Lucha Underground 4/22/15… Grainbelt’s Mark Out Review/ Results

Reviews, Top Story

lucha triple

 

Quick FYI, I have figured out the reason why my paragraphs have not been formatted the best on my reviews, I have fixed this and now things will look cleaner!!!!!!!! ANYWAY NOW FOR THE REVIEW!

LUCHA ….LUCHA ….LUCHA ….LUCHA ….

WHOA…….

Hey all I’m back for another Review of Lucha Underground, I am doing this a bit early to make up for last weeks being late. I am soooo glad I jumped on this A.S.A.P, because this was a phenomenal show. For that reason this week’s review is going to be slightly different, this will be a Grainbelt’s mark out review. Instead of focusing on specific spots and analysis I am going to implore you to watch this show for yourself. I don’t care if you read spoilers, I don’t care if you wait until wrestling nerds like me cover the show, you need to see this for yourself. Seriously if you’re a true “wrestling fan”, and at this point you still are not watching this show, I am seriously going to question your fandom.

I spent this entire show feeling like i was a 12 years old kid again. Ohhh ahhhs and holy shits’  filled my house hold, all from the comforts of my couch. I usually jot down and write during the show but every time I tried to get something down, I was captivated by the action. Even though their were amazing spots I just couldn’t rewind,  I was just so invested into the show as a whole I wanted to continue un disturbed. That doesn’t happen too often these days, with technology paired with convenience you can rewind the playback thinking wow it doesn’t get much better than this, but not tonight. Tonight I was more concerned with seeing the outcome of what happened VS. what actually just happened (if that makes any sense). Tonights show was a work of art that needs to be seen in its entirety. Will I watch this again, yes of course but I will play the entire show as it was intended to be seen, from start to finish. Tonight we had everything, exciting spots, new characters, plot twists along with conclusive booking, and most of all AMAZING WRESTLING. EVERYONE, I mean everyone on that freaking roster played their roll perfectly, I will get into more specifics later, but a huge shout out to each wrestler that performed is due.. Now lets get into the show.

The show begins with a vignette from black lotus, they did another kill bill style package that had all the great elements of classic Kung fu flicks, minus the bad over dubbing. We see black Lotus beat down a room full of henchmen, ending with a scene of her facing her master. She gets the upper hand for a moment, but her teacher pulls off the upset, reminding her she is still in training. After her defeat he tells her she is not ready as the camera catches her disappointment.

Match 1 = Sexy Star VS. Pentagaon Jr.

This match had me a bit worried, as Ive stated before Sexy Star facing men could get stale in time, I was just losing the feeling of empathy they go for with her character. I felt as though she could offer much more in a different fashion, yet I find myself standing corrected. Star really worked this match, and as a dominant heel Pentagon Jr. did exactly what he was supposed to do. I love HEELs, let me say this again, I LOVE HEELS. Some how this guy had me cheering for Star, a baby face that I really wasn’t a HUGE fan of. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Star’s work, but it was her character that I thought was descending. All that has changed tonight, I saw one of the better wrestling matches, (not just an inter gender match)  but one of the better straight wrestling matches I’ve seen in a while. The best thing about this match was, there really wasn’t a whole hell of a lot done here, in the form of crazy spots, it was effective timing, ring work and phycology that made this match shine. The ring announcer’s fear set the scene well with how she announced Pentagon JR. and as he came out the crowd has really turned on him since last weeks incident.

Through out this match we saw stiff timed shots from Jr, seemingly not holding anything back, Star was able to capitalize on this by pulling the emotion of empathy from the crowd. My favorite spot of this match was during a Star flurry, Pentagon literally stiff kicks her square in the stomach. After wards she recovers into a leap frog, and after he passes she tries to roll through, allowing Pentagon to again catch her again with a stiff shot to the gut mid summersault. The match continued as such with Star showing she can hang with the big boys narrowly escaping getting her arm snapped. She also managed to get off a very nice DDT stunning Pentagon, almost getting the 3 count. After taking a sick flapjack in return, Star is still able to will herself to kick out allowing the crowd to really support her as this match continues. Even though you are rooting for Star it still feels as though we are biding time until her impending doom, just then out of no where a keen reversal by Star into a Backstabber drops Jr, She then floats over getting the cover for the 1..2..3.

Winner = Sexy Star via Pinfall.

Commentary put over her victory as standing up for herself and ending this for everyone. Pentagon is in the ring angered and embarrassed at his loss, as commentary puts over his failure to his master, we are now left with knowing this will not be the end.

“Sexy Star may be done with Pentagon, but Pentagon may not be done with Sexy Star.” – Matt Stryker

Next on the show, we get a confrontation between Alberto and Mundo. In this package, Alberto admits Mundo is one of the reasons he came to Lucha Underground. He comments on how he was impressed with him beating Prince Puma, yet when it comes to the Brass Ring (HA HA) he always comes up short. As you can imagined this angered Mundo and he reminds Alberto he is not just some guy he can talk down too, After telling Mundo to chill out Alberto leaves with a disrespected look on his face.

Match 2 =  King Cuerno, Texano, and Cage VS Angelico, Son Of Havok, Ivelisse VS Big Ryck, The Mack, Killshot. Triple threat tag Elimination rules… There will be one member from each team legal at all times.

Holly balls, I couldn’t even call this match if I tried, there are so many damn layers in this match it’s ridiculously amazing. My favorite part is Stryker here, he did a damn good job navigating this match, he gave a phycology behind each teams style and how they have built their offense. Lets take Big Ryck for instance, the fact he hasn’t been over exposed is a huge plus for his character, so when he actually does something it has meaning. In all honesty I think he did maybe 10 moves if that this entire match, but they were big well calculated worked spots. Even him coming out of no where and lariating cage knocking him completely on his ass was a great spot.  He really stepped it up, and with the smaller guys bumping for him, he really looked strong with a minimal move set.

