Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 30 – 3rd June 2015
Submit To The Master
We are moving into the closing stretch of Season One now, with just ten episodes now remaining. Storylines will very quickly start to move towards their conclusion as we move towards the much-anticipated season finale. Tonight we see Sexy Star and Pentagon Jr. settle their intense rivalry, with Dario Cueto booking them into a Submission Match. The second Aztec Medallion will be awarded this evening (although we still don’t know the fate of the first Medallion winner – Fenix – after his Death Match with Muertes last week), and the Trios Title will also be on the line despite doubts remaining over Ivelisse’s ankle injury. As usual, we’re in Boyle Heights, CA with Matt Striker and Vampiro.
Chavo Guerrero is back in The Temple and back in Cueto’s office, much to his confusion since he thought Chavo had quit. Guerrero warns El Jefe that Black Lotus is back to kill his brother, and has trained with El Dragon Azteca. Chavo is playing both sides here, and offers to help Dario rather than Lotus if he can offer ‘round the clock protection from Mexico’. El Jefe agrees…
Jack Evans vs Argenis
The winner of this will get the second Aztec Medallion. Evans, who has enjoyed success in AAA for several years, made his way to Lucha Underground a couple of weeks ago and gave an impressive debut performance despite falling to defeat to Aero Star. Argenis is another guy who has looked consistently decent without being able to score a major victory. Now with a unique but still mysterious prize on offer, which of these two will step up and advance their careers with a big win?
Evans hasn’t changed his attitude for his second outing in The Temple and remains enormously vocal as he enjoys early success. Argenis counters a springboard rana attempt with a diving powerbomb, then leapfrogs the Hart dungeon graduate into a kick to the backside! Jack’s response is to swing off the referee into a roundhouse kick! Standing corkscrew moonsault gets 2. Argenis chops him down from the top as he continues to be too cocky for his own good…but again Evans proves how good he is by rolling around the masked man once more into a Kimura. He goes for a handspring elbow…only for Argenis to counter with a German suplex! TOPE ATOMICO NAILED! SOMERSAULT DRAGONRANA OFF THE APRON BY JACK! He tries it again…POWERBOMB INTO THE GUARDRAIL BY ARGENIS! He comes back into the ring with a single-arm Rubix Cube which gets a nearfall. Evans survives and breaks out the bridging backslide to snatch victory at 06:07
Rating - *** - As Dario pointed out during his announcement that this was an Aztec Medallion Match, as an audience we are still searching for our reason to care about these two. The match was very reflective of that; in that they are great talents, the in-ring action was very good but it felt like they never found that hook to get us emotionally invested. Jack is definitely the right call to win, as he has looked really good since arriving in Lucha Underground and has plenty of potential to become a key part of the roster if they can keep him motivated and keep him on the roster for an extended period of time. Argenis is about to be repackaged for a more prominent role too, so it’s not like we won’t see him again either.
A smiling Delavar Daivari finds his hired bodyguard Big Ryck in the locker room to tell him the good news that Dario Cueto has agreed to give them a Trios Title shot if they can find a third. Ryck suggests The Mack…only for Willie to be assaulted by Cage. It’s Daivari, Ryck and Cage as challengers then!
In another locker room Chavo finds Black Lotus to give her the news she can now compete inside The Temple. She wants Matanza, and he tries to placate her with a vague plan about getting the key and slaying Matanza in front of the world. Sadly for him she sees through his plan and KUNG FU’S HIS ASS! The remainder of The Crew (Cueto’s other henchmen) storm in to help…and eventually the three of them overwhelm and handcuff her.
Son Of Havoc/Ivelisse/Angelico vs Delavar Daivari/Big Ryck/Cage – LU Trios Title Match
It has been established that Dario Cueto doesn’t like the Trios Champions. He put them together as a team for his own amusement, but the joke has stopped being funny now that they have proven themselves to be an efficient fighting unit and brought embarrassment to him by defeating his chosen champions – The Crew – twice over. Although ordinarily I don’t like random guys getting title shots without earning it, in this instance it does at least make storyline sense. Cueto doesn’t like the champs, so would be only too happy to sanction a title defence against a veteran like Daivari, a monster like Ryck and a machine like Cage…with Ivelisse still out injured due to a broken ankle. Once more the champs step into battle…but they’ve overcome impossible odds like this before!
