Lucha Underground #3.20 - All Night Long...Again Review (31st May 2017)

On 31st May, Lucha Underground aired the 20th episode of their 3rd season, taped 24th April 2016 at the Lucha Underground Arena in Los Angeles, California, on El Rey. The show featured Johnny Mundo [John Morrison] defending the Lucha Underground Championship against The Mack [Willie Mack] in an All Night Long contest. But was it any good? Let's take a look. 

• #ICYMI - All the build towards towards The Mack challenging Johnny Mundo for the Lucha Underground Championship tonight in an Iron Man match. 

• Some live mariachi music before Vampiro and Matt Striker welcome us to the show and put over the match that's about to come.

Mundo and Mack battled to 3-3 draw, Mundo Retains Lucha Underground Championship

Gosh, if you're gonna do a mid-season break, you better come back with a bang and that's exactly what Lucha Underground did with as Johnny Mundo and The Mack went to war over the Lucha Underground Championship in an Iron Man match that went the entire length of the show. The match unfolded across fourty minutes of television time, twisting and turning, weaving a compelling story that built up Mundo as the villainous veteran willing to do anything to keep his title, whilst Mack was the talented underdog who didn't look like he could last the length of the show. The wrestling almost took a back seat to the epic storytelling, but when called upon both guys worked crisp and fast, with the first ten or twelves minutes was almost all in the ring and held it's own. 

Both men's character performances were terrific throughout, but the act Mundo has going at the moment with PJ Black [Justin Gabriel] also, is something else entirely. He just oozes pure dickhead in everything that he does and that makes it super easy to get behind whoever is against him. All of Mundo's falls played into this. The first saw him back out of some back and forth strikes on top of turnbuckle, holding onto the ringpost and leaning back, getting some good heat, before catching Mack, knocking him off the turnbuckle and hitting End of the World (Split Legged Corkscrew Moonsault) for the pin at around the 6 minute mark. Three minutes later and Mundo was at it again, grabbing hold of the ropes after slipping out of a Mack pin with roll-up to take a 2-0 lead. Then for his third, Mundo upped the game as he feigned an ankle injury after hitting a corkscrew plancha, only to kip up and DDT Mack onto a stretcher (that was bought in to take Mundo out of the match). Add the moment where he hid under the ring and then appeared to run away out of the other side, only to appear from under the ring after Mack had given chase to what turned out to be PJ Black, before both men took Mack down with kendo sticks, as well as asking the band to play a victory song with minutes left of the bout and you had an intensely dislikable character, who had cheated his way into the lead and who the audience wanted to see get the shit kicked out of them. 

The bout was chockful of massive spots, as Black, Son of Havoc [Matt Cross], Sexy Star and Ricky Mandel all got involved off the match, not just upping the drama as they caused the momentum to swing one way or another but also being part of some of the matches creative highspots. The first big big spot in the match involved Mack getting his revenge for the DDT on the stretcher by tying Mundo to the board and sending him down the Arena's steps, which was as visually thrilling as it sounds. Then the other lads started to arrive as Havoc countered Mundo and Black arriving with Kendo sticks and awoke a shattered Mack with some beer. Then in the aforementioned moment that saw Mundo implore the band to play a victory song, Star was revealed as the groups maraca player, leaping off the balcony onto Mundo and Black to a big pop. The way Mack equalled the scores at 3-3 was probably the most spectacular fall of the match as the Battle of the Bulls winner hit an over-the-shoulder piledriver off the apron through a pair of tables. There was so much woven into the fabric of the story that was told, with each spot coming at just the right time, building the excitement without taking away from what was about to come, that it never felt like the match was dragging and there was always something either happening or right around the corner. 

Ending a match like this with a draw is a brave decision, as there's always the chance that the viewer can feel let down by having spent 40 minutes plus with a match only to have it conclude with no decisive winner. However, the last two minutes of the match, made me desperate to see a rematch and even more desperate to see someone knock Mundo off his perch (what a mark, right?), that slippery bastard. It felt like pretty much everyone inside the temple felt the same way, as Mundo missed an End of the World onto a ladder and Mack slowly made the climb up the ladder after draping Mundo across the table. After Havoc and Star had dealt with Ricky Mandel's interference (with the clock still ticking away in the corner of the screen), Mack reached the top exhausted and splashed the Mayor of Slam Town through the table, only for time to run out just as he made the cover. Helped by the crowd's enthusiasm this was a captivating piece of television that pulled me in deeper as the story unfolded and by the end of the show I was hyped to see them go at it again on next week's episode. 

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 7.8/10 

There isn't much more to add in this part, the match was great, the whole episode was the match. Go and watch it and enjoy the silliness.

Wrestling Isn't What It Used to Be...But Why Does That Always Have to Be a Bad Thing?

So, after what has seemed like a lifetime since I found out I would be doing this, it is time for me to write my first piece for Across The Pond Wrestling.

I was deciding for a while what I wanted to write about first, and eventually decided that I wanted to start off by writing something positive, because there doesn't seem to be so much of that out of there.

It's always easier to criticise things. People like to focus on the bad things about pro wrestling these days and don't get me wrong, I'll certainly be doing that regularly in the future but I wanted to start off by doing something a bit different.

This piece is about wrestling not being what it used to be, it is about it not being as popular as in the past but it's also about why that is absolutely okay.

Now, just to add a little bit of context to my views, I'll tell you a bit about my background. I'm 24 years old and I've been a wrestling fan since roughly late 2000, when a school friend introduced me to the crazy world of the World Wrestling Federation. It's been something that bar a couple of short hiatuses, I've had an interest in ever since.

Now, as amazing as it seemed at the time, the main angles during my first year watching wrestling saw Stone Cold Steve Austin turn heel at WrestleMania X-7 as well as the infamous Invasion angle... hindsight kind of proves that I was introduced to wrestling just as its mainstream popularity began to dwindle, which was also around the same time WCW and ECW were about to close their doors.

Since the true competition disappeared, there's been a lot of discussion amongst fans about WWE's lazy approach to storytelling, with many suggesting that they need to push boundaries in order to recapture lightning in a bottle like they did in the eighties and nineties.

