Lucha Underground 102: A Look at the Best Episodic Storytelling in Wrestling

Introduction: Yesterday, I started my Introduction to Lucha Underground by giving a basic overview of the promotion’s history and also by breaking down the roster. Today, I’ll continue my look at the promotion in advance of its second season debut by recapping the storylines that shaped season one. While the storytelling/booking is easily one of Lucha Underground’s best features and most stories did run throughout the entire season, I promise that it’s not as difficult to get into as it might seem.

[Author’s Note: Again, as I write this, I have consciously avoided spoilers for season two of Lucha Underground; however, THIS COLUMN WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR SEASON ONE, considering the last episode of season one aired almost five months ago. Please refrain from posting season two spoilers in the comments. -W]

For those interested in catching the show but with no idea how to do so – Lucha Underground airs on El Rey Network on Wednesday nights at 8 pm EST, and you can check their website to find out if your local cable provider carries the channel (click the “Watch Now” button in the upper righthand corner and enter your zip code) . Unfortunately, El Rey is only available in around 40 million US households, though that number has increased from just under 25 million last year. If your cable provider does not carry El Rey, don’t immediately give up hope, as some providers will still have episodes of Lucha Underground available in their On Demand libraries (this happened to me when I was assigned to a project in Wisconsin in the fall of 2014).

If you live in Canada and are one of the 6.2 million households that receive the Telelatino Network (TLN), that channel will be carrying LU on Sunday nights at 10 pm EST, thought I’m not sure if the broadcast will be in English, Spanish, or English with the SAP option (I would guess the latter). Unimas aired the Spanish language broadcasts of season one at 4 pm EST on Saturday afternoons, but there has been no confirmation that that arrangement will continue for season two. Both major satellite television providers, DirecTV and Dish Network, now carry El Rey, and it is also available through Dish Network’s standalone SlingTV service. If none of those options are available to you and you still want to watch the program, episodes are generally posted on sites like YouTube and DailyMotion, so you may be able to catch them there before they are taken down for copyright issues. I would only recommend that as an absolute last resort, because those versions will not help with ratings or advertising rates, and thus, do not help the promotion in any way. If your cable provider does not offer El Rey, contact them and tell them you want the channel; if enough people demand it, they will start carrying it.

With that out of the way, it is time to look at the major storylines that shaped the course of season one of Lucha Underground. This is by no means a comprehensive rundown of every story that happened in season one (for instance, Alberto El Patron and Hernandez will only be mentioned in passing, as neither of them will be a part of season two), but it should give new fans a basic foundation going into season two.

And, like any good discussion about Lucha Underground that is not strictly limited to its in-ring component, we need to start, again, with El Jefe himself, Dario Cueto. Unlike other evil owner figures who focus their attention on either a single performer or a small handful of them, Cueto has his hands in literally everything that happens in his Temple, and a good many storyline developments in season one happened simply because he made decisions that were either for his benefit or for his amusement. He will occasionally try to punish a technico who particularly annoys him, like Sexy Star, but for the most part, Dario is actually doing what he believes to be best for business. (You will not see a wrestler El Jefe despises getting title shot after title shot after title shot, ostensibly as punishment, in Lucha Underground.) In season one, fans learned two very important things about Dario Cueto – that crossing him would have serious consequences and that his “unique opportunities” were seldom as desirable as Cueto would make them seem.

As an example of the former, Cueto promised a $100,000 bonus to whoever impressed him the most in the series premiere, but rather than awarding the money to Johnny Mundo, who pinned Prince Puma, Cueto gave it to Big Ryck and the Crew, who beat down Mundo. Later in the season, Mundo steals the mysterious key that Cueto wears around his neck (more on that later, I promise) and uses it to blackmail Cueto into giving him “his” $100,000. Cueto refuses to kowtow to his subordinate, and instead gives Mundo the opportunity to win the $100,000 in a ladder match against Big Ryck AND Prince Puma. Mundo wins, Cueto gives him the money and demands his key back, and Mundo gives it to him, along with a punch to the face. Cueto shows up on the next episode with a black eye, and gives a solid example of the latter, offering a “unique opportunity” to the winners of the two ten-person matches he booked for that show.

