one of the best wrestling matches I’ve ever seen in a lucha libre film. Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras and El Medico Asesino are pitted against the Death Brothers. The match was choreographed gloriously.
The music was by Gustavo Cesar Carrion. He did music for hundreds of Mexican films. The score was based on themes by Mexican jazz drummer Tino Contreras. It was Frank Sinatra style hot Jazz music and it was excellent.
Altogether it was a fun movie. There was only one ring fight but there were lots of other battles in the film as well as a few little people being tossed around. Other than the ring match the other fights were a little strange. Lots of half naked wrestlers being tossed about by little people. There was a lot of camp.
A little Luchador lore. Not all but many of the Luchadores wear masks. The custom dates back to the early days of Lucha Libre. Perhaps even as far back as the Aztecs. They started as a form of identification for the Luchador. They were basic and simple in color. They’ve evolved to incorporate the likenesses of animals, gods and ancient heroes that the Luchador adopts as an identity. They are basically gimmicks but they are entrenched in the Mexican Lucha Libra realm. Removing the mask from your opponent during a match is grounds for disqualification. They are so much a part of the wrestler’s identity that they will wear their mask in private as well as in public. It is now part of the Mexican culture. That’s why in these films you will see a masked luchador always masked. Even in bed.