8 Things Lucha Underground Did Better Than WWE

by John Bills

1. Wrestling As An Art Form

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WWE.com

Wrestling is art, and do not forget that. On the surface it is utterly ridiculous, but underneath the pageantry and preposterousness lies a carefully constructed narrative and an understanding of what it takes to move people. Pro wrestling is emotional, intense, affecting and far more real than it has any right to be.

In many ways, WWE has lost sight of this. When Vince McMahon’s promotion describes itself as sports entertainment, it isn’t just spouting a buzzword. WWE is no longer a professional wrestling company, and it hasn’t been for a long time. The heart of wrestling is what attracts most fans to it, but the company is following a different line.

Wrestling is where story meets athleticism, where the combination of conflict, combat, and creativity blend to create something memorable and magical. Lucha Underground was the first major promotion in a long time to portray wrestling as a true art form in this respect.

When Vampiro revealed himself as Pentagon Jr.’s master during Ultima Lucha, it didn’t just resonate because he’d just been chokeslammed through fire. It was the perfect storm of everything that makes professional wrestling beautiful.

Lucha Underground wasn’t perfect, far from it. A lot of bad things happened in The Temple, with Pentagon’s distasteful one-sided destruction of three women at the top of that list. But when Lucha Underground was great it was really great, the various things that make professional wrestling special amalgamating to produce a show that will be missed. Now, someone needs to make a British version of it, pronto…

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.