I personally think that this is unlikely to happen regardless of what they try to do but that is something I'm fine with, simply because it's not something I blame the industry for.

We do live in a period where pro wrestling doesn't really fit in with society's mainstream culture any more but then what does that really mean in 2017? Pop culture in general is an a perpetual state of nostalgia when it comes to film, television and music. There's very little fresh being brought to the table in any area of entertainment.

In fact, funnily enough, I think whilst the WWE in particular can be very heavy on nostalgia at times, wrestling is actually one of the few artistic pursuits that is beginning to change. For a start, wrestling is now being made for the pure wrestling fan, which means it is catering to the audience that remains. This is a smart business strategy, even if it's not always the most successful one.

Today's wrestling has become purely athletic competition for the most part, and that is a direct result of the new generation of talent. That is never going to bring in the mainstream crowd but is it really that big a deal? Popularity and quality aren't two things that go hand in hand. As long as the industry is still surviving, and it is more than doing that, it will continue to entertain generations for years to come.

People will miss the larger than life characters from the childhood without a doubt, but the pure wrestling fan is absolutely spoilt for choice in terms of content these days if they look hard enough.

You only have to look at the situation here in the UK to see how much better our scene is for this, with the likes of PROGRESS, WCPW and IPW:UK in particular flourishing in a British scene that is hotter than it has been in years. I was used to All-Star Wrestling shows as a kid with the main attractions being WWF tribute acts. It's now the other way around, and WWE are using our wrestlers to enhance their product.

Add in the likes of New Japan, Lucha Underground and NXT across the world and there has never been such a high calibre of in ring talent in the industry.

While WWE in 2017 might not always be everyone's cup of tea, even their product has suddenly started to resemble an independent promotion these days. I'm not just talking about NXT either, RAW in particular has never been less about storylines and more about in-ring action on a weekly basis than it is today.

Something else that you can look at as a positive is the way women are treated in wrestling these days. Although as a red blooded male there were always some positives to the way women were portrayed in the past, I've also always realised that it was a bit tacky, and there wasn't really any true justification for the industry to be as misogynistic as it was.

It is truly refreshing that the industry has decided to grow up a bit and champion equality. In addition to the huge strides women's wrestling has already taken, we're getting the Mae Young Classic on the WWE Network and the first ever Women's Money In The Bank Ladder match in a few short weeks, so the boundaries are being pushed all the time.

Then, there is the most important thing. The deaths. A wrestler's lifespan has been greatly increased as a result of the changes in the industry over the last few years, and there is no way, shape or form that this can't be considered a good thing.

There was a point where it seemed a weekly occurrence that another wrestler had died young, and it was quite soul destroying. You watch pay-per-views from twenty and thirty years ago now and it's often quite ridiculous how many people on those shows have passed away when you consider how young they were at the time.

It might have taken an absolutely horrific incident in June 2007 to kick start this whole movement, but nobody should ever have to die for their craft and to entertain others, which is something that the younger generation should never have to deal with when it comes to their heroes..

So, as I said at the start of the piece, wrestling isn't what it used to be, but lets not ignore the positives either, both in and out of the ring.

Written by Andy Phillips 

Opinion: Seasons and Structuring in Wrestling or 525,600 Minutes of New Content Every Week.

Recently CHIKARA (If you aren't aware of them, they're the closest thing Wrestling has to a Multiverse) began a bold structural experiment. Having presented their first sixteen seasons of wrestling, they jumped forward a year in their storylines to season 18, having written out some characters, changed some rudos to technicos and generally messed with everyone's heads. Simultaneously, they have begun releasing the secretly filmed episodes of Season seventeen which will explain away all of this and provide probably quite lovely goodbyes to esteemed alumnus like Drew Gulak and first female CHIKARA Grand Champion Princess Kimber Lee. What's amazing here is I can find no other promotion that has broken the real passage of time in the universe, even pre-taped shows like NXT or Lucha Underground (mostly) pretend that they exist in that week. So why has it taken this long for someone to actually bend the rules of time itself for storytelling purposes? Probably because an indie like CHIKARA can get away with such experiments in ways that WWE never can because they put on one, maybe two shows a month where WWE are producing so much damn content, I don't think even Vince has time to watch it and we all knows he's an immortal Highlander.

Do you remember when RAW and Smackdown did a WWE Season Finale? No, well they must have done, they had a Season Premiere and that had...stuff happen. I mean, Sting wrestled his first two matches on WWE TV (in tribute to New HOF-er Teddy Long, I should mention it was a DQ win against Big Show thanks to Seth Rollins' intervention leading to a tag match of Sting and John Cena vs Show and Rollins, playa.). But they had their Season Premiere so they had a Season Finale right? They wrapped up all their stories and started new ones, all the questions were answered (as normal, like The Simpsons of graps gags, Kayfabe News already made this joke. A year and a half before the Season Premiere). No, it was, surprisingly, an attempt to sell RAW as 'big' TV in middle of American Football season, but it highlights the differences between RAW and Chikaratopia or Lucha Underground.

I've long described Pro-Wrestling to people who are dubious as an insane musical Telenovella but all the songs are partially choregraphed fight scenes and really nowhere is that truer than with RAW and Smackdown, they are Soap Opera both in the sense that the storylines are blown away and often swallow up all potential subtlety that could be invested into them but also because they never. Ever. End. Where LU uses its limited time to tell a deliberate story, WWE is an ongoing, all encompassing media empire. When a feud ends, it has to feed into whatever's next for the performers, there is no downtime in which to let things build up and make plans, especially as the injury rate isn't slowing down and if you try to plan too far ahead, there's a likelihood all the intended performers could be out of action before you get there.

