Johnny Mundo and The Mack went to a draw in an All Night Long Match for the Lucha Underground Championship (37:05, 3-3, great)
4:18 Johnny Mundo Fin de Mundo (1-0)
5:40 Johnny Mundo rope assisted cradle (2-0)
10:42 the Mack powerbomb (2-1)
18:11 Johnny Mundo DDT onto backboard (3-1)
22:15 the Mack Stunner (3-2)
30:22 the Mack pin after a sit down piledriver thru a table (3-3)
37:05 time ran out
Happenings
this is probably a lot less fun than it looks
This one won’t take long. There was simply the one match – not even some vignette coming in from a break or to close out the slow. It was just Johnny Mundo and the Mack in an All Night Long match.
Mundo went up to a 2-0 lead, picking up the second pinfall by using the ropes (which also used to escape from a few pins.) Mack got one fall back via powerbomb. Mundo soon after pulled off his springboard tornillo to the outside, only to clutch one of his lower legs on landing. The announcers believed it to be a serious injury and the medics brought out a stretcher. Mack went as far to shake Mundo’s hand out of respect, only for Mundo to (predictably) jump up fine and surprise Mack with a DDT to take back his two fall lead.
Mundo started running and taking it outside to run out the clock. He fought to the top of the steps, only to get strapped to the backboard and slid all the way back down to the ring. He ran down the hallway to escape – only it really wasn’t him, but PJ Black dressed up as Mundo to lead Mundo on a brief wild goose chase. Black & Mundo worked over Mack until Son of Havoc made the save. Havoc eventually banged on Dario’s door to request a beer, which powered the Mack up to land a Stunner to cut the lead to 3-2.
just when Sexy Star was moving onto a post wrestling career
Mundo & Black regained control of the match again with the help of kendo sticks, then demanded the band play a victory tune to celebrate. Instead, a member of the band jumped off the stage to plancha the rudos, and revealed herself to be Sexy Star in disguise. Havoc & Star cleared out Black, and Mack tied up the match following an Air Raid Crash thru tables.
The match went back and forth in the last few minutes, with a ladder and table in play. Mack placed Mundo on the table and went up the ladder to put him thru. Ricky Mandell ran in, grabbing Mack to save his hero. Havoc & Sexy Star were able to pull him away and Mack landed a giant ladder splash, but time ran out as the winning pin was counted.
Dario interrupted the post match to declare he would not allow a draw in his Temple, and Mack & Mundo would continue their match next week under sudden death (or, “normal”) rules. Mack gave Mundo a Stunner to end the show.
Thoughts
the return of LU is bad news for tables
The All Night Long match got to the level of a very good Lucha Underground match at the end. It didn’t feel like it was always going to get there. Coming back from a break with a match with a purposefully slower start (at least by LU standards) so they build towards the end required extra patience from a fanbase that was probably impatient to see the show already. The first half of the match eventually worked for where they were going, but it didn’t come off as really important right away. It was really the chaos of the last segment or so which took the intensity of the match up to that next level.
I find myself thinking a lot about the context this episode will be seen in. For people watching it tonight, it’s airing in the context of a five month hiatus, where people are eager to see their favorite guys again (and didn’t see them unless they’re one of about seven people.) If you’re someone binging this show later on Netflix or wherever, that’s not much a concern. Johnny Mundo’s injury bit is probably also doesn’t poke out as much too if you’re watching it on a service without commercials, since it was just a minute or so before a break and a little bit of time after. It really pokes at you if you’re watching the show live, where there were a few more minutes of commercials to think about how obvious it was fake injury spot and how unconvincing it was for the announcers to “break character” on the scheming rudo doing something that anyone who’s watched wrestling has seen a million times. (That spot needs to go in a storage warehouse for a long time. Mack shaking Mundo’s hand was a nice touch, but it’s consistently bad TV. They got some of the reaction they wanted live, but it was TV death.) I think this is an episode overall that worked good on TV, but probably is going to be much stronger as #20 of 40 and not #1 of 21.
that backboard provides less neck protection than you’d guess
Not that it didn’t have it’s flaws. Hey, if you couldn’t find time to air Sexy Star post title win speech on TV (the best part of his title win), you probably can just end the show on the count and make the Dario thing a YouTube/social media exclusive. It’s silly to have someone talking about the match going all night long, and the match not going when the night still is. It’s not enough to sabotage the match for me but the forced nature of the finish might due it for some.
