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Lucha Underground Discussion


Robert

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2nd episode thoughts:

 

I'm 100% NOT on board with Chavo, Jr. being one of the top guys in this company. He's old to wrestling fans because we've seen him for so long & the entirety of his career to U.S. fans is as a fucking jobber.

 

Chair shot on Sexy Star I didn't really see coming. I guess that's another thing they're doing to try to be different from WWE? I'm not terribly familiar with Lucha Libre or AAA, so maybe it's more common in Mexico.

 

Mil Muertes was a big-ass hoss which I didn't see coming. The best thing about him was his entrance attire. He looked like Warlord in a mask. Didn't impress me. Neither did Blue Demon, Jr. in his second outing. Maxine looked great though & I'm surprised WWE let her go.

 

Vampiro is already driving me crazy. He says "brother" more than Hulk Hogan. I wonder if he says brother more times than Dave Meltzer says "ya know?"

 

Opening tag match was pretty good but the main event of week one was better. Overall, I think the first episode was better than this episode. This episode didn't have as many cuts to the commentary table, so that's good. Still a lot of the overhead shots which need to be eliminated during actual matches when they're going.

 

I still really dig the backstage movie style vignettes. Puma is really good.

 

Hope it's better next week. :)

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I disagree on Chavito. This was the first time I saw a fire lit under his ass since Eddie died. I also don't see the feasibility to bring in Rey, since he can't be cheap and this show is only drawing around 10,000 viewers, allegedly.

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I just thought that was an odd line, but I really wouldn't mind a Rey-Ricochet match.

 

I'm pretty sure the original "mentor of Prince Puma" role was supposed to be Rey until WWE extended his contract, and Konnan was put in the spot instead (and they're going a different direction with it.) The throwaway line was to set up Rey eventually taking over that role, but I would not expect Rey to be wrestling much more than he is now.

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Two episodes in and I love this show. Perfectly happy to be the Greggulator of Lucha Underground.

 

Five things I loved:

  • Dario Cuerto's office being right next to the entrance ramp. *does double take from counting money* "The hell is going on out there?! TAG TEAM MATCH." 
  • Chavo doing something interesting for the first time in years. If we get a 'fuck you for always chanting Eddie at me' next week, holy hell.
  • That is a very sexy Paul Bearer
  • Big Ryck smoking a cigar while his crew gets beat up
  • Double 450 splashes are the best possible form of babyface revenge
  • The important of lineage and alignment (ok that's 6, but I loved the instant story of Sexy Star being like 'Chavo why are you killing a guy I am related to?')

Five things that need work:

  • Underground seems to assume that everyone reads PWI and is caught up on what's happening. They need to assume no one knows why Blue Demon is a big deal. A video package explaining that he's a barrel chested Dusty Rhodes/Ric Flair in a blue mask would go along way.
  • Striker and Vampiro were better in this episode? But they still need some coaching, and they need to get better at the stories they are trying to tell. The stuff about Konnan needs to be pushed as 'Well Vampiro, maybe he's trying to make good finally with Puma"/"I've got too much history with that guy to believe there's anything good about him." Right now it just comes off as shoot video comments.
  • When you're shooting a wrestling show in an area full of rabid PWG and spanish speaking lucha fans there is zero need for random audience extras. Fill that place up with fans.
  • Transitions are rough. Sometimes it would cut to commercial or move to a new segment when Striker or Vampiro were barely through a sentence.
  • There were not enough melodramatic soulful guitar underscored backstage scenes. I need moar. 
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Five things I loved:

  • Dario Cuerto's office being right next to the entrance ramp. *does double take from counting money* "The hell is going on out there?! TAG TEAM MATCH." 

 

What's Spanish for HOLLA HOLLA?

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Striker and Vampiro are awful as announcers. I think one would be fine and finding a better lead announcer would help. I thought in the opening match they went a while without really calling the match and went off-tangent with Vamp talking about Konnan and then Striker brought something else up to. Striker comes up with some really wacky bullshit on the show. I did like the finish with Striker going with a somber voice as the ambulance drove off.

 

2nd episode was good though. I thought they did a good job turning Chavo Jr. (not that I'm thrilled to see him as a top guy for a 'gringo lucha' promotion), opening tag was fun, mixed tag was ok. Getting rid of Blue Deymond for a few shows is a good thing.

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Episode 2: Opening tag was like WWE trying to do a PWG tag match. Mixed tag I liked because of Sexy Star and the debut of Ivelisse. Main event (Maxine) Catrina looked really hot match was not good and the ending angle got chavo's heel turn over with the chairshot to Sexy Star.

