Lucha Underground 3×1: Wheel of Misfortune

I would not take this is I had six garages
I would not take this if I had a six car garage

matches

Matanza defeated Son of Havoc (7:35, Wrath of the Gods, great) – 6th defense
Sexy Star beat Taya to retain the Gift of the Gods (4:35, small package, OK) – 1st defense
Rey Mysterio Jr. beat Pentagon Dark (8:15, Mexican Destroyer, great)

developments

Havoc's knocked his block off
Havoc’s block knocked off

They’re back. And they’re really picking off just after they’ve left. There are a few signs time has passed, but there’s a sense of picking things up where they left off. Or even ten minutes before they left off. Dario Cueto is swiftly discharged from prison (including an unexpected Honky Tonk Man cameo), it’s revealed Limo Man and Lorenzo Llamas had something to do with it (and would have rather not been bothered), and Dario later tells Marty that he was innocent he’d prefer never to talk about it again. There are some things that seem like seeds for later: Limo Man is probably not going to let Dario forget it, and Dario offhandedly mentioned he met some people in prison. At the moment, it’s not an issue at the moment and the police are not seen.

Similarly, the Pentagon/Vampiro plot initially appears to be backed down. Vampiro starts of the show by declaring he’s not anyone’s master or teacher and doesn’t want to discuss Pentagon attacking him to end season 2. That doesn’t hold for the episode. Pentagon’s holding his own and close to winning the main event over Rey Mysterio, but leaves the ring to taunt Vampiro. Vampiro walks out. Pentagon is defeated shortly after, probably blowing his chance to win by spending time on Vampiro. Pentagon tries to get a immoral victory by breaking Rey’s arm, but Dragon Azteca makes the save. Dragon Azteca appears to be OK (no cast or sling) but obviously wants revenge on Pentagon for breaking his arm at Ultima Lucha 2.

20160907lu-2
Matanza just throwing people around is fun

Vampiro’s vow of not wanting to be anyone’s mentor itself only lasts about 50 minutes. He happens on a brooding Prince Puma, still running back his loss to Rey Mysterio. Vamp tries to talk to Puma, who’s not really interested. Vampiro tells him anyway that it’s Puma’s loss to Mil Muertes to end Season 1 that led to the rough Season 2, and Puma needs to avenge that win if he ever wants to rebound. Puma seemed to at least consider this, though he was surprised Vampiro wasn’t sending him after Pentagon.

Matanza seemed to weather his brother’s absence fine. He was in the ring at the start of the show, waiting for a title shot. Dario declared Matanza had defeated all the normal challengers, so they needed a new method of determining a challenger: Dario’s Dial of Doom. Dario had names of luchadors who had not yet gotten a shot at Matanza, but would be given one if the wheel stopped on their name. (A Matanza/Rey match was teased here, but Dario declared Rey not eligible for losing to Matanza at the end of in Aztec Warfare 2.) Dragon Azteca Jr., Mariposa, Chavo Guerrero, Dr. Wagner, Prince Puma, Son of Havoc, Johnny Mundo, Killshot and the Mack were on the wheel, with it stopping on Havoc. Havoc fought well and even landed his shooting star press, but Matanza kicked out and beat him cleanly. Striker emphasized how Matanza was a smarter more calculating fighter than we’d previously seen (and not the unhinged monster he was initially presented as.)

wrath of the gods
wrath of the gods

Johnny Mundo may get a title shot if they spin the wheel again, but he can’t get one by demanding it. He tried that with Dario, who laughed and pointed out he and the rest of Worldwide Underground lost at Ultima Lucha 2 and were not deserving. Mundo blamed the loss on Angelico, then revealed the group had destroyed Angelico after the show, which Dario had a good laugh about. Still, no title shot for them. Mundo asked for one against Sexy Star instead, figuring he’d just win the Gift of the Gods and cash it in. Dario again said no for the same reasons, but did note Taya had actually won at Ultima Lucha, and he’d give her that title match instead. Taya/Sexy Star was the briefest of the matches on the show. The match was still indecisive when Mundo came out to help, but his assistance backfired and Sexy cradled Taya for the pin (holding her in for much longer than three.) Sexy Star became the first person to successfully defend the Gift of the Gods championship. Worldwide Underground attacked her after the match, with Fenix, Aerostar and Drago making the save.