Sexy Star’s interference spot was really well done. Son of Havoc should’ve asked for multiple beers. Son of Havoc getting involved was just sort of weird, but that’s a spot where the break might have helped the show – most people were willing to roll with the idea Worldwide Underground had done something to Son of Havoc to explain this, since they couldn’t remember what happened five weeks ago anyway. (I suspect that spot was written with Angelico in mind instead, or the Angelico & Son of Havoc vs Jack Evans/PJ Black match was originally intended to be much more in general.) Mack’s splash thru the table should be one of those Lucha Underground clips replayed forever, but I kind of wish they didn’t end the show with the stunner. Just like we’re used to seeing a heel fake an injury and attack the surprised face, we’re used to seeing the face who comes up short in the title match and lays out the champion ever not actually win the title in his next chance. I’m eager to see more people around next week, and I’m sure it’ll be a good match, but they did more to convince it won’t be a title change.
All matches were scheduled to air live from Arena Mexico. However, issues with CMLL’s internet connection meant the show was not put up until Wednesday afternoon. It’s still the Tuesday date up there for simplicity.
Felino, Mr. Niebla, Negro Casas defeat Blue Panther, Guerrero Maya Jr., Johnny Idol(10:44 [3:53, 1:54, 4:57], 1/3, ok)
Hechicero, Rey Bucanero, Terrible defeat Atlantis, Marco Corleone, Titán(10:33 [6:05, 4:28], 1/2, ok)
What happened:
even Marcela seemed stunned at Skadi’s dropkick
Hechicero commentates on half the show and then has his match, which is odd here – usually it’s someone who’s off the whole night in the booth. Comandante helped Terrible cheat Marco out of the second fall for the win, setting up a singles match for next week.
In the opener, Sangre Imperial mishears the count and stops covering after two when he has the second fall won with a moonsault. Referee Pompin is visibly distressed, lets it go in the moment, then insisted on counting out Yago after he rolled out.
Thoughts:
Yago is fun
This didn’t have the usual Tuesday main event showcase match, but it worked fine as a quickie feud set up instead. It’d be cool if CMLL just kept booking Hechicero and Titan in random trios matches so they could do really cool exchanges like they did to start this match. It’d be cooler if they could just book them into a proper feud, but I think I ask for much more than I’m ever going to get in general. Terrible/Marco next week should be fine if that’s what we’re getting.
Niebla/Felino Peste Negra is never much good for match quality and this was no different, but using Niebla’s normal fall off the apron to set up a Maya dive was smart. Helped that Maya absolutely nailed the tope. Niebla & Maya worked well in the third fall too. I can’t explain it. The best Johnny Idol has looked in his entire run in Mexico is in a 90 second exchange with Negro Casas here in the third fall. It may just be that Negro Casas is awesome.
The lightning match had some nice moments, some good spots that felt borrowed from other matches and didn’t totally fit here, and some that totally worked. It took a while to get where they wanted to go and it wasn’t so great before it got there, turning it into an average match. Drone still is missing something to fly a little higher.
Hechicero SSP because why not
In the minis match, Shockercito and Mercurio were doing a nice variation of the one arm powerbomb sequence, and the director cut to the crowd in between it. Tough to care all that much that way. This was Pequeño Universo’s first TV match in four months. He went thru April without any matches at all. It’s still weird CMLL has dozens of people training and can not find anyone better to use, but they’re hardly using him at this point. He doesn’t even get to hang around the new Dinamtias like the Pequeño Ingobernables. The last 30 seconds of this are pretty fun and you probably should avoid the rest.
The novatos match was more fun than the usual opener, if maybe not solid enough to make it good. They could get there with some more work, and it’s clear they don’t really need the veterans to help them get thru this match (and that the match was better without them.) I’m afraid to get ahead of myself on Yago. He’s no sure bet to be someone important, but he’s clearly good enough to a regular here and there’s no obvious reason he should’ve been gone for months. He probably needs a better finish than the one he’s got.
