thecubsfan

This so much. I prefer guys giving chances to figure out what they're doing, but the build up they've given to Matanza means those first few minutes where he appears are going to be the most pivotal moments of the season - and maybe this entire show? That character has to work and work immediately. I liked your post. It didn't occur to me that Ivelisse has surpassed Sexy Star but, now thinking back, I think you're right.

Season 1 and Season 2 are up, thru last Wednesday's show. It's $3/episode for HD, $2/episode for SD. S1 complete season is $45, S2 complete is $40 - if you're going to get even half the season, it makes more sense to just buy the season passes. The first episode of Season 2 is free for all right now. I have no experience buying iTunes shows, but some googling says new shows are almost always up by 24 hours and usually by the following morning.

It could be a money thing, but I've thought it's more that they had him leave at the last season (as a way to set up a new location), didn't want to repeat the thing where Drago was gone forever and was back in a couple weeks, and wanted to see what stories they could tell with Catrina in charge. They are going somewhere with these bits; they are NOT saving him for the season finale, but you will have to wait a while longer. (I liked last night's episode! They could use a killer match but the two big matches next week should have a good shot.)

Shocker said he'll back May, if I recall right. There's been no mention of the tag titles, though they sure would look nice in the Maximo/Marco vs Mascara/Rush feud.

so H2L so far is 1) ? (probably women) 2) ? 3) Mascara Dorada, Dragon Lee, Mistico, Valiente vs Kamaitachi, Rajin, Fuijin, Okumura 4) Rush versus Maximo, hair vs hair 5) ? (probably Caristico + amigos) 6) Volador versus Negro Casas, hair vs hair

Reservations here. Probably will go quick.

We figured out it's a one week pre-emptetion to cover the Pope in Mexico City. May mean they don't skip an episode and Azteca will be even more delayed from live - that's what they did when it was pre-empted by a telethon in November. Lucha Azteca appears on some schedules for next week and not others; probably just a listing error.

I'm not 100% sure, but it kind came off like Lucha Underground decided they needed some more woman but the entirety of their search was going to the Stardom USA shows and getting a recommendation from AAA. I don't think they thought about looking for women who are used to wrestling men specifically (which, now that you bring that up, seems like an obvious thing to do.)

Paul London was a road agent for Season 2, seemingly taking Konnan's spot. He'll be back for Season 3.

In case you didn't read it elsewhere, the WON has the Season 3 tapings dates as March 19 & 20 March 26 & 27 April 9 & 10 April 16 & 17 May 7 & 8 May 14 & 15 (Ultima Lucha 3)

That was so bad that it came around again to being good.

The Melissa thing is funny because we're having this same discussion every five pages. It was a great Groundhog's Day tribute. Striker mentioned Konnan has never been seen again after being stuck in the casket late last season. It really didn't feel like the character write off when it happened, but Striker made it seem as though Konnan's not coming back. It's jarring if you've watched Ultima Lucha, where they're pushing the idea that Konnan not being in Puma's corner might have cost him the match. Something happened. Ricochet is not bad at talking, but has an accent that doesn't quite fit with Prince Puma's Hispanic character. It's a tricky situation but one they address.

Cheerleader Melissa, I think. STILL NO.

Supposed to be April (so tickets notice will go out in March.) If it's like this past run, probably also May and June.

It's legit. The word about Season 3 had been out for a while - Eric Van Wagenen mentioned the plan to shoot the third season soon after the second season months ago, and Dr. Lucha said the same thing. This was them just making it official. It's a complete season, in that Season 2 has it's own Ultima Lucha (and so will Season 3). At the same time, they had a pretty good idea they were getting it when they got season 2, so there may be more things which start in season 2 with a plan of a season 3 conclusion. The Observer specifically mentioned an issue with Rey Mysterio. In the world of LU, he is the top stars.

This is a dumb argument for a Lucha Underground thread because it has 100% to do with what you think WWE is doing. But explaining that LU is too tiny for WWE to go after but PWG isn't kind of makes it even dumber.

LU has some tiny revenue streams, but they can't be making money now. This only makes sense as either an intended loss leader designed to create demand for El Rey and increase their subscriber base (the promotion itself loses money, but El Rey makes money off increased subscriber fees from cable/satellite adding them and it balances out) OR this is the equivalent of a internet start up, the investors are throwing in venture capital in hope of a giant entertainment corporation buying the promotion (or increasing their share of the promotion) to give a profit for all the other investors, and then whoever's left can figure out how to actually monetize it. if it's the former, it would explain why they're off of Unimas and why they hasn't gotten on elsewhere. 150K people watching El Rey is better than 100K watching El Rey and 250 watching Unimas (or someplace else) if the goal is to help El Rey. if it's the latter, it would explain why all the DVD/merchandise stuff hasn't been done, because those numbers would look a lot bigger on potential and less attractive if they were locked in to something. (I'd guess the PWTees thing would be something they could pull out of quickly.) Maybe it's something else and I'm just missing it. It just doesn't seem to be a traditional ticket selling deal, because they don't sell tickets. (And maybe can't depending on how TV shoots work in LA?) It's not a modern version wrestling deal of being paid for TV content, because El Rey's not going to be paying themselves. (Given the timeslot was and now is again just old action movies, I don't suspect they were getting paid much by Unimas - if they were getting paid at all.) It's something else.

I agree that LU popularity is over-inflated online, they're not really a threat to NXT, and they should be beneath WWE's concern, but I think where you and I disagree is I think WWE's totally capable of being that small and petty and going after people anyway. WWE should not be wasting time/effort going after LU, because the realities of their seemingly non-existent business model will put them out of business more quickly and efficiently than any talent raid, but my belief is they went after those guys anyway just because they want All The Cool Guys.

LU (and TNA and ROH and everything else) is not a threat to WWE, but it is a slight threat to NXT as the cool alternative. Taking Prince Puma or Jack or Angelico or whoever else wouldn't be about trying to make the main group better (though it'd be a benefit if it was), it'd be about keeping Nxt hot for whatever end game they have for it.

This was a really good job by Cornette to get everyone to talk about him for a few days for no good reason. It's his best current skill.

The viewership numbers for Unimas were rare, but in the 200/300K range. That's 2-4x El Rey was getting, but appeared to be around average numbers for Unimas and significantly less than they were doing in prime time. Unimas probably isn't hurting much by just reruning an action movie. Unimas did air the full Ultima Lucha. Fubo.tv is offering a stream of El Rey for $10/month.

That's the 18-49 number, not the full number. They drew 109K for premiere, 85K for repeat according to the Torch. That's the highest number they've gotten for the first run episode (they hit 102K a couple times last year) and by far the highest number they've got combined with the repeat thrown in. The repeat was airing a couple hours later last years (with a couple reruns in between) and moving it to right after the first show seems like a very smart move.

Rey appeared on UTDN to promote the show airing on El Rey, so I think Unimas fans are officially are out of luck.

Rey's at Univision today to promote the show, so there should be a definitive answer about Unimas (and the whole family) today - either they announce a start date or it's not happening. I'm pretty sure it's not happening, but it's a glimmer of hope.

Lucha Underground doing a four issue comic book, about how The New Person came to be in the Temple. (They were supposed to do a similar one last season, never came out.) First issue is here: They'll be releasing the rest every other week. It looks like there are mild spoilers. Nothing huge, but maybe you'll want to wait if you want go in completely blank.