Tag: Lucha Underground

Matches

Aerostar defeated Drago for an Aztec Medallion (good, springboard splash, 6:36)

Jack Evans, PJ Black, Fenix defeats Disciples of Death (good, springboard 450 splash, 9:05)

Matanza and Mil Muertes went to a no contest (good, referee stop, 7:03)

Developments

The Mil Muertes/Matanza match took place, though we didn’t quite get a result. Mil did far more damage to him than anyone had done in the last month, beating him to the ground earlier and taking him down off a dive. (That one legit injuried Matanza, who was noticably hobbling around the rest of the match. Dario and Catrina each took a turn getting involved to give Matanza recovery time, and there was a noticable edit.) The two battled up the steps and onto Dario’s office roof, teasing throwing each other off. Finally, Mil gave Matanza flatliner on the roof, which collapses the roof and caused them both to go to the floor. Striker explained the referee stopped the match that point. Both Catrina and Dario helped up their objects and signaled this wasn’t over for them.

It is over for the Disciples – or at least two of them. They lost again, this time in the trios tournament, and Catrina demanded to know why she shouldn’t end them. Siniestro de la Muerte (purple) gave her a reason, by ripping out the black heart of Trece (gray). Catrina said that wasn’t enough, and Siniestro did the same to Barrio Negro (gold), who must’ve been the dumbest member of the crew if he didn’t see that coming. This satisfied Catrina, and either she or the black hearts themselves seemed to give Siniestro new powers and a new look. He’s a solo act now for sure.

The team which defeated the Disciples, and did advance, was Fenix, Jack Evans and PJ Black. This was another Dario concept. He had considered putting Fenix, Drago and Aerostar together in the tournament, but noted he had done so last year and Drago & Aerostar fought leading to their elimination, making them undeserving of another shot. Dario did find them deserving of another fight, and instead put Drago and Aerostar against each other in the second Aztec Medallion match. Aerostar stumbled badly at one point, falling hard to the floor, and Drago perhaps took it a little easy on his friend instead of capitalizing. Aerostar seemed to be hurting thru the match, but came back to win and claim the second medallion. He and Texano await five more winners.

One of those winners will be decided next week. A vignette at the Johnny Mundo Dojo (I’m assuming) revealed Taya had called Dario on Johnny’s behalf to demand a shot at a Medallion – he hadn’t gotten the chance last year. Taya explained Dario agreed to the idea, but the opponent would be Cage. In a cage match. Johnny’s high self confidence seemed a bit damaged by this news.

Going back to the trios match from earlier: Jack declared himself leader of the trio, loudly ordering around his teammates. PJ got pushy with Fenix as well. Neither PJ or Jack wanted to much to do with Fenix after the win, but the team looked pretty strong when they were working together and would seem to have a decent chance to win the final.

They weren’t the only team to advance to the last round. Angelico, Son of Havoc, and Ivelisse were informed they would not face the winners of the tournament, but would be defending their titles against all three teams who’d won so far in a four way match. Dario poked at champs and their issues, pushing them against each other again.

Next Week:

• Angelico, Son of Havoc, Ivelisse (c) versus Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco, Joey Ryan versus Prince Puma, Rey Mysterio, Dragon Azteca Jr versus Jack Evans, PJ Black, Fenix for the Lucha Underground Trios championship

• Johnny Mundo versus Cage for an Aztec Medallion

There was one last moment to close the show. Captain (Maureen) Vazquez – the superior officer of Castro & Ryan – was visited by a mystery councilman named Delgado who said he was representing Boyle Heights, warning her back off Dario Cueto (which seems to be working in secret.) Delgado and Vazquez appeared to have some history together. Vazquez said she was unconcerned about the Mayor, but Delgado said he was working for someone bigger. Vazquez seemed worried she’d gotten herself into a bad situation after the councilman left.

This was a really fun show. I felt like 90% of the conversation is going to end up about the unrealistic nature of electrified zombies pulling out each other’s hearts, but there were also some good wrestling matches here.