The Taya/Sexy Star match also featured a very direct and not subtle plug for From Dusk Till Dawn. Though more subtle than the beer ad with Hernandez.

sliiiiide
sliiiiide and knees

The person Taya beat back at Ultima Lucha, Ivelisse, was still unhappy about how that went down. Catrina cost her the match, which Ivelisse pointed out was the second time she had lost an Ultima Lucha. She didn’t want it to be a third and she wanted some revenge, so Ivelisse boldly challenged Catrina for a match at the next Ultima Lucha. Catrina profanely accepted. They have no idea when Ultima Lucha 3 will be at this point (but we know it’s 39 episodes away, sometime in June.)

We do know when one match is coming. Marty also came to Dario to ask for bigger things in Season 3, revealing to us that he and his family had been sending gifts to Dario while he was locked away. Dario thanked Marty, but told Martinez that he had unfinished business. Marty said he was done with Killshot, but Killshot had told Dario he wasn’t done with Marty. Dario decided to settle it next week with a first time ever match – a “Weapons of Mass Destruction” match. Marty seemed psychotically pleased with this concept and Dario got in on the fun.

Thoughts

all the spins
all the spins

Both the two showcase matches were very fun. There’s now a great tradition of really hot matches to start off a season and Pentagon/Rey & Havoc/Matanza fit in with them. Havoc/Matanza was up there was Cage/Matanza as the best match the monster has had. It seemed like they powered him down a little bit and are tweaking the character to make him more vulnerable. I’ll take the storyline not making a little sense for a little bit better matches. Havoc as a high flying underdog worked really well, and this was a more just ‘reward’ than his match with Wagner. Mysterio & Pentagon had great chemistry whenever they met in AAA, with Pentagon quickly establishing himself as Mysterio’s best (and maybe most favorite current) opponent. The outcome didn’t work out any better for Pentagon in LU than it did in AAA, but they did it in a way where he’s not too hurt by the loss. Maybe being stuck in Vampiro’s orbit hurts him more.

I wasn’t as thrilled with how quickly they seemed to run away from the big plot twists of Season 3. At least with Vampiro/Pentagon, they were making it clear that was still going on by the end of the show. Dario suddenly getting sent to jail seemed reversed within a couple minutes, with just allusions thrown to it the rest of the night. There’s enough hints that it may come up more later, but essentially it came off as if they needed an internal reason why there would be a break between episodes but didn’t want us to think too deeply about it. Maybe we’ll just need patience on this one.

superkick
superkick

Taya/Star was alright, just not given a lot of time to do much interesting. I liked Taya’s sliding dropkick deal; she seems to be picking up character touches the longer she’s in Lucha Underground (and because of taping out of order, that match was taped much longer after the other ones – about six weeks so.)

They put a lot of plot it motion for the first episode, and set up a big match for next week. It felt like a start up episode because they put so many things in motion, but it didn’t feel like they had been missing for long.

 

CMLL announces September 16th Legends show, Reyes del Aire, ROH and more

CMLL’s press conference today was not streamed live, but +LuchaTV, MedioTiempo, PlantillaDeportiva, Furia de Titanes and others all covered. CMLL has put some stuff on their Twitter but hasn’t posted anything in full on their website yet, and there was no official live stream, so I’m just trying to patch it together and may add more later.

The big showcase was the 09/16 legends show, as previously announced on the Anniversary show.

CMLL (FRI) 09/16/2016 Arena México
1) Estrellita, Marcela, Sanely vs Amapola, La Jarochita, La Metálica
2) Blue Panther, Kahoz, Negro Navarro vs Mano Negra, Solar I, Súper Astro
3) Fuerza Guerrera, Negro Casas, Satánico vs Atlantis, El Fantasma, Máscara Sagrada
4) Máscara Dorada vs Bárbaro Cavernario [lightning]
5) Pierroth, Rey Escorpión, Rush vs Euforia, Matt Taven, Último Guerrero
6) Cien Caras, Máscara Año 2000, Universo 2000 vs Canek, Dos Caras Sr., Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

Note: this has an early, 5pm CT starting time. (That’s 3.5 hours earlier than normal.)

The names coming back to Arena Mexico as one off on a national holiday will help the show draw well (much better than they do on other shows), but it seems weird to see the should-be-retired guys being pushed as bigger stars the current wrestlers. I’ve got no idea if Matt Taven is any kind of historic lucha libre fan, but that’s a wild show to be working.

