LUCHA ….. LUCHA…..LUCHA….LUCHA
Hey guys its that time again Lucha Underground! El Rey network, lets see what you got in store for us this week.
The video package went through the events of last week, Going over the situation with Pentagon Jr and Sexy Star. We also got a replay of them linking up Angelico, Havok and Ivelisse. The last update we saw was the introduction of Hernandez and what happened last week with Puma, Cage and Konann.
The show starts off in Cueto’s office, he is very interested in the trios tag titles that were introduced, and wants them to mean as much as the Main title itself. He then tells Puma he must find 2 other partners to enter the tournament, because all the top stars should be after the trio’s titles. Cueto then teased he was the man who assembled the team that will face Puma’s team first next week, he didn’t say who but went on to say King Cuerno is one of them,and tonight Puma will defend the title against him.
Just like that we are in the temple, a nice subtle intro by Vampiro and Matt Stryker, they hype the band and the next match which is apart of the trios tournament.
Out comes Son of Havok, Ivelisse and Angelico. Son of Havok and Ivelisse are getting split chants as they walk out to the ring. Next comes Drago, Aerostar, and Fenix, the crowd is reeling to see Fenix since the last time we did was that amazing match with Mil Muertes. My excitement went up immediately seeing Aerostar and Drago on the same team, I’m hoping one of them snaps on the other tonight giving us more fuel for that feud! I’m also hoping Havok, Angelico and Ivelisse give us a good match since I haven’t really been too into their program.
Match 1 = Son of Havok, Angelico, and Ivelisse VS. Drago, Aero Star, and Fenix
The match starts off with Angelico and Finix. Fenix takes control first allowing Ivelisse to blind tag in, the crowd chants for her and she is one of the fan favorites.She then tries to attack Fenix which he counters and whips her back into the corner. Angelico at this point tags in and tries to attack but Fenix cuts him off. Fenix then oddly screams NO… NO, at Ivelisse and sends or back into her corner, after wards he catches Angelico with a major super kick which Angelico sold awesomely (wait did I just say that?). Seeing Angelico flustered, Fenix tags in Drago who spring boards of the rope into a tornado DTT, which again Angelico sold nicely( 2 for 2). After the ddt Angelico eats another kick causing him to flop into the corner ( Kinda over sold this we’ll let it slide) as Drago re tags in Fenix, once he’s tagged in Fenix hits Angelico with a running Drop kick while he is still laid out in the corner. After ward he tags in Aerostar and they set up, well an awkward move where Aerostar stands on Fenix’s shoulders, they are both perched high on the top turnbuckle while Drago sets up Angelico below. Once he is all set up they both jump off and awkwardly land on Angelico, in which he has to flop overly to sell( not his fault). I personally don’t know what this was, but I don’t want to call it a botch, ill just leave it as awkward. The good that comes from this is Drago pulls Aerostar off Angelico starting to show a bit of anger. It seems Drago wants the credit of the win over Aerostar, and even though Drago is not the legal man, he tries to get the pin, in which of course Areostar breaks up. Fenix now is forced to break apart the two, and sends Drago back to the corner. Aerostar then starts working on the battered Angelico, however as he bounces off the ropes to attack he takes a kick from Ivelisse, which give Angelico a chance to kick down Aerostar. Angelico then tries to get in some offense of his own, yet Son of Havok tags himself in (see where this is going)?. Entering the ring the crowd chants for him and he starts off with some awesome offence, hitting a nice standing shooting star taunting Ivelisse. Now she tags her self in and the story now is Ivelisse, Havok, and Angelico are trying to out show each each other and play up the love triangle angle. Seeing they are losing, Angelico tags himself in and has an amazing series of selling ( I can’t believe I’m saying this). He takes a nice tilt a whirl and another spinning DTT and then takes a dive from Drago to finish it all off. afterward Aerostar gets jealous and tags himself in to out do his rival, tries his hand at a dive but lands on Drago instead of their opponents. What happens next is too tough to call and frankly I don’t want to ruin it, there are a series of dives and the story is everyone is cutting off Ivelisse to dive on all the other wrestlers on out side, its awesome and should be seen to be understood. Finally Ivelisse gets her chance executing a running dive, landing on almost the everyone in the match except for Fenix. Now Fenix is in the ring and gets ready to hit dive but he instead cuts off Angelico from coming into the ring, this tangles Angelico into the ropes allowing him to takes the spot of the match, which is Fenix walking along the ropes and elbow dropping him while his legs are wrapped in the ropes. Next the legal man havok comes in and takes some offense and the story is he’s trying to tag in Ivelisse. Once he counters his opponents he dives for the tag and Ivelisse jumps off the apron, the crowd and everyone boo’s myself included as Ivelisse starts to walk away. I thought this was the end, yet Drago and Aerostar now start slapping each other and going back and forth, this allows Havok to get the upper hand and he singling out Drago. Then as the crowd chants he hits a huge shooting star press off the top rope for the pin 1..2..3.
