Tag: recap

The Matches

1) Fenix won a ten man single fall match with a sit down piledriver on Prince Puma (10:47); Big Ryck, Drago, King Cuerno, Mariachi Loco, Mascarita Sagrada, Pentagon Jr., Son of Havoc and Super Fly were also in the match.

2) Mil Muertes won a 10 man battle royal
Elimination Order
– Famous B (0:47, by Pimpienla Escarlata)
– Ricky Mandell (1:29, by the entire Crew)
– Pimpinela Escarlata (1:54, by Mil Muertes)
– Sexy Star (2:51, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Cortez Castro (4:21, by Johnny Mundo)
– Cisco (4:26, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Bael (4:37, by Mil Muertes)
– Chavo Guerrero (7:01, by Chavo Guerrero)
– Johnny Mundo (10:58, by Mil Muertes)

3) Mil Muertes beat Fenix (5:45, flatliner)
Mil Muertes earned the 20th and last spot in Aztec Warfare
Fenix will be the 1st enterant in Aztec Warfare

The Developments

• Drago & Cuerno fought in their match, as did Sexy Star & Chavo. Everyone in the opener repeatedly stopped fighting to take out Big Ryck, who did not have his men with him for the first time.

• Konnan, furious over Puma losing the opener, declared he might drop Puma as a protege if he failed to take advantage of another big opportunity.

• Bael is a member of the Big Ryck/Castro/Cortez “Crew”.

• Dario Cueto was wearing sunglasses to hide a black eye from last week’s attack by Mundo. There were no other references to the attack or any retribution for it. Mundo, Puma and some of the Crew were bandaged from last week’s ladder match.

• The Mystery Woman was seen watching the first two matches, but no new information was shared about her.

• Another Cage vignette aired, though with a completely different tone. This week’s Cage vignette was a positive push the limits message more akin to Strong Man’s Twitter feed.

• Dario Cueto said he would debut the Aztec Warfare match on the 01/07 show and it would determine a champion. Dario Cueto shows off a new belt. It has an ordered set of entrances, and will have 20 people involved but nothing else was explained. The field was implied to be the same 20 as seen in these matches.

• Dario visited his caged ally, saying it wasn’t time to let him out yet. Dario was afraid his ally would destroy the belt if he touched it. Dario’s Key was implied to be the thing keeping the monster in the cage.

19 GIFs from the show are here.

Thoughts

The opener was great and made it hard to follow everything else. It was a nothing but action match with a lot of that. There were parts which looked too much choreographed – everyone stopping fighting to take turns hitting Big Ryck was a bit much – but the crazy high spots were enough to make it work. This was a secret showcase match for Son of Havoc, who got to do more high spots in this match than in his four previous matches combined. Mascarita Sagrada also won the crowd over with his antics. Finishing sequence between Puma and Fenix went well and Konnan being angry after Puma lost big matches back to back weeks makes a lot of sense.

They really need to advance Mystery Woman’s story. Everyone else gets a little bit more to their story most every week, and they haven’t even given Mystery Woman a name yet.

The battle royal was a battle royal and went longer than I needed to see it. Bael was treated as a notable mystery last week but his presence was tossed out like we all already knew who he was. (It would’ve been tough to even know which guy was Bael if he didn’t happen to have gear with a a giant “B” on them.) They really needed at least 15 seconds of explanation. This was a WWE feeling match, both with Mundo doing his Royal Rumble elimination scares and the announcers dropping WWE names during the broadcast (William Regal, Fit Finley, HBK). I understand the idea is not to be afraid to mention other places but it felt like too much.

Fenix and Mil Muertes didn’t click as well as I’d hope. I don’t know if I was just not as interested after the battle royal. I don’t think the stips helped either – the little information we had about Aztec Warfare made it sound like the Royal Rumble (in another WWE-ish moment), and everyone knows the guy in the last spot of the Royal Rumble rarely wins the thing.

The ladder match show was actually taped after this one, so Dario and Puma were selling injuries they didn’t quite yet. This was also the least WWE-feeling bit, as guys actually visibly the damage from a ladder match the day after.

I don’t think Aztec Warfare will be exactly a Rumble. Lucha Underground always seems motivated to do something a little different. Maybe it’ll be weapons involved, maybe it’ll be other types of eliminations, but there surely will be a twist. And it might be the only match, since a 20 man elimination match. I wish we didn’t have to wait two weeks to see it.

the matches

King Cuerno b Super Fly (3:27, “the thrill of the hunt” or maybe it’s “the Big Game”)

Chavo Guerrero b Fenix (5:43, frog splash)

Johnny Mundo defeated Big Ryck and Prince Puma in a $100,000 ladder match (19:34)

the developments

Danny Trejo came for the ladder match, unlike Kurt and Alfedo. They are not as tough as Machete.

Super Fly debuted. In the alternate universe of Lucha Underground, he’s still a tecnico, still part of Fuerza Aerea (who picked him to be here) and still masked. He lost to Cuerno, who’s finisher may have been renamed. Drago watched from the perch, and Cuerno looked at him while finishing off Super Fly.

Vignettes aired for Pentagon Jr. – who traveled to Japan to learn all sorts of evilness involving breaking bones – and (Brian) Cage. Cage’s was more MMA/big focused, pushing himi as heel who was different than the Mexican luchadors.

Pentagon Jr. and Sexy Star cornered their partners from last week. A Pentagon Jr. trip led to Chavo Guerrero beating Fenix. Sexy Star threatened Chavo after the match, saying Demon would be back soon. There was a dueling “Let’s go Fenix”, “Let’s go Chavo” chant.

Mundo still had the key prior to the ladder match. Ryck was not confident the ladders would support him and uneasy climbing them; Cisco & Castro got involved as much to climb the ladder for him as they were to beat up Puma & Mundo. Cisco took huge falls, including being sent off the post into two tables on the floor. Puma was taken out by being sent out of the ring and thru a table. When it seemed Mundo was gong to win, a man in a Pentagon mask ran out to stop him. It wasn’t Pentagon, but someone the announcers had scene around the Temple but could not identify. Mundo was able to fight Ryck’s goons off and get the briefcase.

Cueto demanded Mundo give him back his key. Mundo thought about it, punched Cueto, and dropped the Key on him.

All the gifs for the show are on imgur and the ten that could fit are over on tumblr.

thoughts

They did a good job of keeping the Cuerno/Drago issue going. Drago looks cool just standing there. Super Fly doesn’t seem to have a big role here but he did look good in his big dive.

Chavo Guerrero kept the young Mexican flyer from pulling off most of his exciting offense, this seems vaguely familiar. To be fair, it built well to the end with Fenix getting in some big spots, and it took Pentagon Jr. interfering to cost him the meatch. The end game here is still Demon/Chavo.

Ladder match was great. Mundo and Puma did some creative spots, Cisco and Castro took a lot of beating, and Ryck was used smartly like the Street fight. The new guy – who appears to be “Bael” (B-Boy) based on the taping results – didn’t have much of an impactful debut considering how ineffective he turned out to be, but that’s a minor grievance in a good match.

Johnny Mundo is on the lineup for the next show. That one is going to be harder to explain.

Cards on the table: I was pretty sure Cage was the guy Dario was talking to weeks ago, the guy who Dario is keeping hidden away by the key. Maybe he still is, but introducing him in the vignette suggests he may have a different role. Guess we find out together.