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Post by RKing85 on Oct 29, 2014 23:47:50 GMT -5
I was interested in this project until
a) I heard they were doing the evil promoter gimmick
b) they pulled Ricochet from those England shows 2 weeks back, one of which where he was suppose to fight Okada.
If I heard great things about the show, I'll check it out. But they got a ways to go to get off my shit list.
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Post by Jack Raines on Oct 30, 2014 3:40:53 GMT -5
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Post by thelaw on Oct 30, 2014 21:17:43 GMT -5
Show is too dark. I know the "temple" is not very large & LU wants to hide that, but still. LU tried to imply that they taped late at night because they showed all the scenes of downtown LA after the sun had set. However, I believe the actual tapings were in late summer around 6pm when it was hot and still light outside.
Show itself was fine. Evil owner is supposed to be their best legitimate actor, so he got plenty of speaking parts. At the announcers weren't telling inside jokes the whole show.
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Post by Gee Hall on Oct 30, 2014 23:48:52 GMT -5
Show is too dark. I know the "temple" is not very large & LU wants to hide that, but still. LU tried to imply that they taped late at night because they showed all the scenes of downtown LA after the sun had set. However, I believe the actual tapings were in late summer around 6pm when it was hot and still light outside. Wow. You're criticizing that? Go all in. Point out that it was October, and not July, and the show led us to believe it was live. :/ At least you enjoyed it. But seriously, come on. The lighting was fine. The show looked great, IMO. It was a refreshing change of pace from the other US shows. |
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Post by Lee Russell on Oct 31, 2014 0:00:21 GMT -5
Lucha Underground looks like the best-funded, most overly-produced, rinky-dink indie promotion ever. The visual assault of far too many camera shots and the slick production makes it look like a TV show about wrestling, not a sports competition. That being said, there is some promise here. There's some really good workers on this roster, and while some of the matches are far too short, they are generally a bit longer and better than the average Raw match. The commentary team is really good as far as balancing their time between talking about the in-ring action and giving newbies a run-down of Lucha Libre 101. The one-hour show time is perfect.
The inter-gender division is stupid. Yeah, I get it, a woman can kick a man's ass, but there's a good reason why there's not an inter-gender UFC division. The whole concept smells of pandering and is quite limited in possibilities, in my opinion. Why not focus on a serious women's division? I absolutely hate the feature film quality story/promo segments with the evil owner. This is wrestling, not Breaking Bad. We need more of a Jack Tunney president, if any at all. Still, I'll take this over Impact and give it a chance, and it was far more enjoyable than Raw was this week.
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Post by thelaw on Oct 31, 2014 1:18:22 GMT -5
Wow. You're criticizing that? Go all in. Point out that it was October, and not July, and the show led us to believe it was live. :/ Yep. I don't like the TNA tapings in Bethlehem either because it is too dark. Same reason applies there. TNA is trying to hide the low attendance. For LU though, the temple is their home. They should not be ashamed of showing it on tv. Why not focus on a serious women's division? I think their whole roster might have 3 or 4 women at most. Whatever ends up as the final number is probably not large enough for a division. I'll take this over Impact and give it a chance, and it was far more enjoyable than Raw was this week. If I remember correctly, there will already be a turn when week 2 airs. |
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Post by Gee Hall on Oct 31, 2014 1:21:37 GMT -5
Wow. You're criticizing that? Go all in. Point out that it was October, and not July, and the show led us to believe it was live. :/ Yep. I don't like the TNA tapings in Bethlehem either because it is too dark. Same reason applies there. TNA is trying to hide the low attendance. For LU though, the temple is their home. They should not be ashamed of showing it on tv. Why not focus on a serious women's division? I think their whole roster might have 3 or 4 women at most. Whatever ends up as the final number is probably not large enough for a division. I'll take this over Impact and give it a chance, and it was far more enjoyable than Raw was this week. If I remember correctly, there will already be a turn when week 2 airs. It was still better |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2014 17:07:06 GMT -5
Overall, not bad. Some thoughts:
- Being only an hour long definitely helped with the pacing, at least one episode in, much like it does with most episodes of NXT.
