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Post by thelaw on Sept 5, 2014 13:03:05 GMT -5
Here is what Meltzer is saying about Lucha Underground
-Weekly 1 hour show on El Ray from 8-9pm starting October 8, 2014. -Plan is to have 39 shows a year taped over 7 months. There would be a summer break. -UniMas might also carry them in primetime. If TNA is no longer on Spike, that would make Lucha Underground the #2 promotion in the US. -Taping is in Boyle Height (which is a predominently Hispanic area near downtown Los Angeles). -Only adults are allowed for the tapings. No kids. They must all sign nondisclosure documents. -Product seems to be like a series with replaceable actors rather than a wrestling promotion in that the scripts are ready. -Head writer is Christopher DeJoseph. He seems to be the only one in creative who understands wrestling. -Product does not appear to be a "AAA in America" in which they use mostly AAA stars. Instead, there is mixture that includes some known Americans and some independent workers. -Budget seems to be minimal, yet they want talent to agree to a 7 season exclusive contract. -No downside guarantee even though the company seems to require permsission for talent to take outside bookings. -Tapings begin on Saturday 9/6/14, but there are only a small number of wrestlers who have agreed to the relatively restrictive contract. -What this product will look like will likely not be known until it airs on tv. Historically, the only Lucha that worked in the US was "pure Lucha with Lucha stars" which these guys are not doing. Lucha Underground could emphasize ringwork, but those types of promotions already exist and are small-time players.
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Post by chrisarrant on Sept 5, 2014 14:05:59 GMT -5
According to reports, AAA booker Konnan is working as a road agent/on-air non-wrestling talent for the Lucha Underground tapings, and the extent of AAA's involvement is merely supplying some of the talent and are not involved in the production or creative aspects of the show.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2014 14:26:20 GMT -5
The contracts sound like a nightmare. No wonder Young Bucks, Kazarian, etc. have turned them down and Lucha Underground is reduced to putting out press releases for the signing of Maxine. Yes...they really put out a press release. For MaxineA seven month taping window per season means that the contracts would be over 4 years of exclusivity for taping alone. And they want the power to veto outside bookings too? Good luck with that. Earlier reports also stated the typical payoff was between $200 to $750 per show, which is laughably low for some of the talent they have approached. The deals offered sound very much like the lowball bullshit contracts TNA was notorious for trying to get talent to sign. Ironic that Konnan, a longtime critic of such business practices which hurt "the boys", is directly affiliated with a project that is doing the exact same thing. I know he's not in charge of financials there, but as pretty much the unofficial spokesperson for LU at this point, he should have made sure the people running the show knew what was what when it comes to securing the services of the top indy talent out there. Mark Burnett is definitely a top-tier producer, but the bulk of his resume features competition-based reality series, ie shows where contestants don't make shit. You can't apply that philosophy to a wrestling project and expect talent to accept dogshit contracts for the glorious "exposure" that El Rey will provide.
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Post by thelaw on Sept 5, 2014 15:02:53 GMT -5
Konnan just had another hip replacement surgery. Hence, his on-camera role will just be him standing still in taped segments. I do not think he is doing much more there other than just being somebody that people in America recognizes.
That exclusivity (which some might take as 7 years) is sort of hypocritical since Konnan has been tweeting to "Free Rey" even though Mysterio is at least still getting paid. Rey seems like he is done, so I do understand why he wants to go to AAA so badly. It is not as though he would wrestle and make tons more money if he left the WWE.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2014 15:54:09 GMT -5
Konnan being a hypocrite is pretty much status quo for him, so this newest example of him contradicting himself shouldn't be surprising.
As he likes to say, "I'm not hating, just stating."
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Post by RKing85 on Sept 6, 2014 22:36:00 GMT -5
If you want to do a true Lucha product, you NEED to have kids in the audience.
If this was a true AAA off shoot, I'd watch. But it sounds like it's going to be just another US indy promotion. And I don't have time to squeeze in another one of those when I already have ROH, PWG, CHIKARA, DG USA, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2014 3:34:45 GMT -5
Having kids in the audience who are enthusiastic wrestling fans sure as hell beats having extras in the audience who don't watch any wrestling.
According to spoilers, they went with the latter. Not to mention the whole converted warehouse look just comes across as cheap and tacky over "underground".
And they named Ricochet "Prince Puma".
LOL.
