thecubsfan

I have the same concerns about Vampiro, but the one big thing he's got going for him is the strong editing team. If he can have like 8 solid minutes in a 16 minute match, they could make it into something that's good enough for a climax to this feud. (And my impression is there's enough there to make it.)

He addressed that problem later - he's as frustrated as we are about that. It's a small operation right now (five people!) and no one was really prepared for the reaction they were getting or and the people involved didn't have the infrastructure to handle it. He said something along the lines of "we're spending more time taking down fake merchandise than getting out our own" - that was frustration rather than bragging. He noted it was the smallest budget program he worked on. Here's the big mission statement (and also the answer for 'when are tours going to start') In this interview and the other ones, he really comes across as a honest straight forward guy. Maybe I'm too used to wrestling people and not enough to TV people, but I tended to believe everything he said. It did seem like he's hopeful of being renewal, but has no more idea of when the announcement would be made than we do. If you want to look at a less optimistic (and that's my gimmick), saying they're looking any way possible to keep the show going suggests they don't currently have a strong chance getting renewed on any of those ways at the moment, and they're just fishing around hoping for a bite.

There was a post citing an anonymous email on the WON board. That building on the other side of the road did seem like a distributor of something, and all the other buildings around the area could be owned by other people (there were signs offering them to rent out for production) - but the LU building has been used by a lot of productions, "some agreements" could just be keeping a hold on the building in case a last minute deal does happen, and this story is awfully flimsy. This didn't seem strong enough to even write about for me.

If the long term thing is a fake out, and Ricochet is just putting over KUSHIDA in a battle of this year's Super Juniors winner and last year's Super Juniors winner, then everything's (mostly) fine! Even if that was the case, if I was Lucha Underground and season 2 was still in play, I'd send someone out to to Twitter to calm everyone's nerves and say everything is going to be OK. Someone official, not the unofficial emissaries or the people who've been saying a deal is just about to be done in a few months. But then I'd also send someone out to say everything is going to be OK even if there was no hope, just to protect the last few shows.

That's the date. Supposed to be a two hour special. Not sure if that'll hold true for Unimas as well or if they'll split it up. Marty was on the previous version of Tough Enough (with Ivelisse and Son of Havoc), but hasn't worked any place high profile since - looks like just smaller California indies.

There was a story being floated back in April that LU season 2 start date might have to be pushed back because Van Wagenen was going to be busy in a similar executive producer for the Apprentice. Everyone ended up denying it, with Van Wagenen saying he didn't even know when they were taping it because it completely depended on Trump's schedule - but if there still somehow was anything to it, at least it's not there any more.

Well...

Right. Though there are some good people Casandro could bring from Juarez in his place. And Rayman is pretty reliably good on that show.

I dunno know if we know anything's really changed with TNA's future (or LU's - it only counts as leaving if there's a season 2), and there's always the chance he could silly strut his way back into the Temple some other day. But Dave think Lucha Underground cut Hernandez loose so maybe they weren't so high on him. (Also, other things that we'll discuss some time from now.) I thought Hernandez was generally better than I expected out of him (though my experience was mostly his forgettable Mexico matches and maybe he was better elsewhere?) - the Puma/Hernandez title match was really good! He played his character well. He seemed like an onscreen net positive, but at the same time I won't mind other people getting bigger chances if there's a next season. There were a lot of big picture focus on this episode on this episode, even in ways which won't be obvious until later (unless you skip to the end of the book.) They're completely locked in on the end of the season, which is going to be epic. I wish we got more of a challenge from Drago for the title shot, but Mil Muertes looks like an absolute monster. I know the complaint on the last page was Puma being built up to a ludicrous degree that makes it tough to believe anyone will beat him - it's going to work out, because they're doing the same with Mil! I have feelings about Vampiro, but they're doing everything perfect to make the first time he and Pentagon touch seem like a huge deal. Even smaller stuff seems to be trickling into rivers: Cage & Mack keep crossing paths, keep looking awesome fighting each other, and are clearly going to have a big match to finally settle it at some point. It's all been in the background outside of the locker room bit - the fans may not pick up on it at first, but the writers aren't losing track of those details.

