For those asking, what is Lucha Underground? Well it's an episodic wrestling show using the lucha libre style from Mexico. Both male and female wrestlers take part and intergender matches are common, cos hey, wrestling is predetermined, why not? The show is a continuous story, like most wrestling shows are, with feuds, character development, debuts and twists. It's fake run by a rich spanish sleezeball who claims to be all about honouring ancient aztec tradition and such but he's also slimy and underhanded especially when things don't go his way. In between matches there are filmed segments and vignettes to promote the wrestlers and advance the story.

So, why is it different to other shows? Well for one, the season has a clear beginning and end and the story is written like a serialised drama rather than the never-ending improvised theatre you're used to in WWE. The advantages of that are stronger storylines, clearer character motivations and proper pacing. That's also helped out by the 45 minute episodes which are pre-taped so there's no unnecessary downtime or need for filler content. It also means higher production values. Yeah, it looks better than WWE, a company with a huge budget and tons of experience. It's got better and more varied camera work, the promos are well shot and lit in optimal environments rather than just having to deal with whatever arena they're in that week and they use a little more artistic flair to give it a unique look that fits the "underground" monicker. It's filmed more like Breaking Bad than a sports event. It also helps that the executive producer is Robert Rodriguez. Yes, director of Sin City, Planet Terror, From Dusk til Dawn and Machete Robert Rodriguez.

The actual wrestling is top notch. They got a lot of great international stars and it's often very fast paced and acrobatic. They do things WWE doesn't. You won't see a female wrestler take a chair shot in WWE, you won't see intergender tag matches that are actually intergender where the men will wrestle the women and they manage to do it in a somewhat believable fashion, where the women take advantage of speed, agility and technique to make up for their power disadvantage. The advantage of using female wrestlers in that way is that you can also make powerful moves look REALLY brutal (wrestling term for that is selling and light-weight wrestlers often get very good at selling moves from bigger guys to make you think they just got killed in the ring). It also helps that they have great commentary to sell the action that isn't obnoxious and is 100% focussed on the in-ring action. They even toss in useful information for those who haven't watched lucha style stuff before, to highlight its particular nuaces and differences to other forms of wrestling.

So in conclusion, the storylines make sense, the production values are high, the characters are varied and interesting, the product has edge, there are plenty of twists and high drama and perhaps most importantly, the wrestling is really really fucking good. If you can find a place to watch it, give it a try. They took a primarily Mexican product and packaged it in a format that is appealing to an English speaking audience. Season 2 starts in January and both myself and Gen are really enjoying Season 1 so far.