- I though the vignettes introducing the wrestlers were pretty good, but the other pre-taped segments were cringe-worthy.
- Playing dramatic music during pre-taped segments didn't work for TNA, and IMO did not work here, either.
The sit-down meeting between Dario Cueto and Konnan felt like something out of a low budget film school assignment. I get that it's supposed to be a hybrid product and all, but these segments felt really flat to me and the transition from in-ring to cinematic pre-tape was a bit awkward to boot.
- Dario Cueto comes across like a cartoon character, and I didn't really care for him thus far.
He felt more like a Scooby Doo villain than a central character in what is presented as a hip and cutting edge product.
As others have noted here and elsewhere, the heel authority figure trope in pro wrestling is played out and an upstart program which uses a heel authority figure who embodies every single heel authority figure cliche imaginable doesn't really fit with the vibe Lucha Underground tries to give off.
As Lucha Underground is supposed to be new and innovative, I was hoping they would take a long-time pro wrestling cliche and put a unique spin on it. Who knows, maybe they still will.
- Hearing Vampiro brother it up with Striker every few minutes could make a fun drinking game, but they were definitely a lot better than the RAW crew. The numerous cuts back to the announcers during matches didn't seem necessary.
- I didn't really care for the inter-gender match. Something like World's Cutest Tag Team has a place in wrestling as a niche act, but I don't know if man vs woman matches will really catch on for a show aiming for a broader audience.
- The in-ring action was good to great, and they have a talented roster which can bring us some very fun matches. Some of the production during the matches seemed like it was trying too hard to make the bout feel cinematic, though it wasn't as bad as The Contender used to edit fights.
- The idea of a seasonal format is intriguing for a wrestling show, and it will be fun to see how they use the off-season to sign new talent and promote them and future storylines and matches via social media.
- I don't think anyone is clamoring to see Chavo, Big Zeke or Ricky Reyes as major players in a pro wrestling show in 2014.
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Post by Milky on Nov 4, 2014 15:33:14 GMT -5
I'm not a lucha fan, but I actually liked this show. What that says about the show… I'm not sure. If they were looking to cater to the hardcore lucha fans I guess this probably didn't work. But if they were looking to open up lucha to a brand new audience, I think this did the job. I particularly enjoyed the stiffer style. I've watched AAA in the past but found it way too cartoony for my liking. But this was different.
I had no problem with the heel promoter. This entire show felt very different so even though it had some 'familiar' wrestling elements, they still felt very different. I think the way the backstage segments were shot helped. Top to bottom I felt the show was fresh, not tired, and I felt the heel promoter added a much-needed story arch to the whole show.
I had no problems with the commentators. I didn't think Vampiro was annoying. I didn't care much for his look, however. He looked like Bruce Willis. And I'm talking more Bruce Willis in Die Hard 6, not 1.
I think Matt Cross fucked up the finish to his match. Maybe Stone Cold was right about that guy? He clearly went for the tights but missed, and then Striker put it over like it had happened anyways. Had that been the actual finish I think it would have made a lot more sense. As it was, beating Star with a simple back-breaker was very weak.
So far I'm not against the idea of a female competing against men. Chyna did it back in the day so it can be done. I'll reserve judgement for now.
I also like that they jobbed out their main stars on the first show. It is an interesting way to build them up, and again, very different to how traditional American promotions do it, which I liked. Different is good.
The one criticism from The LAW that I agree with is the camera shots. Too many of that straight down shot. It needs to be used more sparingly. But in terms of taking pot-shots at the WWE, while I did catch a few I didn't think it was too much. To me it just reinforced how unique Lucha Underground was. But I will concede that if they continue to do that regularly it will get old fast. But for the first show I didn't really have a problem with it.
Overall I thought this was a very good show. Not excellent, but better than anything else I saw on either RAW or Impact this week, save for the main event between Bobby Roode and Bobby Lashley.
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Post by groovyphoenix on Nov 5, 2014 12:45:49 GMT -5
I haven't watch it yet, but I did see a few clips, first thing I will say is while many people dislike Matt Burnett, he does have a proven track record of hits. Survivors has been on for 14 years 26+ seasons for a reason, he found a way to keep the show relevant.