Alberto as a wronged man who is going to kill you is so great.

Emmys aren't until September 20th - even it did matter, it would be too late to matter. More important: Lucha Underground is a reality show! All this stuff is really happening unscripted, if the award category is to be believed! Somewhere out there, Matanza really exists. And he's coming for you.

I'm not sure if all the judging panel votes are predetermined before hand, but I'm 100% sure some of them have been. I would guess they don't bother fixing them when they the people in charge believe they're going their way and do when they need the help. The winner of the fan poll gets 40 points. The other voters get some lesser amount of points in proportion to their amount of votes in theory. It's not that consistent in reality, and that's the other way they try to get their outcomes. But even with all the built in safe guards, I think they might be 0 for 3 on the guy they wanted to win on Day 1 actually winning the competition.

LOL There's definitely been some content edits on Unimas. The Matanza attack was slightly edited down, they've done stuff with Pimpi too. I haven't really been checking, but I wonder if it's less censored on the midnight Sunday airing.

Everyone too stunned by Drago's gear to say anything.

Tirantes is a luchablog reader.

Next week's too. Though - either someone's screwed up with that one or they've drastically changed the order of the shows. (Not the first time they've given plot points away with the title or the description, not sure why that's not fixed.)

I want to hear the 'Dragon Azteca inside man' theory. I really assumed it was Dragon Azteca who snuck in to kidnap Black Lotus and didn't even consider someone else was involved - but then that whole thing was vague. Are you going with Puma (the only guy who's met Dragon Azteca) or someone else?

For what it's worth, "Prince Puma" has not worked in Mexico yet. It'd make sense for TripleMania, especially if they get a Mexico Lucha Underground TV deal by then.

The powerbomb to the floor looked impressive on TV and I bet it was one of the safer things they did in that match.

Second season actually not officially yet. Stay strong.

I really hope they also put these matches up complete on YouTube too, so I can just watch them and not spend hours covering up that logo. It is a show with Hijo del Santo, so they might have just told him no. First round is everyone versus everyone, seven matches all around. Best possible match is probably Zavala vs Maya, worst is Canelo versus anyone. 7 Delta singles matches might not go well for him - he's in the Angel de Oro category of guys who have a set of spots they rarely mix up. This seems like it might be Disturbio's one big shot at getting a decent push. He's short and doesn't have a good body, he's not a guy they'd otherwise pick, but he's more talented than the guys he normally works with. Hijo del Gladiador was not good on Informa. Hijo del Fantasma subtly buried him during his media tour last week. I don't expect much out of him. Tirantes will get over as usual.

If I'm figuring this right (and with a little guessing about backstage vignettes), that's kinda going to happen the next two Wednesdays. Argenis doesn't have matches but should turn up in one form or another...

They've said it'll air on TV on a delay. They'll have enough TV tapings that they could length that delay for quite a few weeks if they like.

AAA doing this show without Pentagon is hard to understand.

It's listed with promotions, but it's supposed to be a country vs country deal. So the TNA three guys get split up because Galloway's not American. And Cage gets put on the ROH team because very few people in Mexico would have any idea who Moose or ACH is, but Cage has been on TV as new lead heel for the last three months so he's got to be in there somewhere. The weirdness of the AJPW is mostly a "we got whoever we could get" situation. Kanemoto has no name in Mexico, but the Tiger Mask gimmick is at least slightly well known in Mexico so he wears it for one night. (And probably just one match, since that's an obvious first round loser team.) I think the Takayama deal was probably the same, AAA just took whoever they were able to get. Anderson was not good in his previous AAA appearances, but he's an ex-WWE guy and that's why he and Hardy were probably picked.