CMLL luchadoras interact with the audience at the famous Arena Mexico in Mexico City.
Eighty-five years ago, a property inspector named Salvador Lutteroth Gonzalez founded the first Mexican wrestling organization, the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., formerly known as Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, in Mexico City. Today, the CMLL is the oldest active wrestling federation in the world and—together with the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co. (NJPW)—one of the world's biggest wrestling organizations. The broadcasting of lucha libre, as this genre of professional wrestling is known in Mexico, on national television and in digital media has brought the sport to an audience that extends beyond Mexico's borders. The CMLL and NJPW will kick off the Eighth Annual Fantastic Mania (FM) lucha festival, an eight-day tour, in Japan on Jan. 12. Twenty CMLL luchadores (wrestlers) will travel from Mexico City to compete in six Japanese cities for one of the biggest wrestling festivals. Bloomberg News photographer Luján Agusti captured lucha libre mania in Mexico City.