Lucha Underground, Is It Worth The Hype???

Lucha Underground is the newest wrestling promotion on the scene.

Ok it’s time for a long overdue blog! First of all I’d like to apologise for the delay, I know it’s been a while since I wrote my last blog but those of you who know me, know that I have had quite a lot of stuff going on both good and unfortunately bad. But it’s all under control, I’ve turned the corner and I’m here with another blog 🙂

What is this blog? Well those of you who know me know that 99% of my best mates all like wrestling as I detailed in a blog back in January I described it as a soap opera for men. Now as you know when a new soap opera comes out naturally the intruege is to check it out and see what it’s about, that’s why this blog is about a new wrestling promotion called ‘Lucha Undergroud’. So I thought I’d do an impartial review about this new promotion and see what it’s all about. So this blog is for my mates Greggo, @ellis57mark, @maninadress2013 and Matty!!

So what is Lucha Underground? Lucha Underground is well exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a federation comprising of some of the biggest Mexican wrestlers from AAA (their version of WWE) and independent wrestlers from the American scene. There are some familiar faces that the casual viewers of WWE will recognise. They do battle in what can almost be described as a scene from fight club, a dirty old school almost fit pit style. However the arena does not do the competitors justice as they use the ‘Lucha’ style of fighting. Now for those of you who don’t know what that means, it means they are basically high flyers, acrobatics, skilled ariel artists. Now if you’re thinking ‘Didnt wrestlers just pretend to hit each other in the face?’ well you’d be wrong.

I’m not gunna lie I’ve seen a little bit of Lucha before and the best way to describe it is as a modern day version of ECW. ECW? Really? Yes really if you don’t believe it, check it out for yourselves. Anyway on to my review. For this review I decided to review the latest show I could get my hands on. This was the episode from March the 11th and now on to my review!!

The show immediately opens with shots of the crowd where we are greeted by our announcers, fromer WWE announcer Matt Striker and cult wrestling icon Vampiro. Straight away I’m intrigued by this combo as in WWE Matt Striker was a clean cut almost Ned Flanders style commentator and Vampiro was the opposite, think hardcore wrestling then multiply it by 10 and you got Vampiro.

Matt Striker is wearing a leather jacket flanked by a Mexican band? What kind of show is this? You wouldn’t get caught dead seeing this in WWE. We are then told that this weeks main event will be none other than a steel cage. Now for those of you who don’t know, a steel cage is a steel structure that encompasses the ring. The only way to get out is to climb over the top or through the door. Pinfalls do not count in a steel cage, two men enter and only one man leaves. Anyway back to the review.

The action then goes back to Vampiro who gives us a run down of the upcoming matches, whilst doing so the crowd is chanting and getting fully engaged. You don’t get this kinda involvement in any of the big promotions, this is what’s missing from pro wrestling if you ask me. Fan engagement not muscly meatheads shoved down our throats. The shot then pans to the ring announcer (who is smoking!) who introduces the first match. Pentagon Jr vs Argenis.

MATCH 1 – Pentagon Jr vs Argenis

First up I’m struck by Pentagon Jr’s outfit, he looks like a bad character from Mortal Kombat mixed with skeletor for He-Man. Immediately the crowd are engaged chanting for both wrestler alike. As for the actual match itself, we are treated to a fast packed match full of action. Most of the moves that take place are unfortunately banned in WWE , so to see luchadors performing to their maximum ability without any restrictions is something that is refreshing and has not been seen since TNA had it’s old style x-division matches about 10 years ago. Highlights of this match include Pentagon Jr’s modified piledriver and dive into the crowd. The match ends when Pentagon Jr showing no regard for his opponent, locks in an arm bar for a submission finish. There is a post match beatdown, which further cements this guy as one of the up and coming heels. How would I rate the match? I’d say the match was short but ok, I’d give it a 2 out of 5 if only for the crowd’s engagement, if the match was longer and less one sided it may have got a 4 out of 5 in my eyes. As for the wrestlers? Argenis I’m sorry mate but I see you as a glorified mexican jobber you’re just to small and to bland, think Rey Myseterio but minus the personality as for Pentagon Jr, truth be told he was a bit sloppy but if he polishes up his finishing to go with his persona and outfit this kid could go far.

