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MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

how sentient is Vince's moustache going to get in a storyline before someone nixes it, or how far has it already gotten before being nixed

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Gavok
Oct 10, 2005

Brock! Oh, man, I'm sorry about your...

...tooth?


MrQwerty posted:

how sentient is Vince's moustache going to get in a storyline before someone nixes it, or how far has it already gotten before being nixed

Didn't expect WWE to take storylines from the Tick, but there are worse inspirations.

David D. Davidson
Nov 17, 2012

Orca lady?
Well, if he still has it when Roman Regins Lesnar drops their belts, you will know that it had fully consumed his brain.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

Gavok posted:

Didn't expect WWE to take storylines from the Tick, but there are worse inspirations.

It was only a matter of time

Grendels Dad
Mar 5, 2011

Popular culture has passed you by.
Sports entertainers all have Drama Powers already, makes sense that they'd take other stuff from the tick too.

Meat Wagon
Jul 14, 2004
cool wrestling gifs


Animal-Mother
Feb 14, 2012

RABBIT RABBIT
RABBIT RABBIT

FullLeatherJacket posted:

Goldberg is basically Gen X Ultimate Warrior.

This makes perfect sense on a lot of levels. Instead of endless incoherent cocaine babble, pithy heroine near silence.

Prof. Crocodile posted:

Makes sense. Jesus kicked out of a protected finish at 3 1/2 and then came back like a week later to cut promos without a neck brace or anything.

When you're the booker's kid you can get away with anything.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

Gavok posted:

Didn't expect WWE to take storylines from the Tick, but there are worse inspirations.

I mean, we know that canonically his rear end is sentient, so I'd assume other parts of his body are as well

Cartoon Man
Jan 31, 2004


Gavok
Oct 10, 2005

Brock! Oh, man, I'm sorry about your...

...tooth?


I haven't seen any good deep dives into this despite it lasting as long as it did and being as recent as it was, so what the hell. I need a writing project.

DIGGING INTO THE LUCHA UNDERGROUND PART 1

Back in the mid-00s, MTV came out with Wrestling Society X, an oddity that was too bizarre for this world. I’ve written up a longer article on the matter, but the gist is that ten episodes (plus online content) were filmed of a wrestling promotion featuring plenty of indie stars like Seth Rollins and Scorpio Sky and put them in a showcase that was perhaps a bit too outlandish and overly edited. Spots would feature huge pyro explosions and over-the-top visuals.

MTV killed the show early by airing five episodes normally, doing the next four in a marathon block, then never airing the finale at all. You’d have to get the DVD for that one.

Seven years later, we would get what people consider its spiritual successor, Lucha Underground. Not that there’s much overlap in talent that connects the two. Sure, WSX’s first champion Vampiro was a commentator on Lucha Underground and WSX’s second champion Ricky Banderas was a huge staple via a different gimmick, but that was about it. It just had the same appeal of something pre-taped, edited, and very, very different from the wrestling norm.

In 2013, Robert Rodriguez started up the El Rey Network, which I sadly never had on my cable setup, but good God do I wish I did. It was a network for watching exploitation movies, old kung fu films, a Dusk Til Dawn TV series, and reruns of everything from A-Team to Biker Mice From Mars. For original programming, Rodriguez helped put together a wrestling show with help from lucha promotion AAA.



Lucha Underground revolved around the whims of Dario Cueto. In wrestling, the authority figure is mostly the promoter or owner of the company. Maybe it’s an aging or retired wrestler. Perhaps a valet with nobody to represent. It’s always somebody from the wrestling business in that role. Not here. In Lucha Underground, the big boss was character actor Luis Fernandez-Gil. It was a brilliant idea: if this guy was going to be the central character, have him be played by someone who can actually act!

Fernandez-Gil had no history with wrestling, but to build to the show, he appeared at a major AAA event with a briefcase full of money, challenging anyone from the show to come to his Temple and prove their worth. Being a rich Spanish dude in front of a Mexican crowd helped fuel the heat and those fans let him have it. When Fernandez-Gil went backstage, he was wide-eyed, telling someone something obscene and perverted a fan yelled at him about his mother. The reaction was, “Oh yeah, you got this down perfect.”

