Lucha Underground – Season One Episode 31 – 10th June 2015
The Desolation Of Drago
The fact that this show has a rematch of what remains easily the worst Lucha Underground match ever (Chavo Guerrero vs Blue Demon Jr.) hopefully won’t put too many people off. I don’t think anyone was clamouring for the return of Blue Demon, considering how exponentially better the promotion has gotten since he was written out. It does make some kind of storyline sense at least, given that Chavo is back and now has help from Dario Cueto to prevent the families back in Mexico for seeking payback on him for his treatment of the legendary BDJ. We’ll also see more returns this week – in the form of Pimpinela Escarlata and Mascarita Sagrada (and someone else…the title of the episode is something of a giveaway) – debuts for Bengala and the Disciples Of Death and a colossal #1 contenders match. Matt Striker and a darker, more agitated Vampiro provide commentary from Boyle Heights, CA.
Cinematic shots of The Temple open the episode…revealing that the man with the spirit of a dragon, Drago, has returned from exile! He extends his wings and flies off the roof.
Dario Cueto stands in the ring to announce ‘Ultima Lucha’, his brainchild to end the first season of Lucha Underground in the most spectacular manner possible. The winner of the main event tonight will get to face challenge for the LU Championship at Ultima Lucha. He has decided to select competitors based on those who previously took Prince Puma to the limit – naming Hernandez, Cage and King Cuerno…then Fenix to annoy The Believers since Mil Muertes killed him in a Death Match. Ultima Lucha is so big that even Blue Demon Jr. has returned to The Temple…but has walked straight into an El Jefe trap it seems. The boss has booked him to wrestle Chavo Guerrero, flanked by The Crew, in an Anything Goes Match tonight!
Blue Demon Jr. vs Chavo Guerrero Jr. – Anything Goes Match
This is a rematch of the first ever Lucha Underground bout. Blue Demon won, although it was appalling to watch even in a heavily edited format. That began a chain of events which saw Chavo assault the legendary BDJ, and supposedly become a sworn enemy of the prominent lucha families back in Mexico. The pressure of being such a hunted man led to Guerrero quitting Lucha Underground. He only returned at the behest of El Dragon Azteca, supposedly to protect Black Lotus…but in actuality selling her out to Dario Cueto in exchange for protection from ‘Mexico’. Dario has enlisted Cortez Castro and Mr Cisco (the remaining, living members of The Crew) as his personal bodyguards. Now he has private security, no rules and ample opportunity to extract fitting revenge on Demon and the Mexican families who want his blood.
Blue Demon is being made to compete in his suit and dress shoes and is visibly off his game as Chavo lays in some early blows. The Crew maul him on the floor before Guerrero lands some vicious shots with a Singapore cane. Double stomp/DDT combo by Castro and Cisco leave Demon laying, and in prime position for the signature Guerrero Frog Splash. Chavo gets payback for episode #1 at 03:04
Rating - N/A - More of an angle than a match. Chavo Guerrero and the ‘Mexico’ stuff is one of the few angles or gimmicks that hasn’t really caught on so far in Lucha Underground. Those that have followed by reviews for a long time will know that I am a fan of Chavo’s work though, and I’m hoping he has returned to The Temple to work less ponderous snoozefests with old-timers like Blue Demon and wrestle some of the younger talents instead. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that his match with Fenix earlier in the season was his best work in this promotion by far. Blue Demon may be a legend in Mexico, but he is absolutely no fun to watch wrestle at all, so I really don’t have an issue with him being so resoundingly crushed. It also makes Dario Cueto look like even more of an asshole; which I dig.
Drago bursts through the doors of The Temple – filmed in the most extravagant manner I think any wrestling company has ever shot such a trivial act.
Chavo pays a visit to Black Lotus in her cell, and smirks that after the beating he just gave Blue Demon, nobody in Mexico will have the balls to come after him. Lotus chastises him for betraying El Dragon Azteca, who will make sure he pays a heavy price…
Drago ambushes Dario Cueto in the same bathroom where they’ve had so many uncomfortable interactions before. He demands to be placed into the #1 contenders match tonight, since he too is someone that took Prince Puma to the limit. After being threatened, El Jefe agrees – under the condition that if Drago fails to win not only is he still banished, he will leave his mask behind.
Disciples Of Death vs Bengala/Pimpinela Escarlata/Mascarita Sagrada
Plenty of debuts and returns to be found in this one. Pimpinela and Mascarita are returning after an extended absence after being injured by The Crew. They team with Bengala, a gimmick which has been worked by more than one wrestler in the past, but in this instance is former NOAH worker Ricky Marvin under the hood. Catrina’s ‘Disciples Of Death’ make their in-ring debuts tonight too, having first appeared as ghostly luchadors who haunted Fenix’s nightmares. All three of them have been seen before with other gimmicks. ‘Trece’ is Ricky Mandel, ‘Barrio Negro’ is Argenis, and ‘El Siniestro de la Muerte’ is El Mariachi Loco. Their mannerisms and masks are definitely spooky, and their entrance with faltering stage lights and sound effects is striking too.