Winners = Son OF Havok, Ivelisse, and Angelico
Ivelisse is at the top of the temple pissed they won, and Angelico is just trying to wake up still stunned from his huge bump he took on the outside of the ring.
This was fucking awesome. I loved and watched this match like 3 times, Angelico really turned things around for me here. I know I have been hard on him lately, but man his selling was perfect for this match with what he needed to do, I now see his true strength as a wrestler. The continuity and all the mini feuds going on made this match amazing, and the match was booked perfectly! I only hope Angelico can keep his over selling at bay, and continue to do so as the tournament moves on.
Next we get a back stage segment with Konann and Puma, Konann states that Hernandez is joining in Puma’s trio team. This does not make Puma happy, however Puma shows Konann his partner of choice which is Johnny Mundo. Hmmmm, konann expresses his distaste for this, and now we see the seeds brewing for possible descension, its looks like we have our team and the question is how long can they work together.
Now we are back in the temple , out comes Sexy star followed by Super Fly. Once they are in the ring, Dario Cueto comes out to the temple shocking all of us since he hasn’t done that for a bit. He grabs the mic and starts saying he knows they are friends and announces this match will be mask VS mask match. This is huge and the crowd starts making noise, commentary puts this over as being huge for the culture, Vampiro states this is boarder line disrespectful by Cueto. Typically these matches usually take decades to build and mostly happens between rivaled families. Either way they promote this match as the first mask vs mask match in Lucha Underground history.
The match starts off as both wrestlers use their technical abilities, nothing too special just working the crowd. They are evenly matched until the thought of losing his mask causes Super Fly to start stiffing star. He hits her with a nice kick and continues to put down a beat down. The story of this match is Fly is stiffing Sexy star, but despite this she still is staying in the match and hitting him with some nice offence of her own. Star has a nice exchange where she hits a nice arm drag sending Fly to the outside and caps it off with diving on him leaving them both down on the floor. After laying out there a bit Star sends Fly into the ring, she then hits a nice code breaker leaving fly laid out. After a few more exchanges fly counters and hits a nasty power bomb on star setting her up for a moonsault, the problem with this is he takes way too long to set up and Star moves out of the way. She then tangles him up in a modified cradle and gets the pin 1..2..3.
Winner = Sexy Star
After the match Fly is on his knees ready to take off his mask, as the crowd chants Lucha it look as though Star and Super Fly are going to actually go through with this. Fly then allows Star to pull of his mask, and as the crowd chants Star and Fly embrace each other. It does’t last long, and here comes my favorite Pentagon Jr, he knocks out Star and sends her to the outside of the ring, he then takes out Fly and finishes what he started last week by breaking his arm. Doing his Zero fear sign JR stands tall in the ring and as Star slides in to comfort Super Fly, Jr exits the ring and a stare down ensues.
This match and portion of the show was solid, I find myself shocked they went this far with the unmasking of Super Fly. I though for sure Jr would have came out early and beat everyone down, possibly then ripping the mask off Super fly anyway. Commentary put over the unmasking as an end, or a new beginning for Super fly before Jr attacked, so I conclude they must have a plan for him, or he is done in the promotion. The situation now with Star and JR has me very, very interested. I know Star is known now for taking stiff beatings but geeze, if she has to go against Jr. I have no idea how they would book that match she would be destroyed.
After commercials Commentary hypes up the main event for the title and we first see the faces make their way into the temple.
Lead by Hernandez, Mundo and Puma make their way to the ring, Puma is wearing a Puma head dress and commentary puts this over as taunting Cuerno. I was shocked the champ came out first but they did this to make the entrance by the heels mean something since we are about to find out who King Cuernos partners are. Out comes the King and I Mark out a bit, I can’t help it I’m happy to see him, he is one of my personal favorites!! After his ever intimidating entrance, we here familiar music play, and out comes Cage and Texano, it is revealed they are the King’s partners and seem to be interested in backing up the King.
