Day: September 20, 2017

Lucha Underground 3×36: The Rise of the Ring Announcer

thecubsfan
Fenix is an unheralded mixed tag wrestler

Matches

Dante Fox beat Texano (5:39, inside cradle, good)

Mariposa & Marty the Moth beat Melissa Santos & Fenix (9:18, spike pedigree on Melissa Santos, good)

Son of Havoc & Pentagon Dark won a seven way Gift of Gods match with Saltador, Paul London, Mala Suerte, Cortez Castro and Drago (6:37, Havoc SSP on London & Pentagon package piledriver on Saltador, good)

Developments

This was the final episode prior to Ultima Lucha, and a last chance to move a lot of pieces in place. There were many matches made for the showcase four episodes. Some were set up on this show. Some were just announced. I was suspicious Sexy Star/Taya was only mentioned in passing because it was really supposed to have been announced on social media and and that plan got dropped once Sexy became a non-person. Maybe not, since there were a other matches which were only acknowledged in passing during commentary or during the big rundown in the middle of the show.

this didn’t go as well for Melissa

Three more were made during the night. Famous B took over ring announcing for the night, and his premature announcement of Texano as the winner distracted him into an inside cradle. (It wasn’t clear if Famous B messed up, or purposelessly cost Texano the match. He seemed unbothered by the real outcome.) Texano tried to break Famous B for costing him another match, but Dario intervened: he needed Famous B for the rest of the night. Dario offered Texano a match with B next week, but Texano will have let Famous B manage him should he lose the currently one armed B. Meanwhile, the announcers were falling over each other to praise Dante Fox as a break out star following his recent performances.

The Gift of the Gods match ended the night. The usual medal ceremony was held in Dario’s office. We only saw Havoc and Pentagon place theirs, with Havoc vowing to get cash in right away to get that Ultima Lucha 3 spot he thought he had last year, and Pentagon vowing to break everyone’s arm. Neither man turned out to be right. The seven way was everyone for themselves, with the Rabbit Tribe willing to fight each other at times. Pentagon was dominant at the end, laying out both Saltador and Paul London. When Pentagon went to finish off Saltador with the package piledriver, Havoc landed on London with a shooting star press, and the referee counted both men down at the same time. (Seemed notable that Vampiro was sure Pentagon won, flipping his usual negativity towards his ex-protege. Striker saw it as a draw.) Dario Cueto swiftly sorted it out: there has to be one Gift of the Gods winner, so the tie breaker will be Pentagon versus Havoc in a ladder match with the belt on the line.

The other match was made just as quick. Cage seems to be mind controlled by the gauntlet pretty quick to us, but Dario is concerned it’s not happening fast enough or at all, and that’s why he stole it back last week. (Maybe Delgado’s death shook him up?) Dario’s got approval from his associates for a Cage, Mil Muertes and Jeremiah Crane three way match. He figures Muertes & Crane will be sucked into the gauntlet’s power much quicker. If Cage still wins, they’ll try “ascension” on him anyway, And if that fails, Dario’s okay with Limo Guy just destroying cage. Yes, Limo Guy made a cameo for the first time in months (and we saw Agent Winter again.) All the match announcements made it fell like a big show, but that overarching plot coming back in made it feel like a show coming to a head. Or an end.

king me legdrop

The other matches for Ultima Lucha mentioned include Killshot vs Dante Fox in the Hell of War, a best of three fall match with different stipulations in each fall. Ivelisse versus Catrina is on after all. (This was done in a post-edited voice over; I believe they didn’t know if Ivelisse was going to be able to go until just a bit before the match, and that’s why they dropped mentioning it for so long.) Finally, El Dragon Azteca Jr. made a typically unwise decision and will face Matanza in a cage match. Azteca’s going for revenge on Rey Mysterio, and that mention of revenge was the only time Rey’s name came up on the show.

