BRM Reviews the 4/22/2015 Lucha Underground

[Big Red Machine]

BLACK LOTUS TRAINING VIDEO PACKAGE- SOOOOOOOOO much better than last time. They got rid of the campy Avengers rip-off and instead made this actually good. Cliche, but good.

Vampiro’s opening intro stunk. I don’t know if he was trying to be funny listing “our fans are so crazy” twice, but it fell flat to me.

SEXY STAR vs. PENTAGON JR.- 4.5/10
Striker tries to sell us that Sexy Star taking on all comers (read as: a woman wrestling men) is in some way “revolutionary.” I guess he’s never heard of Chyna or Madusa. They were both kind of big deals in the nineties.
Props to whoever got that camera shot of Sexy Star putting a reassuring hand on Melissa’s shoulder as she went to leave the ring. That was a great shot, and is one of those things that says more than words can.
Vampiro said that Pentagon Jr. had no limits he wouldn’t cross, so Striker immediately referred to Pentagon Jr. as a “No Limit Soldier.” So he remembers the No Limit Soldiers, but not Chyna? Also… why the hell would you ever invoke the name of that stable if you weren’t trying to bury someone?
Apparently count-outs are ten in this match. I could have sworn Lucha Underground used a twenty-count.
The match was okay. A big problem they had was that it often felt like Pentagon Jr. was stalling just so he could give Sexy Star enough time to plausibly recover. Maybe if he were better at working the crowd it wouldn’t have felt that way. They also had a lot of trouble getting the various “maneuver X across both knees” spots right, and the worst of them was the finish. It looked like he completely missed her when he came down to take that lung-blower.
Another thing that really annoyed me was the commentary. They talked about how the whole locker room would be so happy that this mean, unethical, limb-breaking bully lost… but they never showed us anything to build that up. Over the past few months they really seem to be rushing things and not spending time on the things that made the show great, like the backstage vignettes. If they had done a vignette before the match with her training and some people coming in to wish her good luck and telling her that they want to see her kick Pentagon Jr.’s butt, it would have added a lot more to this.

MUNDO & ALBERTO SEGMENT- good. And OOOOO… some insider talk.


TRIPLE THREAT TRIOS ELIMINATION MATCH TO CROWN THE FIRST EVER LUCHA UNDERGROUND TRIOS CHAMPIONS: Big Ryck, Killshot, & The Mack vs. Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, & Angelico vs. Cage, King Cuerno, & El Texano Jr.- 7/10
I was expecting a lot more. They told their babyface in peril story well, but I was hoping for something epic and didn’t get it. Also… Daivari. Really? Why? Just… why?

OH COME ON! What is this WCW bullsh*t?! This show is really jumping the shark for me. It’s just another overbooked promotion that just happens to have good production values. It’s TNA with none of the stink of the name attached.

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH TO CROWN THE FIRST EVER LUCHA UNDERGROUND TRIOS CHAMPIONS: Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, & Angelico vs. The Crew- 5.5/10
Yeah there were some really great spots and the moment felt big, but I think it would have been a lot better to just let them have one long match. Maybe I would have liked things more if this had been made their first title defense and they had to defend the belts right away instead of The Crew being thrown in to the tournament at the end.

A disappointing show from Lucha Underground. I’m really losing faith in the booking. It’s just so rushed.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Striker said that Melissa Santos was “almost assaulted” by Pentagon Jr. last week. She wasn’t “almost” assaulted. She WAS assaulted. Just because he didn’t break her arm doesn’t mean it’s not an assault! That whole segment was supposed to get big heat on Pentagon Jr. and now here is Striker telling us “it wasn’t that bad. He didn’t hurt her too badly, so no harm, no foul.” To make matter worse, he would later tell us that Melissa’s ankle is all taped up. What a f*cking idiot.
2. Vampiro said that it is “unethical” to break an opponent’s limb. That’s just not true. It’s a combat sport, and if you need to do that to win, then that’s what you do. What they should be focusing more on is the fact that he has been doing this sort of thing after the match is already over.

3. Striker- “The number one contender, Drago, is in line for a shot.”
Thanks for letting us know, Matt. Any more brilliant revelations?

[cero2k]

A disappointing show from Lucha Underground. I’m really losing faith in the booking. It’s just so rushed.

it was an AMAZING show IMO, almost perfect execution for both matches, booking was great, production is great, camera work is great. BEST product going

[Big Red Machine]

A disappointing show from Lucha Underground. I’m really losing faith in the booking. It’s just so rushed.

it was an AMAZING show IMO, almost perfect execution for both matches, booking was great, production is great, camera work is great. BEST product going

It's definitely up there with ROH and New Japan, but aside from production values (which I really don't care about) and promos, I don't think it is better than either of those two. A few months ago maybe I'd have said that, but the booking has been WAY too hot-shotty for my liking, and I don't think the in-ring product is quite in the same league as ROH or New Japan.

[cero2k]

It's definitely up there with ROH and New Japan, but aside from production values (which I really don't care about) and promos, I don't think it is better than either of those two. A few months ago maybe I'd have said that, but the booking has been WAY too hot-shotty for my liking, and I don't think the in-ring product is quite in the same league as ROH or New Japan.

i personally disagree, production values aside, LU has been able to give me great matches, storylines that i truly enjoy for ALL the roster, and a booking that i love from the small details to the overall direction of the feud. Does it feels like stuff moves fast, yeah, but not in a bad way, there's no point in weeks and weeks of nothing happening, and since they make each show a big show, it's not like you feel like you got an underwhelming end to a feud, at least not from any of the shows this year. This is something that nether NJPW or ROH has made me feel, none of their storylines are compelling nor make me excited to see a winner, I wanna see the matches, but i don't care about the stories behind them as much as LU does.

wrestling wise ROH and NJPW do have some great matches, but i think LU is easily with them, Aztec Warfare, Grave Consequences, Puma vs Cuerno, the Trios finals were at the level of any NJPW match, and personally, better than most of the ROH matches this year

[badnewzxl]

The No Limit Soldiers he was referring to wasn't the wrestling stable lol; he's referring to the rap label he talked about long before that awful angle. The "bout it bout it and rowdy rowdy" stuff he said when he was in the nwo were Master P signatures.

Reading this just made my day btw