wrestling / Columns

The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Lucha Underground Managers

June 7, 2018 | Posted by Mike Chin
dario-cueto Lucha Underground

A new season of Lucha Underground is just around the corner, and with that in mind this week’s column is zeroing in on Dario Cueto’s Temple. There are quite a few elements of Lucha Underground’s presentation, booking, and roster that make it stand out from other wrestling companies, from the use of vignettes, to the both violent and acrobatic style of ring action, to the fusion of lucha libre culture with a more imaginative comic book style. Another piece is the managers.

While WWE has featured very few managers in recent years, and most major wrestling promotions have followed suit, Lucha Underground hosn’t shied away from having men and women in the corners of top stars, and it has yielded some very interesting effects.

On a note of clarification, most of the managers in Lucha Underground have pulled double duty, wreslting at least once if not on a recurring basis, or also serving as an authority figure or commentator. For the purposes of this countdown, I tried to focus on talents for whom we can at least say their primary function with Lucha Underground hasn’t been in the ring. Thus, while Ivelisse has effectively managed Son of Havoc at times, and Taya has stood in Johnny Mundo’s corner, I also consider them to be at least equally cast as wreslters, and thus they were not considered for this countdown. There were a few entries here who, I’ll be the first admit, walk the line and are arguably as much wrestlers as managers.

The rankings represented here are largely subjective, based on how entertaining I feel the manager is or was, and the extent to which he or she helped wrestlers get over and tell compelling stories.

#7. Beautiful Brenda

No, Beautiful Brenda hasn’t actually done much in the Temple—but that’s kind of her point.

Brenda has mostly served as arm candy for Famous B and whomever he’s representing—part of the package that B uses to sell his sketchy services to potential clients, and a perfectly suited bubbly personality with a model figure to fit her role.

Better yet, Brenda’s persona made her a particularly shocking victim of a Pentagon Dark attack when the champ broke her arm in his signature fashion. It’s a strange thing to root for a masked menace to snap a beautiful woman’s arm, but it’s exactly that type of subversion of norms and expectations that makes Lucha Underground the unique spectacle that it is.

#6. Kobra Moon

Out of everyone on this countdown, Kobra Moon gave me the most pause for walking the line between primarily serving as a manager and primarily serving as a wrestler. I gave her the nod for the compelling, if under-realized story of her luring Drago to the dark side and managing the imposing trio of him, Pindar, and Vibora to the Trios Championship.

Moon is a fascinating character for her combination of off-beat sensuality, implication of almost hypnotic powers, and the fact that she can hold her own as a more than competent wrestler in her own right. It will be interesting to see what the future might hold for her as a character with depths alluded to, and a great deal of untapped potential for her and her Reptile Tribe.

#5. Famous B

WWE fans are justifiably lukewarm on Titus Worldwide in WWE. While Titus O’Neil is a far better hype man than wrestler, he’s still not exactly inspired as a manager, and hasn’t been able to meaningfully elevate anyone associated with him. If you’d like to see a better version of someone working essentially the same gimmick (and, to be fair, who did it before O’Neil) you need look no further than Famous B, who achieved minimal success as a wrestler in Lucha Underground, but went on to become one of the promotion’s best comedy acts as a mid-card heel manager.

B’s bravado and game willingness to customize his attire to whomever he’s trying to recruit has been a lot of fun, and he’s had worthwhile partnerships and rivalries in equal measure with guys like Mascarita Sagrada and Texano, while also offering a coherent base for bringing in Dr. Wagner to work guest spots as his mercenary.

Famous B may not land on anyone’s list for all time great managers, but he’s done exactly what a mid-card manager should in giving a variety of talents direction and stories to work with when they needed the support. Additionally, he’s a performer without ego, game to be embarrassed to entertain the fans.

#4. Konnan

What Konnan lacks in longevity with Lucha Underground (he left before the end of season one, with rumors of a political falling out with Vamprio and company), he made up for in gravitas. Konnan managed exactly one man, Prince Puma, and accomplished much of what a good manager should in that tenure. Of everone included in the early episodes of Lucha Underground, Konnan was arguably the most recognizable face, as a legend of lucha libre and a guy who had crossed over to be a significant mid-card star for WCW during the Monday Night War era. He lent that credibility directly to Puma to immediately give the flashy young star an identity and a reason for fans to take him seriously. Puma, naturally, had the in ring talent to take it from there and be the standard bearer from the company.

I’d argue Konnan was deceptively effective as a face manager—a tricky role for anyone to play effectively. He established his character as an old school mentor figure, with added edge of being a mistrusting of other figures on the Lucha Underground landscape, hinting at old grudges and perhaps a bit of a paranoia. Konnan made a near ideal exit from that role, succumbing to attacks from Mil Muertes to set up his protégé to avenge him.

#3. Vampiro

It’s technically difficult to call Vampiro a manager, but to over simplify roles for the sake of wrestling parlance, he felt a lot like a manager to Pentagon Dark and, briefly (if deceptively) to Prince Puma. Vampiro was all about working a campy crypt keeper gimmick in training his proteges in the ways of the dark side and helping to elevate them to new heights. The gimmick easily could have come across as hokey, but with Vampiro’s identity in lucha lore, paired with the comic book feel of the promotion at large, he fit in nicely.

Interestingly, Vampiro did all of this while also playing a color commentator whose personality was typically much lighter alongside Matt Striker. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see to what extent Vampiro remains in his kayfabe mentoring role, particularly with Pentagon reigning as champion at the end of season three, or if Vampiro will stick more closely to the broadcast position.

#2. Catrina

Those fans who crossover between WWE and Lucha Underground have tended to draw comparisons between Mil Muertes and The Undertaker as big men with death themed gimmicks. While the luchador has a long way to go in proving himself at The Dead Man’s level, he has already produced far better Casket Matches (billed under the moniker, Grave Consequences). He also has the allure of his manager, Catrina, to help push him.

Catrina may not be a fully trained wrestler, but she’s deceptively great in the manager role. Her physical presence adds both a severity and a sense of sexy cool to Muertes’s act. Moreover, her gimmicks of carrying the stone—not unlike The Undertaker’s urn—and giving opponents the Kiss of Death have made her mysterious, unforgettable, and irresistible as a character on the Lucha Underground landscape.

#1. Dario Cueto

While Dario Cueto’s primary role with Lucha Underground has been that of a heel authority figure (a role he excelled at), he has also served as the de facto manager to his kayfabe brother, The Monster Matanza Cueto. In so doing, Dario has functioned as an ideal mouthpiece, while also playing a tremendous chicken shit heel for faces to chase, pummel, and be distracted by while Matanza remains a no-nonsense monster heel. He was particularly brilliant in backing his brother against Mil Muertes and Catrina.

Some of Cueto’s success can be attributed to his background. He doesn’t come from the wrestling world, but rather was hired as an actor, and has clearly gone all in on his commitment to learning his craft and the culture that he’s working within. For now, he’s been attached pretty exclusively to his brother, but particularly with hints at power struggles in the Lucha Underground world, it would be interesting to see what might happen if Dario transitioned to a more purist manager role.

Who would you add to the list? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.