But is this necessarily a bad thing? All stories have an appropriate length, Macbeth works because it is a contained narrative, Breaking Bad was intended to be five seasons and it didn't need to continue from there, not that I'm complaining about having Better Call Saul which for my money might be better but that's an article for my other day-job. WWE needs to be a shark of a conglomerate, constantly moving, making its plot-lines link into its other media, it wants you to know that while you're watching that when you're done, that it's not over, that you could go and watch a classic episode of Smackdown it references or you could go and see whether there's any reflection of in-ring feuds over on Total Divas or you can go and work out which demographic Holy Foley is aimed at (the demographic in question is Sado-masochists). There has to be a Frank the Clown fan out there somewhere right? No, I don't count Noelle, that's cheating. I digress, the point is that even if it feels like there's sometimes a tossed-off at the last minute quality to the endings, that's because they don't have enough time to provide anything more than the ending being 'one person wins, one person loses'. But that is the nature of soap storytelling, there isn't the time to devote to conclusions and epilogues because that's not the intention of WWE TV. It isn't binge-watch TV where you would sit and watch it all day, it is 'The Longest Running Weekly Episodic Television Show In History', it isn't something where they want you to have been watching since the beginning, it's something that aims to catch new fans every week, to make itself available to any random viewer who tunes in on a whim, it wants to catch the casual viewer and the hardcore, it wants you to stay tuned in after Smackdown Live for 205 Live and Talking Smack because it wants your attention but it doesn't demand that you devote more than the prescribed weekly time to it.

Which, to play devil's advocate, is not to say it couldn't benefit from taking a more seasonal approach. Imagine if they positioned WrestleMania as the Season Finale and then took a month or two's break to let the dust settle before it continues. Yes, I know what you're thinking; 'but what about the Post-Mania RAW? That's where all the surprises really happen'. That is just really ridiculous. WrestleMania is their biggest show of the year, it should be the culmination of all the chess moves over the year, it should be their check-mate but instead it seems like big stuff happens but then the actual storyline resolutions happen the next night instead. That's a Lord of the Rings level of dragging out the ending. Look at what LU are doing, what Chikara are doing, what even other critically acclaimed indies like PROGRESS are doing and you'll see that leaving space allows for more intention and impact. I'm not saying they'd have to shut down House Shows even for that time but just allowing for a re-set period would give them the freedom to plan ahead, to really think about how to make an impact, to avoid the holding patterns of feeling like we're going to just see the same four or five people doing the main event for a while. It would also make WrestleMania feel more significant as it would become an event, as it is, it's the biggest show they produce but then the next night, it continues. Structurally, there is no logic to what happens because there are generally no consequences beyond the immediate. If you look back to Survivor Series, there was a big build surrounding the consequences of either brand losing, on RAW Stephanie McMahon threatened to fire people if they lost, on Smackdown The Undertaker basically said he'd murder them. Yet the following two nights post-SS, the only punishments were that all these professional wrestlers were put in wrestling matches. Literally, their punishment was to do their job. That explains perfectly the lack of forward thinking of the structural style of WWE because they always have something happening the next day, there's no time really to think ahead. In short, Wrestling moves pretty fast. If the WWE don’t stop and look around once in awhile, they could miss it.

I don't want to end this article on a down-note (not just in the hope that a certain Mr. Levesque is reading and likes what he sees) so I will say that, I'm not trying to say there's no forward planning at all in the 'E, I mean look at Monday's almost certainly soon-to-be legendary Festival of Friendship. Since SummerSlam, the development of the story of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens has been one of the few remaining lights of RAW for me and the build towards this has been stellar, it's not only a fantastic segment but sets up perfectly for building to what comes next. But because I lied, time to end on more of a down-note as I say, this is an aspirational point for all of WWE's attempts at rivalry building to equal, give things more time and don't rush through everything. WWE, you have all the time in the world and you seem intent on using all of it to produce as much original content as possible. Don't always worry about trying to make history, just try to tell the stories you have as well as you can. Also viewers, if you're annoyed about there being too much going on in the WWE Universe to follow all of it and you feel it's getting on top of you, you could do a lot worse than to try out Chikaratopia for a change of pace.

Words: Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

Images: Jozef Raczka (@NotJozefRaczka)

& Thom Carrol/ForPhilly Voice (@Thom_Carroll)

Editing: James Marston (@IAmNotAlanDale)

Twitter - @ATPWrestling 

Facebook - /acrossthepondwrestling 

Instagram - @ATPWrestling

TV Review: Lucha Underground #3.06 - Pentagon Dark v Rey Mysterio Jr v Chavo Guerrero Jr.

The 12th October 2016 episode of Lucha Underground, featured a main event including Pentagon Dark (Pentagon Jr.), Rey Mysterio Jr and Chavo Guerrero Jr. battling in a triple threat that had a lot of history behind it. In an action package hour, Dr. Wagner Jr, Jack Evans, Son of Havoc (Matt Cross), Gift of the Gods Champion Sexy Star and Famous B were all involved, but was that action any good?

The night's main event with Pentagon Dark, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Chavo Guerrero Jr. tangling in a triple threat was enjoyable contest, that featured some nice interactions between all three men in different combinations. The bout was paced well, with Guerrero being used to simmer the action down, whilst the flashier Mysterio and more physical Dark picked things up. The spots involved all three were done well, usually coming as a nice jolt following a string of singles action, like Guerrero sliding into the ring to drop toe hold Dark into a chair wedged in the corner during a Dark and Mysterio section and Mysterio leaping over the top rope with a body scissors that top both he and Guerrero to the outside whilst Guerrero fought Dark. The finish saw Guerrero trip Mysterio on the top rope, Guerrero take a superkick off the apron from Dark, with Dark pulling Mysterio in Fear Factor (Package Piledriver) to earn the win. Guerrero and Mysterio's issues deepened post-match as Guerrero attacked Mysterio with a chair, hanging him in a tree of woe and hammering on his knee, in a scene reminscent of their 2007 "I Quit" match in WWE. 