Check out this guys moveset he’s gunna be big one day

Outside of the action in the ring, I was damn impressed by the commentating, to goes to show what a big part of the story telling that the commentators are responsible for and by not having them scripted and allowing them to work freestyle how much better it can be. Matt Striker surprised me, well done Matt!

Post match we are then shown a quick promo for tonight main event featuring none other than Johnny Mundo aka John Morrison. John Morrison remember him? The next big thing in WWE who was one half of Miz and Morrison. Well he’s baaaaaaaaaaack and in Lucha Underground!

Another promo is then shown showing an attractive woman and some unknown wrestler. I missed what was said to be honest as when a Hispanic women speaks I’m just like hummana hummana hummana. We then go to a third promo which is dark and gritty with shadowed wrestlers, but wait who’s that in the background? It’s Konnan. For those of you who don’t know Konnn he is a legendary Mexican wrestler who has performed in WWE, WCW, ECW and TNA. So in the first 10 minutes we’ve had ex WWE wrestlers Matt Striker, John Morrison and Konnan, who next Ezekiel Jackson? From a production perspective I have to say I was impressed, they kept it simple and natural where WWE’s promo’s always seem too scripted this seemed scripted but not as scripted if that makes sense?

We then go a weird montage of a mexican wrestler in a pick up truck, the purpose of this I’m not entirely sure to be honest I found it a little confusing to be honest. Anyway now for match number two and back to that smoking ring announcer! Wait a minute who’s that in the ring he’s not from South Africa it’s Chris Sabin! Yes Chris Sabin who was in TNA and they’ve given him some lame name like Angelico, come on if you got Chris Sabin wrestling for you at least play off his name, this guy can wrestler. Anywho his opponent is ALEX SHELLEY MCMG REUNION!!! Nah I’m kidding you it’s just some man called Ivelisse. Wait a minute did I say man I meant WOMAN. It’s time for an intergender match. As for Chris Sabin it’s not actually him but some guy from South Africa, man those two look very similar I’m thinking long lost twins even their ring gear is the same.

MATCH 2 – Chris Sabin’s twin oops I mean ‘Angelico’ vs Ivelisse

The commentators start by saying. ‘We can beat you around the head by telling you about gender equality or we can bring you the best competition’, and I agree I’d much rather see a match between two talented wrestlers that is done SAFELY I’d like to add rather than another squash match featuring a muscly meathead. A special referee is then announced it’s ‘Son Of Havoc’ Ivelisse’s boyfriend, this does not not look good for Chris Sabin’s twin. The match itself features lots of take downs and acrobatic arial moves, however the main point of this match was the ongoing flirtation between the two competitors and the tension between Ivelisse and her boyfriend the guest referee Son of Havoc. I expect this storyline to be revisited down the line with an eventual face turn for Ivelisse. I’m thinking The Hardy Boys and Lita 2.0 with this storyline.

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It’s Chris Sabin, no wait it’s his twin lol

How would I rate the match? I’d say the match was short but ok, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 if only for the crowd’s engagement, if the match was longer and less one sided it may have also got a 4 out of 5 in my eyes. As for the wrestlers? Angelico I see great potential in him, expect him to get picked up by WWE’s developmental scene NXT sometime soon but unfortunately rather than fulfill his potential I see him wasting his years before getting released and disappearing. The same could be said for Ivelisse if I was those two I’d ditch Son Of Havoc (Sorry Havoc) and goto ROH as the new ‘Team Extreme 2.0’ add another high flyer and there you go everyone wins well except Havoc lol!

