Lucha Underground Returns!

Lucha Underground, season 2, will soon be upon us and I cannot wait! I never suspected that I would like Lucha wrestling, but it captured me from day one, and has quickly become one of, if not my most favorite wrestling company on the planet. While I’ve cringed at a story line here or there, as I’ve done for every wrestling company I’ve ever watched, Lucha Underground breathes much needed new life into a stale product. It’s colorful, fast paced, yet offers every style of wrestling there is, not just the over the top Luchadores the name implies. Texano, Cage, and Big Ryck, bring power, Vampiro brings hard core, and Johnny Mundo brings the classic America style. Even the star of the show, Prince Puma, while very much a Luchadore, also brings the classic “super indy” style to the temple!  If you’ve ever considered watching Lucha Underground, but held off because you’ve never been a big fan of the Lucha style, stop allowing that to keep you away. Lucha Underground offers everything any wrestling fan could ever want, and more.

I mentioned earlier that occasionally a story line has let me down. Do you know why that’s acceptable to me? Why I get over it? Because these guys do solid story lines that are like nothing you’ve ever seen anywhere else. Lucha Underground doesn’t just put two guys against each other for the hell of it, and anytime you think they have, something happens to make you realize there’s something more to it than that. Either the general manager Dario Cueto makes an announcement that causes the match to be a big deal, or something is revealed to do so. Gimmicks are also first rate in Lucha Underground. While my faithful readers know that I hate gimmicks such as policemen, clowns, or street wise rappers, that doesn’t mean I hate gimmicks over all. In Lucha Underground the gimmicks are honoring a tradition, and based on ancient Aztec principals of war, and battle. While we enjoy Prince Puma, and Fenix, never are we lead to believe these men under those masks really believe they are these animals, or creatures their masks represent. Taxano wears a cowboy hat, and carries a bull rope, but it’s about his heritage, it’s not because he thinks he’s the Roy Rodgers of professional wrestling. Drago is the coolest looking guy I’ve ever seen in a wrestling ring, but doesn’t believe he is an ancient beast of legendary tales.

While every other company is out there ripping off WWE, with briefcase matches, and “Special battle royals,” Lucha Underground is inventing their very own specialty matches. When fans pined for a “secondary title,” Lucha Underground gave them a belt where at least seven wrestlers would vie for, and yet while doing so, not having any idea what the “medallions” they were fighting for lead to. Instead of tag team titles, Lucha Underground went with a trios title, with the first set of champions being a hodgepodge of wrestlers no one ever thought would work, but wound up being very special. The old NWA had a six man tag team title that meant something for a few years, but lost its luster, and went away. Lucha Underground is showing how good six man tag matches should be, and making them as meaningful as any regular tag title in the business.

My favorite thing about Lucha Underground is that I love every wrestler (well outside the transgender Pimpe, who thankfully I’ve not seen in some time). Face or heel, I just love watching all of them. There’s never a bathroom break, or play with your phone a while, performance. The camera work, style, and presentation is also second to none, and I greatly appreciate that they never copy WWE’s style of presentation in any way either, nor are they out to be the new ECW. Lucha Underground is setting their own trends, and I love it. The only complaint I have is a small one. I don’t care to see Lucha Underground wrestlers in other independent companies. Outside their Lucha gimmicks is cool, but watching them in PWG was…odd. They were just as talented, but outside the temple, the magic of what makes them special was lost. They just sort of seemed out of place. My last issue, is that having a break from Lucha Underground was hard to deal with, but it sure made their return that much more exciting! Wednesday January 27th cannot come fast enough! 

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