‘Cassandro’ Is the True Story of Wrestling Drag Queen Saúl Armendáriz

There's nothing quite as deeply satisfying as the underdog narrative of your average sports movie, as we the audience follow a down-but-not-out contender strive against adversity to achieve their dream. And in the new Amazon Prime movie Cassandro, which dropped today, that uphill battle is enriched by the fact that its titular wrestler isn't just trying to win in the ring, but also trying to carve out a place for himself as a gay man in 1980s Mexico.

Gael García Bernal stars as Saúl Armendáriz, a luchador who wrestles under the name El Topo ("the mouse") but keeps losing his fights against bigger, taller opponents and enduring homophobic slurs from the crowd. But when he starts working with a new trainer Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez), Saúl decides to embrace what makes him different.

He begins competing as an éxotico—a kind of wrestler/drag queen hybrid—and adopts a flamboyant persona with the name Cassandro. Channeling this character not only helps Saúl both achieve more victories in the ring, but also gives him the strength and confidence to live more proudly and unapologetically as himself, unlike his closeted lover and fellow fighter Gerardo (Raúl Castillo).

As Cassandro's star rises in the world of Mexican wrestling, he attracts the attention of a new promoter, and forms a flirtatious friendship with Felipe, played by none other than Bad Bunny.

Bernal, who first gained international acclaim with his roles in the Spanish-language queer films Y Tu Mama También and Bad Education, is garnering stellar reviews for Cassandro, with the Hollywood Reporter describing his performance as it his "steeped in cheeky humor, resilience and radical self-belief — not to mention some amazingly nimble moves."

A fitting tribute, then, for somebody who actually exists in the real world.

Cassandro is based on a true story

Much of Saúl's journey portrayed in Cassandro really happened. At just 5'5", he was encouraged to take on a new wrestling character. He reportedly took the name Cassandro in honor of a Tijuano brothel keeper he had once known named Cassandra, whom he admired for her dedication to helping the poor and homeless in her community. And while most éxoticos tend to be portrayed by straight men as caricatures of queer people, Cassandro was a rare exception.

Just like the movie depicts, Cassandro dealt with a lot of homophobia both in and out of the ring, and he was forced to keep his affair with his married lover a secret for many years. But the joy of the persona he created, and the message of being yourself he embodied, was also real.

"On the stage, I feel all the love," he once told the New Yorker. "It’s me, the world champion, Cassandro."

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