Maximo & La Mascara/stills from The Crash’s Facebook
CMLL (TUE) 05/30/2017Arena México [CMLL, CultIcon]
1) Artillero & Hijo del Signo b Bengala & Leono
2) Estrellita, Princesa Sugehit, Sanely b Metálica, Tiffany, Zeuxis
3) Puma, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr. b Esfinge, Oro Jr., Starman
4) Blue Panther Jr., Pegasso, The Panther DQ Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Sagrado Sagrado pulled Blue Panther Jr.’s mask for the DQ.
5) Gran Guerrero, Mephisto, Rey Bucanero b Blue Panther, Niebla Roja, Soberano Jr.
6) Marco Corleone b Terrible
Sounded like a solidly OK show. Universo 2000 Jr. introduced himself to CMLL by face planting on a tope (but otherwise was OK.)
La Mascara & Maximo debuted last night for the Crash in Queretaro as a surprise. They ran in during the Flamita vs Septimo Dragon vs Rey Horus three way match and again in the main event, leading to another verbal confrontation with Penta 0M and La Rebelion. There’s video of part of that here, and Crash posted videos with Maximo and Mascara cutting quick promos.
There’s a couple of moving parts here. Mascara & Maximo may have simply picked The Crash over going to AAA, since Crash gives them more freedom to work their own indie schedule, especially when they can do a run of all the recent ex-AAA guys who are around. La Mascara also seemed to be a favorite of The Crash ownership when the promotion was still getting along with CMLL. Konnan not only was careful not to say too much about this situation on his podcast, he actually specifically said he was told not to say too much; it’s fair to assume the deal was in the talking stages for a while. La Mascara & Maximo are being put in a top spot against La Rebelion immediately; it’s going to be a challenge for them to keep up with Fenix & Pentagon in the ring and on the mic, but it’s going to keep them strong.
At the same time, there’s at least a hint that AAA might not be as interested in them as we thought, or at least sees them as untouchable for the moment. La Mascara & Maximo were originally scheduled to be part of a main event in Arena Lopez Mateos on June 24, teaming with LA Park and Dr. Wagner. That match has been changed to simply LA Park and Dr. Wagner. SuperLuchas reports AAA caused this change: AAA does not want their wrestlers on the same shows as Maximo & La Mascara, fearing potential PR problems. This flies counter to the public statements of AAA people supporting Maximo & La Mascara, and easily explains why they weren’t at Friday’s show – if AAA considers those guys too radioactive to even work with on an indie show, they’re not putting them on their TV right now.
Mascara & Maximo will probably be part of Friday’s The Crash show in Tijuana in some way. Maximo did change his Facebook name but Crash still has listed as simply “Maximo”, and La Mascara still as La Mascara. Like Psicosis II and Alebrije and others, they’ll probably be able to get by fine using their CMLL trademarked names on the indies and would only change them if they were on TV. (Which leaves what they do on Friday a little bit of a mystery, since The Crash aspires to be on TV but doesn’t appear to be all that close to it and may not care either way.)
The Crash show does appear to have sold out Arena Queretaro. It’s listed as a 3,700 seat building, though it seemed closer to Naucalpan size when we were there. Either way, it’s a good start for them in a new town. No results of course, because writing results for a show is too much to ask for. The Crash is headed to Oaxaca on July 2nd.
Robin says he was in Houston at the time of the car vandalism. I asked around the weekend this happened and was told he was there, but Robin would know where he was better than I would. Robin says he’s staying with CMLL and that certainly makes sense given how things have worked out. Robin would not benefit from joining Maximo & Mascara the same way as he would if they joined AAA. A new shot on a different TV show might work, but he’d be stuck working the same level if he just went to the indies right now. Robin’s not likely to get a great shot in CMLL right now, he wasn’t really getting one anyway, but he’s better off waiting to see how this pans out.
Lucha Underground finally returns tonight. I’ve completely forgotten how I write LU previews, it’s been so long. This will be episode #20 (of 4o) of the third season, “All Night Long…Again”. Matches on the show
the Mack vs Johnny Mundo (c) in an All Night Long (iron man) match for the Lucha Underground championship (clip of the match)
AAA announced a deal with the La Chilanguita restaurant chain to promote each other. That’ll include airing the AAA TV show in the restaurant. One of the Mexico City chain stops will also sell tickets for TripleMania, which seems completely unnecessary if the next paragraph is accurate. This same chain had a deal with CMLL around the time of the Anniversary show last year.
