Lucha Thread (Spoilers): El Muchacho de la Naturaleza

[Bandit]

week's first airing of Lucha Underground on the El Rey Network, featuring Rey Mysterio's debut, actually made the Cable Top 150, the second time that has happened for the show. The show ranked #137.

The 8pm airing drew 163,000 viewers, up 63% from last week's 100,000 viewers, and a new record for the show.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

That's a pretty big rise

[Ocelot]

Aztec Warfare II was all kinds of awesome. THAT is how you build up a fucking monster heel. Rey looked better than he has in ages and Pentagon Jr is so god damn awesome as fuck.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

-- At WaleMania, MVP was there and said that he was now working with Lucha Underground. He later said that he might wrestle for the group but that he’s working as an agent for the promotion. I believe he started in that role when they started taping the new season.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

MVP has been released from LU.

[Bandit]

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there are some talent upset with Lucha Underground management and creative team. The feeling from some talent is that the creative team and management don’t understand the physical punishment involved in the style. Many love working for the company, especially the Mexican talent because they are making more money, but the feeling is that they are asked to do too much for one day or weekend. There are taping where the wrestlers have had to do two physically hard matches on the same tapings, less than two hours apart. Talent feels that the creative simply does not understand the physical demands that are being asked of the wrestlers.

[Ocelot]

A shame to read but at the same time given how hard they all bust their asses, it's understandable. I hope something can be worked out because LU is by far my favorite US promotion right now. That six man tag last night was just unfuckingbelievably good. Easily **** plus.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Rolling Stone: Lucha Underground's Queen of Death on Licking Faces and Kicking Asses

As Catrina, she's taken the wrestling world by storm. Now, Karlee Perez wants to step outside the Temple and shake up Hollywood, too

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Ocelot]

Oh my god, that main event this week. The rest of the show was awesome too and I can't wait for Graver Consequences next week but holy fucking goddamn shit that main event this week was the bees knees. Who is this Sexy Star and what did she do to the old Sexy Star that had bad matches and seemed to phone it in half the time because she was ON FLEEK here and Mariposa was a fucking ring general here and the run-ins actually ADVANCED the storyline of the match rather than hurt it and I love Lucha Underground so much and Sexy Star is the greatest luchadora ever and I love this shit.

[Bandit]

Sam Roberts said today on the new Sam & Jim show he'll be doing a Lucha Underground panel for El Rey at Comicon. It would be cool if he hosted a Talking Dead type show every week since he's a massive fan of LU and is a massive wrestling fan in general as well as a funny dude who looks like Shawn Michaels if he was a Neanderthal, as Anthony Cumia once told him.

[Bandit]

LUCHA UNDERGROUND SPOILER

Rey Mysterio ran in to make the save as he chased away Mundo. Mysterio embraced Azteca, then acknowledged his family sitting at ringside. Mundo appeared to have fled the scene. Mysterio went to celebrate when Mundo returned.

Mundo confronted Mysterio’s family at ringside. The family included Mysterio’s son Dominic. He took exception to Mundo insulting his mother. Dominic bowed up to Mundo, and Mundo kept talking trash.

A pull-apart began and the Worldwide Underground came out to grab Mysterio. They held Mysterio as he watched Mundo hit his son with a belt shot. Mysterio lost his mind at the dastardly deed. The Worldwide Underground and Mundo eventually left ringside, and Mysterio ran to the aid of his fallen son.

Wow, Dominic is old enough to work spots now. I feel old.

[Bandit]

So it turns out Dr. Wagner Jr. was Vince Russo all these years.

[Bandit]

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Wagner received the equivalent of US $255,443.79 for agreeing to do the job and remove his mask. This is reportedly the largest payoff in Lucha Libre history.

Psycho Clown, on the other hand, agreed to 28,382.64 to drop his mask if he was to lose. He ended up earning $4,541.22 for the match.

The truth is that this week has been very, very difficult for me. On Saturday I had a championship fight; it was very hard. I think it all went out of hand. I do not know, it’s a situation that right now I’m still a bit confused about. I want to be silent and when I feel that the moment is right, I will touch on the subject.

[Bandit]

Crash Lucha Libre based in Tijuana announced today that booker Charles "Konnan" Ashenoff is no longer with the promotion.

Rumors had started about two weeks ago coming off the conclusion of a tour around Mexico that saw some small crowds and canceled shows.

The promotion released a statement saying, "The Crash Lucha Libre brand is known for the way we treat people and value each and every single person that works in this company. Bettering the economical and habitual needs. Showing the support for each element and giving opportunity to new talent. In this way, the value and professionalism shown between each of its partners. Not being able to comply to the Crash Lucha Libre code of ethic is something we do not tolerate in this company. With that being said, we now announce that Carlos Santiago Espada, 'Konnan,' will be longer be working with The Crash."

The departure of Ashenoff leads to a lot of questions since he booked all the talent, from the company's strong undercard to the American independent talent. While Crash had garnered a reputation for having the best live shows in Mexico, they had struggled to draw in many markets with no television.

He had been working as of midweek on future dates. Also, it is mostly The Crash roster that is booked for Arolucha, which he is booking for Ron & Don Harris for a show on December 10th in Nashville with the attempt to get television in the United States.

Another key is that Konnan is tight with Rey Mysterio Jr., who is the biggest star with The Crash.

[Bandit]

Tommy Dreamer will be doing a bounty hunter gimmick on Lucha Underground 4.

[Bandit]

The September date AAA has a hold for on New York City's Madison Square Garden is indeed for the major 20,789-seat arena.

PWInsider.com is told that while WWE would technically have the right of first refusal on the date based on their agreement with the venue, the larger story at play here is that MSG management isn't happy that WWE has been running the majority of their events in the New York City market at the nearby Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY.

The tipping point appears to have been WWE making the decision to run all of their Wrestlemania 35 week events in 2019 at Barclays, leaving MSG in the cold. Wrestlemania 1, 10 and 20 were held at MSG as was the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in 2013, the last time Wrestlemania was held in the NYC market.

With WWE electing not to run Wrestlemania week at the legendary venue, MSG management has been more open than ever before to allowing other pro wrestling groups into the venue. We are told they have sent feelers out to different groups and are more open to booking non-WWE events than ever before. That may or may not have been why Ring of Honor teased "All In 2" potentially coming to the Garden over the weekend.

Of course, MSG and the Barclays have been competing for the same touring acts since the Barclays officially opened in 2012, so all of these moves may be the Garden's way of trying to leverage WWE into running their facility more often. The Garden historically was WWE's most important venue for many, many, many decades.

No other wrestling promotion has ever run MSG since the advent of the McMahon family's relationship with the legendary venue. From time to time, the adjacent Theater in Madison Square Garden has hosted pro wrestling events, including WCW, AAA and the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, but those events have been very rare.

They are going to lose their ass on this show. AAA can't sell in any states but California and Texas right now because Mexican wrestling isn't popular nationwide right now. And CMLL is much larger here now.

[Bandit]

LA Park, who may be fat and 54, just had a lucha MOTY candidate in CMLL last night with Rush. The crowd being red hot helped it too.



(If timestamp doesn't work go to 1:57:30)

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Dr. Zoidberg]