a Lucha Underground Season 2 Q&A: your questions mildly answered

LU S2

Q: Is Lucha Underground is coming back tonight?

A: YES. Lucha Underground returns to on the El Rey Network Wednesday January 27th (that’s today) at 8pm ET. The show repeats immediately after the first airing.

Q: Also, are you just talking to yourself again?

A: Yes, it’s an lazy writing device. Go with it.

the actual important stuff.

Q: OK, when else is it airing?

A: If you live in Canada, this season will air on the TLN network Sunday nights at 10p, with a repeat at midnight.

And, right now, that’s it.

Q: What happened to Unimas? I do not get El Rey and/or I have strong opinions about Matt Striker, help!

A: Unimas does not appear to be carrying the show this year. It’s not listed on their schedule. (Rey Misterio says he’s heading there today to do some media work, so maybe this is changing. But it’s not on this weekend or we would know by now.) Lucha Underground also does not appear to be picked up in any other countries.

If you do not get El Rey on your cable system, you can purchase it from a couple services

* If you are on cable, double check your VOD offerings. Some systems will offer El Rey show via VOD, and a HD version of the show is usually available a day after it airs.

* Sling TV offers El Rey as part of their basic $20/month plan. People who’ve used it have told me they haven’t been totally happy with the stream quality. They do offer a VOD version of recent shows.

* Fubo TV offers El Rey as part of it’s basic $10/month package. They do not offer Lucha Underground on VOD last I checked.

I do not have personal experience with either service (and I do not make any money if you use them.) Both offer free trials.

Lucha Underground is also a wrestling TV show, so it’ll be totally illegally uploaded on the internet some place as well. As a person who illegally uploads video on the regular, I do not look down on this practice, but instead look down on the low quality of video uploads these tend to be. El Rey will take down those videos, though sometimes not that quickly.

Lucha Underground, as of this writing, is not available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes or any other digital offering

Q: “as a person who illegally uploads” sure seems like a dumb thing to write.

A: yea, I’m pretty much legally dead to rights. Let’s move on!

where we left off

Q: OK, I’ve found a way to watch the show – but I didn’t watch last year! Is it safe to jump in fresh? Is there an easy way to catch up on what I missed?

A: The first season was enjoyable, and would be recommended to go watch if there was an easy way to do it. Still, even if you’re coming in knowing nothing, Lucha Underground seems to do a good job of explaining what’s going on and getting new people caught up. There’s some expectation there will be new viewers joining the show at this point, so I’d expect you’ll be brought up to speed as they go along. If you don’t want to wait, Lucha Underground has about a season 1 recap video.

Q: I did watch Season 1 – but dude, that was back in August. I don’t totally remember what was going on? Can you refresh my memory?

A: You know, you could just watch that video!

Q: Yes, but embrace the bit. Who had the belts?

A: Sure. Please note, I’ll be mentioning information that has been released by Lucha Underground about Season 2 developments, so if maybe skip all of this if you want to know nothing new.

The Lucha Underground Championship is held by Mil Muertes. He defeated Prince Puma on Ultima Lucha, becoming the second champion. Puma had held the championship from it’s inception at Aztec Warfare, and figures to be aiming for a rematch. Pentagon Jr. might also be a challenger, based on his mentor saying he was ‘now ready’ at the end of his Ultima Lucha match. Past challengers like Johnny Mundo and Cage figure to be in the mix as well.

They’re not alone. Fenix is the current Gift of the Gods Champion. He won the first ever match for the championship at Ultima Lucha. The championship entitles the holder to a shot at the main title at their choosing, though they must let Dario know in advance. (That may be an issue at the moment.) The closing scenes of Season 1 had King Cuerno stalking Fenix as they both left the Temple, which probably means he’s coming for this championship. No one holds any of the Aztec Medallions; they’re part of the Gift of the Gods belt until the championship is cashed in.

The Disciples of Death are the current Lucha Underground Trios Champions. Barrio Negro, Trece and Siniestro de la Muerte are Catrina (and Mil’s) henchmen, giving her control of both of the major championships in the promotion. Former champions Angelico, Son of Havoc and Ivelisse vowed to win the belts back.

Q: That’s not all Catrina has, right? I thought a picture showing she was in charge? What was up with Dario?

A: Let’s deal with handle Dario first: at the end of last season, Dario Cueto manipulated his nemesis Dragon Azteca into entering the Temple, then convinced Black Lotus to betray her mentor with a perfectly positioned death blow strike. Dario Cueto feared others would try to avenge Dragon Azteca, so he fled the Temple with his (unseen monster) brother Matanza and Lotus. Dario told Lotus they were headed to a new Temple.

(Those are all events which really did happen on a wrestling show.)

Catrina has apparently taken over the Temple, already controlling the two big titles and seizing power in a void. She’s the one running Lucha Underground when Season 2 begins.

(This was not Cuetro, Lotus or Matanza being written out – they will appear this season.)

Q: What else is going on?

A: Lucha Underground wrapped up a lot of storylines. Cage is coming of a win over Willie Mack in a street fight. Drago triumphed over Hernandez. Johnny Mundo found a way to beat Alberto el Patron. (That one might have kept going, but won’t now.) Probably the biggest conclusion on the show was Pentagon Jr. defeating Vampiro, breaking his arm, and finding out Vampiro was his mentor all along.

