matches
Prince Puma (c) beat Johnny Mundo [5-4] in an “All Night Long” Iron Man match (38:33)
– Puma casadora cradle (5:19)
- Mundo back bridge cradle w/ropes (9:20)
- Mundo pinfall after crowbar to the head (13:58)
- Mundo Moonlight Drive (14:31)
- Mundo Fin de Mundo (15:28)
- Prince Puma pinfall after spearing Mundo off the stage thru four tables (28:23)
- Prince Puma spinning Michinoku Driver (30:06)
- Prince Puma springboard 450 splash (34:07)
- Prince Puma 630 senton (38:26)
developments
Not much! They were completely sincere about it being a one match show. There were no other matches, there were no vignettes, there were no trips to Dario. Dario wasn’t seen, but it was suggested he would get involved should this end in a tie.
It did not, though it might have if a certain San Luis Potosi native kept talking. Johnny Mundo attempted to run out the clock by running away from Puma. Alberto el Patron returned to cut off Mundo and beat him from one side of the building to the other (literally) and threw him back in to set up Puma’s tying pinfall. Alberto declared he was not done with Mundo and coming after Puma next. Alberto left the two with four minutes left. Mundo had a couple close near falls, but Puma landed his 630 senton for a pin with about 7 seconds left, and neither guy was able to move as time ran out.
Puma got the first pinfall, but Mundo built a big early lead after smacking Puma with a crowbar (pulled from under the win) and hitting big moves on Puma as Puma was unable to recover. The long gap between pinfalls was spent in the aisle, in the bleachers, and even up on the band’s stand – with Puma spearing Mundo off onto four tables which had been set up earlier. Puma fared slightly better on the fall, and was eventually able to drag Mundo back to the ring, where he got the second and third pinfall. Mundo ran, Alberto came in, and you’ve already read the rest.
Puma defends the title next at Ultima Lucha against the winner of next week’s Drago versus Mil Muertes match.
thoughts
This was a really good match, among the best in the history of the show. I didn’t find it one of the best – Aztec Warfare had more story, Grave Consequences felt more epic – but this was pretty enjoyable. The difficulty was needing to stretch it for 42 minutes mean they had a slower first ~18 minutes than you’d expect out of them (when most of the matches are 17 minutes themselves.) An Iron Man match is more often seen on PPV, and it’s tougher to stay with when there are commercials breaking up the action every few minutes. These commercials seemed weighed more heavily towards the first half of the show, which allowed the big unbroken stretch at the end but further exacerbated the slower than normal start. I think this match is going to feel stronger when seen unbroken (by which I mean DVR or uVideos and definitely not some other source.)
The big spots were really good. The crowbar spot looked brutal. The crowd fighting was as chaotic as usual. The fall thru four tables should be part of every Season 1 recap package. Alberto brought the rage (and it was interesting that even though Mundo turned, Puma and Mundo still had a level of respect – at least to start.) The high points of the match itself were laid out nicely, there was just a lot of match to lay them out over.
One positive that didn’t pop up to me until writing the recap: plenty of matches on Lucha Underground have ended by pinfall without someone hitting their finish. There are a lot of moves that can ‘work’ for 3. A WWE Iron Man feels weird when ‘other’ moves can are suddenly collecting pinfalls, but it felt completely normal for both guys to be using other spots to win.
Matt Striker has gotten criticism for his lack of intensity in critical situations. That was not a problem here, as he did well getting over the urgency of the last few minutes of the match. Even his compulsion to drop references worked out well here, putting over the near falls as past championship winners.