Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 32 – 17th June 2015
All Night Long
Tonight Lucha Underground once again delivers their own signature twist on an old classic. We’ve seen Street Fights become ‘Boyle Heights Street Fights’, we’ve seen Last Man Standing become ‘Last Luchador Standing’, Casket Matches have become ‘Grave Consequences’ and their twist on the Royal Rumble (‘Aztec Warfare’) drew rave reviews. Now the Iron Man Match gets the LU treatment and becomes an ‘All Night Long’ match. One match, one episode…Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo have the entire run-time of the broadcast to compete. The man with the most falls at the end of the night leaves as Lucha Underground Champion! Matt Striker and Vampiro are ringside in Boyle Heights, CA.
Prince Puma vs Johnny Mundo – LU Title All Night Long Match
These two men have been in someway linked to each other for the show’s entire run thus far. They tore the house down in a tremendous main event on the first ever episode, which saw Johnny win and set the stage for a friendship to be born out of mutual respect. Although never entirely at ease with each other, and with Puma’s trainer Konnan urging Prince to sever ties with Johnny immediately, they had each other’s backs against The Crew in the early days of the company. They were the final two left standing in the first ever Aztec Warfare…and this time Puma got revenge on Johnny by beating him to become the first ever Lucha Underground Champion. Now they come back together in very different headspaces. Puma, the ‘rookie champion’ grows more impressive and confident with each passing week, showing the benefits of Konnan’s tutelage and racking up a fearsome back-catalogue of title defences. Johnny, meanwhile, grew frustrated and stagnant; dropping a high profile match to Alberto El Patron then turning heel by throwing El Patron through Dario Cueto’s office window. But El Jefe sees dollar signs in Mundo, and now believes he is ready to be Lucha Underground’s box office, franchise player having unlocked the rudo killer buried within him. He has given Mundo this shot to make an example of Puma, and allow Mundo to take his spot as the featured attraction at Cueto’s season-ending Ultima Lucha spectacular. They have the entire episode to fight (even their entrances are cut to give them as much in-ring time as possible), and the man with the most falls at the end of the night leaves with the belt.
Mundo shows his veteran instincts by keeping the early pace slow and trying to keep Puma on the deck where he can use his grappling skills to control things. Gradually the champ lures him into running the ropes, and the faster pace gives him an opportunity…to hit a backflip headscissors. Puma to the floor; Johnny looks for the Parkour Dive and LANDS ON HIS FEET! CORKSCREW PESCADO BY PUMA! Less than five minutes in and business has really picked up. Back from commercials and Puma is on top, working fast and attempting multiple flash pins on Johnny. Benadryller blocked…but so is Moonlight Drive! Puma flips into a roll-up, and scores the first victory at 05:12 (shown). Mundo looks frustrated but wisely goes back to the strategy that brought him early success; using a neckbreaker to drag the champion to the mat where he can ground and pound on him. It bates Prince into making an error – diving off the ropes and eating a firm dropkick to the sternum. The challenger tries to work an arm…only for Puma to show his championship quality by keeping him at bay with a running cutter. A desperate Mundo bridges backwards, and grabs the ropes as he pins Puma. The ref doesn’t see it, and the score cheaply becomes 1-1 at 09:13 (shown). Using more of his experience, Mundo takes a breather on the floor (during commercials) and prepares for the remaining 28-minutes of ring-time. Puma needs a big strike, and rolls AROUND THE RINGPOST into a headscissors from the apron to the floor.
