3 Things Lucha Underground Does That WWE Should Try

Lucha Underground’s following may be small, but they are doing a lot of things right that WWE should take notes on.

One of the biggest things that WWE has been criticized for is a lack of creativity from the collection of writers that compose the so-called creative team. In the meantime, more wrestling fans write about how well they have enjoyed the lesser-known product from Lucha Underground.

The newer show that is set within the Temple in Boyle Heights, Calif., has mixed the traditions lucha libre with a little bit of Fight Club. Lucha Underground also does a lot of things right in terms of presentation that allows their characters to feel more like heroes and villains straight out of the pages of comic books – Aerostar and Drago quickly come to mind.

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While the ratings are low for a wrestling show that is on a network that is still growing itself, there’s a lot of excitement seeing how this wrestling promotion with a cult following can develop. Even though we are seeing it in its toddler stage of development, the writers and producers of Lucha Underground are doing a lot of things right that WWE’s creative team should take notes on.

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1) ”Backstage” segments

One of the biggest problems I have ever had with the WWE is the fact that the cameras always happen to be at the right place and right time whenever there is a brawl, a discussion that leads to a match later that night, or other confrontations. The superstars are all directing their bodies towards the camera while acting as if it isn’t there.

All of that makes the WWE’s traditional backstage segment feeling a lot more forced. Sure, fans of professional wrestling know this is scripted content. But we also like to see a little bit of realism in the acting and the wrestling. Having a camera showing what is going on “live” behind the scenes has not been executed for several years now.

With Lucha Underground, having things happen behind the scenes provides something special that is produced like an action film. It’s not something that the live audience sees, which actually provides a little more realism of storylines that go deeper beyond the product in the ring. For example, the live audience and everyone in the temple had a more realistic reaction to Matanza’s debut during Aztec Warfare.

Additionally, viewers can learn things about characters that can still, realistically, be a surprise for others. The viewer knows that Joey Ryan and Cortez are undercover officers while everyone else doesn’t have any clue.

2) Depth of all luchadores

One of the coolest things about Lucha Underground is the fact that the company doesn’t just put all of their chips into one or two talents. There are a number of superstars throughout the card that have their respective rivalries and unique personalities that fans can be interested in.

Even though the show is only one hour, the fans are able to see a variety of wrestlers so that when we see a lot of the talents competing in Aztec Warfare are going to mostly be names fans remember from the first season and through the first potion of the current season. Debuting superstars have received well-produced trailers announcing their upcoming arrival to the Temple.

In WWE, so many talents are left off television and it might be confusing to see them on Monday Night Raw for the first time in three months without any sort of explanation. The common fan may not watch SmackDown, Main Event or even NXT. The problem with that is that fans are not being given the proper knowledge from the company on the depth of their talent pool.

The reason why WWE doesn’t dedicate more time to showcasing their full roster is because they feel there’s a need to have only 48 minutes worth of actual in-ring matches and the rest of the three-hour show spent on those backstage segments, contract signings, Highlight Reels and other nonsense.

3) Knowing how to debut a monster

The last time the WWE properly built up the excitement of a monstrous wrestler debuting in the company was probably Kane in 1997. There were talks about the Undertaker having a brother that survived the fire from their childhood and that he was coming after him soon, which led to the historic matches between Kane and the Undertaker.

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However, most times the company likes to put together videos hoping that fans will get excited and it usually teases a debut during a period of three weeks. For the folks at Lucha Underground, viewers have watched vignettes with Rey Mysterio training the young Dragon Azteca, Jr., before they both arrived at Aztec Warfare – which started with the Season 2 premiere episode.

But the most anticipated debut goes back to the first season when fans were hinted that Dario Cueto had a brother named Matanza that he kept locked away; occasionally bringing him a victim to kill off. It provided fans with a dark monster that we hadn’t seen until last week’s episode where he came out of the dark prison covered in blood.

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It would be nice if WWE would do something similar with teases of a dark villain that would slowly be brought up before his debut. While the WWE shouldn’t hype someone for an entire year, maybe three or four months will be a perfect timeline. The WWE is going to need new monsters soon with eventual retirements of talents like the Big Show, Kane and Undertaker only being a matter of “when they’ll retire” and not “if they’ll retire.”