This post, about the case against 33-year-old pro wrestler Matthew Castaneda of Anaheim in the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl he allegedly met on MySpace, has received comments trying to somehow implicate Southern California's “Godfather of Lucha Libre.”
The Weekly also received an email claiming to be from Martin Marin that stated the World Power Wrestling founder takes street thugs and turns them into wrestlers. The phone number, email address and Huntington Beach home address all checked out as Marin's.
But, through his lawyer, Marin claims he did not send a letter to the Weekly or anyone else about World Power Wrestling recruitment strategies or Castaneda, who wrestled for the promoter under the name “Chippy Sanchez.”
“That's absurd,” said Bob Barnett, who described himself as Marin's longtime friend as well as attorney.
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Barnett further claimed that his friend and client informed Anaheim Police investigators about Castaneda as soon as the crime came to the promoter's attention.
“He has nothing to do with Chippy,” Barnett said. “The thing is, this guy is a retard.”
Marin's World Power Wrestling was featured in Gustavo Arellano's 2001 Weekly story, “Lucha F@!#%n Libre!” that followed grapplers who competed at the Anaheim Indoor Marketplace.
Castaneda appears as Chippy Sanchez–the first name in honor of his chipped front teeth–in a documentary about the Anaheim scene, La Lucha: The Struggle.
The WPW no longer performs at the Anaheim venue, according to Barnett, who said a roller-rink operation took over the space occupied by the wrestling ring.
Marin now books lucha libre at fairs and other special events.
“They will have two nights at the next Orange County Fair,” according to Barnett, who said a WPW event at the Costa Mesa fairgrounds three years ago drew 12,000 fans.
That's because Marin had on the bill El Hijo del Santo, the son of lucha libre legend Santo. The promoter will be bringing the younger Santo back for this year's fair, Barnett vowed.
As for the communication that started this conversation, Barnett was dumbfounded.
“He's not a letter writer,” the lawyer said of Marin. “Sounds like someone with an ax to grind. Maybe Martin told him he could not wrestle for him. There are guys who look like retards once they get in the ring.”
And once out of it, apparently.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.