Lucha Underground Has Changed The Rules For A Wrestling Show, Daniel Bryan Appearing On SI Today

Bryan On SI Today

lucha undergroundDaniel Bryan will be appearing on Sports Illustrated Live today at 1:30pm EST. He’ll be talking with Maggie Gray about the “Yes” movement and more. 

Lucha Underground

My column today for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reviews the debut episode of Lucha Underground. The following is an excerpt:

This weekend, I finally saw the debut episode of Lucha Underground from last Wednesday. I got a feeling watching it that I haven’t gotten in a long time.

It’s that feeling when you first discover something new in entertainment. A new band, a movie, podcast or in this case a television show. That feeling of being so entertained, eyes getting bigger with interest knowing how much more you want to see of this entertainment and that you have a lot more you can consume in the future.

This was extra special for me because it was a wrestling show. I never got this feeling with TNA or Ring of Honor. Perhaps the last time was during the game-changing times of the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW when formats and rules changed.

That’s what Lucha Underground is doing. Changing the format and rules from how a wrestling show has to be presented.

You’ll notice immediately a visual change from the wrestling standard. The show is shot on film, not video like WWE is. It has a more intimate and captivating look. If you liked how the wrestling scenes looked in the movie The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke, then you’ll like the look of Lucha Underground. It feels closer to the action and feels bigger or more dramatic.

The process of establishing characters and giving backstories might have been the highlight element of the program. I always praise WWE for its video editing and the way it produces storytelling packages. Lucha Underground did a great job of this as well but in a different way. WWE’s video packages are like a quick hype video with sound bytes from commentators and wrestlers. Lucha Underground produced them more like a movie in terms of giving the history of a character.

The backstage promos or interactions kept with the movie-like theme. Rather than backstage segments, they are more appropriate to be called scenes. No “my guest at this time” introductions or “what are your thoughts on your match.” It was deeper routed conversations and script for the storylines with no hokey acting.

Part of this is because the main on-screen character with the most storytelling dialogue is an actual actor who plays the owner and evil authority figure, Dario Cueto, who is the on-screen owner of Lucha Underground.

 The plot of the episode, each individual match and Lucha Underground’s biggest obstacle—CLICK HERE for the rest of the column.

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