Texano‘s issues were left more open. He ended the season outnumbers by an unlikely alliance between Blue Demon Jr., Chavo Guerrero Jr., and the remaining members of the Crew (Mr. Cisco and Cortez Castro). Chavo versus Texano looked like the key match, but Chavo suffered a (real) injury just before it could happen at Ultima Lucha.

The show ending montage revealed Marty the Moth had kidnapped Sexy Star, threating to introduce Sexy to his sister. Dangerous siblings seems like a theme on this show.

One of the last images of the season was a hooded friend of Dragon Azteca drawing a giant question mark on the Lucha Underground billboard. The significant of the question mark was left unclear.

Q: …but now we know it’s Rey Mysterio Jr., right?

A: Yea. Rey Mysterio is the biggest name addition to season 2 of Lucha Underground. He will be a key part of the show, though you may have to wait a bit to see him in the ring.

Q: Are there any other new people that you can talk about, without giving anything major away?

A: Well, we will see those mystery siblings: Marty’s sister and Matanza are a part of this season, and not just in vignettes. You’ll see more of the mystery man who painted the question mark. There’s another new Lucha Underground specific character debuting early on.

There are other familiar faces from elsewhere. PJ Black, best known as Justin Gabriel in WWE, has joined the cast. Joey Ryan will also appear on the show; he was added before his viral video so perhaps don’t expect a reference to it early. AAA luchadora Taya has been announced as appearing on the show. Another AAA wrestler starts during the season. There are other people who’ve only appeared in dark matches so far who may appear on the show, or may instead start in season 3.

Q: Is there anyone who won’t be back? I know Alberto is elsewhere now.

A: Yea, Alberto el Patron returned to WWE after Season 1 ended. His appearance spanking Melina will be the final moment on the show. Coincidentally, Melina herself hasn’t been brought back. Hernandez actually left before the season ended, which didn’t go well, and isn’t going to be back. Big Ryck and Delvar Daivari also do not appear to be part of this season. Blue Demon Jr. also has not appeared on any tapings so far.

Konnan, last seen stuffed in a casket by the Disciples, may be gone from the show entirely. He hasn’t appeared in front of the crowd and there have been mentions of him not being around backstage. Spanish announcer Hugo Savinovich hasn’t been seen and is presumably not around with the show no longer being broadcast in Spanish, but everything he taped last season wasn’t in front of the crowd – he could still be doing other content and we wouldn’t know until it turns up. Michael Schiavello‘s appearance as replacement announce for Vamprio on Ultima Lucha was as a planned one time appearance. Vampiro will (some how!) be back at the announce dest tonight.

Looking ahead

Q: OK, I’m interested. Are there spoilers out for Season 2?

A: I’m not posting spoilers this season. Other sites have them, including the Wrestling Observer, wikipedia and match database sites. (You may want to avoid those sites, and especially the weekly Wednesday Wrestling Observer Radio show, if you want to avoid being spoiled.) Much of it’s good, but some of it’s incomplete or erroneous – there are missing matches, or dark matches being listed as airing. Lucha Underground started taping matches out of order late in the season, as happened last year, and it’s further making it harder to keep things straight. And, of course, all the vignettes they’ve done are not in front of a crowd, so it’s tough to report on those.

Q: Can you make some sort of vague statements about the overall feel of the series instead?

A: There probably will be a little bit more along the way of vignettes early; they want to get into the backstory for the characters (especially the underdeveloped one), and they’ve got to pick up the pieces with Dario. There still will be plenty of matches, and the matches have gotten good reviews from those who’ve gone to tapings. Bits which were well received in season one will be revisited in season two. The same sort of small arcs inside the the entire season appear to be presents; they’re building up to big moments during the course of the season and doing a few resetting afterwards.

Q: Do we know how long this season will be?

A: The show will be 26 episodes, with the last episode being a double length episode. The episodes will air thru July. Most episodes have already been taped; Ultima Lucha 2 will be taped this weekend.

Q: And then what?

A: There’s a tentative plan for a third season to be taped as soon as this summer. Logically, that would mean there might be only a short break between seasons – but none of this is official yet. Maybe we’ll have a better idea after this weekend’s tapings.

Q: What are the chances of that third season?

A: OK, I guess? It’s hard to figure out how Lucha Underground works or makes money, so it’s equally hard to figure out the conditions needed for it to continue. All we can figure is the show will go on as long as the people paying for it want to keep funding it, as long as they figure they’ll eventually be able to make money off it. (But, again, outside of whatever they’re getting in TV money and the small amount of merchandise they’re selling, it’s hard to know.) Season one was so good on creative merits that they probably deserve to have season 2 and season 3 locked in already, but it’s harder to figure out on business merits.

Q: So, if the future is uncertain, is this still worth getting into it?

A: Lucha Underground wasn’t sure if they were coming back after season 1, and put together a season that was satisfying in isolation even while setting things up for the future. They should be able to do it again, and the indications from the results suggest they will. Wrapping the season with the biggest way is sure to give you that sort of closure.

Q: Did you think of any great closure to this post?

A: No, not really.