The show began airing in fall of 2014. At the time, TNA was past its last grasp of relevancy and had burned away its goodwill. WWE had recently peaked with WrestleMania 30, but the aftermath included Daniel Bryan resorted to a husk and the company starting their early phase of making Roman Reigns the #1 star in the company. At least they had NXT on the WWE Network, which was absolutely killing it at the time. Like NXT, Lucha Underground aired Wednesday nights.

The arena was brilliant. Filmed in Boyle Heights (in real life and kayfabe), “The Temple” was this dingy, grindhouse area that felt like it could have easily been a room in Dusk Til Dawn’s Titty Twister. Even better, Dario’s office was attached to the arena so he could easily walk out and at times you’d even see someone get smashed into the office window, only to have a confused and surprised Dario looking out from the other side.

Another thing that helped differentiate Lucha Underground from the rest was its unique telenovela backstage scenes. In most wrestling, the narrative is that we and the commentators are omnipresent. When something important happens backstage, there are cameras. We are aware and the commentators will reference it. It’s all part of the kayfabe show. In Lucha Underground, only we are privy to the over-produced (in the best way) backstage happenings. If Dario has some shady backstage dealings with somebody or if some wrestlers have a nunchaku duel in the bathroom, we see it but Vampiro and Matt Striker are completely in the dark.

Ah yes, the commentators. As commentators, Vampiro and Striker may not have aged all that well, but believe me, at the time, they were way better than what WWE was giving us. Striker himself was a commentator for a stretch in WWE during the days when Michael Cole was an excruciating heel and Jerry Lawler was completely checked out and grumpy. Striker wasn’t perfect and was a tremendous geek at times, but his biggest crime for the most part was being too excited about what he was watching.

Though I did appreciate him once comparing Dario Cueto to the Beyonder from Marvel’s Secret Wars. Personally, I see him as more of Calypso from Twisted Metal.

The first match of the first episode was Blue Demon Jr. vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., trying to showcase a nod to their respective legacies. There was an issue where they had to write around the fact that so many of the lucha wrestlers brought in were unable to make the pilot. Regardless, those two were only background characters throughout the show. Our major wrestlers from the early days include:



Prince Puma: Otherwise known as Ricochet in the indies, this guy is one of the better high-fliers in the world. In fact, his incredible match with Will Ospreay was one of the biggest and earliest examples of old wrestling personalities like Cornette making GBS threads themselves over how choreographed and silly wrestling had gotten.

Lucha Underground's lore played up the existence of various Aztec tribes and Prince Puma represented the Jaguar Tribe. He was very blatantly the generic protagonist of the series, at least early on, to the point that they didn’t even give him any lines. He was completely silent and for a time had Konnan speaking on his behalf.



Johnny Mundo: More well known as John Morrison, Johnny was one of those talents who should have been a top star in WWE, but they constantly looked past him. A stylish parkour expert, Mundo was the mainstream representative that the show needed. At first, he was Puma’s rival and fellow top hero. The Ken to his Ryu. Over time, he would become more of a heel.



Sexy Star: Lucha Underground was based around intergender combat, and Sexy Star was the obscured face of that. Her deal was that she was something of a woman elemental, I guess. “I’m Every Woman” as a wrestler. While she would indeed be involved in some good storylines and even a couple great matches, Sexy Star was really average at best most of the time.



Mil Muertes and Catrina: Imagine what the Undertaker would have been like reimagined as a luchador. Portrayed by an aging Ricky Banderas, Mil Muertes had a kickass backstory about how as a child, he survived a massive earthquake and spent several days trapped and surrounded by his dead family. He crawled out of that and it somehow turned him into death incarnate.

He was joined by Catrina, a literal ghost with teleportation powers who would regularly lick the chests of those Mil Muertes defeated in the ring. While Catrina very rarely wrestled, she was former NXT Season 3 contestant Maxine.



King Cuerno: El Hijo del Fantasma was given a new gimmick of King Cuerno, a wrestling version of Kraven the Hunter. Cuerno saw his rivals as trophies and would target them one-by-one. His trademark move was to stand alone in the ring, gesture like he was firing an arrow at his opponent, then bounce across the ropes and just torpedo out of the ring into his victim. He was loving badass and would wear cowboy gear with a lucha mask as his casual outfit.