In an interview at the show, Dorian Roldan claimed TripleMania is 80% of sold out. It was just 75% sold out this weekend, so AAA is claiming they are selling hundreds of tickets a day months away from the show and months since anything was announced. AAA should write books about how they’re pulling it off because they’re rewriting the business of promoting events. There’s been nothing specific done to hype this event other than the same promo for Psycho Clown versus Dr. Wagner which airs on TV every week. I’m not sure why the 12th week of that promo is getting so many people to buy that were on the fence now. It sure is amazing.
Dorian said we’ll hear about the rest of the matches for TripleMania soon, and hinted they’ll have some sort of match honoring the history of AAA by bringing back names from the past. That’s certainly fitting for a 25th Anniversary, but, you know, the Villanos versus Psycho Circus comes to mind. Maybe they’ve learned how to do it better this time.
CMLL (TUE) 06/06/2017Arena México
1) Bengala & Sangre Imperial vs Artillero & Espanto Jr.
2) Acero, Aéreo, Eléctrico vs Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia
3) Fuego, Johnny Idol, Stigma vs Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
4) Titán vs Ephesto [lightning]
5) Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr., The Panther vs Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón
6) Stuka Jr., Valiente, Volador Jr. vs Cavernario, Felino, Mr. Niebla
Volador’s not making this show either if he wins his BOSJ block. That may not be an issue.
Titan/Ephesto is an odd mix.
CMLL (TUE) 06/06/2017Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Alteño & Star Black vs Nautilius & Ráfaga
2) Cosmos, Shockercito, Stukita vs Mercurio, Pierrothito, Relámpago Azul
3) Magnus, Star Jr., Starman vs Puma, Sangre Azteca, Tiger
4) Ángel de Oro, Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora, Sam Adonis
5) Atlantis, Carístico, Marco Corleone vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible
I hadn’t really considered the return of TGR trios matches and I’m not totally enthused for that. Caristico is listed back, even though he missed the show here this week.
Ángel de Oro, Johnny Idol, Stigma defeated Dragón Rojo Jr., Niebla Roja, Pólvora (11:22 [5:40, 5:42], 1/2 straight falls, ok)
Marco Corleone, Máscara Año 2000, Mr. Niebla beat Pierroth, Ripper, Rushin a relevos increíbles match (13:16 [3:16, 2:37, 7:23], 2/3, ok)
Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero beat Atlantis, Mistico, Valiente(9:20 [5:06, 1:06, 3:08], 1/3, ok)
What happened:
beaten with his own bell
Ripper replaced La Mascara in the semifinal. Pierroth pulled out the referee when Niebla had Rush beat with a powerbomb. Rush followed by pulling off Niebla’s mask for the DQ. Rush work Niebla’s afro and taunted Niebla after the match, including hitting him with the stretcher.
Niebla Roja wrestled the fourth match as a traitor, frequently helping the técnicos and stopping the Revolucionarios. They attacked him too, and kept attacking him after the match when he turned over a Dragon Rojo sunset flip to give Angel de Oro the straight fall win. Angle de Oro made the save for his brother.
Ares was a fill in for Camorra in the opener.
Thoughts:
why did they replace this
Something happened with the video in the main event, where it jumped from the set up to the third fall finish to a few second after. It seemed about right. You didn’t need to see it. You probably would’ve forgotten about it if you did anyway. This wasn’t much of a show.
They’re mid storyline on a couple matches (Rush/Niebla, Niebla Roja’s turn), and none of the other matches were anything. The spark of the Guerreros/Mistico/Valiente matches wasn’t there with Atlantis, who slipped while trying the Atlantida. (Atlantis is still OK, but it was a reminder this is Mexico and we’re probably not going to see his run end until well after it should’ve.) The women’s match was no good. The opener went too long. There should be at least one good match on every CMLL show, but there wasn’t on this one.
Lucha Underground is a strange wrestling promotion that’s called a TV show for marketing purposes. It’s also a great source of news and confusion despite not having run any tapings in about a year. Maybe you heard a bit about things going on with LU during this long hiatus, maybe you don’t pay attention to Lucha Underground when they’re not airing shows but are curious now, maybe you’re just an onlooker trying to figure out how this works. Whatever the case, these are the four out of the ring topics which came up the most during this midseason break, and what we know about them right now
(Information is taken from interviews, podcasts, reporting and other sources. I don’t think anything here is all that secretive, but it is bundling a lot of information.)
