Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 29 – 27th May 2015
Fight To The Death
I can’t tear myself away from Lucha Underground at the moment, it really is compelling viewing. And I am extremely excited for this episode, as all three matches contained within it should be rather interesting. Johnny Mundo competes for the first time since his heel turn, Prince Puma defends his LU Championship in a hotly anticipated grudge match with Hernandez, and our main event is a colossal collision between the ‘man that cannot die’, Fenix, and the returning, reborn, now seemingly immortal Mil Muertes…in a Death Match! Vampiro and Matt Striker provide commentary from Boyle Heights, CA. RING THE BELL!
Black Lotus arrives at The Temple, but finds her path blocked by Chavo Guerrero. He tells her that his grandfather was there when her parents were murdered, and that his family hates the Cuetos as much as she does. He wants to help her…
Aero Star vs Johnny Mundo
Two weeks ago Aero rebounded strongly from defeat in the Best Of 5 Series against Drago with a spectacular victory over impressive debutant Jack Evans. Now he steps up in quality and gets the chance to work one of the top names in the promotion by stepping into the ring with Mundo. The pressures of competing within The Temple, chasing the LU Title and the envy at the success and name value of Alberto El Patron grew too much for Johnny…causing him to snap and put Alberto through the window of Dario Cueto’s office. It’s only a matter of time before he and El Patron do battle again, and he needs as much momentum as possible if he is to win their eventual rematch.
It is immediately apparent that Mundo is going to work differently as a heel. He disrespectfully tosses Aero around, and is more concerned with taking him down and stomping him than he is with traditional wrestling or spectacular moves. Star knows he needs to quicken the pace – hurdling high for a TOP ROPE 619 variant! He wants to hit something off the ropes again…so Johnny STOMPS HIS FACE then shunts him off the apron with a running knee. STEP-UP SOMERSAULT PLANCHA by Aero! Immediately the veteran Mundo pulls him back in the ring where he can ground him once more and cut-off all aerial pyrotechnics. He actually goes for a submission with an Anaconda Vice, which is a total departure from how he’s wrestled previously. Star keeps him at bay with a springboard knee but is so beaten up he struggles to get back to his feet…and is muscled into a rugged backbreaker soon after. He clings to a leg to block Fin Del Mundo…so Johnny punches the sh*t out of him in the corner. Northern lights into the turnbuckles nailed, followed by Fin Del Mundo for the win at 06:34
Rating - *** - Probably not ideal for Aero’s career as he looked like something of a non-entity here, but Mundo was the focus and he looked outstanding. I’m so happy he is changing his style to work heel; the focused, grounded, MMA-influenced new stuff he introduced here worked really well. Amongst some strong candidates for Season One MVP he continues to stand-out as relentlessly and consistently impressive.
Vampiro has another interview segment, this time with Sexy Star. He asks her about the feud with Pentagon, and she emphasises that when they wrestled she won. Vamp reveals that Dario Cueto has ordered them to fight again; this time in a Submission Match.
Prince Puma vs Hernandez – LU Title Match
The big man hasn’t been in Lucha Underground for long, but has already amassed a lot of history with the champion. He was brought in by Konnan as an ally to watch their backs, as an old friend and stable-mate of Puma’s mentor/manager. Prince wasn’t overly enamoured with the former LAX man, and preferred to lean on occasional friend Johnny Mundo for support…much to Konnan’s irritation. Puma’s suspicions proved correct however, as Hernandez’s career aspirations came before his friendship with Konnan. He petitioned Dario Cueto for a #1 contendership opportunity and revealed he didn’t care about Puma – only wanting the prize that the champion currently holds. Some would consider him fortunate to be here given that he only beat El Patron thanks to Johnny Mundo’s interference, but now he has this opportunity he won’t plan on letting the diminutive, mysterious but spectacular champion leave with the belt.
Hernandez has actual gear now. It looks weird, I’m not sure I like it. He does look pretty awesome as he catches Puma going for a hurricanrana and effortlessly dumps him face-first on the mat. Puma is rapid though – and electrifies the crowd by knocking the challenger out of the ring and back flipping just for fun. A springboard crossbody fells the big man for 2, but you start to wonder whether Prince is doing enough damage. Sure enough Hernandez simply gets back to his feet and whacks him in the neck with a clothesline. Soon after he flattens the champ with a colossal senton splash. An Argentine backbreaker crushes Puma again; putting him down for a close nearfall. The back and neck take even more punishment moments later with a huge sit-out powerbomb. Border Toss blocked…so Hernandez tackles Puma OUT OF THE RING! Konnan has seen enough and steps into the ring…distracting the challenger so that when he tries Air Mexico PUMA SWINGS A CHAIR INTO HIS FACE! HANDSPRING CORKSCREW MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Hernandez is pissed off, and for a second time gives Prince the BORDER TOSS INTO THE APRON! He wants to do it into the railings too, but Puma blocks. TWISTING MOONSAULT OFF THE GUARDRAIL! SPRINGBOARD 450 SPLASH! FOR 2! 630 SENTON MISSES! Hernandez lines up another Border Toss, and when Puma counters that he squashes him with a running powerslam instead. But he makes the mistake of trying a Puma-esque move…and gets knees on a top rope splash. Prince capitalises by repeatedly kicking him in the skull. The champ knocks Hernandez off the top…for the 630 SENTON! Puma retains at 12:46
Rating - *** - Hernandez is quite wooden in his delivery and very limited in terms of a moveset, which gets exposed when he works longer matches like this. As a result he isn’t always the most interesting of talents to watch. But on the flip side of that he is so physically imposing, and having a world class talent like Puma in the ring with him goes a long way to covering his weaknesses. This was exactly the match they should have had; Puma working fast, Hernandez trying to crush him, a few spectacular moments, then Puma getting another big win to add to his impressive resume. I also loved that Puma voluntarily used a chair here. He’s been such a generic, cookie cutter babyface thus far. Hernandez has been a complete dick to him, and it was absolutely fine that Puma would resort to such drastic action to put him down and keep the belt. Exactly the kind of mean streak which makes him instantly more credible as a champion. My big criticism with this match was that it felt a little lacking in drama. Considering the huge size difference, I never felt like Puma’s title reign was in any real jeopardy. It never felt like Hernandez was particularly close to winning, and that’s a problem.
