Lucha roundup

There’s been a lot of significant developments in the world of Lucha over the last month, culminating with Alberto Del Rio’s return to WWE last night, so let’s go over some of what we’ve learned and where we may be going. News & notes after the jump…

Alberto Del Rio Returns to WWE

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio (Subscription Required) the former ‘El Patron’ had a falling out with Lucha Underground over finances and creative. The Observer had reported earlier that Del Rio was upset that he wasn’t the focal point of the company, in particular, that his Ultima Lucha match was not the focal point of that show and instead the curtain jerker (ironically, Del Rio debuted jerking the curtain at Hell In A Cell tonight, although, he did get a decisive clean win over John Cena). As far as money goes, details have not surfaced on his particular gripe there, but Del Rio was the highest paid person on the Lucha Underground roster, reportedly making up to $500,000 a year. Meltzer did indicate that the falling out with Lucha Underground, and the decision to part ways with them informed his decision to return to WWE, because Del Rio’s finances as an indie worker hinged on that Lucha Underground contract, and without that income, WWE became a more desirable destination for him, in terms of his ability to make money. He reportedly got “a very favorable deal” from WWE.

Of course, the other company affected by this was AAA. Alberto still is (for the moment) the AAA Mega Champion. It’s unclear how AAA will respond to this situation, but it was indicated by the Observer that they had about ‘a day or two’ notice that Del Rio was returning to WWE. This obviously has to have them in crisis mode, between this Del Rio news and the next news item, which is a couple weeks old…

Myzteziz Leaves AAA, Returns to CMLL, Changes names several times

At the debacle that was AAA TripleMania this year, Rey Mysterio Jr faced Myzteziz (formerly Mistico, formerly Sin Cara) in what was billed as a face vs. face dream match. Mysterio defeated Myzteziz with La Mistica, and in the aftermath of the match (which you may not have seen if you ordered the PPV, because it was cut off), Myzteziz turned heel in what most speculated was the beginning of the build to a Mysterio/Myzteziz ‘Lucha de Apuestas’ match at the following year’s TripleMania.

Well, Myzteziz had other plans.

The only real statement I’ve heard from either side came from Myzteziz a few days ago where he said he left because AAA wouldn’t offer him a contract, despite wanting one, and that he offered to fulfill his remaining dates with AAA, and they told him they didn’t want him. Myzteziz was alleged to have attempted to recruit Argenis (who is one of the Disciples of Death in Lucha Underground) and Argos to leave with him, but he denied that report.

It’s been suggested that Myzteziz may have seen the opportunity for him to return to CMLL as one of the faces of the company, and preferred that to a long build which may have ended with him jobbing to Rey again, and possibly losing his mask. He also notably had significant heat with Alberto El Patron, which allegedly involved threats of violence from both sides. If the Alberto heat was a part of his leaving, it’s kind of ironic how that all played out.

Part of his return to CMLL opened up the Pandora’s box of what to actually call him. He was Mistico in CMLL originally (the gimmick was given to another wrestler when he left, who still works there), then he became Sin Cara when he went to WWE (he doesn’t own the rights to the gimmick), then when he went to AAA he took the name Myzteziz (which he can’t use in CMLL because AAA owns the rights to that). So now, after publicly considering using Mistic, and Mistic 2.0, he has settled on Caristico, which, you guessed it, is a blend of Sin Cara and Mistico.

My hunch is there’s more to this story when the AAA side of things come out.

Lucha Underground Season 2 & Season 3? Aliens??

As was previously established, Lucha Underground was renewed for a second season that is beginning production soon, and will debut on El Rey Network some time in January 2016. In a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez and Dr. Lucha dropped hints that the promotion received a huge influx of cash and that not only is the company set for Season 2, but that a Season 3 is likely to begin production almost immediately after the conclusion of Season 2, leading to a minimal break between season. Additionally, they dropped speculation they had heard that Lucha Underground may introduce a storyline involving aliens.

So let’s take these one at a time.

I’m not sure where the cash for the promotion is coming from, but I can tell you where it’s not coming from. They have not signed a deal with Netflix, Televisa, or Univision at this point in time. So, my best guess is either the investors attached to the project were very happy with the critical acclaim the show received and believe if they keep it going, critical acclaim will yield a big boom in their audience, or they’ve attracted additional private investors.

The Season 3 news is obviously excellent. A slimmed down break between seasons would be nice, but I do like that the show takes time off to allow its audience to digest a season, and recharge its enthusiasm for another one. So I hope they don’t eventually roll this into a 52 week a year show like RAW.

Aliens. You know, they kind of already have one. Aerostar is “from the Cosmos.” I mean, we saw him blast off like a rocket at the end of Ultima Lucha, and head back to the stars. Alien themed luchadors is not necessarily something that should cause your to cringe. I mean, you have luchadors who are from hell and the heavens, you have dragons, you have spacemen, you have zombies, you have wizards, you have vampires. In the context of ‘this is this luchador’s gimmick,’ it’s fine. Now, if this is more of a ‘No, there are real aliens in this world, and they’re invading the temple’ thing, in a ‘what Sci-Fi Network originally wanted from the ECW reboot’ type way, then that could be a problem. But if anyone can pull that off, it’d be this promotion.

FYI: I will be sporadically posting Lucha Underground Season 1 reviews over the next few months. I started coverage of it with Episode #31 or #32. The first 30 need to be filled in, and I’m going to try and do that before Season 2. More on that when the first one goes up.