Fenix: At first, Fenix came off as just another luchador. Then his flippy skill spoke for itself. The guy stood out due to how much fire he had. They also added the idea that to tie into his name he was the man of 1000 lives. Like the concept was that when he’d get the poo poo kicked out of him and spring back to his feet, he was like a video game character going onto the next life. This made him an easy rival to Mil Muertes and they had a beautiful casket match.

A match that was slightly ruined by Matt Striker using the term “funerary box.” Come on, man.



Pentagon Jr.: Despite his cool look, this guy just did not really stand out too much in the beginning. He was a definite heel with trust issues as either his allies would betray him or simply disappoint him. As I’ll get to in the next part, Pentagon became a major player in Lucha Underground and just the coolest motherfucker in the world. He is also Fenix’s real-life brother and they never, ever mentioned that in Lucha Underground. It felt like they were preparing that bombshell for a big, dramatic reveal and never got to the fireworks factory.



Big Ryck and the Crew: Big Ryck wrestled in WWE as Ezekiel Jackson, known for being the final holder of the ECW Championship. Dude towered over everyone in Lucha Underground and acted as a high-level criminal with his own trio of henchmen the Crew (Cisco, Bael, and Cortez Castro). Eventually, the Crew turned on him and burned his eye out with a cigar, turning him face. The Crew then became Dario’s hired goons, leading to some cool twists down the line, especially with Cortez Castro.



Drago: Drago was a man. He was a dragon man. Or maybe he was just a dragon. But he was still Drago.

Really, he was just a cool lucha guy with the best-looking mask.



Son of Havoc and Ivelisse: Matt Cross portrayed Son of Havoc, a masked biker parody of Sons of Anarchy with Ivelisse as his grumpy girlfriend. As Lucha Underground featured women, minis, and exoticos on the roster, Son of Havoc was initially treated as some kind of Yosemite Sam antagonist who would constantly look like a fool by jobbing to them all. This caused a rift between Ivelisse, who ended up wanting to prove herself instead of being stuck with a loser boyfriend.

The show was weekly and an hour long. The pre-taped aspects of it allowed them to make edits where needed, but it did lead to an interesting issue in relation to how long-term wrestling works. In usual wrestling shows, a competent promoter treats the written stories as guidelines. The importance of audience reaction allows you to rework things. It lets you know who is truly popular and what isn’t working. You can’t really do that when you film so much of the show in bulk. When people really dig someone like Pentagon Jr., by the time the people behind the show realize it, it might be too late.

The show did not feature any PPVs, so they just threw major gimmick-based grudge matches on TV. It made a lot of episodes feel special when there was a ladder match or some kind of major title match. That includes one of the most important recurring episodes in Lucha Underground: Aztec Warfare.

Spanning an entire episode, Aztec Warfare was the show’s answer to the Royal Rumble. They would have 20 staggered entries, but instead of being thrown out of the ring, eliminations came via pinfall and submission. The initial one was to crown the first ever Lucha Underground champion and that honor went to (big surprise) Prince Puma.

But this was only less than a fourth into the show’s first season. There would be much to come and many awesome matches and interesting developments. One such development involved a key that hung around Dario Cueto’s neck. Through the episodes, we started to get an idea that he would be visiting something in a dungeon within the Temple. He’d be having one-sided conversations with somebody in a cage. Eventually, he introduced the Crew to this mystery person and identified him as his brother.

Then one time, angry at the Crew for failing him, he fed one of them to his brother. Like, he literally ate his face and blood splattered all over the place.

Yeah, poo poo was going to get crazy.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006
I've read a fair bit about Lucha Underground, but never a piece that went into that level of detail. Thank you, as always.

It sounds so much like my poo poo, I would have loved it. I wish there was somewhere to stream it for free now.

Vandar
Sep 14, 2007

Isn't That Right, Chairman?



Lucha Underground was the coolest goddamn poo poo and had a fair amount of influence on the industry.

God I miss it. It was so far ahead of it's time.

