Lucha Underground 4×6: Break the Machine

the spin makes it hurt more

Matches

Dezmond X beat Paul London (4:14, bodyscsissors cradle, ok) for an Aztec Medallion
The Mack won a battle royal over King Cuerno, Ivelisse, Dezmond X, Dragon Azteca, Mil Muertes, Son of Havoc (2:01, ok)
Vibora beat Johnny Mundo (8:51, twisting chokeslam, good)
Pentagon Dark beat Brian Cage to keep the Lucha Underground championship (6:46, package piledriver, good)

Status Check

Champion: Pentagon Dark
Gift of the Gods: vacant
Aztec Medallions: Dragon Azteca Jr., King Cuerno, Ivelisse, the Mack, Son of Havoc, Mil Muertes, Dezmond X
Trios Champions: Killshot, the Mack, Son of Havoc
Died This Season (6): Jeremiah Crane (casket), Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed), Cortez Castro (sacrificed), Máscarita Sagrada (murdered by Rabbits)

Happenings

Dezmond headscissors

This was not a big week of shakeups on Lucha Underground, but everything else seemed a little bit off from normal.

Take the opener. Paul London and the Rabbit Tribe were off – apparently a darker Rabbit Tribe after last week’s murder – and figured to beat the Dezmond X. Instead, X won cleanly and earned the final Medallion. Antonio Cueto proceeded directly to the ceremony of placing all the Medallions in the belt directly after, something that hasn’t been seen in-arena for a while. (During this, Matt Striker mentioned that some of the luchadors had been hearing about this belt since they were young, which doesn’t seem to fit with Dario coming up with the idea three seasons ago.) All seven luchadors where assembled in the ring when Antonio explained he didn’t like the number seven and ordered an immediate battle royal. The winner would get to pick one person to be eliminated from next week’s title match. Mil Muertes destroyed everyone until Havoc and Mack teamed up to send him out, so, after Havoc eliminated himself to give Mack the victory, the Mack wisely decided to eliminate Muertes. Muertes proceeded to destroy everyone for this offense except for Mack. Mack’s in the Gift of the Gods match next week and has a beating from Mil coming at some point.

The title match also felt a little bit off. It was not much longer than the Penta/Mantaza match, with Penta just getting in the right position to kick off for his Destroyer/package piledriver melody. That was enough to put down the Machine for the win, but not enough to put Cage done for the arm break. Cage ended up giving Penta a F5 on the belt, and the title match hasn’t ended this feud.

The Reptile Tribe versus Worldwide Underground feud is not close to over. The Vibora/Johnny Mundo match saw Taya, Kobra Moon, PJ Black, Drago, Daga and Ricky Mundo all get involved and brawl even after the match was over. In between, Vibora beat Mundo relatively clean in by far his longest match in this promotion. That didn’t get anyone closer to settling it.

The only vignette tonight saw XO Licious having some Flashdance fantasies post workout, without realizing Jack Evans was stalking him. Ricky Mundo found Jack, upset he wasn’t part of the previous brawl. Jack was annoyed about Ricky and his creepy doll Rosa. Jack walked off, and Rosa suggested doing to Jack what they did to Angelico. It’s still unclear what that is, but it doesn’t seem like they bought him a first-class flight to Europe and one of those neck pillows.

Thoughts

Mundo diving into nothingness

This was an OK show. It was hurt a little bit because Penta & Cage wasn’t the epic that some Lucha Underground title matches have been, and that’s becoming a pattern with Penta title matches this season. The post-match was a tease for more, and maybe they were saving something back for whenever that’ll be happening.

Dezmond X(avier)’s lack of creativity in character was surpassed in the ring, where he got to show some cool offense with newly evil Paul London. The Rabbit Tribe doing not a lot more besides London in a black outfit seemed a little let down after last week’s bit. Maybe they’ll get to it later, and maybe they didn’t want London to lose in a bigger match quite yet. Mil being taken out of the Gift of Gods match was transparently that way, something where Mil isn’t going to be challenging soon but they didn’t want him to take another loss. They’re definitely setting up a Mack/Muertes feud, and that’s not a pairing I would’ve expected.

