7. Selling A Victory
The Lucha Dragons are an undersized, high-energy team that could be considered underdogs on an almost-weekly basis. Weighing in at a combined 370 pounds, Sin Cara and Kalisto were giving up nearly 150 pounds against Sheamus and King Barrett Monday night. It would take an extra Kalisto to even things out. The match between the two teams was a classic battle of strength versus speed, and it worked pretty well. Sin Cara looked like he was on a roll after a hot tag, but he quickly fell victim and took a beating, finally making his own hot tag to Kalisto. That set up a Salida del Sol on Barrett for the victory, which was immediately sold as a huge upset and a statement-making win for the Dragons. A couple points here: Barrett and Sheamus (along with Rusev before he was injured) had looked good as a team in recent weeks, so they actually felt like a good team with a great chance to win, rather than the sacrificial lambs for the Lucha Dragons. Also, the announcers sold the win as a shocker and a big deal for the Dragons, rather than just calling it and immediately moving on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACvTa7UfosA Little things like that help when it comes to making wins and losses mean something, and it can help both teams come out of a match looking good overall. More of that, please.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
See more from
Scott