This episode's semi-main was Sexy Star retaining the Gift of the Gods Championship over Jack Evans in a violent clash, that ended with a series of interference from the Worldwide Underground (Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) & PJ Black (Justin Gabriel)) and Trios Champions Aero Star, Drago & Fenix. I thought Evans did some wonderful work in this match as he came across like an absolute dick, whenever he was in control. He was frustrating to watch, but in a good way as it meant whenever Star began to turn the tables it was even more satisfying to watch. This was helped by the viciousness that Star brought to her offence, with a particularly memorable moment being the multiple rope-aided bronco busters in the corner. The match would end devolving into a series of fun run-ins, with Mundo & Black giving Evans a wonderful near fall and Aero Star & Drago eventually running them off. I would've liked to have seen Star and Evans get to have one last exchange before the finish and feel that that could have elevated the match further, but Fenix distracting the ref and Evans, as Star hit her opponent low with a kendo stick and hits a spinning Fisherman's suplex for the win, will probably open up more option going forward.

The opening match saw Dr. Wagner Jr & Famous B (seconded by Brenda) defeat Mascarita Sagrada and Son of Havoc in varied encounter, that had plenty of fun. I felt like the bout started and finished strongly with the Havoc and Sagrada face-shine getting over the odd-couple vibe with their entrance on a bike and side-car getting a great reaction. The finish with Havoc getting pushed off the top rope by Wagner, before Sagrada took the Doctor Driver and Famous B pinned the mini with his stethoscope was also well worked. Unfortunately the contests mid-section didn't do a whole lot for me and I began to lose interest in the match a few minutes in. There wasn't particularly anything wrong with what was going on, I just didn't find it particularly interesting either.

Best of the Rest 

• Rey Mysterio Jr. & Chavo Guerrero Jr. came to blows in Dario Cueto's office, which lead to Cueto adding them to the main event with Pentagon Dark - Chavo Guerrero Jr. brutally assaulted Dragon Azteca Jr. with a steel chair in the locker room, with Rey Mysterio Jr. discovering DAJ following the incident

Finally... 

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.25/10 

Show in a Sentence - A fun hour, with two good matches, that open opportunities for bigger bouts to come. 

Strongest Moment - Pentagon Dark v Rey Mysterio Jr. v Chavo Guerrero Jr. 

Weakest Moment - Dr Wagner Jr & Famous B v Mascarita Sagrada & Son of Havoc

Words - James Marston

TV Review: Lucha Underground #3.05 - Prince Puma v Matanza Cueto

As Lucha Underground's third season rolls on, the 5th October edition featured Prince Puma (Ricochet) receiving a shot at "The Monster" Matanza Cueto's (Jeff Cobb) Lucha Underground Championship, thanks to Dario Cueto's Dial of Doom. The Mariposa (Cheerleader Melissa), Ivellise, [Brian] Cage and [El] Texano [Jr.] were also in action, so this was going to be great, right? 

The main event where Prince Puma unsuccessfully challenged Matanza Cueto for the Lucha Underground Championship was a cracking effort, settling into a fun power v speed dynamic. The pacing of this was really nice, as Puma and Cueto showed a load of chemistry and looking much more familiar with each other than their records show. The match built well from when Matanza took control on the outside with Puma having to fight from under neath, a style which suits the former Lucha Underground Champion well. One of my favourite moments in the bout was a Northern Lights suplex, followed by a brainbuster from Puma, because it came just at the right time and the crowd went nuts for the impressive move. The finish was superbly put together as just went it seemed like the momentum had finally swung all the way to Puma's favour as he'd the 630 splash that won him the title initially, only for Mil Muertes (El Mesias) to intercept him. Dario Cueto made sure the ref wouldn't call for the DQ and his brother his hit Wrath of the Gods to retain his belt. The Dial of Doom gimmick created an entertaining main event, that in hand elevated the feud between Puma and Muertes, as well as increasing the prestige of Cueto's reign. 

The opening match saw Ivelisse defeat The Mariposa in a match that didn't do a whole lot for me as a viewer. The action was all too often wooden, with Mariposa especially looking a little out of sorts inside the ring, struggling to simple bumps. This match was mostly Mariposa's second Marty "The Moth" Martinez getting involved in various ways, including at one point trying to kiss Ivelisse. The interference didn't seem to go anywhere though and while Ivelisse was able to overcome it, it felt like it needed something a bit more convincing to complete the story that had been told throughout the bout. It was the Desert Eagle (Sunset Flip Powerbomb) that got the win for the babyface, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Both of these women are extremely talented, so perhaps it was their unfamiliarity without each other, alongside the need for the constant interference, that lead to this not quite delivering. 

Cage went two nil in his Best of Five Series with Texano, after a good back and forth encounter. This was a strong heavyweight tussle, that remained fairly even until Cage got the pinfall, as they traded power moves for near falls. A section that saw both men miss big moves, before Cage hit a tornado DDT was a particular highlight for me, as it got over the familiarity of the pair that only really comes during a series of this nature. There was some nice near falls peppered here and there, as well as a good sequence into a sitout Alabama slam, before Cage picked up the win with a deadlift superplex and a Fireman's Carry Facebuster. Almost inevitably with the Best of Five Series it felt like both men were holding more than a little back for future encounters, but that didn't stop this from being a solidly entertaining clash from start to finish. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.25/10 

A solid episode of Lucha Underground this week, as Prince Puma and Matanza Cueto had a very good main event contest and Texano & Cage put on a admirable display in their best of five series. It was shame that the third match on the card couldn't keep up with the other two as Ivelisse and The Mariposa's clash didn't do a whole lot for me. There was a lot of building blocks laid down on this episode, as Puma's feud with Mil Muertes was enhanced and hopefully over the next few weeks we'll see the decent work done by Texano and Cage improved upon as their series continues.

Match of the Night - Prince Puma v "The Monster" Mantanza Cueto

Words - James Marston 

Opinion: Lucha Underground Season Dos or It's the End de la Mundo and I feel Multa

So I'd like to start by just saying thank you for making my last article looking at WCPW one of the highest viewed articles of all time on ATPW. I'd also like to confirm that I will be checking in again with WCPW from time-to-time. I won't be doing weekly coverage because unlike our beloved James Marston (or indeed, Lucha Underground favourite, Cage) I am not a machine. Still, I hope you enjoyed that article and this one as you're reading it already. 