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Post by RKing85 on Sept 7, 2014 23:28:11 GMT -5
and not only that, Ricochet lost his first match as well. Ricochet should be pushed as their biggest star IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2014 10:41:32 GMT -5
Ah yes, he lost to one "Johnny Mundo", AKA the former John Morrison.
The parade of great ring names continue on....
I am surprised Ricochet even took a deal, but they prob. sweetened the pot for him. Still hope to see him tear it up overseas and in PWG.
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Post by thelaw on Sept 10, 2014 3:28:33 GMT -5
Thought I hear Meltzer saying that LU is promoting Chavo as their big star. Not sure how that is possible since I thought he was only an agent.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2014 4:00:51 GMT -5
The second set of spoilers have him playing a pretty considerable on-air role.
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Post by thelaw on Sept 13, 2014 22:11:13 GMT -5
3rd set of tapings seem like it was all-Lucha.
-All the seats seem to be taken. I would say there is seating for about 200-300 people. -Previous reports of no kids is not correct. A few kids there. -They take a picture of you when you sign in. Are they expecting trouble from the audience or something? -Parking is behind the warehouse and hold maybe 150-175 cars or so. I guess that is enough since the "arena" seating is not large. -The arena is an old warehouse that has seen its better days. Where they tape is probably a quarter of the warehouse. Whatever else occupies the other part of the building seems to be heavy and worthless. -The section across from the hard camera is a bleacher section called the Fan Zone. -Fan Zone must be the section where they pay the fans because they were always screaming in unison. -They were even screaming at the end of a dark match when a wrestler did not move after he dived onto the floor. Paramedics were called, and they immobilized him before taking him away. -Fan Zone kept chanting for Vampiro for whatever reason. Guy to me looks old with his wrinkles. -For the most part, it was tolerable even though there was no air conditioning. They did put in a couple a large fans where the crowd was. -Some band was playing on a stage high above behind the hard camera. Not sure what the purpose of that was, but they were overly loud. -They gave out free water and even gave 1 free adult beverage since there was a long wait as they told people to arrive 2 hours before the show began. -I know crowd reaction help makes wrestling, but it seems as the producers like overly exaggerated chants that might not seem believeable when the show airs. -The big heel seems to be the guy everybody thought was going to be the big face. -Konnan was there at the top of the stairs. No talking. He only showed up to give his approval for the main event.
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Post by thelaw on Sept 15, 2014 0:36:33 GMT -5
Here is a picture of the announcer's table. Behind them is the Fan Zone. Top of the stairs is one of the places the wrestlers make their entrances.
/photo/1
This 2nd picture looks like it was taken from the top of the stairs. The entrance way in the middle is the location of the hard camera. Above that is the platform where the house band plays loud filler music.
/photo/1
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Post by grant on Sept 22, 2014 3:52:53 GMT -5
What other tv show in history has spoilers during filming?? Everyone seems to have an opinion on salary, performers. Were are not even in pre production, know nothing of the over all format, layout, storylines. I hope there are international rights for this show so I get the chance to watch the ' finished' tv show in Europe. In a world of instant gratification, us wrestling fans seem to be the most impatient!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2014 18:18:56 GMT -5
What other tv show in history has spoilers during filming?? Everyone seems to have an opinion on salary, performers. Were are not even in pre production, know nothing of the over all format, layout, storylines. I hope there are international rights for this show so I get the chance to watch the ' finished' tv show in Europe. In a world of instant gratification, us wrestling fans seem to be the most impatient! RAW, SmackDown, Thunder, IMPACT, WSX, ECW, ROH and just about every other televised pro wrestling show which tapes content in advance has had spoilers leak during filming. There have been many shows in history that have spoilers during taping. This isn't a new or unique occurrence. Lucha Underground is taping weeks (maybe even months) worth of shows over a very short period of time. If El Rey was so concerned about spoilers leaking, the suits should have ponied up the money to have every episode air live. Their dumbass strategy of trying to get hundreds of fans at a time to sign non disclosure agreements was laughable in theory and in practice. Beyond that, even Hollywood movies produced in a public setting or requiring a lot of extras have had spoilers leak during filming. And your claim that "US wrestling fans seem to be the most impatient" is pretty off-base. Your post indicates you live in Europe. Let's see--- TNA spoilers leak almost immediately when they tape IMPACT over in Europe. Not to mention live spoilers for when RAW is taped in the UK. The evidence shows that when given the access, European fans are just as likely to leak spoilers as US fans. So exactly how did you conclude that the US has the most impatient fans, exactly?
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