Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 3 – 12th November 2014
Cross The Border
The first weekend of Lucha Underground produced some mixed results. Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo produced a superb match and are great workers to have at the heart of the product’s formative episodes. Dario Cueto is a watchable, albeit not yet hugely original heel authority figure too. Perhaps the biggest success was the tone and style of the show, from the cinematic and innovatively shot vignettes and backstage/office segments to the instantly recognisable and completely unique ‘Temple’ set. If nothing else, we are left feeling like the production team are trying something different here. There are plenty of justifiable criticisms to be made too – like some outright bad matches and a real lack of actual luchadors. Sexy Star is obviously going to be a focal point of the show, Mil Muertes looks to be an interesting act and Chavo Guerrero is a solid hand whom American audiences will recognise, but the majority of the talent were repackaged US indy talents (mostly from the SoCal scene) with a couple of big name WWE releases (Mundo and Big Ryck) thrown in. And the less said about Blue Demon Jr., who is utterly useless, the better! There were no exciting masked fliers in sight, and no hint of the kind of cultural impact Mysterio and Psicosis had in ECW. This week LU want to address that issue – and have brought all kinds of acts across the border from Mexico. We have minis, the terrifying Mil Muertes and a triple threat main event featuring three intensely unique and exciting characters – Drago, Fenix and Pentagon Jr. This is essentially as much Lucha Libre as El Rey can possibly pack into a 45-minute time slot. Matt Striker and Vampiro are in Boyle Heights, CA.
Konnan is in Dario Cueto’s office. He is responsible for bringing Fenix, Drago and Pentagon to the Temple, and has resolved the border issues that have prevented them from appearing before now. They agree the best thing for them to do is compete in a main event to determine who the ‘best young luchador’ really is…
Vampiro announces that Blue Demon is in hospital after Chavo Guerrero’s attack, after which El Jefe enters The Temple. ‘You want Lucha…I’ve got Lucha for you!’ – Cueto. He has a luchador in the ring already (El Mariachi Loco), and since ‘no challenge is too big’, he has a special opponent in mind…
El Mariachi Loco vs Mascarita Sagrada
No clue who El Mariachi is, although a brief internet search suggests he’s partially trained by Lil Cholo (who plays Mr Cisco in LU). He looks like a rather generic luchador (in an un-ironic sense unlike El Generico) and in truth probably won’t be the focus here, although apparently he can play the trumpet and was spotted washing dishes at a restaurant down the street. His opponent is an authentic Lucha Libre mini, immediately bringing more of a lucha flavour than last weekend. I’m not sure if Sagrada is the original or one of the many replicates/alternatives that AAA have branched the gimmick out to over the years.
Loco makes fun of Mascarita’s height…so the mini piles into him with a corkscrew enzi! Double rotation satellite headscissors soon follows, then some nifty lucha armdrag variants which drive Mariachi to the floor. TOPE CON HILO NAILED! Sagrada is on fire; returning to the ring with a flying headscissors off the top for 2. El Mariachi has seen enough and shuts the mini down with a dancing superkick and an emphatic flapjack. Sagrada hits back by countering his next move into a DDT before hauling him into a small package for a shock win at 04:39
Rating - * - This wasn’t without some charm as an opening match. Mascarita ensured this felt a lot more authentically lucha than watching Ricky Reyes, John Morrison, Ezekiel Jackson and Ricochet if nothing else. It was certainly a spectacle watching a talented mini soar all over the ring out-working a far bigger opponent. But this went on too long, lost the novelty value and actually became quite repetitive as Sagrada set up spot after spot in exactly the same fashion. I’d have halved the amount of time this match booked and set up as a total squash win for the mini.
Chavo Guerrero runs in and assaults Mascarita, adding him to the other AAA names he has violently attacked in the last two weeks. To keep things topical, we cut from that to Vampiro conducting a sit-down interview with Chavo. He is fed up with the burden of representing the Guerrero name and has decided to do things ‘his way’ for the first time. The highlight is him calling out Blue Demon Jr. for being awful. Chavo ends by wanting to step out of the Guerrero shadow, answer Dario Cueto’s call for violence and make himself a superstar in the process.
The Chavo Guerrero show continues, as after the commercials he’s wandering around in the corridors; eventually bumping into Konnan. Konnan warns him that folks back in Mexico aren’t happy at what he’s done to Blue Demon, Sexy Star and Mascarita Sagrada…and are coming for him. Mil Muertes and Catrina show up, with Catrina giving Guerrero the mysterious ‘lick’…
A video package, narrated by Catrina, shines more light on Mil’s backstory. His entire family was killed in an earthquake, which buried him alive for several days. He became comfortable with death and brought it with him when he finally emerged. It also shows the origin of the stone that Catrina carries around – it appears to be piece of the earthquake wreckage which controls Muertes.
Mil Muertes vs Ricky Mandel
This is an outright enhancement match for Mil, who defeated Blue Demon Jr. in the main event last week and will want to build on that momentum here. Mandel is another SoCal scene guy whom Lucha Underground have given an opportunity to as he’s local.