No one was ever the first person to do anything. Ken Shamrock wrestled in the Hart Dungeon, Stone Cold ambushed and attacked Booker T in a supermarket, the Four Horsemen drove off to a car park and beat up Dusty Rhodes, sometimes wrestling goes off-reservation. Recently, I don't think anyone reading this doesn't know that TNA became witness to The Final Deletion and just last week, The New Day went to The Wyatt's compound. Both of these segments pay dividends not just to previous segments but also to cult cinema in a way that could easily fill another article but really this is my long way of saying that TNA and WWE fans must recognise that in terms of modern wrestling television, only one company is using behind-the-scenes cinematic to the fullest extent of the art-form and that is Lucha Underground.

Lucha Underground, for those who aren't initiated, is basically what would have happened had Tyler Durden and Sebastian had set up Fight Club in the basement of The Titty Twister (The bar from From Dusk Till Dawn for the uninitiated). It is a piece of art that in a move that probably made Jim Cornette throw up with disgust but made Max Landis do the same with excitement, it is a horror movie, a thriller, an undercover cop drama, a buddy comedy, a time travel sci-fi movie, an underdog story, the tale of a demonic possession and so much more. In fact, the only thing it isn't, is a wrestling show. Also there's a man who dresses as a dragon who might actually be a dragon, it's not clear. It's probably easier to explain it if you just read Lily's piece from earlier this year about LU as an introduction. Basically it's mad but it's fucking tops and over the last three weeks, it's had four hours of premium content that when put together make up LU's Wrestlemania, the insanity that has been Ultima Lucha Dos.

So I'm going to leave a little warning here, this next section will feature a lot of spoilers for Ultima Lucha Dos so if you want to avoid them but still have a read, just scroll down to the video of Johnny Mundo and Angelico doing some nice flipdeedoos and when it's done, we can discuss the season as a whole.

I think the most important question going into Ultima Lucha Dos was could they top season one? They found an ingenious way to answer it - by repeating the same opening match of Ultima Lucha Uno but doing it even better. When a show opens with one of Dario's 'Unique Opportunities' being promised to the winner of a small tournament between The (Willie) Mack and (Brian) Cage, (El) Texano (Jr.) and Son of Havoc, you know you're off to a good start. All four of these guys are incredibly over in the Temple: Son of Havoc (Matt Cross) for his incredible athleticism, The Mack for his mix of lucha libre and Stone Cold Stunners, Cage for his pre-preemptive firing by the WWE for possible wellness policy violations (and frequent looking like he might murder people) and El Texano for his use of a bullwhip. So the tournament consisted of two Falls Count Anywhere matches and a Bar Room Brawl which is like a Good Housekeeping Match but instead of Chyna slamming Jeff Jarrett's face into a bowl of eggs, El Texano gets put through a bar table; bottles and all. 

This first hour of UL:D was quite insanely overbooked. So the Mack and Cage are about to have a standard match when Dario turns it into a Falls count anywhere which the Mack wins via roll-up, then Son of Havoc and El Texano have the aforementioned Bar room Brawl which Son of Havoc won, then there was a final between Havoc and Mack which was also FCA rules, Havoc won, the crowd went mental, Dario came out and offered Havoc two briefcases, one with $250,000 and the other with a contract for a main event match at Ultima Lucha: Tres, Havoc takes the second option but in order to win this briefcase, he has to face off against another opponent who if he wins gets the money, out comes The Famous B and the Beautiful Brenda with their new client, no sadly it's not Mascarita Dorada but the lucha legend Dr. Wagner Jr., who bests Havoc with the Doctor-driver to take home the briefcase. You get all that.

There is no way to really explain how the storyline of night one was meant to track, it did seem a bit like a few weeks before Dos, they realised that four of their most important people didn't have a match so they just threw some stuff at a wall, waited for it to stick and then hoped that the sheer talent in the ring would cover the cracks. Somehow, it does with the opening encounter between Mack and Cage showing their fantastic chemistry, these two are truly the Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn of LU. Son of Havoc can just somersault everywhere and make me happy but top marks to Matt Striker (words I didn't think I'd say) for really selling the story of Havoc as a plucky underdog and hero to the bullied persevering against the odds. The Doctor Wagner twist only really worked because he's already a name so when he entered the temple, the place lost their minds (and because damn he looks good for fifty). It also helped build on what we already knew which is Dario is a dickhead who knows how to make the fans hate him.

Night two was all about two matches: the seven way elimination gift of the gods title match and a death match between King Cuerno (El Hijo del Fantasma) and Mil Muertes (AAA's El Mesias). The gift of the gods match was the first big coronation of Sexy Star but that doesn't mean that others weren't given a chance to shine with Killshot (Shane Strickland) and the debuting Nightclaw (Dragon Gate's Flamita) looking particularly impressive (Nightclaw pulling off a moonsault from the audience balcony was insanely good). No one seems to be particularly hurried in providing any kind of stakes to whatever the story is with Kobra Moon and Daga but it was more to get him out of the way so the story could really just focus on Killshot, Sexy Star, The Mariposa (Cheerleader Melissa) and Marty 'The Moth' Mcf... Martinez. (Tristan Gallo) Marty Martinez has really settled into his lower midcard heel role and managed to actually generate some near falls where for a moment I thought Sexy might not win. But of course she did because the audience love her too much for it not to happen. It's a relief to see though that while they played up Sexy Star the first LU female champion, there was no disbelief about her win. El Sinestro de la Muerte (El Mariachi Loco) was also in this match.

King Cuerno and Mil Muertes tried to murder each other. That is what happened next. Two of the stiffest guys in Boyle Heights just kept hitting each other really hard until King Cuerno tried to put Katrina through a table. This was a match that was deserving of the entire season that has built up to it with Cuerno playing defacto Technico against the larger Muertes, taking out his anger over Katrina screwing him out of his title shot against Muertes to protect her boy. If this match had one problem, it's that is told a very similar story to the match we'll get to between Matanza and Pentagon jr but also for a Death Match, it never felt quite as potent as watching Murder pope Vampiro and Pentagon try and hit each other with as many filament bulbs as possible last year. That said it did have some lovely sequences including of course Cuerno's now trademark Arrow from the Depths of Hell looking like he turned into an actual arrow for a second shooting Muertes and the finish to the match with Muertes hitting a deadly looking Tombstone before Cuerno was carried off on a stretcher was gruesome, visceral and high operatic in the way that the best of LU often is.

