Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 18 – 11th March 2015
No Escape
This week the two real ‘hooks’ of the episode have been advanced and promoted ahead of time, which isn’t always the case for a Lucha Underground episode. Our main event has already been announced, and it will see rivals Johnny Mundo and King Cuerno lock horns inside LU’s first ever Steel Cage Match. Beneath that tensions continue to simmer between Son Of Havoc, Angelico and Ivelisse; the latter two of which meet in a singles rematch this evening (with Havoc officiating). Vampiro and Matt Striker are ready for another wild evening in Boyle Heights, CA.
Pentagon Jr. vs Argenis
Striker calls Pentagon an ‘aggressive, career-ending luchador’, referring to the fact he’s broken the arms of Famous B, Ricky Mandel and Vinny Massaro in quick succession. His path of violence is actually escalating too, since last time we saw him he even brought a table into play to use as a weapon too. Now another masked Mexican competitor looks to step up to challenge him. Can Argenis avoid being offered up as another sacrifice to Penta’s ‘master’?
Argenis is acknowledged as more of a challenge to Pentagon…as is evident when he hits a quebrada into a tornado DDT for 2. ASAI MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! He keeps taking the fight to Penta, dragging him back in with a springboard super rana to score another close nearfall. Pentagon is livid and lands a couple of massive strikes. HEAD DROP PRESS SLAM INTO THE TURNBUCKLES! It knocks Argenis to the outside, into the path of a TOPE ATOMICO! FEAR FACTOR! SACRIFICE! Argenis taps at 05:03…but still gets his arm BROKEN!
Rating - *** - A solid, logical step up in quality from the squash victories Pentagon has been enjoying in recent weeks. By acknowledging Argenis as a more formidable opponent and allowing him to look more threatening, Penta ultimately leaves looking even more impressive; in that he survives a dangerous opponent and still finds a way to send him to the hospital with a broken arm. This one gave us five minutes of unbroken and fast-paced action, in front of a crowd who are really starting to embrace Pentagon as a cult hero.
Catrina finds Fenix in the locker rooms and warns him of the danger Mil Muertes poses. She tells Fenix the only way to end this is to ‘bury him’…
Konnan is hard at work crafting a new, metal walking cane…which appears to have supernatural powers. It’s again a reminder that he is bringing ‘revenge’ to Lucha Underground…
King Cuerno arrives at The Temple in his pick-up truck, minutes away from his Cage Match…
Angelico vs Ivelisse
The first time Angelico sampled victory in Lucha Underground it was at the expense of Ivelisse’s boyfriend, Son Of Havoc. The tumultuous relationship between Havoc and Ivelisse may have been a factor, but when Ivelisse stepped into the ring with Angelico weeks later they held it together for long enough for some SOH interference to hand victory to his girlfriend. Dario Cueto is clearly amused by the escalating personal issues between the three of them, so booked this rematch with Havoc stationed as guest referee just for kicks. Will he be impartial, favour his girlfriend…or fall out with her?
Havoc’s popularity amongst the Believers is one of the biggest mysteries in Lucha Underground’s first 18 episodes. The guy loses every week and has zero personality! Ange hasn’t changed his approach since the first match it seems; spending the opening minutes smirking and grab-assing whilst Ivelisse busts her ass and occasionally pulls off something impressively athletic. TOP ROPE CORKSCREW PLANCHA TO THE FLOOR! The South African is getting irritated, but misses a Shuri Knee after getting embroiled in a disagreement with referee Havoc. Still Angelico dicks around, with Havoc physically restraining him when he does try to throw a strike. He then starts grabbing her butt when she tries to put him away with a front choke. SOH rescues his girlfriend from Fall Of The Angels…and she capitalises with a snap hurricanrana for 2! But then Ivelisse slaps her boyfriend in anger. Angelico boots her in the head, and takes great relish in draping himself on her fallen body as Havoc watches on. SOH fast counts his own girlfriend out to get Angelico off…Ang wins at 06:12
Rating - ** - As with their first match, Ivelisse did some genuinely impressive stuff and looks like a major find for Lucha Underground. But (similarly to how they’ve struggled with Sexy Star) presenting her as something of a joke due to how the male wrestlers act around her is doing her no favours. Here she was hitting really complicated stuff clean as a whistle, but it would instantly lose it’s impact when Angelico would be up seconds later to mess around and grab her ass or something. I understand they are in the midst of telling a story so one shouldn’t complain too much, but I hope they don’t continue to diminish the impressive skills of all three workers by burying them under layers of silliness.