Mil Muertes versus Matanza was the more exciting Matanza match yet. He took far more damage than in the previous few weeks while they were in the ring, but still looked like a complete monster by how he was able to thru Mil Muertes around. And everything after the dive was interesting. I knew both the injury and the non-finish going in, which probably greatly affects my view of the overall match – it was impressive how much Matanza was able to still do with a leg injury which they had to be fearing would end him for the season, and the flatliner thru the roof looked incredible enough to mitigate the lack of a finish. I can understand if that lack of outcome detracted for other people, but this gave me more than expected and the eventual rematch should be super.

The Disciples went out on a good note. Well, before the death scene. The Jack Evan, Fenix and PJ Black team were the stars of the match and intended to be so, but the DoD kept up with them well and looked as effective as they have been all season before taking another loss. Jack & PJ Black came off as annoying but really good, and Fenix got in a Brillo Cometa. Striker always talking about the different personality of each henchman seemed to accidentally drive home the problem: we never actually saw those personalities, wtth them coming off more as if they had been told not to show different personalities. On a show with a lot of big characters, they didn’t seem to have one. Maybe one will work better than three – at least the one with the best superkick survived.

They left in an Aerostar springboard mishap, which was a very different way of doing things. It turned into one of Striker’s better perfomances, as he tried to weave it into a big story about the gambles of the lucha libre style and a specific one about how Aerostar was suffering from the fall to make sense of it all. The problem was Aerostar didn’t seem to know they were doing that story, not selling as much as you’d need to really tell it. It was still a fun match and at least an interesting experiment.

Councilman Delgado is Lorenzo Llamas, of all people. Definitely an unexpected bit of casting. It seems like the police story is going to explain how/why Dario’s able to run an underground fight club without getting shut down, but I was not expecting the star of the Renegade to be part of that story.

Mundo’s cage match with Cuerno (who’s vanished here) was really good last season, and the four way trios match should be great if they can keep all the bodies out of the way. I hope it’s a fun as this episode.

Matches

Killshot defeats Argenis (4:34, Storm Cradle Driver, OK)

Texano Jr. defeats Daga for an Aztec Medallion (7:03, sit down powerbomb, GREAT)

Prince Puma, Rey Mysterio, Dragon Azteca Jr. defeat Cage, Johnny Mundo, Taya (12:52, 630 senton, GREAT and I may be underrating it)

Developments

The show made a few visits to Dario’s office, but most of the happenings this week took place in the ring.

The opener was the launch of a Killshot 2.0. It’s the same guy, but with a new military look, a prayer before the match to his dog tags, and a more disciplined style (or at least that’s what Striker kept on saying.) The match came off as an exhibition of his new style; Argenis wasn’t squashed, but he made less of an impression than Killshot did when he was in that role.

Daga was introduced in a meeting with Dario, with Dario hyping him as the hottest young star from Mexico but wanting him to prove it against Daga. Neither Daga nor Texano played strong tecnico or rudo in this match, though the size difference made Daga the underdog. They had a hard hitting match where Daga shined and escaped the powerbomb the first time, but not the second. Texano captured the first of the seven Medallions

Dario also met with the Cage, Johnny Mundo and Taya three some to explain he wanted this year’s trios tournament to top last year, and thought they would be unstoppable if they could just find a way to work together like Angelico, Son of Havoc and Ivelisse did. That didn’t work out, with friendly fire eventually leading to Mundo outright attacking Cage at one point. The rudo team was still strong enough to hold their own for a long and close main event, but it was the new tecnico trio who advanced.

Vignettes in Mil Muerte’s lair and Matanza’s cell established the two would meet for the Lucha Underground championship next week. Catrina used the earthquake the motivate Mil again (saying Matanza would be even stronger), and Dario claimed he was keeping Matanza in the cell for his own protection but vowed Matanza would destroy death itself next week. Dario actually might not be lying about the first part: Dragon Azteca Jr. confronted Black Lotus about working for Dario, and Lotus claimed it was the only way to get out her own cell, blamed Matanza for Dragon Azteca Sr.’s death, and said she was staying close to Dario to get to Matanza. We know different, though Dragon Azteca Jr. appeared to by the explanation.

As a footnote, the Mil vignette also established the Disciples of Death were in the trios tournament next week, and begged for forgiveness for their recent failures.