AlmightyBob
Sep 8, 2003

the first couple episodes had Danny Trejo in the audience and someone did a dive from the stands right in front of him iirc

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

I loved the poo poo out of LU and El Rey, I could watch a Pai Mei movie and then chase it with a soap opera about an illegal cartel trafficking rasslers like blow

AlmightyBob posted:

the first couple episodes had Danny Trejo in the audience and someone did a dive from the stands right in front of him iirc
Lol vampiro all AND THERE'S MACHÉTE IN THE AUDIENCE

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.
It's probably a good idea to pattern your starting lineup of wrestlers after the cast of a fighting game.

Flinger
Oct 16, 2012

Mil Muertes looking over the temple on a throne of skulls Shao Kahn style :worship:
You know it was a quality product when they managed to make Judas Mesias the coolest motherfucker on the planet.

Gavok
Oct 10, 2005

Brock! Oh, man, I'm sorry about your...

...tooth?


Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

I've read a fair bit about Lucha Underground, but never a piece that went into that level of detail. Thank you, as always.

It sounds so much like my poo poo, I would have loved it. I wish there was somewhere to stream it for free now.

Good news! It's up on Archive.org in full.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

It's probably a good idea to pattern your starting lineup of wrestlers after the cast of a fighting game.

Yeah, the show absolutely felt like it was a kickass Mortal Kombat clone.

Big Bad Voodoo Lou
Jan 1, 2006

Gavok posted:

Good news! It's up on Archive.org in full.

I can't find it on there, but I'll take your word for it!

It was on Tubi for the longest time, but I never got around to watching it. You snooze, you lose.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

I can't find it on there, but I'll take your word for it!

It was on Tubi for the longest time, but I never got around to watching it. You snooze, you lose.

https://archive.org/details/lucha-underground-season-1

The first result for "archive.org lucha underground" on Google

Gavok
Oct 10, 2005

Brock! Oh, man, I'm sorry about your...

...tooth?


Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

I can't find it on there, but I'll take your word for it!

It was on Tubi for the longest time, but I never got around to watching it. You snooze, you lose.

Here you go! (edit: beaten)

And now back to the show.

DIGGING INTO THE LUCHA UNDERGROUND PART 2

After Prince Puma won the Lucha Underground Championship, the show kicked into gear and started introducing more names over the course of the 39-episode first season. Notable names include:



“The Machine” Brian Cage: Cage is a mountain of muscle who is both strong as hell and capable of doing neat lucha stuff. Cage would constantly tell people that he wasn’t a man, but a machine. Probably one of the saddest lost opportunities in the show’s history is that they never actually did anything with that. Much like the Fenix/Penta brother thing, viewers were waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to show him as being a literal android, but they never did it.

In the above picture, it's from his debut episode where he jumped Prince Puma and tore the title belt in half. It was later replaced with a much cooler belt.



Aerostar: Another AAA luchador, Aerostar is a fearless daredevil who dresses like a Mega Man character. A staple of the series going forward, Aerostar would later be revealed to be some kind of time-traveling entity from the stars.



Alberto El Patron: It’s one thing to get a wrestler from another promotion. It’s an even bigger deal when it’s someone whose release from said company is seen as a great injustice. That includes Alberto Del Rio, whose initial WWE run went sour and he was fired for assaulting a racist staff member. He added some star power to the first season of Lucha Underground, though he would not stick around after the season finale. Which is probably for the best, since he turned out to be a real piece of poo poo down the line.



Killshot: Portrayed by Swerve Strickland, Killshot was a friend of Big Ryck who was some kind of haunted expert soldier. His various oversea missions have messed him up and he wears a mask for reasons. This led to a funny story years later where Jon Moxley went from ambivalent about sharing the AEW locker room with Swerve to super excited because, “Wait, did you know he was Killshot?!”



The Mack: Big Ryck’s cousin was the Mack, otherwise known as Willie Mack. Mack was like the Mick Foley of Lucha Underground in that he was chunky, but great at his job, especially likeable, and incredibly down to earth. As Big Ryck left the show, Mack was kind of inserted into his role of Sexy Star’s best friend.



