Fenix, my hero!
Over the Christmas break, the performers of NXT also took a break. The producers filled a few weeks with older taped shows, so i decided to watch Lucha Underground to fill the gap.
Lucha Underground is basically Mortal Kombat meets lucha libre. It's set in our world, but there are also dragons and ancient prophecies and undead warriors and it all goes down in a sketchy warehouse in LA's eastside. The promos are bilingual. The matches are high-flying and brutal. Men fight women fight monsters. It's filmed more like a reality show than a sports event. There are no replays. The matches are taped months in advance without the crowd having the slightest idea of the storyline. Storyline bits are spliced in for TV viewers, but the in-universe commentators ignore them. And the whole thing is anchored by perhaps the greatest non-wrestling character in wrestling history - the diabolical Dario Cueto.
In short, Lucha Underground is basically everything i love about wrestling all bundled up into an hour long weekly show. The fact that back in the real world the TV-style schedule is probably far more forgiving to the performers than other promotions is just a bonus. Honestly, i can't gush enough about it. Anyone even just a little bit into wrestling should watch it. Some of the violence is pretty gruesome, and some of the commentary is creepy and off-color, but the world-building and spectacle is so worth it.
After marathoning 2.5 seasons in as many weeks i was starting to overdose on the bombast. That is a LOT of lucha, my friends. Even still, going back to NXT to watch the buildup to San Antonio was a disappointing change of gear. Oh look, here comes Shinsuke again. Yawn. Fortunately Nikki Cross brought a bit of the excitement back when she took Asuka out to the announce table, though the women's division is going to need a lot more of that to top the epic takedown of Pentagón Dark by the Black Lotus Triad (three amazing women wrestlers from the Japanese circuit who visited the Lucha Underground arena). Fortunately, NXT still has Tye Dillinger and Bobby Roode. Please, Louise, make that rematch happen for Orlando. /end mark.
In completely unrelated news, it was my birthday on Wednesday. I did nothing special. Normally i try to take the day off work or at least get something special to eat, but this week was extremely stressful due to having the real estate agent, the HVAC guy and the chimney sweep all come through my apartment. And work was hectic too. I am so wiped out. I wanted to do something special today, like buy some chocolate or something nice, but i was too tired. Did my regular groceries, ordered in Chinese, collapsed back into bed. I am so exhausted. Perhaps tomorrow i will write about my travel plans, to see if i can start to straighten them out in my head. Right now it is basically just "leave the EU, take a boat around the world, go somewhere i never went before".
Lucha Underground is basically Mortal Kombat meets lucha libre. It's set in our world, but there are also dragons and ancient prophecies and undead warriors and it all goes down in a sketchy warehouse in LA's eastside. The promos are bilingual. The matches are high-flying and brutal. Men fight women fight monsters. It's filmed more like a reality show than a sports event. There are no replays. The matches are taped months in advance without the crowd having the slightest idea of the storyline. Storyline bits are spliced in for TV viewers, but the in-universe commentators ignore them. And the whole thing is anchored by perhaps the greatest non-wrestling character in wrestling history - the diabolical Dario Cueto.
In short, Lucha Underground is basically everything i love about wrestling all bundled up into an hour long weekly show. The fact that back in the real world the TV-style schedule is probably far more forgiving to the performers than other promotions is just a bonus. Honestly, i can't gush enough about it. Anyone even just a little bit into wrestling should watch it. Some of the violence is pretty gruesome, and some of the commentary is creepy and off-color, but the world-building and spectacle is so worth it.
After marathoning 2.5 seasons in as many weeks i was starting to overdose on the bombast. That is a LOT of lucha, my friends. Even still, going back to NXT to watch the buildup to San Antonio was a disappointing change of gear. Oh look, here comes Shinsuke again. Yawn. Fortunately Nikki Cross brought a bit of the excitement back when she took Asuka out to the announce table, though the women's division is going to need a lot more of that to top the epic takedown of Pentagón Dark by the Black Lotus Triad (three amazing women wrestlers from the Japanese circuit who visited the Lucha Underground arena). Fortunately, NXT still has Tye Dillinger and Bobby Roode. Please, Louise, make that rematch happen for Orlando. /end mark.
In completely unrelated news, it was my birthday on Wednesday. I did nothing special. Normally i try to take the day off work or at least get something special to eat, but this week was extremely stressful due to having the real estate agent, the HVAC guy and the chimney sweep all come through my apartment. And work was hectic too. I am so wiped out. I wanted to do something special today, like buy some chocolate or something nice, but i was too tired. Did my regular groceries, ordered in Chinese, collapsed back into bed. I am so exhausted. Perhaps tomorrow i will write about my travel plans, to see if i can start to straighten them out in my head. Right now it is basically just "leave the EU, take a boat around the world, go somewhere i never went before".
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