"Those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it."---George Santayana.
3 1/2 years ago, MTV re-entered the wrestling business with Wrestling Society X, but the 30 minute format, coupled with MTV's half-hearted promotion of the show, holding episodes in the vaults a year before putting them on the air, led to a quick demise.
Nearly 2 months ago, MTV2, not in as many homes as MTV itself, jumped in with Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors, which provided a good counterpoint and followup to WWE Smackdown. The show had promise, but it also had the stink of having the same problem with network promotion as WSX did before it. After 8 weeks, LLUSA has taken a previously unscheduled hiatus, likely due to low ratings and MTV Networks' hair trigger mentality when it comes to ratings and their preference for reality TV and movies. With the Lingerie Football League set to debut September 10, one had to reason that the LFL would provide some help for LLUSA in terms of demographic appeal. Right now, it's not happening.
Worse, LLUSA was bumped from its Friday berth at the last minute in favor of a block of repeats of "Dudesons in America", which followed LLUSA on Fridays, and was to be bumped to make room for the LFL. The "season finale" aired Saturday at Noon (ET), 2 hours earlier than its usual Saturday replay berth, and it was a 1-shot airing. Figure 4 Online reported that LLUSA had a 52 week commitment from MTV2. Right. Given MTV Networks' track record, that wasn't guaranteed.
The website also reported on Sunday that Saturday's show in Charlotte, which was supposed to be a TV taping, was strictly a house show instead. The LLUSA World & Tag team tournaments haven't been completed as of press time, and Carlitos (Carly Colon, formerly of WWE) had just debuted on the 8/28 show. Announcer Nigel Sherrod told viewers at the end of the show that the promotion's website would have original content to keep fans interested during the hiatus. If that sounds familiar, think back a few years. TNA had left Fox Sports Net, and there was a long gap before Impact moved to Spike TV. TNA filled the void with internet-only shows. Does LLUSA want to risk the same fate? Granted, the wrestling has been hit or miss, and detractors will point to the American-style booking (Marco Corleone, formerly Mark Jindrak, is one of the people involved in getting LLUSA off the ground) as one of the reasons why LLUSA has failed to catch on.
Another weakness is in borrowing story ideas from elsewhere. Case in point: backstage reporter Rebecca Reyes was drugged and forced to marry Pequeno Halloween on a recent show. That was derived from the now-infamous Triple H-Stephanie McMahon wedding swerve from 1999, also in Las Vegas. Fans didn't want to see anything like that again. Heel analyst Lalo Gonzalez is a poor man's Joel Gertner, much less Mark Madden, and that's just being kind. Also, xenophobic heel RJ Brewer (John Walters) is supposedly the son of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. His girlfriend, "Brooke Carter", debuted on the 8/20 show, and is, in this writer's opinion, a take-off on TNA president Dixie Carter, crossed with Hulk Hogan's daughter, Brooke, with maybe a wee bit of Stephanie thrown in, but it is a piss-poor package. It's clear that the LLUSA creative staff is making things up as they go along, with no clear direction. No, Vince Russo isn't moonlighting, and cross-network cross-overs with TNA, which I'd recommended for WSX 3 1/2 years ago, won't work here. The writing is actually worse than TNA, and that's saying something.
So, even though "season 2" has been promised, will it actually happen? Only MTV2 knows for sure, and they're not telling. And that's the worst part about it all.