Fantasma thanks the Lucha commission for allowing him to wrestle on a show inside his jurisdiction. (So I guess he thanked himself?) The unmasked guys may be allowed to wrestle in their masks – they appeared with them at this press conference – but it wasn’t made clear. Mano Negra will be on the same show as his daughter. He noted he could’ve never imagined such a thing would’ve happened. Many of the legends will be back on Informa this evening.

I’m not sure who the La Metalica is.  There is one in Guatemala, but not the group that works with CMLL. (I suppose it could be indie luchadora Felina Metalica, but I think she’s booked.) (Edit: It really is Felina Metalica.) Jarochita appearing on this show suggests she’s sticking with CMLL and not Elite, but I think it’s going to take a while for all of that to definitely shake out. There did not appear to be any mention of Caristico’s status or Elite at all, and it doesn’t appear they opened it up to questions.

Dorada appears to be around for a month longer at least, so there’s chance Dorada/Cavernario could set up something the following week or they’re getting folded into next week. CMLL announced Reyes del Aire, CMLL annual flyer competition, returns on September 23rd with a final on September 30th. A two week format usually means a cibernetico on the first week that ends with two remaining (and everyone is confused and boos) and a singles match the next week. This is usually one of the more exciting CMLL matches of the year; it can be very one dimensional, but that one dimension is done exceptionally well.

This year, Reyes del Aire a tie up with the Esto sports daily, celebrating their 75th anniversary, and they’ll be doing some ticket giveaways. Dragon Lee, Volador, Valiente and Maximo were introduced as participants. It’d be tough to do one of these in 2016 without Dragon Lee, but we already know he’s not in the final because he’s booked in Ring of Honor on the 30th.

CMLL also announced they’d be sending Ultimo Guerrero, Hechicero, and Okumura to Ring of Honor on 10/29, as part of ROH’s tournament for their new trios tournament. Valiente was also announced as going to Ring of Honor on this show, though ROH’s only confirmed the trios team.

A documentary on Arena Mexico will air on September 29th, on Canal 22, a public station.

There were also quite a few CMLL/other business tie ups, so many that I’m probably missing one.

(At the very least, hopefully this means a bigger variety of commercials in between matches.)

No mention of the Fox Sports Deportes deal or Dorada’s status or anything else, as far as I can tell.

Lucha Underground Season 3 starts tonight, Garza/Mundo on Heroes Inmortales, Titan/Mephisto

photo by CMLL
photo by CMLL

CMLL (TUE) 09/06/2016 Arena México [+LuchaTV, CMLL, CultIcon, Yahoo! Deportes]
1) Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia b Fantasy & Último Dragóncito LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
2) Cancerbero, Metálico, Raziel b Flyer, Magnus, Sensei LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
3) Disturbio, Puma, Skándalo b Hombre Bala Jr., Oro Jr., Star Jr. LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Star Jr. replaced Super Halcon during the week.
4) Sagrado b The Panther [lightning] LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
The Panther replaced Star Jr. during the week. Sagrado won in 6:55.
5) Bobby Z, Dragón Rojo Jr., Pólvora b Blue Panther, Esfinge, Guerrero Maya Jr. LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
6) Atlantis, Stuka Jr., Titán b Cavernario, Mephisto, Último Guerrero LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES EN LA ARENA MEXICO 6 DE SEPTIEMBRE DEL 2016 (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Tecnicos took 2/3. Titan asked for a title match against Mephisto.

I have not seen this show and reviews were not too strong. Titan doesn’t get his match quite yet.

A few days later, CMLL’s website notes everyone is still unsure of what’s next for La Mascara and Los Ingobernables, and even goes as far as speculating about Rush, La Mascara and Sombra reuniting based off the photo. That would be welcome but seems unlikely.

Today is the debut of Lucha Underground Season 3, on El Rey at 7pm CT. The only repeat follows immediately after, as it did last season. (El Rey was added to Verizon FIOS in between seasons; maybe double check to see if you’ve got it now if you didn’t have it before.) This first episode is named “Wheel of Misfortune”. Matches announced:

  • Rey Mysterio versus Pentagon Dark

Pretty much nothing else announced, but probably the usually three match. There’s probably a wheel, it will be spun, I’m guessing it won’t end well based on that name.

