One of the most beloved faces of our generation actually murdered his parents in his backstory, and we turned out fine, didn’t we? 
There’s no shame in losing to Blue Demon Jr. - the dude is a legend in Mexico, and has held multiple world championships in Mexico as well as the NWA championship. And for a guy who’s 48 years old, he can move like nobody’s business - the only people that old who we’ve seen wrestle in WWE recently are Kane, Undertaker, Batista, and the New Age Outlaws, and I shudder to think what’d happen to one of them if they tried some of the spots he pulled in that match.
Yeah, and there isn’t a right or wrong when it comes to stage fighting. Mexicans like their brand of it, I grew up in Virginia so liked the more deliberative grind-out kind of wrestling the local territory here showed when I was a kid.
For me as long as the match shows some degree of athleticism, use moves that make sense (i.e. moves that don’t defy all laws of common sense in how they work) and the two guys are able to sell and work together in a way that the match has a clear beginning/middle/end with reasonable progression I can usually enjoy it. The lucha libre stuff just violates almost all of those rules.
I don’t know jack about Mexican wrestling history, and maybe I’ll research it some day. I got the impression BD Jr had been in the business a few decades. While his longevity is admirable, it’s still evident when his opponents oversell for him. I saw Jushin Thunder Liger (he’s 50) for the first time in years in a tag match in RoH, and his opponents looked like they had to slow down considerably to make him look good.
Personally, I was first introduced to the lucha libre style in '95-‘96, when WCW started cross-promoting with AAA and started heavily featuring guys like Rey Mysterio Jr., Eddie Guerrero, Psychosis, Ultimo Dragon, Juventud Guerrera, Konnan (who actually defended the AAA world title on WCW PPVs at the time) and so many others whose names I can’t recall, and I loved it right away specifically because it was so different from either the New England power-moves style of WWF or the Southern rasslin’ style of WCW. Here were these little guys doing flips and jumps and rolls and all kinds of crazy shit that you would never ever see out of a Hulk Hogan or a Lex Luger, and they did it flawlessly and with such perfect coordination.
All pro wrestling is basically equal parts storytelling and athletic exhibition, and while it would beggar belief if you did a match consisting entirely of flips and top-ring spots, I’d say that what I’ve seen of Lucha Underground so far says they’ve got a pretty good eye for balance. Like I said upthread, my biggest impression is that they’re going out of their way to present themselves as everything that WWE isn’t, so going forward I see them focusing on a pretty solid mix of high-flying acrobatics and technical grappling.
That’s why I always liked HBK in the early and mid-90s. He could brawl the big WWF wrestlers, mat wrestle with Bret, do high flying stuff with Owen, and pretty much adapt to any style being used.
Tajiri and Super Crazy were also fun to watch on ECW in the 90s.
He’s like a calm version of Randy Savage!
Don’t forget Goldust too, he’s like a thousand and still takes really good bumps every time he performs.
I know we still have tonight to go through, but what is everyone’s predictions for Thursday when Itami gets his “help”? Prince Devitt? Steen? Someone else?
Don’t you mean “Gold”? I’m not sure who this Goldust you speak of is; maybe he is to Gold as Cody Rhodes is to Star Dust? 
As to Thursday, that one’s been pretty thoroughly spoiled, so I’ll refrain from comment.
Ha! Randy told Shawn to slow down or he’d never last.
Spoilers already say
Prince Devitt
Oh well that’s cool…I can finally see who this guy is and then see his ridiculously stupid-ass name
[spoiler] It’s Prince Devitt, now known as Finn Balor. The two of them have also already been announced to face the Ascension at Takeover 3: The Secret of the Ooze.
No word yet on when Steen will be making his debut. He apparently didn’t appear in the latest TV taping which covers everything up until the next Takeover. WWE applied for a trademark on the name “Kevin Owens” last week though, so odds are good that’s going to be his ring name - Owen is the name of his son, who he named after Owen Hart. [/SPOILER]
Smapti, are you a fan of TMNT and messing with us?
Well, presumably there must be some secret to that bucket of ooze Enzo threw on Marcus Luis such that his hair and eyebrows still haven’t grown back two months later.
Joking aside, though, I’ve read that the real name for the next special is “Takeover: Evolution”.
Bullshit.
The titles we have come up with are so much better
I’m calling it now. The time is right . The gamble will be huge. But I am calling it now.
Cena turns at* Survivor Series*.
And we get a hell of a fun run up to Wrestlemania.
To quote Dean Ambrose; “Nope.”
Come on. We’ve got new stars to replace Cena. No one believes it can happen. It has been teased so many times before. We have a history of Survivor Series screwjobs. This is such a perfect time to really shake things up. They did it with Austin, and while it did not work they took that gamble. There is no better time.
WWE’s bottom line is in enough trouble right now without sabotaging their meal ticket. Cena’s merch sells more than pretty much the entire rest of the roster combined specifically because he’s a hero to children, and you’re not going to get thirties-something smarks to replace those sales once the kids hate him and don’t want to wear his face anymore.