Angelico is the man this match, he bumped for the big guys and sold perfectly, I must eat my words form past reviews and say that I was getting worked by his character this entire time. I can be man enough to admit that and give respect when it’s due. He truly proved his worth the last few matches, and the fact he is willing to put his body on the line says a lot about his character, he took some major damage on this show. Now to The Mack, he is just a freaking mess in a good way, this man can do some crazy shit for his size and his charisma with the crowd is something special. He hit some nice dives to the outside popping the crowd making him the X factor for a while, he came out with a clear agenda to show us what he has, and he succeeded. Now King Cuerno is the phycological worker of the match, the tactician if you will, I love this man’s style, perfect attacks combined with that hunter style really separates him from the rest. His work really carried this match through possible slow spots, that he managed to turned into a nice build of dramatics and meaning. However the man of the match who wasn’t even in the match was DAIVARI. The best part comes when Angelico Knees Texano into DAIVARI, yes feaking Daivari, he ends up spilling his drink all over his suit causing me to mark so god damn hard, I stood up yelling at my TV in excitement. That is the home town dude right there and that made me damn proud to see him utilized. Due to this disturbance Daivari ends up attacking Texano for ramming into him and ends up throwing him into the ring post just before tossing him into the crowd’s chairs, after clearing out the fans of course. As Stryker yells who is this guy Daivari goes off ripping his shirt in excitement,  and continuing to pound Texano into the ground. The first elimination of this match comes when all the confusion of Daivari disperses, once everything is settled Killshot gets the pin on Texano eliminating this team.

Now the 2 remaining teams go at it, they are building the tension now as Ivelisse is becoming the hype women of the match. Awesome combination from Ryck and the Mack move this match along as Ryck hits some heavy moves and Mack follows up with a nice elbow drop to the kidney of Angelico. The story now is becoming Havok, Ivelisse, and Angelico must starto work together as they continue to take damage. The finish comes when after a Dive from Havok leaves Angelico and Killshot Isolated, allowing Angelico to use the fallen angel to get the pin on Killshot 1…2…3.

WInners = Angelico, Ivelisse, and Son Of Havok

Whoa just when I thought they won the titles, we hear Dario Cueto’s music. He comes out shocked this team, which happens to be the most dysfunctional team in the series pulled this off, well almost……. He then explains there is another special team he hand picked himself, he continues with stating this last match will be a no disqualification and will now start immediately….

Out comes the crew here and I lost my shit, I was excited to see them, and you know what the best part is, THIS ACTUALLY MAKES PERFECT SENSE. Making perfect sense is a lost art on television, so THIS was perfect.

The crew starts this match off by separating each of the faces and beating them down for fan sympathy. It is obvious the faces are tired from just competing in a match already. The crew then singles out Ivelisee by planning on using a kendo stick on her, out of no where son of Havok returns and saves her just in time. Poor Havok then becomes the victim of my favorite move in wrestling right now the running dagger drop kicks, face wash style by each member of The Crew in succession. As the beat down continues we also see poor Angelico take a beating all the way up the stairs into the crowd. Ivelisse shows a bit of cunning and offense but is again oppressed by the heels causing the crowd to boo. The crowd is really behind the faces to somehow pull this though, and as they get off quick flurries they continue to be taken down by the numbers game. Finally seeing his partners in distress Angelico, who was beaten all the way of the stairs and back body dropped on the roof of Dario Cueto’s office, literally dives from the top of Cueto’s office down below into the ring. This was insane as he took out 2 members of the crew with 1 crazy dive. That was the catalyst for change and we find our baby faces back in this match, the finish comes home when the faces set up 2 members from the crew below opposite turn buckles. Once laid in position Ivelisse calls for Havok and Angelico to both do big moves off the top rope, Havok goes for a shooting Star, and Angelico a double foot stomp. Both of them connect at the same time floating into covers, the ref goes down and counts both pinfalls for the victory!!

Winners = Ivelisse, Angelico, and Son Of Havok.  The new Triple Crown champions

Everyone in the building was shocked they pulled it off, I too was stunned as we now have new Triple Crown Champions. This is such a crazy turn of events. This was my least favorite team through out the entire series, I think I might have been worked here. I went from hating Angelico to really supporting this win in full. These guys deserve those belts, they truly shined on tonights episode.

Holy monkeys, I am still reeling over how amazing the booking was for this entire program, THERE IS NO BETTER wresting show on TV right now then this product. I don’t know why anyone would be depriving themselves of amazing booking and conclusive storylines, for adds and half hearted programming (but hey to each their own). I am a wrestling fan, I am a mark and to see this piece of art really pumped a much needed excitement back into for wrestling on television. If at all possible I am going to hit a taping session next season so I can see this show live, the energy is just unmatched. I just couldn’t believe how well they booked in Daivari, how well they worked that triple threat tag team match with 3 teams. With all my excitement I might have not mentioned that each team had to have at least one representative legal at all times, so that means it was like a tag team triple threat match. Crazy stuff here,  and to think they were able to make that match make sense was a real treat. There was only one time I was like ok, who are the legal men and whats going on, I think that was by design though, so when we pieced it together it made for more excitement.

Once again I am wowed by another great show, we got some things to look forward to in the future as well, I think Mundo and Alberto will finally square off at some point, and I know Pentagon Jr. will seek revenge on Star, also with so many other mini storylines going on, it’s hard to not have a bright future. This could easily have been the best episode so far to date, please everyone support this show so we can make sure it returns for a new season!!

Tell me what you think!!!!!

– 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!!