Another promo is then shown with the same Hispanic women from earlier with legendary Mexican wrestler Mil Muertes hyping a coffin match between him and the wrestler shown earlier. If I was the first wrestler I really would not want to face Mil Muertes he makes Pentagon Jr look like a care bear.

We then go back to the commentators who are hyping the main event between Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) and King Cuerno. Again the crowd is still lively and into the event

MATCH 3 – Johnny Mundo vs King Cuerno

They have added the pinfall stipulation into this match, which I’m a kinda lil dissapointed about, but hey I’m sure the action will still be good. King Cuerno is the first to the ring and Im laughing. Why am I laughing? He has a deer head on his head, I mean why?? Cuerno is worshiping this dear head almost like The Undertakers urn. Why a deer? Maybe we will find out one day. The music is ominous and it’s clear from the outset that he is the heel. Out comes Johnny Mundo sporting the same ring attire and entrance from WWE it’s almost like the John Morrison of old. The match was not what I was expecting rather than it being a usual John Morrison highlight reel it had more of a slugfest feet the ending coming when Johnny hit a dive from the top of the cage.

How would I rate the match? I’d say the match was ok but not fast paced enough for my liking, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 it was good to see Johnny let off his leash but I’d have like to have seen it more. The company is obviously playing off his WWE character so let him run with it, show more of the moves we know he can do and don’t let him hold it back. I don’t think Johnny should go back to WWE as his talents would be wasted, if I was him I’d have him go to NJPW to take on The Bullet Club or go to ROH. It’s not a knock on his talents, it’s more a knock on companies not knowing how to book him. As for King Cuerno I see him doing really well in AAA he has that typical AAA look and persona.

Check out the Johnny Mundo vs King Cuerno match above and let me know what you think!

So what were my overall thoughts on the show? If you were a die hard WWE or even TNA fan you may not appreciate the lack of pyro and production quality but to the die hard wrestling fan you’d like it. It’s like I said it reminded me of old school ECW and to a lesser extent TNA when it first came out when it was about no limits rather than weight limits. It helps it’s also the only non PG televised wrestling show, I know there are other federations who are no PG too but not to the same extent and on the same level. So to summarise if you’re fed up with the PG era of WWE and want to watch some lucha style wrestling with elements of hardcore thrown in I’d definitely give it a go. Will it rival WWE? No! TNA? No! ROH maybe one day but that’s just my views you’ll have to check it out for yourselves.

A Royal Rumble Review From A Casual Viewer

Ok a couple of you have asked me for my thoughts on the latest Royal Rumble from WWE. I thought I’d give it a shot as 3 out of 4 of my best friends are die hard wrestling fans so it comes up in conversation quite a lot when we hang out so I know my fair bit plus I used to watch it when I was younger. I know some of you may consider wrestling ‘lame and fake’ but tbh I don’t look at it as real I’d go and watch UFC if I wanted to see men punch the s*** out of each other. I treat it as a soap opera for guys I mean would you rather watch Dot Cotton washing her granny pants on Eastenders or guys beat each other up with steel chairs and barbed wire? I know what I would prefer. Anyway I digress it’s time for my review.

Dot Cotton or WWE the choice is simple really

The Royal Rumble has been around almost as long as me and it was my favourite yearly event from the then-WWF I mean what other chance would you get to see 30 of your favourite superstars battle it out for a chance to be in the Wrestlemania main event? It had everyone from your Rock’s, Triple H’s to your Doink’s and Brooklyn Brawlers, everyone was in and everyone had a chance. The aim of the rumble is easy be the last remaining and throw as many people over the top rope as possible. Now I’ve explained the concept to my non wrestling fans I’ll get down to my review.