These episodes were taped starting in March. For context, matches on this show were taped before Ultima Lucha 2 last season, before Matanza’s first official match. This season is completely taped, maybe with a little bit of feedback from Season 2 to adjust things, but a lot of taking guesses on what will work and won’t work based on the reaction of the fans in the building and their own internal guesses. It’s a challenge – they had to have confidence to pick their own directions and go with them, and hope they’ve chosen well.

The Last Real Heels had Chris DeJospeh on this past week to talk about various Lucha Underground things. You should listen to it yourself to get a better idea on some of these things.

DeJospeh noted they were originally planning for Season 3 to be a 26 or 27 episode season, and it got expanded to 40  early during the season. This meant the most intense amount of taping they’ve done before, and a lot of planning/replanning to add to the early portion of the season, as well as working around everyone’s schedule. (You can see this in the taping results; there’s stuff taped as late as May that seems to belong to the first few shows.) It sounds like this was hard, but DeJoseph feels like they got it all worked out.

DeJoseph sees Season 2 & Season 3 as one big 60+ episode season, as they build into each other stronger. There’s no specific theme statement like “a much darker place” with Season 2, but a pattern of people’s past coming back to haunt them.

The stuff I always like is the What If kind of stuff – the alternate world where Marty the Moth ended up as Mil Muertes got brought up on Twitter yesterday. On the podcast, DeJoseph mentioned AR Fox was originally supposed to be part of the Crew, and Famous B’s also auditioned for a role on the Crew. (Lucha Underground wanted Fox for a while, but I believe the situation was he had a deal with Evolve and wasn’t free until Season 3. LU & Evolve seemed to have ill feelings over that and a similar situation with Prince Puma, resulting in Evolve being off limits to LU guys – until recently, so maybe everyone’s friends now.) They had been working on ideas for Taya for a while, even considering her for the Kobra Moon and Mariposa roles, before just realizing she had great chemistry with Johnny Mundo and they could play male/female versions of each other. It had been a plan to create a Mundo group and that fit in with it.

Famous B & Vinny Massaro were mentioned as guys who kept showing up every weekend, looking to help out, and they had wanted to do something with them. Famous B would wear suits to the tapings, which gave them the manager idea. They’re really happy how he’s run with the character.

There was a brief mention of a character storyline from a previous season that they wanted to follow up into Season 3, but couldn’t find a way to make it work and ended up holding it back for later. That seems to be the general long term planning: they have more ideas they can use, so some end up filed away for another day, and they have broad ideas of where they’d like to be with characters in the future, but they’re letting it play out rather than planning details years in advance.

DeJoseph said he’s heard there will be news on touring soon. I’ve heard similar things; nothing wide spread or far reaching, don’t get your hopes on this, but a show or two close enough that they should be announced soon.

LuchaMania Monterrey posted their recap of ColiseoMania. They earlier posed video of a Roberto Figueroa & Dorian Roldan in-ring segment to hype Heroes Inmortales. Or at least they attempted to; they instead got heckled by the fans to distraction. The big matches announced were Johnny Mundo defending the Latin American championship against Garza Jr.  and – at a long last – Australian Suicide putting up his mask against Daga’s hair. AAA hasn’t mentioned those announcements yet; they’re either coming on TV, or the full card will be announced after the Hard Rock Hotel show (where both two matches look to be built up.)

Rocky Santana and Herejia have a “loser leaves Arena Lopez Mateos” match on Sunday. I assume Herejia is losing, because this would be a harsh way to send off Santana (who’s been there forever.)

Villano IV says he plans on retiring masked, maybe soon, unless there’s some big show where he can face Psycho Clown. (Via R de Rudo.)

Aerostar talks about winning the tag team titles.

In an interview in Tijuana over the weekend, Psycho Clown was sure his mask match with Dr. Wagner would happen, and hopes to be in Lucha Underground soon.

A new movie in the style of the Santo movies is being filmed in the Dallas area (including some familiar wrestler names.) They’re raising money on indiegogo.

Apolo Valdes gives his thoughts on the Anniversary show.

Cross ArmBreaker reviews Trauma I vs Canis Lupus.

Kcidis draws what’s next for Dragon Lee and La Mascara.

German Sanchez says he wants to make the 2020 Olympics, so he can go watch some puroresu in Tokyo.

Croncias y Leyendas writes about Lady Chicana, the other other luchadora daughter of Sangre Chicana.