Lucha Underground Season 3 wasn’t meant to have a midseason break. It was El Rey’s call (out of appreciation of LU)
The short version of this is “running a successful small cable channel in 2017 is really hard and may cause you to take some serious risks.” Even that much is not short.
El Rey, version 1.0, found a niche audience that liked it’s martial arts and horror movies and sampled other things but wasn’t big enough to compel enough cable systems to pick them up and enough advertisers to spend money there. LU’s own ratings were not impressive compared to other wrestling shows, but they’re easily the highest rated show on the network. They’re also the only surviving original show left on El Rey: the TV adaption of From Dusk Til Dawn concluded, and attempts at series like The Cutting Crew and El Matador never found an audience enough to sustain them. It left El Rey at a crossroads, trying to figure out what would work with the makeup of the audience they’ve reached at this point.
Lucha Underground’s return marks the start of an El Rey version 1.1. It’s not a total remake, you will still find dubbed movies on Friday nights, but there are changes. Lucha Underground is the one thing that seemed to work, so every new concept is something that might work like or along side of Lucha Underground. Wednesday night, in between LU and the repeat, a special on the Baja 500 will air. It’s an offroad car race with lots of action, and the special will focus on some of the stories behind it. Next Thursday, El Rey debuts Rite of Passage (a show with a lot of action based on mystical coming of age trials) and Man At Arms: Art of War (a show with a lot of action based on sometimes mythical weapons.) I hope you’re noticing a pattern.
El Rey didn’t decide on this direction until late last year, and it takes a while to produce these sorts of things. There’s no point in making adjacent Lucha Underground programming if LU is not still airing new episodes. El Rey took the gamble that people would still be with LU if they put them on the shelf for a while and brought them back when the new shows were ready. (That’s also why they went to a hiatus with no clearer return date than “Summer 2017”; those shows weren’t far enough along yet to know when they’d be ready.)
Lucha Underground had no idea their would be this shift when they were producing these episodes. The episode airing this Wednesday was taped way back in March 2016, more than half a year before any sort of decision was made. Instead, LU people were given a heads up that a hiatus was coming and asked which episode would work best as a break point. (They debated between after episode 19 – the one they actually went out on – or after episode 20. We can debate if they made the right pick later on.) El Rey wouldn’t have put Lucha Underground on the shelf unless they believed they could make this work. El Rey believes in LU and hopefully their belief will be warranted.
If you want to help out LU, give the new shows a try. It’ll help El Rey (and LU) to keep going on as it has if even one of them turns out well. There’s also no sign El Rey is in a make it or break it territory, but any media entity which can’t find a way to attract eyeballs is going to be in a little bit of peril in 2017.
Lucha Underground is on Netflix (but only in the US, Canada & Latin America so far)
Netflix
Lucha Underground getting on Netflix has been a public goal of the company since the end of season 1, and it seemed long to be a discussion about how much Netflix was willing to pay for the episodes. They came to an agreement early this year (which seemed to still be a bit disappointing to LU) and the episodes were added to Netflix in the middle of March. (Not February. March. Not February. March.) You can watch them now, in glorious HD, if you’re a subscriber. No one with LU knows how well they’ve done, but we all can look thru Twitter and see people regularly stumbling onto the show via Netflix and enjoying it. That seems good.
However, if you are not in the US, Canada or parts of Latin America, you don’t have Lucha Underground on Netflix. You probably aren’t going to get Lucha Underground any time soon, and there’s probably not much Netflix can do about it.
Part of LU’s ownership plan to make money on this show of monsters, murders an armdrags to sell the show to different markets around the world. They’ve had some good luck with that: it’s on TLN in Canada, it’s on SamuraiTV in Japan, it’s on TNT in Geramy – and now it’s also on an over the air station in Germany too. Netflix gives Lucha Underground some money, selling it to TV networks gives them more money, and the theory is making it available on Netflix in a market will make TV networks less willing to put it on their air.
LU’s looked for TV homes in places like the UK or Australia or Brazil or elsewhere, and hasn’t found anyone willing to take on the show for whatever amount it is they want. Their strategy probably isn’t going to change any time soon, so those places without LU on TV are unlikely to get it any other means any time soon.