Thoughts

This was a really good night of matches. The top title is necessarily not the highspot battle it was before Matanza debuted, but this show – especially the main event – had the feel of the best of the Prince Puma championship run. They got a lot of time, more so than in recent weeks, and it felt like they really took advantage of it in the last two matches to put together some moments where it felt like that match must be over, and yet kept on going.

This show had a purpose too: they had two new characters and one reconstituted existing wrestler to get over with the crowd and the viewers at home, and it felt like they pulled it off. The opener did the least for me as far as overall match quality, but it also felt completely successful as far as breaking Killshot from his role to someone we need to take seriously again. Argenis is vanilla and didn’t show much here, but it wasn’t about him all that much either. Killshot getting the tricky dive and the big finish were big moments.

The Dario video with Daga did a fair job of conditioning the television viewer to care about Daga, but few in that live audience had any idea about him. Daga won them over with his wrestling by the end of that match, just coming in and making a fantastic first impression. Texano was pretty good too, getting his first match where he could go straight ahead and fight someone hard since the Alberto feud. Both men looked strong (and the person upping the volume on the strikes had a busy but productive day.) Daga does continue the grand trend of a debuting luchador losing in their immediate match, but he made it so people will be very interested in a second one.

The idea of Cage, Mundo and Taya as the opposition for the Dream Team (LU version) didn’t seem like the best choice on paper, just because it felt like the rudos failing to get along would limit the match. The rudos definitely didn’t get along, but it didn’t really harm the match much. Rey got kept out for a long time at the start, but then was all over the place near the end. Prince Puma had his usual excellent spots, and Dragon Azteca had plenty of his own too. Azteca could’ve easily been overshadowed by his partners, but instead made a name for himself really quickly. The best news is we’re getting at least one more match with this team.

This is one of their strongest shows so far. It’s a special recommendation to check out if you’re a person who’s tuned out because of the vignettes aren’t your style – the matches themselves don’t need the context to be enjoyed.

Matches

Ivelisse beat Kobra Moon (6:29, Code Red, OK)

Cortez Castro, Mr. Cisco, Joey Ryan [O] defeated the Mack, Marty Martinez [X], Mariposa (8:30, Psycho Realm → Ryan steals pin, OK) in the trios tournament

Matanza destroys Fenix (4:47, Wrath of the Gods, good)

Developments

Matanza is the center of things. The announcers revealed early on Fenix would be getting his title match in the main event (and that’s all that was said about the match on a show busy with vignettes.) Fenix fared better than in Aztec Warfare in that he lasted more than 20 seconds, but didn’t really accomplish any more than Pentagon Jr. did last week. He kind of lost more impressive, but that’s more Matanza impressing by throwing the former champion around. Matanza attemped to rip Fenix’s mask and/or face off after the match, with Catrina and Mil Muertes surprisingly making the save. It appeared to be about Muertes wanting to be next in line for a shot, but the scene of Mil making the save for Fenix was surprising.

Vampiro notable did not make the save. Dario ran into him in the bathroom at the start of the show, noting that Pentagon Jr. was still alive after fightning Matanza but Vampiro might not be so lucky if he tries the same. Vampiro very much wanted revenge, but didn’t go for it and seems to be on his medicine. Later, Striker said he heard Pentagon had a fractured vertabreea nd Vampiro refused to confirm.

The trios tournament is underway, with all new combinations. The announcers were unsure what the winner got, which seems like a little issue, but we got a sense of who’s in the tournament. The first tournament had two oddball teams: the Crew teaming with Joey Ryan and the Moths (Marty & Mariposa) with the Mack. The Crew are apparently faces now – hanging around Joey Ryan makes everyone likable by comparison. Neither team totally got along, but the issues were bigger on the second team’s side. Mack and Marty fought, Mack dropped Marty with a stunner, the Crew added their finish, and Ryan stole the pin. Mariposa attacked Mack after the match with Sexy Star – who had early been too scared to get involved – fighting thru her fears to attack her tormentor.

Earlier, Ryan & Cortez met with their commanding officer. We learned Ryan had met with Dario to set up the Cortez/Ryan team, their boss wanted them to win the trios titles to get event closer, and Joey Ryan’s real name is “Officer Meehan.”