The middle match was the debut of Melissa Santos, teaming with Fenix against Mariposa and Marty Martinez. An opening show vignette showed Fenix training Melissa, had them flirt, and revealed Melissa still hasn’t seen Fenix with his mask off. Melissa did kinda reveal Marty’s plan is not going to work, she insists she’s into Fenix with or without the mask, but Fenix doesn’t quite believe the same. Fenix also didn’t really believe he wanted Melissa to wrestle here, keeping her out of the match for most of the way. (Fenix’s unwillingness to see women hurt also extended to Mariposa temporarily, though he got over it.) Fenix finally tagged Melissa in for a run of double teams, but she was trapped in the ring when the butterflies took out Fenix and tied him to the ropes. They finished Melissa easy. Marty went to fork Melissa in the head, only for Fenix to break free in time to put a stop to it.

Thoughts

This was a really good episode. All the matches were good, if nothing outstanding, and they did a strong job of building up Ultima Lucha as an epic event with really important stakes.

Texano/Dante was the usual Texano level good match with a few neat Fox spots until the cheap ending. At least the distraction finally leads to a conclusion to that. The announcers were in on Dante as hard as anyone since Pentagon’s first armbreaking rise. It’s sudden, but it’s deserved. On the other hand, I think LU might pick gimmicks on which professions best lend themselves to extended word play and references, and the idea of another War themed match seems like it might be rough after how they ran the puns into the ground with the last one.

“jumper” jumping

LU made Melissa come off as a big deal, they laid out her spots to make her look impressive (and shot them in a way to protect her) and used her to ramp up emotions of the Marty/Fenix match even more. The fans are so into Melissa that I was half surprised no fan tried to rush the ring for the save; good thing they don’t tape in Mexico. This show is crazy enough that Marty actually forking Melissa didn’t even seem impossible. Marty isn’t naturally a great base for Fenix’s trickier offense, but they’ve built his danger up enough that the the emotions are going to carry the action.

The seven way match was almost only a series of one on ones. They kept the pace high that way and it was good action, even if it meant a lot of people selling on the outside. It was really good action while it lasted, and it just lacked some bigger moments for me to rate it higher. There wasn’t the Mala Suerte/Cortez Castro sequence or team up I was so hoping for, but they did give us a whole lot of Saltador looking awesome. Most of his (various) character time on this show has been about blending or losing badly, but he was impressive given the chance. The finishing draw came off perfectly on TV. It’s a little forced to get there, but it does helpfully give them a reason not to cash into the title match immediately.

Dante rolling

Ultima Lucha 3

episode 102 (September 27, Ultima Lucha Week 1)

  • Texano vs Famous B, Texano must join Infamous Inc. if he loses.

  • Killshot vs Dante Fox, in the Hell of War

episode 103 (October 4, Ultima Lucha Week 2)

  • (a match that hasn’t been announced)

  • Fenix vs Marty the Moth, mask vs hair

  • Ivelisse vs Catrina

episode 104 (October 11, Ultima Lucha Week 3)

  • Taya vs Sexy Star, last luchadora standing

  • Pentagon Dark vs Son of Havoc for the Gift of the Gods Championship in a Ladder match.

episode 105 (October 18, Ultima Lucha Week 4, the end?)

  • (a match that hasn’t been announced)

  • Cage vs Jeremiah Crane vs Mil Muertes for the gauntlet

  • El Dragon Azteca Jr. vs Matanza Cueto in a cage match

  • Johnny Mundo (c) vs Prince Puma, title versus career for the Lucha Underground championship

lucha libre on hold following Mexico City earthquake, LU

thecubsfan

Lucha libre in Mexico is largely on pause following yesterday’s 7.1 earthquake in Puebla. Last night’s CMLL Arena Mexico show was canceled following earthquake, which brought building to the ground in Mexico City. This earthquake took place on the 32nd anniversary of an 8.0 earthquake in Mexico. Many places in Mexico City had or were in the middle of earthquake drills when then actual earthquake happened. The city is forever affected by the 85 earthquake – every building has exit signs in case of an earthquake, building codes were changed – but there’s still significant damage to many buildings in the city and in the rest of Mexico. It’s helped some amount, but there’s still obviously going to be a significant death toll when this is over. Mexico is still digging out today; the twitter feeds I follow that usually talk about lucha libre are passing along notices about volunteers needed at different locations, trying to reunite children and elderly with their families, and passing along emergency contact info.