So for the final night we had a stacked card with Drago, Aerostar and Fenix taking on The Worldwide Underground (Jack Evans, Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) and PJ Black (Justin Gabriel), who has somehow morphed into X-Pac's more handsome younger brother) for the trios titles, El Dragon Azteca (Rey Horus) taking on Black Lotus (Angela), Pentagon [Jr.] Dark vs Monster Matanza Cueto (Jeff Cobb) for the LU title, Taya [Valkyrie] vs Ivelisse and finally the dream match of Rey Mysterio Jr. vs Prince Puma (NJPW's Ricochet). Of these matches only one really disappointed and that was Dragon Azteca vs Black Lotus as the match provided no real closure or furtherance of their arc, Black Lotus looked quite visibly nervous in her match and it didn't help that Dragon Azteca is hardly  veteran enough to guide her through the match up. It felt like both of them were just running the ropes till Pentagon could invade, break all the arms and call out Matanza to have the match there and then. Luckily, they had one hell of a match, only hurt by having a faint anticlimax. Pentagon, instead of playing the smaller guy in trouble, went for the technical expert schooling the newcomer as he battered Matanza around the ring. It was interesting to see the David and Goliath narrative reversed, it would be like watching Neville dominate Brock Lesnar physically but with more armbars. Matanza (who is sure to be a highlight of this year's BOLA) has quickly proven a valuable assett to the company capable of big, stiff strikes, giant suplexes and standing shooting star presses and Pentagon Jr. has frequently shown he could possibly be the best all-rounder that Mexico has. It's a shame then that the match had to end with a distraction involving Vampiro, Dario and a cousin of Mick Foley's beloved Barbie leading to Pentagon nearly breaking Dario's arm till Matanza hits him with the bat, hits his Reverse Spin-scoop Powerslam finisher for a clean-ish pin. The in-ring finish to the show with Pentagon superkicking Matt Striker before dragging Vampiro to the ring for some good old fashioned barbed wire induced facial stigmata was appropriately gruesome a way to continue this storyline and I wouldn't  be surprised if by this time next year, Pengtagon Jr, sorry, Pentagon Dark has had a lovely, brutal title reign of his own.

Taya and Ivelisse had a lovely little encounter with Matt Striker once again putting over that Ivelisse has an MMA background and Taya trained with Lance Storm to the point where I hope Wade Barrett joins season four just to hear Matt Striker never shut up about his bareknuckle boxing past and he NEVER SHOULD! It was nice to see an encounter between two women on LU that ended after interference from a third woman, Catrina without any involvement of Johnny Mundo, Son of Havoc or Mil Muertes. This was the women's division beginning to truly come into their own and prove that they can not just hold their own with the men but actually do better without them with Ivelisse's MMA background (did you know she has an MMA background?) coming into play with some particularly stiff kicks and smooth transitions into holds. It's also worth noting her spiky trousers make her kicks look even more effective because part of me chooses to believe it's like she has tacks strapped to her legs. That said, another match ending in distraction finish? I thought we went through this with WCPW, you need at least some solid wins or else it doesn't really feel like a satisfying ending to the season.

The Trios title match was exactly what you'd expect it would be, it was six high flyers, flying high. It wasn't as psychologically impressive as some of the other matches on the card but for pure spotfestery, it possibly outdid the GotG match. I love the way that without anyone noticing, The Worldwide Underground have somehow become an even better nWo parody than The Bullet Club with their exaggerated heel antics and playing air guitar on the title belts (including a little shredding sound effect suggesting that they are actually able to play the guitar on the belts?!?). This match had the most effective bits of screwery of the night as the referee took a bump allowing for the champs to take their belt and deliver a triple belt shot to Fenix. The match would eventually end when Angelico would return, presumably because one member of the team of him, Havoc and Ivelisse has to be on crutches at any time, in order to provide enough of a distraction for the technicos to get a win and Fenix to become the first LU Triple Crown Champion. Now I was always going to love this match because Mundo is one of my top ten favourites on the current scene but even with the talent involved, there was a feeling that they weren't given enough time to really do what they wanted to do. If they had moved Dragon Azteca vs Black Lotus or Taya vs Ivelisse to another night of UL:D, they might have been given more time to breathe and string together the different spots more satisfyingly. I also still can't fully understand the full love that Drago gets as yes, I've noticed he's a dragon but he just looks sloppy. I know, he can pull off a moonsault but this is Lucha Underground, I think the only person who couldn't pull off a moonsault was Ezekiel Jackson and they killed his character off. Overall a fun encounter with some strong heel work but maybe just slightly less than the sum of its parts.

Luckily the last match of the night was basically perfection. El Rey vs The Prince, the king of Lucha vs one half of the current 'it' pairing of the indie scene (along with Mr. Super Juniors Will Ospreay). Much like the Ospreay-Ricochet encounter, this match could be accused of occasionally not quite selling moves to their full extent but that just served the story. Mysterio played the role of the elder statesman trying to prove he could still hang tight and Puma worked as the cocky upstart trying to prove he could beat a legend. Here's a thing I've been trying to say since my first article for the website (which you can still find if you go through the tag for my name at the bottom of the page), if a match is good enough, it doesn't need to matter who wins. When we get such fast action that it's hard to even comment on it while it's happening, it puts both competitors on an even playing field. Even if in a storyline term, it confirms that Mysterio truly is El Rey, it doesn't make Puma look any worse in losing because they put on one hell of a match. Even with my warning that this segment would contain spoilers, I don't want to talk about some of the great moments in this match because it's easier to just say watch it. It's the best Rey's looked in years as well as being something of a torch passing especially in the ending sequence which can only be referred to as 'the 619 meets the 323'. Once again to mention the stellar job that Striker and Vampiro did on this match, Striker making reference to Puma setting up Rey for a 630 Senton as an 'I'm sorry, I love you' moment shouldn't have worked and probably wouldn't without Vampiro's big kid enthusiasm but much like a lot of things with LU, it takes something ridiculous and overly-smarky and makes it work through sheer love for the craft. If rumours are to be believed and after the next season of LU, Ricochet will be headed to Conneticut, then hopefully they look at this match and see quite how special a talent he is, able to subtly rudo it up as the fans are supporting Rey while still being impressive enough to keep the audience chanting his name on side, anyone who says his matches lack psychology is probably just someone who thinks psychology means constant chains and rest holds. This is high-flying, wrestling and storytelling at its finest.

