Hallo I'm back on steem after I didn't check it since the beginning of my exams, which now ended.
I wanted to share some thoughts on WWE and Lucha Underground for while and now it is time. I also brought you a little gif I made and you'll see at the end.
I first watched wrestling in May 2014 (oh my gosh I didn't even knew it was so long ago). It was the Raw after Extreme Rules. I became a fan quick. I loved the shield, their rivalry with the Evolution and the John Cena - Bray Wyatt story line.
Mid 2015 it was the first time I got a bit bored by the story lines, which got better again at the end of that year, but last year especially since I went to university I didn't had much time to watch so I finally stopped watching WWE regulary. Now it is more like "Well, they have I PPV, maybe I gonna take a look at it if I like the main event..."
So I recently watched WWE's Battleground because I like the fact that they had a Punjabi Prison Match there - a type of match I only read about before. This match was ... pretty ok. But again I didn't feel very satisfied by the matches. This is because even worse than WWE's storylines are their matches. As for the storylines it is almost the same: A good guy vs. a bad guy, the bad guy always cheets and wins the matches, than they have what is supposed to be an epic main event which the bad guy wins again, because he cheets (which by the way totally ruins the matches!!) until someday the good guy wins...
The problem which I have with the matches itself is not only that they are ruined by some guy cheeting but also that they are really really unrealistic. I know wrestling is fake, but having wrestlers do stuff which not only wouldn't be done in a real fight (which is still ok) but which is just plain stupid and so obviously fake just ruins the feeling. Like why would Jinder Mahal put his other leg on the cage behind him (next to his first one) for Randy Orton to deliver his signature DDT. This would have worked just as good and would look more realistic if Orton just went for it with Jinder's one leg still on the ground.
Yet still (another think that pisses me off) the commentators try to make it sound awesome. Like once I saw a match were the one guy had the other one in something that was like a rear naked joke and the commentators were like "Oh my god. I has it sit in tight..." although everybody who once did some martial arts could see it wasn't tight at all.
WWE just seems to have problems producing great matches and gread storylines. I mean after the fourth different Bray Wyatt rivalry this guy isn't scary anymore.
I also think WWE has a systematic problem: It is too big. I think they tried to solve this with the brand split, so now they are able to have more different storylines because Raw and Smackdown will both have their ownes. Yet still they have to fill up 5 hours (not counting all the other little WWE shows in) of TV time with matches and they do this by having boring matches between two midcard stars or making storylines awful long.
In order to keep the business at the level it is right now WWE of course has to keep it fans (like every company has to keep their customers), but this also brings the problem that you cannot offent your fans... WWE gave itself the task to be TV PG because they want to keep and expand the number of their little fans. The problem: No more great hardcore matches. A match I was really disappointed of was the Wrestle Mania match between Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32. This was a No-Holds-Barred-Street-Fight-Match (sound great right?) and it was really hyped the weeks before through segments with hardcore stars like Mick Foley and Terry Funk. Foley gave Ambrose his barbed wire baseball bad ("Barby") but it was barely used in the match. In fact rarely any weapons besides a kendo stick and a bunch of chairs was used in the match. So in the end there was not lot of "No-Holds-Barred-Street-Fight-Match" in it.
Luckily there are other wrestling shows around. My favorite is Lucha Underground. I follow LU since the mid of there first season and now finally rewatched the very first episodes too.
Actually Lucha Underground is more of a series than a wrestling show. They tape the matches and pack them together with professional movie clips which tell the real story. This makes it hard to compare with other wrestling shows but also it makes Lucha Underground so great. Togeter with the fact that a wrestler with a mask is what the mask says he is, which is a really cool aspect of Mexican wrestling, this gives the producers of Lucha Underground the possibility to make really awesome storylines with even some guys having supernatural powers or being gods. There is also like a main story line which is running scince the beginning and it is sometimes complicated to keep up with it.
But getting to the matches there are two great things. First of all the promoter of Lucha Underground "El Jefe" Dario Cueto keeps stressing that he loves violence which tells you that this show is no TV PG crap and awesome matches like Pentagon Jr. vs. Vampiro or Sexy Star vs. Mariposa proof it. On the other hand the Mexican lucha wrestling style is just so awesome. It is so fast and if there was a move which seems unrealistic in a real fight it is probably so awesome you won't bother. So even in the current season where Lucha Underground is having a big tournament what is for me always a risk of making the show boring because there is not much further storyline development the show isn't boring at all because the matches are just so great. Also even the commentary at Lucha Underground is better and sounds more like at a real fight.
So in the end: Rather watch Lucha Underground because their matches leave
I definitely agree that Lucha is where it's at. Mega crushin on Johnny Mundo since 2010 haha. Also New Japan Pro Wrestling. Ring of Honor is cool too, those three promotions linda share people and lots of bouncing around... Oh man check those out if you haven't. I am a loyal WWE fan though, as boring as it gets.
The biggest thing I noticed was where you mentioned Jinder putting his other leg up for the vintage Orton DDT... as much as it makes things look "fake"... it's for their safety man. It's so they can properly execute the move without injury. Remember it's " sports entertainment!" lol
Actually I think it is even safer with one leg still on the ground.
I guess its more a "vintage orton" thing. His move was specifically pulling opponents through the rope and dropping the ddt...
Hahaha i definitely overthink my wrestling obsession :P