Lucha Underground 3×39: Ultima Lucha Tres – Part III

Matches

Sexy Star beat Taya in a last luchadora standing match (9:15, good)

The Mack, Killshot and Dante Fox beat Drago, Vibora and Pindar for the Lucha Underground Trios Championship (7:59, good, Killstomp on Pindar)

Pentagon Dark beat Son of Havoc in a ladder match for the Gift of the Gods (13:58, good)

Developments

Última Lucha is overstuffed with matches, leaving almost no time for vignettes. That was the case again this week, with the only out of the ring bit being a short but important tease at the end of the night.

The show opened with the conclusion of the Sexy Star and Taya last luchadora standing match. It was a brawl, mostly outside of the ring. Taya bled, but still seemed in control most of the match. Sexy Star eventually threw herself and Taya thru two tables, and only Sexy Star was able to get up at the count of nine to win.

The unlikely trio of Mack, Killshot and Dante Fox are the new Lucha Underground Trios champions. Dante didn’t get along with either of his partners early on, but both he and Killshot put aside their differences as they got closer to a win. The opposite happened to the Reptile Tribe, with Pindar not following Kobra Moon’s orders. Pindar was the one swarmed and beaten to cause the title change.

Pentagon defeated Son of Havoc in their ladder match to win the Gift of the Gods title. It appeared as though Pentagon was passing up his best chances at winning by setting up more ways to harm Son of Havoc. Pentagon still managed to knock Havoc to his doom and grab his belt. Striker went out of his way to note early on that the Gift of the Gods winner has to give proper notice to Dario so he can promote the title match. That seemed directed at those who expected Havoc or (now just) Pentagon to get involved in the Puma/Mundo match.

That match was the subject of that match. Prince Puma sat in Vampiro’s dojo as Vampiro urged him to defeat Mundo next week, saving Puma’s career and winning the championship. Puma agreed and left. A mystery voice congratulated Vampiro on a job well done, confirming Vampiro had been manipulating Puma all along to some end. It’s not clear why, but Vampiro refereed to the voice as his “master”.

Thoughts

Editing is a big part of Lucha Underground’s story, and a big pat of this episode. All the matches on this episode felt different live then on TV.

The main event sticks out the most. It was not a good match live. It was OK, but it was a lot of ladder construction spots that slowed the action, and no less than three different times where they redid a spot because they knew it could fixed later. They did fix that part (though even here, there’s still a lot of time spent setting up the props.) The big bumps cover up the lack of any real close calls to getting the belt; I wanted more of a competitive match and this turned into a stunt show. They salvaged it well.

They might have hurt the other two, though. Or maybe it’s the clock that hurt the Taya/Sexy Star match. In June 2016, I was not at all interested in this match. When they came out, I saw this a wonderful break, my chance to take a break from standing and craning my head around to see the action. It was around the time where they went flying into chairs where I finally gave up and realized I had to watch these two women killing each other. It felt like the did for a lot longer live than made TV, probably because there are only about 44 minutes in the day, but the episode did capture the intensity which made it memorable. Sexy Star winning was a notable source of controversy on that day, but it came across here as another match where Taya got over with a strong performance in a loss.

The amped up sound effects is one of the trademarks of this show, but the one match where it felt like maybe the audio wasn’t cranked up enough was the trios title match. The people in that Temple wanted Dante and Killshot to win so bad after the Hell of War, and reacted huge when they did. Maybe it just felt louder in the building, but it came off as a big genuine moment when they won. They at least left them enough time to hold their belts together, and the match itself was better then I recalled. Vibora (the tall one) seemed to get improve just went it was a little too late too matter.

Striker going out of his way to blame Pindar for losing the match seems random, but it matches up with the equally random bit of Matt Riddle saying Steve Pain had been fired from Lucha Underground way back last December. I guess we see if Pindar makes it thru next week intact, or if there’s a guy with a sword coming for him.

The opener was politically interesting too. At that point it happened, AAA was angry with Sexy Star, loved Taya, and would’ve switched that finish if they had control of those things in Lucha Underground. Lucha Underground did what they did either to show AAA doesn’t have that control or as a way to resolve Sexy Star’s feud with Worldwide Underground or maybe both, you decide. Almost exactly a year later, AAA decided they really loved Sexy Star and not so much Taya. Sexy Star is not with AAA now, but no one’s better at convincing promotions she’s worth their time and energy; no one’s better at selling the people in charge that she’s a Star. All logic says this is the last we see of Sexy Star, but all the history says it’s not.

Next Week

• 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