Marty “The Moth” Martinez: Marty was introduced as an excited fan of the show who somehow got a role as a wrestler, but they gradually showed that there was a lot more to him. He was a descendant of the Moth Tribe, and also part of an extremely wealthy family, explaining why he got so angry when he didn't get his way. He was also a dangerous lunatic who would become increasingly unhinged over time.

Through the remainder of the first season, there were several interesting story developments. Son of Havoc and Ivelisse started feuding with Angelico, a lanky, acrobatic guy from South Africa. This led to one of the low points of the show when they did Angelico (face) vs. Ivelisse (heel), which was a textbook look at what NOT to do when booking an intergender match. Angelico was very gropey throughout the match, which was being played for laughs, but it did not get the reaction they wanted. It wasn’t in the sense of, “Oops, sorry, my hands are accidentally on your breasts,” but more, “Don’t mind if I do! *wink to camera*” It ended up being vastly edited on TV, but still came off as really gross.



While Lucha Underground never had a regular tag title, they did have a Trios Championship. They crowned the inaugural champions via a six-team tournament that spread over a month (three opening round matches and a three-team finals). Dario decided to force Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angelico into a spot, and they ended up winning the whole thing. Then Dario revealed that the secret final boss of the tournament was the Crew in an impromptu match. This gave us one of the show’s most memorable spots as Angelico did a running leap off a high balcony onto two of the Crew members. The unlikely trio ended up becoming the champs.

Thing with Dario Cueto is that he had a sick sense of humor about his matches. He would regularly offer “unique opportunities” to wrestlers that would either end really well for them or end in disaster. Like how the first Aztec Warfare was preceded by a mini tournament where whoever won the finals would enter the match at #20 and whoever lost the finals would enter at #1.

He did another unique opportunity with Drago and Aerostar. He saw them getting along really well and didn’t like the comradery, so he put together a Best of 5 series between the two where the winner would get a title shot. After this strained their friendship, Drago won. Then Dario told him that if he failed to defeat Prince Puma for the title, Drago would be banned from the Temple. Drago then lost the match and was fired.

It gave us an episode ending that shows how over-the-top and amazing the show could be. As he was leaving, Drago threatened Dario if they were to meet again. Then as he walked outside, we could hear a loud, reptilian roar followed by the image of a massive stream of fire and the sound of something flying off. Yes, Drago TRANSFORMED INTO A DRAGON AND FLEW AWAY. All the while, Dario stood there, completely calm about the situation, like it was nothing out of the ordinary. They didn't have the budget to actually show us the dragon, but it was still cool as gently caress.



A third championship was introduced that was easily the most unique. Late in the first season, Dario announced the Gift of the Gods Championship. First, various wrestlers would each compete for one of seven Aztec medallions, each based on a different Aztec Tribe. Then there would be a 7-way match and the winner would be the Gift of the Gods Champion. It acted as a secondary championship that could be defended, but it could also be cashed in. As long as it was announced at least a week in advance (Dario was a wrestling promoter after all), someone could cash in the belt for a shot at the Lucha Underground Champion. Win or lose, the Gift of the Gods would be vacated and the whole process would start all over again.

It was like Money in the Bank mixed with the Intercontinental Championship, but with thought put behind it. Well, at least for the first couple seasons.

One of the biggest subplots was the rise of Pentagon Jr. Penta started talking about how he had some kind of shadowy master giving him orders to sacrifice others and that only after he hurt the right amount of people would the master show himself. Penta did this by breaking the arms of his enemies. He had an arm-breaker move that would be sold like he legitimately snapped their limb. His victims would be off TV for months. He was treated as a dangerous maniac.

Behind the scenes, Vampiro really saw a lot of potential in Penta, but figured he needed something to help him really take off and stand out. He thought Penta could be a real star and insisted on getting involved to really make it happen. Holy poo poo, did it ever work.

When Penta threatened to break the arm of ring announcer Melissa Santos, Vampiro left the commentary station and tried to stand up to him until Sexy Star made the save for him. Vampiro later apologized for getting involved, only to be targeted by Penta. Things got heated to the point that Vampiro was going to come out of retirement for one last match against Penta... at Ultima Lucha.