Next week’s match is half revealed. Dragon Azteca re-painted the question mark back on the roof (or some old footage was used?) to call Rey Mysterio. Mysterio reminded Azteca how easily he got beat by Matanza – Dragon needs to get better before he seeks revenge. Mysterio had an alternate plan for the moment, to take part in the trios tournament. Mysterio revealed the team would be Rey, Dragon Azteca and Prince Puma (who said his first word on the show: “me”.) They wrestle next week.

I’m not sure if Famous B is putting together his own trio, but he did appear to pitch Máscarita Sagrada on his fame making service. Famous B seemed to have his eye on Sagrada during the Aztec Warfare match too. Famous B didn’t seem to extend his pitch to the Mack or Sexy Star despite going past them.

Killshot got a profile video. He enlisted in (unspecifed military service) the day he turned 18 and became an expert sniper, which is where he got his name. He had 37 confirmed kills, but he and the fellow members of his off the books elite strike force were captured. Killshot was prisoner for 13 months before he shot his way out, and doesn’t know what happened to the rest of his group or if they’re still alive.

Ivelisse and Kobra Moon had a match. Ivelisse won. The Kobra Moon win streak is over. There’s nothing much that connected that too anything else, except to maybe to remind you that Ivelisse is a trios champion and that might matter for the trios tournament.

Thoughts

I can not come up with a lot of stuff to write about this show, which doesn’t seem great. I did like the show overall more than last week, more because they were more clearly moving things along in different stories.

The Ivelisse/Kobra Moon match got strongly negative reviews live. They managed to make it OK on video, though the submission focus was a lot different than a normal Lucha Underground match and they had more problems as they sped up. With Moon not in Aztec Warfare, still with no storyline, and now losing a match, it feels like they’re pulled back a bit on her.

The trios tournament match was fine; I could go OK or good on it. It’s really strange that the Crew are suddenly técnicos – Striker tried to sell it as people getting behind on them for ditchign Chavo, but it feels like there needs to be something stronger. Match was alright, with Mack being the highlight. Or the crazy dancing guy being the highlight.

I liked this main event better than last week. Fenix is better at dying impressively, and his dive being caught into a powerslam is about as impressive as it comes. Mil rocked Matanza enough to give the impression someone might be able to evetnaully harm him.

The “I don’t what happened to my fellow soldiers” is a story that has never ever ended well for the guy who got out. Killshot should keep an eye out for any laser pointers in his direction. It was a good profile vignette and it did give us more reason to care about Killshot besides being a random guy in a mask.

Puma, Rey and Dragon should be an awesome trio. Looking forward to next week. It’s amusing that Prince Puma just started talking like a normal person after 49 episodes of not talking, but that’s OK.

Vampiro name dropped Bas Rutten, Dan Gable and Andy Hug in the first half hour alone. That must be some medicine!

 

Matches

Mr. Cisco & Cortez Castro b Johnny Mundo & Taya [4:39, Psycho Realm on Taya, OK]

Angelico, Son of Havoc, Ivelisse vs Barrio Negro, Trece, Siniestro de la Muerte to retain the Lucha Underground Trios championship [good, first defense]
Siniestro de la Muerte pinned Ivelisse (2:37)
Angelico Fall of Angels on Trece (4:45)
Siniestro de la Muerte beat Angelico (6:33, double knee smash to the back)
Son of Havoc beat Barrio Negro (7:53, standing shooting star press)
Son of Havoc beat Siniestro de la Muerte (9:26, moonsault)

Mariposa beat Sexy Star (1:24, Butterfly Effect, OK but no really long enough to be rated)

Matanza defeats Pentagon Jr. to retain the Lucha Underground Championship (3:58, Wrath of the Gods, OK) – first defense

Developments

Make it ten in a row for Matanza. He didn’t beat Pentagon as quickly as he beat his opponents at the end of the Azteca Warfare tonight, but he wasn’t in really any more trouble even when Pentago knew he was coming. Pentagon got in shots on Mantanza, but even his backcracker couldn’t take the monster off his feet. Pentagon ‘earned’ the title match by attacking Dario and threatening to break his arm. Matanza broke Pentagon in response; Pentagon had a back injury late in the match, took the big powerslam, and then got powerbombed thru the announce table after the match. The show ended with Pentagon being taken away in ambulance with Vampiro (who attacked checking on Pentagon) glaring back out thru the ambulance window.

