Lucha Undeground – Ultima Lucha Part 1 Review 7/29/15

Reviews, Top Story

ultimo lucha

ULTIMA
LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….LUCHA….

Hey everyone Grainbelt Jones back again with the review for part 1 of Ultima Lucha!!! We got some really cool matches to run through today, and I feel we have a good show on our hands…….

dariostux

Tonights show opens with Dario Cueto dressed up in a tux, approaching a prison cell which is holding Black Lotus. We haven’t seen her for a bit, and I must say I darn near forgot about her. The premise of this segment was a bit odd, and I had a bit of trouble following along. What I think happened here is Dario admits to Black Lotus, his brother was not the one who killed her family. He basically throws a curve ball by stating her master was the one behind their deaths all along, stating he had an agenda for having their daughter as his loyal apprentice. As you can imagine this angered Lotus and she began to strike a wall out of fury. It will be interesting to see where they go from here with this…..

The band welcomes us to the Temple and the first night of ULTIMA LUCHA, Striker and Vampiro waste no time getting things started and we are introduced to the first match of the night.

The Mack VS They Call Him CAGE … Falls Count Anywhere Match..

cagemack

This match started awesome, and the way it should have as we all know Cage can’t wait to get his hands on Mack. He interrupts Mack’s entrance by attacking him from the behind and this wastes no time causing them go to blows, and start very early on the bleachers and top have of the temple. Cage slams the Mack on the roof area that destroyed Fenix but commentary stated that roof is reenforced now. Mack  takes a pounding a bit an answers  back with a exploder suplex on the wooden bleachers among the crowd, causing everyone to mark out and chant holy S**T. These boys are really bringing it tonight and this is the best way they could have started this show, the crowd is going bananas, and so engaged into this thing. I loved a spot where Cage was hitting Mack with a chair next to one of the offices, and before Cage can strike again, Mack tackles him through the door. Mack also continues to bring it by having the spot of the night, he literally brings a cooler into the mix, and that cooler had beer inside it they may know where this is going). Once he sets up Cage he pops the top on a beer chugs some down and hits Cage with a massive stunner causing the crowd to freaking explode!!!!!!!! This was freaking CRAZY and I marked out, the fans marked out, and it was just a damn good time. The match continues fully utilizing the falls count anywhere rules and finally Cage seems to rally back and hits some massive discus clothes lines, however Mack does end up power bombing Cage thru a table, keeping his amazing spot streak going.  The brawl makes it way back up to the top area, and we see both wrestlers brawl on another roof space.. The finish comes to a close when Cage gets the upper hand, and curb stomps Mack’s head into a Worked cinderblock. The debris explodes as Cage rolls over Mack and gets the cover and pin for the 3 count.

Winner = CAGE

I can’t stress enough how hype I was, not just during the match but after as well. This was a genius way to start the show and getting the vibes right on track. The Mack really shined here, I love Cage for selling and putting Mack over even though he was the winner. Mack look solid even in defeat and you gotta love these guys for their heart on this one. The stunner spot just made the crowd explode and it was a nice treat for a purist wrestling fan, that’s the best part about this promotion, giving us those raw purist wrestling fan moments that you usually only get on the indy’s. It’s nice to see them do some of these things on television showing the fans what true indy culture is. Great way to kick off the show, a 10/10 match…..

Next up on the Card its time for the trios tag match. I know this is a big one, with the fan Favorite’s being the champs, however I feel its only a matter of time now before they get dethroned by the sexiest women in the biz Catrina.