If you are someone who’s come to Lucha Underground thru Netflix, you should know that you’re going to have a decent wait for new episodes. Seasons will continue to only show up on Netflix sometime after they finish airing on TV, which means Season 3 won’t be available until at least the middle of October, if not a little bit later than that. In the meantime, if you don’t get El Rey on cable, both iTunes and Amazon are selling individual episodes the day after they air, and there’s some digital TV services (Sling, Fubo.TV) which offer El Rey live as part of their package of channels.
Pentagon, Fenix and others leaving AAA doesn’t seem to affect their Lucha Underground status. Prince Puma is a different story.
Last time Lucha Underground aired a new episode, Pentagon Jr. had not walked out on AAA and Fenix had not changed his name three hundred times. That seems very long ago. The short version is Pentagon (& Fenix) found wrestling in English speaking indies more rewarding than working in AAA, AAA started treating them like they were going to leave at any moment, and then that moment came.
This is the important thing, something no one on the outside understood early on but has been made clearer as time has gone on: Lucha Underground is not AAA, and AAA is not Lucha Underground. AAA owns part of LU (no one’s agrees exactly how much), LU has exclusive TV rights over any AAA luchador they use, and there’s a lot of people crossing over between both, but they’re independently managed and run. A wrestler’s status in one promotion is not supposed to affect another.
Lucha Underground officials have repeatedly said they want Pentagon back for a Season 4, they want Fenix back for a Season 4, they want Sexy Star back for a Season 4 – they want everyone back, and they also expect that everyone will be there. All the luchadors involved have also said they want to be back; guys like Pentagon & Fenix are appreciative of what Lucha Underground has done for their careers and how they’ve been treated there. Sexy Star, who’s limited her wrestling dates because she’s trying a boxing career, has said she’ll still find time to work for Lucha Underground. As far as everyone in that group of people are concerned publicly, this is a non-issue and everything will continue on as it has been.
The reason this is an issue is AAA. Reportedly, AAA luchadors were warned during season 2 that leaving AAA would cost them their spot in Lucha Underground. (And, in fact, Flamita never returned to the show as Nightclaw when he left AAA after season 2 – but we don’t know if he just didn’t want to be back.) AAA’s Dorian Roldan, who was likely behind that warning, has also come out in public to say everyone is welcome back to LU. It’s hard to know which side of that story to believe, and there’s been at least one reported attempt to remove any doubt from it – Pentagon was said to be offered a new LU deal which would pay him more and wouldn’t require him to go back to AAA, but would prevent him from working for any group in competition with AAA. It’s unclear if he’s signed, it’s unclear if he needs to sign.
It would be a tremendous no-win situation for Lucha Underground if they came back for a Season 4 with some of the most popular and identifiable people with the show all suddenly missing. Everyone seems super confident this will work out without that happening, and I don’t think there’s much to be concerned about that.
Ricochet/Prince Puma is a different situation. LU dearly wanted him to be on their show, and so gave him an option to leave his Lucha Undeground contract after three seasons. (Others, like Rey Mysterio Jr., are said to also have shorter deals, but most LU wrestlers were signed to seven season deals.) WWE can’t legally talk to Ricochet while he’s under contract to Lucha Underground, but it’s obvious they’d be making him a significant offer if he was available. They’ve offered and signed deals with stars from every major promotion in the world, it’s not going to by any different here. Ricochet will opt out, Lucha Underground may still make a great offer to keep him, but it’s tough to compete with WWE in a heads up battle.
Ricochet’s problem, his source of frustration, is a “three seasons aired” deal; LU contracts specifically prohibit their talent from appearing on another wrestling show while their season is still to air. If it was “three seasons taped”, Ricochet would’ve been a free agent as soon as last June. If El Rey stuck to the original Season 3 plan, Ricochet would be a free agent around now. Pushing back the season meant Ricochet instead has to wait until at least October, something like 16 months after the last time he wrestled in a Lucha Underground ring, to go talk to some one else about working on his TV.
(Pause here to note that even though Ricochet might be the only one who can leave LU after the third season, that 16 month delays pushed everyone involved in the series the same way.)
No one thought it would take this long, not Ricochet, not Lucha Underground. Ricochet’s been fortunate – or just been very good at what he does – so he’s gotten plenty of opportunities to work exciting places in the meantime. His LU’s deal does not affect NJPW TV taped in Japan, so he’s gotten to work there a lot – but he wouldn’t be allowed to work the NJPW TV taped in LA because Lucha Underground will still be airing. He wouldn’t be allowed to work for NJPW’s partner promotion ROH because it’s taped for the US. LU probably could’ve let it some of that slide because of hiatus, but they’ve held the line on protecting their content like so many other wrestling promotions.