I can see his influence in the show already and while it's only been clips I think this show will work for what it is. Having Burnett behind it gives it some credibility which no one mentions and while it may not seem like a lot, his name does carry a lot of weight and make people think this might be worth looking at.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2014 19:05:27 GMT -5
Mark Burnett, not Matt.
The LU association with Burnett gave them that Variety write-up months ago that the MLW crew was geeking out about, but it's not like people outside of the wrestling bubble are going to go out of their way to subscribe to El Rey or even seek it out using alternative means just to check out an obscure Mark Burnett side project.
Outside of a generic plug last week that was probably written by some random intern, the guy didn't even bother to promote the show at all this week on his Twitter, which has 5x more followers than LU had ratings for week 1.
El Rey should have had a plan in place prior to the debut where episodes are posted on Hulu or their own site on a 7 day delay or something so it's easily accessible to anyone who isn't a wrestling fan but curious about the show because Burnett is attached to it.
Especially on a traffic-heavy site like Hulu where name-dropping Burnett in the show description (or even calling it Mark Burnett presents Lucha Underground) could have potentially drawn in a wide variety of viewers.
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Post by thelaw on Nov 7, 2014 2:49:16 GMT -5
I'm not a lucha fan, but I actually liked this show. What that says about the show… I'm not sure. If they were looking to cater to the hardcore lucha fans I guess this probably didn't work. First 2 episodes were taped the same weekend. Next week's episode is after they heard from critics who said there was not enough Lucha. So, week 3 will be all Lucha including a mini wrestler & a 3-way for the main event. Chavo's turn seemed way too soon, especially when he won as a babyface earlier in the evening. His upcoming reasoning promo did not seem too convincing to me. One thing I do not like is the crowd shots of a "thumbs down". While probably all the crowd shots were added in post-production, the "thumbs down" seems antiquated and way too fake. |
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Post by groovyphoenix on Nov 7, 2014 11:27:34 GMT -5
Well I caught episode 1 last night and will be watching 2, found a good source thats relaible when it comes to wrestling shows (I am willing to provide link PM me if you want it) and they post the links from Dailymotion etc.
I liked it, overall, yeah tired old "evil promoter" but the vignettes are to me very good, the acting, well it's wreslters what do you want an oscar winner?!? Point being it's pretty decent overall, the show's production isn't bad and I agree as others that announcer cam is really really anoying! the "in your face" angle that looks like a cheap go por cam or worse? Yeah not my bag, besides you're commentating I wanna hear your voice (which I think Striker and Vampiro did pretty ok I do like that they are going a bit n the background of the Lucha's explaining their historic importance etc.
The wrestling was pretty solid the show passed by fast and I enjoyed it overall.
So I'll give it a 2 thumbs up, TNA sucks comapred to this and it's not because of the talent its because they don't put the caring into it.
I think this shows promise, Will it ever take over WWE? Hell no, but if it can pull in a solid number on El Ray it might attract some outside attention and who knows maybe syndication which would be pretty cool.
A LOT of TV companies I think hesitate to want to carry a 2+ hour show, it takes a lot of their time and investment to get value for a niche item. 1 hour? If you can pull in the numbers, I could see someone liek Spike buying the rights to show this, hell it will pull in the curious at least.
3 matches a bit of story? Just the right recipe for me so far.
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Post by Milky on Nov 7, 2014 17:43:42 GMT -5
Yeah, I wasn't as enamoured with the second episode as I was the first, but it was still decent. There are a lot of good things about this show but I agree that the Chavo turn was way too quick. It reminds me of SHIMMER, where angles are either non-existent or they are done super quick, because television tapings are relatively seldom. Same with LU; it seems like they have rushed everything because they only have a limited number of dates, but that's not the right way to go about it. You should put your best foot forward, always, even if it leaves a good story untold in the end. I'd rather that than a shitty story any day.
The references to WWE were still there but they were always done to introduce a new concept and then distinguish it from "the norm." LU certainly do have to keep this in check, however.
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Post by RKing85 on Nov 9, 2014 23:56:25 GMT -5
Liking the backstage segments style.
This is what TNA has been trying to do for the past 5-6 years. But Lucha is doing it right.
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