Dario was busy taking care of existing issues this episode. He transitioned back into power, and back into having his office in it’s usual look, rather quick. The interim tenant, Catrina, didn’t object to her candles being removed, but was very upset Mil got taken out before even getting into Aztec Warfare and demanded a title shot. Dario brushed off Catrian’s ghost behavior and pushed for a truce, noting he was giving the Disciples a trios title rematch, but Catrina declared Matanza would have the title back and she’d have the Temple too. Dario didn’t seem worried.

Dario also had to deal with an angry Rey Mysterio, who wanted to talk about Dragon Azteca. Dario first tried to avoid the topic by talking about Azteca Jr., but Rey wanted answers about Dragon Azteca Senior. Rey accused Matanza of killing his old mentor, and Dario swore his brother didn’t murder Azteca. (Dario is telling the truth – it was Black Lotus, back around as a bodyguard, who killed Azteca.) Dario tried making a deal with Rey, which went much smoother than Catrina: Rey and Azteca were welcome back into the Temple, as long as they left the past in the past. Rey clearly didn’t trust Dario, but seemed to take this deal for the moment.

The trios rematch didn’t go too much better for the Disciples. They did manage to get a 2 on 1 advantage in the elimination match (and no reason seemed to be given for it being an elimination match.) Catrina helped out, distracting Ivelisse into a kick, and trying to cost Son of Havoc the pin at the end. Ivelisse stopped Catrina that time, and the champs kept the belts. The formerly dysfunctional trio seem completely on the same page, and the Disciples should be well out of the title picture now. New challengers are coming; Dario announced a trios tournament for #1 contenders starting next week.

Mariposa made her in-ring debut. Prior, Marty told a story of the Moths always being the richest tribe of the Aztecs, of the others being jealous of them, and of the role of Mariposa being passed down from generation to generation to the current strongest one. It’s Marty, and he was reading this from a book which had no words, so it could be all in his head or completely true. At any rate, Mariposa completely squashed Sexy Star, and the moth siblings took out Willie Mack after the match too.

The opener was the odd tag match of the Crew versus Mundo & Taya. Johnny seemed to be taking advantage of Taya’s enthusiasm to fight, and carefully only tagged himself in when he thought he team had the advantage. They were really at a disadvantage when Cage came down to watch. Mundo bailed, and Taya took the pin.

Thoughts

Anything was going to be a bit of a comedown from the last few weeks, and this one was a little bit of a resetting of the status quo. Dario got his office reset, cleared out the last vestiges of the Catrina era and set the template to come.

It’s going to be an adjustment going from the back and forth matches of the Puma championship run and even the competitive matches of Mil Muertes short run to utterly one sided Matanza matches. It’s easy to understand what they’re doing from a logical standpoint – it’s going to be a while before anyone can even really budge the monster – but it does take one of the more fun aspects of the show away for the moment. They did promise a much darker place, and a place without two count falls in the title match is a bit dark.

This Disciples trios title match is the best of the three they’ve had, even with the quick eliminations canceling people out. It’s probably too late in the game to matter, but the Disciples actually looked impressive at times and they eliminations made it easier to get a sense of them as different characters. You could at least tell which one was which when they all aren’t around (and when Striker can name them again.) It would’ve been a more memorable match with a bit more time, but the last run by Son of Havoc was really good.

The Mariposa/Sexy Star match felt very edited, like they took out minutes of the match in a big chunk at one point. It was also another one sided squash on this show. Mariposa’s finish looked brutal. I really liked the Marty vignette.

The opening tag match was ill-fitting. There was no real team to root for or a reason to care about the match, and it didn’t really move along any story – Cage hates Mundo, Mundo is scared of Cage, Mundo is kind of a jerk to Taya but Taya doesn’t care or hasn’t caught on. It wasn’t long and it wasn’t bad, but it was something I was easily distracted from and felt like time that could’ve been better spent on the trios match.