Ivelisse berates Son Of Havoc for counting the pin then walks out without him…
Catrina pops up in another locker room, now playing mindgames with Mil Muertes. She uses his real name and tells him that next week Fenix is going to send him back to ‘the darkness that he came from’. They will meet in a match that will have ‘Grave Consequences’…
King Cuerno vs Johnny Mundo – Steel Cage Match
After collecting the trophy of Drago after their Last Luchador Standing Match, Cuerno set about hunting his next prey. Stalking and targeting one of the biggest names in the company, he has vowed to bring Mundo’s head to Dario Cueto stuffed and mounted. He has attacked him from behind, injured his leg…and last time we saw these guys wrestle the match was thrown out leading to a violent brawl all over The Temple. A Steel Cage will ensure they keep it in the ring, and give these two bitter enemies maximum opportunity to do some real damage to each other.
With nowhere to run or build up speed both luchadors simply walk into the middle of the ring and try to punch each other’s lights out. Mundo leapfrogs over King to cling to the cage like a ninja – then dives back with a flying knee. King Cuerno wants a more methodical pace, but can use the cage for fun spots too and tightrope walks across the top rope into a springboard splash for 2. He follows that with a flapjack into the cage then a clip which takes out Johnny’s injured leg. Both men jockey on the top rope…but Mundo’s knee gives way under him and almost leads to him getting sandwiched against the cage with a running knee. Parkour sentons by Johnny, softening King up for a hiptoss into the cage. Thrill Of The Hunt countered by Johnny repeatedly battering his foe into the steel…then a Red Star Press! Mundo scales the cage only for King C to kick out his bad leg again. Powerbomb into the cage rolled into a Ligerbomb for 2! Now it’s Cuerno’s turn to climb with Johnny chasing him up. Cuerno tries to dive to the floor…but Mundo PULLS HIM BACK USING THE MASK! Both men collapse to the canvas! They come up throwing elbows…and take turns braining each other against the chainlink! This is intense! Cuerno is still throwing elbows even as Johnny chops him in half with a Spear to put them both on the ground once again. Still King targets the knees whenever Johnny tries to climb. CHOPS TO MUNDO’S THROAT! SO MUNDO THROWS HIM BACKWARDS TO THE RING BELOW! Mundo climbs the cage! CORKSCREW MOONSAULT OFF THE TOP! MUNDO WINS! Johnny is victorious at 13:40
Rating - **** - I enjoyed the old school vibe this Cage Match had. They used the cage to deliver a totally different match to the one they had a couple of weeks ago, and really delivered something great. The cage meant Cuerno couldn’t dive or build up speed on the ropes, but similarly denied Mundo space and momentum to flip, fly and parkour all over The Temple either. It forced them to stand toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring and fight. Fight they did; brawling, mauling and brutalising each other for almost fifteen minutes – always cranking up the tension and building anticipation to that climactic cage dive spot. Cuerno attacked the leg, Mundo sold it better than he had done previously, they tried to knock each other unconscious as you’d expect two heated enemies to do…in short this really clicked. Don’t expect puddles of blood and tons of high spots; but this was rich in depth and rewarding to the last.
Tape Rating - *** - I still haven’t been won over by the Ivelisse/Havoc/Angelico stuff, but everything else in this forty five minutes really worked. Pentagon/Argenis stepped up Penta’s arm-snapping, ‘master’ angle nicely and didn’t skimp on excitement in order to jump to the inevitable arm-breaking spot. The hype for Fenix/Muertes was very well done, with more juicy titbits revealed about Mil’s past from the outstanding Catrina (who is killing it in her role). All that before a main event which was one of the better matches this promotion has delivered thus far. Mundo has busted his ass and proven himself to be an absolute asset to Lucha Underground thus far – to the extent that he looks more and more like a missed opportunity for WWE with every week that passes.