Lucha Underground S2 E2: The Dark & The Mysterious Recap – Results and Analysis Featuring Pentagon Junior, Prince Puma, Johnny Mundo, PJ Black, Killshot & More!

Results, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

Pentagon J

Welcome to this week’s Lucha Underground recap, luchafans!  You can check out this episode’s live coverage here.

Sexy Star is still a hostage of Marty “The Moth” Martinez.  Mil Muertes is injured, but remains powerful on his Throne.  Pentagon Junior is looking for his next sacrifice, possibly in the form of Prince Puma.  Brian Cage and Johnny Mundo have their sights set on the Lucha Underground Championship.  “The Darewolf” PJ Black makes a stunning series debut.  And Kobra Moon, Dragon Azteca, and veteran Rey Mysterio are coming to the Temple in due time.

DragonAzteca

There is still no word on Dario Cueto and Black Lotus, and where Cueto will take his war with Catrina – and the second Temple.  However, we’re only two episodes in this season, and nearly everyone who has debuted so far already has a common enemy due to the shared goal for the LU Championship: Mil Muertes.  But before the luchadors and luchadoras can get to him, they must make it past their own rivals.  We saw a preview for Johnny Mundo versus Brian Cage, and we’ve seen Fenix versus King Cuerno and Pentagon Junior versus Prince Puma.  We should anticipate Sexy Star versus The Moth, plus The Unlikely Trio versus the Disciples once again.  Moreover, I think we can imagine Catrina versus Ivelisse later on in the ring, whether it’s this season or in the just-confirmed Season 3, as Catrina has past wrestling experience outside of LU.  And Mil has to defend his title again sometime – broken arm or not.

Mil 2

But that’s just a few possibilities.  Lucha Underground Season 2 Episode 2: “The Dark & The Mysterious” has us more grounded in this world, despite the incredible season premiere.  We’re seeing the characters interact.  We saw some amazing performances from the luchadors making season debuts in the ring.  We’re already seeing possibilities unfold, even though it’s just getting started.  We saw fewer events occurring outside of the Temple – Sexy Star in the home of The Moth’s grandmother, Mysterio and Azteca in an unknown location, and the promos for PJ and Kobra – but we’ll see more later, so the focus is more so within it.  And that’s okay.  No, it’s better than okay – it’s awesome.  It was a great choice on Creative’s part to have this episode more concentrated on the Temple to establish new storylines, to showcase more debuts and possibilities, and to progress some of what we’ve seen so far.  Taking that into consideration, this episode was pretty great.  Let’s count the ways.

MundovsKillshot

Johnny Mundo vs. Killshot
Winner: Johnny Mundo via pinfall

These two proved their worth last season, and last night, they proved that they’ll do it again.  Both of them shined in the ring (Mundo in both the literal and figurative senses), though Killshot came up short story-wise, due to Brian Cage’s entrance shortly after the match.  Let’s hope Killshot is not as understated this season as he was last – but I think having his series debut right away in the second episode with none other than Johnny Mundo means that there might be some good things in store for him, even despite his loss in his first match.

MundovsKillshot2

Immediately at the match’s start were some impressive counter moves and work with the ropes, plus out-of-ring exchanges after Killshot’s skilled flip out of the ring and onto Mundo.  He made it look easy, as well as when he jumped from the turnbuckes for a pin on Johnny.  Johnny also pulled a C4 and delivered a nice hit in the groin.  There was also that mishap with the ref, which I’m sure many viewers found frustrating (we see enough of that in WWE).  However, the rest of the match stood up so well on its own and didn’t need the ref bump to make up for any excitement, so I’m wondering if that was even planned.

Mundo

Mundo is on the right track for the Championship, winning his first match of the season.  And then there’s Cage.

Brian Cage LU

The promo between the two worked pretty well, which seems to have set up a typical face/heel rivalry, though I’m even more excited for matches between the two and hopefully Mil Muertes.

SexyStarhostage

Sexy Star & Marty “The Moth” Martinez

I really disliked Marty here, and I had empathy for Sexy Star.  That’s probably what we’re supposed to feel, so the promo did a good job with that (the cinematic style shined here, as well).  However, Sexy is a “woman in a man’s world” character, as Matt Striker said last season.  If Sexy is going to have more feuds with the male wrestlers, especially heels (and we should expect it), then I want to see something a little different than what we saw last season, something added to the women-overcoming-men trope.  It would be consistent with the story-focused approach to LU and certainly add to the build-up of her rivalries and get her over with the crowd.