The preshow featured the tag team bout of Cesaro and Tyson Kidd squaring off against ‘The New Day (Big E Langston and Xavier Woods)’. The match was a solid preshow warm up but a couple of things stood out to me. The first being they don’t know what to do with either Cesaro or Kidd who are both largely talented but arguably both have the charisma of my socks, the answer is simple, ditch Natayla and bring in a decent mouthpiece and have them as the anti-americans, they’ll get over as heels, win the fans over with their decent in ring ability and their manager can do the talking. As for The New Day I have one word and one word alone LAME. For weeks management had been teasing a the group as a modern day version of ‘The Nation Of Domination’, which in my eyes would have succeeded instead they debut as some happy clapper cult, once again this is poor booking and I unfortunately see them headed down the job squad route now that 66% of 3MB were released.

The first match up featured the teams of The Ascension versus The New Age Outlaws and this match was essentially a squash match for The Ascension but my thoughts were this. The Ascension will flop, I bet you’re thinking why is a team that is being pushed to the moon and back gunna flop, again the answer is lazy booking. In NXT the team was a mysterious broody almost vampiric group but when they got called up the debuted as a loud, brash, post apocalyptic mix of The Road Warriors and Demolitions. The team built up a following based on what they had done in NXT, note to WWE writers don’t change a successful gimmick that’s like having Brodus Clay a badass bruiser in NXT debut as a modern day pimped up version of The Godfather! Why did they face arguably one of the biggest teams from the biggest era of modern professional wrestling? Again the answer was simple lazy booking, for weeks the team had been facing jobbers then when it was realised they had no match for the rumble they shoot an angle of Raw when they mixed it up with The New Age Outlaws, APA and NWO and hey presto a match was made. If it was up to me I would have had The Ascension face the The New Age Outlaws, APA and NWO in a 2 on 6 handicap match where the Ascension essentially destroys the other teams. I mean what other way to give a new team a rub and show their dominance then beating 3 of the biggest teams of all time at once, it wouldn’t look bad as everyone in those teams is pushing 50, but hey that’s my thoughts on this match.

Spot ‘The Ascension’

The next match was a tag team, championship match between The Uso’s and The Miz and Damian Mizdow. The match itself was won by The Uso’s but it was essentially a look into the crystal ball teasing a face turn from the exceptionally talented Mizdow. The Miz refused to tag Mizdow into the match creating tension between the two, for the third match in a row I thought the story played more of a part than the actual match and this is how I see it going down. Mizdow is a great comedian he plays the role well, it’s one that has been missing since Santino retired but he’s also a great wrestler (you’re welcome) but his problem was his connectability with the audience. When he debuted he portrayed a character similar to one in the 1980’s dubbed ‘The Genius’ where he would talk down to people and believe he’s better because well quite simply he’s smarter. He went on an undefeated streak for months until those script writers again lost direction and turned him from a character gaining momentum to essentially a jobber and that’s where he entered an agreement with The Miz. He is The Miz’s stunt double in other words he does his dirty work, takes the hard hit’s whilst The Miz gets the glory. Why were they paired up the answer was simple, the help get Mizdow over with the audience and with the tease of tension between the ranks I wouldn’t be surprised of a Mizdow face turn followed by a match at Wrestlemania 31 between the two.

Miz-Pac

The next match was a match between ‘The Bella Twins’ and Paige and Natayla, I’m not gunna lie this match SUCKED, the words toilet break came of mind. Why do you ask that? The answer is simple it’s not because it’s a diva match it’s because once again we see The Bella’s who are only being pushed to the moon and back because of who their boyfriends are (John Cena and Daniel Bryan) triumph over a much more talented duo. I would have rather have seen a match between Paige and Natayla then this, don’t get me wrong if The Bella twins improve in ring I’ll eat my words but for me they should stick to appearing in music videos looking broody.

