Viewer discretion is advised—we're back in God's country, and the Temple is getting messy.

This week, Kelsey and I return to Lucha Underground Season 1, Episode 5: Boyle Heights Street Fight, where the drama is escalating, the cinematography is still ridiculously good, and Dario Cueto continues proving why nobody should trust this man.

Between Mil Muertes dominating Drago, Sexy Star's increasingly personal rivalry with Chavo Guerrero, and Johnny Mundo looking like he walked straight out of Mortal Kombat, this episode has a little bit of everything.

And then there's our main event, where Prince Puma takes on Big Ryck in a Boyle Heights Street Fight that ends with one spectacularly unsuccessful rescue mission.

In This Episode:

• Konnan & Dario Cueto: Tensions rise over Big Ryck and his crew.
• Mil Muertes vs. Drago: Catrina continues to steal our attention while King Cuerno lurks in the shadows.
• Son of Havoc vs. Mascarita Sagrada: A fun matchup featuring the always-entertaining Ivelisse.
• Sexy Star vs. Chavo Guerrero: Things get personal as Pentagon Jr. and Fénix enter the picture.
• Prince Puma vs. Big Ryck: Weapons, interference, and a street fight that gets completely out of hand.
• Johnny Mundo's Big Mistake: Sometimes trying to save the day only makes things worse.

Five episodes in, and Kelsey and I are completely hooked. The storytelling, the characters, the atmosphere—Lucha Underground just keeps delivering.

Welcome back to New to the Temple.

The New To Wrestling Podcast follows two friends who enjoy wrestling but are in different stages of their fandom. Xavier Cruz serves as your guide through generations of professional wrestling while Kelsey Silva experiences these matches for the first time. Climb into the ring weekly to relive the famous matches beginning with the Attitude Era!

Wrestling is real, and books are too! 📚

Welcome back to Reading the Ring, the New to Wrestling Podcast book club! Life has been life-ing, so Kelsey and I are taking a break from our regularly scheduled shenanigans this week. But don't worry, I'm not leaving you empty-handed.

This time, I'm diving into We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History by Bill Hanstock, a book that reminded me why I love professional wrestling while also reminding me just how ridiculous, complicated, and occasionally shady this business can be.

We're going all the way back to wrestling's carnival roots, where some of the traditions we still recognize today were born, before making our way through Vince McMahon's rise, the Monday Night Wars, the Attitude Era, and the evolution of WWE into a billion-dollar entertainment empire.

And because this is wrestling, things get weird.

We're talking about outrageous gimmicks, questionable business decisions, larger-than-life personalities, and some genuinely uncomfortable chapters of WWE history that don't always get the same attention as the company's greatest moments.

One of the things I appreciated most about this book is that it doesn't ask you to stop loving wrestling. It just asks you to look at the whole picture. The incredible stuff, the absurd stuff, and the things we'd probably rather not think about.

For longtime fans, there's plenty to revisit and reconsider. And for anyone who's newer to wrestling, I think this is a fantastic way to understand how this strange little world became what it is today.

So grab a book, get comfortable, and join me for a little wrestling history, some questionable characters, and probably more Vince McMahon discussion than any of us really need.

📚 This episode's book: We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History by Bill Hanstock.

🎙️ Watch or listen to the full episode of Reading the Ring on the New to Wrestling Podcast!

Wrestling is real, and books are too.

The New To Wrestling Podcast follows two friends who enjoy wrestling but are in different stages of their fandom. Xavier Cruz serves as your guide through generations of professional wrestling while Kelsey Silva experiences these matches for the first time. Climb into the ring weekly to relive the famous matches beginning with the Attitude Era!

Viewer discretion is advised—we are officially back in 1998, and I dragged Kelsey with me to WWF Fully Loaded 1998.

After spending some time in the Temple, we returned to the Attitude Era for a three-hour, nine-match pay-per-view that had us recording at midnight, questioning several life choices, and standing on business because we said we were going to watch it.

And honestly? For a show I kept putting off, this one kind of delivered.

Fully Loaded 1998 is a very strange mix of genuinely great wrestling, very 1998 nonsense, and moments that remind you nostalgia can be cute—but she is not always correct. I walked Kelsey through Val Venis making his pay-per-view debut against Jeff Jarrett, D’Lo Brown and X-Pac putting together a sneaky fun mid-card match, a completely bizarre tag situation with Terry Funk, Scorpio, Faarooq and Bradshaw, and a Vince McMahon-approved meat spectacle between Vader and Mark Henry.

But the real pillars of this show are easy.

Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock have a Dungeon Match in the Hart family basement that feels less like a wrestling match and more like found footage from a crime scene. The Rock and Triple H go nearly 30 minutes in a two-out-of-three-falls Intercontinental Championship match where you can feel two future stars fighting to steal the show. And in the main event, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker challenge Kane and Mankind for the Tag Team Championships, despite the fact that Austin and Taker absolutely do not trust each other.

Beautiful nonsense. Exactly what we came here for.

We also, unfortunately, have to talk about the Sable and Jacqueline bikini contest, Jerry Lawler being on his absolute worst behavior, and the parts of the Attitude Era that people love to conveniently edit out when they talk about how great everything used to be.

### In this episode:

- I bring Kelsey back to the Attitude Era after our New to the Temple detour
- We break down the full WWF Fully Loaded 1998 card
- Val Venis makes his pay-per-view debut against Jeff Jarrett
- Yamaguchi-san joins commentary and calls Jerry Lawler “Hamburger King”
- D’Lo Brown and X-Pac have a solid mid-card match with Chyna looking incredible
- Terry Funk, Scorpio, Faarooq and Bradshaw end up in one of the strangest tag pairings imaginable
- Vader and Mark Henry collide in a true big meat spectacle
- LOD and DOA continue fighting over Paul Ellering for reasons we are still trying to understand
- Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock have a Dungeon Match that feels fully illegal
- The Rock and Triple H wrestle like two future main-eventers trying to prove they are next
- We suffer through the Sable and Jacqueline bikini contest so you do not necessarily have to
- Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker challenge Kane and Mankind for the Tag Team Championships
- We continue asking the only question that matters: are they in cahoots?

If you’re going back to watch **Fully Loaded 1998**, my three match recommendations are simple: **The Rock vs Triple H**, **Austin & Undertaker vs Kane & Mankind**, and **Owen Hart vs Ken Shamrock in the Dungeon**.

Everything else? We’ll guide you through it.

The New To Wrestling Podcast follows two friends who enjoy wrestling but are in different stages of their fandom. Xavier Cruz serves as your guide through generations of professional wrestling while Kelsey Silva experiences these matches for the first time. Climb into the ring weekly to relive the famous matches beginning with the Attitude Era!