Slight issue – in that it is impossible to tell the Disciples apart. The Disciple wearing a shirt attacks Pimpinela during his extravagant ring entrance. Apparently Trece and Siniestro are the two not wearing shirts, so I presume it was Barrio. Bengala gives the other two a springboard moonsault, then lands a DOUBLE JUMP REBOUND RANA on Negro. ROPE RUN SPRINGBOARD CORKSCREW PRESS TO THE FLOOR! Bengala isn’t holding anything back! The Disciples don’t put up with any of Sagrada’s sh*t, with what I believe is Siniestro giving him a rough body slam on the Temple floor. Barrio doles out an emphatic palm strike to further eradicate him from the match. Catrina gets involved too, administering the Lick Of Death to Pimpinela. TRIPLE TEAM CRUCIFIX! The Disciples pin the fallen exotico at 06:55
Rating - * - Too long to be an effective squash, and I didn’t find the comedic style of Mascarita and Pimpinela particularly well-suited to giving the Disciples Of Death the kind of fearsome debut match they’d have liked. Not being able to tell two thirds of the team apart doesn’t help either – something which I think LU realised too as they’d be given different colour masks in future episodes. On the positive side, Ricky Marvin/Bengala looked exciting. He’s a grizzled veteran and definitely has something to offer in the balls to the wall, no limits world of Lucha Underground.
Johnny Mundo wants to know why Dario didn’t put him in the #1 contendership main event. It isn’t why he might think – El Jefe actually expects him to BE the champ by Ultima Lucha. He loved what Mundo did to El Patron and wants a clean slate with the man he now views as the top star in his Temple. To show his gratitude, he has given Johnny a shot at Prince Puma next week…in another brand new concept. It will be first ever ‘All Night Long’ match!
Cage vs King Cuerno vs Hernandez vs Drago
As was revealed in our opening segment, the winner of this will go on to face the Lucha Underground Champion in the main event of the inaugural Ultima Lucha. All four have been selected because they have previously taken champion Prince Puma to the brink of losing his belt during prior title matches against him. Indeed, that stipulation is the only reason Cueto has allowed Drago to compete here. It opened up a loophole which has enabled the dragon to return from exile, and he now gets a chance to return to The Temple permanently by winning here. If he loses, though, not only will he be banished once again…he’ll also have to leave his mask too. Given that his opponents are two huge, jacked dudes, and the cerebral hunter who made his life miserable earlier in the season, it’s a tough task!
Drago’s new gear is completely insane. Cage and Hernandez don’t like each other one bit and brawl out of the ring from the opening bell, leaving Cuerno and Drago to reignite their rivalry at a rapid pace inside the ropes. Hernandez heaves The Machine into the railings before marching into the ring to violently overpower Cuerno. 3-D KNEE STRIKE from Cuerno and Cage to Hernandez…before Cage tosses Drago into the path of a Cuerno headscissors. Those two have teamed over the second half of the season and that’s clearly continuing here. They get a nearfall with stereo top rope dives at Hernandez, only for Drago makes a save with a springboard headscissors. Gradually the team of Cage and Cuerno starts to unravel as their individual ambitions boil over though. Hernandez capitalises with the football tackle on King…as Drago nails a flying headscissors off the apron on Cage. The crowd are firmly behind Drago, who gets a nearfall with a diving body press on Hernandez. Killshot is watching from the ‘perch’ roof for some reason; seeing Cuerno and Cage hit a standing moonsault/double stomp combo on Drago. The way they keep teasing that team falling apart, then having them bust out more teamwork to keep one of their opponents down has been entertaining. DOUBLE JUMP MOONSAULT PRESS BY CAGE! RUNNING CORKSCREW DIVE BY DRAGO! HERNANDEZ HITS AIR MEXICO! CAGE LANDS A MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! ARROW FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL! SUNSET FLIP BOMB OFF THE APRON from Drago to Hernandez! YELLOW MIST ON CUERNO! DRAGON’S TAIL! HE PINS CUERNO! Drago is going to Ultima Lucha at 10:35
Rating - *** - Well below some of the top tier main events we’ve seen through the first season of Lucha Underground, but I still thought this was decent entertainment. The early action was methodically paced and only of limited interest to the live crowd – particularly since the slow-burning dissension between Cuerno and Cage was the focal point of it and was probably a little too subtle for that purpose. The crowd were solidly behind Drago though, and came alive after the big dive sequence to roar him on to victory. I really liked the symmetry of him regaining his spot on the LU roster by pinning his first great rival in King Cuerno, with the same whacky roll-up he used to beat him all the way back on Episode #4.
Prince Puma comes to the ring and stands face to face with the celebrating Drago. A thoughtful Dario Cueto watches from his office…and is then throttled from behind by Catrina. She demands to know why Mil Muertes hasn’t been given a title shot, which El Jefe tries to explain by saying he didn’t know Mil ‘wanted to be champion’. ‘Every man, mortal or immortal, craves power’, says Catrina in response, delivering a crushing line! Dario agrees, and puts Muertes in a match with Drago in two weeks, with Drago’s Ultima Lucha title shot on the line. Satisfied with his response she teleports away, but only after giving him a warning that even the monster he ‘hides in a cell’ is no match for Mil Muertes…
Tape Rating - ** - One of the weaker shows of the entire season in all honesty. The main event was decent enough and featured the crowd-pleasing return of Drago, but very little else of real significance happened. Blue Demon came back, thankfully this time more to put over the Ultima Lucha concept and Chavo Guerrero’s return to The Temple than to be booked in serious matches and revered as a lucha legend. The Disciples Of Death debuted but looked somewhat awkward when contrasted with their comedic opponents, and the entire motivation of the main event (the title shot hook) was rendered irrelevant in the closing seconds of the episode as – for the second time – Cueto ignored a #1 contendership match to just book the winner in another contendership match afterwards. Unless you REALLY like Drago this is among the more skippable episodes.