Lucha … Lucha… Lucha… Lucha
Hey guys,
As you all know the new episode of Lucha Underground is tomorrow, so im going to give you a review of last weeks show so its fresh in your mind when you catch tomorrows show.
Lets get into the action….
After a decent video package reminding us of the current story-lines…
The show starts off with a nice shot of the lead singer of the band, she is a cutie, adding her the grooves in the background gives the show a nice little starting vibe. .
After the band shot I personally marked out a bit because the first Lucha we see is Pentagon Jr. YES!!!! Apparently Argenis will be the next victim to feel the wrath of one of my favorites Pentagon JR. I can’t help but feel like Argenis is walking the plank as he makes his way down to the ring.
Match 1 = Pentagon Jr. VS Argenis
Zero fear chants start this off and the crowd is really digging Pentagon JR. I feel for poor Argenis here even though commentary puts him over as a talent with a lot of lineage in the business. They even mention his brother is in the promotion and might even be Prince Puma. They paint the future to be bright for this young guy, but in my opinion his immediate future is seemingly going to get dark as he stairs across the ring at Pentagon Jr.
Shockingly Argenis gets the upper hand early, He counters Jr. with a nice kick blocking his roll through attempt during the first technical lock up. He also hits a nice tornado DDT off another counter, then follows up with a nice dive on JR to the outside. This was a great way to switch this match up, because I along with most of the audience thought Jr would have killed him dead by now. Jr continues to take a bit of punishment as Argenis’s speed is proving to be a little to much. Each time Jr tries to stiff Argenis, he comes back with a counter or uses his speed to re take control. Jr. is seemingly starting to hulk up now, no selling certain shots but quickly being broken down again by Argenis with speed and innovation. I really like how well they are working this match and that they switched up who would be dominant starting off. After being thrown in the ring Pentagon Jr . pops up and starts going after the ref allowing Argenis to get more offense in. The new feel of match is when is Jr, gong to snap and come back, even Vampiro of commentary says he feel an explosion coming. True to form out of no ware Pentagon Jr catches Argenis with a major drop kick cutting off his attempted to summersult bounce off the ropes. Being calculative Jr throws Argenis into the ropes on his head and continues to stalk his victim. After some more punishment Argenis continues to kick out of some near falls and the story seems to have shifted into how long can Argenis last. After clothes lining him to the outside of the ring Pentagon Jr does his own dive and takes out Argenis in big fashion popping the crowd huge. HE then drags him back into the ring and drops him on his head with the package pile driver then floats right into his submission! It doesn’t take long for Argenis to tap out and Jr breaks his arm anyway trolling the crowd! Following the match he cuts a promo on how he is ready now to his master. He feels he is ready and ready for anything!
Winner = Pentagon JR Via Submission
Next up a backstage segment between Catrina and Fenix, she says the only way to beat Muertes is to bury him. Fenix stays quiet and continues to focus on what he is doing seemingly contemplating Catrina’s words.
We then get another video promo, this one showing us what happened to Konnan, apparently he is fixing and upgrading his cane preparing his vengeance! This promo reminded me of past Saturdays watching old kung fu movies where the teacher beasts up people with a cane. They teased an action sequence with Konnan but just ended it with a cleos up on his face with the text Konann’s vengeance is coming.
Next a promo of King Cuerno driving in a Latin style pickup, It was cool how they did the effects of him going through the city and speeding up the frames. It shows him traveling to the arena pumping huge tunes and speeding his way to a major match. It just gave the main event a huge feel to it in a new a interesting way.
Next up Angelico is standing in the ring, Ivelisse AKA the baddast bitch comes out next. They put her over as beging very tough in the ring as well as a hottie, Havok comes out to chants rocking the referee attire for his role tonight.
Match 2 = Angelico VS Ivelisse with son of Havok as special guest Referee!
The match starts off with a handshake from Angelico, he then starts flirting with Ivelisse right at the start. I already see this story is going, when he flirts he is nice but if she denies him he stiffs her. After a few exchanges with this Ivelisse starts showing her Lucha style and the crowd gets behind her. She hits a nice dive on Angelico to the outside but once again he over sells in my opinion. After he returns to the ring he moves out of the way allowing Ivelisse to miss a drop kick, he then stiffly throws her into the corner and sets up for his finish knee. Angelico goes for the knee but Havok pulls her out of the way causing tension to build between Havok and Angelico. The baddest comes back and attacks having them then go back and forth with pin attempts that look sexual,.This causes Havok to continue to botch the counts now noticing the sexual tension that could be brewing. My favorite spot is when Angelico pulls Ivelisse back down to cover him provocatively which makes Havok stop the count and pull her off him. They do this a few more times during the match and you find yourself thinking what the hell is Havok doing in a funny way. Havok continues botching pin counts and getting in the way but also keeps Ivelisse afloat not allowing her to get pinned Angelico starts showing his anger to Havok and we see another story building here. The finish comes when Angelico goes for a huge kick on Havok but Havok moves allowing Ivelisse to take the huge shot, taking advantage Angelico cover Ivelisse very provocatively forcing havok to fast count to finish the match.