Fenix vs Mil Muertes – Death Match
One fears for Fenix here. Haunted by ghostly apparitions of Catrina and her Disciples, victory over Muertes in Grave Consequences was supposed to be the highlight of his career. But his upward momentum has stalled since that win, and it was revealed that Grave Consequences was all a plot by Catrina to ensure Mil achieved even more power than he already had. By having Fenix slay Muertes in Grave Consequences, ‘The Man Of A Thousand Deaths’ has now obtained Fenix’s power of ‘a thousand lives’, and returns to The Temple from beyond the grave now immortal and with twice the power that he possessed previously. In a barbaric ‘Death Match’ setting, is there anything Fenix can do to survive? Muertes has new, infinitely better, black ring gear making him look even more imposing.
The masked ghosts who haunted Fenix accompany Muertes and Catrina to ringside. Fenix tries to get the jump on him with an elbow suicida (just as Mil did last time)…but simply bounces off a motionless Muertes. He tries it a second time, only for Muertes to punch his lights out. Everything Fenix does to quicken the pace is resoundingly crushed by the dominant Man Of A Thousand Deaths. SPINNING CHOKESLAM NAILED! And he doesn’t even go for a pin afterwards! At last Fenix rattles him with a springboard dropkick…followed by the TIGHTROPE WALK HEEL KICK which knocks him to the floor! DOUBLE SPRINGBOARD MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! But Muertes simply gets to his feet and clubs him down once more with a lariat. STEEL CHAIR TO THE SKULL! Then repeated shots to Fenix’s ribs…followed by repeated headshots against the guardrails. Fenix refuses to quit though, and climbs up the railings for a FLYING DOUBLE STOMP TO THE FLOOR! Muertes is rattled briefly, but returns to the ring and hiptosses his opponent clean over the top rope. FLYING SUICIDE DIVE TO THE OUTSIDE BY MUERTES! UNPROTECTED CHAIR SHOT AGAIN! He carries Fenix on his shoulders up the steps of The Temple towards the roof of a backstage area. POWERBOMB THROUGH THE ROOF! FENIX IS DEAD! We go to commercials, and when we come back Catrina instructs her masked ‘disciples’ to kick the door to the backstage area down and retrieve the fallen Fenix. He is completely motionless…and they feed him back into the ring where Mil is waiting! FLATLINER! Muertes wins at 09:05 (shown).
Rating - **** - I love this promotion, and this feud in particular, so much! This didn’t quite reach the heights of Grave Consequences, but what I enjoyed about it was that whilst it was tonally similar; there were also a number of very real differences which made this one feel unique. Last time Muertes was the aggressor and under pressure against a man that couldn’t die. This time it was the hunted and desperate Fenix fighting for his life against a wholly more terrifying version of Muertes than we saw before. Even when taking the highest of chances, Fenix’s moves were only having minimal impact. The drama came as he took greater and greater risks, only to continually be crushed by the dominant returning superhuman. The climactic roof spot was gimmicky but extremely well sold by both the commentators and the Believers. The action was as violent as needed as a sequel to Grave Consequences. This is another must-see from Lucha Underground…
The Disciples surround the ring as Catrina slithers in to administer her signature ‘Lick Of Death’. Matt Striker echoes Dario Cueto’s words ahead of Mil Muertes’ debut way back at the start of the Season; ‘perhaps a Thousand Deaths are coming for us all’…
Dario Cueto has brought The Crew to face Matanza. Someone has to pay for the embarrassment they have caused him, and he orders them to choose who it is that will come face-to-face with the unseen ‘monster’. Cisco and Castro turn on Bael and drag him to the cell…WHERE HE IS MURDERED! As in blood spattering everywhere murdered by the still-hidden Matanza.
SIDENOTE – I believe B-Boy asked for his release leading to this, but what a terrific way to write someone out of a show like Lucha Underground. It was graphic without being obscene, and killing off characters is yet another way in which this company can differentiate itself from the competition.
Tape Rating - **** - Yet another outstanding episode from this remarkable first season of Lucha Underground. Mundo’s new heel attitude, a competitive LU Title match which was better than many (myself included) may have predicted, and another superb Fenix/Muertes main event mean this show was full to the brim with high quality in-ring action. Outside the ropes we also saw Black Lotus and Chavo Guerrero make their returns to The Temple, next week’s main event revealed during an interesting Vampiro/Sexy Star interview segment and of course, the first time LU has ‘killed off’ a character with Bael being murdered by El Jefe’s caged brother ‘Matanza’. If you are using iTunes or Netflix to selectively view this company, this is definitely an episode to watch.