Now weren't those nice flipdeedoos? It's worth mentioning here that LU isn't, for my money, a wrestling show, it's not NJPW, it doesn't pretend to be a sport. What LU is, is the purest expression of that whole 'sports entertainment' term. Yes it's very clearly not 'real' but who cares when you can watch Jack Evans and PJ Black have a nunchuck match with a dragon and a spaceman. They are creating a season of a television show. Every individual match, as near classic as some of them can debatably be, are all in service of the greater plotline. Every storyline is given a reasonably chartable through-line where you can see the seeds planted in episode one and though they pay off in smaller ways, it is all linked together by Ultima Lucha Dos. But even more importantly, it didn't just wrap up plots but left some dangling questions for next season. Sure I'm not going to be on tenterhooks waiting to find out if Killshot ever fully gets revenge for the thievery of his dogtags but certainly the subtle mirroring of the last shots of season one suggest a creative team fully aware of the impact of every little move they make.  There is some impressive continuity at play. Watch the way that even though he's playing De facto 'technico' against Matanza, Melissa Santos still refuses to excitedly announce Petagon Jr. after the time he tried to break her arm in Season One.

The most fascinating aspect about Season Two is that possibly better than anywhere else I've seen, they've managed to craft compelling Rudo v Rudo singles matches. There is often considered an issue with having two rudos face off because if they're doing their job, the crowd should boo them but how do you keep them interested if they shouldn't root for either competitor? The answer it turns out was simple - who cares, just watch these two guys punch the bejeezus out of each other. Because that's what wrestling is meant to be. Every time the hardcore 'we loved the Attitude Era' attack dogs of the internet come out to attack LU or the New Day or The Young Bucks, there is one simple reminder to them that I feel it is now my place to join in with giving them: you were a child then, this is entertaining to some of us as adults, imagine how you would feel watching this as a child. I know that as much as I love LU, imagine how much 13 year old Joe would have loved this. The sheer brilliance of LU is that not everything about it works but despite the almost ridiculous amount of high concept fuckery that happens, it feels exactly like something happening in a warehouse in the middle of LA. It pulses with the energy of a group of people at the peak of their powers making something that pays tribute to its past and its influences but also seems to be entirely guided by the thought 'what if we did something really fucking dumb but really fucking cool?'

But it works. Where 'The Wyatt Compound Fracture' as I believe it's being called, failed because of its sincere attempts to make a low-budget horror sequence being constantly hampered by an overly choppy editing style that made the entire thing competent but partially incomprehensible and The Final Deletion, I still can't tell if it's the Room of Pro-Wrestling or The obnoxious Room parody of Pro-Wrestling. What LU does so well is to weave in the backstage elements but also, in a nice touch that differentiates it from other products, it is played as if Matt Striker and Vampiro have no idea what's going on backstage when they're in the arena. It makes those segments feel more special because they are a secret between us, the TV audience and the programme. Also in terms of production values, whoever had the idea to always put an over the shoulder crane shot for any time Son of Havoc or Prince Puma go top rope, they deserve all the raises. It's a somewhat flashy aesthetic they've created but it is also a rare genuine article of something that is nothing like else in the same market, it's very rare that you can find a wrestling product that anyone compliments the cinematography for. The last moments of the strobing lights over the slowly raising grin of Cueto were so artfully constructed it may as well have been guest direction from David Lynch and that's something no other wrestling promotions can claim. No one else is doing this,  Mexico isn't doing this, CMLL isn't doing this, Even AAA doesn't do this, in fact especially AAA for anyone who tried to power through the godawful stream of Triplemania this year. Plus to my knowledge, AAA doesn't have Joey Ryan (The King of Dong Style himself) as an Undercover Cop and all things need that, even if they just don't know it yet.

Written content: Jozef Raczka 
Media Content: James Marston & Jozef Raczka 

Opinion: Running the Ropes with Marc P - Part 5

Hi guys thanks for dropping by, my whole life is up in the air at the moment so this month instead of writing about a particular topic I thought I’d left you guys know about a few things that are going on with me and the world of Pro Wrestling.

wrestling training……

As much as I enjoyed my time at Futureshock’s training school I’m afraid that I won’t be back there. Few reasons for this. Firstly and most importantly I’ve moved away from Stoke-On-Trent and am now living in the Cotswolds so to get to the school would be a 6 hour round trip! Secondly I’m sure dear reader that you remember that I tore my MCL in my left knee, well, truth be told it’s never really properly healed, still giving me a lot of pain especially at the moment when it’s cold. Lastly, you may remember that my confidence utterly failed me on my last training session, well, it never came back, the thought of making a tit of myself in front of people fills me with dread. So no more wrestling training for Marc P. Proud of myself for giving it a try though. 

live shows….