CMLL’s arenas are said to be undamaged. They didn’t run because the city asked them, asked all big public shows, to go dark for the night in effort to clear the streets of as many unneeded people as usual. CMLL will probably run Friday if things settle down, though it’s possible they’ll need to pass an inspection before they can reopen to the public. CMLL hasn’t announced Informa is canceled today but assume it is.

(FWIW: The last canceled Arena Mexico show was the 07/21/2012 show, due to a protest around the nearby Televisa building. The last canceled CMLL DF show was a 09/01/2013 Arena Coliseo show due to a march, with a never rescheduled Hiroshi Tanahashi/Atlantis match as the match planned.)

The Guadalajara show went on as a scheduled. The DF wrestlers were already on the bus heading out there when the earthquake happened, and that location was unaffected by the earthquake. There’s no word about Arena Puebla, but it’s not mentioned among the buildings which were damaged in that city.

The DTU show scheduled in Morelos, near the epicenter of the earthquake, is canceled. The local promoter says the building seems fine, but has to be inspected before they can run an event and that’s not going to get done in time. Refunds are being offered at point of purchase. The Mexico City ExpoLucha show scheduled for Saturday is also canceled.

MedioTiempo has a roundup of fundraising activities. Polvora and Dragon Rojo are collecting donations of supplies at Arena Mexico today, and others will be doing the same at Arena Naucalpan. DTU will be collection food on it’s upcoming shows. Arena Kalaka in Ciudad is holding a show tonight to raise money to send to Mexico City; Pagano will be part of that show. AAA edecan Bere will be signing autographs and taking photos tonigth in exchange for donations at Super Astro’s restaurant. There will likely be places for money donations in upcoming days.

Tonight’s Lucha Underground is episode 36 of the 40 episode season, entitled “The Rise of the Ring Announcer”. Matches on the show

  • Dante Fox vs Texano (clip)
  • Marty the Moth & Mariposa vs Fenix & Melissa Santos
  • Gift of the Gods championship match: Pentagon Dark vs Son of Havoc vs Drago vs Cortez Castro vs Paul London vs Saltador vs Mala Suerte

This is the final show of the June 12th taping, the last taping Rey Mysterio attended. He had a family obligation during Ultima Lucha weekend. If there’s going to be any resolution to Rey being dragged off by Matanza, it probably airs tonight (though they could and have aired things out of order.) The rest of the season is Ultima Lucha 3.

The preview says “More Ultima Lucha plans are made”; I’d expect we finally get the full list of Ultima Lucha matches after this. That main event seems like it should have an effect on the already announced Puma/Mundo match. Pentagon already believes he’s winning the Gift of the Gods in this promo and he’s not alone.

Melissa wrestling means Lucha Underground is short one ring announcer for the night.

10/21 Lucha Libre y Pasion in Arena San Juan

There’s a lucha libre expo scheduled for Oaxaca this weekend. That one appears to be still be on, with the idea of raising money for those suffering from the earlier earthquake this month.

A show on 09/30 in Arena Olimpica Laguna is listed as a Jerry Estrada farewell show. Feels like there’s been some of those in the past.

Segunda Caida doesn’t recommend the Warriors vs Terry/Diablo IWRG tag title match.

Lineups

ACG (SAT) 09/30/2017 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) El Alteño, Javier Cruz Jr., Johnny Dinamo vs Demonio Rojo, Linterna, Thunder Boy
2) El Rielero, Explosivo, Mágico vs Gran Kenut, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno
3) Silueta vs La Pantera [lightning]
4) Omar Brunetti & Vaquero Jr. vs Joker & Sádico and Esfinge & Magnum and Frezzer & Furia Roja
5) Flash, Flash I, Flash II, Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Ángel Negro, Ráfaga, Ráfaga Jr., Satánico

This is a benefit show for children suffering from cerebral palsy.