The battle royal wasn’t much of a match and the Medallion presentation ate up a lot of time on a show with a hurried main event. It makes sense for the overall picture because it gave an opening for Striker to explain/re-explain some ideas about the tribes and the Medallions. If they’re going heavy on the series lore, this show could use a bit more of that. Someone must’ve thought the show needed some late changes; there was a lot of Striker commentary obviously redone after the fact, and the crowd booing Cage after his attack sounded faker than usual.

Vibora’s been a Johnny Mundo project during the “off season.” It wasn’t a big surprise this match took place, so they could do it for ‘real’. All the interference meant these two were wrestling for less than the time would indicate, but Vibora did look a lot better than the last time we saw him. I mean, he could barely put one foot in front of another last time, so the bar wasn’t high, but he was able to flip over the bar. It’s mostly Vibora on offense, and selling is going to be the bigger challenge but destroying people is kind of what he should be doing. He was able to take Mundo’s reverse huracanrana, and I don’t think that would’ve happened last year. Vibora’s still not smooth and I don’t need a big singles run for him, but he’s got more to offer to the role now than just being tall. I wish they had a better angle of Mundo’s dive onto Kobra Moon, because it seemed like she was destroyed but we couldn’t really tell. Street clothes Daga was cooler than expected, and Drago no longer wearing the slave chain around his neck suggested to me that these reptiles are meant to be the técnicos.

2018 watch later catch up, part 9 of ∞

things turn bad for Horus

Cavernario vs Ricky Marvin
(Lucha Memes/Cara Lucha @ Coliseo Coacalco on 04/22, 9:48, good, +LuchaTV)

Borderline ok/good match. Neither man seemed all that into it. Marvin took two-thirds of the match, just not with the same energy or intensity seen from him this year in other indie showcase matches. Cavernario seemed disinterested until he started throwing around Marvin near the end of the match. Marvin took big bumps, so maybe that would’ve worked if the match was more that way. This fulfilled the idea of having Cavernario and Marvin fight without the promise of the idea.

a suplex

Aramis vs Judas el Traidor
(PROLLM @ Coliseo Coacalco on 04/29,
8:06, good, REPORTE LUCH)

Somewhat a take on a CMLL lightning match, except with fewer dives forced in. Aramis mat work with Judas goes smoother than it did with Pantera I earlier this year, and they both get to show some flashy flying when it comes to it. The finishing sequence is full on garbage indie lucha libre, and the twenty or so people in Coacalco clapping make it feel like you’re watching a school performance. Still, it’s a good seven minutes.

this angle isn’t great for GIFs, but he headscissors + dive is good

Rey Horus & The King (Rey Fenix) vs El Mesías & PJ Black
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 05/19, 12:52, good, via MegaKakashi619)

The tag match never came together in any way. The rudos did stuff for a while, the técnicos did stuff for a while, and nothing gelled or escalated. Mesias did enough to know he was there. It was still not All New And Improved performance, just a bit better than his pre-knee surgery AAA outcome. Rey Horus seemed to outperform Fenix at times, which is doesn’t happen much in Fenix matches this year. This was a kind of borderline match. I could see it as higher, but there’s more interesting stuff with all these people. Mesias might be a prisoner of expectations right now, expecting for him to turn into his peak Lucha Underground stuff or his last decade AAA champion run, and he’s instead just a slightly above average lucha heavyweight. Maybe I’d like this more if I had been expecting less.

teamwork!
this seems very tricky

Penta Zero M vs Carístico
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 05/19, 15:02, good, MegaKakashi619)

Penta/Caristico worked for the live crowd and not as much on the skakey phone cam. It was very much atmosphere match, which they were able to keep up with garbage cans and big moves. Penta does more basing with Carístico then he has in a lot of his matches, but this still was more parts Tijuana brawl than Arena Mexico classic. They spent a lot of time and space to set up a pseudo-table spot for it just to be one unimportant spot, and that slowed down hurt the match a bit for me. I’m still interested in seeing the rematch.

the first trash can shot was funny for being a surprise, this one is funny for the sell
around and around and down

Alas de Acero, Aramis, Mexica vs Atomic Star, Dragón Bane, Gallo Frances
(IWRG @ Arena Naucalpan on 05/27, 19:07, great, thecubsfan)

A nice treat, an IWRG undercard trios match that would fit in any of the action based indies. It wouldn’t be exactly like that, because those fans wouldn’t have the patience for the long but creative and competitive mat wrestling Aramis & Dragon Bane did to start this match. (IWRG fans don’t have more patience, there just many of them to get antsy.) The second fall wasn’t all that much and the video quality on my recording is pretty awful. That shouldn’t stop you from checking it out to see the third fall break down into chaos and then somehow come back together for a great dive sequence and an uncharacteristically good ending. Dragon Bane’s dive looked great, and there’s probably more good stuff from him that’s been missed. I barely noticed Gallo Frances was here.

