Before I get started with this piece, I do want to mention that the piece down below was written a few days before the TLC and RAW events this week. I do believe coming off those two shows, the WWE may be about to turn the corner in righting a few of these wrongs mentioned on this article. However, there’s still work to be done and maybe taking a play out of Lucha Underground’s book.
On the last edition of the Armbar Analysis, I discussed what WWE could learn from a mixed martials arts promotion called Ultimate Fighting Championship. This time, I will discuss what WWE can learn from the wrestling industry itself. I talk about a promotion that generated so much buzz in 2015 with a product which has really put WWE to shame this year. The promotion’s name is Lucha Underground.
Lucha Underground has been one of the most exciting aspects of professional wrestling in recent memory. It features great talent, great story-telling and most important of all… great scheduling.
The members of Lucha Underground are not working as heavy a schedule as WWE. They do work a number of segments during groups of tapings, with the most recent being in November/December for the second season of the show. However, the show itself is based in one place so it’s not like the wrestlers involved have to move around. A lot of them already do that as part of the independent wrestling circuit, so doing the same for Lucha often takes the pressure off. If they were to undertake even half the schedule that WWE superstars undertake as well as constantly being on the road, that’s going to burn them out. With Lucha Underground, that’s not a problem.
I mentioned the story-telling earlier and it really is something. With a much less intense schedule, the writers of Lucha Underground are usually on top of their game. I’ll admit, there were a number of out-there and confusing swerves and storylines in the first season. However the storylines are a lot better paced than in a WWE environment, where a storyline could end as soon as it began with the WWE’s short-term booking. An example actually features a former Lucha Underground star in Alberto Del Rio, who’s storyline with Zeb Colter came to an abrupt end a week ago.
WWE come up with storylines on the fly unlike Lucha Underground. Hell, Lucha Underground featured storylines last season which lasted for the ENTIRE SEASON. Lucha’s not in any need to change plans and if someone goes down or talents end up being signed someone like WWE, it’s not that big of a deal.
As I’m writing this, there’s a lot of similarities between the article I wrote on UFC mentioned earlier and this one. As surprising as it is to me, Lucha and UFC actually has a lot of similarities which is helping both promotions out big time and they are also two of WWE’s biggest flaws.
The schedule of UFC and their fights is much lighter than Lucha Underground and their long term plans and contigency plans are far superior to WWEs. If a huge star goes down in UFC or Lucha, no problem. If a huge star goes down in WWE, panic ensues.
It’s incredible to imagine that Lucha Underground is following the ideals of UFC more than WWE, considering that WWE is much closer to UFC in terms of size. However, Lucha’s success does stem from a traditional and old school promotion style which seems to fly over WWE’s heads nowadays.
It’s usually very easy for the fans of Lucha Underground to identify good guys and bad guys in it’s promotion. It’s very easy for Lucha to develop storylines just by having plans in place. UFC is obviously not a promotion which relys on storylines, but Dana White is a genius in giving the fans a storyline anyway and it’s usually written for him by the fighters.
Holly Holm beat Ronda Rousey in UFC 193 to end Ronda’s streak and become champion. Rousey talked about wanting the rematch at UFC 200. PERFECT. The story writes itself about the biggest UFC rematch taking place UFC 200 between the two best women fighters in the world with Holm needing to prove she was no fluke and Rousey needing to prove she could beat Holm. It’s simple.
Prince Puma was the Lucha Underground Champion. He built up a strong connection with the fans and beat all that stood in his way. Mil Muetrues was a human wrecking machine that tore through the entire roster before setting his sights on glory. It’s so easy but Lucha can develop on that by throwing in elements which makes the finale so incredible. Ultima Lucha was probably my favourite event of the year and it was because of all these little things.
Lucha makes things so easy for themselves and are doing great. WWE make things harder for themselves and are struggling. Financially speaking, they aren’t. Creatively? In the past year, it’s been a huge mess. Ratings? At their lowest in twenty years.
Now that’s not to say that Lucha Underground can compete with WWE on all fronts because they certainly can’t. They do not have the money to prevent guys like Del Rio from leaving. They’re success is dependent on their need for their deal with the El Rey Network to keep being renewed. However, they make great use of what they’ve got in terms of writers, time and wrestlers. On the other hand, WWE don’t.
It’s amazing to think that WWE have the greatest talent pool they’ve had in the history of their existance, yet the talent itself is mis-used by the writers. Why does a tough, strong and talented dude like Cesaro a mid-carder that’s got no direction? Why is Kevin Owens not in a good enough position to being a heel main event champion when he has all the tools to be such a great star?
It’s also incredible to think that there’s less talent employed by Lucha Underground than there is employed in WWE and yet the shows themselves don’t reflect this. What I mean is Lucha always has a lot of talent to spare and spread around the tapings. On a three hour episode of RAW, the roster seems so thin that a lot of wrestlers are usually working two matches every week. How is this possible? Why do WWE wrestlers need to work multiple times in one episode on RAW? Because even with the show being three hours, WWE doesn’t believe that a lot of their wrestlers are good enough to be on their flagship show RAW. Healthy talent like Heath Slater and Curtis Axel are not featured on WWE television for months at a time before showing up for the odd battle royal. This does beg a question. Well if you don’t want this talent being on your top show, why are they still employed?
Everyone on Lucha Underground has a reason to be there. All but a few wrestlers on season one had a creative direction including talent like Super Fly and Marty the Moth. The show is only an hour long and a lot of those wrestlers do miss a few episodes from time to time. However, they’re on for a reason when they do show up. A lot of those that show up on RAW don’t have reason to be there over than to put someone over or to fill up the numbers. On this week’s edition of RAW, Bo Dallas and R-Truth were on to wrestle for two minutes and then make way for Vince McMahon. And that was that for them. Considering that this is from supposedly the largest wrestling promotion in the world, that is shocking.
The last thing to mention is that a weekly wrestling television show SHOULDN’T BE three hours long. Lucha being a hour long show is perfect for any wrestling fan as you can engage with it well and the flow of the show is very smooth. Few people will feel that the show is dragging on and there’s little pressure on the writing staff.
I am very much looking forward to Season Two of Lucha Underground as it is a wrestling product that knows how to keep me engaged as a fan, manage its programming and utilise its talent. RAW is a product that needs to improve on all of these accounts.
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