The Bella’s doing what they do best

Finally we move on to the one match that was about the wrestling. It was the WWE championship match between Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Seth Rollins. I would strongly recommend this match for anyone who isn’t into wrestling, which you may think surprising as it features John ‘5 moves’ Cena and Brock ‘meathead’ Lesnar. This match in my eyes saved an otherwise poor rumble. The main talking points from this match was Rollins, Rollins, ROLLINS! Seth Rollins formally Tyler Black in ROH has had quite the push in the last couple of months going on from being an afterthought in The Shield to being Mr Money In The Bank and headlining the rumble. I for one knew what how talented Seth was from seeing him years ago in ROH so I knew this would be good. It surprised me how insane everyone went over his phoenix splash on Cena, then I realised that’s because the WWE has banned so many move these days when someone pulls out a move like this it’s gunna steal the show. The only thing I was disappointed about was Brock running in to break up the count, if it was up to me I would have the ref count to 2 the have Brock run in that way everyone would be on the edge of their seat to see if Seth could win. The match itself flowed very well and I believe that was down to Seth being the speedy glue that held the two bruisers of Cena and Lesnar together. I expect big things from Seth and I predict he will be WWE champion this year, I predict a cash in on the new WWE champion at Wrestlemania 31 to further get him over and cement his status as a main event player.

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Bring back more moves like this

The last match was the rumble, who was going to win and face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 31? It started off with The Miz and R-Truth neither of who were going to win but at number three the first entrant was Bubba Ray Dudley! The crowd marked out for this seeing one of their ECW heroes back in Philly and he did not disappoint dispatched Truth and The Miz in quick succession. Bray Wyatt entered at five and showed his promise eliminating most of the existing participants in quick fashion. Then the rumble progressed at a relatively steady pace with a nice surprise return from The Boogeyman until Daniel Bryan entered at number 10, how would the crowd favourite fare? After being screwed out of the rumble last year would this year be his year? . At number 14 was the ledge that is DDP, I’ve met him in real life and he is by far the nicest wrestler I’ve ever met so I was happy to see him for a quick nostalgia trip. Back we went to Daniel Bryan before he was swiftly eliminated by Bray Wyatt! WHAT??? Daniel Bryan eliminated already? What the f*** was that, one of the favourites the crowd favourite gone already? I was not happy but I understood the logic it was to get publicity and it worked, it helped to set up the possibility of a Wrestlemania match between Bray Wyatt and got a piss poor rumble trending. As evident by the fact that #cancelwwenetwork was trending on Twitter this was the only smart booking move of the night in my eyes. As the match went on the crowd grew hotter arguably booing all the entrants since their favourite had gone out, the most hostile reception was for Roman Reigns, the crowd only really cheered for Dean Ambrose at 25 and Dolph Ziggler at 30. By now I had an inkling who I thought was going to win (Reigns) but I was hoping either Ambrose or Ziggler would win when in reality I knew that I had a bigger chance. Towards the end of the match the lazy booking came into play the heels Big Show and Kane decided to team up and eliminate both Ambrose and Ziggler leaving me even more pissed. The last four came down to Rusev who had been hiding outside the ring for large parts of the match, Kane, Big Show and Reigns. If you didn’t know Reigns was gunna win before it was obvious now. Reigns hulked up ala Hulk Hogan and threw Big Show and Kane out, he had done it, he had won the rumble!!! WRONG!! Enter Rusev before swiftly being dispatched and Reigns being crowned the winner.

You would think this would be the end of it, right? Well you’re wrong. Big Show and Kane who I’ll call Bane from now on entered the ring and proceeded to beat down a weary tired Regins. WHY??? Well done script writers you had made the winner of the rumble look weak and built him up and knocked him in down in 10 seconds, you silly silly writers! Just as I was about to switch it off, enter THE ROCK. Can you smellllllllllllllll, who doesn’t love The Rock? I mean if you hate wrestling you’ll still love his movies. Cue The Rock clearing house and saving his cousin from a further beating.

So what was my opinion on the rumble from a non die hard wrestling point of view? The answer was frustration, frustration at the lazy booking, I mean I could write a better product. Pushing the wrong stars (except Seth) and wrong gimmicks (The New Day), change these things and I may come back and watch you, if not I’ll just nod my head politely as my friends discuss it pretending like I it’s the best thing since sliced bread!