"Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors"
Season Two TV tapings
January 22, 2011
Albuquerque, N.M. at the Hard Rock Casino
Report by Alex Roberts, PWTorch contributor

On Saturday, Lucha Libre USA held their second taped show at the Hard Rock Casino in Albuquerque. Most of the storylines and feuds picked up where they left off at the first taping in December. Presumably, Saturday’s event was compromised of what will be the third and fourth episodes of Lucha Libre USA’s second season on MTV2.

Though I recall them saying during the December show that this second season would begin in January, no definite date was given at Saturday’s show, so it seems the season two premiere is still a few weeks (or months) away.

The show started as December’s did with a pep talk about staying excited for the cameras, cheering babyface tecnicos, and booing heel rudos. At one point, the crowd was challenged to boo for an entire minute, and this was handily accomplished. Alhough the last show was over a month ago, the crowd seemed to remember the established tecnicos and rudos and gave strong reactions to fan favorites like Marco Corleone, Charly Malice, and Supernova.

Season 2 - Third Episode Taping

(1) John Revell beat Medianoche. (Note: I may have misspelled John's name here, but that is what it sounded like to me). Imagine a man with a face like Matt Morgan and the physique of Ezekiel Jackson - down to his “basketball-sized” trapezius muscles - and you have John Revell, who came to the ring carrying a baseball bat that he promptly broke in two over his thigh before the match. This was essentially a squash match, with Revell executing a gorilla press slam and a few other moves displaying his strength before casually pinning Medianoche. After the match, Revell took the luchador’s mask, prompting Supernova to storm the ring. He attempted a few lucha libre-style moves that were all blocked by Revell before finally fleeing backstage.

(2) Dinastia (Tinieblas Jr. and El Oriental) beat Puerto Rican Power (PR Flyer & San Juan Kid). Considering Tinieblas and El Oriental were treated as tecnicos at the first taping, it was strange to see them facing off against the very babyface Puerto Rican Power (this confusion about Dinastia’s alignment became especially troublesome later during the tag team championship match). PR Flyer and San Juan Kid showed great high-flying, quick paced tag team offense. These two were eventually attacked behind the ref’s back by two men in completely black outfits with the initials “S.L.” on their backs, allowing Dinastia to make the pin.

(3) Marco Corleone beat Sydistiko via DQ. This match continued Corleone’s feud with rudo stable Treachery (Lizmark Jr., Rellik, and Sydistiko) after losing to Lizmark in last month’s Lucha Libre Title match. Both men set a good pace and the action was very well done, though the most memorable part of this match was probably when Sydistiko, held up against the turnbuckles, played the part of a humorously cowardly rudo, flinching whenever Corleone would rear back his fist. This relatively simple spot got a great reaction from the crowd. Corleone eventually won by DQ after Rellik and Lizmark stormed the ring and beat him down. This prompted Shane Helms, making his debut with show, to come to Corleone’s aid. Helms then cut a promo about helping Corleone even the odds against Treachery.

(4) Magno beat R.J. Brewer (w/Lizzy Valentine) in a Hair vs. Mask match. This match was promised for “next week’s show” at last month’s tapings after Brewer & Petey Williams, as rudo stable The Right, attacked Supernova and threatened to take his mask. This was one of the best matches of the night, with both men keeping up a good pace and several very exciting spots taking place around the ring. One memorable spot had Magno recovering at ringside and Brewer near him on the ring apron. Brewer then sprang off the ropes for a very loud, very convincing double stomp on to Magno’s back. Brewer would eventually nail Magno with a chain while the ref wasn’t looking for the pin. However, after the match, the ref saw part of the chain peeking out of Brewer’s tights, and the match was re-started. Magno eventually gained the win. Brewer attempted to escape backstage, but he was stopped by Rocky Romero, who helped Magno shave Brewer’s hair inside the ring.

After this match, there was a 15 minute intermission. The matches that followed were presumably for the next episode.

