Matches
Matanza beat Jack Evans
(1:23, Wrath of the Gods, n/r)
Kobra Moon, Daga, Jeremiah Crane (c) beat Joey Ryan, Ivelisse, XO Lishus to keep the Lucha Underground Trios Championship
(5:23, Daga submit Joey Ryan, ok)
Drago & Aerostar vs Jack Swagger in a nunchuck matchJake Strong b Drago & Aerostar
(8:27, anklelock on Drago, ok)
Pentagon Dark beat Mil Muertes, Dragon Azteca, King Cuerno to earn a Lucha Underground championship match at Ultima Lucha 4
(5:10, Mexican Destroyer on Mil Muertes ok)
Status Check
Champion: Marty the Moth (0 defenses)
Gift of the Gods: Vacant.
Trios Champions: Reptile Tribe (Kobra Moon, Daga, Jeremiah Snake) (2 defenses)
Died This Season (15): Jeremiah Crane (casket), Fenix (casket/lifeforce absorbed), Mr. Pec-tacular (sacrificed), Cortez Castro (sacrificed), Máscarita Sagrada (murdered by Rabbits), Vinnie Massaro (sacrificed), Pizza Guy (sacrificed), Vibora (beheaded), Mala Suerte (sacrificed) , Saltador (sacrificed), Benji the Agent (murdered by Ricky), Angelico (implied to have been murdered by Ricky), Catrina (fell off a roof), Joey Wrestling (sacrificed), Jack Evans
Resurrected (2): Jeremiah Crane/Snake, Fenix
Developments
Pentagon Dark earned himself a Lucha Underground championship match at Ultima Lucha by winning a four-way match. He beat Mil Muertes, who had already taken two stunners from the returning The Mack. Mack hung around to challenge Muertes to a death match at Ultima Lucha 4, declaring he was no longer scared of Muertes. Dragon Azteca Jr. was also in the match but got into a fight with Fenix after the zombie grabbed Melissa again. King Cuerno also participated. Marty will appear on the next episode to talk about this match.
The four-way match itself was set up by a long and verbose Antonio Cueto letter, which seemed peculiar. Antonio Cueto was around and could’ve just set up the match himself. He did set up one later. When Jack Evans complains about XO Lishus being allowed in the Temple including an aside about how Jack would’ve taken care of Matanza if he was at the wedding, Cueto gave Jack a chance for it to happen tonight. Jack tried to run from Matanza, but could not escape. He could land the 630 senton, but couldn’t put away Matanza and was the latest sacrifice. These wins are progressively becoming more competitive for Matanza once again, though this still lasted less than two minutes.
The trios title match did include a brief reference to the Ivelisse/Crane issue. (It happened in the midst of a long bit of redone Matt Striker audio where Vamprio was not heard – given what they leave in of Vampiro, what could they possibly be taking out?) The story that really overshadowed the match was the arrival of Rabbit Tribe 2.0. We’ve been introduced to El Bunny and The White Rabbit in those vignettes, but this was the first time the crowd saw them. They stayed out of the match, with London & Bunny attacking the losing challengers after the match. The White Rabbit seemed to inform Joey Ryan that he would be their first target.
Jake Strong overcame two on one offense, mist, and lots of nunchucks to submit Aerostar. Drago attacked afterward and got his ankle broken.
Última Lucha 4 lineup so far
Official
- Pentagon Dark vs Marty the Moth (c) for the Lucha Underground Championship
- the Mack vs Mil Muertes in a death match
Likely (or in the preceding few episodes)
- Fenix vs Dragon Azteca Jr.
- Killshot vs Son of Havoc
- a Gift of the Gods match
- Something with the Snake Tribe & the Rabbit Tribe and/or Joey Ryan
Thoughts
Another episode where none of the matches were great – the trios title was closest to being good, though it never got to a high gear. Most everything was short shifted, with the promise that eventually we’ll get blowoff matches and this will all be worth it. I don’t know.
In a situation where anyone beyond the most diehard Lucha Underground fans was still watching this show, people would be up in arms about how Drago & Aerostar were booked on this show. On this season, really: Drago got to be a slave for a while, got to do nothing to free himself, said he was leaving for a while, came back one week later, and engaged in a feud with Jake Strong that ended with Drago’s ankle getting broken. Aerostar should’ve let Drago remain a slave, Drago would be a trios champion with two working feet right now.
This match made Jake Strong look like his last name, which is really good if you care about Jake Strong at all. I do not. He’s just a guy who wins a lot with a mild catchphrase, just about the same character development than Big Bad Steve has gotten. He’s probably been disadvantage greatly because Lucha Underground just isn’t doing many vignettes this year (remember when Kobra Moon got a jewelry thief intro that’s gone nowhere?) but he’s just really being presented as Jack Swagger with a new name. If you didn’t care about Jake Swagger already and weren’t sympathetic to his lack of opportunity in WWE, he’s just a guy who wins a whole lot. Jake Swagger doesn’t fit the Lucha Underground mold, and it was going to take some work to convince viewers that he belongs. They’ve done none of the work.
It’s not even like the flipping the result would’ve been better. Aerostar & Drago doing everything they could to just barely beat Strong would not have looked much better. It still would’ve been demoting cult favorites to enhancement talent level. They were aware enough about how this finish would look to make sure to give Aerostar & Drago many big spots, but it had the effect of Aerostar & Drago doing everything they could do and still losing totally clean.
LU really awkwardly put together the Joey Ryan/XO Lishus/Ivelisse trio to have them lose in their first match and then get destroyed. Joey Ryan getting targeted by the new Rabbit Tribe looks like a direction past that. The show has done a little work on Ryan’s técnico turn, but it’s an odd one of the three to pick. El Bunny looked good.
I’ll miss Jack Evans. He didn’t have as much bad luck as Angelico, but it wasn’t far off. He got himself over without every really winning all that much. He was great at light comedy on a show that tends to take itself very seriously. I tend to believe all these sacrifices are going to be reversed, and maybe he’ll reverse his own beliefs on coming back for another season.
The main event was billed as a dream match, a PPV quality match, that went about five minutes of TV time. About one minute of that was on Fenix/Azteca and Mack/Muertes. It didn’t quite become a PPV match. The usage of King Cuerno this season remains bizarre. Mack/Muertes seemed pretty definitely over last time. Mack being scared didn’t seem to play into the result. The fans seemed really into Mack so it’ll be fine, but this didn’t feel like the direction they were headed after that cage match. The idea of a deathmatch meaning something important and unique in a season where 1/3rd of the roster has been killed off (and some have come back to life) is an even tougher sell.