triostag

This started off with the disciples of death divide and conquering, I was a bit worried how everything would work out with Ivelisse still being injured, but they paced this match well. In the beginning they kept the faces apart and finally abandoned Ivelisse on the outside to triple team the remaining champs. The interesting part about this match, and what confirms some of my predictions, is how they used Catrina during this match. She really proves she is main focus of this faction and how they used her and the stone is awesome. As you can Imagine Angelico did his huge spot of jumping off one of the roof splashing on all 3 disciples. The cool thing is after selling for a while Catrina raise them to their feet by using the stone, after a nice confrontation between her and Ivelisse. The rest of the match continued with Catrina controlling her disciples and Son of Havok and Angilco pulling off some nice spots. They hit some really nice dives and came through in some clutch situations to overcome the numbers game, again, the problem came from Catrina. This was played so well seeing how we had matches with the trios champs beating the odds, but in the end they couldn’t stop Catrina and that darn stone. Again Catrina is the true heel in this faction and the force that tipped the scales in their favor!

Winners = The Disciples Of Death

After a toast to Vampiro for all his contributions to the show, we prep for the main event of part 1. We also see our introduction to the believers’ and or lumberjacks, they actually picked a lot of people in the crowd I think, because you can tell these guys like performance cadence.

Main Event = Hernandez VS Drago

dragodez

This match started a bit a slow, they gave Hernandez the heat right away as he tossed Drago out of the ring first. The fans showed favoritism and actually helped him up causing Hernandez to flip and exit the ring in frustration. The fans then turned on him and sent him running away and he is eventually forced to slide back in the ring and hide. The story quickly became Hernandez trying to keep the fight in the ring, and staying out of the way of the lumberjacks on the outside. After taking a beating and not being able to roll out of the ring for the remaining of the match, Drago turns up the heat by tackling Hernandez to the floor. Some of the wrestling was bit sloppy and I could see Hernandez and Drago were not on the page at first, but they did recover and made the best of things. I actually like the lumberjacks and even though they were a bit cheesy and lacked performance cadence, it did actually add to the match in my opinion, because you could tell there weren’t just plants. Hernandez did never actually hit anyone back and I think that was his way of executing the cowardly heel thing here. The spot of this match is when Hernandez boarder tosses Drago out of the ring onto the lumberjacks, however this transitions into Hernandez setting up for his super man dive. Hernandez crashes and burns because Drago counters the Dive by spraying him out the air with his Dragon spit spot. This was cool and also got Drago over, and once he pulled out his nunchucks I knew the end was near for Hernandez, especially when he got put through a table. The finish comes after the big table spot and Drago hits the finishing splash off the top ropes sealing his victory.

Winner = Drago

This ended up not being too bad, like I said the beginning was rough but once you got into the story being told it worked out. This was executed enough to be a solid main event, however they just can’t top the Cage and Mack match. I will say I wish I could’ve seen more from Hernandez, and I feel he could’ve been a bit stronger character wise to sell this match, but hey I could be being nit picky. It was a decent match to end the show and I figured Drago would be going over so there was no surprise there.

The last Vignette we see is black Lotus’s teacher trying to enter some back entrance to the temple. There is a quick kung fu style fight scene, and the teacher explains he must enter because Lotus is a prisoner because he failed her.  The guard says the prophecy proclaims he will die if he enters, but this did not deter her master and he enters the temple and the door closes behind him.

Solid show guys and a good way to start off Ultima Lucha, I will be back next week with a complete run down of part 2 and how I felt about both parts in their entirety. Until then have a good week.

lotus

– Grainbelt Jones

Mr. Jones has been a life long nerd, he started collecting vinyl, action figures, and comic books at a very young age. As he grew older his passions evolved into Djing, producing music, writing and traveling. He caught the wrestling bug in 95 after going to the first WCW episode on TNT, at the mall of America, and has been hooked ever since. A new collecting habit of wrestling tapes was born that night where he learned the history of wrestling as well as taping the present weeks during the Monday night wars. Through that process he became a lifer and the habit is not easily broken, and shows today in his mid 20's. His passion for art shows through his music and his obsession with comic books, which has also transformed into a hefty collection. You can expect good articles and reviews on, wrestling, comics, games and figures and anything else Mr. Jones may decide to tackle! Hope you enjoy! Thanks!!