Ultima Lucha was the promotion’s WrestleMania, only not really. Again, the show did not do PPVs. Instead, it was a special season finale. The first one was broken up into two parts with the first episode being an hour and the second episode being two hours. The latter episode is currently the highest-rated episode of Lucha Underground on Cagematch and for good reason.

The important points from this finale:

- So at some point, after Mil Muertes lost a casket match to Fenix, he came back even more powerful, like it was his final boss form. During this, he created the Disciples of Death, a trio of guys I can best describe as Power Rangers Putties celebrating the Day of the Dead. These three were able to defeat the Unlikely Trio and win the Trios Championship.

- Johnny Mundo (now a heel) defeated Alberto El Patron thanks to the surprise help of his real-life girlfriend Melina. This would not only be the final appearance of Alberto, but also Melina, as she and Mundo broke up shortly after.



- Pentagon Jr. defeated Vampiro in a loving insane hardcore match that featured Vampiro showing up as a demonic Pope and later getting sent through a flaming table. It was easily the most violent match shown on American TV at this point. After the match, Vampiro yelled at Penta to snap his arm. Penta shrugged and did it. Afterwards, Vampiro rose up with his broken arm and surprised Penta by revealing that he was his mysterious master all along. He said that Penta was ready to take the next step.

- A month or two before this show, to show how powerful Mil Muertes had become after his resurrection, he defeated Fenix in a Death Match. Fenix being the Man of 1000 Lives, returned later and at Ultima Lucha became the first Gift of the Gods Champion.

- Mil Muertes defeated Prince Puma to become Lucha Underground Champion. The lead-up involved Konnan being killed off and written out of the show for good. In terms of in-ring action, the last visual was Mil Muertes, Catrina, and the Disciples of Death all standing tall.

But of course, there was more going on. Throughout the season, there was a storyline about an assassin named Black Lotus who wanted to kill Dario’s mysterious monster brother for killing her father. Dario captured her and was able to convince her that the Cueto family had nothing to do with her father’s death. He said the real killer was El Dragon Azteca, an aging luchador whose family had an uneasy history of the Cuetos. Despite the wishes of his young apprentice (whose face was never shown), El Dragon Azteca tried to break into the Temple and rescue Black Lotus. She ended up killing him. Dario was spooked by this, claiming that she just started a war and that they needed to get out of there ASAP.

And so, Ultima Lucha ended with a montage of cliffhangers. Vampiro and Pentagon vanished together. Fenix drove off with his new title belt, unknowingly hunted by King Cuerno. Dario and Black Lotus loaded up a truck to get out of town with a quick look at Dario’s monster brother peaking out a hole in the back. Marty the Moth had kidnapped Sexy Star for disrespecting him and started raving about how she was going to meet his sister. Drago (who earned his return) and Aerostar wished each other a fond farewell before Drago flew off in dragon form and Aerostar flew off like a rocket. The Unlikely Trio got on their motorcycles and swore that they would reconvene and win back their titles.

Then El Dragon Azteca’s protégé picked up his discarded mask and put it on. He was later seen spray painting a giant, green question mark over a Lucha Underground billboard, slyly suggesting the appearance of Rey Mysterio Jr. in a hypothetical second season.

In fact, here’s the whole ending segment. I can’t do that last shot of Dario justice.

Those who watched Lucha Underground thought it was cool as gently caress, but it was on a very niche TV channel that not many had. It wasn’t exactly doing the ratings and considering the budget that was put into it, that made people uneasy about there being a second season. For months, people figured that it was just going to be this wonderful one-season show left to die and live on in legend. Wrestling Society X, but with far better quality.

Then on September 21, 2015, it was announced that they were being renewed. Filming would start in November and it would start airing in January of 2016. On top of that, they later revealed an image of Rey Mysterio Jr. crouched up on a rooftop in front of the billboard with the spray paint question mark. Alberto was gone, but Mysterio was in. A major trade up if there ever was one.

In the lead-up, we got this trailer which comes off like a goddamn Tekken intro cinematic.

While season 2 was going to be golden already, El Rey announced early on that they were going to be doing a third season and it was going to be produced immediately after they finished filming the second season. This would go on to be the mistake that destroyed Lucha Underground, but that would not play out for a few years...

