Hundreds of Mexican professional wrestlers, or luchadores, gathered in front of of Tijuana City Hall yesterday to protest the long Mexican wrestling tradition of wearing ornate masks, which the demonstrators insist infringes of their “freedoms.”

The anti-mask rally was the biggest of its kind, attracting some of the biggest names in Mexican professional wrestling including Pentagón Sr., Mil Mascaras, Heptagón Jr., The Mauve Demon, El Santo Claus, and Reymond Mysterio Sr. 

“Ya no quiero usar esta máscara,” said the leader of the anti-mask rally, El Generico. “Si nos hacen usar máscaras, pronto tomarán nuestras armas y alimentarán a nuestros hijos con los satanistas democráticos.”  (Translation: “I don’t want to wear a mask. If they make us wear masks, soon they’ll take our guns and feed our children to Satanic democrats). 

The anti-mask luchadores claim a variety of reasons for their newfound aversion to masks — breathing issues, the stink of old sweaty leather — but most just insist that “masks don’t work.”

In the US, one mayor of a Tennessee town, Glenn Jacobs, claims publicly to be against mask-wearing, but now faces criticism for his pro-mask stance for much of his previous career as a pyromaniac-former-dentist-turned-corporate-lackey.