When Fenix emerges from first match, a scramble, and Mil Muertes from the second, a battle royale, Cueto explains his first “unique opportunity” of the season – the two will wrestle one another for entrance order in the twenty-person Aztec Warfare match the following week that will crown the first-ever Lucha Underground Champion – whoever wins the match will enter Aztec Warfare last, and whoever loses the match will enter first. The theme of these “unique opportunities” having such a high risk/reward ratio carries on throughout the season, with the best example, in my opinion, being the Best of Five series between Drago and Aero Star. Cueto pits Drago and Aero Star against one another, with the winner of their best of five series getting an undisclosed opportunity. They have five increasingly solid matches over the course of ten episodes with Drago getting increasingly angry and reckless after Aero Star jumps out to a 2-1 lead. He manages to win the final match, and Cueto rewards him with a title shot against Lucha Underground champion Prince Puma…but only if Drago puts his career on the line as well. Drago loses, but he returns to the Temple when Cueto says that anyone who has previously fought Puma for the title will have an opportunity to face one another for another title shot. Cueto agrees to reinstate Drago for the match, but if he loses, he has to forfeit his mask. Compare that with the punishments dished out by WWE’s Authority, who keep giving Roman Reigns title opportunities with no real repercussions if he loses; sure, Reigns put his career on the line to get the match where he won the title for the second time, but WWE was never going to pull the trigger and take him off of television, completely eliminating any drama from the match.

Mexico/War

While Cueto himself played a direct part in nearly every storyline that occurred in season one, the one storyline that ran throughout the entire season did not reveal the depth of his role until later on. In the second episode, a presumably technico Chavo Guerrero Jr comes out to rescue fellow technico Blue Demon Jr from a post-match beatdown delivered by monster rudo Mil Muertes. Chavo chases off Muertes with a chair, only to then waffle Blue Demon Jr with said chair. The following week, Konnan warns Chavito about a mysterious lucha libre entity in Mexico that are coming for him for what he did to Blue Demon, and that threat hangs over him for much of the season, eventually turning into Chavo and El Texano Jr arguing about who is a better representative of Mexico (and Chavo duping Blue Demon Jr into doing his dirty work after a real-life injury meant that he could not wrestle in the payoff match).

But before it got to that point, a mysterious young woman named Black Lotus started showing up at the Temple and could be seen watching matches from various points inside. She eventually reveals that she is seeking revenge against Dario Cueto’s mysterious, monstrous brother Matanza, who Dario keeps in a cage beneath the Temple (hence the key that Mundo stole from him and was therefore so valuable to Cueto). Before she could even attempt her revenge, she was kidnapped and taken to El Dragon Azteca, a wizened luchador committed to training her for her confrontation with Matanza, lest she sacrifice her life in the name of revenge. As headstrong youngsters are wont to do while under the tutelage of grizzled masters, Lotus got impatient with her training and challenged El Dragon Azteca to prove her readiness. Even though she lost, she decided to escape and return to the Temple anyway, prompting El Dragon Azteca to offer protection from Mexico to Chavito if he would ensure that Lotus did not meet her end inside the Temple.

Chavo agreed, but as soon as he got back to the Temple, he told Dario of Lotus’ plans and agreed to help capture her for Cueto in exchange for his protection from Mexico. Chavo and the Crew captured Lotus and Cueto locked her in the cage next to Matanza’s. (It is worth noting here that Matanza had already killed Bael, the third member of the Crew, by crushing his head, for the simple fact that the Crew were not successful in doing Cueto’s bidding.) Cueto used the money his parents made from their illegal underground fighting ring to create the Temple (and also, presumably to buy enough gold from each of the seven ancient Aztec tribes that he could forge a championship belt), and he made a truce with the rest of the Mexican scene that would allow him to actually provide the protection that Chavo asked for. Cueto talks to Lotus, who reveals that her parents died at Cueto’s parents’ underground fighting ring, but Cueto convinces her that it was El Dragon Azteca and not Matanza who killed them. El Dragon Azteca breaks the truce and enters Cueto’s Temple, only for Black Lotus to kill him while his attention is on Cueto. Cueto tells her that her actions have started a war, and he releases Lotus and Matanza from their cages and they flee, with the intimation that Cueto has other Temples to hide out in.