There was a lot of stuff that got done that needed to get done – they had to explain the status of Rey and Catrina, they gave Mariposa a real introduction, and they started things for the future with the trios tournament announcement. The show served it’s purpose, but it doesn’t seem like one people will be looking back at strongly.

the matches

Matanza won a 21 man Aztec Warfare match, becomes the 4^th Lucha Underground champion

order of events

 00:00 Fenix enters (1)
 00:00 Rey Mysterio enters (2)
 01:27 King Cuerno enters (3)
 02:49 Argenis enters (4)
 03:55 Argenis out (Rey Mysterio top rope splash, 1)
 04:16 Johnny Mundo enters (5)
 05:46 Joey Ryan enters (6)
 07:03 Prince Puma enters (7)
 08:05 Jack Evans enters (8)
 08:14 King Cuerno out (Rey Mysterio cross armbreaker, 2)
 09:27 Taya enters (9)
 10:40 Cage enters (10)
 11:54 Mascarita Sagrada enters (11)
 13:02 Johnny Mundo out (Puma standing shooting star press, 3)
 13:19 Marty Martinez enters (12)
 14:48 Drago enters (13)
 15:48 Marty out (Rey Mysterio top rope splash, 4)
 16:03 The Mack enters (14)
 17:17 Chavo Guerrero enters (15)
 18:05 Máscarita Sagrada out (Chavo a la de caballo, 5)
 18:37 Cage out (Taya pin, 6)
 18:50 PJ Black enters (16)
 18:51 Taya out (Fenix German suplex, 7)
 20:03 Aerostar enters (17)
 20:56 Jack Evans out (Aerostar top rope Canadian Destroyer, 8)
 20:56 Drago out (PJ Black Black Diamond, 9)
 21:10 Dragon Azteca Jr. enters (18)
 22:15 Texano enters (19)
 23:06 PJ Black out (Texano Jr. sit down powerbomb, 10)
 23:32 Mil Muertes enters (20)
 24:29 Mil Muertes out (Rey Mysterio top rope splash, 11)
 26:09 Matanza (21)
 27:07 Fenix out (Matanza spinning powerslam, 12)
 27:30 The Mack out (Matanza german suplex Mack 13)
 27:47 Aerostar out (Matanza german suplex Aerostar, 14)
 28:10 Texano Jr. out (Matanza powerbomb Texano Jr., 15)
 29:15 Joey Ryan out (Matanza gutwrench suplex, 16)
 30:28 Dragon Azteca Jr. out (Matanza chokeslam Dragon Azteca Jr., 17)
 31:09 Chavo Guerrero out (Matanza standing shooting star press, 18)
 32:17 Prince Puma out (Matanza german suplex, 19)
 34:54 Rey Mysterio out (Matanza spinning powerslam, 20)

the developments

Matanza debuted and destroyed everyone. Dario Cueto returned, declared the Temple was his again, and entered his brother as the special 21st enterant in the match. There were nine other people left in the match, and Matanza beat them all. Matanza was never dropped to the mat and rarely even shaken, with only Rey and Puma doing damage near the end.

Misterio and Azteca made their in-ring debuts – people reacted a lot stronger to Rey, but Azteca seemed to win them over a bit with his dive over the corner. Striker had no idea who Azteca was, while Vampiro spoke in myth. Argenis and Máscarita Sagrada made their returns, with Sagrada doing far better.

Pentagon Jr., Angelico, Son of Havoc and Ivelisse were all notably absent. All four are enemies of Catrina, and Catrina made it explicitly clear Pentagon trying to attack her was why he didn’t get an invite. Pentagon invited himself, coming out of the crowd to attack Mil Muertes with a chair before he could even get in the ring. Muertes was out of it and easily pinned. Catrina blamed Vampiro and screamed at him to leave, but they were interrupted by Dario’s appearance. (This meant Muertes and Matanza never interacted.)

Famous B & Brenda were in the front row handing out cards and trying to recruit both fans and luchadors. He was miced, and expressed interest in managing many people during the match.

Many of the feuds from the first set of episodes appeared at one point or other – Fenix/Cuerno, Mundo/Taya/Cage, Aerostar/Drago/Black/Jack, Chavo/Texano – along with issues from last season like Cage/Mack. Joey Ryan won a four way to get into the match, then handicuffed him to the railing to avoid being pinned. That backfired, as he was misted by Drago and unable to escape when Matanza came for him. (Matanza simply broke the railing to grab him.)

Mundo put Cage through the office window, only for Cage to return. Glass is ineffective on Cage, but a Mundo cinderblock shot worked fine and Taya picked up the pin. That issue isn’t over.