MartyTheMoth

As far as Marty goes – he’s pretty good as a heel.  It will be cool to see him back in the ring, whenever that happens (maybe he’ll come back with Sexy?).  I’m also interested to see if he’ll align with Catrina and Mil, which could make his character stronger than just the psychopath trope.  That could also make for some deadly outcomes, and Marty has already proved his potential worth with the kidnapping of Sexy Star.

Kobra Moon

Kobra Moon Trailer

OMG AWESOME.  I don’t want to say too much because there are plenty of possibilities here regarding Kobra Moon.  I’m excited to see another luchadora on the roster, and while her debut trailer showed little (which worked because she seems mysterious), she looks like she could be competition for Sexy Star.  Let’s see what happens next week.  According to Diva Dirt, she went by Thunder Rosa in the California indies and is a former wrestler for STARDOM in Japan.

PJBlack Promo

“The Darewolf” PJ Black Debut

I like this look on the former WWE Superstar.  He looks even tougher than before, so his gimmick certainly fits.  If he’s just looking for thrills, he’s come to the right place – but will he become tainted by the darkness reigning the Throne?  One thing’s for sure – the crowd was crazy when he came out.

PJBlackDebut

“The Darewolf” PJ Black vs. The Mack
Winner: The Mack via pinfall

The audience got pretty excited with Mack, as well.

20160203202756

The athleticism of these two was exemplified very well in this match.  Incredible counters, great headlocks by PJ as a strategy for taking on a larger opponent, very brief pins, leg sweeps, and a great shoulder tackle by PJ.  Mack returned with some pretty painful-sounding slaps and punches and a German suplex, plus a Samoan drop and a Samoansault.  PJ also debuted his Black to the Future.

PJ pins Mack but he kicks out, and before PJ can successfully do a 450 from the turnbuckles, Mack comes to and counters PJ, pinning him and receiving the victory.

Mackvictory

Seeing where The Mack goes now that Big Ryck is no longer on the roster will be interesting, as well as where PJ is headed.

Catrina and Disciples

Pentagon Junior & Prince Puma: Main Event – 3 vs. 2 with the Disciples of Death
Winners: Pentagon Junior and Prince Puma via pinfall

Pentagonpromo

Regarding the promo setup for the main event match – LU backstage promos are very well done.  They’re different from what we’re used to seeing in American pro-wrestling: they’re cinematic, stylized, and play out like drama films.  I know one fan that compared these sequences to telenovelas, or Latin soap operas, complete with the subtitles – which is perfect for such as story-driven series with a huge cast like LU.  I’m also a Robert Rodriguez fan and I like seeing his personal touches in the series, when he’s involved.

Pentagon on Disciples

However, one thing we have seen in American pro-wrestling is tag team partners who are against each other, and have the odds stacked against them as a result.  But here, Puma and Pentagon overcame these odds.  But even though the Disciples of Death have demonstrated their competence as a tag team in the past, they had some incidents.

They also failed to go for the win while they had the momentum.  Despite the Disciples’ suplexes, holds, and rope work, Pentagon and Puma outshined the Disciples with out-of-ring action and taking advantage of the Disciples’ slip-ups.  Pentagon also stole Puma’s win.

Puma and Pentagon e2

And Puma wasn’t happy about it.

Puma and Pentagon 3

However, Puma is unafraid of Pentagon’s threats, and even escapes from his armbreaker move.  This is good stuff because Puma proved himself as a warrior in Season 1, so it’s not like Creative is trying to “make him look strong” Roman Reigns-style.  He’s strong because he is, so it’s believable when Puma brawls with Pentagon in the beginning of the episode and isn’t afraid to argue to his face during and after the match.

Pentagon 2

But Pentagon’s a dangerous dude.  He scares Vampiro.  We’ve seen what Pentagon is capable of, such as in last season’s Ultima Lucha.  So what will happen during this rivalry?  I’m unsure what to expect here, so I’m very interested about what will occur and the outcomes.

Puma and Pentagon 2

We finished the episode with Rey Mysterio speaking to Dragon Azteca.  This scene reminded me of the new issue of the comic series produced by some the LU production team, particularly when Mysterio mentions the familial significance of the luchador mask.  The comics are tying in with the events of this season, which is pretty cool.  I think this was a good way to introduce the lucha libre vet.  He doesn’t take away the focus from the other talent, even Azteca.  This scene also hints at Mysterio’s first alliance in LU history with Azteca, which could get interesting.

20160203205943

Stay tuned next week for another new episode of Lucha Underground at 8 P.M. EST on El Rey Network!

Kate witnessed the Litasault and has been hooked on wrestling ever since. She covers lucha libre and the independent circuit. She holds a B.A. from University of Maine at Machias in English, Art, and Communications, and assists at an indie publishing house in Maine.