Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 2 – 5th November 2014
Los Demonios
Spectacular visuals and a great main event ensured that the debut of Lucha Underground made a strong impression and offered real hope of presenting a genuine pro-wrestling alternative. The show ended with the debut of Big Ryck (Ezekiel Jackson), Cortez Castro (Ricky Reyes) and Mr Cisco (Lil Cholo) – collectively known as The Crenshaw Crew – attacking Johnny Mundo and Prince Puma before revealing their allegiance to Dario Cueto. Elsewhere Cueto had chastised Chavo Guerrero for submitting so easily to Blue Demon Jr., and revealed he had planned to bring a dangerous new competitor into Lucha Underground to combat BDJ. We return to The Temple in Boyle Heights, CA to join Matt Striker and Vampiro.
Castro, Cisco and Ryck are in the ring as the show opens, getting jeered by the Believers. Johnny Mundo doesn’t wait long before running out and trying to pick a fight all three of them, soon followed by Prince Puma who has his back. Dario Cueto steps out of his office to make the match official…
Johnny Mundo/Prince Puma vs Cortez Castro/Mr Cisco
One thing that does make Lucha Underground feel very similar to Wrestling Society X is the fact that they appear to be using journeyman SoCal indy guys to populate their roster. WSX had plenty, and by giving Ricky Reyes and Lil Cholo such prominent spots obviously LU will be doing similar. It makes sense from the standpoint of these guys being cheap and local. Both Reyes and Cholo have been around for ages too, so they should at least be reliable hands inside the ropes.
Big Ryck takes a seat on the steps of the Temple, watching with a lit cigar. Castro hopelessly struggles to keep up with Puma and finds himself taking a bit of a beating at the hands of both opponents. Cisco endures a similar fate; getting dropped on his head in the corner then savagely kicked from the floor by Mundo. Cortez comes to his aid by tripping Johnny as he attempts a springboard off the ropes. Striker does a good job of describing Castro and Cisco’s anti-Lucha style as they slow the pace and try to grind Mundo into the dirt. Johnny is just too good for them though and eventually parkour leaps into a hot tag to the Prince. Red Star Press on Mr C gets 2! CORKSCREW PESCADO MISSED BY MUNDO! Mafia kick/neckbreaker combo from The Crew to Puma! He retaliates with a running Ace Crusher, sending Cisco into Moonlight Drive from Johnny. RUNNING MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by Puma! Cisco escapes Fin Del Mundo once…but is floored soon after as both Puma and Mundo head upstairs. STEREO 450 SPLASHES! Mundo and Puma win at 08:20
Rating - *** - It was rather rudimentary, but was a logical succession to the events of the debut episode and was a great way to follow up on the antics of Puma and Mundo as opponents last week. They looked awesome here, got a measure of payback on their new rivals and are now cemented as top level players in Lucha Underground. Castro and Cisco did their jobs with minimal fuss and made it clear that they will be competent whipping boys to protect Big Ryck. Leaps and bounds better than the lethargic Chavo/Demon opener we got last week…
In the locker room Konnan praises the impact Prince Puma has made in this company. He warns Puma to stay away from Johnny Mundo though, since he isn’t his friend and can’t be trusted.
We go to a package introducing us to the mysterious Mil Muertes – the man Dario was referring to as ‘a thousand deaths’ in discussion with Chavo Guerrero last week. He is the man facing Blue Demon Jr. in our main event.
Son Of Havoc/Ivelisse vs Chavo Guerrero Jr./Sexy Star
Havoc was a disrespectful ass to Sexy Star when they wrestled last week, so Sexy will want a measure of revenge this week. SOH teams with Ivelisse, whom I believe was the reigning SHINE Champion and had previously been with WWE as part of Tough Enough/NXT. Chavo is the wildcard here, and he’ll be desperate to put right his loss at Episode 1, for which Cueto accused him of embarrassing the Guerrero family name.
