Lucha Underground has developed quite the reputation for itself since debuting on the El Rey Network in 2014. The promotion has managed to build up a passionate fanbase since then because the company isn’t afraid to offer something different to wrestling fans. Truth be told, Lucha Underground is doing a lot of things right. Here are just a few of the important lessons other wrestling promotions could learn from Lucha Underground.
#4 – Don’t Be Afraid To Go Over The Top
Lucha Underground isn’t trying to convince you it’s “real.” It’s a television show, plain and simple. Lucha Underground has a cinematic quality that makes it clear you are watching a fictional program. Once that foundation is established it allows you to buy in to the concept right away. This approach has allowed LU to attempt some absolutely ridiculous segments that they pulled off beautifully.
During the season 2 premiere Vampiro was set to be released from an insane asylum. They showed a dream sequence where Vampiro killed a guy then removed a giant chunk of his neck by biting it. On an earlier episode Dario Cuerto ordered a character to be killed and he was then murdered as his face was smashed into the bars of a prison cell. Mil Muertes lost a casket match to Fenix then returned as a sort of indestructible zombie like character from “beyond the grave.”
The point is, if you’ve never seen Lucha Underground everything you just read in the previous paragraph probably sounds really, really ridiculous, and it is. But perhaps the most ridiculous thing about it is that they pull those segments off and they totally work within the context of the show. Over the top is ok and it can work. It just so happens to work for Lucha Underground because they commit to it and make no apologies.
#3 – Treat All Your Characters Like They’re Important
When you watch most wrestling companies it’s pretty clear who the stars are. Wrestling companies like to have a face for the company. They promote the face of the company as a big deal and things trickle down from there. When you watch shows like WWE or TNA you can clearly tell who the top guys are and unfortunately you can also clearly tell who the bottom guys are.
So far Lucha Underground has done a pretty decent job at making everyone on the roster seem like equals. The wrestlers aren’t separated into different tiers and there is no clear cut face of the company which in turn makes the roster as a whole seem more important. This approach allows for more fresh matches because the people on the roster aren’t limited as to who they can work with.
#2 – A Creative Set Goes A Long Way
Wrestling sets should be unique, fun and creative. The set can be a part of the show and it’s exciting to see it if it’s done right. When people bring up Lucha Underground they constantly mention The Temple. The Temple looks gritty and dark. It looks like the type of place that you would go to watch some sort of underground fight club and it sets the tone for the entire show.
Sets are often something that get overlooked. But fans truly appreciate it when set designers put a lot of time into their work. A setting like The Temple wouldn’t work for every company but it works for LU and it’s a nice break from the normal LED screen/entrance ramp combo we’ve all become used to seeing.
#1 – Fans Don’t Want Another WWE, They Want An Alternative
WWE is without question the most successful professional wrestling company ever. The name WWE is literally synonymous with wrestling to the point where some people don’t even know that other wrestling companies exist. This has led to many companies trying to emulate WWE over the years with mixed results. Could it be that fans don’t want another copy of the world’s most famous wrestling promotion?
If fans want to watch WWE, they’ll tune into WWE. That’s what it’s there for. The best thing any up and coming wrestling company can do is try to separate themselves from what WWE does as opposed to trying to be similar. Eric Bischoff has said in several different interviews that the reason WCW succeeded for a while is because he made it a point to try and do everything different from WWE. When WWE had characters with cartoony gimmicks, he made bad guys like the NWO cool and so on and so forth.
Sure, Lucha Underground is nowhere near the size of what WCW was at its peak, but Lucha Underground has its own identity. No one is going to mistake Lucha Underground for WWE and that’s the point. Lucha Underground isn’t trying to compete with WWE and they don’t need to. Both companies offer something completely different. In the year 2016 trying to compete with WWE is a fool’s errand. WWE dominates the landscape and that’s never going to change. Lucha Underground doesn’t compete, they co-exist and it works because they offer the fans something that WWE can’t give them.