That was easily the biggest storyline of the entire season, running from the first episode all the way through the epilogues at the end of the second part of Ultima Lucha, and it tied in several multiple other characters as well, including Texano (as mentioned above), Sexy Star, and even Prince Puma, who is a descendant of a renegade tribe of Aztecs and wore the title crafted from Dario’s ill-gotten means. Lucha Underground’s writers managed to craft a deep, rich backstory for the promotion, its owner, and even the building that they called home, and by doling it out a little at a time over the course of the season, it made each new revelation or plot development feel like a vital, important part of the world that they were building. This was not the only storyline that blended in-ring action with more metaphysical concepts however.

Life Against Death

One of the biggest rivalries from season one of Lucha Underground developed between Fenix and Mil Muertes. What originally started out as a David vs Goliath, technico vs rudo storyline eventually deepened into so much more, and in order to fully appreciate it, one must have a fundamental understanding of the concepts and psychology at play in lucha libre. First off, the psychology of a traditional lucha libre match is significantly different from that of an American one, as luchadors are supposed to be larger-than-life heroes and villains, capable of amazing feats of strength, endurance, and physical dexterity. As such, the selling during a match is significantly different from what you might expect in an American match, with luchadors showing little or no adverse effects from moves that would put an American wrestler down. That is not to say that luchador’s do not sell, because they absolutely do, but the way they do so is just different than what American fans might be used to, and that is largely because these characters are supposed to be faster/stronger/more durable than the average person. And while lucha libre has embraced the shades of gray/antihero booking ideals that have become so popular in the United States since “Stone Cold” Steve Austin rose to popularity nearly two decades ago, at its heart, lucha libre is still about good versus evil, and Fenix versus Mil Muertes perfectly embodied both of those principles.

Fenix is only slightly bigger than Rey Mysterio was when he burst onto the American wrestling scene in the mid-nineties, and in terms of a stylistic comparison, I am not sure if there is a more apt one – there is a point in nearly every match Fenix has in season one where you find yourself wondering how he is able to do the things that he does. Fenix debuted in the third episode of season one as part of a three-way match that also included Drago, a dragon reincarnated as a man, and Pentagon Jr, an angry skeleton ninja. Even though Fenix won that match and was able to demonstrate some of his ability, he was still arguably the third coolest guy in the match.

On the other end of the spectrum is Mil Muertes, who, while not large by American standards at 6’1” and 245 pounds, was still one of the biggest men on the Lucha Underground roster in season one, and arguably its most imposing. Mil debuted in episode two as someone Cueto had brought into the Temple to do what Chavo Guerrero could not do and defeat Blue Demon Jr. It was revealed that he was the only surviving member of his family after an earthquake left them trapped in rubble, and while trapped there, he realized that being among death comforted him. Catrina carries around a piece of the rubble for Mil that either gives her some nifty powers or augments them, and also seems to control Mil (a la Undertaker’s urn).

The two first crossed paths in the “unique opportunity” provided by Dario Cueto that I mentioned earlier, when they wrestled one another for entrance rights in the Aztec Warfare match. Mil won the match, but when they met again a few weeks later after both had come up empty in Aztec Warfare, it was Fenix who picked up the win by wrapping up Mil’s legs as they hit the mat from a superplex. This angered Mil, especially when Catrina’s response to Mil’s increasing violence towards her was flirting with and kissing Fenix, so even after he beats Fenix in a rematch five episodes later, he goes after Catrina, who had appeared at ringside midmatch with Mil’s stone. Fenix managed to grab the stone and hit Mil in the head with it, following it up with a big kick to the head. Catrina gave Mil the Lick of Death that she’d always given his opponents as a precursor to Mil apparently taking their souls, and then she kissed Fenix. This leads to Grave Consequences, a casket match where a bloodied and battered Fenix survives a hellacious beating from Mil and picks up the win, allowing Catrina to throw Mil’s stone into the casket with him.

Mil’s casket is taken away by Dia de la Muerte revelers and he doesn’t make the dramatic Undertaker emergence to end the show, and in, fact, he disappears for several weeks, and it is not until just before his return that we find out that Catrina had played Fenix in order to get him to bury Mil’s physical manifestation. By burying him with his cherished piece of rubble, Mil was able to shake off the confines of his mortal body and be reborn in an even more powerful form. When he returns, he comes back with three zombie henchmen, the Disciples of the Dead, and the first person he destroys is Fenix, who then disappears for nearly two months’ worth of episodes. Mil then runs through Drago to take his title shot at Ultima Lucha, and after a pit stop to annihilate an overmatched Son of Havoc, Mil caps off the season one finale of Lucha Underground by beating Prince Puma for the LU Championship. This gives him control of all the titles in Lucha Underground save for one…the Gift of the Gods championship, which is LU’s version of Money in the Bank, the title that Fenix won earlier in the same show that featured Mil’s crowning moment.