Guerrero uses all his experience to piss off Havoc, even going so far as to pull strands of hair out of his beard. Ivelisse shuts that down with a cheap shot from behind, and she isn’t shy about stomping the veteran into the mat! Star gets a tag and makes a beeline for Son Of, rocking him with a headscissors followed by a big superkick. Ivelisse enters – and she and Sexy beat the hell out of each other! SOH is still disrespecting Sexy too…so the crowd pop big when she gets her knees up to block a standing moonsault from him. Running rana from Sexy to Ivelisse! Seated senton OFF THE APRON! Chavo lands the Frog Splash, before he tags out to let Sexy pick up a payback victory at 05:35
Rating - ** - As with the opening match this wasn’t a particularly complex affair, but did nicely continue the stories we started telling with these athletes last week. I’d have liked to have more explained about Ivelisse and her relationship with Son Of Havoc, but that will come in time. As was she was still mightily impressive in her debut, particularly in some really bad ass exchanges with Sexy Star. We need to learn more about the Havoc character as well, since we know nothing about him right now and his ‘Matt Cross in a sh*tty mask’ act isn’t particularly convincing.
Blue Demon is preparing for his main event…but somehow a female ‘associate of Mil Muertes’ – Catrina – has found a way into his locker room. She licks Demon, which is apparently a message from Mil himself.
More from Konnan and Prince Puma now. Konnan talks about a friend finding him on the streets of Boyle Heights as we see a montage of Puma himself in training. The inference here is that he is the kid we saw in a gang fight in that first opening cut scene last week…
Blue Demon Jr. vs Mil Muertes
Another Wrestling Society X connotation for Lucha Underground here, as the Muertes character is played by Ricky Banderas. He was a similarly superhuman/supernatural character in WSX from memory. At this stage little is known about the man they call ‘a thousand deaths’, other than he has an exotic companion named Catrina (who likes to lick people), and that he’s been brought in by Dario Cueto to finish Blue Demon in a way Chavo Guerrero couldn’t last week.
Catrina carries a strange velvet bag with her which Muertes cradles lovingly before the bell. He then runs across the ring and jumps Demon Jr. to get the match started. BDJ tries to increase the pace with armdrags and dropkicks…so Catrina hops onto the apron to distract him. She can clearly handle herself too and has no problem throttling Demon over the middle rope behind the referee’s back. He recovers to kick Mil in the face then drop him with a DDT for 2. SPEAR by Muertes! That was as powerful as Rhyno’s Gore! He follows with a Flatliner and scores a huge win at 04:21
Rating - * - Blue Demon is a big name in Mexico, and since this airs on a major Mexican network his presence on the show is important. So to that end it was good to see him staring at the lights to put over a character Lucha Underground obviously have high hopes for. The problem is that Blue Demon is also so old, slow and boring to watch that he really undermines the whole edgy, underground, innovative style LU is shooting for. American fans are wanting Mysterio and Psicosis diving off guardrails in the ECW Arena, not dear old BDJ lumbering around barely taking a bump. My opinion is that this was also far too evenly matched to be effective as a debut for Mil. Catrina is an interesting presence alongside him, but the presentation of Muertes was all over the place. Firstly, it’s hard to buy into someone as a terrifying supernatural being when they wrestle in baby blue tights. Secondly he spent far too much time getting roughed up by old man Blue to really convince me he was a walking death machine. After the fireworks of Puma/Mundo last week this was a rather flat main event.
Chavo Guerrero runs in with a chair to stop Mil Muertes and Catrina assaulting Blue Demon…but then whacks Demon with the chair himself! He has lost his temper and starts taking out referees and jobbers (hello B-Boy) too. Sexy Star sprints into the Temple trying to reason with him…so he NAILS her with a chair as well! Paramedics are required to treat Blue Demon.
Tape Rating - ** - Some way off the quality of last week, although not having a match the calibre of last week’s main event explains most of that. I liked that all of the major plots and storyline threads introduced last week were continued here, particularly with the energetic opening match display from the impressive Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo. We also delved deeper into Puma and his relationship with Konnan, which is a dynamic which will keep us entertained for weeks I’m sure. I’d read that the first couple of episodes weren’t warmly received at the tapings themselves – with fans not particularly liking the creative direction of the show and annoyed that there wasn’t a whole lot of ‘lucha’ guys being brought in. Both are valid criticisms – particularly as the live audiences weren’t getting to see the awesome post-production vignettes. Plenty to work on and nowhere near as good as the debut episode, but I felt there was enough innovation and talent in this presentation to keep a viewer coming back to this intriguing new approach to professional wrestling. From next week border crossing issues are resolved and we’ll see far more Lucha Libre talent from Mexico entering The Temple…