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Tenay would be awful. The last thing this promotion needs is to be associated with TNA in any way and unfortunately as good as Tenay he is he is the poster guy for TNA.

 

I doubt Vamp is going anywhere because he already got himself written into storylines and is a master manipulater so he probably has the execs eating out of the palm of his hand.

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Just watched the second episode after missing the first. I'll go over what I didn't like first.

-The camera angles and editing are just annoying to a long time wrestling fan but I think as it goes they'll find a good medium.

-same for commentary and fake audience reaction but again they're committed and this will get better.

-I'm not sold on the intergender stuff and the commentary defending it only points out the problem more and more.

Now what I loved.

-The entire look is incredible and frankly pa TNA AND WWE to shame. It screams major league and if they ever expand to larger arenas for bigger shows it'll be awesome.

-The roster is varied and way interesting.

-The backstage segments are perfect and for the first time since ecw closed it feels like a new take on wrestling.

Now I have to tell this story so I'm in China and me and my Chinese girlfriend are going to the EVOLVE show this month and she caught the last 7 minutes or so with the end of the match and the angle. She was fuckin floored by it! Chinese people have no experience with wrestling so she didn't know what to make of it so here are some gems, try and imagine how I tried to answer these as she rapid fired.

"Oh my god! Is he paralyzed?"

"Why can't they stop him?"

"You can only do this a few years before you die, right?"

When Chavo attacked him on the stretcher "that is illegal, right? He could go to jail!"

And the absolute best ever! When Chavo was standing proud with the chair

"So he's the king, right? He must be the ultimate champion, like The Rock."

I didn't want to take her out of it and just said "yup!"

Needless to say she's more excited for EVOLVE.

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Why can't they just have Hugo do both the spanish and English commentary? He used to do it for WWC.  

 

I think this is probably about having a familiar face for WWE (English) language announcing. Vampiro's there because he speaks English, people might remember him from WCW, and he might know something about lucha in that order. As much as they have Striker do "we're not WWE!" bits, they want hispanic-ish talent familiar to people who watch WWE. Hugo wasn't on WWE TV enough.

 

If Pete or anyone else is watching the repeat on Saturday morning on El Rey, it looks like it moves to 6:30pm Sunday starting next week.

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The biggest draw to Lucha Underground for me was that it wasn't a bunch of WWE people. I wanted something different. That's why I roll my eyes at Chavo and Ezekiel Jackson.

 

Bring on episode three with all the new faces. That's what I want. I also don't want to hear a bunch of smarky crowd chants like "This is Awesome" or hear Vampiro telling us shit is a Match of the Year.

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Why can't they just have Hugo do both the spanish and English commentary? He used to do it for WWC.  

 

I think this is probably about having a familiar face for WWE (English) language announcing. Vampiro's there because he speaks English, people might remember him from WCW, and he might know something about lucha in that order. As much as they have Striker do "we're not WWE!" bits, they want hispanic-ish talent familiar to people who watch WWE. Hugo wasn't on WWE TV enough.

 

If Pete or anyone else is watching the repeat on Saturday morning on El Rey, it looks like it moves to 6:30pm Sunday starting next week.

Think they running a marathon next Sunday but will return to Saturday the week after next.

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Why can't they just have Hugo do both the spanish and English commentary? He used to do it for WWC.  I don't mind Vamp but Striker is horrible and sounds so phony.

 

Hugo is not good at announcing in English though. But I agree, Striker is awful.

 

Watching this show in Spanish is the way to go for me. I love Hugo. And Vampiro plays it straight for the most part when calling matches in Spanish. He's pretty reined in with Hugo as the lead man.

 

I love Ivelisse.

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Unless Mike Tenay is free by the next tapings, I don't really see anyone else that can announce Lucha in English. Konnan would have been perfect in vampiro role. Imagine Tenay and Konnan calling the action.

 

This is the first time in like 12 years that I've seen somebody actually request Mike Tenay as a good announcing option. 

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Well, TNA can make people with good talent look bad. I think Tenay is a better announcer when discussing Puro and Lucha Libre related things. Tenay and Jim Ross is a front runner for the New Japan ppv from what I am hearing.

Unless Mike Tenay is free by the next tapings, I don't really see anyone else that can announce Lucha in English. Konnan would have been perfect in vampiro role. Imagine Tenay and Konnan calling the action.

This is the first time in like 12 years that I've seen somebody actually request Mike Tenay as a good announcing option.

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