Mandel tries to stay out of Muertes’ clutches…but is eventually mowed down with his massive Spear. Catrina actually starts watching the match from the apron, and she is thrilled as Ricky dives off the top rope straight into a devastating knockout punch. Flatliner wins it for Mil at 02:38
Rating - N/A - The baby blue tights are still there, but this was much more like the sort of match we need to see if LU want to get Muertes over as a supernatural destroyer. This was the sort of entertaining, total annihilation squash match I used to enjoy watching as a kid on WWF Superstars.
Johnny Mundo is still fuming over being conned out of the $100,000 he was promised, and fights his way past Dario’s hired henchmen Castro and Cisco to break into his office. He demands a payback match with Big Ryck next week, then he is coming for El Jefe.
Dario Cueto did a terrific job putting over sheer terror there, and when we come back from commercials we have another cut scene showing him handing over piles of cash to Big Ryck to ensure he takes Mundo out next week.
Now we have another Prince Puma training montage, again narrated by Konnan who talks about his Aztec heritage and his rough upbringing.
Drago vs Pentagon Jr. vs Fenix
These three will go on to become some of Lucha Underground’s most identifiable stars, and this match is where it all begins. They are promoted as three of the most in-demand young luchadors from south of the border, lured to the Temple by Konnan flashing Dario Cueto’s money. We’ll learn more about their back stories in the weeks to come, but they all have immensely distinct looks. If you’ve never seen Drago before, his gear is some of the most amazing and imaginative pro-wrestling costume work imaginable.
SOMERSAULT PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR by Pentagon! He tries a second, but is cut off by Fenix, before Drago flies with a CORKSCREW PESCADO! TOP ROPE TWISTING PRESS BY FENIX! All three look shattered after that and the match is barely a minute old! Fenix and Drago enter the ring and go back and forth at an insane pace, before Penta cuts them off with a Slingblade on Drago. SPRINGBOARD SOMERSAULT ARMDRAG from Fenix, who gets the crowd on their feet again. Penta tries a back body drop, only for Fenix to somersault into a hurricanrana! This is amazing! PENTAGON DRIVER for 2! Lethal Injection from Fenix to Penta! All three men battle on the ropes and with Drago dropped into a tree of woe Fenix hops over him to hit a SPRINGBOARD SUPER RANA! Lungblower from Pentagon, driving Fenix up the steps of the Temple. As the biggest of the three, Penta slows it somewhat so he can dominate the Dragon with some of his massive strikes. But he is shoved out of the ring so Drago can land another corkscrew dive over the ropes. Meanwhile Fenix has climbed up to the highest balcony of the Temple! FLYING CROSSBODY FROM THE BALCONY TO THE FLOOR! FEAR FACTOR (package piledriver) from Pentagon to Drago, who bounces off the mat straight into Fenix’s Fire Thunder Driver as well. He is out of the match as Fenix puts Penta ON HIS HEAD with a reverse rana! Fenix wins at a crazy 07:45
Rating - **** - Wow! This is what I think fans had in mind when a promotion promised to bring grungy, grindhouse Lucha Libre brought to the US. This wasn’t two old men running through their spots in slow motion (i.e. BDJ and Chavo)...this was a cutting edge, ground-breaking performance from three athletes who will go along way to differentiating this promotion from anything else out there. Drago is small, agile and has an amazing look. Pentagon Jr., even at this early stage, had a real x-factor. And Fenix is an incredible performer who stands as much chance of becoming a major, Mysterio-esque breakout Latin American babyface as anyone else. These three weren’t given a lot of time, but were evidently told to throw as much crazy sh*t about as they could and they tore the house down. Mundo/Puma was an awesome match, but this really feels like the sort of showing that could come to define Lucha Underground’s style and niche in the crowded pro-wrestling market.
A pensive Dario Cueto paces in front of a jail cell, seemingly talking to a man behind the bars. The key he wears around his neck is presumably the key to said jail cell then. He looks down at it and vows not to be intimidated by Johnny Mundo…or his mysterious captive.
Tape Rating - *** - This week it felt like Lucha Underground had a clear understanding about the kind of promotion it wanted to be. It retained the good from it’s first taping – i.e. a great main event and the vast, sweeping and inventive video packages – and cut down on what dragged the first two episodes down. We saw less of Cueto being a typical authority figure and more of Fernandez-Gil showing his acting chops in pre-taped segments. Konnan became as interesting and relevant as he has in years by being revealed not just as Puma’s coach but also a guy who has his finger in many other pies and is involved in way more than it had initially seemed. There was perhaps a little too much Chavo Guerrero, but at least they continued the story they started telling with him last week in an intriguing manner. Mundo and Ryck’s issue was furthered, again via the use of engaging cut scenes rather than traditional pro-wrestling crutches like interviews, promos and sneak attacks. And if Episode 1 & 2 had too many SoCal guys and not enough Lucha…this one fixed it. Fenix, Drago and Pentagon produced a blockbuster main event, bringing a blisteringly-paced and brilliantly relevant MODERN lucha approach to the Lucha Underground Temple. You could almost feel something special starting to happen – like the Michinoku Pro guys at Barely Legal ’97, or the Dragon Gate trios match at the inaugural ROH Supercard Of Honor. This was three men bringing a completely new style to an American/Latin-American audience…and they loved it. Of the three shows so far this was my favourite