Staring at a clock does not make it move faster. I’ve tried it a lot, and it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t blame Ricochet for doing it the next few months, though.
The Chances of Season 4 Are…Really Up To Whatever You Believe
El Rey definitely wants Lucha Underground back for a season 4 (and more). LU wants to be back for a season 4 (and more.) Even AAA, who might have reason to be conflicted a bit, have said they want LU to be back for a season 4. Yet, no one will actually go on record to say a season 4 is a go, and it’s probably not just because they’re waiting to make a big splashy announcement.
The problem is Lucha Underground does not make enough money to pay for itself, and AAA & El Rey alone can’t pay to keep it going. The show/promotion/brand is also owned by other investors, some well known and some not so much. It’s not public who owns how much, everyone who is involved, or exactly what they’d need to see to go forward with another season. We know MGM is one of the owners, and we can speculate MGM being able to sell Lucha Underground to stations like Germany’s Tele5 is a positive step for them, but we have no idea how much it means or what will be enough. We know that things like merchandising and live events have been pretty non-existent, which is a big failing if you look at at a wrestling company, but these investors might just see it as a TV product that can be monetized around the globe and those other things are just small potatoes. There’s plenty of shreds of evidence here to speculate on, but we don’t know what matters. It’d be easier if there was a cardboard thermometer so we could see how much heat LU needed to generate before they hit the magic mark to get Season 4, but there’s no singular indicator like that (not even the much obsessed about ratings.)
We do know all the same shortfalls have been there after season 1 and everyone decided to pick up the show not just for one season, but for two more at that time. Also, everyone associated with Lucha Underground, when asked, see season 4 as a virtual certainty, something the fans shouldn’t even worry about for a season. They’re confident there’s not even a story here. Sometime in October or November, they’ll be back taping once again with all the old crew reunited.
Still, the people involved have been talking about a Season 4 just needed to be funded since early this year, and then there will be firm taping dates. It’s not halfway thru the year, and there are no firm tape dates. (It’ll take just a moment for everyone to find out when there are some, since people will start getting pulled off indie shows.) Maybe there doesn’t even need to be funding until they get closer to the show and it’ll be find, but he lack of progress in other areas seems worrying. They did get on Netflix, they did add some foreign TV deals, but there’s been no evident progress in turning LU into a full fledged wrestling promotion in other ways. Their plans for live shows didn’t really pan out (limited to a handful of people working shows in Germany and Toronto), there’s still no way to buy a Prince Puma or Mil Muertes mask or most any other merch, they vanished in a lot of ways during the hiatus.
As a fan, I’d like there to be many more seasons of Lucha Underground. (And all of them in LA.) If I was an investor, I’d like to see signs of growth and I’m not convinced that’s happening or happening fast enough. It’s definitely possible Lucha Underground is coming back for a Season 4, but I’m not confident about it either way. I’m not going to argue with people who think it’s doomed or people who think it’s safe for sure – I feel like half the people I read strongly feel like they know it’s one or the other, and I’m just going to throw up my hands and walk away.
I am confident about Season 3: all of it will air, it’s been all taped, edited, and LU people saw the finished version of Ultima Lucha 3 about 10 days ago. I suspect we won’t definitively know about Season 4 until later this year. The Season 2/3 pickup didn’t happen until after Season 1 ended, so it’s at least possible this story could drift on for a while. I just wouldn’t let it impact your enjoyment of Season 3: while there are things which build onto the future, it’s a season finale built around resolving some storylines and final matches in big feuds. You’ll enjoy it no matter what happens next.
CMLL (MON) 05/29/2017Arena Puebla [CMLL]
1) Asturiano & Zaeta Roja b Guerrero Espacial & Rey Apocalipsis tecnicos took 1/3
2) Ares & Metálico b Black Tiger & Espíritu Maligno rudos took 2/3
3) Arkángel de la Muerte, Canelo Casas, Fuerza Chicana b Lestat, Rey Samuray, Starman Rudos took 1/3.