Aramis, submission wizard!
proof Dragon Bane existed before AAA

Austin Theory vs Rey Horuz
(The Crash @ Auditorio de Tijuana on 06/16, 12:35, good, via LNDLC)

A good mix between a flyer and a power guy, at least by CMLL indie standards. Theory and Horus have worked together elsewhere and showed it in their chemistry on the trickier Horus spots. The finish itself looked great, and Theory had plenty of interesting stuff on his own. This felt a lit of an exhibition of what they could do than a big match itself. It worked as a midcard showcase.

when headscissors go bad
over the corner dives are always cool

Niebla Roja remains champ, angry La Parka, LU tonight, Aro Lucha

a tough day for Tiger

CMLL (TUE) 07/17/2018 Arena México [CMLL, Lucha CentralNotiMexOvaciones]
1) Angelito & Fantasy b Pequeño Olímpico & Pequeño Violencia LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
tecnicos took 2/3.
2) Cancerbero, Metálico, Sangre Azteca b Astral, Eléctrico, Robin LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Robin replaced Starman. Rudos took 1/3
3) El Audaz, Fuego, Pegasso b Disturbio, Tiger, Universo 2000 Jr. LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Universo 2000 Jr. replaced Puma on Saturday.
4) Ephesto, Luciferno, Templario b Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Rudos took 2/3.
5) Niebla Roja © b Sansón [CMLL LHLUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Niebla Roja took falls 1/3 to retain the title. 4th defense.
6) Ángel de Oro, Atlantis, Soberano Jr. b Cuatrero, Forastero, Rey Bucanero LUCHA LIBRE MARTES DE NUEVOS VALORES DE ARENA MEXICO 17 DE JULIO DE 2018 FUNCION COMPLETA (posted by VideosOficialesCMLL)
Tecnicos took 2/3.

The title match got a big reaction (and then they had to have one more match.)  Niebla Roja was thrilled to keep his title out of Dinamtias handsDisturbio did a Neymar spot.

CMLL (TUE) 07/17/2018 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara [CMLL]
1) Difunto, Maléfico, Sádico b Luminoso, Tigre Blanco, Vaquero Jr.
Rudos took 1/3 – though the ref counted for the tecnicos in the third fall while awarding the fall to the rudos. Maybe a DQ? Unclear.
2) Arkalis, Guerrero Samurai Jr., Oro Jr. b Akuma, Espíritu Negro, Furia Roja
Arkalis making his Guadalajara debut. Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Star Black b Misterioso Jr., Sagrado, Virus
Star Black replaced Drone. Tecnicos took 2/3.
4) Diamante Azul, Valiente, Volador Jr. b Felino, Shocker, Terrible
Diamante Azul return from France. Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Último Guerrero b Mistico
UG took 2/3, the last using the ropes.

Mistico has only beaten Ultimo Guerrero in a singles match on FantasticaMania. In Mexico, he’s clearly slotted in a level below the top most wrestlers.

Negro Casas will be on today’s CMLL Informa to talk about his Anniversary show. Which means we’ll probably get a date for it. Negro Casas’ debut is listed as August 19th, 1979, so it should be his 39th Anniversary but they seem to be promoting it as the 40th.

Tonight’s Lucha Underground episode is 4×6, “Break the Machine”. Matches announced

  • Paul London vs Dezmond X(avier) for the last Aztec Medallion
  • Johnny Mundo vs Vibora
  • Pentagon Dark (c) vs Cage for the Lucha Underground championship (video)

There’s also something with Jack Evans & XO Licious.

There will be a Lucha Underground panel discussion with PJ Black, Taya, Chavo Guerrero and Marty the Moth on Friday at 2:30pm CT in San Diego. This is not part of San Diego Comic Con but in the area, and streaming on Twitch.