In a nutshell, a guy who stole people’s souls and was comforted by death was buried by a guy who represents life and rebirth, but only so that he could shed his mortal form to become more powerful. This was all orchestrated by the dead guy’s teleporting ghost girlfriend, who now controls a trio of zombies. If that sounds outlandish for a wrestling show, it is because it absolutely is; however, the biggest compliment that I can pay Lucha Underground is that, within the context of the universe they created, it all made sense and tied together from beginning to end, so that when supernatural dead guy won the title from rogue Aztec warrior, it felt like a logical progression.

Equality

This was less a concrete storyline and more a series of events that tied together to illustrate how different Lucha Underground is from other North American promotions. Whether it was Sexy Star fighting men all season, the mini-estrella Mascarita Sagrada facing anyone on the roster rather than simply being consigned to fight other minis, or the exotico Pimpinele Escarlata becoming a fan favorite over the course of the season, Lucha Underground may not have set out to show American fans that everyone, regardless of gender or stature, can compete on a level playing field (or, in Sexy Star’s case, as level a playing field as a boss that despises you will allow), but that is exactly what they did over the course of season one.

Even a specific storyline that initially looked like it would turn that belief on its ear ended up being one of its greatest affirmations and created three of the promotion’s biggest stars in the process. When Ivelisse and Son of Havoc debuted, he was the jerky chauvinist and she was his nagging girlfriend. In spite of clearly being extremely talented, neither character was even the least bit likable, and when they broke up and Son of Havoc actually won a match, it looked like they would go their separate ways. Enter Angelico, who faced off against Ivelisse and played up every negative stereotype of a man wrestling a woman, from pretending to not know where to grab her to grinding his pelvis against her when he had her in a waistlock. He immediately became the third unlikable jerk in a love triangle full of them.

But then, everything changed. Dario Cueto introduced the Trios championship, and because he liked toying with Ivelisse and Son of Havoc, he forced them to team with Angelico in the tournament to crown the inaugural champions. Initially, they were the stereotypical dysfunctional team you would expect if you had ever seen a wrestling angle featuring an unlikely partnership, the team managed to win their first match in spite of themselves. And while winning did not cure everything, they managed to overcome two other teams in the finals of the tournament…only for Cueto to reveal that they would have to face the Crew to actually claim the championships that they thought they had already won.

The Crew began to isolate the members of the Unlikely Trio, who had already wrestled a grueling match just minutes earlier, and it was not until they realized that they actually cared about one another and were willing to risk their health to protect each other that the Trio were able to triumph and actually claim their titles. During the match, Ivelisse sustained an actual foot injury, which would play into the story two episodes later when Dario Cueto booked their first title defense – a ladder match against the Crew. With the Crew taking advantage of what was essentially a three-on-two handicap match thanks to Ivelisse’s injury, they thought they had taken both Son of Havoc and Angelico out of the equation, leaving the title as easy pickings. Instead, Anglico leapt off of the roof of Dario Cueto’s office and into the ring, wiping out the Crew and allowing the injured Ivelisse to climb the ladder and retrieve the titles. And while they would only enjoy one more successful defense before losing their titles, the Trio had gone from unlikable jerks to some of the most popular wrestlers on the Lucha Underground roster. With Ivelisse now fully healed, I can only imagine that they’ll be looking to reclaim their titles from Mil Muertes’ Disciples of the Dead.

And again, those are only a sampling of what I believe to be the most important storylines of Lucha Underground’s first season, but that should give you a basic understanding of where the major storylines stand going into tonight’s season two premiere. This show deserves all of the love and praise that has been heaped upon it since its debut, and if I was able to help a new potential fan feel more comfortable checking it out, then I feel like these two columns have been a success.

Wyatt Beougher is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling who has been writing for 411 for over four years and currently hosts MMA Fact or Fiction and reviews Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.