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5 Things You Need To Know About Lucha Underground

Wrestling fans are still just discovering Lucha Underground! Here are 5 things you should know about the series.

1. Lucha Underground is a TV Drama about wrestling, not a “wrestling promotion”. They are not a touring company, the matches filmed in front of the live audience are part of the show’s focus on an underground wrestling fight club, and the stories of its participants. This is done with writers and media professionals who have not only a wrestling background but coming from all facets of TV and cinema,

2. The character development and storylines are what make Lucha Underground Special. The stories, mythical and mystical, as well as the interpersonal character relations, are well crafted. The way the show is presented and shot with professional movie camera’s give it a wholly unique feel, unlike any other wrestling product that has been presented in the past.

3. Women are equal to men in Lucha Underground and get the same opportunities. The Lucha Underground Championship has even been held by a woman! There are more than half a dozen bad ass women on the roster, that can hold their own and go toe to toe with the guys! We have seen women hold titles, and there is no women’s division, they fight for the same championships the men do.

4. Lucha Underground has become a family. Because of the way Lucha Underground is filmed, the fans, the cast, and the crew have spent at least a month together during the filming of the product. Because of the way it is set up, Lucha Underground has given fans a very respectable level of access to meet the wrestlers who want to be social. Not only are the wrestlers available to the fans, but the rest of the crew is extremely accommodating and friendly, and makes the whole vibe of the experience fun and relaxing. Combine that with 4 years of filming you have some serious friendships sprouting up, and many refer to themselves as members of the #LuchaKliq

5. Lucha Underground Season 4 just wrapped it’s filming, and as someone who personally attended, I can attest, this is the HOTTEST season yet! I can’t give you any spoilers as I signed an NDA, & we don’t have an exact release date yet but if you follow @LuchaElRey on twitter you will stay up to date with the release! Currently, Season 3 is being replayed on the El Rey Network and will be released on Netflix where you can already get seasons 1 & 2. Rumor has it Lucha Underground will also be coming to Sling TV for those of you who have elected against cable tv.

So if you are one of those who have been holding out, stop missing out and check out Lucha Underground for some of the best wrestling you will find anywhere on TV!

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Lucha Underground Season Finale in 4DX!

On Wednesday night I went with my soon to be co-host Brandon to see the Lucha Underground Season Finale in 4DX at the Regal in DTLA. I wasn’t sure what to expect, even with knowing a little of what 4DX entails before going in.

4DX is an “Immersive Video Experience” that you can read more about on their website. It includes moving seats, water features, clouds/fog, lightning, wind and more. Most of the movies also have a 3D viewing element, which unfortunately this event did not. I enjoyed it none the less.

First of all, watching wrestling on the big screen is great. I honestly don’t know why this isn’t utilized more often as a medium, especially with all the smaller independently owned theaters we have in the US. The special part here is the technology at the Regal. They are the only US partner with the company behind 4 DX and have only 6 Theaters with 4DX, the one here in Los Angeles, two in New York, one in Seattle, and one in Orlando.

During the episode of Lucha Underground, a lot of things were triggered by what was happening on the screen. Whenever someone took a shot to the head, air shot out a hole on one side or the other of your head. When they took bumps, you felt like you got hit in the back. When someone did a hurricanrana the whole row of seats shited and spun, which was a cool effect for what you were looking at visually. When Cage got stuck in the head with the skewers, we got bled on with water. Overall the effects very much added to the entertainment factor for me, and as it seems the others who were in attendance.

I really hope they do this again with season 4, and add the visual elements as well, as there were a few times I saw that really would have looked cool if they were made to pop. Lucha Underground continues to break ground and make wrestling fun again.

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Wrestling Promoters: Be Accountable to Your Talent

This article reflects the thoughts and words of Liz Savage, not www.betwrestling.com if you have issue with its content, she says you can GFY.

So the other day I saw yet another post about an independent wrestler being stiffed by a promoter. This time after flying across country for a show! Fed up with excuses and bullshit, he took to social media to warn other workers about this con artist, and posted what I thought was a pretty well thought out statement about why screwing over talent was wrong, that this affects not only his personal income, but his family as well. (Yes, some folks can make a living off independent wrestling if done properly, and work is put in)

 

The next day his Facebook and Instagram posts were taken down, they were reported, because he tagged the promoter, Jose G. Alaniz in the post. This man runs a company out of San Diego called “Oddity Wrestling Alliance” which from looking at their Facebook page, seems he also books himself as the “owner” and has a starring role in the company.

Here is the poster from the event my comrade was booked to perform on:


On April 28th they had put up this post on their Facebook page: (Note, you can BACKDATE Facebook posts to pages, and this is the only mention, all other materials and events had been deleted at the time of this posting)

It is interesting to see this on their page, with no details as to when the show was originally planned to happen. It seems he knew the show was not going to happen, as the venue he planned on running in could no longer accommodate them. Why if he knew this, did he buy this worker a one way plane ticket cross country on May 3rd, if he knew there would be no show? What kind of fuckery is this? What could this “promoter” be hoping to accomplish? And why did he vanish, and stop replying to messages and phone calls from workers booked on the show, who flew across the US to be there?

At the very least if you are cancelling a show you should be doing it with enough time that no one has already flown in, and if you are cancelling that late in the game you owe it to your workers to make good on their pay. Time is money, and they put their time aside for you, and dismissed other potential workers to be on YOUR SHOW. You owe it to them to cover their pay, even if you cancel. Its the right thing to do. Running and hiding with your tail between your legs will get you publicly shamed, and hopefully will spread the message to both wrestlers, venue’s, and fans, that you are unreliable and cannot be trusted. Sadly this happens far too frequently. If you have a bad promoter story you would like to share, feel free to contact me: LizSavage@betwrestling.com

Watch out for not only yourselves, but each other as well!

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