Winner = Angelico Via pin fall
This match was actually cool, I don’t like Angelico as I have stated in past reviews and he continues to give me a bad vibes, but from a match perspective he worked well tonight. I see exactly the story they tried to tell and with Havok’s humor it was a good match to check out. The story now will be how will the Baddest Bitch in the building take this and how will they move forward. Also could this mean another match between Angelico and Havok, looks like we will have to wait and see where this goes. I will say hopefully they don’t drag this on too long and hopefully it won’t lose its average luster.
Next comes a promo of Mil Muertes remembering Catrina ,they did an awesome job with this, they shot it almost like it was a hallucination by Muertes. They went over some of his history and how him and Catrina came to be and how Catrina is going to use Fenix to bury Muertes putting him through 1000 deaths. Apparently they just set up a coffin match for next week which is awesome, I just hope they can keep the high energy going with these specialty matches.
After the promo Commentary hypes up the main event and King Cuerno makes his way to the ring with that awesome head dress! This is the first cage match in Lucha Underground history and I am super excited. They are really building the tension for this match perfectly, Cuerno’s entrance was slow and mythological building his intimidation. After that Mundo bursts on the scene in awesome fashion blasting rockish house music LOL. Commentary does good job going through the history and energy of cage matches and it builds the match tension properly.
Main Event = King Cuerno VS Johnny Mundo, Steele Cage Match
So with this one I’m switching it up a bit and doing more of analysis, for a few reasons, one I got so in golfed in this match I can’t focus enough to go through all the nice spots. Secondly you need to see this match yourself if you are into good wrestling. With so much wrestling on these days a lot of people might not catch a whole show but watch good matches they hear about, so for this section I want to use this space to entice you to see this match for your self. As I stated above the whole energy behind this match was done amazingly, The tension and build up they created with the entrances and the way the wrestlers started this match off was perfect, a lot of technical back and forth simulating how a true battle would begin. No wrestlers got a clear upper hand but some stiff nice shots were landed by both in different fashions. Mundo hit a nice one using the ropes as great leverage and hit more of a stomp on Cuerno sending him to the ground causing a nice buzz from the crowd. Cuerno kips up and as the crowd show some appreciation. they do an awesome job giving this match a big fight feel allowing more tension to build by circling around each other before engaging in another lock up. As simple as it was one of my favorite spots comes from Cuerno, nothing fancy just a super stiff standing missile drop kick right to the chest of Mundo, this put him on the ground a bit allowing Cuerno to show strength and get heat. The phycology of this match was perfect everything made sense on the offensive and defensive ends, and with these 2 talents going back and fourth it was hard not to buy into the energy of the match. I like the roll commentary played in this match as well, not only did they call well but they painted the picture of how meaningful a more classic style cage match is. Even though escaping is a way to win they made it more meaningful for the wrestlers to stay in and finish this match. There were also no door escape attempts at all in the match, they either have to climb out the top or win by pin fall adding another dynamic to the build. Personally I always enjoyed the classic approach of keeping the opponent in the cage so the way they approach calling this match made sense to me. I was surprised they even threw in some big name honorable mentions of matches in the past, saying they hoped these 2 could be added to the great list of cage matches in the past, and they did a perfect job of bringing up past matches but not focusing on other promotions it was just about the wrestling. My absolute favorite spot of the match is when Cuerno stops the wrestling and just starts using the cage to injure his opponent. He kicks mundo head first into the cage and then begins to grind his “pretty face” across the cage and ends it with and nasty shot to the back of the head. Now the cage is being used more by both the wrestlers and the phycology now is each wrestler is trying to land big moves and escape the cage. As the match continues exhaustion is now playing a big part in the story telling, they do a nice spot where both wrestlers are exchanged blows on the top rope and they fall crashing down to the mat and lay there using the count by the ref to break once again causing more tension to build. The match was so good I don’t really want to say the finish but will tell you that Mundo comes away with the victory and pins Cuerno for the 3. The execution of this match was perfect and as Mundo stood tall in the ring the show started to go off the air and I was Hyped. Even my roommate stated that was enough wrestling to last a year in WWE standards and I had to watch it again with no sound to really analyze the phycology.
Winner = Johnny Mundo Via Pinfall
THIS show right here man, this is why Lucha Underground is my favorite promotion right now, just the energy this show has can’t be beat. The video packages are on point, the matches deliver and the over all show is so refreshing. I was hard on the last few shows but even Angelico who is not my favorite wrestler came through in a match that made sense. I don’t agree with how he sells but the way he told the story in the match was done well and made sense and It was ok for me. I also liked this straight bullet to the head approach of the whole show and we need that from time to time. It shows us they know exactly where they are going and how to execute and they just do it rather then lollygag or waste time. I seriously could not believe the show was over when it went off and I was like holy crap I need to run this back. Like i said if you may not watch the whole show go back and watch the main event its worth it and it will not be disappointing! I will end with how happy and excited this show makes you feel and the anticipation for the next show it gives you. I never feel like this promotion is dragging on or its a pain to sit through and i hope they continue shacking up these formulas. Well I hope you guys check out the show and enjoy it and I will see you later in the week, I can’t wait to see how they follow up this show and if they can use this momentum to bring another action filled show!!! Tell me what you guys think!!
-Grainbelt
