Lucha Britannia was created by Garry Vanderhorne in 2006 from Rock & Metal Wrestling Action, as an alternative form of physical theatre, music, cabaret, comedy and professional wrestling. In 2007, Lucha Britannia held the first of its six sell-out shows at Bethnal GreenWorking Men's Club. By November 2007 The promotion had outgrown the Working Men's Club and moved to SeOne, a large nightclub beneath London Bridge station. In December that year they were listed by Time Out in their top five Best alternative nightlife of 2007. In the summer of 2008 Lucha Britannia featured on the BBC's coverage of the Reading and Leeds festivals and in October that year they co-hosted the inaugural Bizarre Ball in conjunction with Bizarre Magazine. In 2009, Lucha Britannia became the first UK based wrestling promotion to feature on live British television in twenty-five years when they featured in their coverage of the Brit Awards after-party at Earls Court hosted by Rufus Hound. Later that year they returned to co-produce and host the second Bizarre Ball again for Bizarre Magazine. During 2011, Lucha Britannia put onseventeen events in London and around the UK. In 2016 the promotion increased to hosting semi-monthly shows called Lucha Underground at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, East London on Friday nights.
Style
Lucha Britannia combines the Lucha Libre style of wrestling that is characterized by the wearing of colourful masks, rapid sequences of holds and maneuvres, tag-teams and "high-flying" with the traditional British technical style, North American and Japanese Puroresu wrestling format. Aside from wrestling, Lucha Britannia events also include cabaret performances, comedic interludes and side acts. All the characters and performers in Lucha Britannia loosely fit into a fantastical narrative called the "RetroFutureVerse" wherein a fractious band of outlawed prize-fighters battle for justice and dignity against the dastardly representatives of tyrannical rulers in an ornately cruel, futuristic dystopia. The promotion runs regular monthly shows called The Lucha Underground from the Resistance Gallery – a venue in Bethnal Green in London's East End. The Resistance Gallery is home to the London School of Lucha Libre, Lucha Britannia's own professional-wrestling training academy, as well as hosting a variety of other events. Lucha Britannia has also been an attraction on television and at major UK festivals including the Glastonbury Festival, Download Festival, Reading Festival, Leeds Festival and The Brit Awards.
