Matches
Cage defeated Texano, Dr. Wagner & Joey Ryan [X] (8:37, Texano powerbomb→Cage stealing the pin, good) in a Battle of the Bulls Semifinal
Sexy Star defeats PJ Black (6:28, ok, sunset flip into inside cradle )
The Mack b Mil Muertes, Dragon Azteca, Marty Martinez [X] in a Battle of the Bulls Semifinal (8:36, running stunner on Marty, good)
Developments
After some weeks of lots of unconventional drama, this week’s episode of Lucha Underground was more of a traditional wrestling show. A tournament, new feuds, and the back story of the Snake Tribe army. Maybe that last one isn’t so normal.
Dario had a busy, if unhappy night, setting up matches for the future. There’s a lack of contenders with Matanza unwilling to take his rematch, so Cueto took a couple steps to get Mundo some opponents. First, Sexy Star was given a match against PJ Black, where she’d get a cage match with Mundo if she won, and be denied any more shots if she lost. She won, of course, thanks to some botched interference from Jack Evans and will get that cage match at some point in the future.
Dario’s other plan to determine a challenger is a 16 person tournament called the “Battle of the Bulls.” It’s a series of four way matches, one fall to a finish, with the winners facing off in another four way for a title shot. Cage won the first semifinal to open the show, and the Mack got a bit of a surprise win in the second semifinal.
We know Angelico will be in one of the semifinals next week. Dario offered him the spot in lieu of getting him the direct shot at Mundo he wants, forcing Angelico to earn the chance instead. We know Matanza won’t be in the tournament. He originally had Dragon Azteca’s spot, but is set on facing Mysterio and Mysterio only. That’s not happening any time soon, as Mysterio is out injured after Matazna’s attack. Dario used Azteca as showcase of what could happen to Matanza if he stays focused only revenge: this was Dragon Azteca’s first match in nearly two months because he was so set on revenge against Chavo Guerrero that it got his head nearly caved in. Matanza responded to this thought by grabbing Dario’s head, bashing into it into the cage, and using the key to free himself. Matanza decided Mysterio’s protege was the next best thing to Rey and attacked him in the main event. A bloody Dario appeared to lead Matanza away with the key. The interference still cost Azteca the win, though Azteca was in the process of costing it himself by not going for a pin when he should’ve.
We also know the Texano/Cage Best of 5 is still ongoing, though it doesn’t seem to be going on right now. They’d have to sneak in match four next week to keep going, because Cage is going to be busy with this tournament final soon enough. Texano & Cage did keep the issue going by feuding in their match.
In a scene disconnected from everything else, Kobra Moon gave her side of the breakup with Drago: there was a Snake Tribe war against an enemy, one of the generals (Drago) abandoned them, and they lost badly. Kobra, sitting on a new snake throne and apparently now the Queen of her tribe, revealed two soldiers who had survived. One was a reptile, one was a dinosaur looking guy, and both are going after Drago in revenge.
One more plot moved slightly alone: Officer Cortez, with an arm in a sling, reported back to the captain that his cover was blown. The captain has figured out enough about Joey not to trust him to be in their alone, so she pulled a mask out of her drawer and encouraged Cortez to go back while hiding his identity. Sneaking a guy who’s been seen under a mask to hide his identity seems so unlikely to work in Lucha Underground, but I guess it’s worth a shot. I just want to know why Captain Vazquez had a mask sitting in her desk.
Thoughts
I don’t think I have all that many. Both tournament matches were all right. The first one was more all over the place and didn’t settle in for quite some time, with most of the focus on Texano & Cage. I liked the second one a bit more, though it was still nothing super memorable. The Mack is getting some attention suddenly, having finished third at Aztec Warfare, moving to the final here, and being Sexy Star’s one friend. He’s not normally a contender, but he could work as a challenger against Sexy or Mundo at the moment.
Sexy Star/PJ Black was a pile of whatever. It was fine, I guess. Sexy’s supposed to be resilient, taking all the offense from PJ but refining to give up. In practice, it comes off as she’s just giving up selling at points, popping back to life perfectly fine to get in her offense. Sexy can’t seem to win or lose by herself; it’s weird they she could beat Muertes but they had to do the Jack interference to protect PJ. I’m really done with Sexy Star singles matches. There’s so many more interesting people they could be spending time on instead of her. There was no way she was losing this match, but there’s no interest in having her beat Mundo. Even if I liked her wrestling, there’s so many other people to see.
The Kobra Moon ex plainer looked great, but she came off stilted. Maybe it was something with the editing, because there were many different camera switches and transition bits during it. For what it’s worth, the Snake Tribe friends are new people to the program, not ditched wrestlers being recycled. The Dario/Matanza was really well done. Matanza attacking his brother made sense but was a surprise when it happened, and they left Dario’s status unclear until he popped up in the main event. I guess Matanza will find someone else to play with while he’s waiting for Rey, but they’re keeping him far away from the title for the moment.