At the time of writing I’ve been to 3 shows this year, one each for Futureshock, Alpha Omega and Fight Club Pro. I promised myself after the 40+ shows that I attended in 2015 that I would drastically cut back on my live shows but MAN, I didn’t expect to cut down this much. Don’t get me wrong I intend you fully make use of my Season Ticket for the Stockport Futureshock shows, it’s just going to take me a while to find what promotions run in the local area. Guess I’ve got no excuse not to attend my first Attack show have I. Missing shows and missing my crew are the hardest part of this move, trust me on that one! Oh and my move meant I had to resign from my position at Southcoast Wrestling, that one hurt as well!

wwe……

I’ve barely watched any of WWE’s weekly programming in weeks, and that even includes NXT. Lucha Underground has taken NXT’s place as my must watch wrestling show as it has with so many people. Fastlane came and went and other than the pre show (that I fell asleep watching) I wasn’t bothered, Shane O Mac returned and both my Facebook and Twitter feeds lit up and I just wasn’t interested (seriously, why would Taker defend Vince?). My WWE network still gets used a lot but it’s always for old shows, on Friday night for example I watched WWF’s Royal Rumble 2000 but then last night I endured the Edge & Christian show and was so underwhelmed. How James manages to watch the product is beyond me and tbh its through his reviews that I still know whats happening in WWE! (Editors Note - Cos I'm a fucking maniac)

youtube.....

Ah the big one. Regular viewers of mine will no doubt have noticed that I haven’t made a video since the 8th of January, with no explanation really given. I don’t want to say Ive retired from making videos because that sounds so final, but, don’t expect to see any videos off of me anytime in the future. Truth be told I stopped enjoying making videos a long time ago and felt that they were a chore for the longest time. Watching the vids back that I made in the last 6 months they all feel very forced, that I’m relying on the same old dated catchphrases. Basically they just aren’t very good and my lack of motivation really shines through them. One day I may return full time, or I may just pop up to do the odd review at Wrestlemania time, or of course I could just say sod it and move on with my life. I am however, eternally grateful to anyone who has ever watched one of my videos. It means the world to me. 

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Opinion: Lucha Underground - Wrestling Done Right (Lily Lestrange)

Lucha Underground came around seemingly out of nowhere in October 2014 and it has taken the indy circuit by storm. With it's telenovela filming style, unique storylines and a variety of both established and up and coming wrestlers it continues to grow in popularity, and rightly so. It has brought something new and fresh to the world of televised wrestling and fans have sought it out as an alternative to the monotony of other larger promotions which seem to be producing the same dull storylines week in week out. But how does it work? Why has it gotten so big in such a short space of time, whilst other companies who have been around for so much longer struggle to sell tickets and keep fans invested?

Well, everything. Everything I mentioned earlier and then some.

The style in which it's filmed is very telenovela, which is basically the Spanish version of Eastenders but with ten times more drama and a hundred more mental lassies going about screaming and slapping each other. It's extremely intense and very high drama, which makes for very exciting television (when it comes to wrestling anyway, Eastenders is fucking gash, sorry Phil). This all integrates perfectly with their dramatic story lines; we've got dead wrestlers, a missing owner, a psychotic vampire and a dragon. Aye that's right, a big scaly winged demon bastard of a dragon.

This leads on to one of the best bits about the show - the variety of wrestlers that it showcases. I've seen far too many new companies spring up from nowhere and all they do is book a bunch of ex-WWE or ex-TNA guys, have them involved in complete spot-fests without any logical story line and call it a promotion. Lucha Underground has been different from the very beginning; in the first show they had a variety of "big name" stars from various promotions and they also had a lot of indy talent that wasn't very well known outwith their own circles. They used names like Ricochet (Prince Puma), Johnny Mundo and Matt Cross (Son Of Havoc) to bring in existing fans of WWE, PWG, Dragon Gate etc. whilst at the same time introducing them to wrestlers like Blue Demon Jr. and Sexy Star who - to the common wrestling fan like myself who's never found the time to watch any Mexican promotions - aren't known but are fantastic at what they do.  I've never really seen any females take on the luchadora gimmick properly so Sexy Star has introduced me to a whole new realm of wrestling to explore.  

As the series continued more people started to get introduced, like Pentagon Jr., Fenix and Drago who again are again all big names in promotions like AAA but aren't as well known to a lot of Western fans.  They're names that I'd heard of but had never bothered looking into because let's face it, I struggle to keep up with the promotions that I watch to begin with never mind getting myself invested in new ones, but Lucha Underground has gone far and wide to bring the best of them into the sights of the Western world.  By putting these "unknown" guys on to mainstream television, on a show that airs weekly, they're helping us to broaden our horizons whilst entertaining us and keeping us invested at the same time.  Without it I wouldn't have discovered a lot of the wrestlers that I have; I started watching because I'm a big fan of Ricochet and I wanted to see how he done under his luchador guise of Prince Puma but I didn't keep on watching just because of him, I kept on watching because there wasn't a bad match on that card and I wanted to see more of all of the wrestlers on that first show.  Christ I even enjoyed watching Chavo on it.  Then, a few episodes in, Drago - the aforementioned dragon - appeared and he kept me even more interested; I had seen him on AAA's Triplemania back in 2014 after hearing about it being an absolutely amazing show and I was mesmerised by him.  I'd never seen such a Gwar-esque character in wrestling before and I wanted to see more of him but failed to keep up with the happenings of AAA because as I said before, there's just too much good shit out there to be able to keep up with all of it, then when I realised he was in LU I was overjoyed. 

It's been so refreshing to watch all of the different characters and styles come together on to one show that's so easily accessible.  And the best thing is, there's no daft adverts appearing halfway through a decent match!  For breaks they show video packages and promos that help to build up towards a match or something developing in a story, so you're getting an hour of pure uninterrupted, unadulterated wrestling. How many of you still sit up and watch RAW on a Monday night like it's a chore that you have to do even though you really don't want to and get no enjoyment from it?  Watching half a roster do the same thing week in, week out then moaning about how bad it is on Twitter as if you've no other options to explore.  If you're one of these people then ditch it.  Get it dumped like that psycho lassie ye went out with last year that panned in your window because you never got her a Michael Korrs watch for Christmas.  Get up on a Thursday morning and get Lucha Underground watched.  Or if you're not sick of the sight of Kane interrupting matches and Roman Reigns stuttering through promos, stick to your Monday routine and start up a Wednesday night/Thursday morning one too.  Let's face it, there might not be enough hours in the day to keep up with every good promotion out there but Lucha Underground is more than deserving of an hour of your time every week.  

Lucha Underground airs every Wednesday at 8PM ET/PT (1AM UK time) on the El Rey Network.