Marty and Mack weren’t in at the same time (and Sexy Star and Mariposa were nowhere to be seen), but Mack did give Marty a stunner before he could get to the back.

Thoughts

I’m winded from putting together the match results. There was a lot to keep track of, which was also a slight problem with the match. They wanted to keep as many bodies around for the final as possible, to give Matanza plenty of people to mow thru, but it meant fighting was all over the place at once and occasionally hard to keep track of it. There’s a moment where Cage & Mack are facing off, and off in the background you can see Jack tumbling down the stone stairs for who knows what reason. (You can say that about a lot of Jack things!) I’m sure it also allowed them to hide guys resting, which was more apparent with less people in early, but everything didn’t sink as much as it might had each thing gotten more time.

But maybe the rest of the match didn’t matter, because it was really all about Matanza’s destruction at the end. They put him over as strong as possible – he came off like Taz, a short wide guy just throwing dudes around. Taz didn’t do a shooting star press, best I can recall, but otherwise like Taz. It almost totally worked; they needed a little bit more of the menace Matanza showed when he was going after Joey Ryan and when referee Marty was reacting to him, but that’s the part that’s probably hardest to work on before you do the character. (And that’s also sort of on the other guys to show that fear.)

The Mil Muertes beatdown seemed weak considering what he took on previous shows, to the point where it seemed as though they were hiding an injury. I don’t recall one, and it may just have been trying to sped up things on a show where a lot needed to happen in a short amount of times. They were hardly ever doing 90 minute breaks in between entrants.

The upside to the fans not seeing the vignettes are the fans aren’t chanting “police!” at Joey Ryan. The downside is no one had any idea who Dragon Azteca Jr. is and he had about 30 seconds to get himself over. It’ll go better for him later on, I hope.

The first Aztec Warfare will be remembered as being better, because the show felt like it was making an unexpected leap. This show wasn’t really far behind, and I only wish they got a little more time or a second screen to watch it all.

 

matches

Ivelisse, Son of Havoc, Angelico [O] defeat Disciples of Death (Siniestro de la Muerte [X], Barrio Negro, Trece) to win the Lucha Underground Championship (4:54, Havoc Shooting Star Press→Angelico pin, good)
Texano Jr. defeated Chavo Guerrero in a bull rope match (6:02, powerbomb, OK)
Fenix defeated Mil Muertes for the Lucha Underground Championship (13:32, back bridge cradle, great)

developments

Every Lucha Underground championship changed hands. The Gift of the Gods championship is vacant and the Aztec Medallions should be handed out again soon. The Trios championship changed hands to the first champions, and the Lucha Underground championship went to a new champion. Even the Aztec Warfare match changed.

The show started with the trios title change. Ivelisse, Havoc and Angelico, with their LU careers on the line, were more on the same page than every and pretty much demolished the Disciples. The DoD got in some offense, and had one near victory on a surprise switch, but it was pretty clear who was the better team with both teams healthy. Both teams might not be healthy after this match: an angry Mil Muertes destroyed his subordinates in the locker room after the match, and might have straight up killed Sineistro had Catrina not stopped him.

If Mil was angry after the first title match loss, his rage must know no limits after the main event. He probably wouldn’t be pleased to know Catrina and Fenix were making out early in the show, with Catrina telling Fenix she had regrets about dumping him last season. Catrina called Fenix the man of a 1000 lives, and said one of those lives might be able to bring her back. Yea, she’s dead – and yea, this might have either been some mind game or Catrina laying the foundation of getting back with Fenix if Mil doesn’t have the belt. Fenix’s reaction this didn’t show in the match, as he and Mil destroyed each other. Fenix bled first, Mil ripping his mask, but Fenix rallied back to the same to Mil when he wasn’t jumping off high places. Mil was more vulnerable than previous match (Mil’s first back from the dead), but Fenix best shots weren’t keeping him down. It was a bridging cradle which shockingly beat Mil – not far off from what we saw with Puma & Pentagon, only Fenix was able to bridge up. Catrina & Mil were shocked, but Catrina rallied quick: next week’s Aztec Warfare would now be for the Lucha Underground championship, Mil will get #20, and Fenix will be #1.

