Lucha VaVOOM 2 - 2/13/03 Review
By Mr. Unknown

Mayan Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Attendence between 1200-1400 (numbers coming).

Lets take a hard look at that: 1200 or so crowd, all over 21 because the Mayan serves booze, over 3/4 to 7/8ths caucasian hipsters paying $25 or $40 a head to get in, and on a Thrusday night after a torrential storm and road closures, plus plenty of Velntine's driven competion ahead of them on the weekend. All for a card with only two big name fly-ins and the minis. Add to that success story the thousands in merchandise sold in the lobby, and press ranging from every LA paper to Rolling Stone to Telemundo to film crews from England and Italy.

Just a few things for other to-remain-nameless area promoters to think about... especially when many of same promotions staff, creative and support crew were yours to hire last year and you didn't think promoting to non-Latino audiences had any potential whatsoever.

Sure, much of LVV's popularity is due to the renowned Velvet Hammer Bulesca, but you cannot deny the opportunity cross-cultural/bi-lingual promotions offer. (Stepping off my soap box now)

LVV's format is to alternate lucha matches with vintage-styled burlesque striptease numbers. Time is limited, so everything is one fall and distilled down - similar to the 8-10 minute spot-fests common in WCW lucha years. The card itself went as follows:

Alucinante and ThunderBoy (T) lost to White Man and Karateca (R)
Good opener, plenty of rudo heat.

La Reina del Selva and Principe Unltd. (T) beat Mariposa Negra and Profeta (R) in a mixed tag match.
Selva and Mariposa are lucha-trained Velvet Hammer dancers, and this was a grudge match from LvV1. The WWE should take notes from this, as it was 700 times sexier than any of their mysoginistic implant-laden bullshit. Profeta was way over as a heel.

Mariachi Loco, Chilango, Rosa Salvaje (T) lost to Los Chivos and Gringo Loco (R)
A live Mariachi band accompanied Mariachi Loco, a nice piece of showmanship and history-making in that six guitars were in a wrestling ring and not one was put upside someone's head! Rosa was way over with the hipster crowd, but the Chivos OWN that building and Gringo Loco got perhaps the biggest heel heat of the night with his "Mexican Redneck" gimmick. AMAZING.

Mascarita Sagrada and Octagoncito (T) lost to Piratita Morgan and Pierrothito
A booking mistake, as rudos won all night and the loss didn't give the techs the opportunity to do more offense. I understand the idea of evil winning all night leading to a big technico main event win, but with this novice crowd, highspots get the biggest pops. After the match, the minis went into business for themselves, challenging each other to
future matches, which in this environment was not effective. Still, the minis are over HUGE and no one was complaining.

Blue Demon Jr./La Parka/Neutron Jr. (T) beat Medico Asesino Jr./Dr. O'Brien and Caronte 2000 in a special captains' unmasking challenge main event.
Neutron and Caronte are workers regimmicked in the costuning of the 1960's Frederico Curiel "Neutron: El Enmascarado negro" films. The cult film tie in is a large part of VaVOOM's art direction. The actual match was preceeded by Velvet Hammer's 'Madame Electra' sparking up a massive Tesla coil right out of Frankenstein's lab. Out came naughty nurses with a gurney carrying the apparently dead body of Caronte 2000. Electra then summoned arcs of purple lighting to re-animate the body and the rudo team was complete! Good match with great response, I'd say a 2.5-3 star affair with 5-star crowd heat. Great comedy and outright perversion from Parka, Demon did the tough guy mat technician thing (over because cult fim fans know of his father's old flicks) and Neutron was the high flyer. Medico Asesino is an old-school treasure and an absolute pleasure to watch. Caronte got huge heat, and was finally pinned by Demon, unmasked as the local rudo we know better as Maldad. A tremendous performance on his part. The crowd really got into the unmasking, having gone from newbie audience to fully recognizing the drama and importance of what they had just seen, all from the performances in the ring. Superb.

Lucha VaVOOM is designed for a broad audience and is ideal for first timers, although even the most spartan of pro-wrestling enthusiasts or staunch lucha libre fans still can't complain. OK, maybe a puritan prudish nudity-hating grecco-roman tar-pit tournament fan might come away unsatisfied, but in general... Key to the success of the format is how even though there is the strong element of burlesque, the club atmosphere and stand-up comedians doing live commentary, the lucha element is taken seriously and done with respect. The talent is all authentic and the main events have A-list stars. There are other hybrid promotions out there (mixing matches with rock music or other kitsch), but the respect for the artform and authentic talent is what has set Lucha vaVOOM apart.

MR. ?