4) Stigma, Stuka Jr., Valiente b Cuatrero, Máscara Año 2000, Sansón tecnicos took 1/3
5) Rush b Mr. Niebla Rush took 1/3.
6) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja DQ Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero tecnicos took 2/3, Ultimo Guerrero again unmasking Niebla Roja.
The first two matches took about an hour. That’s not good.
CMLL added Dragon Rojo versus Rey Cometa in a lightning match to Friday’s show. The last thing CMLL needs to do is add another match to a tournament show, but at least it should be a good match. You should probably stop watching once it’s over.
Tonight’s Arena Mexico show is headlined Marco Corleone versus Terrible, which could be a title match soon. Or a least an interaction along the away. I suspect the “tournaments” we’re getting will be more along the lines of a cibernetico where the final two advance to a match the final week, so they’d like to run into each other soon even if not in that title match. Terrible cheated to beat Marco last week.
Niebla Roja faces the Guerreros again, but this time without Ultimo Guerrero so he could possibly not lose his mask. This is the semimain listed with Volador that’s physically impossible to make. Ovaciones has a preview of the show which lists Soberano in the spot, teaming with Niebla Roja & Valiente. The rudo side is Gran Guerrero, Mephisto and Rey Bucanero, replacing Euforia. CMLL keeps Soberano and Euforia from facing each other, so Soberano getting the spot probably gave his father the night off.
CMLL’s preview for this show still has the original lineup for this match, even though they’ve told others the correct lineup. It’s pretty obvious the promotions care less about false advertising shows much less than I do. I’m not going to stop pointing out and criticizing it, but while realizing they’re not inclined to change their practices unless someone much more important forces them.
The fourth match is The Panther, Blue Panther Jr. and Pegasso versus Dragon Rojo Jr., Polvora & Sagrado. Universo 2000 Jr. makes his stream debut with Puma & TIger as partners against Starman, Oro Jr. & Esfinge. It’s weird Puma & Tiger are so low, even weirder in a week when they’re going for the national trios titles. Principe Sugehit & Zeuxis meet again in the women’s match, with Estrellita, Sanely, Tiffany and Metalica rounding out the match. The show opens with a competent Leono & Bengala against Hijo del Signo & Artillero. It’ll air on CMLL’s YouTube at 7:30pm.
Guadalajara tonight had Rush versus Caristico, but Valiente will replace Caristico. Caristico suffered an injury at the end of Sunday’s match, but there’s no word on what exactly the injury is. The tercera, the match most likely to air on stream complete, is a women’s match.
Also, The Crash debuts in Arena Queretaro tonight with Daga, Penta and Rey Mysterio facing Bestia, Damian and Nicho. There’s a scheduled semimain of Garza Jr., Jack Evans, Willie Mack versus Black Taurus, Laredo Kid and Super Crazy, but Super Crazy suffered a neck injury over the weekend and may be off. The fourth match is Flamita vs Rey Horus vs Septimo Dragon, which sounds like it’ll be really good. Flamita & Rey Horus meet on Friday in a title match, so normally Horus would be a favorite to build up the match, but it’s likely few in Tijuana will know anyway – it’s unlikely we’ll get results from this show, much less actual video.
La Parka’s column says the TripleMania ticket sales are up to 75%, which would means they sold about a 1,000 tickets this week with nothing particular to push ticket sales. (This column would’ve been written even before Friday night’s show.) That’s an unusual ticket buying pattern, for AAA & lucha, but reason for them not to be worried about the things they’re doing if they’re really that successful.
CMLL (MON) 06/05/2017Arena Puebla
1) Astro, Meyer, París vs El Perverso, Guerrero Espacial, Sombra Diabólika
2) Astral, Espíritu Maligno, Magnus vs Ares, El Malayo, Joker
3) Fuego, Guerrero Maya Jr., Tigre Rojo Jr. vs Olímpico, Toro Bill Jr., Virus
4) Atlantis, Titán, Valiente vs Hechicero, Máscara Año 2000, Vangellys
5) Ángel de Oro, Mistico, Niebla Roja vs Euforia, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero
Main event is a rematch.
It was startling to look back at some 2012 footage and realize exactly how long we’ve been dealing with dancing Olimpico. So long.
Second match includes a rare Magnus appearance; it’s his first match there since September and he only wrestled there three times last year. And he’s there for an Arez/Espiritu Maligno feud.