A couple more people were confirmed for Aztec Warfare: Rey Misterio revealed both himself and Dragon Aztec received invites. Another vignette confirmed Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo are in the match. The other 14 spots are yet to be revealed.

There are others coming to the Temple. Dario decided Matanza was ready and it was time to take his Temple back. Dario opened the door to Matanza’s area, and we saw him for the first time – or the second time if you saw the comic book, because this was pretty much the same scene, down to the first look at Matanza. Matanza seemed a lot bloodier on TV. It was unclear if they’re meant to be in Warfare (doesn’t seem like Catrina would invite Dario back) or if they’re just on their own schedule.

FWIW: I finally found a place that’d map 375 miles from a location. Phoenix, a city near to the heart of the lead writer, seems to be in the right place to be Dario’s hangout these many months.

The other match on the show appeared to be an ending, at least now. Texano cleanly beat Chavo in a bullrope match. Chavo put up a fight – more than the Disciples, really – but was in trouble from the start when the Crew walked out on him. (Mr. Cisco was in a shoulder sling, which might explain why he was the guy pinned in seconds in the gauntlet match a couple of weeks ago.) Texano whipped Chavo with his own bullrope after the match.

I think that’s it! Vampiro claimed he was on his meds, which I’m not sure I believed and may or may not count.

thoughts

This was a really good show. Just doing Fenix versus Mil Muertes sets the expectations really high, because Grave Consequences set the bar so high and the other matches were nearly as crazy – it’s a challenge to maintain that standard. This was up there with those other matches, maybe not at the time, but a great part of an epic feud if you can string all the matches together. It’s been like nothing else.

The crowd desperately wanted Fenix to win this one, but I’m not sure they totally believed he would until he pulled it off. The flash pin, reversing out of a Flatliner when Mil took took much time and might have already had the match won, protected Mil a bit. It’s also that Fenix has Mil’s number like no one else. I wasn’t as much as fan of the “first/last” reveal – Catrina has been a bit over the top evil too similar to people in certain other promotions, and it’s actually kind of a repeat from the first Aztec Warfare. Remember, Mil and Fenix first met in the seeding decision match, and Mil won that time to get #20 in the last match.

Fenix limping during in this match reminded me: this is the end of the Sunday taping, he and Cuerno had their painful looking ladder match just 24 hours before. I have no idea how he could manage to do what he did. They taped out of order on this day to give Mil extra time between last week’s main event three way match and this week’s title match, but even that must’ve taken an immense amount of effort. Luchadors, wrestlers have two matches on the same taping or back to back days all the time, but these were not any ordinary matches.

Fenix’s fight for a German suplex late in the match was awesome.

The Matanza reveal was surprising; I didn’t think we’d see him until he set foot in the real Temple. They shot him from underneath and they framed him to full up the screen. The blood made him see intimidating, but his first appearance in the ring is going to be the test.

The other two matches were kind of slight. Chavo versus Texano was OK, but it was also better than I thought it would be and more definitive than I would’ve guessed. Texano won completely – that’s the best decision they could’ve made but not the one which always is made. The trios title match was really fun while it lasted, even while being one sided, and I could’ve gone for something twice as long easily. Still, if the tradeoff was more time for the main event, that’s fine, I’ll see the trios guys another day.

Once you notice Striker is avoiding saying the individual names of the Disciples of Death, it becomes hard not to notice. They’re tough!

Next week is going to be something. Aztec Warfare I was built off a lot of feuds from the previous episodes coming together, and you can see the same thing being set up here. There’s also a question of who exactly is in this match. We know of six, leaving fourteen spots for twenty four people who’ve been around this season so far: Angélico, Barrio Negro, Bengala, Cage, Chavo Guerrero, Cortez Castro, Drago, El Siniestro De La Muerte, Ivelisse, Jack Evans, Joey Ryan, Killshot, King Cuerno, Kobra Moon, Mariposa, Marty Martinez, Mr. Cisco, Pentagón Jr, PJ Black, Sexy Star, Son of Havoc, Taya, Texano, and the Mack. The Disciples looked like they may need a week off and/or a hospital bed and Bengala may have returned to the jungle, but that’s still a lot of people for not enough spaces – and that’s if no one unexpected shows up.