Now, professional wrestling is not something I have necessarily ever been a fan of. I tried to get into it when I was 12 at the behest of my classmates and distinctly remember watching my first episode of SmackDown in complete and utter confusion. I just could not wrap my little brain around the spectacle that is professional wrestling; with the outlandish gimmicks, the insane costumes, and what in the ever living hell a “jabroni” was. (Turns out it’s slang for “jobber”, wrestling jargon for wrestlers who exist solely to make more popular wrestlers look good.) But now, a decade and a half later, I am much older and wiser… And still just as confused by professional wrestling. But there is a huge difference between 12-year-old Michael sitting in front of the little 13-inch TV in the den wondering why anybody cared what this Rock guy was cooking, and 27-year-old Michael, who went to his first taping of Lucha Underground this past Sunday: 27 year old Michael doesn’t have to understand a damned thing about professional wrestling to find it thoroughly entertaining.
Of course, as most of my more interesting stories are prone to do, this one starts with resident Racket Dum-Dum, Armando Olivas texting me to keep one of my Sundays free. This time it was because we were “gon’ watch some wrasslin’!” Remembering the ridiculously good time I had attending a Pro Wrestling Guerilla event with Mondo a while back I jumped at the opportunity. He explained we were going to a taping of a televised promotion called Lucha Underground. I had never heard of them but that did nothing to abate my excitement. What did abate my excitement (and turn it into a sickly unease) was when we pulled up next to a rundown warehouse buried in a seedy neighborhood right off the freeway in Boyle Heights, California and Mondo gestured to the mob of a couple hundred people milling around while saying “Yup. Looks like we’re here. You go hold our place in line. I’ll park the car.”
Lucha Underground is a televised wrestling promotion that airs weekly on famed filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s cable channel, El Rey Network, as well as Spanish-language broadcasting network, UníMás. It’s a joint venture between El Rey Network and one of Mexico’s popular Lucha promotions, Asistencia, Asesoría, y Administración (AAA). In fact several of AAA’s more prominent wrestlers appear on Lucha Underground, including but not limited to: Blue Demon Jr., Sexy Star, and Pentagon Jr. Even former WCW champion and retired AAA talent Vampiro provides color commentary. Having barely premiered in October of 2014, Lucha Underground is, at the time of this writing, only 5 months old and is (quite literally) still in its infancy.
I wish I had known most of this as I was stepping out of the car and nervously making my way to join the throngs of people waiting around outside the rusted iron gate in front of the warehouse. It might have helped alleviate my apprehension to know that inside that dilapidated warehouse a block away from the 10 Freeway was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had watching wrestling.
First off, Lucha Underground is produced and filmed in spectacularly professional fashion. In spite of the multitudes of people attending the taping, signing in and picking up our tickets was done smoothly and in a matter of minutes. As it was a taping for a televised event we were required to sign some paperwork regarding personal conduct and disclosure (so unfortunately you won’t be getting spoilers about who fought who or match outcomes). After we had our little wristbands and seating tickets it was just a matter of waiting around until the crew called our section in.
Part of the mythos of Lucha Underground is that all matches take place in an abandoned industrial battleground called “The Temple”. Filming in an old warehouse lends itself greatly to that angle. Being a theatre geek all throughout high school and a warehouse worker for the majority of my adult years, I was thoroughly impressed with the Temple set. Not just the quality that comes with a network budget, but the small touches: like the actual industrial crane hooks hanging from the steel girders above the balcony seating, the neon lights placed carefully along the ceiling to make it look like slivers of daylight were poking through holes in the dilapidated roof, or that Dario Cueto, the “owner and proprietor of Lucha Underground”, has fashioned his base of operations from an old foreman’s office. Having been to tapings for various other productions over the years, one thing I’ve always complained about is that being on the actual set of a TV show is somewhat disillusioning. The magic is lost when you can see all the cameras, the crew scurrying about, and get to be present for all the flubs and retakes. (Because of this I can never again watch an episode of the Price is Right.) But so immersive and well-crafted was the Temple set that even with theater and actual warehouse backgrounds, my overcritical brain was rarely distracted from the most important part of this experience: The Lucha!
While both fall under the umbrella of “Professional Wrestling” Lucha is an entirely different animal than what you might see at Pro Wrestling Guerilla or watching Monday Night RAW. An insane spectacle, beginning to finish, is the only way to describe the experience we had that day. The costumes are gaudier, the gimmicks are wilder, and the storylines are way more dramatic. For the first half of the taping Mondo and I stood in the balcony behind the ring. Now this may sound like a less than ideal way to enjoy the show but the tradeoff was that the balcony is a frequently used route for wrestlers to make their way to the ring. It’s pretty awesome to give Prince Puma a high five before he descends into the arena for a three-on-three tag team match. Watching Pimpinela Escarlata shimmy and gyrate around the balcony section in full Frank-N-Furter cape and heels as the crowd cheered was also tremendously gratifying. I was actually pretty shocked that an Exótico luchador was so over with the predominately male crowd. That’s not something I’m so sure could happen with the WWE or even smaller indy audiences.
For the second half of the taping Mondo and I, through pure serendipity, got moved to second row seats right next to ring. While we weren’t able to dole out anymore high fives we did get a good view of the actual wrestling. Watching Aero Star back flip off the turnbuckle over a charging opponent or Cage take a big bump on the side of the ring from that close was breathtaking. The sheer athleticism of some of these luchadors blew me away. You have not lived until you’ve seen Mil Muertes overhand chuck a dude almost ten feet through several rows of chairs like he’s major league pitcher.
But, like all good things, our day at Lucha Underground had to come to an end. The lights came on, the luchadors went back to the locker room, and the crew thanked us for coming to watch. I was actually a little sad to leave. Hopefully we can go back again sometime soon. It was one of my favorite Mike and Mondo outings to date. Our episodes won’t air until June sometime, so Mondo and I will have to wait a couple of months to see our pretty mugs on TV. But you can catch Lucha Underground every Wednesday at 8pm ET on El Rey Network, and on UníMás every Sunday at 4pm ET.