5 things I learned attending IMPACT Wrestling & AAA's "LUCHA INVADES NY" 

Arguably the world’s premier Mexican pro wrestling organization, Lucha Libre AAA was founded in 1992 by Antonio Peña Herrada. AAA, as a live touring company, has more than 600 events a year and generates more than 260 hours of content annually.

Since its inception in 2002, IMPACT Wrestling has also been one of the world’s largest pro wrestling organizations. Known to often work with other wrestling companies, IMPACT Wresting promoted a September 15, 2019 event at "The World's Most Famous Arena," New York City's Madison Square Garden. Titled LUCHA INVADES NY, the star-studded show Hulu Theater show featured top talent from both IMPACT and AAA.

I had the pleasure of attending this historic event and below are 5 of my observations from tonight's exciting experience.

Bushido Battleground Fight Night

#1: The IMPACT Wrestling roster is incredibly versatile

Lucha is its own style of wrestling, to say the least. Not all wrestlers can pull off Lucha, especially if they have not worked extensively in Mexico.

While a lot of the IMPACT Wrestling roster does have experience in Mexico, a lot of that talent is not at all synonymous with the Lucha world. However, that is not something that mattered too much at this show.

With exception to the championship match between Tessa Blanchard and Taya Valkyrie, all of the matches featuring IMPACT talent also included AAA stars. In turn, Brian Cage, Sami Callihan, LAX, Michael Elgin, Chris Dickinson, and Josh Alexander all stepped out of their comfort zones, yet still put on entertaining matches.

Without spoiling anything, I had never seen Michael Elgin or Sami Callihan work an inter-gender match before and the match absolutely told a great story. If anything, it shows versatile, stylistically speaking, much of the IMPACT roster is.

#2: This was an international and universal presentation

As the name of this event was LUCHA INVADES NY, the show was clearly intended for a multi-national viewership. While most of the event was presented in Spanish -- including a rendition of the Mexican national anthem -- the essentials were still offered in English, thanks to ring announcements from Melissa Santos.

The truth is that Lucha is easy to understand for almost all wrestling fans, no matter their language or cultural background. Lucha clearly defines tecnicos (babyfaces) and rudos (heels), making the sport easy to follow. None of the matches seemed to be related to prior storylines. The entrances and crowd reactions helped to tell what story was being told.

One confusing aspect about the evening, however, was how often one of the ring announcers kept addressing the crowd as Mexico. Much of the audience appeared to be singing along to the Mexican national anthem -- and the crowd was told that "everyone" was Mexico tonight. It seemed no different than how everyone in New York is Irish for St. Patrick's Day.

#3: International wrestling is not fully on the radar of American fans

When you hear the term "world champion," you sometimes want to take it literally, as in the person is the best competitor that the world has to offer.

While LUCHA INVADES NY definitely had some familiar faces on the card -- including former UFC champion Cain Velasquez -- I was unfamiliar with some of the featured talent. For example, I had never seen either of the main-eventers, Blue Demon Jr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. wrestle before. Both wrestlers were definitely over with the crowd.

What this tells me, as both a writer and a fan, is that there is always more wrestling talent to seek out. Sometimes the top talent on American television is not who the rest of the world is cheering for. Thanks to LUCHA INVADES NY, I will be seeking out more from Psycho Clown, whose entrance music is hard to forget.

#4: High-definition production isn't always necessary for a wrestling show

As a long-time viewer of WWE programming, and an admirer of what AEW has put out into the world so far, as well as a long-time KISS fan, I am very accustomed to seeing pyro featured in live entertainment. After all, those sudden explosions often help you differentiate the major attractions from the top tier of the card to the lower-card.

LUCHA INVADES NY did not have any pyro on display. There was smoke, there was loud music, and there was an incredible amount of colored lighting within the overall production. All of that was more than sufficient.

Given that this was a great show, this all helps to reinforce that when your live event is supposed to be about great wrestling, maybe you don't need all the bells and whistles. After all, isn't pyro just meant to distract you from the intended entertainment at hand?

#5: Wrestling can be great in a theater

For a variety of reasons, we are conditioned to view wrestling as ideally something to be viewed in an arena or stadium setting. Wrestling fans know all about Hulk Hogan bodyslamming Andre The Giant in front of 93,000 people, Bruno Sammartino selling out Madison Square Garden over 100 times, All In selling out in the matter of minutes, and so forth.

LUCHA INVADES NY was originally slated to take place at Madison Square Garden, but was later moved into the smaller venue known as the Hulu Theater. This is not the first time this has happened. This writer experienced that same deal with the band Faith No More a few years ago. This also won't be the last time that initial ticket sales don't match the expected demand.

However, in watching LUCHA INVADES NY before a packed New York theater, everything made sense. Appearing before an enthusiastic New York crowd of thousands, it became obvious that a theater setting provided intimacy, yet also featured a large enough crowd to keep the magic going. As an added bonus, much of the talent went into crowd during the show, offering a very spontaneous and organic feel.

In September 2019, it certainly feels as if we are in the midst of a long-term wrestling boom. There is no shortage of talented wrestlers, nor ambitious, interesting, and fan-friendly wrestling companies. In turn, kudos are due to both Lucha Libre AAA and IMPACT Wrestling for giving the world LUCHA INVADES NY.