Match 3 Main Event = Prince Puma VS King Cuerno
Both Guys are feeling each other out to start this one off, nobody’s had the upper hand until Puma tries to go for a dive outside but gets caught by Texano and Cage, then they send him into Cuerno which drops him with a neck breaker on the outside. The heels then cut off the Faces from reaching Puma, as Cuerno makes an example of the champ running his thumb across the champs neck, signifying he is decapitating the champion. Next Cuerno brings Puma into the ring and starts his attack, commentary puts over the King dissecting and breaking down the champion piece by piece, he is using his slow mythological pace he is known for and starts stomping the ankles, knees and back. Like a true hunter he picks his spots and calculates each attack as his buck head watches his destruction. Distracting the ref Cage and Texano also attack the champ and Cuerno plays it off as nothing is going on. Finally the fans are back in this chanting for Puma which allows him to gain a second wind of life. Back and forth they go with stiff shots but Puma comes out on top sending the King outside so he can dive on top of him. Next Cage and Texano try getting involved but instead Mundo decides to enter the ring and dives on everyone landing on the outside. This was nasty because he over shot it a bit, landing wrong on top of Cuerno managing not to be caught properly. Cage then picks up Cuerno and rolls him into the ring so he will not lose by count out, at the same time Hernandez is willing Puma to re enter the ring which he does. Both competitors are back in the ring now trying to hit big moves to put their opponents down, each of them continue to get 2 counts failing to put the other away. Frustrated Cuerno hits 2 sick German suplexes then chains into a vertical, It looks as though Cuerno is going for his finish when Hernandez steps onto the apron, he seems to be getting in Puma’s head here because Puma is trying to do this all on his own. Cage along with Texano look to be interfering yet Puma is smart enough to cut them off, after this Cuerno gets distracted by Hernandez allowing Puma to nail a nice shot then after taunting Hernandez, Puma sets up and hits Cuerno with is front flip 900 pinning him for the 1..2..3.
Winner = Prince Puma
After the match Puma seems a little disappointed he had help again to win, and snatched his hand away as Hernandez tries to raise it in victory.There was not time to play this up because the heels go in for the attack and now all 6 guys are brawling as the show goes off the air.
Another awesome show, I was blown away by the first match, and the main event was also booked properly. Its amazing to see how this show continues to shine in continuity and booking that makes sense. Even as a die hard wrestling fan with booking ideas of his own, I cannot argue or question the routes they are going in here, this show is just a real treat. I’m excited to see next weeks show as always and we will see how it goes.
Commentary
Now I would like to talk a little bit about commentary. We have had some time now to see how these guys develop, and before I critiqued them, I wanted to make sure they had enough time to get into a flow. Personally I have really been enjoying Matt Stryker and Vampiro, they have been a breath of fresh air. I like their style in the sense that we are all friends just watching wrestling, yet they still do a good job giving good back story, pumping up story lines, combined with painting that picture for the match. Also Vampiro’s Spanish, and experience in the culture gives us new depth to the product, and adds a nice dynamic during interviews and what not. The only thing that bugs me everyone once in a while is they talk to us as though we are too much of good friends and use too much wrestling lingo. I think they need to work on that happy medium just a bit a more, when Vampiro says I’M MARKING OUT BRO” that’s just a little much. I do like the subtle approach though, like some times they will make a comment like “are we getting worked” or “he’s stiffing him”, that’s cool but I think Vampiro’s Don West moments happen during big spots. I will say if they continue to use the right wrestling lingo without completely going full Smart mark they could set a new bar on how commentary should call matches. We all want to be let in a little bit and feel like yes we do know whats going on, but just don’t open the huge flood gates of breaking kayfabe and actually use the term kayfabe on the show. Thank god they haven’t went that far yet, and i think they are smart enough not to. The other slight problem I have with Stryker is sometimes he compares Lucha to other promotions, like tonight he said something like Puma is a fighting champion but in a promotion like this, its unlikely we will have a Champion drag on with the title for a long period of time. He said something to that effect and I cringed, listen I get he was trying to put over this is the hot place be with an amazing roster, but DUDE really? It was a little bit random of a choice, and frankly that’s not the first time I’ve heard him go way out of his way to compare this product to others. Listen you guys already have GOLD and people will come, its like on a commercial when a product bashes another company or product its just tacky, and even though Stryker hasn’t straight up bashed other promotions, its still lame he speaks of them. Take a lesson from Vince, so other than AAA there is no other promotion out there, you guys have your own thing stick to it and you will be fine. Once some more time passes I think they will find that niche and happy medium, once Lucha gets more known I hope Stryker will drop the comparison so we can focus on the gem being laid out before us. Well guys let me know what you thought of the show, and how you feel about the commentary thus far! Cheers- Grainbelt Jones