Season 2 - Fourth Episode Taping

(1) Petey Williams beat Charly Malice. Malice got one of the biggest pops of the night when he was introduced, and the reactions he got from the crowd throughout gave this match one of the best atmospheres of the night. Eventually, R.J. Brewer interfered on Williams’s behalf, and Williams capitalized by delivering his Canadian Destroyer for the win.

For the next match, Magno was introduced. After what appeared to be a delay due to technical problems, The Right, along with Lizzy Valentine, entered wearing gray camouflage vests. Brewer cut a promo about building “fences, not bridges” to keep foreigners like Magno out of his country. This generated great heat with the crowd. He then announced that he had a new member of The Right to introduce for this match, and brought out John Revell, now dubbed “The Firewall.”

(2) “The Firewall” John Revell beat Magno. Though a bit more competitive than Revell’s match earlier in the night, this was clearly another opportunity to establish his dominance. Magno got in a few strikes but was finally pinned after a scoop slam. Supernova and Rocky Romero then stormed the ring to help Magno against the three members of The Right, but were all beaten down.

After this, the Lucha Libre USA Tag Team belts were brought out, and a triple threat tag team match was announced to determine the first ever Lucha Libre USA Tag Team champions.

Match (3) Dinastia beat Puerto Rican Power and. Treachery (Rellik & Sydistiko) in a three-way, three-team tag match to capture the Lucha Libre USA Tag Team Titles. A triple threat tag match felt like a rather convoluted way to determine the first tag champs, though there were plenty of exciting spots. The match felt a little too hectic and unfocused, with tons of interference by teams and partners who weren’t legal and were never really reprimanded by the referee. This was further complicated by the return of the mysterious hooded figures who attacked Puerto Rican Power earlier. When the dust had settled, Tinieblas captured the titles for Dinastia with a cool-looking submission move that combined a figure four-like leg hold with an abdominal stretch, which looked something like William Regal’s Regal Stretch.

Overall, the match and its ending were somewhat undercut by the ambiguous “tweener” status of Dinastia. Though they acted menacing and bent rules like traditional rudos, they also went around giving high fives to the audience after their win. Looking into the crowd, it seemed to me that Dinastia was receiving half cheers and half boos; given Lucha Libre USA’s apparent adherence to classic face-heel dichotomy, this didn’t feel like it fit with everything else on the show.

(4) Mini Park & Octagoncito & Mascarita Dorada beat Tigressa Caliente & Pequeño Halloween & Vladamiro in a “Mini Mayhem” tag match. The “minis” in this match worked incredibly hard, pulling off a ridiculous amount of lucha libre-style moves. Tigressa stayed in her corner the whole match either working on her makeup or acting like she was on her cell phone. When she was finally forcefully tagged in by her mini partners, she became irate and attacked everyone, friend and foe alike. As she was celebrating this, music hit and out came the 6’9” Isis the Amazon, a/k/a Aloisia, who was selected for WWE NXT Season 3 before she was released prior to the season starting. Isis and Tigressa fought each other all the way up the ramp and out of sight. Meanwhile, Mascarita Dorada hit another amazing lucha libre move for the win.

(5) “Hurricane” Shane Helms beat Lizmark Jr. via DQ. The crowd was quite excited to see Helms's in-ring debut. The match itself had a moderate pace, punctuated by a few impressive flying crossbodies by Helms. After run-ins by both Treachery and Corleone, Lizmark was finally DQ’d after a low blow to Helms. Helms and Corleone then ran Treachery out of the ring and celebrated to send fans home happy.

Overall, Saturday’s show didn’t feel quite as exciting as the first show in December, though this could be due to growing pains for the promotion and venue that will eventually be worked out. There seemed quite a lot of delays in between matches, possibly due to technical problems, and I’m sure these problems will not show up on what is televised. Nonetheless, these delays served to kill some momentum in between matches.

These technical issues aside, the show featured a lot of solid action, and it will be interesting to see how storylines develop in upcoming tapings and how they are presented when Lucha Libre USA’s second season finally premieres.

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