Lineup

PWR (SAT) 09/10/2016 Terrnenos de la Feria, Napa, California
1) Styker Green vs Karl Fredricks
2) Pantera Jr., Psymon Cross, Zucarita vs Cazador Del Alma, Grappler III, Memo Cuevas
3) Arkady Federov vs Último Panda
4) Thunder Rosa & Vaquero Fantasma vs Gallo Tapado Jr. & Lady Apache
5) Nicole Savoy vs Christina Von Eerie © [PWR WOMEN]
6) Phoenix Star & Zokre vs Border Patrol I & Border Patrol II
7) Misterioso (California) vs Carístico [PWR OPENWEIGHT]

This is an iPPV on FiteTV for $10.

CMLL (TUE) 09/13/2016 Arena México
1) Leono & Sensei vs Camorra & Cholo
2) Astral, Eléctrico, Stukita vs Demus 3:16, Pequeño Nitro, Pequeño Violencia
3) Blue Panther, Fuego, Pegasso vs Misterioso Jr., Okumura, Sagrado
4) Esfinge vs Pólvora [lightning]
5) Guerrero Maya Jr., Johnny Idol, Rey Cometa vs Bobby Z, Sam Adonis, Vangellys
6) Dragón Lee, Rush, Titán vs Dragón Rojo Jr., Luciferno, Mephisto

Rush & Dragon Lee being on the team should be the story, but it’s probably more Titan/Mephisto. Luciferno in a main event. Nice to see Stukita.

CMLL (TUE) 09/13/2016 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Capitán Cobra & Johnny Dinamo vs Diplomático & Linterna
2) Magnus, Robin, Starman vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Cancerbero, Raziel
3) Estrellita, Marcela, Silueta vs Amapola, Dalys, Tiffany
4) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Stuka Jr. vs Kráneo, Olímpico, Ripper
5) Marco Corleone, Máximo Sexy, Volador Jr. vs Rey Bucanero, Shocker, Terrible

Marco & Terrible matched up again, so maybe they’re leading somewhere. Silueta gets another home game as she comes back from injury.

Cara Lucha (FRI) 09/16/2016 Arena San Juan Pantitlan, Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Estado de México
1) ? & Hijo de Clímax vs Imperio Negro & Ying Sang
2) Sky Man vs Toxin
3) Fly Warrior & Rayo Star vs Toro Negro II & Toro Negro III and Corsario Negro & Drako
4) Bryan Villa, Gallo (Jalisco), Willy Banderas vs Templario, Trauma II, Wasson
5) Hijo de Pirata Morgan vs Rush, Trauma I
6) Danger vs Makabre vs Toro Negro Jr. [hair]

This is a slightly early show – 4:30pm start- which makes me think Rush may be trying to work another show on this night and they started early to help him out. This isn’t the usual talent list, with a lot of the indies names pulled elsewhere (Elite?). There must not be a lot going on in Guadalajara on this day, since Mucha Lucha is sending guys. Gallito is listed with Gallo.

Pirata on this show means someone in AAA just won a free trip the beach.

AAA Rosales (FRI) 09/16/2016 Arena Naucalpan
1) ? vs ??
2) ? vs ??
3) Atomic Boy, Mary Apache, Niño Hamburguesa vs Ángel de la Noche, La Hiedra, Máscarita Negra
4) Angélico, Dizzy, La Parka vs Dark Cuervo, Dark Scoria, Zorro
5) Psycho Clown vs Pagano, Pentagón Jr. [bull terrier]

A rare late show on the 16th, starting at 8pm. That’s because of the schedule – the main event guys are listed as working at least three shows. (Cards may be subject to change; the other ones have people listed who are also on the TV taping.) Psycho, Pagano and Pentagon are listed as working all three cards.

CMLL VOD: 2016-09-03 (83rd Anniversary show)

Dragon Lee
Dragon Lee

Recapped: 09/05/2016

What happened: Dragon Lee unmasked La Mascara. La Mascara may have lost his mask but regained Rush back as a friend – it wasn’t totally clear, but they ended the night as friends.

Rey Bucanero took Super Crazy’s hair. Sky Team kept the trios titles.

What was good: I really liked the trios title match and the mask match. Some of the undercard stuff was good. Super Crazy/Rey Bucanero made me sad, and not in ways what made me grade it highly even though they tried very hard.

Where can I watch it: It’s on CMLL’s channel for $3USD. Read More