Nothing else really came out of the AAA/ELITE press conference outside of La Parka’s run-in. Parka interrupted the opening of the press conference on his motorcycle. He was critical of Electroshock & Lady Maravilla for returning to AAA after saying bad things about the company after leaving. He was angry with Los Traumas saying they’d never got to AAA because they were better wrestlers than everyone there, and now they’re there in AAA. It’s too bad Jack Evans wasn’t at this press conference. Technically, everyone (except Maravilla) is only participating in totally separate promotion ELITE and still enemies of AAA, but I guess Parka sees them all as benefiting from this show. Parka said he’d be at Juan de la Barrera if he wants, the advantage of being La Parka is he whatever he wants. And then he rode back off.

My first instinct is this is setting up for Parka to replace Wagner on Saturday’s card. It might be something else. It is consistent with Parka being angry with Konnan and other MAD members for coming back to AAA after also ripping it. It also fits with the upset La Parka columns in Record the last couple of weeks. It is storyline, AAA continues to draw attention to it today, but it’s a lot of effort to only build up the same Parka/Electroshock match seen many times before.

Lady Maravilla said Faby Apache & La Parka fear the arrival of new people. She probably is right but she is new people so that’s probably not going to end well.

Responding to a fan, Hard Rock Riveria Maya says their will be an AAA show again their this year, but a date has not yet been confirmed. That show has happened in September of late, and usually with a lot of notice ahead of time so people can make their travel plans. One of those things can’t be true this year.

Rey Horus replaces Aerostar on MLW’s debut show in New York tomorrow. It appears Aerostar was pulled from the show because he’s working in Arena Aficion instead. That lineup was announced at least as early as June 30th, so MLW should’ve been made aware of this conflict weeks ago. The suspicious part is Aerostar is listed as teaming with Drago in Arena Aficion, and Drago is still listed in MLW. Drago could be going to New York, he could have just not told MLW he won’t be coming, or he could still be dealing with a shoulder injury and not wrestling anywhere. No one of knowing.

Garza Jr. says his family (him and Ultimo Ninja) will have good news and bad news this Sunday at the Revolucha show at Gimnasio Nuevo Leon Unidos. I’m fairly certain that will be news on their potential NXT deals.

AroLucha funding ended yesterday. That seems like it; when I dug thru their posted statements around the launch of this funding campaign, it seemed like the closing date was September. At any rate, their rate of new investors had slowed to a crawl once they stopped advertising on Google & Facebook, two months more wouldn’t be a difference maker. They end up with 285 investors at $128K, which definitely doesn’t pay for a season of TV but I wouldn’t turn it down. One investor close to the project dropped in $50K, so it’s really more like 284 investors at $78K, or $277 per person. The investors were supposed to be getting t-shirts and other giveaways, along with a say about how their promotion operates. Nothing much has been said about the promotion since their show last month and their promotional material is still focused on Rey Mysterio, who is likely to be going to WWE.

I did not think investing in AroLucha was a great way for people to use their money, the odds of getting value back out of it seemed low. I also don’t think buying a replica championship belt is a great way to use your money and plenty of people seem to enjoy doing that, so who am I to say how people use their money.

Ayako Hamada was sentenced for three years due to drug possession. She’s spend half of it in jail, and the second half on probation. At the press conference to announce the sentence, Hamada also announced she was retiring from wrestling and would attempt to find work as a Japanese/Spanish translator when she was release.

SuperLuchas writes on fan behavior at all MexaWrestling women’s focused show. It was not polite.

LuchaWorld has the latest news update.

A new lucha school is opening in Hermosillo.

Lineups

CMLL (MON) 07/23/2018 Arena Puebla
1) Angelito, Astro, Shockercito vs Joker, Mercurio, Saurón
2) Drone, Star Jr., Stigma vs Kawato San, Okumura, Policeman
3) Niebla Roja, Stuka Jr., Valiente vs Hechicero, Shocker, Templario
4) Atlantis © vs Rush [MEX LH]
6th defense
5) Carístico, Gran Guerrero, Último Guerrero vs Flyer, Mistico, Volador Jr. [Relevos Increíbles]

Caristico gets his wish and teams with Los Guerreros against Volador and his group of miscreants. This will make for a better match, but it’s a missed chance to elevate someone new just by teaming with Caristico.