Mulaney Power Move
Dec 30, 2004

I loved El Rey. Too bad it didn't last. Kung Fu movies, Godzilla marathons, entire weekends devoted to V: The Miniseries. I guess it was never going to last.

16-bit Butt-Head
Dec 25, 2014
el rey owned

Animal-Mother
Feb 14, 2012

RABBIT RABBIT
RABBIT RABBIT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8

An all-time great spot and an all-time great call by Matt Striker, "OH poo poo! THAT WAS DOOOOOPE!"

Time_pants
Jun 25, 2012

Now sauntering to the ring, please welcome the lackadaisical style of the man who is always doing something...

Animal-Mother posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8

An all-time great spot and an all-time great call by Matt Striker, "OH poo poo! THAT WAS DOOOOOPE!"

DUDE.

Fukken unreal.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

Animal-Mother posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8

An all-time great spot and an all-time great call by Matt Striker, "OH poo poo! THAT WAS DOOOOOPE!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH poo poo, THAT WAS DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

I remember watching that when it aired and going nuts, I was a real big LU fan

Matt Striker and Vampiro were a very lol commentary team

also lol Son of AnarchyHavoc

16-bit Butt-Head
Dec 25, 2014
lol vampiro

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)


his overpronunciation of accented spanish words, of which LU had many, was second-to-none

16-bit Butt-Head
Dec 25, 2014
vampiro is very popular in mexico and i never understood why one of lifes wrestling mysteries

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)

for those who didn't watch LU, Season 2 introduces a ridiculous DEA subplot that is overly sexual involving an extremely cancelled wrestler with a penchant for dick stuff

Cubone
May 26, 2011

Because it never leaves its bedroom, no one has ever seen this poster's real face.

Animal-Mother posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8

An all-time great spot and an all-time great call by Matt Striker, "OH poo poo! THAT WAS DOOOOOPE!"

JESUS :suspense:

Mulaney Power Move
Dec 30, 2004

Vampiro. I didn't hate him but something about him was just off putting. Like if you told me had a pee fetish I wouldn't be surprised.

X JAKK
Sep 1, 2000

We eat the pig then together we BURN

MrQwerty posted:

for those who didn't watch LU, Season 2 introduces a ridiculous DEA subplot that is overly sexual involving an extremely cancelled wrestler with a penchant for dick stuff

They brought Hard Gay out of retirement?

Animal-Mother
Feb 14, 2012

RABBIT RABBIT
RABBIT RABBIT

16-bit Butt-Head posted:

vampiro is very popular in mexico and i never understood why one of lifes wrestling mysteries

He's a vampire. It's like a villain from an old El Santo movie getting in the squared circle.

Elephant Ambush
Nov 13, 2012

...We sholde spenden more time together. What sayest thou?
Nap Ghost

Animal-Mother posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP7tVo6DZ8

An all-time great spot and an all-time great call by Matt Striker, "OH poo poo! THAT WAS DOOOOOPE!"

Pro wrestling is the best

Elephant Ambush
Nov 13, 2012

...We sholde spenden more time together. What sayest thou?
Nap Ghost
https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1708692600629129706?t=68VqqDFjCiNZ4aAkRtq3FQ&s=19

Cubone
May 26, 2011

Because it never leaves its bedroom, no one has ever seen this poster's real face.
man they really went right up to the line of what they could bring over of the Edge character without provoking WWE's attorneys

they should call him Hedge but never write it down and only ever have a british guy say it

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

LOVE IS BEAUTIFUL
(づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ♥(‘∀’●)


MONEY PLANE STORYLINE WHEN

Grendels Dad
Mar 5, 2011

Popular culture has passed you by.
Eh


Ehhhhhhhhhhh


Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhdge

GolfHole
Feb 26, 2004

hes not gonna be able to kick any rear end in those sick blundstones cmon

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Cthulu Carl
Apr 16, 2006

Cubone posted:

man they really went right up to the line of what they could bring over of the Edge character without provoking WWE's attorneys

they should call him Hedge but never write it down and only ever have a british guy say it

"IT'S.... FRIIIIINGE!"

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