Cage is too powerful for Angelico in the opening minute, so Havoc forcibly ejects his partner from the ring and takes over for himself. He cartwheels off the ropes and drops Daivari with a satellite headscissors, then a standing moonsault, which Angelico looks suitably annoyed about too. He angrily tags himself back in (leaving Son Of to get decked by Cage in the process)…and walks into a military press slam from The Machine. Ivelisse is so annoyed at both of them she leaves on her crutches to sit in the front row and bark instructions. The challengers isolate Angelico – including an awesome RELAY STALLING SUPLEX spot by Cage and Ryck. GMSI blocked by Ang…so The Machine powerbombs him on his neck for 2! Daivari makes a grab at Ivelisse, but is distracted when his rival Texano makes an appearance! SOMERSAULT PLANCHA OVER THE RINGPOST BY ANGELICO! SSP from Havoc to Daivari! Much to Texano’s delight, SOH pins Delavar to retain the belts at 07:38
Rating - ** - Without being particularly memorable or high quality this accomplished quite a lot. It was obviously a filler title defence for Havoc, Angelico and Ivelisse, so I loved that they revisited some of the dissension spots between them – as a reminder that even though they are champions they still don’t get along. The Texano/Daivari feud continues for the fans that enjoy that particular storyline thread, and having him be a paid henchmen is a far better use of Big Ryck’s time than trying to shoehorn him into a main event scene which his limited wrestling skill really should prohibit.
Chavo and The Crew deliver Black Lotus to Dario Cueto. He teases keeping her captive with Matanza ‘so he never gets lonely again’…
Pentagon Jr. vs Sexy Star – Submission Match
This has all come about because Sexy has refused to allow Pentagon to be the arm-breaking bully he wants to be. She stopped him breaking Super Fly’s arm after their defeat in the Trios Tournament, but was then powerless to stop him breaking it a second time of asking after their controversial Mask vs Mask Match. Star did gain a measure of revenge for her fallen friend with a shock win over Pentagon a few weeks ago, but it certainly hasn’t settled the matter and she’s now been forced to battle him again with a stipulation which obviously favours a guy who has a feared signature hold which has snapped arms up and down the roster.
Sexy jumps Pentagon as he goes on another rant about sacrificing her to his ‘Master’. It has minimal effect though, and the dangerous masked man takes a run up before delivering a brutal dropkick right into her chest. He goes for The Sacrifice early but Star blocks it by clinging to a front guillotine choke. Penta escapes with a leg drop across the arm; softening that body part up for his feared submission hold. TOPE CON HILO BY SEXY! Oddly she looks more comfortably brawling with him on the floor than she did trading holds in the ring – and takes him on a tour of ringside braining him repeatedly against railings and ringposts. Striker and Vampiro notice that a lot of what she is doing focuses on the neck – although he doesn’t have a known submission hold that works it. Pentagon tries to slam her only for Star to spectacularly flip out into a Fujiwara armbar counter. But her sore arm and limited ability to work submission holds mean she can’t lock it in properly…and Pentagon soon KICKS HER IN THE FACE! Trailer Hitch applied by Pentagon Jr, which hurts the knees and forces Star to crawl on her bad arm to the ropes. SUPERKICK! Sexy climbs up into the crowd…for a DIVING CROSSBODY OFF THE RAILING! Back into the ring where she cranks on the legs and back with a half crab! Super Fly, now without his mask, runs in…and ATTACKS SEXY STAR! He feeds the unconscious luchadora to Pentagon for the FEAR FACTOR! Mexican surfboard! Star taps at 09:34
Rating - *** - As a wrestling match this was Sexy Star’s best effort in Lucha Underground. I remain uncomfortable with how much damage this feud is doing to Pentagon’s momentum, but one can’t deny that it really is the first time Sexy has come off like the credible, believable intergender fight star that she’s been pushed as since day one. I liked some of the detailing in this one – like Pentagon being a lethal hand-to-hand combatant (as his previous vignettes have shown) whilst Sexy Star couldn’t maintain submissions or wear body parts down well enough because she isn’t a skilled submission artist. Super Fly turning on her felt like Lucha Underground trying to retrospectively make up for how they threw out their historic first Mask vs Mask Match so cheaply on the two of them…although they did at least plant the seed for it last week during that Vampiro/Sexy interview, as she said she hadn’t heard from Fly since he’d unmasked. Given that he’d shown respect and hugged her after the match, I still won’t argue that the heel turn makes huge amounts of sense though!
Having defeated her, Pentagon now wants to break Sexy Star’s arm. Vampiro has seen enough, and steps into the Lucha Underground ring for the first time to knock Pentagon down! Matt Striker plays up Vamp’s conflict between his new life as a broadcaster and his old life as a performer and wrestler. Vamp himself walks out of The Temple leaving a furious Pentagon in the ring behind him…
In the locker room Vampiro stares into a mirror struggling to maintain his sanity as he hears voices, cheers and white noise in his head. As the show ends he shatters the mirror with a series of headbutts.
Tape Rating - *** - Proof that even when Lucha Underground has a quieter week this first season still makes for really excellent television. Evans/Argenis and Pentagon/Sexy are both very decent free TV matches with plenty of action and leaving us with enough intrigue to want to see how their respective stories continue to play out in the weeks ahead. The good thing about the way this promotion is structured is that the in-ring content isn’t always the most important. Here we got some really interesting extra-curricular moments – like Chavo selling Black Lotus out and handing her over to Dario Cueto, Cage attacking The Mack without intervention from the money-driven Big Ryck, or Vampiro getting physically involved for the first time. We are essentially two months away from the season finale now, and it’s interesting to watch how the promotion has started to organise the playing pieces in preparation for these final weeks of TV.