Mundo brings weapons into play…but soon regrets it as Puma hits a SIT-OUT POWERBOMB THROUGH A WOODEN CRATE! MUNDO SMACKS HIM IN THE HEAD WITH A CROWBAR! PUMA IS OUT! Inevitably that is enough to make it 2-1 to Mundo at 13:41 (shown). Moonlight Drive nailed to make it 3-1 just seconds later as well! FIN DEL MUNDO! Puma’s reign looks to be over, as at 15:13 (shown) Johnny takes a 4-1 lead. So dominant is the challenger now that he even stops for a drink break as the ref checks on whether Puma is even able to continue. He refuses to quit though; landing the Rolling Thunder DDT to at the very least slow Mundo down. HANGING NECKBREAKER TO THE APRON BY MUNDO! In the most brutal way he may have just snuffed out Prince’s last chance at retaining the title. There are less than twenty minutes remaining, and Mundo pulls a ladder out from under the ring to ram through Puma’s skull. With him incapacitated it gives Johnny all the time he needs to set up a couple of tables in the aisle. Mundo climbs the ladder up to the higher balcony of The Temple…but Puma climbs up after him! For the first time in minutes the champ mounts some offence; giving Mundo a suplex on the bleachers before adding yet more tables to the stack Johnny started building. He desperately tries to suplex Mundo off the balcony through them, but instead Johnny counters with a SUPERKICK TO THE FLOOR! Mundo then SURFS THE LADDER up to the house band balcony over the aisle. That’s nuts! He grabs a microphone and orders the band to play some music since the match is all but over.
This has now got extremely weird, and indicates that he has taken his eye off the ball. Puma climbs the ladder after him and blasts him in the face with a 2x4. GUITAR TO THE HEAD! PUMA SPEARS MUNDO OFF THE BALCONY THROUGH THE STACK OF TABLES! HOLY SH*T! There are ten minutes left and the champion somehow finds the strength to haul Mundo back into the ring. He covers and brings the score back to 4-2 at 27:56 (shown). Mundo has a bloody face; Puma has a possible concussion…both are fatigued, and each come up from their knees swinging big right hands! BENADRYLLER 2POINT! VERTIGO! At 29:39 (shown) Prince moves to within one at 4-3. Johnny knows the momentum is against him, so he turns tail and flees the ring to run down the clock. He runs all over The Temple to keep out of the champ’s clutches, winding Puma as he tries to give chase. Prince gets desperate and MISSES a wild Phoenix Splash attempt! ALBERTO EL PATRON IS HERE! HE ATTACKS MUNDO AS TRIES TO RUN! DDT ON THE FLOOR OF THE TEMPLE! SPRINGBOARD 450 BY PUMA! THE SCORE IS TIED! AT 33:39 (shown) both men are even at 4-4. Three minutes left in the time limit! They run through a flurry of frantic pinning attempts despite both being so weary they can barely stand. Benadryller blocked into the STANDING C-4 for 2! One minute to go…as Mundo misses a super rana attempt and LANDS ON HIS HEAD! Puma climbs the ropes! Seconds to go! 630 F*CKING SENTON NAILED! PUMA WINS! PUMA WINS! PUMA WINS! At 38:06 (shown) the match ends, and Puma wins it 5-4.
Rating - ****1/2 - What a match! This had everything from great wrestling, a relentless pace, tense drama, amazing high spots, brawls in the crowd, brutal weapon use, a really fun story, outside interference that made sense and wasn’t over-used, then a brilliantly timed, electrifying finish. These two aren’t the guys to work a time limit draw technical classic, and I thought the way they put this together really emphasised the skills of both men. Puma got to look like a lionhearted, ultra-athletic, babyface superstar champion whilst Mundo got to dictate the pace and revel the douchebag heel character that he already looks completely at home with. Having him take a 4-1 lead then try cocky sh*t like surf ladders and dick around with the house band was a brilliant move, then having him run away like a coward when Puma mounted a comeback was even better. Alberto’s run-in blew the roof off the arena, and made perfect sense given how Mundo attacked him during his #1 contendership match. Definitely more from the HHH/Rock school of Iron Man’s than Bret/Shawn…and all the better for it. These two set the standard for what one could expect from a quality Lucha Underground main event way back on the first episode. In my opinion they just raised the bar and delivered the best match in LU history thus far…
Tape Rating - ****1/2 - It’s a one match show, and All Night Long more than delivered. Longer matches aren’t to everyone’s taste, so I will add a word of caution to this rating that if you don’t like watching forty minute matches then you may not enjoy this as much as I did. Personally I thought Mundo and Puma did a fantastic job, delivered a lengthy match fought at an incredible pace, produced some jaw-dropping and memorable high spot moments and continually upped the drama as they built towards the most exciting of conclusions. I loved this!