From September of 1995 until March of 2001, World Championship Wrestling’s Monday Night Nitro went head to head with the World Wrestling Federation’s Monday Night Raw on prime time television each and every Monday night in a battle for ratings supremacy known to wrestling fans as ‘The Monday Night War’.
The weekly competition lead to a time of great creativity in both organizations and provided some of the best moments in professional wrestling history. Alas all good things must come to an end and eventually WCW went out of business, ending the war and signing over the spoils of their massive video library to the war’s victor, Vince McMahon.
Since that time many fans have clamored for another organization to rise up and challenge WWE once again, igniting that same fire of competition that once lead to a boom in the industry. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling attempted to do this in 2010, but sadly, Dixie Carter and associates ended up bringing a knife to a gun fight, and lost before they could even open fire. For the last five years, it has been all quiet on the Western front.
2014 was a landmark year for WWE. It launched the WWE Network, a game changer not only for the company, but for the pro wrestling business itself. Although WWE has provided lots of great content to fill out the network, the surprise breakout hit has been NXT, the WWE’s developmental territory’s weekly television program. It has captured the imagination of fans the world over, many who had given up on the WWE product all together. The infusion of young, hungry athletes with a serious approach to the in ring action was the alternative WWE fans were looking for. Ironically, it was an alternative provided by WWE itself.
NXT wasn’t the only shining star to emerge from behind the cloud of the WWE in 2014. A movement had begun that saw a new wrestling company emerge and attempt to leave its mark on fans and advertisers alike. A company that blended modern cinematic storytelling with the break neck pace and style of traditional lucha libre. The result was one of the freshest wrestling products to hit TV since Wrestling Society X, Lucha Underground.
Since debuting on the El Rey Network, Lucha Underground has aired on Wednesday nights. Until recently, the WWE Network broadcast NXT on Thursdays. However, last week that changed when WWE Smackdown moved back to Thursday nights, bumping NXT to Wednesdays. Initially I thought nothing of it, until I began to notice that on Thursdays, my twitter feed was divided in half between fans tweeting about NXT, and those tweeting about Lucha Underground.
It immediately made me think of the days when fans would jump back and forth between USA network and TNT to catch what was happening on both Raw and Nitro. Were fans doing the same thing now? If they were, were they also choosing sides in a new war set to erupt between the two shows?
Honestly, it is unfair to compare any competition between NXT and Lucha Underground to the Monday Night Wars. During the Monday Night Wars, both Raw and Nitro were on cable, whereas NXT and Lucha Underground are on completely different formats. Nitro and Raw were competing for the same viewers, using ratings as a measuring stick. With NXT being on a subscription service and Lucha Underground being part of a cable package with little distribution, there is no comparable ratings system by which to judge who would be winning the war. Keeping that in mind, those differences may also level the playing field in this new battle for sports entertainment supremacy. Neither show has a truly larger reach than the other, meaning that both shows have to work hard to not only get people talking about their show, but actually watching it.
Where you can measure popularity between the two shows is a world that did not exist in the days of the Monday Night War. In this day and age, social media can make or break anything, including a wrestling program. Currently NXT has 2,237, 514 likes on Facebook and 471,000 followers on Twitter. Comparatively, Lucha Underground has 154, 609 likes on Facebook and only 34,500 followers on Twitter. Doesn’t seem like much of a contest does it? Certainly not on paper, but let’s not forget that when Nitro debut, it too was seen as the underdog promotion, until it defeated RAW in the ratings for 84 weeks straight. The point is that if a war is on the horizon, this is only the beginning, and in war, it isn’t about how you start, it’s about how you finish.