Atlantis/Rush probably won’t be good. It was good they did it in the same building last year but things have changed. Rush probably should be winning if he’s main eventing the Anniversario. That doesn’t always happen. It probably won’t matter.

Star & Kawato again in the segunda. Only five matches again.

CMLL Martes de Nuevo Valores: 2018-07-10 

teamwork!

Recapped: 07/12/2018

Matches: 

Mercurio & Pequeño Violencia beat Acero & Aéreo  
(15:39 [6:23, 3:58, 5:18], 1/3, n/r, 
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Akuma, Inquisidor, Yago beat Magnus, Retro, Sangre Imperial
(10:51 [3:52, 3:19, 3:40], 1/3, n/r, VideosOficialesCMLL)

Pegasso beat Virus in a lightning match
(6:14, DQ for foul, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Black Panther, Blue Panther, Blue Panther Jr. vs Misterioso Jr., Puma, Tiger
(17:33 [7:16, 2:10, 8:07], 2/3, great,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Felino, Rey Bucanero, Shocker beat Audaz, Stuka Jr., Valiente  
(11:47 [4:40, 1:20, 5:47], 1/3, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón beat Ángel de Oro, Kráneo, Niebla Roja  
(12:58 [3:56, 9:02], 1/2, ok,
VideosOficialesCMLL)

What happened: 

triple boot to the Kraneo

The técnicos rushed NGD, to poor results. Sansón beat Angel de Oro to set up a title match, but everyone was more concerned with Mije. Forastero threw him out of the ring to Kraneo, but father away from Mije than he could catch him. Mije was taken to the back but was said not to have suffered a serious injury.

This was Puma’s final match in CMLL for the time being, though it wasn’t known at this time.

Tiger and Misterioso are still feuding and not friends. It’s unclear if anyone else cares about this feud.

Thoughts:

Yago needs to be put on a watch list

The main event was a pretty standard CMLL two fall match (where the losing team gets in a fall ending move and just passes on covering for a pin.) The feuding teams put in the effort and NGD keep getting better, there just wasn’t a lot this match. It would’ve been overshadowed by the careless screw up at the end. There’s plenty of other matches you can see these guys with, and next week’s title match should be better than this.

The highlight of this semifinal was Audaz doing a running front flip over the top rope and Zacarias booking it when he got too close. That was one frightened bird. The técnicos didn’t do much flying, and even the dives required catches that didn’t quite happen. (Poor Stuka got stuck with Rey Bucanero’s concrete hands.) The rudos winning isn’t thrilling but fits with the idea of Bucanero & Shocker trying to get a new group idea over. They’re really going to need a younger guy involved to handle these sort of opponents better. Felino tried but doesn’t cover their opponents well enough.

Audaz scares bird man

The Panthers/Cats match had the usual positive effort commonplace with this series of matches. It also had a more thoughtful match structure than most on Tuesday. Blue Panther matches do run into their own reputations – a first fall ending via sudden submission without everyone making in like this one happens from time to time – but it feels like he has about 25 different scripts he’s working from where everyone else is using 4. Even when it’s too new, it’s still novel. Similarly, a lot of his better matches feature the usual third fall dives early in those final falls. CMLL trains viewers to expect the dives in the closing seconds of normal trios matches, with the finish coming seconds later. Anything that goes past those dives has a more epic feel since it has then reached a point where any move could be a potential match ender. This match went minutes beyond the first set of dives, with a not-to-unusual sequence of big moves feeling more meaningful and less perfunctory because of how the match had progressed. On a simpler level, this crowd has seen this enough to anticipate the bigger spots. They were up for Puma’s double stomp after Tiger’s back cracker, and they were impressed by Panther’s dive fake. Misterioso picked his spots well and stayed out of the way, and Blue Panther brought energy as usual. This fits in right with the other strong matches from this feud.

Pegasso/Virus was the usual level of Tuesday night lightning match, with a little bit of action and a little bit of effort. The finish was a weird DQ. It seemed like Tirantes acting out since he was already counting slow against Pegasso, and because that spot is never called as a foul. Pegasso knew to sell it as a one anyway, and the spot with Virus seemingly getting the submission victory only to use is a pretty standard bad lucha finish, so I think that was the actual plan. Figuring that out was more interesting than the match.