This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Nine-year-old Jovanna Mendoza, her brother Juan Manuel, 8, and Lisbet Lopez were thrilled Sunday to see their Lucha Libre local hero, Paco, share the card with Mexican superstars Misterioso, Cassandro el Exotico and Mascarita Sagrada.

It was Jovanna and Juan Manuel's dad's idea: Bring the kids to see real Mexican wrestling, the century-old professional free-fighting that brings athletes and their audience together in a kind of choreographed interactive theater featuring bizarre masks, death-defying leaps and lots of punches, slaps and drama.

Misterioso gave the kids his autograph. Though they were a few rows back from ringside, "we've never been so close before," said Lisbet, 6.

Before the night was over, the three kids would rush to help Misterioso's partner - Rey Scorpio, the big "rudo," or bad guy - after his main-event opponents threw him out of the ring to land at the Rose Park Elementary students' feet.

The event at Centro Civico Mexicano in Salt Lake City drew a crowd of 500 and was the first time local Lucha Libre wrestlers, known as luchadores, were on the same program with their famous idols. The Mexican wrestlers saw it as a chance to bring to the Utah Mexican community a bit of home, while also helping their junior American counterparts hone their chops.

"They're pretty good," said Misterioso, introducing Jr. X, Paco, Khan Kussion, Billy Malic, Chip and AC Tsunami to reporters before the matches.

The crowd of parents, children and grandparents threw themselves equally into their roles, cheering on their favorites, booing and heckling the "rudos" and hauling the kids out of danger when they got too close to the action.

Sponsored by the Spanish-language magazine El SemanalSemenal and businesses in the Salt Lake Valley, the event featured five matches between Utah luchadores. Two matches showcased some of the biggest names in the Mexican wrestling world.

All the luchadores have handles and tend to stay in character while in public, though not all wear the signature Lucha Libre masks when they compete. The sport, which combines gymnastics, dancing, acting and real competition, was at the center of the 2006 movie "Nacho Libre"

and would seem to be a natural outgrowth of exuberant boyhood - or girlhood, given the growing number of women in the sport.

Sandy Severance gamely watched her son Jr. X's punches, elbow jabs, flying lunges, backward flips off the ropes into the crowd, landings on the hard floor and noisy bounces off the ring deck made of canvas stretched across wooden slats.

When her son was 12, Severance said, he dove off the family deck onto a friend who was lying on a card table. "They went through the card table together," she said. "That gave me a clue."

Fans get involved:

The crowd . . . threw themselves equally into their roles, cheering on their favorites, booing and heckling the "rudos" and hauling the kids out of danger when they got too close to the action.