Of course, every nation needs an army, and luckily for wrestling fans, both armies are loaded with talented soldiers. Take the current general of the NXT army, NXT Champion Sami Zayn. Coincidentally enough, he is a man with enough charisma to lead an army into battle, and enough athletic ability to serve on the front line. Standing on the side of the opposition is Lucha Underground Champion Prince Puma, who’s spectacular move set is unmatched and connection to the crowd is quite reminiscent of another masked man from Mexico who used to grace the rings with an uncanny connection to the fans, and sounds of Ole chants ringing throughout the building.
The rest of the infantry on both sides is rather impressive. Both leagues have some of the top independent talent of the last ten years. NXT has the likes of Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, and Hideo Itami, while Lucha Underground has performers like Prince Puma, Son of Havoc, and Cage. In this category, both NXT and Lucha Underground have their strongest hands, and both are on equal ground
Although having fresh talent is important, experienced veterans add legitimacy to your product as well. Both Lucha Underground and NXT know this. When you tune into the Temple on Wednesdays you can expect to see Lucha legends such as Chavo Guerrero Jr, Blue Demon, and Vampiro. If you happen to change channels and see what’s happening at Full Sail University, the likes of Tyson Kidd, Natalya, and William Regal. In this category, Lucha Underground has the upper hand. Although Kidd and Natalya have worked for many years, they don’t even come close to the star power and importance of the likes of Guerrero and Demon, who’s lineage is the stuff of legend in lucha libre.
In mentioning Natalya, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the female presence on both shows. Lucha Underground has an eclectic mix of roles for women on their programming. First you have Sexy Star, a character who looks to end the division between men and women by not being afraid to tussle with the guys. She has her own female rival in Ivelisse, who also serves as a second to Son of Havoc. There’s also Catrina, who serves the role of manager to Mils Muerte. NXT on the other hand is vastly different. They have an entire division dedicated to their women, and the quality of matches there have been ranked as some of the best of 2014. With the likes of Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Bayley, there’s no need to hook it up with the guys, the ladies are tough enough on their own. The advantage definitely goes to NXT.
When it comes to tag teams, NXT also comes out on top. Even after losing their most dominant team in history to the main WWE roster, NXT has a wealth of teams dedicated to the art of tag team wrestling with the likes of the Lucha Dragons, Vaudevillians, and the duo of Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy standing out as top teams in the division. While Lucha Underground has some alliances, there aren’t any full time tag teams to speak of, meaning there really isn’t a division to speak of, leaving it looking paltry by comparison to the teams in Florida.
Where Lucha Undergound excels over NXT is their unique presentation of the product. Robert Rodriguez is an executive producer on the show, and he’s a guy that knows his way around a camera. Because of this, Lucha Underground is presented in a slick, cinematic style that give their backstage segments the feeling of a movie more than a television series. By presenting in this style, Lucha Underground has a feeling of importance and forces you to take what you’re watching seriously. Although the students of Full Sail University do a great job of presenting NXT, it’s still done in the traditional WWE style that most fans are comfortable with. It’s familiar, like a warm blanket or an old friend, but nothing that is going to make you sit up and take notice. Lucha Underground is hard to take your eyes off of, simply because it has such a signature style, which gives it a distinct edge over their competition.
In the end, the quality of the product is what matters most, and in this category, both shows excel. There’s a reason both shows became sleeper hits in 2014, and continue to thrive early into the new year, and that reason is because both shows put on quality entertainment week in and week out. Both shows are so good that it can be difficult to choose which one to watch each week, which means both shows will need to step up their game in order to win over the precious viewing audience. With the wealth of talent both in front of and behind the camera on NXT and Lucha Underground, is it possible that Wednesday night will eventually replace Monday night as wrestling night? For many, including yours truly, it already has.
One cannot help but wonder if the Monday Night Wars were simply a product of their time, or the result of creative pressure born out of competition. If it truly was the latter, then a return to those glory days is possible, and could be closer to the horizon than we think. Time will tell, but in the meantime, the battle lines are being drawn, sides are being chosen, and there is little doubt that both companies are ready to go head to head. The only question is, are wrestling fans ready for the Wednesday Night War?
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